Friday, May 27, 2016

He LIVES!

MEMORIAL WEEKEND.  If one of your children has died, whether from military death, a miscarriage, abortion, drugs,  suicide,  accident,  or disease, you will understand that grieving the loss of a child is different from other griefs. Last week on May18 was the five year mark since my second son Jeff walked into my bedroom on that morning and said, "Mom, Doug died in the night!" I was stunned and still find it hard to believe that my oldest son won't be walking into my house, calling, "Hi, Mama", and heading for the refrigerator and helping himself to the artichoke hearts I always kept there for him.  I still reach over in my bed to touch my precious husband who is no longer there. Those two men aren't grieving at all. They picked up right where they had left off eleven months before. Jesus understood the mixed emotions Lazurus' family felt.  ,,, and He wept.   ...and then from His cross, in agony of every kind He felt His mother's pain, and, in the hearing of the crowd,  provided for her comfort with John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

FAMILY. All six grandchildren are scattered from Philadelphia to Idaho, to California. Will they ever gather again? Yes, in Heaven. ...with Jesus. Nothing else really matters. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness!" A couple of nights ago my cell phone rang. It was oldest son  Doug's oldest son, Luke who lives in the far north of our country.  I have not seen him in ever so long, and I have missed him terribly. We talked for a long time about his daddy and it felt good to do that. We remembered the many times the entire family gathered here in this home and on this property. I had no idea that Luke has been reading my blog all along. I cried with gratefulness when he told me.  Both of our sons were married under the Family Tree above the house,  and five of the six grandchildren were dedicated to Jesus by their grandfather on that very spot. Ted's gravestone and ashes rest there. If I am not taken up in the twinkling of an eye,  my earthly remains will be right there beside his. ...but we won't be there. On the lower property the tree house and deck that Doug built beckon to the kids that come here. The arcing rope swing still hangs from the giant oak.

THIS AND THAT.  I know that I am to stay in this home until He tells me otherwise.  Another boy air-gun party happened last Saturday.  All the families and some of the siblings showed up too. Loved it!  Guests are lining up for the summer weekends. I plan to host old fashioned singalongs up under the giant oak or on my deck. If it is His will on June 10th I will start entertaining from my keyboard every other Friday evening at the Golf Shop. I love lightening the hearts of the older people who miss my kind of music. A mom and her daughter come to my discipleship class. The daughter will begin next week to teach the Book of Luke.  Oh, this is when discipleship gets really exciting.  In Bakersfield two others that I love dearly are teaching the Book of Ephesians to a group of women. I think that most of the Thursday Discipleship girls and the guys I know are giving out the Word. "His Truth is marching on! Glory, glory, Hallelujah!"

FINANCES.  I owe no money on my home, property, or anything else. Thank You, my dear Father. My truck should last for the rest of my life if no more deer come charging off the mountain and bash in the front of it. My leaking roof is replaced and so is the water heater. The steps up to the upper level are not safe anymore. The trim on the house needs painting. The deck needs major work. The Lord has found for me a fine Christian man to hire for doing these outside repairs.  If you have any contributions you want to toss to Family Life Resources, PMB # 71. 25101 Bear Valley Road, Tehachapi, California, 93561, it's fine if you do it and fine if you don't.  I have a Board of four couples who encourage me to tell people who come that I, too have to pay my bills. My daughter oversees my finances and deals with credit card fraud (again!).  I am so grateful for her willingness to do what sends me into near cardiac arrest.  O.K., I'm done, and I am done in. The subject of "finances" does that to me. I have probably told you more than you want to know.  If I were you I wouldn't hold out any hope that I will ever stop doing that.

Let the nations know that they are but men.  Psalm 9:20b.. ,,,because HE LIVES!

I serve a Risen Saviour;  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, HE 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.

Rejoice, rejoice, Oh Christian; lift up your voice and sing
Eternal Hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him; the Help of all who find.
None other is so loving, so good and kind.

HE LIVES; HE LIVES. CHRIST JESUS LIVES TODAY.
HE WALKS WITH ME, HE 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!

Love,  Jo



Friday, May 20, 2016

Keep on keeping on...

Every day, all year 'round there are many reasons to guard my mind. It requires some discipline to marinate it in the Twenty-third Psalm and the Lord's Prayer.  Both pretty much wrap up the basics.

If you have followed my blog you know that I was raised "tough"...actually plowing through snow drifts up to my shoulders from the time I was five years old in order to get to the one-room schoolhouse where Mrs. Ethel, a widow with a son Ted's and my age urged me to read, listen, think and learn. When the country school was closed I entered town school. Mrs. Ethel moved to town too and was my teacher for two more grades!  Years later I became a Christian. Mrs. Ethel's son Bob came to Minneapolis to our wedding and somehow came to Christ. He in turn led his mom to the Lord. Bob went home to Jesus in his 50's.  Mrs. Ethel and I  wrote and talked on the phone across the miles until she died in her sleep at 95!

Why am I telling you about Mrs. Ethel?  Her investment in me brings to mind the scripture: "Train up a child in the way she could go and when she is old, she will not depart from it."  Mrs. Ethel encouraged me to read, listen,  think and learn,  The same principle goes for a brand new Christian. Even if that new believer is an adult they are a child in their new Life in Christ.  Please don't just invite this dear new family member to church. Open the Word of God, love and invest in them. Of course it will be a sacrifice, but the word "love" means absolutely nothing without "sacrifice".  I didn't have any idea how to disciple the new Christian teenagers that were coming to Christ in our first ministry.  I opened to the Book of Ephesians and the Holy Spirit took it from there.  ...one verse at a time. ,,,and since then ever so many have done the same. ...one verse at a time. Many of the disciples that date back decades show up in my life regularly. Now that summer is nearly here more will be coming. ...and I will be blessed.

My two remaining children and their life mates are coming today. All four are "going and making disciples!"  Jeff and Carla are staying overnight. ...then after they leave ten teenage boys are coming for an air-gun birthday party. Today a half dozen men are ripping off the deteriorating shingles from my roof and putting on new ones. With every whack of the hammer I hear owed dollars accumulating.  ...and then I am reminded: ""The Lord is my Shepherd,  I shall not want."  Everything on this Planet wears out or leaks and my body is no exception. ...but meanwhile, there is...

                            POWER IN THE BLOOD

Would you do service for Jesus your King?
THERE'S POWER IN THE BLOOD; POWER IN THE BLOOD.
Would you live daily, His praises to sing?
There's WONDERFUL POWER IN THE BLOOD.

THERE IS POWER, POWER, WONDER-WORKING POWER

IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.
THERE IS POWER, POWER, WONDER-WORKING POWER
IN THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 

Love, Jo

Good for you, Ann and Franklin Graham. Just like your daddy and mother before you, you are giving us encouragement to keep on keeping on.

Keep on keeping on....

Every day, all year 'round there are many reasons to guard my mind. It requires some discipline to marinate it in the Twenty-third Psalm and the Lord's Prayer.  Both pretty much wrap up the basics. I babble a lot to my Father, knowing that the Holy Spirit and Jesus interpret my meanings.

If you have followed my blog you know that I was raised "tough"...actually plowing through snow drifts up to my shoulders from the time I was five years old in order to get to the one-room schoolhouse where Mrs. Ethel, a widow with a son urged me to read, listen, think and learn. When the country school was closed I entered town school. Mrs. Ethel moved to town too and was my teacher for two more grades!  Years later I became a Christian. Mrs. Ethel's son Bob came to Minneapolis to Ted's and my  wedding,  He in turn led his mom to Christ. Mrs. Ehel and I  wrote and talked on the phone across the miles until she died at 95!  Did I bring blessing to her later life?  Of course!

Why am I telling you about Mrs. Ethel?  Her investment in me brings to mind the scripture: "Train up a child in the way she could go and when she is old, she will not depart from it."  Mrs. Ethel encouraged me to read, listen,  think and learn,  The same principle goes for a brand new Christian. Even if that new believer is an adult they are a child in their new Life in Christ.  Please don't just invite that dear new family member to church. Open the Word of God with them. Love and invest in them. Of course it will be a sacrifice, but the word "love" means absolutely nothing without "sacrifice".  I didn't have any idea how to disciple the new Christian teenagers that were coming to Christ in our first ministry.  I opened to the Book of Ephesians and the Holy Spirit took it from there.  ...one verse at a time. Many of the disciples that date back decades show up in my life regularly. We cannot "outgive" God.

Some of my remaining family are coming today.  I am so excited! Jeff and Carla are staying overnight. ...then after they leave ten teenage boys are coming for an air-gun birthday party. Today a half dozen men are ripping off the deteriorating shingles from my roof and putting on new ones. With every whack of the hammer I hear owed dollars accumulating.  ...and then I am reminded: ""The Lord is my Shepherd,  I shall not want."  Everything on this Planet rots or leaks and my body is no exception. ...but meanwhile, there is...

                            POWER IN THE BLOOD

Would you do service for Jesus your King?
THERE'S POWER IN THE BLOOD; POWER IN THE BLOOD.
Would you live daily, His praises to sing?
There's WONDERFUL POWER IN THE BLOOD.

THERE IS POWER, POWER, WONDER-WORKING POWER

IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.
THERE IS POWER, POWER, WONDER-WORKING POWER
IN THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 

Love, Jo

Good for you, Franklin and Ann Graham. ...just like your dear daddy,  you are giving us incentive to keep on keeping on.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Lead me on, Precious Lord

Let's see now...how long have I been a Christian?  I was 19 and working as a secretary on a college campus when a girlfriend invited me to church.. It didn't look like a church, but was a nondescript store front with no steeple. We walked in to a room full of students with a half dozen adults sprinkled amongst them.  "What kind of a church is this?" I'm thinkin', but then my mind was drawn to and riveted on the young man in the pulpit with an open Bible from which he was preaching his young heart out to sixty or seventy people.  I didn't have a Bible and actually had only once or twice glimpsed my grandmother's before she died.

The young fellow was mentioning somebody by the name of Jesus. I had heard his name from the mouth of my boy friend Ted's dad who often spewed out a volley of Jesus Christ words.  ...but this young man was speaking tenderly about Jesus.  The next Sunday my friend Jan couldn't go to "church" so I went alone.  You know Who was drawing me, but I didn't at the time. This speaker spoke about this same Jesus, and I was drawn like a fly to honey to the front of the room  to ask him who he was talking about.  He drew me to a chair where we sat down, he opened his Bible and in less than ten minutes I crossed over from death to everlasting life in Christ. I don't remember the scriptures he read.  I just remember feeling sure that he was right. ....then I walked over to one of the adult men and said something like this: " Who are you folk? "  In the most gentle of voices a man named Elmer Nelson answered: "We six adults belong to First Baptist Church downtown.  We don't expect students to come all the way to our church so we rent this building, one of us drives to Kansas City on Saturday night where we attend the Youth for Christ rally and bring back the speaker to tell you young people about Jesus on Sunday mornings. Come back next Sunday and you will hear a different speaker."

I went back to my apartment, mulling all of this over, feeling somehow different inside. Now I know Who had moved into my very being, but then I did not know.  I was excited.  I wrote my boyfriend, Ted who was finishing out his stint in the U.S. Navy in Memphis, Tennessee, then I called my mother who did not share my excitement. I was disappointed. The week dragged by and I returned the following Sunday to hear a young man by the name of ...Billy Graham.  I had no idea who these men were. All I knew was that what they were saying was the Truth. Somebody gave me a Bible.  I was invited into Mr. Nelson's home with others and was treated with love and kindness. My parents and my brothers hired a private detective to check out Mr. Nelson. I was humiliated when I learned of this, but Mr. Nelson explained that my dad and brothers did not have the Holy Spirit in them and could not possibly trust an older man to have good intentions toward a young girl like me.

In a few months Mr. Nelson invited me to attend a conference at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, along with two other carloads of young people. We walked into that giant auditorium, and behind the pulpit was ..... Billy Graham. ...speaking to several thousand conferees that had come from around the world.  Two days later Mr. Nelson invited me to lunch with Billy Graham who had recently become the Interim President of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We ordered lunch and then in a matter of
\\\ minutes the course of my life was changed forever. Billy invited me to come to his Bible College.  His words are sealed in my memory: "Mr. Nelson is on my Youth for Christ Board. He tells me that you are a young woman with a heart to learn all you can about the Lord.  I am offering you a year of education at my school. You will owe no tuition for that year. The second semester has already begun and we do not want you to miss out on any more classes. We have taken the liberty of purchasing tickets for you to fly out of O'Hara tomorrow for Minneapolis where my staff will meet you. Jo Ann, how are you feeling about this?"

I was so stunned I couldn't feel!  I could barely whisper,  I never returned to Kansas except for visits. Ted joined me at Northwestern, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

On my refrigerator is a letter Dr. Graham's secretary wrote me.  I quote: "I had the privilege of reading to Billy Graham your recent letter to him. At the age of ninety-six, macular degeneration makes it impossible to see to read his own mail now. You will never know what an encouragement letters like yours are to him in his later years. Your testimony is especially meaningful since it began so many years ago, and God has led and used you and your husband in your own ministry since those Northwestern days.  Thank you for taking the time to write and tell him--and thank you for being such a blessing."  Sincerely yours, Stephanie Wills, Secretary to Billy Graham/

Why me, Lord? ... this Kansas farm girl who wanted so much to go to college.  ...but You had more than "college" in mind for me,  You had marked out for me a life of opportunity to tell others of Your Grace. Precious Lord. You have, for all of these years,,,

...taken my hand, led me on, helped me stand.
I become tired; I become weak and I become worn.
But through the storm, through the night, 
You lead me on to the Light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, 
You will lead me Home.

Love,  Jo

Friday, May 6, 2016

STORIES

His name was Ronald MacDonald. Honest! He was a business man who attended our Houston church. Ron longed to go into the pastorate. ...so Ted encouraged his dream. Ron's wife became very ill and was hospitalized. With no medical benefits he had had as a business man, Ron was wholly dependent upon the Lord to supply his needs as a dad of several children and a very sick wife. He needed time away from the hospital so drove north to a conference for Christian workers.  Lunch time came; he sat across the table from a man who told him his name: Charlie Brown.  Charlie Brown/ Ronald MacDonald! They had a laugh.  Hospital bills were climbing through the roof;  soon it was evident that dear Mary Jo was going Home to Heaven.  Ron slept on a cot in her room and kept vigil. Early one morning came a knock on the door. There stood...CHARLIE BROWN! "Ron, come up to my office on the top floor for lunch." "Who is this guy, anyway?" wondered Ron. When he entered Charlie's office Charlie explained:  "Ron, I did not tell you when we were together for only a few minutes that I am the fund raiser for this hospital.  I have been keeping tabs on you and your wife through the doctors and nurses and I have something to tell you. Enough funds have been raised to pay for all of your bills, doctors and medications. Now, let's pray for a quiet Home going for your dear wife and praise Him together that we know where she will soon be."  Ronald MacDonald and Charlie Brown. Only the Lord could have orchestrated their meeting.  I may have missed some details of this story, but you can find those out from both Charlie Brown and Ronald MacDonald in Heaven, for there will be plenty of time there for details.

As I have become older, I have quiet time to let my soul feel the feelings of the stories that come to mind.  Now I cry nearly every day. ...mostly because of His Grace that washes over me as the memories surface. The first verse I was given when I was nineteen years old was Romans 8:28. Now the "all things that work together for good" are an actuality and not just a fuzzy hope.

Thirty-two years ago today our moving van, Ted and I rolled into Bear Valley Springs to pastor a fledgling church in this community. A dear realtor named Nancy had arranged for us to temporarily stay in a mobile home high on this mountain. She had stashed little scrolls, tied with a pretty ribbon in drawers, nooks and crannies in every room.  Inside she had painstakingly written scriptures that warmed and welcomed our souls.  Exhausted, we went to bed, fell into a deep sleep, then were jolted awake by the screeching of two raccoons duking it out in the top of a giant oak tree outside our window. Snow was softly falling and by morning a foot of the lovely stuff covered the ground.  Enchanting! The mobile home was heated by electricity. It blipped out. We had no winter coats, were hungry for breakfast, layered the clothes we had, jumped on Ted's Honda motorcycle and zoomed down, down and down to a restaurant in the little mountain town of Keene.  My Ted was always up for a new adventure and a new one had just begun! All three of his kids are just like him.  Let's see: what shall I do today? Dee is with her daughter in the Bay Area for Mother's Day. ...don't know what Jeff is doing; ...Doug and his dad may be flying around Jupiter.  Oh, the phone just rang and a person I have just met wants to come and see me. O.K.  The temperature is dropping outside. ...no snow yet, but it could happen. ...seems right, don't you think, on this,  the 32nd anniversary of the beginning of a new chapter in the "Story of Us".

Oh, yes...an update on the Identify Theft intrusion.  The Lord and my daughter have done battle with the enemy of our souls.  I don't want to think about what may be ahead.  I want to think about God's amazing grace for the eighty-seven years of my life up until this day. Why would I think for a minute that His grace has reached its limit?

                    A REALLY OLD TOE TAPPER

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions, bright and blessed, He'll prepare for us a place.

While we walk this pilgrim pathway clouds will overspread the sky.
But when travelling days are over, not a shadow or a sigh.

Onward to the prize before us; soon His beauty we'll behold. 
Soon the pearly gates will open; soon we'll tread the streets of gold.

WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN; WHAT A DAY OF REJOICING THAT WILL BE.
WHEN WE ALL SEE JESUS, WE'LL SING AND SHOUT THE VICTORY!

Love,  Jo



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