Tag Archives: faithfulness

A Tribute to Betty Jo

29 Sunday Dec 2013

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I closed my eyes and could see her smiling and filled with joy.  She had made it home and she did it with courage and determination. Betty Jo Spencer Replogle completed her earth’s journey and at God’s perfect moment, He lifted her away from the world’s burdens and into heaven’s triumph.

“Jo” was the youngest of my mother’s seven siblings. Just eight years older than I, she seemed more a sister than aunt. Jo was born after my parents married and Daddy liked to tease her that he had been in the family longer than she had. That never failed to bring on one of her quick, easy laughs.

We all loved the laughter that peppered her conversations.  Jo had a great sense of humor even through tough times—and she had many. Her body knew several serious and unusual diseases, and for the most part, she coped with them as if they were nothing more than a common cold. Certainly, as with all of us, there were other tests in her life, but I believe it was the trials coupled with a faith which steadily grew that gave her the fortitude to cope as she did.

Jim and Dulcie Spencer’s children were, and are, all good people. The steadfast faith of my grandparents was imparted and rooted well in each one of their children. Jo lived out their legacy in her 78 years by remaining true to her own salvation story. She never forgot the way to God’s house and when she and her family were to be there; she never forgot how to trust in the Almighty.  She was a faithful daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother. Her concerns were at all times focused on her family and doing all she could to make their life good.

Thought she seemed too young to leave us, wishing her to stay, as sick as she was, would have been nothing but selfish. The last time I saw her, I knew she was making the transition home. I saw in her the same thing I saw in Mother before she died: she was in an intermediate place. Jo was still in her body, but her spirit had caught sight of heaven and eagerness drew her in that direction. Like Mother, it seemed in those last days when you spoke to Jo, you could call her back for a moment, but you couldn’t hold her for long. She saw Beulah Land. She saw the end of a long and hard struggle and a place where family awaited. She saw a place where Jesus beckoned.

By way of a recording made years ago, her youngest son sang “He Touched Me” at the funeral. The beginning words speak of being “shackled by a heavy burden” and soon declare, “then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same.”  For Jo, her shackling was a body weighed down and rapidly failing. The hand of Jesus touched her as He drew her into heaven and there placed a crown on her head with the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” And truly, her life is so longer the same; she has reached Heaven’s glory.

When Papa Jim, Jo’s father and my grandfather, died, Mama Dulcie noted in a journal, “Jim went home to be with Jesus today.” That’s what Betty Jo Spencer Replogle did on December 24, 2013. She went home to be with Jesus.

We thank You, Lord, for her time with us and for her witness to Your presence in her life. BETTY_JO_S_GRADUATION_PICTU

O Beulah land, sweet Beulah land!

As on thy highest mount I stand,

I look away across the sea

Where mansions are prepared for me

And view the shining glory shore

My heaven, my home forever more.

            John R. Sweney (1837–1899)

God’s Faithfulness

31 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Christianity, prayer

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Father, the psalmists wrote so beautifully about You.  Thank You for sharing with us their words.  David was our chief psalmist and he was masterful in his writings, but there were others who wrote the songs of long ago that also told of You with great skill.

Psalm 89 is one of the many psalms where words become like a brush on a painter’s canvas.  This psalm is by Ethan as he recounts Your covenant with David, and the sorrow of lost blessings.

Verse 8 says “You are mighty, O Lord, and Your faithfulness surrounds You.” I rest my reading for a moment and look out into the distance to consider how faithfulness surrounding you might look.  I see a cloud-like atmosphere of gentleness, a place of safe abode.  It is filled with omnipotent love.  You are there watching over us, beckoning the weary, soothing the heavy burdened, smiling on the ones who overcome trial by their trust in You.  Your faithfulness flows out on all those who call You Lord.

Verse 15 says “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, O Lord.”  It is another place to pause and envision.  Your redeemed ones are standing in the light of Your being, which is greater than a thousand suns.  These, Your children, are praising and worshiping the Lamb of Glory.  They are rejoicing in Your faithfulness, calling out the many ways You have proven Your love over and over again.

The psalmist tells of Your faithful love for David, and how You will be with him always.  Yet in verse 38, there is a sudden turn.  Ethan puts aside his recounting of Your blessings and declares that You failed David, the one You promised to uphold forever.   His words turn from those of praise, to weeping and questioning.  It is another place for reflection.  A place to be still and ponder.

You had a relationship with David like no other, this man You took from shepherd to king.  You told us David was a man after Your own heart.  Yet, there were times when he felt separated from You.  Sometimes he understood why this was and other times he didn’t.  And so it is with us.

Sometimes we feel You have abandoned us.  We feel anxious and troubled over unanswered prayers.  We worry that our valley experiences will never again lead to the mountaintops, that we will be pressed beyond our ability to bear what life hands us.  Most of the time, it is our sin that interrupts relationship.  But other times we feel abandoned and we don’t know why.  One catastrophe after another comes; we are hit hard.  And we cry out like the psalmist, “How long, O Lord?  Will You hide Yourself forever?” (v. 46)

This journey on earth is tough.  It is complicated, frustrating, and exhausting.  Being a Christian doesn’t take that away, usually it makes it worse.  For living as a follower of Christ in a fallen world gives ongoing struggle with evil.  Life on this earth will never be without suffering.  But it is not in disappointment and despair that we are to live.  Rather, we are to live in the knowledge of One high and lifted up.  It is there we must cling.  Even when it “feels” like You aren’t with us, You are.   You never forsake Your children.  That’s the full story of the Holy Bible, and we can rest in its truth.

With all the psalmist’s grief and groaning, he ends by exalting You.  He returns to the way his psalm begins.  He gives you praise and honor!  This man of old tells us that no matter how deep the pain, You are still with us and we can trust in that.

Now I reflect again on this writing of the 89th psalm.  It tells me that I am always to see my Lord with faithfulness encircling Him.  There is no break in Your faithfulness — it remains.  And it is through praise that we are able to enter in.  For Your word says that You inhabit our praise; we can always find You there.  And when this world’s darkness seeks to overwhelm us, we can remember we have a choice:  to tarry in the darkness of this world, or step confidently into the Light that is Your presence.   For faith isn’t a feeling; it is a decision.

Thank You, blessed God, for the words and assurance of this psalmist.  He is a witness of Your faithfulness.  His words have been preserved for us so that we may know what relationship with You looks like.  We thank You, Abba Father, for the encouragement of this psalm.

NIV translation used.