"What is going on?" We Struggle, yet not without Strength

Simon Peter_Detail from Albrecht Dürer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"...we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12-King James Bible-Cambridge Ed.).  

Spiritual health and strength need continual lookout and especially so when pressures mount. Sometimes we are caught unawares and may even feel blind-sided: "What is going on???" The quandary arises as if out of the blue.     

     "What is going on???" is often caused by the hot breath of God's opponent that paces around us. Evil's hungers are not satisfied. St. Peter advised: "Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

Is there a difference between a struggle between God and evil and between good and evil? Not really. Good is of God, its Source. God does not struggle against evil. It is we who battle against evil. It is God who enables us, by His strength, to overcome.
     Evil has never won primacy over good and never will. In us, it may appear to have done so, yet the end that is known has not yet been revealed in existence.
     Being in the care of the Sovereign God, His children still must struggle. And is there a helping Hand? Isaiah was God's messenger, reporting Yes:   

"Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed (confused), for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with My 

righteous right arm."

__Isaiah 41:10

A Christian teacher told me years ago that references to God's right arm are references to the Son, Jesus Christ. We struggle, yes... and we cannot prevail in human strength. God, the Sovereign Strength, is with us and makes us able to overcome. Time and time again.   

Copyright (c)2012 Opinari Writers

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Love is Great and ...

Minister of The Church of Jesus Christ baptizing in Mexico. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Love is of God, whose Spirit led Jesus Christ...

To preach good news to the meek,

   to mend the broken heart, 

      to proclaim freedom to the captive, 

  

         to open the prison to those that are bound; 

  

            to give beauty of oil for ashes, 

               to comfort all who mourn.... 

(more...Isaiah 61: 1-3 ; Luke 4: 16-19)

Copyright (c)2012 Opinari Writers

Common problem of spiritual experience

Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old book. Category:Illuminated manuscript images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. 

-- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain 

How do we learn to worship God? 

Well, we worship the One above all others when we realize who He is.  

It was an awesome time a long time ago when I entered into life-changing spiritual experience while reading Charles Spurgeon's The Mourner's Comforter and, soon after, Clive Staples Lewis's autobiography Surprised by Joy. CSL told about when he came to realize that Jesus is the Son of God--during a ride to a zoo.   

C. S. Lewis's "experience" as he described it there opened my eyes to the fact that I was, in fact, already there. Not at the zoo, of course, but already in Christ by faith, that tie or rope or link, whatever you want to call it, that goes from a soul to God and that is stronger than the heaviest, tightest, and thickest tension wire across a wide crevasse, and far more reliable. Timelessly reliable. 

I had already thought that I was "almost there," almost accepting all of "it," which is a word for "all of what has to do with God as revealed" by grace and divine revelation--for me, words of Isaiah, that honorable and reviled prophet--and the gospel reports of Jesus' birth, life, and resurrection.
     God's Spirit does witness to our spirits that Jesus is the Son of God. We open the mind and heart to see that what God has revealed is true.
     "Spiritual experience" is unique to each person, as unique as the same mother is to each child she has. Yet, it has the same end for all, which is God, He who created us to know, enjoy, trust, and love Him forever.Death is the enemy, but the enemy overcome in Christ.I don't claim to understand all of this. With God, all things are possible.
     Because of all of this and more, we go beyond spiritual experience. We do more than talk about God. We talk to Him as quickly and more honestly than to any other; and we listen to Him, from the pages of the Bible and from our hearts, where He confirms or changes our deepening understanding. We do more than to cry "God, help me!," although that can be a real part of relating to God.

Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up with My righteous right arm" --Isaiah 41:10

He is the One who says, "Come unto Me, all of you that are weak and heavy laden," and "Behold, I stand at the door and knock..."  And, "...cast all your burdens upon Him, for He cares for you."

     All that is left for us is to be willing to step from within that experience into the presence of God who knows us, as the Psalmist wrote, from our beginnings and all of our moments and days (ex., Psalm 139). We are our real selves before Him, by faith, and He He loves the honest of heart. He can bear, and does bear, all our sins and weaknesses.   

The spiritual experience of gaining understanding through the writings of C.H. Spurgeon (including You may not realize it now, but you are at this moment in the love of God) and CS Lewis...that God speaks to us during everyday times, like riding to the zoo...led me to the Center, which is Christ. He is the source and destination of authentic spiritual experience.    

Spiritual experience, whether knock-down dramatic or surprisingly quiet, leads us to the main discovery, God and His revelation in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

So, then,where is the common problem?

The common problem comes at focusing on our or others' spiritual experience, how "we" or "that other person" came to know Christ, what He did for "us" or "them" in that experience.

The context, the spiritual experience, shows the truth...Jesus Christ. The Person of Christ calls forth, from us, joy and praise!

Without worship, awe, praise, and trusting relationship with God...we have a problem of being stuck in "spiritual experience." There is more to see more clearly and there is more praise, honor, and yes, trusting obedience ahead, with Him. 

...God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God--though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain.

God intends that we know Him beyond approximation and spares no love or pushing of us to get us there, as CSL wrote: to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.

On the best and worst days of our experience, God, through His Son, remains. He is far, far more than "spiritual experience." He is the Hope of the world, the Light of a darkening world, the Love above all loves, and the Comforter of all who mourn. 

Evil is as present today within people and the world as on the day when the perfect Son of God was crucified. We who trust the living, resurrected Christ mourn with those who mourn, who suffer and pray for the souls of all who experienced horrifying events. This includes the departed ones and their families, caught unawares in the early hours of yesterday morning in a an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater; this includes all who helped in the minutes and hours, even up to now, to come to the aid of those affected, and the family of the shooter. 

[Is there anything you would like to write or say to your friends or loved ones about your life and faith? I would want my loved ones to know that if ever some such evil (as the recent Colorado event) should end my life or injure me, not to let their thoughts dwell on the event or on imaginings about me in it; but to look to God, the Giver of Life, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I worship from a grateful heart. I will be with Him in due time, in timeless eternity. The end of life in God's care is a beginning, and therefore gives reason to rejoice in Christ, even if the cause of the end, even death itself, might be very hard.]

Copyright (c)2012 Opinari Writers- Quotes in italics, above, are from the book The Problem of Pain as they appear in 21 July reading, "Reflection of the Divine Life," in a book of selections called A Year with C.S. Lewis (HarperOne press).

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Greece and Willing Surrender to Discovery

To climb to top of Mars' Hill. Photo Nathan Gibbs.

One theme that attracts me is the natural elements that overflow with indications of willing surrender from which we can learn. This kind of surrender is not giving up or giving in. It is a yielding to what is intended to be the true state. Even hard stone surrenders to chipping, cutting, and even crushing, to make way or to make something fresh.

Surrender can be frightening, and willing surrender is even more so. Yet, from this yielding come many of life's extraordinary events and achievements.

The plain stone stairway (photo may not appear upper right at all times) leads upward to the site of a historic and spiritual place for Greek people. The stairway blends nature because it took form in industrious human hands. Greece's natural stone reflects variations of light and shade in a plan that moves in a narrowing and widening way, upward. These  humble stones lead to Athens' Mars' Hill, featuring idols and gods, such as Ares, Zeus, and Mars with altars to them, plus an altar to the unknown god.

Mars' Hill's altars attracted the attention of a first century follower of Christ, Paul of Tarsus, Syria, who climbed those stone steps to the top of Mars' Hill*. Having reached the top, Paul surrendered himself to what the place offered, points of discussion for the philosophers and debaters with him there.

He got to this place of philosophic discussion and debate because he had been waiting in Athens for friends that were traveling to join him there. Being an observant man, he took note of Athens' abundantly public references to idolatry and to the Athenians' love of debate and questioning. "His spirit was stirred within him," says the record,* and he began to converse in an Athenian synagogue with other Jews, his people, as well as people in the marketplace.  

Stoics, Epicureans, and others took note and began to interrogate him. They finally forced him to go with them up to Mars' Hill, a center for public debates and a place of altars to their gods. The more the philosophers continued to accuse and question Paul there, the more willingly he gave himself up to the opportunity to speak of God and His Son, the Christ, Χριστός, Christos. When he urged them to surrender willingly also to faith in God through Christos, many responded Yes. He had identified the unknown God, now knowable through the Son of the living God.  

Descendants of some who said Yes that day--such as Dionysius, a judge of the Aeropagus, and a woman named Damaris, and others" *--are among today's Christians of all of Greece (Athens, Corinth, and the other places), and Greek people who have migrated to other countries and regions.  

If Paul, earlier known as Saul, of Tarsus, had not willingly surrendered himself to Christ (Acts 9:1-19) and to the Holy Spirit's guidance that led him abroad, including to Athens and the stirring of his inner spirit there, much would have been missed, opportunity lost. Paul's willing submission to where he was and waiting for his friends led ultimately to Mars' Hill. The record of that time redounds to God's glory and faith among Greek people, culture, and history, and throughout the world of Christendom.   

We cannot become sure of realities without the searching that leads us forward and upward. Without willing surrender, we only think, imagine, speculate, wonder, suspect, debate, or doubt within tight limitations. We cannot enter into the discoveries beyond imagination that bring good change into individual lives and entire generations in the future.    

In Thessalonica, a  "great number of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women"* joined with Paul of Tarsus, later an apostle of Jesus Christ. Later, he wrote to his Greek brothers and sisters of faith--including those in Corinth, Colosse, and Thessalonica. He knew what they were going through, persecuted by the world of their towns and country. His letters were heartfelt. 

After willing surrender to the marvels of God, the next most wonderful is the willing surrender to love brothers and sisters in Christ and to grow in communion with them. 

___________________________________________

* Bible, book of Acts, 17th chapter; quoted words from The Amplified Bible

In this year 2012, Greece suffers  economic and social turmoil; those living in Greece who believe in the living Christ--as Paul and certain Mars' Hill hearers did ("many clung to him [Paul] and believed" **)--can discover more about faith, hope, and love as they walk with the living Lord today.This willing surrender to Χριστός, Christos, leads to discoveries yet to come. 

Today in Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), Greece: Mayor Yiannis Butaris, a chemist and oenologist (wine and wine-making expert), has expressed concerned confidence about possibilities for the city beyond present-day difficulties. Another example, I opine, of willing surrender to the tasks for purposes of discovery--how a people can make their city better for the long-term view.   

**--see Acts 17:34--King James Version of the Bible (KJV)  
About one Middle Ages Greek church

Text copyright (c)2012 Opinari Writers

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Harmony in 2012 for Christian Writers

HAPPY NEW YEAR GREETINGS!

Image by Amateur.Qin（秦） via Flickr

Jean Purcell

Twitter @opinaripeople

Twitter @OpineBookCafe_NEW 
"May this  SECOND DAY OF THE NEW YEAR be a day of thanks continuing for you!. I'm thinking what book to review for upcoming OpineCafeBlog."     

     

St. Augustine focused on the harmony needed between what we say and how we live. Anyone can write or say something profound or meaningful without in fact living it. Simply by writing well, do we do so as followers...of Christ? This is the measure of a year of work.      

     

An earlier follower of Christ than St. Augustine was the apostle Paul. God inspired him to write about love. Paul wrote, in essence, that the most heavenly-sounding words can only go so far as to shake the senses... if they are written or said apart from love. This message is inherent in the apostle's life. He wrote what is referred to, in the Bible, as I Corinthians 13, beginning: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal..."

Conclusion

Harmony for 2012

is ours as we seek the Lord of love. 
Isn't He our heart's main desire, the One who leads us? 

 In expectation, we seek harmony 

between our words and how we live, inside and outside,
in the love of God through Christ Jesus.

 LORD, we put all trust in You. 

Help us to pray. Help us to read Your holy written Word,
which feeds us. Help us, alone or with others, to help the poor...with love.  
We need Your help so that we can write
in the harmony that is possible by varieties of means and expressions.       

   Amen.

Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers

Christian, Writer, and Fatal Reservation: on a C. S. Lewis theme

Cover of The Weight of Glory

by Jean Purcell

Twitter @opinaripeople

What can fundamentally and deceitfully trouble the Christian, and therefore the writer, is what C. S. Lewis called "fatal reservation." It works as a potentially fatal reservation toward God that is somewhat like "counting the cost" during a critical time of decision and taking the less costly or no-cost way.
     I immediately think of Peter. He failed himself at the campfire, when he denied knowing Christ. Yet, Peter saw what that reserve cost him and repented. Ultimately, he gave his life up as witness of his identification with Christ. Yet the sense of incapacity to bear the suffering of following God's way in trust...that was surely what happened at that courtyard campfire, reminded by Jesus himself at the other campfire, after the Resurrection. Christ knew that weakness tries to claim us. He sweat great drops as blood when facing the Cross. This is when reservation most grips us, too, when we are stressed by important choices that relate to whether we honor Christ...in ourselves.  

     And God knows our weaknesses. He remembers that we are dust, said the psalmist. In Christ, no less, He came to save the entire, weak human race. He knows every weakness that can be brought to any crisis situation where protecting ourselves means to deny Christ. God loves all of us, the weak, so much that He will help us with His strength. We are never alone.

I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up 

with My righteous right arm (Isaiah 41:10b).   

     

Unless believing and relying on such promises of God, every Christian in despair is as vulnerable as the hardest unbeliever. 

    

The land of Everything and Anything glares and blares at us, all the time. Recently reading in my coffee-mug stained, treasured copy of The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis, I returned to "A Slip of the Tongue," where he writes about this reservation, this hesitation, and draws the conclusion: I do not think that any efforts of my own will can end once and for all this craving for limited liabilities, "this fatal reservation." Only God can...It (the hindrance) grows all over me like a new shell each night. Failures will be forgiven. It is acquiescence that is fatal.*
     The possibility of actively hindering divine and wonderful work continues as long as we live. Aren't we often likely to try to trim around the edges when dealing with real, significant, daily matters? Each time, I hope, the reminder comes to us: "There is no trimming room." The lives of others before us, who also wanted to trim away at God's way, teach that we cannot follow God in our own strength. He never equipped us for that.  

"I am the Vine, you are the branches," Jesus said. 

     

Lord, draw me closer now. Whatever you must do to keep me connected, do with Your power that is far beyond this Christian's comprehension, yet that has my trust. Amen.

Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers

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The Thinking Christian: Thought and Faith

by Jean Purcell

editor@opinebooks.com 

Follow on Twitter @opinaripeople

Commentary

Image via WikipediaTo be called "Christian" has to do with belief, which has to do with both heart and mind. The mind is inseparable from faith. Faith includes intention. Believers at the head of Christian times knew that mind and heart are one..."thoughts and intentions of the heart." They would never have put thought aside, or reason. They relied on both as gifts of God (e.g., "think on these things"-emphasis added). 

     Emotionalism unfortunately is misunderstood or used falsely and even theatrically in what we might call faux experience. Yet, feelings like jubilation and joy can be and are extremely real for those fortunate to know them. The results immediately following Pentecost come to mind..."they are drunk!" And so they seemed, being filled to overflowing with the nectar of the freedom of God's Spirit.

    This is cause for rejoicing over many things, including the freedom to choose, to believe, to act, and to think. Martin Luther knew this when he wrote, "the body they may kill," when the church was being persecuted, and by religious leaders, no less. "God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever" finished Luther's argument. Those who believe that Christ came, lived, died, rose, and is coming again...rely on truth through a knowing and hidden faith. The faith is hidden to those who resist it as so many, including myself for a long time, do. However, when the mind willingly opens even to the possibility of God being, then all sorts of unseen things can be very near being seen. Each step closer in thought, reason, and intention is earth-shaking. If only we want to see...with the mind and the heart...

Recommended books about faith:
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
The Mourner's Comforter by C. H. Spurgeon
Faith by C. H. Spurgeon


Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers and Jean Purcell

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Yes, We Consider and Taste the Goodness

Image via Wikipedia

Painting of young Jesus and John the Baptist

Consider the goodness of Jesus, a Jew born in a time and place of the Roman Empire. It conquered Judah, Samaria, and beyond. God sent Jesus in those harsh days and revealed him as the one, God as man. 

     Today, some refer to "the Christian faith" and "Christianity." When he grew up and taught, Jesus didn't use those terms. They did not exist, and anyway, he warned about the dangers of religion. As the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus--Jeshua--showed complete authenticity, something longed for in every generation. He was not about religion. The Christ could not be untrue to the Father in heaven, to others, or to himself.

     Consider the forgiveness Jesus gave. A woman caught by others in adultery was close to being stoned when Jesus said a few words that made every hand drop the weapon in it and every foot depart and go its own way. At another time, a woman who knew that her sins had been forgiven shed tears of gratitude and love when she washed his feet. He said, "...she has shown great love," because "her sins, which were many, have been forgiven." (Luke 7:36-8:3)

     Consider the strength of Jesus. It is written that Albert Einstein said, as he saw Germany being run over by Hitler's conquering government, that "he  had always thought that when the crisis came to Germany, the universities would be the bulwark of human freedom..." However, the centers of higher learning and intellectualism "capitulated and collapsed" under the invasive pressures of the increasingly harsh and ruling government. It was the Christian church "that has kept alive whatever of freedom is left...."  Consider the goodness of unwavering and suffering strength, which is of God. In the 1930's, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany, the ten Boom family of Holland, and countless other believers across Europe--kept human freedom alive by living in Christ and like him being faithful unto death. Taste that goodness!  

Romans 8:31-39

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? .... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Quoted texts are from Forward Day by Day, 1937, reprinted for July 6, 2010.

.

Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers Network

Prayer

Image via Wikipedia

Dear Lord, 

Draw us to You as the sun draws the orbiting planets to its warmth and light, needed by all. 

The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand....The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore (Psalm 121: 5, 8).

(c) 2011 Opinari and Jean Purcell

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The Value of a Name II: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. It brings us back to the story of how the U.S. as a nation, including the South where I grew up, had to change. Like all lasting change, it took a while. The man who continued that change and inspired for complete legal changes did so in a bold, forgiving, and peaceful spirit. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was fully a man changed by Christ early in his life. He was a human and inspiring man. He did not run from his calling or his future. I believe it was God through Christ who inspired the courageous messages of his words, actions, and reactions...surely growing through his heart and his thoughts and motivations. Faith in God is Dr. King's biographical foundation. God bless each human being in these times who seeks to walk with God and man as Dr. King sought and worked to do. Precious Lord, Take My Hand....



 

For children:


See more books and gospel music on BN.com, Amazon.com, YouTube.com.

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2011 - A Future and a Hope-Jeremiah and the New Year

"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, 

thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" 

(Jeremiah 29:12-NKJV).

This is assurance for the believer for any time, day, or year. It is one of Jeremiah's prophetic utterances. These are words for every Christian, for we are children of God, whether Gentile or Jew, down through every generation since Christ walked physically among people and an empire's powerful government. In Jeremiah's day, the people of God had gone astray, ignoring God for other gods. Yet, God's promise was that His thoughts toward His people are always for their good, their peace, their future, and their eternal hope. That's why, generations later, a follower of Christ, wrote this to the Christians living in Rome: 

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" 

(Romans 5:5-NIV-italics added).

God knows the future, and in time Christ came and later sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to guide, teach, help, and comfort. In Jeremiah's day, the people were in exile in Babylon. The prophet wrote: The "LORD of hosts, the God of Israel" told "all who were carried away captive...from Jerusalem to Babylon," to settle there, build themselves houses, work their gardens for their food; to marry, have children and grandchildren so "that you may be increased there, and not diminished" (see Jeremiah 29: 12ff).

"...And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace." All of that was not the hope, but part of its revealing.

And it happens as God says.

During seventy years in exile, the people did "the final editing of the Pentateuch, of the deuteronomistic work of history (the Books of Samuel and Kings), of many of the prophetic books and also in the composition of new literature (such as the Chronistic works of history, i.e., Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles) that reflects the concerns of the returnees from Babylone [sic]...." 

As writers, doesn't this cause us to pause, to reflect? We are pilgrims on the earth. Our Home is in heaven, with God. That plan is our hope, as Christ is the Person of our hope. Yet, wherever we are, He tells us to go into everyday life with hope. We are to settle, arrange our homes, have families. In the midst of the most difficult circumstances, even a form of slavery, the "lowest of the low," God's people accomplish special works if they remain faithful to God and rely upon Him. In every circumstance, we today, as children of God in Christ, have hope in the Lord. 

This reality is for us in this New Year 2011, every day.

Whatever our plans, for example, for writing, editing, or publishing this year (and we do have, make, and put plans into action, surely!), whatever our hopes for the future--spiritually, personally and professionally--, we have an eternal, many-faceted hope. God puts desires and ideas in us and works them out for our enjoyment, joy, and good, for our future alone and in the community of believers in fellowship. 

What a way of faith in which to face this new year in Christ!  

Bible abbreviation notes:

KJV - King James Version of the Bible

NKJV - New King James Version of the Bible

NIV - New International Version of the Bible 

Bible quote source from Jeremiah is the NKJV.

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Reflections of a daughter-in-law, "Let's Lean"

“Let’s Lean” - Jean Purcell - to remember and honor life of Mary Helen Purcell

Mary Helen Purcell was my mother-in-law—Mom Purcell and Mary Helen. The force of personality of my husband’s mother gave me many challenges from the beginning. She was a beautiful, 40-year-old woman when we first met. I was 20. After Jim and I married, she encouraged, bragged on, and believed in me. She did all she could to teach and share her skills with me on the rare occasions we saw each other.

Yet, often I felt overwhelmed by her in the early years of marriage. I finally decided it was a matter of sink or…rise toward her level of confidence. Along with her daughter-in-law, Barbara, I got to know a generous, brave, and inclusive woman.

Here is a little story that gives a picture of our relationship’s early years: When our two daughters were two years old and two months old, Jim and I moved to Maryland. We invited his parents to celebrate our first Christmas with us. Later she called us from Tennessee to say that they wanted to bring four extra people with them for Christmas.

I began to worry about things like food, space, and beds. And I was upset with her. But she laid out a strong case that turned me around: The other family would not mind doubling up. They had never been anywhere. They hardly had anything. It would mean so much to them to come and to visit Washington, DC!

Of course, all went well that Christmas in our tiny, very full house!

You know that Mary Helen’s way was unselfish, yet she had healthy self-regard. She loved to reach out, get going, and take charge if others were letting things fall. Yet, she also had a quiet humble way of faith. When she moved to Maryland 10 years ago, not once did she say anything to us about missing her former home.

When we were adjusting to her need for special help from Gilchrist In-home Hospice Care, a group of young couples decided to bring dinner meals to us for a while. They came in shifts and talked with her every time.

One of them, Kristen Johnson, told about one of their conversations. Mom Purcell was talking about her youth when she and Jim’s dad were home missionaries in a remote, poor, and rough area in the Tennessee Mountains.

After a while, Kristen remarked, “Mom Purcell, that was hard and dangerous work!”

Mom Purcell answered, “Yes, it was. They either loved you or they killed you.”

Not long ago, she and I decided to discuss Psalm 23. She began, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and put her hand firmly on her chest. “He’s my Shepherd. It’s personal.” Then she expounded more on that phrase, and her thoughts were so profound that I sorely wished we had a tape recorder going. It came from her life with her Shepherd.

One day in her last weeks Jim and I felt especially helpless. We had done everything possible. I sat on the side of her bed and leaned over, my head face down on her pillow, up against her head. That was my feeble effort. Our face-hug continued for a while. But did she know I was there?

Two days later when she did not answer me I leaned over her, worried. “Mom Purcell, Is there anything I can do?”

She answered in a whisper: “Let’s lean.” Did she mean what I thought?

“Do you mean like this?”—I asked, sat down and put my head face-down on the pillow, as before. She whispered, “Yes.” We leaned into each other and held it there.

In her last days, she would look up and point toward the ceiling. Once she sat up; her head and extended arms facing upward. She called out, “Does anybody have a testimony?” What did she see that was otherwise unseen?

Early one morning soon after, she went into the Lord’s presence.

During the service here last Sunday, I could picture Mary Helen in white—in perfect well-being—arms raised toward the higher heavens.

She always emphasized that faith opens a personal relationship with Christ. “The Lord is my Shepherd.” I am sure she wanted every person to be able to say that.

Now we lean into God and His eternal care for His children. She is our beloved Mama, Great Grammy, Mom Purcell, and friend. Child of God, Mary Helen.