man of God - dr. lin

Our pastor emeritus Dr. Timothy Lin (林道亮牧師) went home to be with the Lord on Oct 11, 2009 at the age of 99. From what I saw and what I heard, Dr. Lin was active preaching, teaching, serving up until his health deteriorated only recently. And he was still giving advice to younger pastors in the hospital bed the day before he passed away.

My local church is a big church of several thousand people and I came to this church a little over 10 years ago, after Dr. Lin became emeritus. I must say that I didn't have much close and personal encounter with him. As a result, I learned about him from the anecdotes of people of his generation more than by seeing it first-hand: things such as sweeping the area in front of the church early Sunday morning before people got there, opening door for ladies, making jokes with younger ones ...

What I saw, though, was that he still attended our Wednesday night church meeting regularly, conducted weekly Bible study, taught a Sunday school class, preached on Sundays till couple months ago. He came to my fellowship group to speak on a topic a little more than a year ago. We were all concerned that he would be tired and offered him a chair while he preached. No, he wouldn't sit. He stood and preached for an hour. You do the math -- he was 98 years old at that time. However, the last couple months, he was in a wheelchair when he preached.

He's a godly role model. I'm pretty sure I'm going to hear a lot more from other people in the coming weeks.

p.s. Remember Dr. John Stott and Dr. Billy Graham at their old age and pray for them: God grant them strength and grace every day.

Men of God - Dr. Billy Graham and Dr. John Stott

The news of Billy Graham turned 90 last Friday got me thinking of another man of God, John Stott, who turned 87 in April 27, 2008. I only heard Rev. Graham preach 3 times live--twice in Hong Kong and once in LA, and heard Dr. Stott preach only once. But I have been blessed by both of them.

May God watch over them in their old age and bless them.

- John Stott's update
- A recent interview of Billy Graham