The Passing Of A Giant

    Last week the man who did more to inspire me than any other passed on to his reward. I never met him personally. I never even heard him speak other than on videos. I believe I speak for untold millions around the world for my story you see is theirs as well. David Wilkerson was a giant in the kingdom and I somehow feel that he would object to my saying that. Yet the results are there for all to see.

He spent his life in service to others. I have watched countless sermons he has preached around the world and in the church he pastored in New York City. He had a passion for his God which you could not help but see. His heart and focus was always on the suffering of others. This can be seen in the countless endeavors around the world to which he put his hand.

I have posted on my blog the link to Times Square Church the church David Wilkerson founded in 1986. It is the sermon given by the senior pastor of that church and pays a far finer tribute to David Wilkerson than I could ever give. I think the millions of souls around the world whose lives have been changed are the greatest tribute to the man.

Millions of suffering souls, drug addicts who found deliverance through the ministry of Teen Challenge and the list is endless of the great capacity for love and mercy found in the heart of this servant of God. I never had a drug problem or suffered the hunger and malnutrition found in the third world. Yet in my darkest hours I always found a word of inspiration David Wilkerson always seemed to know just what to say when I needed it.

So my brother I mourn and grieve your passing but I rejoice in the knowledge of where you are this morning. How your heart must have filled with joy when you beheld for the first time the Lord and Savior in whose service you laid your life down fifty years ago. I have no doubt that his joy in greeting you and welcoming you home, even by heavens standards, was profound. Rest my brother you have earned that eternal reward of the righteous, and I who never knew you in this life shall one day have the profound privilege of seeing you on the other side. A world where the pain and suffering of this present life is but a memory, and the love and compassion you spent your life in giving to others, an ever present reality age without end.