A precious moment with Chuck and Marge,

A heart-warming letter from Chuck and Marge, dear brother and sister of many wonderful years.  Don Jacobs.

Dear Saints in fellowship....

Just a bit of news from Higgins’ Diggins. We do enjoy the lovely place God has provided for us these days of daily renewal. And, we desperately need such days which we receive as one of our Entitlements provided by God’s abundant grace.

Marge and I are suffering the deteriorating effects of our mortality for a while. Marge has been suffering from dizziness for the past 4 years and it isn’t improving in spite of her going to various Dr’s. She is now taking a therapy trying to find the reason for all this hoping this will make a difference. Since I can no longer drive due to neuropathy in legs and feet, in spite of her dizziness, she is my chauffeur and doing very well. If you know of any good “dizzy” doctors let us know!

As I have mentioned I have neuropathy in my legs and feet that began 30 years ago and has slowly increased. I need a walker to get around and am advised by the doctor I should be using a wheelchair later on. Don’t take all this as an organ recital but I’m like an old car with parts wearing out. The most I travel is now going either to the clinic or the Dr. Fatigue seems to take over in my daily routine. I am sleeping with the aid of equipment for “sleep apnea” starting 2 months ago. I hesitate to mention all this knowing as you are reading this you are saying, “I know what you’re saying. You’re not telling me anything.” It’s like the man in reply to the question, how are you, said “Well I’m better than I was but I’m not as good as I used to be before I got as bad as I am now. You know what I mean”?

But you know, through all this God is bringing us such a sense of His presence. I was going through a very dry spell. I didn’t know how to get through it. I opened a book recently I’ve treasured for the past 40 years. It’s written by Dr. Joe Church on the life of an African named Blasio, entitled “Awake”. He was wise during his short years about the way of repentance which burned on his heart. There was something Joe Church wrote about striving in the context of Blasio’s ministry as it referred to the brethren in their fellowship. As I read it, it seemed the Spirit said, “That’s you. You need to repent of that.” I knew what he was writing about because I’ve preached that...given testimonies of victory over that. But as one of the prophets said about straying Israel, “They have forgotten why they had repented.” I realized I had forgotten some very important issues. I had so many dreams of what I’d like to do when I retired. But, as I attempted to bring those dreams to pass I became dry....it was striving. You know, you can have the assurance of salvation without the joy of salvation. I was striving. As I repented in faith of that, the door to the joy of the Lord and the peace of Jesus opened and flooded my soul.... In short, I opened the door to Jesus, He came in and we supped together! You know how it is when you repent, especially from striving in the flesh, there is such a restful rest filled with joy. Praise the Lord!

We’ve been hearing from the politicians what entitlements we should abandon. It came to me that God seems to have an “entitlement” for every need we bring to Him. And, everyone of them is paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. What sense of security this brings us. We often wonder if perhaps the social security offered by our government will have provided enough before we die. Aren’t we privileged to be recipients of the Plan God has provided for our security that extends beyond the moment we leave this corrupted earth! That Plan has been signed by Jesus in His own blood...and has been confirmed by God raising Him from the dead.... giving us a Hope that is reserved for us in heaven! Politicians here make many promises that are impossible for them to fulfill. Nothing like God’s promises that are “yea and amen” forever. So, by His grace we are making God’s “say so” our “say so”. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, “we can even thank God in the midst of pain and distress because we share the lot of those who are living in the light.” (Phillips) I keep chewing on that to get all the juice I can out of it!

I’m sorry for such a long email. But, it’s been on my heart to do it. I bless each of you to the glory of God.

chuck

Charles E. Higgins

clerhig1@cox.net