Volume 19, No.5

MAY 2004

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CONTENTS

Mother Prayed

Hugs 'N Tugs
By Wendy Lefko

Deep Living

Look To Christ

Best of Lifeline
By Rev. Larry Greiner

The Conqueror

A Mother's Love

Wanted

Trust

Conversions

Praise & Prayer

Itinerary

MOTHER PRAYED

      Mother knew life and she knew it was too hard to be faced alone. She knew that she needed help and she knew where to go for it.  The great preacher, Dr. George Truett, tells this story of his boyhood days in North Carolina .  He said that every morning his mother would go out into the apple orchard and spend a little time.  When she came back the light of heaven would be upon her face and there would be a sweet song upon her lips.  He and his brother were curious to know what happened out there in the orchard, so one day they hid themselves in the corner of the rail fence.  After a while, their mother came down to the orchard and knelt beneath an old apple tree.  She cried out to God for His help.  So said, “Lord, you have given me these boys, and I cannot bring them up in the right way without Your help.  I will make shipwreck of their lives if I cannot have that help.”  The boys went back to their play that day, but they had learned a great secret. They had learned that there was only one course of strength and help, and that source was God.  They had learned this secret as their mother prayed.  Mother took time to pray and often saved the family through her prayers.  Maybe she saw her boy growing up and slipping away a bit from the Christ-like life. Then night after night on her knees she would pray: “Oh God, save my boy!”  Later she saw her prayers answered as that boy made his surrender to Christ and began to live a Christian life.   I have a friend in North Carolina , who is a fine Christian woman.  Her daughter married and lived next door. Her husband was not a Christian. This dear mother prayed much that her son-in-law might find Christ.  One night she could not sleep and as she prayed earnestly for his salvation, she felt that her prayers were going to be answered. A few mornings later her daughter called her and said, “Mother, I have something wonderful to tell you.” The mother answered, “I know what it is.  Charlie was saved last night.”  “But, mother,” said the daughter, “how did you know?” Then she told the daughter how she had felt that God had promised to answer her prayers. Mother knew how to pray.  Mother had a pathway to the Throne of Grace and she used it. “Her children rise up, and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28).                                                                               

—W. Herschel Ford

HUGS 'N TUGS

                   By Wendy Greiner Lefko

      A few phone calls, a couple of sibling squabbles, and 2 Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door.  Minor disturbances indeed, but still enough to be successful interruptions of my quiet time with the Lord one day recently.  It’s often not easy, as any mother can attest to, to find time to spend alone with the Lord.  If it’s not one distraction it’s another, and it can be continual from sun up to sun down.  But it’s when I finally am able to have that time with God that I realize two things—just how much I need it, and just how much the enemy hates it.  He knows how vital it is to our Christian walk and how powerful it can be in our effectiveness for Christ.  He hates nothing more than when God’s children spend time with their Heavenly Father, and he’ll do all he can to keep it from happening.  So I try not to be surprised when interruptions come at a brisk pace whenever I attempt to have that time with the Lord.  Whether it’s early morning or late at night, life doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with such meaningful plans.  But by God’s grace when I am able to seize those quiet moments with Him, I am blessed beyond measure and strengthened for the daily grind with power and peace that only God can give.  Showing me once again that no matter how hard Satan may try to keep me from the Throne of Grace, “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world”!  I know interruptions and distractions await me at every turn, but God is still there and He will make a way for me to find Him when I seek Him with all my heart.  “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

DEEP LIVING

We love to spread our branches;  the root-life we neglect.  
We love to shine in public, and human praise expect;
While in the inner chamber, where creature voices cease,
We may meet God in silence and breathe in Heaven’s peace.

The secret of deep living, lies in the secret place
Where, time and sense forgotten, we see God face to face;
Beyond mere forms and symbols, beyond mere words and signs,
Where in that hidden temple, the light eternal shines.

                                                   —Max I. Reich

       Back to Contents

If you want to be distressed, look within.
If you want to be defeated, look back.
If you want to be distracted, look around.
If you want to be dismayed, look before.
If you want to be delivered, look up .
If you want to be delighted, look to Christ.