November 15, 2021
Monday
Ship Ahoy
John 3: 10-17
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
As people who have received mercy from God, we need to grant mercy to others who are fallible and in need of forgiveness. To be hospitable is to be evangelistic; to be forgiven is to be charitable; and to share Scripture is to speak of Christ. Sometimes it all comes together in a wonderful way.
One evening Dawson and Lila Trotman opened their home to some sailors, and after dinner Dawson asked everyone at the table to share a favorite Scripture verse. One Navy man was getting ready to share John 3:16 when the Trotman’s three-year-old daughter, Ruth, quoted it before it was his turn. The sailor was chagrined. But going back to the ship that night, he couldn’t get away from Ruth’s childlike recital of John 3:16, and he realized for the first time that he was part of the “whosoever.” Kneeling beside his bunk, he received Christ as Savior and soon thereafter wrote a letter telling Dawson and Lila what that evening had meant to his life.1
Our culture isn’t known for hospitality, forgiveness, mercy, and evangelism—but those have never gone out of style on God’s calendar.
A point to ponder…
I want to be a man who both knows the Bible from cover to cover and also lives it!
Dawson Trotman
Read the Bible through in a year
Acts 7-8
I love you!!!
1 Robert D. Foster, The Navigator: Dawson Trotman (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 117-118, 220.
© 2000-2021 B. Michael Goerlich