7 Questions About Suicide and Christians

“Every Christian dies with unconfessed sin and suicide is not the unpardonable sin.”

This is a really thoughtful article about mental illness and Christians from an authoritative voice. Please read before making stupid comments.

7 Questions about Suicide and Christians

The exclusion of Christ

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from everyday Christian life in community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; for in the poor sister or brother, Christ is knocking at the door. – Bonhoeffer

Not to speaks is to speak, not to act is to act…

Keeping it Simple

“God, here I am and here are all my troubles. I’ve made a mess of things and can’t do anything about it. You take me, and all my troubles, and do anything you want with me.” – Alcoholics Anonymous

From spiritual death to spiritual life

The evidence that Saint Paul had passed from spiritual death to spiritual life was not that he heard a voice, saw a light, and temporarily lost his sight, but that love replaced hatred, that patience replaced his testiness, and that meekness replaced his pride.  - Steve Turner

We ought to be able to love those who are sinful and unkind and selfish…

“When our hearts are occupied with his wondrous love, we remember that he loved us when we were unlovely, and some of us are not very lovely now; we remember that he loved us when we were unlovable, and some of us are not very lovable yet. If he could do that when we were rebellious, and if that same love is now shed abroad in our hearts, we ought to be able to love those who are sinful and unkind and selfish.” - Dr. H. A. Ironside

James Montgomery Boice, The Sermon on the Mount: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 228.

Why do I keep expecting happiness and satisfaction outside of you?

O Lord, who else or what else can I desire but you? You are my Lord, Lord of my heart, mind, and soul. You know me through and through. In and through you everything that is finds its origin and goal. You embrace all that exists and and care for it with divine love and compassion. Why then, do I keep expecting happiness and satisfaction outside of you? Why do I keep relating to you as one of my many relationships, instead of my only relationship, in which all other ones are grounded? Why do I keep looking for popularity, respect from others, success, acclaim, and sensual pleasures? Why, Lord, is it so hard for me to make you the only one? Why do I keep hesitating to surrender myself totally to you?

Help me, O Lord, to let my old self die, to let die the thousand big and small ways in which I am building up my false self and trying to cling to my false desires. Let me be reborn in you and see through you the world in the right way, so that all my actions, words, and thoughts can become a hymn of praise to you.

I need your loving grace to travel on this hard road that leads to the death of my old self and to a new life in and for you. I know and trust that this is the road to freedom.

Lord, dispel my mistrust and help me to become a trusting friend. Amen – Henri Nouwen