From Death to Life

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” - John 5:24 (NIV)

 I was reminded this week that death is a gift to the believer. Scripture tells us that we pass FROM death TO life! It's been a difficult month for those of us who remain. But for our precious sisters and brothers in Christ, life has only just begun!

I had the privilege a few months ago to sit under the teaching of Carol Pappas in the Ladies’ Sunday School class. We studied the illustrations Paul used in 2 Corinthians. One of the first we studied, was the tent.

2 Corinthians 5 (HCSB)
Our Future after Death [I love how the HCSB titles this section of Scripture!]

¹ For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
² And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven,
³ since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
⁴ Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
⁵ And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.
⁶ Therefore, though we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—
⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight —
⁸ yet we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.
⁹ Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.
¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

Many of us have read over the last weeks and months of the groaning (vs.  2)  of Carol’s body due to the cancer.  On August 20, Carol wrote in her update...

"Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise."  Jeremiah 17:14.  Another reminder to me that He is the One who does it all -- and does it so completely.  He will give me grace to praise Him.

Praise the Lord, that Carol is now “satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord (vs. 8)”. Carol is home, her tent left behind. She is healed completely. Can you imagine what her first Sunday in Heaven must have been like? I picture her praising her Father, radiant smile beaming on her face, hands lifted high! Carol has passed from death to life everlasting!

May we be challenged and encouraged to live a life pleasing to the Lord as so boldly demonstrated by our dearly loved Carol Pappas.

~Rebecca Phillips

Gone Home!

Gone Home!

Her daughter rises to call her blessed

            On October 4, 2011, 5:30 p.m., Mary Lloys Rice Himes went to Glory.  She went quietly, easily, simply slipped away.  I had told God I was holding my mother on my open palm.  I knew she wanted to go Home and that it would be soon, but I still was not ready for it.

            Now that the initial shock has worn off and the busyness of trying to make arrangements for the funeral is past, I have been thinking more and more of who she really was.  I fear I had been so overwhelmed with taking care of a woman who did not want to be taken care of, who rebelled against anyone telling her what to do or even doing for her what she could not do for herself, that I forgot who she really was, who she was for eighty-six years.

            My mother was first of all a passionate lover of God.  I believe her goal in life was to please God.  She wanted to do what was right.  She had high spiritual expectations for herself and others.  She was a black and white person, one who was sure she knew what God wanted, not only for herself, but for others (which often caused a problem with others who were sure she did not know what God wanted for them!)

            She was a lover of the Word of God.  She not only loved and read it; she also memorized it and expected her children and grandchildren to memorize it with her.  One of the traditions she began and I have continued is memorizing scripture to be recited on all holidays.  We learned Luke 2 for Christmas.  We said Matthew 28 for Easter.  We said Psalm 103 for Thanksgiving.  To the very end she knew each scripture better than anyone else.  She felt cheated if those scriptures were not said before a holiday meal.

            She also loved to teach the Word of God, not only to her own children, but to Sunday School classes, to women’s groups like the Joyful Woman Jubilees, to Bible studies in homes, and also to residents at Creekside Senior Living, both before and while she lived there.  She still wanted to teach at Southern Oaks Assisted Living, where she lived for her last years.

            Mother loved people.  I often envied her ability to talk to anyone about anything.  She loved talking about the Lord the most.  She had a passion to see others come to know the Lord.  She never hesitated about asking someone if they knew the Lord.  I remember the neighbors she invited to our house for coffee, always talking to them about their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  When I was a senior in high school I had made a new friend.  Regina had a deep hunger for spiritual things and I had been talking to her about the Lord.  I knew she was very close to wanting a personal relationship with the Lord.  I invited her home so I could talk to her uninterrupted.  But my chance never came.  Mother came into the room and immediately asked her about her relationship with the Lord and she led her to the Lord.  When I said later, “Mother, I was talking to her,”  she said, “I thought you invited her home so I could talk to her!”

            Mother loved music.  She played the piano at every church my dad pastored.  She taught piano as well, but she loved the piano for herself.  When we children would finally head to bed at night, she would sit at the piano and play for her own enjoyment.  I can still hear the notes of “Clair de Lune” floating up the stairs in the darkness and it brings sweet memories.  She loved to sing as well, still taking voice lessons when I was a child.  I sometimes sing songs to myself that I heard her sing, “The Holy City,” “In the End of the Sabbath,” even “Desert Love Song.”

            Mother loved knowledge for its own sake.  She read constantly and encouraged us to read.  Our dinner table was a center for knowledge.  Whatever topic came up was fair game, but when we had argued enough, she would say, “Look it up.”  Right beside the table was a small bookcase with an encyclopedia, a dictionary, and an atlas.  We couldn’t Google it, but we did look it up!

             Mother was a lover of hospitality and was convinced that it was a Biblical command and no one had an excuse for not welcoming people into their home.  She wrote a column for the Joyful Woman magazine on entertaining. 

            She was a good cook, loved good food.  Some of her loves I shared—asparagus, avocado, artichoke, black olives, but some I did not—calves’ brains in scrambled eggs, beef tongue or heart, pickled pigs’ feet, kippered herring, smoked oysters.

            I could go on.  I think of so many things she loved, her plants, her sewing, her bird watching. 

            Was she a perfect person?  No.  Did I always understand her?  No.  Were there ways I wished I could be more like her?  Oh, yes.  Will I miss her?  Oh my, yes!  I feel a deep hole in my heart.

            And I rise up and call her blessed.  I have a goodly heritage and want my children to have the same.


                                                                                       ~~Faith Himes Lamb

                                                                                   
                                                                    Mary Lloys Rice Himes             

Assurance at Sunset

I love fall sunsets. Recently my husband and I took our granddaughters to Pennsylvania to visit their great-grandparents. It is a fifteen hour drive so we stopped overnight. The weather was beautiful giving us breathtaking sunsets.  They reminded me of the assurance that every one of our days has been ordained by God. When I laid down to sleep at night, I remembered these verses of scripture:

“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!"  The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him.” 

Lamentations 3:22-25 New Living Translation

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.  The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!

Psalm 103:13-18 New Living Translation

God’s words are a comfort to me and I am thankful for the Holy Spirit who brings them to mind. The assurance of a sunset points me to the assurance that God is my faithful father!

Tina Laubscher

A Joy Forever

In his long poem "Endymion," John Keats declares, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." He goes on to show that once we have enjoyed something lovely, when we encounter it again, it carries with it not only its intrinsic beauty but also the beauty of the moment we first experienced it. We know this is true. Think about the power of music, especially, to take you back to a particular place and time.

Several weeks ago, someone (I am sorry I forget who it was) sang a beautiful song that asks, "What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if healing comes through tears?" Immediately I was transported back to a July night in Africa--the time I first heard this song--driving down a dark, bumpy road, three close friends also listening and sharing the moment. I'm sure we all were thinking of our own separate sleepless nights and tears, but we shared the truth that God is in control. Together we rejoiced that He has a plan bigger than we can understand. When I heard the song in church at Grace, I felt again the assurance of that night in Togo, and it reminded me to pray for my friends.

This past Sunday morning, we sang one of my favorites: "Blessed Be Your Name." This song describes times of sunshine and blessing as well as days in a "desert place." Whenever I hear this song, I remember a Sunday in May over two years ago when we sang it. On that day,  I looked across the auditorium at Rebecca Phillips, who had endured a tragic loss, and thought about what she might be thinking as we sang,

Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise.
When the darkness closes in, Lord,
Still I will say,
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be your name.

I can never sing this song now without thinking of her, and it reminds me to pray for friends who are grieving.

Life is not easy, but it's sweet. I am grateful for the many ways God speaks, and particularly grateful today for music that helps me remember.

--Sherry Poff

He's Just That Into Me!

I found myself watching a movie on TV called, "He's Just Not That Into You." While I DO NOT RECOMMEND the movie, I found it humorous that many girls (and guys for that matter) will invent any excuse to avoid the truth of rejection. We don't want to believe that the guy/girl of our infatuation doesn't return the attraction. In the movie, a girl ignores all of the obvious signs that the guy does not like her and continues to place herself in awkward positions that leave her confused and feeling rejected. There are so many directions we could go from here, but it has been a theme in my life over the last few weeks that there is ONE who is just that into me!

Zephaniah 3:17 says, 

"The LORD your God is with you,
   the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
   in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
   but will rejoice over you with singing.”

The word "gul" in Hebrew is usually translated "rejoice." It means to "spin around under the influence of a violent emotion."

I love the idea that my Savior is so overwhelmed with emotion over me that He is singing and dancing over me! In the midst of chaos and trouble He is not just my Savior, but my lover! He takes delight in me! 

Two thoughts whelm at this idea:

1. I have not shown Him that I'm that into Him!

2. I am in awe that He loves me anyway!

I love the words of the song written by Jared Anderson, performed here by Phillips, Craig & Dean.

http://youtu.be/IdSW5zYCr7g

The lyrics:

You dance over me,
While I am unaware.
You sing all around,
But I never hear the sound.
Lord, I'm amazed by you
Lord, I'm amazed by you
Lord, I'm amazed by you
How you love me.
You paint the morning sky
With miracles in mind
My hope will always stand
For you hold me in your hand
Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
How you love me.
Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
How you love me.
How wide, how deep, how great, is your love for me.
How wide, how deep, how great, is your love for me.

Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
Lord I'm amazed by you
How you love me.
Lord you love me.

He's Just that Into You, too!

~Rebecca Phillips