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SEVENTY YEARS
ARE JUST THE BEGINNING! #1
STOP DREAMING AND DO IT
It was on a Saturday when my dad first stepped into
the water at the edge of the Jordan River, so to speak. He was about to
try the unthinkable. Many good Christian friends, whose opinion he valued,
had said very plainly to him, "Brother Richards, don't do it. This
invention called radio is the devil's toy. God's people have no business
monkeying around with Satan's playthings." As the young people say
these days, "Don't even GO there."
But my father had been thinking for years already about the fact that
when he set up his tabernacle in a new suburb of Los Angeles, and launched
into his long, long series of evangelistic meetings — six nights a week
back in those days, and lasting for months — the only people who could
hear him preach about Christ were the ones actually sitting right there
in the temporary auditorium. As far as the PA system pushed his voice
. . . that was how far the gospel message was extending. And he couldn't
help but think about these new radio stations here in L.A. — KNX, KMPC,
which was in Beverly Hills, KGER down in Long Beach. Hundreds of people,
thousands, were listening THERE, tuning into the news and entertainment
that was just coming along. Why couldn't the message of Christ beam out
all across Los Angeles the same way?
Well, friend, seventy years ago TOMORROW, Pastor H. M. S. Richards stepped
right into the Jordan River, up to his neck. He'd already been advertising
all along in the Los Angeles Express newspaper for all of his meetings,
so, as a free perk, the paper paid the tab so that he could experiment
with a radio time slot on KNX, a great radio station which is still going
strong here 70 years later: 1070 on the AM dial. But on October 19, 1929,
my dad made the very first radio presentation of the gospel message —
just a little 15-minute sermonette — which flashed over the airwaves and
all across this great L.A. basin.
Well, Dad is gone now. He fell asleep in Jesus back in 1985, and he didn't
get to see all that God has done through the miracle of Voice of Prophecy
radio these past fourteen years. But even during the wonderful nine decades
of life given to him by heaven, Dad saw that tiny radio signal grow and
multiply and strengthen in power, until it literally embraced this entire
planet.
I have to confess that I don't specifically recall that first radio message.
I'll tell you why. That happened on October 19. Just six evenings later,
Dad was walking off the platform there at the tabernacle in Alhambra,
when his father-in-law, Fred Eastman, came up to him. "You have a
little son down at the hospital," he told him. Here in 1999, we wouldn't
think much of a father preaching a sermon instead of being a Lamaze coach
right next to his wife, but back in ‘29, it was a little more politically
correct for Dad to just keep carrying on with the Lord's work while Mother
had her babies when her babies showed up. And if that little baby son
had to forgive his father . . . well, I was that new baby, and I say it
was all right for Dad to just keep preaching. So the Voice of Prophecy
radio program made its debut in this world exactly six days ahead of me,
and the last 70 years, friend, have been absolutely wonderful for both
of us. I just praise God for all that He's done, using the Richards family
and this wonderful invention called radio, to proclaim His good news.
I don't think of radio as the devil's plaything at all; it's the LORD'S
powerful tool, one of His greatest weapons to tell people that Jesus IS
coming again.
Well, dad DID begin those early broadcasts in 1929, but they were just
brief devotional messages a few times a week. He wasn't really marching
through the Bible over the air, presenting the complete Christian message
— like he would in his evangelistic tabernacle. And he got it in his mind
that THIS is what the Lord would really have him do: full-fledged Christian
radio with the message of Jesus' soon return. Maybe even a nationwide
broadcast, blanketing America from coast to coast. So he began to share
this dream with his friends. It kind of became his one-string violin,
and a few of his closer acquaintances actually got a bit impatient with
him for harping on it so relentlessly. And one day on a quick camping
trip with three Christian acquaintances, a friend named Harold Young almost
told him to shut up. In Bob Edwards' recent biography about Dad, he relates
the conversation this way:
"[Harold Young]: ‘Richards, I don't think
you really believe God wants you to go on radio. I think it's all just
talk.' ‘No, [Dad responded,] I really believe God wants me to preach on
radio, and I want to do it.' ‘No, you don't.' ‘Yes, I do.' ‘No, you don't.'
Now Richards was getting a little irritated. ‘What do you mean when you
say you don't think I want to really go on radio?' [And Harold Young gave
it to him straight]: ‘Let me put it this way, Harold. If you really think
God wants you to be on radio, and you're really willing to go on radio,
YOU'D BE ON RADIO!'"
And you know, friend, that right there is a great lesson
for all of us some seven decades later. I've been through this, and maybe
you have too. We look off at the distant hills, and we say, "There's
such-and-such a thing I'd like to do for the Lord. In fact, I feel CALLED
to do it. This is the Lord's will for me." And Brother Young's response
is very telling, isn't it? Friend, if you feel called, if I feel called
to do this wonderful thing . . . then why aren't we doing it? What's preventing
us?
How many radio or TV ministries are never launched, how many wonderful
books are never written, how many lonely prisoners are never visited,
how many kind words are never said, how many struggling marriages are
never patched up and repaired and restored . . . because we simply don't
get up from our chairs and do the things we feel God is calling us to
do?
Well, the fact that you're listening right here on October 18, 1999 would
seem to indicate that Pastor Richards didn't stay in his easy chair complaining
about not being on radio! He finally DID something about it! And I know
that some of you know THIS story too, but let me share it again. There
at the South Gate Tabernacle, not too long after this, Dad stood up and
shared his dream about being on the radio on a regular basis. And he invited
those very attendees to join him in his dream. If what they were hearing
there in the tabernacle was blessing THEM, would they be willing to help
bless others in a vast but invisible radio audience? Didn't lonely people
in apartment buildings, and up in Beverly Hills, and in prisons, and all
across North America need these same saving truths about Jesus and His
soon return?
The following evening, Dad had a table up there right by the platform.
And all the people attending the meetings had dug in their dresser drawers
and up in their attics, and maybe even in the safety deposit boxes they
had down at the bank. And they brought in their old jewelry: rings, bracelets,
diamond earrings, gold watches. It was a bit like that wonderful Old Testament
scene in Exodus 35 where the children of Israel brought to the Lord all
the jewels they carried with them out of Egypt, so that Jehovah could
have a tabernacle and dwell among them. All of Dad's friends did the same.
There were even a few stray teeth made out of gold there on the table;
Dad wasn't quite sure what to make of that. But Uncle Henry — the great
composer, Henry de Fluiter — managed to trade that entire pile of gold
for $130. And that was really how H. M. S. Richards went from DREAMING
about radio and TALKING about radio to actually BEING on the radio with
God's end-time message.
And friend, maybe God wants you to be at a certain place. Go there! Maybe
He wants you to do a certain thing! Go do it! Bob Edwards relates a sweet
old story I'd long ago forgotten. A man came to Dad's meetings just one
time — and there was a big baptism planned. All the other attendees had
come many nights in a row and had studied the great truths of the faith.
Somehow this man, not understanding, got in the line to be baptized having
not delved into ANY of it.
And speaking of gold, this fellow had on his finger a HUGE, ornate ring.
It was a conspicuous beauty, but the sort of ten-pound decoration that,
according to what the Bible teaches about simplicity and modesty, would
do a lot more good buying Christian radio airtime than making a guy's
finger look pretty. But Dad hadn't studied anything like that with this
man; they'd just met two minutes ago! And here he was getting ready to
climb into the tank.
So Dad asked him: "This is your first time attending?" "Yes."
"Do you love the Lord?" "Yes." "Do you promise
me that you'll accept anything I can show you right out of your own Bible?"
"Yes, I sure do," the man said. And Dad had one more question.
He pointed to that man's huge, glittery ring. "Would you give up
that ring for Jesus if He asked you to?" And the man didn't hesitate.
"Yes, I would." In other words, "I'll go where Jesus invites
me to go." Did Dad baptize him that night? You bet he did.
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