Dearly beloved, we're gathered here before God to reflect on the life and death of Clara Struik. Clara was a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, sister in the Lord, and she will be deeply missed. At the same time, we look back today with gratitude for all that she meant to each one of us, and we gather to look forward and ahead to the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that those who die in saving union with Jesus Christ may expect the resurrection and the reunion of Christ's own. I pray that each of you will be blessed as we gather this morning. In that light, we begin with a confession of faith using Lord's Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism that summarizes the entire Christian faith in one sentence. What is thy only comfort in life and in death? that I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly father, not a hair can fall from my head. Yes, that all things must serve my salvation. and therefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me sincerely willing and ready from now on to live for him." Clara loved to sing God's praise and a part of a believing response to the painfulness of death is to sing about the triumphs of God's grace. Let's sing now the three hymns that are printed for you in your program. They're on the insert and we'll sing them in the order in which they're printed. ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ When the darkness deepens or fitly abides ♪ ♪ When other helpers fail and comforts flee ♪ ♪ Help of the helpless, O abide with me ♪ Where joy so vivid glories pass away, Change can be made in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, Thou I am, I need thy presence every passing hour. God, what I praise Him for the tempter's power. Who, like Thyself, I cry and sing and weep. Hills have awakened, tears of eternals, Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory? Thy triumphs still with love align, shine through the woodland, point me to the skies. Heav'n's morning breaks, and birds in shadows sleep. If I make the ♪ When he's like a river ♪ ♪ Flowing gently ♪ ♪ And sorrows like sea bells roll ♪ Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well And this was the assurance of joy, That Christ was regarded ♪ And have shed His own blood for my soul ♪ ♪ It is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ I sit on the face of His glorious cross, I stand not in part but alone, His hand to the cross, and I bear Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. He walks with me and he comes with me. His voice is the stream that her touch has taken, and the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, ever known. I've seen the garden wither. Through the night I will keep following. And in its window, through the noise of hope, its voice will make its He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. I will joyfully share His every care, and I will Let us pray together. Almighty, gracious, living God, who is faithful, and even as death is painful, grief carries its own weight, and we miss the presence of this dearly beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and friend this day. We want to give thanks for all that has been given to us in the life of Clara Struitt, for all the ways in which she meant so much to each one of us, for the treasured memories we have of visiting her, going places with her, and of the love that she bore for us. And we give thanks for all those memories all those blessings. And we pray for help and strength to grieve today as family and friends. And we pray that the light of the scriptures, which were such a daily light as we just sang in Clara's life, she so gladly paged through her Bible and so gladly prayed for us. And she loved to give to others the words of life and comfort and hope, that by thy sovereign grace meant so much to her. And we pray that as we listen to these scriptures, that the Word of God would be powerful and lively, that it would do its work in our heart, that it would shed its light over death, that it would show us that even though death is bitter and painful, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. We pray for every person listening. Many of us know the grace and power of these words of life in our own heart, and how Clara longed that everyone she knew would know this Savior, this life, and this beautiful communion with God and be able to say, it is well with my soul. I think especially of her children and grandchildren, great-grandchildren, who will miss her more than all the rest of us, but also Dini, her sister. And we pray that the Word of God may be an oasis of comfort. We give thanks for the hope and the life that there is in Jesus Christ, so that death has lost its sting, that death no longer has the last word, that death is no longer the king of terrors for those who belong to Christ. And we pray that Christ would be glorified by all that is said today here. And in a world of death that's the result of our sin as the human race, what a comfort that there is life through Christ for those who turn to him. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I would like to read from the scriptures, Psalm 116. If you want to turn to it, you can find it in the Pew Bible in front of you and in my Bible here that's on page 510. Psalm 116. We'll read this Psalm together and then I've chosen especially verse 15 as the text for the funeral message. And this psalm so beautifully captures what God means in the life of his people. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear unto me. Therefore, will I call upon him as long as I live? The sorrows of death compassed or surrounded me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee, for thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Let's sing Psalter 29. The Psalter is the blue book and the pew in front of you. Thank you. take your time to allow my soul be shed. I praise the Lord, O God, whose power tonight arrives. My heart is your spiritual, it's Jesus of the The Lord whom I have proved, At my life's ready door to fill, There I shall not be moved. ♪ Joy shall tell ♪ ♪ And all my flesh in hope shall rest ♪ ♪ As heaven's aching cloud ♪ ♪ My soul, a desperate need ♪ ♪ Shall not be left by thee ♪ No rapture now will conquer him, but only one to see. But that they now will show, to all the death of man, their screams of pleasure evermore Dear family, children, grandchildren, and friends of Clara Struik, we're gathered together here today out of love and respect for this dear woman. And that's why her death is painful. That's why we're grieved. And although grief is not the only or even the main reason for this service, it is good to acknowledge it and to express it. But we're here to review our lives and Clara's life in the light of God's word. I've been Clara's pastor for some six years now and I I can tell you for sure that she wouldn't want this service to be about her. She'd actually be quite uncomfortable with that. Because idolizing a person is the opposite of the worship of God. We need to, today, first of all and foremost, give glory to God for everything he gave to us as we think about her life and her death. And of course, that doesn't mean that we need to ignore her life story. Because that's part of grief and that's part of looking back, isn't it? To ask, what did God give us in giving Clara Struik as a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, friend? Well, he gave us a woman who was a real people person. As the oldest of 10 children growing up in the Netherlands during the Second World War, she certainly went through some difficult and challenging times. But she always had this courageous and adventurous and spunky character. I only knew her, of course, the last number of years, but I can just imagine her as a young woman sneaking onto the beach and sawing off the poles that the Germans had put up there as barriers for the Allied invasion and then smuggling them home in an old baby buggy to burn in the wood stove. Although she did stop because she thought, you know what, I think that's stealing. And then once while helping the neighbors butcher a pig during the war, a hungry dog came and grabbed a big chunk of bacon and she outran that dog and got it back. She never lost that adventurous spirit. And that's why when she immigrated to Canada, that carried her through and she saw it as the next adventure in her life. And she proudly showed me the photo albums of many a trip she took to Hawaii, to Ireland, all over the place with you. She loved to explore new places. She loved children and certainly as a midwife and a nurse's assistant welcomed many of them joyfully into this world. And that love is even reflected in her request that any donations today go to the local Christian school. I don't think I've ever heard a negative word or complaint out of her mouth. So positive, so cheerful. But best of all, she loved her God. She loved to talk about God's word and come to worship and when I was trying to find out what some of her favorite songs were so we could sing them. Nobody knew because she always would go home from church saying, I love them all. She treasured the word of God. She treasured communion with her God. And I think every single time I ever talked to her, she would say to me, God is so good to me. And those of you who visit her, you know that's how she talked. That's who she was. She wouldn't, of course, want us to pretend that she was without faults. And she would be the first person to tell you that she was a sinner in need of a Savior, and that she had no hope of salvation in her character or anything she did, but only in what Jesus Christ did for her and in her. And she would gladly tell you, those good things in my life that you see, they're the work of my Savior. And what you find precious and meaningful in my life, God worked in me. And she would say, if you think I'm a helpful, gracious person, well, that's because God was that kind of a God to me. And that's exactly why she wouldn't want me to spend my time today telling you about her, because she would love to say this God can do and be all these things in you too. And that's why we need to move on from thanking God for what he gave us in her life. to the focus on who her God is and remains still in our grief. And in doing so, we're going to do more than what the world does in a memorial service, because the world, meaning everyone who's not a biblical Christian, focuses on the life of those who died, looks back, and says, remember, the secret of grief is the memories of the preciousness of the life of the person you loved. And we've done that, haven't we? But we would say, well, there's nothing precious about someone's death unless perhaps that the suffering and the pain has ended. Death is the cold, hard, bitter finality of life that will never be totally the same for the empty place in the hearts and homes and lives of those who are left behind. And yet when you read verse 15 of this Psalm, Psalm 116, you find a very different perspective on death. We read here in these verses that The death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord. And to understand this verse, you need to understand two things. First of all, who are the saints? And secondly, what does it mean that the death of his saints is precious to the Lord? Well, the word translated saint here is a little bit challenging in the original because it's not the usual word, but the usual use of the word, even in the English language, is what we think of people who are a cut above, the best of the best. People who stand out in church terms, then, for believing in the Lord and wholeheartedly following Him and speaking of their love for Him to others. But actually, that's not what the Bible means when it speaks of saints. And in this case, the word should be translated, beloved ones. The saints here simply mean those who are loved and cared for by God. with his special covenant-making, covenant-keeping, saving love. Not love that recognizes good people and says, I'm going to reward you with the status your goodness deserves, but love that finds and redeems broken, guilty people and turns them into something they could never be themselves. Saints in the Bible is a grace-based word, not a performance-based trophy. And of course the Bible says God is good to all, believers and unbelievers alike, but his special covenant saving love he expresses to his own people. And that also doesn't mean that everyone who grows up in a church home is automatically loved with such a special saving love. It doesn't make the need for personal conversion, repentance, and faith irrelevant, but it urges that kind of a personal relationship with God. And the lifestyle of this psalm, of prayer, of confidence in God, of a desire to serve the Lord, these are the evidences of God's special saving love in the lives of people on earth. And secondly, saints are people who learn to reflect God's love to other people. You know, a saint is not first of all someone who knows all the information and doctrine of the Bible, but it's someone in whose life that's reflected by love. Think of the reflector strips you sometimes see on a driveway. When you're pulling up in your car at night, those reflector strips mark where you should be driving. They don't shine on their own, but as soon as light shines on them, they light up. So it is with the love of God. Those who God loves begin to reflect and radiate that love towards other people. Was Clarice Druick a saint in that sense of the word? Absolutely. The testimony of her lips and her life was clearly in line with this. And it's honoring to God to acknowledge that. It was God who lit her up with kindness and goodness. We need to thank God today for everything that He has been and shown us of Himself in her life. Perhaps you listen and wonder, well, who is God? Maybe God is a stranger to you. Well, God gave you a hint and a glimpse of his own character by reflecting it in Clara's life. He makes his own like him. And he remains the same. He never leaves. Death doesn't change him. And it doesn't claim him. You know, it was the love of God that kept her going during these last months. Her health faded. She felt the aches and pains of her body. And no matter How poorly she felt, she always said it every time he visited her. God is so good to me. And it's of such saints, beloved ones of God, that verse 15 speaks, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now that to us seems backwards. Her natural tendency is to say, well, the life of our loved ones, that's precious and their death is painful, it's heartbreaking. Because death, in a sense, is the ultimate insult. Often death comes as a process of decay and breakdown and disease. You watch someone shrivel up or swell up and the running and the skipping and the exuberance of youth and the health and strength that God gives someone fades and breaks. And then comes the shuffling and the walker and the bed and the muscles melt and the hair turns white. and the cane mind becomes cloudy and dull, and names and faces start being forgotten, although Clara kept her clear, sharp mind and wits almost to the end. And the independent can become touchingly childlike in their fears and cares, how painful it is. When you look at the pictures in the beautiful slideshow that was playing out in the foyer and will be playing downstairs later, you see the pictures of Clara and her health and strength, how painful that is. to see someone so dear breathe her last, and to just say it stirs up within us a certain resentment at the indignities of death. So then why does God say that the death of His saints is precious to Him? First of all, the death of God's saints is precious because He's taking them home forever. Clara loved to assist the birth of a child, and those of you who know her well, can just imagine the sympathy and joy in her voice as she held that little one. God rejoices to bring another member of his beloved family home to him. All of life in this world can be called spiritual labor pains, and don't you long as a mother in the midst of labor for your baby to be born and for you to be able to take her or him home? And God is spiritually birthing his children in the middle of the chaos and the death of this world. And he rejoices when it's time for him to take his children home, to leave behind tears and suffering, sadness and pain and death, to receive joy and eternal youth and endless life. What a privilege to trade the fight of faith for the victor's crown, to trade tears for songs, temptations for pleasures and spiritual darkness for eternal light, to leave a world of bad news and enter a world where all the news is good. It's an improvement. Precious is in the sight of the Lord is the death of every one of his own. You rejoice, don't you? If you're a parent or grandparent, when your loved ones comes in the door, you do that because you were created in the image of God and God rejoices when his own come home forever. But second, the death of his saints is precious to the Lord because it means another triumph of his grace. To use the words of one commentator, when a child of God is buried, we bury his or her faults with them. It's an end to sin, to sin against God. What a bliss that is for a believer. Now our sin poisons all our pleasures. Our thorns prick us at the best moments and overwhelm us at the worst moments. Our sin puts a distance between us and God, even for believers. Sin chokes the work of God in your life and it wounds people and it dishonors God. And when a saint of the Lord dies, the final victory comes. His beloved becomes sinless the instant they come home. And that's something every sincere child of God longs for. Clara was no different. I said, I never heard her complain. I should say there's one exception. The only complaints I ever heard her make. was about herself. She has expressed often her longing to be free from her own shortcomings and failures. She has prayed that way for years, and God answered her prayer last Sunday. How can we know this is true? How do we know that this isn't anything more than our feeble attempt to make the best of the devastation of death by making up meaningful stories? Is this just Christian version of myth-making? The answer to that question is found in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that he sang this very psalm the night he was arrested. He was arrested, he was betrayed, and his disciples sang this song with him. Jewish people always sang the Hallel Psalms. Psalm 116 is one of them on Passover night. What must have gone through his heart and mind When he sang these moving words as the only savior of sinners with his disciples, the death of God's saints is precious in God's sight. How can it be? Well, it's only possible because Jesus' death was very different than the death of God's beloved saints. Verses three to four describe a time in the life of the psalmist when the fear of death and hell gripped him. He cried out to God for rescue and God did rescue him. But God's justice cannot allow for such a rescue unless the death and hell that sin deserves is paid in full. And so Jesus came into this world as the Son of God, as the substitute for sinners. His body was cruelly mistreated. His suffering was shocking, graphic, R-rated, painful. And the most painful part of it is that his soul was crushed under the weight of the wrath Almighty God was the enemy of sin. His agony was greater than any person's agony ever will be. He suffered for the sins of all his people from the beginning of time to the end of the world. He willingly put himself in hell so that the saints of God can become saints, beloved, and can enter heaven through his work. And because of Christ's cross, this psalm becomes reality. The death of the saints of God is no longer punishment. Every other death is punishment. A dreadful one that fits the dreadfulness of sin. How evil sin must be in God's eyes to deserve such death. But Christ went to hell for the sake of his beloved saints, and death has now lost its sting. The New Testament says it like this. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? A little boy was once traveling with his dad on a warm summer day before air conditioning, and they had the windows down. And as they're traveling, a bee flew in through the open window. The little boy began to cry because he was scared he was going to get stung. And so his father, with one hand on the steering wheel, was swatting with his other hand as that bee came past. And he jerked his hand back in pain, and the little boy cried even louder. And the dad said, don't worry. His stinger's right here in my hand. He can't hurt you anymore. Jesus Christ took the sting out of death for those who are his. Another example, death for a beloved saint is a shadow of what it would be without the cross of Christ. You've seen pictures of a car that's been hit by a fully loaded semi, right? Well, imagine that instead of being hit by the semi, your car is hit by the shadow of the semi as it's driving past. What a difference. And this is the difference that Jesus' death makes for the death of his saints. I found an old poem that captures the glory of this kind of death. Let me quote it. It's not death to die and leave this weary load. and amidst the brotherhood on high to be at home with God? It's not death to bear the wrench that sets us free from dungeon's chains, to breathe the air of boundless liberty? It is not death to fling aside this sinful dust, meaning the body, and rise on strong exalting wing to live among the just? Jesus, thou Prince of life, thy chosen, cannot die like thee. They conquer in the strife to reign with thee. high. That was the faith and life that the Lord gave to Clara. Third reason God considers the death of his Saints precious in his sight is that even physical death does not have the last word. You and I watch the devastation of death and when we see a picture of 19 year old Clara in the picture of 86 year old Clara in her last days, it hurts. And it seems so final to us. But the resurrection of Christ from the grave tells us death is no longer final for the beloved saints of God. That same mutilated body that's worn out and laid in the grave will be raised and recreated by heavenly power and made like the resurrection body of Christ. And God demonstrates this in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw him and spoke to him afterwards. That's why the New Testament speaks of Christians not dying but falling asleep. Because God's resurrection promises are so certain that for God, rising someone from the dead is as easy as you and I wake someone up from a nap. Christ awakens his own at his coming. That's why the famous chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 says, O death, where is thy victory? It's only temporary. And fourth, to say the death of the saints is precious in God's sight means the timing and the circumstances of the death of each of his beloved children is carefully selected by God himself. Not one of his people dies a moment too soon or too late. He has wise plans for every moment of the life of his children. And he's in control of the details of suffering and death. He does not leave something as precious as the death of his saints to blind chance, cruel fate, or even the mistakes that we're capable of as human beings in caring for each other. What happened to Clara the last few months was not a tragedy, painful as it was, it was God's way of taking her home. And we have the clearest proof of this in the detailed care of the Lord Jesus of God for the suffering and death of Christ himself. If you read the Psalms, you see that even a thousand years ahead of time, we have very specific, detailed prophecies of Christ's death. And with the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have them before the death of Christ, proving that these weren't written after the fact. The Bible is full of this kind of prophecy. We're not talking here the general prophecy of a horoscope. or a fortune cookie in a restaurant that could apply to any day or most days of most lives. This is very specific prophecy, sometimes dating a thousand years ahead of time. That's why the Bible is the word of God. That doesn't, of course, excuse the sin and hate of the people who carried out the details of Christ's death and the mystery how God can arrange this without being guilty of it himself. We won't get into now. But Christ's death is proof that the death of his own is precious in his sight. And that inheritance is not just true for Jesus Christ, it's true for each of his people. That's what it means when in Psalm 22, quoted in the Gospels, Christ refers to his people as his brothers and sisters. The family inheritance that he has accomplished is passed on to them all. He shares Himself and His God and His Father with His saints. The great Gospel exchanges this. Christ was treated on the cross like we deserve so that God's saints can be treated like Christ deserves. And every beloved saint is precious in the sight of God. And God Himself will carefully plan their deaths. We might not understand always why that grief or that ache or that step was necessary. But all His people may rest assured. that fatherly hands are in charge of your deathbed, not cruel chance. How important it is to remind yourself of this, and how comforting such a conviction is. For if God's hand is not in all these things, what a miserable and comfortless world we live in, an out-of-control world. Don't we all deep down, no matter how often we try to tell ourselves it's just a natural part of life, don't we all deep down, fear somewhat the timing and pain of death. I was teaching some young people once on the subject of death and one young woman asked me with obvious dread in her voice, does it hurt to die? We all wonder that sometimes, don't we? And we all sometimes quietly say to ourselves, the quick death is the way to go. Death is the last great enemy. When you see someone dear to you suffer Your own mortality squeezes you with its fist. And you wonder, will I go through this? How embarrassing, how frustrating, how hard. But do you realize how precious the circumstances of the death of his children are to God? In giving Christ as the Savior and Lord of his church, God has given the secret that extends heaven's smiles over the devastation of death. The fifth way God expresses the preciousness of the death of his saints is that he gives special grace at the moment of death. Death is the ultimate door of loneliness. You have to go through it by yourself. All the sympathy, support, and care, and love cannot take you through the doorway, at least humanly speaking. But God considers the death of his saints so precious that he gives special dying grace in the moment of death. to quote the words of Octavius Winslow, Christ is there at death to nourish any drooping faith and to quench a salting temptation, to tear away a cloud that might darken our spirits and remove the guilt of sin that makes us restless, to ease the fear that agitates, to cheer the loneliness of the moment with the most gracious revelations of himself. Christ walks with his people through the valley of the shadow of death. Countless stories can be told on this point. Missionary named Alan Gardner was shipwrecked on a Pacific island several hundred years ago. The island was inhabited by cannibals. He hid under an overturned lifeboat waiting for the rescue that didn't come in time. And he kept a diary of those couple of days, which was retrieved from his body. He writes, I was so hungry and thirsty. I'm in pain. I don't dare to look for a drink. But the last line he wrote in his diary with his own blood because the ink had run out. I'm overwhelmed with the love of God. John Wesley, Christian pastor, wrote this about Christians at whose deathbed he ministered. Our people die well. And he said that as one of the proofs that the Christian gospel is the truth. The world can give you examples of people dying quietly, stoically, or bravely. but it cannot give you examples of people dying triumphantly. Only Christ's grace and presence provides triumphant deaths. Sometimes Christians hear stories like this and say, but I could never do something like that. Of course you can't, but God can. And God gives the grace to die when it's time to die, and he doesn't want his saints to worry about that in the meantime. You need to concern yourself only with this. Am I walking with this God who can enable me to die victoriously? The last thing we'll notice today about the death of God's saints, many more reasons could be given, but for there are many reasons for the preciousness of the death of God's saints is there's depth in God himself. But the final reason is that God provides a powerful witness to the world and to the families of the bereaved of the in reality. of the invisible worlds of heaven and hell. Graphic, unforgettable power of God and the gospel. It's easy to deny God or ignore him when you're healthy. Then when death stalks you, your bravado melts, and it's God's gift of grace to die that puts the final exclamation point on his grace in his saints. My first year of seminary studying to be a pastor, God in his kind providence put me in the home of a family where the mother sickened and died from cancer while I was living there. Her death was physically very painful. The cancer had, over the course of several years, worn her completely out. But even during her last hour, in all the pain, she spoke so warmly of the grace of God and of where she was going, that even the nurse at her bedside, who provided palliative care as her profession, sobbed uncontrollably. when he saw her triumphant, victorious, joyful death amid the pain. She'd been a fearful person all her life who would have told you, I could never die like that. But in her death, God's grace and strength made her strong. But when you think of all of that, the death of saints is hardly even worth calling death anymore. The deathbed of a saint is precious, holy ground, the final victory. And what a precious God who can transform death into something like this, that's a death worth dying, isn't it? What about you? Is that how you're going to die? You've heard of what God can do and we may believe has done for your beloved mother, grandmother, friend. Can you die like this too? Not everyone can or will, not even everyone who's a member of a church. You can answer this question very simply by looking at your life. If you live the life of Psalm 116, you can die the death of Psalm 116. What's the life of a saint look like? Praying to God, verse 2, being able to tell from your own experience of being desperate because of your sins and sinfulness, and crying out to God to save you from yourself. And he does, verses 2-4. Being amazed at the grace of God in saving. Verse 5. Walking before the Lord in the land of the living. But perhaps my favorite verse here is verse 8. The psalmist says to God, my soul's been delivered from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. What more could you want than that? It means you make God's smiles and frowns your priority. that you want to serve and worship God with his people. Is that how you're living? Then you can be sure that you will die by God's grace, a precious death in his sight. But if not, the opposite is true of you. You know, sometimes people criticize what they call hellfire preaching, and I know what they mean. I don't like yelling and all that stuff either. But can you appreciate how painful it is for a pastor to say this? Death then won't be the shadow of a truck, but the truck itself, the sting, won't be gone. It'll be there. That's why Christian pastors care about speaking to everyone and anyone of the life that's found in Christ. It's knowing the terrors of the Lord as well as the love of God. And the graphic picture you get in the breakdown of a body is only a hint of what's to follow. But God proclaims to you this morning, or this afternoon, I should say, His Son is the able Savior, who willingly hears those who cry out to Him. And if the very thought of such a death crushes you under His Word, then cry out to God, even as you feel the sorrows of death brush your soul, to use verse 3, and you too can experience the life of the saints. that blessed, beautiful, warm, gracious, generous life, and the precious death of the saints. Amen. Let's sing from this psalm. Psalter 426, stanzas 1, 5, and 8. Amen. He hears my voice, my cry of supplication. In my misery, in strength and consolation, in my weakness, ♪ My heart will sing his praise ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ In thy sovereign praise ♪ ♪ Blessing my soul from heaven afar ♪ Cry, O my tears, send your kindly flood flowing, For I shall live, and love thee for a days. The end that's near will bring thee nothing but joy. Let us pray. Almighty, faithful, gracious God and Savior of Clara Strzok, we give thanks for her life, And in light of the scriptures, we give thanks also for her death, for it is a precious, a beautiful death through the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray now for those of us who still have to live in this broken, fallen world of bad news and of the ruin and wreckage of the things people do to each other. and of the rebellion against our Creator. And we pray, Lord, that the beauty and the power of this word from the Scriptures that was the love of Clara's heart, this gospel, might also be ignited in each one of her hearts. That was her prayer, her desire, her longing for everyone she knew, especially those nearest and dearest to her. Lord, please grant that heart's cry and request that she so often brought to the throne of grace and fulfill it even during this hour today. And we give thanks that in a world where death seems to be mostly bad news, that such deaths, such precious deaths are possible by the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, work this kind of a life in each one of us so that we too can die the death of saints. Let not one person leave this place without crying out to God for such a life and such a death. And we give thanks for the Lord Jesus who takes the sting of death and leaves the shadow of death behind. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Our last song will be praise God from whom all blessings flow. And I'm just thinking, some of you might wonder, where do I find the words for that? Page 415, that's the small, so not the numbers on top, but the small numbers on the bottom. Page 415, it's the first stanza there on the top. so Blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures, hear Him o'er. Praise Him, above the earth He o'ers. If you would please be seated again. The family has asked me to read out some acknowledgements and some appreciation. The family expresses their sincere gratitude to everyone who's in attendance today. As I'm sure you all know, if Mom were still with us, she would be overjoyed to greet each and every one of you, just as she enjoyed your company many times over the years. First, we would like to thank all involved with organizing and carrying out the memorial service, funeral arrangements, and gravesite service. There was a lot more to organize than we were ready for. Everyone has patiently guided us through the various steps and provided many suggestions along the way. Pastor Mordyke's direction and emotional support is greatly appreciated. He took many phone calls and, without thought, delayed a trip to Ontario to preside over the service today. It was very dear to Mom to have the service in her church and have Pastor Mordyke preside. Snodgrass Funeral Homes produced the obituary, the memorial program, and made all funeral arrangements. Since Mom passed away sooner than expected, we only met with Charles at Snodgrass for the first time Tuesday morning. They were very professional and thorough and very understanding at the same time. Thanks to family members who helped communicate mom's passing, provided moral support, and made numerous organizational suggestions. There was also a lot of help in filling some of the gaps when we were putting together details of mom's early childhood. And mom was always very impressed with how some of her nephews could play the organ. Special thanks to Trevor Alleman for coming down to church to practice this week and to play the organ today. Pastor Overdoon of the Free Reform Church in Calgary visited Mom numerous times over the past months and will be presiding over the graveside service in Okotoks. Mom always appreciated his strong moral support and was very uplifted after his visits. Thanks to the Ladies Church Auxiliary for preparing the lunch following the service, again on short notice. Always very organized and understanding. And also a special thanks to the Bloom Flower Shop in Fort McLeod. They actually, someone drove up to Calgary last night in order to pick up some tulips for the bouquets today. Beyond the memorial and funeral services, we'd like to thank this congregation for the very important part it played in mom's life over the last few years. She got to know many people as she moved about the province, but always maintained strong ties with family and friends in Southern Alberta. The new relationships she developed with many members of this congregation were very special to her. All of the visits from family and friends over the past few months were very much appreciated. Finally, a special thanks to Clara's sister and to our beloved Tantadini Vinny. Together with husband Tony, they supported mom numerous times over the years, including a place to stay while mom was considering a move to her recent residence in Fort McLeod. Being the two oldest children in the Alleman family, Tantadini and mom formed a strong bond during childhood from the time Tantadini was born. Mom recalled many times when her and Tontadini had to work together to help look after the rest of the children during the war and the tough times that followed. That relationship lasted a lifetime, with frequent visits by Tontadini over the last few months. In summary, thanks to everyone here to make this truly a day to celebrate the life of our beloved mother, Mom, Clara Struik. And also a reminder that you're heartily welcome to join for the lunch, which will be downstairs following now. If you would please rise, then the family in the front will follow me out.