This week I took on a project of immense size. I went through every letter I had saved; received, or written. Most of them are not being kept. Some are. I had hundreds. I did not want family at some future date to have to look at them and say, "Who wants these things?". It was a fun and sometimes painful trip as I read those letters. I realized how many lives have touched mine through these years of ministry. I was reminded of the great host of friends who were and are a part of us, Ann and Me. She has been reading the letters. I think she is saving some I had targeted for the trash. No surprise.
Of all the many minister friends I have known, I single out one in this blog. His name is Jim Logsdon. Jim died suddenly while in the prime of life. He was pastoring Calvary Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma. Jim and his wife, Trudy, came to Southwestern Seminary while I was there. They joined the little church I served part-time, Stadium Drive. Jim was a tall handsome, strongly built, quiet fellow. When he spoke you listened. He came to me one day and said: "I would like to be the church custodian. Most of the seminary students have to work to make it. I don't. That makes me feel bad. I want to have a job. You won't need to pay me." What a special blessing that was! He was good at it. He was quiet in this humble ministry, simply doing a task most would never have touched. Jim and Trudy left Seminary after his graduation to do graduate work at Baylor. We invited Jim to come to Wharton to preach a revival. Our pastor at that time, Charles Miller, had been his pastor at Stadium Drive. I still remember a sermon title "East Of Eden" from one of his services. At the end of the revival Jim quietly gave his love offering back to the church!
Following Jim's death his wife, Trudy, wrote an article in their church's newsletter in the place where Jim had written weekly. Here is a part of that article:
" In the last days of our Jim's life on earth he often said to me, ' Trudy, my ministry must be further verified and this may not be until after my death'. His Christlike influence on the many lives he touched will live on through others in the future. The love of Christ so permeated Jim Logsdon's very being that we feel very privileged to have shared such a deeply abiding love with our family member, our friend, and our pastor.".
When I read of men and women in "ministry" living like kings and telling people all sorts of non-biblical things about wealth, I think of someone, like Jim Logsdon,who lived out the words of Apostle Paul, ' for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain'.
