The Language of Love
by Murrell Ewing
1980 · Youth Camp 80 (a youth camp; district and town not named in the recording)
Kind: conference session
Scripture: Philippians 3:10, Philippians 3:7-9, Philippians 3:11-14

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/murrell-ewing--the-language-of-love
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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me but just stand now in honor the reading of the word of the Lord the presence of God is here in this building tonight in such a beautiful way and you always remember that Satan does not like for us to enjoy what we are enjoying and what is here in this building and he will oppose it in every way that he possibly can but I want you tonight take a hold of the purpose of the spirit that is so beautifully moved into this congregation and I want us to let God do what he wants to do in our hearts tonight how many of you are hungry once again for the Lord to do something to your heart to your soul would you just lift up your hand right now and say God you've got full charge you've got full access to my heart and my soul tonight work on me work on me work on me in the name of the Lord praise God I'm turning in our Bibles to

Philippians the thir chapter and I probably to get the gist and to get the setting of The what Paul is writing here I might would need to read a lengthy scripture text but perhaps can go back and reiterate just a little bit to give you some of what Paul is saying here the setting let me just choose one scripture and that is the 10th verse of that third chapter Paul says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death that I may know him that I may know him would you say that with me that I may know him would you say it one more time that I may know him praise God I want you to lift your hands with me and pray that same simple prayer it's a three-phase prayer and please pray pray every phase that I ask you to pray pray that God would anoint the lips of his feeble servant and pray that he would anoint the ears of the hearers and that he would melt all of our hearts together in his presence tonight let's lift our hands and pray that prayer father we thank you tonight for your spirit thank you for the Holy Ghost that's in this place thank you for the presence that has already done a work in the hearts of some of these great young people here tonight and you're mellowing and you're marinating the rest of us in the Holy Ghost and I pray now that you would anoint the lips of your feeble servant so helpless we are never before has our helplessness exceeded what we are tonight and I pray that you would anoint the ears of the hearers anoint the ears of your people God and melt our hearts together in the presence of the Lord we ask it we ask ask it because we want it For Your Glory for your honor oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah we appreciate you so very much we appreciate you and we worship you and thank you and advance for what you will do in the hearts of this young people tonight in Jesus name and everybody say Amen praise God do you want to preach tonight how many of you want to preach now look you're about to hear a flop unless you and God help me if you and the Lord will help me we're fixing the preach tonight hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah everybody say praise the Lord prise God bless you you may be seated the writing that we have read in your hearing was pinned by the great Apostle Paul if you remember anything that I am going to preach to you tonight if you want to title it or refer to it by a particular phrase I will endeavor to preach to you tonight concerning the language of love the language of love and I would like to tell you early in the message that love does talk its own language love speaks its own unique language it has a tongue of its own those that would dare to represent love makes utterances that are totally strange to those to whom it speaks in the writings of the Apostles the Great Men of God who were used to pin the words that we call our Bible many of those men Great Men of God and I love to read after and I love to quote and I love to preach from all of their writings but there's something about about the language of the Apostle Paul that perhaps goes just a little deeper in into the

emotion goes a little a little stronger into the very heart and bloodstream of our thinking and our concept and our emotions Paul says some things that I suppose really are are foreign to a lot of people in fact I know he speaks things that are foreign to our con ceps today but not only does he speak things that are foreign to our concept but he spoke things that were that were unheard of as far as some of the other Apostles even were concerned he makes utterances and statements that in one sense of the word you you almost you almost get the idea until you read enough from him to get his heartbeat if you just pick some of the things that he utters that were just a little bit out of context and out of out of character as far as you know some of the writings of the other Apostles and some of their Concepts but you have to read after him enough and you have to feel his heartbeat enough and you have to be involved in the emotion of what he's saying really to understand that he is not just an old man that never did quite get it all together in fact you will be mistaken but some of his words if you're not real careful because he plainly declares in his writings that as far as I'm concern I'd rather just just go on it's almost absurd that that he having such a walk with God would be wishing to die but he really did he really did on one occasion he said as far as for me he said I I would rather just go ahead and depart but for your sake he says I I'll be willing to hang around he says for to me the only thing that life represents for to me to live is Christ and to die would be gain wishing to die isn't that isn't that strange he says what things were gained to me those I counted loss yay doubtless I count all things but lost that I may gain the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dong that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of god by faith he says if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the Dead not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus such beautiful words such beautiful words and and and we who know the Apostle Paul we have we who have read after him and felt the heartbeat of of his emotions we understand that he was a unique individual and he talked a language that just a lot of folks count it foreign and alien but to that one who would perhaps just look on the surface it would almost appear that he was just an old man that didn't quite get it all together he was wishing that perhaps he could have redone some things and done things over and and made a little better success out of it but to get out of it all he just simply rather go on and and cuz you just don't hear a lot of people going around won't to die I mean we all want to go to heaven but some of us are kind of like the old darling that the pracher said how many of you want to go to heaven tonight and everybody raised their hand except this one old darling and the Pastor said brother you don't want to go to heaven when you die and he said oh yes yes he said I just thought you was getting up a load for theight he wanted to go but he didn't particularly want to go tonight but Paul is speaking a language that's just a little bit alien just a little bit foreign to the to the normal con concept when he said to die would be

gain I'm preaching to you tonight that there is a language that one can speak that is foreign to those that hear its utterances there is a dimension that one can get into where he almost ostracizes himself from the norm and from the fleshly realm there is a language that one can speak that has not the tickling sound and the thy sound of humanity there is a language that one can speak that is totally motivated by that emotion of love love love I'm preaching to you tonight that the Apostle Paul was not just an old man that never did quite get it all together he was not a man that was continually searching that had never quite been satisfied because I want to assure you tonight that the Apostle Paul did appreciate the Holy Ghost he did have a satisfying experience with God and he was not just simply for the sake of escaping some pressure wanting to go on to be with the Lord but he was speaking a language that is somewhat foreign to the human concept he was speaking a language that is foreign to the fleshly realm it is foreign to the carnal ideas of mankind there is a dimension into which one can get that he does ostracize himself from carnal reals and carnal thinking the Apostle Paul utters here that I may know him that I may know him that I may know him he said I don't want to just know him in the power of his resurrection I want to know him also in the fellowship of his suffering you don't find very many people that go around wanting to suffer you don't find too many people that go around hunting pain you find a lot of folks that's hunting a pill to make it quit you're hunting a lot of folks that's I mean you find a lot of folks that's hunting a doctor to find out where the cause is to stop it but you're not finding too many that's wandering around searching for pain the Paul says that I may know him not only in the power of his resurrection but also in the fellowship of his suffering I want to know him what about it Paul you say things here that we don't understand you have given your life for a cause you have linked yourself up with a Jesus Christ your life was turned around totally when you saw the light when it knocked you off of your beast when you asked the question that day when when when the light knocked you off your Beast you said who art thou Lord and that voice came ringing back I am Jesus whom thou persecutest what happened to you Paul what anym tell us a little bit about it after Paul endeavoring many missionary Journeys after establishing many Church churches after escaping for his life on numerous occasions after suffering after hurting after identifying still when I look at him my human concept says you should have reached the Apex you should have reached the top you should have reached the very the very essence of satisfaction but yet you're saying things like maybe you haven't quite reached yet you haven't quite attained yet you're talking about that I may apprehend that for which I'm apprehended that I may gain Christ or that I may win Christ what do you mean Paul do you mean after everything you've done that you still are not

satisfied no no not that at all it's just you have to understand please understand that there is a language called the language of love that is foreign to the human here it's foreign to the fleshly concept it's foreign to carnality Paul was not dissatisfied he was not longing no no no not in the sense of fleshly satisfaction but Love's language was saying I have a love I have a master I have a Christ and I'm afraid there's a way to know him that I haven't found out yet there's a way to relate to him that I haven't found yet there's some way that I could identify with him that I haven't found yet and I'm afraid there's a way that I could love him that I haven't stumbled upon yet Hallelujah so after missionary Journeys after establishing churches after escaping for his life after being bruised and beaten and stoned he's still crying out I want to know you better I want to know you better love says I'll not stop I'll not be satisfied until I know the object of My Affection in every conceivable manner could I say it one more time and don't forget what I'm preaching young people love says I'll not stop I'll not be satisfied until I know the object of My Affection in every conceivable manner in this congregation tonight of some oh near 900 campers if I were to ask you the question why are you living for God tonight out of 900 campers there would probably be at least four or 500 different answers that would would be given to that one question why are you living for God tonight what specific reason could you give I am living for God for this reason wrapped up in the confines of this Youth Camp constituency there would be those of you that are here tonight one of the main reasons perhaps would be that your mom and dad they've got a stick over you and you're living for God because you're still eating bread off of their table and they let you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that as long as you eat their bread and as long as they as long as they are in responsible capacity over you that you are going to do what they say and of course I appreciate moms and dads who have the ability to tell their kids even against their will you're going to go to church and you're going to live for God you're going to live for God whether you like it or not as long as you're living with me I I I hate for it to be that way but yet and probably in this building tonight there would be those that if it were not for your Mother and Daddy you would not be in this youth camp tonight there are others of you that are perhaps here tonight and the only reason that you are here the only reason that you're making the effort that you're doing right now to live for God is because you're afraid of hell you're scared to death of hell hell you're you're afraid the Rapture is going to take place you're afraid of the Judgment bar of God and you don't want to be lost and so you are making whatever effort you are making though it be maybe feeble you're still putting forth the effort because you're afraid you're you're scared of Hell others of you here tonight you you have a love and you have an appreciation for pastor for Saints maybe Mom and Dad and you are here simply out of affection out of devotion out of respect you don't want to disappoint those that have trust in you you don't want to disappoint those that are

counting on you there's probably some of you here tonight that maybe have a younger brother or sister that idolizes you and you know that if you were to do wrong your brother or sister would they would follow a suit and you might be responsible for them missing out and going to hell and so you are hanging on tonight though it be maybe by the skin of your teeth you're hanging on because of a fear of leading somebody else astray and on and on and on and on and on I could give you the different motives why some people are living for God I could give you the different motivating forces that drive some men to stay with the church to hang in there live it but I want to share with you tonight and and please I'm not knocking any reason that you're here I'm not knocking anything that that that's given you your motivation up until this point point I'm not knocking it because anything that's got you here anything that keeps you exposed to the church anything that keeps you in tune or in contact with the spirit I I have to take my head off to it but I am telling you tonight that is not the best way to live for God I preached to you tonight that that is not the force that's not the motivating force that's the best there is a better way hear me tonight because if you live for God because you're afraid of Hell one day hell's fire will cease to scare you if you live for God because of mom and dad one day you'll reach the age that you'll say I don't have to listen to what Mom and Dad says anymore if you live out of respect to Pastor or Saint one day that that that respect will grow thick in the devil will see to it and your reason for living for God will pass away one day that brother or sister that you may be living for God for now they themselves may be more spiritual or whatever than you and you'll cease to have that reason I'm preaching to you tonight those reasons that you may have that are keeping you here tonight in time we'll have a way of Vanishing out of the picture but if you you live for God for the right reason I'm telling you when it all the dust settles when everything else is faded away and when nothing else stands if you live for God for the right reason you'll still be hanged in there my God I feel a little preach here tonight there is a way there is a dimension that you can get into that when Mom and Dad is not even there anymore when Pastor is nowhere around when those that have tutored and trained you in the truth are nowhere around in fact there is a dimension that you can get into that if all of those reasons were to vanish and they themselves were to turn their back on God there is a force there is a dimension that if you can get into that if Mom and Dad turn their back on God if Pastor turned his back on God if your best friend turned their back on God there is a way that you can hang in there and live for God what is it brother y If You Ever Fall In Love With Jesus Christ that's the greatest motivating force you'll ever have behind

you I don't believe in and and and I don't I don't want to I don't want to bring up things just for the sake of bringing them up to to try to hamper anybody's Spirit but young people you're living in a day right now that if there has ever been a time that you needed to get a hold of your own personal experience with God you need to get a hold of it now and I realize that young people have a tendency of having heroes in their lives they're they have a tendency of of being Star Struck that is they have their stars that they watch and you are a composite of what you have watched and gleaned in others that you yourself admired and wanted to become but you're living in a day like the church has never been in before and you're living among a lot of humanity that has the potential of failing just last week and Brethren you know you understand because we as preachers and I don't I I I I I I almost shudder to even mention something like this but you understand you understand that preachers are human too you understand that but I walked back into the office of the Tabernacle in Louisiana just last week being a part of the staff there of the camp in Louisiana there was a there was a young man and his wife standing there they tapped me on the shoulder I'd seen them one time before if I make no mistake they tapped me on the shoulder and with a very sober almost fearful approach they said if if there's any way that you could you could find just just a moment we'd love to have just just a moment of your time sensing that there was something there that that they needed they needed something I took care of the other things that that was at hand and the other people that were pulling at my coat tail and and wanting to wanting to speak and little small talk and things I got that tended to and and I I got off to the side in a corner with this husband and his wife such a young couple such a such a tender young couple tears came in their eyes and they said brother Ying we've we we've seen you at different places we've met you our world is crumbling and we didn't know we just felt that maybe that if we could have just a little time with you that maybe you could help help us just a little bit they said we came to God in a church up in another district and said our pastor fell into sin we moved South we came to another church he said we were in there giving it our best he said the pastor of that church fell into s man he said we went to another church trying to find somebody that could help us we want to be used of God we want to do something for God and with tears streaming down their face they said the third place we went to that Pastor just two weeks ago fell into sin what do you do you can't stand there and defend men that have fallen into sin but yet you've got couples you've got people that want to be used of God that it become the victims and this is not only this is just one couple but look at the people in churches look at the young people in churches that are not affected just by

some preacher that falls into sin but you're affected by anybody around you that happens to fall or that happens to backslide or that happens to go the way of the world it has a way of affecting you I stood there and wept and cried with them and I was happy to tell them there is a dimension that you can get into it does not matter what you have seen it does not matter what has happened it does not matter what has come your way it does not matter what has buffeted you it does not matter what has hurled at you it does not matter the wind that's blown at you and the waves that have washed at your soul it does not matter there is young people I'm preaching to you tonight there is a way that you can fall in love with Jesus and nothing will move you there was a time in my life and I may preach a little more about it another night there was a time in my life that I live for God partially because I love God because I did love him some but there was there was a reason that was even more powerful than my love for God and that was that I had an old strong daddy and he had more than just Heights he had more than just poundage he had a big waistline and he had a piece of leather that went all the way around that waistline and when he doubled it up it still looked like a buggy Whip and I may talk a little more about it another night but I can't say that I always live for God because of my love for him but I'll tell you what dad had a way of severely impressing me that living for God was the best way amen amen he really did he had a way of of convincing me and he impressed me I wouldn't I wouldn't take anything for it but you know what when when the Lord I I I love God as a child as a young man I love God and and and I I'm I'm happy to say that I did love God my love was not always as strong perhaps as it should be but I never will forget my consecration my love for whatever it was when I got away from home in fact it was my first Revival away from home I found myself standing up in front of those people and I was preaching my heart out and of course I could I could get excited and I could I I could man I could I could preach you know I'm I say I could preach I mean I could get excited and the Lord did help help me I I look back now and and I I wonder how in God's world did they ever put up with me long enough for me to get my start I still feel sorry for people that that call me to come preach for them I'm feeling sorry for y'all right now but but that's just the way it is but but there was a time there was a time brother Holly Oh My Ministry was not in demand at all it was just not in demand at all and I would get up there oh and I could I preach those things I'd heard my daddy preach well I could lay it on man I'd ride back and I could give it to him as just like my old daddy you know give it to him man and wo I'd preach and I'd shout and I'd have myself a big time but when I got out of that pull pit I'd find myself a side exit I'd slip back in there to try to get my shirt straight again my tie on right my face kind of the sweat wiped off a bit get my stuff looking a little decent again lift my hands thank you Jesus for helping me through another night I don't know I don't know how you ever give me anything to say tonight but thank you Lord you got me through another and right back while I was kind of getting my wits together and kind of telling God I was glad that he had come to my rescue again some of the things that I'd said and some bold statements I'd made some bold declarations that I'd made there was a voice that slipped up behind me tapped me on the shoulder said who said

what are you talking about who said that voice would say you made some pretty bold statements tonight who said what do you mean who said well bless God what you talking about who said Bible says and that voice would say what's the Bible and not say well you dirty rascal you scoundrel my daddy said if you don't like it I'll go get him and that voice would say who's your Daddy what what do you mean what are you trying to do to me I've been in there preaching the word of God and here you are back here mocking me what do you mean mocking me bless God I rebuke you in Jesus name the voice said who said bless God I said in Jesus name and he said who said and in my own little little child hearted way I said bless God devil I'm getting tired of this I said in Jesus name I rebuke you he said who said brother Holly I'll never forget as long as I I live when I when it finally it dawned on me that if I didn't get a hold and a grip on something for myself the devil was going to make a mockery out of me he was going to mock me and he was going to mock my name and I'll never forget that day when I walked into that Sunday school room there was a little picture of Jesus Christ hanging on the wall and I know it probably was just an artist concept but I just used it as the physical PR pres of Jesus Christ I walked into that room and I said now look Lord I loved you in my lifetime I've loved your cause and I've honored it but I want you to know something I'm out here to declare your gospel because I felt like you put a call on my life but I want you to know whatever it was that you gave to my daddy that made him preach the gospel and with stood Hell whatever it was that you gave the apostles whatever anointing it was that you gave all of them I want it to happen to me today today today today I want it to happen to me I was very kind to him but I meant what I said and I said if it don't happen to me I'm not going to stay stay out here and let the devil make a fool out of me and you through me if that anointing don't happen to me if that Revelation don't happen to me whatever it was that kept my dad preaching when he had to eat cornbread and drink Branch water when they was trying to get him to go work in the shipyard he stayed out there getting Nickel in an offering starving half to death I said if it if it can't happen to me like it happened to him I'm not going to let the devil bring a reproach to you through me I'll just go to the house oh but when I got out in the business with God when I got out in the business with God I'll never forget the longest day I live that little old Sunday school room filled up with the presence of

God there was a revelation that came to me that day that has carried me until this night a revelation that I could not explain to you tonight if I tried there was something happened to me that day that if it had not happened to me I would not be here tonight that's the day that I cease to serve God because of what Mom and Dad said that's the day I cease to serve God because I didn't want to disappoint the people of the church that's the day I cease to serve God because I was just afraid to go to hell that's the day I fell in love with him for myself Hallelujah I'm not preaching tonight because I I'm afraid of anything or I'm trying to please anybody else my dad and mom love when I step in the pull pit they love to hear their boy preach they weep with me they cry with me but I as much as I love them I Don't Preach because of my Mom and Daddy I preach tonight and I'm serving him because that day I fell in in love with Jesus Christ I cease to serve him through somebody else indirectly I got a direct touch a direct anointing a direct walk if you ever fall in love with him when everything else Fades away when everything else Falls by the wayside whenever every other reason where's then love won't stop love keeps marching love moves on when the valley gets deep love never changes pces love just walks into the deep of the valley when the hill gets high love don't sit down and say I wonder if I can make it love never stops love trudges home times when the barrier is there and when the when the those around you say it's impossible love trudges home Love Don't Stop love refuses to quit because love will not be satisfied until it knows the object of its affection in every conceivable manner brother and sister Johnson have two beautiful children that little old boy right over there blond-headed looks so pretty if brother and sister Johnson were to happen to be in a gathering of people that perhaps didn't know their children the children were maybe off in another room somewhere playing and all of a sudden [name redacted] runs out into the into the room hollering and screaming mom and daddy daddy daddy daddy can't you see brother Johnson everybody's looking around trying to find out who's whose little one is that who's the mom and daddy of that one brother and sister Johnson they see everybody looking around trying to find out who the mom and daddy is of course they they try well this one over here is just saying isn't he pretty isn't he handsome look at that a't that a ain't that a doll and of course they try to be humble about it and and and they they try to Bow their heads you know everybody's looking around who does it belong to you does it belong to you and they're they're trying to get their head down but it's hard to get your head down when

your chest is sticking out you know and finally somebody catches brother Johnson's eye and says is is that your little is that your little boy and very humbly he says yes he tries to be modest about it oh it's so everybody's just just talking about any any any beautiful any handsome but now can you imagine brother and sister Johnson after that little old darling was the apple of their eye and was the pride of everybody that was in that room say two or three weeks later when fever ravished that little frame when sickness had racked its little body its little hair was matted to its head because of the smell of sour sweat and vomit its little its Little Skin was becoming scaly from the dehydration that it was suffering can you see brother and sister Johnson take that little old boy by the hand and lead him toward the back room of the house and open the back door of the bedroom and say listen you little you little outfit when you get to where you can be pretty again when you get to where you can be you can be our pride and joy again when you get to where you can bring pride and happiness to us again you come out but until you do you get in there and stay and slam the door the same love that answered the question is that your little boy the same love that smiled and said yes when the little fell gets sick the same love that smiled and said yes Finds Its way into the bedroom where that little f is love kneels down by the bedside Love Takes its fingers and runs through that sour vomiting smelling hair Love Takes its lips presses them gently against that that scaly fevered flesh love puts its arms around that baby and love looks up to heaven and says God if there's some way would you let this sickness let me have it let my baby be well please God love don't just know it when everything is Rosy and well love seeks to know him in the fellowship even of suffering love won't be stopped love keeps loving love keeps reaching love keeps going I had the privilege sometime back we were up at our old home place in katula Parish Louisiana somewhere about 30 40 miles back west of the Mississippi River the town of natches Mississippi the Delta country of the Mississippi the farming land that's where my my mother's daddy was a sharecropper he never did own a piece of land as far as I ever know but he sharecropped and the fellow that owned the land and furnished the house for them to live in because of the ownership of the land would get half of the crop and my grandfather would get the other half to feed his kids and that was his living I was privileged with my mother my wife and my family we went left the place where I was raised or partially raised there on Boggy by we went down the road toward Parkman store and there at partment store we hit the highway that went into Harrisonburg and there at Harrisonburg or just before we got into Harrisonburg there was there was the old Burley B and just north of the Burley by there was the old Harris Finley place it was the old Harris Finley Farm where my f grandfather was a sharecropper the old house that that my grandmother and grandfather raised the bigger part of their family the greater number of years I suppose that they lived with their family being raised this is the place where they lived and

I'd heard my mother talk about the Harris Finley place I'd heard I'd heard them speak about the many things that had happened there and and I wanted to go I wanted to see it so we crossed the Burley by and and just north of the Burley there on the left was the old house and I pulled off to the side of the road and and stopped on on the shoulder the old the old driveway into into the house the old gate was still there the old chain over the nail was still there but the Briar had grown up and and it was so it was so very difficult now in fact I I finally reached through the Briars and got a hold of the of the chain and unlocked the door the the old the old gate and I I shoved on the gate and finally got a got enough of clearance in the gate that we could get through we had to Wade through the briers and and finally got through the through the gate and the Briars and onto the house the old the old roof was falling in and the porch was falling down and the the the porch itself was right it away and the the old house was just a hay barn now but just just getting off the road going through the gate walking through the yard and up onto the old rotting down porch there was a there was a spirit of nostalgia a feeling that came over me and my mother I saw her as she almost she almost got into just another world as as we were walking across the old rotting boards now we got to the door and of course the hay was against it and we couldn't couldn't open the door but we found an old shuttered window we opened the shuttered window and crawled through the hay was not was not so high there that we couldn't crawl through mother as we would pass the old porch there's where the swing was there's where we would swing in the afternoon and on into the living room crawled through the old shuttered window here's the fireplace this is where we'd sit by the fireplace and the in the night hours and and parts peanuts and throw the holes in the fireplace there's the bedroom where the boys slept and there's there's the bedroom where I slept bed for on and Pa was here in the old living room where the fireplace was and she carried me through she carried me through the house and showed me the different places she said but but son I I I want to show you something else and we left the back door of the old the old kitchen area we started out toward where the old rotting stable was still standing we waited through the weeds and finally got to the old stable mother looking at at the old horse stalls and cow stalls is almost like she was at the place of some friend and finally she got the one of the old metal metal stalls and and she pointed to the ground she said you see the ground there and I looked and and the old ground was still Whited there there was not any grass that was growing on that spot until now and and it was as hard as cement she pointed to that spot and she said son that's where Grandma prayed right there I almost felt like taking my shoes off brother Holly it was such Hallowed Ground because my grandmother was one of the greatest prayer warriors that you ever known and that's where she fought her battles and there's where she won her Wars right there in fact it was that spot that she was praying one day my mother had a twin brother his name was Zach wils Zach as well as two other of the boys had joined the service during World War II one of the boys went to the Marines one went to the Army and Zach went to the Navy and it was Zach that was on corgador when door fell and Zach missed the Death March but just just a couple of hours because he had been wounded and he was in he was in the hospital at the time the death Mark started but he wound up in a prison camp and it was during that time that he was a Japanese prisoner for 39 long months he was a Japanese prisoner for one year out of that time they only got the word my grandmother and grandfather and my mother and all the family they only got the word that Zach was missing an action and of course everybody knew that that when you got the that that or the telegram that they were missing an action that the next would be that that that they had been found and their body would be home in such a such a such a such a time but they got the the missing in action Telegram and then there was no more telegrams and a month passed and there was no more word two months passed and no more word three months passed four months passed five months six months and no more word and everybody told Mo even our old home Pastor brother em Hooter and my dad who was the preacher son law of the family told him said Mo now everybody gave up except my grandmother and my mother everybody gave up and the old home pastor and my dad told her said now M

you may as well go ahead and and and resign to the fact you may as well go ahead and admit it he's he's gone he he he won't be coming back he won't be coming back go ahead and accept it now and it'll be a lot easier but my grandmother would grit her teeth and say I'll never give up I'll not give up my boy is still alive somewhere because I have asked God to save my boy and my boy was not saved I Won't Give Up and my mother pointed to that spot on the ground and said that's where Mom was praying the day when she asked God God give me a vision of my boy show me my boy just like he is right now it don't matter what he looks like if he's dead or alive whatever ever how he looks let me see him right now when she got through praying she went back to the house and her and my grandfather was sitting there in the old in the old living room probably drinking a cup of coffee if I knew them and my grandmother heard a noise at the door and she looked around and there stood Zach he was a little bitty frail thing just just a little frail thing and his beard was way down about his waist she turned back around she was so excited and she said Paul look at the door there's Zach and when they both turned back around he wasn't there God had just answered her prayer she wanted to see him just like he was it didn't matter what anybody else said it didn't matter Pastor son-in-law preacher whoever you are when they said Mo you may as well go ahead and accept it he's gone no my boy's not gone my boy's a living my boy's still alive God showed me my boy years later when he finally got home she asked him one day she didn't tell him what she had seen she asked him one day she said son did you lose a lot of weight when you were in the prison camp and he didn't want to tell her he told my dad later he said I didn't want to tell her how bad I really got but he got down way less than 100 lb he was just a little old bitty thing and she he said yeah Mom I did I I lost a good bit of weight while I was over there she said son did you did you have a razor were you able to shave while you was over there he said no Mom she said how long did your beard get he said oh I guess probably right down to about my waist here God had a television long before Hollywood ever thought of one God told my grand Mo through a vision just exactly what it was like but when we got back to the house and we got back to the the old kitchen my mother was telling me she said Son it was it was the Christmas Day when your uncle Zach was missing an action we didn't know whether he was dead or alive for 12 long months it was on Christmas day during that time that Grandma had worked and she had slaved over the old wood stove and she' cooked for for days and pies and cakes and all of this and finally there was the there was the hen and and the dressing and and there was the fresh pork ham and and she said finally finally 12:00 came and mo in her own way okay youngans it's ready come on let's eat it and of course here they all come and there was the place and Mama showed me there was the smell of hay here now but there was a day when when laughter rang in that old that old house house and there was the place where the table was and there was the place where the dink bench was and Mama goes around the table there was where Lee and Lily was sitting and Cecil and L here and Butler and Ruby and and