Pen Pulpit

After my Grampa had his stroke in 1999 the church decided to keep him on as assistant pastor even though he had difficulty standing in front of everyone and preaching a sermon. He started to write a weekly Pen Pulpit that they posted on the church website and put in the church bulliten. I thought that I would start sharing them with you. I will post one every Saturday (since I tend not to blog on Sundays). Here is the first one he wrote.


Pastor’s Pen Pulpit
December 19, 1999

THE GREAT EXCHANGE
II Corinthians 8:9


“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

Two Observations

1. His riches for our poverty.
2. Our poverty for his riches.

Exchange #1 - His riches for our poverty.

Christ was rich beyond imagination - not with our kind of wealth only, but with spiritual riches from the realm of Glory. When He became man He laid all of that aside to become a humble carpenter. It was grace that enabled Him to do that. “For you know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He did that for our sakes. “Birds have nests. Foxes have holes. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”


From the splendor of Heaven Christ came to the squalor of earth. The incarnation was an incomprehensible renunciation of spiritual and material glory. He who had everything became poor, making Himself nothing (Philippians 2:7). He assumed our debt of sin and paid for it with His life (Philippians 2:8).

Exchange #2 - Our poverty for His riches.

If He had not stooped to our level, we could in no way rise to partake of His wealth. He became what we are (sin) that we might become what He is (rich) II Corinthians 5:21. This is very personal, is it not?

Love you all.

"We're all going to sleep outside...naked!"

The temperature in LA the last several days has been almost unbearable. It has been in the 100's the last couple days and the rest in the high 90's. To make it worse it has been really humid. I am not sure what the percentage of the humidity is but when you are used to having almost no humidity at all this feels really bad. I have been to South Carolina in July and that is really humid! But here this is very unusual. My aunt has a little window air conditioner in her family so that is where we hang out most of the time. My cousins and I have gone to Wal Mart and the mall as well just to go someplace cool and air conditioned. We spent Sunday afternoon at the mall and everyone else in Southern California had the same idea! It was extremely crowded. My cousins said that it was crowded even more than it is around Christmas!! Last night was so hot in the house, my cousin Eva-Karin, shouted out as we were all getting ready for bed, "We're all going to sleep outside...naked!". Of course we didn't but we set up beds in the family room that has the little window air conditioner. Eva-Karin, Mary Beth, Lauralyn, Daisy and I all slept back there. It was so wonderful!! I am guessing tonight we will do the exact same thing. :)

2 year Anniversary!

Today is Rue's and my 2 year anniversary. I am down in LA and he is still in Washington. Before I left to come down here he took me out to breakfast at Grassis. It is the little place were we went out to coffee for the first time and where he proposed. But this morning the FedEx truck drove up to my aunt's and dropped off a big long box that said ProFlowers on it and it was addressed to me. I was so excited. They came with a little balloon and a vase to match. The bouquet was of red roses and purple daisies. He also included a little note. I really wish that we could be together on our anniversary but he will be here in a week. I love my sweety so much. Every day just gets better and better being married to him. The first year was full of some major adjusting and this second year has been so wonderful getting to know eachother more and fall more and more in love with eachother. I want to marry him more now than I did when we got married! :) I thank the Lord so much for the wonderful husband He has given me!

Celebrating Grampa

On Friday we had the grave side service for my Grampa. It was a lovely yet sad service. Dale Workman, my granparent's pastor gave a wonderful message. We worshipped and praised the Lord and also cried because we are going to miss Grampa. We sang "The Old Rugged Cross" and before we all left we sang "The Doxology". It is our family tradition that when we are all together we hold hands and sing "The Doxology".


























THE DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessing flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye Heavenly host.
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen.


THE OLD RUGGED CROSS

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinner was slain.

Chorus:
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
It's shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He'll call me someday to me home far away,
Where His glory forever I'll share.

Chorus


Then on Saturday we had the celebration service at my Grandparent's church. Some of us in the family got up and sang "How Firm a Foundation". Then we had a time of the family getting up and talking about Grampa. Then there was a slideshow of Grampa's life. That was so wonderful to watch. Seeing all of the pictures with all of us grandkids with him and him holding us when we were babies and playing with us. Such wonderful blessings that God has given us. My Grampa was such a great servant of the Lord and he continued to serve Him through a massive stroke and all the way up to the time the Lord called him home. I love my Grampa dearly and will always miss him but I know that he is in Heaven and we will see him again. What a great hope we have in the Lord! May the name of the Lord be praised!




"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered Hi mover for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the One who justifies; Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He Who died, yes, rather Who was raised, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress ,or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, 'For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:28, 31-39

"For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body..." "Philippians 3:20&21

"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

We are here! My brother Ben and I left on monday morning at 7:30. We drove all the way to LA in one shot. We really did not want to have to stay in a motel. The plan was for us to take turns driving, but believe it or not, my brother drove the entire way! I kept offering to take over but he kept saying that he was fine. We stopped at gas stations and rest stops. We even stopped to take an hour nap at a rest stop. From Gig Harbor, WA to Los Angeles, CA took us a total of 23 hours. Needless to say we totally crashed when we got to my Aunt's house at 5:30am. Even though I was exhausted. Thank you so much to all of you who have commented on my Grampa. I am sorry that I might not be able to comment very often but I promise I will when I can! I will be here for a total of 2 months. The next three weeks Daisy and will be here and then Rue will come down the first two weeks of August and then I am going to stay the last 2 weeks of August. Whew! That's a long time!! But I love my family and love being with them. This Friday is the funeral and then Saturday is the celebration service. Thank you so much for all your prayers!



This is a picture of Ben at 12pm still in bed after we got there! :)

Charles Covington

Born, April 24th, 1933

With the Lord, July 6th, 2006

In Heaven

This last Saturday my grandparents arrived, from L.A., at my parent's house with my Auntie Annie. We enjoyed a nice evening with my grandparents. The next day they were leaving on a cruise to Alaska. Seven years ago my Grampa suffered a massive stroke which the doctors said that he would never recover from. But the Lord had a different plan than the doctors. He recovered amazingly. He started to speak and walk again. As time went on he was becoming more and more independent. A few years ago he suffered a heart attack but he soon recovered from that as well. Charles Covington was a pastor. He met my gramma a little over 25 years ago. August 15th is their 25th wedding anniversary. Her first husband had been an alcoholic and eventually left. All of us grandchildren never knew him. He was never a part of our lives. We only know Charles Covington as our Grampa. As far as we are concerned he was related to us by blood. He was one of the most wonderful Grampas in the world. When I was 7 or 8 years old he baptized me and then at my wedding he was able to stand, holding onto a chair, and ask "Who giveth this woman to this man?" and he also prayed in the middle of the ceremony. He could sometimes be very gruff and frustrating but we all have our moments. He was a very strong, tall man and his stroke frustrated him a lot. He wasn't able to go about like he used to. His love for the Lord still continued on and he always loved answering any questions one might have about the Bible, doctrine or theology. If he didn't know the answer he would look it up in his many books and commentaries until he found the answer. Every week he wrote a pen pulpit that would be put into the bulletin at his church. He was still preaching, even if not nearly as much as before. This last Sunday he and my Gramma left on the cruise. On Tuesday night they had a lovely dinner and watched a show. My Gramma said that it was one of the most wonderful days they had ever had together. Early on Wednesday morning he suffered either a heart attack or a stroke. They air lifted him to Juno, Alaska and from their they flew him to Seattle. By Wednesday night my parents, aunt, my brother and I were at the hospital with he and my Gramma. They had him on a breathing machine that breathed for him. They said that his kidneys had failed as well. There was absolutely no response at all. My pastor came because my Gramma wanted him to. He stayed with us for a while and talked with us about the decision to take him off life support. The doctor was so wonderful about answering any questions that were asked. My Gramma made sure that all of my aunts and uncles down in L.A. agreed with the decision to take him off life support. The doctors said that keeping him on the machine would not make his condition improve any, there was no brain activity. My Grampa had also requested not to be kept on life support. So my Gramma gave them the okay and they took the breathing tube out. He started to breath on his own but it was very raged and rough. The doctor said that he was mainly breathing as a reflex. Breathing is one of the last things that your brain controls when you are dying. He stayed the same for a while and my parents and my brother went home for the night. I decided to stay with my Gramma and Aunt. My Gramma and I went and layed down in a little private sitting room they had for our family. I slept from about 12:30am to 3am and then I woke up. My Gramma woke up shortly after. She and I went and sat with my Grampa while my aunt went and layed down in the room. I read the Bible a little. It was one of the ones that my Grampa had just added to his Bible collection. My aunt said that he had about 30 in all. He loved buying different Bibles. :) At about 5am my Gramma went back in the little room and lied down and I stayed with Grampa. I reclined a chair right next to him and curled up under a blanket with a pillow. I read the Bible a little bit more and prayed. Every once in a while I would hold his hand. One of the things I remember when he had his first stroke was walking into his hospital room and he looked at me and reached for my hand a little. I grabbed it and he just looked at me and squeezed my hand because that is all he could do. This time there was nothing, but I held his hand any way. His breathing was so rough and he was getting a lot of blood and liquid in his throat. A few times the nurse came in and used a tube to get some of the liquid out. It was hard to watch. I fell asleep a few times but never for long. I was always worried that he would pass and I would be asleep. At about 8am my Gramma and Aunt got up. We decided to head down to the cafeteria to get a good breakfast since all we had been eating were some pretzels and animal crackers. They had a nice cafeteria and we talked while we ate. We cried a little as well. My aunt and I went and bought ourselves each a little travel pack of a toothbrush and toothpaste in the hospital gift shop and then we brushed our teeth. It had been a while. We then went back to my Grampa. At about 10am, I think, I left the room to call my parents. They were almost to the hospital. Then I called my hubby just to let him know how things were going. My aunt came in while I was talking to him and said that Grampa was going. I told Rue and hung up. We hurried back to the room. When I got there he was not breathing and never took another breath. I sat down next to my Gramma and put my hand on his leg. She started to pray and the three of us cried. She thanked the Lord that now at that very moment he was seeing Jesus his Lord and Savior face to face. It hurt some and yet it was also so peaceful. At that moment Heaven was more real to me than it had ever been. Grampa is in Heaven!

My parents came just a few minutes after with my brother. After we were ready a nurse and the doctor came in to discuss what would happen next. My Grampa will be sent down to California where he will buried this coming Friday, July 14th. It will be a small graveside service for family and close friends and then on Saturday there will be a celebration of his life at my grandparent's church. We are all so very sad and yet we all have the peace of the Lord. He has poured out His grace on us! We are so thankful that the Lord did not let my Grampa linger in the state he was in but took him home quickly. My Gramma has lost her sweetheart but she is trusting in the Lord. He will be there when we get to Heaven. He knew the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me." John 14:6. Jesus also said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. My Grampa trusted Christ for his salvation because he knew that he could never be good enough on his own to earn salvation. That is why God sent His Son Jesus to bear everyone's sins on the cross and took the punishment that we all deserve so that we can be with God for all eternity when we die. Oh, what joy this brings!

The Lord gave us Charles Covington for a time and then the Lord called His faithful servant home. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Job1:21