Temporarily separated.

Death is such an unexpected and terrible thing. At the same time is the expected in this sinful world. Today a girl I knew passed away. As I was reading about the news this incredible sadness filled my heart. She had been sick and just 4 days ago received the news that she had a matching donor and would be able to get well soon. Everyone was rejoicing with the news and gladly renewed their prayers of praise and thanksgiving. 4 days later things made a turn for the worse and now she's gone, leaving behind her husband and son. 


I was having a difficult time moving on with my day after the news. This world is so sad. How horrible that this husband and son had just lost their wife and mother. And how many other children loose their parents, or parents loose their children. There is so much suffering. I was asking God to come quickly. I want to go Home...In my heavenly home there will be no suffering or pain, no tears, no death. There will be no separation of loved ones. Can't wait...


But just then I had some music playing and one started...His eyes are on the sparrow... and He watches over me, why should I feel discouraged? The words of this song gave me comfort and the assurance of God's strength and certainty. Nothing in this world is certain, only He is, and He is there for me, every day, every moment of my life. 

I should know this. I've been through the experience of loosing my father at a young age. And as horrible and difficult that experience was and still is, God has carried me through in amazing ways and has been my stronghold. I know then that He will be Sara's husband and son stronghold as well. He'll carry them through this experience, giving them His amazing peace and helping them to hold on to the hope and assurance that their separation from her is temporary. One day, God will put an end to the suffering and we will be reunited with our loved ones. Can't wait for that day!

 

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth... There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Revelation 21:1,4

Old fashioned

This morning I heard the story of a couple in Iowa who were married for 72 years before dying in a tragic car accident this past week. They were both placed in the same room in the ICU and were holding hands when they died within an hour of each other. The husband, who died first, stopped breathing but his heart monitor showed that his heart was still beating. The nurse explained to the family that the monitor was picking his wife’s heart beat because they were holding hands.

What a beautiful story. Not only because of how their life together ended, but mostly because they got to share so much of their life with each other. 72 years… incredible! Think of the stories they got to write together and how their marriage impacted so many generations not only of their families, but also of us who learned of their story.

Who doesn’t want an experience like that in our own lives? For those of us who have started on this journey called marriage, don’t you long to share so many more years with the person you love? Almost no one enters marriage thinking that it will end soon or that divorce is how it will end. Pretty much everyone that gets married thinks it is it! You’re married for life! All our dreams come through the moment we say I do.

But then why so many divorces? Why so many broken homes? Why so much pain and sadness?

Where God has placed me at this time of my life, I have the opportunity to witness the results of broken relationships. The confusion, the shattered dreams, the tears, vanished hopes truly break my heart, but I believe that most of it comes down to this: choices! Our broken relationships are mostly the result of the choices we make.  Our choices pretty much dictate where we will go in this life including how good our marriage will be and how long it will last. And that doesn’t start the moment we say I do. It begins a lot sooner than that, before we ever even step a foot on that aisle. And it continues for the rest of our life.

That older couple from Iowa had 4 children. One of their sons said that his parents had an old fashioned marriage, where they had made up their mind to stay together until the end. If that is old fashioned marriage than I’m advocating for it and hoping that every marriage is old fashioned.

If a happy and long lasting marriage with the person you love is what you want, start making good choices today. Live a healthy life so your mind is clear to make good decisions, educate yourself, prepare well your future, choose well your friends, develop your talents. If you are already dating get to know your partner well and keep your body, that incredible gift from God, for your spouse.

If you’re already married remember to tell your spouse how much you love them. Those words are so important to be told. And not only tell them, show them. Think about their needs, make your spouse the most important person in the world. Make sure they know they are valued and valuable to you. Show them respect and never ever use words to bring your spouse down. On the contrary, build them up. Smile often, talk, go for walks, play, share, and hold hands. 

And to make sure we succeed at making good choices, there is someone who wants to help you, someone who is the definition of love, someone who wants to give you only the best and shower you with good gifts. That someone is God and He can’t wait to help you prepare for the rest of your life. Hold on to Him! That will be your best choice for sure!

Of course we live in a sinful world and it takes 2 people making good choices to have a long and happy marriage, but do your very best, starting today, to make sure your marriage relationship is one that lasts ‘till death do us part.’

http://acarelessdreamer.typepad.com/acarelessdreamer/love/

“Encourage one another, and build each other up.”
I Thessalonians 5:11

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

Immortal!

Today I was driving to town and decided to listen to the radio. The usual Christian station I like to listen to was playing music that I wasn’t so interested in at the moment so I started flipping through the stations. Another Christian station was having a program of questions and answers. Listeners could call in and some theologian would answer their questions. Many questions were coming in but one caught my attention not only because of the question but also because of the answer.

The listener said that as he was reading the Bible he came to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. You can read about it in Genesis 18:16 - 19: 29. God looked at those wicked cities and decided that they needed to be destroyed. After talking with His friend Abraham about it, God rescued Lot from those bad cities and burned them down. The listener said that he found out that even though the Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah would be burning forever, they obviously aren’t, so he wanted to understand this better.

The theologian then went on explaining his idea of hell and that even though the cities weren’t burning for ever, the souls of the wicked people were. He said these people have been tormented in the fire of hell since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now this idea does not come from the Bible for the Bible doesn’t teach that. And how unfair of God that those who go to hell now don’t suffer as long as the wicked people who died long ago. Somehow the theologian was able to explain this belief using his reasoning and not God’s word. Now what struck me was that the lady who was facilitating the program added some of her thoughts on the matter and ended up saying: there are only 2 things that are immortal, God’s word and us!

Her comment really saddened me because if there is one thing that we are not is immortal! Only God is immortal. In the garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would certainly die and that’s exactly what’s been happening to us since that fateful day. Satan is the one who has been deceiving us into thinking that no, we will not die, but we will be like God. And generation after generation we’re taught that we don’t die, that we are somehow immortal. And we explain this by separating our body from our soul even though God’s word makes no such separation. 

Now the good news is that one day we will receive immortality. By dying on the cross Jesus defeated eternal death and provided a way for us to have eternal life. One day Jesus will come to get His children and take them home and on that day He will get rid of our mortality and in the twinkling of an eye, in a flash, we will be transformed and clothed with immortality. I Corinthians 15:51-54 And those who have died believing in Jesus as their Savior will rise to meet their Lord face to face and live with Him forever. Can’t wait for that day!

I know this is subject of a longer study. There’s so much to learn about hell, immortality and what happens when we die, but I hope one thing. I hope that listener went back to his Bible and searched God’s word for the truth for only there will he find it. And that goes for me too. It’s obviously ok to talk with other people and learn of other people’s walk with Christ, but we need to be like the Berean Jews of Acts 17:11 who “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Now what about going to your Bible and see if what I’m saying is true as well? :)

“God, the blessed and only ruler; 

the King of kings and Lord of lords,  

who alone is immortal 

and who lives in unapproachable light, 

whom no one has seen or can see.”
I Timothy 6:16