Scripture reading: Matthew 13:31–33
Three Cheers for Edward Kimball!
The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed . . . It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants. (Matthew 13:31–32)
Who is Edward Kimball? I’m so glad you asked! The very fact that you don’t know illustrates why my little story is so important.
Once upon a time, there was a man named Edward Kimball who taught a Sun- day School class for teenage boys at a church in Boston. One particular seventeen-year-old, poorly educated and prone to fits of profanity, was a special challenge. Edward decided to visit this young man at the Holton Shoe Store where he worked for his uncle. Edward had an inner urging that he believed was from God to talk to this teenager about his soul. Finding him alone in the back of the store, Kimball later wrote: “I went up to him and put my hand on his shoulder . . . and made my plea, and I felt that it was really a weak one. I don’t know just what words I used . . . I simply told him of Christ’s love for him and the love Christ wanted in return.” That day, April 21, 1855, there in the shoe store, Dwight L. Moody gave his life to Christ. Moody became the greatest evangelist of the eighteenth century. He travelled over a million miles preaching all over the world and, as his admirers like to say, he reduced the population of hell by a million souls!
But the story gets better. Moody was instrumental in the conversion of a man named F. B. Meyer in 1879. Meyer also became a famous preacher of the Gospel and was used by God to lead J. W. Chapman to Christ who likewise became an evangelist. One of the ministries Chapman initiated was an outreach to professional baseball players. Through this ministry a man named Billy Sunday was converted. At first, Sunday worked with Chapman but then launched out to form his own evangelistic association. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Billy Sunday was perhaps the most famous evangelist in America.
A man named Mordecai Ham was converted in one of the Billy Sunday’s meetings and became an associate worker in his campaigns. One of those campaigns in North Carolina was so successful that Ham was invited to return to Charlotte a few years later to hold a second series of evangelistic meetings. During one of the final services in 1934, a lanky sixteen-year-old came forward at the invitation and surrendered his life to Christ. His name was Billy Graham. Graham has preached the gospel to an estimated 2.2 billion people, and well over 2.5 million have made decisions to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior as a result of his crusade evangelism.
What an amazing chain of events! And it all began when a humble Sunday School teacher nervously shared the Gospel with a teenager in a shoe store. Little did Edward Kimball imagine the impact of that one simple act of obedience.
Dear friend, do you ever feel your labors are insignificant and worthless? Then remember the man whom no one else does! Hooray for Edward Kimball! His story reminds us of the global impact of a simple act of obedience to God.
Soul-winners are not soul-winners because of what they know, but because of the Person they know, how well they know him, and how much they long for others to know him. —Dawson Trotman
point to ponder • Just as a rock thrown into a pool of water creates ever expanding circles of ripples, so one word of witness has the power to change the world.
prayer focus • Those who minister to children and youth.