Eulogy For Joyce Moore by Rick Gillespie- Mobley
Proverbs 31 Psalms 139:13-139:16 Joyce Moore
At the start of July in 1940, Adolf Hitler was planning to begin the campaign to bomb Great Britain into submission so that he and Nazi Germany could firmly establish the Third Reich which was suppose to last a 1,000 years. Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, in Louisville Kentucky, Adeline and William were expecting the arrival of a baby. In six days, a beautiful little black girl by the name of Joyce was born. Guess which one lasted longer, the Third Reich or Joyce.
God had one purpose in mind for the Third Reich, which was its ultimate destruction, but God had something else in mind for this little black girl born in Kentucky, whose ancestors had been slaves. When God looked at Joyce, I believe God gave to her the same promise that He gave to his people in the book of Jeremiah, when the prophet said, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
In Proverbs 31, we read of a remarkable woman who knew how to handle business in all walks of life. This is not a passage of Scripture that I often use at funerals, but as I read it the other day, I thought here is a description of Joyce’ life right here in the bible. A committed, hardworking, industrious, strategic thinking woman who put the needs of her family and others ahead of her own.
One of the things that made Joyce incredibly special was the enormous amount of support and encouragement that she gave to those around her. She stood as a magnificent oak tree in full bloom with its spreading branches, and many who were in distress from the storms of life found support under the shelter of her mighty outspread branches. There was a sense of safety and stability as you clung close to the trunk of this magnificent tree. She was an incredible woman.
But nothing that happened to Joyce surprised God because God was active in Joyce, long before Joyce became active in God. For the Scripture tells us in Psalm 139:13-16
[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. [15] My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, [16] your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God knew that Joyce was going to be special from the moment she entered the world on July 6, 1940 because He intended for her to be special. But God also knew that He had ordained a specific number of days for her to live, and that He fully expected her to return to Him.
We on the other hand, simply take it for granted way to often, that we will always have each other around, and we fail to appreciate the incredible special people that God places in our lives. We even make the mistake of thinking that we ourselves have an indefinite number of days ahead of us that we can control and determine. But I can tell you with certainty, unless Jesus comes first, we shall all surely die and it will be in times and methods not of our own choosing.
God blessed Joyce with a nurturing heart very early in life. Joyce was born into what we would call poverty in terms of material possessions, but she was always rich in things that truly mattered such as love, family and a knowledge of God.
She was thrust into the role of motherhood far sooner than most in that she had to help care for a family of 10 with all her brothers and sisters. She learned early what it was to be in charge and how to set a budget for various areas of life. Joyce’s Mom, recognized this talent in Joyce on how to make the money work. She put Joyce in charge of budgeting the family income.
We are shaped by the times in which we are born, and the roles we are called to fill. One day the weather was really bad outside, and Joyce’s mother was thinking the weather was too bad for her to go to work. Joyce looked at her mom and thought about the budget. She then quickly went and got her mother’s coat and let her mom know that she was confident her mother would be able to make it to work as she pushed her out the door.
Some of us who think we are poor, do not really know what poor is. Joyce would tell you that the Lord brought her from a mighty long ways. She was 15 years old before she got to eat a real piece of chicken. Before 15, all she knew of a chicken was a back and a neck. There’s not too much meat on those parts.
Every day of our lives we are writing a legacy of how others are going to remember us when we are gone. We asked Joyce’s family for some one word legacies that Joyce had imprinted in their hearts and mind about her. We were told she was protective, loving, bossy, generous, intelligent, creative, spiritual, a doting grandmother, steadfast, historian, perfectionist, and sometimes a worry wart for those she loved the most.
God blessed Joyce with several gifts to offer to the world that she used to serve others. She had a fantastic cooking ability. Her peach cobbler and lemon orange cake were both legendary. Not only did Joyce enjoy cooking for her family, she used that gift to be a blessing to those who were hungry in community. Joyce spent many hours in the kitchen cooking for people in our community who needed a hot meal. Because of her getting started the Feed My Sheep program, hundreds of hot meals are served at our church during the last five days of the month.
God blessed Joyce with a voice to sing. Joyce’s high soprano concert voice would fill this sanctuary with beautiful music. We use to sing the doxology each week. Joyce could put a touch on the final AMEN that was out of this world. I remember one woman from the women’s shelter telling me, each time Joyce would sing that amen, she would feel so close to God. What Joyce was offering as simple praise to God, was actually ministering hope and encouragement to this young lady.
God gave Joyce an incredible musical ear. She could tell you right away if you had the right note or not. She was not going to let you sing the wrong note. She was too much of a perfectionist to put up with just old anything.
One of the true heroes in Joyce’s life and one of her best friends, was her life long partner Fred Moore. They were married for over 55 years. Can we give them a round of applause for showing us what the words, “till death do us part actually mean in the wedding vows?” Fred was 21 when he first noticed Joyce and she was 17 or 18 at the time.
Joyce put on a very special dress for their first date. Fred took her to movie on her birthday. They dated for a couple of years. Joyce would ask Fred many times throughout their marriage, did he remember that dress she wore on their first date. Poor Fred honestly had to answer no he didn’t, so Joyce took it as an opportunity to re-describe exactly what that dress looked like.
Fred went to the service in 1959, and came home on a 3 day pass. Little did either of them know that by the end of that 3 days, they would be married, before he left for another 19 ½ months of service. Fred said, marrying her, was one of the best decisions he ever made. It kept him out of a lot of trouble and temptation when he went back to finish his time in the service.
Although Fred can’t remember the first dress Joyce wore on his first date with her. He can remember the first meal she cooked for him. She did warn him that it was going to be a challenge going from cooking for a family of 10 to cooking for just two people.
Fred was sitting at the table waiting to eat. Joyce brought out some beans that had been cooked in some ham hocks. She brought out the cornbread. And she brought out one other side dish. When she sat down, she noticed a puzzled look on Fred’s face.
She asked him, “Is something wrong?” He said, “Ahmm, where’s the meat?” To Joyce it was obvious where the meat was. It was the Ham-hock in the beans that had flavored, the beans. She then said, “oh you all were rich.” Fred loved his wife, but she was going to have to have some real meat for dinner if this marriage was going to survive. Needless to say there was meat at meal time from that day forward.
Joyce and Fred became an example of a couple who loved each other and were willing to make the adjustments to each other to make their marriage a long and a good one. She thought the world of her man. She included enough money in her budget to make sure that he was sharp when he went out. She even made him two jump suits back in the 70’s. She really touch his heart when she made him some white pants. He was like MC Hammer when he said “can’t touch this.”
Now one of the cardinal sins that Fred would be guilty of was putting on the wrong tie with his suit. Joyce would say, “ Now he ought to know, that tie does not go with that suit.” Fortunately she was willing to forgive him.
I asked their children, “What was it about their parent’s marriage that left a mark on them? They said, “Their dedication to each other, their devotion to each other, their willingness to accept each other despite their faults, and their commitment to making it work”. Their son also appreciated the strong work ethic that they passed on to the kids.
As a mother, they described her as loving, nurturing, demanding, and a mom that spoiled them to death. She tried to keep them looking as good as she kept their father looking. They received things other kids had only dreamed about. I think Joyce may have been trying to give them, all the things she could have only dreamed about when she was a child. Joyce did all that she could to make it possible for her children to succeed in life.
She passed the love she had for her kids straight to her grandkids. Joyce’s daughter in law, testified that she could not have asked for a better mother-in-law. Joyce made her feel welcomed and loved. Family meant a lot to Joyce and the more the merrier. Joyce looked forward to all the holidays with everybody coming together to share a meal. She gave of herself in so many ways to the family.
How many of you, has she helped out in your time of need with some money here and there just when you needed it most? Chances are though, she was going to give you some bit of advice so that you would not put yourself in those circumstances again? Sometimes she thought her way was the right way. She would say, “I’m trying to help you.”.
Joyce did what she did, without the need to be seen or recognized. Fred recalled that one day they had been invited to a banquet for Presbyterian Women. When the award was being given out, the speaker started listing the various things the person had done. Joyce would tell Fred, you know I did that once too, and she kept on saying it to him. It wasn’t until they said, “This award is presented to Joyce Moore,” did she realize they had been talking about her the whole time.
But to truly know Joyce, you need to know the Lord of her life , who was and is Jesus Christ. At some point she heard the call of Jesus when he said, "If anyone would come after me, that one must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [25] For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. [26] What good will it be for a person if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?
Even with all the good she had done, Joyce realized she needed a Savior. So much of the love she had had for her husband, her children, her grandchildren and her family comes from an overflow of the love of God which has been poured into her own life.
Joyce realized that God gave her life, in order to make a difference in the lives of others. She loved not only her family, she also loved the church, the body of Christ, and gave herself to it. She served in so many roles here at our church. She was a choir member, a soloist, a Sunday school teacher, a youth group leader, a cook, an elder, a deacon, the clerk of Session, a bible teacher, and a leader of several church organizations. She was faithful in her giving and gave a full tithe of 10% or her income each month. She invested herself into New Life At Calvary and wanted to see it succeed.
Joyce would often give me some words of encouragement. I loved to see the sparkle in her eye when she smiled. I remember the last thing she said to me the last Sunday she was in church was, “that was a really good service.” One of her friends told me, her parents named her rightly in calling her Joyce, because she brought a joyous positive spirit into my life.
Today we find ourselves in a period of transition. This very special lady, whom God had created, has now transitioned back in the arms of God. As a result many of our lives will not be the same.
None of us would have believed this day would have been possible two weeks ago and yet it is here. Joyce was more prepared for her death, than most people are. It always hurts to lose a special gift, but its never wrong to lose that gift back into the hands of God.
I do not understand the ways of God, in determining the length of our years or the number of our days. We like to think the good people will live a long life and the rest will have short lives. But God never said that’s the way it’s going to be.
God said something far more encouraging and filled with hope. It says in Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. God knows something about death and its purposes that we do not. Joyce was one of the special saints of God. God said her death was precious in His sight. God knows that Joyce’s death was not in vain.
We may want an answer from God, and that’s okay. Maybe it will lead us to acknowledge who God is and what God is expecting of us. Joyce knew God created her, God walked with her, and God called her to a place prepared for her The last thing she would want is for us to be angry with God because she went home to be with Him.
In the bible it says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Do you realize God loves us all, but death will be the final separator between those who are living for Christ and those who are not? It’s not matter of who was good and who was bad. We all were bad, and God wants to give us all the same chance he gave to Joyce . If we do not know Christ, we are condemned to eternal death.
Sometimes we don’t understand when we lose the special people in our lives. But know that It is going to happen to us again, unless we die first. But somehow like the apostle Paul, Elder Joyce Moore could declare the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
If Joyce could say one parting word to us. I believe she would say, if not sing, " As I look back over my life, and I think things over, I can truly say, that I’ve been blessed. I’ve got a testimony.”
Jesus has gone forth to prepare a place for each of us. But like Joyce , we must make a choice. None of us know the day nor the hour when we shall leave this world. Christ has died on our behalf that we might have life. It’s as simple as confessing our sins, choosing to put our trust in the work Jesus did for us.
For in the end, the only decision that will matter is what did we do with Christ. For only what’s done for Christ will last.
To those who do not know Jesus Christ, Joyce Moore will only be a memory. It will be a great memory, but still just a memory. For those who do know Christ, Joyce is waiting to meet us.
For the word of God clearly states, " Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
According to the Lord’s own words, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down form heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. Our God is faithful.
