Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

Hello and welcome. It's Tuesday morning after the Labor Day holiday here on this September 6, 2016. I was off last Friday in order to attend the memorial service for our dear brother in Christ, Bro. Max. I was honored to be one of those asked to help bear his coffin to the grave site. It was a great service in that Bro. Max had chosen some lively Southern Gospel tunes to accompany his farewell party. The preacher did an excellent job speaking about what Bro. Max would say to those in attendance that day. It would all be about God and His grace, mercy, and love and how that each one can know Him through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Max had been very ill for a very long time, therefore, while there is a transition to be made, it was also a blessed release as he made his journey home.

Amber, her mom Frances, her daughter Ashlynn, and her grandma, Brenda

The wife and I left the viewing fellowship for Bro. Max Thursday evening and headed straight to the hospital ICU to check on a young mother who had suffered a relapse after undergoing many months of severe cancer treatments. Sadly, she had experienced brain seizures that deprived her brain of oxygen and was essentially in a coma. Just 35 years young, we've known Amber since she was a wee little lass. She used to love to have me give her a greeting and hug on Sunday mornings. She would tell her grandma that she wanted to go to Church and to see 'her friend'. I've been privileged to have a few titles in my lifetime. I've had people honor my position in their acknowledgment of my presence. Let me just say none of that stuff matters much but to be called 'my friend' by little Amber, well, now that's something to cherish. We went straight into her room and she was there. We thought she was still in a coma. She actually had passed away about an hour before we arrived. We've been in Church with her grandmother, our dear Sister in Christ, Brenda, for many many years. Please pray for those left behind because this is a tough one. A tough one indeed! May God comfort each heart. Amen.

We've been around a lot of tears over the past several weeks. They are a part of life. Some like to act as if they shouldn't be or if they just act like they don't exist, the tears will not come. That's not how it works in this fallen world we live in. Most of the services we have attended were accompanied by sincere mourning but not without hope since those who had finished their life here had a testimony of having put their faith in God through His provision of His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the hope comes in. The Apostle Paul put it this way, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope." (1st Thessalonians 4:13) Those asleep reflects believers who have died. He continued, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." (Verse 14) And, what a blessed hope it is to know that we will see our believing loved ones and friends again. Thanks be to God who gives comfort to us in our time of sorrow. Amen. ....More later.