Home... Safe...

A Favorite story that Johnnie told I have archived somewhere but cannot find so I will retell it as best I can.

Not a sports fan, it was surprising to me one day to come home and see Johnnie on the couch weeping. I asked what was wrong and he began to tell me of the vision he had been given.

In this vision, he was the last up to bat. The crowd was very different. On one side, there were awful demonic beings shouting expletives and vile things at him, wishing him to fail and to lose… The other side was populated by angels and angelic beings urging him on to get a home run, to score, to endure and finish the race.

He got up to bat, swung and missed, all the while praying the Lord would help him get a home run. He swung again, strike two. The last pitch came and he felt the bat make contact… the ball was going straight out to Center field… Johnnie began to run, hearing the hissing, booing and jeering from the devil’s crowd and the roars of encouragement from the angelic side. He went past the 1^st base, then the 2^nd and was just rounding 3^rd when from the corner of his eye he could see the ball coming in toward home…

He ran harder yet, then slipped on something and began to slide toward home more quickly than he could have ever run… he slides into home base and the umpire, with arms stretched wide, yells “Home” … “Safe” … 

That voice, it was so familiar, Johnnie knew that voice… but what had he slid in on? He looked back toward 3^rd base and could see a blood line… He was Home Safe because of the blood and that familiar voice, it was the voice of the savior, Jesus. Jesus’ blood and Jesus’ declaration that Johnnie made it home, safe.

Johnnie had been struggling with Faith and understanding what it entails, until he had this vision. You see, there is a requirement of us to DO the work, but the work isn’t what gets us home, it is Faith in the cleansing blood of the cross… Faith in the work that Jesus did at the cross. Our salvation is indeed a gift, not something earned, but something received, something given to us… without the blood none of us could be home, safe.

This has to be one of my favorites that the Lord gave Johnnie. Simple, yet striking such a chord of truth in my spirit man. He’s now truly Home, Safe… in the arms of His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

These are the dreams that I was able to write down over the years, there were others, and perhaps some scenarios will bring them back to me from time to time. Each dream was special and spoke volumes into Johnnie’s heart and built his Faith. He would weep as he would tell me the stories and though in his later years, when his memory was not as sharp as it had been, these dreams seemed to never lose their fervor for him.

Misunderstood, but very much loved was and is Johnnie Buren Compton. He passed from this life to his eternal abode on Thanksgiving Evening, 2013. Greatly missed but thankful to have this piece of him to share with so many. Love you Johnnie, see you soon.

Loving Wife and Best Friend,

Susan