HALLELUJAH!! 48TH RE-BIRTHDAY.

 

SISTERS AND I EXACTLY 1 YEAR BEFORE MY SALVATION

Basically, what follows is what I posted in April, 2010, my first Re-Birthday after becoming a blogger, so I could share it and let my blog friends know me.  Today, I re-adjusted it a bit.  It ain't short, but is truthful.

Bless you on my most blessed day.  My salvation changed my world, obviously, and the world of many others through my God-seed-planting since then.
 
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For most of us U.S. folks April 15th is IRS day, for better or worse, refund or payment. However, in my heart, it 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, by school teachers, neighbors, or someone who just walked past me and said "God bless you", 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... but 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 banged her head at a desk in our office 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 they 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 48 years ago? Most certainly no one would know me today. I would have been continuing to be involved with and died from  violence, alcoholism, or suicide. No friends, no family, and, most certainly, no hope for my future.

So the key word every time I have my Re-birthday is HALLELUJAH!!

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Oh, and a month or so later I sang a solo during the Sunday evening service.  [Yes, used to be a singer when a young 'un.]  This song had entered my heart.  A Jim Reeves fan, I bought hymns album, immediately after my salvation.  Fell in love with this and couldn't not share it then.  And will share it now.  It's definitely my heart-focus even today. [If this, somehow, doesn't go through, just look up Jim Reeves and choose the song, "I'd Rather Have Jesus".  It's a treat!]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgwGiF0-mlE&list=RDcgwGiF0-mlE

 

ROOT AND FRUIT

DID YOU EVER KNOW THAT

"ROOT" AND "FRUIT"

COULD BE A POETIC RHYMING

PORTION BY JEREMIAH?

WELL, THE LANGUAGE, OF COURSE, HAS BEEN TRANSLATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

AND I KNOW IT DEPENDS HOW WE SAY OUR WORDS.

  BUT THIS MADE ME SMILE.

SO I WROTE IT DOWN, AND I'M SHARING IT

IN A WAY THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU SMILE, TOO.

HIS CONTROL PRODUCES LOVE...

I'M VERY GRATEFUL!

TINY ROCK, BUT HUGE HEAVENLY FATHER

The Lord laid this story on me some months ago to lay it out to all of you, but I didn't do it.  NOW, I am.  After driving around and about today, focusing on the Lord and worshiping was my goal.  I sang my dear "God-songs" for a couple hours.  Came home now, and this was dropped in solidly.  So now I'm obeying Him.

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Near Susan's, photo she took, 2010. I live in Omaha, Nebraska, but I'm a heart-filled northern Minnesota person. Have many dear friends who live there and we have become spiritual warfare "families".

In September of 2006, I went up to northern Minnesota to stay at Susan's and connect with spiritual warfare people who I had already been connected with when I was up there a few months earlier.  They were on their prayer walks already and had hit Highway 2 from Grand Forks, North Dakota. Their goal was to walk all the way from there to Duluth, Minnesota, the east side of Minnesota.  They broke into specific divisions and walked a few miles each, the van driver going around and about and picking up and transferring.  It was a significant issue to switch around and take-turns process.  

I was able to catch up to them the morning after my arrival.  They had already walked the equivalent of about 100 miles.  I drove my car where they would connect to me near Bemidji, which was a bit less of that long distance they'd already gone through, because a leader wanted to show me where they had gone, what they had done.  I don't remember if I walked much that day, but we spent the night at a church location east of Bemidji by about 40 miles.  The next day I had a co-walking, co-driving new friend given to me by them.  Kathy would drop me off to walk, would drive 2 miles, park my car.  Then she'd get out and walk 2 miles.  Eventually,  I'd get to my car and drive the next stretch, passing by her, and waving and honking, and then would park in that 2-mile distance and begin my walk.  We did stop a bit to talk about the spiritual issues that concerned us on that section of the highway.  

From Bemidji to Duluth was approximately 150 miles.  We all continued to stop in towns, meet pastors, Christian school leaders/teachers, and share the spiritual reality with them and they with us.  We stayed in wonderful places usually and were blessed with food.  So, this went on for about 4 days, as I recall.

One of the things Kathy and I started doing, was to clean up the side of the highway while walking.  I had plastic trash bags, and we filled my trunk with them and dropped them at towns.  People seemed to be pleased while driving past, honked, and clapped, and one of the blessing was that some of the "trash" was also connected to "spiritual" garbage, too.

Late on the 2nd day, I had one very serious physical problem that had never occurred before.  My ankles and feet swelled so significantly I could hardly walk easily.  I did, but it was difficult. At night, usually, a church-related nurse wherever we were staying, would wrap my ankles tightly and have me sleep on a couch where my feet could be placed up.  And many prayed for me.  However, I... was...scared!  Truly was. [A few days later, when at Susan's and a doctor giving instructions, it was fully healed.]

When we reached Duluth, while on the west edge having had a wonderful lunch time with a youth pastor and his wife and some of the youth, we then actually stopped walking and rode into town and went to a hotel.  We all continued to have a blessed night.  In fact, I even took a couple of the ladies interested in paintings up the hills to see my Duluth artist friend, Jackie. What a treat!

This was in November, 2012, when Dave and I visited them.

 

This is the first one Dave and I purchased in 2002

 The next day, because, even though they were living forever in northern Minnesota, a couple of the ladies, who were farmers, had never been to see the Lake.  For most of the morning, I led everyone from Duluth to a few of the state parks that were north.  They all  enjoyed seeing the cliffs, the wonderful hills with piles of trees, seeing the Lake's waves coming in and moving around.  Everyone, even those who had been to the North Shore before, really loved this time together.

 The last place I led them to is, basically, my favorite place, Tettegouche State Park.  Haven't been able to go there for a couple years now, because it was ruined by a huge storm and is being recovered along with much that was ruined on that highway for many, many miles.  I have lots of rocks from there that I picked up when I first was taken by my husband in 1990.  

My first time at Tettegouche.  Loved it!

And the rocks are usually about the size of my hand.  Or a bit larger or a lot larger.  [One of my addictions.]

However, that day, while sitting on a pile of the rocks by the water and looking out at the lake, I glanced to my side and a rock was put into my heart immediately by the Lord.  It was NOT large.  But it looked like a heart.  I brought it home when I returned from Minnesota about 3 weeks later.  [My husband came up a couple weeks later for a spiritual conference that I was blessed to be involved with.  Then, after a few more days, we went home.]  I took the rock with me, and it has been on a side table in the living room. Always is. 

 I significantly think of the rock as a spiritual gift, a reminder of what and how we were serving the Lord in a very heavy and spiritual time.  I can't spend too much time talking about the spiritual line-crossing we did in certain places, but it was not an easy bit and piece some of the time during the walking and at churches at night.  I do know we opened doors and pastors warned us about where to NOT walk, what to watch out for, and when to not take our attention away from what was in front of us.  It was an intense stretch of time, believe me.

When I look at or touch that rock, day by day, I always remember the walking, the prayer times, the spiritual warfare, the friends [old and new ones], and how the Lord worded to us, warned to us, and poured blessings upon us.

Overall, a wonderful time.  Intense? Yes.  But, as I mentioned wonderful is that true?  YES!!!

 

MADE ME FRUITFUL; I'M GRATEFUL!

SHINING BRIGHTLY

HEAVENS AND EARTH...HE CREATED!