Shepherd

I think of my Preacher as one of those people whom you think you’ll never be without, and who will always be there for you.  Humanly speaking, he’s the anchor in my life, now that my husband is in Heaven.  He’s the one person I can always count on to be perfectly honest with me, encouraging me when I need it, but exhorting me when I need a little push in the right direction, and reprimanding me for my shortcomings.

You never have to guess where you stand with Bro. Vineyard.  He’s not one to try to score points with anyone, even if it means hurting your feelings.

And when you first meet him, you immediately make a decision:  you either love him, or you hate him.  There’s no middle ground. He can conjure up feelings of being annoyed with the way he preaches, or he can amuse you with his homespun stories about his boyhood.

He can be gory, and obnoxious, using very explicit illustrations in his sermons.  He can embarrass his wife, but there is never any doubt where his passionate love lies.  This lovely lady named Jo Ann is definitely the lovely “bride of his youth.

He’s tough.  My Preacher was a Green Beret.  He’s not afraid of rattlesnakes, or scorpions, or gangs, or presidents or kings.

But he will get choked up while he’s telling the story of someone who has suffered, even if it was over a hundred years ago.

He will take on any challenge, whether spiritual or physical.

He keeps going when he’s “sick unto death.”

He has a passion for the lost, for the Jews, for missionaries, and for young men who are potential preachers.

But the greatest attribute I can think of to describe my Preacher is Shepherd.  At least it is for this sheep.

The Lord is my shepherd, but I can’t see Him.  Although I can feel His presence and His nearness, I’m not a spirit.  I’m still human. So my Heavenly Shepherd gave me another shepherd that has a voice I can hear. I’ve cried over things his voice has told me, I felt conviction for my sins, I’ve listened amazed at his adventures, over his vivid illustrations, and laughed with him when he tried to sing.

His voice is a military voice.  When he speaks you are prone to stand or sit at attention.  He speaks with authority, and you feel confident as you carry out his “orders,” or his advice. And as John the Baptist, he is also “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” as he speaks out in favor and on behalf of the Jewish people.

He has used his voice for over thirty years to warn his sheep not to stray from the fold, while he seeks those who are lost outside.

My Heavenly Shepherd has hands, hands that were pierced for me on the cross.  My earthly shepherd’s hands have pounded crooks, gang members, pulpits and desks.  They’ve fired machine guns, and they’re karate-trained hands, so they’ve broken 2X4’s.

But they have also reached inside his pocket, and taken out thousands of Gospel tracts for the lost, and thousands of dollars for missionaries, orphans, and widows.

They have shaken other hands, hands of lawyers, presidents, kings, rabbis, generals, war heroes, and those of countless preachers known around the world.

But they’ve also shaken Tom Sloan’s trembling hands, and as they did, my earthly shepherd spoke words of encouragement and admiration to him.

My Heavenly Shepherd’s feet led him along the shores of Galilee, and they were nailed to the cross.  My earthly shepherd uses his feet to carry him across the ocean and around the world ministering to the needy, helping the hurting, defending God’s chosen people, preaching the Gospel, and encouraging missionaries.

But the most precious thing about my Preacher is that I know he loves me, and he would never do anything to harm me, my children, or my ministry.  I believe he would give his life for us.  He has faith in me.  He has confidence that I can do things beyond anything I ever dreamed I could do.  And he encourages me and challenges me to reach my full potential.

“I love you, Preacher.  Thank you for being a wonderful Shepherd.  May our loving Shepherd carry you through this valley, and bring you safely to the other side, and back to us.”

One of your sheep.

Billie Sloan

Nahum 1:7

God Is So Good!

God is so Good!

God is so Good? If God is so Good, why did He allow me to be born into a home, where my father was a drunkard, and didn’t know God? God is so Good?

Yes, God is Good, because He gave me a mother who did love God, who prayed for my father, and read her Bible every night. God is so Good!

God is so Good?
If God is so Good, why did He allow my father to mock my mother and her Bible, and her God? God is so Good?

Yes, God is Good, because one day my father went to church, and accepted Christ as his Savior, and the God of my mother’s Bible. God is so Good!

God is so Good? Then why these doubts…these fears that I feel when my father explains to me that even though I’m only 8 years old, if I were to die in my sins, I’d go to hell? Does that show the goodness of God? Would a Good God condemn a little girl to hell?

Yes. But God is so Good, because Daddy read to me in the Bible that God loved me so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to earth to die on the cross for my sins…in my place. He suffered death in my place, the death penalty for my sins so that I could have eternal life. God is so Good!

God is so Good? Would a Good God take my parents to Mexico, when in the middle of my teen years, when I was sixteen years old, I had to leave my friends, my school, my church, and my country to go to a strange land, whose language I didn’t understand, and whose customs were as different as the food and the people? God is so Good?

Yes, God is Good, because, although at times in my rebellion, little by little God let me learn Spanish, the customs, and even to love the Mexican people. And He put a desire, a call into my heart to spend the rest of my life serving the people of Mexico. God is so Good!

God is so Good? Why would he want me to serve Him alone? I was 24 years old, and not one man had appeared in my life who wanted to serve God the way I wanted to serve Him, where I wanted to serve Him. God is so Good?

Yes. God is Good, because I decided to serve God with or without a husband. God Who is so Good, gave me peace!

…and also a husband. God is so Good for sending me a husband…the man of my dreams, Tom Sloan!
God is so Good!

God is so Good? Then why did He allow Tom to suffer the last 24 years of his life from Parkinson’s disease? Why was he so limited in his medical profession? God is so Good? Then why did He take him away from me? Why did He take him to Heaven? Why couldn’t we spend our last years on earth together? Couldn’t we have served Him better together? Couldn’t he have served God better with good health?

It’s been six years now since he left, and I ask myself, “Why? Why? Why? Why so many abortions? Why so many divorces? Why so much crime? Why so many broken hearts and broken vows? Why so many abandoned children, and abused women? Why is a little nine year-old girl dying of cancer?

Could it be there are moments…instants when God ceases to be Good?
No, no! A thousand times No!
God allows sickness, and sorrows, and poverty, and abandoned children, and cancer in little ones to draw us closer to Him, so that He can show us His love and His mercy and His grace.
It’s when we suffer most that we need more of His love and His comfort.
The greater the heartache, the more of His grace and His presence I need. The more I have to depend on Him.
I give Him my sorrow, and He gives me His joy.
I give Him my battles, and He gives me His victory.
I give Him my anxieties, and He gives me His peace.
I give Him my sins, and He gives me His forgiveness.
God is so Good?
Yes, God is so Good!

December 2009 Prayer Letter and Essay "If You Could Come Back"

I am writing this letter between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I can be nothing but thankful for God’s manifold blessings, in my ministry, in the lives of my children, and upon me personally. As far as I know, I enjoy excellent health, my eight children and their spouses love and serve the Lord. In the past year God has given me two new grandsons, and spared the life of my daughter, Ruthie, from being kidnapped.

And I have been honored to have had thirty-seven people saved in my ladies’ ministries, and Vacation Bible School.

Our Ladies’ Christmas Banquet this year was outstanding: Pastor Omar Torres did an excellent job, as he preached to the seventy-five ladies in attendance. When he gave the invitation, five were saved…two of those were former First Ladies of our town. Thank you for the part you had in this ministry so dear to my heart. We are already making plans for next year’s Banquet, which will take place November 19, 2010.

ISABEL, First Lady who was saved the night of the banquet

ME WITH MERCEDES, the other First Lady who was saved the night of the banquet

ME WITH MAYORS WIVES

At least for me, one of the most touching features on the program was the participation of twenty-one orphans from a nearby town. A pastor and his beautiful wife, and three precious children are in charge of the care of these delinquent little street irchens, and I watched the wives of mayors wipe tears from their eyes as the pastor told stories behind some of these children’s lives. Hearts were so stirred, that the Lord has moved my son, Philip, who is the pastor here, to present to our church the challenge of starting a children’s home. Will you pray for this very, very needy ministry?

For many people, like my children and me, who have lost loved ones to death, this time of the year holds a twinge of sadness. This year’s banquet theme was “Not of this World.” To you who have lost a loved one this year, or who hold dear precious memories of years gone by, I dedicate this little essay which I wrote and read at our Banquet. My prayer is that it will stir up in each of us an urgency, and a desire to do more for the Lord next year than we did in the past.

I wish you a Blessed Christmas, and a New Year filled with God’s richest blessings.

Billie Sloan
Nahum 1:7

“If You Could Come Back”

Written and read at our 2009 Ladies’ Christmas Banquet

by Billie Sloan

In a few days my children and I will be commemorating the fifth anniversary of the day my husband went to Heaven. Not long ago, one of my daughters dreamed about her Dad. She dreamed that he came back to earth, and spent the day with us. I don’t put any importance on dreams, but when she told me about hers, tears came into my eyes, because I still miss him very much.

A few days later, I started thinking about her dream, and I asked myself: “What would my husband do if he could come back to earth for one day? What would he think of me, and of the changes that have taken place in my life? Would he be pleased with the activities I’ve added to my routine, with the way I spend my money?

If he could come back, I believe I knew my husband well enough, that I’m sure he’d take me by the hand and perhaps he would take me for a walk down the streets of our town, and he’d show me the little abandoned children, the little barefoot girls with tangled hair, and he’d say, “Look at the things that are not of this world. And may everything you do, every penny you spend, all your travels have an influence on the things that are not of this world. Those are the souls of these children, and their eternal destiny.”

Perhaps my husband would continue, “I have walked on streets of gold. I’ve seen the face of Jesus. And only when you can see things as I see them, are you going to be able to distinguish between the eternal, and the earthly. The things of this world will pass away, but the most precious thing in this world is the eternal destiny of those who surround you. Shop for dresses and for cars. Put your legal matters in order. Enjoy life, but if all those things you buy, all your legal transactions do not influence the eternal destiny of your friends, your grandchildren, and the street children, it’s all in vain…all of this world.

And I believe he’d look into my eyes when he said, “The only thing I could take with me to Heaven were the souls of the people I won to Christ. Every door I knocked, every Bible I gave away, every message I preached was time invested in eternity. That’s the only thing that matters.”

If God has taken from you the most precious treasure of your life, a son, a daughter, your father, your mother, your husband, I’m sure if they could come back to earth, they’d tell you, “Put your eyes on things that are not of this world. Spend more time with people than with your hobbies. Spend more hours with your children than on your job. And may all you do lead people to the feet of Jesus. Oh! And make sure you’re prepared to see your Creator face to face when you die, and that you’ll walk on streets of gold.”

That’s what our loved ones would tell us if they could come back.