"Blessed are Those Who MOURN...

Hi Friends~

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, and are beginning your week off with some quiet time with the Lord, and fun activities...maybe making some cards? This is a HUGE card making week for me.  My Mom's birthday, my FIL's birthday, one of my step-son's birthday, 3 Father's Day Cards (Dad, FIL, and my husband).  Whew!  Let's hope I can get them all made!  We are going up north to visit Dave's family.  It is his father's 90th birthday on Saturday!  And, then Father's Day will be wonderful with all of the Dads there.  Anyhoo...I will be taking a few days off. 

I wish that you would all subscribe to this blog.  It is on the top of the right side column.  You put your email in...and whenever I am able to post...you get a notice in your email.  I can't see your email. Since I am disabled, and hurt so much so often, it is a good idea, because that way if I miss a post, and decide to write it when I am feeling good...on a day that isn't my usual post day--Tuesday and Thursday.  You would be notified when I do write.  Please think about it.  It really is innocent.  No awards. It just keeps you from missing cards and posts.

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Today I wanted to share a writing from Pastor Larry Libby.  He wrote it in the series on the Beatitudes in the November/December 2003 issue. of Discipleship Journal. 

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."  (Matthew 5:4)

He wrote about how his wife had gone to be with the Lord only a year before writing this piece.  He remembered those words in the Beatitudes and seemed angry.  He asked, "Yet where is the blessedness of mourning?  Where is the comfort?"  He continued in the following excerpts:

What I hear in Jesus' words these days is ssomething like this:  "If you are filled with grief today, don't give in to black despair.  Cling to My promise:  It will be better.  The worst is here now, having its day.  But the better is coming.  Comfort is coming.  I tell you it is almost here."

As temporary residents of a fallen world, we mourn for many reasons.  We grieve over missed opportunities, broken dreams, unfulfilled desires, personal failures, dashed expectations, and difficult curcumstances.  We weep over lost health, lost innocence, annd lost security.  Disappointment and sorow are as much a part of our planet's atmosphere as nitrogen and oxygen.

But Jesus, who is in a position to know, says it won't always be so.  He says comfort is coming.  I can hold on to that assurance.  And, I do, as best I can.  I may not be able to explain it, but I cling to His Words and wait on Him.

Sometimes in his car on this one area he can see so clearly.  He can see the tiniest details on the mountain tops.  Other times there will be terrible storms where he can't even see the mountains.  He continues:  Some days that has been the way with my sorrow, too.  The storm closes in, obscuring all.  I can't see more than a few feet.  I mourn.

With David, I whipser my pain into gathering darkness:

"I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.  My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;  my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak."

(Psalm 31:9-10)

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I think we will stop here...on the first part of this Scripture...

"Blessed are those who mourn... We will continue with... for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) next week.

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How do you deal with the death of a loved one?  What if they were not Saved at the time?  Had you tried to witness to them?  This is my hardest subject to deal with in life.  When my Jewish Grand-Father died, I was in such deep grief.  I asked several of my Christian friends (from the internet) what to do.  They all told me that He is just; He is fair, Trust in Him, Pull closer to Him.  I found myself a bit angry with God, and I could not face the number of relatives who would die and not go to Heaven.  It was just too big for me to deal with.  It still is, even though I have a much closer relationship with the Lord now.  So, I am asking you...How do you get through these times---especially if they were not yet Saved?  I would love to read your reply in the comment section.  Write as much as you want.  I promise you--it will comfort more people than just myself.  Oh, that was another answer my Christian friends reminded me of--talk with, pray with, cry with, laugh with other Christian friends.  Thank you so much for being here.  I appreciate you so very much.  God bless!

He IS Able!

Traci Starkweather