Spending any time at all with Skip was such an enriching experience. Remembering his puns (about everything, nothing was off-limits), hearing him talk to students, professors, counselors, etc., but especially his prayers will always stick with me. He knew who this God really was. Not that he had “arrived” at some special level of knowledge but this knowledge was intimate and personal. He was free to express himself with God and he wanted others to have this experience. His exclamations of praise were not always eloquent (by design) but truly heartfelt and honest. His petitions for others would lift all who heard to His throne. His confession of sin was often brutal but so true and made me long for such a depth of intimacy with our Lord. Hearing Skip pray was a kind of discipleship/preaching/counseling that few have mastered without sounding stilted or less than sincere. So many have been touched by Skip’s life and have come away changed. That’s the point, isn’t it? He wanted us all to see Christ as he really is…to know Him as he wanted to be known. That the power of Christ would sanctify us in very real ways. Skip is now enjoying the presence of his Savior and Lord. But that is not the end. Thank you, Lord, for letting us get to know Skip. May all of our lives serve your purposes.
In the Pasture of the Good Shepherd
The Holy Spirit brings us assurance as we meditate on the love Jesus shows for sinners. I'm not referring to his former demonstration of love, which he showed by dying in our place, but to his perpetual love in there here and now. Jesus is not only our Lord and Savior...