Linda Betts Funeral Service
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Linda Betts Funeral Service
Linda Betts Funeral Service
Linda Darlene (Thomas) Betts, 67, of Waldorf, MD
Born ____________ died Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at Fairfax Inova Hospital.
Daughter of the late Rodrick E. Thomas and Annabelle Thomas,
Linda was born in Spangler, Pa and raised in Bradbury Heights, Md.
She was a graduate of Suitland High School and had completed some coursework from the University of Maryland.
Linda was retired after many years of civilian service to the U.S. Navy, Impressively, Linda began as a secretary without a college degree and worked herself up to Enterprise Webmaster for Commander Naval Installations Command.
She especially loved taking care of her family, travel (especially cruises), and being in the ballpark for Blue Crabs games.
She is survived by her husband David E. Betts, son Steven E. Betts, daughter Jennifer Betts Shettle, son-in-law R. John Shettle, and grandson Ethan E. Shettle, all of Waldorf. She is also survived by her mother in California, MD, sisters Mary Ann Cook and her husband Tom of Charlotte Hall and Brenda Besore and her husband Bruce of Baltimore, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.
She is survived by her husband David E. Betts, son Steven E. Betts, daughter Jennifer Betts Shettle, son-in-law R. John Shettle, and grandson Ethan E. Shettle, all of Waldorf. She is also survived by her mother in California, MD, sisters Mary Ann Cook and her husband Tom of Charlotte Hall and Brenda Besore and her husband Bruce of Baltimore, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.
From my time that I knew her, two words that I would use to describe her are generous and gracious. These are two words which display an depth of love in a person. Her generosity often displayed in how she loved to take care of her family and her graciousness displayed in how she remained thoughtful of others in a caring manner.
David (her husband) has been saying a quote that says, “Memories are given so that we can have roses in December.” Memories are indeed so important now at this time and throughout life. Those special memories that can make us smile in the midst of tears, and hope in the midst of despair. But memories are not meant to be merely about the past, if they were then they would be to heavy to bring a smile, and to final to bring hope.
You see when the word “remember” is used in the Bible, it has a three fold implication.
First, you remember what has been. God blessed Linda with a life and in that life He blessed her with the knowledge of the life that was in Him and the life that is found alone in Jesus Christ. God blessed her in this life with family and friends and with countless memories with all of you. Life was real, joy was true and love sincere.
Secondly, you remember the present. That is to say, that the same God who gave you those wonderful memories of yesterday is still the same God today. That same God who loved Linda and brought her to the saving knowledge of His Son Jesus is loving her right now and has brought her into the fulness of His presence. Linda right now is in the presence of all mighty God and is lacking nothing. We here are grieving, but she is alive and well with the Lord, though absent from the body, present with the Lord. So even though right now we are mourning a separation, we remember where Linda is and we have hope knowing that the separation is only temporary.
Third, we remember the future, that is we live mindful of what truly lay ahead for those who belong to God and abide in HIm. And that my friends which lay ahead is glorious. All separation, all pain, all death is removed and the fullness of life in the full presence of God with no lacking and joy complete is the Christians for all eternity.
These are the stages of remembrance in which remembering becomes a minister of great hope. But these stages are all built upon ones faith. Linda had a necklace with a mustardseed in it as a reminder of the words of Christ...
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
This is not a call for self belief or for “mustarding” up enough faith. This is a statement calling for simple trust in God. If you simply believe that God is who God says that He is, then nothing can hold you down. Your example is before you today: as mortals there is no bigger mountain that we face than death, but I tell you today that Christ has moved that mountain. Death is not the end! Linda, though her time her is over, her life is only just begun. By her faith in Christ that mountain of death has been moved, it could not hold her down and my friends this morning if we look to Christ then it cannot hold us down either. Yes we grieve, but as God tells us, not as those without hope. We have a great hope, a secure hope, a lasting hope that is stronger and will outlast our grief.
God is a righteous God. He is a good God and we must trust in Him espessially in times of grief.
God has said in his word:
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The righteousness of God - the rightness of God - The correctness of who He is and how he moves is revealed from faith:
Linda believed that we must be mindful of our faith in Christ and this morning we are mindful of her faith and how it has lead her to the joyous and safe presence of Christ. Her faith displayed to us that our faith might be strengthened that we might walk rightly through this difficult time. How? By faith. The righteous live by faith. Not by being tough, not by being lost in despair, not by being bitter, but by remembering and trusting in God.
When it’s hard to breathe, when its hard to get out of bed, when new memories are being made and you think of if Linda, turn your hearts and minds to God and remember that He is good and the family reunion is yet ahead when all of the memories past, present and future will come together as we march unto eternity.
With this I would encourage you to think of some of those memories and during this song, thank God for them. Yes grieve, but look to Jesus. In times of grief we can feel so lost, but Jesus came to seek and save the lost, so turn to Him now and ask Him to give you that faith, that faith that enables us to repent and turn to Him and have hope in the midst of grief. As you think of past memories, I encourage you to ask, what about now? What do you know about the Jesus that Linda is with now. Is your faith in Him? Ask what about the future? Are you trusting in Christ - will you be at that great reunion as Linda will be. As you go through those questions oh the joy that comes when you can smile about the past, be thankful for the care of God now and look forward to what is to come. So let us now remember well our beloved Linda.
Internment Message
Internment Message
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
The eternal God is your dwelling place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy before you
and said, ‘Destroy.’
Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
In the cover of your presence you hide them
from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter
from the strife of tongues.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
1 Thessalonians 4:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:
1 Corinthians 15:50
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
So now as the Almighty has seen fit to take unto Himself the soul of our departed beloved Linda Betts, we commit Linda’s body to this place prepared forit; that ashes may return to ashes, dust to dust, and the imperishable spirit be with the Lord as we looking forward to the general resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the perishable bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed, and made like unto His own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.