Today is a day of the year I tend to dread the most. There are others, but June 28th is significantly hard. Today is 15 years since Dad was called to heaven.
It comes like a terrible storm that builds up in the sky. The clouds gather and darkness follows as lightning flashes, thunder rolls then the rain and hail fall.
But then the winds come, possibly with is a tornado… ready to drop and devastate with little or no warning, leaving carnage and loss it’s path, those who are left stand in sadness and dismay.
That’s how today feels every year. I do not celebrate today that my Dad is in heaven, though I do feel immense relief that his body is no longer suffering from the disease that robbed his life.
I do not celebrate, as I grieve deep in my heart, often in silence but with a deepness that no one can really know or understand. I think of him daily. Today I hold him even closer in my heart and the memories I have of my dad, my papa, my abba be like a healing oil with each tear shed.
He died with praise in his heart and in his body, his hands literally lifted to the heavens in worship moments before he past. The storm came, destroyed my heart, and left the dark and intense silence that always follows.
He died serving Jesus, and in doing so, serving you. To see many come to know and understand the Lord more was his passion! He dedicated his life to teaching, preaching and sharing. Even in his death, his voice still can be heard.
“So he went and did according to the word of the Lord”…that is what Dad wanted engraved on his headstone. That was his life. That, was his calling. Many have experienced what it was like to hear from my Dad. He was a treasured vessel filled with the moist amazing and fragrant oil, poured out on others. For me, I will do my part to keep his legacy alive.
We need to follow that path that was started and in his memory and to honor him, rise and press on with the work He has set before us, no matter what storms may come.
So where are we at after 15 years, a full update is being written and we look forward to sharing with you in the near future.
In His grace,
Sissie
The following is shared from a post made by June Volk.
Today we celebrate the life of Arthur Katz who departed from the earth 15 years ago today.
Shelly and I miss him every day and look forward to seeing him again.
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 to 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 of Israel, and the condition of the Church.
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 to 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 the 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 the Messiah and Lord—of 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 Roman 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 wholeheartedly 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.
A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
“SO HE WENT AND DID
ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD”
I Kings 17:5
An excerpt from The God Who Saves by Fire, a Jewish Saga written by June Volk.
