Thots about Funerals...
Funerals are not evangelistic moments, they are God moments!
For far too long I have felt the burden to use funerals for evangelistic purposes. I now know I was wrong! Funerals are times when Jesus wants to reveal Himself and His message of Hope! When funerals are used for evangelistic purposes people leave feeling guilt ridden and judged. That is not my job! My job in a funeral is to reintroduce the congregation and family to Jesus, a messenger of Good News. Jesus is the answer and He is the one who enters into our suffering. In the story we see that Jesus even wept with the family upon the death of a loved one! He weeps with us in our suffering.
I used to think that I was supposed to explain this or that passage when really I should have just told the stories of Jesus and applied them to where people were living. That's what my son, Matthew did in a recent family funeral. He simply told the stories of how Jesus enters into our lives and into our suffering and how He understands what we are going through. He held the audience captive with a relevant Jesus who is there (here) for everyone. He spoke of resentment and what it does to us and how we must trust God to do what is best.
I saw another side of Jesus and how to communicate. In the end, one after another was touched with truth about Jesus in such a way that they were drawn into His presence and into His work in all of our lives. I have learned that Jesus is not at His best in Church, a service of worship! He is at His best in the settings among the hurting and grieving. Jesus just showed up. His message was proclaimed and was natural and not forced evangelism! Jesus did what He Himself needed to do through the Holy Spirit.
I now see that most people already feel guilty for their sin. They don't need me to seize the moment of conviction/condemnation. The Holy Spirit has already revealed our need to seek Him in forgiveness. We all need to see Jesus in all of His splendor and glory as the One who cares for each of us in our stations in life. God is present - ever present with everyone!
I must bear the message of Jesus and His life and it is not my job to bring conviction, that's the job of the Holy Spirit. Because of this lesson, those in a recent family funeral - some who may be far from Jesus are the ones who saw Jesus up close and personal!
Funerals are God moments NOT our moments! We must show the world who Jesus is and how He enters into our lowest moments! He does have the answer - He is the answer! We need to rediscover the role of the Holy Spirit and how it greatly differs from ours.
If you will see this principle - those who are seeking and/or hurting will flock to your Jesus and mine! I recently witnessed this miracle of God's Holy Spirit and His power. I long for you to see it as well. If you will, others will see Jesus because of it.
Funerals are God opportunities - Not ours! Let's do our job while making room for God to do His!
posted by Bob Carder @ 8:39 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
After reading this post I think you'll agree that funerals CAN be evangelistic moments; God can touch a soul at any moment, of course. So we need to be prepared at the moment of a funeral.
However, I agree that Christians (including pastors) should not walk INTO a funeral with the intention of "winning souls" during a moment of intense emotion.
We should certainly live each day in anticipation that God may use us to help move someone closer to Him; but not make that expectation a focus. People doin't appreciate being part of an agenda.
This is quite the wrong approach. At funerals take the opportunity to remind the audience that the deceased is now suffering immensely in Hell.
Sure, tell them about the "good news" of Christ's atoning sacrifice, but remind them of the harsh reality: the majority present here today will be joining the dear departed in eternal torture.
Stiff cheese.
It's God's universe and He can do as He damm well pleases.
David, that's true. God can do as he pleases. But in his generosity what "pleases" him is that "none shall perish, no not one."
However, also in his great generosity (and because it would be meaningless otherwise) he's given us the opportunity to choose.
Make sure you're comfortable with your choice -- eternity is a long time.
Read this article about hell.
http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/hell_test.html
Let's hear your thoughts about Hell, Mr Bob Carder.
Is Hell a morally justified form of punishment for rehabilitation, what happens to the denizens of Hell once they have reformed? Do they go to another part of Hell with slightly less suffering?
Or doesn't God believe in rehabilitation after death?
David, how can a guy like you make so much sense and not know the Jesus we speak of? I can tell you why? We have not really shown you who Jesus is and how much He cares. I fear that you have been burned by a Christless-Christianity. We who profess Christ have failed you. I repent for that failure. You need to see a powerful - transforming God who sets captives free. Whether it be in Australia or America or elsewhere around the world - there is a powerless Church that needs to be resurrected so that guys like you and others cannot deny that there is a God. When His glory is fully declared and revealed -even the demons of darkness shutter with the truth that God is God and that He alone is God.
David, I am not part of the powerless church in America. I left it in order to find God and I now know Him to be much like what I read about in Scriptures. I'm now for the first time in my life seeing God show up in power and majesty and glory. And when He shows up - we are changed, people are delivered, the hopeless are restored to hope, the powerless have power, the captives in chains are set free.
The rehabilitation you speak of in not one offered in death, it is offered for us now and with power and victory. This is the Jesus I am showing you.
Thank you David for inviting me into your life and for your wise and often challenging words.
Now let me speak of hell: It's not hell that I fear! I've already been burned in my house fire two years ago. I have the scars and skin grafts to prove it. I do not fear fire. What I fear more than anything is an eternity without God's presence. Now that I know the true redemptive God personally, I can never live another second without Him.
David, you have helped me in my search for the true, powerful, relevant God. He is the one you also seek. (I don't expect you to admit it - just let that comment soak in). Forget the nonsense that others have hammered into you for which you resist. Keep seeking what is real and move away from that which is powerless and filled with judgment.
David, I am blessed to have you in my life. You have given me insights - very deep insights to show others the way into HOPE and FREEDOM. Which is the very reason Jesus came on that first Christmas morning and the very reason He died and rose again.
Much of the church in Australia and America has become more concerned about structures and personal success than they are about leading people into freedom, power and victory to live hope filled everyday in loss or gain, death or triumph, trials or tribulations.
It doesn't matter what this old broken down world affords me, I am hope filled regardless of my circumstances.
Thanks for listening and for being here for all of us.
Mike said, After reading this post I think you'll agree that funerals CAN be evangelistic moments; God can touch a soul at any moment, of course. So we need to be prepared at the moment of a funeral.
The Planter: Mike - evangelistic moments are not something we create. As we show people a real Jesus and how He steps into our lives the Holy Spirit is always at work preparing good soil. My job at a funeral is the declare the Glory of God. God is God and He alone is God and He alone can take the hopeless and give them Hope, the hurting and give them help, the grieving and give them peace and comfort.
I am no longer planning evangelistic moments - I'm showing the world who Jesus is -something the church has not done a very good job of. The church has become: judgmental, hypocritical, powerless, segregated, intolerant of the very people we are called to reach, arrogant, separated from the world we are called to reach, full of religious pride, and unwilling to personally change the world. Need I say more?
We're agreeing Bob, yet you're making it sound like we're not.
Reread what I wrote.
No no no!!! I know you are agreeing with me. It's always fine if you don't. I was just making my position more clear for others. We are o.k. here.
I just long for God to lead everything instead of man doing it. We need to operate in Holy Spirit power and not our own. God doesn't need us to do His work, He needs for us to allow Him to work!
When man rests - God works. Yet I find than men are never resting. Which means what?
Which means little or nothing, if you're asking me. You wrote, "When man rests, God works." And I agree with that, at least somewhat. I agree with what I think you're saying. (That we need to let God lead, not that we need to sit back and let God do all the work, right?)
But just because that statement is true (When man rests, etc.) doesn't mean the opposite is true, with the opposite being "When man works, God rests."
Not necessarily so.
But yes, I agree with your second paragraph above. I too long for that.
Was Luke resting when he interviewed all those witnesses and collected info for his inspired gospel? How does one draw the line between being led or not? Resting or working?
i think the point of the "God works man rests" thing is this: is it your work, or is the work He has prepared for you to walk in? When i hear "God works, man rests", i think about that principle, that if I walk in His Spirit always as He desires, the works i will be lead to will be done by Him and i will only need walk in them in obedience.
'If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.'
Exodus 20:25
"Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with {anything which makes them} sweat. "
Ezekiel 44:18
In Exodus, the altar of GOd was not to be built with any tools of man. In Ezekiel, the preists that minister to God Himself were not even supposed to sweat. And wasnt there another reference either in Numbers or Exodus where priests were killed for using loathsome fire? Nadab and Abihu wasnt it? They were killed by God for not doing as God instructed? It was Levitcus, actually i think. Oh well.
The point is God prepares the works, not us. In context of the blog, we dont make evangelistic moments, God works them for us. We just have to keep our eyes open, listen, and say "here i am, send me" after He asks who to send. The more of OUR work that is in something, the less of His work is there. Albeit, if He told you to do something, then you are walking in obeidence, and its not your work but His command. am i making sense or am i babbling?
Nope, that is exactly what I was saying, too.
Someone once told me, "A funeral is the only place in the whole world where EVERYBODY listens." Just a thought... Everyone I know regardless of their circumstances will stop what they are doing to hear about hope. Those who are staring death in the face however, will also welcome the Word of life.
By the way Bob, Good job at our Dori's funeral. Hope you are well.
Jim
Jim
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