Happy Fathers Day 08

Attendance was low in church today but God was there. He never fails. My sermon was on "Godly Fathers" and the outline is on the front page of TLBC website. click here Last week I preached the funeral of Janet Morgan, a former member of the church, out at the Haven of Rest Cemetery over in Gig Harbor. This Friday at 11AM I will again be preaching a graveside service for Sister Janet Sue Kaley at the Woodbine Cemetery out in Puyallup. Our heart goes out to those who are hurting at this time due to the loss of a dear loved one.

I had a "dizzy" follow up doctor appointment last week with my family doctor and he has made an appointment for me to see an ear specialist this week about my vertigo. The physical therapist has seen marked improvement with me but I seem to have hit a plateau and am not improving as fast as I once was. Your prayers are deeply appreciated as I certainly do not want to spend the rest of my life with the threat of this dizziness hanging over my head. It really has a negative affect on ones confidence.

Please checkout my shelfari book shelf over in the right column and sign up for free to get your own shelf so we can compare what books we have read in common.

Here is something from a book of letters written by a woman named Anne Dutton, who lived in the 1700’s in England. The Lord brought me great comfort from it and I hope that He might also bless others who read it.

"Dear Brother and Sister,

- As to my health, blessed be God, I am not worse than I was when brother was here. I dwell in a crazy tabernacle, which I think sometimes is near its dissolution. But I rejoice in that house, that building of God, eternal in the heavens, which I know, through grace, is prepared for me. I in this tabernacle groan, being burdened by reason of that sinfulness and weakness which attends and renders me incapable either to know or serve the Lord as I would, and as perfect spirits do; and this makes me long for the time when mortality shall be swallowed up of life.

We have no reason to be afraid of a separate state, for "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Nor yet should the saints be afraid to die, as if they should be forsaken and left to go through the last trial alone. No, our God will be with us when we come to the river Death; He will divide the water before us, and so marvellously appear in carrying us through it that we shall take thence a memorial of His infinite grace and faithfulness, as the children of Israel did when they passed through the literal Jordan (Josh. iv.7).

We should come up from the wilderness, even to the last step of it, leaning upon our Beloved, who hath said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. xiii.5). These words, "never leave thee," reach through our whole lives, even unto death, yea, into death, through death, above and beyond death, even to an endless eternity. And unless everlasting arms could wax weary, unchangeable love alter, and infinite faithfulness fail, we have no reason to be afraid. No, not in "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psa. xxii.4).

Our God will be "our refuge and strength, a very present help in that time of trouble" (Psa. xlvi.1). And as he will be the strength of our heart when heart and flesh fail us, so our portion for ever, or our eternal lot. And Oh! who can count up a thousandth part of those vast treasures of glory we have in His immense Being, as He has made over His great Self to us in Christ! Why should we, then, that are the King's sons, be lean from day to day? The Lord grant us true greatness of mind, that with a princely spirit we may behave as heirs of glory under all our present trials! Wishing all prosperity, and begging a share in your prayers, I commit you to Israel's Keeper."