I’m continuing to share highlights of my time with friends of Terry. It’s always fun to see “laymen” following Jesus wholeheartedly, living out the discipleship principles they learned in college.

Here are some highlights from Chuck’s testimony. I didn’t get all of Chuck’s bio, but he was an Air Force pilot and flew for Southwest Airlines. He also pastored some small churches.

• Chuck’s theme was “legacy.” Legacy is something received from an ancestor. What will my legacy be? What am I transmitting? 
• Chuck grew up knowing about God but, in his words, not actually knowing God. He had “religion” but not a “relationship.”
• He received Christ at a retreat while in high school along with “a cute cheerleader” – who later became his wife.
• He did Bible study with my friend Mike Schmid while they were both in college.
• God has “put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3.11) – not in their bodies! We are learning that our bodies decay, and we are experiencing the “ugliness of death.” But death is not all there is.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4.16 – 18, NIV)

• Therefore, we need to invest in things that last: God and the souls of men and women.
• He closed by quoting Jim Elliot:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9.23 – 25, NIV)