It’s Never Too Late—Even at 91!

I wanted to let you in on a neat experience that was precipitated by your writing. My Dad was 91 years old and we began to have some very pointed conversations about the Church and he began to state that he could not put his finger on it, but he felt that something was missing. I started printing articles that you have written about the relationship that God wanted with us. He devoured everything including your book He Loves Me, . He told me that it was like he had a new birth in relationship that he only remembered in the past.

We spent a lot of time talking about this dynamic relationship and hearing God’s voice once again. He stopped doing the institutional thing and got with God and it transformed his life into a life of joy that he infected those around him more than I knew. He was very active and drove himself to the nursing home every day to minister to his wife of 64 years suffering from dementia.

At the end of January of this year, he told me that he was having a pain in his chest and it was hard to breathe. We went to the doctor and in a very short time found that he had severe heart disease and he departed on February 11 and we had his memorial service on Feb. 14. I was so close to him that I really did not know how I would handle the situation. When I got the call from the hospital, I went back to bed and was overwhelmed by the comfort and joy that only comes from Christ. I wrote his memorial service and attached to this email. My Dad’s testimony today is stronger than ever and the doors of communication have burst open. He never knew you, but he knows whom you serve and love and was very appreciative of the writings. The article, Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore was his epiphany. If a person can get it at age 91 anyone can because of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Excerpt from the Memorial Service:

About the year 125 A.D. a Greek by the name of Aristeides was writing to one of his friends about the new religion, Christianity. He was trying to explain the reasons for its extraordinary success. Here is a sentence from one of his letters: “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God , and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”

Psalms 39:4-5 says, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that
my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my
hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.

If you heard that GWR of Texas is dead. Do not believe a word of it. At this moment he is more alive than ever. He is gone higher that is all—out of a clay tenement into a house that is immortal. A body that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. GW was born in the flesh in 1913 and born of spirit in 1923. That which is born of the flesh will die; that which is born of the spirit will live forever. We come here today to celebrate because we know that GW is another place nearby.