Church Elder Ron Taylor is an EMS Directior by Profession, and an Commited Christian by Choice

Elder Ron Taylor: “Miracle In Your Face!”

This photograph by Burdie Henri is proof that Elder Ron Taylor survived to participate in Master Guide Day at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church. He is the one in uniform. The man seen at right is also a fine Elder.

ELDER RON TAYLOR COMMENTS ON GIDEON’S CALL

It is hard to believe that the Elders who have been delivering short sermons for the last three weeks at Wednesday night “War Room” prayer meetings have not yet been ordained. They uniformly exhibit all of the attributes of seasoned pros already, none of them more so than Ron Taylor. A professional acquaintance of mine was president of an architectural design/build firm in Chicago. My former employer theorized that the reason he had been made president of the firm was that he looked like the president of a firm. He was stocky, but not too chunky. He displayed both physical and moral stature. He possessed that ineffable quality known as “presence.” This analysis could easily be transposed to the case of Elder Ron Taylor. He was designed by his Creator to be eminently suited to the role of Elder. I had assumed that perhaps he had been one forever, as he has always appeared to be both a ubiquitous and an indispensable man for the entire course of my relatively brief (2 years) experience as a Berean. “I’m sorry. What was your name?” This is what he said to me, last time we spoke. My ridiculous reply was, “you may not know my name, but I know yours!” If a person only learned ten names out of all of the 4,000+ Bereans, the odds are good that Elder Ron Taylor’s would be one of them. I overcame my perverse streak long enough to reveal my name to him. It would have been even more fun not to reveal my name at all, like Clint Eastwood in some spaghetti Western. “What did you say your name was?” [pause for effect] “I Didn’t.”



Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell provided a short introduction to Elder Ron Taylor’s brief sermon. The Wednesday gathering was an abbreviated one, as it was to be followed by a church business meeting. Pastor Russell refreshed everyone’s memories as to the recent and ongoing style of the “War Room” prayer meetings. A group of new Elders is about to be ordained at Berean, and each of them is undertaking, in series, to present a short sermon. So far, Elder Sam Cort and Elder Winston Armstrong have spoken. April 27, 2016 marked Elder Ron Taylor’s opportunity to either admonish or edify the congregation. Edification is easier on the ears than admonition, and is therefore the predominate approach that two of the three Elders have chosen for their presentations. The first Elder to speak, Samuel Cort, was an admonisher, urging us all to become more effective witnesses for Jesus. The second Elder to speak, Winston Armstrong, mostly described the sorry state of the world, but edified us by reminding us of the pending return of our Redeemer. Elder Taylor brought tidings of comfort and cheer. What can God do for Gideon in the midst of Israel’s suppression by Midian? What can He do for us? Its Gonna Take a Miracle! This sermon was capped, however, by the admonishment that we should never take the everyday miracles that God performs on our behalf for granted.

Here is a quote from this White Estate LINK. It  addresses leaders of the church, but it is good advice for us all (and most certainly for myself): “There is cheap religion in abundance, but there is no such thing as cheap Christianity. Self may figure largely in a false religion, but it cannot appear in Christian experience. ‘Ye are workers together with God.’ ‘Without me,’ said Christ, ‘ye can do nothing.’ We cannot be shepherds of the flock unless we are divested of our own peculiar habits, manners, and customs, and come  into Christ’s likeness.” There exists many varieties of personalities and backgrounds among the Elders of Berean SDA Church, but they are all sober men and women. They are not eccentrics. And, as Ellen White strongly recommends them to do, they prioritize service to God, and suppress “self.”

“Then the angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock…” Judges 6:21. Another unattributed image.

Pastor Fredrick Russell revealed that, prior to his service as an Elder, Ron Taylor had served as a Deacon. He noted that the Elder’s wife Terri (or Terry, maybe) is a Sabbath School leader, and they have been blessed with two lovely children. He lauded the useful work that Elder does (since 2006) in connection with the College Park Fire and Rescue Department.

Elder Taylor used the story of Gideon’s call by God, through the intermediary of an angel, to lead the benighted Hebrew tribe out from under the oppression of the Midianites. Gideon had the nerve to chide the angel a bit, a kind of Scriptural equivalent to the insensitive question, “what have you done for me lately?” The text in question may be found in the Book of Judges, Chapter 6, Verses 11-13. Verses 12 and 13 read as follows:

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

Elder Ron Taylor’s remarks took the form of a personal testimony. The aura of extreme respectability that surrounds Elder Taylor belies a past that is less than perfect. But with the Lord’s help, we can all overcome our bad beginnings. The Lord will assist us to stay on course in our “new walk,” and will help us overcome the many obstacles that life will assuredly place in our path. He informed us that God will not forsake us. He has done, and will do miracles. God worked miracles in the speaker’s life, and made a him a better person. Elder Taylor quoted a line from Reverend James Cleveland’s 1975 SONG, “Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me!”

Ron Taylor promotes a cell phone application known as “pulse point” that can pinpoint cardiac victims, as well as the nearest locale where rescue equipment may be accessed. He currently serves as College Park EMS boss.

Elder Taylor prefaced his remarks with story about a recent refresher course in spiritual affairs that God provided to him. Elder Taylor is a Master Guide (not the easiest credential in the world to acquire, as the link will reveal). Recently, Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church hosted a Master Guide Day. It was not just any old Master Guide Day, but the 29th Anniversary of the Georgia association of Guides. Elder Taylor eagerly anticipated this event (he was destined to occupy the front pew during this extravaganza, indispensable man that he is, He was on the program committee. It was “his baby”). Elder Taylor referred to the meticulous planning that went into the affair.
On the Friday night that preceded the big day, his wife Terry (Terri?) made some homemade ginger ice cream. Elder Taylor showed his appreciation of this treat by helping himself to a second portion. He further expressed appreciation by helping himself to a third portion. There would be repercussions resulting from his overindulgence.

Later that night, the Lord chose to speak to Elder Taylor “through his belly.” He awaken from his slumbers, and got out of bed in order to open a window. Just as he was about to raise the sash, he doubled over in pain. The stomach pain was so intense, it literally brought him to his knees. This involuntary repositioning of his body brought a little relief to the sufferer. It also invoked a charming metaphor for the attitude of prayer. “How many people know that when you are on your knees, you are at your ease?” (Google is kind of in hot water for furnishing, without paying royalties, the text online of thousands of works of literature. Here, while it lasts, is a LINK to an excerpt from “The Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett.” It is from “Rough For Theatre I,” and features the following quotation: “On your knees, on your knees, you’ll be more at your ease.” I seriously doubt that this was the source, however, of Elder Taylor’s adage.)

An illustration of another short play by Existentialist Samuel Beckett, his famed “Waiting for Godot,” history’s most lethargic allegory of the second Advent.

How was Ron Taylor to get any sleep on this critical eve of the Master Guide convention? He addressed his creator in an accusatory manner, wondering how God could allow such a debilitating affliction to strike at such an inopportune time. His faith had experienced a temporary setback, and he may have been feeling sorry for himself (as did Job, in the course of his afflictions). God turned the implied criticism back upon the Elder. “Ron, why don’t you trust me anymore? Remember back when you were struggling? I supplied your every need! And just now… you should have been dead, but instead, I have preserved your life.”

Elder Taylor compared his to the case of Gideon. The Midianites were making a lot of trouble for the chosen people. They had overwhelming strength, and the Hebrews were reduced to barely holding out against them in the fastness of their mountain refuges. God had a plan, however, and had selected Gideon to become the instrument of its implementation. A angel was delegated to go and inform the incipient Judge. At the critical encounter between divine messenger and intended recipient, Gideon decides to grumble and gripe. “Where are all of the miracles that God has done for our ancestors, but is apparently reluctant to do for us?” This was analogous the Elder’s very bad reaction in the wake of his severe gastrointestinal duress.

Rom Taylor was in pain. But miracles were flying around about, unnoticed, and unappreciated by the afflicted party. Just for starters, it constituted a miracle that God could even bring the sufferer through his ordeal alive. Elder Taylor made his way to the bathroom, and beheld himself in the mirror (an act that is, in itself, excessively steeped in metaphor). He was so wrapped up in being “negative,” the Lord had felt compelled to reach out to the Elder, grab him by the lapels with both hands, and vigorously attempt to shake some sense into his thick skull. “Look back on where you have come from!” God needed the Elder to put things into proper perspective. This latest trouble was a only a mote. Ron Taylor was complaining just as if it were a beam. Elder Taylor now made mention of the old beam that God graciously relieved him of (I remained in a state of shock, not yet capable of absorbing the news that the impeccable Elder Taylor had ever been anything less than the most exemplary of Christians).

What a dramatic image from the College Park Facebook page!. Elder Ron Taylor often serves as spokesman to the media for the fire department. So he is not just a saint. He is a great communicator too!

“I am glad that God is still in the miracle business!” Elder Taylor stated this just prior to a short description of his own deliverance from evil. The Elder made a confession to this effect, “I was living on the streets, doing everything under the sun. God rescued me from this condition of decrepitude. If God can do it for me, He can do it for you!” The magnitude of this deliverance constituted a genuine “miracle.” I never imagined that I might have anything in common with the unimpeachable Elder Taylor, but it is was now revealed that he had not always been so saintly as he now appears to be (I am not being ironical; Adventists really are attached to virtue in a fashion I had largely failed to detect in most other denominations. Having been as he once was, I now aspire to become as he is now. I will place him on a pedestal, and ensconce him in my pantheon of personal role models).

“Anytime we ever start to take for granted what God has done for us, we need to step back.” advised Elder Taylor. The Elder had grown too complaisant, too comfortable to maintain constant awareness of the ongoing debt that we all owe to God, simply for the fact of our existence. Gideon pondered as to how he might possibly take on the powerful Midianites. God had an answer, Gideon had but to trust in the Lord. The deliverance of the people that Gideon led was a miracle that God gladly performed for His beloved children. God still performs miracles. Here is the last sentence that Elder Ron Taylor spoke to the congregation Wednesday evening:

“Miracles still happen!”

The miracle finally occurs! “Gideon Puts the Midianites to Flight,” a 1865 woodcut by Gustave Dore. Like a pufferfish, Gideon’s band pretends to be larger than it actually is, striking fear into Midianite hearts.