A Tribute to a Godly Man

Robert Bailey, the father of my good friend Joey Bailey (family life pastor at Green Run Baptist Church in Virginia Beach), passed away last weekend. Many knew him as "Bob" and here is his obituary, courtesy of The Free-Lance Star in Fredericksburg (found here):

Robert J. Bailey

Robert James "Bob" Bailey, 62, of Fredericksburg died Friday, December 21, 2007, at Inova Alexandria Hospital following a brief and difficult battle with pancreatic cancer.

He was born Feb. 23, 1945, in Glen Fork, W. Va., to the late Oley and Pauline Bailey. He graduated from Glen Rogers High School in 1963 with state awards in auto mechanics. Robert was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat, as well as the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement against hostile forces. On June 23, 1967, he was united in marriage to Gloria Jean Moran of Oceana, W.Va. In 1987, Robert moved with his wife and their two children to Fredericksburg to work at Ourisman Chevrolet in Marlow Heights, Md., where he faithfully labored for 20 years. Robert's life had long been defined by his commitment to Jesus Christ. He was a loyal husband and loving father. He was a man of great strength, courage, and commitment to both his home and his church. Robert's loyalty and strength were matched by a heart always willing to help some one in need. Countless peo ple have benefited from his life throughout the years. Robert would be quick to give credit to God. He was a faithful member of Chancellor Baptist Church in Fredericksburg.

The three greatest attributes of Robert's life were his strength, love, and commitment.

Robert is survived by his wife, Jean; his son and daughter-in-law, Joseph and Stephanie Bailey of Virginia Beach; his daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Paul Thompson of Fredericksburg; four grandchildren, Jordyn, Grace, Nathan, and Emerson, who all knew him as "Pappy" and were his greatest joy; and his brother and sister-in-law, Rick and Freda Bailey of Glen Fork.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 24, at Chancellor Baptist Church. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the church. An additional service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 26, at Palm Memorial Garden, Matheny, W.Va., with visitation one hour prior to the service.

Date published: 12/23/2007

Were it that even half of that could be said about us when we passed--a life of service, dedicated to God, and loved by his family. May we weep with those who weep, yet rejoice in knowing that our brother has gone on to the Lord.

Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week....

Ever have one of those weeks where it all seems to happen at once? I had two Christmas gifts for my wife get messed up in some way and that was frustrating, and yesterday I was in court until 12:45 (the docket started at 10:00AM) because I had to wait for an interpreter to show up who spoke Farsi. That's right, Farsi. It's apparently a Persian language of some sort.


And now for something completely different (and for all of you who have ever had one of those weeks), here's a great clip from one of my favorite comedies, Airplane:

The Heid Speech

Since I now know how to post videos, I HAD to post this clip from So I Married an Axe Murderer. Before Mike Myers played several characters in the Austin Powers movies, he played both the character Charlie and Charlie's dad Stuart in the movie.



The thing I wonder is if Anthony LaPaglia's (the guy sitting to Mike Myers' left) laughter is actually him trying to keep from busting out laughing.

The Birth of Grace

It's the Christmas season, and I love this season for so many reasons. One of them is the music--I LOVE Christmas songs and hymns (we honestly have at least 25 Christmas albums of some kind). I was on the road to court listening to one of my favorite albums, City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time and the song that Caedmon's Call sings on that album is "Babe in the Straw."

I had listened to the song several times, but when I was listening to it the other day, the words in the chorus struck me:

and if we lose sight of your sweet face
at the birth of grace, at the birth of grace
light of truth shine like Bethlehem's star
lead us to where you are, show us who you are

I've been reading a lot in the Old Testament for my nightly Bible reading (I just finished Ezekiel and if that doesn't put a fear of God into you, I don't know what will!). In Reformed doctrine, we often talk about the Old and New covenants and how God ordained the Savior to come as He did, and how Christ is the eternal priest before God and mediator on our behalf.

But there's something at work in the transition between the covenants as well--notice that before Christ the people of God had to continually make sacrifices to God that were of an appeasing nature but did not ultimately satisfy the holiness of God. God's attitude towards Israel--His own people--had to be one of mercy. Mercy is often defined as having leniency towards another when wrong has been done, in other words, on the receiving end, not getting what you really deserve when you wrong someone else. God, in His forbearance, showed mercy to the Israelites time and again, pulling them out of their slavery to other peoples and saving them on the battlefield.

But they would sin against the Lord and grieve Him, over and over. But He mercifully brought them back until ultimate salvation could be achieved--this was GRACE. That God sent His only Son to earth to be born of a virgin, live a perfect, sinless life, and die on the Cross for the sins of the elect, whom God had ordained to save. At the birth of Christ, grace prevailed--the Lord would no longer need to show His forbearance toward His people because Christ as Savior wore the mantle of God's Holy wrath against our sin on the Cross while at the same time being the perfect and eternal sacrifice that satisfied God's justice and holiness.

The Lord still shows mercy to whom He will show mercy, but not as much in the overarching way that He had to show forbearance to His people in the Old Testament. Grace now prevails in that it gives us what we cannot earn for ourselves--eternal salvation and righteous standing before the Father. And this was all guaranteed by the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.

So this Christmas season, celebrate the birth of Christ, for it was the birth of grace!

My First Trial is Over!

I had court this morning about 3 hours away at 8:30 (which means I woke up at 4 and left at 5 AM), and that wasn't too bad.

But I had a trial today back here in the Valley that I have really not been looking forward to for a couple of weeks--the opposing counsel was actually being considered for a judgeship, and I really didn't know how it was going to pan out.

I got back from my morning court date around 12:30 and stopped by my office to make some copies, but I was otherwise unable to do ANYTHING before I left because all I could think about was the upcoming trial in town at 2:00.

They put on their case, I put on mine and at the end of the day, I got judgment in favor of my client (the defendant, so it was dismissed). I was thrown a couple of curves during the trial and I honestly didn't think we'd come out victorious, but God was faithful in giving me favor with the judge. It feels so good that it's over now, and I'm glad I was able to get a good result for my client.

My boss even let me go home a little early since I'd been up for about 12 hours, which was nice. I think my wife and I are going out to eat tonight to celebrate, which should be fun.

And as an example that it's not like what you see on TV, the opposing attorney came over after the case was done and congratulated me, telling me I did a good job. Don't believe what you see on television--the bar (what we call the group of attorneys that practice before the courts) is on the large whole a great group of men and women of integrity who you can argue with before the judge but yet after court go grab a bite to eat with or play golf with on the weekend. Most people think that we're mean to each other and that somehow helps them in their case, when in fact it does quite the opposite--if opposing counsel have good rapport, it makes any litigation go much smoother (or may even prevent it--good attorneys aren't deliberately trying to delay or make it difficult for the other side). Being an attorney is a privilege (which I could tell you by the fact that the Bar is quite busy policing itself and takes infractions VERY seriously) and I consider it a privilege to be counted among them.