Comments

• 

  Matt Miller February 29, 2008 at 6:51pm

  Dear Brother Lonnell,
  That is wonderful about the time you are spending with your daughter to edit her book.
  How thrilled you must be and yet you must keep your composure around that daughter of yours to show that gravitas as you do your best in that refining process.
  
  Lonnell I have so enjoyed your book and have sovoured each poem - they are so delicious as wonderful as ninety eight course banquet!
  Your poem Strengthened For the Journey was my delicious plate tonight - after eating a fish sandwich for lunch and a fried cod dinner tonight - the owner of a local dining establishmet asked me to come and have his special deep fried cod tonight - my goodness the flesh of that fish was the very best!
  
  I think your poem Strenthened for The Journey is so fitting for this grand experience of reconnecting and sharing.
  
  Love You brother and have a wonderful weekend and try not to sweat too much over her book - I would love to buy it.
  Matt
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  Roberta (Seiden) Damm February 29, 2008 at 12:27am

  Hello Lonell,
  I received your book "Stone Upon Stone" today and can only say thank you. The dept of love, life and understanding in your words reach deep into my soul.
  
  By the way, reading about your background in African-American studies it reminded me that years ago before I moved to Germany I gave you a "Black Man's Heritage Family Bible"(I think that is how it was called). I hope that you were able to enjoy it.
  
  Thanks again, I think I will go back to reading your book now.
  
  Lots of love and greetings,
  Roberta

  

  Студия танцев йоги и саморазвития в Минске - школа танцев с душой.

  Студия танцев и саморазвития SOUL приглашает на йогу и танцевальные направления: трайбл, восточный танец, джаз модерн, поппинг. Будем рады видеть вас!
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  Shai Anderson February 27, 2008 at 4:20pm

  Hey Lonnell - thanks for sharing your heart Bro'. By the way ... did you get me Email message in response to your Blessed comment? (view message - envelope: top of page).
  
  Timeri and I are presently packing and practicing Chinese (actually that's just me ...) for our trip to China tomorrow morning. Keep us in your prayers Brother.
  Not looking forward to that 17 Hr. flight, but definitely looking forward to another opportunity to walk with the Father elsewhere ...
  
  Bless Ya'
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  Matt Miller February 26, 2008 at 9:29pm

  I am deeply burdened
  Long ago I was at the Rock of Ages and I asked about you and for you.
  I don't know why - but I asked my WOW sister - her name was Frannie - where is Lonnell Johnson?
  She asked me why and I shrugged my shoulders and I did not understand my own question. All I knew about you was from the Way Living in Love and I just wanted to know how who you were. Since then (1976) I have wondered about you and have thought about you - I don't know why- for the life of me.
  
  So I will reflect on your poem - about the Forgiving Father.
  So I submit to you a poem in contrast of the son who returns to his father hoping and praying for forgiveness and recieves joy at his homecoming.
  Attitude of the reciepient of mercy and grace is so fundamental to unlocking the door of the Father's heart of revelation and inspriration and it is what makes poetry - beautiful.
  .
  So I also submit to you a poem in contrast of the ideal mother.
  This is why I am burdened
  I must submit these to you for a reason I know not why or understand. There are so many sons - and I say with weeping who sorrow for their mothers in a way that can be only partially understood by this poem and yet their pain is never understood. Yes Appleman again.
  It intrigues me a little the story you told of how you sought to take his seminar and yet refected later on why you were not admitted to the seminar.
  This poem shows a little of his relationship with his own mother.
  
  Birthday Card to My Mother
  Philip Appleman
  
  The toughness indoor people have:
  the will
  to brave confusion in
  mohair sofas, crocheted dolies - challenging
  in every tiny corner some
  bit of the outdoor drift and sag;
  the tenacity
  in forty quarts of cherries up for winter,
  gallon churns of sherbet at
  family reunions,
  fifty thousand suppers cleared away,
  the tempering
  of rent-men at the front door, hanging on,
  light bills overdue,
  sons off to war or buried, daughters
  taking on the name of strangers.
  
  You have come through
  the years of wheelchairs, loneliness -
  a generation of pain
  knotting the joints like ancient apple trees,
  you always knew
  this was no world to be weak in:
  where best friends wither to old
  phone numbers in far- off towns;
  
  where the sting of children is always
  sharper than the serpents teeth; where
  love itself goes shifting
  and slipping away to shaddows.
  
  You have survived it all,
  come through wreckage and triumph hard
  at the center but spreading
  gentleness around you - nowhere
  by your bright hearth has the dust
  of bitterness lain unswept,
  today thinking back, thinking ahead
  to other birthdays, I
  lean upon your courage
  and sign this card, as always,
  with love.
  
  My mother is a stable and blessed woman but that letter made me choke up so bad this evning I did not understand - perhaps because of 20 years of running a twig.........well.
  I had to deal with so many sons.......
  Perhaps its a reflection of something more personal that I hide in my own heart
  but look at the strength of that last line of that last verse -
  
  You have survived it all,
  come through wreckage and triumph hard
  at the center but spreading
  gentleness around you.
  
  Is that not the essence of the heart of ministry?
  Is it not refective of many that went through the splintering and destruction of their own clercial callings(those of the Way Corp hold in common?
  To survive it all - the wreckage - and triumph hard?
  At the center - at the center... pastoral - by spreading gentleness around you? Oh Lonnel - perhaps Appleman comes back to you and says See the pain and the triumph of courage ( His mother was his typos - in courage and in triumph despite the senses).
  
  Yesterday
  
  WS Mervin
  
  My friend says I was not a good son
  you understand
  I say yes I understand
  
  he says I did not go
  to see my parents very often you know
  and I say yes I know
  
  even when i was living in the same city he says
  maybe I would get there once
  a month or maybe even less
  I say Oh yes
  
  he says the last time I went to see my father
  I say the last time I saw my father
  
  he says the last time I saw my father
  he was asking me about my life
  how I was making out and he
  went to the next room
  to get something to give to me
  
  oh I say
  feeling again the cold
  of my fathers had the last time
  
  he says and father turned
  in the doorway and say me
  look at my wristwatch and he
  said you know I would like you to stay
  and talk with me
  
  oh yes I say
  
  but if you are busy he said
  I don't want to feel that you
  have to
  just because I am here
  
  I say nothing
  
  he says my father
  said maybe
  you have important work you are doing
  or maybe you should be seeing
  somebody I don't want to keep you
  
  I look out the window
  my friend is older than I am
  he says and I told my father it was so
  and I got up and left him then
  you know
  
  though there was nowhere I had to go
  and nothing I had to do.
  
  Lonnell how many times do ministers assume that the Father says - you have important things to do?
  And we leave him and there is no where to go and nothing really to do?
  
  Lonnell love you and bless you,
  Enjoy your day for the Lord has put you In His Joy!
  Matt Miller
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  So here it is
• 

  Matt Miller February 25, 2008 at 8:19am

  My dear brother and minister of the gospel,
  You allow the light of the gospel to illuminate the words and poems of your epistle - that light has penetrated some deep parts of my heart - and thus I have taken a little time to digest it all.
  
  The Meaning of the Gospel is wraped in grace recieved in order to love - to reconcile - and then to serve mercy so God can bestow grace. Jesus said that he came into this world not to condemn but to save - love that reaches across any barrier and forgives all in order to reconcile -
  
  Your beautiful rendition of the Prodical son and the Forgiving Father - I think they are both the subjects - The Father for giving his joy and grace and forgiveness and the Son for returning to his father without allowing his sins or a heart of condemnation to imprison his life to failure - and the courage it took not knowing his father's response but hoping for just a little mercy- the only thing he could do - was return or suffer the death of all his life's purpose - was beautiful sir and I too gripped my heart - it was very personal and well timed for my life - to adjust my own attitude in a family situation.
  I loved the poetry of the poem as well and it was a poem well worked into the fiber of your experience as well - Thank you.
  
  Your other comments were so lovely - it made my weekend thinking of spring - wonderful poetry written by you - about winter to spring and the newness and yes the promise of The Hope actually written into his own seasons by His poetry of creation. Seeds producing new life in the deadness of the long winter's hard soil shows rebirth of promise from a frozen landscape.
  
  I have been studing ministry - the callings of the gospel - it is why I am here to research it - Faribualt was the heart of Christian apostleship and teaching ministries in the late 19th century - so I am starting a work on this - it is right for me to do this and God I believe has opened doors both in this community and elsewhere.
  The Epsicapol Church in this town is very interested in my work as two of the great apostles to the West were Episcopols and were in this town. As I have been working this field in the research area - I have been studying the function of ministries in the 19th century and I do believe one of the greatest contributions of The Way was not only to recognise their functions in scripture but understand the heart behind ministry - it is an all out committment - one that is made that one cannot back out on - Paul talked about that - Jonah understood it experientially.
  
  In my research these men are truly larger than life in some ways - their accomplsihments and their tasks could not have been accomplished with just human input.
  They were giants of their time - but no notice is taken now in schools or literature both secular and non secular.
  Some of them are known by the names of buildings or the honorary name of a Federal Building. It was actually the name on a federal building that started this quest.
  But scant knowlege of these men are known academically, poliitically, or even in their own schools that many of them started.
  
  One of the great apostles of the 19th century was a man named Jackson Kemper. He was called the first Apostle of the American Church. He was the Anglican Bishop of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Missouri later in life. He was in Faribault and had dedicated a church here. As I said Faribault was a true center of gifts of ministry.
  
  Here is a quote from his work: It is a quote that came from a sermon given Oct 7, 1841 in St Pauls Chapel, NYC and it was addressed to clergy.
  
  Let us go where duty calls—where Providence points the way—and let us rejoice in the privilege, for we assuredly ought—O, let us rejoice in the privilege of sending forth in the name of the Lord and under the guidance of his Spirit all those, who, thoroughly instructed in sacred truths, hear the cry, Come over and help us—and cannot resist the deep, the abiding conviction concerning their sphere of duty—whose hearts burn within them when they hear of people or nations wholly given to idolatry, or licentiousness, or worldly-mindedness. Cultivate, dear brethren of the clergy, cultivate with the utmost assiduity your own vineyard—love with the strongest affection your own spiritual children,—but close not your hearts to the sufferings and the wants of your neighbors, those whom the events of life and the inquiries and efforts of our beloved Zion have made such—and wish, in the true spirit of the Gospel, wish God speed to those who are thrust out by their own absorbing and irrepressible convictions into new and hazardous fields.....................
  
  Matts note "absorbing and irrepressable conviction" significant of gift ministry energized.
  
  And why is this plain and acknowledged duty so arduous? Alas! the whole world was under captivity to the devil, the father of lies; who still, as the adversary even of believers, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. We trace his influence in the idolatry and ignorance, the cruelty and lust, of the heathen, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness; in the superstition and fanaticism of many professing Christians around us; in the self-conceit, the bitter sarcasms and the blasphemous language of the infidel; and too often in the worldliness, luxury and indifference of our own members. Hence the necessity of soberness and vigilance,—of steadfast resistance in the faith,— hence the necessity not only of a holy life, but of constant self-denial even in the most Christian countries. If the wiles of our enemy can only be repelled by putting on the whole armor of God, how strong must we be in the Lord, and in the power of his might, when we endeavor to pull down the kingdom of Satan! Of the subtilty, and snares, and fiery darts of this wicked one, we are not fully aware. Who, like the saints of old, is praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance?
  
  God bless you brother Lonnel,
  Matt Miller
  .
• 

  Jim and Michele (Panyard) Greer February 24, 2008 at 3:53pm

  How are you doing? Tell Eric to get on this site so that we can reconnect.
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  Carroll Myers February 23, 2008 at 8:01am

  Awww, so glad to hear my words blessed you. There is no gift as sweet as knowing something I have said or done blessed someone's life. You are kind and gracious to let me know. Please let me know the next time you are coming to Charlotte so we can spend a little time together. My love to Brenda too.
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  Matt Miller February 22, 2008 at 3:57pm

  Well the weather took a break today up here - it is sunny and the temperatures are hoovering in th 20s. People are out on the street actually and there is a stir in our hearts - spring may be on the way - although not seen it is the knowing that this long cold winter will die. The blossoms of spring - the return of the song birds - the hope for new life is confirmed by the length of the winter's cold. New beginnings and the seeds of anticipation begin to bud in our concience. A new season is forming in natures womb.
  
  Thank you my friend for your inestimable gift of some of your life's work - I look forward with the same anticipation I have for the new birth of spring to rejoice with you as open up your poems and work.
  To get to know your ministry and heart of "that gift" for me will be a geat honor in deed. To learn how God has worked with your intellect and talents and the great imagination you have will be a tribute to the God that writes in our hearts his masterpieces.
  
  There is so much you put in that last comment - so much that I have enjoyed reading and that it too ministered to me as well. Like a delicous three course meal - you have satisfied enough for the whole day.
  Now the space on this page is not enough to comment back on all you said - I feel there is too much too be said.
  So I will be a little more pin point as I tend to be - your comment on how the Lord releases what the enemy entraps is just simply truthful and exact and beautifully placed in your poem.
  It got me thinking of concience and remorse and the difference betwen the two. Concience is God given and God works with that concience of ours but remorse that remains for too long turns to condemnation and forms mental walls around the action points in our lives. That condemnation breaks down stamina. It is a mental picture of our worth that turns inward and sours and is good for nothing. It leaves the mind unable to penetrate the spirit of God for insight and revelation and help. It leaves the soul isolated in relationships and unable to feel the warmth of compassion. It allows the enemy to capture what God wants free.
  
  "Goodby" I said to my concience
  "Goodby for aye and aye,"
  And I put my hands off harshly,
  And I turned my face away;
  
  And concience smitten sorely
  Returned not for that day,
  
  But a time came when my Spirit
  Grew weary of it's pace,
  And I cried "come back my concience,
  I long to see thy face."
  And concience cried "I cannot;
  Remorse sits in my place.
  written by Paul Dunbar - NYT May 14, 1897.
  
  I look forward to your Poets Open Mike - Please invite me (a guest member). What a wonderful vision!
  
  I really enjoyed that part of your spirit heart and perhaps it will be done!
  
  I enjoyed the title of your poem - beautiful gifts to each other as tokens of appreciation.
  Thanks so much for ministering to me with your words -
  
  Well I too thrill at the communion with each other as you last posted - it is so wonderful to be able to reconnect with each other and in that fellowship be welcomed home again.
  It is not enough to come home it is the thrill of the welcome and the joy of being greeted by the ones you love.
  I found this following poem that speaks to my heart on what you shared about the time of being separated or divided from our common root and then coming back together and reaching out again for our common heritage - The Love of God and His Word and yes the love we had for each other.
  It is untitled but written by Galway Kimmel. I will enclose the last of his poem.
  
  ....after a long time of solitude, after the many steps taken
  away from one's kind, toward these other kingdoms,
  the hard prayer inside ones own singing
  is to come back, if one can to ones own,
  a world almost lost, in the exile that deepens,
  when one has lived a long time alone.
  
  So have a glorious weekend - and wonderful blessings to you.
  
  Matt Miller

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  John Richeson February 22, 2008 at 10:26am

  Oh, and this is what I think of you early Corps members.
  
  
  
  Think of that Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey who said "We're not Worthy!
  
  
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  John Richeson February 22, 2008 at 10:20am

  Lonnell, I will be glad to help you with both those things. I'll take this offhere and on to your email address. I think it will be easy to address both these things.
  
  I am glad you are enjoying this site. I am too. I feel like I am walking around at at a "Corps Week" outside the big top tent saying hi to people I have missed for many years.