Mining for gold

In our upstairs office are two 5-drawer filing cabinets loaded with gold. My Ted's sermon outlines have been waiting for me to brave the melt-downs that I know will accompany my taking out each folder and mining the gold that is hidden there. As I open those filing cabinets you can expect to glean more nuggets from my findings. ...but first I must tell you the way our oxen team pulled the load placed upon us by the Lord. Ted was a visionary. I cannot count the ministries he pioneered. A visionary must have teammates that tend to the nuts and bolts that keep the team moving forward. ...kind of like the Nascar mechanics stationed along the racetrack. We accepted two pastorates whose boards did not wish us to even mention the word "discipleship".  Mercifully, our Lord promoted us and turned us loose to go and make disciples.  What a privilege to work alongside a man who knew what his calling was and never missed a beat as we were set free to obey His assignment for us.

Being woman,  most of my senses are usually alive.  While Ted was teaching,  my mind was on leading the worship that would prepare the hearts of the people for Ted's messages, thinking about the lonely people I needed to invite to our home,  and the people-to-people connections I needed to make throughout the week; therefore Ted's messages are more impacting to me now than they were when Ted was delivering them. Is there anyone receiving this blog who can identify with that?

There are many other wives of full-time ministers of the Gospel who are left behind to complete their husband's work. Elaine Stedman is still living and continues to dispense Ray's messages around the world from their website entitled: raystedman.org.  Jeanne Hendricks is left behind to gather all of Howie's countless messages and memorabilia and place all in his personal library at Dallas Theological Seminary.  Both of these men were life influencers to Chuck Swindoll, my husband, and countless other teacher/disciplers who are scattered around the world. I have only a handful of Ted's taped messages and have published them under iTunes, 12stoneslegacy, Ted's podcasts and other venues. Now it is time to mine the gold from his printed outlines.

Son Doug's death and the aftermath accompanying his Home going so soon after Ted left for Heaven has a reoccurring effect on my emotions.  Two of my dear friends have lost their sons in the past few days. My heart breaks for them. Grieving the loss of a child is quite different from even losing a spouse. We remember feeling our babies stretching our tummies almost to bursting, their births, nursing them, holding them, bonding with them, watching them take their first steps, beginning to talk...all the amazing things little ones do that only a mother is privileged to see.  We forget whatever pain they have caused themselves and others and remember things about them that no one else knows. Why am I telling you this this week?  I don't know.  Do I have to know? This I do know:  My precious husband and son are safe with Jesus. I read one of Ted's messages yesterday in which he says that since there is no time once we take our last breath on earth, we will all arrive in Heaven at the same time. Ted and Doug, are you in a holding pattern, much as both of you as pilots circled the field until given clearance by the traffic controller?  I don't know. Does any human know? Do we fall back on simply trusting God for everything in the here and now and eternity? The answer is "Yes"!

Yesterday, with the select women the Lord brings to my living room for discipleship, the Holy Spirit insisted upon leading the class Himself. ...so much for preparation.

                                                  OLD HYMN: SWEETLY RESTING
Long pursued by sin and Satan, weary, sad, I longed to rest
Then I found this heavenly shelter opened in my Savior's breast.

In the rifted Rock I'll hide me 'til the storms of life are past
All secure in this blest refuge heeding not the fiercest blast.

NOW I'M RESTING, SWEETLY RESTING IN THE CLEFT ONCE MADE FOR ME
JESUS, BLESSED ROCK OF AGES, I WILL HIDE MYSELF IN THEE

Love,  Jo