Non-Christian Memorialsby Melissa J | More from this Blogger 06 Apr 2007 02:16 AM I think one of the hardest places to be present for emotionally is a funeral for someone who died likely having rejected Christ as their savior. Unlike with the death of a believer, you can't with an honest heart comfort someone with the fact the person is in heaven with God where one day they might be reunited together. Though the funeral for a non-believer can leave an added sadness, there really is a tactful and respectful way to remember the person and even turn the situation at hand to bring glory to God.
I had a loved one die tragically. It was hard enough dealing with the reality of his life's end. There is still a deep grief in my heart not knowing if I'll ever see him again. I have to remember his life doesn't have to be in vain. We have choices and consequences for those choices in our lives. I believe anyone's life can be an example of that. We're given perspective to have in the book of Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 (NKJV): "A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one's birth; better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart." Please visit these related blogs: Where Are Your Seeds Being Sown? One Life to Live: Making the Most of Your Life Relevantchristian tags User Comments dbonanno (5) 06 Apr 2007 03:51 PMYour comments are so true. We just had a friend, who is a believer, loose her dad. He spent his life rejecting Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He had heard the gospel message many times, but still was not receptive. On his last day on this earth, my wife spent some time with him and talked about salvation. He informed her, he had accepted Jesus as his savior a month before. His family, to this day, still questions whether he was saved or not. Our jorney on this earth is a short one. We must understand the greater amount of time is eternity and think about how we want to spend it. Yes, we get caught up in the moments of today and we might get angry, frustarted or sad, but these are just the circumstances in our lives. We must always know that Jesus is right there with us. He is just prayer away. He is just waiting for anyone us to call on Him. Ray (5) 12 May 2007 10:00 AMMy Pastor did the funeral of a young man who by all reasonable accounts rejected Christ and the faith he was raised in. He was in college and spurning all counsel from his pastor and family to accept Christ. One night while driving drunk and angry at such reckless speeds that his friends demanded to be let out he fulfiled his apparant death wish and met his maker about a mile after letting them out. The pastor had the group sing a Psalm to open the funeral. The Psalm escapes me. Taking his account of the rich man and Lazarus (luke 16: 19-31)as an unspoken presuposition and tying it into a line that they had just sung in the Psalms he opend the eulogy with a claim to know that if this young man were to raise from this casket to speak to you "I know what he would say." Pointing at a particularly poignant line in the Psalm which they all had just sung, he suggested that the young man," knowing what he knows now", would plead with you all to heed the message of this line in this Psalm and the Gospels. There was not a dry eye in the room. The pastor spoke the truth and felt he comforted at the same time. There is no greater comfort than the Gospel as I think some have alluded to above. I think several classmates got saved. Excelent topic for discussion Melissa. Thanks. Community Tags death, funeral, memorial, unbelievers Discuss this article
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