MESSAGE FOR CELEBRATION OF ELMO JENE MANLEY’S LIFE
by Michael J Manley
May 21, 2021
FBC, Hollis, Oklahoma
INTRO – I want to thank Bro Glenn Alley, Pastor, and all the First Baptist folks for your love, food, prayers and support during the home-going of Rhonda, Mom, Celeste and now, Dad. What a gift you all have been to us. Thanks to all of you friends and family who have gathered here to celebrate Dad’s life. It is a great encouragement to have you here with our family. Also, thanks to you who have traveled great distances to be here with us. A thank you to the caregivers at Brookdale Summer Ridge in Rockwall. They loved him. When Fran and I went to collect some things from Dad’s apartment this week, the caregivers hugged us and cried saying how much they were going to miss him. But the residents and caregivers were talking about how great that Jene and Louise had been reunited and what a sweet couple they were. Finally, I want to publicly thank my wife, Fran on behalf of our entire family. She has loved on Dad and done so much to care for him. He loved her like a daughter. The last week in the hospital he said you get to know special people in your life, and he pointed to her and said she is one of the most special one’s ever. We want this to be a celebration of Jene Manley’s life – giving all glory to God!
Jene Manley, a Man of Wealth, Work, and Worship!
Jene Manley, physically had an enlarged heart for many, many years. We knew that. But guess what, he also was a big hearted man who was grateful and loved his 1. Wealth of family 2. His work and 3. His Worship.
1. He loved his wealth of family - Some of the family members are going – wealth??? Well, I’m not talking about money. Because family was way more important to him, then money or things. Family was his wealth. He worked very hard to provide for Mother, Rhonda, Celeste, and myself. Mom, Rhonda, and Celeste welcomed him into heaven Tuesday morning and probably both sisters are saying right at this moment, “well once again our brother gets the last word.” Dad lived Philippians 1:3-4 when it came to family. “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.” He loved his family and expressed to me many times in these last years of how blessed he was to have such a wonderful family and just a couple of weeks ago when he and I were in the car together. He said, “I never dreamed I would get to live this long and see and know so many of even my great and great-great grands” Psalm 127:3 “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. He was always ready to hear about another grandchild. His grandchildren would all tell you how he would give big bear-hugs and when you tried to turn loose, he would keep hugging. These last years and even since Mother went to heaven, we would show him videos and pictures of the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. The amazing thing to me was he knew the names of all of them and ask Fran and me about them on a regular basis. I’ve known other grandfathers who lost touch with the names because they had so many. But not Dad. He was always actively interested, was anxious to see and visit with each one and dearly loved all of them. Last Sunday morning, I laid my head on his very emotionally saying, “Dad, we have to make some hard decisions today. They have done everything possible and it’s just not working. I’m so sorry. But we are going to have to call in hospice.” He reflected a minute and said, “Son, we were never meant to live here forever.” The Lord has blessed me with a long great life and a wonderful family. It’s okay.” He had a great love for wealth of family and was very grateful to the Lord for family. By the way, one way he shared that love was making his famous Christmas Candy (peanut brittle, chocolate fudge, millionaires, chocolate covered peanuts, and date loaf.) He would share that love with friends also, as many of you enjoyed some of that. One year since being in Rockwall, he spent days cooking Christmas Candy for some 100 residents and staff members in Brookdale Summer Ridge Assisted Living Facility. Always, he and mother were most concerned that their children and grandchildren would follow the Lord. 3 John 1:4 says, “I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.” They sacrificed much at times to make sure their grandkids had that opportunity to know the Lord and even led some of them to the Lord. I’m speaking now directly to you, grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great grandkids. He loved you unconditionally. You were his wealth of love! Many times, he referred to you not as grandkids, but my kids. And he didn’t just reserve that love for blood relatives. He told me on more than one occasion that Chris Carlisle and Richard Gonzales were like sons to him. And I’m telling you he loved the Faulks, sons and grandsons as if they were his very own. I heard more stories on all you guys over the years than I can count. Like I said, a huge heart of love.
2. He loved his work. I’ve never seen anyone in my life who loved to work more than my dad. Over and over the last five years, he has told me I think I could still be working and shared hundreds of detailed stories about what he did for this person and that person. He told the Cardiologist three weeks ago that he would go to work that day if he had the chance. Another Doctor about a month ago said to him, “What do you like to do?” Dad immediately said I love to work, and I miss it terribly. Dad told me over and over that the Lord had given him the gift of “figuring it out”. He loved challenges. He loved the impossible. If you told my dad something couldn’t be done, it was like saying, “Sic-um” to a dog. He would figure it out. Many of you in this room have called him “Magic Jene”. I’ll never forget as a teenager watching a farmer pull a brand-new farm implement into the front door of Dad’s shop. It had never been in the ground. The farmer told Dad to look over it and to tell him where it was going to break. Dad told him about a couple of weaknesses that he saw in the manufacturing and the guy left it with us and told Dad to fix it. He was welding on a new piece of equipment before it even hit the ground. And of course, there was the time that the Oil Mill Company sent a man with a PHD to figure out a problem in the plant. He told Paul Horton what needed to be done. And, immediately Dad said, “that won’t work” and explained why. Then, Paul said, Jene do it your way and of course it worked. I got to thinking about Dad saying the Lord gave him the gift of figuring it out. My Dad had an 8th grade education. But I would put him up again a PHD any day. He had discernment from the Lord and was full of wisdom. “His figuring it out”, I believe - is the gift of discernment found in Scripture. Proverbs 8:5 says, “Oh simple ones use judgment. Oh, foolish ones learn sense.” If I had a dollar for every time my dad said – just use your common sense. I would be a rich man. Deuteronomy 4:6 basically says, “Obey my decrees and regulations completely and you will display wisdom and intelligence in the sight of the peoples.” Dad not only had the gift of “figuring it out”, but he also had a lot of wisdom. He taught me things about the ministry that were never covered in college or seminary. Some people take in information from everywhere, process it, and then choose what to do with it. They are usually one step ahead and have an almost supernatural gift to determine what will work and who and what is trustworthy. Discernment is a tool God gives believers as they walk through life. My Dad had that gift. In the very simplest of terms, discernment is wisdom. Philippians 1:9-10 – “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” And Hebrews 5:14 – “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” I believe Dad’s work was worship. The passage Fran read earlier speaks to that. Also, Psalm 90:17 speaks to Dad’s love of work – “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands.” And of course, Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily (put everything you’ve got into it) as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord, Jesus Christ!
3. He loved worship – Dad’s worship life began right here on this spot we are on today when he was a 10-year-old boy. Some of you are saying, wait a minute, this building was built in 1960 when you were 10 years old. Yes, but in 1939, this church set up a tent right here on this spot next to the old church on the corner and had a two-week revival and Jene Manley walked thru the dust and grass and trusted Christ as his Lord right here and began his life of worship. In Colossians 3:14-17 “Above all, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” And here is where dad’s love for work and worship intersects. It goes on to say - “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him!” My dad loved to work and he loved to worship singing the songs of faith. He sang my mother into heaven as she was passing. He sang with groups and sang solos in assisted living and even once when he was in rehab sang a solo in the worship service. He sang solos here in this church and in the church where I am presently. I couldn’t sleep one night when they were living with us. So, I got up about 4:00 a.m. in the morning and went to my study. No more had I got there, I begin to hear someone singing. I thought what in the world. I moved into the living room and could hear my dad in the bathroom evidently sitting on the throne and singing a hymn in full voice at 4:00a in the morning. My mother used to say most mornings that she didn’t sleep very well the night before. I told my wife, no wonder, dad is singing full voice in the middle of the night. How could she sleep? He literally sang all the time, working, in the dining room waiting on a meal in assisted living, walking, and exercising around the facility he would be singing. I would approach his apartment door and he would be singing hymns. I am a musician, but Dad sang more in his every-day living than I ever have. And many times, he sang as he worked. Dad was Biblical in his worship. At least 121 times we are challenged to “sing to the Lord” in Scripture. It is one of the most recorded commandments in Scripture. There are over 1,150 musical references in Scripture. But I share with you a little-known fact of his worship life. When I was growing up, I showed an intense interest in the piano at 7 years of age. I would stand at the piano and watch my cousin Marilyn Luck playing and was mesmerized. I begged my parents for a piano. My Dad was making $75 a week at that time. He and mom took me to a piano store in Altus and said pick the one you want. They very sacrificially bought me a brand-new piano. Then came piano lessons all the way through high school and of course as a junior high and high school student I was privileged to be the church pianist right here in this room which many of you remember. I was also director of the 40 voice Junior Choir my junior and senior years of high school. Some of you sang in that choir as children. Keep in mind, none of this was my dad’s idea. He never pushed me toward music. In fact, I grew up thinking he was disappointed that I was not a football player and though I worked in his shop as a teenager, I knew I was not going to follow in his footsteps. So, I surrendered my life to the Lord for vocational music ministry and went to Hardin-Simmons University and earned a bachelor’s degree in Church Music and later on a Master of Church Music at the Seminary in Ft. Worth. But right after I graduated from college, Fran and I were visiting Hollis and the “man of few words”, my dad said to us one day, sit down here I want to tell you something. He then told us how he had felt the call to music ministry as a young teenager, but never had the opportunity to study music and ended up going to work at 14 years of age with only an 8th grade education. So, he said, “I always felt I had let the Lord down by not following through.” Then he said, “when your mother was carrying you. I asked God for a son.” And, he said, “Lord, if you will give me a son, I will dedicate him to You for music ministry.” In my entire life, this was the first I knew of this. I had already graduated with a church music degree before he shared this! He never openly pushed me toward music ministry, he just quietly and sacrificially provided the way and trusted the Lord to speak to me and work it out. So, part of dad’s love for worship was to give his son to the Lord for worship ministry. Fran and I both were blown away when he shared this with us. We wept as he shared it. I believe with all my heart, had he the opportunity, he would have been a worship leader. But you know what, he was a worship leader. Everywhere he went and lived and worked, people heard him singing the hymns of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! Last Sunday night right after we signed him into hospice, he had been quite weak and barely speaking most of the day. But, he said, “I look forward to seeing the face of my Savior.” Then he started humming, “I Shall Know Him”, so I started singing it and he joined in in full voice unlike he had all day. We sang two verses and choruses together and the nurse came in and couldn’t believe what she was hearing. So, Dad sang mom into heaven the last moments of her life here and sang himself into heaven the last days of his life here. “Son, we were never meant to be here forever.” Now, he is in glory experiencing the unbelievable singing and praise before the throne! And I guarantee you, he is right in the middle of it! How glorious! May we stand and sing the last stanza of “Because He Lives!” printed there in your program.
