"Chocolate Ice Cream Cone" is one of the earliest songs I remember my dad singing. Kenny Roberts was on a local television show when I was very little, but my dad sang this song a lot.
Dad wasn't good a yodeling, but he made up for it with love.
He sang a lot of songs that I remember...and will remember
My Dad, Thomas David Brown, died last Monday, January 2, 2017. He was born on January 25, 1935 and in February, my mom and dad would have been married for 58 years.
There's still a lot of processing going on. Memories shared.
A lot of back story - last August my mom fell and broke her leg very badly. She's had several surgeries, and has been in several hospitals - she was in "Hills and Dales" in Cass City, MI. (I mention their name because the nurses are very wonderful!)
Dad took a really bad turn for the worst with his heart and lung conditions, and we spend Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital with Mom. So Phil and I, and my kids, were able to spend Thanksgiving dinner with both of my parents for my Dad's last Thanksgiving dinner in this life.
I spent some good quality time with Dad before the rest of my family got to Sandusky, Michigan. And I knew that he was ready to go see Jesus. He made no secret that he didn't want to live like that.
After Christmas, my mom was released to an assisted living home (on Thursday.) My dad was released from a different hospital to the same home, in the same apartment with Mom on Saturday. They were able to spend Saturday, Sunday and on Monday morning he was gone.
He wanted to be with my mom.
I was going to commit to blogging from the very first of the year, but missed the whole first week because I was with my family saying "bye and I love you" to my Dad.
And still longing to hear him say, just one more time, "Love you back."
I intend to blog more this year. Even now, I just feel a little more put together; my head, heart and spirit a bit more straight. I have a few interesting projects in mind, including for my head, my heart and my spirit.
Listening to Driscoll
Reading Riddlebarger
Reading Hebrews 4
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Please, Lord, let this be the day. Let this be the day that time ends.
My Bible fell open to Isaiah 40
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.
I'm reading in Hebrews 4...
God's Sabbath rest.
1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
some manuscripts say because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.
It is not that we lose our salvation, it's that the promise of rest did not join with our faith in the first place. We are united by faith with those who listened to the gospel and believe.
This is also cross referenced to Romans 3:3
Even though there are those who do not listen and there are those who do not believe, that does not mean that the promises of God are not true. God is faithful to His promises, even when we are not faithful to Him.
3For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
"As I swore in my wrath,'They shall not enter my rest,'"
That's a direct quote from Psa. 95. Matthew Henry says, "Let us be aware of the evils of our hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest."
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
Exodus31:17, "It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"
We long for that rest.
Humans are designed for a Sabbath and I feel as though I have not had one for a long time.