”When the time
comes for you to die, you need not be afraid, because death cannot separate you
from God’s love.”
~ Charles H.
Spurgeon
There is no greater time of family involvement and
fellowship then there is during the holidays. I absolutely love all those
special times we get to share with the ones we love! I mean who doesn’t love
having their husband home while getting paid for it?! :p However, this year I
can’t help but also be grieved as we have lost so many that are so dear to us
and others who are so dear to the ones we love.
Sometimes it is overwhelming to know how hard this time of
year is for some people. While many of us are going about the holiday season
with such giddiness and joy, there are others who are hurting and grieving.
I did a sermon recently on adversity and someone came up to
me after service and said, “I am really glad you gave this message. A lot of
people struggle with the holiday season.” At that moment I got thinking….when
did I even mention the holidays?!!! His words went straight to my heart and how
profoundly true it was. We get so busy with our day to day lives and the
holidays have their added stress, that we can so easily forget that BillyBob Jo
is spending his first year as a widower, that Jane Doe is spending her first
year without her best friend, Jack and Joanne are grieving the loss of their
baby boy or that Nemo is spending his first year without his mother. Oii. How
heartbreaking!!
We need to take inventory of our lives and priorities this
Christmas season. Are we focused more on how many “gifts” our children
have/need or perhaps concerned about having the biggest and best party! Let’s
take a moment and think about our friends and family who are spending this
season with a gap in their heart and find a way to lift their spirits.
Scripture says we are to mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who
grieve. It could be as simple as sending a personalized card just letting them
know how loved they are or that you are always there to lend a listening ear.
So what if the cookies haven’t been baked yet! Life is so much more than that.
This year let’s focus more on the reason for the season.
Lend a helping hand and most of all your heart and time J because that’s what Jesus
would do!!
For those who need a little more encouraging and comfort
this Christmas, I hope you will find that comfort in the best hands out there our Abba Daddy (God).
John
14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe
also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I
have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am
you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
Romans
8:16-17 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we
are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified
with him.
2
Corinthians 5:6-8 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are
at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by
sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body
and at home with the Lord.
1
Thessalonians 4:16-18 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. 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. Therefore encourage one
another with these words.
1
Thessalonians 5:9-11 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are
awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and
build one another up, just as you are doing.
2
Samuel 12:23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back
again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (King David speaking
of his infant son who died)
John
11:23-26 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha
said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last
day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in
me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
1
Corinthians 15:54-57 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.” “O death, where is your victory? O death,
where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Philippians
3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his
glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to
himself.
1
Corinthians 15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a
man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
Philippians
1:23-24 I am hard pressed between
the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But
to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
1
Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by
God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.
1
John 3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now,
and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we
shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Revelation
21:1-4 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things
have passed away.”
Psalm
23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil,
Psalm
116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his
saints.
John
10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater
than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (Jesus
speaking)
Romans
8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans
14:8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die
to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Revelation
14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this:
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says
the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow
them!”
