Thursday, July 24, 2008

"The Path To Comfort In Our Time Of Sorrow" by J. R. Miller, (1840 - 1912)

Matthew 26:38 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death..." Jesus being in agony--He prayed, is the record of our Savior's Gethsemane experience. The lesson stands for all time. Like a bright lamp, the little sentence shines amid the olive trees of the garden.

It shows us "the path to comfort in our time of sorrow." Never before or since--was there such grief as our precious Redeemer's, that night. But in His prayer, Jesus found comfort.

As we watch Jesus the hour through, we see the agony changing as He prayed, until at last its bitterness was all gone--and sweet, blessed peace took its place.

The gate of prayer is always the gate to comfort. There is no other way to consolation.

We may learn also from our Lord's Gethsemane, how to pray in our Gethsemane's. God will never blame us for asking to have the cup removed, nor for the intensity of our supplication; but we must always pray with submission.

It is when we say, in our deepest sorrow and intensity, "Not my will--but may Your will be done," that comfort comes, that peace comes.

***
The above devotional was sent to Joe and Karen by their good and long time friends, Kevin and Shirley Cox. Thank you Kevin and Shirley.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

James 4:7-10 (TLB)
"So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and let your hearts be filled with God alone to make them pure and true to him. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Then when you realize your worthlessness before the Lord, he will lift you up,encourage and help you."

James 4:7-10 (KJV)
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts,ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

Anonymous said...

Thank you Liza for the beautiful picture of Joey's Hui Hou. That is my first time seeing this precious moment so close up.

You have been such a wonderful friend and comforter to all of us. God has obviously blessed you with these special gifts. You have the perfect thing to share each day and even though the blog is silent at times...many are reading it and are being blessed.

Our last day with Joe and Karen in LA I told them that God would bring someone special to minister to them - I didn't know who it would be, but I feel God has obviously used you in this role...it has opened the avenue for others to minister and pray for them as well.

Thank you again for your time, effort, gifts, extra miles you go to make the Johnson family and all us who love Joey feel loved, blessed and comforted by you and the others comments.

We meet with Joe and Karen this morning and we look forward to being with them and comforting each other during these next few days. Your prayers are most welcome.

Lovingly - Vivian Isaak (Joe & Karen's sister)

Liza on Maui said...

Thank you Viv for your loving comment. It brought tears to my eyes (read it over and over several times). I believe God called me to do this work. I am glad I can minister to many through this. Blessing to you all.

Anonymous said...

Liza:Joe's sister really put into words what all of us have felt about the blessing you have been during this time.You have truly been used of God to keep us all connected with your words,scriptures,pictures.etc.
Joe and Karen,we are still grieving with you and your family and lifting you up in prayer in a more intense way as you say goodbye to Joe's mom very soon.
Lovingly,Joyce

Anonymous said...

I ended up with Joeys IPOD while I was in Iraq this spring. While I was there my IPOD, with all my favorite music, broke...yes I tried all the button pushing tricks, but it was fried. I was forced to listen to JJ's IPOD and all these bands and songs I had never/barely even heard of before from JJ's "LA" music catalog...like..Cat Power...the Pixies...Red 5 etc. I started to really like all these bands that, at first, I thought were going to suck...and that I was going to be stuck with for weeks, but I actually really like them now. This is so trivial, but I associate all that music I listened to now with Joey. music was such a big part of who he was...I feel like its a really good way...maybe the best way, to connect with the person I knew him to be.
Since Joey died, the things that have become more prevalent or more in the forefront of my mind is how important people are. It sounds obvious,..but what actually matters..at the end of the day is friends and family and God... making the time together matter. I can't really talk much on that because of all the time I spend away from home in the military, but whatever time we do have...make it count. We all would love to have another Christmas or summer with Joey, but its not going to happen any time soon unfortunately. What we can do though...what I am going to do is take full advantage of the time we have with eachother....with our spouses, kids, loved ones, neighbors and friends.....This life is sooo short. I really want to make it count. losing Joey has really illustrated the importance of that.
Also, It seems like I am noticing all my flaws more than ever....like they are being highlighted so I don't overlook them. I feel like I need to be more generous for some reason? I have been putting more money in those donation boxes at the store , the ones with the sick kids on the front.
I've also been tipping more than normal at restaurants.
I don't care as much about money, and making it, as I did before.
It seems like a better idea to invest in time with God and the people we care for. Its the times and experiences we have together that are going to matter in the end. Everything else is trivial.
We will miss you Joey, for the rest of our lives here. We Love You.
RAY-