Help in Time of Grief

(For the past few days, my heart has been very grieved for the Cretzman family, Missionaries to Cuba, whose little girl was killed in a car accident this past Monday. I know that there are others that are hurting as well over loved ones who are sick and even on the brink of death. It is hard sometimes to remember that God, who loves us dearly, has all these things in His Hand as well. But he does. These are the hard places in life, the places that make our hearts broken bread and poured out wine. They are never easy to go through but always, when looked back upon, the child of God can see his mighty hand at work in it all. The following entry is from, "Streams in the Desert", December 3^rd. I pray that when you read this, if your heart is grieved this day, you will be encouraged in the Lord, as I have been. God’s blessings!)

"Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well"  (2Kings 4:26)

"Be strong, my soul!
Death looms in view.
Lo, here thy God! He'll bear thee through;
Be strong."

"Be strong, my soul!
Thy loved ones go
Within the veil. God's thine, e'en so;
Be strong."

　

For sixty-two years and five months I had a beloved wife, and now, in my ninety-second year I am left alone. But I turn to the ever present Jesus, as I walk up and down in my room, and say, "Lord Jesus, I am alone, and yet not alone--Thou art with me, Thou art my Friend. Now, Lord, comfort me, strengthen me, give to Thy poor servant everything Thou seest he needs." And we should not be satisfied till we are brought to this, that we know the Lord Jesus Christ experimentally, habitually to be our Friend: at all times, and under all circumstances, ready to prove Himself to be our Friend. --George Mueller

Afflictions cannot injure when blended with submission.

Ice breaks many a branch, and so I see a great many persons bowed down and crushed by their afflictions. But now and then I meet one that sings in affliction, and then I thank God for my own sake as well as his. There is no such sweet singing as a song in the night. You recollect the story of the woman who, when her only child died, in rapture looking up, as with the face of an angel, said, "I give you joy, my darling." That single sentence has gone with me years and years down through my life, quickening and comforting me. --Henry Ward Beecher

"E'en for the dead I will not bind my soul to grief;
Death cannot long divide.
For is it not as though the rose that climbed my garden wall
Has blossomed on the other, side?
Death doth hide,
But not divide;
Thou art but on Christ's other side!
Thou art with Christ, and Christ with me;
In Christ united still are we."


(If you would like to help the Cretzman family, go to this link:
http://brenda-lifeinmyshoes.blogspot.com/.  )