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There is a Tuesday that I shall not forget as long as I live. Tuesday is always the busiest day of the week, with many deadlines to meet, committee meetings, and conferences with many important decisions to make.

Well this particular Tuesday started out in a most exciting and happy way - the mail brought a special letter from the White House, with the President's signature, commending the Church for its influence and work here in Orange County. So it was a very high and a very great day.

Then, at 1:30 p.m., I received a telephone call from my sister that my mother was suddenly stricken, unexpectedly, was in critical condition, and the possibility of her survival was not good.

A few hours later I found myself on a plane, committee meetings forgotten, important decisions postponed. Instead of future planning my thinking reverted into the past and the panorama of my life unfolded before me...I was one of five children, born many years after Mom and Dad thought they had their family. Their mother felt that her child- bearing years were over, and they had a wonderful family, one son and three daughters. It was difficult to make a living on the small farm, but they were managing. Then came the day when Mom said to Dad, "I'm pregnant." If my mother had not been a Christian and this had been in the 1970's, I would have been aborted! But is was 1926 and my mother was a Christian! So she accepted the unplanned pregnancy with a calm faith that God had planned this child.

When I graduated from seminary 23 years later, my father, now an old man, embraced me and with emotion in his voice said, "Now I can tell you what has been my prayer all these years. When your mother told me she was pregnant again, I went out into the fields that day and as I plowed the soil I prayed to God that the baby would be a boy - a healthy son. I promised that I would do everything I could to make him a minister of God. All these years I have not dared to share this with you, for I did not want you to become a minister simply because your Dad wanted you to be one. I wanted this to be your decision, your commitment, so I left it in God's hands. This is a happy night in my life!"

Now the plane was landing in a winter rain, in the grey, drab, gloomy field at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I saw my sister and her husband waiting at the chain link fence by the little airport terminal. As I walked down the gangplank with my garment bag swinging over my left arm, and my brief case with articles thrown hastily together in my right hand, I could tell by my sister's trembling lips that I had arrived too late to have a last conversation with the woman who was the greatest personal influence of any human being in my life!

Three days later, still in a cold, winter rain, we laid my mother to rest beside my father in the little farm cemetery, just outside the little town of Alton, Iowa. Her pastor, a former classmate of mine, told me that when he reached her bedside she was still able to communicate. (She had her first attack at noon and passed away five and a half hours later.) She said to him in a very faint whisper, "Isaiah 43" and then began to quote as best she could in her distress, "Fear not... when you go through the waters, I will be with you..." And as her voice failed he continued to read...

"Fear Not!

For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are Mine! When you pass through the waters I will be with you, And through the rivers They shall not overflow you! When you walk through the fire, You will not be burned And the flames shall not consume you, For I am the Lord, your God! I will be with you!"

In tribute to my mother, I am sharing with you the same thoughts, as best I can recall, that I shared with her some years ago. I hope that possibly God through His spirit may imprint them deeply into your minds, that you will never forget them. And I pray that with the help of God, these words may return to you at the time when you need them most - whenever that may be!

This is God speaking! It is not a minister, It is not the prophet, It is not a man... It is God Himself through the Holy Writer saying...

"FEAR NOT!" Again and again people say, "If there is a God, why does He let this happen the sickness, the suffering, the death and sadness in life?" God never promises on this earth that if we follow Him, we will NOT have sickness!

NOT have suffering! NOT have pain! NOT have death!

God does promise this to those who enter His Glory, but not on this earth.

God does NOT say, "Suffer not" - He knows there will be suffering.

God does NOT say, "Feel no pain" - He knows that you will feel pain,

God does NOT say, "Weep not" - He knows that there will be times when you will weep.

The Holy Scriptures put it so beautifully. God is realistic. he knows that there will be times of sadness. He knows that there will be times when laughter will not come easily.

He does not say, "Suffer not" He does not say, "Weep notî He does not say, "Sorrow not" Nor does He say, "DIE NOT"

He knows that very person, one by one, will go through the valley of the shadow of death. He does not say, "Die not" "Sorrow not" "Weep not" "Suffer not" -But- He DOES say - "FEAR NOT" This is His command!

In all of your sorrow, your suffering, your struggle, your pain, and in the ultimate last great fight. You do not need to fear. If you can take all fear out of suffering, even pain loses its terrible sting.

"There is a time to weep, there is a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:4

If you can take all fear out of sorrow, then you need never again experience loneliness in your sadness. If you can take all fear out of sorrow, suffering and struggle, you can be strong in the difficult moments of life. In fact, take fear out of the tough trials of life, and these tough, rugged experiences become true adventures in a walk with God. They become opportunities to witness to the beauty of God. They become in reality challenges and adventures with God Himself. They become an opportunity for you to say to the world,

"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. And in due time we shall see Him in His Likeness" Why do we not need to fear? Four reasons are beautifully given in this Scripture...I HAVE REDEEMED YOU! That means, you need suffer NO guilt.

What is the worse that can happen to you? Sickness? Something worse than that! What can be worse than sickness? You say - death? Something is worse than death! What can be worse than death?

To meet God without forgiveness would be worse than death! I John 3:1,2

You do not have to fear meeting God, for He offers you forgiveness "I have redeemed you!" That is the first reason why you don't have fear!

"I have called you by name, I KNOW YOU"

Into these experiences of struggle and suffering and sorrow, God calls you because He knows that if you keep the faith you will grow stronger, even into the ultimate experience.

I have had a deep experience this past week that has convinced me of something, It is only a personal opinion but I believe it very deeply. I believe that when a human being belongs to God through Christ, and his time of departure from this earth comes, God seems to give him that message and with it attendant peace of mind. I think back to many years ago when my father died. He knew what it was to be sick throughout his life; he had his problems in this way.

Years ago he became ill and they said, "You really should be hospitalized for some treatment." The time came for him to go to the hospital and he hobbled, because he was so stiff with arthritic knees. He was a thin, gentle, soft-spoken man who talked very little. He took his bag and walked to the door. Just before he left the living room of our house, he balanced himself on his cane and twisted his tired old body with stiff neck, and took one sweeping look around the room, from the ceiling to the walls. Then, without any self-pity or moist eye, but very matter-of-factly, he said, "Well, I won't be coming back here again." He said it the way an author would say, "That is the last page and the final chapter. I think it is good and I am proud of it." And he left. Only God knew that ten days later he would, in fact, be with Christ.

While she was still in excellent health and had no reason to doubt that she should reach the age of her own father who lived to be 96, my mother called me and said, "I just wanted to talk to you." She called me at my office which she had never done before; it was always home. I said, "What is the matter?" "Nothing", she said, "I just wanted to talk because I have a feeling that I am not going be to here very much longer." I said, "Mom, that is really silly talk. You have more than ten years to go before you catch up with your dad who lived to be four years short of 100." She said, "I know he did, but I am not going to be here long and I know it."

When my mother said this to me, it was without any self-pity, there was no pain, there was no remorse. There was no negative emotion. It was again like a sculptor who looks at his work and says, "It is finished. I have done by best and I am proud of it. Let us move on to the next stage."

Why do we not need to fear?

(1) God has redeemed you! (2) God knows you! (3) God calls you! and (4) God will be with you!

"I will not let you suffer beyond your capabilities. When you pass through the waters, they may go deep, but they will not overflow you. When you walk through the river, it may rise higher, and higher, and higher! And you may think that it will go above your head, but just as you can go no deeper, your feet touch the bottom, It is sound. It is solid! God knows how tall you are, and will not lead you through a river that will overflow you.

"I WILL BE WITH YOU!

The water shall not overflow you...The fire shall not consume you, For I am your God!" That is why you do not need to be afraid! God has redeemed you! God calls you! God is with you! God will not let you go!

In Your Future Is Your Friend, the book I have written on the 23rd Psalm, I tell the story of old Dr. John McNeil who was a famous American preacher. He said, "When I was a lad in Scotland, I used to work late at night and walk home. One Saturday night I worked unusually late and in order to get home I had to walk a long distance, several miles through a little village, and through a narrow canyon where criminals and thieves were known to hide.

This one Saturday night I walked as fast as I could, my heart pounding in my teenage chest, for the night was as black as a wolf's jaw. Not a star was shining. No light was in the sky. I rounded a bend of the road in the most desolate, the most forsaken and the most frightening part of the whole canyon.

Suddenly, there was a call in the night! For the moment my heart stopped. The call came again, and it was my father's voice. It was he, coming out to meet me at the worst part. 'John, it is your dad!' he said. Then his big hand was on my shoulder and his heavy feet were falling at my side...I was home right then and there."

You are home when your Father comes to meet you. "I will be with you."

I want you, if you have never done so before, to meet God in the only way I can introduce you to Him; that is to introduce you to the only person who makes God real to me. God is not just a three letter word! Not just a big abstract philosophical concept!

GOD IS REAL TO ME.

The only way God becomes real to me is when I see Him in a person called Jesus Christ, who said that God lived completely within him. I want you to meet this God in a personal way. Do you want to meet God?

Meet Him in Christ!

What does Christ mean to you? Is He just a picture on a wall? A statue? An ornament? Some people respect Him. Others admire Him. Still others don't even concern themselves about Him. It is not enough to admire Him, to respect Him.

YOU NEED TO KNOW HIM!

Imagine for a moment that you are all lined up along a street waiting for a parade. It has been said that Jesus Christ is going to pass by. As He comes down the street, you can hear the applause. Most of you, perhaps all of you, would applaud Him. "That is Christ" "He is wonderful" "Isn't He great?" But watch! From time to time, there are those who do not just applaud. They break through the rope, dash into the middle of the street, and for a moment they take hold of His hand: He looks down at them, faces close. Something happens between them and then they slip back and once more stand at the curb! That Is what you must do. It is not enough just to applaud to admire to respect to adore, or even to worship. You need to break out! He will get a good look at you!

And he never forgets a face.....or a name!

He said, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37

Some of you still have not really accepted Him because you are afraid of Him. It might mean that you would have to make some drastic changes in your life. You might feel the beginning of an emotion that is strange and overpowering, and, if you allow yourself to go any farther, your emotion might get the best of you. You might even have a trembling lip and a misty eye - and that would be terribly embarrassing. So you had better back off and keep your emotions under control, you tell yourself. It happened one night in France.

There was a Halloween dance, a hundred happy young people were having a ball. Somehow a fire started, they don't know how. But they ran and they couldn't find any exits. In that hall there were doors built for one purpose and one purpose only - namely, to get out in time of danger. But these doors were unseen, they were covered with curtains, and when people pulled the curtains aside, the reporters said early the next morning, they found the doors, but the doors had been hammered shut to prevent party crashers. So every child, every young person in the hall perished. Somebody dreamed of a building, and they planned a safety door... some were afraid of it and hammered it shut.

Jesus Christ said, "I am the door; if by me any man enter in, he shall be saved." John 10:9

Jesus Christ is God's plan to be the door, The door through which you can enter into a closeness with God into salvation into eternal life. into a life where there is no fear at all!

"I am the door! Don't hammer me shut! Open me! Walk through! I will never forget your name! I will never forget your face! You are Mine!

Prayer: Oh, Almighty God, how thankful we are that You are speaking to us through the Holy Scriptures. We thank You, God, for people who, in this very moment, are having a new and deeper experience with you. We thank You for people who, in this very moment, have heard your voice and they are responding. We thank You for Your promise that we never need be afraid again. For the courage to live and to die, we thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

"Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you never knew and do not remember, The other one you call mother. Two different lives shaped to make you one beautiful person. The first one gave you life, the second one taught you to live it. The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it. One gave you a nationality, the other one gave you a name. One gave you talent, the other gave you aim. One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears. One sought for you a home that she could not provide. The other prayed for a child and her hope was not denied. Now you ask me, through your tears, the age old question of the years! Heredity or environment, which are you a product of? Neither one, my child... just two different kinds of love."

Then there is the extended family, which includes the uncles, aunts and grandparents. I want to pay tribute today to my only brother, Henry, and his wife, Alberta. They could never have children. So they were childless through life. But do you know what they did? They opened their home and their heart to all of our five children.

All of our five children are really great. We have had no problems with them. Why? Because of "Uncle Henry" and "Aunt Alberta".

Often in the summers, when I was asked to travel for international conferences and speaking trips, Mrs. Schuller would accompany me while the children took turns visiting "Uncle Henry" and "Aunt Alberta" on the farm. Through the years of adolescence when our teenagers would be thinking of doing something that I didn't approve of, I would say, "Well, what do you think Uncle Henry would say?" I remember how quiet Bob would get when I asked him, "Would Uncle Henry be proud of that, Bob?" And he listened. When you hear our son preach today, remember this. He had a good uncle. He had a good aunt. He had a good extended family.

How do we say "Good-bye?"

Oh, we say "good-bye" when we leave things behind, you see. The tricycle is left behind. The cap and gown of high school or college is left behind. We leave the notes behind. The books we read that we'll never crack open again. We prepare to move. Now, what do you take with you?

So many of the things that you thought were so precious now become clutter. They would only add unnecessary weight. What do you pack? Remember this. You need a passport because you are going into tomorrow and you've never lived there before! Like it or not, you have to say "good-bye" to today... "hello" to tomorrow!

"I shut the door on yesterday and threw the key away. Tomorrow has no fears for me for I have found today."

You don't belong in yesterday anymore! God has something better for you. It is a tomorrow with new hopes! Yes, and some different kinds of hurts. New games and some different kind of pains. What do you take with you? What do you leave behind?

As a pastor, I stand at the grave side and offer last words to the loved ones of the family member who has died. I remind the families that "Life is like a great continent, and we stand on the edge where it touches the ocean. The ocean is so huge that you cannot see beyond the horizon of the water. Our loved one has sailed away from us on a ship and we are here to say ''Goodbye.....î "Goodbye..... ì ''Goodbye....î The ship slips over the horizon and guess what? There is another shore where a shout is heard: 'Here he comes, hello!' Here she comes, 'Hello!' 'Hello!' 'Hello!'"

All "good-byes" lead to a better "hello" in God's providence.

Every phase leads to something better! This week, on television, Ann Jillian starred in a true story, "My Son, the Matchmaker." It moved me. If you missed it, let me summarize it briefly:

A fifteen-year-old girl became pregnant and the parents said, "You are getting out of town, until you have that baby." So she was moved out of her home. She said "good-bye" to the boy she loved. Never to see him again. The baby was born and the orders were that she put her baby out for adoption. She was not allowed to see or touch her baby, nor was she allowed to know who adopted it. "Good-bye!"

Years and years and years passed. Then a social worker connected with the mother, now forty-years-old or more. Out of the blue the social worker asked the question, "Did you ever have a baby when you were about fifteen? And was it a boy?" The woman nodded her head, "yes."

The social worker said, "He's alive. He has traced you. He wants to meet you. There is no trouble. He is married and they are expecting their first child. He wants to know what he is made of. What kind of a mother are you? Will you please see him?"

The mother said, "No, I said good-bye to that!"

The worker says, "Please."

The mother says, "Well, what kind of a man is he?"

The reply: "Oh, very good. Actually he is a preacher and a pastor."

"Oh, he is? My son is a pastor? Okay, I'll see him."

The son and the mother met. Cautious, then tender, with each other. The pastor, her son, said, "I need to meet my father. I need to know what he is like. His height. The color of his skin. I need to know him."

His mother, whom he just met, said, "No. I can't go back to that. I said 'good-bye' long ago. No. No. No!..." Finally she is persuaded to search him out. They find the father. A wonderful man. A good man. He is lonely. He and the mother look at their son, now a pastor. They touch. The love they felt as teenagers, is still there. They hug. He proposes marriage... You know who marries them? The pastor, their son!

Goodbye! Hello!

To some of you I have to say I was wrong a few minutes ago. You have to go back! You said "good-bye" to God and to Jesus and the Bible somewhere, some way. Was it in college? Was it in the university? Was it in a time of pain and hurt and bitterness? You said "good-bye" to the Ten Commandments?

God is calling you. Go back and say "hello" to God... "Are You the God I prayed to when I was in the first grade?"

Say "hello" to Jesus... "Are You the Jesus I sang about?" "Jesus loves me, this I know." Go back and sing a new song unto your God! Amen.

Prayer: O Lord, with You all of our "good-byes" are sweet sorrows. And all of our "hellos" are a new song. Thank You, Jesus Christ, for coming. For dying on Calvary's cross... Good-bye! For rising up from the grave on Easter morning to give us new life for all of our tomorrows... Hello! Amen.