I found that meaning while serving my country in 1951 in Sasebo Japan aboard the destroyer tender USS Prairie AD15. Aboard that ship I met another young man, a second-class petty officer named Otto Smith. Otto taught me what the Bible teaches about living a successful life. Over the years other men were also instrumental in this education for life.
While there are many others that came alongside me, one man in particular stands out his name was Joe Noble. Joe was a businessman in San Francisco and was also active with the young people at First Baptist Church in San Francisco. Joe took a personal interest in me and chose to build into my life the very principles that another man had taught him years earlier. These are the principles needed for anyone who wants to live a fruitful life for Jesus.
The principles Joe taught me are still active in my life today, and I teach them to all who will listen. Some of these are listed below.
- How to read, study, and apply Biblical principles to one’s life
- The fundamentals of prayer
- Effective and profitable Bible study methods.
- The 5 essentials necessary for growth in the Christian life
- Six elements that contribute to successful living as a Christian.
- The structure of a clear gospel presentation
To know these principles is one thing, but to understand and practice them as a habit of life is another. Most people agree yet fail in practice.
My objective very simply is this: to do for you what Joe Noble did for me many years ago, and this is precisely what Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 28: 19,20 and also what the Apostle Paul taught in 2 Timothy 2-2.
"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always even until the end of the world."
"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."
