The Thursday Circle That Grew

The Thursday Circle That Grew

by Louise Eggleston

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

This is a nice group this morning. I wish I had some way of making you know what God could do with a group like this. Let’s drop every barrier now. Let’s drop every fear, every concern, every doubt. And let’s not be afraid of a glimpse of greater truth than we’ve known.

I love the way the book of John ends. That if all the things that Jesus did and said were written, I reckon the whole world couldn’t contain it. Well, He wants to tell it to us. These things that He did and said that didn’t get written. And He’ll tell it to any soul that will listen. You needn’t be afraid to look at the other fellow’s viewpoint. Or you have the right thing to measure it by. Jesus is the truth.

And there will never be any truth that ever will ever contradict Jesus. And so it’s all right to look at the other fellow’s viewpoint if you’re well-grounded. If he isn’t going to throw you over on his track when he’s on the wrong track. I don’t advise you, if you aren’t well-grounded in your faith, to run around looking at other people’s viewpoint.

But before we win the world for Christ, we’re going to have to see their viewpoint. And we’re going to have to see them as Jesus sees them. And love them as He loves them. And find that common meeting place. And there is a common meeting place. There is no religion that’s living that doesn’t have some of Jesus’ truth. You can always find that meeting place. And lead them on from where they are. But you can’t lead them until you’ve found that place of agreement. That oneness of spirit. That fellowship. So, if someone seems to say something that’s a little different from what you’ve been thinking, meditate upon it and give it to Jesus and ask Him what He thinks about it. And let Him lead you into greater truth. And… For today, we’re going to need to understand these greater things that are waiting to be given us. If what we had had been enough, the world wouldn’t be like it is. We do not have enough. And so we have to be open and ready to receive it. And big enough to test it and prove it. And then use it.

Now, so far in the mornings, we’ve been trying to help you individually to make your prayer life wonderful. And to make your own life into a channel that God can use.

But I think I’ve said several times, if every Christian in the world kept the quiet time and became attuned to Him, it wouldn’t be enough today. There must be the groups to multiply the power. And in groups, we’re not quite as self-centered in our praying. When you’re praying alone, you’re so apt to just be praying for yourself and your neighbor and your friends and the ones you know. But when you get in a group, you lose that self-centeredness. And you find the world. And any group that meets together finds that togetherness, you must take in the world. That’s why our prayer group in Norfolk is called the World Literacy Prayer Group. We don’t spend over about five minutes taking care of their personal things. It isn’t necessary.

We don’t have to explain the case to God. We don’t have to individually just beg God to do something. He’s ready to do it. All we do is bring them. And say thank you. And we can clear practically all the personal things in five minutes. Then the other 20 or 25 minutes we spend bringing the world to Him. Bringing the things that are in the headlines of the paper. These crucial needs. And how many, many times we’ve seen things change.

Just one of the little things. You know, if you live on the oceans. Especially on the Atlantic. You know these storms. Hazel and Mary and Susie and Anna. And all these hurricanes that come up the coast. Have you ever noticed how many went out away from Norfolk and around?

Because whenever we hear this one coming, we meet. We just offer God a channel. And we know that the hurricanes He is taking care of. And we say, “Lord, make us a channel. To just direct this old hurricane. And we don’t believe You want us to kill lives and destroy things.” We never tell Him what to do. But we offer Him a channel. Perfectly amazing to watch the way the hurricane goes out. And it comes back in. Does He love those people where it comes back in less? No. They just didn’t take hold of the opportunities that were there. They didn’t know. That’s the sad thing. Father, forgive them. They didn’t know. But why don’t we know today? These things have always been available. And Jesus called His group immediately. The first thing He did when He started out on His Great Commission. Called His group. And so if we really are going to be Christians and be ready for today, we’re going to be in a group. Doesn’t have to be a big group. That great big promise, if two of you agree on earth. But that word agree is the same word as symphony.

In Greek, the word agree and symphony are the same word. In a symphony, every note is in tune, isn’t it? Not one thing out of tune. That’s what He means. Whether there’s two or two thousand, in your group you must be at one with God, with each other, and with the world. You’re offering Him a symphony for Him to work through. And oh, how He can work miracles through any group, small or large, that offer Him this perfect agreement.

Now let’s see what we do about a group. In the first place, we use failures. How we hate to fail. I’ve seen so many people frustrated because they failed. I’ve seen so many groups give up because they failed. And God has always used failures. Abraham Lincoln failed all his life until he was made president. And it was the very failures that gave him the compassion and the understanding and the tenderness that could be beloved by both sides. Or it took a very narrow person in the South not to know that Abraham Lincoln was their friend also.

Now, don’t be afraid of failures. I think at the expense of some who’ve heard me tell this story before, I’m going to tell it again. I want you to know how God can use a great, big, terrible failure to make you into a strong group that knows the agony of failure and will not fail again. Not in the same way anyhow.

Around 1940, 39 I think. We opened up a new suburb in Norfolk and Norfolk is where five great rivers and the Chesapeake Bay flow into the ocean. And so there’s rivers, or tributaries, everywhere. Norfolk is a little strip of land and a water and some more land and some more water. Norfolk. But here was a little piece of land shaped like an egg that was just touching some other piece of land by a strip about as wide as this sanctuary. Just broad enough to be a road leading into this little island, almost an island. And the plot of land was just big enough for every home site to face the water. And then the backyards became a park where children could play and no automobiles running around. They were just safe. For the highway just faced the water, went around the water in front of the homes. Not big enough for more than about 20 home sites. But meant to be a lovely suburb. Well, the first one found to buy a site in this new suburb was the Dix family. D-I-X. Now, he was a high naval officer. And he could afford to buy a lovely site and build a nice home. And when they saw these lovely sites, she said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody out here were our friends?”

“Why, we’d just be a little community all to ourselves. We wouldn’t ever have to go anywhere to enjoy life.” So they began bringing their friends out and pretty soon every site was bought by their friends. So it became just one happy family. All of them younger people, all in the service, but all high in the service, enough to afford it and each have a car and a servant. So life was wonderful. Now, they all were church people. Every one of them were church members. And on Sundays, you’d find them in Sunday school and church. And on Tuesdays, in Norfolk, Tuesday is church day. Every church of all denominations observes Tuesday and has their women’s meetings or whatever meetings they have on Tuesday. Garden clubs and other clubs never meet on Tuesday. They observe it as church day. But the rest of the days belonged to them. And so they thought. They were young and everything was wonderful. So on Monday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday, it was one party after another. Just a lovely, merry life, they thought. Well, now, Patty Dix was the leader of this community and of all of these naval and army officers’ wives. And they were having one happy time, they felt. And Patty began to have terrible headaches.

Getting worse and worse, but Patty’s date book was filled. She didn’t have time to stay home for a headache. So she’d take another pill and keep going. Till one morning, Patty couldn’t lift her head. So she said to her husband, “This old headache has me this morning. Guess you’d better call the doctor.” So he called the doctor and kissed her goodbye and went on to the naval base. Never dreaming that there was anything serious. The doctor came and examined her and knew immediately that it was a tumor on the brain. He called… Before he even called the husband home, he called Dr. Dandy, Johns Hopkins Hospital. And he made an appointment for the next morning for Patty Dix. Then he called the husband and said, “Come home. Your wife has to go to the hospital in Baltimore right away.” So he came home and of course they were very much shocked. But young and they’d never had any trouble. It didn’t occur to them that it was serious.

And their group told them goodbye and off they went. Now the next morning, Dr. Dandy sold her up inoperable. And he said to the husband, “It’s only a matter of weeks. It’s absolutely gone until there’s nothing can be done. Now all I can do for you is give you some dope. I’ll give you an order for an unlimited amount of dope. But don’t start it too soon. For her last days are going to be filled with agony. So hold off the dope as long as possible that she might be able to bear it to the end.” Well, you can imagine what that did to the community when he came back with that. And then Dr. Dandy said, “Don’t let her have any company. She’s going to need all of her strength for herself.”

Well, there was no more card playing in that community. They just sat around and wept. But Patty’s sister-in-law was one of my spiritual life secretaries on the Rappahannock district. And as soon as she heard she came to Norfolk. And when she saw her friends just sitting around weeping she said, “What’s the matter with you girls? Why aren’t you praying?” They said, “Pray? Did you hear what Dr. Dandy said?” She said, “Yes, that’s why I’m here.”

They said, “Do you think that prayer could save Patty now?” “What?” She said, “I know it. I wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t known it. Of course I think so.” Well, they said, “We don’t know how to pray like that.” Well, she said, “You live in Norfolk, don’t you? Don’t you remember just a couple years ago, Bishop… now Bishop Walter Gumm, but he was just plain Reverend Walter Gumm at that time. But he was our pastor and two weeks after he came to us as our pastor he was carried to the hospital and he’d only had one kidney since the little boy and now the second kidney was filled with stones and his temper… the infection was so terrible that his temperature was 108 degrees and he didn’t waver from 108 degrees for 10 days.”

It’s a world record. There’s never been anyone known to live who held a temperature of 108 degrees for 10 days straight running. Well, they couldn’t do anything for him. They couldn’t take out the only kidney he had and it was beyond anything that man could do. But our method, our… You see, we’ve had prayer groups now since 23. And our method is always when there’s a very serious case our prayer group members meet at the church every morning and we take another promise of Jesus or one of the great promises in the Bible, for they’re all God’s promises. And we examine ourselves to see if we are meeting the conditions. And if we are we just thank the Lord that there’s no failure on His side. And that if we are failing we invite Him to convict us and make us know it, make us so miserable that we have to obey. Oh, I tell you it’s a powerful one. It’s just powerful. When a whole group or all the groups together, you don’t have to stay more than 15 minutes. But we never miss a day when we’re praying for some real crucial need. We meet in that sanctuary and we take our promise. And we take a different promise every day because the different promises have different conditions.

And you’ve got to meet them all. And after we have had that time of silence letting the Holy Spirit convict us and we know that we are doing the best we know and all we know, willing for the Holy Spirit to make it known if there’s more we need to know, we just accept that promise and praise Him and thank Him and adore Him and stake our lives that God isn’t going to fail. Well, after we’d met a week like that for our minister Walter Gumm, the doctors that had seen so many miracles and had the records of them and they expected miracles when our group was meeting like this, they sent us word not to continue, that anyone who held a temperature that high that long, his mind wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be right to keep him here if his mind wasn’t right. If you ever get a chance to hear Bishop Walter Gumm, I want you to judge whether his mind’s all right. Well, we said we didn’t send him back word. I went and talked to the doctor that sent us word and I said, “Doctor, you don’t realize how we pray. We never tell God how to answer. As much as we love this minister, if he’s finished his work, we wouldn’t be mean enough to keep him here.

“When God is offering something greater up there, we never tell God how to answer. We always ask for His will to be done, but when we ask it, we know His will is what Jesus always did. There’s not one case where Jesus said, ‘Well, God’s will is for you to die.’ He healed every one of them. For Jesus is life. And when you let in Jesus in all of His fullness, you’re letting in life. And He brought the dead back to life. So we don’t tell God how to answer, but we aren’t afraid of what He wants.” And I said, “Now, doctor, we are not afraid that God’s going to save the body and not save his mind. That isn’t the kind of God we are worshiping. And whatever He does with our prayers is going to be all right with us. But we will not stop praying.” On the tenth day, his fever went down to normal. And every symptom became normal. And the doctor said, “There isn’t any doubt he’ll be well. Completely well.” Now, this was in December. We had started… He went to the hospital on December the 6th. And we had met now until December the 16th every day. And the temperature fell. And that day, the doctor said, “Well, the victory’s sure.”

So we got busy and advertised in every paper in Virginia and North Carolina and Maryland and Washington because he was one of the favorite ministers in all of these surrounding states. And they all loved him and adored him. And they were all watching eagerly. The papers were carrying headlines about him. And so we announced that on Christmas Day, which would be nine days later, we were going to have a Thanksgiving service to say thank you to God for restoring our minister. And on Christmas Day, our church, 875, it was filled. And they’d come from all over North Carolina and Virginia and Maryland and Washington on Christmas Day to say thank you to God for restoring our minister to us. And he was back in his pulpit the first Sunday in February. And I don’t think he’s ever been to a doctor since. And up to that time, he had a standing engagement with his doctor every three weeks to irrigate this one kidney he had. I’m sure he has two kidneys now. But he’s never had to go for an irrigation since. Never has. And he’s the picture of health. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his mind. And how you judge when you have a chance to hear him. Well, that happened in Norfolk just a couple years before Patty Dix.

And so she reminded them, said, “Don’t you remember that?” “Oh, yes, but he was a preacher. God has favorites, you know. He does for preachers what He wouldn’t think of doing for you and me.” “No. No. He’d do just as much for the vilest sinner that ever lived that He’d do for the greatest saint. He loves them all equally. You love your bad children, don’t you? God loves His bad children, too.”

Well, this spiritual life secretary convinced them that Patty could live. But that it was going to take a prayer group. It was going to take people who loved her. That were going to pay the price. And they said, “Well, who will show us how?” “Well,” she said, “don’t you know Louise Eggleston? She lives in Norfolk. She’ll show you how.” And one of them said, “Oh, I know her.” “All right,” she said, “get in touch with her and ask her. She’ll teach you.” So she called me up and wanted to know if some of them could come in to see me. And I said, “Yes.” So all of that suburb descended upon me. And they told me about it. And they said, “Do you think that she could live?” I said, “I don’t have to think. I know God. I know that God can bring her back to wholeness.” Why, she was the superintendent of the primary department at Epworth Methodist Church in Norfolk. And she was doing a wonderful job. She was just sweet as she could be. Why, I said, “God hasn’t finished with her.” She had several little young children. I said, “Now God has to have the conditions met. Are you willing to meet every day,” for we met every day, “Are you willing to meet and learn these conditions and fulfill them?

“And be a channel through which God may heal her?” They said, “Miss Eggleston, we’ll do anything under the sun to save Patty’s life.” I said, “All right. If you mean it, you get those that will pledge. That we’ll set the time every day when we’ll meet for an hour to learn how to pray and to pray. And we’ll not let anything come before it. Find out how many of her friends are ready to pledge that. And I’ll go out and meet Patty.” “Oh,” they said, “you can’t see her. She’s not having company.” Well, I said, “Maybe the Lord will let me in.” For this wasn’t very long after my illness. And I was in the hospital over six weeks. And I knew all the nurses in Norfolk. The ones that weren’t my nurses would come in to tell me that gossip, you know. They really can tell you things. And I knew all the nurses in Norfolk. Lo and behold, when I knocked on the door, it was one of my very own nurses that answered the door. And she said, “Oh, Miss Eggleston, I was just about to phone you. Will you come and pray for Patty?” Well, I said, “I came out to meet Patty. And I came out to do more than just pray for her myself.

“We’re going to start a prayer group that’s going to be God’s channel for her.” Well, when I met Patty, I could see why everybody loved her. She was just perfectly delightful. And when I told her that her friends were going to meet every day to study the art of prayer, they were going to give up their card parties. They were going to give up everything and just meet every day and give all their time and attention to this. And I was going to give their assignments so full they wouldn’t have time for other parties. It was really going to be a prayer group for a preparation all day long. Well, she was thrilled. And the nurse said, “Now, Miss Eggleston, if you’ll give me the assignment each day, I’ll teach Patty. And Patty and I will be following through with everything you’re teaching them.” Well, we had a delightful time and prayed. And I said, “Now, we start tomorrow.” And they decided they were going to meet in the home right across the parkway from hers, the backyard, you know. And she was on a hospital bed that was evil, even with her triple window. And so she could lie there on her bed and watch them as they assembled each day and wave to them.

So each day I would go out about 15 minutes before time for the meeting. And I’d see Patty and talk with Patty and check up on things and have a prayer and then go across and meet with the group. From the first day we met, Patty never had a pain. She lost all pain. She never had a headache. She never had anything that would remind her of her illness except she was weak. And so she’d watch us as we’d meet. And I settled those girls down to real study on prayer. I first started out with five chapters. I made them all get their big composition book and copy in the promises and copy the commands. For some of these are commands. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you.” That’s a command. For when we are seeking our own selves and our own ways first, we’re losing. We’re losing the whole purpose for which we’re in the world. We’re here to seek first the kingdom. And the things that are right, for that’s what righteousness means. Seek the things that are right and good and eternal. Well, I started out with five chapters, having them collect the promises and underscore their part. And then we’d talk about it and examine ourselves.

And they were thrilled. And then they said, “Oh, Miss Eggleston, these promises are so wonderful. Give us bigger assignments.” And so I doubled it to ten chapters. And I said, “Now I don’t want reading the chapter once. And just writing down the promises. I want you to really know these chapters you’re reading. I want you to know their life, their truth. Their things that are unshakable. And I want you to plant them deep.” Well, they did. I never saw anybody enjoying anything like these girls in my life. We were supposed to meet an hour. But we met at two o’clock and we stayed all afternoon. And then they said, “Oh, this is such fun. Could you give us all a different assignment so that we can trade promises with each other?” They wanted that promise book just filled with promises. So I gave them different promises, different assignments. I remember the face of one when I gave her an assignment in Deuteronomy. She said, “Oh, Miss Eggleston, you know there isn’t any promises back there in the Old Testament.” My. And some of the biggest of all. “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Oh, some of the great ones are back there. Well, you see, they were learning their Bible. They were learning the ways of life.

They were learning truth. And they were finding that it’s unshakable. Well, they were having such a wonderful time that not one took a vacation. Not one put anything against it. They had 40 of them signed up. Now, we began to meet in the last week in April. Well, they didn’t, I didn’t let them meet on Sundays if they’d go to Sunday school and church. And they went to Sunday school and church. And we represented all the denominations. For when you collect nice friends who like to play cards, there’s more than Methodists in them. We had every denomination in this group. That’s the background of our world literacy. We had every denomination. You know, that’s the way Jesus collects them. He wants them all. Whatever road you’re traveling on, and that’s what our denomination is, we’re just traveling on this highway. But every highway is leading to the same goal. Well, we had them traveling on every highway, but we were showing them that we’re all following the same roadmap.

Well, we were having a wonderful time. And they met every day but Sunday in May and June and July and August. And now it was the third week in September. Patty hadn’t had a pain. She hadn’t had a headache. She just didn’t gain her strength. Her husband could pick her up in his arms. She was a little old thing. And take her down and she could eat as big a meal as anyone. He’d put her in the car and take her out driving. But didn’t gain the strength to walk. Well, we were having such a wonderful time that we hadn’t even stopped to wonder why she hadn’t gotten her strength. And she was having such a wonderful time entering into all this. She just loved it. She just loved it. That we hadn’t questioned it until the last week in September. Then it came time that I must get out on the districts.

Our Virginia had 14 districts at that time. It has 16 now. Virginia Conference. And I had 14 districts to get out and lead the district retreats and build them up for their year’s work. Now I know that with God there are never conflicts. There’s never two right answers to anything. There’s always one right answer. So I said, “Now Lord, this seems to be a conflict. But which is Your answer? Must I give up the Patty Dix group and go out on my districts? Or must I give up my conference work and stick by this group? Now I can’t do both. I can’t meet every day with them and get out on a district each week. And You must make the decision. I love that group. And I love my work. But either way You want it is all right with me. Now You just make the decision and I’ll follow.” Now I knew I was giving the Lord a hard decision. But I wasn’t afraid to trust Him. I had no idea how He was going to solve it. But I was willing for His solution. Well, the next day I went, as usual, out to see Patty before the prayer group. And I never saw anyone look as beautiful as Patty in all my life.

She was beautiful. But this time she just radiated a beauty and a spirit and a glow that I’d just never seen before. And I said, “Patty, I’ve never seen anyone look as radiant and beautiful as you do today. Do you feel like you look?” She said, “Miss Eggleston, I can’t explain to you how I feel.” She said, “You know what Jesus talked about in the upper room, His peace? ‘My peace I give unto you.’” I said, “I certainly do.” She said, “I know what He was talking about. I have that great peace. It’s just beyond any human understanding.” And she said, “You know, He talked about His joy. ‘All these things I have given unto you that my joy might be in you and your joy be full.’ I know what He’s talking about. Why, I’m so happy I can hardly contain it. This joy is just unspeakable.” Well, I said, “You certainly do show it, Patty. I know that this is the day that you’re going to regain your strength. I know that this is the day of victory.” I said, “I won’t have a lesson today. I’m going across the park and we’re going to sing hallelujahs for one hour. We’re going to sing every hymn we can find in all the denominational hymn books that praise the Lord and rejoice and adore Him.

“And your window’s up. You’ll hear us. You lie here and sing with us.” So we had a prayer of rejoicing and thanksgiving and I went across the park. And I said, “How many of you have hymn books?” Oh, they all had a hymn book. And I said, “Go get them. We’re going to sing for one hour.” I told them about Patty. I said, “I know that this is her crowning day. I know this is the day of victory.” And so they went home and they brought their books. And I said, “Turn to your thanksgiving hymns.” And we sang all of them. For one hour, we just rejoiced and gave praise and adored the Lord. And then I said, “Now we’ll take the same lesson tomorrow that we would have had today.”

And we started home. Now, Josephine, that’s not her name. I can’t call it Save My Life. Well, as I know. But it is the name of that order. Said, “Miss Eggleston, may I drive back to town with you today?” And I said, “Of course.” So she got in the car. And as soon as we’d started, she said, “You know, I’m not sleeping at night.” Well, I said, “What’s the matter? What are you worrying about?” She said, “That’s it. I am worrying. Did you know that Betty and I do not speak to each other?” I said, “You don’t mean Betty and the prayer group.” She said, “I certainly do.” “Why,” I said, “you mean that you and Betty have been in this group every day for five months? And you haven’t spoken to each other?” She said, “We haven’t spoken to each other for years.”

Well, I said, “You knew the conditions. You both knew that you promised, you gave your word of honor, that you’d do anything to save Patty’s life. And you knew when you weren’t speaking and when you were holding something in your heart that you weren’t meeting a condition. What are you going to do about it?” Well, she said, “If you’ll make her apologize, I’ll forgive her.”

I said, “Josephine, He’s speaking to you. You’re the one He’s speaking to. You’re the one He’s convicting so you can’t sleep. You’re the one to go and make it right.” She said, “I never will. She’s the one that deliberately hurt my daughter. And until she comes and apologizes, I’ll never forgive her.” I said, “You’d rather see Patty die than give in, wouldn’t you?” “Oh, no, no, no. No, she’s all right, but Miss Eggleston, and she’s not sick.” I said, “But she can’t get well. That’s why she hasn’t regained her strength.” Well, I said, we were having such a good time, you know, I hadn’t stopped to wonder why she hadn’t regained her strength. But God couldn’t possibly finish the victory when there was anything being held back. But she said, “If you’ll make her apologize, I’ll forgive her.” I said, “No, God doesn’t do that. God could have made every old sinner good if He had forced them, but God doesn’t do it that way. He woos them and loves them and convicts them. And I said, He’s really convicting you. And you aren’t going to sleep until you’ve made it right.” She said, “I never will.” I sat in front of her house for a half hour and pled and reasoned and begged. And I said, “Then it looks like we’ve wasted five months.

“It looks like you would rather see Patty die than to give in.” “Oh, no,” she said, “she’ll be all right. We will, we will, I know we will. But she’s got to do it first.” Well, I went home just feeling like we’d lost the summer. And when I entered my door, the maid said, “There’s a message for you.” I said, “What is it, Susie?” She said, “Patty Dix has died.”

If she’d told me that every member of my family had been killed in a wreck, it wouldn’t have shocked me anymore. And I don’t believe it could have hurt me anymore. It absolutely crushed me. It had never occurred to me that Patty could die. I’d never seen a failure when there was a group that was meeting and pouring out like that. But, of course, I’d never seen a group that had been dishonest before.

Well, I forgot how to pray. I’d been teaching prayer for many years and I forgot how to pray. I went to my prayer room and I got out on my knees and I said, “Lord, how could You do it? How could You do it? Now they’re going to say prayer doesn’t work. How can I face them? What can I say?”

Oh, I was really laying the Lord out in the agony of my soul. And then it came to me, well, He must feel worse than you. He loves her better than you do. And after all, it was His word you were teaching. It wasn’t your word. It was His word. It’s His word that it looks like it’s failed. So stop thinking about yourself and think about God. And I was trying to get still and see it from God’s viewpoint when the phone rang. And Susie said, “It’s for you, Miss Eggleston.” And I went to the phone and it was a member of the group. And it wasn’t Josephine and it wasn’t Betty. It was another one. And she said, “Miss Eggleston, have you heard about Patty?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “You know, Miss Eggleston, it’s my fault that Patty died. I knew there was a condition I wasn’t meeting. But it didn’t look so big. I didn’t think God would hardly notice it. But I know now. It’s my fault Patty died.” I said, “Well, were you going to admit it at all?” “No,” she said, “I wasn’t. I didn’t think it was that important.”

They thought they could fool God. Everyone but Patty’s sister-in-law called me, admitting it was their fault that Patty died. Every one of them were holding something back. They knew they weren’t meeting the conditions, but they thought God was so good, so kind, so merciful, that He’d answer anyhow.

You know, we’re kind of like that. We kind of excuse ourselves, don’t we? God’s so good and so kind and so merciful, why, He just won’t even notice this little sin of mine. All sin separates us from God. All sin keeps our prayers from being answered, even though it looks very minor.

Well, if ever you saw a sad group in a funeral, that was the saddest group I’ve ever seen. For every one of them knew it was their fault that Patty wasn’t supposed to die, that they’d pledged their word that they’d do anything and they hadn’t done it. They hadn’t kept their word and Patty had died. After the funeral, they all huddled around me and they said, “You aren’t going to give us up, are you? We could never go back to playing cards anymore. We want to be now the kind of a group that the Lord can use. We’ve learned our lesson and we’ve learned it the hard way. Please don’t give us up.” Well, I said, “Now we’ll meet once a week. But how about you all coming into my church to meet? It’s central.” Well, we had them coming from Suffolk, Virginia, 25 miles away. Virginia Beach, 16 miles away. And Portsmouth, just across the river. We had them coming from all around. And I said, “Now my church is central. Will you meet at my church?” They said, “We’d meet anywhere. We’d do anything. We could never give this up.” I said, “All right, let’s decide on the time.” And they set the time Thursday morning, 10:30, Ghent Bethlehem District. There’s never been a Thursday since 1940 that that group hasn’t been there unless it was Thanksgiving Day or Christmas.

And Thanksgiving Day, they have to all promise to go to the Thanksgiving service. And they do. That’s that powerful group. That’s the group that God is using to just do miracles around the world. For they know the agony of failure. And they know that you never fooled God. But when you meet the conditions, the victory is sure. Now, the first time we met, they said, “You know, Miss Eggleston, we used to spend an awful lot on our card party. Don’t you think that we ought to bring what we would have spent and maybe some more? Couldn’t we support a missionary in Patty Dix’s name? We’ve got to live for Patty now.” Wasn’t that wonderful? Oh, that’s the victory. Now, any prayer group that meets and asks great things of God and isn’t ready to share and keep that spirit flowing, you aren’t going to have much power.

Unless you’re ready to take a project and do something and let that power that God is flowing through you go out to bless another, you’re not going to have much power. If you only knew the things that God has done using that group. And do you know the sister-in-law is the only one that’s in the group today? God has moved these naval officers’ wives and army officers all around the world, but they haven’t gone anywhere in the world that they haven’t gone planting prayer groups. That’s the way God does it. Oh, we don’t see how God is spreading the leaven out. There isn’t any place on earth that doesn’t have prayer groups. Because 39 women have been planting it whenever the Lord moves them. You know, He moves them every two or three years. And wherever they go, they’ve been spreading the prayer groups, making them know that you’ll never lower the standard. These are God’s laws. And even if you’re making a mistake in addition in arithmetic, you don’t get the answer, do you? You might know the laws, but if you make a mistake, you do not get the answer. And in prayer, it’s just that infallible. You can know the laws. They’re simple. But if you do not obey them, you’ll never get the answer.

Well, now I’m going to show you what God can do with a group like that. You know, we’ve never had less than 40. It’s grown whenever they’d be moved out. Why, there’s always more had already come in because they get in touch with all these incoming officers and put them in the group. It’s been a group of floating people. Men, women, white, colored. We don’t care. There’s no limitations in our group. We don’t know the Greek. Are they Jew? Are they good or the bad? They’re all God’s children and they’re all welcome in our group. And any visitor is always welcome in our group. Thursday morning, 10:30, Ghent Methodist Church. Now, the 40s, you know, we were in war. And we’re in war times are the times of epidemics. And in a war city like Norfolk, epidemics are worse. You remember how many died with flu in the First World War? Well, if you lived in Norfolk, you’d know. But in the Second World War, it was polio. And the polio epidemic hit Norfolk soon and strong. And one Thursday morning when this group met, five cases of their own families reported complete paralysis in polio. Right in their own families, five cases. And they’d all been pronounced absolutely incurable, never would have any more movements.

Total paralysis. Well, you know, that group really settled down. We spent the day. And we just faced these conditions. We always remind ourselves of the conditions. And we had a wonderful day. And we felt stronger. But I didn’t feel that the victory was complete. And so I said to them, “You know, when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, He had taken the three strongest disciples with Him in that great experience. And the nine that were left were not able to heal the epileptic boy. And then Jesus came down and healed him.” And they said to Jesus, “Why couldn’t we do it?” And Jesus said, “Well, your lack of faith. But this kind goeth out only by prayer and fasting.”

I said, “I believe the Lord wants us to take another step. I believe He wants to teach us the power of fasting, of putting this old human part of us secondary in the background and just giving all the powers of our being to the spirit.” I said, “How many of you would like to come tomorrow and meet me at the altar of our church by seven o’clock in the morning and remain until five in the afternoon and not one of us will have anything solid all day long? You may have juice or milk or broth but nothing solid. We aren’t going to give any powers to the human part of us. We’re going to offer everything that we are to God for Him to use and direct with none of the powers being lost in the human.” And 30 hands went up.

Well, I wasn’t quite sure that all 30 of them were quite ready for a day like this for this was very soon after we started meeting. And I said, “Now let me tell you again what I’m asking. I’m asking from seven o’clock in the morning till five. We’re going to be in our sanctuary. We’re going to keep our hearts utterly attuned. We’re going to face every condition in prayer. We’re going to meet it. And we’re going to abstain from anything solid that would take our powers. Now, do you really mean it?” And all 30 hands went up again. I said, “All right. Come with your Bible. Come with your favorite devotional books. For we’re all going to be thinking the same thoughts at the same time all day long.” Oh, there’s such power in it. There’s power in this room where you’re all trying to follow the things I’m saying. For it’s like an army marching when a foot, every foot hits the ground at the same time. The vibrations are so great that, like the waves of the ocean, they go all the way across.

So I said, “Bring your Bibles, bring your favorite devotional books. We are going to each have a turn and we’re going to share with each other the things that have blessed us. But all of us are going to be thinking the same thoughts at the same time all day and just be open channels for God to use.”

Well, now, one of these that was total paralysis was Betty’s daughter. Betty and Josephine, you know, that didn’t speak, hadn’t spoken, but, oh, how they made it up before that funeral. If ever you saw two fast friends, it was these two. And neither one knew which one got there first to do the apologizing. They just fell in each other’s arms. Well, this was Betty’s daughter. Now, Betty’s daughter was in college and her fiancé was called in the service. And so they begged Betty and her father to let them get married before he went out in the service. And she would go on back to college and finish college. But at least he could go out knowing that they had each other. And so they were married before he went in the service and she went back to college. But she only finished that session. A little baby came along. Now, she was one of these victims. And the little baby was just about two months old.

So, they had told her very frankly that she would never be able to move a hand or a foot or anything. She didn’t accept it. She said, “God didn’t give me a baby and give me a husband for me to lie here a complete paralytic. I know God’s going to heal me.” Well, now, she was one of them. But there was five within the families of these 40 people.

Now, Betty said, “I will not be able to be with you. I’m taking care of the little baby. But I will certainly keep my heart attuned all day.” Now, we sent word to all of them that we were going to have this day of fasting and prayer. That we knew that the Great Physician did not want them to remain there. He healed the paralytic. He made the lame walk. And He was just as eager and just as able to bring them back to wholeness. And so, we sent them word that they must be tuned in with us. They must expect it. And like the paralytic, that Jesus said, “Get up and walk.” He didn’t say, “Well, Jesus, you know I haven’t walked for 40 years. How do you expect me to get up and walk?” He got up and walked.

And I said, “Let them know they must have the same faith. Or any channel that’s going to be this clear and this strong, God is going to offer them the power. But they must believe it and they must receive it and they must act upon it.” And so all five knew that we were meeting all day to be a channel for them. Now Mary Ann, who was the daughter of Betty, she knew that we were meeting. And so that morning when she was being bathed, she said to her nurse, “Would you mind getting some crutches and standing them by my bed?” And the nurse said, “Why? You’ll never be able to walk, dear. There’s no need of you having a false hope like that. There’s no need of even looking at crutches.” She said, “Well, if it would give me comfort and I request it, would you mind standing them there?” “No,” she said, “if you want it, I’ll go get some and stand them there.” So she got a pair of crutches and stood them beside her bed. Then Mary Ann acted as though she’d forgotten everything about it. She waited an hour or so wondering what she could do to get the nurse out of the room for a long time. And finally, she thought of a book that she knew would not be in the library.

Library. And she said to her, “There’s a certain book I want very much. I want you to read to me out of it. Will you go to the library and search until you find it?” The nurse said, “Well, honey, it might keep me out too long.” She said, “Well, I can’t run away, you know. I’m all right. You’ve done everything I need. And I want this book more than anything else. Will you do it?” And so she sent her out on a wild goose chase that she couldn’t find to keep her out of the room a long time. And as soon as she was out of hearing, she said to the Lord, “Lord, I know You’re saying to me, ‘Get up and walk.’ You have a baby to take care of. I have the faith to do it. I know You want me to walk. And I’m going to do it.” And she sat up in bed. And she got her feet out on the side of the bed. And she reached the crutches. And she got on the crutches. And when the nurse came back without the book, she was walking down the hall on her crutches.

Now the others didn’t respond that fast. But every single one of them came through to perfect wholeness without one sign that they had ever been paralyzed. Oh, God is the same. You can trust God. There’s never any failures on God’s side. Every one of the failures are on man’s side. And when we follow all the way through with God, there are no failures. He’s just as eager and able and ready to do the things today that He did when He walked this earth as when He walked the earth. All limitations are on our side. Not one of them are on God’s side.

Well, that was our first experience with prayer and fasting. But oh, how we’ve used it since. Whenever we have some very, very hard case, we just declare a day of prayer and fasting. And we begin that first half hour, each of us kneeling at the altar, being in silence, asking the Holy Spirit that indwells us to convict us of anything that has not been committed. Any little sin that looks little to us, and yet it’s the little sins that really separate us more than the big ones. As you read your Sermon on the Mount, it’s these little sins that Jesus said are keeping us out of the kingdom, that the thief and the harlot are going to get in before these that condemn and look for the ugly rather than the good. And so we spend that first half hour at that altar in silence, letting the Holy Spirit convict us or build us up or prepare us, and then we always rededicate our lives. You know, every day you have more to give God if you lived well yesterday. And if you didn’t live well yesterday, you have something to be forgiven. So every day should be a rededication of our lives, a coming back anew to God for Him to take over and reorder, direct, and make what He needs.

Well, after we’ve had that and we have rededicated our lives, then we get together in a group and one person leads at a time. But always we’re sharing these wonderful things, like these blessed truths that your minister’s been giving us each morning. Each morning I thought, well, if I’d chosen myself, I wouldn’t have chosen anything different. That fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, how I love it.

You know, if you read it in the New Translation, up at the top of the page, it tells you what happens when love controls. It brings out several things that happen to you when love controls in that fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians. First thing is, what is the first one? Oh, we no longer live unto ourselves, but we live for Him who died for us and rose again.

Most of us are still living for ourselves. We’re still trying to think, what would please me the most and what will I get the most out of? But when we’ve let His Spirit control our lives, we do not live for ourselves anymore. We live for Him who died for us and rose again, and that’s the victorious thing. If He’d only died for us, I doubt if we’d ever remembered it. But He rose again and He lives in us.

He lives in you to the extent that you’ll let Him. And He’ll live in you as fully as God lived in Jesus on God’s terms. Are you living for yourself or are you living for Him who died for and rose again that He might live in you and give you everything God gave to Him? That’s the first evidence of a completely surrendered life. And the next evidence in that chapter is we no longer see others from the human viewpoint. We look beyond these human weaknesses and we see within every soul a potential child of God. And we know that no matter how wicked they are, the good in them is eternal and that good can overcome all the evil that’s ever befallen them. I think we fail more there than any other way in our Christian lives. We fail to look for the good in every soul and magnify the good. But that’s what Paul tells us is the second evidence that our lives belong to Him. We don’t see them from those ugly human failing viewpoints. We look for the good, the eternal, the true.

And then he lets you know that we become new creations when we let that love dominate our lives. We become new creatures. And every day we’re more wonderful as we live in His love. And then he quickly reminds you lest you have a little pride about this new creation you are that it’s a gift. You didn’t merit it. You didn’t earn it. You received it. It’s a gift and it’s a gift from God.

Then he reminds us that He sent Jesus to reconcile the world to Himself. That’s why Jesus came. And Jesus isn’t going to fail. The world is going to be reconciled to Him. Every one of them. Love is that mighty. But then he goes on to say He’s entrusted to us this message of reconciliation.

What are you doing about it? How many have you reconciled to Christ? How many have you made His love so real, so irresistible that they had to come back? They couldn’t help it. He has entrusted to us. He came to be the way, to show the way, to lead us in the way. But the kingdom waits for this generation. We’re going to do it.

And it’s going to be done. It’s going to be done because the agony of failure, we can’t stand much longer. We surely have been failing. But I don’t care who you are, your part is just as important to God as Frank Laubach. And to me, he’s the greatest saint that ever lived.

I don’t think there’s ever been a greater prophet ever lived than Frank Laubach. And yet your part is just as important to God as Frank Laubach. And all He asks of you is, “Are you letting me use you? Are you letting me make you all that I can make you? Are you letting me throw such love through you that others around you cannot resist it?” For love is irresistible. Love is absolutely irresistible. And that’s all He’s asking of us. So we are His ambassadors. Isn’t that wonderful?

Remember hearing Stanley Jones when he first went to India, you know, that caste system was so strong that the Indian just couldn’t be in the same coach, same train with one of the lower caste. And he said this high Indian came in and there he sat. And he looked him over and then he decided he couldn’t stay in the same coach with him. And as he went out he thought, “I’m an ambassador for Christ. But he couldn’t sit in the same coach with me.” Are you really an ambassador for Christ? You’ve been chosen to be that. And as an ambassador for Christ all of heaven itself is backing us. There’s not one thing we could ever need or desire that God isn’t offering to us to make this earth like heaven.

And we’re going to do it, aren’t we? We are going to do it. God. May I just say one other thing that we do when anyone is going to be in a very serious surgery operation. Our prayer groups are always at the altar. We’re always there yielding ourselves so utterly to God. Offering ourselves to God as His channel to use to direct the surgeons, to direct the nurses, to direct everything that’s being done. We never tell God what to do. God knows what to do. God knows how to deal with these surgeons and nurses and medical things that are being done. They’re His agents. But we’re there being the little wire that connects God with His agents. I have never seen an operation fail to come through gloriously when God had a group here being His channel. And the doctors, oh, what they find. And my sister was being operated on last year. And they had proof by two different hospitals and doctors and she hadn’t told them that she had gotten both of them. But both of them brought in the same findings. She had malignancy in four areas. The colon, the gland, the pancreas, and the liver. And she had the positive proof that it was malignant in all four areas. But a brand-new doctor, a specialist in cancer was in Norfolk, a wonderful man, wonderful gentleman, a wonderful surgeon, but not a Christian.

Well, he had everything. He hadn’t felt any need for God, you see. Oh, he was just a gentleman of the highest type, but never went to church. We didn’t know that. But he was so highly recommended, and he had recently come there as a cancer specialist, so we had him.

And he had told her very frankly there was nothing he could do to save her life, but that he could give her some ease. And I said, “What did you expect to do, doctor?” He said, “I’ll put in a colostomy.” I said, “No, you won’t.” My sister was 85 years old. She’d lived a marvelous life. She was ready to go to heaven. And I said, “That wouldn’t save her life. It would only prolong it, wouldn’t it?” “Yes.” I said, “Well, she’s not trying to prolong life. She’s ready to go on. She’s merited going on, and she’s not afraid to go. But my sister doesn’t know how to live with a colostomy and she can’t live with one.” She’d never been ill in her life. She’d never had indigestion or a headache or anything else. And so I said, “I forbid the colostomy.” He said, “I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want one either.” Well, anyhow, I said, “Doctor, you’re new in the city?” And he said, “Yes.” I said, “Will you look up three records? They’re all in this very same hospital, General Hospital.” I gave him my own. I said, “I look pretty healthy, don’t you think? I want you to look up my record. And then will you look up Bishop Walter Gumm’s record?”

And I gave him the date of that, December the 6th, 1936. I said, “I want you to look that up, please. And then there’s another one, Ann Hartigan, in our church that was sewed up inoperable. With cancer of the vital organs. And she’s still living today and still leading everything. And she, this was back in about 32.”

I said, “I’ll bring her over for you to meet. But I want you to look up her record.” And he said, “I’ve never heard anything like this.” Well, I said, “It’s true when you have the records. And I said, now, doctor, my sister is a member of this prayer group. She isn’t afraid of death. She knows death is victory. And I want you to know that all the time you’re going to be operating,” or he said he wanted to operate, he wanted to see the situation. I said, “I’ll give consent to anything you want to do for her help and for your help, except a colostomy. Family. But I said, I want you to know there’s going to be a whole prayer group going to be praying for you, and you’re going to be God’s agent. And I think you’ll realize that you are God’s agent.” He said, “This is very interesting. I’ve never heard anything like this before.” He said, “May I have her a week to study before I have this operation?” I said, “Yes.” We always go with the doctor. We know that God gave us science and doctors and all these wonderful things and we use the things God gives us. And I said, “You can do anything except put in a colostomy that’s going to be for her good.”

Well, he studied her and he learned to love her so I’ve never seen anybody love anything like he loved my sister. And so the morning came for the operation and I went by and he was there preparing her. And I said, “I just want you to know I’m on my way to the sanctuary and we’ll be with you. And here’s the phone number of the church. Let me know when it’s over please.” He said, “I certainly will. I’m just thrilled over this.” So our ministers always meet with us. Oh, it’s wonderful when you have ministers that are in perfect accord with you. And the minister’s office adjoined the sanctuary where we were meeting. Evening. And here we were from before seven until 20 minutes past 11. His secretary called and said, “It’s for you, Miss Eggleston.” And I went and it was Dr. Van Horn. And he said, “Eggleston, we’ve never experienced anything like this in our lives.” Said, “My assistant is a Jewish doctor, Dr. Snyder. Why, we knew we weren’t doing it. We were directed to do things we never thought of such a thing as doing. I’ve never felt such power.” Well, he went on like that for five minutes and I said, “Wonderful. How’s sister?” “Oh,” he said, “she’s all right.

“We found a little tumor, just a little one about four inches above the rectum and so we took out a few more inches and just reconnected. She didn’t need any colostomy. And we thoroughly searched every vital organ. We found no trace of cancer, but we know she had it. But there was no trace. Why,” he said, “I never heard of anything like this before. I never felt anything like it in my life.” Well, that man went to church with his wife the next Sunday and he hasn’t missed a Sunday since. But in a month or so he went to the rector, for she was an Episcopalian, and he said, “What does anyone have to do to join church? I want to belong to this church.” And the rector said, “Well, you have to join a class and have to know what you’re doing. You have to be a part of it and understand.” He said, “When may I join a class?” He said, “I’m starting one right after Thanksgiving and I’m going to bring them in on Palm Sunday.” He said, “Will you put it at a time when I wouldn’t be operating?” “Yes,” he said, “I will.” And that rector came to see me after Palm Sunday. He didn’t even know me.

He was a close friend of a close friend of mine. And he said, “May I come over and tell you something?” And I said, “Yes.” He said, “I want to tell you about Dr. Van Horn. I’ve never seen anyone so in earnest in my life. I’ve never seen anyone so eager to learn everything there was about the church. And over and over he said, ‘You know, I didn’t ever realize there was any need to be a church member. It had never challenged me before. But when I saw a miracle like I saw in Mrs. Trigg, I knew the church had something I needed.’ I’ve never seen a man so thrilled over being a church member as Dr. Van Horn.” You see, that’s why we’re chosen to be ambassadors. We don’t open the doors. We don’t make the opportunities. But when God opens the doors, we’re ready.

And when we’re ready, oh, how He opens the door. There’ll be plenty of doors open and you never have to force them open. You never have to go to hunt for them. They’re there. But the trouble is we aren’t ready.

We’re not ready. But we’re going to be ready, aren’t we? It’s the only thing that’s going to save our civilization. And we’re not going to let God raise up this wonderful Christian civilization here in the United States and fail Him. We’re going to do it.

But you do your part. If any of you are interested in going with our group, we expect to have at least 50. We’d like to have 50 adults and at least a dozen teenagers to go with this invasion of love that’s going over into Russia and all the satellite countries. All of these dear Christian countries that have been under that awful dominion and haven’t taken hold of God’s power, and we’re going to be an agent for God to break this power of evil. People, if you’d like to go with us, I have some folders in my pocketbook. We only want those who are ready to go all the way, who aren’t afraid to let God do anything He wants with us. We’re going to see nothing but the right and good in every soul, yes? Khrushchev. God’s Spirit of God’s in him too. And if we can see it and feel it and know it and magnify it, God can make him that great power for good instead of the power for evil. But you’ve got to look beyond the human viewpoint and see that eternal and good that’s there and believe in it and pour out nothing but love toward them. And so this is an invasion of love to let God break the power of evil and you know it’s going to be broken sometime, for no evil has ever yet been able to resist God.

Every tyrant has fallen. Everything that was evil fell eventually of its own weight but it doesn’t have to be so long if God has a group that He can work for. Now if the Spirit is leading you to join our tour next summer, the more we have that are in order at one month the greater will be the invasion. But I do want at least a dozen teenagers, we have about seven already, I want these who are actually going out to win the world to be with us to see how it’s done, to catch the spirit and to be prepared for their day. So if the Lord is speaking to you let me know. It’s going to be a great, great event. God bless you.