I received an email from Scott Isert concerning an article I wrote called, “Death, Then What?” Mr. Isert knows personally the anguish in losing one’s spouse. I was very touched by what he had to say, and feel he has provided much insight that would be enlightening for us all. Following is what he had to say in its entirety.
My wife died five years ago and I found myself isolated within the church because people did not know what to do or say after a death. My wife and I were very active in the church and folks simply backed away after her death. Strange, is it not?

This is an example of what I am now able to share with someone who has lost a loved one:

Dear Marty & Family:

I thought that I would write and share some things with you that hopefully would encourage you after the loss of your husband.

Most people that have not dealt with death before do not know how to encourage someone who has lost their loved one. They simply ignore and hope that you somehow get “better” or “over it.” A simple thing to do is to say that “I am so sorry for your loss.” Even Christians in the church who have known one another for over 20 years ignore those who are hurting and sitting in the pews.

I can speak from personal experience and would like to encourage you during this hard time in your life:

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. Please know that you and your family are not alone or forgotten. I will be praying for you and your family.

I do not know why bad things happen to good people. I do not know why some prayers are not answered for healings from disease and sickness. It is NOT due to a lack of faith or sin in our lives. God is NOT mad at you.

As Christians, we are not promised a perfect life on this earth. I know this from my own personal experience for the past 16 years. I just want to share some things with you and hope that it helps you during this sad time in your life…

Grief can be described as an up and down roller coaster of emotions: shock, devastation, denial, self-doubt, fear, anger, sadness, loneliness, and finally acceptance. It can also be compared to standing on the beach at the ocean and suddenly being overwhelmed by a big wave when least expected. As Christians, we know our loved ones are in Heaven with the Lord, but we are so very sad for our loss here on earth.

(It took me about 2-1/2 years after my wife died to understand the meaning of acceptance. Acceptance is simply having the will to go on with the rest of your life after losing your loved one. I have found that this is the most difficult thing to do when you wake up in the morning each day and the house is now empty and quiet. It is so very easy to lose your joy and interest in the things that you formerly enjoyed.)

Words of encouragement are inadequate during such times in our lives. There is nothing that anyone else can do or say that will take this pain away. I felt sorry for my Mom and Dad when they told me that they wished that they could do something to take away the pain and sadness when my wife died.

Our parents could always fix things for us and make us feel better when we were children. They can only grieve, worry, and pray for us now as adults. This is literally something very personal between God and you. Grief is the price that we all must pay when we love someone and live long enough on this earth. I know that you feel that a part of you has died. I felt that my heart was literally ripped out of my body when my wife died. Time will indeed slowly lessen this horrible and terrible pain that you currently feel. (I do know from personal experience that my emotions have slowly healed with the passing of time. I just do not know when or if my heart will ever be completely healed again.)

I have asked God to fill the empty void in my life. It is a strange feeling to be lonely and sad but to also have His comfort and peace. We serve a merciful God. There have been several times that I have smelled a sweet fragrance in my home when I was feeling down that could not be explained. Two times I was awoken at night by the sound of a mighty wind and it was not storming outside. I have also smelled fresh bread and a cake being baked in the oven on several occasions. I believe that God reveals Himself to us when we go through the difficult and hard times in our lives. Ask God to give you comfort and peace when you are sad. Be still and listen…

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 AKJV)

Death is a reality check and a reminder of our own mortality. Everyone wants to go to Heaven when they are younger, but we want to experience driving, graduation, marriage, children, homes, careers, etc. Now, I have a yearning to be reunited with my wife in Heaven. I consider my life fulfilled at this moment and I am ready to go to Heaven. My wife’s death has made me not fear death any more. I could not say that before her death.

I sorely miss her companionship and friendship. Loneliness and sadness are very difficult to deal with after a death. Remember that people may disappoint, but God will never fail us. God gives us comfort and peace during our time of grief and sadness.

I have enclosed some Bible scriptures that have comforted me during my own time of grief and sadness. I pray that they will bring comfort and peace to you during your own time of grief and sadness. Please read them over and over again to get them inside your mind and spirit. I believe it helps even more to read these scriptures out loud. Remember that there is power in the spoken Word of God.

My favorites are:

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2)

“Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) (This verse accurately describes someone that has lost a loved one.)

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)

“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:52-57)

I believe that Jesus will be returning very soon for His people in the Rapture! As Christians, we have the confidence and hope of being reunited with our loved ones when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This may occur sooner than you expected! That expectation and hope has helped me compensate for my loss.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

“And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17)

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Knowing that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and that there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain has helped me. I still cry about my loss but not as much with the passage of time. God will do the same thing for you and your family.

The Bible tells us that we MUST comfort others as God comforts us in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. Christians who suffer a loss through death pay a high price for compassion. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for someone else. Empathy is when you truly know how someone else feels from personal experience. This letter is my feeble way of reaching out and trying to encourage you. I have prayed out loud many times to God and have asked Him to hear my cries and to touch the pain. I am praying that God will do the same for you and your family.

Remember that there will be no more death, mourning, sorrow, crying, or pain when we are reunited with our loved ones in Heaven. The Bible promises that God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Thank and praise God for blessing you with each other. Thank and praise God for His blessings and favor for the remainder of your lives. Remember that God is good, faithful, and merciful to His people. God knows how we feel after a death because He gave the world His Son (Jesus) to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16). God really knows how you feel and loves you very much.

I have also included some reading material that has helped me.

May God Bless and Comfort You,

“The tears will flow like the rain, but the sun will shine once again.”

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”

Scott Isert

Grant Phillips

Every now and then I hear someone comment that Adam and Eve really made a mess for the rest of us to live with. One well-known pastor likes to say, “I’m going to kick Adam right in the shins when I get to Heaven.” But to be honest, would we have done any differently?

God has dealt with people in these many years we have been upon this earth via seven different dispensations. The seven dispensations are shown as follows:

1.     Innocence: from the Creation to the Fall

2.     Conscience: from the Fall to the Flood

3.     Human Government: from Noah to Abraham

4.     Promise: from Abraham to Mt. Sinai

5.     Law: from Mt. Sinai to Pentecost, concluding with Daniel’s 70th week

6.     Grace: Church Age

7.     Kingdom: the 1,000 year Millennium

Honestly, I cannot understand why some do not see this and get so upset over the reality of this doctrine. God’s dispensations are easily seen and definitely have a purpose. In my opinion, there are at least two purposes.

·        To prove a point to Satan, and

·        To prove a point to mankind

1.     God started out dealing with man in total innocence, but even in a perfect environment, man eventually fell by sinning against God. We really don’t know how long this era lasted.

Adam and Eve had one command to obey and that was “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

We all know what happened. Curiosity killed the innocence.

2.     Next God allowed man to govern himself by his own conscience, but the conscience of man is corrupt.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:1-7)

Man cannot live by his own conscience without defiling himself.

3.     After the Flood, God allowed man to govern himself via forming a government of men. That failed as seen in the following Scriptures.

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:1-9)

4.     Next God worked through a man He named Abraham. He called him out and made of him a nation. He provided promises to Abraham and his progeny, but Abraham couldn’t wait on God to fulfill the promise of a son. He and his wife, Sarah, thought they would help God out.

“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.” (Genesis 16:1)

From Isaac and Ishmael and Jacob and Esau we today are still paying a heavy price made by the Father of the Israelite nation, Abraham.

5.     Then God gave His people Israel His own Law for them to follow. The intent was for Israel to obey God’s Law and witness to the other nations about the one and only true God. It didn’t happen.

Man became so full of pride in thinking he was keeping the Law he soon lived as though he were above the Law.

Jesus explained to those in His day (1st Advent) that the Law of God could not be kept by man. Only He could keep the Law (Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount). Paul explained that the Law was a guide to lead us to Christ.

6.     For the last two thousand years God has dealt with man through a group of people He calls His Church, the bride of Christ. He has dealt with man strictly through His own grace.

I am so glad to be living in the Church Age. God’s grace is poured out in abundance upon all man. Those who are willing are saved by legitimate child-like faith in Jesus Christ and kept for eternity by His power. That’s it!

When this age comes to an end, the Son of God will personally come for all who have come to Him in faith and remove us to Heaven before His judgment falls upon the earth during Daniel’s 70th week (the 7-Year Tribulation).

[PARENTHETICAL: DANIEL’S 70TH WEEK, OR THE 7-YEAR TRIBULATION]

When the Church Age ends the seven remaining years of Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel 9:20-27) will begin. These years are seven years of 490 that are still due Israel from the Dispensation of the Law.

God says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Daniel 9:24)

The remaining seven years are just as important as the first 483, so they are coming. After the completion of the full 490 years (483 + 7), there will be the Millennial Age.

7.     Finally, after the Church is removed, and the seven years of Tribulation ends, man will enter one last dispensation, and here is where we come full circle, with one exception. Everything will be just like it was in the Garden of Eden, but instead of just two people, there will be millions living on the earth during the Millennium. But again, man rebels.

At the end of the Millennium, Satan and all his followers (angels, demons, and mankind) are all consigned to the Lake of Fire for all eternity. Those who are left belong to God and enter eternity with Him.

So what’s the point you say? The point is that without God living within us, we cannot live for Him.

1.     We can live in total innocence, then temptation comes along and we sin.

2.     We can follow our conscience, but our conscience is flawed.

3.     We can form a government, but governments become corrupt.

4.     We can accept God’s promises (and He will keep all of them), but still stray in sin.

5.     We can have God’s Law spelled out for us, but we can’t keep it.

6.     We can even be privileged with grace, and reject it.

7.     We can live without Satan’s influence and still sin.

The point is spelled out to Satan and to all mankind, that without the righteousness of God, we cannot be qualified to live in His presence. Furthermore, the only way to obtain the righteousness of God is through His Son. We are not qualified regardless of our environment.

Sin was here long before man came upon the scene, and we can live in any generation under any type of dispensation and still not be qualified to be in God’s presence.

Throughout every dispensation, there was always one thing that needed to be exercised and that is “true faith.” Additionally, the object of our faith can only be Jesus Christ. From the Age of Innocence to the Church Age all looked forward to the cross. In the Church Age and even the Millennium it’s all about the cross.

Pick your dispensation. You cannot save yourself regardless of which one you choose. We must be saved by Jesus Christ, and if our faith is not rested in Him, we will leave this world lost for all eternity.

Grant Phillips