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A great man went to be with the Lord this week, full of years after an extraordinary life. Cotton Bagwell got more front page ink in the Asheville Citizen-Times than anyone in reader memory, and on Saturday, January 8, 2005, a grateful community paid its respects at Woodland Hills Baptist Church in Weaverville. His son, my friend Ken Bagwell, host of Heads Up America on WZNN Supertalk 1350, invited me to speak at his memorial.
Eulogy:
Lincoln
said at Gettysburg, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here...” We can all learn from Cotton’s life. Mentoring youth was his life’s work, a noble calling. Cotton’s boss when he served his country in the south Pacific during WW II, General Douglas Mac Arthur said, “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds, that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.” Cotton came home to a grateful nation after that most devastating war in history and became a sower of those seeds. He sowed them among the diamonds of western North Carolina…baseball diamonds. He took rough lumps of coal, young mountain manhood and polished and pressed them till they shined like diamonds. He taught them a boy’s game, with his own undiminished boyish enthusiasm, and in the process taught them the game of life: how to win with humility and how to loose with grace; how to give the game, be it baseball or life, your all and entrust the outcome to the providence of God; how to suffer the slings and arrows on the fields of friendly strife, so that later, if called, they might endure the bombs and bullets of the killing fields and bear the fruits of victory, that our great nation might always breathe the fresh air of freedom. A teacher and coach can do more good for mankind and impact more lives for good than any other calling. Shaping young minds while they are still malleable is so crucial for our culture, and its current darkening trend demonstrates just how desperately we need more Cotton Bagwells. They
say he got his name because of the color of his hair, but it reminds me of that
great puritan preacher and pre-revolutionary intellectual who had such a
profound impact on our nation’s founding fathers.
His name was Cotton Mather and he was known for his fiery passionate
sermons and his joy in the Lord. Cotton Bagwell demonstrated his joy in the Lord
with a different sermon. His sermon
was the life he lived, which, for all of us, speaks louder than any words we can
ever muster. He was part of the John Wayne era in America, just like my dad,
where real men were the strong silent type who could say more with one look than
today’s girly-men can say in paragraph. A generation of western Carolina men
and women speaks to the worth of his life and the mark he left, by God’s
grace, on this world. Let us use these few sad minutes this morning to talk about fundamentals, as Cotton might say. Let us apply our hearts to wisdom, to rededicate our lives to the cause of Christ, and God willing, for those here who may not know the Lord in a saving way, perhaps this could be the start of a sanctifying pilgrimage to glory. Cotton might call it a pre-game locker room talk, and I hope…I think, he would have approved. It is what I would want at my homecoming celebration. In my war, I flew a Super Sabre, a swept wing angel of death. Now I’m a foot soldier for a Super Savior, fighting for the eternal life of souls. In those early days of combat, we used to say, “If you’re gonna get taken out, take as many with you as you can.” Now in these days of spiritual warfare we know that we are all going to get taken out and the same rule applies. When I cross that river, I want to take as many with me as God is pleased to allow. They can even come later, if God wills. Just so they come. An old hymn that Charles Spurgeon loved to recite should be the plea of every human heart to our merciful God: Abide with me from morn till eve, For without thee I cannot
live; Dear
friends, you dare not die without Christ. A
deathbed is a torturer’s rack without the saving knowledge of your Lord and
Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And an
eternity of the horrors of hell is too terrifying to contemplate, but
contemplate it you better if that is what it takes to drive you to your knees at
the foot of the cross. The Apostle Paul told the Romans, There is no one
righteous, no not one... (Rom. 3:10). But
we may acquire Christ’s righteousness by a simple accounting function.
On the cross the sins of believers were debited to Christ…and
His righteousness was credited to them. Debits equal credits, as any accountant
knows, and the books are balanced for those who have faith in Him. And
in the case of God’s accounting for Christ’s work on our behalf, the books
are balanced for eternity. What
does this faith look like? It
consists of two parts: 1.) sure knowledge that what God has revealed in His Word
is true—absolute truth—and 2.) firm confidence that God has granted you
forgiveness of sins and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of
Christ’s merits, not yours. Such faith will drive you to change your life
because you will want to change your life. In
the darkest days of the Civil War, Abe Lincoln said he was often driven to his
knees by the overwhelming conviction there was no place else to go.
With this faith you will be driven to go to church on Sunday because of
the overwhelming conviction there is no place else for you to go.
You will be driven to spend time in His Word, and your eyes will see
things there you never saw before. Formerly
obtuse scripture will enlighten the darkest corners your mind, because God has
opened your eyes to his truth and His Holy Spirit, dwelling in you, has given
you wisdom. The grace that chose you
will make you obedient to Him and this God-given faith will see you through to glory.
He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion (Phil. 1:6).
That’s a guarantee at the highest level of authority!
In spite of your doubts, recurring rebellion, backslidings, repetitive
sins, crocodile-tear repentance, alienating affections, less faith than a
mustard seed and puny efforts to live like Jesus in a fallen world…in spite of
all this, He who began this gracious work in you will not fail or change his
mind. He will bring you home to be
with him in glory. |
Job,
one of the wealthiest men in the Old Testament, said that in utmost piety when he
lost it all—seven sons and three daughters, his servants and all his
herds…slaughtered in a day.