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Never too Old

"So here I [Caleb] am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."¹

"Emerson produced English Traits when he was 53 and Conduct of Life at 59.

"Kent wrote his Anthropology, Metaphysics of Ethics, and Strife of the Faculties at age 74.

"Oliver Wendell Holmes at 79 wrote Over the Teacups.

"Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables at 62.

"Booth Tarkington wrote sixteen novels after age 60, some of them when he was totally blind.

"George Bernard Shaw wrote some of his famous plays at 80.

"Scott the commentator began study of Hebrew at 87.

"Jules Verne was writing his stories at 63.

"Croce the Italian philosopher published two of his works on philosophy at age 85.

"Santayana, the great Harvard philosopher, continued to write books at 88 years of age.

"Tennyson at 83 wrote 'Crossing the Bar.'

"Webster wrote his monumental dictionary at 70.

"And Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't make his fortune until after he was 65."²

In God's economy we are never too old to serve God and to be a part of God's plans and what he is doing in the world today ... even if we are sick and infirm, we can still be mighty prayer warriors. All we need to do is make ourselves available. By way of Interest, I turned 84 back in March and trust God that I can keep publishing the gospel until the day He calls me home. Please pray with us, too, that God will provide the best person to take over the ministry of ACTS, including Daily Encounter, when it is time for me to step aside.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that in the work of your Kingdom on earth I will never be too old to serve you. Please let me know what my 'marching orders' are for today—and for every day for the rest of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer and for using me. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Joshua 14:10-12 (NIV).
2. Cited in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan.

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