Sunday, July 7, 2013

REJOICING ANCIENT PATHWAY!


Again, I'm posting about something special that has occurred on this trip to the Northwest.  My blog friend/sister, Gayle Roberts, took a photo of me, but I can't download it since I'm on a computer I couldn't arrange it on, BUT the story is AMAZING!   The church mentioned in third paragraph was the one through whom I was led to the Lord.  I attended there until leaving town in 1969.  Have gone by it several times over the years when in Tacoma, but it was changed several times, and also empty the last time I drove by it a couple years ago.  However, today I wanted to show Gayle where I had come to the Lord. 

 When I was driving by, I noticed it was now a church again... Gathering Together ... and I wanted to pop my head in and see what it looked like.  Gayle stayed in the car.  I opened the door, and a lady saw me and came out of the sanctuary.  I told her I was from Omaha, and that I had come to the Lord through this church 47 years ago.  She hugged me and said she wanted me to come in and give a testimony.  I ran out and got Gayle and we sat there while the pastor was preaching.  When he finished, his wife stood up and said she had met us and she wanted me to testify about the church since it was where I had come to the Lord.

 
I spoke for several minutes, being quite blunt about my background and how the Lord had broken through and how I had ended up at that church.  The people rejoiced.  One reason was because the sermon was about ancient pathways ... and I was proof that this church had worked well and I was the "ancient pathway".   They prayed for Gayle and I, she connected with one of the ladies and is planning to go to her farm.  I have been asked to stay in touch with them. They want top read my stories and books and look at my blog. I gave them 6 of Dave's CDs and they said they want to listen to his/our music. 
So, that was my amazing day. 
 
I never could have imagined being used in this way... a preacher, teacher, blunt testifier, and an "ancient pathway".  [Need to have a t-shirt made someday that describes me that way.]
  What a treat!
 
I posted this April 15, 2010.  That's the only one I could find to share that had that church's name.  Makes me grin; hope you do, too.

[and sometimes I can't get the font, bond, color, etc., to look normally.  I end up being forced to do whatever the guesstimating computers do.]
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HAPPY RE-BIRTHDAY TO ME!!


For most folks this is IRS day, for better or worse, refund or payment. However, in my heart, this is MY day. On April 15, 1966, at 6:30 PM, I asked Christ into my life. Four months shy of my 21st birthday, living a life of heavy-duty sin and headed towards a significant amount of trouble, the Lord broke through. I have never doubted or questioned or regretted it. He had arranged for seed to be planted in my heart off and on since I had been very young, but the seed hardly survived. And then ...

I was living in Tacoma, WA. Towards mid-March a young woman at work, Carol, 18, was suddenly without a place to live and couldn't afford to fly back to her family in the St. Louis area. Someone at work said, "Hey, Joanne, you have room in your apartment. Let her move in with you." I didn't know Carol very well, but knew she was a sweet person -- and I WAS NOT!!! I knew it was the right thing to do, so agreed that she could, but I also said to her: You can move in with me. But I go out when I want to go out, I come back when I want to come back, and if you don't like it, you can leave.

Amazingly, even hearing that "jerky" statement, Carol moved in. What I didn't know was that she was a Born-Again Christian. I didn't know what that was, anyhow, so it wouldn't have sunk in. Over the next couple of weeks we yammered about religion for hours nearly every night. She couldn't always come up with answers for me, so she connected me to Stan, a man in her church, and he would hammer topics out with me on the phone. Very straight-forward, which is what works best with me most of the time. I decided to go to church with her -- Portland Avenue Baptist Church. My second Sunday, on April 10, Easter, there was an altar call and I knew I was supposed to go forward. I could feel the pressure in my heart ... my whole body ... in a way I had never experienced before... and I held on tight to the back of the pew in front of me so I would be able to not give in. I left church feeling pleased that "I won the battle."

The next Thursday, at work, Carol had a head injury and ended up in the hospital. She was there until Saturday. I was invited to dinner at Stan's house on Friday, and enjoyed dinner with him and his wife and four sons. After we finished eating, and Anita had cleared the table, and the boys had disappeared to the living room, Stan had me stay in the kitchen with him and he laid the facts of Christ's sacrifice out for me very clearly. Stan knew how sinful I was ... he had a similar history ... and he didn't look down his nose at me at all. He knew God could turn my awful life around, no question. I told him that I believed what he was telling me about Jesus and His sacrifice and the possibility of salvation, but I said I needed to straighten up first or I couldn't come to Him. Stan, of course, said it was the other way around -- come to Christ and the changes would start to take place. I knew he was right, and I made the commitment and invited Christ into my life. In my mind, because of all the abuse I had experienced from many others, mostly men, this was simply a "contract"... no emotional attachment to the Father or Son, just an agreement to follow the rules He laid down and, if I messed up, take the punishment that would hit me. After my prayer, Stan and I went to a young adult Bible study, so only an hour after I was saved I made the public statement and people rejoiced. I remember that the next morning when I woke up my first thoughts were about the new life I had before me.

And it was and has always been. Even though I was far from perfect, the Lord kept moving me along; He didn't give up on me. Stan wrote an article for a Baptist teachers magazine a year later and described someone who walked with the Lord, fell on her face in the mud, and climbed back to her feet again, and went forward and... fell on her face in the mud. How often this took place. He also said it was the climbing out of the mud and back onto her feet that made the difference. And that he trusted that as she grew in the Lord the pattern would simply be the walking.

After all these years, most of the time I can say that is true. Occasionally, I do end up with a little mud on my face, but it wipes off thoroughly ... by the blood of Jesus.

Where would I be if this all had not come to pass 44 years ago? Most certainly no one would know me today. I would have been a victim, or cause of, violence, domestic or otherwise; a suicide statistic; dead from alcohol-based illness. No friends, no family, and, most certainly, no hope for my future.

So the key word today is HALLELUJAH!!

2 comments:

Gayle said...

Miracle Day! I am glad we spend it together!

Floyd said...

Man alive! No such thing as coincidences!!! When you follow your heart miracles abound! What a testimony you are, not just the sharing of the redemption through Christ, but the daily walking and being the heart and hands of God... That is a great story!!!!!!!