Death

His Plans

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

The last two weeks as we traveled North for the memorial service for our daughter -in-law have passed with a blur of hotels, phone calls, long days on the road and exhaustion. But the last several days we were blessed to be invited to rest at the lake house of our friends. I had visions of sitting out on the water, just thinking and being alone, but God surprised us with a 100-year flood, and we ended up in the house doing puzzles and just talking, drinking tea and sharing memories. Those moments I tried to capture with the words of a short poem, that I hoped might be a blessing to somebody today. 

His Plans / My Plans

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

My plan was for quiet walks
To think long thoughts of sorrows
His was for me to be with friends
To talk about tomorrows

I planned for fishing on the lake
With quiet sunny weather
But He sent thunderstorms and floods
That shut us in together

He planned for me to stand and trust
Though I tried to run and hide
 And while I wrestled in the dark
He drew me to His side.

His Plans / My Plans
by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright 2024
All rights reserved

Good-bye Melinda

/ pastorpete51 / 9 Comments

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV

Melinda loved puppies and horses, goats and bunnies. Her favorite trips were to the Amish farm in Strassburg where she could hold, feed and pet them all, and how we treasured our family visits with her there. How fragile all of our lives are will be told to us again today at her memorial service. Yet, while we are weeping and wondering all the why’s of her suffering and why she left so soon, I know she is now rejoicing in the presence of Jesus. For those of us who know Christ, the treasure we carry inside will never be lost, grow old or be destroyed. In the shortness of her time here, Melinda left her smile and special joy in seeing a reflexion of God in even His tiniest creatures. And we who are left behind for just a few more years must remember that our weeping today will only last for a short night, but real joy will come in God’s eternal morning. Good-bye sweet Melinda. See you again in God’s own time.

He Died To No One’s Regret

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
Photo by Oanu0103 Andrei on Pexels.com

The Bible is written to give us examples for life, but some of them are not good ones, but rather warnings. Recently, my wife and I read about a King named Jehoram. He killed off all his brothers, brought back idol worship and even though it became obvious that he was on a collision course with disaster, he still insisted on his own way. At the end of his short and dismal reign, he died of a terrible disease. Then the scripture ends the account of his days with the statement, “And he died to no one’s regret.” That struck us as both darkly humorous and an awful kind legacy we definitely do not want to leave behind for our children. He lived the opposite of today’s verse. Instead of building his house on a rock, he threw away all the blessings his family had given him and built on the quicksand of his own desires.

Though we usually think Jesus is talking about our individual lives, the term house can also be used to describe an entire family. (as in household). What kind of foundation we have built for our families? The answer to that will not be shown by how we make it through sunny days, but by how we weather storms. Though we may have every privilege handed to us on a silver platter, what will describe our legacy is whether we put our trust in Jesus and His words or we have decided to do our own thing. If we will stand together for God, no matter what comes, rather than, ““They died to no one’s regret.” May our children be able to say, “We know they are with Jesus, because they lived for Him, and we can’t wait to see them in Heaven!”