iBlog
December 11th, 2017
the GAIN in LOSSThis time of the year, and this week alone, are always extra sensitive for my family and I. You see, on the 15th, we will be recognizing the 12th year since my brother John's death. It's still surreal. But for what it’s worth, God already had this day in 2005 planned out before my brother John’s birth. The Scriptures affirm, "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them" (Psalm 139:16). Every day was already written, which means God knows exactly how many breaths will be taken.
I appreciate when people give their condolences and sympathy, but I never want it to be at God’s expense --who allows tragedy to bring forth spiritual prosperity. He never allows loss unless it’s gonna produce the glory of gain. Consider a seed, for that even has to die before it can multiply fruit from the rain. Death therefore, and the resulting storm, are not just necessary in life, but they are catalysts used to mature our spiritual form.
And the truth is: the physical and the spiritual can never be sifted. They go together like Christ and the Cross, for failure to consider the one without the other is saying that Jesus’ life ended in loss. That makes no spiritual sense as my life testifies to the reality of fruit from John’s death. Essentially, in order for a resurrection to happen, something has to die. We know this in thought, but we still resultingly weep and cry. However, Jesus wept too, but His was a spiritual weeping. Of course He felt for their loss, but more so for their obvious state of non-believing.
“Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?”” (John 11: 33-34).
They replied, “Lord come and see.” But that’s what He had already foresaw and the reason He came, knowing that death is never final when in Jesus’ name. So I write what I write today, not to downplay the process of grieving, but to bring into focus how we serve a God who knows the end from the beginning. My brother John wouldn’t want to come back even if he could. He doesn’t miss the bad down here, but he invites all to come to the good.
He’d say, “Make sure you know Jesus Christ if you really do miss me. It’s not about me anyway, but the One who eternally loosed me.”
“And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
I appreciate when people give their condolences and sympathy, but I never want it to be at God’s expense --who allows tragedy to bring forth spiritual prosperity. He never allows loss unless it’s gonna produce the glory of gain. Consider a seed, for that even has to die before it can multiply fruit from the rain. Death therefore, and the resulting storm, are not just necessary in life, but they are catalysts used to mature our spiritual form.
And the truth is: the physical and the spiritual can never be sifted. They go together like Christ and the Cross, for failure to consider the one without the other is saying that Jesus’ life ended in loss. That makes no spiritual sense as my life testifies to the reality of fruit from John’s death. Essentially, in order for a resurrection to happen, something has to die. We know this in thought, but we still resultingly weep and cry. However, Jesus wept too, but His was a spiritual weeping. Of course He felt for their loss, but more so for their obvious state of non-believing.
“Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?”” (John 11: 33-34).
They replied, “Lord come and see.” But that’s what He had already foresaw and the reason He came, knowing that death is never final when in Jesus’ name. So I write what I write today, not to downplay the process of grieving, but to bring into focus how we serve a God who knows the end from the beginning. My brother John wouldn’t want to come back even if he could. He doesn’t miss the bad down here, but he invites all to come to the good.
He’d say, “Make sure you know Jesus Christ if you really do miss me. It’s not about me anyway, but the One who eternally loosed me.”
“And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
