Have You Lost What Sense You Were Born With Boy!

April 28, 2004 @ 12:23 am by Pressed

This morning I woke up with a huge cloud hanging over my head. I arose out of bed, stumbled around, and finally cleared my head up enough to sit down and do some homework. Dan’s funeral was going to begin at 11:00, so I had some time. After finishing a few questions I finally took a quick shower, got dressed and headed to the church. I arrived at 9:40 a.m. with 1 hour and 20 minutes to get my thoughts together. I had been asked to share a scripture verse and pray during the funeral and so I needed to figure out the verse that I wanted to share and determine what I wanted to pray. When I arrived the pastor asked me to look over the obituary in case I wanted to read it. I reluctantly read over it and wasn’t sure if I could do it or not, so he went ahead and read it instead. I am glad too, because he did a spectacular job. At 5 minutes till 10:00 they asked me to come into the pastor’s office to pray. I walked in, we prayed, and I then went back to my desk. With a whole hour to spare I sat back, relaxed, and began pondering my relationship with Dan, searching for a verse.

Imagine my surprise when it was 1 minute till 10:00 and Evan walked into my office saying, “Have you lost what since you were born with boy! Come on we have to go.”

“WHAT!” I exclaimed. “What time does the funeral start?”

“Right now, 10:00.”

“10:00? You are kidding me! I thought it started at 11:00! Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me!.”

“No, Craig, it starts at 10:00, come on lets go.”

My heart sank! All day on Tuesday I was under the impression that everything started at 11:00. I told several friends 11:00 and they showed up at 11:00 only to hear the last few minutes of the service. Ten million thoughts were racing through my head, my heart was pounding, I began to sweat, and I had NO VERSE! Scrambling, I began to think, what is it about Dan that was so appealing? What made me feel so comfortable around him? What did Dan have that blessed my life time and time again? And then it hit me, love. He would do anything for you, he was always kind, always gentle and he had such a servant’s heart. No matter what type of mood you were in, Dan was patient with you. Even when he was joking around with you he was kind and gentle. He was never rude or self-seeking, in fact, his concern was always for everyone else. He always made sure that I had everything I needed. He was always there for me. I went to Dan when I was happy, and I cried on his shoulder when I was upset. Every time, he would listen. His delight was in the things of God and the truth of the word.

So I read 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Even though Dan is gone, the way he loved us is still alive and well in the hearts he touched. I had so much to say about him when I walked up to that pulpit, and yet all I could produce were tears. I choked out a few words, read scripture, and prayed a short prayer knowing that if I didn’t do this quickly, I would just stand there and cry. The good news is, even in the midst of my weakness and mistakes the service was beautiful none the less. Not by my hands, and not even by the pastors hands (though he did a magnificent job), but by the very presence of God that filled that place as believers around the room experienced both great sorrow and great joy.

I am convinced of this, God put Danny in our church exactly when He meant to, and God called Him home exactly when He meant to. Though this was a tremendous loss to us, we are certainly not lost. God provided exactly what we needed when Dan came, and God will still provide exactly what we need. This may alter the way our church functions, this may alter the lives of the staff, this may change the way we do things, but I am convinced that these changes are another part of God’s plan. When we are weak, He is strong.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” Philippians 4:4-7

Pressed

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Victorious Living

April 27, 2004 @ 11:07 am by Evan Aldridge

My name is Evan Aldridge if you are a regular visitor to this site you don’t know me because this is my very first time to post on this site. I am the Music Minister at Temple Baptist Church, where Craig Tanner serves as Youth Minister.
I graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1989 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Church Music. I have been serving here at T.B.C. since last June.

We have recently had a very sad event occur within our church family here at T.B.C.. Dan Kerr a member of our church staff passed away peacefully in his sleep about 1:30 Sunday morning. To me he was a father figure. Although I had only known him since last June I loved the man deeply and feel so privileged to have known him. I woke up this morning at 5:30 am singing the words of a choral piece that I had sung in college. This is really quite miraculous since I graduated in 1989. What makes it even more miraculous is that I remembered the song at all since I can barely remember what I did five minutes ago let alone what I did over 15 years ago. I believe this memory is God comforting me during this time of loss, because I seem to be grieving Dan’s passing as I would a family memeber.

The words of the song are John 14:1-3 and then Revelation 21:4-5, skipping to chapter 22:5.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, behold I make all things new. There shall be no night there: and they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever.”

I know the part in Revelation is speaking about the new heaven and earth when Christ returns, but it is comforting to know that Dan is experienceing something like the picture that is painted in scripture today. I am so happy for Dan, but I’m still going to miss him terribly.

As I reflected on these words and on Dan’s life my thoughts were drawn to the Christian’s life. We have in these verses a picture of what lies ahead for the Christian. We have a picture of what it is like to be in the very presence of God, and we see a picture of what it will be like when Christ returns and Satan is conquered. We already know the end of the story, Satan will utlimately be conquered. If we believe this then why aren’t we living more victorious lives?

Dan Kerr lived a victorious life. He fought so many battles and won daily. I believe that Dan was victorious because he knew Jesus first of all, and then because he had locked in on the knowledge that I speak about today. He touched so many lives because he had this knowledge, and because of that he wanted to make sure that as many people as possible would get to experience what he is experiencing now. I thank God for Dan Kerr and the life he lived while he was here on earth and I look forward to the day when I see him again in Glory.

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Funeral Update:

April 26, 2004 @ 8:41 pm by Pressed

The funeral for Dan is Wednesday morning and the visitation is tomorrow at the church. It is all very unreal to me right now, I just can’t believe that he is gone. I had a very hard time when I walked into the office today and in fact I was only there for a grand total of 15 minutes before I decided that I just had to leave. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be very hard days. Something that is difficult to deal with right now is simply the idea that there is no closure yet. Knowing we still have the funeral and visitation to do is a very heavy feeling, but I know that those things will help me to deal with some of these feelings. Something else I find to be difficult is being single and having parents who do not attend church or know anything about what is going on. I can’t come home and share with them and grieve with them because they never knew Dan, and there is no connection, so I am destined to suffer by myself. I know it will be different tomorrow when I am with my church family but it certainly doesn’t help how I feel now… alone.

Knowing that I will not see him again on this side of glory makes me miss him even more. However, even though I miss him and I am sad that he is gone I also experience immense joy knowing that he is not dead, but in fact he is very much alive. Dan is more alive than we could ever hope to be right now, as he is standing in the radiant glory of God, being filled with everlasting peace, and awestruck by the precious knowledge and inexplicable love of Jesus Christ. I am certain that my greatest words and thoughts of heaven cannot describe its immeasurable beauty and indefinable glory. I know that even the utmost words of man could not come close to describing the incredible experience of being in the presence of the Almighty God. I don’t pity Dan, I envy him.

Pressed

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Around And Around We Go…

@ 8:36 pm by Pressed

Sem•i•nar•y A school, especially a theological school for the training of ministers. A school of higher education. A place or environment in which something is developed or nurtured.

Seminary is very unique. It is a place to nurture and train individuals for ministry in a way that is unlike any other experience. Whereas College was very broad in its teaching, Seminary is very specific. They take the variety of subjects taught in undergraduate school and condense it down to specifics within certain theological areas to a degree that we are fine tuning our minds, our knowledge, and our lives. When I was working on my undergraduate degree we were taught how to gather information. We wrote papers with the intent of understanding what the author wrote and describing his particular purpose for writing. Very broad and very basic thought process, because all you had to do was read the books and write down what they were about. However, in Seminary we are taught how to not only gather information but assimilate and process that information in such away that we can re-work the topic or idea in our own words and expand upon it with great detail in our own understanding, opinions, and research. The professors do not want to know what the author said specifically; they want to know what you say, how you have understood the information and they want to see that you have critically thought through the issues and have come to a viable conclusion. It isn’t uncommon to produce 30 to 50 page papers, Turabian style, in seminary. It is harder than I thought it would be, but the reward is far greater than the hard work it takes to receive it.

The full time load in seminary is 9 hours and I have been taking at least 11 or 12 per semester plus 2 to 3 hours in between semesters for a total of about 25 hours a year. In three weeks I will have completed a total of 50 hours of my seminary education. For a M-Div I need 89 hours which means I am over half way there! I looked at the schedule for this next semester and if I get to take the classes that I need for this year, one year from now I will be only about 10 to 12 hours short of getting my degree. This essentially means that I will have completed my M-Div in 3 and a half years, which is awesome because I thought it would take every bit of 4 years to finish. Another thing that has happened, that I didn’t quite expect, was Missouri Baptist University has officially been accredited for Masters work. I can take classes at MoBap and transfer them to Midwestern in order to finish my “on-campus” hours instead of having to drive to Kansas City. That gives me a greater opportunity to finish my degree that much faster.

The only problem is sometimes I try to do too much and get bogged down. This semester I didn’t have to take a teaching class, but I did it anyway just to get some more hours in. As it turns out I really have no business taking that class, I hate the class, I am completely behind on all the work for it, and I am going to end up getting the lowest grade that I have ever received in seminary and in my undergraduate work because I took a class that I really shouldn’t have. This will make my grade point average drop, and unfortunately if it falls below a 3.33 then I will not be able to apply for the P.H.D. program at Southern, which was my next step. I am overly nervous at this point because I have only three weeks left of school and so many papers due that I can’t see straight. Right now I am drowning, and it seems like I will never get caught up enough to get a breath of air… All of this is increasingly more difficult with a full time job. My church is very lenient and supportive when it comes to giving me time to get my school work finished, which is something I need right now. If only I can survive the next three weeks, I think I will be ok.

Pressed

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2:00 a.m. The Phone Rings…

April 25, 2004 @ 4:15 am by Pressed

It is about 4:15 a.m. Sunday morning; I’ve been up since I received a phone call from our music minister at 2:00 a.m. As soon as I hung up the phone I threw on some clothes and rushed to the hospital. All I want to say at this point is that someone very close to me has passed away this morning. There’s nothing I can do, nothing I can say, nothing… I feel so numb. I was supposed to preach for our pastor this morning since he is out of town, but given the circumstances I think those plans have changed. I immediately tried to call him, but he didn’t answer his phone. Once I left the hospital I tried one more time, and I begged God to wake him up, and at that moment he answered, thank you Lord! He is on his way home right now. I will fill you in as things progress today… this will be a very hard day.

Pressed

UPDATE: The pastor made it back in time to take care of the services today. Dan Kerr, was our chairman of the deacons, the office administrator, and the treasurer of the church. I’ve worked with him for 5 years now and I have learned what a wonderful, kind hearted, and godly man he really is. If there was anything in the world you needed, he was always there to take care of it. He was a great man, and a great friend. He will certainly be missed. Please pray for his wife Sandra and their three sons as they go through this time of loss.

UPDATE: To add to the drama of the day we had a girl attempt to open the window in her Sunday school class today and when she did, the latches opened up and the window fell on her head. Yes, you read that right. She shattered a window with her head. Luckily she has only suffered a very small cut on her foot and no head injury. I got there just in time to help clean up the glass.

UPDATE: Poor Christopher and Michael and Anna woke up this morning and decided to read my blog. Since my post from 4:00 this morning was quite vague they had no clue who I was talking about and so both Michael and Christopher rushed to church this morning during the early service to see what was going on, with no clue what to expect. Chris mentioned that this post was kind of like the bat signal, they saw it and immediately headed over to the church. Even though it was such a gloomy day, I did get a little chuckle out of that debacle.

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