My grandfather on my Dad’s side, whom we fondly called Popop, fulfills this verse in Proverbs 10.

“The memory of the righteous is a blessing.”

It’s not only a blessing to me as his grandson, but I still hear stories of the blessing he and my Nonnie were to people here in Tuolumne County. They came back to spend time with me yesterday as I spoke with the pastor of what is now being called again Standard Community Church in little Standard, CA.

Nonnie would play the piano every Sunday and taught second grade a few blocks down the road at Curtis Creek School. They together served in the Gideon’s ministry giving out Bibles around the county, and Popop frequently knew and worked with some if the toughest guys in the county with grit and strength but also with a grace only found in the Savior. Some of their sweetest moments in their marriage that I remember were their times if singing hymns together in their home with all of us grand kinds singing as loud and joyfully as we could around them.

The memory of the righteous truly is a blessing.

For me, I can’t help but to think of Romans 12 where Paul says:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Paul knows our bodies are the hardest for us to present to God! I can say things here on this blog or in a sermon or in a podcast, yet if my actions aren’t poured into thanking God for all He has done and does in our lives as His people, something is severely wrong with my testimony! My Popop was a tough dude and didn’t pretend to know it all, but one thing I remember that he wanted so desperately for us as his descendants was that we would have a genuine passion to know and follow hard after the living Jesus Christ.

You’re a blessed memory, Popop, and because I know Christ and Heaven are real, and because of how you gave your body to the service of our Savior, I pour my life out as broken and weak as I am to be a living sacrifice to God.

Father, as useless as I feel so many times, and as broken as Carrie and I are, please grab us up as Your tools for grace to others and to one another. Please draw us into deeper friendship with those around us that we might together as a community of believers and soon-to-be believers run after You as the all-satisfying God that You are! May we press into knowing You together and find You to be more satisfying than we ever thought possible. Here are our bodies, the hardest things to give You. They are already Yours, yet we come willingly now that we know we have been paid for at the cost of our dear Savior’s shed blood! We celebrate His victory, and we run into Your presence to worship You and to be Your vessels of honor and useful service here until we see You FACE TO FACE!! Oh how we daydream in the midst of our labors of love of that Great Day! Come LORD Jesus!