Category: Uncategorized

Held: 10/25/2026

On behalf of our family, I want to say thank you to all of you who have come here this afternoon to honor the life and grieve the loss of my mother, Janie Peterson. Janie was lots of things. She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mom, a friend, the lady who takes the water bills, and so much more. She was mom, ma, mama, and, when Dad was frustrated, Jane Ellen. And no matter who it was who knew her, everyone loved her.

My mom was one of the sweetest, most giving, most caring people I’ve ever known. She worked hard for the family. She sacrificed many of her own comforts for the good of others. And she put up with a lot from all of us.

Later, when our family is gathered together around a table or talking on the phone, we will tell stories, share memories, and think fondly of the great times we had with mom. But for now, we have gathered to bring her remains to this resting place. And I want to share just a couple thoughts from Scripture with you all.

When mom breathed her last on July 20, what happened? Hear me, because this is important. At the moment of her last breath, my mom entered the comforting and loving presence of the God who made her. The Bible tells us that for a believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, immediately, instantly, gloriously present with our God. Her pain ended. Her fears and flaws melted away. For the first time ever, my mom, without hinderance, was able to praise her Maker.

Today, even as we are gathered here, Scripture is clear that mom is at peace, not asleep, but gloriously awake and aware in the wonderful presence of God. She is not an angel. She is still herself, just more so. And she is joyfully looking forward to a future that is even better than the glory she is experiencing right now.

But let me ask an important question. Why? Why do I believe mom is with the Lord? Why do I believe that she is in heaven?

This may surprise some of you. I do not believe mom is in heaven because she was good enough to go there. Do not get me wrong, I love my mom and believe she was a wonderful lady. But God’s word says to us that no person can live a good enough life to make it to heaven. Nobody other than Jesus himself has ever lived a life of perfect, personal, perpetual obedience to God. Not me. Not you. And not my mom.

So why would I think she is in heaven? God did something wonderful, something gracious, something we call the good news or the gospel. God knew that none of us are good enough to make it to heaven on our own. We are naturally given to messing up. So God sent his son, Jesus, into this world to do what we could never do. Jesus lived a perfect life, a life so stunningly worthy that he can give others credit for his perfection. And Jesus died a horrible death to pay the price for sins that he never committed. Like a sacrificial lamb, Jesus took the blame for every wrong God will ever forgive. And Jesus rose from the grave. In that act, Jesus proved that his work was complete and that all people who will come to him in faith will be saved.

Let me read to you a verse that I read at my dad’s funeral a little over thirteen years ago.

John 6:40

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Jesus said that the one who will look to him and believe, that person will have eternal life. And the one Jesus gives eternal life, he will keep. More than that, Jesus promises to raise those people from the dead on the last day. On a day to come, all the people Jesus has forgiven will get new bodies that will never get sick, never make mistakes, never have foggy memories, never let us down.

This should do three things for you. First, it should give you comfort for my mom. Janie Peterson clearly proclaimed that her only hope for her salvation was the perfect, finished work of Jesus. She knew she needed forgiveness from God. She trusted in Jesus. She asked him to save her. And, as the Savior promised, “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.”

But I want this truth to do more for you than comfort you. I know that mom would want this truth to do more than just comfort you. The good news of what Jesus has done should draw you to him too. We all need God’s forgiveness. That forgiveness is available for all who will come to Jesus in faith.

Let me give you the simple A, B, Cs of what this means. A, admit before God that you are guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness. B, believe in Jesus. Believe that Jesus is willing and able to save you because of his life, death, and resurrection. Believe that nothing else can help you get to heaven, only Jesus and Jesus alone. C, cry out to Jesus for salvation. Ask the Son of God to take control of your life, to be in charge, and to have mercy on you. Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him has eternal life.

And finally, let this truth give you hope. While we grieve the loss of someone we have loved so much, we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We grieve a short-term parting, like when someone moves away. For we know that God has promised to raise my mom from the dead and give her a brand new body along with all the people God has forgiven when Jesus returns and makes this earth into a perfect and forever home for us. That great promise is the hope we have in grief.

Today, we commit mom’s remains to the ground. But we know they will not stay here forever. We place her ashes here as we look forward to the surely coming day of the Lord.

In the year 1812, Adoniram Judson left the united States for the nation of Burma, the first American international missionary. Judson worked, sacrificed, suffered, and honored the Lord in that difficult land until his death in 1850, nearly thirty-eight years later. The work in Burma was incredibly difficult, and Judson only baptized his first convert after seven hard years of toil. Judson would suffer sickness and imprisonment and would grieve the deaths of two wives and seven of his thirteen children. Eventually, Judson would successfully translate the Bible into Burmese, develop the first English-Burmese dictionary, see many people come to Christ, and help many missionaries take up the cause.

In 1845, after 33 years overseas, Judson returned to the United States for the first time, grieving the death of his second wife who died on the journey. Arriving in Massachusetts, Adoniram expected that no one would think anything of him or his work. But the missionary was surprised. Among churches in New England, especially Baptist churches, the name of Adoniram Judson had become legendary. And during his time in the states, Judson was overwhelmed with what he believed to be too much attention.

During his visit, Adoniram regularly refused to tell missionary stories that would fascinate people about him or his work, sometimes refusing to speak to groups at all and sometimes speaking only simple, gospel messages. After one such presentation, a lady named Emily, who would soon become Judson’s third wife and join him on the mission field, asked Adoniram about why he did not give the people more of a story. Here is how a biographer of Judson explained the exchange:

As he sat down [Emily recollected]… it was evident, even to the most unobservant eye, that most of the listeners were disappointed. After the exercises were over, several persons inquired of me, frankly, why Dr. Judson had not talked of something else; why he had not told a story … On the way home, I mentioned the subject to him.

“Why, what did they want?” he inquired; “I presented the most interesting subject in the world, to the best of my ability.”

“But they wanted something different—a story.”

“Well, I am sure I gave them a story—the most thrilling one that can be conceived of.”

“But they had heard it before. They wanted something new of a man who had just come from the antipodes.”

“Then I am glad they have it to say, that a man coming from the antipodes had nothing better to tell than the wondrous story of Jesus’ dying love.”1

There is something beautiful in Judson’s response to Emily. People admired the legendary missionary. But for his part, Judson wanted people to glory in Jesus.

1 Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1987), Kindle Edition, 431.

In 1819, Adoniram Judson was taking the gospel to Birma. In a conversation with a local, Judson saw that a man almost believed but struggled with accepting the truth of Scripture over his own reason. The following exchange is both an encouraging story and a reminder that we who share the gospel must not compromise the message for the sake of a quick profession of faith:

They were well into their preparations when old Maung Shway- gnong paid the mission another visit. He no longer would go near the zayat, but he did not seem to be able to stay away from Adoniram. This time he spent hours raising hair-splitting objections, all of which Adoniram answered fully. Suddenly Maung Shway-gnong admitted that he did not believe a word of what he had been saying. He had merely been trying to test Adoniram and his religion.

"Do you think I would pay you the least attention if I found you could not answer all my questions and solve all my difficulties?" he said. He really did believe in God, in His son Jesus, and in the atonement. In short, he was a Christian at heart.

Adoniram was skeptical. "Do you believe all that is contained in the book of St. Matthew that I have given you? In particular, do you believe that the Son of God died on a cross?"

"Ah, you have caught me now," the old teacher admitted with some chagrin. "I believe that He suffered death. But I cannot admit He suffered the shameful death of the cross."

Adoniram, knowing Maung Shway-gnong, had expected the answer. It was difficult for a Burman, particularly a high-born scholar, to imagine a God who would permit His Son to undergo any kind of indignity. The whole idea was abhorrent. Adoniram pressed home its meaning: "Therefore you are not a disciple of Christ. A true disciple inquires not whether a fact is agreeable to his own reason, but whether it is in the book. His pride has yielded to the Divine testimony. Teacher, your pride is still unbroken. Break down your pride, and yield to the word of God."

Maung Shway-gnong stopped to think. Then he said: "As you utter those words I see my error. I have been trusting in my own reason, not in the word of God." Someone entered and he fell silent. When the intruder left after a little while, he said thoughtfully, "This day is different from all the days on which I have visited you. I see my error in trusting in my own reason; and I now believe the crucifixion of Christ, because it is contained in the Scripture." They talked for a while at random and the conversation led to the uncertainty of life. Maung Shway-gnong had a new thought. "I think I shall not be lost even though I should die suddenly."

"Why?"

"Because I love Jesus Christ."

"Do you really love Him?"

"No one that really knows Him can help loving Him," said the old man with feeling; and so departed.

Anderson, Courtney. To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (pp. 223-224). Judson Pr. Kindle Edition.

Doing a little study on the Regulative Principle of worship for an upcoming class, I came across this quite helpful application in an article by Derek Thomas:

What is sometimes forgotten in these discussions is the important role of conscience. Without the regulative principle, we are at the mercy of “worship leaders” and bullying pastors who charge noncompliant worshipers with displeasing God unless they participate according to a certain pattern and manner. To the victims of such bullies, the sweetest sentences ever penned by men are:

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to His Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also. (WCF 20:2)

To obey when it is a matter of God’s express prescription is true liberty; anything else is bondage and legalism.

Thomas, Derek. “The Regulative Principle of Worship.” Ligonier, November 12, 2021. Accessed 22 Jul 2024, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/regulative-principle-worship.