This was a book from Amazon (not the Ele's Place library). I forgot how I came upon the title, but it is a wonderful book. The author lost two infant children to a metabolic disorder. Her daughter's name was Hope.
-at the graveside, their pastor said, "This is the place where we ask, 'Is the gospel really true?'"
-book includes eleven statements by Jesus that are hard to grasp in hard times
Chapter 1 Hear Jesus Saying, I, Too, Have Known Overwhelming Sorrow
Matthew 26:38: My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.
Jesus understands the crushing weight and agonizing loneliness of grief.
"...he has things to reveal to us in this hard place, which we could not have been ready to listen for and learn without the hurt."
He will never leave us
Chapter 2 Hear Jesus Saying, I, Too, Have Heard God Tell Me No
Matthew 26:39: My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.
Jesus shows us what to do when God doesn't give us what we want.
(Personal note: Jesus prayed to God for deliverance and it did not happen)
God is sad with me
"We think, God, if you are powerful enough to have done things differently, why didn't you? How can I accept your comfort and believe you want to heal my broken heart when you could have kept me from experiencing this sorrow in the first place? If you'd only given me what I wanted, neither of us would have to be sad."
Hebrews 5:7-9: While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.
-Jesus at precipice of very purpose for which he left heaven and became human, pleading to God for there to be another way
John 12:27: Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, 'Father, save me from this hour'? But this is the very reason I came!
"Does obeying you really have to cost this much?"
"It helps me to know that Jesus wrestled with God's plan for his life--and his death--even as he submitted to it, because I have wrestled with God's plan for my life even as I have sought to submit to it."
Matthew 26:39: I want your will to be done, not mine.
"We begin to truly believe that the joy of surrendering to his will is going to be worth whatever it may cost."
"It takes great faith to say to God, 'Even if you don't heal me or the one that I love, even if you don't change my circumstances, even if you don't restore this relationship, even if you allow me to lose what is most precious to me, I will still love you and obey you and believe that you are good. And I believe that you, as my loving Father, will use everything in my life--even the hard and hurtful things--for my ultimate good and your eternal glory, because you love me.'"
Chapter 3 Hear Jesus Saying, I Am Willing to Heal Your Deadliest Disease
Mark 1:41: I am willing...Be healed!
Jesus knows what we need most of all.
-Jesus didn't heal everyone of everything
-every person who was physically healed by Jesus during his earthly ministry eventually died
-greater purpose of each miracle was to draw people into a deeper, spiritual reality
-God's saddest day probably wasn't when Jesus died on the cross, it was when Adam and Eve looked away from Him for joy and satisfaction (believed Satan's lie)
-there is a day coming when death and disease will be healed for good, but we are living in an in-between time in which suffering is an ongoing reality
Romans 8:23: We believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
-when we insist on complete healing in our lives now, "we're mistakenly expecting in this age what God has reserved for the next."
-wants to heal us from sin primarily
-more of a miracle to heal us from sin than physical disease
-have come to realize that Jesus did not withhold healing from her children who died. "He has taken them to himself and will, at the resurrection, give them glorious bodies" (Philippians 3:21)
-their healing was not second rate or second best, it is everything we would ask for and long for
Isaiah 53:5-6: He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
"Jesus did not die on the cross to give you a certain number of days of health on this earth but to fit you, body and soul, for eternity in a new heaven and a new earth."
-shows we don't understand how serious sin is and we don't value the eternal promises of God as much as we want him to fix our problems now
-have a hard time grasping the significance and reality of the life to come
Chapter 4 Hear Jesus Saying, I Will Save You from Yourself
Matthew 16:23: You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's."
Jesus saves us from a wasted life of always trying to get our own way.
-need to allow God to define what is good
-God does not owe us
"The way of Jesus is paradox."
-"self-denial is at the heart of what it means to follow him"
1 Peter 4:1-2: Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.
-following him will cost us everything
-follow Me into a life of significance
-He will more than make up for everything you lose along the way
Chapter 5 Hear Jesus Saying, I Will Keep You Safe
Matthew 10:28: Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.
Jesus protects us from eternal harm.
Isaiah 43:2: But the Bible says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned."
-need to understand God's promises of protection
Matthew 10:28: Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
-Jesus' agenda is Kingdom advancement
-there is something more important to Jesus than our bodily comfort and safety-our spiritual conditions
-God's promises of protection are intended for our souls
-Satan brings suffering to try to diminish our faith, temptation to try to deceive us and doubt about God's love and goodness to try to estrange us from God
John 3:17: God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
-Jesus absorbed the wrath of God in our place so we could be protected from it
Romans 5:9: Since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation.
-this is how he protects those he loves
Chapter 6 Hear Jesus Saying, I Have a Purpose in Your Pain
John 9:3 This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
Jesus gives us insight when we ask, "Why?"
-we want to know what caused the suffering as well as what purpose there is in it
-we often blame ourselves, not true though because someone has already been punished for your sin
-sometimes natural consequences of bad choices brings suffering
-natural result of living in a fallen, broken world
-some suffering is supernatural work of Satan
"Interestingly, the same tool of suffering that Satan seeks to use to destroy our faith is, in the hands of God, a tool God plans to use to develop our faith."
-some is loving discipline of the Father
-nothing happens to us that has not been appointed by him
-some suffering is more than just allowed by God, some is actively sent
-ordained, meaning he is the first cause behind everything-comes about by secondary causes
-examples: Joseph, Job, children of Israel, Jesus
-supreme sovereignty over all of my life
-quote from Charles Spurgeon included on other posts
-every day of their children's lives and their lives has been ordained by God before the foundation of the world (Psalm 139:16)
"...and even though what is happening to us might not be good, God intends it all for our ultimate good."
-God is using everything for good and God loves me
-the Cross was greatest evil of all time but also most precious gift
-that we would put the work of God on display for the world to see
"'The miracle likely isn't going to be that God will heal Hope. The miracle is going to be that God will heal you.'"
2 Corinthians 4:8-9,16: We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but we are not destroyed...That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
-show the world the difference a connectedness to Jesus makes in the lowest places of life
Chapter 7 Hear Jesus Saying, I Will Give You a Heart for Forgiveness
Mark 11:25: When you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too.
Jesus empowers us to forgive people who don't deserve it.
-to forgive will cost us something
-more sensitive when we are in sorrow
-i.e. forgiving a drunk driver
-He was willing to pay the cost for our forgiveness
-our massive offenses toward God in comparison to what others have done to us and God forgave us
"Forgiveness flows out of a heart that has known and enjoyed forgiveness."
-forgiveness isn't minimizing what someone has done
-you don't owe me anymore, not even an apology, I will pay
"Forgiveness is choosing to absorb the pain and pay the debt yourself that you are rightfully owed, asking God to do a work of grace and quench the fiery anger in your heart."
-need to watch ourselves
"If we have enough faith to believe that God has forgiven us our enormous debt of sin, we have what we need to forgive others."
-enormity of our sin, greatness of God's mercy
-believe that justice will be done by God
Chapter 8 Hear Jesus Saying, I Am Enough for You
2 Corinthians 12:9: My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness."
Jesus provides what we need when we need it.
-one of main ingredients of sorrow is emptiness
-God can work with empty, he can fill it with his own power and life
-Paul's thorn in the flesh-to keep him from becoming proud
2 Corinthians 12:9: My grace is all you need.
"He will give us the grace to endure the pain he does not take away."
-the power to go on when we think we can't make it one more day
2 Corinthians 12:9: My power works best in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:10: That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
-we don't think God's grace will be enough
-enough grace for the difficulty of the day and more for the next, as needed
-enough to generate joy in the midst of great sorrow, enough to enable you to endure the loneliness and the reminders of loss everywhere, enough to keep you believing that God is good and that he loves you
ENOUGH
"I will be enough for whatever I allow into your life."
-daily dependence
-His Word is essential fuel
Chapter 9 Hear Jesus Saying, I Am Giving Life to Those Who Believe in Me
John 11:25-26: I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?
Jesus asks us to believe that death is not the end of life.
"...people who have had to say good-bye to the body of someone they love are the people who recognize how much the resurrection of Jesus really matters."
-resurrection can seem very far away though, offering little comfort for the here and now
"We have a hard time finding comfort in our future hope under the crush of present pain."
-He is life now
"Once we are made alive in Christ, our lives can never truly be extinguished."
-eternal life cannot be snuffed out and has actually already begun for anyone who has united himself to him, the resurrection and the life
"He provides victory over death in the actual present."
-when physical death comes, our bodies are buried, but our souls go immediately into the presence of God
DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?
"Do you believe that one you love who died in Christ is now enjoying the presence of God, which is better by far than life in this world?"
-have to believe into him
-our faith gives us strength, but doesn't make the loss hurt any less
-it has infused our loss with purpose and hope
-solid foundation of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he has promised
"If you believe that your loved one who has died in Christ will experience the reality of a resurrected body in the new heaven and new earth, you will not get stuck in the mire of seeing death as a tragedy. You can begin to see it as an open door into unending joy."
-you won't see death as the end
"If you believe in Jesus, though you ache to have the one you love here with you, your love for that person and your confidence in the promises of God will actually help to turn this ache of sorrow into anticipation of joy. The reality of life beyond this world will become more real, and your longing for it will grow. Your thoughts of it will become less sentimental and more solid and sure."
-the real miracle is life after death
Chapter 10 Hear Jesus Saying, I Am in Control of Your Life and Your Death
Revelation 1:17-18: Don't be afraid!...I hold the keys of death and the grave.
Jesus soothes our fear of death.
"Do I really want Hope to live any longer than God has intended for her?"
"'The purpose of Hope's life will be completely accomplished in the number of days that God gives her.'"
"'God determined to take him to His home at the age of five; the means was incidental.'"
"My growing confidence that God was in control of Hope's life and death gave me peace."
Psalm 139: 15-16: You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
(Personal note: Right now I feel like I have perfect peace about you and what happened to you)
-Jesus holds the keys to death and the grave means he controls access
"No one goes there unless and until he opens that door. He holds the keys because he died and went there himself and emerged with the keys in his hand."
-even though it seems like the one you loved died much too soon, it was really right on time
-surrender all of the if-onlys
"Jesus himself controls life and death."
"This means that when you face the death of someone you love, you don't have to surrender that person to an unknown, uncaring nothingness. You can rest, knowing that the person you love who knows Jesus is safely in his care and under his loving control. Jesus holds the keys."
-nothing can separate you from my Father's love, not even death
Conclusion Hear Jesus Saying, I Will Give You Rest
Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
Jesus opens his arms to us.
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