Quick Thoughts - 1/22/09

First let me thank all of you, who's prayed and praying for my family during the passing of my "POP". We had services this week and thanks to friends (Pastor Payne, Pastor Wilson, and Pastor Albert) all went well. I preached the service which was hard to do being a son and pastor but God held me up in the midst. I preached:

Text: Hebrews 11: 13-16
Topic: A Faith that Never Dies

Thesis: A faith that never dies is a faith that stands the the test of time:

I. God can be trusted because of Past Evidence - "These all died in faith..."

II. God can be trusted because of Present Evaluation - "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced [them] and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that [country] from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

III. God can be trusted because of Promised Elevation - "But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly [country]. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

God truly bless the preaching moment but I had to chop it up because we were on a time schedule to get to the Veteran's Cemetary for an early afternoon appointment.

My mother was a trooper and handle everything extremely well. Tracy and my Aunt Betty helped make sure everything was planned right. They deserve 5 stars for this. Please keep praying for us as we take it one day at a time.

We had a good day all day on this past Sunday. Our afternoon service was encouraging as Pastor Payne preached. The late night service was good. It was a good day! Tracy and I got home at 3 am and was back up at 7 am to purchase flowers and make programs for the funeral service. I catnapped all day, went to visit my mother, played in a basketball game, went home, could not sleep, woke up Tues morning at 5 am to go to the church to get my suit but left my shoes. I had a lot of nervous energy.

When I finally laid my head down Tuesday night that was it, that's all. Yesterday, I rested all day getting ready for work today.

All is well and I will see "POP" again!