Role exits

Somewhat embarrassing is my need for words that tell me I still have a purpose here on earth.  Since I don't hang around the elderly, I don't know if this is normal or if I am a "Tell-me-I'm-needed" junkie.  I think back to the years when my parents came to Palo Alto, California to live after they were 70 years old. I know now that I did not verbally give them the loving, reassuring, grateful words they deserved. Ted and I met their spiritual and physical needs, but their emotional needs? Nope. ...but then we weren't even addressing our own or our kids' emotional needs at that time in our lives. Our children all paid a terrible price for our constant attendance to the louder bleating cries of the sheep in our various pastures.  It's a wonder any of our kids want to go to Heaven, lest Jesus ask them to "Take a number and have a seat in the waiting room".

I am aware that I am experiencing a series of losses and role-exits that are affecting every aspect of my life. I fight a frequent battle against settling into a "until death do us part" mindset since Ted and Doug are gone. Coming back through the gate into Bear Valley after being treated like the "Velveteen Rabbit" in Texas was hard. It always hits me square in the heart: Ted isn't here and neither is Doug.

Eighty-five is just weeks away. No wonder I have days when I simply want to stay under the warm covers, sleep, read and watch the best of soul-stretching programs like Ravi Zacharias on National Religious Broadcasting. I carefully avoid the embarrassing screaming nut-cases that are on some other Christian stations. I still love a mystery. Jessica Fletcher, where did you go? I think half the population of Cabot Cove was murdered so you had to hang up your show for lack of people to have knocked off.  I have watched every Matlock mystery at least once, even though I know I will be viewing at least one bloody body. I wonder: Is Andy Griffith in Heaven?  He was brought up in an old fashioned fire and brimstone church somewhere in the Bible Belt.  He often managed to get an old gospel song woven into his scripts, but then some sexual innuendoes slipped in toward the end of his life. Maybe his money-conscious producers insisted. I so hope that this upcoming generation of talented Christian kids will do something about producing high level movies and plays. Those two boys from a southern state that produced "Fireproof" and "Courageous" did a great job on a shoestring.

I have three assignments made clear by my Lord: 1) continue the blog. It encourages readers, I have recently been told. The personal benefit for me is this: Life review enables me to recall the past which provides a drug-free anti-depressant.  2) Disciple those He brings over the phone and through my door and 3) encourage by phone and Email the saints accumulated over a lifetime of ministry. Many are losing spouses. One dear man has just lost his third wife. Some are dying with cancer or from a stroke; others are losing their physical and mental health. My physical health is good, I think. I will find out tomorrow after a thorough check-up. I would just as soon not know any specifics about my brain.

Would you be O.K. with another old "Heaven song?" My generation used to sing them, but this generation? Well, I'm not at all sure what their music is about, but I'm not ready to give up on trying to be cool.

TOE-TAPPIN'  OLD GOSPEL HYMN

Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care
Then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done
And the role is called up yonder, I'll be there.

WHEN THE ROLE IS CALLED UP YONDER
WHEN THE ROLE IS CALLED UP YONDER
WHEN THE ROLE IS CALLED UP YONDER
WHEN THE ROLE IS CALLED UP YONDER, I'LL BE THERE!

Love,
Jo

The right kind of ambition

It was a thrilling week, as it always is every October when I return to be with my beloved Texas friends. I was spoiled and loved every minute of it! Thank you who travelled to visit with me at Round Top.  What a treat!  One wonderful woman who came to see me was one of the first I ever led into scripture in 1957 when she was brand new in Jesus. She has been used to disciple countless people all these years. 

Thirty-five years ago Nick and Euphanel gave their lives and everything they possessed to Christ. I sat in their Round Top Retreat Board meeting last Friday night in a circle of members who are all sacrificing disciplers. I should have been washing their feet instead of sopping up being treated like visiting royalty. ...but it felt so good!

Another part of the thrill of being at Round Top was watching with wonder as dear Michele Lawrence led the worship for FirstPlace4Health, taught an encouraging Bible study for a group of women every day,  and blessed the hearts of the faithful leaders of that transforming ministry.  She lugged my luggage and did all the travel-thinking and planning for me. I am so grateful.

Suggestion: Download the website, FirstPlace4Health as well as that of Round Top Retreat.

I so wanted to be famous when I was growing up on our east Kansas farm.  I would stand on a stack of hay bales and sing,with dramatic gestures to the cows, horses, pigs and chickens.  I  married a man who had no ambitions to be famous. From his beginnings, hard-wired into his soul were phrases like:

If you don't care who gets the credit, God will do great things. 
Humiliation precedes honor.
The Cross precedes the Crown.
God only uses broken things.
Self sufficiency must be replaced by Son-sufficiency.

His sermon on iTunes and 12stoneslegacy, and Ted's podcasts: "The Right Kind of Ambition" pretty much exposes the wrong kind of ambition by emphasizing the right kind of ambition.

One of our precious granddaughters told me on the phone last night, "Gramma, I listened to one of Grandpa's messages on my iPod. I lost it and sobbed and had to call my Mom."  I "lose it" too, Honey, when I listen to his voice, but dear Grandgirl,  keep listening. These messages are your legacy. This granddaughter was in what could have been a fatal car accident a couple of weeks ago. Her jeep? History. She is miraculously alive with no injuries.

Some of the next generation will walk through my door soon to study Romans in preparation for reaching others with the Gospel. One of these wonderful women and her husband are opening the Word of God to kids who come around their job site asking for more Bible verses. Others in the group are touching the lives of many lost people. Praise His Holy Name!

Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good?
Would you walk with Him within the narrow road?
Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?
Let Him have His way with thee.

HIS POWER CAN MAKE YOU WHAT YOU OUGHT TO BE;
HIS BLOOD CAN CLEANSE YOUR HEART AND MAKE YOU FREE
HIS LOVE CAN FILL YOUR SOUL, AND YOU WILL SEE
'TWAS BEST FOR HIM TO HAVE HIS WAY WITH THEE

Love, Jo

My "Bucket List"

Being a helpmate to a visionary like Ted Stone was a full time job; I cannot count the ministries he pioneered during his lifetime. I always had a specific assignment alongside him. What's first on my "Bucket List" now that I am alone? "Go and make disciples". I have to be rather tough about not allowing the outstanding women He brings for discipleship to fill their car up with their hurting friends. I want no energies siphoned off that need to be spent in training them to carry out Matthew 29:19,20.  I am so proud of them. They are getting it!

When we were in our first ministry out of seminary with Ray Stedman we took kids on snow trips, requiring that they bring a lost friend with them or they didn't get to go.  The Spirit's ministry happened alongside carefully chosen counselors on the slopes and in front of the fireplaces after a day of skiing. On the last night we had a Young Life speaker give the Gospel.  We were up all night, leading at least fifty teenagers to Christ. When we got back to Palo Alto, my husband presented me with girls to disciple. I went to the highschools on Friday afternoons, picked them up and stuffed them into our nine-passenger station wagon. At our kitchen table, they opened their brand new Bibles and we began to read the Book of Ephesians, the only Book of the Bible I sorta knew. ... so what does it take to be a discipler? ....staying ahead of the new Christians by one verse, if that's all you've got.

Another item on my "Bucket List" is to get the pitifully few audio sermon messages I have found of Ted's on iTunes, 12stoneslegacy, Ted's podcasts, and other venues.  A number of devotional podcasts were recorded close to the end of his life and have been available for several years.  These sermons, recently salvaged on tape and transferred to CD's are all I have from his three pastorates. I suggest , especially, that you listen to "Discipleship is Imperative". That pretty much sums up our lives together, and my ending years here before I go to join Jesus, Ted, Doug and countless others that have gone Home before us.

My precious Michele and I will be at Round Top Retreat in Texas where she will lead worship, sing and teach for "FirstPlace4Health" from the 10th until the 19th of October. By God's, Euphanel's and Nick's grace, I am on the Board of their Retreat. ...so it's a great excuse to get to go be with my dear buddies in Texas.

 I will not be writing or sending the "Blog" until the 20th of October. You will survive. A suggestion: Order a copy of "The Insanity of God" by Ridkin. Your heart will be broken and encouraged at the same time. ...and isn't that the conflict of emotions we believers- in- Jesus all share?

O they tell me that He smiles on His children there
And his smile drives their sorrows all away
And they tell me that no tears ever come again
In that lovely land of unclouded day.

Oh, the land of cloudless day, Oh, the land of an unclouded day
O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day.

Love, Jo

Whistle while you work!

Lately, as I write,  I have been tromping around in the far distant past when Ted and I were first born again. The need for personal discipleship was so deep-set in us at that time, that discipling became our assignment for life.  You serve a God Whose Kingdom is unshakeable, so what do any of us have to fear? 

My living room is filling up with beautiful women who mostly have  husbands that would duck and run if they knew what their wives are about to get them into: discipleship. This Thursday group is  exclusive and they are figuring that out. I won't let them bring their friends for me to minister to with the Word. They are being equipped to do that themselves.

God could yet bless us with a revival in this country. Many Christians are becoming scared enough to get out of their salt shakers and shake some salt into their worlds.  ...  I think. When the Wind of the Spirit blew across this land in the late '60's and 70's, people were divided over the Viet Nam War. Everybody was uneasy.  We were in Viet Nam during that War for a short period of time, alongside Godly Christians. We are going to meet whole tribes of people in Heaven who came to Christ during that time.  Many of our military men were sharing Christ with the nationals.

O.K., finally Ted's sermons have joined his devotionals. If you want to listen to Ted's podcasts or sermons you can click on one of the following links:  12 Stones Legacy, or go directly to Ted's Podcasts; or you can go to iTunes to listen or subscribe to your smartphone or iPod. There will be two more sermons posted soon. If these messages have not come up yet, they will. It takes some time.

Here is a list of Ted's serrmons that I have been able to find. You will receive encouragement to keep on keeping on in whatever stage of discouragement you find yourself.

1) Why Discipleship is Imperative.
2) Present Your Bodies: Romans 12:, 13 and 19. 
3) Gifts of the Spirit (Romans 12:3-15;
4) Righteous/or Rebellious:  Psalm 1
5) Deprivationn of the Rich: Mark 10:23-31
6) The Right Ambition: Mark 10:32-44
7) By What Authority Mark 11:27-12:12
8) Be Alert: Don't Go to Sleep:  Mark 13:14
9) He is Risen...It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'
10) Effecting Biblical Change: Jeremiah 12:23
11) Homesteaders/Pioneers: Matthew 9:16,17
12) Breaking the Sound Barrier: Colossians 3:18-4:1

I joined my music partner, Gayel,  and three old fiddlin' and guitar playin' men last Saturday night and we played lickety-split music for a contra dance.  A contra dance is sorta like a square dance.

                            HYMN: OH FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING

My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the earth abroad,
The honors of Thy Name

He breaks the power of canceled sin; He sets the prisoner free
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

Love, 
Jo

Go...make....teach...baptize

I have been tromping around for some weeks now through Ted's and my early days as new creatures in Christ. There is a motive for dredging up these early days of our redemption and here it is:  New babies are imprinted forever by what they see, feel and remember. Because we are born sinners because of the Fall in Genesis 3, our souls (bellies) are one big messy mixture of lies and Truth. Satan and his minions watched every one of those lies being inhaled into our souls. His mission? ....to blind our eyes to God's Truth so that the lies keep us stuck emotionally, and then, spiritually.  He is not bothered one bit by a bazillion salt shakers sitting side by side in church, but when those shakers venture out into his territory, he turns loose all his minions with their fiery darts.  He hates the word "disciple" and he hates those who do it.

I have written to you about some really cruddy experiences we had as new Christians in a Christian school. I had a response from a wonderful Christian college student who is thankful for my truthfulness, for she is struggling to understand the "worldliness" within a supposed "Unworldly" institution. While we were disappointed by those ugly sins that surfaced in leadership and students, the mighty Word of God was invading our souls simultaneously, pushing out the lies that Christ and Christians were not to be trusted. Ted immediately began to learn three scriptures a week. That powerful reservoir of the  Mighty Word of God imbedded into his soul over the years,  carried him through all the attacks of the evil one whose mission was to dishearten him to the point of settling for a traditional pastoral ministry, built upon popularity of the pastor and not redemptive reproduction carried out by the saints.

After graduating from Northwestern Bible College, Ted knew he was to go on to seminary. He worked as a brakeman on wheat trains in blistering Kansas humid heat for a summer, then we headed  for Dallas Seminary with our little son Doug, plus everything we owned packed into our '40 Ford. We knew no one in Dallas, Texas, except Jesus Who met us there. He gave us jobs and a tiny apartment. Ted worked a 40 hour week and carried eighteen units. We became teaching and music staff  for several churches, but our hearts were really with Young Life, the finest of youth ministries started by Jim Rayburn, a Dallas Seminary man who graduated a couple of years ahead of us.  Jim's mantra: "Never bore a kid with the Gospel". To this day, Young Life continues to reach kids around the world who have absolutely no frame of reference about Christianity. I have just received a call from a dear Bakersfield friend, telling me that Young Life has come to life again in Bakersfield. Praise the Lord!

It was one month before Ted's graduation from DTS.  We had no idea where we would be or what we would be doing. As is so often the case, one phone call is all it took to guide us to the next chapter of our adventure with Christ. That "one phone call" was made by Ray Stedman to his friend, Howie Hendricks, favored professor at Dallas Seminary. "I'm ready for my first staff man, Howie. Who is graduating that hasn't spent all his time in the library?" Howie: "Ted Stone. He's your man."  We entered our next level of "Training in Discipleship" with Ray Stedman. We would never be the same.

By next week, some of Ted's messages will be available to you several ways. I don't understand "the ways" but two computer gurus (They speak in an UNknown tongue) who love Jesus and us do, ...so good stuff from Ted is a comin'.

                                           GAITHER HYMN: They That Sow in Tears

Does your heart fill with doubt when alone you pray?
Does the world your soul annoy?
Lift your sights! Look beyond! God is standing near! 
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy!

Love,
Jo