Followers

Monday, September 3, 2018

Seeing God Through Joe Elmore


To the so-called believer who said he didn't see anything that said God was behind the finding of Pfc. Joe Elmore's remains:

You weren't there with us to witness seeing the hundreds of people who came to the side of the road to welcome Pfc. Elmore as we made our journey home with him. Some were dressed in their red, white and blue, some carried flags of all sizes, and some stood at attention to salute our hero soldier. Some clapped while others waved. Some even weeped.

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God." Mary did just that. She prayed for 68 years that God would bring her brother home. All the while, she became resolute and unswerving in her task. Through the decades, she steadfastly persisted and as her faith became stronger, she undoubtedly grew closer to God. Mary learned to endure and, most importantly, she never gave up. A faith unwavering and unshakable, that was God working in Mary's life.

I was there on that day when Mary and her husband, Buford, stood beside the casket that rested on the airplane's conveyer belt. I saw her weeping and I remembered how she had prayed all those years. That was my first glimpse of God in all His Glory that day.

I saw Him again after our motorcade turned onto Highway 111 from Interstate 40 at Cookeville and proceeded northward to U.S. 127 at the Kentucky state line and then on to the destination at Weldon Haddix Funeral Home.

Oh ye of little faith, you weren't there so you wouldn't have noticed, like we did, that the overwhelming majority of those folks standing alongside Highway 111 and U.S. 127 were born 'AFTER' Pfc. Joe Elmore had died in battle. Generations of people who never knew Joe saw God in all His glory that day. His message to the large crowds of people who came to see someone they never even knew was, "Look at what I did for his sister, Mary! If I can do this for her, imagine all the things I can do for you!"

I realize the family wouldn't have had to wait 68 years, and Pfc. Elmore's mom, dad, brothers and sisters would gave gotten to bury him, fully intact had his body been returned that December back in 1950, but then God wouldn't have been able to reveal Himself the way He did on August 15, 2018.

You see, God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. I believe God answered Mary's prayers so that He could be glorified. She was an example of Leviticus 10:3, which says "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified."

Thousands of people saw God in all His glory on both television and in person the day Mary and her family brought Pfc. Elmore's remains home. I was honored to be there to witness it myself.

"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." - Romans 11:36

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