I have appointments to keep

Coping with bereavement
#1

I know some may not agree with my perspectives here but yet I share my convictions based on scripture and hope this can help someone cope with their own bereavement too!

I HAVE APPOINTMENTS TO KEEP
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, [which] go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to
the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:14)
Often times we ponder over the meaning of life. But we certainly dwell
more on wondering about beyond this life. What shall happen when we
die? Will we go straight to heaven as soon as our eyes close in death as
taught by some people? Or if our lives have been badly lived and we deserve
hell fire will we go straight to hell as suggested by some? Yet some have exercised their mental genius to come up with the concepts of purgatory and
even a state of limbo.
So just what does happen at death? I am pacified to know that the
dead know nothing. Their very memory is forgotten the moment they die.
There is no free spirit roaming around without a body remaining to comfort or torture me.
Incidentally, Satan did visit me several times as I slept in my room a
month or so after my wife died. Three or four times I spoke to Mandy after
she had already died. She came back to me in such sweet dreams and made
me so happy but yet nonetheless surprised to see her.
So, still in dreamland, I challenged her by saying to her, ā€œMandy you
are supposed to be dead, what are you doing here?ā€ She answered me and
said ā€œGod decided that I was not supposed to die and He sent me back to
you. And so I came back.ā€
Nice try Satan! (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Even Mandy herself, both of whose
parents had already rested in the Lord, said many times to me that she had
made appointments with her parents and she wanted to keep the appointments and meet them in heaven one day. And that appointment in heaven
will only become a reality after Jesus comes to take his children to heaven.
(1 Thessalonians 4:16) Otherwise there would be no need for the second
coming because then we would all just go straight to heaven by death and
quickly be with Jesus. Who would He need to come for if we are all there
already? Why would anyone need to be resurrected when they have already
gone to heaven? Jesus did not call Lazarus down from heaven after he had
died, but out of the grave. ( John 11:43).
14
REFLECTION:
True, after death the next thing will be the resurrection but that shall
happen only at the second coming of Jesus. So blessed is he who dies in the
Lord as he will be resurrected to be given a new immortal body and life
eternal. (Revelation 14:13)
BLESSING:
May God give you peace as you remain grounded in truth. Let not
Satanic attacks ever have any power over you just because you are mourning. The Lord is with you!

#2

Hi. Khanye. I have realised over the years and after a lot of study, that a lot of what we read in both the Old and New Testaments has been misinterpreted. My old counsellor who became my friend and with whom I trained in counselling, was a Greek and Hebrew scholar from Cambridge, and although he was a retired Anglican Priest, he saw so many things in the Bible that had been misinterpreted from the Greek, which was the language that was spoken after the Aramaic, which was the language spoken by Jesus and the disciples. The King James version is full of misinterpretation because the monks who wrote it wanted to please the King. All the Bibles since then, and there have been many, have inserted their own interpretations until it has become meaningless. When we quote from Revelations we have be even more careful The deeper Esoteric meaning is very much hidden in the text. The whole concept of a Satan is open to debate, as much as the belief in a God.
If taken literally we run into all sorts of trouble. I find your posts very interesting because you sincerely believe, and that is rare these days.
Take care.

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#3

Hi Jonathan
Thanks for your comments. I could tell that you had a grasp of the Bible! Yes there is a whole lot of disagreement and debate that could be gone into about the received and esoteric texts plus Biblical interpretation methods of futurism, preterism and historisism through to literary and prophetic and symbolic meanings etc but I remain on the homiletical side without any exegesis of any text. It is sincerely my desire to bring comfort to all who may read what I write and to help restore peace to the broken hearted in this forum. As I say right from the start of my posts, I am aware that my views are not universally accepted yet they are what I sincerely believe in as you rightly acknowledge. So I thank you for your warmth in spite of differing perspectives.

#4

Sorry, I just have to say it. I have faith, itā€™s personal and not up for discussion. I feel extremely uncomfortable at the growing number of sermon type posts and the promise of more. Itā€™s certainly not giving me any comfort at all :confused:

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#5

Hi Khanye Itā€™s probably because iā€™m not clever enough to understand what your actually saying but i really wish i hadā€™nt opened this thread.

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#6

your not the only one Gay.but maybe these texts from the bible help the odd one or 2 people.
as its not really for me either.but at least there are lots of members who try in their own way to offer comfort and support to others in the same emotional turmoil and heart aching place in their lives.

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#7

I have raised my concern with admin. I appreciate that we have two members who have connected having similar styles of communicating within this forum, perhaps they could continue privately. I find this particular thread and discussion uncomfortable and also the promise of more to come :cry:

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#8

Some good points made from you all.
Gay, I agree. I found myself rolling my eyes.
Ian, you are kind, choosing to see from different viewpoints.
Sandra, you are absolutely right. Two members - so continue privately to avoid any confusion or discomfort to other forum users.
The alternative is to stick to one thread entitled ā€˜Religious something or otherā€™ and the rest of us will know to avoid it, or indeed read it, whichever the case may be.
Khanye, you are of course entitled to your views and many of us on here have faith but as Sandra said, it is personal. You may be trying to help and comfort but itā€™s clearly not working so maybe time to try a different approach. It would be interesting to hear how you coped with your grief and any coping strategies you may have developed. I think that approach might be of more help, especially to the newly bereaved. Iā€™m sure you have lots to offer. As Ian often says ā€œThatā€™s my opinionated opinion!ā€ :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#9

Thank you SanW for your honesty. I am sorry that I am not helpful to you even though I would have liked to be. I am only sharing my story in exactly the way I have written it already. It does help others who read it and I regret that it obviously is not universally useful. If my writing makes you uncomfortable then maybe just avoid reading whatever I write?

#10

Hi Gay,
For sharing my experience and pain in the hope of helping someone, I do not feel any remorse. For making you feel like you wish you had not opened my thread, I am sorry for you because I obviously am not writing anything that you resonate with. I guess it may be that we can agree to disagree on some points and you can consider me to be one of those people who write what you do not read?
There are many threads I have opened too and found what I did no agree with and I just left them alone! Probably this is how it should be. I am not here to cause anyone pain who is already in pain and if I do, I am sorry for that but my whole life is of one who believes what they are writing.

#11

Thanks Jianye
If I could comfort and support someone here then to me it is worth it. I do appreciate that many choose not to take their comfort from the Bible as I do but perhaps as you rightly observe the comfort that the Bible gives to some of us has a place here too.

#12

I hope admin will allow us to have a space to share from our faith also in this forum and promote tolerance for one another particularly when people come here for comfort and not arguments. I hope that people will find peace and not conflict and be helped to heal. This is my wish anyway!

#13

Now thatā€™s pretty difficult considering you are trolling and engaging in other thread. But if you take Kateā€™s advice and set up your own thread clearly indicating itā€™s religious then we can ignore.

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#14

Kate,
I do not know how you can quantify or assess the fact that my efforts are clearly not working. I do realise that a number of people have expressed the fact that they would rather not be reading my religiously inclined posts. But I should give it time and see if there is nobody else who actually thinks they are being helped as it is only a handful of days since I started posting.

#15

This is my own thread mind you? I have only created different threads of my own and also tried to contribute my points to others who are hurting. Those on whose threads I have contributed to have not found any offence with my points. I am really pained that I have to express these things as if I came here to argue!

#16

I was trying to be diplomatic Khanye. If you had your own designated thread, enabling you to share religious content, we could then ascertain and be able to quantify what effect your efforts could have. If it proves your preachings are having a positive effect, all well and good. I would be the first to say as I am not too proud to admit my mistakes. I would have expected more understanding responses from one so religious.

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#17

Kate,
I am sorry to be getting a bit agitated because of frustration that my efforts seem to be getting attacked. You are right, I should know better that challenge you that way. It is clearly not helpful to my efforts to help heal rather than hurt. I will endeavour to stick to one thread and share religious content only on that one from now. Please accept my sincere apologies.

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#18

I agree with SanW. I believe in God, and donā€™t have a problem when someone talks about religion, but a lot of people are irreligious, and I canā€™t see how it helps them, on the contrary, it might make them feel worse. If someone has shown they are religious in their message, then there is no problem talking about religion, but when they havenā€™t, then it might be a good idea not to start preaching.

In another post you told someone it is too early to start thinking about dealing with her problems, told her you would not take medications, suggested herbal remedies, and then talked about God. That kind of post is extremely unhelpful, and actually breaks the Terms and Conditions of this site, as you have no right to tell suggest to someone they will be better off avoiding medications - you are not a doctor and so cannot give this advice.

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#19

Even this is written by a frustrated meā€¦ but I can delete it, so sorry is all I can say now. But I do wish to be helpful not fight. Hope I offend you no more.

#20

Abdullah,
By the way, I actually do have full credentials that permit me to give the advice that I did in that post. But it is not on this thread and it really should be dealt with on the relevant thread and examined against the terms you refer to there.
About my ā€œpreachingā€ which I observe you are the third person to call my posts thatā€¦ I keep repeating, I wrote my story which I wanted to share freely as a pdf but the forum did not permit me to upload. So I have just been sharing one portion at a time because I have been thanked so much for it by others. And it does help me feel better myself when I share.
Yet again, it is regretful that I have to feel as if I have done so much wrong by trying to be helpful.

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