FUNERAL SERVICE: VAUGHN BAIRD
Date: November 1, 2014
BY J.Farrell Fisher
Galatians 6:14 is such a powerful testimony when Paul said: “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
And, family, you know it: THERE WAS A LIFE-CHANGE, A HEART-CHANGE, and Vaughn Baird was, has, is being changed in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and Almighty God led into the throne room by the Holy Spirit…
But I believe I hear him saying as the transfer is coming: “Where’s Joyce? I want to walk with her into the presence of Christ Jesus, Almighty God the Father, and the Holy Spirit!” And, I guarantee you, Mother Baird tearfully welcomed Vaughn, her husband, into his eternal home!
I talked to Vaughn recently about the coming hour of his earthly graduation – he knew God was very close to calling him home – he said: “Farrell, I’m ready – I know my time here is about up!”
Do you ALL remember Psalm 39:4-5? A psalm of King David: “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreaths, and my age is nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.”
“Thomas, David, Byron”: Your Dad and Mother would want you to know: you’re only a vapor-breath away from your own last moments in your earthly bodies!
In “Mr. Jones, Meet the Master,” Peter Marshall wrote: “We are, after all, like lumps of clay. There are brittle pieces, hard pieces. We have little shape or beauty. But we need not despair. If we are clay, let us remember there is a Potter and His wheel.”
I know you guys, and girls, understand – because you witnessed it: A wise man made wiser in true wisdom, a strong man made weaker in himself, in his awareness of his need to surrender to the Lord of his life, a rich man made richer in the true riches, a stout man in his personal, professional, and privileged life, who was always thankful and expressive of his appreciation of his poor yet powerful up-bringing!….
And a man who could only think about it, “Christ died – and He died for me on the Cross” with tears over-taking his speech!! Oh, yes, and I’ve heard him say often over the past year: “It’s OK, Farrell – I’m going to get to see Joyce again!” The old farm-boy really loved your mother deeply and dearly!
It was Josiah Gilbert Holland, in “Wanted,” who wrote: “God, give us men. A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands!…
Men whom the lust of office does not kill – Men whom the lust of office cannot buy,…Men who possess opinions and a will, Men who love honor, men who cannot lie.”
In Isaiah 38:1 is the story of Hezekiah! Isaiah, the prophet, went to Hezekiah saying, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” Hezekiah humbled himself and God extended his life for 15 years.
After he’d recovered from his sickness, Isaiah 38:10-20 was his expression of a truly thankful heart, but only two verses I want to share with you today: Verses 19-20, “The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make known YOUR TRUTH to the children. The Lord was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”
And I don’t have to tell you, sons of Vaughn & Mother Joyce Baird, but I will: “All the days of your lives and your children’s lives, and your grand-children’s lives, and your great grandchildren, you sing songs to God, even if it is off-key, Thomas!!”
Singing over & over? “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, [trusts in Me, relies upon Me, honors Me], though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Galatians 2:20-21, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God..”
Ephesians 1:5-7, “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..”
It was Robert South who wrote: “A true friend is the gift of God, and He only who made hearts can unite them”!
“TRUE FRIENDS?”
Only ‘true friends’ know the richness of God’s generous gift because His gifts to each of us are the gifts that lift –
Out of loneliness God sees our need and graciously implants the Eternal Seed from Above and brings it down on the wings of a dove;
Earthly friends are often fickle with betrayal and bitterness the steady trickle, because fleshly independence is often what’s birthed when the old sin nature is easily unearthed.
But “true friends” are eternally flowing from the Throne because to them it’s not “to each his own;” because “in Christ” “to each we belong!”
It was Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends;” and “men of the Cross” suffer no loss, because in Christ their loyalty to friends is the fruit of Heaven’s Boss!
One God, no more, and friends of God know what’s in store – because loyal friends to God and man choose God “in flesh” and take their stand!
Jesus is Savior and Lord of all life, and even in the midst of fleshly strife, a loyal disciple sticks as a brother, his heart belongs to no other!
“True friends” to God and each other is more than a hand-shake of appreciation of one another – it’s the visible path heading up the Hill, hand-in-hand, ready to die in the Father’s will!”