BRING THEM IN

None of the other dorm rooms had a private bath. Months after my benefactor arranged for me to have this most lovely room at Northwestern Bible College I learned that one of the women students had been moved to another room in order for me to have the best. Oh, boy!  Now, there's a set-up for jealousy to sabotage hoped-for new relationships. 

Jealousy. Girl stuff. ...but it's "boy stuff" too.  I heard Ravi Zacharias say this week: There are two things to be sought after in life: power and love.  Nobody has both. ...only Jesus.

In my new home with women all around me, I couldn't get to sleep. After wrestling with the devil until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning I sometimes gave up in despair, tiptoed down the stairs and knocked softly on my housemother's door.   Elderly "Mother R."  shuffled to the door;  her smile and open arms greeted me. Instantly I felt the comfort of a grandmother who loved Jesus and loved me.  We knelt by her bed,  read scripture and prayed. Calmed, I made my way up the stairs and fell asleep. By 7 A.M.  Mother R. was at her desk in the foyer as we students filed past on our way to  class. Her worn Bible with its underlined scriptures lay open.  I remember wondering if my brand new King James Bible would ever look like that.

There are lots of Christians now in Bear Valley Springs where I live, but there are many people who have moved to this mountain to enjoy their reward for years of hard work, only to find that all the golfing and nature watching in this lovely place do not mask the reality that there are dark days ahead for our nation and for the world.  

When I was a child I whispered this prayer at night: 

Now I lay me down to sleep.  
I pray the Lord my soul to keep. 
If I should die before I 'wake,
I pray the Lord, my soul to take.

Who was this "Lord" and where would He take me if I died before morning? At nineteen,  the powerful, loving Lord Jesus Christ was offered to me. I ran into His arms and, at 89 years of age that's where I remain.  It apparently is not time for my earthly body to be traded in for a Heavenly body.  I still have an assignment that I love.  New ones continue to come through my doors to be loved and trained to make disciples long after I am with my Father in Heaven. 

                 BRING THEM IN
Hark, 'tis the Shepherd's voice I hear
Out in the desert, dark and drear.
Calling the lambs who've gone astray
Far from he Shepherd's fold, away.  

BRING THEM IN; BRING THEM IN.
BRING THEM IN FROM THE FIELDS OF SIN.
BRING THEM IN; BRING THEM IN.
BRING THE WAND'RING ONES TO JESUS. 

Love, Jo