Tag: grief

For Barb and Bruce Bryant

02/28/2014Death Grief and Mourning, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

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Bruce Bryant’s funeral was Thursday. Bruce’s body died on Sunday, but Bruce is alive. His family grieves his passing from this life, yet at the same time celebrates that his days of pain are over.

On Tuesday evening, some of us gathered to pray for Barb. We prayed for God to comfort and sustain her through the difficult days ahead. He is, and He will. She also asked us to pray for those who would attend the visitation and funeral: For believers to be comforted and unbelievers to hear, believe, and receive God’s word of salvation.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” – Romans 10:14-17 NIV

Everyone at Bruce’s funeral heard God’s word about Christ.

Some at the funeral will be challenged by what they heard. God’s word will sound comforting, and they may even want to believe it, but they will stop short of commitment because they aren’t sure salvation is that easy. Or they will think they are too unworthy. We prayed that the seeds of truth that were sown will take root. We prayed that the hearers will understand that grace means you can’t earn salvation; you receive it from God’s hand.

“It is by grace you have been saved.” – Ephesians 2:8 NIV

And, some who were there will be comforted by God’s word. They were reminded that though death seems final it isn’t. Death has been defeated. Death is the doorway into the presence of God. God’s word will comfort those who mourn.

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25 – NIV

Dying and death are real. Every “body” will die, but not every person will. Those who don’t die, are those who have responded to God’s word and accepted the gracious gift of salvation that God offers through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is free to us. It cost the life of God’s one and only Son.

To reject God’s word is to choose to take upon your own shoulders the responsibility for the errors, omissions, failures, guilt, shame, and heartache you have caused throughout your entire life. To reject God’s word is to stand condemned to eternal death. No one has to do that. It is a choice

“I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” – John 8:24 NIV

Some of those alive at Bruce’s funeral will experience death for all of eternity. Some will live forever with Jesus. Where will you spend eternity? How do you know? Upon whose word are you relying?

 

Under Siege

02/21/2014Death Grief and Mourning, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , , , 8 Comments

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A little over five years ago, my friend’s family came under siege. Her husband was diagnosed with cancer. They engaged the fight.

Under siege, you have limited resources. At their disposal were surgery, medicine, wise doctors, time, faith, hope and love. They have used up all the procedures, medicines, doctors and clinical trials available to them. Now, they are hoarding the only things they have left: Time, Hope, Faith and Love.

Time is running short.  The enemy will try to rob them of time together with each call, text and email notification on their phone. To protect each precious moment with their family, they have asked their friends not to phone or text. We won’t. We will pray and stand by in silence. We will give them uninterrupted moments together.

Hope will soon end for my friend’s husband as he will no longer need it. He will see the face of Jesus. He will dwell, in the glory of eternity. He will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Hope gives this family peace today.

Faith will sustain them as they grieve his passing from this life into the next. Their faith is in the Gospel: Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. They trust in the salvation that Jesus purchased on the cross. Their faith is in God’s promise of resurrection and new life.

Love never fails, and love never ends. When this precious family is reunited in glory, their love for God and for each other will grow through all eternity.

What can we learn from my friends?

Time is running short. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. Not you, your parents, children, relatives or friends.

“The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” – Psalm 103:15 NIV

Hope is the settled assurance that what God says is true. Our hope is in Christ alone. He is the promise that sustains us.

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.” – Psalm 71:1, 5 NIV

Faith is confidence in what we hope for. We must confidently believe that the Gospel is true, and act on that belief by receiving Jesus as our Savior and committing our lives to Him as our Lord.

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” – John 1:12 NIV

Love is sacrificial. It is how Christians act toward one another because this is how God acted toward us.

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. – John 3:16 NIV

We are all under siege in one way or another and we have limited resources. Time is running out for all of us. How might you share hope, increase faith, and show love to others while you still have time?

Living In the Present Tense

01/31/2014contentment, Death Grief and Mourning, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , , , , 21 Comments

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Dad would’ve loved this record-breaking winter. Not that he enjoyed the cold and snow, but he was always up for a challenge.

He would have gone out every day just to prove he could. Level 3 snow emergency – ha! That wouldn’t keep him parked. -40° wind chill – ha! That just meant putting on the lined jacket.

Then he’d call to tell me about the brutal cold, the deep snow, how many cars he’d seen in the ditch, how much he slid around, and how well he handled the icy slick roads. And if he fell on the ice, he’d tell me about that, too.

That was the “old normal”… knowing dad would be pushing the limit, and waiting for the phone to ring in the evening so he could tell all about it.

The “new normal” is talking about dad in the past tense. The “new normal” is not getting a call from him. The “new normal” is realizing the finality of death.

That may be our new normal, but it surely isn’t dad’s!

What is dad’s “new normal”? Can it even be called “normal”? Is there anything “normal” about being in the visible presence of Jesus every moment? Of continual praise? Of ceaseless joy? Of pure love? Of a sinless existence? Can we begin to imagine? I don’t think so…

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

What do we know about heaven? We know it’s real. We know that Jesus is there. We know that those who trust in Him will be with Him in heaven when they leave their physical bodies.

“…as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord” – 2 Corinthians 5:8 NIV

“I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” – Philippians 1:23 NIV

We know that we will recognize each other. We know we don’t become angels. We know we remain ourselves.

Can we be sure that we will go to heaven? Yes! The glorious truth is that when we trust our salvation entirely to Jesus and the work He accomplished on the cross, our eternity is secure.

Trusting Jesus means we recognize that it is not about how good we are, but about how bad we are. We must admit that there is nothing good in us. Nothing. Not 80%, not 50%, not 10%, but 0%. We ask Jesus to save us from the sin that enslaves us 100%. We ask Him to enter into our person and live His life through us. We surrender to Him, and then we are saved. From that moment on, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. It is God who saves us, secures our salvation, and brings us to heaven.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…” – Jude 24, NIV

Dad would’ve loved this winter… but I’m sure it can’t touch how much he loves the Springtime of eternity!

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Christmas Lights

12/13/2013Death Grief and Mourning, Holidays, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , , , 15 Comments

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Dad was an early riser, and every year during the Christmas Season, he’d get up early and turn on all the Christmas lights so that Mom would walk into a brightly lit and festive living room first thing in the morning.

Last week, mom decorated the tree by herself, and at the end of the day, she turned the lights off and went to bed. The next morning when mom got up, she walked into a dark living room. The tree was there, the lights were in place, but everything was still dark when she got up.

We don’t like the dark. Children are afraid of the dark. Bugs come out in the dark. Wickedness happens in the dark. And darkness signals the end of the day. For Mom, the darkness is a reminder that Dad is not there. It is empty in the dark.

When we were little, Dad would bundle us kids up and drive around for what seemed like hours just to look at Christmas lights. Mom didn’t usually go with us, I don’t know why, maybe it was too cold, but when we got home there would be lots of newly wrapped presents under the tree! How did that happen!?

However, throughout the years when it was just mom and dad, mom went on those drives with dad. They had their favorite neighborhoods and houses that they’d drive by and enjoy. One of mom kids will take her out this year.

Christmas lights are a great tradition, yet I wonder, why do we put lights up at Christmas? So I Googled: “Why do we put lights on Christmas Trees?” and an article said, “As Christians, we believe that God is the light of the world.”

By putting lights on our houses and trees, we are testifying to the world: I believe God is the light of the world, and I believe that God came down and lived among us. We are not simply decorating; we are proclaiming truth in a dark world.

John 1:1; 8:12 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Matthew 1:23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”)

At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation of the eternal God in the Person of Jesus, who is the Light of the World.

Our Christmas lights shine forth for God because God calls each of His children to be light in the world; we are to let His light shine through us in our words and our deeds. Everything we do as Christians should be done to make God famous.

Matthew 5:16 – In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

During Dad’s final days in his body, he said to me, “If I survive this, my house is going to be a beacon for Jesus!” His body didn’t survive, but his soul did, he is brightly priaising Jesus in heaven today! And his house is shining also! The Christmas lights are on again this year, inside and out of Mom and Dad’s house as they always have been.

This year Dad is celebrating with Jesus in eternal light. We know this because Dad believed that God, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, left the glory of heaven, and being made in human likeness, lived a sinless life, humbled himself and died on a cross as Dad’s substitute — paying the penalty for Dad’s sins —  and then he rose from the dead three days later, and now he is exalted in heaven as Lord over all!

Merry Christmas, Dad!

mom, dad and Dan2

Beyond the Dash

11/01/2013Death Grief and Mourning, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , 4 Comments

Wednesday was my dad’s birthday. October 30, 1934 – June 14, 2013

His arrival date – dash – his departure date.

It is said we live our lives in the dash. Dad lived almost 80 years worth of life in the dash. There was joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, frustration and fear, love and laughter. Lots of laughter. There was misunderstanding and error, sin and forgiveness.

The Bible says a man’s life is like a breath of air – that puff that lingers on a cold morning – and then it’s gone. I think God tells us this, not so much that we will make all we can of this short time, but so that we will understand and grasp the reality of eternity.

This life is short; but only in light of eternity. We will all live for eternity. The choice we have is: where? Heaven or hell.

There is only one way to heaven: You must accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who is, was, and always will be God. Jesus left heaven, as God, and came to earth in obedience, to die on a cross (as God, he is immortal- he was/is eternal, always existing) for the forgiveness of sin. When he died, he carried your sin on his shoulders.

It’s sort of like a ‘balance sheet’. On one side is your sin. On the other is Christ’s righteousness. The books must balance. You cannot pay off your sin. Jesus paid it all. All. Every bit. He died in your place. He paid your penalty. And, therefore, God transfers Christ’s perfect righteousness to your column, and your sin to Christ’s column,

When you accept Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf you receive his righteousness. You stand before God, justified. God is judge and he, in that moment, judges you fit for his perfect heaven. Then, nothing can separate you from his love. Nothing. Not even your own self, and your sinful actions. Your sin has been removed. And your sinful actions have been forgiven.

When Jesus is your Savior, He must also be your Lord. You commit, in gratitude, to get out of the driver’s seat of your life and let him take over.

One of the last things dad said to me the Saturday before he left was, “If I survive this, my house will be a beacon of light for Jesus!” He meant it! Dad was, and is, saved. He bore spiritual fruit. He reconciled with God and with people.

There were a lot of things ‘in the dash’ that may be hard to understand, or even reconcile — but God knew dad’s true heart. And, in dad’s true heart, he loved Jesus. He had the Holy Spirit living in him. Dad told me once that he pushed the Spirit down for a lot of years — and one can only do that if one knows what he is doing. But, in the end, dad let the Holy Spirit have free reign.

Dad is living beyond the dash. Dad is alive. Dad is singing praises. He is free. He is able to be the child he never could be in this life… he is God’s adopted son. He is co-heirs with Jesus. He is alive.