-160.webp)
-160.webp)
About the Book
"House Of The Forest" by Diana Wallis Taylor is a historical fiction novel that follows the story of a young girl named Tamar, who is determined to uncover the secrets of her past and find her true identity. Set in ancient Israel, Tamar's journey leads her to the House of the Forest, where she discovers the truth about her heritage and the importance of faith and forgiveness. Through Tamar's experiences, the novel explores themes of love, loyalty, and the power of redemption.
Warren Wiersbe
Dr. Warren Wiersbe once described Heaven as ânot only a destination, but also a motivation. When you and I are truly motivated by the promise of eternity with God in heaven, it makes a difference in our lives.â
For Wiersbe, the promise of eternity became the motivation for his long ministry as a pastor, author, and radio speaker. Beloved for his biblical insight and practical teaching, he was called âone of the greatest Bible expositors of our generationâ by the late Billy Graham.
Warren W. Wiersbe died on May 2, 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska, just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday.
âHe was a longtime, cherished friend of Moody Bible Institute, a faithful servant of the Word, and a pastor to younger pastors like me,â said Dr. Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute. âWe are lifting up pastor Wiersbeâs family in prayer at this time and rejoicing in the blessed hope that believers share together.â
Wiersbe grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, a town known for its steel mills and hard-working blue-collar families. In his autobiography, he connected some of his earliest childhood memories to Moody Bible Institute; his home church pastor was a 1937 graduate, Dr. William H. Taylor. After volunteering to usher at a 1945 Youth for Christ rally, Wiersbe found himself listening with rapt attention to Billy Grahamâs sermon, and responded with a personal prayer of dedication.
In a precocious turn of events, the young Wiersbe was already a published author, having written a book of card tricks for the L. L. Ireland Magic Co. of Chicago. He quickly learned to liven up Sunday school lessons with magic tricks as object lessons (ânot the cards!â he would say). After his high school graduation in 1947 (he was valedictorian), he spent a year at Indiana University before transferring to Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago, where he earned a bachelor of theology degree. His future wife, Betty, worked in the school library, and Wiersbe was a frequent visitor.
While in seminary he became pastor of Central Baptist Church in East Chicago, serving until 1957. During those years he became a popular YFC speaker, which led to a full-time position with Youth for Christ International in Wheaton. He published his first article for Moody Monthly magazine in 1956, about Bible study methods, and seemed to outline his ongoing writing philosophy. âThis is more of a personal testimony,â he said, âbecause I want to share these blessings with you, rather than write some scholarly essay, which I am sure I could not do anyway.â
At a 1957 YFC convention in Winona Lake, Indiana, Wiersbe preached a sermon that was broadcast live over WMBI, his first connection to Moody Radio. âI wish every preacher could have at least six monthsâ experience as a radio preacher,â he said later (because they would preach shorter).
While working with Youth for Christ, Wiersbe got a call from Pete Gunther at Moody Publishers, asking about possible book projects. First came Byways of Blessing (1961), an adult devotional; then two more books in 1962, A Guidebook for Teens and Teens Triumphant. He would eventually publish 14 titles with Moody, including William Culbertson: A Man of God (1974), Live Like a King (1976), The Annotated Pilgrimâs Progress (1980), and Ministering to the Mourning (2006), written with his son, David Wiersbe.
In 1961, D. B. Eastep invited Wiersbe to join the staff of Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky. forming a succession plan that was hastened by Eastepâs sudden death in 1962. Warren and Betty Wiersbe remained at the church for 10 years, until they were surprised by a phone call from The Moody Church. The pastor, Dr. George Sweeting, had just resigned to become president of Moody Bible Institute. Would Wiersbe fill the pulpit, and pray about becoming a candidate?
He was already well known to the Chicago churchâand to the MBI community. He continued to write for Moody Monthly and had just started a new column, âInsights for the Pastor.â The monthly feature continued to run during the years Wiersbe served at The Moody Church. Wiersbe would become one of the magazineâs most prolific writersâ200 articles during a 40-year span. Meanwhile he also started work on the BE series of exegetical commentaries, books that soon found a place on the shelf of every evangelical pastor.
His ministry to pastors continued as he spoke at Moody Founderâs Week, Pastorsâ Conference, and numerous campus events. He also inherited George Sweetingâs role as host of the popular Songs in the Night radio broadcast, produced by Moody Radioâs Bob Neff and distributed on Moodyâs growing network of radio stations.
Later in life he would move to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he served as host of the Back to the Bible radio broadcast. He also taught courses on preaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary. He kept writing, eventually publishing more than 150 books and losing track of how many (âI canât remember them all, and I didnât save copies of everything,â he said.)
Throughout his ministry, Warren Wiersbe described himself as a bridge builder, a reference to his homiletical method of moving âfrom the world of the Bible to the world of today so that we could get to the other side of glory in Jesus.â As explained by his grandson, Dan Jacobson, âHis preferred tools were words, his blueprints were the Scriptures, and his workspace was a self-assembled library.â
Several of Wiersbeâs extended family are Moody alums, including a son, David Wiersbe â76; grandson Dan Jacobsen â09 and his wife, Kristin (Shirk) Jacobsen â09; and great-nephew Ryan Smith, a current student.
During his long ministry and writing career, Warren Wiersbe covered pretty much every topic, including the inevitability of death. These words from Ministering to the Mourning offer a fitting tribute to his own ministry:
We who are in Christ know that if He returns before our time comes to die, we shall be privileged to follow Him home. Godâs people are always encouraged by that blessed hope. Yet we must still live each day soberly, realizing that we are mortal and that death may come to us at any time. We pray, âTeach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdomâ (Psalm 90:12).
Did God Hear Me - Where Was He When My Sister Died
The ancient Hebrew songwriter of Psalm 116 sings with joy, I love the Lord, because he has heard      my voice and my pleas for mercy. . . . The snares of death encompassed me;      the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;      I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord:      âO Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!â Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;      our God is merciful. . . . For you have delivered my soul from death,      my eyes from tears,      my feet from stumbling. (Psalm 116:1â8) This is the collective testimony of Godâs people â he loves us, and we love him. And because he loves us, our Savior has promised that when we pray for anything according to his will, he will answer us (John 14:13â14). In two previous articles, I wrote about how I prayed for my daughterâs life when she was diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer and how Jesus answered my prayer. In nothing short of a miracle, Jesus healed her and delivered me and my wife from inconsolable sorrows (Philippians 2:27). God is good, and he is merciful, and, yes, he hears our cries for help. Then March of this year happened. My sister was diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. My family was still grieving her 40-year-old son who, just months earlier, died tragically and unexpectedly from a heart attack. The news of my sisterâs cancer emotionally overwhelmed us. We prayed for a miracle. Trusting in her Lord with whether she lived or died, my sister breathed her last breath on June 3rd. My heart is broken, and Iâm still grieving. There have been days when I didnât think I would be able to get out of bed. Everything is harder. Writing an article about death is harder. âGod hears the prayers of the righteous â and he is still righteous and good when he answers no.â After praying with me for my sisterâs life and then mourning with me over her death, Desiring God gave me an opportunity to share from our mourning. So I want to try to comfort others with the comfort of God that I am seeking. I want to help Christians see how enduring suffering rests on an important truth. Our comfort comes from embracing the truth that God hears the prayers of the righteous â and that he is still righteous and good when he answers no. What We Donât Understand Yet The Bible teaches that when Godâs children are in despair, he wants us to pray, knowing that he will answer (1 Peter 5:7). But the Bible doesnât promise to limit the infinite answers of God to our finite understandings. While Godâs answers are always consistent with who he is (good, all-wise, righteous, and merciful), his thoughts and ways are incalculably higher than ours. So sometimes when we pray for God to keep us from the sorrows that fill this broken world, his perfect answer will be, âNo, my grace is sufficient for youâ (2 Corinthians 12:9). Consider the agony of seeing your miraculously born, perfectly just, and sinless son hanging from a wickedly unjust, cruel Roman cross. Mary didnât knowingly pray for that. Wasnât the horror of the cross crushing to her? Yet God ordained the cross, and for the joy set before him, Jesus willingly submitted to the Father and endured it. Before we see him on the cross, we see him alone in the garden. And there, we see him in agony, trembling and pleading with his Father three times to take his cup of wrath away (Matthew 26:39â44). Yes, God is good, and whenever he allows suffering, he has good purposes behind it, even when we donât understand (Genesis 50:20). Jesus knew that and surrendered to his Fatherâs perfect will and drank the full cup of Godâs wrath. He endured the greatest suffering of all, and by doing so, brought about the greatest good of all, redemption â the overthrow of death, sin, and all that is evil. The Real Problem with Death When we pray for our dying loved ones, what are we really asking for? Like Hezekiah, are we asking God to give them more years (2 Kings 20:1, 5â6)? God heard his prayers and saw his tears and extended his life by fifteen years. When we pray, and our loved ones are with us for another day, or month, or year, we should give thanks through tears. I treasured the three months that God gave us with my sister. She was able to say her final goodbyes, see her grandchildren, and express her unwavering faith in Jesus. She glorified God in her death (Philippians 1:20). However, we should also remember eternity in our prayers. In our pleading with God, we should first pray for our loved oneâs salvation â that whether they live or die, they make their calling and election sure. For even if God extends their lives, what are years in light of eternity? All our lives are just a vapor. The real problem with death isnât when we die . The real problem is that we will die . The sage of Ecclesiastes bluntly writes, âNo man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of deathâ (Ecclesiastes 8:8). Jesus came for that reason. He came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10). Because the wages of sin is death, the Son of God became man, so that he could live a sinless life and then give that life as the payment for our sin (1 Peter 3:18). Prayer for Your Mourning Jesusâs resurrection validated his victory and authority over death. He is the resurrection and the life. Our loved ones who die in Christ go directly into his presence. We can comfort ourselves with that truth. No one has to mourn without hope when their loved ones die in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13â14). In the end, Christ will remove death from creation when he makes a new heaven and a new earth (1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 21:4). Until then, we do deeply mourn (Philippians 2:27), but because of Christ we have a balm to heal our broken hearts. In a confession of desperation, when facing an insurmountable enemy, Judahâs King Jehoshaphat cried out to the Lord, âWe are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on youâ (2 Chronicles 20:12). May I encourage you to make this your prayer as you mourn? âYou wonât always understand why you suffer, but you must believe that God does.â Perhaps you have prayed and asked God to heal your loved one. Instead, youâve been struck like Job by the cruelty of our mortal enemy â death (Job 1:4â5, 18â19). Your songs arenât songs of joy. They are laments from a heart that is reeling from the jarring pain that comes with the death of a spouse, a child, a sibling, a best friend, or someone whom youâve deeply loved. You wonât always understand why you suffer, but you must believe that God does. You can, therefore, pray and ask God to comfort you, knowing that he is good even when he ordains that you suffer. How I Comfort My Soul As you mourn, perhaps your prayer can sound like this: Jesus, I believe that you love me. You went to the cross for me and saved me. Fill my heart with the light of your love when the darkness of sorrow encompasses me. Jesus, you are the infinite, all-powerful Son of God, and you became man so that you could be my sympathetic High Priest, who feels all my weaknesses and pains (Hebrews 4:15). Help me to mourn. You know the pain of death. You wept over your friend Lazarus, and you mourned with his sisters. Remind me that you are bottling up every tear that falls from my eyes (Psalm 56:8). Jesus, you are not indifferent to death nor to my struggle with it. You hate death (John 11:33; Ezekiel 18:32) and came to put death to death. When you rose from the dead, you conquered death, and you shared your victory over death with all who believe in you. Comfort me with the reality that you are the resurrection and the life, and because of this, my believing loved one has eternal life in your presence. Lord, you appoint the day when everyone dies and stands before you in judgment (Hebrews 9:27). I canât put people into heaven or hell. You are the judge of all the earth, and you always do what is right even when I canât comprehend it (Genesis 18:25). You mourned over an unbelieving Israel (Matthew 23:37). Help me to know that you are good even when I mourn the death of unbelieving loved ones. Father, all good gifts come from you. Through my tears, I thank you for giving me my loved one, and for the time that you gave me as I mourn the years that I wonât have. This is how I am comforting my soul. I thank God for making my sister to be our family evangelist. She brought me to church when I was twenty. I heard the gospel, and God saved me. I thank God for giving her eternal life so that she never saw death (John 8:51). When she breathed her last breath here, she opened her eyes looking into the radiance of the glory that shines from his face. And I thank God for his word that teaches all of us that Jesus is the ultimate gift, and God is enough to satisfy our souls (Psalms 73:25â26). Until Christ comes or brings us home, I pray that God will comfort our hearts with these precious truths so that we can comfort others who are mourning.
