James Edwin Orr was a Baptist Christian minister, hymn- writer, professor, theologian and author. He was born in Belfast Ireland in 1912 to parents who were both British and American.
At approximately the age of 19 in 1931 Professor Orr began evangelizing in Europe, America, Australia and South Africa. Orr moved to the US, enrolled in Northwest University, and in 1940 he was ordained a Baptist Christian Minister During WWII. He served in a chaplain in the US Airforce in the Pacific. After the war he went back to England to study for a PHD at Oxford University. While there working on his PHD he also taught a class on Evangelism.
One day Prof. Orr took his students on an excursion, a field trip to places in England with major historical significance. Places that had been strategic in the building up of the church and the Christian faith. One place they visited was the Epworth Rectory which was the home, living place, study place of one of the great reformers of the church. His name was John Wesley. Wesley was also the founder of the revival in the Anglican Church that led to the formation of the Methodist Church. John Wesley put in place much of the theology of where many people attend church, not just the Methodist churches. Allot of the foundational formation of our faith was crafted by reformers like John Wesley.
John Wesley would pray, he would teach, he would preach, he set up Band groups and class meeting trying to awaken the church and usher in a revival in the church. He and other reforrmers prayed that revival would break out in mass in England and here in the US.
He prayed in the US and Wesley helped usher in the great revivals that swept through America in the 19th century where people in masses were coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord, where the heavens seemed to be opened up in remarkable ways and the Holy Spirit was moving and presence was felt as lives were changed. Revival broke out that made our history books and we still look back on now and recognize the great fire of God’s sprit that spread during that time. It’s because men like John Wesley were on their knees praying that God would move.
So these theology students led by Professor Orr went and visited this rectory. Professor Orr led the students through the kitchen where Wesley’s family would, cook meals and the dinner table they sat and ate. Then he led them to the study and library where Wesley studied. Students enamored at the old books… many had Wesley’s notes written in the sides of them and sentences highlighted. They spent time looking at the old binders and some of his hand written notes on the desk.
When they finished Professor Orr moved them upstairs to Wesley’s more intimate quarters of the home. They went into his bedroom and they all filed in the room and went around his bed. And as professor Orr was talking one of the students noticed two small circles in the carpet on the side of the bed carpet where the carpet was worn down to the backing. The student asked professor about the worn patches. Professor Orr explained to them that those two patches were the actual places where Wesley’s knees hit the floor every morning as he prayed. And not for a minute or two, but for several hours that revival and renewal would take place. In his constant praying so long and hard his knees had actually worn down the fibers in the carpet. Imprinted them with his knees.
They stayed a few minutes more then left and went downstairs and out the door to the bus to go to the next site. Professor Orr stood at the bus door counting the students as they entered the bus and realized he was one student short. So he went back in the house and walked through the kitchen, study and then went upstairs into bedroom. Looking over the bed he saw the bowed head and shoulders of a student who had planted his knees into those well worn patches on the floor made by Wesley. And he could hear the student praying, “Do it again Lord, and he heard the student weeping as he said, “Lord, would you do it again Lord. And Lord would you do it again with me?” Professor Orr waited a minute, then he walked around the bed and gently put his hand on the students shoulder, and quietly said, it’s time to go. And rising from his knees, Billy Graham got up on his feet and joined the others in the bus
And then God did it again.
My family, God wants begin an awakening of faith and his presence in your life, and that of your spouse, your children, your family, your church, and your neighborhood. However all awakenings begin with prayer. I pray now in my morning “worm spots” where I pray every morning, that you will develop your own “worn spots” of prayer. In Jesus’ name. Pleas pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers in the comment box below.
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