... About my Maternal Grandmother

Were my grandmother, Amelia Diehl still living, she would have turned 127 years old today.  She lived to be 100 and passed away on December 22, 1991. She has received her reward and has been reunited with her husband, David, her son Oscar, and daughter, Verna in heaven.  I wrote the following Tribute to her back in 1991.  Thank you, Mammy for the wonderful example you left me as a Godly woman.  The world is a better place because you passed through it!

Proverbs 31:30 “...but a woman who fears and reverences God shall be greatly praised.” (Living Bible)

“Behind every great man is a great woman,” so the saying goes. That is certainly true of  my grandmother Amelia Diehl, who will turn one hundred years old on July 10, 1991. I know of no other woman who more closely fits the description of the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31. My grandfather told me when he had gotten married he wanted someone to help him. My grandmother was certainly helpmate to him. The following is a paraphrase of Proverbs 31:1031 as a tribute to her.

10) Amelia Diehl was truly a good wife, worth more than precious gems.
11) Her husband, David, could trust her and she richly satisfied his needs.
12) She did not hinder him, but helped him all her life. When they ran a gas station and store, Amelia was right there working with him. When David had a Christmas tree business, she met the customers who came to the house and helped them when David was not around.
13) She sewed and mended his clothes.
14) She bought and canned food, some from her garden, keeping her cupboards well stocked.
15) She was always up early and had breakfast on the table around six o’clock. She had each day well planned. Mondays were for washing clothes, Tuesdays for ironing, Wednesdays for mending, Thursdays for cleaning upstairs, Fridays for cleaning downstairs, Saturdays for baking, and Sundays for going to church and resting.
16) She planted a garden almost every year of her life and tended it well.
 17) She managed the household budget well, never buying anything unnecessary.
19-20) She helped her husband provide jobs for the needy and gave generously to the church and missions.
 21) She never feared winters, always having warm clothing for her children.
22) Her husband was well known in Carbon County.
 25) She is a woman of strength and dignity and has no fear of turning one hundred.
26) When she spoke, her words were wise and kindness was the rule of everything she said. She never talked back to her husband and never screamed and yelled at her children.
27) She watched carefully all that went on throughout her house and was never lazy. Her house was always spotless, the beds always made, the dishes always washed and put away. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.
28) Her children stand and bless her and never fail to visit her in the nursing home. Her husband praised her as the best woman of all.
30) Amelia set a fine example for her children, Oscar and Elda (Diehl) Walker. She attended church faithfully and had her daily devotions. She lived by a motto that hung in her kitchen, “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” She and her husband believed in and supported missions and the local church. Through her and her descendants only eternity will reveal how many souls were won to Christ. The church she attended many years of her life had been purchased by her son and moved twenty-five miles to its present location. Her daughter married a missionary/minister. Through their labors others became missionaries, ministers, Christian workers, and evangelists. All her grandchildren are Christians and serving the Lord. One granddaughter is married to a minister. Some of her great-grandchildren are making plans for full-time Christian service. 31) Amelia may never be nominated for “Woman of the Year” and yet in God’s sight she is a woman of great worth. Great will be her reward in heaven.

..About Discouragement

Since computers can crash and there’s a risk of losing all files stored on it, I decided to keep all my files, pictures, etc. on a flash drive. So last week instead of my computer crashing, my flash drive “malfunctioned.” I cannot access anything on it! The Geek Squad at Best Buy told me there was a slim chance they might be able to fix the drive but it would cost hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars to restore the files on it. Needless to say the news was discouraging. My nephew is going to try to fix it. Most disappointing was that I had pictures of my family, all the files relating to the things I have done for the church and all the photo card, etc. that I had made during the last ten years stored on the flash drive. There were a few files on my computer and I found a few in the recycle bin. And then I remembered I had an old computer stashed away. I managed to reboot it and copied all the files that were on it to a new flash drive. After I copied the files, I was unable to reboot that old computer. Much to my delight most of the pictures of my family that I wanted had been on that computer. The other files dated from 1999 to 2009. The picture below was one of those pictures and was taken Oct 14, 2008 at Hickory Run State Park. Have a blessed week!

...About Daddy

May was a very emotional month for me.  I spend many long hours going through Mother’s and Daddy’s stuff in their house (they literally saved everything!), deciding what to keep, what to recycle, what to try to sell, what to give away, and what to simply throw away. As I “threw” some of their things in the recycle bin, I felt like I was throwing their lives away.  Of course that’s not true; but never-the-less, that’s how I felt.  I had several meltdowns and even now as I write this, my eyes are filled with tears.  I never imagined going through their things would be so hard. But among all the “stuff” I found some “treasures” including some of Daddy’s sermon notes and outlines.  I shall hang onto those “treasures” as long as I live.  One of them is the 1951 Aletha, the year book for the Colorado Springs Bible College.  I knew Daddy had been an instructor there and looked for his picture among the faculty.  I did not find it and was a bit disappointed.  However, I continued to search and found it on the page following the President’s Message.  I discovered that Daddy had been the Dean of Theology at the college.  We children never knew.  Along with his picture was his message.  And so this week following Father’s Day, I share his picture and message (below) from the 1951 Aletha.  The message still holds true today some 67 years later.  I miss you, Daddy!

DEAN OF THEOLOGY'S MESSAGE

          One of the outstanding needs of this present age is Christian leader-

ship in our national, civil, social, and domestic life. If Christianity is
to triumph and prevail and if democracy is to succeed and remain secure,
then we are confronted with the challenge of producing the leadership that 

will promote Christianity and democracy.

            Secular education has a definite place in our national life and it has
also made a contribution of leadership in many fields such as science,
medicine, industry, and commerce. It also has pioneered in many fields
of research and advancement for which we are indebted. But secular
education has failed to produce the moral and spiritual leadership that
our nation needs. It does seek to check the tides of moral evils and
corruption but in all too many cases has condoned and fostered them.

            Christian education from a definite point of view and presupposition
seeks to produce noble character, moral courage and Christian leader-
ship. It endeavors to equip youth with the essentials needed to labor
effectively for the social, national, and spiritual welfare of their fellow-
men. True Christian education promotes revivals, evangelism, and
prepares our youth to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth proclaim-
ing free salvation from all sin and full salvation for all men.

                                                                       MARION L. WALKER, A.B., B.D.

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... About Love

I am on a rotating schedule to lead prayer meeting at my church on Wednesday evenings.  The leader gives a short message.  On February 3rd, I led the prayer meeting.  Below is a copy of my notes of the message I presented that evening.  All Scripture is taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

Prayer Meeting - Wednesday, February 3,2016 - LOVE

With Valentine's Day just a couple of weeks away, I've been thinking about love

All of us want to be loved
What the world needs now is love, sweet love  It's the only thing that there's just too little of - 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David

à Love of God

·  God is Love - 1 John 4:16

The very essences of God is love - just as God is Holy; God is Righteous, God is gracious and compassionate, God is mighty, God is good, God is sovereign, God is merciful and forgiving, 

·  Fruit of the Spirit is Love - Gal 5:22

Fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace….

In a couple of prior Wed night services, I spoke about joy - One component of the Fruit of the Spirit is joy, another is love, God wants us to be filled and overflowing with His love, When we yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will begin to bear the Fruit of the Spirit.  Are we filled with His love?

·  So great is his unfailing love - Lam 3:32

Some of the saddest words - “I  don’t love you any more.”

St Paul wrote that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom. 8:38-39 - We will never heard God say, “I  don’t love you any more.”
God keeps His promises - People may fail us but God doesn’t - Because of His love, He wanted not one to parish; so He sent His son to die for us to provide salvation

·  what great love the Father has lavished on us, - 1 John 3:1 (lavished - generous, abundant, sumptuous, bountiful)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him -1 John 3:1

God has created us but we do not become children of God until we believe on His son, Jesus.  Once we become His child, we take on His characteristics -

When I first saw my daughter, Amy after she was born I said to her, "You look just like your daddy."  I has been fun watching her grow and seeing how much she is like him.

My Mother tells me I am a lot like my father and I have to agree.

So if God is love, are we “love”?

· ...so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:23

Here John records one of Jesus prayers - Jesus wanted all believers to be brought to complete unity and why - so that the world would know that God loved them - Is there unity among us - at the general church level, at the local level? Does the world know that God loves them?  What are we doing so that they will know?

· ... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:18-19

We sang the song The Love of God - It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;

Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God - For something to be filled, it must be empty - we need to be empty of self and selfish desires -

à Love for God

·  what does the Lord your God ask of you but ... to love  him, Deuteronomy 10:12a

·  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind.’ Mat 22:37

Love: A Holy Command - by Oswald Chambers ----

We looked at the prayer of St. Paul (above Ephesians 3:18-19) Here is what is written to the Church in Ephesus  in Revelations  - You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. (Rev 2:3-4)

Relationships - Husband and wife
Personal Relationship with God - spending time with Him - reading His Word - What is He saying to me?
Hearing sermons - what is in it for me? - God knows who is going to hear the message

à Love Because of God

·  Do  Everything in Love - 1 Cor 16:4

Everything? _ Before you speak THINK -

·  Christ’s love compels us -2 Cor 5:14

Compels - a driving force - must do it

·  We love because He first loved us - 1 John 4:19

Earlier I stated we take on His characteristics

·  Love one another deeply - 1 Pet 1:26   

Deeply -

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:3-4
Book - What would Jesus Do?
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
I prayed and asked God to love others as He loves - to forgive, etc.

Atlantic Ocean – Photo by Lela

        The Love of God
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky
                                      - Frederick M. Lehman

 

 

... about a wig - spreading God's love

One summer evening in 2007 I attended Bowman camp.  At the end of the message as I was moved by the Holy Spirit, I went forward and knelt at the altar to pray.  I knew the speaker personally.  He had even stayed in my husband and my home when he had been the speaker at my church.  So I kept in touch with him and in July of 2009 I wrote him a letter.  Here is part of that letter:

You may recall that a few years ago when you were the speaker at the Bowman Camp, I knelt at the altar and asked God to use me, to work in and through me.  After the service I shared with you some of what was on my heart.  You recommended that I get a copy of the book, "Just Walk Across the Room."  Since that night God has begun a great work in my life.  I am truly amazed.

 

I had gotten a copy of the book and one thought in the book was to look for opportunities to spread God’s love in small as well as big ways, perhaps doing nothing more than giving someone a smile.  And so I began to look for those opportunities.  I would like to share a recent one with you.

For twenty-five years I had worked as a programmer/analyst.  For most of those years, I followed the suggestions of dressing for success.  I wore business suit and heels and had a professional hair cut.  However, I am not a morning person and to get moving in the morning is difficult for me.  Most mornings, I would be running late.  So I decided to buy a wig and when I didn’t have time to fix my hair I would wear the wig.  Later, dressing for success went out the window and business casual dress was allowed in the work place.  My wig ended up all but forgotten in the back of a shelf in my closet.

In Feb of 2009 I was laid off of my job as a programmer/analyst.    In Oct 2009, I started working as a Customer Service Rep for an insurance company that provides Medicare supplement insurance to people on Medicare.  I have talked to thousands and thousands of people all across our great land.  I was totally out of my comfort zone on this job.  My talents lay in my being a programmer/analyst.   However, each day as I struggled with my job, God opened my eyes in ways that I had never imagined to a real and hurting world.   And so I began praying for my customers.  I have told countless number of my customers that I would pray for them.  At least two asked me to pray for them and one customer asked me if I were a Christian and he told me I was angel.

It was then that I remembered that wig in the back on my closet.  I got it out and all the cleaning and styling products that went with it.  I decided that the very next customer that called and asked if a wig would be covered by the health insurance because they had lost all their hair due to cancer treatments I would offer them my wig.  Within days of my decision, a lady named Jane called and asked if wigs were covered.  I had to tell her no they were not.  So I offered mine to her.  She gave me her email address and asked if I would send her a picture of the wig which I did.  Here is her reply. 

The Wig

Surprisingly, I have often worn my hair in such a style   and with summer highlights the color is not too far off.   If you want to send the wig, I will try it and return it if I cannot use it.  Mailing address… With thanksgiving for your thoughtfulness.

And so I mailed her the wig along with all the accessories and included one of my photo greeting cards that I had made.  In it I told her I would pray for her.  

Until the day I retired, I struggled with my job but God had helped me - one day at a time.   For Jane, He gave me the opportunity to spread some of His love by offering her my wig and for others He had given me the opportunity to let them know someone cared and was praying for them.

… about Friends and Family

This past Christmas, I mailed A LOT of Christmas cards via the United States Postal Service.  Since the onset of the internet, there are several ways I could have send my greetings electronically; but I decided to go the old fashion way - how nice to open our mail boxes and find something besides bills or junk mail!  I was amazed at the number of cards I mailed; but I wanted everyone on my mailing list to get a card from me.  At least one person in the household receiving the card has had an impact on my life.  I would not be the person I am today had our  paths not crossed in our journey through life.

My father’s ministry and my career took me to different places within the United States, outside the United Sates and within Pennsylvania.  Having lived and worked in so many different places I have met a lot of wonderful people whom I would have never met otherwise.  Others I became acquainted with at the churches I have attended.  Some I have known for a long, long time and others for a very short time.  Never-the-less, I am glad I have known each one!  It’s interesting though, some on my mailing list I have never met.  Their names were added to a prayer list that I received; so I prayed for them, sent a note to them letting them know I was praying for them, and added their names to my mailing list.   

Others are on my mailing list because they are family and I love them dearly.  Some family members were added to our family at birth and others were added through marriage.  As our family has grown over the years, it’s been harder and harder for all of us to get together at one time.  My oldest daughter Melissa was so excited when she and all her cousins on the Walker side of the family were at her aunt Lena’s wedding last May and she was able to get a picture of all of them together.  When my aunt Doris passed away in November of 2014, I got to see my two cousins that I hadn’t seen in some time. 

How awesome it is that so many people have been a part of my life - to have gotten a hug, a smile, a word of encouragement or instruction, a note in the mail, an email, a greeting on Facebook (sorry, I’m not on much) a Christmas card, a thank you, a comment: you’re in my thoughts and/or prayers.  The list could go on and on.  I am truly blessed and thank God for everyone who has been a part of my life in both small and big ways!

Hartranft Family 2015 Christmas Picture

 

… About Encouraging Scripture Verses #2

Gems of Truth 2 - God Chose You! 

When I was a teenager, I attended youth camp.  I loved being there and enjoyed many of the activities in which we could get involved.  One such activity  was softball.   Everyone who wanted to play lined up and the captains of the teams started picking their team members.  The captains took one look at me and shook their heads.  I was tall and thin and appeared a bit awkward I guess.  One by one the team members were chosen.  I remained the last and went on my team by default. I was assigned left fielder.  When one of the guys on our opponent’s team got up to bat, he took a good look over the whole field and decided to hit the ball to me.  He must have thought the “scrawny” girl in leftfield wasn’t going to catch his ball. But I proved him wrong!  Little did he or anyone else for that matter know that I had been a topnotch ball player on my school’s team back home!  I caught that ball and he was out!   And when it was my turn to bat, I hit a home run.  Boy was the opposite team’s captain sorry he hadn’t chosen me!  

We read in the Scriptures, For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,  (1 Thessalonians 1:4 NIV) and But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.   He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NIV)

One evening I was watching a video tape on the life of missionary Jim Elliot who was brutally murdered along with four other missionaries by the Auca tribe in Ecuador.  Jim’s wife, Elisabeth, her daughter Valerie, and Rachel Saint, another missionary’s wife remained in Ecuador. In time they led many of the Auca tribe to the Lord.  As I watched the video, I asked the Lord why He had allowed me to be born and live in the United Sates where I heard about Him and His love and why I had not been born in some other country such as Ecuador where no one had heard about Him.  I heard His Spirit whisper to my spirit, “Because I chose you.”

At a camp meeting many years ago I knelt at the altar and told the Lord He could use me any way He saw fit.  I wanted His love to flow in and through me.  Since then I have been amazed at all the ways he has used me - through my hobby of taking pictures of his awesome creation and making them into encouraging photo cards, through speaking engagements and personal contact.

Unlike the camp softball team captains who did not chose me to play, God chooses each of us for His “team.”  He has a special plan and purpose for our lives that no one else can fill.  He loves us and wants us on His “team.”  If you have never opened your heart to the Lord to be chosen by Him, why don’t you do so.  You will be amazed at what he may chose you to do!