Lois Joy Thomi Funeral
May 20, 2013.
Introduction: We are here today in loving memory of Lois Joy Shultz Thomi, child of God, wife, mother, aunt, friend, and encourager par excellence. On behalf of Diana and the rest of her family, I want to thank you for coming and for all your expressions of kindness and grace.
In recent years I have had the distinct honor of being Lois’ pastor here at First Evangelical Free Church, but a pastor who has known her much longer is Rev. Jack Tomman. Jack is going to come and read Scripture for us and lead us to the throne of grace.
Obituary: Lois Joy Thomi was named after her mother’s sister, but her middle name, “Joy,” could not have been more appropriate as her life was a wonderful example of how life could be lived with joy even in the midst of difficulties. She loved to laugh and made others laugh with herstories, her antics, and her quips.
As a middle child of 9, Lois was both a caregiver to the younger siblings and a support to her mother who was forced to provide for and raise the children on her own. Being a teacher, Lois’ mom taught her children the value of education and the importance of having a strong foundation of faith in the Lord.
Lois graduated from McPherson High School and went to work for Southwestern Bell as a telephone operator. She enjoyed roller skating and that is where she met her husband, Glenn, who she said literally “fell” for her! (He wasn’t very good on the skates). They married and a year and a half later their daughter, Diana, was born. Lois was offered a job at Montgomery Ward in McPherson, where
she became a very successful store manager at the ripe old age of 25. It was during this time that both she and Glenn came to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Glenn later entered the ministry and became involved in mission work. For the next 25 years, Lois worked as secretary, bookkeeper and cook at various rescue missions throughout Texas and then to Wichita, where they served for 20 years at the Union Rescue Mission.
Following her diagnosis of cancer in 1982, Lois found a new calling. At the end of her cancer treatment in 1983, with the help of her daughter, she established Victory in the Valley, Inc., where she worked until retiring in 2003.
Lois’ heart was one of service, caring, and sharing the love of the Lord with those who were facing their cancer journey. Lois was one of those special people who when you first met her, made you feel as if you had always known her and that you were her best friend. She accepted the things that came into her life with a strong faith and confidence that no matter what…she could trust the ONE who died for her.
Her life was a testimony of God’s love to thousands of those whose lives she touched. I’m sure as she entered Heaven, she heard those words from the Lord, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Message: Lois Thomi was a woman of the Book, God’s Word. Even after her health began to fail and her memory was deteriorating, she loved to come to church and reveled in the teaching of Scripture. Every pastor needs a few people who offer him unconditional love, and Lois was one of those for me. I couldn’t be more honored to speak at her memorial service.
One of Lois’ favorite portions of the Bible was the writing of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. This morning I want us to look briefly at a passage that speaks to the confidence she had in the Lord when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, like her cancer diagnosis over 30 years ago. Isaiah 43:1-3:
But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
Lois had explicit confidence in the Lord and found great joy in her relationship with Him. She knew she had been “redeemed,” a term which refers to God’s purchase of His children out of the prison house of sin. Lowell Booker attended the same little Bible Church that the Thomis attended in McPherson. He told me he distinctly remembers the day two drunks went forward in that church and gave their lives to Christ. One was Jack Tomman; the other was Glen Thomi. The lives of both of these men were changed forever that day.
Diana added that when her father went forward and found Christ, Lois at first thought, “Wow, now that my husband has gotten fixed, my life should be fine.” However, she soon came to realize that sober people were broken, too, and need to be fixed. She wasn’t a drunk, but she too was a sinner who needed to be saved by grace. Shortly thereafter she surrendered her heart and soul to Jesus Christ. She experienced God’s redemption. Both Glen’s and Lois’ lives were changed forever.
Lois also reveled in the personal nature of her relationship with God. The Lord says through the prophet Isaiah, “I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Salvation isn’t corporate; we aren’t saved by families or by groups. God calls us individually and we must respond individually. And when we do, our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They are written in indelible ink and they will never be erased.
Then in verse 2 we are given this set of three amazing promises:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
The waters, the rivers, and the fire here clearly refer to the major crises of life. We all face them: a diagnosis of cancer, the death of a dear loved one, the onset of Alzheimers, divorce, a child hooked on drugs. My crises are different from yours, and yours are different from the next person’s. But we all have them.
But are these promises that God makes really true? Well, no, not for everyone. They weren’t intended for everyone. Please note that these promises are made to a certain group of people, to those who belong to God and have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The crises of life do destroy some people; others are overwhelmed by them. But God promises that will not happen to His own whom He has redeemed.
But are these promises even true for all believers? Well, the first promise is not a problem. God says He will be with us and I know of no reason to question that. Granted, sometimes we feelabandoned and lonely, but feelings aren’t facts, so let’s take God at His Word when He says he will never leave us or forsake us.
But what about these other two promises—that the rivers will not sweep over us and the fires will not burn us? I suppose Isaiah has in mind some stories from the Old Testament, like the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River by the Israelites under Moses and Joshua. Or like Shadrach, Meshach and Obednego, three young Hebrew men who were thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace but were rescued without so much as the smell of smoke on their clothes. But those were stupendous miracles, and a miracle is by definition an almost unique event.
Is this something believers can count on today? What about those who died in the World Trade Center? Surely there were a number of true believers among those nearly 3000 souls. What about the thousands of American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of civilians? No doubt there were also a number of true believers among them. What about our own family members who get a cancer diagnosis and die within weeks? How can God say that the rivers will not sweep over us and the fire will not burn us?
Friends, we must realize that God is not promising that we will not be tried or tested or persecuted, or even that we will not die. What He is promising is that we will not be destroyed by the trials of life. God will rescue His children at the right time. Our problem is that we so often think of life only in terms of the time we spend here on earth. But our life here is but a sliver of eternity.
Sometimes God rescues us from a trial, as He did for Lois when her cancer went into remission 30 years ago. At other times He provides ultimate rescue, as He did again for Lois when He granted her entrance into His very presence, gave her a new body and a new mind, and allowed her to rejoin her beloved husband.
The Lord concludes this passage with this statement, “For I am the Lord, your God, your Savior.” When we come to the New Testament, we find that God saves us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Lois Thomi believed that. She knew that Jesus is the only way, the only hope for the down-and-outer, but also the only hope for the up-and-outer.
Just a few pages later Isaiah records the Lord’s invitation to all of us. Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-7:
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare….
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them.
This invitation that goes out to every thirsty and hungry soul, whether a homeless person without a job, or a wealthy businessman who has more money than he knows how to spend. You know, their circumstances in life are vastly different, but the state of their soul may be the same. Man without God is thirsty and hungry. In fact, St. Augustine wrote that there is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart. I know Lois well enough to know that she would like nothing more than for someone to respond to God’s call of salvation at her memorial service.
Prayer: Father, thank you for your promise that when anyone turns to you, You will have mercy on them and You will freely pardon. In Jesus’ name, amen.