Tag Al Baird

God’s Holy Spirit is once again moving mightily among the nations – like he did in the pages of the Bible. How else could his disciples explode from one to 113 nations in only 18 years? Dreams that some of us dared to dream many years ago are now rapidly becoming a reality. A movement born among a handful of desperate men and women in a Boston living room has
spread to cities and countries whose names we struggle to pronounce. We are only three years away from meeting a nearly impossible goal – by the year 2000, to plant a church in every nation that has a city population of at least 100,000.  When the goal was set in 1994, churches existed in only 49 of those 166 nations. In the three years since then, the number of churches in God’s modern-day movement has grown by 64 nations. Can anything stop us from covering the remaining 57 nations in the final three years? Well, yes! Satan is hard at work to stop the spread of God’s Kingdom. And his primary weapon is disunity. For this very reason, Paul charges us to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.

During these past 18 years, we have fought several battles to maintain this unity. The World Sector Leaders who are responsible for leading the charge into the nations take very seriously
the challenge of keeping unity. Each one has been willing to sacrifice resources from his own world sector for the good of the whole.

Life does not end after 50, or 60, or 70, or... So much of age is in the mind and heart. I have been through the black balloons and graveyard humor of my 40th birthday and of my 50th. But I don’t feel much older than I did at my 20th or 30th. Last week one of the evangelists here in LA referred to all of us over the age of 55 as the “elderly.” At 56, I definitely do not feel “elderly.” And I told him so! In this issue of LA Story, called “FEARLESS,” I actually get to write about people who are older than I am, disciples who are over 65 years of age.

In our American society, people plan for retirement at 65. Retirement is designed to be a time of leisure – golf, fishing, travel – or whatever else appeals to you once you are beyond your “productive” years. To most, retirement is the state of no longer doing anything that is useful. Somewhere I read that the average person who retires at age 65 will be dead in 18 months if he/she does not have a dream to keep them going.

Whether we are old or young, sick or healthy, married or single, poor or rich, uneducated or educated, God wants all that we have and are. 

Things are so different in God’s Kingdom! We don’t  live by the world’s timetable. Our usefulness is not age-dependent. Caleb is a role model of what disciples ought to be. After spending 40 years wandering in the wilderness that killed off all of the unfaithful Israelites, he was ready at age 85 to drive out the giants of the land and claim God’s inheritance. As has been humorously stated from time to time, disciples don’t retire, they just retread and keep on rolling.

February 23, 1996 was my greatest day in my sports career. It wasn't a day when I set any career record but it was a day I will never forget.