1. 1. Trusting in the Lord J. C. Penneys Conversion Story Copyrighted material that appears in this article is included under the provisions of the Fair Use Clause of the National Copyright Act, which allows limited reproduction of copyrighted materials for educational and religious use when no financial charge is made for viewing.
2. 2. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God (Jn. 6:68-69. When the stock market crashed in 1929, J. C. Penney like most of America was frightened to the core of his being. Penney became so fearful he couldnt sleep and eventually became obsessed with the fear of death. One thing led to another and he acquired a nervous condition known as shingles. He was hospitalized and given sedation to relieve the pain.
3. 3. Physically and mentally he declined and reached a point where he believed that he would survive until morning. Convinced that he would die he wrote farewell letters to his wife and children. Penney lived through the night and the next morning he heard a group of people singing a hymn in the hospital chapel. They were singing, God will take care of you; beneath his wings of love abide, The hymn was followed by a scripture reading and prayer. God makes straight crooked paths. And, of course, God always knows best. Penney was on the path to self destruction until God straightened the path with a hymn.
4. 4. From that point on Penney felt he was lifted out of the darkness of despair and felt the warmth of Gods brilliant sunlight. The fear of death was gone, he would live on until he was 96 years-old and build a merchandising empire of 1200 stores in all 50 states. Faith in God goes beyond temporal reasoning but the benefit of belief and trust is peace and the loss of fear. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Ps. 23:4). Penney had lost his fear of death.
5. 5. In todays reading we hear that some of Jesus disciples left him because he had told them they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood (Jn. 5:54). And in that statement Jesus used the Greek word , four times. means chew, so the people would need to chew his flesh. He also used the Greek word for drink which means, to receive into the soul what serves to refresh, strengthen, nourish, it to life eternal. Some say that Jesus was speaking symbolically but that is clearly not the case.
6. 6. It is obvious that the disciples who were leaving interpreted Jesus' words literally that is they thought that Jesus was promoting cannibalism, and they could not accept the teaching. Note also that Jesus made NO effort at all to clarify His teaching further, neither to His remaining disciples nor to the twelve apostles. Anglicans and Lutherans also believe Jesus was speaking literally not symbolically. The people who reject John 6 as literal, typically believe that John 3:3 born again, is a literal and not symbolic translation. As Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said, Gods love is so great that if we were dogs, He would become a dog biscuit . A biscuit which feeds our eternal soul.