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This is a sad day indeed. I attended Harvest for more than a decade and have only very recently changed churches to a Calvary Chapel closer to my home. I did not know Christopher, but I did know that he had a very young daughter and his wife was expecting another child soon.

I was just thinking about how fleeting life was yesterday when I was in court and the Judge was two hours late. She said she had been stuck in traffic following a terrible accident on the freeway and when she passed it there was a car with a yellow blanket over it and she knew someone had died. I was thinking about how that person was alive one second and dead the next and how someone had just lost a family member and how that could happen to anyone at anytime. There but for the Grace of God....

I found out last night that that someone was Christopher Laurie.

Greg is expected to preside over the Harvest Crusade in a little over 3 weeks. Greg always said how when these events approached he would be attacked by Satan. I can't think of anything worse than this. I don't think I would be in any shape 3 weeks after such an event to put on an evangelical crusade. We'll have to see what happens. We should all pray that this terrible accident will somehow bring Glory to God.

We can all take comfort in knowing that "all things work together for good" and that despite the attacks of the adversary, God is in control.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding be with Greg and his family during this time of trial.

There is no greater heartbreak than the loss of a child. Thank God the family knows they will see him again.

One day each of us will be under that yellow blanket. We must take comfort that this, too, in some nearly incomprehensible way, was according to the will of God who dries every tear and will not send us a burden too heavy to bear.

"Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?...
In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me." -- Psalm 56:8,11

Exalted and sanctified is God's great name in the world which He has created according to His will.

And may He establish His kingdom may his Salvation blossom and his Messiah near in your lifetime and your days and in the lifetimes of all the House of Israel speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, elevated and lauded be the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

This is from a pastor and from the heart, P-M.

I have just finished my second funeral in as many days today, and then I had to go to my own aunt’s visitation after her passing 2 days ago. Funerals have been heavy lately with primarily the elderly, but there also are always those who go too young.

But, that’s not my point.

My point has to do with your commenting on a Harvest Crusade that Pastor Laurie has to conduct in just a few weeks. It may be that the Lord absolutely wants Greg Laurie to conduct that crusade. I am not pretending to be an authority on what the Lord tells the pastor what to do.

What I am saying is that there’s a real dearth of people who actually understand and appreciate what their pastors do. I suspect Greg Laurie will be at that crusade a few weeks from now preaching the word of God. He’ll still be deep in grief, but he’ll be smiling for the benefit of those in the congregation. He’ll be fatigued, depressed, and consumed with thoughts of his son. A man can’t just turn off his feelings.

Yet, he’ll be present. He’ll do his job.

I wonder, though, if someone on the crusade staff received a word from God that Greg Laurie should rest, whether they’d have the courage to speak it, and if the staff would have the grace to hear the message.

So many churches don’t sense what blessings they have in some of the pastors and spouses out there. Appreciation is not adulation. That is reserved for God. But, like a man who realizes how much he’s been blessed with the wife God has given him, churches would do well to appreciate sometimes how much they’ve been blessed with the pastor God has given them.