“A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Isaiah 42:3
I first saw and heard Elder Thomas at the district services. He was hosting a Friday night Missions service, and I had never met him before. He stepped up to the pulpit, a dignified and well-dressed man looking over his glasses at the congregation. Because I thought his voice to be somewhat gruff, I thought that he must be stern and irritable, and that he was someone I would not want to annoy or make angry, because he wouldn’t put up with very much. It is funny how we perceive people at first observance.
The second time I saw Elder Thomas was at a pastor appreciation service, and suddenly he ran down from the pulpit area to the front of the altar, where he began to dance in the spirit. My whole conception was thus thrown out the window.
The third time I saw him, he was again at a district service, and he opened the service by saying, “You’re in the Holy Ghost headquarters now.” I laughed when he said it, and my two guests also laughed about that. I knew then that I really liked this man, and that I needed to hear him preach.
Soon thereafter, I visited a Sunday service at his church for the first time with my son. That Sunday, Elder Thomas preached from Ecclesiastes 12, and it was one of the most enjoyable and concise teachings I had ever heard. Not only did Elder Thomas have a gift of teaching with great clarity, but he could make people laugh and enjoy the studying of it. Whenever I cast a sidelong glance at my son, he was smiling a broad smile or laughing.
I don’t know quite where to begin to describe the incredible giftedness of Elder Thomas. He is remarkable in so many ways. He says that when he was a young boy, he knew a great evangelist in the area named Mother Benjamin, and that he sought for God to give him a portion of the Spirit that was upon her. He says it was quite difficult even as a young man to keep up with this tireless woman. But, like Elisha who refused to leave Elijah, he followed her to the best of his ability until she left this world.
Elder Thomas is a gifted preacher, prophet, servant, shepherd, and prayer warrior. He has a huge heart of compassion for the lost and suffering, and has a word from the Father of Lights for every occasion and every need. He knows how to guide God’s flock to higher and deeper faith, and to their own personal callings from the Spirit. I have seen people line up at the altar to receive “the Word of the Lord” from his lips, and I have seen God use him as a mighty instrument of mercy.
He has truly touched my life by his earnestness about the things of God, and his desire to see his people grow, and not wax cold and stagnant. He knows how to encourage and how to correct, and with such skill and wisdom that only God could give.
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