Category: dying

God alone (with thanks to A.K.)

Ruth Kirk

Image: falco, Pixabay

🤎

Be sure that your faith is in God alone
(James 1:6; NLT).

1. God, alone,
Turns anguish into joy.

2. God, alone,
Turns darkness into light.

3. God, alone,
Turns hatred into love.

4. God, alone,
Turns blindness into sight.

5. God, alone,
Turns sickness into health.

6. God, alone,
Turns weakness into might.

7. God, alone,
Turns exile into home.

8. God, alone,
Turns dying into life.

🤎

References

1. It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labour. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world (John 16:21; NLT).

2. The Lord turns my darkness into light (2 Samuel 22:29; NIV).

3. Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you (Luke 6:27; NLT)

4. The Lord gives sight to the blind (Psalm 146:8; NLT).

5. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases (Psalm 103:3; NLT).

6. To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh. […] Three times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me […] for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; NLT).

7. Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23; NLT).

8. Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, after dying” (John 11:25; NLT).

Transformation (with thanks to A.K.)

Ruth Kirk

Image: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay

🧡🧡🧡

Only God can turn the dark night into glorious heavenly light
(Alan Kearns).

Lord,

1. Turn our suffering
To hope;
Our blindness
Into perfect sight.

2. Turn our faithlessness
To trust;
Our darkness
Into dazzling light.

3. Turn our sinfulness
To grace;
Our meanness
Into eager care.

4. Turn our selfishness
To thanks;
Our sorrow
Into joyful prayer.

5. Turn our enmity
To love;
Our sickness
Into healing rest;

6. And turn our dying
Into life eternal,
When we’ve faced
Each test.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

References

1. We long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering [and] wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us (Romans 8:23; NLT).

Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgement – to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind” (John 9:39; NLT).

2. Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24; NIV).

Trust in God (John 14:1; NLT).

The Lord turns my darkness into light (2 Samuel 22:29; NIV).

3. Just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21; NLT).

4. Turn from your selfish ways (Luke 9:23; NLT).

Give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18; NIV).

5. Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you (Luke 6:27; NLT)

The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence (Isaiah 30:15; CSB).

6. Those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life (John 5:24; NLT).

Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies (1 Corinthians 15:53; NLT).

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows (John 16:33; NLT).

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying” (John 11:25; NLT).

The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 13:3; NIV).

Anger

Ruth Kirk


Image: annaost29, Pixabay

Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires
(James 1:20; NLT).

1. Anger is so dangerous:
It makes me think I should proceed
To voice my hasty judgements,
Though I crush the weakest reed.

2. Anger is so damaging:
It makes me feel I have a right
To vent my heedless blame,
Though I put out a dying light.

3. Help me, Lord, to curb my tongue,
My rash assumptions, too,
Then I’ll treat everyone with love,
And grow much more like you.

 

References

1. Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: you must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires (James 1:19-20; NLT).

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged (Luke 6:37; NLT).

He will not crush the weakest reed (Matthew 12:20; NLT).

2. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you (Luke 6:37; NLT).

He will not […] put out a flickering candle (Matthew 12:20, NLT).

3. If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless (James 1:26; NLT).

Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions (Ecclesiastes 10:13; NLT).

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5; NIV).

Love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:39; NLT).

Do everything with love (1 Corinthians 16:14; NLT).

The Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18; NLT).

The mind of Christ

Ruth Kirk

Image: Manfred Antranias Zimmer, Pixabay

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
(Philippians 2:5; NKJV).

1. I share my mortal dread with you:
Father,
Help me to do your will.

2. I share my agony with you:
Strengthen my faith 

To trust you still.

3. I share my dying breath with you:
Father,
Receive my sacrifice.

4. I share my endless joy with you:
For we are one,
In paradise.

Image: Free-Photos, Pixabay

References

1. In all their suffering he also suffered (Isaiah 63:9; NLT).

He became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me (Matthew 26:37-8; NLT).

The thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me (Job 3:25; RSV).

If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine (Matthew 26:39; NLT).

2. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46; NIV).

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me (Psalm 23:4; KJV).

3. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last (Luke 23:46; NLT).

4. Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21; NLT).

I and the Father are one (John 10:28-30; NIV).

Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43; NIV).

Help us all (for M.R.)

Ruth Kirk
Image: Tereza Flachová, Pixabay

Lord,

1. Please help us all
Throughout today:
Those who are lonely,
Those who’ve lost their way;

2. Those who are hungry, homeless,
Those who’ve strayed;
Those who are grieving,
Comfortless, afraid;

3. Those who are sick, or dying,
Old, distressed;
Those who are longing
For your peace and rest;

4. Those who have ceased to hope,
And cannot pray:
Father, please help us all
Throughout today.

You’re one with us

Ruth Kirk


In all their suffering he also suffered
(Isaiah 63:9; NLT).

He is our God forever and ever,
and he will guide us until we die (Psalm 48:14; NLT).

1. You’re one with us in sorrow, Lord,
When you seem far away.

2. You’re one with us in heartbreak,
When we can no longer pray.

3. You’re one with us in loneliness,
For you are always near.

4. You’re one with us in suffering,
In anguish, pain, and fear.

5. You’re one with us when hope is gone,
And we can’t sense your grace.

6. You’re one with us in darkness,
When we cannot see your face.

7. You’re one with us in dying,
And you share our final breath.

8. You’re one with us for evermore,
In birth, in life, in death.

References

1. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4; NIV).

Why are you so far away when I groan for help? (Psalm 22:1; NLT).

2. You have taken away my companions and my loved ones (Psalm 88:18; NLT).

3. I know that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me (Psalm 16:8; NLT).

4. Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44; NIV).

He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified (Mark 15:15; NLT).

5. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? (Psalm 22:1; NLT).

6. Clouds and thick darkness surround him (Psalm 97:2; NIV).

Darkness is my closest friend (Psalm 88:18; NLT).

Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12; NRSV).

7. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me (Psalm 23:4; KJV).

Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last (Luke 23:46; NLT).

8. Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:8-9; NLT).

Whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17; NIV).

I am with you always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20; WEB).

I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5; NLT).

Our lives are in his hands (Psalm 66:9; NLT).

The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7; NIV).