D.L. Moody: The Shoe Clerk Who Sparked a Revival

A Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball stood on the sidewalk outside a Boston shoe store, working up the nerve to go in. He nearly turned and walked away. Then he pushed the door open and went looking for a clerk named Dwight Moody.

That awkward conversation in a stockroom led D.L. Moody to Christ. He became the greatest evangelist of his century. The ripples never stopped, Moody's revivals reached J. Wilbur Chapman, Chapman taught a washed-up ballplayer named Billy Sunday to handle the gospel, Sunday's fruit reached a fiery preacher named Mordecai Ham, and in 1934 a teenage farm boy slipped into the back of one of Ham's revivals in Charlotte and gave his heart to the Lord.

His name was Billy Graham.

Edward Kimball never preached to a stadium. He just walked into a shoe store he almost skipped. A five-minute reminder that God prefers to write His biggest stories with the most unlikely cast.

Scripture echo: 1 Corinthians 1:27; Jeremiah 1:5-7
Key figure: D.L. Moody (1837-1899), American evangelist, founder of Moody Bible Institute

Read or listen on the blog: https://rodneycoe.com/dl-moody-shoe-clerk-who-shook-the-world/

Five minutes. Pull up a chair.

Transcript

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A Sunday school teacher stood on the sidewalk outside a Boston shoe store, working up the nerve to go in. His name was Edward Kimball, and he had one of his students working in the back of that store, a rough young shoe clerk who could barely read or write. Kimball had nearly talked himself out of it. The boy seemed like a lost cause, and the whole visit felt like a waste of a good afternoon. He paced, he almost turned and walked away, then he pushed the door open and went looking for a clerk named Dwight Moody. Hold that thought, the story is a God's story. Welcome to Lift Up Your Day, a daily five-minute devotional, short stories with a biblical heartbeat. I'm Rodney Coe, and today the awkward conversation in the back of a shoe store that changed the world. Dwight Lyman Moody was not anyone's idea of a future preacher. He had a fifth grade education. He could not spell, he could barely string together a proper sentence. He had come to Boston to sell shoes, and that was the whole of his ambition. But Edward Kimball walked back to that stock room, found young Moody wrapping shoes in paper, and simply told him how much Christ loved him. That was it. No grand sermon, a nervous teacher, and a few honest words spoken over a stack of shoeboxes. And right there, among the leather and the twine, Dwight Moody gave his life to God. Now watch what one ordinary conversation can do. That shoe clerk, who could not spell, became the greatest evangelist of a century. Moody preached to crowds that ran into the thousands on two continents in the days long before any microphone could carry a voice. He founded a school in Chicago to train plain ordinary men and women for ministry. And that school, Moody Bible Institute, is still sending workers out into the world today. And the ripples never stopped with him. Watch how far one shoe store conversation traveled. Moody's revival swept across two continents, and out of those crowds, a young man named Jay Wilbur Chapman came to Christ and went out preaching. Chapman took a washed-up professional baseball player under his wing and taught him how to handle the gospel. At ball player, Billy Sunday, he grew into one of the most famous evangelists America ever produced. The fruit of Sunday's crusades reached a fiery preacher named Mordecai Ham. And in 1934, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mordecai Ham held a revival, and a tall teenage farm boy slipped quietly into the back of the meeting and gave his heart to the Lord. His name was Billy Graham. And he would go on to preach the gospel than anyone in the history of the world. Edward Kimball never preached to a stadium in his life. He just walked into a shoe store, he almost skipped. Everything else, all the way down to a boy named Billy Graham and Charlotte, came after. Maybe you feel like the unlucky one. Too uneducated, too ordinary, too far behind to even matter much to God. Then read what Paul wrote. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. That is not God's backup plan. That is how he prefers to work. And when you feel too small or too young or too unqualified, remember what God told a trembling young Jeremiah. Do not say I am a youth. God was never impressed by Moody's resume. He never is. He just looks for a willing heart and sometimes one nervous person brave enough to open a door. So make the call, have the conversation, walk into the shoe store. You may never know this side of heaven, well, God will start with it. And that, friend, is how God lives up your day.