Be what you are.
Cause if you ain’t what you are,
You are what you ain’t.

Jimmy Wolfenbarger taught me that little poem. He passed away this past weekend. Jimmy loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and with all his strength. Loving the Lord with all your, heart, soul, mind and strength is the First Commandment, see Mark 12:29-31. I know that Mr. Wolfenbarger loved the Lord for two reasons. First, I know he loved the LORD, because he told me he loved God every time I spoke with him. More important than Jimmy telling me that he loved the Lord was that he lived what he preached.

I met Mr. Wolfenbarger through Church about 20 years ago, shortly after he had suffered a debilitating injury. Jimmy could barely walk, and he had to give up driving. However, when brought to church, usually by his son, Jimmy would seemingly move in his walker at race speed to his seat. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that he moved that old walker without effort, as he nearly had to drag one foot. Nevertheless, he moved so fast I thought his walker might fly apart on occasion.

Jimmy read his Bible every day and knew it well, often quoting scripture by memory. He could still preach well into his 80s and could really get wound up. I literally mean wound up! He would stand with one hand on his walker and spin his other hand over his head, when excited about the Word of God. Jimmy did more than faithfully attend church, he faithfully prayed. We had many mutual friends, and they would often ask Mr. Wolfenbarger to pray on their behalf. Jimmy cared about others, especially those who did not know Jesus. I have witnessed him praying with tears more than once for the lost.

He not only prayed, but as the old saying goes “he put legs on his prayers.” How did a man who could no longer drive, and could barely walk, continue to put legs on his prayers? Jimmy had a phone ministry, he daily called anyone who needed a kind word, especially in prayer. In particular, he called others with similar circumstances that kept them from getting out of their homes. Jimmy believed and practiced his religion. He knew that what James 1:27 says is a key proof of one’s own salvation: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The Apostle Paul said this: Romans 1:16-17 KJV
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Jimmy Wolfenbarger’s little saying is a simplified paraphrase of the above passage from Romans.

Be what you are.
Cause if you ain’t what you are,
You are what you ain’t.
― Jimmy Wolfenbarger