Tag: heaven

Reflecting God’s Love- A Eulogy for Dorothy Rachels

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

This Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at Dorothy Rachel’s funeral in Thomaston, GA. She was my wife’s grandmother, whom we all referred to as “Memomma Dot.” She was the spiritual matriarch of the family and played important roles in my wife’s and my own faith journey. She was full of faith, love, and life. I used her favorite verse for the message- John 3:16. My aim was demonstrate that her remarkable life can only be explained by the fact that she knew and experienced God’s love.

I am posting the audio recording of message here for Memomma’s family and friends who were not able to attend the funeral and for those in attendance who asked if we had a recording. I pray that it will be a blessing to you, honor Memomma, and bring glory to God!

Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous2 Comments

In light of my wife’s faithful and loving grandmother’s crossing the threshold of heaven this week, I am reminded of the verse:

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 116:15

These words remind us of God’s immense love for His sons and daughters. At no point in their lives is he a distant observer. Rather, He is an ever present, sovereign, involved Father- every step of the way. Including the final step of their earthy lives.

Their death, says the psalmist, is precious in His sight. Why is it precious? Because for them, it is the last trial they will go through. It is the last time they will ever feel pain. It is the last effect of a sinful and fallen world that they will experience. Endless joy, peace, comfort, and fulfillment lay ahead.

Continue reading “Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints” →

5 Things to Remember in Suffering

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

1. God promises to comfort us in our affliction (2 Cor. 1:3-4). We can ask him on the basis of his Word to comfort us. Then we should pursue channels of that comfort! Psalm reading, praying (honestly), listening to worship music, asking brothers and sisters to pray for us, etc. God can and will use all these things (and more) to comfort us in our pain.

Continue reading “5 Things to Remember in Suffering” →

Paradox in Cost Counting

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple…For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” -Luke 15:27-28

In the past, every time I came across one of Jesus’ statements like this, I trembled. Was I really bearing my own cross? Was I truly following Him? At the same time, I was afraid of the immensity of the call of giving up everything to follow Him. Is it really worth it?

Continue reading “Paradox in Cost Counting” →

Are We Missional? 10 Diagnostic Questions

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Discipleship2 Comments

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In the book Live Sent: You Are a Letter, Jason Dukes lays out 10 questions to help Christians discern whether or not they are operating with a missional mindset. I have tweaked them and explained them below. Challenging words!

1. When you speak of church, what prepositions do you use?

Do you focus on church as a place or event more than a people who are sent? We are all called to live missionally, and we as a church are to be sent out as “salt and light” to a decaying and dark world. Our church in Athens has a sign as you leave the parking lot that exhibits this mindset, reading, “You are now entering your mission field.”                                                                                             

Continue reading “Are We Missional? 10 Diagnostic Questions” →

Six Key Benefits of the Necessary Evangelism Component in Discipleship

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Discipleship, Miscellaneous1 Comment

Yes. I am afraid. Every time I begin to share about Jesus with someone, millions of thoughts run through my head about how I may offend or be received wrongly. Have you ever felt the same?

This is the log jam in the discipleship process and to fulfilling the Great Commission: evangelism. Sharing our faith. Why? Often times it is because we haven’t seen it modeled, or haven’t been taught “how.” Even in our rigorous attempts at discipleship have not fixed the problem, because discipleship has come to be regarded as a practice without the necessary component of evangelism training or practice. However, treating evangelism as a necessary part of discipleship helps to grow mature disciples, and is absolutely necessary. I read a great article recently highlighting 6 reasons why. Here they are: Continue reading “Six Key Benefits of the Necessary Evangelism Component in Discipleship” →

Coming to the Blood of Jesus -Spurgeon

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

“and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”    – Hebrews 12:24

Reader, have you come to the blood of sprinkling? The question is not whether you have come to a knowledge of doctrine, or an observance of ceremonies, or to a certain form of experience, but have you come to the blood of Jesus?
The blood of Jesus is the life of all vital godliness. If you have truly come to Jesus, we know how you came–the Holy Spirit sweetly brought you there. You came to the blood of sprinkling with no merits of your own. Guilty, lost, and helpless, you came to take that blood, and that blood alone, as your everlasting hope. You came to the cross of Christ, with a trembling and an aching heart; and oh! what a precious sound it was to you to hear the voice of the blood of Jesus! Continue reading “Coming to the Blood of Jesus -Spurgeon” →

My Gentle Wife & God’s Chisel

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

“…let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” 1 Peter 3:4

 

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My wife is a quiet and gentle woman; I am not a quiet and gentle man. I want to be. I pray daily to be…but I am constantly acting in pride, selfishness, and harshness. I grieve these sins, because I know they grieve my Master. But thank goodness, my God has given me an amazing wife-a daily reminder, and frequent conviction, to pursue gentleness, and to be slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to listen. Continue reading “My Gentle Wife & God’s Chisel” →

An Example of Praying Without Ceasing- Sir Thomas Browne

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

thomasbrowne

Despite a time where England was passing through a period of national convulsion and political excitement, men and women of God found comfort and strength through prayer. One beloved English physician, named Sir Thomas Browne, is one of these men. He wrote in his journal,”I have resolved to pray more and pray always, to pray in all places where quietness invites, in the house, on the highway and on the street; and to know no street or passage in this city that may not witness that I have not forgotten God.”

Do we witness that we have not forgotten God in all places?

Browne adds, “I purpose to take occasion of praying upon the sight of any church which I may pass, that God may be worshiped there in spirit, and that souls may be saved there; to pray daily for my sick patients and for the patients of other physicians; at my entrance into any home to say, “May the peace of God abide here;” after hearing a sermon, to pray for a blessing on God’s truth, and upon the messenger; upon the sight of a beautiful person to bless God for His creatures, to pray for the beauty of such an one’s soul, that God may enrich her with inward graces, and that the outward and inward may correspond; upon the sight of a deformed person, to pray God to give them wholeness of soul, and by and but to give them the beauty of the resurrection.”

May adding constant daily patterns of prayer give us comfort and strength through our hard times?