A Church Member is With the Lord

It is with great sadness that I tell you that one of our church members, June Carlyle, died today. Pastor Mike and I were at the hospital speaking to her family before she went to be with the Lord. I'll perhaps share more later. She was just in church with us this past Sunday in our second service.

Please pray with me for June's family and particularly for her daughter Brandi. We know that the Word declares that for us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Our God is a Father to us and is able to touch in ways no one else can when these kind of things happen. Pray that He ministers to every member of June's family.

Let me take this opportunity to remind us all to pray over our family members by name each day, asking and claiming their protection from any kind of harm. And let's pray for each other, that the Lord would make us a blessing as we have been blessed. All around us are so many needs in so many lives. The Father wants to touch others through you today!

I leave you today with the comfort of the scriptures:

2 Corinthians 5:1-9 (NLT):
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.