Category: helpful

I Still Grieve (But I Now I’m at Peace)

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‘Who gathered this flower?’ The gardener answered, ‘The Master.’ And his fellow servant held his peace.”

It was November 13th, in the year of our Lord 1999, was unlike any day I have ever experienced. A beating with a baseball bat would seem more preferable. On this cold afternoon, hell was unleashed on my wife and myself. What we encountered was soul-wrenching and profoundly tragic.

Perhaps a parent’s worst nightmare is the loss of a child. On this day we lost Elizabeth Grace. She was stillborn, which is rare these days– or so I have been told. She entered this world fully formed, a beautiful baby girl. Today, she would of been 16 years old, and thinking about the prom.

“But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

2 Samuel 12:23, (When David’s newborn son died.)

Our loss was grievous, but we are not unique. Plenty of families have suddenly lost a child. I can truly commiserate with them. Somehow we are connected in a perverse way. It seems like an exclusive club, that requires a secret handshake, or something. Suddenly without warning, you are thrown into personal chaos, and very little is remotely decipherable, even to a believer.

The book of Ecclesiastes that there is a definite “time to mourn.”  Matthew tells us, “Blessed are those who mourn.” He does go on to say. “for they shall be comforted.” This comfort is available for any who choose to take it, but you can refuse it, if you really want to.

Grief unites us, but Jesus liberates us. Seriously. I can’t imagine meeting life without his care and comfort. He has been outstandingly gracious to this family. Sure there was pain, but there was also tenderness and a kind grace. Still, sometimes it felt like a “kick in the head.” (But I assure you– it was grace.)

What I still can’t understand is simply this. What would it have cost God to allow Elisabeth to live? I mean, what ‘skin off His nose’ would’ve it taken to let her live? I still to this day have questions, but I have decided to trust. (I trust Him after all, to save my soul.)

Those who have suffered like me will comprehend and grasp, the noxious environment of grief and loss. But we can only take what we are dealt. The sadness is there, but so is His comfort. Make no mistake, His love matches (or even exceeds) the pain and the loss of a child. Truly, God is a wonder and He is good.

I do know that He loves me, a weirdly rascalish, mentally ill epileptic. He holds me close to His precious heart, and I will have no other gods except Him. I will not take up umbrage with Him on this. But I must believe that someday soon, I will truly and completely understand this.

ybic, Bryan

 

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The Joyful Necessity of Dying Daily

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Photo by Diane Loft

“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”

Romans 6:6, NLT

“There are two things which the Church needs: more death and more life— more death in order to live; more life in order to die.”

C.A. Fox

The need of this moment is critical. Many believers have never came to this point of ‘knowing.’ Maturity comes when one realizes that crucifixion has dealt with the old man. We died when He died, we were there when He died, we were part of that event. Romans 6 is all about a believers ‘co-crucifixion’ with Jesus Christ. Calvary was far more than a religious event— it was where our sin was terminated. It was more than just a penalty carried— it was where our old nature put to death.

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

Sin has no power to sway a dead man. A man who is dead doesn’t respond to a girl in a leopard skin bikini. (It doesn’t matter if she is insanely gorgeous). He no longer can be tempted to sin. Why?  Because he is dead. This is not an issue of semantics, it is not poetic interpretation of a metaphor. It rings true in heaven and it is quite real here on earth.

Sin should no longer remain in power of a believer’s life. We believe that our sins have been dealt with on the cross, that Jesus took our sins from us, bearing them as a ‘sacrificial lamb.’ But the same is true to say, “My sinful nature was also crucified with him.”

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

John 12:24

The principle is from farming. A kernel of wheat will bring an abundance. But it must be buried first. The dead seed miraculously sprouts. At the moment of death it suddenly receives a new life. The dead seed grows into a bountiful harvest. This is the New Testament principle of dying to self. A few things:

  • we are not sinless— we must deal daily with the sinful part of us,
  • this must be taken by faith, much like anything else from God, Heb. 11
  • discipline aids our quest for holiness, 1 Tim. 4:8
  • it accentuates the role of water baptism, it’s a daily reckoning, Rom. 6:4,
  • temptations can be really strong, but He enables us, 1 Cor. 10:13
  • this is a God honoring way to live.

Crucifixion should always be taken by faith in God’s Word and it will lead to resurrection. Crucifixion weakness is necessary for resurrection power. Jesus shares his life with us— his power is given to his people. He shares all that He is so we might become like him.

“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.”

Romans 6:12-13

We’ve been given a gracious teacher in the person of the Holy Spirit. He will never condemn our feeble efforts to be holy. Be encouraged: God delights to make the weakest of us strong. He has done all He can to work holiness into our hearts.

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A Full Bucket

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by Alana Dishong

Some people in our lives were really going through it in 2018 and it has been one thing after another, trying to weaken and wear them out.

You may know who they are, and you may be the one with a cat toying with you as a mouse, the devil is roughly playing and enjoying the torment of the wearing down until it’s easy to take them out.

I have had a very rough year and I am not putting my hardships above anyone else. I started to realize over the past two days there is a strategy being used against some people. I am usually sensitive to other’s sufferings but I have been unusually overwhelmed so that I can barely handle my own stuff let alone someone else’s. That is the strategy.

The devil is a Mastermind of strategies and why take out only one when he can affect two, or even three…

While some people in my life are undergoing heavy blows I am being detained elsewhere and put in a hold. You may be facing this too.

We can make excuses for our busyness but the truth is we are called to serve. I had to repent for my mistake and apologize to some people. Allow this to be my apology if I owe it to you.

I had to recognize that I may not be able to everything but I can do something, and it is wrong wording to say “all I can do is pray” when that is probably the most powerful thing we CAN do. No one should be too busy to pray!

I was remembering Paul in prison and how fear and whatever else kept people who could have, and probably even should have, from visiting him in his desperate times at his end.

While I have had a lot of hardship in my year, I began to look at my mom laying in a bed in a nursing home. She didn’t want to be there. I assure you its the last place she would choose to be. She didn’t want to fall, didn’t want to be incapacitated having no ability to use an arm and a leg! She didn’t want to miss her favorite season and the fun of the holiday preparations she enjoys. She didn’t want to lay waiting while people called off work and make a place short-staffed and crabby. She didn’t want to be alone this holiday while others did their merry things…

I see the strategy where my visiting her regularly was an occupying joy to her long lonely days and how my passing out and being sick and weak through this holiday week was in fact being used against her and others who need us.

People need us!
We can’t be so busy with seasonal things or life in general that we forget people. We may have to restructure our priorities when wrapping gifts takes more value than being a gift.

Or when we visit places where many are and there is someone alone…

We may need to be mindful that there are people in desperate need of who we are or something we have and we get detained in busyness and thereby withhold from them.

May this NEW Year bring a structuring of priorities and putting people before things, and needs before wants.

Pour out for others. If your bucket gets empty, go refill and come back. Don’t forget to come back!

God bless what we set our hands to and our awareness there may be someone who needs you more than whatever has you tied up and busy.

Go fill your bucket and readily pour out by serving in order to fulfill the law and…

Love One Another,

Alana

 

 

 

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