My Dad, raised a Southern Baptist by a Christian woman, but currently a very skeptical agnostic, is apparently on his deathbed in Houston/Kingwood. I'm headed out to H-town in just a little while to spend some time with him. I'm going to have to tell him straight about eternity. Please pray that his heart will not be as hard as it has been in years past. If salvation is eternally secure, and assuming he accepted Christ as a teen or young man, then he is safe. But one would not know he is a Christian from the life he has lead (not a bad man at all, and a very good father, but you know what I mean), and I feel he does not know our Lord. His name is Milton Standley. My name is Barry Standley. Your prayers would be appeciated. Thanks! UPDATE, 6/23/08...I'm back from the Bayou City (man, it was good to get back to Texas, though I had forgotten about the humidity). Good news and bad news and good news regarding my father. 1st good: I got to spend some quality time with him, being able to have that last father-and-son heart-to-heart that so many do not get the opportunity to have. I gave him the Gospel, though as I think back I did so rather clumsily, but he seemed to get it. The bad news: when I called after arriving back in CA this weekend, it seemed he had forgotten it and thought that our talk was a weird dream (he is old, 82, with some very mild dementia, and also he is is in pain and on a lot of pain-killers). The second good news: he seems to be rallying and may be able to crank out a few more weeks or even months depending on how these things go. So I may get a chance to witness to him again, as may his own sister, a believer. Thank you very much for your prayers, and please keep him in them. When it comes to theology, I am a weakling: Calvinism or Armenianism? Predestination or free will? Pre-trib or post-trib? Premil vs a-mil? Do prayers really, truly make a diffference in outcome or does prayer just square our minds and hearts with God's will? Has my Dad's name been written in the Book of Life forever, or can it now appear there if not? I don't know, but one of my favorite verses in the Bible goes along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing here) "trust the Lord of the universe to do what is right". So all I can do is pray for his salvation and trust in God. Please pray with me.
