Gigi's Blog

None of us knew

visioncgbc | February 19, 2008 07:20

Friday night we had our Valentine's banquet at church and it went really well. The pictures are on the front of the church's website. www.chapelgrove.com Each class did a skit in one form or another. They were all really good and totally different. Saturday morning my mom and I talked and she asked me about the dinner. I told her it was great and the funniest skit by far was the one from Joe and Pauline's class. I told her that Mike Beam was the funniest person from the entire night. He was. None of us knew. Sunday, after morning service I went forward to hug the ladies who'd joined our fellowship. Kathy (Mike's wife) was beside me and I commented to her that Mike was the funniest person Friday night and that I knew she'd probably already heard that. None of us knew. That afternoon I went home to try and gather my songs to give to Gordon Jensen who would be peforming Sunday night. He's a singer-songwriter with some major cuts that are really beloved classics. "Your redemption draweth nigh" "Written in Red" "God is bigger than any mountain" and many others. Still none of us knew. The phone rang and Megan told me that Jennifer Beam had collapsed and had passed away. I was trying to think of who she was talking about. Did I know another Jennifer, because obviously she wasn't talking about the young Jennifer who was in her 30s. We continued to talk and she explained to me that indeed it was Jennifer. Mike and Kathy's daughter-in-law, Mike and Judy's daughter, Victoria and Abi's mother and Lee's wife was gone. I made some phone calls to let people know. After we made our calls, Mark made my cd to give to Gordon(thanks honey). The concert ministered to a hurting church left questioning the day's events, and I have to say I was just touched by Gordon's sincerity on God's call for his life. I gave him my cd. Don't know if I'll ever hear anything, but that's ok.

2 John 4-6I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.

Roger preached Sunday morning on 2 John and something he said really stuck with me. I'm paraphrasing, but he said that if the greatest commandment is to love, and Christ is love, and Christ is truth, that you can speak the truth and disagree but still love if you're in Him. The truth is that He is Lord and the only way, and for me to say otherwise in not the truth, which is for me antichrist, and I'm not antichrist. So as this tragedy has occured I am ever mindful of the need to share the love of Christ, and to forge ahead in my calling, whatever that is. Because you see none us knew that one so young would be taken away on Sunday morning, but all of us know that The One will return very soon. Please let His light shine in you today that other's can see Him in a real way!

Please lift this family up every time you think of them.

http://www.legacy.com/gastongazette/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=103806079