My grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago. I wrote some words that were read by my dad at his celebration of life ceremony and also his funeral, I would like to share it with all of y’all.
As I lay in my “bed” here in Guatemala memories of my papa keep flooding my brain, memories that seem endless. From naming my first stuffed animal after him “Charlie hawk”, all the way until the last time I saw him in December. There was almost 27 years of life That I lived with him impacting it in countless ways.
I could write at least 30 pages of all the awesome memories I have of us hunting, fishing, chopping wood, working on my “inventions”, talking about Jesus, ministering at the jail, eating rowdys, long phone conversations discussing the new Paul Keith Davis (PKD) webinar, and just hanging out with my papa. But as reality sinks in that I’m in a whole different country while yall are gathering to celebrate his life, I wanna celebrate it by telling yall about the life that I’m living now. Which started a few years ago when I read a verse that I had read dozens of times before, but for the first time it scared me, scared me to tears. The verse was Revelations 3:16 “so, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” It scared me because I realized that I was the definition of lukewarm. He would rather me be cold than lukewarm. Wow that’s something to think about, and I did. That evening I called Papa and told him I’m driving down that coming up weekend and “I want you to feed me, and don’t stop the whole weekend.” He did exactly that, and he changed the course of my life forever. I wasn’t truly willing to receive the truth that he has been pouring into me my whole life until that weekend. That weekend the Holy Spirit spoke to me through Papa in a way that I knew was going to change me, but I had no idea to what extent.
I am now traveling the world, working and living in some of the most dangerous and darkest places you could imagine exist. I’m doing this because the Fathers love has consumed my life, and has moved me from lukewarm to burning for him. My grandfather was the most on fire man of God I have ever met in my life. Even when I didn’t realize it, the way he lived out his daily life obsessed with Jesus and loving others was impacting my life little by little throughout the years.
This made me honestly ask myself a few questions.
Is the way I’m living now impacting lives? Yes.
Was the way I was living when I was living a lukewarm Christian lifestyle impacting lives for the Kingdom? The answer I honestly came up with was no, and that hurt.
As you look around I’m sure there are people from every age group and background celebrating my grandfathers life. Ask your self, do you think you would be here celebrating his life, if he lived out his Christian life lukewarm, instead of on fire for the Lord?
The way he lived his life on earth has made me realize how important our time on earth is. We have a certain amount of days to live, but how we live is our choice.
My heart breaks right now because I know there are some of you In attendance that are stuck in lukewarm Christianity, just as I was. I want yall to know there is so much more that our father wants to give you and show you if you will just surrender it all to him, surrender your life, surrender your pride, surrender your chains. He will overflow you with love, peace, joy, and purpose, but it will come with a cost. Now Ask your self is that cost worth it? Is touching thousands of lives as my grandfather did, worth it?
