Good day dear friends.
Here is the text for today: 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Colossians 3:16 NRSV).
Every Sunday or Monday, I try to go over all the prayer cards and visitor's cards. As I am sorting through them I am silently praying for every member and visitor. When I have a pile of member cards with prayer requests I take these and all visitors' cards and go to the altar to pray. I pray for each person by name and by listed need. Some of the names later appear on our prayer list, some are listed just for the pastors to pray over. Yesterday one told of a young couple's loss of an unborn child, so I prayed for them and I made a note to visit them last evening, which I did.
It is a devastating thing to lose a child as many in the church know from personal experience. Nellie and I know that experience personally, as does our daughter Sarai and our son-in-law, Eric. I visited this couple in their home and we both shared the sadness that comes with such an unexpected loss. And the thing that spoke to me was that the mom as this was happening remembered a sermon in which I had said, "God cried first." It was a reference to a story by William Sloan Coffin on the death of his son in a tragic accident in New York City. He was the pastor of Riverside Church, a large interdenominational church, and he had also been chaplain at Yale University, and he had many that came to try to comfort him and one particular woman said that it was God's will for this loss. Rev. Coffin said, "Madam, it was not God's will for my son to go and drink excessively. Nor was it God's will for him to get behind the wheel of a car. And it was not God's will for him to drive off that pier and into the water, but I do know that God's heart was the first to break and God was the first to cry when my son died."
This loss of the unborn child happened on the night the cold front came in, with wind and rain, and every drop of the rain reminded this mom of God's tears for us. Such is the wonderful, eternal love of God for you and me.
PRAYER: Loving God thank You for your love and the many ways You speak to us. Comfort those who are crying and mourning. Bring Your peace into every heart that turns to You. We ask it in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
Here is the text for today: 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Colossians 3:16 NRSV).
Every Sunday or Monday, I try to go over all the prayer cards and visitor's cards. As I am sorting through them I am silently praying for every member and visitor. When I have a pile of member cards with prayer requests I take these and all visitors' cards and go to the altar to pray. I pray for each person by name and by listed need. Some of the names later appear on our prayer list, some are listed just for the pastors to pray over. Yesterday one told of a young couple's loss of an unborn child, so I prayed for them and I made a note to visit them last evening, which I did.
It is a devastating thing to lose a child as many in the church know from personal experience. Nellie and I know that experience personally, as does our daughter Sarai and our son-in-law, Eric. I visited this couple in their home and we both shared the sadness that comes with such an unexpected loss. And the thing that spoke to me was that the mom as this was happening remembered a sermon in which I had said, "God cried first." It was a reference to a story by William Sloan Coffin on the death of his son in a tragic accident in New York City. He was the pastor of Riverside Church, a large interdenominational church, and he had also been chaplain at Yale University, and he had many that came to try to comfort him and one particular woman said that it was God's will for this loss. Rev. Coffin said, "Madam, it was not God's will for my son to go and drink excessively. Nor was it God's will for him to get behind the wheel of a car. And it was not God's will for him to drive off that pier and into the water, but I do know that God's heart was the first to break and God was the first to cry when my son died."
This loss of the unborn child happened on the night the cold front came in, with wind and rain, and every drop of the rain reminded this mom of God's tears for us. Such is the wonderful, eternal love of God for you and me.
PRAYER: Loving God thank You for your love and the many ways You speak to us. Comfort those who are crying and mourning. Bring Your peace into every heart that turns to You. We ask it in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
