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.

WHAT WILL WE DO IN HEAVEN?

What Will We Do in Heaven?                    

            "Will we play basketball in heaven?" a high school student asked me in the Sunday school class I taught. "If we do, it won't be any fun because everything will be perfect. Nobody would make any mistakes."

            I could have said, “Well, basketball is out.  First you’ll have to take harp lessons.  Then I think you’ll have to lose weight so you won’t fall through the clouds.... And you’d better not tromp on the flowers, or skateboard on the streets of gold....”

            Can you imagine teens wanting to go there? Maybe you wouldn’t want to go, either.

            Now that I’m older and passed up the opportunity here to do a few things, I tell folks when I get my new immortal body that will never get injured and can’t be killed I’m going to skydive, snow and water ski, and do all sorts of dangerous sports—maybe even bull riding!

            Well, I’ll admit the Bible doesn’t say there will be bulls in heaven, but I know horses are there because Jesus will come back on a White Horse.

            You wonder, Well, what did you tell the kid who likes basketball?

Activities will be different

When the high school student asked that question, I had no idea what to say. I prayed silently for wisdom before I answered. I had never even given such an idea thought, but I said, "Keith, I don't know. But I believe heaven will be so much higher and so much better than what we have here on earth that it's like comparing being a child to being an adult.

            "When you're a child, you play with dolls and toy cars. But when you are an adult you have real babies and drive a real car.

            "When you're a kid, if an adult would tell you that you can't play with dolls or toy cars after you get "big", the child would scream and holler and decide he didn't want to grow up. But once he does, he doesn't want the toys anymore because he has the real thing.

            "I think that's the way heaven will be. It will fulfill our every desire and give us so much joy what we had here will seem like child’s play."

            The Bible tells us heaven will exceed earthly experiences. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

            This is a paraphrase from Isaiah 64:4. But we do have some knowledge because God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, the next verse says.

            If we search the scriptures, we find out a lot about heaven.

Will we be on another planet?

You've probably wondered exactly where it is.

            The Apostle Paul talked about the "third heaven". Some Jews believe God's abode was in the seventh heaven.

            I have always believed the first heaven was where the clouds float in puffy white shapes on our air and where birds fly. The second heaven is where the planets and stars and located, and the third heaven is where God is.

Will we be beamed up like in Star Wars?

            Jesus went up into heaven and a cloud received him out of the sight of the 500 people gathered on the mountaintop. But we don't know exactly what happened when the cloud hid him from view. Was he suddenly "beamed up" and immediately at the right hand of the Father?

            Certainly his trip wouldn't be at any speed earthlings would recognize, because a short time later Stephen was being stoned and had a vision of heaven, and Jesus was standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56).

            If we needed to know where heaven is, I'm sure Jesus would have told us. In John 14 when Jesus described his destination, where he also would prepare a place for us, old Doubting Thomas said, "We don't know where you are going, and how can we know the way?"

            Jesus answered, "Where I go you know--and you know the way."

            He further explained that He is the Way, and that no one can come to the Father without going through Him.

            Philip then asked Jesus to show him the Father.

Will we see and visit with God?      

We humans like things we can see, feel and touch. Have you ever felt like asking Jesus to show us God and heaven?

            Jesus told Philip, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you don’t know Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?"

            The mystery of the trinity surfaces here, but yet one thing is clear. If you have learned to trust in Jesus, you also trust in God, because he is God the Son.  If you have a real relationship with Jesus, you don't need to see God the Father. You can see His works. You can attest to the validity of His Word because you’ve probably witnessed answers the prayer, changed lives, as well as observed how you are miraculously and wonderfully made, as well as the whole universe.

            Yet, when venturing into the unknown our faith, like Phillip’s, grows weak.

Is God really making a place for me?

Perhaps life on earth for us is similar to a young person leaving for college. The student doesn't actually need to see the money his parents promises to pay tuition and room and board, or  will send when spending money is needed.

            If the student knows his parents love him and are faithful stewards, he just accepts his parents' promises will become reality.

            The whole discussion with Philip began after Jesus told the disciples he was going away to prepare a place for them. Jesus also said He would come back to get them so that where he was, they could be, too (John 14).

            The story could be compared to any number of families from foreign countries where the husband immigrated to the United States, leaving behind a wife and family after America was discovered.

            "When I get a job, a house and enough money saved, I'll send for you," men by the thousands promised.

            The wife and children often waited years before the husband had enough money saved to send for his family. But most wives remained faithful to the man because they knew him and he kept his word.

            I think of my Jewish friend, Ruth Stein, whose parents were separated by half a world for eight years of their marriage.

            Three years after Yocheved Chalodney and Sam Dobin were married in a little village near Smoensk, Russia, Dobin immigrated to the United States. He thought his wife, child, and the baby his wife was expecting, would follow soon to the land of opportunity.

            Instead, by the time he had enough money to send for them, World War I was in progress.

            For six years, the Russian village didn't even receive mail. War was so close artillery fire vibrated the windows.

            In the fall of 1921, the hoped-for letter from Ruth's father arrived, and soon the family landed in New York, ready to go to Pueblo, Colo., to a city and a home they had never seen.

            But Philip wanted more from Jesus than Mrs. Dobin required of her husband, although Philip had seen Jesus walk on water, open blind eyes and raise the dead.

            Philip was the fourth disciple to leave all and follow Jesus. But at the Last Supper Philip still hadn't grasped Who Jesus is.

            Philip, along with the rest of the disciples, forsook Jesus and fled in Gethsemane when the Master was arrested.

            But Philip must have eventually understood what Jesus told him about where He was going, and how he could know the way to get there.       As were the other disciples (except Judas), Philip was changed by the Resurrection and Pentecost. His faith was so secure, tradition says Philip gave his life for his faith.

            Philip finally knew Jesus, he knew the Father, and there was no doubt where he was going.

What to I have to be like to get there?        

Where heaven is, what it's like, and exactly what we'll do isn't important when you're in love with Jesus.

            We know He'll be there, and as the Bride of Christ, we, the born-again believers who are the church, don't need to see the home He's prepared, the joy we'll have, or what we'll do throughout eternity before we believe his promises that we'll have no more tears and we'll have joy unspeakable and full of glory.

            Not long after Carolyn died, one of her friends had a vision in the middle of the day of Carolyn in heaven.

            When my son-in-law, Michael, related the vision to me, I felt skepticism, although it would have felt good to believe it.

            Carolyn's friend saw a city with lots of excitement where everyone was busy as if preparing for a great event. Carolyn was sitting at one of many white grand pianos that extended as far as the woman could see. The pianists were preparing for something special, that could have been the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the great celebration that will occur in heaven, right after the Rapture, the catching away of the church.

            My first reaction was "Pianos in heaven?"

            Sure, we'd heard there'd be harps there. But I thought pianos were so earthly and so attached to mortals.

            I assumed, at first, Carolyn's friend might have seen something heavenly interpreted in earthly terms, if the vision were, indeed, from God.

            But then, I thought, the vision could be exactly a picture of heaven. Many things we have here have roots in heaven, such as music.

            If God made us in his own image, why would he not also allow humans to invent and learn about things that He appreciates enough to allow in heaven?

In the woman's vision, she said Carolyn was playing the piano and she peeked between the open lid and keyboard and smiled at her.

            Nevertheless, I don't know for sure pianos will be in heaven.

            Anyone who tells you what will be there has no proof outside of what is written in the Bible.       Those who have had near-death experiences who say they've seen heaven, or atheistic psychologists who say it's all wishful thinking or a change of chemicals in the brain, can argue forever -- but never prove their point one way or the other.

            We can't get to heaven without dying (unless we are living when Christ returns for the church) and until our flesh is totally dead and we're in that eternal city, we won't know everything about it.

            The same human mind that can't comprehend a Heavenly Father with no beginning and no end can't seem to grasp heaven, either.

            So we must accept heaven by faith.