I am with you, always.

Technology is hurtling us toward our minds being controlled by devices. Simultaneously,  technology is fulfilling the Great Commission as millions are hearing the Gospel by way of  "devices".  The  assignment given us by Jesus can be fulfilled in just a few years if  every one of us shares the Gospel with one, two, or several lost people. Do not be discouraged. The "Arm of the Lord is not shortened".

Think about that; then think about Joseph, son of Jacob.  Pharaoh,  the devil's high- tech potentate of his day thought he had Joe and his family cornered.  He didn't.

Today a half dozen women who know what our assignment is will gather to study Genesis 36, pray for one an other's ministries to the lost, then separate for a week to go about our Father's business. .

Please don't "stand looking up",  doing absolutely nothing, waiting for His return. Jesus warned the fellows about that.

"Go, ...and I am with you always, even to the end of the age."  

Love,  Jo

The scenic route

I was with my northern California son and family for the Mother's Day weekend. They have bought a beautiful little farm outside their city.  In the city they minister to lots and lots of people, many of whom are ensnared in the results of man's disobedience to God. Now they can enjoy His peaceful handiwork a couple of days a week and hopefully extend their days on this earth.

I traveled by Amtrak. The TV commercials that market that rail line picture a sleek, silver-colored double-decker that curves around snow-capped mountains, slipping through tunnels that run parallel to rippling rivers, flanked on both sides by cascading waterfalls.

The terrain outside my Amtrak window was somewhat different. We barreled through thirty-foot high piles of discarded scrap -iron, acres of wrecked cars and rusted-out obsolete oil equipment. We cut through a half-dozen junk yards, then through the back yards of homeowners who can't sell their houses for half the price they paid. To say the route was "colorless" doesn't quite explain why I pulled the curtains and settled back for a nap. 

I am the mother and grandmother to a Christian family  I am a surrogate mother to many Christian children. Every day we travel through the broken ruins of this world. How do we stay sane in the midst of such hopelessness?   We can't just "pull the curtain" and pretend that the world is all beautiful like the Amtrak commercial.  You know the answer:  Be His Light in the darkness.  Because HE lives, WE LIVE also.

Love, Jo

Spring Break

The Lord keeps sending me people who want to know Him and study His Word.  It doesn't get any better than that!

...back the week after Mother's Day.  ...if I have anything to say. ...but then,  I always have something to say.

May you rest in His promises.

Love,  Jo

Joy Unspeakable

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth."

Many of you, my dear friends know that my Ted and our son Doug left for Heaven in the same year,  eleven month apart, at about this time.  I want to talk about both of them today. 

Having inherited his dad's athletic ability Doug became an All American at Humboldt State. ... an NCAA wrestler,  second and third in his weight class in the nation. ...but being an Olympic contender or a coach was not going to be his life work.  He would become a successful custom home builder in Houston, in San Diego and here on this mountain. What fun it was to watch our son build spectacular homes to grace the terrain. 

Doug was an artist.  ...a high risk taker,  a mountain climber, a hang glider, para glider and pilot who flew from Tehachapi to San Diego for years to build mansions in and around that city.  He flew hundreds of Young Eagles who have gone on to become pilots themselves. Doug loved children.  He helped his dad begin the Awana program here at the church we came to build.  My son left so suddenly, leaving Robin, his wife and three teenagers. ...Luke, Lance and Madison.  Like his father eleven months before, cancer ended his life here on earth.  Could any in our family have survived such loss if we did not know they are with the Lord in Heaven?  Not well.  ...not well.  

Jesus said: "I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also."  I wonder if the Lord will give our Doug a "say so" in the building of his mansion in Heaven. 

I had a ringside seat in 1948 as Ted Stone fell in love with God's Word, then lived it and taught it until he took his last breath.  As a young man he was headed toward becoming a medical doctor.  God changed his mind.  He doctored souls instead.  Once I said to him: "Ted Stone, you would teach scripture to a stump! ...and he answered: "Sure I would. ...if it would sprout!"  You can hear some of my husband's messages on "12StonesLegacy.net".  Oh, I do recommend that you do that. 

...and now, Ted's grandchildren are falling in love with Christ and His everlasting, powerful Word. 

Grandparents, stay on your knees.  God hears our prayers.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth".   III John 1:4.

Love,  Jo

Get over it!

"Get over it". That's really what Paul was saying to Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4.  

There is an Euodia  ("Odius") in the church I attend. I try to avoid her but sometimes she corners me. The Syntyche  ("Soon Touchy") in me struggles with wanting to deck her. 

The other day the garbage disposal wouldn't dispose. Pipes broke and water leaked all over the floor.  On the same day my new Shark vacuum cleaner wouldn't vac. I went to my Honda truck with the mission in mind to make a run to Home Deport to return the kitchen flooring I had bought  (...the kitchen flooring that was to replace the warped flooring that got that way from the refrigerator filter that leaked).  An unfriendly "ping" greeted me from under the hood.  I never lift the hood and would have no idea what to do if I did. A little green wrench appeared in a square behind the steering wheel. It was late in the day.  I deep-sixed my plan to go into town to Home Depot. 

 I visited my repertoire of things to do when everything feels out of control.  I decided to move my living room furniture around into a more inviting configuration.  Sometimes,  engaging in something physically exhausting gives me a sense of control over something.
I fell into a troubled sleep.  

Arising very early the next morning with the goal of having a productive day,  I shuffled to the kitchen to fill the coffee maker with water. Needing an energy kick I chose Bold Guatemala Caffeine.  Something black flopped around in the sink. It was alive. It was a bat. ...an ugly, ominous-looking night critter.  I grabbed some paper towels,  squished him/her/it and ran out the door with broom in hand and beat that bat to death. Oooh, that felt good!!

Now, human bats that whoosh around our heads in the daytime must be handled in a somewhat gentler fashion.  I'm workin' on it. 

"Oh, wretched man (woman) that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of  this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord".  Romans 7:24,25 a.

Love,  Jo



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