A week ago today, (Tuesday) a young woman (I’ll call her Doris) in my development committed suicide.
Around 4:10am, I was awakened by loud noises and a man’s voice under my
bedroom window. The noise was coming
from an idling ambulance and what I thought one of the drivers talking on a
phone. I didn’t think too much of it because there are a couple of elderly
people in the complex, so I jumped back in bed, said a prayer and dozed off.
But, I could still hear voices and a lot of commotion. I got up again and
stayed at the window until I could figure out what was going on.
Finally I realized someone had passed. And the man talking was a police officer and not
an ambulance driver, because it was gone. At 5:35am they wheeled a body bag
along the path from the woods in front of my home. For a fleeting moment I
thought of Doris, because men were walking up to her condo which was in the
opposite direction, but I brushed it off. I found out several hours later it was her
and she had shot herself at one of the trees in the woods. The paper delivery man had found
her body.
The news grieved me deeply.
We met this summer one night while sitting on my neighbor’s patio. She loved
walking on the side where the woods were. She shared it was a time to have some
peace in the evening. As time went on I had the privilege to pray with her and
encourage her in the Lord concerning the troubles in her life. She was
attending church and had accepted Christ as her savior.
My biggest regret was that she had not come to the place in her Christian walk to
understand all the Messiah had done on the Cross, and that she could be
delivered from the demons that haunted her. To only be in her late 30’s she had
lived a very turbulent life for most of those 30 something years.
A few days ago I had the pleasure to meet a woman (I’ll call her Amy) who shared
her very hard life with me. She has spent time in jail for killing the father
of her children (in self-defense of a brutal beating). There has been a lot of
abuse and drug use in her life.
She also talked about how weighed down she had been with the guilt of killing
another human being, and recently her pastor shared one Sunday how his father
had killed his mother and God’s great forgiveness! Amy went to him with her
story and as he laid hands and prayed for her, she felt the power of
forgiveness takeover and the burden of guilt lift from her body! Now that is a
testimony for sure!
An hour or so after this conversation, the subject of people becoming angels after
they die came up. And as I was sharing with another friend how heaven really
works and that is not true, Amy jumped up and said, “Well, my mother is an
angel!” For a moment I was stunned, but then I remembered from our earlier
conversation, she doesn’t really read the Bible.
How can one not know there is no redemption for angels and that God created Hell
for satan and all the fallen angles, except they do not know the Bible?
How is it that Christians commit suicide because of hopelessness and demonic
forces, except they don’t know the power of the Cross?
In trying to look through the eyes of someone coming to
church looking for help, I would have to say that so many churches are failing,
in the aspect of teaching new Believers the fundamentals of the Cross and
salvation they need to know.
People who have been held captive by drugs and alcohol need
to know that Jesus took captivity captive and that drugs and alcohol no longer
have authority over them. Or any other sin for that matter.
We are hearing too many light weight congregational
professions during services; we need to hear more of “I’m free by the Blood of
the Cross!” “Sin no longer has authority over me!” We need to have the babes,
say this every Sunday and began to wonder what does this really mean, versus
having them looking for checks in the mail.
Please, I do not want anyone who has gone through a 12 step
program to get upset about what I am about to say, but this is a program
(though it has helped people), that goes against the Word of God.
When you go to an AA (Alcohol Anonymous) or NA (Narcotics
Anonymous) meeting, one of the first things you must say is, “Hi I’m Suzy and
I’m an alcoholic or I’m a drug abuser!” And even if you have been clean for 10
years, you will still speak this over yourself whenever you attend a meeting.
That is what goes against the Word, because there is power in our words and to
continue to profess day in and day out that you are still something that you
are not, is not the finished work that was done for us on the Cross.
But we can’t put it all on the churches, because too many us
don’t read or study the Bible, so we can know things on our own.
What is it we all have in common? We all have a common need
to know the God of the Bible and exactly what the Finished work of the Cross is! Because this is where our hope and
power for a victorious life lies. If we never, ever, receive a check in the
mail, a better paying job or any of that other stuff…we all need to know what
we have in Christ Jesus!
I shared these two stories today, because too many of us in
the Kingdom are still struggling with the same old sins and issues in our
lives. We are miserable, and in many cases feeling hopeless and living on half
truths and fiction—versus what is truth.
Sisters it is time to grow up and experience victory in our
lives! Times are changing and it is time to get into the Word, and share with
others as you see them struggling.
As daughters of the King, it is our duty to spread the
gospel of the Kingdom of God. Even if it’s only one person at a time!
Until next week...
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