Watcha doin???

I'm starting to feel left out now.... so many people around me got to join the banned camp and I don't know if I ever did.

 

Honorary member....

 

I’ve never been coffee’d even. BrianW threatened me once. I honestly don’t get why many here have experienced wrath.

 

Closest I got was a warning.

 

I think sometimes the wrong ego got crossed and that seems to be all it takes. Frankly I still wonder how I got away with overtly challenging PP in that thread with the silly "prophecy" in it. You know the one that we were expected to accept even though it has still to come to pass. I wonder if it ever got retracted.

 

I agree on the ego thing.

 

PP would love me now. I was a charismatic back then. Cessationist now! Probably part of why I can’t break into leadership and try to help right the ship and get you all back in. I’m too historic of a Protestant now.

 

Preaching my wife's favorite aunt's graveside service tomorrow. It's going to be a long day.

_____________

Karen, Rayna, Shaina, Destiny, Colt, and all of the rest of the family asked me to thank you for all of your prayers, your kind words, your smiles, and of course, all the food that you have shared with them! Your love and concern mean the world to all of them.

Two thousand years ago, a couple of old boys had a race to the cemetery. Of course, the young guy outran the old guy, but when they arrived at the grave, they noticed an angel sitting outside. Now, that would be shocking enough, I think, but the question that the angel asked was even more surprising. The angel asked, “Why are you looking for the living here among the dead?” I think that question is probably a good one for us to answer, too.

Just over two short years ago, we all gathered here in this same spot to reflect on and celebrate the life well-lived of Uncle George. On that day, we all wondered exactly how Aunt Joyce would handle it… how would she survive without George. And afterward, we all watched while Joyce did what Joyce always did… she got up, she got dressed, and she served and loved every person she saw. And even some that we couldn’t see!

So why are we here, at this graveside? What are we doing? What do we hope to accomplish? Is this just a part of our Southern traditions, like Chicken Pie Festivals or Braves baseball or eating boiled peanuts? What is this… all of this… the flowers, the tent, the coffin, the headstone… what is this all about?

Well, truth be told, this . . . all of this … is our attempt to express our grief and sadness without drowning in it. It is our effort to shake off our selfishness and to actually find joy in the darkest of times. This… all of this… is for the living, not the dead. This… all of this…. Is for the folks lucky enough to have their photos covering the refrigerator in Joyce’s kitchen.

I sure hope none of you came here hoping to find Joyce Davis, because she most definitely is not here. Shortly after 7 pm on Sunday night, with her children and the rest of her family gathered around her, with the hymns she loved so much playing softly in the background, Joyce Davis took one last labored breath and in an instant was transformed from sick, and tired, and feeble, and struggling, to a woman that was strong, and vibrant, and joyful, and laughing out loud. Because she wasn’t here anymore. She was where she had longed to be, where Jesus was.

We love this book. Those of us who believe this book believe it to be true, and we believe that it has everything that we need to know in order to live lives of joy, and peace, and comfort, and strength. This book tells us how to celebrate in the good times and how to just keep going in the bad times. It teaches us how to love and how to live …and how to die. Joyce Davis knew this book. She learned its lessons, and then she taught those lessons to her children, and to her grandchildren, and was working on her great grandchildren. But more importantly, Joyce knew the author of this book.



You would think that a book about Jesus would tell us everything we ever wanted to know about heaven, about the life after this one, but interestingly enough, the Bible really doesn’t say all that much about heaven. Oh, we all know the parts about streets of gold and pearly gates and the river of life and no tears and no darkness. We read about God’s throne and the angels. We get glimpses into what lies beyond our human senses, but we don’t get many details. We certainly don’t get many details about what happens after we get to heaven. We don’t get many details about life in eternity.

So this morning, as we celebrate Joyce Davis, we need to celebrate not only her life here, but her new life there. So let’s take just a peak.

First, in all the Bible, we only get glimpses of heaven from three folks who have seen heaven. Just three.

Of course, Jesus knows about heaven. The disciple John, Jesus’ best friend, had the vision of heaven that is recorded in the Book of Revelation. And then there is the apostle Paul, who lets us know that he was caught up to heaven sometime about 20 years after Jesus left this planet. Paul says that what he saw was so wonderful, so incredible, so beyond our comprehension, that he couldn’t even describe it. Now, Paul was a gifted writer. He spoke Greek, and Latin, and Aramaic, and Hebrew. He knew the Old Testament scriptures frontwards and backwards. He read and quoted classical Greek poets. He was an expert in both Jewish law and in Roman law. He was possible the smarted guy on the planet in his day. And his glimpse of heaven was so incredible, he couldn’t put it into words. Nothing. It was simply indescribable.

So we really don’t know exactly what heaven is like. We really don’t know what we will be doing, or how we will interact, or how it will feel to live in a place with no clocks and no nights, with no sadness and no tears, with no sickness, no pain, and no death.

But instead of speculating or fretting over “what is heaven like,” let’s take a few minutes to ask an even better question. “What is Jesus like?” Because when it gets right down to it, home is where we are loved, and cared for, and safe, and free, and at peace, right? For those of us who believe in Jesus, Heaven is where Jesus is.

First, we know that where Jesus is, there is no fear. 1 John 4:18 tells us that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” In this life, there are plenty of times we all experience fear. We are sometimes afraid because of the unexpected, or the unknown. We worry about what might happen next. When Uncle Georgie died, Aunt Joyce told us that she was sometimes afraid, because she had never lived by herself. She lived with Mamaw Young, then she married George. She had some fears after Uncle George died, because she didn’t know what she would do. As her illness progressed, she had some fears of how she could handle poor health, or how Karen and Raina would be able to care for her. All of those fears, those concerns are normal, natural reactions to the unknown.

But she doesn’t have any fear any longer. She’s with Jesus, and Scripture tells us that HIS perfect love casts out… throws away… gets rid of… all fear. So don’t worry about Joyce. She’s not experiencing any fear at all.

Second, we know that where Jesus is, there is safety and security. During their marriage, George was the security guard of the house. He always had a gun… or six… or a knife… or fifteen knives… within arms reach! There was never any great concern about anyone hurting Joyce as long as George was around. George was… is.. certainly a force of nature, one of a kind. And he loved Joyce, his woman, his wife. So you tell me. How much more safety and security is there when you are sitting down at the table, or going on a walk, or playing a game with Jesus? The one with the power to calm the storm, to heal the blind, to feed 5000 with a single order of fish and fries from Sonya’s Kitchen? Heaven, where Jesus is? Complete safety, and security, and peace.

Most importantly, we know that were Jesus is, there are loving relationships. Jesus had friends when He was here on earth. Jesus had family. Jesus went to parties, and dinners, and weddings. Jesus often stayed with his special friends, Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Jesus loved little kids and held them in his lap. Jesus called his disciples “his friends,” and we are his brothers and sisters. When Peter and John went up on the mountain with Jesus, they saw Moses and Elijah, who had been gone from this earth for a couple of thousand years, yet Peter and John knew exactly who they were and saw Jesus talking with them. What will our relationships be like in heaven? I don’t know, because the Bible doesn’t say. But I do know this. They will be better than they are here on earth, because everything with Jesus is better than anything else.

John said it like this in 1 John chapter 3. “Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” So what was Jesus like?

He loved. He had friends. He knew and loved his family and his friends. Folks have asked, “Will we be “married” like we are here on earth?” No, Jesus indicates that we won’t be married like we are here, but that shouldn’t cause us sadness or fear. That doesn’t mean that we won’t know each other, or love each other, or have friends and loved ones. It just means that our love – even the great love that Joyce had for George, and that George had for Joyce here during their more than 50 years together -- is frail and fragile and imperfect compared to what it will be -- perfect, and strong, and absolutely without any downside forever in heaven. I don’t know what that looks like, or how that love is expressed, but think of the greatest love you can imagine, and it will be nothing compared to the love that we will have for one another for all eternity.

So right now?

Right now, we’re standing here, sweating in this perfect South Georgia summer weather. We’re trying to figure out why God created gnats, other than to make us long for heaven more, because I dearly hope and pray there are no gnats in heaven. Right now, we are doing the best that we can to make sense of sickness, and getting older, and loss, and what tomorrow looks like, trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together with one of the pieces missing.



On the other hand, right now, Aunt Joyce is doing whatever it is you do in heaven. Probably sitting at a kitchen table somewhere with Mamaw and George and Henry and Rachel and Dick, eating boiled peanuts and Cheetos and Little Debbie snack cakes and saltines wrapped in bacon and chex party mix and pound cake and drinking coffee. They know one another, they love one another, they know who the others are, they recognize them as Mamaw and brothers and sisters. But here’s the really cool part. Just think about this.

As much as Mamaw and Joyce and George and Henry and Rachel and Dick know each other and love each other and serve each other, they feel and act the same way toward every other person in heaven. There is an endless stream of people to love, who love you, who can share stories and new experiences and all without fear, without loss, without discomfort, with nothing but complete and utter joy. There is a pound cake that never gets smaller no matter how many slices you cut and a pot of coffee that never needs refilling! Don’t ask me how that works, because I don’t know. The Bible says that some things are just mysteries, and they are just too much for us to understand right now.

Heaven. Such a mystery, but such a place that we long for. Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian who survived World War II in Nazi prison camps, told a story about her father, a watchmaker. When she was a small child, about five years old, she traveled with him to Amsterdam, Holland, near where she lived. She asked him a very serious, adult question about sexual sins, and her father wouldn’t answer her. When they were getting ready to go home, Papa asked Corrie, his little girl, to pick up his very heavy bag. She tried, but just couldn’t budge it. She told him that it was too heavy. He said, “That’s fine, Corrie. It is too heavy for you. And knowing what a sexual sin is is also too heavy for you, too. Let me carry that knowledge until you are big enough to handle it.”

Heaven. Folks, it’s just too heavy for us to carry. Oh, sometimes I wish that the Bible did tell us more about heaven, about what we will do, and what our day will be like, and what our activities will be, and what all there is to see and explore, and will we be able to fly, and what the food will be like, and whether we’ll have wrinkles, and… well, you get it. I think Paul’s experience was a good example for us. It’s just too heavy. Heaven is so wonderful, so foreign to our experience and understanding, so beyond our ability to comprehend that if we really knew what heaven was like, we would literally lose our minds.

So, in the meantime, we just have to trust. We know Jesus, and we know His love, and compassion, and joy, and His power. We know that all of our loved ones that have a relationship with Him, that have accepted His salvation, that have passed away in this life, are with Him, wherever and whatever Heaven is exactly. So we can trust that Aunt Joyce and everyone else that we love that are with Jesus are just fine, and in fact, doing a whole lot better than we are right now.

So what are we supposed to do now? We’ll go eat lunch, we’ll tell some more stories, we’ll laugh a little, we’ll cry a little, we’ll get out of our nice clothes, we’ll take a deep breath, and we’ll wake up tomorrow to face another day. And if we are smart, we will take the lessons we learned from Joyce, and we’ll do a better job of following her example.

1. That means that we will love other people, regardless of their race or wealth or social position.



2. We’ll serve other people. We’ll give to them. We’ll feed them. We’ll put them ahead of ourselves. We’ll put their interests ahead of our own selfish interests. We won’t ever turn anyone away. Now, we are Southern ladies and gentlemen, so while we may think ugly thoughts about someone else, we won’t say anything out loud because thinking it might be one sin but saying it would be two sins!

Jesus said, “If you want to be the greatest among men, you must be a servant of all.”


I learned a long time ago that talk is cheap. Lots of folks talk a good game, but don’t follow through. When Terri and I lived in Oklahoma, one expression out there was “he’s all hat and no cattle.” Around here, some folks are “All tractor and no cotton.” Some folks, like Aunt Joyce, were just the opposite. They didn’t look for glory. They didn’t brag or keep score. They didn’t ask for credit, just that you would bring their dishes back. They just served.

Thanksgiving for the Young family was always a riot. We would end up with 40 or 50 people in Mom’s house in Albany with enough food to feed a hundred. After we got Uncle George to stop baiting Uncle Dick about Republican politics, and before the tea in the red plastic cups started melting the ice, someone would finally say, “Uncle Dick, ask the blessing.” Then Dick Young, a man that spent literally thousands of hours on his knees in prayer, would give a simple, heartfelt offering of praise and thanksgiving for his country, his family, God’s provision, and salvation. And at the “Amen,” the dash for the front of the line began, with Uncle Mack usually in the lead. Now, in Mack’s defense, he was the shortest one there, and he learned early on in life that if he didn’t fight for the lead he might get left out! Especially if Uncle George was mobile that year!

Except for two people. Nancy, and Joyce. Both of them were shooing people into line, handing out paper plates and napkins and plastic forks and spoons. If was always fun to watch them as the line dwindled, each telling the other, “Go ahead, Joyce.” “No, you go ahead Nancy.” “No, you go one Joyce.” “No, I wouldn’t care for any of that.” Always preferring the other over themselves, always making sure that everyone else had food, as if anyone was going to go hungry at that feast.

But life wasn’t always like that for the Young family. They grew up in the Depression, when jobs were scarce and food wasn’t always plentiful. Joyce and Nancy and Sarah and Rachel and Dick and Mack and Henry all knew hard times, but they saw Jesus lived out in front of them as Mary Young always fed them first, always fed her husband first, and always fed the hungry neighbor on the back porch or the hobo riding the rail through Smithville before she ate a bite. Sometimes that meant just another cup of water in the soup. That lesson was not lost on Joyce Young Davis.

Joyce, in a word, was a servant. All of her life. She served her husband, in sickness and in health, and there was plenty of both. She served her children. She served her church and every person in it. She served the city of Smithville, and every citizen in it. She served folks that came to help her, folks like Julie and Anna Ruth. She served the farmers of this entire region in her working career. She served everyone she ever met. And 33 wonderful years ago, when I first met Aunt Joyce, she took me in like one of her own and served and loved me my entire adult life.

I don’t know what heaven is like. I don’t know all the in’s and out’s and up’s and down’s. I don’t know what tomorrow holds for each of us.

But I do know this.

Last Sunday night, about 7 pm, Joyce took her last breath of the sweet, humid, peaceful air of Smithville, Georgia.

And the very next instant, she heard these words.



“Joyce Davis! Welcome home! Well done, you good and faithful servant. You’ve been so faithful for so many years! Time for you to be served. There’s a whole bunch of folks waiting for you right over there, sweetie. Welcome home.”



She would be easy to spot. She’s the one carrying the coffee pot and the paper plate full of snacks…



May God’s peace, and His grace, and His love, comfort and encourage us all.

 

I’m voting eggs. Eggs it is.

 

When all else fails, eggs work.

 

You and I were banned for the same offense. Heck, the same post. The Amazzin one said you were telling all of us at OCF to invite members of BF to OCF. I was banned because I "allowed" you to say that in the open board and didn't chastise you. My silence was equal to my agreement.

 

Hard to do that if you can't log in.

 

If that's what you're planning on preaching you've done a good job my friend.

 

Graveside service went fine. Family doing ok.

Thanks for the prayers