Clueless

It's hard to believe it's been ten years since Curtis went to be with the Lord. February 21, 2004 he stepped across into eternity where he is in the presence of his Savior. About seven years after he died, our family received this in the mail. It seems that one of my children's friends watched Curtis' life, and it had a great impact on him. He wrote an article about Curtis in a Baptist Association news letter. In honor of Curtis and his quiet faith, I'd like to share that article.

Clueless

I want to tell you about the guy who led me to Jesus. The funny thing is he didn’t even know he did it. When I thanked him many years later, he was completely clueless about his part in it.

My father was what could be called a scoffer, a ridiculer of the Church. He loved to point out the flaws and inconsistencies in Christian’s lives and used that information as his excuse for not accepting Jesus’ claim on his life. He laughed at the Chairman of the Deacons. He heard rumors of dishonesty against that man. Dad mocked churchmen who cleaned up their language around other church folks, but cussed when they lost a domino game. Still others laughed at my father’s dirty jokes. That was alright with Dad. It just added ammunition to blast the “hypocrites” in the church. However, there was one man whom my Dad couldn’t call a phony. His name was Curtis Murphree and Dad thought he was a fool.

Curtis, like my father, was a farmer. He worked hard and played clean, but lived a “foolish” life that utterly baffled Dad. He was the same at home as he was in public. He once lost a wheat crop to a hail storm because he wouldn’t harvest on the Lord’s Day. That really bugged Dad. His life was a consistent witness to my father. When Curtis tried to tell Dad about Jesus’ sacrifice, Dad would not listen. But I did. When the 10 and 11 year old boys went to church camp, Curtis “foolishly” took time out of his farming schedule to be a camp counselor. He had prayer time with us and asked us to share our testimonies (I had none). He made sure all us boys made it to chapel on time every day, including that final day of camp, when I asked Jesus into my life.

Curtis thought it was the Camp Missionary who led me to Jesus, but nothing could be farther from the truth. For years, Curtis led me to Jesus by regularly taking time to talk to my father. Curtis led me to Jesus by taking me to church camp. Curtis led me to Jesus by modeling what a godly man could and should be to his family. Curtis led me to Jesus by consistently living a godly life that challenged my father to reconsider the validity of Christ’s Lordship in his own life. Yet, at the time, he never had a clue about the eternal impact his life was making on a child living on the fringe of the church.

Some would call Curtis Murphree a fool for spending so much time witnessing to a hardened scoffer. Personally, I don’t fault the man for not knowing who he was really influencing.

1 Peter 2:12

Author: Name Withheld

Next entry: "Be Prepared"

Undelivered Letters

This was penned sometime between 1963-1968.

How many of you like to receive and write letters? Everyone of us anxiously awaits the letter from that special someone. There is just something about getting a letter from someone you haven't seen in a long time that just lifts you up and fills a little of the vacancy that they leave.

When you write a letter you put a little of yourself into the letter, don't you? Sometimes you can put something in a letter that you couldn't say to the person to his or her face at all. When you write that letter..(Sometimes it's quite a chore to just write a little 'ole bitty letter!) ... but after you've gone to the trouble and lick the envelope and stamp (just think... $.05 for a stamp now!!) ... you certainly want to be sure it reaches the person that it was intended, don't you?

I heard about this postman in California who was arrested and they found 5,000 unopened letters in his house. When they questioned him, this is what he said, "My feet hurt. I would get so far on my route and my feet would get to hurting so bad that I'd just go home. I intended to deliver them the next day, but the next day my feet got to bothering me again and I just kept putting off part of my route. I didn't intend to keep the letters. I sincerely intended to deliver them but they just kept piling up and I got further behind."

The postman was tried and given a prison sentence. We would say he rightly deserved it, wouldn't we? We would have hated to be some of the people who failed to get their mail. Maybe some of the letters contained money that would have solved problems... or messages that no one else could bring.

You know, you and I have been entrusted with some letters and messages just as important to people. We have the message of salvation and the Bible with all kinds of messages of promise -

     "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

     "In My Father's house are many mansions.."

     "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What message could be more important than holding back a message from God that He had entrusted us to take?

Will our excuse when we stand before the Great Judge be the same as the postman's? "My feet hurt...I was too busy ... I intended to take the message but I got so far behind .... There were so many I didn't see how I could get around to them all..."

Then the Great Judge will surely take those works of ours and burn them in the fire, and only those letters that were delivered will be saved and the others burnt, and we ourselves will be saved "so as by fire" -- no reward, not as many joys as we might have had if we had but delivered His message.

Next entry: "My Valentine"
Read about "The Word of God in My Life"
Read the first entry of my prayer life - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

The Word of God in My Life

As a little girl my mother took me to church and I was taught Bible stories and the gospel message. I accepted Christ by faith and it was accounted to me as righteousness when I was 12 years old. As a teen and young adult I went to church but didn't grow much spiritually. However, I worked at a department store in town with a Christian lady, Melba Miller, and she would sometimes take me home with her and her husband, Ralph. They had a loving Christian home where the Bible was read and prayers were offered. I knew that this was the kind of home I wanted when I married.

However, when Curtis and I married we didn't go to church. We moved to Colorado, and while we lived there I realized how far I had strayed from the Lord. One morning I fell on my knees and re-dedicated my life to Him. [For the full account of that experience, click HERE] I went to the little church there and began to help in the children's classes. I found that I loved teaching the Bible stories. Also, I became so hungry to grow spiritually. I went to the pastor's wife and asked her if she would help and teach me the Bible. She turned up her nose and said, "No, I don't have time for that." I asked another lady, and she turned me down, too. I was on my own.

We moved back to Friona, Texas, after about a year. We faithfully went to church and sat under very good Bible-teaching pastors. I also discovered good teaching on radio programs like "Back to the Bible Broadcast" with Theodore H. Epp, and "Thru the Bible Radio Network" by Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who took me systematically through the Bible. I learned so much.

But then something happened that changed the way I read the Word. In the 1970s, one day I was burdened for a lady in my Sunday School class. I was kneeling by my bed praying for her, and I was totally immersed in a "fountain of love".  It was coming from the Lord, and it was so much that I couldn't contain it. I had to cry out to the Lord to stop it. It was an experience that filled me up to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. In a few days some trouble came into my life - an attack on me. I was accused of something I didn't do. I didn't understand what was happening! I didn't know where to turn except to the Word. I opened my Bible (and I had never had this happen before) and it opened to Luke 22:31. My eyes fell on "Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you..." My spirit quickened and it seemed that the Lord was saying this directly to ME. Sure enough, the sifting began as the rumor mills ground me down. The Lord allowed this trial so that I would run to Him.

I literally hid in the Word of God. I had never read the Psalms until then, and I began to pray David's prayers as my own prayers. I developed such a appetite for the Word that I could read and pray for hours. My hunger to read the Bible was like having chocolate cake sitting there, and I nibbled on it a piece at a time. I would be doing housework and walk by the Bible and long to open it to see what it said-- to ME!

From that time (1974 or 1975) I have had the sweetest times reading the Bible. The Living Bible came out about then and I devoured it. In the 1980s I discovered Precept Bible Studies by Kay Arthur. She taught me to inductively study and dig into the Word as never before. She encouraged us to get a New American Standard Bible, and I loved it because throughout, the pronouns referring to God or Jesus were capitalized - making it so clear. Now that I've read and understood the Bible, I've gone back to my King James Bible and it is understandable to me.

So I have experienced God's Word in two ways. I've studied and dug into the scripture for its literal, cultural and historical meaning, but my favorite experience in His Word is when I read and the Lord quickens that Word in my spirit and makes it mine. "That's for me!" my spirit says, and I claim it!

Praise God for His glorious Word! Sometimes I think He wrote it just for me!

Psalm 119:97 & 102-103
(New American Standard)

"Oh how I love Your law!

It is my meditation all the day.

......

I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,

For You Yourself have taught me.

How sweet are Your words to my taste!

Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

Next entry - "I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You"
To start at the beginning of my journey with the Lord, Click HERE- "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

My Prayer Life - Part 12 - "Letting Go"

Part 12:

I began to understand more about God--the Heavenly Father and His love for His children as my boys got into high school and college. I was staying on my knees more now and holding them up to the Lord. When I made their beds I would kneel and pray for that special child and the problem that he had that day -- they began to have many as they grew into teenagers and adults. When I ironed their clothes I talked to the Lord about that person whose garment I was ironing. When I washed the dishes I bathed my soul in prayer for whatever problem or joy that was on my heart. I don't know what parents and husbands and wives do who do not have the Lord to go to.

As Danny went to college we were so happy he chose Wayland Baptist College and was given a $1000 scholarship each year for running track.

Signing for WBC scholarship

He had been such a joy to us -- as were all of them -- but he was our first one and naturally everything he did was new to us. He became disturbed about his third year in college as he didn't know what direction he should go in his life. He was discouraged and even thought about quitting. His coach and teachers wrote us about encouraging him. I had taken it to the Lord in the mean time, and I asked Him to guide Danny in his life and show him what He had for him. I also said, "Lord, Danny is going to need a helpmate soon to steady his life and make him complete, and You know who she is. He doesn't, but would you please show him (and me) pretty soon?"

It wasn't very long until we went to Albuquerque to a track meet and he introduced us to this little "Linda Allen," and I remember putting my arm around her and loving her a little bit, and a warm feeling came into my heart. Every girl he had brought home from school until then I had thrown up a wall and found something I didn't like about her. I began to think that I was a possessive mother who would never be able to give up that son. I remember one day deliberately taking one of my aprons, cutting off the apron strings, putting them in an envelope, and mailing them to Danny at college to let him know that I was "cutting the apron strings." When it came time for me to give him to Linda, it was such an easy thing---because the Lord helps our love be a giving love.

Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "God Answers - Big & Small Requests"

My Prayer Life - Part 9 - "A Son Goes to War"

Part 9:

A few days before Joe left for Viet Nam

God did answer that prayer (previous post) many years later just before Joe went overseas to Viet Nam. I was so troubled and torn up with the thought of sending my boy off to war, maybe to be captured by a ruthless enemy who could break his spirit and cause him to deny Christ, or maybe to lose his life. Mothers have a way of looking on the bad side of things when it comes to her children. I began to pray that the Lord would just let me know about my boy. I was so disturbed and torn up I couldn't think of anything else. One day before he left, I was sitting in my chair reading my Bible. I began to cry and pray, and I raised my hands toward heaven and said, "Lord, Your Word says to lift up holy hands to you, and I lift mine up through the blood of Jesus Christ because that is all the holiness I have. I ask you now to take Joe and keep him, and give me peace in my heart and strength to bear whatever You have for us... In Jesus' Name I pray."...

...and...

the Holy Spirit fell on me in such a mighty way. A peace came flowing over me and it felt like it went from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I was so happy and relieved! I just praised the Lord! I knew what the scripture meant when it said, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...." I experienced it there on my knees.


Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "It's a Girl"