Doug Ross, Associate Pastor, Sun Lakes Community Church

Recently, our Pastor, Jerry McGhee, asked me to join him on staff at Sun Lakes Community Church to assist him as we searched for a new Pastor in preparation for his retirement later this year.

This past Sunday, he brought a stirring message on how “God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.” He quoted his mother as saying to him that she was “Ready, but not Anxious” to meet the Lord.

Following our service, Pastor McGhee and his wife Ernestine went to lunch. As he sat down, he mentioned he had a severe pain in his neck. The waitress overhead this and alerted the manager who called 911. He was rushed to the hospital.

He fought hard, but a couple of days later, he went home to be with the Lord he loved and served for over 50 years.

During this time, when able to speak, he mentioned his love for the Lord and his readiness to soon be in the presence of Jesus Christ. Pastor Jerry was deeply loved by all those who met him and his wife Ernestine.

Jerry was “not anxious” in the sense that, like all of us, he wanted to remain here with his family and others who love him. But he was not “anxious because he was ready.”

Jerry McGhee resolutely believed the invitation of Jesus to “Believe in your heart that God has raised him (Jesus) from the dead, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” That is the reason he was “ready.”

Yes, our congregation grieves at the loss of our shepherd. No, we don’t understand why this would have to happen on the eve of his retirement.

We are blessed with the skills and abilities of doctors, nurses and others – the paramedics who ministered to him in that restaurant. But, eventually, our trust needs to be in God! He is the one who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Someone reminded me the other day of these words, “I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

In the Bible it says, “We know not what tomorrow will bring.” It reminds us that “Life is a vapor – it vanishes away.”

The hope of the Gospel that brings us to the place of being able to say – “I’m ready – but not anxious.” That comes from the “God of all comfort.”

Sun Lakes Community Church is an Interdenominational Church. Our worship service is at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday morning at the Sun Lakes Chapel, 9240 E. Sun Lakes Blvd. N. – across the street from the Sun Lakes Country Club building. For more information, call our office at 480-895-9147 or visit our website at www.sunlakescommunity church.org.

All are welcome!