Some friends of our who used to attend our church, but moved to another church locally to serve on staff, just learn that they lost their 37-week old unborn child. The mother had to give birth to a still-born baby last Sunday. Here is an excerpt from the email I received on this..
Under the circumstances, they are doing fine. Physically, they are still recovering & they both desperately need to rest. Emotionally, theyhave their ups & downs, but they are incredibly strong. Despite their
sadness & hurting hearts, they are praising God & giving Him the glory.
What an amazing testimony!

Now, I have never experienced this type of situation, nor do I know what it is like to be a parent, so I cannot relate to the types of feelings and emotions that they must be experiencing right now. And the purpose of my post is not to downplay their disappointment and suffering over this event, I have the utmost respect and share in the sorrow of this family that are my friends, but I must write a point of view that my Faith allows me to have during trials like this.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

Now, should we rejoice in this event? Obviously not. Should we be saddened? Yes, it is only natural. Should we be mad at God? Why? Because he gave us a life, something that only He could do, and then took it away, only to be with Him in heaven? This child will never experience pain, suffering, sadness, remorse. He will never know heartbreak, will never be tempted by human sexual perversions, will never have any addictions to drugs or alcohol. He will never have to fight in a war, only to be dismembered or killed. He will never have to experience a divorce. He will never know betrayal. He will spend his days in the loving arms of his Heavenly Father, who Himself called the child home, and didn’t have to accept him from a pre-determined murder at an abortion clinic.

This does not mean that we would not have happily watched James grow and become a Spiritual leader, husband and father as we would have expected him to, it simply means that God had other plans for him, to spare him the suffering in this lousy, rotten, twisted-ass world, and to call him home to Heaven earlier than planned by his earthly parents.

We should all be so blessed.

For the last few months, I have been attending a class on Sunday mornings led by Dr Jack Terry at FBC Euless.  He used to be a professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary and his teaching style reflects that of a college professor.  Since I have always wanted to attend Seminary but never got the chance to, Dr Terry’s class has been incredibly interesting to me over these past few months.  So I thought that I would write a blog and share some of the insightful things that are discussed in this class, because they are so interesting to me.  So look for more posts on this subject, perhaps not every week, but several times that I find something I can write about