Another Saint Goes Home!!!
On Tuesday, April 7, 1998 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon,
Pastor Donald R Porter left our California
hotel room and this world far behind and
went home to the reward and lot prepared
for him by Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Pastor
Porter lived the faith he preached, trusted
the God he served and held fast his
confidence, not in his own works but in the
saving grace and finished work of Jesus
Christ at Calvary. He died like he lived, in
faith. The work of God: “to believe on him
who he hath sent“, he unswervingly abode
in. He preached the word of God faithfully
all the years of his pilgrimage. Turning the
hearts of many men and women to God.
The testimony of his life is this: He loved
God!
It occurred to me that many people are
unaware of his departure when I received
responses to our latest newsletter which
addressed him personally. I felt impressed
upon by the Lord to write not an obituary
or a eulogy but to admonish and exhort
you to keep the faith. “I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that you sorrow
not even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will bring with him.” I
Thessalonians 4:13-14.
This is the end of the faith! Our hope in
Jesus is eternal life. The last victory to win
is over death. Christ in us the hope of
glory! What is this glory? Verse 14 holds
the key . “For if we believe” anyone can
preach, prophesy, sing, give out tracts,
clothes, food… but very few people
believe . “Nevertheless when the son of
man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?” Luke 18:8. “For if we believe“…
then we will …“Sorrow not“… because
we who have Christ are not …“as others
which have no hope“.
We who were closest to him stood in that
hotel room with the whole of our
profession put to the test.
Did we truly believe the Gospel?
You see, the hope of eternal life IS the
gospel of Jesus Christ. All of our faith was
on trial this moment. Sorrow gave way to
faith! Weakness and loss gave way to
hope! Right there in that room despair and
fear and defeat were swallowed up in
victory!
We could have insisted on sorrowing in
unbelief or we could rejoice in hope of
eternal life in Christ. The choice was ours.
“Christ in you the hope of
glory!” Colossians 1:27
“Now if Christ be preached that he rose
from the dead, how say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the
dead“. I Corinthians 15:12. Our walk
talks louder than our talk talks, if I
sorrow for the dead in Christ I would be“saying” there was no resurrection. If I
preach Christ crucified and resurrected,
how then can I sorrow? Before all the
world I would show that there is no hope
in Christ and the hope I have preached
is a passing whimsy or just
philosophical sport without any practical
reality. But “if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen and
if Christ be not risen then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also
vain. Yea and we are found false
witnesses of God because we have
testified of God that he raised up Christ:
whom he raised not up if so be that the
dead rise not. For if the dead rise not,
then is not Christ raised and if Christ be
not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet
in your sins. Then they also which are
fallen asleep in Christ are perished“. I
Corinthians 15:13-18.
If the dead rise not then we have cause
to sorrow because there would be no
hope. You see, our faith is vain if there’s
no hope of resurrection, but beloved,
there is hope of resurrection in Christ.“If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the firstfruits of
them that slept“. I Corinthians 15:12-20
But Do You Believe?
“Beloved, Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope that is in you“. I Peter 3:15
If the Christians who profess they know God and are saved react to death the
exact same way as the world, how then
can the world ask you about the hope of
Christ which is in you? I believe His
word. In this I’ve made my choice to
continue in the strength and comfort of
the Lord. He has not failed me one day
since, to strengthen and provide and be
for me what I need. I may have lost a
father in the faith, but the words he
spoke were from Our Father in Heaven,
who is eternal never leaving nor
forsaking us. Those words are alive in
all who heard and believed. As for the
ministry, we will not defer but to teach,
preach and keep the words of our God
and Savior Jesus Christ. “Yea
doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith: That I may know him, and
the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death; If by any
means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead“.
Philippians 3:8-11. Amen.
Keep the Faith and give some away!
DPM