Jeffrey Ouzts Funeral

Welcome/Obituary

Jeffrey Louis Ouzts, 60, of Cabot, Ar passed away on April 8, 2023. He was born on November 26, 1962 in Little Rock to Louis Ouzts Jr. and Shirley Floyd Ouzts. He graduated from Northeast High School in 1981 and University of Central Arkansas in 1985. He retired recently from his role as a pharmaceutical representative.

He was an avid golfer who loved to play golf since his time on the golf team at Northeast. He loved to joke around with his many friends and family; always ready for a big laugh.

He was preceded by his father, Louis Ouzts, Jr. and sister, Susan Ouzts Broussard. Remaining to celebrate his memory are his mother, Shirley Ouzts; nephews, Brian (Sara) and Bailey Broussard; niece, Ashlee Broussard; great nephews, August and Louis Broussard; close cousin, Steve Womack; many friends and extended family.

“I Can Only Imagine”

Message

Philip Yancey, in one of his writings, says, “My father in law, a lifelong Bible teacher with strong Calvinistic roots, found his faith troubled in his final years. A degenerative nerve disease confined him to bed, impeding him from most of the activities that gave him pleasure. His thirty nine year old daughter battled a sever form of diabetes. Financial pressures mounted. During the most severe crisis, he composed a Christmas letter and mailed it to others in the family. Many things that he had once taught he now felt uneasy about. What could he believe with certainty? He came up with three things: Life is difficult. God is merciful. Heaven is sure. These things he could count on when his daughter died of diabetes complications the very next week; he clung to those truths even more fiercely.”

There are some things in life we can count on. The risen Christ in Revelation 21:5 told John, “Write, because these words are faithful and true” — that is, they can be relied on to come to pass. There are some things we can know for sure. These certainties of Yancey’s father in law are as true for us as they were for him: Life is difficult, God is merciful, and heaven is sure.

Life is Difficult

Job, who was no stranger to trouble, wrote, “But mankind is born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). And he wrote again, “Man born of woman is short of days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Jesus reminds us, “You will have suffering…Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). The late Carlyle Marney expressed it best when he said, “The problem is, life just won’t lie down and behave.”

Being a Christian does not altar that. Bill Reynolds, retired professor of Church Music at Southwestern Seminary, wrote more than seven hundred songs. He said he does not sing the hymn, “Everyday with Jesus Is Sweeter Than the Day Before” because it is not true. He says he is much more in sympathy with the lyrics from the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”: “Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down…but still my soul is heaven bound.” Then he would add, “We ought to sing the truth as well as tell the truth.”

When in his old age, Bishop John Darlington lost his beloved daughter. He said, “I feel like an old tree, standing out in a field, struck many times by lightning. The last bolt has shattered me but I’m still standing. My face is toward the sunrise and with good hope in my heart I’m looking to the future.”

If the thunderbolts of life have shattered you, we need to face it: life is hard.

God is Merciful

It’s hard to see that today. We know that only by faith. Sickness and death are products of the fall, but God can bring good and beauty out of tragedy.

The Scriptures say, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). This verse is one the keys to understanding God’s work in today’s world. It doesn’t say that everything that happens is good—it isn’t. It doesn’t say that God causes everything that happens—He doesn’t. It doesn’t say that everything is going to work out well for everybody—it won’t. It says rather that He can take the good and the bad—all things that happen—and make something good out of them. If we are His, we can trust that God is working in the bad as well as in the good that happens to us so that we will become more like His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jeff experienced the mercy of God in his life. Through the ins and outs, ups and downs, he experienced what it felt for God to work. Jeff has experienced the full effect of Moses’ blessing to his sons (a blessing that dates back to at least 3,400 years), “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Heaven is Real

We know that by faith. We know it because God said so and His words are “faithful and true” (Revelation 21:5)—they can be relied upon to come to pass.

What is heaven like? The great preacher of another generation R. G. Lee said, “It’s the most beautiful place the mind of God could conceive and the hand of God could create.” John the apostle, describes if for us as “a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).

A young lady is never more beautiful than on her wedding day. In all probability, more effort, more attention, and more money have gone into that appearance than any other in her lifetime. And when she appears at the head of the aisle ready to walk down on the arm of her father and be presented to her groom, she is personification of purity and beauty.

It is no accident that John uses that illustration to help us understand the beauty and wonder of heaven.

In John 14:2 Jesus speaks of it in this way: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” There is room for us all. There is a place for Jeff, there’s a place for me, and there’s a place for you too. That’s the hope we have in Christ. That’s one of the things about which we can be certain. The apostle Paul wrote the same sentiment to young Timothy: “I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day (2 Timothy 1:12).

So do I. So does Jeff. So, while I know that life is hard, I have absolute confidence that God is merciful and that heaven is real. I have staked my life on it. I pray also that you have too.

“I’ll Fly Away”