The Great Physician and His Patients

"When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Matthew 9:12

      These were the months when Jesus was beginning His ministry.  He had been going through the countryside performing the great miracles so that people might see Him for who he was and that they might glorify and fear the Lord.

     He had gone through the land, healing.  He had (1) cast out demons at Capernaum, (2) healed Peter's mother-in-law and a multitude of other folks, (3) healed a man full of Leprosy, and (4) amazed the people when He commanded a paralytic man to "Arise, and take up thy couch and go into thy house".
     And then...as He was walking, He saw a Publican named Levi sitting at the seat of custom and He said unto him, "Follow Me", and Levi became a disciple.
     "And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of Publicans and of others that sat down with them..." Matthew 5:22  But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples saying, "Why do ye eat and drink with Publicans and sinners?" and Jesus answering said unto them, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick."
     Thus was Christ's answer for mingling with Publicans and sinners when the scribes and Pharisees murmured against Him.  This answer triumphantly cleared Him by showing He was acting in complete accord with His character.

            a. A physician should be found where the sick and the needy are.
            b. He should be found where there is work to do
            c. He should be found where healing is required.

     According to their own testimony there was much to do among the Publicans and sinners, for they were very sick.  Therefore, our Lord was in His proper place, rightly executing His job and office as He healed them and ministered to their needs
     It is important that we leave here this morning aware and thankful of the fact that mercy graciously regards sin as a disease!
                                                                                        ...but...
             1. Sin is more than a disease:  If it were only a disease, then men could be pitied for having contracted it.  Justice would never call sin a disease.  For it is more than sickness.
              a. It is voluntarily entered into...
              b. It has within it the perverse element of self-will
              c. It contains the full rebellion of the man and could not be without that rebellion of         man and could not exist without that rebellion.

     Mercy leniently and graciously looks at sin and calls it a disease.  Justice views sin, looks at sin and sees even the slightest sin as worse than the plagues, venoms and viruses that have ever effected mankind.
     Mercy chooses to see sin so as to explain it, for almost everything that can be said of sin, can be said of disease.

     Let's consider some of the particulars of sin.

           2. Sin is hereditary.
                 a. We are born with a tendency toward it, no we are born in it.  The taint is in our blood.
                      The bible says that we are "born in sin and shapen in iniquity".
               
     Every man born into this world contains within him the seed of sin; The bias or bend of his mind...his inclination...everything about him is inclined to sin.  It is indeed a plane and simple fact that any parent can vouch for, You have to teach children to do right and to turn away from wrong.
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?  Not one!"  How can he be clean that is born of woman?



Jesus healing at the pool of Bethesda

 3. Sin, like sickness, is disabling.

                    a. A sick man cannot carry burdens, climb mountains, run races, walk with perseverance or leap with joy.

                        b. A sick man cannot do any of the things he was meant to do. He cannot live a fulfilled life.

                          c. And just like sickness keeps us from serving in life, so sin keeps us from being able to serve God.

     We cannot pray...we cannot praise...in every duty we are weak and in every service, we are feeble.  In the mind of God and in the mind of all who are holy, sin is seen as that which would strip  all of our strength.

a. If you would run in the way God commands, sin would lame you.
b. If you would sing for Him or praise Him with your tongue, sin would make you dumb.
c. If you would grasp at the promises of God, sin would paralyze you.

     Sin weakens man's nature for all that is good!  That's why "all our righteousness is as filthy rags"!

4. Sin is loathsome:

 a. Some diseases are so extremely disgusting that they literally bring chills to the people who deal with these diseases all the time.  It is everything that is unlovely, disreputable, dishonest, impure and abominable..in a word...damnable!

5. Sin is polluting:  In the Lord's day, it was required of a leper that he keep himself away from other people  He was to cover himself from the sight of people and to warn them of his disease so that they could avoid him.

a. Even so, our sin separates us from God and from all that is holy.  There can be none who are sinful in heaven.  Sin shuts us out from the presence of a Holy God. We dare not enter into His majesty..we dare not attempt to enter into His holy presence, or the fire of His Holy anger would consume us as it did Nadab and Abihu.

b. We cannot stand at the altar of a Holy God to worship Him if there are leprous sin spots on us.

6. Sin is contagious:  A sinner cannot be a sinner alone.  "One sinner destroyeth much good." Eccl. 9:18b.

a. The seeds of sin are like thistle down...in the "winds of life". It cannot be contained.  You can shut up a diseased person in a ward, but there is no such way to shut up a sinner.  His family under his influence will imitate him.  All those close to him will walk in his footsteps.  Even his neighbors will fall under the mesmerizing effects.  Sin is contagious and will spread like wildfire in a stubble field.

7. Sin, like leprosy is painful yet numbing.  Most men are unconscious of the effect of the fall on their lives.  They cannot realize the joys and fullness God has for them in a life apart from him.  I don't miss owning a Rolls-Royce because I've never owned or could not own one, but if I die and find out I could have had one and just didn't...that would pain me.

a. Sin ultimately will bring visible pain to the life.  Homes broken, alcohol, drugs, illicit sex or other addictions, misery, loneliness,...the things a Pastor deals with in his office or on the phone, late at night.  Or the notifications he receives of the death of loved ones without mention of the sin that caused that death.  These are the pains that follow the numbness "for a season" of sin.

8. Sin is deep-seated:

          a. It has it's throne in the heart of man.
          b. It does not lie in the hand or the foot which could be removed by cutting away.  It is like cancer in the marrow.  The scalpel of a surgeon can often cut away disease but no surgeon can operate and cut out the sickness of sin.

9. Sin is wholly incurable:

           Listen to the Bible's indictment of sin...

           a. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?"
           b. "Can a bad fountain send forth sweet water, or can the thorn yield forth fruit?"
           c. "Can fire lose it's consuming power? Can water turn and go upstream?"
           d. "Shall the lion eat straw like the ox or the leopard bleat like a lamb?"
     Such changes in nature can only be wrought by Divine power.  The utmost of religiousness, the most devout prayer or the greatest amount of goodness cannot remove the taint of sin from the unrenewed heart.  Sin is a mortal disease. James 1:13-15 "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
     Humbling as it is, yet it is a fact, we are all suffering under the disease of Sin.

     It pleased Divine Mercy to give Christ the Character of a Physician!

10.  Jesus didn't come to this world just to explain what sin is:

          a. Moses had for his mission the explanation of sin.
          b. Jesus had for His mission the eradication of sin.  He did not come to apologize  to God for our sin.  It was not His mission to die on the cross so sin would be less sinful.
          c. He didn't come to change the attitude of God toward sin to a less severe attitude.  Now where do we see God's attitude more plainly and vividly displayed toward sin than on the cross, His holy wrath consuming His only begotten Son!  Listen to how He put it in Lamentations 1:1 "Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger."

           d. Christ didn't come flattering men's souls to prevent distress of their conscience, or to win them to tolerate Him.  He did not say "Peace, peace when there is no peace."
           e. Christ did not come to save you from Hell so that you might continue in sin and escape the penalty of it.  Many people think that when salvation is preached it is merely salvation from Hell...it isn't. It is a great deal more than that. It is Salvation from Sin.
           f. No person has a right to say, "I am saved!" while he continues in sin as before.  How can you be saved from sin while you continue living in it?
                   1) A drowning man cannot say he is "saved from drowning" while he is still in the water.
                   2) A man can not be said to be rescued from a fire while still in the burning building.
      No sir! Christ did not come to save you in your sin but from your sin!  Christ Jesus came to heal us from the plague of sin, to touch us with His hand and say "I will, be thou clean!" Matthew 8:3

11.     When a physician presents himself, one of the first inquiries is, "Does he have a right to practice...does he have a diploma on the wall?  Very properly, the law requires that a Doctor prove himself before he is allowed to deal with our bodies.  It has been very tartly said, "A Doctor is a man who pours drugs and medicine, of which he knows little, into a body of which he knows less."
     Has Jesus a diploma?  Have you ever read it?  Would you like to? Luke 4:18,19 says:

           "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

12.     The next thing you want in a Physician is education:
   
          a. You want to know that he is fully qualified.  To be the Physician that takes away the sin of the world one must be perfect, without flaw.  No man ever spoke as that man spoke. "It was never seen in all of Israel, the works that He did."

          b. There is not a single sin that He has not dealt with.  Not one that He does not know.  There is no brokenness of heart that He has not felt, no grief of the soul He has not had a greater part in.

"He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin!" Hebrews 4:15

13. Finally, one likes a Physician who has had a wide practice.  We don't like to trust a man who has the tools but who has never used them.

             a. Jesus has the widest imaginable practice.  For millennial's He has been healing the broken hearted and sin sick souls of the most impossible people.   It will be the most amazing thing when we get to heaven and view the myriads whom He has been mighty to heal!

14.  To sum up the virtues of the Great Physician:

           a. His cures are speedy.  There is life in the look  of Him.
           b. His cure is radical.  He strikes at the very center of the disease...the heart.
           c. He never fails... "My Lord is able."
           d. The disease never returns.  It is eradicated.  His patients are not patched up for a season.  They are healed for eternity.  He makes a new man...gives him a new heart.
           e. He is not a specialist: One who knows more and more about less and less until they know a whole lot about nothing.  Whatever is oppressing you, He is able to help and heal.
           f. His medicine is Himself: "By His stripes we are healed"! If there is pain, He bears it.

15.     Finally, It is our need alone that moves Christ to us: His statement was, "I do not go to the whole because they do not need me."
           a. A man who really sees himself as sick goes to a doctor. A man who is wounded and bleeding does not say, "Oh, maybe someday I shall go to the doctor."  He finds a doctor if he has to crawl there for help.
           b. If you are here this morning without Christ, there is none other reason for it but, you really don't think you are hurt or sick or in need of a Physician. And the Bible says that if this is your position,  "...you are a liar and have made God a liar and the truth is not in you"!  So if you are a lost person today, without Christ it is because, Jesus said, "I do not go to the whole because they have no need of me."...and they don't.  He goes where the need is.
       


         







A Life To Write

"...Telling the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done." Psalm 78:4

The original Ted Gehrke family

      Since I have been blogging, I've been approached by several people who confessed privately that they have been feeling inspired, to write down their family stories, for their children.  They don't know how excited that makes me when I hear this.  It is precisely what I'd hoped to accomplish through my story telling.  I never expected that my family stories would be important to the general public.  Outside of our family and a few close friends there is not that much interest in the Ted Gehrke family.  None of us are famous or accomplished.  We're ordinary people.  Other than the fact that I have lived for 76 years, the last 45 as a Christian, I have no outstanding accomplishments that would make people want to read about my life.  However, the chronicling of my history is something that only I can do and hopefully, as I do it, I will inspire others to do the same.  
     The information below has been taken from the "forwards" of my Christmas Books, that I wrote for my grandchildren for many years.  These forwards tell them why our story is important.  In rewriting them here, I hope that other Christian parents and grandparents will feel "the call" to do the same. 
     The first forward of the first Christmas Book begins, "For years I wanted to write down some of the stories of our lives together as a family."  I wanted my children and grandchildren to know where I and their grandfather came from and what brought us to our present circumstances.  In today's world there is very little exchange between grandparents and grandchildren and very little chance for that to happen. Few of us sit down and have long conversations with our grandchildren, so a lot of our family history is lost to them.  This robs them of so much.
     Just think of what the book and T.V. series, Roots did for black people in our country.  It gave them a sense of pride in their history.  It gave them sympathy for those who came before them who paved the way for better lives.  It gave them a sense of connectedness like nothing else had done.  It gave them hope for the future in seeing how far they had come as a race.  This simple little story of their history as a people was a true treasure.  I believe that is what your family history can do for your children.  It is worth more than anything else you can give them.
     A former President once said, "We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about."  History is very important!  It is the light at the back of the train that points the way to the future.
     Now inspiration comes from the most unusual places.  The thing that finally built a fire under me and caused me to act upon my impulses to actually start writing, was poverty.  One Christmas, as I thought about what I'd give my fourteen grandchildren, I realized that even the "Dollar Tree" would be too expensive for me.  When my complaining reached the ears of one of my daughters-in-law, she said to me, "Mom, why don't you write down some of your family stories and put them in a little book for the kids?  They would much rather have that than a knitted scarf or a box of fudge!"
     I immediately recognized the truth in that and got busy typing, editing, copying and putting several little stories into a book...one for each child.  Fortunately I started in plenty time to get this big job done and the kids loved it.  They asked me every year to add to their books and for many years I did this.  Now they have several books full of family stories that they can pass on to their children.  An added blessing, is that these stories have been read in places where I never expected them to reach, the county jail, a drug rehab facility, on various "dates" that the kids went on, in High School classes and places that I've not yet heard from.  This especially warms my heart because I've tried to emphasize in them, the hand of God in our lives.  Now they have found their way into Facebook and Twitter.  You never know where they will be retold.
     Your life and faith can inspire others.  It can also fill in the gaps of understanding people have about the history of our country.  As I tell about my grandfather's farm, the readers will see how an east Texas sharecropper lived in 1948.  As I tell the story of my husband's life in "the orphanage" in 1949, readers will learn about life there in a huge Catholic children's home in Toledo, Ohio.  Think of the impact hundreds of family stories could have on the next generation.  They would no longer be at the mercy of long, boring chronicles in a history class.  They would be able to see events and people who were important to them living their history.
     Now I know not everyone loves to write and not everyone is a "family historian".  But I'd venture to guess that almost every family has one or both in their ranks.  My advice would be to find them and put them to work collaborating and as Larry the Cable Guy says, "Get 'er done!".
     Now if the above reasons are not enough, I have another good one, especially for Christians, found in Psalm 78:1-12.  I've written it here in a modern translation so it will be easily understood.

      "My people, listen to my teaching; listen to what I say.  I will speak using stories; I will tell secret things from long ago.

      We have heard them and know them by what our ancestors have told us;

      We will tell those who come later about the praises of the Lord.

      We will tell about His power and the miracles He has done.

      The Lord made an agreement with Jacob and gave the teachings to Israel, which He commanded our ancestors to teach to their children, then their children would know them, even their children not yet born, and they would tell their children.  So they would all trust God and would not forget what He had done but would obey His commands.

      They would not be like their ancestors who were stubborn and disobedient.

      Their hearts were not loyal to God, and they were not true to Him.  The men of Ephraim had bows for weapons, but they ran away on the day of battle.

      They didn't keep their agreement with God and refused to live by His teachings.

      They forgot what He had done and the miracles He had shown them.  He did miracles while their ancestors watched,..."

     

     Now I know that this Psalm was written to the nation of Israel about their history specifically, but there is a principle here that is meant for everyone.  The principle is, "Tell your children what God has done in your life so that they will "trust God" and "not forget what He had done but would obey His commands".

     To accomplish this task you don't have to be a great writer.  You don't even have to be a good writer.  It will be a blessing to your children if they can say, "Sounds just like her/him!"  Get someone to read your drafts and correct your spelling, then print it.

      Now one more thing...I'm not advocating that you young mothers who spend your days, cooking, cleaning, wiping noses and other parts and driving the "family taxi" to and fro, should give this all up for a life of writing.  You are in the middle of your "story" and you're too busy living it to write it just yet.  However, you can keep a journal or diary or even a calendar with events recorded in the blocks for future reference, in years to come.  I wish I had done that, instead I now have to search my memory to dredge up details.  Fortunately, the older I get the easier it is to remember what happened 20 years ago, than what happened yesterday.

     Finally, I decided that if I can help it, my children will never forget what He did while I watched.  I hope this inspires you to make that same decision because you too have "a life to write"!      

The Ted Gehrke family after Ted Gehrke went to heaven
...and on it goes...


copyright(c)byLauraGehrke2014



  

The Dying Thief

Sermon preached by Pastor Ted Gehrke, March 31, 1985 at Butternut Bible Church.

 
"There is a Fountain, filled with blood,

Drawn from Emanuel's veins.

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see,

That fountain in his day,

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away."

     
"Carefully notice if you will, that our Lord's last companion here on earth was a crucified thief.

     One of the most amazing and comforting things I notice about Jesus while He was here on earth, was the sorry company he chose to be with as He moved about.

          He did not consort with the religious Pharisee nor did He move about with the philosophical Sadducee, but He was known as "a friend of Publicans and Sinners".  Now, you should find a great deal of comfort when you realize that and ponder it.

    When the Lord Jesus made a friend of us, He certainly did not make a choice that brought Him credit!  It makes me question this "Sports Hero and Movie Star" evangelism.  It seems to say, "Jesus must be alright, old so and so even became a friend of Christ!"

     Or are they saying, "You can believe the Bible and love the Lord because anybody good enough for O.J. Simpson is good enough for you!" (Remember, this was written and preached in 1985, almost 10 years before O.J. "did his thing"!)

     Do you think that Jesus ever gained anything when He made a friend of us?  No, if He had not stooped very low, how would He had ever reached any of us.  Aren't you glad that He came to call,  not the righteous, but sinners to repentance?

     As the "great Physician" our Lord went among the sick to perform His Healing Art.  The whole have not a bit of need for a Physician they cannot appreciate His skill and ability, therefore, He did not go to their homes.

 

     "But Pastor," I can hear some of you say..."you don't understand.  I have been so stubborn for so long.. there is so much in my past.  I am not worthy of the least of His favor.  He will never look upon me. I am a terrible sinner!" 

     Well, I want you to notice that this sinner upon the cross next to Him  was no ordinary sinner!

      He had broken the laws of man and of God and was one of those ruthless men whose life was one that existed at the brutal expense of others.

      He had been captured and brought before the Roman Tribunal,

      He had been found guilty and condemned...and to his guilt he would later testify,

      He had spent his time on death row, now he was reaping what he had sown, and

this convicted felon was the last person our Lord consorted with here on earth!

    

To this most unworthy of men, The Lord of Glory, spoke with matchless Grace!

He said to him, the most wonderful words, that could ever be said or ever found in all the pages of God's Word... "Today, Thou Shalt Be With Me In Paradise!"

     Now I don't suppose there is one here who has committed crimes as great as has this dying thief, but if there is one, now you see that you too can come!

     And greater than our crimes against man, is all of our crimes against a Holy God that each of us have committed!

     And again I can hear some of you say, "But Pastor, I am not such a sinner.  I have not committed so terrible a crime as the crimes of this thief.  If this is what you think...then He didn't come to save you!

                     Our sin is not to be compared to other's, but to the holiness of God!

     And if you say in your heart, I have read of how holy and pure our God is and I know that I am no less a sinner than this dying thief...then you believe rightly, for so we all are and Jesus came to seek and to save YOU!

     Notice too, that this thief was one who was instantaneously and newly awakened.

     Matthew says, "The chief priests said, He trusted in God, let Him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he (Jesus) said, "I am the Son of God".  The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in his teeth." (or ridiculed and mocked him in the same way.) Matt. 27:42-44

    

     This thief started out, it appears, to have joined with his fellow thief in scoffing
and consenting to the crucifixion of the Lord.  Then suddenly he wakes up to the conviction that this is more than a man!  He reads the title, "This is Jesus, King of the Jews!" hanging above His head and in an instant, believes it to be so.
     And thus believing, He makes His appeal to the MESSIAH, whom he had newly recognized and he commits himself into His hands!

     He had started a scoffer and ended a believer!

    And once more I hear some of you ask, "Oh, Pastor, you mean to tell me that a man can sin for 50 years and then in a moment be made clean through the blood of Christ?"

     "Yes, I believe that in one moment, the blackest of souls can be made clean through the precious blood of the Lamb of God... Jesus!"

     And "Yes, I do believe that the sins of a lifetime can be forgiven, and that a sin nature that has gone from bad to worse, can receive it's death-wound in a moment of time, while the eternal soul of a man or woman is implanted at once!"
     It was so with this man.  He had come to the end of his rope.  He woke up to the assured conviction that this Jesus was the Messiah and he believed Him and took Him as his Savior and lived!
     This man was a sinner condemned, a sinner in misery and the last companion of our Lord!  His sins had found him out  and he was now enduring the reward of his deeds!
    
     You have met folks like that.  Their life is a prelude to the eternal hell they're headed for because of their sin.  And the tragedy is, it need not be so, neither here nor hereafter.
     This man too, was in a horrible condition.  He could not live much longer.  Soon they would come and break his legs and shorten his time even more, in this space between noon and sundown.

     But that was long enough for a Savior who is mighty to save!

     How much longer do YOU have to live?

     Now, I cannot help what the wicked care to do with the truth.  I cannot be held responsible for what the lost do with the gospel.  But I am commissioned to state it none the less.

     If you are within and hour of your death this morning, if you die on the way to your home from the church, if you believe at this very instant that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Messiah and take Him as your own...you will be saved.  If you in one breath say to Him, Jesus, I take you as my Lord, with all that that means!  You shall be saved! ...and then as you exhale, find you do not have the strength to breath in again, you shall be in Paradise with Him before you realize your dilemma!

...and by the same token, if you have anther 50 years to live and it goes by slowly, and you reject Him and His claims, and die without Him, you will not have the opportunity again.  Before you realize it, you will be standing before Him in all His holiness only to hear that you are forever condemned!

Notice too...

     This man who Christ saved, was a man who could do no good works.

            If salvation were by good works, he could not have been saved.  He was tied to a cross.  It was impossible for him to do anything!  He could not endure a long and painful repentance.  He didn't have time.  He could not endure long years of conviction of sin... he would be done before the sun went down.

     This sinner we see, painted in colors of blackest sin, had time to do two things, cry out to Jesus and confess his faith!

     Is confession important?  Confession is a demonstration and reasonable result of saving faith!  It is not saving faith, but where you have saving faith, you will find confession of faith.

     When he began his confession, Jesus didn't say "Awww, forget it!"

     The thief's confession of faith was "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom!
     
     Joseph, of old, asked the Butler to remember him (when he got out of prison) and he forgot him!  But  our "Joseph" never forgets a sinner who calls out to Him from the lowest dungeon!

     Next, let's notice that this man who was our Lord's companion at the very gate of Paradise.
    
      Now I'm not going to get into where did the Lord go when He died.  It would seem from the scriptures, that He descended into the lower parts to declare His victory that He might fulfill all things.  That was for a brief time, but remember, He died a couple hours before the thief and then entered His Kingdom at the same time as His new convert. (If you're measuring it in time.)
     Now, in our mind's eye, who would we have chosen to enter Paradise with Jesus...David, Abraham, Elijah?  Yet it was none of these.

     He that entered the Gates of Glory was none other than a thief...saved at the time of His death and now entering where "the last shall be first!"

     There was a story of a man who dreamed that he stood outside the gate of heaven and while there, he heard sweet music from a band on their way to glory.  Enquiring, he asked, "Who are these?"  He was told that they were the Godly fellowship of the prophets.  He sighed and said, "Alas, I am not one of those!"  He waited a while and another band of shining ones drew near and entered with Hallelujahs, so he inquired again, "Who are these and whence came they?"  The answer came, "These are the Glorious Company of the Apostles".  Again he sighed, "I cannot enter with them."  Then there drew close yet another and larger band and they had palms in their hands and they marched amid great acclamation.  And when he heard that they were the noble army of the martyrs, again he wept and said, "I cannot go in with these."  In the end he heard the voices of many people and he saw a greater multitude advancing toward the Gates of Pearl.  And he saw among them, Rehab and Mary Magdalene and David and Peter  and Manasseh and Saul of Tarsus and then he saw the thief, the one who hanged by Jesus side. Then the answer came,  "This is the host of sinners saved by grace." And he was glad and began shouting, "I can go in with these!"  Yet, he thought there would be no shouting nor song as they came to the throne.  But as they drew near, there arose a glad cry at the gate of Heaven, shouting at the approach of this company.  For there is "Joy in the presence of the angels of God" over sinners that repent.  And above the shouts and the song, there arose the voice of the Savior, "Rejoice for I have found my own!"

     What Jesus said to that thief was:

          "Today there shall be no more pain,
           Today there will be no more tears,
           Today you will be with me in Paradise!"

      Oh how I long for that day!

    

           



Altus, Oklahoma...Home of Jennifer Gehrke (1973-1975)

     I have blogged about my other three children, Joel in The Cowboy From Queens, Kelly in, Snappy Easter, and Tim in Timmy Tom Turkey, so now it's Jennifer's turn.  Since they have been my fellow travelers in this journey through life, they have played a significant role in how I got here.  They, as much as my parents and my husband have made me who I am and filled my life to the brim with good things.  For you readers who don't know me or my children, I hope this story will remind you of your own little "flibbertigibbet" who helped shape your life and make it full and meaningful.

     When we arrived in Altus, Oklahoma in 1973, our next station in the U.S. Air Force, we had just buried my dad.  We were weary from travel.  We had left Spain in June and it was now the middle of July in Oklahoma and hot.  We hadn't had a home for over a month and were eager to settle down in a comfortable, air conditioned house. We rented a house across the street from one of the several Baptist churches in town, in a quiet neighborhood, two blocks from the local elementary school.
     Jennifer was three years old, a pudgy little girl with wispy blond hair.  She was very talkative and friendly and not afraid of a living soul. She was certainly no "shrinking violet".  I remember saying in exasperation after a shopping trip with her, "I have tried and tried to teach this child not to talk to strangers and she just can't seem to learn it!"  Joel said, "Mom, that's because she's never met a stranger!"  He was right, and because of that she became "famous" in Altus, Oklahoma.
     After all our furniture and belongings were delivered by the movers, the other children registered in school, and Ted tucked away at Altus Air Force Base, I went to work unpacking boxes and trying to set up our home.  I was so busy in fact, that I'm afraid I ignored three year old Jennifer.  I'd feed and dress her then stick her in the back bedroom with her toys and hope she'd leave me alone so I could chip away at the enormous task.
     One day as I unpacked dishes in the kitchen, there was a knock on my door.  I went to the door and there stood two large policemen.  I was immediately alarmed.  The thought ran through my head that something had happened to one of the kids.  I knew it wasn't Ted because these were local policemen, not  Air policemen.  I'm sure I went pale when I saw them because they very quickly started speaking to me.
     "Mamm, do you have a little girl named Jennifer?" began the big, burly one.
     "Yes." I answered, now really confused because Jennifer was in her bedroom playing.  "What has she done?" I asked.
     "Do you know where she is?" asked the other policeman.
     "Of course I do...she's three!  I replied, trying the keep the irritation out of my voice.
     "Where is she?" he asked.
     "She's in her bedroom playing." said I, who had no intention of allowing them to interrogate my three year old daughter, no matter what crime she might have committed.
     "Well, you'd better go check on her!" said Big Burly, "...because she's been on the phone with the police dispatcher for thirty minutes.  We keep trying to get her to hang up, but she won't.  The dispatcher finally got her name, she said, "It's Jennifer Gehrke" then she was asked "Where do you live?" and your daughter said, "Across the street from the Baptist church."
     "Well there are several Baptist churches in town and so far we have been to four.  We were sent out to find her and get her off the phone.  She can't be tying up the police line.  Will you please go check on her?"
     I ran to the back bedroom remembering that there was a phone hooked up back there because the previous occupants had used it as the master bedroom since it was the largest. We hadn't had a chance to move it yet.  When I arrived I found my daughter chatting happily to the police dispatcher who had tried to hang up on her twice and she kept hitting redial and reconnecting.  I grabbed the phone and said, "Hello," and without waiting for an answer I added, "...we'll be hanging up now."
     That was Altus, Oklahoma's introduction to Jennifer.  Fortunately, neither one of us were arrested that day.
     We attended a large Baptist church in town that held well over a thousand people.  One Sunday morning the pastor wanted to use a child to illustrate something in his sermon, so he said, "Let's see... what child could I call up here that wouldn't be afraid to answer my questions?  I know!  I'll call Jennifer Gehrke!"  (He knew her well by then.)  She marched right up, he handed her a mike and off they went with the illustration.  Never mind that a thousand sets of eyes and ears were staring at her and listening to her.  It was as if she were standing in her own living room.
     We had a good friend, Sonny Tims, who was the town undertaker.  Ted used to go to the funeral home and have coffee with him on his days off.  They would talk football or golf or theology for hours on his coffee breaks. Sometimes Ted would take Jennifer with him.  Sonny soon introduced her to some of his "customers" and explained to her that their bodies were just the empty tents they used  to live in, but now their spirits had moved on to heaven.  He said it was his job to make the tents as pretty as possible so their families and friends could say good by at the funerals. 
     That was good enough for Jennifer so from that time on, when her dad took her to the funeral home, she'd ask to see the new "tents" that Sonny had in the back room.  He of course obliged her by walking her past each one and telling her who they were and where they lived and what church they attended etc. etc.  So one of Jennifer's weekly activities became viewing the dead of Altus, Oklahoma.  One time I asked Ted, "Do you think this is healthy?"  He said, "She probably accepts death better than you and I."
     One day a little black Cocker Spaniel dog followed Tim home from school.  We made him take her back to the neighborhood he walked through and go door to door until he found her owner.  Finally he found her and the lady who answered the door, asked if he wanted to keep her.  Of course he wanted to keep her!  So that's how we acquired Sissy.
     Jennifer loved Sissy and Sissy loved her.  They bonded quickly and became each other's playmates.  When Jennifer cried, Sissy cried and when Jennifer was happy, so was Sissy.
     One day Jennifer, now four years old, was playing across the street with neighborhood kids.  Their mother had assured me that she would watch them closely, so I allowed her to go and of course she took Sissy with her. What I didn't know was that close to their house, in the back alley, was an old abandoned well.  It was covered with wooden planks nailed together and weighed down by a large rock.
     When Jennifer had been there about an hour, I heard sirens screaming down our street and I ran to the front door to see where they were going.  I was shocked when I saw them stopping in the alley behind the house where Jennifer was playing in the yard.
      My heart almost stopped.  I ran across the street and into the alley where the firemen and rescue squad were surrounding a hole in the ground.  I started yelling, "Jennifer!"  Then I saw her standing between two of the men, instructing them how to do whatever they were doing.  I ran to her, then looked down into the hole. 
      Jennifer said, "Mom, Sissy is in the well.  The little boy threw her down there!"  She was crying and very upset.  I could see Sissy at the bottom of the well.  Her little front paws were up on the wall and she was up to her stomach in water, whining pitifully.  A fireman was already descending a ladder, to rescue her. 
     I found out later that it was Jennifer's idea to call the fire department.  The neighbor lady, (mother of the culprit who had thrown the dog into the well) said that Jennifer ran into her house screaming so loudly that she thought a child had fallen into the well.  Then she realized what she was screaming, "Call the fire department, he threw my dog into the well...call the fire department!  Call the fire department!"  So she did.
     Who knows where she had learned that.  She was four!  Thinking back on it, it was probably her dad. He was the "safety" officer of our house and he had probably instructed her that if she ever got into trouble and he wasn't around she should call the fire department!
     That afternoon when the kids got home from school and we told them the story, Joel said, "Oh great, now the fire department knows our name!"
     Ted and I attended college in Altus.  It was the home of Western Oklahoma State College.  We began attending classes together three nights a week.  We were only gone from home a couple hours at a time, so we left Jennifer with the older kids.  Joel was seventeen, Kelly in Jr. High, and Tim was at least twelve.  We never worried about them.  They were responsible kids who could be left alone for a couple hours at a time.
     One night while we were gone, Jennifer decided she wanted to go out and play.  We had instructed them not to let her go out alone because she was defiantly not to be trusted alone.
     Joel was doing homework and the other two kids were watching T.V. so no one wanted to be bothered watching Jennifer play outside.  They had locked both doors so she couldn't get out, but the front door had a chain lock on it that allowed the door to be opened about 5 or 6 inches.  She was busy opening it and closing it and peeking outside through the opening when all of a sudden, the kids heard her scream. They ran into the living room and saw that she had wedged her head into the opening and it was stuck so tightly that if she moved, it not only pulled hair out, but scraped her scalp.
     They tried for a while to get her out but she was screaming so loudly and her head was now bleeding and seemed to be swelling with the effort.  Joel thought of taking the hinges off the door but decided it would take too long and the weight of the door might crush her skull.  Nothing they did seemed to work, so Joel said, "Let's call the fire department!"
     She then started screaming, "No, don't call the fire department!"  I guess she knew it was really  scary if they, CALLED THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!  Joel tried to calm her and convince her that it was the right thing to do.  Finally he said, "If they come out here, they'll give you a sucker."  So she calmed down and said, "Okay."
     They called them. The rescue squad came screaming once again down our street, up to our house.  They got Jennifer's head unstuck but didn't bring her a sucker.  She's still bitter about that.
     The following morning, right under the banner name of the local newspaper (The Altus Times Democrat) were these words in fine script type, "Altus, Oklahoma, Home of Jennifer Gehrke!"  Below that, on the front page, was the whole story of how the brave men of the rescue squad had saved little Jennifer Gehrke from crushing her skull in a door.
     Joel's editorial upon reading the story was, "Oh great, now everyone in school will know how dumb my little sister is!"
     Last but not least, one evening we came home from school to find that Jennifer had been hiding in Tim's closet for over an hour.  The kids couldn't get her to come out and they were worried.
     Ted went in and fished her out, then we found out the reason she was hiding.  The front of her hair, (right where her bangs should have been) was cut down to the scalp!  She was crying, so we calmed her down then asked her to explain it.  She said, "I wanted my hair to look like Daddy's but instead it looks like Timmy's!"
     To explain that, Ted was balding in front.  He had a few little wispy, blond hairs left that he kept neatly combed back.  Timmy always had a "flat top" haircut.  So her hair really did look like Timmy's... only much shorter. 
     I was shocked by her answer so I again asked her, "why?"  To which she replied, "Daddy's hair is so pretty!  I want my hair to be like his!"
     That's one I've never understood because her hair was like his, only she actually had hair in the front... but then I guess in the end we understood very little of what made Jennifer, Jennifer.
     My theme song for her was, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, from The Sound of Music.  I'll try to condense a few lines of it for you.

"How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
...a flibbertigibbet!...a will-o-the-wisp!...a clown!

How do you make her stay, and listen to all you say,
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

O, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

Unpredictable as the weather, she's as flighty as a feather,
She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!

She'd out pester any pest, drive a hornet from it's nest.
She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl!
She is gentle! She is wild! She a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! She's an angel! She's a girl!

O, how do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you hold
a moonbeam in your hand!


    


    

This is a Test -- This is Only a Test

     Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. Lam. 3:22,23

     Sometimes God works in your life and there's just simply no way you can explain it to people, so as to convince them that it was God!  You know it.  Your as convinced of it as anything else in your life, but when you tell it to others they look at you like they want to pat you on the head and say, "Of course He did."...pat, pat.  Well this is one of those times that it happened to me and I'm so sure that it was God that I keep telling it anyway. So here it goes again...

      "This is a test, this is only a test!"  How many times in my life has that little phrase from the Civil Defense Organization ran through my head as I faced something too big for me to handle!  You know... it's followed by that long obnoxious techy sound that assaults your ear drums and makes your eyeballs spin. It sounds something like "aghhhhhhh".  It blasts over the radio or television and you rush to turn it down or mute it because it so unpleasant.
     It is an alert from the state and local authorities that if a disaster is approaching, we can be assured that they will be broadcasting emergency instructions on that frequency.  I always think to myself, But what if the electricity is knocked out and the channel isn't open?  Where will we be then? 
      Fortunately, I have come to believe there is one channel that we can always count on to be open.  The power supply will never go out and we'll always receive instructions, relief and help...it's God's channel.
     I have had to learn that lesson over and over in my life, and I won't say I've learned it even now because each test seems to be a little bit harder than the last one.  To my shame, I failed one of these tests just last week. (This was written in 1984 so it's not accurate to the present, although I'm not above failing one again this week.) But I've come to understand that these tests boost my faith when I reflect on them.  The following is a story of one such test.
     Our family learned a lot while we attended college in 1976. I've already told you about the "coat incident" and paying it forward, but besides these spiritual lessons we did learn a lot from the professors.  We were in Grand Rapids so Ted could train for the ministry and little did we know that the training would come from outside the class room as well as inside and would include the whole family,...especially me.

    As I mentioned  in previous stories, each weekend Ted supplied pulpits for churches all

over Michigan, whose pastors were either sick or on vacation, or for churches who were without a pastor and were searching for one.  It was great experience for Ted and provided us with a little extra money while it helped out the churches.  He had been doing this for about four months in February of 1976 and I was getting really tired of it.  That encouraged me to start praying that God would give Ted a church to pastor while he was in school, so he could stop supplying.

     We had never spent Sundays apart except those years when we were in the Air Force and he was separated from us.  Since we got out of the Air Force we'd shared everything about Sunday...the church services, Sunday dinner (sometimes with friends) Sunday afternoon naps, fellowship and special meetings after the evening service, etc. With Ted gone, every Sunday was lonely.  I no longer enjoyed the day.  As a matter of fact, I began to dread and resent it.  Our four children ages five to seventeen, had to be awakened, fed, dressed, and hurried out the door twice on Sunday.  Then if we were invited to dinner or a special meeting after church, I either felt like a fifth wheel without Ted or refused the invitation and disappointed the kids. Even if I let them go alone  to the various activities, I'd usually end up driving through the icy, dark winter streets to pick them up.
     It was a miserable, complicated time for all of us.   Added to this, the winter was hard and interminable.  It had been snowing since September.  I wasn't accustomed to such weather and here it was February and no sign of letting up.  Then there were the high heating bills, which we couldn't  pay.  Ted was always gone, teaching missionary aviation for another college in town. Then he had his own classes to attend, even at night and there was never enough money for things we really needed like tires for the cars, groceries, utilities and the endless needs of four school aged children.  My list of complaints were as interminable as the cold weather!
     One  Sunday evening as I sat in the church pew, listing all these gripes in my head, fuming about another miserable Sunday without Ted, I realized I'd not heard a word the preacher was saying.  This added guilt to my raging emotions.  However I couldn't dislodge the thoughts that plagued me, so I just gave in and reviewed my disastrous day again.
     Ted had received an early morning phone call from the man who ran the missionary aviation program where he taught flying.  He said, "Ted I was supposed to supply the pulpit at Butternut Bible Church up east of Greenville today and I woke up with a very sore throat.  Do you think you could possibly take my place?"
     "Sure, just give me directions to the church and give them a call so they'll know to expect me." replied Ted.
     He was out of the house by eight o'clock and I was once again alone and miserable.  I had complained all morning to the Lord and yelled at the kids.  We went to the morning services then came directly home afterward.  I was so agitated and forlorn all afternoon that I couldn't take a nap, so sitting in the pew tonight, I was tired and disgruntled.
       My mind went back to an hour or so earlier when we had all piled into our old car to go back to the evening church service and the car refused to start.  In complete exasperation, I'd instructed the kids to go back into the house and we would just stay home!
     " I wouldn't start either if I had sat out in 16 below 0 temperature!" I yelled as I threw the car keys onto the couch.
     "But how are we going to get to church?" one of the kids asked.
     "We're not!  We're going to stay home!" I yelled again.
     "But we're having a youth fellowship after church tonight and there's a special speaker coming.   I don't want to miss it!" she complained.
     "Well, I'll just call the Moshers and have them pick you up.  I staying home!" I declared.
     So I called Nan Mosher and explained the situation and she said, "I'm sorry, Laura, but we promised the neighbors across the street that we'd give them a ride to church.  There just wouldn't be room for the kids, even the older two." 
     "Fine!" I said and hung up.  To the kids I said, "Forget it! We're staying home."
     Of course they all set up a howl and I told them to "shut up!"  I was threatening to put them all to bed when the phone rang and it was Nan.
     She said, "Laura, I called (someone, a deacon whom I can't remember at this time) and he said he'd swing by and pick you all up for church.  Just be ready when he gets there."
     "We'll, you shouldn't have done that!" I exclaimed.  "I'm not going.  I don't know this man and I'm too upset to go.  I'm tired of going without Ted and cars breaking down and not having enough money to fix them and this everlasting snow.  I'd rather just stay home tonight.  Just call him back and tell him to forget it!"
     I could hear the kids in the background pleading with me to accept the offer.  I kept giving them the killer looks that I had become so adept at over the seventeen years I'd had kids, but they wouldn't be quiet.  On the other end of the line, Nan was trying to reason with me.  While sandwiched between these two forces, I heard a knock at my front door.
     "Oh, all right!  All of you just be quiet and leave me alone.  I'll go to church...but I won't enjoy it!" I yelled as I slammed down the phone.
     We grabbed out coats and ran out to the man's car.  I got into the front seat and grunted at the hapless deacon, then frowned and stared silently out the window all the way to church.
     Now here I was, sitting in the pew, not listening to the sermon and stewing in my own juices.  My mind was in such turmoil that I couldn't listen.
     Finally the sermon ended and we stood to sing the closing hymn.  It was a familiar old song...one that I had sung for years, even in my childhood, but for the first time in my life, every word of it hit me like a sledge hammer.  The first verse came worming through my mind and into my heart.  It said:
   

"Be not dismayed whate're betide,

God will take care of you.

Beneath His wings of love abide,

God will take care of you.

God will take care of you, through

every day, ore all the way.

He will take care of you...

God will take care of you!"

     By this time, tears were coursing down my cheeks.  I didn't have a tissue of course, so I wiped them on my sleeve.  Joel was holding the hymnal for me and he looked worried. "What's wrong, Mom?"

     "Nothing!" I said, Shhhh!"  Then the next verse started:

    

"Through days of toil when heart doth fail,

God will take care of you;

When danger fierce your path assail,

God will take care of you;"



     Pound! Pound! went the hammer on my heart and the tears kept flowing.

     "Mom, some thing's wrong! What is it?" persisted Joel.

     "Shhh!" I blubbered again through my torrent of tears.  The song continued...

 "All you may need He will provide,

God will take care of you;

Nothing you ask will be denied,

God will take care of you."

     That's not true! I protested silently,  I've asked You to help us pay our bills while we are in school and we're behind on everything!  I've asked that Ted would get a church while he's in college and seminary, so we can all go to church together and he can quit one of his jobs.  I've asked for a lot of things and we don't have them!  We have been reduced to taking handouts to survive and now we can't even get the car started so we can go to church!  The tears kept coming, I kept complaining and the song kept mocking me...

"No matter what may be the test,

God will take care or you;

Lean, weary one, upon His breast,

God will take care of you!"

     Suddenly I felt ashamed.  I was supposed to be leaning on Him...trusting Him.  How can I possibly be a Pastor's wife, Lord, when I can't even trust You?  I'm so selfish I don't even want to share my husband with the church.  I'm so self-centered that I have to be part of the action to be happy.  I'm such a foot-stomping, snot-nosed brat that I take it out on my kids when things don't go my way!  Why on earth would God give us a church to pastor, when I'm such a terrible example to everyone?  

     That's when  I really lost it!  I pushed past Joel and ran out, crossed the vestibule and ducked into the Ladies room. I went into a stall, blew my nose and sat down on the toilet and cried some more.  After a moment a strange thing happened... I stopped crying. It was like someone turned off the waterworks. Then I noticed that the anger, the worry and fear had all stopped too.  I was completely at peace.  For some reason the thought went through my head, Ted is going to be called to a church!
     I started to argue with the thought, then stopped myself and said aloud, "Well isn't this interesting? Maybe I've snapped!" (If someone else was in that bathroom, they'd be certain I had snapped.) I chuckled at the thought and said to myself, Don't mess with it!  It feels pretty good!

Butternut Bible Church

     I washed up and walked out of the Ladies room to gather my kids, with a smile on my red face.  Joel looked at me like I'd grown another head and shrugged.
     Later that night Ted came in and said, "Hi, how was your day?"
     "Great!" I answered. "How about yours?"
     "Interesting." he replied.
     "You were offered a pastorate, weren't you?" I asked.
     He looked shocked and said "Yes, how did you know?"
     "Oh, I just had a feeling." I replied.

The Parsonage

     Butternut Bible Church called him to pastor their church with the understanding that he would finish school.  They moved us into their parsonage, paid us a salary and provided us with love, fellowship and a place of ministry for twenty-two years until Ted's death in 1996.
     Now as I said at the beginning of this story....I failed one of these tests just last week.  I'm 65 years old at this writing.  I was a Pastor's wife and a Sunday school teacher for twenty five years and still sometimes I fail the "trust test".  My question is, how many more of the ear blasting, eyeball spinning situations do I have to go through to know, without a doubt that God's channel is always on the air and He will take care of me?



(c)copyrightljgehrke2014