A LOVE MESSAGE

The following is an excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Swallowed by Life.

Link: http://buff.ly/TLkr0a

 One time as we were traveling, I was in the back seat resting with my eyes closed and began thinking about how Carolyn’s young life was cut short.

          Previously when grief hit me, I’d often catch my breath and begin whispering the name of Jesus. This day, however, tears oozed through my eyelids.

          “Lord, heaven is so silent!” I complained.

          I had prayed for months, grasping onto God in faith, continually staying in the Word and prayer. Most of the time, peace filled me. That day, a poisonous bitterness erupted instead as I complained about feeling forsaken.

          Then, I felt rebuke.

          It wasn’t an audible voice, but in my spirit I could hear Jesus tell me, “I made a statement about my love for you two thousand years ago on the cross that still echoes around the world. That is enough.”

          Just as quickly as I felt anger, which is one of the stages of grief, I felt overwhelmed with God’s love for me. Yes! The cross was enough. It not only was enough to show God’s love for me and my daughter, but it also gave anyone who will accept His love hope because death will be swallowed by life for all eternity.

          No wonder people can face death with peace. No wonder there is joy, even when we know life on earth is temporary. No wonder sin holds no attraction for many! No wonder people rejoice that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6–8).

          Many people have an erroneous view of God.

          One time my coworkers were in a discussion in which I didn’t participate because I was busy at my desk. Then one of those entrenched in the debate paused long enough to ask me, “Isn’t that right, Ada? God carries a big stick.”

          “I don’t know how you can say that and look at the cross,” I responded.

          If you want to know about God, read the Bible for yourself. Beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation, it is a story about redemption—for you. Redemption from sins, which means when you repent they’re wiped out—erased from the record (Micah 7:17-19). Redemption from Satan, who would like to have you (Luke 22:31). Redemption from the eternal death sentence on your head (John 5:23-25).

          “For it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear the second time, without sin, for salvation” (Hebrews 9:27).

 To get an idea of salvation in a nutshell, start with John’s Gospel.

          Hearing the Word, reading the Word, and keeping a prayer on our lips is how we get to know God better. We can talk to God when we’re angry with Him or people around us. We can talk to God when all we can think of is, “Why?”

          When grief hits us like a huge wave of the sea, we can get up and purpose to know God better. Through our trials, we learn God is faithful. In our struggling and in our weakness, suddenly we understand we can ride grief’s thunderous waters instead of letting them knock us off our feet.

          We find that God’s grace and love come like waves, too, lifting us up with joy as we learn that He created us for eternal life in the beginning, and the miracle still happens. Death is swallowed by life.

©Copyright Ada Brownell October 2011

EMOTIONAL HELP FOR THE GRIEVING

 When we walk through difficult times, we need physical, emotional and spiritual help. There is plenty out there if you know what to look for and where to go.

When our daughter Carolyn began to recover enough after chemotherapy, she urgently desired emotional help. I was a thousand or more miles away, and that’s one reason why I wrote the book, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. I told her about the Cancer Society’s support groups, called her every day, prayed, and flew to see her twice in two months.

Yet, a diagnosis of a terminal, debilitating or painful disease is a whopping load for the patient and his loved ones to carry emotionally, even when the Lord walks with you every moment of the day.

I have several recommendations picked up working as a medical reporter at a daily newspaper and picking experts’ brains.

1. GET A GRIEF-MATE

Find a spiritual partner to help you in your fear and grief. Arrange to contact your grief-mate when you feel overcome by fear, you are terribly sick, have a situation you don’t feel able to handle, or a decision with which you need help.

Your grief mate can be a pastor, a counselor, a Sunday school teacher, a friend or a relative who is spiritually strong.

I have a friend who has battled cancer for years and it recently returned and her husband, Gerald, just discovered he has prostate cancer. Yet, until recently she led a cancer support group at our church. While she spent much of her time encouraging others, she relies on the love, prayers and fellowship of people filled with compassion.

                        2. GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GRIEVE  

Allow yourself to talk about your loved one, or about your own illness and the doctor's prognosis.

Cry. Jesus wept when he heard his friend, Lazarus was dead. When I was grieving, I set aside a devotional time every day when I could get alone with God and talk to him about my grief. During the day and when you're in public, you sometimes have to shove it away. But I felt better knowing I'd have that time in my upstairs bedroom kneeling and crying before God, telling him about my broken heart.

Each day I stripped another layer off a part of me that felt as if I had died, too, and helped me keep a focus that I am still living and need to fulfill whatever purposes God has for my life here.

It helps to understand the stages of grief and that grieving is normal both for the dying and those left behind.

According to Drs. Frank Minirth and Paul Meier in their book, Happiness is a Choice,[1] there are five stages of grief which occur to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one or discovered he has an incurable illness. Even Christians will have these grief reactions.

1.   The first stage of grief usually is denial.  The person refuses to believe that what is happening is true.  This stage normally doesn’t last long.

2.   The second stage is anger turned outward.  In this stage people sometimes feel angry at God, their doctors, or anyone they feel they can blame for their problem.  Sometimes people even angry at someone who died.  Other people get angry at those in good health or those who haven’t lost a loved one.

3.   At stage three, we have anger turned inward.  The grieving person begins to feel guilty, then begins to be angry with himself.  He absurdly begins to blame himself for everything.

4.   Stage four is when the person feels genuine grief.  Tears and sorrow are normal and help the individual get grief out. Even though we know there is hope for those who “die in the Lord” there should be genuine grief.

5.   The fifth stage is the resolution stage where the person comes to acceptance. This stage is the result of a person working through the four other grief stages.

                  3. LOOK AT EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE AS A GIFT

When you’re the person who is dying, you still have a purpose in life. When my dad ended up in a nursing home, he kept saying, “I’m no good for anything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I said. “You’re still not done raising your family. You’re showing us how to grow old.”

 As long as we have breath and our mental faculties we can pray for others, love them, and be an example.

      Don’t let death swallow the days and the hours remaining when there is still life. Love. Smile. Rejoice in the hope you have. Do things you enjoy. Even when you’re ill, you can eat a favorite flavor of ice cream, watch a butterfly outside tasting nectar, listen to a bird’s song, go outside and look at the stars and marvel at the One who created them.             

3. FEAR IS NORMAL

Many emotions come into play when we are faced with death.  Death, like angry dark clouds on the horizon on a beautiful day, threatens us all, and can interrupt the most carefully laid plans.

My mother felt her children should come face to face with their mortality and she took us to all the funerals where we even remotely knew the deceased. This generation, however, ignores death. Many adults have never seen a dead body. Ignoring death, though, will not make it go away.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” it says in Hebrews 9:27.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  But Jesus said He would put all enemies under His feet.3  Though death will come to us all unless we are alive at the Lord’s coming, we have hope.  The spirit lives, not matter what happens to the flesh.

Our bodies will be resurrected and changed. Every Christian who died rise to new life. “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.”[2]

Until that time, we will not have bodies like Christ’s.  At the Resurrection, however, our spirits will come back to earth for the raising up of our mortal bodies.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”[3]

---

[1] Baker Books, 1983/2007

[2]Romans 8:11

[3]1 John 3:2

9. BUMPS ON THE JOURNEY

 When we walk through difficult times, we need physical, emotional and spiritual help. There is plenty out there if you know what to look for and where to go.

When our daughter Carolyn began to recover enough after chemotherapy, she urgently desired emotional help. I was a thousand or more miles away, and that’s one reason why I wrote the book, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. I told her about the Cancer Society’s support groups, called her every day, prayed, and flew to see her twice in two months.

Yet, a diagnosis of a terminal, debilitating or painful disease is a whopping load for the patient and his loved ones to carry emotionally, even when the Lord walks with you every moment of the day.

I have several recommendations picked up working as a medical reporter at a daily newspaper and picking experts’ brains.

1. GET A GRIEF-MATE

Find a spiritual partner to help you in your fear and grief. Arrange to contact your grief-mate when you feel overcome by fear, you are terribly sick, have a situation you don’t feel able to handle, or a decision with which you need help.

Your grief mate can be a pastor, a counselor, a Sunday school teacher, a friend or a relative who is spiritually strong.

I have a friend who has battled cancer for years and it recently returned and her husband, Gerald, just discovered he has prostate cancer. Yet, until recently she led a cancer support group at our church. While she spent much of her time encouraging others, she relies on the love, prayers and fellowship of people filled with compassion.

                        2. GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GRIEVE  

Allow yourself to talk about your loved one, or about your own illness and the doctor's prognosis.

Cry. Jesus wept when he heard his friend, Lazarus was dead. When I was grieving, I set aside a devotional time every day when I could get alone with God and talk to him about my grief. During the day and when you're in public, you sometimes have to shove it away. But I felt better knowing I'd have that time in my upstairs bedroom kneeling and crying before God, telling him about my broken heart.

Each day I stripped another layer off a part of me that felt as if I had died, too, and helped me keep a focus that I am still living and need to fulfill whatever purposes God has for my life here.

It helps to understand the stages of grief and that grieving is normal both for the dying and those left behind.

According to Drs. Frank Minirth and Paul Meier in their book, Happiness is a Choice,[1] there are five stages of grief which occur to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one or discovered he has an incurable illness. Even Christians will have these grief reactions.

1.   The first stage of grief usually is denial.  The person refuses to believe that what is happening is true.  This stage normally doesn’t last long.

2.   The second stage is anger turned outward.  In this stage people sometimes feel angry at God, their doctors, or anyone they feel they can blame for their problem.  Sometimes people even angry at someone who died.  Other people get angry at those in good health or those who haven’t lost a loved one.

3.   At stage three, we have anger turned inward.  The grieving person begins to feel guilty, then begins to be angry with himself.  He absurdly begins to blame himself for everything.

4.   Stage four is when the person feels genuine grief.  Tears and sorrow are normal and help the individual get grief out. Even though we know there is hope for those who “die in the Lord” there should be genuine grief.

5.   The fifth stage is the resolution stage where the person comes to acceptance. This stage is the result of a person working through the four other grief stages.

                  3. LOOK AT EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE AS A GIFT

When you’re the person who is dying, you still have a purpose in life. When my dad ended up in a nursing home, he kept saying, “I’m no good for anything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I said. “You’re still not done raising your family. You’re showing us how to grow old.”

 As long as we have breath and our mental faculties we can pray for others, love them, and be an example.

      Don’t let death swallow the days and the hours remaining when there is still life. Love. Smile. Rejoice in the hope you have. Do things you enjoy. Even when you’re ill, you can eat a favorite flavor of ice cream, watch a butterfly outside tasting nectar, listen to a bird’s song, go outside and look at the stars and marvel at the One who created them.             

3. FEAR IS NORMAL

Many emotions come into play when we are faced with death.  Death, like angry dark clouds on the horizon on a beautiful day, threatens us all, and can interrupt the most carefully laid plans.

My mother felt her children should come face to face with their mortality and she took us to all the funerals where we even remotely knew the deceased. This generation, however, ignores death. Many adults have never seen a dead body. Ignoring death, though, will not make it go away.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” it says in Hebrews 9:27.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  But Jesus said He would put all enemies under His feet.3  Though death will come to us all unless we are alive at the Lord’s coming, we have hope.  The spirit lives, not matter what happens to the flesh.

Our bodies will be resurrected and changed. Every Christian who died rise to new life. “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.”[2]

Until that time, we will not have bodies like Christ’s.  At the Resurrection, however, our spirits will come back to earth for the raising up of our mortal bodies.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”[3]

---

[1] Baker Books, 1983/2007

[2]Romans 8:11

[3]1 John 3:2

9. BUMPS ON THE JOURNEY

 When we walk through difficult times, we need physical, emotional and spiritual help. There is plenty out there if you know what to look for and where to go.

When our daughter Carolyn began to recover enough after chemotherapy, she urgently desired emotional help. I was a thousand or more miles away, and that’s one reason why I wrote the book, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. I told her about the Cancer Society’s support groups, called her every day, prayed, and flew to see her twice in two months.

Yet, a diagnosis of a terminal, debilitating or painful disease is a whopping load for the patient and his loved ones to carry emotionally, even when the Lord walks with you every moment of the day.

I have several recommendations picked up working as a medical reporter at a daily newspaper and picking experts’ brains.

1. GET A GRIEF-MATE

Find a spiritual partner to help you in your fear and grief. Arrange to contact your grief-mate when you feel overcome by fear, you are terribly sick, have a situation you don’t feel able to handle, or a decision with which you need help.

Your grief mate can be a pastor, a counselor, a Sunday school teacher, a friend or a relative who is spiritually strong.

I have a friend who has battled cancer for years and it recently returned and her husband, Gerald, just discovered he has prostate cancer. Yet, until recently she led a cancer support group at our church. While she spent much of her time encouraging others, she relies on the love, prayers and fellowship of people filled with compassion.

                        2. GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GRIEVE  

Allow yourself to talk about your loved one, or about your own illness and the doctor's prognosis.

Cry. Jesus wept when he heard his friend, Lazarus was dead. When I was grieving, I set aside a devotional time every day when I could get alone with God and talk to him about my grief. During the day and when you're in public, you sometimes have to shove it away. But I felt better knowing I'd have that time in my upstairs bedroom kneeling and crying before God, telling him about my broken heart.

Each day I stripped another layer off a part of me that felt as if I had died, too, and helped me keep a focus that I am still living and need to fulfill whatever purposes God has for my life here.

It helps to understand the stages of grief and that grieving is normal both for the dying and those left behind.

According to Drs. Frank Minirth and Paul Meier in their book, Happiness is a Choice,[1] there are five stages of grief which occur to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one or discovered he has an incurable illness. Even Christians will have these grief reactions.

1.   The first stage of grief usually is denial.  The person refuses to believe that what is happening is true.  This stage normally doesn’t last long.

2.   The second stage is anger turned outward.  In this stage people sometimes feel angry at God, their doctors, or anyone they feel they can blame for their problem.  Sometimes people even angry at someone who died.  Other people get angry at those in good health or those who haven’t lost a loved one.

3.   At stage three, we have anger turned inward.  The grieving person begins to feel guilty, then begins to be angry with himself.  He absurdly begins to blame himself for everything.

4.   Stage four is when the person feels genuine grief.  Tears and sorrow are normal and help the individual get grief out. Even though we know there is hope for those who “die in the Lord” there should be genuine grief.

5.   The fifth stage is the resolution stage where the person comes to acceptance. This stage is the result of a person working through the four other grief stages.

                  3. LOOK AT EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE AS A GIFT

When you’re the person who is dying, you still have a purpose in life. When my dad ended up in a nursing home, he kept saying, “I’m no good for anything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I said. “You’re still not done raising your family. You’re showing us how to grow old.”

 As long as we have breath and our mental faculties we can pray for others, love them, and be an example.

      Don’t let death swallow the days and the hours remaining when there is still life. Love. Smile. Rejoice in the hope you have. Do things you enjoy. Even when you’re ill, you can eat a favorite flavor of ice cream, watch a butterfly outside tasting nectar, listen to a bird’s song, go outside and look at the stars and marvel at the One who created them.             

3. FEAR IS NORMAL

Many emotions come into play when we are faced with death.  Death, like angry dark clouds on the horizon on a beautiful day, threatens us all, and can interrupt the most carefully laid plans.

My mother felt her children should come face to face with their mortality and she took us to all the funerals where we even remotely knew the deceased. This generation, however, ignores death. Many adults have never seen a dead body. Ignoring death, though, will not make it go away.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” it says in Hebrews 9:27.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  But Jesus said He would put all enemies under His feet.3  Though death will come to us all unless we are alive at the Lord’s coming, we have hope.  The spirit lives, not matter what happens to the flesh.

Our bodies will be resurrected and changed. Every Christian who died rise to new life. “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.”[2]

Until that time, we will not have bodies like Christ’s.  At the Resurrection, however, our spirits will come back to earth for the raising up of our mortal bodies.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”[3]

---

[1] Baker Books, 1983/2007

[2]Romans 8:11

[3]1 John 3:2

9. BUMPS ON THE JOURNEY

 When we walk through difficult times, we need physical, emotional and spiritual help. There is plenty out there if you know what to look for and where to go.

When our daughter Carolyn began to recover enough after chemotherapy, she urgently desired emotional help. I was a thousand or more miles away, and that’s one reason why I wrote the book, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. I told her about the Cancer Society’s support groups, called her every day, prayed, and flew to see her twice in two months.

Yet, a diagnosis of a terminal, debilitating or painful disease is a whopping load for the patient and his loved ones to carry emotionally, even when the Lord walks with you every moment of the day.

I have several recommendations picked up working as a medical reporter at a daily newspaper and picking experts’ brains.

1. GET A GRIEF-MATE

Find a spiritual partner to help you in your fear and grief. Arrange to contact your grief-mate when you feel overcome by fear, you are terribly sick, have a situation you don’t feel able to handle, or a decision with which you need help.

Your grief mate can be a pastor, a counselor, a Sunday school teacher, a friend or a relative who is spiritually strong.

I have a friend who has battled cancer for years and it recently returned and her husband, Gerald, just discovered he has prostate cancer. Yet, until recently she led a cancer support group at our church. While she spent much of her time encouraging others, she relies on the love, prayers and fellowship of people filled with compassion.

                        2. GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GRIEVE  

Allow yourself to talk about your loved one, or about your own illness and the doctor's prognosis.

Cry. Jesus wept when he heard his friend, Lazarus was dead. When I was grieving, I set aside a devotional time every day when I could get alone with God and talk to him about my grief. During the day and when you're in public, you sometimes have to shove it away. But I felt better knowing I'd have that time in my upstairs bedroom kneeling and crying before God, telling him about my broken heart.

Each day I stripped another layer off a part of me that felt as if I had died, too, and helped me keep a focus that I am still living and need to fulfill whatever purposes God has for my life here.

It helps to understand the stages of grief and that grieving is normal both for the dying and those left behind.

According to Drs. Frank Minirth and Paul Meier in their book, Happiness is a Choice,[1] there are five stages of grief which occur to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one or discovered he has an incurable illness. Even Christians will have these grief reactions.

1.   The first stage of grief usually is denial.  The person refuses to believe that what is happening is true.  This stage normally doesn’t last long.

2.   The second stage is anger turned outward.  In this stage people sometimes feel angry at God, their doctors, or anyone they feel they can blame for their problem.  Sometimes people even angry at someone who died.  Other people get angry at those in good health or those who haven’t lost a loved one.

3.   At stage three, we have anger turned inward.  The grieving person begins to feel guilty, then begins to be angry with himself.  He absurdly begins to blame himself for everything.

4.   Stage four is when the person feels genuine grief.  Tears and sorrow are normal and help the individual get grief out. Even though we know there is hope for those who “die in the Lord” there should be genuine grief.

5.   The fifth stage is the resolution stage where the person comes to acceptance. This stage is the result of a person working through the four other grief stages.

                  3. LOOK AT EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE AS A GIFT

When you’re the person who is dying, you still have a purpose in life. When my dad ended up in a nursing home, he kept saying, “I’m no good for anything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I said. “You’re still not done raising your family. You’re showing us how to grow old.”

 As long as we have breath and our mental faculties we can pray for others, love them, and be an example.

      Don’t let death swallow the days and the hours remaining when there is still life. Love. Smile. Rejoice in the hope you have. Do things you enjoy. Even when you’re ill, you can eat a favorite flavor of ice cream, watch a butterfly outside tasting nectar, listen to a bird’s song, go outside and look at the stars and marvel at the One who created them.             

3. FEAR IS NORMAL

Many emotions come into play when we are faced with death.  Death, like angry dark clouds on the horizon on a beautiful day, threatens us all, and can interrupt the most carefully laid plans.

My mother felt her children should come face to face with their mortality and she took us to all the funerals where we even remotely knew the deceased. This generation, however, ignores death. Many adults have never seen a dead body. Ignoring death, though, will not make it go away.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” it says in Hebrews 9:27.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  But Jesus said He would put all enemies under His feet.3  Though death will come to us all unless we are alive at the Lord’s coming, we have hope.  The spirit lives, not matter what happens to the flesh.

Our bodies will be resurrected and changed. Every Christian who died rise to new life. “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.”[2]

Until that time, we will not have bodies like Christ’s.  At the Resurrection, however, our spirits will come back to earth for the raising up of our mortal bodies.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”[3]

---

[1] Baker Books, 1983/2007

[2]Romans 8:11

[3]1 John 3:2

©Copyright Ada Brownell 2013

SAFETY IN THE EARTHQUAKES OF LIFE

                                                      By Ada Brownell

      Our daughter lay dying down the hospital corridor and my heart screamed, “Where are you God?”

      It was the first time in my life an earthquake struck my faith in the message of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall  not perish but have everlasting life.”

      The Bible says, however, if you build your life on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ you can stand through the storms, even a large spiritual and emotional quakes and the aftershocks, as I discovered.

      The interesting thing about faith is it’s an act of the will. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” we’re told in Hebrews 11:1 (NIV). The scripture further explains: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command. So that what is seen was not made out of what was visible…. Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (verses 3, 6).

      When we back up into Hebrews 10 we’re admonished to keep believing, even when our faith has been shaken: “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him” (Hebrews 10:35-39).

            Abraham, after living a long life of believing and communing with God, had his crises when Sarah got tired of waiting and tried to bring about their desires for a child herself. But apparently Abraham kept believing he would father a son and many nations: ^“And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:19-20)
            Sarah did become with child and Isaac was born.
            Through prayer, study of the Word and surrounding myself with brothers and sisters in Christ, I found I truly believe those who have faith in Jesus will never die, but have eternal life.
            If your faith sometimes falters, you are not alone, however. Jesus’s disciple, Thomas, said “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
            After eight days Jesus, although the doors were shut, Jesus appeared right in the middle of the gathered disciples. He greeted them, then said to Thomas, “Reachyour finger here and look at my hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
            Thomas slowly reached out and touched the place where the spear pierced the Son of God on the cross, and then examined his hands.
            “My Lord and my God,” Thomas exclaimed.
            “Thomas, because you have seen me, you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (From John 20.)
            I have found plenty of evidence that shows we’re more than a body and we’ll live beyond the grave.
            Because I was a newspaper medical reporter and a student of God’s Word, I compiled this information into a book to build your faith: Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. It’s now available at http://buff.ly/TLkr0a
            Yet as you read the book, notice I said “to build your faith.”
            Can we prove Jesus rose from the dead? Can we show the world they’ll live beyond the grave?
            No. Despite all the evidence that is so concrete it’s difficult to deny, faith is still necessary for salvation and God requires that we believe. Romans 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
            That’s the message of redemption in a nutshell.
©Copyright 2013 Ada Brownell

                       

     

     

      

If It Were Not So

THE PHONE RANG. My sister’s emotional voice quivered as the spoke, “The nurse said everyone had better get down to the hospital right away. Mom’s dying.”

My husband and I jumped in the car and rushed to the medical center. When we arrived, however, my father and other relatives were leaving. “She’s already gone,” they told me.

Grief came like a tidal wave. I cried hard.

 It was at my sister’s home a few minutes later that my brother, Everette, a minister, began talking to those of us gathered there. He quoted John 14:1-3:

 “Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.”

Everette paused a minute. “Do you believe it? Now’s the time to find out.”

He didn’t say anything more. It seemed strange to me that he would say such a thing. My father and all eight of us children professed to be born-again Christians. Yet, I noticed Everette had a kind of peace about him that I didn’t have.

Most of us had a difficult time eating. The law had been laid down by somebody—I don’t know who—that no matter how we felt we were not to display our grief in front of Dad.

It was while we were seated at the table where they told how Aunt Marge, the hair dresser, had gone to the mortuary to fix Mother’s hair that I became unable to control myself. Aunt Marge styled Mother’s hair for years without charging her because with a large family and a low income my parents couldn’t afford any luxuries. I knew Mother had appreciated her generosity. The final act of love—so Mother’s beautiful red hair would be fixed the way she always wore it—made me remember how thankful Mama was for each thing anyone did for her. But now she couldn’t say thanks!

 As soon as I burst into tears, I was led from the room and told to “get a hold of myself.” After this gentle reprimand, I buried my grief deep inside me. I didn’t go when they picked out the casket. The evening we visited the mortuary, the muscles in my throat were so tight I could hardly swallow.

I remembered Everette’s voice saying, “Do you believe it? Now’s the time to find out.”

I was almost to the casket, following the others as they filed by, when the sickening dread in my stomach changed to a stirring of joy. Suddenly I knew I believed it! As I looked on the face of the shell my mother used during her earthly stay, I knew she was not there—she was in heaven!

Sure, I still loved those wrinkled work-worn hands. I still loved the lips that used to gently caress my cheek. But those hands and lips were not Mama. Mama was gone. She had already seen the Lord and was safely in heaven.

I stood there looking at her earthly body from a distance while the others walked by. I shed no tears. Yet, my buried grief had vanished. All I could think of was what Mother probably was doing at that moment. I thought of her meeting Jesus, Moses and Mary and the apostle Paul and renewing acquaintance with friends who preceded her into heaven.

Like a supersonic jet undergoing its first test flight, my faith had been tested. Sure, I’ve missed Mother. But I know she’s in heaven.

--excerpt from Confessions of a Pentecostal

Confessions of a Pentecostalhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088OP460 

Book published in 1978 © Gospel Publishing House. E-book © Ada Brownell 2010

Will the Resurrection explode burial urns, or will the redeemed person come out like a Genie?

Ever thought about the resurrection?

Needless to say since I've written fiction, I have an exercised imagination.

Today, after a visit to the cemetery with my brother to see his wife's headstone, I got to thinking about what a commotion will happen when the trump of God sounds, calling the living and the dead who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ to new life. But at the resurrection, what about those who were cremated?

Here's one section of scripture that talks about the resurrection:

"Behold,    I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will suond, and the dead will be reaised incorruptiblle, and we shall be changed.

"For this corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

 The saying is prophesided in Isaiah 25:8: He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces."

The Book of Revelation also talks about prophecy and end times, and here's an interesting portion: "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of LIfe. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death  and Hades delievered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

"Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:12-15).

A few verses more tells you about the new heaven and new earth, and you read this from St. John, who saw the vision:

 "And I heard a  loud voice from heaven saying 'Behold the tabernacle of Goid is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no mor death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Read on, for there are more exciting things told to help us look forward to what God has prepared for us and Jesus talked about in John 14."Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

Peter's first real sermon was about life

So sorry I've neglected this blog. You probably know I also blog at http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com


Here are the great words Peter preached after the fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus made just before He ascended into heaven. Jesus told the crowd of 500 men, plus women and young folks, they would be filled with power after the Holy Ghost came upon them--and they would be His witnesses.

When Jesus went up and the clouds received Him out of their sight, they obeyed the Lord's command and went to tarry for the promised Gift. When the Holy Spirit descended on them, a crowd gathered asking "What does this mean?"

Peter was the boisterous disciple who bragged he would die for Christ, yet after the Lord was arrested, denied he even knew Him. Sorry and feeling unworthy, Peter quit the ministry and went back to fishing. But then, one night Jesus had cooked dinner on the beach and asked Peter if he loved him.
"Lord, you know I love you," Peter kept saying.
Finally, Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."
Now after what Jesus promised occurred and Peter's heart was aflame with joy burning in his soul, he couldn’t help but notice a large crowd had gathered.  They overheard what was happening in the Upper Room."What does this mean?" they asked.

Peter stood. "Men of Israel," he began, in a manner typical of speakers in that day, "Listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accreditied by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge,; and you, with the help of wicked men,put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 

"But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it ws impossible for death to keep its hold on him."

Peter reminded them of prophecies about God raising Jesus to life.

"Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Almost in unison the crowd cried, "What shall we do?"

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."

In the scripture passage in Acts 2, Peter goes on to say if they received Christ they could receive the Holy Spirit, and the promise would be for them, for their children and their children's children...literally all who are afar off.
Even before He was executed on the cross and rose from the tomb, Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me. Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:18-19).
That brings us back to John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son; that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life."

EVER DOUBT GOD'S LOVE? THEN LISTEN TO THIS.

Here's some of the last words St. John wrote in the book of Revelation from his vision of Jesus and end times as we know it.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. I say the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared a a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'"

This is from Revelation 21. An abundance of information and inspiring scripture is contained in these last two chapters of the New Testament. If you have a Bible, open it and read.