After 45 years together raising two children, spoiling two grandchildren and serving God overseas in two countries, J.P. Lipscomb said goodbye to his wife, Linda, on Feb. 14.
------------------------------------------------------The following quotes can be found at the International Mission Board's web site. They have been taken from an article about a lady who recently passed due to complications that resulted from injuries sustained in a bus accident in Asia. She was 63, retired and living the life that she had dreamed of since she was 16. She didn't waste her life. She almost did. But she didn't.
Many would say that Linda's death was a tragedy. However after reading John Piper's book "Don't Waste Your Life", I have a better understanding of what tragedy looks like. Piper writes, "I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest: A couple `took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .' Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: `Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy.
We need to be asking ourselves, are we wasting our lives? Are we proclaiming the Name of our King like Linda did? Are we desiring that His Name be known throughout the world? Are we willing to give our resources to see this goal reached? Are we praying without ceasing, desiring that the lost know who He is? Are we willing to go?
Oh, God, please make make my heart like this lady's; a reflection of You. Allow me also to die, glorifying your Name as she did. May I too die in a state of joy. May I delight in knowing that I was able to display forgiveness to an entire city, a forgiveness that reflects and points to you, as this woman of God did. LORD, thank you for Linda Lipscomb. Tell her that I can't wait to shake her hand when I get there, letting her know what an encouragement that her example of You was to me. No, tell her that I can't wait to wrap my arms around her in a grateful, thankful, God honoring, embrace, expressing my joy in You, through her. Thank You for her obedient desire to be a gatherer of souls and not of seashells. Lord, send more people like Linda Lipscomb into the harvest field!
"God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives." -John Piper
Read the article HERE
The Lipscombs were retirement age and members of James Memorial Baptist Church in Gadsden, Ala., when they responded to a call to serve overseas.
“We would get a text message from them: ‘Another member added to the family today,’” said Julie McClendon,* a friend in their area.
Someone asked J.P. what language he and Linda spoke. His answer was “love.”
“Send us someplace nobody wants to go,” J.P. said.
READ-John Piper's book "Dont Waste Your Life". You can read it on line HERE.
1 comment:
I am Linda’s husband when she was on the last few days of her life I asked her a question. I said to her Linda if you had known before what would happen would you still have come. Her answer was just what I had expected ( nodding her head ) yes yes yes .even now I am awed by this person that I had called my wife for forty five years. She rest with God.
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