Poem - My Daddy's Bible

Psalm 118:8 "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man."

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a month since my dad's passing. In writing these posts on the subject of Biblical authority, I got to thinking about my dad's Bible. When I was at his funeral, I got the chance to hold his Bible and look through the numerous verse references he jotted down in the front flyleaf. The presiding pastor used those verses as the basis for his funeral message and as a result I was comforted. The above opening text of today's post features one of my dad's favorite scriptures. He would quote Psalm 118:8 all the time and I would come to discover that this verses is the middle verse in our English Bibles. Today's poem is dedicated to my dad and tells a little bit of the comfort I found listening to the message spoken from those verse references written by my dad in his Bible. May the reader find encouragement, hope or perhaps use the poem to comfort someone else. To God be the glory!

My Daddy's Bible

On my lap the Bible laid

Final respects to my daddy paid

I opened the book, to behold the sight

Like gems in the sun glistening bright

Verses wrote, tucked in every space

Each one written and having a place

The day a family member left the home

Four years to college and world to roam

He wrote down a verse, to watch and pray

To see his child finish their way

There was another, celebrating love

Memories to cherish, gifts from above

The preacher unfolded the truth of those words

Like a string of pearls his message was heard

God gained a tenor; a son is now home

No longer on this globe to ever roam

Yet here is his Bible, proof of a man

Who by faith on God's Word surely did stand

Dad is in glory, faith made sight

In that land of never night

My daddy's Bible, my mind's eye behold

A precious book, more valuable than gold

The God of all comfort for those in need of comforting

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ."

The God of all comfort

As I write this post today, I am in the midst of a time of my life where I am grieving over the loss of my dad. Anytime I speak of my dad or any other saint of God who has went on to be with the Lord, I refer to them in present tense, rather than past tense terms. Such a choice reminds me and communicates to others that those who depart this world in death, in Jesus, are still very much alive in their spirit/soul in Heaven. My father is enjoying the glory of the Lord while eagerly awaiting the time of resurrection at the Lord's return, wherein he will be reunited with his physically, glorified, resurrected body. 

Admittedly, the pain of grief is a reality that recedes and proceeds like the tides. There are moments that feel absolutely crushing, and then the "tide" will go back out. It is in those moments that I turn to such passages as 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. 

The words we read here in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 describe the God of scripture and of every person who has by grace through faith placed their trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus as the Divine Son came to earth to become God in human flesh. As the Incarnate Son, He visibly explained and expressed the reality of the invisible, unseen First Person of the Trinity - The Heavenly Father. Who is this Person, the Father? What is He like. For me, as a man who is without his earthly father, such questions have become freshly and highly important in a seasons such as this. 

Whenever we read such scriptures as 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, we discover the power of the Father manifest in situations that are much like my own - situations and times of intense pain, and sorrow.  In this season of my life, I believe there is unlimited power and Grace already made available by the Father to Christians due to the fact He has sent unto them the Holy Spirit in His Son's name. Paul describes this activity of the Father on the believer's behalf as His activity of being  "The God of all comfort". Hence in today's post I want to list out in short order this particular comforting ministry of the Heavenly Father to His people. I pray you the reader will find this helpful, as I know it aids me greatly in a time where the comfort of God is the only comfort that can suffice:

1. God's comfort is a blessed comfort

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ....". When God chooses to bless His people, He is manifesting the overflow of His power and presence in their life. The blessing of God is the favor of God and thus every Christian already has the power of God at their disposal. Thus I can say with this verse that I am blessed by God because of His favor on my life. His favor is made possible by Jesus' once for all death, burial and resurrection. As the believer's advocate, Jesus the Son has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father and because of His constant pleadings, the blessed comfort of the Father is distributed by His Spirit in the Christian's life. Notice the second thing about the Father's comforting ministry....

2. God's comfort is a tender comfort

Again we turn to 2 Corinthians 1:3b "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." The word translated "mercies" is a rarer word in the Greek language of the New Testament. The word speaks of tender, personalized, compassionate mercies, much as a parent consoling a weeping child. Lamentations 3:22-25 states - The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him." Think of how God the Father has new mercies available every day of the Christian's life. He knew the day of my father's death for instance, and He had grace and tender mercies already available to be used by my family and me. God's comfort is a tender, personal comfort. It is crafted and custom fitted to each saint and each situation that the saint finds himself or herself experiencing. Others may ask: "I don't see how so-and-so is able to do what they are doing with all they have going on.". The only answer to be given is: "The comfort of the Father". 

God's grace and comfort exceeds the need of the moment. His comfort is there, we just need to avail ourselves, step into it and walk it out. In some cases, the comforts of the Father spoken of here carry us. So the comfort of God is blessed and tender comfort, now notice thirdly...

3. God's comfort is an empathetic comfort. 

Consider 2 Corinthians 1:4 "who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Let me be candid - I now know and understand what it is like to lose someone close, someone cherished. To empathize literally means to have the ability to step inside the shoes of that person and identify with their plight. Sympathy, though similar, is one step removed in that we can theoretically, emotionally and by analogy identify with that person. However empathy has that added extra dimension of "I have experienced what that other person has experienced." 

I know that as I walk with the Father through this time in my life, and He with me, there will be the healing that comes to the wound inflicted by death. Only the resurrection power of the Son can remedy the laceration administered by the cold, hard steel of death's sword. As the Spirit of God works internally in my heart, there will come forth, I'm sure, empathy, experience and ability to be used by Him in ministering to others. 

The Father's purposes are not thwarted by death. There are others that need to be embraced by the Father of Heavenly lights with whom there is no variation nor shifting of shadow. (James 1:17) That day or those moments will come and have already begun as even now, God brings other hurting people my way. God's comfort is blessed, personal and empathetic. However without this last trait of the Father's comfort, the first three characteristics would not be possible, namely...

4. God's comfort is experienced through Christ

2 Corinthians 1:5 states "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." When I was a younger man, I would read this verse and quite honestly, it puzzled me. I had understood of course that Jesus had already suffered once-and-for-all for sin, the just for the unjust. (1 Peter 3:18) Yet I wondered to what degree Jesus could still be experiencing suffering in His exalted, ascended state?

Now please track with me for a moment. The achievement of redemption for His people is a one-time event, never to be repeated. However we must not forget that Jesus Christ retained His human nature when He ascended into heaven. By still remaining man, the Son is connected to the humanity of the people of God by the Person of the Spirit of God. Moreover, being that the Person of the Son is ever fully Divine, He is able to experience by the same Person of the Spirit the experiences of His people here on earth as He intercedes with the Person of the Father with whom is  co-equal. When Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after His resurrection, He did not go with the idea of spending the next 2,000 years being unaffected and untouched by the pains and sorrows of His people. 

The anguish and sorrow experienced by all Christians - whether the death of a loved one, the pain of sickness, the brokenness of relationships or martyrdom, is fully experienced by Jesus, even now, as he ever lives to intercede. Jesus Christ as both fully human and fully Divine, chooses to experience with every generation of His church their sorrows, their tears, their triumphs and their agonies. Hebrews 7:25 states - "Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." 

Because of Jesus Christ, the comforts of the Father are administered directly to each Christian in the measure they need. Without the Mediator, Jesus Christ, no man could be saved and no saint could be comforted. 

Closing thoughts

The aim of today's post was to point our attention to the God of all comfort. Even though the primary Person of the Father is in view, we discovered that the Person of the Son and the Person of the Holy Spirit are also included when we speak of the One God of all comfort. We saw four truths about the comfort of the Father to His people:

1. God's comfort is a blessed comfort 

2. God's comfort is a tender comfort

3. God's comfort is an empathetic comfort. 

4. God's comfort is experienced through Christ

The only hope I find in my time of loss

Hebrews 12:22-24 "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."

Introduction
As I write this post for today, I am beginning a new chapter in my life of living out the rest of my days on this earth without my dad being on it. My beloved dad passed away at 12:55 a.m on Tuesday (yesterday) January 13, 2015. Death's cold fingers and chilly waters had no sting as my dad breathed his last. He has traveled with angelic accompaniment the incalcuable distance from this world to the one beyond the stars and endless galaxies. (Luke 16:22; 2 Corinthians 5:6) Christ His Savior achieved the guarantee of death having no sting in the passing of the Christian from this life to the next. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). 

The above text brings much comfort to me in this hour of mourning and I hope today will equip readers with comfort or with the ability to comfort others with the hope of Jesus. We need hope in hours such as these. My daddy loved Jesus with all His heart (and still does, only moreso now!) More than ever, we must realize that the only hope found in eternal life, this life and the after-life is Jesus Christ. I dedicate this post in part to my dad and will refer to him quite a bit in developing the main thoughts I glean from the above text. May the Spirit give me strength to write and you the reader strength to read.

How the gift of eternal life brings the hope of Jesus Christ
When my father was 16 years of age, an evangelist came to do a series of revival meetings at the church where his father (my grand-daddy) pastored in Kentucky. As the evangelist preached and as my dad came under conviction, he gripped the back pew ever so tightly. For years my grand-daddy begged and pleaded with my dad to trust in Jesus as his Savior and Lord and told him that if he didn't do so, my dad would spend an eternity in torment. My dad as a young lad would ignore my grand-daddy's tearful pleadings. However the day my dad heard that evangelist make his appeal, the words of that preacher were attended by the Holy Spirit's inner working in his heart. It was not the preacher's voice that won my daddy to Christ; rather the Spirit Himself convincing him to trust in Jesus. According to what my daddy relayed to me, the day he trusted in Jesus, my grand-daddy literally lept the front pew where he was sitting. Finally! Prayer had been answered and a lost son was won to the faith!

What happened to my dad on that day? The Lord brought to him the gift of eternal life in saving faith. What is eternal life? John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." How is this miracle working of God in salvation received? John 3:16 answers: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." The Spirit of God brought home to him the reality of Hebrews 12:22-24, which I would classify as the clearest explanation of the miraculous truth summarized by John 3:16.

Hebrews 12:22 begins: "But you have come to Mount Zion". Now order to "come to some place", there first had to been a place from whence one derived. If you read the verses prior in Hebrews 12:18-21, the scene is that of Mount Sinai, historically signifying the giving of the law of God and symbolically picturing the place of God's judgment. All the descendants of fallen Adam stand around the base of the Mount of judgment - thinking that they can get to the Judge on their own merit. No one can ever be reconciled to God by the law - since the law can only demand and not supply rightousness. The sinner has to be sentenced and pronounced spiritually dead at the judgment bar of God by the law of God. Furthermore, the sinner must be brought to see the awfulness of his sin by the Spirit of God and agree with the sentence by faith and repentance.

My daddy had this occur in his life some 56 years ago. He was "brought from" that place of well-deserved judgment (which all of us deserve) by the Spirit of God moving in his heart. The moment my daddy forsook his own merit and trusted in what was earned and acheived by Jesus by faith alone, he "came to" the gates of paradise in salvation" or "Mount Zion". God intervened in his human timeline and used an old evangelist preaching the only book that can convert the sinner to a saint to win my dad to Jesus. (Psalm 19:7; Romans 10:17) My dad was credited with Jesus' achievement and began walking as a new creation, a child of God by faith.

How the gift of eternal life gives hope for the remainder of life in this world

For 56 years my daddy walked and talked with Jesus. He poured over his Bible every morning and gradually developed into a man of prayer. Literally my daddy had the reality of Heaven-sent, God-called salvation brought to him and he was as-it-were brought into contact with the glories of heaven in his soul. A Christian who walks this earth walks with a growing home-sickness. When a person is converted in saving faith, the drama and reality of the Spirit of God bringing Jesus and that person into contact with one another at saving a faith is a miracle. The remainder of one's Christian walk is spent understanding and living out what took place at that moment in time. Such a verse as Hebrews 12:22 tells us that the Christian is made a heavenly citizen and participant in the Heavenly kingdom populated by myriads of angels. (Also see Philippians 3:20)

How the hope of Jesus Christ gives hope about the after-life
Now notice Hebrews 12:23 "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect." When I read that last clause in verse 23, I marvel at the fact that those Christians who have passed on in Jesus are perfected in their immaterial spirit and soul. My daddy is among that company! What is the writer of Hebrews talking about here? We can think of the hope of salvation as a series of four stages: regeneration, sanctification, glorification and resurrection.

First, at saving faith in regeneration or the new birth, the spirit or innermost being of a person is set free from the penalty of sin. (Romans 5:1; 8:1).

Secondly, for the remainder of time here on earth, the process of sanctification sets the soul of the Christian (made up of the mind, emotions, will) free from sin's power. That is to say, though Christians retain the residual effects of sin's corruption in their soul in this life and will choose to sin, the point is they don't have to. Romans 7:14-25 captures the Christian's wrestling match with inner sin on the one hand and the desire to live for Jesus on the other hand.

So at salvation the Christ is set free from sin's penalty and in sanctification the Christian is set free from sin's power. With that understanding, we see thirdly that at death the Christian is set free from sin's presence - and event called glorification. Believers who die in the Lord go on ahead to be with Jesus and await the time He returns and they are re-united with a gloriously, resurrected, transformed version of their physical body. (2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

The fourth and final stage will be the resurrection at Christ's return, wherein Jesus will rapture and resurrect those believers who died in Him, followed by the saints still alive here on the earth. Thus at resurrection, the putrification of the body caused by death will be reversed and annulled, rendering Christians with a glorified resurrected body likened unto Jesus' own. (1 Thesslonians 4:13-18)

My daddy is now in that company of glorified saints. His journey on this earth ended yesterday, however the next leg of his journey with Jesus is only beginning. He is among that company of saints who being perfected in their spirits await resurrection. He is rejoicing in who he is with and is experiencing the dimensions of Christ's glorious presence that no preacher nor any pen can hope to capture. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Hebrews 12:24 gives the greatest hope: "and to Jesus...". The same one Whom my dad was brought to in salvation is the one with Whom he is with right now. I find such hope in these verses because at salvation - heaven is tasted and glimpsed by faith and at death is enjoyed and experienced. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. My question to you dear reader: do you have this hope in Jesus? Unless you receive such hope by faith, you will not get to have eternal life. Nor will yoy have any remianing hope in this life. Nor can you expect to have hope in the after-life. Only in Jesus by faith can we have the hope of eternal life, have remaining hope in this life and have hope for the after-life. It is in this hope I cling and it is because of Jesus that I know I will see my daddy once again.