Faith Filled Family Magazine Fall 2011

“Well, I love to read. I have been so busy I can’t even get to the book store or library.” She smiled and said, “I have a lot of books. Would you like me to share some of them with you?” The next time she came in she brought in two grocery bags full of paperbacks. I was a little busy, so I told her to put them on my desk. After she left I dug into those bags. After looking at five or six books I felt like crying. They were all Jesus books. “Well, they can just sit there and I’ll make believe I’ve read them.”

For the next two weeks I had hardly any customers. I teased the man in the paint store and asked him if he had locked the door that led down to my studio.

I cleaned my studio from top to bottom. Finally, with nothing left to do, I reached into that bag of books and began to read the back flaps. One of the books was by David Wilkerson. He told about the Teen Challenge drug rehabilitation program. I found the program interesting, but I was fascinated by the way David talked to and about Jesus. He talked as if he knew God. Out of boredom, I reached into the bag and chose another book by well-known business women Frances Hunter. I hugged it to my body. Maybe I could learn something new about business. Part of Frances’s story was about her printing business and what happened to her when she developed a cataract. One of her customers - a pastor – had visited her in the hospital and led her to Christ. She had the whole plan of salvation in her book. Up until this time I had never heard about a personal relationship with Jesus.

I knew right then and there that I wanted Jesus in my life. I knew that I had to recognize that I was a sinner who needed Him. I felt like Paul in the Bible. I had had blinders on my eyes, but now I could see.

Jesus had used Frances to remove them. I don’t even remember how I got on my knees, but I knelt down on the hard concrete floor in my studio and received Jesus. Then I knew the Father because Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me” (John 14:6).

Soon after saying yes to Jesus, a lady in my garden club asked if I would like to be in her Bible study. I was so hungry for the Word that I quickly said I would love to. She was a great teacher, and I learned to love the Word.

We began attending a Bible church and I became active in the women’s ministry.

Many years have passed. God still uses books to teach and motivate me.

He has used the Bible, the greatest Book of them all, to guide me. I am still learning to lean on Him and to listen as He whispers in my ear, “I love you, My child.”