so so so you so so so so so Will everyone please stand? If you find the hymnal there, turn
to number 67. In the hymnal, number 67. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonders of Thy might unfold, The heav'nly glorious light of
grace, The vast creation Thou hast made, And if you think that
love has freed my heart, my child, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be
that God should love a soul like me? As at the cross I humbly bow
And gaze upon Thy thorn-crowned brow And to the precious bleeding
for my cruel In praise I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? One should love a soul like me
Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? Whatever grace of the Lord I shall lift you and trouble
in loving kindness. Love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Then number 497, 497. When I can read my title clear
through my trunk in the sky I'll bid farewell to every dear and
private weeping eye And dry my weeping eyes And dry
my weeping eyes I'll be there for you every day And dry my
weeping eyes Should earth but cast my soul
in gates and fiery bars revert, Then I can smile at strangers'
rapes and flames of drowning. And face the crowning world,
and face the crowning world In lightened style, let Satan drink,
and face the crowning world Let cares like hell again come
and haunt the sorrowful soul. May I but gently reach Thy home,
my God. Oh, my God, my head, my all Oh,
my God, my head, my all Maybe I could safely reach
that Oh, my God, my head, my all Then shall I thank my weary soul
in sin's unheav'nly rest, And I'll always love the Lord, on
whom I sing no rest. God's my peaceful friend And
I know that I shall overcome God's might within Mary Elizabeth Bell, age 62,
of Crossville, Tennessee, passed peacefully at her home October
30, 2014. She was born January 6, 1952,
in Crossville, Tennessee, the daughter of James Herman and
Ethel Lawson Tucker. She was a true and devoted Christian
lady who loved the Lord with all her heart and all her soul. She was a member of Lantana Grace
Church where she served as church secretary and as her husband's
right hand. She was also a proud member of
the DAR. She had a green thumb, loved
her flowers and yard work. Music and genealogies were two
other interests she truly enjoyed. Most important was her family
and grandchildren, whom she loved more than life. Her huge smile
and competent words will be cherished in all the hearts of those who
knew and loved her. She is survived by her husband,
Donald Bell of Crossville, Tennessee, her father, James Herman Tucker
of Crossville, Tennessee, son, James Michael Bell, and his wife,
Paige of Knoxville, Tennessee. daughter Patina Lynn Rasch and
her husband Jeffrey of Crab Orchard. Her grandchildren Josh and Dylan
Rasch and Amy, Aiden P. Bell, and great-grandchildren
Riley Rasch, Bentley Rasch, and Cason Rasch. Little Cason. She was preceded in death by
her mother, Ethel. Let's pray. Our gracious and merciful and
wise and eternal Father in heaven, we still our hearts before you
this afternoon to offer nothing but praise and honor and glory
unto your name. We bow to your sovereignty. We
bow to your providence. We bow to your will. You're God
alone. There is no other God beside
you. We address you this morning, this afternoon, as our Father.
You've sent forth the Spirit of your Son into the hearts of
your children, crying, Father, Father, and we dare not this
day withfrain from calling you our Father. If you're not our
Father, then we have no Father, for we deny all others. Lord
Jesus, the Son of God, who is Himself very God, Our Savior,
we bow before You in Your presence. We bless You that You are our
access, that You are our door. Continually, we have access unto
the Father by You. You are the way, the truth, and
the life. Blessed Holy Spirit, the Third
Person of the Sacred Trinity, we lift our voices to You. the
giver of life, the revealer of Christ the Lord. We bless your
holy name for your presence here this afternoon. We do pray as we come here to
worship that you give us grace. Give us grace to submit, to rejoice
in your will. Bless and uphold this dear pastor,
this husband, this dad, this grandfather. Bless him and uphold
him as he comes in a few minutes to preach your blessed truth
to us. Oh triumphant God, our God, we
bless your wonderful and great name. In Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Donnie and Mary Bell's son, James
Duke, will come now and speak for us. Thank you very much, Bruce. Bruce is a dear friend of our
family. I've known him as long as I remember knowing things.
It's been a while, so thank you very much for that. His mom was
no ordinary lady. Leave it to the power to go out.
This is a reason to stand in prayer for the power to come
back on. Should be no ordinary funeral for no ordinary lady.
I'm James and I am humbled and strengthened by everyone here. And if I start crying I just
want to make a funny face so it can get me back on track a
little bit. But she loved to brag on people, and I know for
whatever reason she loved to brag on me, and I'm humbled by
that. But it's time for me to turn the tables and brag on her
a little bit. Most everyone here knows her
very, very well. We've got a very close-knit church community here,
and I'm blessed and honored and humbled by having some of my
co-workers that invested the time to come here today. Some
of her friends from various churches all came here today. That means
a ton. But time to turn the tables a
little bit. There is a certain bond between a mother and a son. Ours is a special bond. This
woman meant the world to me and she was giving me guidance, advice. pestered me whenever I would
go down the wrong road, which I did a time or two or seven.
She would always be the one that would give me guidance and bring
me back home. But there's a certain vernacular
you have that me and mom had. Some people call it baby talk
or whatever you want to call it. I can't really get into specifics
because I have co-workers here. Because I do have to go back
to work on Monday. We had a certain vernacular that
was very, very precious and I heard she said some of those words
even in the last few days before she'd be out and she'd say something
and it would pop back up and you'll remember that forever.
I'll tell you, as a son, when you get in a jam, you call your
mom. Something I saw recently, the
D-Day remembrance of this last year, There was this great thing,
yet another thing that made me think about my mom. This gentleman,
one survivor out of a boat of 16 sailors marching toward the
beach. One guy survived and he goes,
I heard death. I heard people screaming. 17,
18, 19 year old boys. You think who they're calling
for, they're all screaming for their mom. Everyone wants their
mother in times of need and challenge. She's gone now. And I'm blessed with this amazing
man right here. Strength is not strong enough
a word to describe him. But we're going to go back to
mom and dad. But yeah, when you get a jam,
and I tell you, growing up in the country like I did, you can
tell from the accent, I don't know what happened, I moved away
in it. I don't know what happened, but when you grow up in the country,
you know, you don't have As a kid, you don't have the wisdom of
age and things to realize the sacrifices your mom and dad make
for you. Dad had pastoring a church, cattle
farm, lots of things going on. Mary Bell, and I was a pretty
active kid. I kept them busy. I didn't like
to sit still. I was always going to SGA or football practice or
this kind of something all the time. We didn't live in a suburban
neighborhood. Those of y'all who have been
down to our house, it's down the hill, turn left, third bar
on the right, turn right, it's way down there. So the moral
of that story is it's not easy to play taxi. And she did it,
and I didn't know because I was too young and stupid to realize
it, but she'd sleep in the car while I was at practice because
it's too far to go back. And those sacrifices, those countless
sacrifices she made, and she I had a lot of firsts with mom.
This is a segway into one of our very important things, music.
But dad was out of town my freshman year of high school. And it was
Tuesday night, it was family night, so that means movies are
half price. Mom was frugal, it was the only mom. And so she
knew that I loved Prince. Purple Rain was my, I loved that
tape, it was awesome. And I talked her into let me
go see Purple Rain. I go, oh my friends are seeing
it. And you know, I didn't tell her it was rated R. So mom's
like, okay, let's go. We went to town, went to Pizza
Hut, went across the street to the movie theater. And those
of y'all have seen Purple Rain, I was a 13 year old kid at the
time. I couldn't look my mom in the eye for three days, you
know. But Mary Bell took me to go see
Purple Rain. It's one of many countless memories. And that
segues into music. We were talking about that this
morning at dad's house. how music brought mom and dad
together. And it brought my wife and I
together too. It's a common bond that we have. And it's a very
powerful thing, the love of music and what a symphony and what
a life-changing and emotional aspects of music can play in
all of our lives. But boy, mom loved music. And she had her
taste that if you didn't like them, then you must not have
a good taste of music. My son reminds me now, there's no such
thing as good taste in music. There's chocolate, vanilla, butter
pecan and everything else in the world. But mom always, I
grew up with music. It was an important part of my
life, and it still is. She always took an interest in
what I was listening to. I never ventured too far off of Ann Morrison
in our house growing up. But when I'm in college, she's
always, Plus, I couldn't rub two nickels together. And she's
always like, what are you listening to? I want to see what you're
listening to. See if she'd like it or not. But I remember I lost
some CDs. And for Christmas one year, she
was like, hey, there's this new thing called Napster. I can rip
you some CDs. Awesome. So I gave her a list
of like 10. They had dial-up. And knowing now, I'm like, oh
my, I thought about this this week. She made me 10 CDs. That had to have taken 300 hours. But she did it. She did it. I
mean, who knows how much sleep she lost. And they were all in
order. And some of it, she's like, I
don't know what you like about this one, but I made it anyway.
That was mom. And, you know, she didn't get
mad at me very much. I was a pretty good kid until I left Carlsville
and I lost my way a little bit. She never got mad. One time she
got mad at me. I lost her Otis Redding tape. You know, and she
reminded me of that for 15 years. You know, mom, I mean, she's
like, well, you know, Don't let that get too far. Remember you
lost that other shredding tape. So she kept on reminding me of
that. And one of many, many memories. My junior year of college, I
lived in Hilton Head, South Carolina. They came down. It was their
first of many, many trips to Hilton Head. And we went down to the
quarterdeck. So there was this brother who
played in the band at the quarterdeck. A lot of fun, full of energy.
And of course, I went down there with him. I said, yeah, I'll
meet my mom and dad down there. Okay. Friends, I'll meet you
out later. Well, I tried to keep up with him dancing. And I gave
up. I had to leave. Do you realize
how humiliating it is for a 20-year-old not to be able to keep up with
his mother? And that went on for many, many, many years. But
just as symbolic of this woman right here, I mean, the musician,
the brothers, I forget their names. They became friends with
him. She met somebody and she was
this personality of glue that just stuck. So she can't just
go listen to music and then leave. Mary Bell has to befriend the
musicians. And then she has such a magnetic
personality, they're held on the boat. And then they become
friends for ten years. That's Mary Bell. I had an email
this week. A lady sent me a message on social
media that says, you don't know me. I met your mother in Utah
two years ago. It ended up being the trip that
we discovered her cancer on that trip. She and her husband were
listening to music and we started to scrap it up for conversation.
I felt like I've known her my whole life. She can't tell me. She was proud of you and all
these things that just make your heart explode. One last thing
to wrap this thing up. I could be here all month and
it's only November 1st. I read a book called Outliers. I highly recommend it. It's by
a guy named Malcolm Gladwell. It's about people who overcome
overwhelming circumstances to have some type of success. My mother, she had my sister,
Fatina, right here in the front row, looking beautiful. at 16
years old. She had me at 18. My dad went
off to Vietnam. If you look at that, it's like,
man, alive, hell, what chances do they have to look around you
and have a life and the quality of a life? I looked up the stats,
it's 8%. 8% if you have a teen mom that's
still married after 40. And that's no ordinary marriage,
by the way, either. I'll get to that. But this is another outlying
thing about mom. She visited all 50 states, 10 after she was
diagnosed with cancer. Oh, if we should all live like
Mary Bell. How many people in this room
have been on stage at Madison Square Garden? Right here. How many went to the very first
Jimmy Fallon show? And there is no ordinary love.
You don't St. Mary without St. Donny. You don't
St. Donny without St. Mary. I come from good stock. I really come from really good
stock. But finally, I mentioned Van earlier. I came
back from school one year and I was DJing. I had like three
jobs, a lot of jobs. I was DJing and I remember on
her birthday, I played her a song by Van the Man, her favorite,
Queen of the Slipstream. And I encourage anyone who has
not heard that song, you have to listen because she was my
Queen of the Slipstream and I loved her so. I'm just a grain plucked from
the pie One that the moors reached out to free Empty carments for
my entire winded world Satan was bashed to a kiss face,
and if he only know what's right Looked from the past, saw His
grace, and made me free, Gave to me peace, righteousness, and
power, And the condemnation day did the Lord stand before His
throne. With noisy dreams, ooh, just
living empty songs I'm just a grave runner, I've nothing to offer
to the Lord He belongs to me Salvation history I am saved
in their ways, please Oh, does He, it is righteousness How we
stand to be here, we are saved From the times our first grace
has made me free Came to me His righteousness hand Now the time
in which to me His love would spill before His feet Thank all of you for coming here
this afternoon. I thank you on behalf of Brother
Donnie and the children and the grandbabies and this church.
Thank this church for all your support. I just want to say something
a few minutes concerning Mary's death. Specifically concerning
Mary's death. In Psalm 116 in verse 15, this
is speaking of Mary's death. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. Boy, the Lord doesn't pull any
punches with us, does He? He won't deceive us. He won't
hide realities from us. Mary was a saint. I mean, she
was called to be a saint. She did no miracles. She was
called of God. She was washed She was justified
by the grace of God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
She was a saint, but she's died. You and I have come here today
to pay our respects to a vital portion of Mary Bell, her body. She's died. It's appointed unto everybody
who wants to die. In Adam, all die. That's the living reality, isn't
it? And I tell you, in our sight, I feel so blessed that Brother
Donnie asked me if I would come down. I thought, what an honor. What an honor to be here with
you. But I tell you, I witnessed a humiliating reality. When I saw Mary, when I saw how
frail she had become, and as Donnie and I watched her day
after day gasping for breath, I thought what a humiliating
thing death is in our eyes. It touched this beautiful woman.
If you want to see a beautiful lady, you go back and get some
pictures of Mary when she was a teenager and follow her through
her years and she was a very beautiful lady. I told her that. I tried to always tell her in
your presence because she was so attracted. But you know something? And she would laugh if I told
her this. She looked more like me. And
that's not a good thing. She had no hair. Her face was
all wrinkled up. She was gasping for breath. In
my eyes, in her husband's eyes, what a humiliating thing. Death
severs two unions. Mysterious as they are, death
severs these unions. In her womb, her body and soul
was united together. What a mystery that is. But in
her death, that union was separated. Her soul, her spirit, left her
body. And that union of husband and
wife, God joined together a number of years ago, has now been severed. She'll never be your wife again.
You'll never be her husband again. What a humiliating thing death
is. how it burdens our souls in our
eyes. And if it was left for us to
judge of death, what a heartbreaking thing it would be. But my text
says, how precious in the eyes of the Lord Death was humiliating. It was a humbling thing in our
eyes, but not in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ. This word
precious, it means of great value and worth. Highly esteemed. Is there a way that you and I
can value the death of Mary Bell in the eyes of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, listen to this. This word
is used in several places in the Scripture. Let me give you
three places. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Who can begin to estimate the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? How precious is it to your guilty
conscience when it's washed all your sins away. How precious
is the blood of Jesus Christ the God the Father. If you can
begin to estimate the preciousness of the blood of God's Son, then
you can begin to estimate the preciousness of the death of
Mary Vale in the eyes of the Father. There's another place
this word is used in speaking of the words of God Himself.
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto
you therefore which believe he is precious." How precious is
he to you, child of God? You can't estimate it, can you?
You cannot tell it out. You cannot think it out. You
cannot imagine it out. How precious Jesus Christ is
to your soul. He's worth more than all the
world, all people in the world. More important than you yourself
is Jesus Christ. How precious is He to the Father? I tell you, there's not a worm
that wiggles through the dirt. but that God has determined that
worm is going to wiggle for the glory of His Son. God has put
all fullness in Jesus Christ. He's given all preeminence unto
Him. Every man lives and moves and
has his being. The sun rises and the rain falls
for the glory of God's dear Son. God looks upon him and He says,
Son, I love you. You're precious to me. If you
and I can begin to estimate the preciousness of Jesus Christ,
His glorious person, then we can begin to estimate what it
meant for Mary Belle to die as Jesus, our Lord, looked on Himself. Now, there's another place that
talks about this word, and listen to this, "...whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises." How many times has
your soul been sinking, dear saint of God? How many times
have you been walking in darkness and you're so confused, and in
your sankeness, there was something that got underneath you and stopped
you from sinking, and lifted you up and set you on solid ground. And what was it that got underneath
you? Promises. Precious, precious promises. That's how precious. That's how
precious. Mary Bell's death is in the sight
of the Lord. Let me read you one more passage
right quickly. Another familiar passage in Revelation
chapter 14, and listen to this. I heard a voice from heaven saying
unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works befall of them. We
have a precious death, and we have a blessed death. You notice
how these verses are qualified? He is a saint. Those who die in the Lord. He's not speaking of everybody,
is He? No, if you hear this, this, this day and good art in
Christ, and you die, Your death will not be precious in His sight.
You die outside of Jesus Christ, you will not be blessed. It's
those who are in Christ who are blessed. And I'm not here today,
and the pastor will not come and give you some hope that Mary
Bell had based upon some decision that she made 40 years ago, or
the power of her free will, or some choice that she had made
as a child, as an adult. Mary Bell is blessed because
God, before the foundation of the world, set her aside to bless
her. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Why can we say
this is a blessed death? Because God blessed her. He chose
her to salvation before she had a being. He wrote her name, as
it were, in the Lamb's Book of Life before time. And He set
her aside to be redeemed. Oh, what a blessing redemption
is. You know why Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, took
upon Him our humanity? For Mary Bell. What a representative
she has. That's why she's blessed in her
death. When Jesus Christ came from His
mother's womb, there's Mary Bell. Born that holy thing. When He
walked and was obedient to His Father's will, when He fulfilled
the law and magnified it and honored it, He did that for Mary
Bell. Mary Bell did that. When He hung
upon Calvary's tree, Suffering for sin, all the shame, and the
awful wrath of God. And when he says it's finished,
Mary Bell's sins were gone. They are no more. Why? God blessed her. And in her lifetime somewhere,
I'm not for sure if she even knew, but the Holy Spirit came
to her heart. Burden her with a knowledge of
her awful shame and sin and fall and reveal Jesus Christ to her
heart. Give her life implanted in her
bosom His graces of love and joy and peace. And boy from then
on she began to labor. She began to labor. Labor from
this wretched body of sin that she was in. And now she has entered
her eternal rest. She's blessed. She's blessed. One more passage. One more passage. This is a wonderful passage.
Philippians chapter 1. For to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. To die is gain. For me to live
is Christ is to suffer. for today's gain. But if I live
in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall
choose I want not, I know not. I am in a straight betwixt two,
having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better." Paul spoke here of two things he would gain by dying. Two things he would gain by dying.
One, he's going to gain in something he loses. What was it? This body of sin. I have a desire
to depart. I have a desire to die. Paul,
why would you want to die? Mary had that desire, didn't
she Mary? Desire to depart and be with
Christ. Why? Here's what Paul said. He said,
I've thought a good thought. The time of my departure. You know what that word departure
means. The time of my release is come. Release from what? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? When the Lord saved Mary, she
began to labor. Labor against sin. Labor against
self. Labor as she looked to Christ.
And the desire of her heart from the very beginning was this,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Well, Wednesday
night, her release came. Her release came. What a gain
by what she longed. I bet if you ask Mary Bell this,
Mary Bell, when did you begin to sin? She said, I have no idea. When did you quit sinning? When
she drew her last breath. Oh, what a game then. Sin and
sense is gone, is left behind. I love it where the Lord Jesus
left His grave clothes in the grave, don't you? Lazarus came
forth from the grave. He was bound. Had a band, and
I don't know how he got out of the grave. He was bound with
a napkin, couldn't see. Mary has left her grave clothes
right here. She can see. This is a second thing she gained
by death, and this is what Mary has gained, to be with Christ. There's no at last time when
she closed her eyes and breathed out her last breath. It didn't
take her long. She opened her eyes and who did
she see? Christ. I wonder what she's doing
there. She's with Christ. Is she standing at His feet?
That's where Mary sat with Him. But you know, I bet she's higher
than that. I bet she's leaning on His breast. That's where John
leaned. I bet she's higher than that.
I bet she's looking at him right in his face. I bet he's smiling
at her. I bet he's kissing her with the
kisses of his mouth. Oh, what she gained. What has
Maryville gained? She's gained something that she
longed for and could never attain. She's with Christ. And she's
free now to worship Him and see Him and know Him as she desired
to in this life and never was able. Oh, what a precious death
then. What a blessed death. What a
desired death. Mary Bell has died. The Boren sisters are going to
come at this time in St. Paul. And because we're married, I
have to join them. O how happy am I with my Saviour
God! I have found me a friend, found
in this Lord Jesus I came to the Lord for relief,
and with my Oh, glorious praise to thy name,
for life eternal for me, for saving my soul when I'm dead,
and if I shall but want to be. I really admire your pastor.
The more I see how he loves and preaches, the more I'd love to
be like him. Well, you talk about until death do we part through
suffering. He's a good pastor. He's a good
husband. And your pastor is going to come
at this time and preach for us, Fr. Donnie Bennett. My wife planned everything. She planned everything. She never
left nothing. She planned the clothes she wore,
she hung them up months ago. She planned her gardens. She
planned her children's lives if she left them. She planned everything, but she
didn't plan to get sick. She didn't plan to be devastated
by an awful, awful disease. She didn't plan for God to come
and put her to where she just would rather die as live. She didn't plan on getting down
to skin and bones. She didn't plan on not being
able to breathe. She didn't plan on somebody having
to take care of her, wash her, clothe her, feed her. She didn't
plan on none of that. But God did. And God does all
things well. God does all things well. When she was 15 years old and
I was 17, I saw her across the room. We went out, second date. I said,
you got to, we're going to get married. She said, you're a fool, you're
nuts. Well, she was 17 and I was 19. We got married. 45 years. wonderful life. And I've often
said, if anybody had a better life, enjoyed living more than
me and Mary Bell, I've never met them. I've never met them. And she loved living. Oh my,
she loved to live. And she loved to take care of
people. But as much as she loved to take
care of people, there was a man who took it upon himself, before
the world ever began, to take care of her. Take care of her. Take care of her sin. You say,
me and your wife was a sinner? You know what she said so many
times in the last three months? A preacher friend of mine asked
her, he said, Mary, what's your hope? She said, that I'm a sinner.
Christ Jesus came here to save sinners. They said, this man
eateth with sinners. Well, he ate with Mary Belle. But he loved her, and you think
I loved her. But me and her knew, we knew
from the day we married, from the day we learned the gospel,
that our relationship was temporary. I would leave her and she would
leave me. But no matter what separates
us here, one thing we're never separated from, and that's from
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're still one in Christ. We
may not be joined in the flesh anymore like we were, but we're
still one in Christ. We're still united to Christ.
And I tell you, and I mean this with all my heart, when she drew
her last breath, I thanked God, I blessed the
Lord, and I praised Him. She left this world, and the
first thing she saw was the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first breath that she had
with us suddenly, She breathed heavenly air. She breathed air that me and
you don't know nothing about. And there is two books in the
Bible. And I'm not talking about the Old Testament and the New
Testament. There's the book of the generation of Adam. Who was made in the likeness
and image of God. Then he began to beget sons in
his own likeness. And you read a little while and
he died. Read another verse or two and
he died. Another verse or two and he died. But there's another book. Matthew
chapter 1 verse 1. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ. Nobody dies. Nobody dies. Mary didn't enter in, my sweet
Mary, my baby, my love. She didn't enter into life when
she died. She entered into life in Christ
before she ever left this world. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
know my sheep and I've known of them. And he said, I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand, for my Father which
gave them me is greater than all." And I'll tell you right
now, she had eternal life before she ever left here. She just
began to leave everything behind that hindered it. You see, when we talk about life,
we're not talking about this body. When we talk about what
goes on in this world, there's another world, there's another
realm, there's another place, there's another time, there's
another person. And that blessed person, when He comes to you
and loves you and elects you and chooses you, sets His affections
on you, and He comes after you, He's not going to be satisfied
until He conquers you, loves you, and brings you to where
you love Him and you need Him more than anything else in this
world. And that's what was with me.
Needed more than anything in this world. Am I going to miss
her? Yes. Will I bring her back? No. She was pretty, as Bruce said.
She was pretty, as Bruce said. I tell you, I can't deal with
all the things I want to deal with, but I tell you this. As
Bruce said, she's pretty. I thought I married the prettiest
woman I ever laid eyes on in my life. And I told God I never,
never backed up from that. She was the prettiest woman I
ever met. She was pretty in more ways than just physical. Oh,
she's beautiful woman. But as beautiful as she was here,
can you imagine how pretty she is right now? Can you imagine
how beautiful she is right now? Doug, can you imagine what she's
like? Can you imagine that poor, frail
body? What it's like? And all the kisses she gave me,
all the kisses we've had over the years. A couple of days ago,
I just kept kissing her and kissing her and kissing her. She said,
that's enough kissing. Didn't you? That's enough kissing. I said, Doogie, come get you
some sugar. Doc, come get you some sugar. Dylan, come get you
some sugar. And she said, that's enough kissing. Thank you for loving her. Thank
you for choosing her. And thank you for letting me
have her all these years. Thank you, Lord. God bless his holiness. Oh, I
bless him and I praise him. Mary, my sweet Mary. Can't say goodbye because she's
not here. I told her goodbye before she's
gone. The same night, you know, she
had died out. She raised up and she said, hug
me, hug me, hug me. I did this one on all seven.
I'd hurt her one more time, but I
can't. But I'd tell somebody to hug her, hug her up real,
real close. That's our blessed Savior, the
Lord Jesus. You hugged her, he's hugging her close now. And listen, I'll stop. Thank you all. I never did. She had any idea that all these
people were here. All this many people would come.
All this many people sit around here. Thank you for loving my baby. Thank you for every kindness
you ever showed her. Thank you for every prayer you
prayed. Thank you for every meal you fixed to take to her. Thank
you for everything, everything you did for her. Thank you, thank
you, thank you. And I thank the Lord for you.
Girls, In the name of love and wisdom
So for you I'll give it up So for you I'll give it up I wanted
to love you On a day that will be just as
nice And I look up God is great, the
one who takes me by the way, when he takes me by the way. My name will stay at your feet. There will be no regret, no more
burden to bear. Oh, morning, oh, morning, and
forever shining Oh, morning, oh, morning On the day that will be, when
my feet is crushed at the knee, and I will look up on His face,
the one who saved me, God is great. He is here for ever and away
He is present at the door of your heart What a day, what a
glorious day and the sun will be But the burial will be at Thomas
Springs Cemetery, and immediately after the burial, you who would
like to, there will be a dinner here at the church.