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About the Book
"The Lost Art of Intercession" by James W. Goll explores the importance of intercessory prayer in the life of a believer and provides practical tips on how to develop a powerful intercessory prayer life. The book emphasizes the role of intercession in bringing about God's purposes on earth and encourages readers to be diligent in their prayer lives. Through personal anecdotes and biblical examples, Goll highlights the impact of intercession and inspires readers to deepen their prayer life.
Darlene Deibler Rose
Darlene Diebler Rose: Unwavering Faith in Godâs Promises
âRemember one thing, dear: God said he would never leave us nor forsake us.â Those words were spoken on March 13, 1942, and were the last words Darlene Diebler would ever hear from her husband, Russell, as they were permanently separated in Japanese prison camps during World War II. She was a missionary in her early twenties. She did not even have a chance to say goodbye. Consider her own reflection on that heartbreaking day:
Everything had happened so fast and without the slightest warning. Russell had said, âHe will never leave us nor forsake us.â No? What about now, Lord? This was one of the times when I thought God had left me, that he had forsaken me. I was to discover, however, that when I took my eyes off the circumstances that were overwhelming me, over which I had no control, and looked up, my Lord was there, standing on the parapet of heaven looking down. Deep in my heart he whispered, âIâm here. Even when you donât see me, Iâm here. Never for a moment are you out of my sightâ (Evidence Not Seen, 46).
Obedience to Godâs Call in All Circumstances
Darlene Mae McIntosh was born on May 17, 1917. At age nine she put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as her light and salvation. One year later, during a revival service, she sensed Godâs calling to give her life to missions. On that night she promised Jesus, âLord, I will go anywhere with you, no matter what it costsâ (46). How could that little girl know what the Savior had planned for her in the not too distant future?
âThrough it all, Darlene was sustained by God, who never left her nor forsook her, just as he promised. He remained her light and salvation.â
Darlene married a pioneer missionary to Southeast Asia named Russell Deibler on August 18, 1937. She was only nineteen years old. He was twelve years her senior. The Deiblers eagerly returned to Russellâs pioneer missionary work in the interior of New Guinea. Darlene accompanied Russell into the jungle to establish a new mission station near a previously unevangelized, primitive tribe that had only been discovered just a few years earlier. Darlene, the first white woman any of them had ever seen, grew to deeply love the local people.
When World War II broke out in that part of the world, the Dieblers chose to stay. And when the Japanese soon took control of the area, the Deiblers were put under house arrest. Later, Japanese soldiers herded all foreigners into prisoner-of-war camps, separating the men from the women and children. During the next four years, Darlene endured separation from her husband and, eventually, widowhood.
The brutal conditions of a WWII Japanese internment camp included near-starvation, forced labor, inhumane conditions, false accusations of espionage, serious illnesses, solitary confinement, and torture. Through it all, Darlene was sustained by God, who never left her nor forsook her, just as he promised. He remained her light and salvation.
God Is Sufficient in All Circumstances
After receiving the news of her husbandâs death, Darlene was falsely accused of being a spy and taken to a maximum-security prison where she was kept in solitary confinement. Written over the door of her cell were the words in Indonesian, âThis person must die.â Frequently she was taken to an interrogation room and accused of spying. Upon her denial, her interrogators would strike her at the base of the neck or on her forehead above the nose.
There were times she thought they had broken her neck. She walked around often with two black eyes. âBloodied but unbowedâ (141), she never wept in front of her captors, but when she was back in her cell she would weep and pour out her heart to the Lord. When she finished, she would hear him whisper, âBut my child, my grace is sufficient for thee. Not was or shall be, but it is sufficientâ (141).
âWhen she finished, she would hear him whisper, âBut my child, my grace is sufficient for thee. Not was or shall be, but it is sufficient.ââ
Time and time again God showed himself to be powerful and faithful to Darlene. Once, within moments of being beheaded as a spy, she was unexpectedly taken from the maximum-security prison back to her original prison camp. The Lord again had heard her prayers, leading her to a level path against her enemies. Over and over again, Darlene could look back at her life and see how God had strengthened and sustained her
as a young bride at age nineteen.
when she headed to the jungles of New Guinea at twenty.
when placed under house arrest by the Japanese when she was twenty-five.
when she and her husband were separated into separate prison camps in 1942, never to see each other again in this life.
as she ate rats, tadpoles, dogs, runny oatmeal, and maggots, and other unimaginable foods.
through dengue fever, beriberi, malaria, cerebral malaria, dysentery, beatings, torture, attacks of rabid dogs, false charges of espionage, the promise of beheading, solitary confinement, Allied bombings, and many other inhumane abuses.
when told of the death of her beloved husband and his own tortures and sufferings.
when he brought her home to America but kept the fire of missions burning in her soul.
when he brought another missionary into her life, Gerald Rose, whom she married (1948) and returned with him to New Guinea in 1949.
as she labored on the mission field of Papua New Guinea and the Outback of Australia for over forty years, evangelizing, teaching, building landing strips, delivering babies, facing down headhunters, and loving them to Jesus.
On February 24, 2004, Darlene Diebler Rose quietly passed away and entered into the presence of the King she so deeply loved and faithfully served. She was eighty-seven years old. All throughout her life, when sharing her story, Darlene would say, âI would do it all again for my Savior.â No doubt many in New Guinea are grateful for her devotion. May we follow this great saint to the nations, for the sake of their souls and the glory of our great King Jesus.
parenting is about treasuring
Everyone is looking for joy. Parents, this includes our children. The search for joy lies behind all of our kidsâ desires. It informs and directs all of their hopes, feelings, and actions. It is the proverbial carrot hanging in front of our kidsâ hearts. Itâs why they make that face when you remind them that dessert belongs only to those who eat their vegetables, and why their world seems to hinge on having five more minutes of video-game time. Once we recognize joyâs formative power over our kidsâ hearts, we are well on our way to knowing our children better and our role as parents better too. Stewarding Joy When God calls us to be fathers and mothers, he calls us to be stewards of our childrenâs joy. Which means that a lot of what we do centers on helping our joy-obsessed children find their greatest  joy. Now, this might sound strange to many of us. Most parenting books and podcasts donât spend a lot of time accentuating the influential power of joy in our kidsâ lives. Yet, whether you see it or not, you are more than likely already stewarding your childrenâs joy toward some end. Just think about this week. What did you say to your daughter about her run-in with the school bully? What did you do when your middle child didnât make the high school team? More than likely, you sought ways to replace their hurt with joy. And it doesnât just have to be hurt that we exchange â we seek all the time to replace good with better, and better with best, such as when we tell our kids to power down their screens and pick up a book. These instincts show us that much of what we do as parents is driven by our innate commitment to help our kids find joy. This is a good thing, but itâs also where we can get into problems. Settling for Less The pursuit of joy itself is good. God created all of us to seek true and lasting joy because he knows that this search ultimately leads us to him. This is why Jesus uses parables to liken God and his kingdom to buried treasure and a beautiful pearl (Matthew 13:44â46; cf. Philippians 3:7â8). He knows we would sell everything to makes these priceless riches our own because of the happiness they promise us. Jesus then helps us see that the real treasure, and the real pearl of great price, is God and his kingdom. This is where joy ultimately resides, and making this joy our own is worth giving up everything. Pursuing joy, then, isnât the problem. The problem is with where and how we find that joy, when we look outside of God for our delight. To be specific, the problem is with how sin twists our pursuit. Sin is, in many ways, simply misplaced or shortsighted joy. Sin works because it peddles counterfeit joys off as the real thing. Sin sets out to confuse and corrupt joy, and to make our hearts settle on anything other than God. This is exactly what the serpent did to our first parents in Genesis 3. He promised that the forbidden fruit was better than God and his promises. So, in taking the bite, Adam and Eve settled for a lesser, broken joy â a fruit that was good and delightful, but paled in comparison to the utmost good and perfect delight of knowing God as they once did (Genesis 3:5â6). So what does this have to do with parenting? Well, it redefines it. It means that God calls parents to more than just helping our kids discover any type of joy, anywhere. It means that God calls us to help show our children where and how they can find him , the very source and reason for every joy ever known (John 15:11; Psalm 36; Psalm 37:4). Parenting Redefined Now, if we let it, this can change everything about the way we raise our kids. For example, if we see ourselves as stewards of our kidsâ joy, then our parenting finally  has a destination. Everything we do â teaching, talking, commanding, loving, correcting, comforting â can be a step toward helping our children find their greatest joy in our great God (Psalm 16:11). This doesnât change just our parenting strategies, however; it changes us as parents too. When God becomes the target of our childrenâs greatest joy, we no longer have to be. When we see every interaction with our kids through the lens of helping them find delight in God, our work as parents is bigger than just having well-behaved kids with perfect test scores. Which means we donât have to be perfect moms and dads. Our calling is a better one. What we are called to do is lead our kids to joy in their perfect heavenly Father. And with that as our goal, we find freedom, and so do they. We are free to make mistakes, and so are they. We are free to live in Godâs grace, and we want our children to live with us there too. Getting to the Heart How do we do this? How do we help our kids find their ultimate joy in God? Here are a few tangible ways to be good stewards of our childrenâs hearts. 1. Start with your own joy. Remember, everyone is looking for joy. Parents, this includes us. So before we can guide our kidsâ hearts, we must first know the way ourselves. We as parents have the privilege to hold our kidsâ hands on the way to our greatest joy. So before diagnosing your kidsâ idols, make sure to face your own. Ask yourself, What have I put all my hope in today? What am I worshiping? What stands between God and my real joy? 2. Reshape the doâs and donâts. If you are like me, itâs easy to get lost in the weeds as a parent. Sometimes we donât have a good reason why we say no to our kids, and sometimes we say yes out of sheer pragmatism or exhaustion. But setting our sights on joy helps us recalibrate. Our doâs and donâts should have distinct and eternal reasons behind them. Weâre after more than behavior modification; weâre after our kidsâ long-term happiness. Our commands and instructions donât have to be speed bumps to our kidsâ happiness; they can be signposts that point them to their ultimate joy. So take a moment before your yes or no and consider how your response will affect your kidsâ search for joy. 3. Ask why . As your kids grow, teach them how to spot joyâs formative power in their lives. One of the best ways to do this is with the question why . âWhy did you hit your sister?â âWhy didnât you study for that exam?â Now, of course, youâll have to wade through their âI donât knowsâ and âjust becauses.â But when you do, youâve helped them to drill down into their motives, where they can finally see how their joys affect their feelings and actions and begin to evaluate them rather than just be enslaved to them. 4. Make connections. One of the most important things we can do as parents is ask our kids what makes them happy, and then just listen. Getting a bead on your kidsâ joy is like having an all-access pass to their hearts, and when you know what your kids love, you can help them put their loves in the right place. God isnât in the business of simply removing our kidsâ earthly joys, which means that shouldnât be our business as parents either. Instead, God calls us to help connect our kidsâ earthly and temporal joys to him, the divine and eternal one. So play basketball with your kids and, when you can, help them see how this earthly gift points to greater joys. Sure, Legos and American Girl dolls can become idols, but they can also pave the way to conversations that can help our kids hope in their heavenly Father. And when (not if) our kids seek joy through sin, we have the divinely given privilege to help them see theyâve actually sold joy short by seeking it outside of God and his ways.
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