However, the Bible is important for another reason. It talks about the God who will outlast our lives and serve to inform all the generations that come after us. It is both humorous and tragic when people put their faith in a person whose ideas die soon after their body dies. While I have mentioned Vladimir Lenin to you this morning, there is someone else much closer to this church that fits into a similar category. Right across the street from our church is a building erected in honor of a man named Charles “Daddy” Grace. The United House of Prayer for All People is a movement started by Daddy Grace in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. His is a story worth telling on a day when we are talking about what is the source of our strength.

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Charles “Daddy” Grace taught his followers that he was actually God. He told them that every time the word grace appeared in the Bible it was actually a direct reference to him. He also taught them that he was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible. He even told them, “If you get in trouble with God, Daddy Grace can help you. But if you get in trouble with Daddy Grace, God can’t do you any good.” All over the country there were people who abandoned the teachings of scripture and put their faith in the teachings of Daddy Grace. That is until a strange thing happened on January 21, 1960 when Daddy Grace died. What do you do when your god dies? Where do you turn when the person you had been turning to has been turned back to the dust? That is the problem for the people across the street and across the country that are still following Daddy Grace.

That is not our problem over here, because our strength does not come from Lenin’s tomb, and our strength does not come from dead Daddy Grace. On January 21, 1960 — the day Daddy Grace died — the God we serve was still on the throne. He was still sustaining all of creation. He was still hearing and answering prayer. He was still unlocking other people’s graves and ushering them into his presence where they could live forever in a house not made with hands.

Where do you turn for the help you need each day? Make sure it is somebody whose ideas and whose body is not already dead! I found the source of my strength. How about you? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He is the rock of my salvation. He is my bridge over troubled waters. He is my strong tower when enemies come against me. He is the joy and the strength of my life. All my help comes from the Lord. His ideas are not dead and his body is not being preserved in a mausoleum.

I serve a living Savior,

He’s in the world today;

I know that He is living,

Whatever men may say.

I see His hand of mercy,

I hear His voice of cheer;

And just the time I need Him,

He’s always near.

He lives! He lives,

Christ Jesus lives today.

He walks with me,

And talks with me

Along life’s narrow way.

He lives. He lives,

Salvation to impart.

You ask me how I know he lives’

He lives within my heart.

_______________

Marvin McMickle is Senior Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, OH.