Status Updates From Grief: Walking with Jesus (...

Day 28 - “My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?” | “When Jesus felt God-forsaken, he did not talk behind his Father‘s back; he talked to and with his Father. And, when Jesus was ready to go home, he didn’t talk about God; he talked to, surrendered to, and trusted in God alone.”

Day 27 - “Not My Will But Thine Be Done” | “We often follow the false belief that life is either/or: either we are honest with our desires or we reverently submit to God‘s will. Jesus models the both/and truth: we can be honest with our desires, and we can be humble in our submission.”

Day 26 - “Watch with Me” | “God did not design us to grieve alone. God designed the body of Christ to grieve together. God causes his people to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

Day 25 - “Man of Sorrows” | “If you ever needed scriptural permission to grieve, if you ever needed a biblical reminder that grief is normal, you should find it here in Gethsemane with Jesus... Since it is honorable and holy for Jesus to grieve, deeply, it is honorable and holy for you to grieve deeply.”

Day 24 - “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled” | “If this life is all there is, then hopelessness is understandable. So Jesus directs our troubled hearts to a trustworthy God and an untroubled future. Our God not only fearfully and wonderfully makes us, but it also fearfully and wonderfully making an eternal home for us— where we will dwell with Jesus forever.”

Day 23 - “Grieving, Yet Giving, by Gripping God” | “We grieve, yet give, by gripping God. Or, better yet, we grieve, yet give, by grasping that God is gripping us.”

Day 22 - “Jesus Laments” | “It’s typically easy to lament over our pain. But Jesus is lamenting over [people’s] sin, lostness, and away-ness. That’s other-centered lament. That’s gospel-centered lament.”

Day 21 - “What Shall I Say?” | “Jesus models both grieving loss while glorifying God, and feeling our pain while surrendering to our Father. What shall you and I say in our pain? ‘Save me from this’? Or ‘Father, glorify your name’?”

Day 20 - “Lord, Have Mercy” | “‘Get over it. Don’t you know that time heals all wounds? You’ve had more than enough time!” Those are lies of the blind. Time does not heal. The Timeless One heals.”

Day 19 - "The Spirit's Power" | "Sometimes our hurt is so deep that our number one goal (as well as goals two to ninety-nine) is to stop hurting. [The Bible] suggests another goal: God's glory."

Day 18: “The Son’s Passion” | “Jesus wept. He wept for Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Jesus weeps. He weeps for you. He weeps with you.”

Day 17: “The Father’s Purpose.” | “Death brings us to the end of ourselves. It shows us how finite and needy we are. Death is God’s medicine of choice to crush our self reliance… [and causes us] to cling to Christ alone.”

Day 16 - "Life Abundant" | "Jesus wants to spoil you with blessings today. Obviously, this is not some health-and-wealth prosperity gospel. Jesus wants to spoil you--in the midst of your grief--with the internal spiritual blessings of joy, peace, hope, faith, and love."

Day 15: "The Greatest Loss" | "Let's be honest with ourselves. Our grief can easily blind us to God's glory. Our losses can easily cause us to lose sight of Christ's resurrection power."

Day 14: "Sheep with a Shepherd" | " When the Shepherd King comes, the sick sheep are healed. Ultimately, on that final day, everything is healed. Today, healing is sometimes physical or circumstantial, but it can always be spiritual--the healing of our hearts as we cling to our Shepherd-King."

Day 13: "Talitha Cumi!" | "Which type of grief characterizes our response to loss? Is it deep grief with great hope in God, or is it hopeless grief?"

Day 12: "Jesus is on the Move!" | "If you forget everything else, remember this. When you're hurting, Jesus has infinite, passionate, unmatched compassion on you. It's a compassion that motivates intervention."

Day 10 - "You Shall Be Comforted" | How does God turn our morning into gladness? Jesus explains. "Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven" (Luke 6:23). Jesus encourages us to face candidly our current earthly story while simultaneously ("in that day") remembering our future eternal story ("for behold, your reward is great in heaven").

Day 9: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn... Now | "God's word never leaves us in the casket of despair. Instead, Scripture invites us to face our casket experiences honestly and then look to the God of resurrection hope."

Day 8: "Hope for the Hopeless" | When all the injustices of your life shout, "You are not loved!" God's beloved Son invites you into the love of the Trinity. When all life's unfairness shouts, "Give up hope that wrongs will ever be righted!" God's Son guarantees you justice--He will bring victory!

Day 7: "Opening the Eyes of Your Heart" | "In grief, we are tempted to view God through the lens of our loss. Christ invites us to view the Father through the lens of the cross."

Day 6: "Light in Your Darkness." | "Even while Jesus grieved the rejection of his hometown, he lived in the light of his identity in his Father: a beloved and respected Son. When we live in the light of God’s grace relationship with us, we can give the light of grace to others--even in our grief."

Day 5: "Bread for Your Hungry Soul." | "One of our greatest temptations in our grief is to turn inward on ourselves. Instead, God calls us to turn upward to him."

Day 4: "The Voice of Lament and the Promise of Hope." | "God gives you permission to grieve. Voice your grief. But God... never stops at lament... [He] hears our lament, acts on our voiced pain, enters our suffering, and promises his resurrection hope."

Day 3: "Grief Sandwiched by Glory." | "We grieve not as the hopeless ones but as the ones who know the Hope of the world."

Day 2: "Entering Your Broken World" - "The Bible never asks you to deny your loss or suppress your grief, and neither does Jesus. Remember, it's normal to grieve. At the same time, the Bible never leaves us without hope, and neither does Jesus. In the midst of our suffering, Jesus offers us light and peace."

Borrowed this book from Bangkok City Baptist Church Members Library and have started reading when everyone has gone to sleep.

From Day 1: "Shared Sorrow is Endurable Sorrow" - "Jesus became flash in order to help those who are suffering and being tempted--you and me. Jesus became flesh so he could destroy the ultimate costs of all sorrow: sin, Satan, separation, and death."