God Is Love For a Child Trapped in a Fire
Sermon
In Sure And Certain Hope
An Anthology of Exemplary Funeral Messages
C. David Godshall
In the scriptures we have read today, we have heard of the hope and trust that people express - hope and trust in God. It is very likely that these are not the feelings in our own hearts and minds these past several days. Nor can it be expected that any words today will easily bring such feelings to us.
We may, in fact, feel angry with God, left down by him, Or we may have feelings of having been assailed by the wrath of God, of being hurt and punished by him.
People of many times and places have experienced similar feelings in times of tragedy and sorrow. But those who have "waited on the Lord", meaning those who have patiently learned of God and looked for him in life, keep coming back to that which Jesus declared of him - God is love.
Our constant problem is to realize that for love to be genuine and real, it cannot be automatic nor can it be forced out of someone. If God had made us robots who could do nothing but love him, then he could also have insulated us from every harm and danger.
In a relationship in which we are free to love or not to love, however, we cannot be given the guarantee that nothing evil will ever happen to us. We clearly know that evil, in its attempt to pull us away from loving God, is often a very real fact of life. Evil is present in our own hardness of heart and in the pain and suffering which comes to us.
There is only one way to deal with evil - that is to seek God's help. Over and over again people have found that they cannot defeat evil on their own - but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has shown us his power to win the victory over this enemy of us all. When we turn to God with trust and hope, evil is defeated and does not win us to bitterness and hatred and despair.
Though having him/her for only a short time, we can see in the childlike trust and love which had the very qualities which we need to have in this hour and in the days ahead.
God gave up his only Son to die for us on the cross of Calvary. That is the all-the-way kind of love which shows us how very much God loves us. It is that kind of love that calls us to trust God.
First, we need to trust God to care for _____________, now gone from us. We shall keep him in our memories, and know that God's love surrounds him still.
Second, we need to trust God to care for us, and to bring healing and comfort and peace to our troubled hearts. He can do this through his Word, and through persons of faith, and through the responses of our own lives to him.
Today we praise and thank God for the life of ___________ and for what he/she has meant to us. We also submit our hearts to God, that he will keep us in his love until we walk with him face to face.
Amen.
In the scriptures we have read today, we have heard of the hope and trust that people express - hope and trust in God. It is very likely that these are not the feelings in our own hearts and minds these past several days. Nor can it be expected that any words today will easily bring such feelings to us.
We may, in fact, feel angry with God, left down by him, Or we may have feelings of having been assailed by the wrath of God, of being hurt and punished by him.
People of many times and places have experienced similar feelings in times of tragedy and sorrow. But those who have "waited on the Lord", meaning those who have patiently learned of God and looked for him in life, keep coming back to that which Jesus declared of him - God is love.
Our constant problem is to realize that for love to be genuine and real, it cannot be automatic nor can it be forced out of someone. If God had made us robots who could do nothing but love him, then he could also have insulated us from every harm and danger.
In a relationship in which we are free to love or not to love, however, we cannot be given the guarantee that nothing evil will ever happen to us. We clearly know that evil, in its attempt to pull us away from loving God, is often a very real fact of life. Evil is present in our own hardness of heart and in the pain and suffering which comes to us.
There is only one way to deal with evil - that is to seek God's help. Over and over again people have found that they cannot defeat evil on their own - but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has shown us his power to win the victory over this enemy of us all. When we turn to God with trust and hope, evil is defeated and does not win us to bitterness and hatred and despair.
Though having him/her for only a short time, we can see in the childlike trust and love which had the very qualities which we need to have in this hour and in the days ahead.
God gave up his only Son to die for us on the cross of Calvary. That is the all-the-way kind of love which shows us how very much God loves us. It is that kind of love that calls us to trust God.
First, we need to trust God to care for _____________, now gone from us. We shall keep him in our memories, and know that God's love surrounds him still.
Second, we need to trust God to care for us, and to bring healing and comfort and peace to our troubled hearts. He can do this through his Word, and through persons of faith, and through the responses of our own lives to him.
Today we praise and thank God for the life of ___________ and for what he/she has meant to us. We also submit our hearts to God, that he will keep us in his love until we walk with him face to face.
Amen.
