“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” – Abraham Kuyper
“But now thus saith the LORD that created thee…Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou are MINE.”
– Isaiah 43:1
If the baby in the manger could speak, He would have shouted to the shepherds and wise men…
“The quality of one’s life parallels the depth of one’s gratitude” – Frangipane
The following is a small glimpse at the reasons for our deepest gratitude:
Because of your faithful support, we are marriage mentors to many couples. We love
encouraging couples who want to have a marriage that lasts longer than a breath-mint!
Because of your faithful support, I get to speak at many MOPS Groups-a Ripe Harvest to encourage young moms to disciple their children and not neglect their marriages.
Because of your faithful support, we can spend a week teaching and encouraging future leaders in ministry at Liberty University.
Because of your faithful support, we do a weekly “Live” call in radio show on WRMB/Moody S. Florida another Ripe Harvest of encouraging marriages–Live Streaming on Facebook.
Because of your faithful support, Ken is mentoring some young men who have deep heart wounds that only a kind and patient man can handle processing.
Because of your faithful support, Ken and I are cheerleaders for so many of God’s kids who are facing such extreme challenges and need the courage and hope to ‘continue.’
Because of your faithful support, we shipped a box of Lady in Waiting to First Choice Crisis Pregnancy Center that serves four states and another box was sent to a women’s prison ministry.
Because of your faithful support, we can be the ‘safe couple’ that struggling couples all across our nation can call for counsel and guidance.
Because of your faithful support, we have the time to answer thousands of emails another Ripe Harvest-letters from needy people all over the world.
Because of your faithful support, we can challenge God’s kids everywhere to live with a ‘kingdom of God’ focus rather than a ‘kingdom of self’ focus.
“Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”(James 1:2-5)
In one week, I heard two godly men comment on James 1:5 and I couldn’t resist sharing the nuggets with those I love. The first thing ‘new’ that I learned is that the phrase, ‘if any of you lacks wisdom’ refers to the God given wisdom to face trials with not only perseverance but also joy. For 49 years I have quote James 1:5 in relation to a person needing heavenly 
wisdom. When it was put ‘back in context’ I realized that in trials and suffering God will generously supply the wisdom to maneuver in these storms as well as be my comforter (II Cor. 1:3). God gives such insight and clarity when we seek Him in our trials rather than scramble for the available comfort and anesthetizing items of life (food, techno entertainment, hobbies, mall therapy, etc.). In your trials this year, did you find yourself seeking God’s wisdom to behave yourself in the testing of your faith? Just wondering…
Another nugget that I got from Dr. Howard Hendricks (who is in heaven but his teaching is still being played on the radio). Dr. Hendricks was quoting James 1:5 from the KJV version and expounded on the phrase ‘
upbraideth not.’
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not…”
Now don’t miss this, wait for it. ‘Upbraideth not’ refers to the fact that when we ask God for wisdom in our trial, God is never ‘put out’ or ‘ticked off’ that we bothered Him with our concerns. Some of us were raised with ‘unapproachable parents’ who were too busy to be interrupted and we view God with such a distorted view. Do you have a memory of interrupting your parent with a question and experiencing their ‘ticked off’ facial expression? We are never ‘interrupting’ God and our concerns are never exasperating to God.
An accurate view of our Papa God, is that of a grandchild running cheerfully to their beloved ‘Papa and Mimi.’ Coming boldly to God without reservation is the beginning of not only wisdom but also
supernatural comfort as we face another trial here outside the garden. The following verse captures the happy grandchild running to Papa with the freedom to speak all that one thinks!
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence…”Heb. 4:16
For more than 20 years I have used a Rolodex of index cards filled with names of people that I pray for. Here are the following categories on these cards:
Recently Ken and I were talking with a couple we have been marriage mentors to. They were sharing about the new church they are attending and their fabulous preacher. When we asked what the Pastor’s name was, I just about fell out of my chair (Derwin Gray). I flashed back to standing in a hallway (at a Pro Athletes Outreach Football Conference) more than a decade ago, sharing with a young couple about the seriousness of a consistent, 
daily time in God’s Word. Throughout the conference, we would speak several more times and I shared about different study methods and commentaries that I have used to become a student of the Word. When I left that conference, I went home and placed this couples name on my prayer Rolodex that I pray through on days of fasting. So for more than a decade I have prayed for this young couple who I never saw again. Then I hear what God is doing in his life not only in this church in Charlotte but all over the world. I jumped up and went to get the index card from my Rolodex with the pastor’s name on it. We were all wowed by the reality of holy sweat in prayer!
Another person on my Rolodex has been heavy on my heart since Super Bowl Sunday. Why such lengthy ‘holy sweat in prayer?’ I saw this former football player give his testimony on a video and 7000 people prayed to receive Jesus in response. I have prayed for months for a chance to let him know that God used his testimony so profoundly and that he had a gift beyond the world of football. After months of praying, I get a phone call from one of his closest friends and I share how I have longed to write to him. This friend told me that my letter would arrive at a critical time because the Lord is doing a new work in this man’s life. Oh the joy of holy sweat in prayer.
Almost thirty years ago, Ken and I opened our home to a young single woman named Ruth who needed a place to stay for a few days. Those few days turned into a mentoring/friendship that has lasted almost thirty years. Ruth has been on the Single’s index card then the Married index card. Through ‘holy sweat’ prayer, Ruth became my writing mentor. After years of ‘holy sweat in prayer for this precious person’ she wrote this:
“YOU are the gift to me, Jack (one of my favorite nicknames). Next spring will be THIRTY YEARS since I met you in your living room, when you and Kenny came to my rescue. Isn’t God’s plan fascinating?? I rejoice in His provision of YOU as a constancy in my life these 3 decades. You have saved my mind and heart from the edge of a cliff 10,000 times. Biggest Hugs and Love, Your, Ruthie”
Ken and I would not have remained in ministry as long as we have (we first served together at Victory Baptist Church 1970-72), if we did not know the principle of “Holy Sweat” that is found in the following verses:
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap
a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9.
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” I Cor. 15:58
It would probably take a hundred letters to recount all the situations where Ken and I could have easily ‘given up.’ Here is a recent glimpse at a ‘holy sweat’ situation.
For two years I (Jackie) was mentoring a young mom via email. This mom looked very successful on the outside but was facing profound struggles on the inside. She was one of the polished pretenders that attend so many of our churches. For two years I repeated myself incessantly, breaking a ‘holy sweat’ as I tried to encourage this young mom to attend CR (Celebrate Recovery). I almost gave up when this young mom decided to finally attend CR. This young woman was profoundly impacted as I knew she would be. She recently wrote an article about her experience at CR and it was picked up by a magazine and then two weeks later the article was picked up by a pastoral blog reaching 500,000. Here is just a glimpse of her impactful article: “A Surprising Place To Heal”.
A couple of years ago, a well-respected, spiritually mature friend (Jackie) told me I
needed to go to Celebrate Recovery. And she was serious! I thought she was crazy. Surely she grossly misunderstood my situation. After all, I’m not an addict. I couldn’t possibly need recovery. I ignored her suggestion and continued the insanity cycle-doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I had been doing it for a long time: masking pain, coping with the shame of my past in unhealthy ways and trying to survive a sexually dysfunctional marriage. It wasn’t working. On the outside, people saw the polished Christina-supermom to four little kids, entrepreneur, godly wife and leader. But they didn’t see what was silently killing me. My marriage felt helpless and hopeless, and the shame of my past decisions was crippling me spiritually and emotionally. I couldn’t forgive myself or get over some of the baggage I was carrying. Desperate and not knowing where to turn, I soon realized I could no longer carry it on my own. But where could I turn? Who do I share these embarrassing issues with? Church? If we’re honest, most churches seem more like a place to parade our spiritual resumes than to declare our weaknesses. Most churches maybe. But not all churches. Within five minutes of my first visit to Celebrate Recovery at The Rock, ministry leader Ray Hutchison’s voice boomed through the microphone, “This is a safe place. You can take your masks off here. We’re all messed up, every single one of us.” I sat there, a bit stunned; church had never felt like a safe place.
Christina is only one of many precious people that Ken and I did not give up on. Just yesterday we heard from a young woman we wrote and sent a book to a couple years ago in Indonesia and she reminded us that our influence is beyond our neighborhood. Another precious young woman who I shed a lot of holy sweat over and was encouraged to not invest any more time in…is now a ministry leader in a very challenging ministry. She was a challenge to mentor and she now works with kids that are profoundly challenging but worth her ‘holy sweat.’ Do not grow weary in doing good because you never know what wonderful things may come from your faithful holy sweat!
Recently a tragedy was wrapped in profound comfort and compassion through a group of Jr. High girls. When I was notified about the situation, I was so impacted that I wanted to share it with each of you. As I read the following email I kept hearing, “The Kingdom of God and Jr. High Girls.” (The following email is a summary of the tragic event).
“So, we had a real tragedy hit our community the other day when a 13 boy whom we have all known his whole life just collapsed and died on Sunday afternoon. They still don’t know the cause, but are doing an autopsy.
This happened after church in the church parking lot…and the details are quite stunning in themselves…including the little 10 yr. old girl who cradled his head in her lap while a 6 yr. old ran inside to find help. Little Josh died with precious Corina stroking his forehead and talking to him (she didn’t know he was dying).
We and everyone we know around here is connected to this family in 100 ways, and our home-school group of 200 kids have all had his mom as one of their tutors or drama directors and his siblings or him in classes and as friends…it’s a big web. You can imagine the reverberations of shock and grief.
I tell you this, Jackie, because a mom told me today that a group of girls who are friends with him and who are studying your book “Waiting for Your Prince” got together Tuesday and, in the midst of their own grief, wrote cards of encouragement to the tutors (moms who teach home school classes) who had him in their classes and to other kids in those classes. The mom said, “You know they thought to do this because of the book!” And I said, “Do you know that is about the MOST Jackie Kendall thing someone could do? Jackie is the Queen of the encouraging card! So there’s nothing more honoring to her teaching than their inclination to do that!” (One of those girls was Kelsey McLernon whom you acknowledge as our tween consultant on the book project, “Waiting for Your Prince”). In the midst of this extraordinary time–not least walking all these kids through this tragedy–this is another shining example of the Love of Jesus being spread as a result of your faithful teaching & wisdom Jacqueline Kendall”. (Ruthie)
Encouragement is a gift that each one of us can give daily. It doesn’t have to be a written card, it can be a kind remark made over the phone or an uplifting text. May the example of these Jr. High girls be a simple reminder of the wisdom of being encouraging to others.
“…he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”(Prov. 11:25)
For more than 22 years I have been guiding God’s girls through difficult waters and your support made it possible. Because of you, I have been able to courageously tell single girls about choosing God’s best and avoiding a Bozo guy. Why is this so significant??? For a girl (young or older) the most significant choice of her life is her Master (Jesus). The second most significant choice is who will be her Mr. This may not seem like insignificant work in the range of Kingdom living but after walking with Jesus for 49 years I have seen the impact on women when they do not wait for God’s best and impatiently run into the arms of a Bozo. I have watched women who were once so useful in the Kingdom of God-sidelined by her relationship with Mr. Wrong. I have watched the fire in a precious woman, young and old, go from a blazing torch to a small little flickering candle because of the wind of a Bozo guy. I have watched too many singles lack the courage to break up with Mr. Wrong and wait for God’s best.
Because of your support, you have helped these girls have the courage to say No to Mr. Wrong and cling to God for His best which is being fruitful in the kingdom of God. I have written so many letters to single girls, asking them to do the hard work of becoming whole on their own in Jesus and to not waste their singleness running through the forest of life hoping to find their Knight in Shining armor. One of these singles wrote this note to me last night:
Thank you. This is what I needed to hear. I broke it off with him tonight. It hurts so much but I know it’s the right thing. -Carrie
Your support has helped these girls make wise choices:
(Whether Zimbabwe, Kosovo, Singapore, Philippines, Ethiopia, Indonesia or a 12 year old from Texas; your support has allowed me to mentor/disciple and exhort and endless list of God’s girls)
Recently Ken and I went to Walgreens the moment it opened in hopes of beating the rush at the pharmacy. We were thrilled to see our favorite pharmacist Amaka who was behind the counter. She was equally excited to see Ken and me. She has been fighting cancer and we have been praying for her. Her manner is always so loving and full of faith in God, never complaining about her struggle with cancer. Early this particular morning we noticed that she looked very thin and we both in concern whispered, “Is your treatment causing you to lose so much weight?” She motioned for us to come to a separate window and she leaned into us and whispered, “My 19 year old son just died.” We were so stunned that tears began to flow from all our eyes. Ken and I both grabbed her hands and started praying over her that moment. Because we came so early, no one was waiting in line, so we could comfort our sweet sister in Jesus right there in Walgreens pharmacy!
While driving home, the Holy Spirit nudged my heart to hurry into our house and print out a devotional I wrote to another momma whose son died. After getting the devotional printed, I ran for my refrigerator freezer where I had a loaf of homemade banana bread ready to give with the words of comfort. I put the goodies in a gift bag and ran back to Walgreens. When Amaka saw me, she smiled so big and I handed her the gift bag and she began to cry and said to the staff watching this God ordained moment-“God is so good to me!”
When I arrived back at the Kendall nest, Ken and I prayed again for Amaka and thanked the Lord for the privilege of being His comforting touch. As we held Amaka’s hands and prayed over her broken momma’s heart, we just knew that we were standing on holy ground at the counter at Walgreens pharmacy! We usually just use the drive through at Walgreens (it would have been hard to comfort from our car on an intercom) but that morning we walked inside and God had such a divine moment waiting for Ken, Amaka and I.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name, Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth (even Walgreens) as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:9,10
On April 15th I will be celebrating my 49th spiritual birthday. Recently while reading my new favorite devotional, I came upon a poem that was a perfect birthday card for my soul. Below is the heaven sent card for my heart.
“What did I bring to your salvation table? I had no righteousness to offer, no strength to give, no wisdom to present.
There was nothing that I could deliver that would commend me to you.
I crawled broken to your table weighed down and crippled by my sin, my guilt, my weakness, my foolishness, my pride, my shame.
I had no right to be with you, but you picked me up and placed me there.
You fed me the life-giving nutrients of grace with your nail-scarred hands.
And I haven’t left your table of mercy since.”
For this “emotional Mephibosheth” this poem just affirmed my position at the King’s table-having been lifted into my seat by the nail-scarred hands of Jesus. This poem came from “New Morning Mercies”, by Paul David Tripp-my new favorite devotional.
By the third month of this New Year, is it too soon to maybe pause for a brief evaluation of the first quarter of this year? When you think about this first quarter, has your prayer life been focused on your ‘personal maintenance or passionate mission?’ That question was presented by our pastor. As I was jotting the question down, Dr. Bernie Cueto began to share an example of the difference between a Christian whose life is about ‘personal maintenance’ and a Christian whose life is about ‘passionate mission.’ I smiled when pastor began to use Dog and Cat Theology to explain the difference. I smiled because twelve years ago, one of our pastor’s best friends was visiting us and he was so enthusiastic about this ‘Dog and Cat Theology’ that he had just been learning about in seminary! ‘Dog and Cat Theology’ is a great allegory about two categories of believers. Some believers are more like dogs and some believers are more like cats. David Murphy started the explanation with a question. “When the master returns home, who is the first to run for the door, if a cat and a dog lives in the house?” Usually it is the dog. With dogs–it is all about the Master; whereas with cats it is all about the cat (who serves the cat). I got so excited about this illustration. During the last 38 years of knowing Jesus, I have seen such a distinction among believers.
Some Christians believe they are saved to serve God (Dog: it is all about the Master); whereas many Christians believe they are saved so God can serve them (Cat: it is all about the cat). These God-given traits of cats (‘you exist to serve me’) and dogs (‘I exist to serve you’) are often similar to the theological attitudes we have in our view of God and our relationship to Him.
So has the first quarter of this New Year been more about ‘being a cat’ and waiting on the staff of heaven to serve you? Or has this first quarter been more about ‘being a dog’ and looking to bring pleasure to the Master? I don’t type this casually-I am concerned that too much of the first quarter of this year has been about my ‘personal maintenance’ rather than being passionately on mission.
(Disclaimer: For all cat lovers…this is an illustration…not an indictment against precious felines.)