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SPECIAL EDITION ---- DAD'S HOMEGOING
#1 · June 16, 2003, 12:43 am
Posted by: btolliver <btolliver@...>
Dear "Hope4Kyiv" recipient:
In order to notify as many as possible about my father's death Sunday afternoon, I'm simply sending a copy of my latest "Shoulder to Shoulder" letter.
So, if you're a "Shoulders" subscriber, please disregard this letter; it's identical to what you already received.
To you others, you can read for yourselves the notice of Dad's death and my observations.
In Christ,
--------------------------
Standing Shoulder To Shoulder Together As We
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
A personal letter of encouragement to You, written solely to "lift up hands that hang down".
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SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #288 ---- 6/16/03
Title: "The Final Chapter"
My Dear Friend and Kingdom Adventurer:
When I wrote last week's letter about "The Next Chapter" I had no idea I would be following up so soon with a report on Dad's "final chapter". Yesterday afternoon at 12:45, on the Lord's Day and on America's Fathers' Day, my dad quietly slipped from his decaying cocoon into the presence of the One Who had sacrificially died for him and for whom he had so faithfully lived. Dad's final chapter was concluded. Family visitation will be held at Murray's Funeral Home in Bolivar, MO, on Wednesday evening. Services will be held at 10:30 Thursday morning at his home church, Southern Hills Baptist Church in Bolivar, MO. A brief graveside service will be held around noon at the cemetery in Lee Summit, MO on Friday.
Needless to say, my letter today will be brief; we have much to do . . . . go to the nursing home and funeral home, meet with Dad's pastor, make phone calls to a dozen states, and a half dozen other things before driving to Kansas City to meet our eldest daughter and her family who are returning from the mission field in Colombia, SA, for a year's furlough. Then the rest of the family and relatives start arriving tomorrow from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, Arizona, and other parts unknown.
Little did we realize when we left Kiev, Ukraine on May 27th, that our pilgrimage would provide so much evidence of God's timing, His sovereignty, and His perfect planning. We knew it was very possible Dad might die soon; we knew there were many hurdles to clear. But it still caught us by surprise. I had visited with him Saturday morning; he remarked that when the doctors began giving my mother Morphine (as they had begun with Dad the day before), she didn't live much longer. He said he felt his time was drawing near, but we didn't expect it to be this soon. The "next chapter" turned out to be the final one for him.
THE FINAL CHAPTER:
When it comes time for you and me to write the final chapter of our lives, I pray that we both will be able to pen the following statements that so clearly illustrated Dad's final days.
1. He never wavered from absolute confidence in the inerrant authority of the sacred Word of God. Even up to the final weeks of his life he was still trying to read the Bible through one more time. He made it to 147 and 1/2. His goal was 150 times. He loved the Word of God with a passion. Joshua 1:8 was the driving force of his Bible reading. "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written therein; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and you shall have success." As I said a few weeks ago, he had some favorite quotes about the Bible. One was, "This book will keep you from sin; sin will keep you from this book." Another was, "What food is to the body, the Bible is to the soul."
2. He had a sense of purpose all the way to the end. This was illustrated in the scriptures he chose for his life. Several months ago he showed me this verse. Psalm 71:18 says "Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare Thy strength to this generation and Thy power to all who are to come." When my mother died nearly three years ago, Dad told me he did not want to stay on this earth without something significant to do. He wanted to have a ministry; and he had one right up to the end of his life. When he went to the nursing home ten days ago, he went with the conviction that God had a ministry for him there. Even though he was there such a short time, he began making acquaintances, and the residents and staff alike knew he was there.
That purpose will live on; I had the privilege of interviewing Dad on video tape for nearly two hours, asking him about his life and his ministry. My only real regret is that we were unable to complete the tape; everytime I'd go to see him in the nursing home, he was sleeping, groggy, or just not up to doing more. I had so wanted to tape his remarks he could have made to other preachers, and especially to young men just getting started. I had wanted to tape his comments about his love for God's Word. Unfortunately, none of that was possible. However, through my life, those of my family members and those of others who knew him, his message and story can continue.
3. He had an absolute abandoned faith in His Lord and an unshakable trust in His power and authority. This was illustrated in what came to be his life verse. Ephesians 3:20-21 says, "Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, world without end. Amen." He was convinced that "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:28).
4. He never lost his love for people. Up to his final days he was trying to encourage those who ministered to him. He never had a cross word, even though last Thursday night he was in excruciating pain from the cancer. While he became edgy and irritable for a short time, he never condemned or accused them; even during a few agonizing hours, he still loved the people.
5. He was absolutely convinced of his eternal security and destiny in heaven. The question of Romans 8:35, "Who can separate us from the love of Christ?" was more concise than Paul's ---- "Absolutely nothing!" Like Paul, he would declare, "I know in Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day." (I Tim 1:12). He would agree with the beloved apostle, John, when he said, "These things I write to you who believe, that you may know that you have eternal life." (I John 5:13)
6. He enthusiastically believed in the Great Commission and our personal involvement it it's fulfillment. Just before we left for Ukraine last January, we took Dad out for his 88th birthday. As we sat in the restaurant, he simply said, "I am convinced you are doing the right thing, and you must not concern yourselves with my well being. What you are doing is much more important than my life. I've lived my life, and I know I don't have too much time left. But what you're doing has eternal consequences to many people." It was those remarks that gave me peace in my own heart that we were doing the will of the Father and were not abandoning our responsibilities to Dad. He understood that, and so did we.
Discipleship, its cost, and the demands of the Great Commission have become much more vivid in our minds in the subsequent months. Now that Dad is in heaven with the Lord, and with my Mother and other relatives and friends, His words and his belief are more clear than ever.
7. He lived daily with the expectation of the eminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. As far as he was concerned, since 1948 he has been convinced that there was nothing to keep the Lord Jesus from returning except the will of the Father. He really believed he would lived to see that day. God chose to promote him sooner than the rest of us, and he is the better for it.
FINALLY:
I'm aware, dear friend, that my recent letters have probably been redundant in many ways, and that my frequent references to my father may have been a bit much. However, I've had the joy of watching a man of God in his final years. He's not the only one I've watched. Some have greatly disappointed me because they quit before they hit the finish line; they dropped the baton before they could pass it off to the next generation. They failed to affect the young men and women coming to the battle. They became far too casual about their walk with the Lord, their witness to others, and their tasks as role models and mentors.
So, when I see someone like Dad, who was faithful to the finish, I like to talk about them. A couple of passages have been fresh in my mind as Jo Ann and I observed Dad taking the final turn in the race. "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13b). "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith." (II Tim 4:6-7).
My friend, I, too, want to urge you on. Dad and I would say the same thing ---- we'd tell you what Paul told Timothy:
"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season! Reprove; rebuke; exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
"But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry!" (II Tim 4:1-5)
That's my encouragement to you, dear friend. Some of God's greatest soldiers are being taken from the field. Where are the replacements? Who will man the gap? When a warrior of the faith like my father is taken, will someone replace him? Will you and I have been such an influence on others, that a replacement is quickly found?
Let's both be faithful to the calling to which we were called. There is none higher. And there is none nobler. And there is none more critical in this day. Someday our final chapter will be written.
Have a great week, friend. Please give serious consideration to the things I shared about Dad's life. And, if God prompts you, please pray for our family as we honor Dad's life as a follower and proclaimer of Jesus Christ.
In Christ's Bond and For His Glory,
Bob Tolliver -- Psalm 2:8
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