This week has been a very difficult week for our body as we’ve had two families with significant losses.
Last Friday, June 14th, Jacob Hawkins went home to be with the Lord after a life-long serious physical battle. As soon as I received the word of his passing, I felt Holy Spirit whisper to my spirit, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not because God took Him”. During the last several months, Jacob has developed a deepening relationship with Jesus as his condition drew more dire. It’s as though, Jesus said “I want you to come to my house, Jacob”. I had the privilege of baptizing Jacob just a few weeks before he passed.
Then Thursday morning, Eric Zimmerman lost his mother after a battle with “congestive heart failure”. Eric was confident of his Mom’s relationship with Jesus. Please keep these families in your prayer as they grieve their lost family members.
With Jesus, there is always hope, even when we come the end of our earthly journey. When we lose a loved one, life is forever altered. We’re suddenly reminded of how fragile our existence here really is. There was a family in the scripture that experienced this tragedy who was very close to Jesus. This account is found in John 11. Lazarus got sick and eventually died. Jesus had been summoned but deliberately delayed His coming till after His friend had been in the tomb for three days. Mary and Martha were totally devastated by His action but it was for the greater glory as Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead demonstrating His power over death. Jesus declared this in John 11:25-27
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d]Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
There is a truth here that we must hold on to in the confusion that often accompanies the death of a loved one. God’s actions are always for the greater glory. Because the Lord operates the same time in all realms, our loved ones do not cease their labor for the Lord was they cross over into the next realm. In fact, I believe they fulfill their role in greater purity.
God’s ways are always higher than ours. Even in our pain of loss, we can trust Him. Can you imagine all that Job went through? He lost his wealth, his health and his family. In all his grieving and loss, he learned to worship the Lord, Job 13:15
“Though he slay me, I will hope in him, yet I will argue my ways to his face.”
There are many of our families that may not have lost loved ones but are going through extremely difficult circumstances of different kinds. Please keep them in your prayers also. In all these trials, It is ok to tell Jesus how you’re feeling in grief. The Psalms are full of David’s complaints to the Lord. Yet David always ended his complaining in worship. God is not shaken or disturbed when we unburden our hearts. The scripture is full of those who struggle with the justice and timing of particular life-altering events. In Job’s case, God responds to him by a declaration of His character and authority. It’s interesting that Job never receives an answer from God as to the “why” of all that happened to him and his wife. Our struggles with human tragic occurrences never alter God from His eternal purpose. James, Jesus’ half-brother gives us the purpose for trials in his letter in chapter 1:2-8
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
When the Thessalonian church had questions surrounding the death of loved ones, the Apostle Paul responded through the inspiration of Holy Spirit this way. 1 Thessalonians 3:13-18
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
Death is not the end. It is the beginning of life eternal with Jesus. Paul tells us, “it’s ok to grieve, but don’t grieve like those who have no hope”.
Remember these words from Paul from 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (ESV)
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
The Best is yet to come, even for Jacob and Eric’s Mom!