“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever wins souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30)

Continuing with the thought regarding Productivity, We can glean lots from others who have produced much profit for The Kingdom of God. It is always inspiring to read the Biographies of Men and Women who left their mark on this World for The Good and Glory of God. Below is a short summary of one such life that many of you may be familiar with by name. We hope this encourages you and again challenges you as you read about a life well lived out in bearing Good Fruit for The Kingdom of God.

Dwight Lyman Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, the sixth of nine Children. Moody’s Mother was widowed when he was four years old; she was left bankrupt, and their creditors took everything, even the firewood! She remained a widow fifty-four years but kept all of her nine children despite warnings that they would end up in jail or with a rope around their necks. Her one motto was: “My Trust Is In God.” Moody devoted his life to serving God after his Sunday School Teacher Edward Kimball led him to The Lord. Moody moved to Chicago with the hope of finding fortune in the shoe business. During that time, he began a Sunday School for Chicago’s Underprivileged children and became involved with the YMCA. Eventually, Moody felt called by The Lord and gave up his shoe business and income of five thousand dollars a year to live by faith on a humble one hundred and fifty dollars the first year. In 1864, He founded the Illinois Street Church and was elected President of the YMCA and served in that capacity from 1865 to 1870. In 1871, while D.L. Moody was finishing a sermon, Chicago's fire alarm bells began to ring. It was the night a cow in a barn kicked over a lantern and a $200 million tragedy struck in what is today known as the Great Fire of Chicago. The Fire laid waste a third of the City, killed nearly two hundred people, and left between seventeen thousand and eight thousand homeless. The Fire also destroyed the new YMCA Farwell Hall, which had been built at the cost of two hundred thousand dollars three years before. Heartsick, Moody set out to raise funds for the homeless. While on a fund-raising visit to New York in 1871, he was “crying all the time God would fill me with HIS SPIRIT” when he had “such an experience of HIS LOVE that I had to ask HIM to stay HIS HAND.” From that time on, Moody asked God to help him win at least one soul a day, he never missed. Moody is said to have once witnessed to a woman, and her husband was annoyed saying, “Why didn't you tell him to mind his own business?” “If you had seen the look on his face and the way he talked, “She said, “You would have known it was his business.” “Are you a Christian?” Moody asked one man. “Mind your own business!” the man replied. “It is my business” “Then, said the man, “You must be D.L. Moody.” Moody spoke to more people about CHRIST than any other man in history up to his time. Here, what was needed was neither the recognition nor ordination of man; what really counted was the touch and The Hand of GOD on ordinary people who were wholly consecrated to HIM.

(The above on Dwight L. Moody is a synopsis biography that is shared from The Revival Study Bible)

Again stated, the testimonies and biographies of others who have had a passionate pursuit of their lives counting for THE LORD, can surely be a catalyst for each of us into more earnest of a desire to produce MUCH PURE PROFITABLE FRUIT.

We close with this question and Challenge this month… If you are a Christian, One of THE REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, have you ever won anyone to THE LORD? Are you a SOUL WINNER? If not, Why Not? OH that We would all be compelled to cry out as did Dwight L. Moody and say, “LORD GOD FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT, AND HELP ME TO WIN AT LEAST ONE SOUL TODAY.”