Blessed are they who mourn...

for they WILL BE COMFORTED!--Matthew 5: 4

Revelation 21: 1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

My sister Kelly told me to watch this video serom by Erwin McManus from his sermon series "A Beatiful life: Blessed are they who mourn". It is so great!! I strongly encourage you to watch! It is lengthy but WORTH it. I don't post these things often, because I rarely watch vidoes people put up, unless its of cute kiddies :). But this is great.
Here are some notes I took: the ability to mourn is a gift. That mourning requires 2 things: loss and love. He says that you cannot connect to deep love and escape grief. If you choose to love you will mourn. Grief is proof that love is more powerful. He also says that the stronger you get does not put you in the condition of mourning less but mourning more.

As I listened I was reminded God COMMANDS us to love. Do we really fully comprehend what that means? Do we know that when we love, we WILL grieve deeply. As I love my best friend, I grieve with her over her deep loss. God says love your neighbor as yourself. I understand now why I AM sad over Stellan and his frailty and weak heart and the mourning that his mom and family is feeling. The ability to grieve and mourn is a gift because it requires love and love is a gift from God--we love because He first loved us 1 John 4:7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for LOVE IS FROM GOD, and whoever loves God has been born of God and knows God" (emphasis mine).

The above verses strongly encourage me especially as I have a best friend who is deeply mouring the loss of her husband; a "friend" from blogland whom I probably will never meet this side of heaven, who is mourning the frailty of her baby boy, Stellan; and there are countless others I know who are mourning great loss. God PROMISES you WILL be comforted. God IS making ALL things new! HE, the God of the universe, the creator, will wipe away EVERY tear from your eye. There will be no more death, no more CF, no more SVT and heart conditions. There will be us with God, God himself will be with us as our God. Thank you JESUS!! Thank you for making it possible through your death and resurrection on the cross. Thank you for mourning, thank you for loving so deeply. Cling to HIS PROMISES!!

In His closing prayer Erwin asks God to receive us in our mourning, to not fear the pain of mourning and to teach us how to dance, to revel in the gift of love.

Yes Lord let it be!

Please watch the video you will be encouraged. If you do watch it, please leave me your thoughts or email me, I'd love to know what you think.