I wanted you all to meet my brother for he is a rare jewel in the body of Christ. He was a servant, not a star. He was a man of God, not a man of the world. He was not about style, but all about substance. He loved others and thought lowly of himself. He was an athlete in his younger years and really enjoyed life to the fullest—a practical joker at heart. He was patient and longsuffering even in his suffering (he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease seven years ago). We are all different in the body of Christ with different callings, gifts and talents. I have spent most of my Christian life in the public eye as a Christian singer/speaker/writer before audiences in churches, festivals, colleges and civic auditoriums. He spent most of his life simply for the applause of heaven. In my early years of Christian music while I was busy making a name for myself, he was busy promoting the name of Christ. While I was charging for Christian music ministry (until 1994 when the Lord convicted me and no longer charge), he was freely giving his life and the gospel away. While I was rubbing shoulders with the most famous in evangelical circles, he was marching on his knees in the trenches of some of the hardest ministry found any where in the world today. How I treasure and am thankful for Norm...
Our life is a vapor—come and gone so quickly; and only what is done for Christ will last. May we live each day faithfully to the Lord and unselfishly to others—giving our lives away for the glory of the God and not our own. Norm's life could be summed up by the Apostle Paul when he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; (2 Timothy 4:7). Faithful to the fight; faithful to the finish; faithful to the faith. And now my brother has heard the sweetest words anyone could ever hear from the Lord, “Well done, Norm, thou good and faithful servant.”
What a profound reminder for each of us to live our lives for an “audience of ONE.”
That last phrase is enough to shake you in your boots. An audience of one. There are those whose calling is high-profile; they're called to proclaim the Gospel in the public eye. That doesn't mean they seeek fame; it just means that God's purpose for them is accomplished through their visibility. Then there are some whose service doesn't require publicity but who gain recognition simply because a lot of people see their love for Christ. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta did her work for decades before a journalist happened to notice her and made her ministry world-famous.
But the Lord's biggest labor pool is comprised of the ordinary Joes, who do what they're told and never call a press conference about it. Steve describes a preacher who worked in the shadows. He preached in poor, ravaged and dangerous places, to people who might otherwise never hear the Gospel. He risked his life, but he got no medals for it. No books were written about Norm. No network will ever base a mini-series on his life. Even if Protestants had such a thing, he wouldn't be well-enough known for anybody to start a cause for his canonization. He simply proclaimed the Gospel until he was physically unable, and then went home. And when he arrived, he was met at the gate by the only Person Whose endorsement meant anything to him.
The famous and the obscure servant are the same, really. Only the circumstances differ. In the end, everybody who serves the Lord is performing for an audience of One. Everything else is irrelevant.
May Norm spend eternity basking in the applause.
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