MEMORIAL SERVICE, MRS. LIB COLVIN
#922 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
Bernice, Louisiana
May 6, 1991
Memorial Service
Mrs. Lib Colvin
There is a nonsensical story of an old farmer sitting on a rickety rocker on the porch of his cabin way back in the hills. A backpacker happened along the trail that brought him by the cabin. Being hot and thirsty on the August day, he stopped and attempted to engage the old man, hoping to get an offer to stop and rest. Asked about cotton, the old man told the youth there was none because of boll weevils. Asked about corn, he informed him that it was not smart to plant corn when there was no rain. Asked what he did plant, the farmer responded, “I didn’t plant nothin’! I played it safe!”
But this has nothing to do with Miss Lib. The one thing that she was careful to avoid was playing it safe, especially where her Christian responsibility was concerned. She knew what she ought to do, needed to do, and set about doing it.
Too many people are like the old farmer. Just playing it safe! And when the end comes, nothing is left. We have so much to learn from Miss Lib. As much as we grieve for her, yet we know that this was the essence of her life. She was prepared for this moment of truth.
My wife taught her Sunday School lesson yesterday. She fretted when she first found that it would be her job. Then, someone gave her the material that Miss Lib herself had prepared. She knew what her responsibility was, and she was ready. Imagine, she went in the hospital on Thursday, and her lesson for the next Sunday was already prepared.
I know teachers who don’t start preparing until Friday night. I know preachers who have no idea on Saturday what they are going to preach about on Sunday night. Occasionally, Sunday morning also. This dear lady, who has taught this class longer than any of us can remember, regularly prepared her lesson early in the week, starting even on Sunday afternoon. She would never run the risk of being unprepared. Her message to us here today is preparation. What we are responsible for, do it well. Because we face the future uncertainly, face it squarely, with Christ as Lord of our lives.
I. We Learn from Her the Importance of Something to Believe. “If I do not the work of my Father,” Jesus said, “believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works; that you may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him.” (John 10:37-38.) Again from John (11:25), “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
No matter where we are in life, the essence of living is in what we believe: the content of our belief and the way we live our lives in response to the things believed. For the Christian, what we believe about Christ sets the tone for everything we do. Of course, there are generalities, like believing the sun will rise tomorrow. But the special things that show Christ alive within this committed life have particular meaning. Romans 15:13, “Now the God of all hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”
II. The Next Thing there is to Learn from Her is of Something to Be. I John 3:1-3, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we shall be called children of God . . . now we are God’s children, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.”
The example of Jesus was of major importance in Miss Lib’s life: Moral persuasion, compassion, and commitment to God’s will. Hebrews 10:9, “Then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will O God.” Our highest resolve is shallow outside of the will of God. She was a fine example of womanhood, of sacrificial service, and of commitment of one’s best.
III. The Third Thing that We Learn from Her is of Something to Do. Rev. 22:14, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates to the city.” There is a proper sequence: Something to believe, something to be, and something to do. The example of Jesus was to do what He was uniquely equipped to do.
We have surrendered a friend to the ages who showed us that this works in ordinary lives also. She found Christ sufficiently able to forgive sin. She grew in God’s grace to discover His purpose in deliverance from sin also.
Conclusion
Henry C. Morrison, missionary to Africa, tells of his return to America. A life had been spent in faithful and effective missionary service in Africa. He was retiring, regretting that he was at the end of the way. Teddy Roosevelt was on the same ship, returning from some safari or the other. Servants attended his every need on board the ship. As they approached New York harbor, passengers could see crowds of people at the dock, awaiting the president.
Mr. Morrison said he was filled with self-pity. For the president, it had been fun and games. For him, it had been devotion and service. But the crowds were waiting to see the president, not him. But suddenly, he said, the Lord filled him with an understanding that he “was not home yet.”
STEEPLE DEDICATION, FBC BERNICE, LA
#000 STEEPLE DEDICATION
First Baptist Church
Bernice, Louisiana
March 15, 1987
Orig. Date 3/15/1987
Old Testament Lesson Mr. Maury Davis
Psalm 27:4-6, 11-14
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Prayer Mr. Clifton McIntosh
New Testament Lesson Mr. Kenny Culpepper
I Corinthians 3:9-14
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
Special Music Sanctuary Choir
“Come Ye Christians, Be Committed”
Responsive Reading Pastor
He said to them, But who do you say that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also in Christ.
For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink in one Spirit.
He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone;
In whom the whole building being joined together, grows into an holy temple in the Lord;
In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.
For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Presentation Pastor
Prayer of Dedication Watson Goss
Chairman of Deacons