“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” 2 Timothy 1:5
We know very little about Lois and Eunice, but our imaginations can picture them praying with young Timothy, teaching him the simple stories of Jesus and the life-changing truths of God’s Word, and introducing him to the early leaders of the church. Fortunately for me, I don't need to imagine much because I have been blessed with the experience of having a Godly mother.
Sister Angeline Owens introduced me to Jesus and kept Jesus in front of me until I could made a rational and intelligent decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and follow after Him in water baptism. She did this through a variety of ways. Since I was an active child (code language for bad, mannish, taken out every Sunday to have a come to Jesus meeting), she made me do "constructive things".
One of those things was learning God's Word. My mother purchased those Blue Book Encyclopedia things, they were story books with different Bible stories in them. There were either 10 or 12 volumes, not sure but I know I had to memorize them. Mother would say, read Naaman, read Moses, read Daniel, read the 3 Hebrew Boys and when its time you better be able to recite the entire story.
I thought my mom was crazy and mean. No other children had to memorize 12 page chapters of Bible lessons. I had to recite them at BTU (that's Baptist Training Union when we as Baptists used to believe in training our people), no other mothers were making their children recite or memorize. I had to do speeches but I couldn't get the simple speech where everyone claps and says how cute, how adorable, I had to memorize the entire 55th chapter of Isaiah or all of Luke 2. It just wasn't right!
Thank God for his providential nature that he is putting the pieces together when we don't even realize what he is doing. My mother was giving me an appetite for the Word of God. She developed in me a love for "Character Studies" and presenting sermons from a contextual basis, beginning to end. She took the time to develop my memory, to learn Bible verses, strive for excellence in Christ, to give God the best that you have.
Long before Oklahoma Baptist University, or Southwestern or Southern Seminaries, it was the school of "old school baptist taught at 1705 NE 24th Street by Professor Angeline Owens that made me the Pastor I am today. I have done so many things to be a major disappointment to my mother and it would not be wrong if she had walked away from me years ago but she never did. She kept praying, kept believing, kept hoping, kept trusting and because of her through God, I AM STILL STANDING.
I love you mother, and by the way, MACEDONIA LOVES YOU TOO AND WANTS YOU UP HERE.
Owens
We know very little about Lois and Eunice, but our imaginations can picture them praying with young Timothy, teaching him the simple stories of Jesus and the life-changing truths of God’s Word, and introducing him to the early leaders of the church. Fortunately for me, I don't need to imagine much because I have been blessed with the experience of having a Godly mother.
Sister Angeline Owens introduced me to Jesus and kept Jesus in front of me until I could made a rational and intelligent decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and follow after Him in water baptism. She did this through a variety of ways. Since I was an active child (code language for bad, mannish, taken out every Sunday to have a come to Jesus meeting), she made me do "constructive things".
One of those things was learning God's Word. My mother purchased those Blue Book Encyclopedia things, they were story books with different Bible stories in them. There were either 10 or 12 volumes, not sure but I know I had to memorize them. Mother would say, read Naaman, read Moses, read Daniel, read the 3 Hebrew Boys and when its time you better be able to recite the entire story.
I thought my mom was crazy and mean. No other children had to memorize 12 page chapters of Bible lessons. I had to recite them at BTU (that's Baptist Training Union when we as Baptists used to believe in training our people), no other mothers were making their children recite or memorize. I had to do speeches but I couldn't get the simple speech where everyone claps and says how cute, how adorable, I had to memorize the entire 55th chapter of Isaiah or all of Luke 2. It just wasn't right!
Thank God for his providential nature that he is putting the pieces together when we don't even realize what he is doing. My mother was giving me an appetite for the Word of God. She developed in me a love for "Character Studies" and presenting sermons from a contextual basis, beginning to end. She took the time to develop my memory, to learn Bible verses, strive for excellence in Christ, to give God the best that you have.
Long before Oklahoma Baptist University, or Southwestern or Southern Seminaries, it was the school of "old school baptist taught at 1705 NE 24th Street by Professor Angeline Owens that made me the Pastor I am today. I have done so many things to be a major disappointment to my mother and it would not be wrong if she had walked away from me years ago but she never did. She kept praying, kept believing, kept hoping, kept trusting and because of her through God, I AM STILL STANDING.
I love you mother, and by the way, MACEDONIA LOVES YOU TOO AND WANTS YOU UP HERE.
Owens
1 comment:
You shouldn’t look directly at Holy things; neither should you speak freely so I want.
Thanks for this wonderful post.
Ron
Post a Comment