Ed's Note: It's been a year since our friend John Anderson passed on.
Jean, his wife shares about his life a year on.
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INTRODUCTION:
• Thank you for your support and prayers for me since John's passing.
• Thank you for the opportunity for me to finish the part of John’s testimony he was never able to finish sharing with many of you.
• Jeremiah 22:21 “I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed My voice.”
• I Samuel 12:15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against Him, then His hand will be against you.”
My MESSAGE:
• Throughout the Bible we see many instances of those who rebelled against God’s commands and the consequences that resulted from their disobedience.
1. Adam and Eve’s disobedience – brought sin into the world and also banished them from God’s presence.
2. Jonah’s disobedience to go and give God’s warning to the Ninevites of their impending doom ,ended him up in the belly of the whale.
3. Israel’s rebellion against the Lord led them into a journey of 40 years through the wilderness---a trip that should have taken only 11 days from Egypt to the promised land.
DEFINITION OF DISOBEDIENCE & OBEDIENCE
• To be DISOBEDIENT is to yield to self-will instead of surrendering to God and desiring His will in ALL THINGS.1 Sam. 15:23 says, “Rebellion is worse than the sin of witchcraft.”
• XOBEDIENCE is the practical acceptance of the authority and will of God. It includes both submitting to Him and then expressing that submission in ACTIONS, WORDS, and THOUGHTS.
• Once disobedience is discovered or recognized and removed, the results will be a new joy and greater faith.
INTRODUCING JOHN’S JOURNEY
• If you have heard any of John’s testimony, you have probably heard him say, “Like Moses and the Israelites, I went through a 40 year wilderness experience.”
• In order to share the happy latter years of John’s life, I need to give some background information.
• I found a talk from Marriage Encounter, where each of us shared our marriage journey. I wanted tonight to be John’s testimony so I am quoting many of his words verbatim.
JOHN’S TESTIMONY
• John was raised in a strong but overly strict Christian home. He couldn't even be involved in sports as his parents saw that as a sin.
• Despite that ,John from early age, had dreams and aspirations to become a minister. As John said, “The most important need people have is a spiritual one. My goal, at that tender age was to help people meet that spiritual need. This dream carried on into my teenage years.
• In 1959, I went to Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, with the intent of becoming a minister .
• However, that summer, my interests changed. I became disillusioned about my goals. I became more interested in making money. However, I spent it as fast as I made it. I became ‘Mr. Independent’. My attitude changed from reaching out to others to that of satisfying myself.”
• That summer, I bought a cheap oil burning clunker of a car from a friend.
• One day, while I was working under the car, my dad came out and in his broken English said, “John how can you save for college, when you spend so much on that old car?”
• “I got angry, slammed down the car hood and shouted, “Dad, I am not going back to college. I'm going out to make money”. Needless to say my dad was hurt.”
A COST TO DISOBEDIENCE
• John was working in the Dome Mine for the summer to pay for college. So instead of quitting to go back to school, he stayed with the Dome. He wasn't working there long before he had a near fatal accident when he was severely injured by a mucking truck. When he returned to work, company fired him as this was the second mishap. Since there is not much opportunity up north, he decided to move to Toronto.
• He seemed to go from one job to another. Having been a high school dropout, he couldn't get the good jobs with good pay.
• He was working as a labourer for the CNR when we met.
OUR MARRIAGE AND THE SNOWBALL OR SPIRALLING EFFECT OF DISOBEDIENCE.
• Though John wasn't obedient to the call that God had on his life, he never stopped serving the Lord.
• I met John on a train as I was heading to visit missionaries in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. John & his buddy were going to John’s home church in South Porcupine to help with kids meetings during Easter break. When I saw them reading their Bibles, THIS SHY GAL back then approached them, thinking they were college students. Long story short, John ended up sitting with me the rest of the 10 hour trip. I found out he was Pentecostal. Me being a strict Baptist back then gave every argument against speaking in tongues. However in the end I opened up to the Holy Spirit and ended up attending Queensway Cathedral with John.
• For John it was love at first sight. He told his friend, I was the girl he was going to marry. We met one Easter and married the next.
• Our marriage went fairly well for the first 10 years, but then disillusionment set in for both of us, mainly because of the cost of disobedience. John wrote, “I WORE THE MASK OF INDEPENDENCE and that pattern of behaviour carried over my relationship with my wife.”
• John went into a taping ministry where he would tape the various Christian conferences and sell the tapes. He was doing well with that but then ended up opening a Christian book store in Guelph. That was during the financial crunch of the 1980’s. I tried to discourage John from buying more books than we had the cash flow to cover. He did it anyway and we ended up having to file for bankruptcy now losing everything we had worked hard for. Here's how John describes it: “I eventually went into business for myself, only to have it end in bankruptcy. Due to me holding these frustrations to myself, I became secretive of my struggles to Jean. I believed our marriage was beginning to crumble. Jean became less and less interesting in my eyes.” I need to interject here. I became like a nagging mother instead of a loving wife. John said, “I began looking to the outside world to have my needs met. That did not prove to be fulfilling.”
• Jean wanted me to go for counselling with her but I didn't see the need. After all, I didn't have a problem, Jean was the one with the problem.”
• One weekend while John went one direction, I took off with my kids to Mississauga, just to have time to think. My girlfriend opened her home to me while she worked all weekend.
• At that time Steve and Marie Charter, our long time friends, were still in Mississauga. Though Marie didn't know what was going on, she sensed my need for alone time and took my kids for the entire weekend. What a God send.
• That weekend I lay on the bed praying in the language of the Holy Spirit and God showed me I needed to forgive my husband, even though at that point, I didn't know what I was forgiving. In obedience to Christ I chose to forgive.
• Before I returned home, John said, he realized he had thrown away the most precious gift God had given him.
• When I returned home, John and I talked more than we had done in years. We chose to forgive each other and to go for counselling together. We also attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend. We both realized we had been living married single lives. We learned on that weekend that love is not a feeling. We choose to love. John said, “As I grow and continue to reach out to Jean, I believe the singleness will disappear”. And it truly did. That was in our 16th year of marriage and this coming March we would have been married 50 years. Praise God for His faithfulness.
THE FINAL TURNAROUND
• As I stated earlier, John jumped from job to job. For awhile we were both doing an MLM Business, but again money was the obstacle. The product came from the States, and at that time the exchange rate was very high so we were losing our shirt financially.
• John decided then to retire at 60 so he could have a set income coming in.
• As a result, he was home while I was still working.
• Unbeknown to me until later, I found out John fell on his face before God for a whole week. He says, “Lord, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. From now on it has to be Your way, or I can't go on. That reminds us of Jacob struggling with the Angel (Gen. 32:24-26). One of the things John struggled with at that time was having faith to tithe when we had bills to pay. He gave that to the Lord as well.
OBEDIENCE BRINGS CHANGE
• Just as disobedience took John in a downward spiral, being obedient, took him in an uphill positive direction.
• One thing I learned with John, he could take something he knew nothing about and learn how to do it and do it well.
Queensway Cathedral had a poor excuse for a library. John took it over and learned how to do barcodes, etc., and eventually had a beautiful library running with a staff of about 10 volunteers. John was content to do that for the rest of his life. However the wind of change was just around the corner. God moved us to eastern Ontario to the Trenton area. We never had the desire to move East but while there, God blessed our obedience.
• 4 years later God called us to go to BC to help a
• friend with his Haitian ministry. I believe we both, like Gideon, put a fleece out to the Lord to make sure it was God calling. We had done enough without the Lord being in control. We both knew we couldn't afford a mortgage here and the high BC rent. A few days later God confirmed through a phone call that we would receive a rent-free apartment. John learned when God opens a door no man can close it. A year later when we came home for vacation, we were able to sell our mobile home and use that money to buy a mobile home in Mission BC.
• 3 years into working with the Haitian ministry, John felt an unrest and felt he should step down. I was with him in his decision. We were going to move back to Ontario, when our pastor asked John if he would consider working in his mission organization. After much prayer, we accepted. Once again John took on a new challenge and taught himself how to keep books, do tax returns, etc. Kris was easy to work with as well as a great friend. In John’s words, “Pastor Kris was the best man I ever worked for.”
• As a result of the time spent with Kris, John became a new man. He reached out more to others even though down deep he was shy and a loner. However if you became his friend, you were a friend for life.
• John, along with myself, were so looking forward to moving back from BCto be close to the grandkids. We felt the urgency to get back, thinking it was for them.
• We tried to sell our mobile home for over a year and had no movement. Sadly, we did a lot of work to upgrade it and went into debt doing so. Then we took a loss in selling it.
• Of course we thought we could catch up when we got back here. Little did I think that my dear husband would be taken 11 months after returning home. I tend to be a worrier so naturally I stressed out over my debt load. However even, here I have watched the hand of God taking care of me. As God says in His Word, “I will be a husband to the widow.”
• God has angels in many human forms. I am so thankful for this group of men who have been some of the angels that have been there for me. My heartfelt thanks go out to you. Each day I am learning to lean on the everlasting arms of the Lord.
• In Closing:
1. When we moved to Georgetown, John decided to get immersed into the community. Though he only had 11 months, he made them count. He got involved in all the men's groups and both if us in all the seniors groups. But the other big undertaking John put his energy into was the COMMUNITY UNITY which is under the auspices of the Georgetown Ministerial. I know your church is involved. If you can come out on Sat. Oct. 29 to help seniors who can't do their own yard cleanup, I know it would please John. You can speak to me after for the details.
2. John loved this group and all his spiritual brothers here. He couldn't wait forThursday nights to come so he could again have fellowship and the study of God’s Word with each of you.
If he could speak to you from above, I know he would encourage you to listen to the heart of God and be obedient to the call of God on your life. John regretted his wasted years and he wouldn't want you to waste yours. Also if there are men heretonight who have not accepted Christ as your personal Saviour John would encourage you to not put it off. We never know when It is our time to die. I'm reminded of an old saying we learned as teenagers: “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
3. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share the rest of John’s testimony. I would ask that you continue to uphold me in your prayers.
4. I think Johns testimony would be summed up in the words of Psalms 30:8,11,12
“To You, Lord, I called; to the Lord, I cried for mercy: You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.”
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