Steve Davies, an old compatriot of mine, posted this photo this week on Facebook. It is a shot taken of me preaching, along with Steve and other friends at the Liverpool Pierhead in 1967.
A few years prior to this I had shipped out from Gladstone dock as a seaman in the Merchant Navy, now I was back again, this time preaching the gospel.
A lot has happened in fifty years. Fashions have changed, governments have changed, presidents and prime-ministers have come and gone, the Beatles were all the rage and playing in Liverpool in 1967. Now they are in a museum adjacent to where the photo was taken! Faces have changed, my own especially.
But two things have remained the same in these past fifty years.
Firstly, I am still married to Pauline, the same beautiful Liverpool lass that I met in 1967 and who now resides with me here in Canada.
Secondly, the gospel message that I was preaching in the open air those many years ago has never changed.
Jesus Christ the SAME yesterday, today and forever.
Still the same love and grace to people of every colour and race; still the same power to heal and to save us from our sin; still the same precious blood to wash His people white as snow and still the ONLY Name given by God to bring men and women Heaven.
Maybe you were with us in Liverpool those many years ago? If you were it would be a joy to hear from you.
ONWARD.
Ian
Yesterday the news that many had been waiting to hear was finally announced: Mohammad Ali was dead at the age of 74.
He had been dying more visibly than most, his physical and mental faculties ravaged by Parkinson's Disease.
In his prime Ali transcended his fellow mortals. He was dazzling and ruthless as a prize-fighter, he was eloquent and witty in his speech, he was uncannily prophetic in his knockout predictions in many of his bouts, he was courageous in his convictions about refusing the draft to the Vietnam war ( "I got no quarrel with those Viet Cong people") and he was valiant and dignified in his final contest with the degeneration of his brain.
After his proclamation "I am the greatest!" when he knocked out Sonny Liston, many people dismissed him as a big mouthed braggart, but in the next fifteen years he made good on his self assessment: he really was the greatest.
The greatest boxer of his generation, the greatest sportsman of his era and the greatest of souls in his magnanimity towards people from all walks of life.
Long after he had retired and when the quickness of his wit and his fists had left him, he stood before an assembly of hundreds of Harvard students. They were chanting "Give us a last poem Ali!"
After hesitating for a moment, a sudden twinkle came into his eye.
He placed an unsteady hand on his chest and said in a clear voice:
"ME" and then, pointing to the audience in a gesture of embrace, said,"WE". The place came unglued!
"ME & WE"
Quite a poem, and if that is the second commandment, Ali, you showed us how to keep it.
Go well my friend.
Ian
