matty's memorial

We will remember Matt this Saturday, April 25th, at Desert Springs Church. For details, please email "r," Amy, or Alyssa.

Thank you all for your prayers for Matt and our family. We could not have made it through this trial with as much joy as we have without your faithful support on your knees. I don't know that we would have made it at all. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us your church!

Last night was hard on all of us. There are so many holes Matt used to fill; we have spent so much time thinking about and caring for him that we feel a little lost with out him. While there is much for us to do now, it is difficult to shift gears and press on. To assist with this process of moving forward, we will shortly disable this blog site. There is both godly grief that focuses on the hope we have in the cross of Christ--a hope that looks forward--and ungodly grief that focuses on our worldly loss--a sorrow that focuses on the past (1 Thes 4:13).

Paul, in Philippians 3:12b-14, 18, 19b-4:1, speaks to these truths when he says,

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. For, as I have often told you before before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the Cross of Christ....Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

We will not forget Matt, but we must think of him and ourselves in the light of heaven. To do otherwise is to sin and risk being sucked into a grief without hope.

Please pray with us that when we think of Matt, we will follow Paul's command to think on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think on these things," (Philippians 4:8).


With gratitude for your partnership in the faith,
"r"