Wednesday, April 20, 2011

All Things Together

Can anything good come out of death? I remember asking myself that question when, soon after my father had become critically ill and the reality of loosing him had come into sharp focus, I came across Romans 8:28. It says “all things work together for the good….” But surely nothing good could come out of the death of a loved one!
It is a serious question and I suppose it is asked at many gravesides on a daily, if not hourly basis. The pain is so great. The loss is so intense. Yet now years later I see that yes indeed, even in death, good things can come forth.

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September 2005

We needed a testimony for First Thessalonians. Several years earlier, we had all known Susan, a lovely young woman who was dying of cancer. She asked if we could film her testimony and we were delighted to do that for her….and then she asked if it could be shown to the hundreds of ladies in our weekly women’s ministry. Susan’s story testified to the goodness of God and her hope in Him for eternity. It was so profound that the response from her words was incredible and the impact dynamic. Our sweet friend died a few months later.

Years passed and her husband remarried. We were getting ready to assemble the components of the book of First Thessalonians and realized that Susan’s story would be the perfect testimony for us to use. So we contacted her husband. Would he agree to sign the release form allowing us to use the clip in The Amazing Collection?

He agreed to sign and we sent him the paper work but weeks went by and it was not returned. Genie and Colin (our two co-leaders in finding proper testimonies) called repeatedly and always received a promise to sign but that promise was never fulfilled.

Months and months went by with repeated calls and still no signed papers so we asked Art to call him. Art had been his pastor and we thought he would be able to get a definite answer for us. He graciously made the call and again received a promise to sign and send but after waiting a few more weeks we realized that for a reason we could not understand, this was not going to happen. We were all very frustrated and anxious because we were working now on a VERY tight deadline.

So we prayed asking God to give us the perfect testimony for this special book.

Colin was reading Discipleship Journal a magazine that was put out by Navpress and came across an article written by the editor, a woman whose sister, Gaye-Lynn Smith, had died of cancer. However, just before she died, her church had filmed her glorious testimony. Colin called me immediately to see if we could get it and I called a contact at Navpress in Colorado Springs, Colorado who was able to get the name of the editor who in turn gave me the name of the pastor who lived in Virginia who had the film and he called his son who owned the production company who had done the filming. The pastor gave Colin the name of the husband who now lived in New Guinea and she was able to obtain permission to include Gaye-Lynn’s testimony in the study, and then the production company sent us a copy on a DVD disc. We were good to go…and none too soon!

Can anything good come out of death? Susan spoke into the camera from her living room couch to women she knew and had enjoyed. Her message was for them and so she gave glory to God while she was days away from stepping into the presence of God. Hundreds of women were forever impacted as they listened to her message on a big screen in the church auditorium and none who were there that day will ever forget her powerful words.

Gaye-Lynn lay in a hospital knowing that she only had a few days on this earth. She spoke into a camera, not knowing who would ever see her or hear her words. Yet today, thousands of women sit in auditoriums, church classrooms, or home small groups and hear Gayle-Lynn’s story, and around the world through over seven overseas broadcasting stations in five languages millions of people can see and hear Gaye-Lynn’s message of hope and confident trust in her Savior.

Some day I know I will have the privilege of meeting Gaye-Lynn Smith and when I do it will be a great joy to tell her that her story literally was seen in almost every country in the world and God received the glory.

Behind Romans 8:28 is GOD. It is He alone who can and will work mightily to bring great good even out of death.


Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Big Concepts – Easy Formula

Big concepts are sometimes hard to explain. For instance my husband has tried (unsuccessfully) to explain Pi-squared to me but he might as well be talking Greek. The size of the universe, eternity and infinity are also some of those pretty difficult things for the average mind to comprehend. And then of course there are those touchy conversations that we have with children when they have heard things that are too adult for their understanding and so we muddle around trying to put hard concepts into child-like terms.  

But to most of us, the Bible also can be complex and confusing. So often we have spent years studying adverbs and verbs and intricacies but never fully grasp the big picture.

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After we had completed filming all sixty-six books we decided it would be very helpful if we developed a seminar that would introduce the whole Bible to churches that were going to be doing the study. We wanted cover the Bible in a simple understandable way in a three hour seminar And so Linda, Eleanor and I went back to the “drawing board” and began meeting regularly to see if it was even possible.

We had all of the charts and notes laid out before us. We talked about the different books and how we might present them in a clear and simple way, a way that anyone could understand even if they had never even touched a Bible before. We went in one direction and then another and then something happened. It was as if God Himself revealed a very simple formula, one that we had never seen before.

There were the Old Testament History Books, seventeen in all.
Then there were the five Old Testament Poetical Books, really books of writings, definitely not history, but books that added insight and direction for Christian living.
And then there were seventeen Old Testament Prophetical Books. So the Old Testament could be simplified into HISTORY – WRITINGS – PROPHECY.

Well that seemed simple enough and all of a sudden we had described the entire Old Testament.

But then came the surprise! As we looked at the New Testament we saw the exact same pattern. HISTORY (the Gospels and Acts) WRITINGS (Paul’s letters and other letters) and PROPHECY (Revelation)

So three words could sum up the whole Bible. History Writings Prophecy and then again History, Writings, Prophecy!

It was a complete revelation to us all. We had never seen it before but there it was: the structure of both Testaments!

Hard concepts made easy.

And so we each took one of the OT sections and one from the NT section and developed six 40 minute teaching sessions. Then we added music with two of our favorite vocalist, Verna Law and Jen Carozza. Dennis Law joined the team to run the sound and video clips we had added to the program. A workbook that included notes and outlines were written and printed along with six color-coded memory cards with the names of the books and symbols for each section.

We taught the seminars for the next two years and then decided to put all of the information into a six-week Bible Study, Invincible Love / Invisible War. But to this day those three words are clued to my brain….History, Writings Prophecy….hard concepts made easy.

Psalm 19:7
The testimony of the Lord is sure
Making wise the simple.