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Posted on 03/10/2004 9:37:27 PM PST by malakhi
| Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
Sorry to hear of your grandmother's condition.
May God comfort you and your family.
As to scripture, I like the following ...1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.God Bless ...
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
BigMack
If she was a woman of faith than she would want that faith to be proclaimed to those who came thinking that she was "gone". She would want a final testament to her life to be aimed at the same faith she aimed at. And many of the verses posted to you are great. Or perhaps from Psalm 116 "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." Or Hebrews "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Of course, a critical question is also "what do you believe?". She would want you to also share that saving faith if you were going to be the one to proclaim it. Do you believe what she believed?
If she wasn't a believer than scripture verses can only seek to make you look more "holy" and could be inappropriate. While possibly "true", there is nothing worse than going to an unbelievers funeral and saying "she's in He11 and if YOU don't want to go there this is what you'll do".
If you simply don't know but really want to use Scripture, perhaps verses that speak to who she was? Like Proverbs was used for the Queen Mother "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come."
My suggestion? (after an already lengthly answer):
You've lost your grandmother, and if you were close enough that you've been asked to give a eulogy, that can't be an easy thing. Perhaps you should spend a few hours reading through Scripture for your own healing. You might be shocked at what is revealed to you. You just might find exactly what you were looking for.
And of course, you'll be able to truthfully say "I was reading through Scripture to comfort myself at grandma's passing and I came upon the most wonderful thing..."
I might change my advice to "ask her" and if she isn't aware of the good news "tell her" and if you don't know "find someone who does".
Who says God “picks” people to go to Hell? Our sins send us there without God’s help. We all deserve Hell and the Lake of Fire. It is only when God’s Grace removes the fog of sin from our senses that we can have faith in Christ.
God doesn’t owe anyone anything. So to say He is cheating someone of an opportunity to go to Heaven because of withheld Grace means that God owed the person Grace and didn’t give it to the person. If it is owed then it is not Grace.
Why would someone that has no free will and is made to sin be punished for that sin?
That charge is always leveled at Calvinist theology. However, we do have Free Will. We are free to exercise our will within the bounds of our nature. Without God’s Grace our nature will never allow us to choose the things of God. Without God’s Grace our nature hates God.
Cindy... I thought malakhi was joking, but I just got freepmails from you that do not appear to be for me. One was certainly intended for cpprfld.
Obviously he didn't have ears to hear or eyes to see. I pray that changes.
You became a calvinist you stopped posting here and stopped talking to Steven, where the HELL were you?
I stopped posting here long before I became a Calvinist. If I remember correctly we both left at the same time and I am the one that returned first, which I recall you didn't like either.
Quit your bitching you hypocrite
I see....
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