Tuesday's Trust - "Do you ever wish you would just die too?"

Our dog, Prissy, feeling "dead to the world"!

Tuesday's Trust

"Do you ever wish you would just die too?"

"Do you ever wish you would just die too?"

my client asked me last week, having lost his own child, and now years later, his wife and his step-child...

"No," I said.

"Rather, I ask God, 'How am I to live when I feel so dead?!'"

My clients response to me was,

"Do you think it's important to be broken?"

I answered simply, "Yes!"

...But as I'm reading scripture today, I read God's more elaborate answer through his apostle Paul to my client's earnest question:

"We always carry around in our body

the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus

may also be revealed in our body."

So, now I would add to my answer

"Yes, it is important to be broken!

If I'm not given over to death for Jesus' sake,

then His life would not be revealed in my mortal body!"

(Life is not all about me! It is about Jesus IN me, the Hope of Glory!)

The apostle Paul explains further:

"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

"So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you!"

"We... are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you

can answer those who take pride in what is seen

rather than what is in the heart.

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again."

~2 Corinthians 4:12, 5:12b,14-15

So... what am I waiting around for???

I know complete healing will not come while I am still on this earth.

I WILL feel dead, because my child died AND because I have identified with Jesus on the cross.

But feeling dead is okay, for God's word says that is when the LIFE OF JESUS MAY ALSO BE REVEALED IN OUR BODY!"

(~2 Corinthians 4:10-11)

~Colossians 1:24-27 reads...

"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness--the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is

Christ in you, the hope of glory."

All Scripture from The New International Version of God's Holy Word

Tuesday's Trust - Are We Victims... or Tools in the Hands of the Master?

Tuesday's Trust

Are We Victims...

or Tools in the Hands of the Master?

Jesus' sufferings

Jesus suffered throughout his earthly life. Jesus did not only suffer at (His) death or under Pontius Pilate (as the Apostles' Creed says). He suffered

• at His birth in a poor stable,
• when He was a refuge from Herod,
• in the misunderstandings of His family,
• when the disciples were unable to comprehend Him and His mission,
• in His homelessness and fatigue,
• from the incessant pushiness of the crowds and the constant critique of the religious leaders, and so forth. Similarly we diminish His sufferings on the cross when we limit them to the physical or even the spiritual.
• Imagine the emotional weight of bearing all our accusations and rejections, the sin of the whole world -- of being for our sake... made to be sin {He} who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Envision the temptations hurled along with the scorn and abuse of the bystanders; why not take again Your divine power and hurl a few lightning bolts at them?

We don't want to ponder the extent of Christ's afflictions because we don't want to bear them ourselves. We are like Peter rebuking Jesus for forecasting the fullness of His agony. Peter wanted a triumphant Messiah, not One calling him to follow Him into hardship.

...Oh, Jesus, don't let this happen to You -- because, if we follow You, we will be called to divest ourselves of comfort and warmth, to find ourselves in a cattle stall, a place of muck and cold, humility and poverty and persecution.

~Marva Dawn

Jesus wept over his best friend dying.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem not responding to Him ~ How I longed to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you were unwilling...

Was Jesus a Victim?

So, would Jesus be considered a victim? Nowadays we call people who go through such torment, persecution, grief, and ridicule, "victims."

Scripture says Jesus suffered the cross and the shame of the cross for the JOY that was set before Him...to be seated at the throne at the right-hand side of His Father. He suffered, not because He had to, but He chose to be obedient to His Father to complete God's will for us.

Can we suffer the desperate void left by her loss for the JOY of reuniting with her that is set before us?

Our son Nathan's view of his baby sister who was not only a sister, but a very best friend to him, is

"God knew the one thing I wanted the most for my little sister was for her to go to Heaven. And even though it may take a lifetime of (my) suffering (from) her not being here, I'll gladly accept it knowing she's in paradise, (awaiting) me to join her."

~Nathan Prince

*****

Is our weakness and suffering a tool in the Master's hands for a greater love for our child than we can imagine?

Is our debilitation actually a tool used for more spiritual empowerment in the hands of Creator God?

Is our weakness possibly a part of the "ground-wire" for God's earthly circuit to His resurrection power?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus informs us that it is only the poor in spirit, the meek and the mourners who will see the kingdom of God (and its King) break into their lives.

~John of Ruysbroek

Perhaps Jesus has a different set of scales or a different standard of weights by which He measures the weakness we carry around with us everyday in our child-loss grief. May He realign our values to fit with His so that our lives become His vessel for what is more important for eternity than for what is needed for our present happiness and comfort.

May we trust Him to use us in His ultimate eternal plan. And may we trust Him in the weakness of our grief's stupor ever to carry us...

Tuesday's Trust - Since Life on Earth is a "Blip" in Time

Tuesday's Trust

Since Life on Earth is a "Blip" in Time...

For each of us, life on earth is a "blip";

May we spend our time packing for our trip,

Where we take nothing with us but what we can't see...

But Love giv'n away is Heavenly "gold."

The only thing that counts in the Heavenly

Is love planted in each fellow-man's soul.

(Lord,) The love You've poured into my broken soul,

Pour into others; draw them into Love's fold.

Our last years on earth; may we not chase Fools' Gold:

(The lures of the earth: Satan's centerfold!)

As God made the oceans, yet contained them,

The pow'rs in this earth...may He constrain them

To keep our eyes fixed on the goal

Of loving Him and loving each man's soul...

As death has come and split my world apart,

May my God of Love mend the pieces of my heart,

Sealing them together around Love's heart.

May His love constrain me to do my part...

Pictures:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_5837721.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_5802549.html

Poem - Since Life on Earth is a "Blip" in Time - Angie Bennett Prince - 6/8/2010