(This speech was part of the funeral service on 02-13-08)
My dad was a great guy, honest, trustworthy, dependable and kind. Dad had a great sense of humor. He loved to joke and he loved to play practical jokes and if you are sitting here tonight chances are you know exactly what I mean. Dad laughed and he laughed a lot.
It was rare that dad met a person he didn't like and even rarer to find someone who didn't like him. It always amazed me that no matter where you went with dad, no matter what time of the day, evening, night, or early morning it was....he always ran into someone he knew.
Dad was the hardest working man I have ever known. He would work days, nights, and weekends to provide for his family and he taught me through his actions what it means to be a hard working man, how to be responsible, and how to pay my own way.
Dad wasn't perfect and he would have been the first to tell you so but he always did the best he could with what he had.
Dad wasn't arrogant or filled with pride but he was proud, proud not of himself but of his family, his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and he spent the last years of his life pouring himself into his family helping out in many ways.
No matter what you called him, Ken, Kenneth, Uncle Buddy, Brother, Papaw, Papaw Coke Man, Father, Dad, Daddy, Buddy, or just plain Bud you could always call him and you could always count on him.
Ephesians 1:3-7
" 3Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace"
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23 says:
"23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
John 3:16 says:
" 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
The letter to the Ephesians says that God loves us, that if we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and accept Him as savior we have forgiveness of our sins and that God adopts us into his family as His sons and daughters making us brothers and sisters in Jesus. This passage speaks so clearly to me because dad adopted me at an early age. He took me in long before I loved him, before I knew him. Dad loved me, gave me a home, provided for me, gave me a name, and loved me as his own.
While my dad was alive I spoke to him on many occasions about dying and death, as he was in and out of the hospital on several occasions over the years. I asked him once, "Dad, if you were to die today and stand before God and God asked you..."Why should I let you into heaven?" What would you say?"
My dad looked at me and clearly stated "Because Jesus is my savior, He died on the cross in my place, for my sins....that is the only reason."
Dad knew that he could never be good enough to get into heaven or that being a member of a church was not enough. No, he knew that the only way to have his sins forgiven and to have an eternal home in heaven was through Jesus Christ.
I am very sad at dad's passing and I will miss him dearly but I thank God for placing him in my life. I thank God for having known Dad when so many children grow up not knowing their dad or not liking their dad and I praise God that dad knew Jesus as his Savior and Lord and that today he is in heaven.