Alice Collier Funneral

Message of Hope

TEXTS

2 Corinthians 9:15 NRSV

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

1 John 1:1–7 NRSV

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

—> Alice new the light that was her savior Jesus Christ.

She knew the joy and the gift that was Jesus.

She declared it with her words and with her life.

I love to look at our church member profiles before I do a service.

I can learn a lot about a person.

I know Alice gained membership to First United Methodist Church of Longview in 1942. It didn’t say but I would guess by the age it was through Confirmation.

It does say that she is in the group of Professing Members - meaning she stood in front of the church and claimed her faith for herself.

A faith that didn’t stop when she was 13 but continued to grow throughout her life.

When I sat down with Kyle he had her Bible with him. The cover was old and warn. The pages weren’t crisp and white. I noticed the spine was starting to come off and you could see the binding. He thumbed through it and as he flipped to the back the back cover was full of scripture references and not just one or 2 but dozens.

Alice had a faith that she didn’t just keep to herself but as 1 John says, it was a faith she testified to and shared with others.

I see her family. A family that knows the love of God because they experienced it. They knew God at home and they knew God at church. There weren’t many Sundays missed by the Collier family at First Methodist Longview.

Now they may not have exactly been on time and with 6 kids who could blame them but they were there.

There was one Sunday when everyone must have been livin’ right and prayed up that week because they not only got to church on time but were a little early. As the kids came into Sunday school the teachers were sitting around talking and upon seeing them walk in they got up like they were shot out of a cannon. They assumed that they had talked to long and were running behind for class because the Collier’s were there.