There are people who pass through our lives and then there are those who mark us. There are lives so marked by God that their lives intertwine with others deeply by the astounding work of the Holy Spirit. Some believers quench the Holy Spirit and even grieve Him, but there are those who are absolutely full of Him.

The ones full of the Holy Spirit spill life on everyone in their path. Our Pastor David Landrith was like that. Being full of the Spirit his life left a definite and beautiful mark…not seeking human glory, not aspiring to the approval of man but humbly seeking our God, the Lord used him marvelously.

The question swirls even if we try to suppress it…why? Why did God take His servant, our friend, out of this world when his hands were set to do so much good? That answer lingers in eternity, but God can handle our pondering. He welcomes the outpouring of our hearts as we are mindful to fear and trust Him. It is The Lord who comforts us in our grieving, for it is the Lord who assigns the day of one’s birth and the day of one’s death. Cancer was the means of our Pastor’s death, but it was our Lord Who assigned the day. And it was our Lord who removed death’s sting, so that we may mourn with hope. We know nothing can take us unless God’s good hand allows.

If God sends us an answer seemingly contrary to our petitions, there’s always glorious purpose behind it… The answer to our continual prayers wasn’t “no” to healing our pastor, it was a different “yes” than we expected or had hoped.

But our God whose body shook terribly over the death of His own friend Lazarus, will one day shake the earth with a great resurrection.

In the end, the saints of all time will rise.

Jesus knows with intimacy our grief and fellowships with us in it. All this is the miraculous unfolding of God’s will. That any sinner would become saint… Any orphan a child of the only King… That any of us would become a brother or sister to Christ… this is the miracle we beheld in Brother David’s life. This same wondrous gift, salvation, is occurring in us by grace through faith. This is the gift of God, and this is the greater yes.  And this Gospel truth is all our comfort.

And today we mourn with hope, because God gave us a different yes. God has certainly healed our Pastor. And the Day is nearing to dawn when the dead in Christ shall rise….