If my memory serves me right, I first met Steve Carpenter in the late 1970’s at a theology conference in Dallas. From my first encounter with him I immediately recognized his profound insights into Scripture and his love for the Word of God.

The bottom line is that Steve was a scholar of the first order. If there is anything I regret about his life and premature death last week is that the broader Christian community never had the opportunity to benefit from his brilliant grasp of the purposes of God in Scripture. But I’m reassured that whatever failure there was by people in this life to recognize and honor Steve, will now be more than overcome in the next. I have no hesitation in saying that Steve is even now being applauded and rewarded by our Lord for his faithful dependence on Scripture and his remarkable capacity for seeing things in God’s Word that most of us regularly overlook.

But Steve was just as committed to the present-day power of the Holy Spirit as he was of the Scriptures that the Spirit inspired. I was greatly helped by Steve in this regard, as early on in my charismatic experience I needed the mature and profound wisdom that Steve provided me.

Steve was more than a scholar. He was a genuine, compassionate, and heart-warming pastor. One lady that I’ve known for 40 years told me of her encounter with Steve.

“At a passion for Jesus conference in Kansas City, I was standing next to Steve. He began to pray Isaiah 6 over me asking the Lord to send an angel with coals to cleanse me. After that encounter I could no longer stand dirty jokes, didn’t want to cuss like I had before and my mind no longer had the distorted thoughts I once had.”

There is always a danger that comes with intellectual brilliance. It’s called pride. But Steve never fell prey to it. As smart as he was, and trust me, he was incredibly smart, he was also a model of biblical humility.

I was always impressed and challenged by the love he had for his wife of 57 years, Jeanne. The two of them were gifts to the other, and they modeled in their relationship the love that the Lord Jesus has for his church.

I loved Steve Carpenter. He served faithfully on the board of my ministry, Enjoying God Ministries, from the first day it launched in 2004. I feel tremendously blessed to have known him and to have sat at his feet to learn more about our Savior.

Steve was incredibly courageous, filled with joy, intellectually brilliant, and always willing and present when someone needed his pastoral care.

One text of Scripture came to mind when I heard of his passing:

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” (Rev. 14:13).

Steve would be the first to insist that whatever deeds he may have accomplished in this life, they most assuredly did not go before him, as if they might secure his place in the kingdom of God. His deeds, and they were many, followed him as a testimony and witness to his love for the Lord and his devotion to the church.

Rest well, my friend!

Sam