The most disgusting thing on earth
Friday, October 08, 2010 | Tony Nolan
I recently had the honor of spending an afternoon at the Home of Dr. Billy Graham. What a joy to sit at his feet and enjoy Jesus together.It was a dream come true for me! I will be posting more of my thoughts about that moment as I process them.
After our visit with Billy. His grandson Wil Graham took us to see George Beverly Shea. It was amazing. He is 102 years old and as spunky as kid. It blew my mind to hang out with him and hear all of the stories about the Crusades he did with Billy. We laughed and sang for about an hour. Then he told a short little story about the time he warmed up his voice by saying a poem over the mic in a packed out Arena. After he said the poem from memory the crowd erupted in a 3 minute standing ovation! When he told the story to us, he shared a small part of the poem. It stunned me. Here is what he said,
“Come down, come down,
Come down, come down,
Come down from off the fence.
And preach the Gospel as it is
And take the consequence.
Come down, come down,
Come down, come down
Come down from off the fence
Your duty’s plain, you can’t remain
A preacher on the fence.”
Wil and I turned to each other with our mouths wide open.We had never heard it before and we wanted to hear more of it. After we left the house Wil went on the hunt for the poem. A day later Wil sent me the following text:
THE PREACHER ON THE FENCE
From out of the millions on the earth
God often calls a man
To Preach the word and for the truth
To take a royal stand.
‘Tis sad to see him shun the cross,
Nor stand in its defense
Between the fields of right and wrong:
A preacher on the fence
Before him are the souls of men
Bound for Heaven or Hell;
An open Bible in his hand,
And yet he will not tell
All the truth thats written there,
it haveth an offense
The joys of heaven, the horrors of hell
A preacher on the fence
Now surely God has called the man
To battle for the right.
‘Tis his to ferret out of the wrong
and turn on us the light.
And yet he dare not tell the truth,
He fears the consequence,
The most disgusting thing on earth
A preacher on the fence.
If he should stand up for the wrong,
The right he’d not defend;
If he should stand up for the right,
the wrong he would offend.
His mouth is closed, he cannot speak
For freedom or against.
Oh Great God deliver us from
A preacher on the fence
But soon both sides will find him out
And brand him as a fraud,
A coward who dares not to please
The devil or his God.
Oh God free us from fear of man,
From cowardly preference;
cleanse out the dross and fear of loss,
and keep us off the fence.
We don’t know the author of the poem or I would put it here. Maybe you have heard this before and know who wrote it. Please pass it on and we will give them the credit deserved! Who ever wrote it had a ferocious passion for truth indicated by saying that the most disgusting thing on earth is a preacher on the fence. Wow! God help me to not be that guy but to preach it with love and passion.
Comments (9)
Oct 08, 2010
As a preacher just answering Gods call, I can’t thank you enough for the motivation and inspiration you continue to pass my way! God bless you brother!!!I pray that I only stay close enough to the fence to see the ones that need help over!
Oct 08, 2010
What am amazing, humbling, convicting, motivating poem. May it encourage me to make God’s purpose for my life my purpose. May this work in my life for me to eliminate anything necessary in my life to put God first.
Thank you Tony for sharing this and for everything else you do to help others enjoy Jesus!
Oct 08, 2010
That’s one of the most inspirational things I’ve read in a long time. Thanks for sharing. - Jason
Oct 09, 2010
Absolutely strong! May the Lord raise up men of God in these days who will preach and deliver the word of God with power and truth! Off the fence for me!
Oct 12, 2010
I’m a teen, and i’m glad to hear stuff like this, so that i can cling to it and share it with my friends. It is always awesome to me to hear people stand up for their faith…cause where would we be without it? If God had as little of faith in us as we have in Him sometimes…it would be pretty scary to think; no one would have faith in you or believe in you. How sad.
I want to be better ready to share my God with someone else, i think this poem will greatly help me with that. Thanks for sharing it!
Oct 18, 2010
I really enjoyed listening to you preach on 10/17/10 @ Longhollow. All those people receiving Jesus touched my heart. God bless you and all the Lord does through you.
Oct 26, 2010
This is a great poem with a lot of conviction, thank you for sharing this.
Nov 04, 2010
I loved readin about your visit with Rev. Graham and with George Beverly Shea. My father-in-law was friends with Mr. Shea when they were in their twenties. In fact Mr. Shea was instrumental in my father-in-law being saved. We lost my father-in-law a few years ago, but he always told us about Bev Shea (he told us that his friends called him that). I just felt a need to tell you about that.
I also wanted to thank you for doing the video for our ministry, I have been very excited about learning about your ministry. Thanks for what you do and I know that God has blessed me by what you have done for our ministry and I know that God uses you in many ways.
May 29, 2011
That is so good. We all are in a way preachers. We all need to come down off our fences and spread the truth with LOVE!