Verse of the Day 3/26

Through the Bible - Joshua 18-19, Luke 6:1-26

Good morning,
A couple of days ago I read a devotional by J. I. Packer where he wrote, " Imagine a person prostrated with pain of bereavement and along comes some pious Pete to deliver a sermon about the precious discipline that God intends through taking away the loved one. The grieving person may have neither the physical nor the verbal resources to throw such a Job's comforter out, but that is what he will want to do. At a time of intense grief, one is simply unable to handle this thought, however true it might be. What one needs at such a time is love, and anything said about God should point the bereaved to God as the supreme source of help in trouble."
I became aware recently that some of you that read these devotionals don't know about our son Jeff. He was severely injured in a car accident when he was 16 and suffered a traumatic brain injury which left him in a coma for several weeks and permanently disabled.
Packer's words brought back some of the memories of those first weeks after the accident. Many visitors came and spent time with us in the hospital, often without saying much. They were much like Job's friends in Job 2 spending quiet time with him prior to lauching into their theology in Job 3 and beyond.
We experienced some of those same things.
We also had well wishers who with the best of intentions quoted Romans 8:28, where Paul wrote, "all things work together for good to those who love God".
I know I've mentioned it before, but those are not comforting words when you are in the midst of a tragedy such as the loss or severe illness/injury to a loved one very close to you.
We are much better off being a source of strength and comfort while encouraging the grieving person to seek God at that time as the source of help in trouble.
I'll use Romans 8:28 for today's verse.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. NKJV
While the verse may not be a comfort it is a truth. I am thankful for friends that pointed me towards God during that time with recommended books from John Piper and Martyn Lloyd Jones which sent me deep into these passages.
I was challenged by Romans 8:28, and it took time, maybe a couple of years to come close to digesting and accepting the implications. (I don't know if anyone can fully comprehend the ramifications).
I would now say that Romans 8:28 is my life verse.
Take some time to read the passage beginning with verse 26. Notice the "all things" in verses 28,32, and 37.
Make this a familiar passage for yourself. It will help when you do face trials and loss.
We still face challenges with Jeff and other family members. The challenge is to look at life with these challenges with thoughts about "all things" in mind.
OK Lord, what are you telling me in all of this? What would you have me do?
Jeff was "dropped" from his physical therapy yesterday because he was not showing the progress needed to continue on. It's another one of those times where we wonder, OK, what are we to do.
Please pray for guidance for Jean and I as we look for possible alternatives for him and help with physical therapy and speach therapy. See what God will do from "unexpected" sources.
I'll keep you posted.
In Christ,
Mike
Rom 8:26-9:1
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
God's Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.