There have been so many accidents - many resulting in deaths - in our area recently.
A boy my brother Ryan's age - actually one of his friends - was in a collision that should have killed him. The last I heard, he was suffering from brain damage, yet was able to already recognize people. Other than that, he was fine. WOW.
A few weeks ago, a 17 year old boy from Steinbach died after crashing into a light standard at a very high speed. His own father watched his son burn as the car burst into flames. The boy was driving drunk. 17 years old. 17.
A three year old recently drowned at St. Malo beach in knee-deep water. He had wandered away from his parents, and when they finally found him, he was dead.
The most recent death I heard about was of an 80-something year old man. You'd think he died of "old age". Nope. He killed himself. Drove to the bakery, here in Grunthal, used the phone there to call his son and tell him he was going to die, walked over to the gravel pits, and drowned himself. Why?! He had been talking about it for a while. And the walk to the pits from the bakery is a pretty good walk for an elderly person. He definitely knew what he was doing, right? Or was he so overtaken by the devil that nothing was going to stop him?
In the paper this week, were two babies that died. Only mere DAYS old! I could not imagine losing my baby. I don't think anyone understands what it would be like to lose a child until you become a parent. Even then, you don't know what it would be like. I do know that it would be the hardest thing ever.
Sometimes stuff like this makes me wonder: What is God up to?? I heard that the 17 year old drunk driver had just recently given his life to God. Was God just waiting for him to become a Christian so that He could take him home? Maybe he was really needed in Heaven. But a baby? Why, why why would God allow that to happen? What is the point? These things have been heavy on my heart. What goes through a persons mind before they kill themselves? What goes through God's mind when He says, "I'm sorry, but your baby will not survive"?
I can only hope and pray that they became Christians in their final moments.
My prayer for everyone is that they will come to know God and to serve Him whole-heartedly. You never know when your last day will be. I know we've all heard that a thousand times, but seriously! You don't know! It could be today, it could be next week, it could be in 50 years.
And so, I leave you with one final question:
Once a Christian, always a Christian.
True or false.
1 comment:
Andy here, Jen encouraged me to read your blog, as it seems you and I have recently had the same concerns. Actually I think about that kind of stuff all the time. Just my 2 cents on your true/ false question… True. The evidence that you truly are a Christian is that you CONTINUE to be a Christian. John 6:37-45 and John 10:25-30 supports the ‘once saved always saved’ view. However this does not mean that sometimes someone who APPEARS to be a genuine Christian truly is one. 1 John 2:19 talks about people who appeared to be true Christians yet turns out to be phony ones. There is also some very powerful words from Jesus in Matthew 7:15-23 that talks about how to identify true/ false believers. He first shows that you can indeed judge a book by it’s cover in the same way you can call a tree by it’s fruit. Then He shows in v.21 that not everyone who confesses him to be ’Lord’ is truly saved. YIKES! Then in v.22 He shows that people who relied on their works .. (prophecy, speaking God’s truth, driving out demons, and performing signs and wonders) will not be saved either!
As for the question of why bad things happen… well this video I found while pondering the same thing.. I hope it helps for you too. As you can probably tell, I’m pretty passionate about this sort of thing. I hope I’ve been of some encouragement. Say hi to Rob for me TTYL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eel_sS4MDAw&feature=channel_page
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