8 Years Have Passed

Eight years have passed since my dad passed away.  Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day 2011 will be eight years. To say he is missed would be a gross understatement. 

I went back and found the notes for what I said at his funeral in 2003: 

 

Thank you to all of you from our family.  Your presence here has made this day, as inevitable as it may have seemed, much more bearable

 And your support over the last few days, months and years has allowed us to make it to this point much better off than we would have been without you.

As I look out at you today, I see faces of people whose lives were not just touched, but whose lives were eternally impacted by the life of my daddy.

Some of you knew him as friend,

Some of you knew him as pastor,

Some of you knew him as coworker,

But four of us got to know him as daddy. 

I wish the whole world would have known him.  I was on the inside looking out, so I got to see him in ways that none of you did.  And I can still stand up here today and say that he was the greatest Christian I have known.  To actually be a Christian is to manifest the qualities and spirit of Jesus Christ Himself.

In Matthew’s writing

Matthew 22:35-40

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

 The manifestation of the fulfillment of these two commandments was evident in everything that “Daddy” did.

 The song writer said “He looked beyond my faults.”  In the past few days I have heard numerous accounts of people who would say,

“When no one loved me, your daddy loved me.”

 He had the ability to see past the stench of the drunk, or the image of the addict, and glimpse what God could do with that life.  He exemplified godliness in every aspect of his life.

Some people are taught how to live for God.  Some people pretend that they live for God.

Some people have God branded in their soul.

That was daddy.

 There was never any variance.  There was never any shadow of turning from his walk with God.  He lived what he believed, which is why so many of you loved him.  He never hesitated to share with you the truth of the saving power of Jesus Christ and it was so easy to accept, because he lived it.

Romans 10:14-15

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

He said every man is a preacher; the difference is what you are preaching.

He preached the gospel.  He was changed overnight by the power of the Holy Spirit.  His life was a transformation from the old man to the new.  Those of you who knew him before that blessed day in March of 1973 know that he was a different man from that day on.

He was exemplary in his ministerial ethics.  He never wanted to hear anything bad about anyone.  One of his favorite things to say was, “I don’t want to hear it.” He never wanted to know anything bad about anyone.  We all have things that are not perfect in our lives, but chose not to know if.  If he did know it he chose not to see it.

There are so many things that we could say today, but men greater then me will tell you what they can.  Thank you all for your love and appreciation.  May the memory of Daddy live in your life and may his love for God give you the strength to see the will of God come to fruition in your lives

I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts.  I love my dad more today than I ever have.  I will be blessed to have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

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