Daily Digest: January 27, 2012

Verse of the Day

1Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 

Commentary

 I was notified last night that my dad passed away. He died very peacefully in his sleep. My mother was with him holding his hand. The viewing will be Sunday with the funeral Monday. I have great peace about all of this. The miraculous  events of the last week will forever be with me. I have already been invited to a local nursing home to share this testimony.

   What is so wonderful is that I do not have to preach but just share the testimony of my dad. This will lead people to salvation in the Blessed Redeemer. I hope this testimony brings great glory and fruit to the Lord Jesus. After what I witnessed, my faith is now 10 times stronger.

Dad at 93 with Tiger Lilly

(Dad with my dog in his assisted living center. He just loved dogs. When I look at this picture, it is hard to believe that he was 93)

My dad is a living legend amongst people that know him. I shared some of this in my last post. He was knocked down so many times in life, but he never stayed down. With great determination, he always bounced right back. 

   He had a terrible back operation in the late 1960s and suffered awful pain for years. I watched tears like a garden hose pour from his eyes as he tried to walk with the  intense pain. He refused pain killers and kept walking until the pain left. When my knees were injured and I had that terrible pain, my dad's example and the Lord got me through it without pain killers. I would like to give you one story of just how unusual was my dad. There are many other examples!

   He was 75 and I visited him. My mother said, "did you hear about your father being arrested"? I was shocked and said "no". I asked him if he had been arrested, and he held his  head low and said "yes". My mother then explained what happened. Dad went into a store to get something. There was a man smoking and blowing smoke into dad's face. Dad asked him to stop. The man then inhaled deeply and blew all the smoke directly into dad's face. This was the wrong thing to do.   

   Dad proceeded to hit him and with one shot knocked him out! The state police were called. After a while, mom went in to find him, and there was dad sitting handcuffed on a chair with the police holding his driver's license. The police were laughing and shaking their heads. 

   On the other side of the room, a young man was sitting on a chair. The police showed him my dad's drivers license, and he began to shake his head from side to side. The police came back and let my dad go. The reason was the young man was 25, and he was too embarrassed to go to court and have to admit a 75 year old beat him up!

   As I was thinking about my dad and his incredible strength, endurance and will, I realized that this is exactly what I wanted spiritually. What my dad had in the physical realm, I wanted in the spiritual realm for the Lord. To fight for the Lord Jesus and His kingdom with everything I had to the end. To give NO quarter to devil. A fight to the finish until the Lord comes for His church. Dad never ever gave up to the end, and that is exactly what I want to do for the Lord Jesus. The Lord went all the way for us, when He went to the cross, so how could we do less for Him!

    I will greatly miss my dad, but I am not going to look back. I will look forward to the Blessed Hope and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when I will be reunited with him.

   The way dad and I greeted was "hand's up" in a fighting stance. I guess that was the Irish in us. When I left him for the last time, we were "hands up," and he was saying "Jesus is my Savior". This is the way I will remember him.

   May the Holy God of Israel bless and protect you.

Dad and Mom