D l _moody_3

Dwight Lyman Moody

A life of service to God

Dwight Moody's father was analcoholic and died at age 41,leaving his mother alone to createand sustain Dwight and his eight siblings and the eldest, only twelveyears. Showing courage and dedication, the widow Moody kept all the children always at his side,despite the insistence of friendstelling him that he should send themfor adoption.

It was then that she realized the lack of religion in his home and tried, once, to enroll them all in a Sunday School.

So, Dwight was growing; poor studentbegan work early to help the family,until the day he turned 17, he decidedgo against the wishes of his mother and brothers. Their destination was the city of Boston, where he found employment inthe shoe store that belonged to his uncle.

One of the requirements of his uncle was that Moody had to attend a church, so he joined the Congregational Church He but did not establish apersonal relationship with God until later. One day a teacher told him about how much God loved him. Moody then converted to Christianity. His conversion began his career as an Evangelist.

In 1856, he moved again, in search of greater riches to the brand new city of Chicago.

But in Chicago, the boy would eventually choose other paths in your life that would change the direction not only of their plans, but would affect thousands of people around the world.

One day, he visited the Sunday School of a small churchand asked permission to teach a class. The officerreplied: "There are sixteen teachers and only twelvestudents, but you can teach all students that might come toschool." Much to everyone's surprise, the next Sunday,Moody taught eighteen street children, bareheaded,barefoot and dirty clothes. He continued to takemore and more. Until a few weeks later he decided toopen another school elsewhere in the city, so that wouldfit all students. Before the year ended, six students onaverage attended Sunday School, then he went to assist the thousand students and sometimes reached 1,500, while sixty volunteers from various churches worked as teachers.

Moody felt torn between two worlds:the business and the religious and knew he would soon have to make a decision between them. Finally, aftersix months of doubt and agony, decided to give herself completely to God's work. He choose this path that Moody became known in the United States. He was invited to ministerin conferences on Sunday School throughout the country. He built a large religious center in Chicago.

Years later, he decided to travel to England to preach in many cities.When he left the United States, hewas considered one of the greatest teachers of the country, when hereturned, however, he was alreadyknown as one of the greatestpreachers in the world. And eventually it became, after the apostles, asremembered by Christians of all time.It is said that at least 500,000 peoplewere directly influenced by the preaching of Dwight Lyman Moody.

Moody was simple and an honest man in terms of money, as in everything else. He never accepted anything and all profits from his sales of his own hymnal and Ira D. Sankey were administered by a board of commissioners, and were intended for the support of schools in Northfield. Nearing his death, he was still relatively poor. He said: "My wife and my kids just have to trust the same God that I have trusted."

"D. L. Moody, an ordinary man to whom the Lord used to do extraordinary things. "