In memory…

“A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART SO HE WENT AND DID ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD…”
I Kings 17:5


It has been a sad and long 14 years since my Dad was called home….June 28th, 2007 at 7:03pm…his hands stretched out towards heaven, and then he was gone.

Though we had been expecting it and, it was incredibly hard to live through…in that very moment it seemed like the rug had been pulled from beneath my feet.

Time stood still and it felt as if all the air had been pulled from my body. I could not stop or change anything!

What a honor and humbling experience it was though, even in the depths of the immense loss and sorrow, to be present at his bedside as he passed.

Dad did not want to remain on this earth if it meant his body was going to have to keep fighting against the illness that was literally pulling away life from him. If that was the choice he had, then he was ready to choose to go…healing or heaven.

I remember so clearly sitting with him the week before he passed, to talk about his last wishes. I could see and feel the depth of sadness that he would no longer be able to continue the work he had started and that he had been called to do.

But once the decision was made, the peace that surrounded him and filled the home was tangible.

There is no easy way to say goodbye to your dad. There is no easy way for friends and family to come and pay their final respects and even have some tough conversations!

Dad walked in utter and total obedience. His life was not his own and he did his masters bidding.

My precious Abba, my Papa, my Dad…Your legacy will be that you did indeed rise and go according to the word of the Lord.

Rest in glory Dad…you are so missed!

Your daughter,

Sissie

PS: I am including some very personal and precious photos of my father and our family. Thank goodness for technology that sees pictures to your phone as we lost everything in the fire that took place in December.

I am also including with permission the Memorial that June Volk wrote and posted in the Facebook group.

Shelly and June Volk were very dear and special friends to my parents and founding elders of the community.

“Monday June 28 2021 🔥🔥🔥 Today we remember Arthur Katz passing into Glory June 28 2007 💜 We remember him every day and miss him more today than ever 💜 He lived for the days we are facing in America, Israel and the world 💜 We honor him today as a father in the faith to Shelly and Scott and countless Jewish believers world wide 🤔 We thank the L_RD for the Great Cloud of Witnesses that preceded us to The World To Come cheering us on …

IN MEMORIAM
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: To Whom be Glory Forever.” Amen
Romans 11:33-36

Arthur Katz passed on into Glory on June 28, 2007 and the earth lost a great prophetic voice and a father in the faith to countless numbers of Jewish believers. A privilege the Lord afforded Shelly and Scott was to be fathered by Arthur into the kingdom of God, and in the foundations of the faith. Arthur was a man jealous for authenticity, truth in the inward parts, and was passionate to see the purposes of God fulfilled in the lives of those who called upon the Name of the Lord.

I have personally experienced Arthur weeping in deep travail over the condition of his own life, as well as the condition of the people Israel, and the condition of the Church.

In the last years of Arthur’s life he suffered in his physical body. Several months before his departure, Inger took some time apart to be refreshed and strengthened in the Lord while Shelly and I tended to him. Arthur amazed us with his stamina displayed in his diligence in the Word, prayer, meeting with the community of believers living on the property of Ben Israel, as well as his communication by phone with saints from all over the world. Shelly was scheduled to speak to students attending a discipleship school in Canada one of the Saturday mornings we were caring for him. Arthur was well enough to join with us for the meeting, and we realized that neither Shelly nor I should speak to the students.

The car ride to Canada was long and grueling, but Arthur did well. When we arrived the students graciously welcomed us. The presence of the Lord filled the house, and there was a deep sense of expectancy before the formal meeting began.

Arthur shared his deepest love and burden, the mystery of Jesus, Israel and the Church. He spoke about the weakness of the Church today because of its failure to reach out to the Jews all over the world, taking heed to Apostle Paul’s writings to bring the Gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He explained with clarity the tension that keeps a human body healthy and why that tension was missing from the Church today. The conflicts the Church would be forced to face by fulfilling their call to Israel and to the Jews would conclude in strengthening the body of Christ. Israel in her hardness against Jesus being Messiah and Lord —if not being confronted by the Church today—the Church would remain in her weakened condition.

The call of the Lord, according to the Scriptures to the Church, is being circumvented. The power and authority of Romans 9-11, as well as the writings of the prophets, was expounded by Arthur. There was a hope deep within his heart for the students to ‘catch’ this vision. It caused a stirring within Shelly and within me to see the Biblical Roots of the faith restored to the Church once again.

The passion of Arthur’s heart was for the apostolic vision of the first century Church to be restored in the lives of God’s people. His message to the Church was for it to be utterly different— utterly the Lord’s—to cry out to know Him—to know His heart— His mind—His desires—to seek after His purposes—not our own. This was the purpose for which Arthur lived. We will miss him; the Church will miss the voice in the wilderness that Arthur represented. He was whole- heartedly dedicated to see the purposes of God fulfilled in his own life, and in the lives of the saints. His passion for the Church and for the people Israel still cries out in both his vocal messages and in his books as well as in the lives of the ones who knew him and loved him.

The message Arthur spoke in Canada was his last public speaking.”

Taken from: The God Who Answers by Fire; A Jewish Saga
by June Volk
shellyandjunevolk.com