What a visit it was, just last week! He was one of my Dad\u2019s best friends. He was one of my brother\u2019s heroes. During my teen-age years, he was one of my greatest encouragers. Now he is ninety-nine years old and on hospice care. Gone are the days of his distinguished military career as a bomber pilot with the 93rd Bombardment Group in World War II. Gone are the days of his athletic skills. Gone are the days of his deep solo voice. Preceding him in death were his wife and two daughters. A remaining daughter is now his caretaker. \u201cI\u2019m ready\u201d he said, \u201cready to go tonight or stay around for my 100th birthday, whatever God wants.\u201d His voice was soft, interrupted occasionally by a breathing treatment. He spoke of memories of my Dad, and my brother, and I reminded him of my first sermon \u2013 a well-rehearsed and practiced thirty-minute sermon that lasted all of eight minutes. He replied with the same encouraging comment he had used at the conclusion of that sermon, so many years ago \u2013 \u201cI like short sermons.\u201d Words from Janet Paschal, quoted by my brother, at my father\u2019s funeral, seem appropriate once again:<\/p>\n
\u201dStrike up the band assemble the choir
\nanother soldier’s coming home
\nanother warrior hears the call
\nhe’s waited for so long
\nhe’ll battle no more
\ncause he won his wars
\nmake sure heaven’s table
\nhas room for at least one more
\nsing a welcome song
\nanother soldier’s coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s almost finished his course. He has most certainly kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7). We often speak of great saints arriving in heaven to hear God\u2019s welcome of \u201c\u2018well done, good and faithful servant.\u201d (Matthew 25:21). God does not lie. Not everyone who enters heaven will hear these words. Only those will hear \u201cwell done\u201d who have done well. Only those who have served faithfully, will be called \u201cfaithful servant.\u201d While not everyone will hear these words, I am convinced that Glenn Martin will hear them, perhaps soon. Well done, my friend. Well done! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What a visit it was, just last week! He was one of my Dad\u2019s best friends. He was one of my brother\u2019s heroes. During my teen-age years, he was one of my greatest encouragers. Now he is ninety-nine years old and on hospice care. Gone are the days of his distinguished military career as a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}