The “faith once delivered” is still our faith in 2017 and until He comes!

…it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was “once delivered” unto the saints. – Jude v. 3.

In the first century of the Church, the “faith” (the true doctrine of God, and of Christ’s death to give us eternal life) was already being opposed, the truth attacked, the way of salvation denied.  And so it has been through history and today we are in the midst of confusion and apostasy.

Today, February 15, as I write, my grandson, Jordan, is participating in a service of dedication of a conference room in the headquarters of the Associated Gospel Churches, in Greenville, N.C. in memory of my father.  He was one of those men of God who, in the ‘30’s and 40’s of the past century, gave themselves and all they possessed to God, as they denounced liberalism, were driven from the churches they pastored and their homes.  Jude 3, above, was one of his favorite texts. He united other pastors in separation from apostasy and with them founded a fellowship which later became the Associated Gospel Churches, an organization which has helped hundreds of fundamentalist pastors become chaplains in the armed forces, undoubtedly leading thousands of men to Christ, in the past 75 years of ministry. Wow, what a testimony!
LEFT: My parents wedding picture appears above the plaque in the new AGC conference center, in remembrance of my father.

Now, for a two-part true story of 2 souls seeking Christ (the next part is still unknown)

A month or so ago, a couple came into our church’s Sunday morning service.  After the service, the new man told one of our elders that he was disgusted with his traditional religion and wanted to know the “truth”.  They began a weekly study of a Bible course I wrote many years ago, titled “The Discovery of the Truth”, and they are going strong.

His wife revealed that she was a girl I had not seen for years.  She, too, has a story.  A group of high-schoolers from our church went to visit a friend in the hospital, 30-35 years ago.  He told them of a new-born baby, in the hospital who had a very serious heart problem, whose life chances were slim.  They went to see the baby, abandoned after birth by her unwed mother.  The nurses said no one had time to hold her or talk to her and she seemed to be listless and dying.  The girls, including my daughter Debbie, decided to take turns every day, after school, to visit her and try to make her feel their love.  The end of that part of the story is that one of the teen-agers’ families, took an interest in adopting her. That family is no longer in our church, but the girl (now a mature woman) came to our church to find people who would pray for her as she is in extreme need of a heart transplant.

Neither Mark nor Mary are yet saved, but they need your prayers, that their interest may be sincere and not based only on their present problems.

I want to thank each one of you who prays for me

For the many, many Christmas cards I received from friends, Sunday School classes and Churches.  The ground in which I and my three sons, Dan, Dave and Steve, plant the good seed is very hard, in Italy, as political, social, and economic problems seem to take up the interests and time of the people.  Most have drifted away from the Roman church and are without interest or hope.  But God keeps on calling those to Him who, by His grace, feel and recognize their need.
In HIS service,

William (Bill) Standridge

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