loss – Westchester Men's Ministry

Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal?

December 17, 2012 by nymensministry 3 Comments

On Friday, a mass murderer broke his way into an elementary school in Newtown, CT, killed 20 children and 6 unarmed adults before killing himself. We’ve all struggled with this tragedy and prayed for the families. We’ve wrestled with the reason for it, and how it should have been avoided, while contemplating how we can prevent it in the future.

commuters, NYC, Grand Central, busy, mindless, robotic Today, is Monday, and many of us go back to work and to our normal lives. It reminds me of a discussion my wife and I had with a friend who lost someone very close. She said, ‘I was outside the other day and everyone is continuing as if nothing happened!’ The surprise and shock in her voice was obvious and genuine. We didn’t doubt it, because we had the same thought years earlier when our 2 year old daughter went on ahead of us to heaven.

It is true, the world continues and God is patient. I have to think that out thoughts in that moment were closer to God’s than our own. I wonder if He is in awe when it comes to our robotic and occasionally thoughtless way of going through life. The Bible says:

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” – Romans 13:11

God's outstretched and pierced hand, Isaiah 65:2

brotherjohn.org

Even though, His grace is new every morning, we are one less morning away from our last. May God continue to be patient with those that haven’t taken the time to know Him. I’m thankful that He continues to hold out his hand to all that will accept it.

“I (God) have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face” – Isaiah 65:2-3a

We have hope because our eternal Father sent his Son, and His hands were pierced and He was crucified for us! Our father now looks at us and says ‘how can they continue as if nothing happened!’ May we all wake from our sleep, before it is too late.

Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal? by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Filed Under: Christianity, Forgiveness, grace, Hope, Salvation Tagged With: awake, back to normal, busy, ct, God, God's hand, hand, heaven, losing a child, loss, mindless, murder, newtown, normal, outstretched, pierced, robotic, sleep, work

In Light of What Happened in Connecticut

December 14, 2012 by nymensministry Leave a Comment

Reblogged with permission from: http://www.chspurgeonquotes.com

Spurgeon, death, living, heaven, earth, loss, sorrow, river, sheep

http://www.chspurgeonquotes.com

The Hour Is Coming

John 5:25

I have, in my imagination, looked on all whom I know on the earth, and I have said, they are dying creatures. This is always true, but we often forget it. Yet when a precious one is taken, we begin to realize this truth. Thinking about this, I seem to see a passing procession. I remember many who have passed—a long array of my Master‘s servants—some carrying His banner high, others marching with swords drawn, and some weak and feeble being helped by sturdy champions. They are gone, and I will never see them here again. Some of you are also passing away. More are coming, but they are also going.

I said that I was looking at this procession. But that is incorrect, for I am in the procession. I am passing with the rest. What shadows we are! What fleeting things! What mists! What paintings on a cloud! We can scarcely say that we live; for the moment we begin to live, we begin to die. This earth is not the land of the living. This is a dying world. The living world is beyond death‘s cold river. Here graves are innumerable, and death rules all.

No! That is not true. For there is One who rules death. Death has no power over the living God. Death is His servant. It is through death that we pass into life. By the death of our redeeming Lord, we have been rescued from destruction. From everything that wears the aspect of death, we can turn to Him, Jesus Christ, who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.13:8).

C.H. Spurgeon

Filed Under: grace, Heaven, Home, Loss, Peace, trials Tagged With: C.H. Spurgeon, death, heaven, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Life, loss, procession, Spurgeon, The Hour is Coming

A Father’s Testimony

November 8, 2012 by nymensministry 13 Comments

My daughter lived 780 days (2 years and 2 months) and we often wondered after she died, if she knew Jesus. She Did! We know we will see her again and I hope her story will be a comfort to others who have experienced loss. May God comfort you and bless you!

Emily was born on February 13, 2002 with Carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase (CACT) deficiency which is a genetic disorder that prevents the proper breakdown of fats. This leads to excess ammonia in the blood (hyperammonemia), an enlarged liver (hepatomegaly), and a weakened heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). Emily died on April 3, 2004 of cardiomyopathy.

Carolyn and Terence miss Emily very much. We know that she lights up heaven just a little more with her presence but this world is that much dimmer without her.

God Bless!

A Father’s Testimony by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://nymensministry.com/2012/11/08/a-fathers-testimony/.

Filed Under: Christ, Christian Fathers, Christian Men, dad, encouragement, Faith, Heaven, Loss, Salvation Tagged With: baby, child, faith, God, health, heaven, In heaven?, infant, Jesus, know Jesus, loss, loss of a child, religion, salvation, saved

Christian Suffering … Hope!

September 11, 2012 by nymensministry Leave a Comment

Great post for 9/11 by Doug Plank at Crossway Life

Crossway Life

In the middle of one of the most incredible chapters in all the Bible sits a very unsettling verse. Romans 8 comes at us with a torrent of promises and reveals to us the heights of Christ’s love and the depths of God’s immovable purposes. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of God the Spirit pens this treasure of a chapter. At the end of the chapter we read the following:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (8:35)

Beautiful. I’m with you, Paul. This is a great hypothetical question that obviously is answered by a resounding “no!”

Then comes verse 36:

As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Many times when I’ve read this chapter and get…

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Filed Under: depression, encouragement, Hope, Loss, trials Tagged With: Christ, faith, God, hope, Jesus, loss, pain, suffering, trials

Gone From My Sight – In Memory of Peter Bancroft

May 26, 2012 by nymensministry Leave a Comment

Gone From My Site Henry Van Dyke

In his excellent eulogy of Peter Bancroft today, Wayne Drysdale closed with this poem:

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?”

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”

And that is dying.

~Henry Van Dyke

In Memory of Peter Bancroft