Grace

This week has been an extreme of emotions. I returned home Monday after being deployed for 4 months to the Middle East. I met my wife, who is due today to deliver our baby, and my Mom and Dad at the airport. We've had a pretty good time this week with my younger brother coming to visit us while we waiting on my daughter to be born. All was good, that was until my mom received a call from my older brother. My mom came into the kitchen, very shaken, distressed and crying.

My brothers ex-wife had committed suicide.

She left behind her son, who is in my brothers custody, and a baby boy she had from a later relationship.

We all knew she was under attack, trapped in a spiritual battlefield. She was incredibly beautiful and very smart with a loving husband but somehow drugs and alcohol found it's way into her life. Even at the cost of loosing her husband and son she couldn't escape the bonds of addiction.

Prayer after prayer was prayed.

Honestly I don't know how to take this. Suicide and thou shall not kill.

I remember visiting my brother and her when they moved back to the USA from Germany. She was a great cook and always had something baking in the oven or cooking on the stove. A beautiful infant boy with sandy blond hair and a stupid little dog. Not long later my brother left the military and moved to Memphis where they bought a brand new home. She got a job as a dental assistant and my brother worked for a large company. I don't know where it started but like with me it started small. Jealousy and envy. Distrust and suspicion. What lies beneath the enticing veal of sin? Very hard, incredibly hard feelings to deal with in a marriage.

Blind we all stood while thieves took her from right in front of us.

Satan has no love for my family. He had always worked hard against my parents, my brothers, and me. When my older brother understood he was called to preach a Satanist came up against him and threated his life. My brother was protected by his decision to follow God. When I was at my event horizon Jesus Christ pulled me from the very edge and saved me from death and here I am today because of my decision to follow God and help others. Satan couldn't have us so he attacked where he could and found ground in her to try and hurt us. 

We all know a strong demon had control over her and pushed her into depression and addiction. She left and couldn't listen to anyones plea because he had made her deaf and hard. I prayed for God to bind these spirits, it was all I could do. To allow her to make her choice but the body was slave to the world. Freedom was but a whisper that she couldn't hear. Death coaxed her and fooled her, freedom was falsified to her.

Death isn't the Victor here. Oh no, not here.

Christ alone defeated death and He now holds the keys to death and hell. He is the judge, not me and not you. 

Did she go to hell? 

I don't believe this because I know Jesus Christ holds those very keys. She suffered horribly at the hands of Satan and it's one of Jesus's greatest qualities to pick up those who suffer and to give them grace beyond our understanding. He is her father and in this moment he knows her heart.

God Bless Melissa, Show her grace and the love she so deeply needs now that she is in your hands. Amen.