Awaiting the final Resurrection

A thank you to Desiring God Ministries and Bethlehem Baptist Church one year later...


Dear folks at Desiring God,

I attended the early Easter service at Bethlehem last year. I had recently flown in from Maryland to spend a few last days with my father before he went on to his heavenly home just three weeks later. Colon cancer of the worst kind. It was my dad's last Easter, and God graciously let me be with him on what turned out to be an amazing, special-in-so-may-ways day.

I went to the early service because I always like to “stop by” when I’m in Minneapolis, and because I had planned on attending the “service” at my dad’s care center later on that morning. I was alone and sat in the back, but the whole service ministered to my grieving heart. I had never heard that song, “The Power of the Cross” before, and the choir sang it ever so beautifully. What an impacting message set to tremendous music!

I was not only able to take a sweet Easter lily back to my dad’s room after the service, but also the encouragement of the Resurrection.

Turned out that due to cases of the flu in the care center, the service was canceled last minute. I was kind of discouraged because my dad hadn’t been to church for two whole months, and rarely left his room, much less his bed. I desperately wanted to bring some sort of hope in the middle of this horrific disease, which was consuming his life at such a young age.

The dear people at Desiring God graciously donated “The Blazing Center” to bring some of that hope to him. I am forever grateful. Since the service was canceled, I took out the first DVD and I sat on the bed with my dad and watched/listened to Pastor Piper talk about acne and telescopes and God’s glory.

A few minutes into the DVD my dad’s roommate rolled his wheelchair up close to watch with us. So precious. I will always hold that memory, and I praise God for allowing the service to be canceled so that we could share this time together.

About an hour later my mom and a few other relatives showed up after their own church services. My uncle had driven with his family from Nebraska to spend some quality time with my dad, and was about to make the trip back after saying goodbye one more time. There was not enough room in the small room for eight people, so we wheeled my dad into the lobby and chit-chatted for a while. When my extended family got up to leave my uncle asked if we could all pray together.

Everybody stood in a circle and held hands. My uncle prayed first, and nobody expected this, but then my dad spoke up and started to pray! With the sturdy confidence in his voice, you would never have known that he was living with a disease that was killing his body by the minute. Everyone started crying when he thanked His Lord for his life and acknowledged God’s plan in this cancer. He prayed that God would use him, even in his suffering, for His glory. It felt like my dad was reciting everything he had just heard on The Blazing Center!

We were all so proud of my dad. We were touched to the core by his submissive spirit and amazing God-given strength, amid such languishing weakness.

I am grateful for every single one of the ministries that comes out of Desiring God. You truly have a passion for the supremacy of Christ, for you certainly have spread generous amounts of it to my family. I am encouraged with hope that my dad is at this moment experiencing the answer to the courageous prayer he prayed on that beautiful snowy Easter afternoon.

*****

Today on this Good Friday I can't help but meditate on these memories. I am overwhelmed with gladness that my dad is yet alive and well a whole year later, and is worshiping his Savior in His very presence. This year I especially cling to the HOPE of the Resurrection when we all will be reunited in great joy!

Relish in it!

*****

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.