Open Your Mouth and I Will Fill It In everyone’s life I suppose there are circumstances or events, though few they may be, that will be remembered as among the most important or enjoyable in one’s entire life. One such event for me was the privilege to be a participant in the Lausanne Congress of Evangelism held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974. This symposium, which was to a large degree the vision of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, consisted of gathering 3,000 participants from 150 nations for a week of discussion, study, investigation, planning and especially strategizing how best to conduct evangelism among all nations at this juncture in world history. For me it was a life-altering occasion. I remember so clearly when Dr. Graham introduced the speaker for the second evening session of the Congress; a man from Great Britain by the name of Malcolm Muggeridge. I had never heard of the man, which revealed the level of my own awareness of “who’s who”; and frankly, just the name “Muggeridge” did nothing to jinn up his image to me, in fact it sounded a bit comical. Dr. Graham’s introduction certainly increased my interest in the man, but as he approached the podium I could see he was small in stature, balding, and likely in his late sixties or early seventies, at least; and in all honesty, I wondered to myself if this was the person to be used on such an auspicious occasion. And then he began to speak with that distinctive British brogue and the authority of his years of experience and learning along with his Christian testimony all came through loud and clear. Without further ado I crawled inside my protective shell thoroughly chastened for having drawn my earlier conclusion. I will not attempt to elaborate any further except to say that I was never the same person or the same minister after hearing this man speak. By the time the Reverend John Stott completed speaking the following morning I was left void of words. I was at this Congress representing the Zambia Evangelical Fellowship as a participant but before I left Lausanne I realized that God routed me through Lausanne for other reasons as well. Each morning all the participants met together as one body for a devotional period before we broke up into different groupings to listen and learn about how evangelism is being accomplished in some part of the world. During this devotional period participants were given the opportunity to interact by turning, upon cue, to the person sitting next to you and for a few minutes discuss the scripture lesson just between the two of you. As it turns out the first morning this exercise was put into practice the person sitting next to me was a very pretty, I would even say beautiful young lady. In our introduction to each other I learned she was still a high school student from the United States. I could immediately perceive she was a lovely Christian person with a charming personality. Her dark, natural, brunet hair lay in delicate, perfectly formed curls framing her face with its flawless complexion. Her dark eyes were exceptionally expressive complimenting her lovely smile and displayed without ostentation her perfectly placed dimple. Actually, she wasn’t a participant at the Congress but one of a number of youth from the U. S. who were selected by the Congress committee to attend for the purpose of serving as ushers and attendants for the duration of the Congress. On this first morning the scripture lesson was from the New Testament, the story of Phillip, the evangelist who the Lord arranged to meet up with a eunuch on his way to Jericho. You remember the story; the eunuch was reading from the book of Isaiah and didn’t understand who the prophet was writing about. Phillip joined the man in his chariot and began to explain the gospel (he evangelized). Afterwards the man was baptized and became a follower of Christ. It was a great lesson given the emphasis of the Congress. As mentioned above, after we introduced ourselves to each other this lovely young lady said to me, “Before we discuss the meaning of the scripture, can you explain what a eunuch is?” I’d give my next monthly pension check to have seen the expression on my face at that precise moment in my life, in Lausanne, attending a congress on evangelism. I believe I blinked several times, stalling for time, and then made a conscience effort to assume airs of a deeply devout and learned man; a renowned bible scholar no less; and then I prayed silently, “Oh Lord, why me?!” I opened my mouth and seriously, not knowing what in the world I was going to say, I delivered some kind of explanation without actually saying what a eunuch was that seemed to satisfy her curiosity and we very quickly got into the subject of Phillip the evangelist. I did so much hope this beautiful young usherette could not detect the stifling of laughter to which I was subjected before we were dismissed to go to our assigned group. I have appropriately applied Psalm 81:10 to this incident in my life; “I am the Lord your God…open your mouth wide, and I will fill it”.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:49:20 +0000
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