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Thread: The Lord Took My ______________ (Name Your Relative)

  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan david View Post
    So, do you ever "correct" someone who says this at a funeral? Seems to me they just need to hear comforting words, and it might be better not to give them a theology lesson at that poinr.
    It depends. Most of the time I actually preach on the horors of hell and give a message of salvation being in Jesus Christ. I then give an altar call. This is what I do at most funerals even though I am often tempted to deal with the stupid statements that people make. But salvation of the lost is more important and in funerals you usually only get one shot at those unsaved souls so I try to make the best of it with an evangelistic message.

    However, years ago my church administrator was murdered by her husband (who used to be our church van driver but fell back into drugs). At the funeral one of the people the family (not me) chose to give some words of reflection began spouting silly stuff about God being in control and that there was some purpose in this murder and all that stuff. Afterwards, one of the murdered woman's daughters got up to say that she can't believe that a loving God could do such a thing. Others got up later and just expressed the normal condolences to the family.

    When it was my time to give the eulogy/message I blasted outright the idea that God would take such a wonderful sister through murder and explained who the real murderer is (John 8:44; 10:10). I began to explain to them about the spiritual warfare in the heavenlies and how this woman was a casualty of this war. I afterwards rebuked some of the Christian cliches often expressed and and spoke about a God of love. Within it I mused on what a wonderful person we lost.

    The funeral attendees were very quiet and I thought I was in trouble but I figured since I started I may as well finish. When it was over many of the attendees (including the family members) thanked me profusely for the message. One guy even told me, "As funerals go, this is the best one I have ever been to. Thank you." Even one of the funeral home directors asked me for our church address because he enjoyed that word so much that he wanted to come to a Sunday service.

    Basically, in a nutshell, opne must be led by the Spirit of God how one will proceed at a funeral where dumb stuff is being said.
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  3. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by victoryword View Post
    It depends. Most of the time I actually preach on the horors of hell and give a message of salvation being in Jesus Christ. I then give an altar call. This is what I do at most funerals even though I am often tempted to deal with the stupid statements that people make. But salvation of the lost is more important and in funerals you usually only get one shot at those unsaved souls so I try to make the best of it with an evangelistic message.

    However, years ago my church administrator was murdered by her husband (who used to be our church van driver but fell back into drugs). At the funeral one of the people the family (not me) chose to give some words of reflection began spouting silly stuff about God being in control and that there was some purpose in this murder and all that stuff. Afterwards, one of the murdered woman's daughters got up to say that she can't believe that a loving God could do such a thing. Others got up later and just expressed the normal condolences to the family.

    When it was my time to give the eulogy/message I blasted outright the idea that God would take such a wonderful sister through murder and explained who the real murderer is (John 8:44; 10:10). I began to explain to them about the spiritual warfare in the heavenlies and how this woman was a casualty of this war. I afterwards rebuked some of the Christian cliches often expressed and and spoke about a God of love. Within it I mused on what a wonderful person we lost.

    The funeral attendees were very quiet and I thought I was in trouble but I figured since I started I may as well finish. When it was over many of the attendees (including the family members) thanked me profusely for the message. One guy even told me, "As funerals go, this is the best one I have ever been to. Thank you." Even one of the funeral home directors asked me for our church address because he enjoyed that word so much that he wanted to come to a Sunday service.

    Basically, in a nutshell, opne must be led by the Spirit of God how one will proceed at a funeral where dumb stuff is being said.
    I forgot to mention that the person who made the remarks about God being in control and Him having a purpose in this death ended up joining our church not too many months afterwards.
    Christ's Victory Bible Teaching Center
    Web site: http://www.cvbibleteachingcenter.org


    Vindicating God Ministries
    (A Unique New Bible Teaching Ministry)
    Web site: http://www.vindicatinggod.org
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vindicatinggod
    Gab: https://gab.com/victoriousword
    Minds: https://www.minds.com/victoriousword/
    MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/troyedwards15

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  5. #13
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    On the topic of God's permissive judgments. Here's an example of God first being active in judgment and then being permissive in judgment. Jeremiah is speaking to the last king of Judah a few years before they were led into captivity in Babylon.

    Jer 21:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,
    2 “Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”
    3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah,
    4 ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.
    5 I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.
    6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence.
    7 And afterward,” says the Lord, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’

    I believe that God has changed his approach to judging the world with the advent of the new covenant and has left the judgment to Christ Jesus and is more actively seeking the salvation of the world. But even in the New Testament we see God actively judging people, Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and king Herod in Acts 12 are examples.

  6. #14
    Senior Member Smitty's Avatar
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    David Wilkerson was killed on 4-27-11 on a road in east Texas. He apparently crossed the center line as he swerved into a logging truck on the opposite side of the highway. Rev. Wilkerson did not have his seat belt on, yet his wife did which probably saved her life. I have actually heard a preacher say that "God took him." Excuse me! Was God driving the car in which he died in? No!
    I don't know why Mr. Wilkerson swerved into that truck. I don't know if he was trying to avoid an animal on the road, or if he dosed off at the wheel. I don't know what the mental frame of David's mind was, or if he was suffering from depression and that this tragic accident was a deliberate decision which he made in the final seconds before impact to end it all. What I do know is that God did not take David Wilkerson on that horrible and sad day in which he was killed. God gets far to much blame for events that He has nothing to do with. Even the insurance policies state "destruction" are acts of God. The satanic kingdom and the power of darkness is behind acts of destruction and the killing of human beings by whatever means they can use.
    If you put God First, you have Him at Last.

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  8. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Smitty View Post
    David Wilkerson was killed on 4-27-11 on a road in east Texas. He apparently crossed the center line as he swerved into a logging truck on the opposite side of the highway. Rev. Wilkerson did not have his seat belt on, yet his wife did which probably saved her life. I have actually heard a preacher say that "God took him." Excuse me! Was God driving the car in which he died in? No!
    I don't know why Mr. Wilkerson swerved into that truck. I don't know if he was trying to avoid an animal on the road, or if he dosed off at the wheel. I don't know what the mental frame of David's mind was, or if he was suffering from depression and that this tragic accident was a deliberate decision which he made in the final seconds before impact to end it all. What I do know is that God did not take David Wilkerson on that horrible and sad day in which he was killed. God gets far to much blame for events that He has nothing to do with. Even the insurance policies state "destruction" are acts of God. The satanic kingdom and the power of darkness is behind acts of destruction and the killing of human beings by whatever means they can use.
    I'd call that "suicidal driving" since he didn't wear his seat belt. He was probably of a generation that grew up not wearing seat belts, just like the people I met in Ethiopia in 2006 who were vehemently opposed to wearing seat belts - for some reason. It reminds me of a car accident that hit the news here in Norway recently where someone crashed a very old American car, 1950s or so, and they all died because there were no seat belts in the car. In Norway that's legal if the car has veteran status and the lack involves the car's original condition.

  9. #16
    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by victoryword View Post
    With all due respect to Melody and the late Keith Green who I have no doubt was a man of God, the idea that God would "take" Keith by killing him and hundreds of others in a plane crash truly does nothing to advance the gospel but rather hinders it and deters people from a God who would act in such cruelty.

    What about the others that was on that plane with Keith who were not saved and ended up in hell? What about the thousands, perhaps even millions more people that Keith Green could have reached through his music and ministry? Does anyone EVER think about these things when they make such asinine statements?
    Keith Green was on a small plane, a total of 12 people, not hundreds.

    Along with eleven others, Green died on July 28, 1982, when the Robertson STOL-modified Cessna 414 leased by Last Days Ministries crashed after takeoff from the private airstrip located on the LDM property. The small two-engine plane was carrying eleven passengers and the pilot, Don Burmeister, for an aerial tour[19] of the LDM property and the surrounding area. Green and two of his children, three-year-old Josiah and two-year-old Bethany, were on board the plane, along with visiting church planters, John and Dede Smalley and their six children. Green's wife Melody was at home with one-year-old Rebekah and six weeks pregnant with their fourth child, Rachel, born in March 1983.

    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot in command (PIC) allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations. The required pre-flight weight and balance computations responsibility of civilian pilots would have shown it was dangerously overloaded and also outside its weight and balance operating envelope...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Green

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  11. #17
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot in command (PIC) allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations. The required pre-flight weight and balance computations responsibility of civilian pilots would have shown it was dangerously overloaded and also outside its weight and balance operating envelope...
    But 'God took him'.

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  13. #18
    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    But 'God took him'.
    Yeah ... there's that meme that says:

    "Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and you make bad decisions."

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  15. #19
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by A.J. View Post
    Yeah ... there's that meme that says:

    "Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and you make bad decisions."
    Bingo.

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  17. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    But 'God took him'.
    God failed to protect him supernaturally. There's always the question of why he doesn't always do that.

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