Participants: C.A.Murray (Host), Jerry Thomas
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000195
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00:30 Welcome to Issues and Answers,
00:31 my name is C. A. Murray and thank you for 00:33 spending this time with us today. 00:35 Our topic today is "Grief Recovery." 00:40 Where is God when it hurts, where is 00:44 God when your heart is breaking. 00:47 That's a subject that we have to wrestle 00:49 with quite a bit in New York during 00:51 the post 9/11 time there were many, 00:54 many people who asked the question 00:56 where was God on 9/11, where was God 00:58 when my loved one was in that building 01:00 coming down, where was God when the 01:03 airplanes crashed into the building and 01:05 into the ground in Western Pennsylvania. 01:07 As a New Yorker we had to wrestle with 01:08 that time and time again and it maybe 01:11 an issue that you're wrestling with even 01:13 today. So, to help us sort of unpackage that 01:15 and solve that, that dilemma to talk about 01:18 a little bit is Jerry Thomas. Jerry, good 01:20 to have you here, thank you. 01:21 Jerry is the Communication Director 01:24 for the Southwestern Union, Headquartered 01:27 in Dallas Texas and he is also the Editor 01:30 of that Union Paper the Record. 01:32 But as important as that is I suspect 01:35 he is the fact that he is a prolific author 01:37 has written a number of children's books 01:41 that are very, very popular. He's also 01:44 the author of the Messiah which was 01:47 an is a modern day translation of the 01:49 classic work Desire of Ages and his latest 01:52 work is conversations with Jesus. 01:55 And it's in that context that we wanna talk 01:58 to him today, so Jerry it's good to have you 02:00 here. Where is God when it hurts, 02:04 where is God when my heart is breaking. 02:07 You have personal experience with that 02:10 as you had to deal with the death of 02:11 your father not too long ago. 02:13 Yes it was, it was during the 02:16 time I was working on that book Messiah 02:18 and my father had served as a pastor 02:22 for a number of years. But in his search for 02:25 truth one of the most strong, one of the 02:29 strongest influences in his life was the book 02:32 Desire of Ages. When he came in contact 02:34 with that and some Adventist neighbors, 02:38 our family came into this church. 02:40 Mostly because of the picture of Jesus 02:43 my parent saw on those pages, so the 02:45 book Desire of Ages was very special to him 02:47 and to me as well. But it was during the time 02:49 when I was working on that, that adaptation 02:52 into modern language you called Messiah. 02:55 That he developed a cancerous tumor 02:59 and he had to go in for surgery, I was 03:03 there the August that he went in, 03:07 we had anointing service we ask God 03:09 to heal him. When he have with the surgery 03:12 and thing seem to be going well for several 03:15 months, but then he start to get a little 03:17 weaker. On thanksgiving that year my family 03:21 and I were, I was in Idaho where I work 03:24 at that time. And he and my mother 03:27 and my brothers and sisters all celebrated 03:29 together there in Texas. They had a good day, 03:33 I talked to him on the phone, but it was the 03:36 next morning when my sister called me 03:39 and said things don't look good at all. 03:42 Dad took a sudden turm for the worse, 03:44 we've taken him to the hospital, and you 03:47 should probably get here if you can. 03:52 Well, I travel enough to know that, 03:54 that Thanksgiving weekend is the worse 03:56 travel weekend of the entire year. 03:58 And it didn't take me along to find out 04:01 that sure enough there was no where 04:03 I could get there that day. 04:04 There were no tickets available and so 04:08 I there I was stuck in Idaho when my 04:11 father passed away that same evening. 04:14 And I had some real questions for God, 04:19 I had some real issues there, 04:25 when you have that kind of loss you feel 04:27 that kind of pain you wanna know where 04:28 the God is. Yes, just as you mention 04:30 in the opening, where is God 04:32 when it hurts this much. Doesn't he care about 04:34 his people, doesn't he care about the promises 04:37 that he made, why doesn't he keep those 04:39 promises. Why doesn't he heal people 04:43 when we ask him to? Why doesn't he off 04:46 you protection and you know I've spend 04:50 years of my life as a pastor, teacher. 04:54 And I've written a lot of material talking 04:57 about the love of God, but you know when it, 04:59 when it strikes that close to your own heart, 05:01 yes, yes. These are questions that you ask, 05:03 these are things that you think and it was a 05:08 difficult time. Yeah, yeah, what occurs to 05:10 me Jerry one, I don't think it is a sin to ask, 05:15 I do not, I don't think God is above being 05:19 questioned. He says, come let us reason 05:22 together and that be speaks questioning, 05:24 I don't think God is, is so thin skinned that 05:27 we cannot question him. I think he invites 05:30 questions, I think sometimes he gives 05:32 us answers, sometimes he asks us to exercise 05:35 a measure of faith. But I don't think 05:37 he's offended when we question him. 05:40 I think he invites you know inquiry. 05:44 Certainly the example of say Abraham or 05:48 Moses in the Bible, they continue to 05:51 question God when they didn't understand, 05:53 yeah and persuaded different answer then 05:55 the one he gave them first and, and I think 05:58 you're right God wasn't offended. 06:00 Yeah, and always explain, yes, yes but. 06:03 Yeah, I think sometimes we get to a point in our 06:06 lives where you say Lord, I just don't know 06:08 what you're doing. I'm not affronting you, 06:14 I'm not shaking my finger in your face, 06:16 I'm asking what's going on, show me what 06:20 you're doing. I will follow you wherever 06:22 you lead me, but right now I can't quite figure 06:25 out what's going on and I think sometimes 06:27 we have that, that wrestling with God 06:29 and it appears that that's what you kind 06:31 of went through at that point. 06:33 Yes and fortunately for me I was working 06:36 on the story of Jesus and about 06:39 that time I, I dealt with the story of Lazarus. 06:42 Now, you think of some people who, who had 06:46 questions for God, oh yeah and yet 06:48 maintained their faith. Do you think 06:49 the experience of Martha and Mary there? 06:51 You know they knew Jesus, they personally 06:55 walked with him, yes, ate lunch with him, 06:57 yes, he was a friend of theirs, he wasn't 06:59 just a distant Messiah type person. 07:01 Now this, this is the family that kind of 07:02 palled around with Jesus a little bit yeah, 07:03 that's what Jesus like to having yeah, 07:05 precisely when he had downtime, 07:07 he hang out at Mary, Martha, Lazarus house, 07:09 that's right. So, now they send a message 07:10 the one you love is sick and in their mind 07:13 they're thinking well he'll be here any 07:14 minute you know, 10 minutes from now he'll 07:16 be walk into the door. Because they knew 07:19 that he loved them, precisely and they 07:21 knew he had the power to heal, yeah those 07:22 were absolutely true, yeah. 07:24 We know he likes us, we know he got the stuff, 07:27 he can do it, so now all we have to do is 07:29 show up and of course he does not do that. 07:32 Yeah, so that can throw you into a tizzy, 07:36 that can really break your will. 07:39 And you think of the struggle they must 07:41 have had, it's hard for us when we lose 07:42 someone, yes. But you know we didn't just 07:46 have lunch with Jesus last week right, 07:48 we didn't just see him heal a bunch of 07:49 strangers. And maybe in our own house, 07:52 while he was there. Yeah, as I remember 07:56 and of course you, you and you're working 07:58 with the book Desire of Ages, the life of Christ, 08:00 I think he of course he delayed his, 08:02 once he got the message he didn't 08:03 start out right away to their house. 08:05 And as I recall, he may have done one 08:07 or two healings along the way, so 08:09 he stopped and healed some other people 08:10 and then of course by the time he gets 08:12 to Bethany, Lazarus has already been 08:15 death for several days. So, that, that 08:18 makes you question your relationship question 08:20 your faith, where is God indeed when it's hurt. 08:24 I'm looking in the notes, you feel betrayed, 08:27 did you feel betrayed like God sort of let you 08:29 down? I did, because and not only do we 08:31 have the promise of God's love and his 08:33 concern for our lives but and maybe 08:36 it's wrong but when you, when you've 08:39 dedicated your life to doing God's work when, 08:41 when the one you love, was a person 08:44 who did God's work, who was a minister 08:46 also. Shouldn't we expect God to especially 08:51 have a part in healing those who have done 08:54 all they could for him. I don't know, 08:57 and maybe it's just our human nature 08:59 that we wanna believe that God 09:01 keeps a special eye on the people who were, 09:04 who were giving their life for his service. 09:07 Yeah, yeah, so then did you wrestle with 09:11 and come up with some sort of answer 09:14 that will work for you as to why he does 09:16 not always heal, why does he not seem 09:19 to keep his promises. It's a difficult issue to 09:23 work through, because you know sometimes 09:28 in the times that would make sense 09:30 to us like we're saying a person who was, 09:33 who was actively working for God 09:34 shouldn't that person get first priority 09:37 where as a person who you know maybe a 09:40 peripheral Christian, okay well you know 09:42 I'm sorry but it's never easy it's 09:46 never clear yeah. I remember 09:50 clearly the story, friends 09:51 of ours told us that the. 09:54 You know hard time conceiving one of the 09:58 children badly and you know they had a hard 09:59 time conceiving they'd lost the baby and now 10:03 they reached the point where she was approaching, 10:07 actually being able to deliver the baby and 10:09 another pregnancy when they were far from 10:12 hospital and medical help and the situation rose 10:15 were once again she lost her child. And of course 10:20 they just toward the month they were devastated 10:23 that God had listened to their, their cries for 10:26 help, they done nothing to help them. 10:28 The first time they went back to church, 10:31 they told me they were sitting on the back row 10:33 they were listening to a man at front saying 10:36 now he had lost his wallet but he had prayed 10:38 and God had told me there was it he is thanking 10:41 God for that miracle finding his wallet and 10:43 they looked at each other and said oh that's what 10:45 God was doing, when our baby, we lost our baby, 10:47 he was finding this guy's wallet. It was very 10:50 hard when you, when you hear that God healed 10:53 someone else and he didn't heal the one you 10:55 loved. Yes, yes, I can you see that sort of 10:58 discard, I remember someone telling a story 10:59 once that a lady was saying how she went 11:02 around and around try to find a parking place 11:05 at the mall and she was praising God because 11:09 just as she made her third trip around a person 11:11 pulled out right in front of the store, 11:14 you know, she said I only had to walk a few 11:15 feet and praise God. That you know this miracle 11:20 person pulled on just as I came in and the 11:22 person's father was dying of cancer and he 11:26 was saying to us, this was a union official, 11:28 he was saying in church. Well, listen Lord, 11:33 I got a miracle I need too you know, 11:36 you know when she's praise me for a car space, 11:37 how about a, I got a father dying of cancer 11:39 what about, what about that. So to wrestle with 11:42 that idea that God is still sovereign, he does not 11:45 always answer just as we, we want, is a tough 11:51 thing. Have you ever thought maybe it would 11:53 be easier on our faith if God never healed 11:57 anybody? He didn't do those kind of miracle, 12:01 yeah, wouldn't that be easier because it's tough 12:03 when he does a miracle for someone else 12:05 apparently yeah and your not miracle, 12:08 because I've to admit sometimes when I hear a 12:10 story of someone whose had cancer and 12:13 apparently miraculously healed, I wanna think 12:15 well you know maybe it wasn't as bad as they 12:17 thought, yeah and maybe, yeah you know. 12:20 Yeah and there is a tendency to do that, 12:23 I have a member, had a member when I was 12:25 pastoring in New York who went in had cancer, 12:28 I mean just doctor said cancer, cancer, cancer 12:31 and four months later went in doctor said it's 12:34 gone. And you know you look at that and you 12:37 scratch your head because there are hundreds 12:39 of thousands who die of cancer a year, yeah. 12:41 Why, why this one you know or a plane goes 12:45 down and everybody dies and one person walks 12:47 away. Why does that person walk away or was 12:51 somebody praying for them, who was not praying 12:52 for the others. There were a group praying, 12:56 instead of just one they had a whole group 12:58 praying, yes, it's a magic number here somewhere. 13:00 Right, what's critical math you know for prayer 13:03 that at what point do we, do we get his ear 13:05 and yet I guess our faith doesn't began till our 13:09 sight ends because some of these things you 13:11 just don't know. I've seen, I'd a story on 13:15 incidence once a young lady was very, very sick 13:18 and the mother said pastor, if you'd come and 13:19 pray she'll be fine. And fairly early in ministry 13:23 in fact my first church on my own I did not want 13:25 that responsibly, I said take her to the hospital, 13:27 mom said no, you pray she'll be fine. 13:31 So, what do you do, you go and pray because 13:33 she's not taking her to the hospital and I'm gonna 13:36 read, you pray, you scream, you beat the 13:38 floor, just it's like Lord please don't embarrass 13:40 yourself and don't embarrass me you know, 13:44 you're praying then I went back to church for 13:47 afternoon meeting. And the mother came in 13:50 two hours later daughter in tow and she said 13:54 she's fine, daughter came in and she was fine 13:58 and she was healthy and mother said she brought 14:01 up all of these stuff just after you left and the 14:03 daughter was fine. Well, it, it happened 14:05 you know and you praise God for it, 14:10 but you don't have the iron clad guarantee that's 14:12 going to happen and many, many times it 14:14 doesn't happen my, my dad, you know I had 14:17 the same experience, he passed also of course 14:20 ours was a little different, I had baptized 14:21 him a month before. And we were so happy that we 14:24 got him in after 70 plus years of serving Satan, 14:27 he only got to serve the Lord one month. 14:29 So, that funeral was kind of joyous and it was 14:32 sudden, we baptized him in October. 14:34 He had a heart attack in November and passed 14:37 very quickly. So, I didn't know if it's any better 14:40 if you can see coming down a road, it's very 14:41 sudden I don't know if that makes it any better. 14:44 You still tend to question God but were so 14:46 happy. Folk asked us why we were so joyous 14:47 at the funeral, because we got him in, 14:49 you know it's totally different and he had not 14:51 served the Lord, save that last month and he 14:54 was kind of ill during that last month of time. 14:58 But, it's, it's a different thing. 14:59 Well, when someone else is healed and our 15:01 loved one isn't, we always wanna think okay did 15:03 God love them more, you know are they just a 15:07 better person and someone there we have to 15:09 question, and I think that's where Mary and 15:11 Martha must have been yes. I mean they knew 15:13 Jesus could heal, they saw him healing strangers. 15:17 So why not heal their loved one, yeah. 15:19 And does he just really not care, you know I 15:22 must have been a heart -wrenching. Yeah, I well 15:25 think though particularly the fact that they knew 15:27 him intimately, they were as we said earlier, 15:30 they were friends, buddies if we can use that 15:33 term. And yet he is your, your best friend if 15:36 I recall in that book Desire of Ages your 15:38 translation called the Messiah. Lazarus is one of 15:43 Christ closest and I think the term which she 15:44 uses disciple although he was not numbered 15:47 among 12. Obviously he and Jesus were very, 15:49 very close, well now you think, well you're gonna, 15:51 surely you're gonna come and hear your buddy. 15:53 Yeah, I know. It's like I was thinking with Lazarus, 15:57 he's Jesus best friend outside of work, yeah, 15:59 yeah. He's got the guys who travels with, 16:01 then Lazarus, yeah, yeah, yeah. And but 16:04 you think that the faith with Mary and Martha 16:06 because in spite of that they still believed 16:10 in Jesus, they still believed that God was 16:13 gonna resurrect their, their brother someday, 16:16 it's just a staggering story of faith. 16:18 It is, it is, knowing all of that and experiencing 16:20 all of that they still believe, they had 16:22 questions. They, you know were crying their 16:25 eyes out, but they still believe. Was that the 16:29 way it was for you, because obviously you had 16:31 to work through it, wrestle through it, 16:33 hold on to your faith, finish your project. 16:36 You're still standing so you might have, 16:38 you must have wrestled with it and done so 16:40 successful. Well, I think I particularly and 16:44 working through this story of Lazarus I mean 16:46 you don't come up with an answer there is not 16:48 a reason why. But what you seen in the story 16:51 of Lazarus is that it's not a matter that Jesus 16:55 didn't care, it's not, it wasn't important to him. 17:01 You can see in that story how much it mattered 17:05 to them. When Jesus gets back to Bethany 17:10 and he calls Martha to come out of the house 17:13 and come down and she sneaks away, 17:14 so no one else is there but her and the Jesus and 17:18 first thing she says is Lord, if you've been here, 17:21 yes, my brother wouldn't have died. 17:24 And Jesus, I could just picture him, 17:28 taking her hands in his and saying you see your 17:31 brother again you know you will. And Martha 17:34 through the tears in her eyes says I know I 17:36 was see him again in the resurrection, 17:38 the last day. And that's when Jesus says those 17:43 words that we repeated in funerals at that time, 17:45 yeah, yeah. But he is not preaching, he's talking 17:49 to someone who was balling her eyes out right 17:51 in front of him, yeah, yeah. He says I'm the 17:53 resurrection and I'm the life, yeah. 17:56 And it's a powerful, a powerful reality Jerry 17:58 to to hold on to, I know I'll see him in a 18:02 resurrection, I am the resurrected, 18:07 resurrected it's standing some, is not some 18:09 distant place or time, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. 18:11 It's a guarantee, it's a guarantee you have to 18:13 reach out and grab on to that guarantee for 18:15 yourself didn't you? That's right, yeah. 18:17 But the most precious scene in scripture I 18:19 believe and the story comes up next, 18:22 where they go to the garden and to visit 18:25 Lazarus's tomb and you know the verse that all 18:31 young memory verse, memorizers love, 18:36 oh yes Jesus wept, 35 sure. When you look 18:38 that story Jesus, Jesus cried you know, 18:43 I wouldn't even bother. He wasn't sorry that 18:46 Lazarus was dead he was about to bring Lazarus 18:48 back to live. He could change that surely, 18:50 yeah, that wasn't a problem for him, 18:51 why was he crying about. He knew what was 18:53 gonna happen next, right the only reason he 18:57 would be crying is that he knew how much 18:59 it had hurt them, yes. He knew how much 19:01 Mary and Martha will suffer and I look at that 19:04 I think you know if it, if he could feel their pain 19:09 on the verge of the triumphant moment that 19:11 was coming so quickly I have to know that 19:14 he could feel my pain too. Yeah, yeah, yeah 19:17 that gives me hope and this thought much 19:21 of the suffering was occasioned by a 19:23 misunderstand of who he was and what his 19:26 mission was. And I think the same can beside 19:29 of us today. That when a loved one dies, 19:35 I think a lot of our suffering is occasioned by 19:37 a number of things. One, separation of course, 19:42 but perhaps a misunderstanding of 19:43 what's, what's in store for us when I was 19:46 pastoring my last church, Ephesus Church I did 19:49 117 funerals, 117 at everyone of those funerals 19:54 I made this statement. Death in Christ is not 19:58 such a bad thing, better to die in Jesus then 20:02 live without him and I think sometimes it may 20:05 sound cruel but I believes it's my heart that 20:08 we want to hold on to the person for us. 20:13 Not necessarily for them, I've been at the bed 20:17 side of individuals who've been reduce to 98 20:20 pounds and 97 pounds because of cancer. 20:23 And the families still holding on for them I 20:26 think a bit because they don't want the 20:28 separation but my, my point is if you die in 20:34 Jesus you won. Because he says I'm the 20:38 resurrection and the life, that's right so death 20:41 in Christ is better then life without him. 20:44 That's why the Bible says First Thessalonians 20:48 4:16 at the end of that we should ask, 20:51 not also we shall we changed, it end with 20:53 the saying wherefore comfort one and another 20:57 with these words. Well, why should those words 20:59 be comfort, because if we believe in Jesus died 21:02 and rose again the Bible says then those who 21:04 sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 21:08 You know, so we have the promise that those 21:11 who sleep in Jesus will one day rain with Jesus 21:14 and that's the comforting thought did you 21:16 process that you know during your time 21:18 particularly as you're writing this monumental 21:20 of work on the life of Christ. Well, I did and 21:23 and it's like you say you don't wanna let 21:27 people go, but at the same time you know 21:33 that the human condition is that's we're all 21:35 gonna end up. Yes, yeah and if Jesus doesn't 21:37 return you and I all of us those who love 21:39 will eventually passed around own death. 21:43 As long as we can assure ourselves that it 21:46 doesn't happen because God doesn't care 21:48 about us or that it doesn't matter to God 21:51 then I think it's okay I think we can deal with 21:53 that, we not understand why, particularly 21:55 when it happens suddenly and unexpectedly. 21:58 There may not be an answer why that we can, 22:00 yes, that we can live with. But if we know 22:03 it's not because God doesn't care yes, yes, 22:06 but he feels our pain. He knows what we're 22:09 going through like Jesus did with Mary and 22:10 Martha and I think we can, we can leave the 22:13 rest of it in his hands. Yeah, there is great 22:16 comforting in knowing that the God in heaven is 22:19 touched with our, with our grief. 22:22 Sometimes we just want somebody to, to cry 22:24 with you, you know I heard this cute little 22:26 story I got to tell it I know our time is 22:28 slipping away. This fellow down the street 22:31 from family his wife passed and at the funeral 22:33 came, was over and he came out and he sat 22:36 on the, on the porch and a little boy got 22:41 off his mother's lap and went down the street 22:42 and just sat on the man's lap for about an hour 22:45 and then he came home and the mother said 22:48 well son, what did you talk with him about for, 22:51 for a whole hour. And the little boy said I 22:53 didn't, I didn't say anything I just helped him 22:55 cry a little and you know I heard the story 22:58 it touch me. Sometimes does need somebody 23:00 to help you cry and, and to know that in your 23:03 grief Christ is touched, yeah. He is crying by 23:06 along stand you and that could be, 23:08 just can he did with Mary and Martha, precisely. 23:09 He just there to cry with him, yeah just 23:11 there to cry with him, yeah, yeah. If someone 23:16 were to say to you and I'm putting you the 23:18 spot again. What are the steps to heal and 23:23 what were the steps that you used to healing? 23:26 What were the realizations that helped you 23:28 get through that experience, if you could 23:29 give me 1 to 4 or 1 to 5. Could you do that, 23:33 could you even look at to that way? 23:38 I think you have to start with the reality 23:42 that nothing, that anyone can say or due is 23:46 gonna make the pain stop right away; 23:48 it's just not gonna happen. No, magic bullet, 23:50 no Pat dancer that will do that, you can read 23:53 the promises of God, you can believe the 23:55 promises of God sincerely, but the pain doesn't 23:58 go away quickly. It's gonna take time to deal 24:01 with the pain that's all that is to that. 24:04 But you can do and what I have have always 24:07 recommended people do, when they suffer 24:09 loss is to spend time in the story of Jesus, 24:13 reading your Bible. Remembering the promises 24:17 that he gave and that, that he does promise 24:21 to return and put an end to this. The one 24:23 thing the story of Jesus tells us strongly that 24:26 anything else because the story ends and Jesus 24:30 own sacrifice as it there is nothing God won't 24:34 do it to stop sin and pain forever, nothing, 24:37 including letting his own best friend die the 24:41 Lazarus. Including Jesus himself suffering and 24:43 dying, yes, because that was the only way he 24:45 could put an end this kind of pain and suffering 24:47 forever. So, there is nothing God won't do to 24:50 put an end to it. You know God loves you, 24:53 you know he understand your pain. You know, 24:55 he is working to make it stop forever, 24:58 praise God. Then the rest is just time, 25:01 and I think adding to that, to that mix, 25:04 the recipe the idea that is not a sin to 25:07 question God. No, as long as you don't give up 25:10 on him, you can, he take the questions, 25:12 he can take, I dare say a little finger shaking 25:15 as long as you don't turn your back to him. 25:19 You can shake you finger and you can, 25:20 you can cry and you can question. 25:22 Do a little shouting if that's necessary, 25:23 yeah you got to scare him, you can scare him, 25:25 yeah. That's very good and with that comes your, 25:30 comes your healing, yeah comes your healing. 25:34 Given that and it's been, it's been five years 25:38 you've wrestled with it and come through it 25:39 successfully, praise God, praise the Lord. 25:44 Yeah, yeah that's, that's a good thing, 25:46 there is one other point I want, I want to touch 25:48 on, this idea that, that Christ is ever present in, 25:55 in our grief, that he never leaves us. 26:01 At what point did that sort of kick in for you, 26:04 that you're not you know because there is 26:06 this, there's this loneliness when there's a 26:07 loss and then there is a point that I'm not 26:09 in, at what point in that healing process did 26:11 that, did that kick in? Well, you know there is 26:15 a terrible amount of loneliness and loss 26:18 fortunately in my case, my mother's still alive, 26:21 she was there, so we comfort each other, 26:24 my brothers and sisters were there and 26:27 even when we're talking with people who have 26:29 the same questions and are feeling the same 26:31 pain. There is comfort in each other that you, 26:35 that you can't, can't do without in those times 26:39 but when all that's behinds you. 26:40 You know when the funeral has come and 26:42 gone and you've got to get back to your real 26:44 life, to the every day struggles that's when, 26:48 that's when you have to come to peace with 26:49 God. Yes, because there is no one left around 26:52 to, to hold your hand now you got pertained 26:54 like nothing matters and you go back to your 26:56 business just like you'd before. Yeah, it's hard 26:59 to do but that's when if you, if you believe that 27:04 Jesus is with you, if you take his promise to, 27:12 to bring your loved one back in the resurrection, 27:15 it's hard yeah. You can feel his presents and 27:19 sometimes that's all that keeps you going yeah, 27:22 yeah. It takes time and the presence of Jesus 27:25 is something that you can feel especially 27:28 when you're in pain. Praise God, praise God. 27:30 It occurs to me Jerry, that healing is not a 27:34 communal experience, it's one on one, 27:36 it's just you and the Lord. But even in your, 27:39 your darkest moments, your saddest moments 27:41 Jesus has promised to be there, to be there 27:44 with us. And that's a, that's a good thing, yes. 27:46 Thank you so very; very much. Where is God 27:49 when it hurts? He is right by your side you 27:52 may not see him, but I guarantee you he is 27:54 right there. Pray to him and talk with him, 27:57 he'll be with you, God bless you, 27:59 we'll see you next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17