I Can’t Grieve as a Christian – Lies of the Enemy #12– Purity 1024

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a shadow falling over a wait road by a late afternoon sun shining through the trees that are still awaiting the budding leaves of spring to emerge, as the bright green grassland on the opposite side of the road announces that spring has sprung, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene of contrast on the way back to my countryside home yesterday afternoon while out walking my canine Friday, uh, friend Harley. I was feeling the contrast of being somewhat wary over a rather rough day at work, being happy to be out in the sun and walking the dog, and lonely because my wife was away at her youngest son's track meet, um, and wouldn't be with her— with me for an hour or so. Whoever said, um, whoever may have said that life is simple obviously didn't consider the complexity of human existence. We can have mixed emotions and be facing several different situations in life all at once during these years walking about the earth, which I believe stresses the importance of having the constant of a robust relationship with the Lord that is uncompromising in its ability to give us strength, peace, and comfort. Well, it's Saturday, and I'm sharing this photo of contrast this morning because while I have— I now have been reunited with my wife and look forward to a sunshiny day— not sure how sunny it'll actually be, but rain is not in the forecast, uh, even though I'm gonna experience that sunshiny day with my wife, so Someone dear, if not near to us here at M.t. Clark Christ, uh, has suffered the loss of her beloved spouse. This little blog and podcast has amazingly touched the lives of people throughout the world, and yesterday on the podcast I offered up prayers for Facebook friend Deborah Howard's husband Bob, who at the time had suffered a heart attack and was being treated with an treated with an anticipated surgery on the horizon. Unfortunately, this morning just before 2 AM, Deborah messaged me to tell me that Bob has died and was asking for help with dealing with the loss with a Bible verse or some words of wisdom. I shared 2 Samuel 12:15-23, the story of David's loss, uh, losing his infant son, and how he was deeply grieved by his son's illness and how he had prayed and fasted in hopes that the Lord would heal him. But upon learning of his son's death, his actions changed. His servants asked him why, while his son was alive, he fasted, but now that he was dead, he ate. David responded in 2 Samuel 12:22-23, "And he said, 'While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, "Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?"'" But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. The next verse goes on to tell us that David comforted his wife Bathsheba. David had a heart for God, but in the midst of this loss, he knew that his son lived with the LORD now, and one day he would go to him, and so he found the strength in his grief to comfort his life. I also shared Job 1:20-21 that tells us, Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job grieved by tearing his clothes and shaving his head, but even in his grief, He recognized that the gift of his children had been given to him by God, and it was also up to God when he would have Job's children returned to him. I shared these verses with Deborah to remind her of the truth that her husband Bob, who confirmed his faith in Christ by being baptized with Deborah a few years back, was not dead but was now alive in God's kingdom. His suffering is over., and his joy is complete as Bob now lives in the presence of the Lord. But I also sought to comfort Deborah by assuring her that she should allow herself to grieve Bob's loss, and she should seek whatever comfort and support her family and friends may offer in the days ahead, and to also draw close to God to receive the strength, comfort, and guidance that He has for her as well. In considering Deborah's loss as part of our current series, which is an examination of some of the common lies that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, steal our peace, or to influence us to choose not to follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. I've decided to take on one of the lies of the enemy that he likes to whisper to the grieving in times like this. Today's big lie is Lie Number 12: I can't grieve as a Christian. The enemy is the accuser of the brethren, and he doesn't fight fair, and he loves to take the opportunity to kick us when we are down. And so in the wake of the loss, so in the wake of loss, he loves to bring more pain into an already painful situation. When people die, the enemy can cause us to doubt our faith or the existence of God in heaven. He can stir up bitterness between family members and friends. He can rekindle or start new disputes as people gather in the loss of their love, gather together for the loss of their loved one. He can cause people to seek comfort in drugs, alcohol, and other sins of the flesh. He can cause people to become possessive, greedy, and petty over material possessions that the departed leave behind. And he can even twist and distort our faith in an attempt to accuse us, shame us, or plant the seeds that can sprout into pain in the future. The first person lie he loves to whisper into Christians, or even to speak through well-meaning members of the body of Christ, is I can't grieve as a Christian. In some Christian circles, funerals are heralded as life celebrations, and there can be great expressions of joy where people gather together to honor the departed loved one by remembering the legacy they left behind. But paradoxically, these, these well-intentioned gatherings that seek to focus on the positive of a Christian's life and their heavenly destination can also breed confusion, anger, and depression. Non-believers, or even Christians, could be confused of the idea of being happy when they are suffering the loss. They could even get angry at these joyful mourners because they feel that they aren't dealing with the loss and are disrespecting them and their departed loved ones by adequate— by not adequately acknowledging that they've died and that the loss hurts. And Christians seeking to be good Christians may feel they have to repress their grief and show everyone their faith by putting on a happy face while their hearts are broken. The verses above about David and Job show us that we can grieve as Christians. Even John 11:35 tells us that Jesus wept. Even though Jesus knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus grieved his loss. Jesus wept. So as Christians, we should express our grief in whatever ways we feel at the time. The key is to be emotionally honest. While our faith and relationship with the, with the truth on eternal matters and with God can be an incredible comfort and source of strength in dark times, we shouldn't allow the twisting of our faith to repress our emotions, not, and not adequately process our our grief. If you want to weep, weep. If you want to be angry, be angry, but try not to sin. But if you do sin, well, repent of it and ask for forgiveness. If you want to be joyful, be joyful, but remember to draw close to God to receive the strength, comfort, and guidance that he always has for us, even long after the departed are laid to rest and the rest of the world moves on with their lives. God is near to the brokenhearted, and he is with those who choose to put their faith in Jesus and decide to surrender to his will for their lives. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away on this earth, but he never leaves or forsakes his children. So combat the enemy's lie that tells you that Christians can't grieve, or anything else that should seek to twist our faith or steal our peace. And I ask all who hear or read this message to pray for the comfort and peace of Deborah and her family in the wake of Bob's departure from their lives. For those who are grieving, I recommend H. Norman Wright's Experiencing Grief or June Hunt's Grief: Living at Peace with Loss. And I'm sharing links to both of those on the blog today. You can purchase them at Amazon or where the links would lead you, but really you can get them at any Christian bookstore, I would think. And as always, as we share these, uh, this series on combating the lies of the enemy, I'm also sharing Frank Turk's website crossexamined.org for those who want some evidence. And Frank's an apologist, and he, he tells you that, you know, sometimes Um, you know, it takes more faith to believe in God than it takes to be an atheist. So, um, if you want evidence for our faith in the wake of loss, um, crossexamined.org will provide it. Anyway, that moves us on to the Bible verse of the day, and today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is, um, 1 Timothy 4:16. And that one says, keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you. Today's verse tells us to be cognizant of how we live our lives and what we say to others, as we should want to be consistent by doing what is right for our own sake as well as the sake of others, uh, for the sake of others is better language. There we go. Uh, today's verse tells us to be authentic Christians, to be real, to not just talk the talk but to walk the walk as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our lives are a living testimony of our faith, and so we want to be sure, uh, that what we do and say reflects the facts, uh, the fact that we are Christians in every aspect of our lives. While we will never be able to perfectly express what it means to be a Christian in every aspect of our lives, uh, perfectly all the time, um, we can be surprised by just how much our lives are transformed when we seek to keep a close watch on how we live our lives and how it lines up with God's word. And, and we seek, you know, to live authentically for two reasons. While we are assured of our salvation when we put our faith in Jesus, we may not be free in experiencing the abundant life that God wants us to live because we are double-minded, saying we are a Christian but living like the rest of the unbelieving world. So we keep a close watch on our lives and speech to be conformed to the image of Christ, uh, so that we will have harmony with God and overcome the bondages that, uh, are put on us, uh, by the world, the flesh, and the devil. The second reason is that we, as ambassadors of Christ, we represent Christians, uh, to the non-believing world. So we want to show that we are not one of those hypocrites in the church by really speaking the gospel with the way we live. Our example could be used by God to save someone. So for yourself and your neighbor, keep a close watch on how you live and try to stay true to the salvation that you've received and that you represent and could bring to others. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and we're in Appendix 2, and, uh, it's on— Appendix 2 is on the case for— the case of Adam. So if you want to hear what A.W. Pink has to say about, uh, the case of Adam and, you know, about some Old Testament truth Go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship and to keep walking and talking with God because, oh boy, do we need him. We need him in good times and bad to know which way to go and to live wisely and to mature in our faith. To experience freedom, you know, to— with his help, we can overcome negative states of mind, addictions, and other things, you know, bad habits, uh, or hurts or hang-ups, and live an abundant life where we have, you know, an abundant amount of peace and joy, um, an underlying sense of those things, the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives because we're in harmony with the Lord. So we, we recommend our, uh, discipleship teachings that we offer on the podcast: Victor Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Those are all written by Dr. Neil Anderson based on the Word of God, and they teach you all about who you are in Christ, the spiritual forces of darkness that exist, and how to have freedom in Christ. And so we recommend those, and obviously we We revere the Word of God, and we recommend that you develop a daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study. And we encourage Bible study by doing one of our own. We meet once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti to do a topical Bible study. So we'll be meeting in the morning prayerfully, and we invite you to join our study as well as our podcast, audio and video podcast of the, uh, of the entire series is available on YouTube and the podcast. So, uh, we invite you to check those out. Well, it is Saturday, and as soon as my wife's done with her schoolwork, uh, we'll prepare to go up north to Crown Point, which is on Lake Champlain. I've never been there, and I can't wait to go. It's, it's proves to be a decent day with a high of 69 degrees in the Great White North, apparently. And I look forward to getting out, enjoying the company of my wife and the company of the Lord and his creation. And I encourage anyone who's listening to this to do that today, or to, you know, start to make that a habit. You know, enjoy your life, enjoy the people you live with, and recognize that it is all something that the Lord has given to you. And, you know, practice gratitude and draw close to the Lord and share your faith. Um, I think that's why God put us here, to represent him throughout the earth and to go out and to make disciples as Christ's command. And so, uh, I, I wish everyone a happy, uh, weekend. I pray for Deborah Howard and her family. Um, I was devastated to hear the loss. Um, truthfully, when I got the request yesterday, I, you know, sometimes you just pray for healing. Um, yesterday, at least in my— I don't recall the prayers I made on air, um, on air, um, but in, in my message to her, I basically told her to draw close to her husband, to confirm her love for him, and to, uh, confirm that they, they believe that God was in control. And, um, you know, that he's in control even in the loss. And, you know, Bob is in a better place. I mean, he, he knows the mysteries of life and death and, and is in the presence of the Lord, as the word tells us that. And Jesus goes to prepare mansions for those who are his. And so it doesn't sound bad. Um, it's bad for us here on earth and the loss of the person missing as we have to adjust to the new normal of life without them. Um, but when we draw, draw close to the Lord, we can have strength to endure even the most tragic loss and to move forward with, um, with peace and joy, um, even in the midst of our pain. And, um, so yeah, I think I'll pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for your for your love and another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for everything you do for us and the fact that you are there on the other side of eternity welcoming us to live with you when this life should expire. Um, Lord, we thank you for anyone who's listening today. We pray for you to bless them and to guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, as always, we ask you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Lord, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and to, you know, possibly share the good news with someone else and to, and to be used by you to bring them into the body of Christ. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.