Young Bob Smith

I was nine when I chose God for my King,
Young Preacher Smith embraced me in the aisle;
He asked if Christ had told me anything
During his sermon, the last little while.
Shocked, I nodded; for the Savior had said,
Plain as day, "Billy, I want you with me;
To spread the word, where'er in life you tread;
Preach my gospel, and set the captives free!"
He died that night, my father in the Word;
God called him home, not until I was free,
The last down the aisle when his voice was heard;
"Lord, make me worthy of him who saved me!"
Young Bob Smith, his calling true to the end;
May I, the rescued, as faithfully fend!

When I was a child prior to WWII, I attended Central Baptist Church in McComb, Miss. The first pastor I can remember was young Bob Smith. Because of my mother's faithfulness, my brothers and I attended church regularly Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday evening. I was saved all my life; I can never recall a moment when I did not consider myself a believer in Jesus Christ. By the time I was 9, there was never any doubt that I would go down the aisle professing Christ as my Lord; it was just a question of, How soon? One Sunday evening I was unusually attentive to Bob Smith, our pastor, and clear as a bell I heard Jesus say, "Billy, I want you to be with me!" Sitting with a group of boys in the back of the church, we were never completely quite and attentive. In fact, the preacher often had to stop speaking and snap his fingers at my gang. But on this evening, I listened to his words, and I heard Jesus speak inside my head.

Bob Smith must have noticed an odd expression on my face, because when he gave his usual invitation for those feeling the tug of the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus publicly, he was already walking up the aisle toward my pew. The rest of the story is history. I publicly gave my heart to the Lord that evening; and before midnight Bob Smith was dead with a sudden heart attack. I was his last convert in our church.

Paul made a young convert named Timothy, who also was called by Jesus to be a minister. Paul taught him everything, and Timothy served as pastor of the church Paul founded at Ephesus in Asia Minor, where John, one of Jesus' apostle also served at an age of almost 100. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, just before he was executed in 64 A.D., he wrote Timothy two of the letters that became books of the Bible.

"I have been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also," (2 Timothy 1:5)

Notice that Paul uses the expression "I am persuaded" to state that his young convert has the sincere belief that is sufficient for admission to heaven by the Lord; he does not use an absolute declarative that he is saved, even though if any Christian ever knew another so well as Paul knew Timothy, he would have grounds to say that Timothy was saved. As I have repeatedly said, "No human being can know another's heart well enough, or his own heart well enough, to declare definitively that either is saved."

I am sure Bob Smith is in heaven now with Jesus, and they have watched my life. It has not been as productive of converted souls as it should have been, or could have been, but I pray that I have in some way showed my gratitude for the special call they gave to me.