Chapter Five Continued




Mama Goes Home
Don't Let That Light Flicker
Get The Devil Outta Here!


Like Hand In Glove (Cont)


When I told them we were planning to go camping, they were bothered that we wouldn't tell them where we were going. I was told that they would just follow us and be there anyway.

On the Wedding Day, as with about any wedding, we had several things that had gone wrong. The first thing was that Teresa had left the rings at her house. They had to go back for them with only minutes to spare.

During the ceremony, everything had gone beautifully,,, until Teresa couldn't get my ring on, because for some reason my finger was a bit enlarged. As the ceremony continued, I am attempting to slip the ring on while letting no one know what was happening.

Then as we were doing the candle part of the ceremony, she nearly set her veil on fire. This is the part of the wedding when each of us were supposed to take one of the lit candles and together, light the candle in the center. Then we would blow out the candles which we held and place them back into the candelabra.

As it were, I blew out my candle and placed it back into the holder. I looked to Teresa, and almost chuckled when I saw her blowing furiously at the flame, but it defiantly flickered on. She kept moving it closer to her face, which of course was also closer to her veil; And her veil was not held out too far.

I thought that she was going to set her veil on fire. Since I didn't want her to do an imitation of a match, I took the candle from her, blew it out, then placed it in the holder. I know that some women can be hot heads, but I didn't want that from Teresa.

The candle thing signifies that the individuals willingly give up their single life and cleave to the mate, therefore becoming one in marriage.

Not in OUR ceremony. Ours looked like I was giving up being single,,, and I gently and tenderly took the hand of my lovely Teresa, the one I love dearly,,,, And YANKED her into my life through the marriage.

Afterward, we jumped into the car with the Best Man and Teresa's Matron of Honor, and rode around town. I recall that during our ride, we saw people standing on the town square and apparently talking. "Did you see that?!? There was a girl back there crying hysterically," I exclaimed.

"Where," she asked, "I wonder what was wrong?"

"She saw ol' Blue," I answered, "and realized that I just got married and I'm not available anymore."

Everyone got a laugh out of that.

As we drove home after the ceremony, I thought about the shiveree. I told Teresa taht it was too late to go on our Honeymoon (or should that be moneymoon) and maybe we should just spent the night at home.

"But what about the guys and the shiveree?" she asked.

I knew how to take care of this. When we were about ready to turn the lights out for the night, I moved the car from the driveway. I backed it in behind the trailer across the drive. You couldn't see it unless you would go back there since there were bushes which blocked the view of the car.

Some time later, Teresa told me of another miraculous thing concerning our relationship. She said that after praying for a good husband, she had gone to sleep. During the sleep, the Lord had given her a dream where He showed her an image of a man who would be her husband. She told me that the first photo I sent her (which was after her dream) was the image which she saw.

There are so many ways that Teresa and I thoroughly compliment each other. Too many ways to put in the limited space of this book, and still keep the publishing costs down. Too many ways to even think that God was not fully involved in a most beautiful way. God is the only one who can bring two lives together from 1,000 miles apart, by a means which neither person uses, to ultimately compliment each other so perfectly.

What she lacks, I am strong. Where I lack she has her strength.

Only God can do this. Only God can be so good and wonderful.


Mama Goes Home


In 1989, my dear mother had a severe stroke. The doctor informed the family that we should prepare for her funeral since she would not live long. My brothers, Dad and I got into prayer and notified prayer chains for prayer for her.

When she began improving, the doctors then said that though she seems to be improving a little, she would never be able to write or talk properly.

She continued to improve so wonderfully, the doctors were amazed. Finally, after a couple of weeks the doctors sent her home. She continued to gain strength and eventually was able to do all that she could do before. She could walk, talk, write, and even get out and work in her garden which she loved very much.

She enjoyed working with her flowers. She would give me some and since I knew nothing about them, they would shrivel up and die. I recall one plant she gave me. It was an African Violet. It was a pretty little flower that flourished for several weeks then became sickly. Eventually, it was nothing but a little dry stick protruding from the ground about a half inch.

I took it with me when I visited my Mom. As I was getting into the car to leave, I saw it on the floor of the back seat. "Here, maybe you can the pot," I told her as I handed her the 'stick-in-a-pot'.

Some time later, while visiting with her, she gave me a little pot with an African Violet. I told her that I would probably just kill it like I did the other one. "This is the one you gave me," she explained, "I've nursed it back to good health."

Then Mom had another stroke which seemed worse than the first. Again, the doctors told us to get prepared for her funeral. We didn't want to lose our wonderful (Prov 31:10-31) Mother, and Dad sure didn't wish to be without his faithful, loving wife, so we notified our prayer chains again, and we all got into prayer.

God answered our prayers a second time, but I wondered, if she was healed, why God would allow her to be struck down by this debilitating illness again. But God was faithful, and showed us that He indeed heard our prayers and answered us. He raised her up again to a very healthy state where she could do all that she wished and desired.

Finally,, in late 1990, she was struck down again. She could move no part of her right side, and she could not speak. She only made odd sounds and grunting.

As I prayed, God impressed on me that He was wanting to call her home. I had been selfish along with my family. It was then that I changed my prayers. I, along with the prayer chains in Arkansas, began praying for God to have His will concerning Mom. If He wanted her, who were we to try to keep her here, while putting her through more pain and hardships.

On June 30,1991, I received a telephone call from back home. Mom had passed on to Glory. She was now with Jesus. She now has no more pain. She is perfectly healed.

Later, my daughter, Krista, had informed me of what had happened just before Mom passed on.

Mom had apparently looked off into the distance, beyond the walls of the room, and clearly said, "I'm so tired." Then, after a moment, she spoke again, "Yes, I'm ready to go home." Then she laid her head to the side and left her body. I see here where she was totally healed before she died. She was talking clearly to someone just before death. It may have been Jesus Himself, but was probably an angel.




Don't Let That Light Flicker

Just as we must not allow our the light of Christ flicker in our lives, we must remember that there are other lights which must not be allowed to flicker.

In 1992, my wife Teresa and I bought a small house which was built in 1940. It was built at a time when they apparently had no levels.

I picture a man standing back from the wall they were building, extending his arm and from his fist he raises his thumb. Eyeing past the thumb toward the new wall he shouts, "Looks good! Nail it!" It is definitely not plumb, but it is a good strong house.

Almost immediately we began doing work on the place. Tearing out a wall here, building rooms there, ripping down paneling and painting, etc. There was much to do to make this sows ear look more like a burlap sack since it will never look like silk purse.

We had one very mysterious 'flickering light' in the kitchen. We would turn the light on and it would begin flickering. Then it would stop for some time.

After pondering the problem, I figured that the light fixture was faulty and causing the problem. I soon removed the fixture and replaced it with a fan which was needed when we were cooking.

Since we were using the fan, we didn't see the light flicker. The fan seemed to run nicely and we soon forgot about the problem.

Months later, as I stood in the kitchen one day I noticed a small part of the ceiling which appeared to have some water damage. We were area where there was a little water damage. Since we were going to paint the ceiling anyway, so I decided to take down the sheet rock in that area.

When we began the project, I began removing the ceiling when it began falling a piece at a time. More and more fell, and the hole revealing the open rafters grew larger and larger. Soon the hole reached three feet, nearly to the fan, so I removed the fan and pulled down the rest of the loose sheetrock.

What I saw was sent a shudder up my spine. I saw where the two conductors from the knob and tube wiring, came through holes which were drilled through the studs. The holes were about three or four inches apart.

The wood between the holes was charred where sparks had been passing from one worn conductor to the other. It could clearly be seen how we could have soon had our house burned to the ground. Not only because of sparks arcing from one wire to the other, but the fan used far more amps of power therefore causing more arcing.

I believe God had his hand on us during this. Then, I believe, He guided me to the water damage. He then let the ceiling come down until the opening reached the fan. Then the problem was quite evident.

God will guide us in whatever need we have... but if we are not paying attention to Him we can miss an ever-so-important word.


Get the Devil Outta Here!

This may be a bit controversial to you, and you may have been taught differently, but whether you choose to believe what is contained in this section is up to you. But please read it first, then decide.

In 1986 I was living in a large 6 room duplex with my family. Many time in the scripture, Christ dealt with demons. I hope to show you that devils are quite real. You may call them demons, evil spirits, or any other number of things. I tend to think of them as foul, slime ball entities sent from satan himself and are bent on trespassing on the turf of mankind. Especially the believer whose turf he must trespass on to get to you. Yes trespass. If you belong to God then the devil has no business being there so he must tresspass.

Yes God does allow the devil to do that. Just look at Job in the book of Job, chapters 1:6-12,22; 2:4-6; 42:10,12-13. Also, look at Christ. He was not so big that He couldn't be tempted. The devil was all over Him, but Christ resisted him (James 4:7), therefore setting the precedent and manner for dealing with devils.

"But, Brother Snurr, devils can't touch a believer. They only bother the sinner," you might say. Someone else may think, "If you are having troubles in your life that you think is demonic, then you better repent, because there's something wrong in your life."

I just don't see it that way. Look at it this way. If you have a chicken, why would you want to fight to get it? In other words, if you're living for the devil (you're not a believer) then why would he care about fighting to get you.

I'll admit that if he thinks that you will go all out in working for him, he will live in you (possession), and work his evil through you.

On the other hand, if you are a believer, then you were won over to God's side and taken out of the hand of the devil. If someone takes something of value from you, you are going to be angry and do what you can to get it back. The devil to will fight hard to get the believer back from God (1 Peter 5:8). Keep in mind, if the devil has you already, why would he have to seek you so he could devour you?

The devil can bother the believers and we are given instructions for handling those situations:

When the devil does harrass us, he is trying to cause us to become weary making it easy for us to stumble. This way that devil will try to make you feel guilty, and that you are no good. He'll tell you that you just can't live up to God's standards. When that happens, just remember that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13

Now back to the house. Everything seemed to go great. We were going to church and the kids were doing ok spiritually. Then it happened.

We thought that we would get a movie. The kids said that they wanted to see a particular movie which all the kids at school thought was great. I had even heard guys at work say how good it was. Here came my parental mistake; I got the movie: "Child's Play."

In the movie, we have a doll which had supposedly had the spirit of a criminal living inside it. This doll could walk and talk,,,, and kill. He was looking for a human body in which he could live.

Ultimately he was given to a little boy whom he was going to possess.

Later in the movie, this walking, talking doll stood over the boy. He would prepare to posses the child. he began chanting in another language. During this chant he said "Macumba." I believe I spelled that right. Never-the-less, it is pronounced [mah-coom'-bah].

This sounded very familiar to me. The pastor with whom I served, had told me about the time when he was serving as a missionary along the Amazon River in Brazil. He described a people (Amazon native tribes) who had a religion which was a cross between voodoo and Catholicism.

Now, I'm not attempting to demean the Catholic church. The fact is that Catholic missionaries had ministered there many years ago. Later, it had become tainted by voodoo which had also filtered in. Now it is a very powerful religion practiced among the native tribes.

From that evening when we watched that movie, we began having problems not only among the family members, but also in the house.

My oldest daughter, Dawn, had awakened one night and sat up on the edge of her bed.

After a while, the two younger girls (Krista and Robyn), had also awakened. They saw Dawn there facing the bedroom door and talking to someone,,, or something.

"What are you doing, Dawn?" they asked.

"Over there," Dawn answered pointing toward the door.

"What do you mean, Dawn?" they asked. "There's nothing there."

"Over there," she said, "Can't you see it?"

The next morning I asked Dawn about this incident. She explained that she saw a figure standing in the door which was talking to her. She described it as being about three feet tall, wearing a black robe which had a hood over its head and very wide sleeves. Its arms were crossed and the hands inside the sleeve of the other arm and you could not see its hands.

She said that its face was greenish in color and witch-like in its features. Its eyes were red. And and this thing stood there talking to her. She never did say what the conversation was about.

Also, about this same time, we began hearing noises in this solid old brick house. One bedroom suddenly became cold, dank and musty smelling. No one could sleep in that room. I was the only one who could come close to sleeping there. And then I would only doze for a while then wake up. After a bit I would doze again then awaken. There was definitely something spiritually wrong in the house.

Eventually, I had enough of it. I had no olive oil, so got out the Mazola. I anointed all the door frames and window frames and even the trap door to the roof in the attic.

As I did this I prayed, recognizing that the oil was a representation of the Holy Ghost and the Blood of Christ. Now I know it isn't the oil, but rather the Blood of Christ and the Holy Ghost.

When I finished doing this from the attic to the basement, I sat down on the sofa in the living room. To my right was the doorway into the dining room. This was one made of two wooden sliding doors which slid into the extra thick walls. We normally kept the doors out about 18 inches.

I began praying, "God, you know what is here. I claim the covering of the Blood of your Son Jesus, and the protection of your Holy Ghost. This house is yours."

Then I began talking to the one causing our problems. I said, "devil, you have no business here. You are tresspassing on God's property because I have given it to him." Then I commanded him, "In The Name Of Jesus, GET OUT!"

Instantly the heavy wooden doors began to vibrate. Then I heard creaks and groans from throughout the house. From that point the house was normal. We could sleep like a baby in that cold bedroom which was now warm as the rest of the house. Never again did we hear noises from anywhere in the place.

It only goes to prove to me that devils are still in the business of destroy ing mankind, and harrass the believers. But we have the power and authority to deal with each one of them.







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