William Booth Finds His Call in Life
William Booth was seventeen and sick with a fever. He had come to Christ two years earlier but was unhappy. How could he make his life count? He had too little money to either train to be a minister or help the wretched poor that he saw every day. That’s when Bill Swanson came visiting. Bill was a natural leader and was from a well-to-do family. He had come round to invite William to join a small group to go into the slums. William was amazed God heard his desire and opened a doorway so soon.
Two weeks later William was back on his feet and joined the others. They called themselves “The Mission.” At first no one stopped to listen to them preaching on the street corners. It took weeks before a poor widow offered her home for a meeting. William preached his first message to those few women and a couple of children. He noticed Bill hadn’t come and went round to his spacious home. Bill was seriously ill and within weeks died from tuberculosis. This shocked William to the core.
The others from “the Mission” wanted William to lead them. He felt completely unprepared but took it on anyway. When a young girl they all knew died, William got up at the funeral and unannounced preached a rousing message to the few mourners. They thought it unorthodox but William knew what his life’s work would be. Preaching exhilarated him.
He soon found himself confronted by the most notorious drunk in the slums, Besom Jack. Besom had a terrible temper and constantly beat up his wife and children. He spent all his meagre income on drink, leaving his wife to scrape together a living by selling used tea leaves that she dried and coloured green to make them look new. God broke through and William found himself kneeling beside a repentant Besom Jack. It was an amazing moment in William’s life and set in his thinking that no one is beyond the grace of God.
You may not be a William Booth but do you have friends or family you think God could never save? That’s what Besom Jack was. God completely changed the man and he can do the same for your “unreachable” friends and family.