I just finished writing something for my Dad's Memorial Service

I'm not sure how this service will go. What I understand from overhearing my eldest brother and mother talking is that the Bishops from California will say something, then my Dad's pastor will give a sermon, then family members will speak. I don't know what will happen after that.

Anyway, here is what I will be saying.

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The Pentecostal Church of God, the denomination in which my father served has as it’s motto "Proclaiming Bible Truth in Pentecostal Power". Miracles, speaking in tongues, prophecy – those are the hallmarks of the pentecostal movement. And his life, from infancy on was accompanied by miracles of both the providential and the wondrous varieties. From the time he was 17, when a deacon from his local Assemblies of God church literally chased him out of the house through a bedroom window to see him converted, it was clear that the hand of God rested on him. He was only a Christian for a few days or weeks when he was called to preach.

His first sermon was a horrible flop - before he had reached his second point he left the pulpit in shame - but the Holy Spirit does not need people to be effective. He just wants people to be faithful and He'll take care of effective. So while my Dad was kneeling in embarrassment at a chair on the platform, the Holy Spirit moved. The pastor of the church went over to my Dad and said, "Brother Karnes, look at this." and when my Dad lifted his head he saw the front of the little church filled with people weeping and repenting of their sins. Even the pastor's own backslidden son was brought to repentence by my Dad's first sermon.

And there were other miracles. There was a visit by an angel during a time of uncertainty. And, once, when my parents had lived for weeks on beans and had and asked God to provide meat, God heard their prayer and did as they asked. As if repeating the miracle of the quail in the wilderness, God sent a duck to land in their front yard. And, of course, my Dad he spoke in tongues, and prophecied , and sometimes people were healed when he prayed for them. But I don't remember those gifts being exercised very often by my Dad. The greatest miracle of all, the most important miracle of all, the one that absolutely and always depends on "Proclaiming Truth in Pentecostal Power" was repeated many times during the course of my Dad’s ministry. Of course, I am talking about the miracle of turning a hard heart soft, of saving faith welling up in a soul, and a sinner repenting of his sins . That miracle I saw many times.

But no miracle saved my Dad. His tongue is dry and silent. There is no prophecy coming out of his mouth now. But we are not surprised. Even Lazarus died again many years after Jesus raised him from the dead. (If you wish, you can visit his tomb today on the Isle of Cyprus.) St. Paul said it would be this way. "…whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease". That sounds pretty final. It seems that there is no Pentecostal Power residing in my Dad's body any longer. So I have to set aside the "Pentecostal Power" part of that motto; it seems to have ceased, and for hope I have to cling to the other part of that motto, "The Bible Truth" part.

His denomination’s Statement of Faith proclaims that Jesus will return "to resurrect the righteous dead". That is how his denomination proclaims the Bible Truth. It is not an uncommon belief. There are about 1 1/2 Billion Christians in the world who belive the same thing. It is what all Christians everywhere and always have believed. One of the creeds of the early Church puts it this way: "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."

So, like all Chrstians everywhere and at all times the ressurection of the dead is what my Dad proclaimed. It is what my Dad believes. Just a few nights before he died, two days before I even knew he was dying, I remembered him in a dream. I was a little boy and he was here on this platform preaching out of the book of Job. "For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth: And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me."

That is the Bible Truth. But it should not be surprising to us that the Bible would lead us back into that Pentecostal Power: For the Holy Spirit, with whom we seek to be filled is also called "the Spirit of Truth". And being filled with the Spirit is the most important thing in the world. It is our ultimate concern. And not because of tongues, or healing, or prophecy. Those things are useful, but not to my Dad. Not now. Worms are eating his body. His tongue isn't moving right now. He can't lay hands on anyone right now. But the Spirit isn't finished with him.

St. Paul is emphatic when he tells us "if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." That is the "Pentecostal Power" and the "Bible Truth" most important to my Dad, the "Pentecostal Power" and "Bible Truth" that is, ultimately, most important to us all.

My Dad’s body has been a temple of the Spirit of Life for about 63 years. Since he was 17 his body has been graced by the presence of God and it is precious to the One who made it. My Dad’s body, now in a grave, is so precious that God took flesh from a woman and suffered death, that my Dad’s body might live forever. So though it is buried in the earth, a testimony to our first father’s sin, and eventually, will be forgotten by men, God sees it. God will remember it. God does not forget his temples. And in the latter day the Wind will blow through that grave. Dry bones will be put back together, skin eaten by worms will be made new, and my Dad’s own blue eyes will see his Redeemer. That is "Bible Truth". That is "Pentecostal Power".