Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
Sunday, 9-14-03
Dear Brent:
My heart has been with you during this time. Please forgive my late response. I received the call about your mother while I was on the road, and it has been difficult not to think of you since then. I was praying for you this morning and felt that I should take this time to write, while no one else is awake. I got your message before I left home Friday. I wanted to respond then but could not think of anything to add to what the Lord was already showing you.
This will not be an easy time for you. You should make every effort to comfort your mother in any way that she will allow it. It seems that physical comforts are the only ones that she will receive, and if so, you will have to be content to do that. There certainly was no response on her part to my comments about prayer, or Brother Gary's, when we were visiting in her home. When people politely reject offers like that, I was taught by my father to politely let them go their own way. He would mention to businessmen whom he met, "The Lord sure has given us a beautiful day today." If they changed the subject or ignored what he said, he would just smile and move on. He had thrown the bait out there, but there was no bite. They were not hungry for God, so he let them alone. He surprised me very much one time by saying that one particular sinner, a businessman in Henderson whom we met almost every day at the Post Office, was too old and too close to the grave for us to torment him with talk about the Lord. My father didn't think it was right to fret about anything, even when we saw someone about to die without hope. That old sinner man, about ninety years old, had long ago made his choices and was now ready for the grave and hell. Sometimes, I still marvel at how un-Christian my father was even though at that time we all thought we were suppose to be Christians.
You know that you can expect at a Christian funeral many things to be said that are not true. That need not make you miserable. You know that Christians are ignorant and that their funeral ceremonies are a vain show, but what else can they do? If it hurts to watch it, then cry. They won't understand your tears any more than they have understood the change in your life. But Jesus will understand, and he will reward you for every moment of grief that you commit to him. They may try to comfort you, but they won't know how. Jesus will. Be merciful to them and humble before the Lord. All of us need help from Jesus, both them and us.
I wish I was there now, and I will come back when you want me to if the Lord will make it possible. But the Lord is there with you and in you, never failing and full of compassion. The thoughts you expressed in your phone message were thoughts from the Lord. You want your mother to be healed more than she wants to be healthy. That is a burden to bear. You love and value her time to live more than she loves living. That is the way the Lord was with all of us. He wanted us to be blessed more than we wanted him to bless us. Then he touched us, and suddenly we wanted what he wanted for us. Until he touches your mother's heart, she cannot want to live forever with Christ in peace and holiness. When you are praying for her to be healed, you are praying that Jesus will touch her heart so that she will feel God's desire for her to be healed.
So, there is nothing wrong with praying for her healing. God's first choice for all people is for us to be perfectly holy, perfectly healthy, and perfectly happy. But know that destruction and sickness and death are also from God. He said, "I kill, and I make alive." Job knew this, and when he lost his children and all that he had in this world, he humbled himself before the LORD and confessed, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
"Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." That is what Paul told Timothy, and now you will have a hard time to endure. Jesus will be with you, and if need be, some of us will be with you, too. We love you in the Lord.
Pastor John