1 Corinthians 15:55-- “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?�?/P>

015:057-- “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.�?

I believe that it was the apostle Paul that wrote the saying above. I believe with all my heart that my wife can testify to the same thing. I believe that she had victory over the grave, even though she had to die a natural life. It is something that we all are going to have to do unless the Lord comes before we die. The Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. I believe that my wife is able to quote the above Scripture and the reason that she can is because she had a friend about 2000 years ago whose name was Jesus, that conquered the grave for her. He conquered it for her and also for all.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.�?(So we can see from this that she is not dead but that she has life and that she has it more abundantly.)

As I was thinking what I was going to put in this to the community, I began to think of what a mighty soldier my wife had become. The Scripture over in Joel 2:4 came to my mind.

002:004 -- “The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run�?( You see that my wife was a good foot soldier and she can run with the horsemen, and I would go to war and to battle with her any day. I would not be afraid to let her lead the way.)

Here was a woman that faced the dreaded disease of cancer and looked it straight in the eye and said Praise the Lord. One day as we went in to see the doctor to get some results from some tests, he looked at her and said I am so sorry that we have found cancer in one rib. She looked him straight in the eye and said Praise The Lord, he brought me here with one rib and if he wants to he can take me out with one rib.

Here was a woman that would give you the shirt off her back. To prove this let me share something that happened one day in the office where we went. There were several people in the treatment room when they were at and one said to my wife I really like that blouse that you have on, and my wife took it off and gave it to her. There was also another lady in the room and she said that I would say that I like the other stuff that you have on but I would be afraid that you would walk out of here naked.

As I was thinking about this I began to think how that some people have all of the knowledge of the scriptures and there are men that have great ministries and have all the knowledge of the word. But I believe that my wife had one of the great ministries that I have ever seen. She had very little knowledge of the word of God because you see my wife was not able to read. Not many people ever knew this and I would not be sharing this with you now if she was still living. The only knowledge of the word is what I tried to explain to her. You just had to be around my wife just a few minutes and you can see and feel the great love that she had for God and everyone around her.

But as Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 13:2- “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing�? This woman did not have all these gifts but I know that she had faith that would remove mountains and she had the greatest gift of all and that was love. The Bible says if you have faith as a mustard seed you can move mountains and this she did.

Never have I ever seen as much faith as she had. My prayer is Lord give me this kind of faith. The Bible says if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains. She had the faith to move mountains and I am not sure if I could even move the mustard seed compared to the faith that she had.

She was not able to speak to anyone or to say anything 3 or 4 days before she left departed this world, but as she was dying she was able to raise her hand just before she died and said Praise the Lord and I love you Jesus. The Lord allowed her to tell every member of the family that she loved them. She told me that she knew that she was dying and the thing that she hated most was leaving her family. This woman had love for everybody and you could tell it from the people that came to the funeral home and to the funeral. People were lined up to sign the register from inside the funeral home to the outside. The sanctuary at the funeral home was also full.

Here was a woman just two weeks before her death was asked this question. The question was to describe a time in your life when God led you in an unusual way? Her answer to this question was “now going through this cancer I guess it has been the most unusual time. Its been and experience that truly has been a blessing�?( how many people can you say that you have heard say that cancer has been a blessing) “she said through my illness I’ve been able to witness to others about my God.�?/P>

I would like to thank God for her being my wife of 38 long years we have had some hard times and some good times. I guess that having to watch her die has been the hardest thing that I have ever experienced, but with the help of God we can make it through this thing. I hope to one day be able to be with her again. She had won the battle she has got the victory but I still have to stay in the battle. And I can win the battle if I keep the faith as she did.