So you CAN attend your own funeral

[Ramez5]

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Galatians 2:19-21

Wouldn't it be strange.. to attend your own funeral? So many books and movies have tried to carry off versions of that scenario.. and yet in many ways, that's what I've done.

I love what Oswald Chambers says about this. He asks the question, "Do you walk in white?" His point is that you cannot come to a place of complete sanctification.. until you know the day you died.

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.~Chambers Read more.

This evening I got to read amazing words--words describing all the Lord has done in and for me this year. They are words that explain why I feel so full of love for others.. and love serving.. when I used to have to grit my teeth to do so. My Utmost for His Highest is my new favorite book and I have a feeling I'm gonna be quoting it a lot.

Yes this recent test kinda scared me, but it only served to remind me that I still am that fleshly Donna I have always been. It helped me quit relying on my own 'methods' or 'rules' to stay steady. I can't keep myself. He must do it.

Several times I mentioned, early in this blog, that I kept feeling like I was being offered something. It was barely a whisper of an offer...that in this great crisis, if I would 'give up my life', the Lord had something infinitely better to offer--something deeply satisfying--His life and his Holy Spirit.

February 5th was my funeral. Every day I look back to that day and can only rejoice. It was the first day I was desperate enough to try anything. The Lord showed me the very depth of my depravity.. and sinfulness on that day.. and offered me a new life.. one he had always made available but that I had been unwilling to take hold of up to that point.

I liked my old life.. it was safe, comfortable.. but also miserable and exhausting. It was empty.. like trying to eat a piece of plastic fruit.. and pretending the fruit was the 'real thing'. That's what it's like to live the Christian life on our own terms.

Tonight, as I read Oswalds' explanation.. of the wonderful new thing that happened to me.. which I'd never even heard any other Christian's explain.. I just wept tears of joy. To think that this 'new birth' and 'new life' had truly happened to me.

My life for His.. The exchange--it has been made. I wish I had the words to convey it.. and I wish I could wrap it up with a bow.. and give it to you to open for yourself. But I can't.


As he said.. each of us come to this point differently.. and our journeys are different, but the result is much the same--a brand new life lived wholly at the Lord's disposal with nothing held back. And in time, we get the chance to love others and serve them so joyfully and so completely.. and so unreservedly.. that it feels like heaven instead of service.

I don't need to 'do anything' with my life.. because my life, such as it was, is over. The rest of my life is up to Him. Each day is a grand adventure.

I seek the Lord.. and he opens doors to share his love and the challenge to 'come to him' with others.

I never know when it will be or where. I am always surprised when it happens. I sit back and marvel each time.You walk out the door thinking you are going to shop or to lunch or to church.. and the Lord has an appointment for you.. some work to do.. or someone to comfort.. or something to learn.

I have found that I want to have a completely clear slate.. so as to leave room for these opportunities. I'm so glad. It fills me with more joy than anything I've ever 'signed up to do'.So full of joy tonight.. with a renewed vision of what life with Him is all about.

Dear Lord, Thank you for doing what it took to get me to attend 'my own funeral'. Thank you for making 'my life' so miserable, I was willing to give it up.. to make room for Your life through me and in me. If anyone is reading this.. and is sensing that call.. to give it all up for you.. I pray your Holy Spirit would gently woo them over the threshold into your glorious light. Amen

[Mary Naeem]

Thanks Ramez

[walaa farouk]

Thanks Ramez