Justification And Sanctification

We can make a distinction between the body and the head of a man and he suffers no loss, but if there is a separation, the man will be dead. The head and the body must stay together for life to continue. Similarly, though we can make a distinction between justification and sanctification, we must never separate the two.

JUSTIFICATION
Justification is a legal court room term defined as the act of God when He declares a person just or righteous in His sight. This takes place the moment a sinner places their trust in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. For the sinner who has faith in Jesus, God pronounces the sentence “I find you not guilty! I reckon (I count, I declare) you righteous in My sight, and you and I are forever at peace with each other. All of your sins were transferred to your sin bearing Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took the full brunt of My holy wrath for you, and what has been transferred to your account is the righteousness of My Son, who lived not only a sinless life, but a life fully pleasing to Me. This very real righteousness is yours now and forever.”

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Christian is a justified person. God has declared him right in His sight because of Christ.

What is amazing to us (and what is at the heart of the gospel message) is that God does not wait until we are inherently righteous before He declares us righteous. He justifies “the ungodly.” Romans 4:5 says, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

How can God do this without compromising His holiness and justice? He does this because the very real righteousness of Christ has been given as a gift to the one who believes in Him. Christ’s righteousness is a real righteousness and “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).

What about sanctification then? Justification happens in an instant – the moment a sinner places faith in the Savior. Sanctification is the process of becoming more and more holy and separated to God in daily life.

SANCTIFICATION
In the Old Testament, vessels used for the house of God (the Tabernacle or the Temple) were “sanctified” and set apart for that purpose, never to be used for more mundane purposes. In one sense, the Christian is already sanctified in that he is set apart to God (1 Cor. 6:11). Yet there is another dimension of sanctification for although set apart to God, there is still much work to do because in all actuality, no Christian on earth is entirely sanctified. The battle between the flesh and spirit is a life long battle. The flesh still wants its independence, and in contrast, the spirit wishes to live in absolute dependence upon God. Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian.

Having made the distinction between justification and sanctification, let me affirm straight away that these two cannot be separated. That is because the truly justified person will be involved in this process of sanctification. If someone claims to be justified, but there is no desire to be sanctified, the claim to justification is proven to be fraudulent. The justified man possesses the Holy Spirit and He sets about the task of sanctification the moment He comes in to the human heart. He desires holiness, and He stirs up that desire in the heart of the true Christian. The Christian still sins, but there is now a struggle against sin, whereas before there was no struggle at all. The fact that you wish to be free from sin is an indication that the Holy Spirit is at work in the heart. When a person is happy to stay in a lifestyle that knowingly displeases the Master, it raises huge red warning flags to indicate that we need to analyze any claim to true justification.

Martin Luther gave the following analogy: When we are justified, it is as though a doctor has just administered a sure and certain remedy for a fatal disease. Though the patient may still endure a temporary struggle with the residual effects of his illness, the outcome is no longer in doubt. The physician pronounces the patient cured even though a rehabilitation process must still be carried out.

So it is with our justification. In Christ, God pronounces us just by the imputation of the merits of His Son. Along with that declaration, God administers something to us; He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins immediately to work within us to bring us to holy living.

It is both a reality and comfort to know this truth – once He begins the work, He will complete it. Scripture says, “those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). So certain is Paul that this is the case, he writes of glorification in the past tense. Though glorification has not yet happen for the Christian in this world, its future certainty is assured. It’s as good as done. No one fall through the cracks.

Imagine being a sports fan and your team is in a big final. Due to a pressing commitment, you are not able to watch the game live and so you record it for later viewing.

You are finally ready to sit down to watch the recorded game and a friend calls and, before you can stop him, he congratulates you on your team’s big win. You really didn’t want to know the final score… you wanted to watch the game not knowing the final outcome. You wanted to watch with all of the emotions of a live experience. But you cannot do that anymore. The fact is that because you now know the final result – because you know that your team wins the game – you watch the entire encounter knowing that no matter how bleak things may look, even if your teams falls behind in the score, you know… in fact you know with utter certainty… your team will win! You watch the game with this comfort: victory is inevitable.

In a similar way, in the battle for sanctification there are often struggles along the way. There are even moments when we might even feel a measure of despair at our seeming lack of spiritual progress. Yet the big picture reality is this: God the Holy Spirit having started the work will complete the massive sanctification project bringing every true Christian all the way to future glorification. All the justified are glorified. He who began the good work in you will complete it, until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).

For Parents

I am blessed indeed to call Pastor Dan Phillips my friend. He knows his Bible well and serves his congregation well.

He wrote the following and asked me if I had anything I could add before he sent it to the parents in his congregation. I read it and did not have anything to add. I think what he wrote is very helpful.

I then asked him if he would mind if I passed it on to others. He was happy for me to do so. Hence this post here with his words below.

Much love in the Lord Jesus,

Pastor John

Dan Phillips writes:

Dear CBC parents,

We all wish we could shelter our children from the harmful and corrupt elements of our God-hating culture. Apart from living under a rock, this is becoming increasingly impossible. The homosexual-and-much-more agenda has increasingly intruded itself into every area of American life, from the media to sports to department stores to fast food restaurants and coffee shops.

I am writing to try to help you talk to your children. I’ll write it as one side of a conversation. Use any part that helps you address matters that arise in your children’s world.

You asked me what “gay” and “homosexual” and “trans” means, and why you suddenly see the word “Pride” everywhere. I’m glad you asked me! Let me try to explain it to you.

We’ve read Genesis together. You know that God created the world as a perfect, wondrous place. And you know in Genesis 1 He created Adam and Eve without sin, or any of the awful things sin does when it gets inside someone. Adam and Eve loved God and were happy with themselves, with each other, and with their world.

But then Satan came along in Genesis 3, and he got them to be dissatisfied with what God gave them. He tried to make God look like He didn’t care, and like He didn’t really want what was best for Adam and Eve. Satan tried to convince them that they knew better than God what was right and good, and what was best for them. Now you know, that is pride. Pride blows us up like balloons — all big and impressive looking, but with nothing but air inside. So in their pride, Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

When they did, they died inside. The happiness and wholeness they had were gone. They weren’t happy with themselves, or each other, or their world — or God. So they had to find ways to try to make themselves feel happy, and to hide the guilt they had inside. They felt guilty, because they were guilty. They had sinned against God, their Maker.

All those words you asked me about come out of this. They are all about people dead and broken by sin, still trying to find happiness by defiantly shaking their fist in God’s face and pretending they’re smarter than God.

You remember that God made Adam and Eve, a man and a woman. That’s what sex means — it means being a man, or being a woman. People say “gender” today, but gender is really a grammar-term, about words, not people. “Sex” is the better word here. How many sexes did God make? That’s right: two. And when God saw it wasn’t good for the man Adam to be alone, what did God make for him, in Genesis 2? That’s right, a woman, named Eve. So God invented marriage, when a man wants to be with a woman in a special way, and a woman wants to be with a man — only the two of them, with each other.

But all of us children of Adam are sinners, and sin ruins all our good desires and feelings that God gave us. Sin makes us want what we shouldn’t want, and it makes us not want what we should want.

So some poor sad men don’t want to have a woman as their wife. They want another man. And some poor sad women don’t want a man, they want another woman. They are ashamed to want these things, they feel guilty. When we feel guilty, we can only do one of two things. We can go to God, confessing our sins and finding His forgiveness and help. Or we can pretend that we’re okay, and just keep holding to our sin. When people want to pretend these broken, wrong desires are okay, they call it being “gay,” pretending to be truly happy. But they don’t have peace with God, and they won’t be happy when God’s patience comes to an end and He judges them.

And then there are other people so broken by sin that they aren’t willing to be what God made them. God made them a man or a woman — remember, He only made two sexes — but they want to pretend to be something else. Men want to pretend to be women, and women want to pretend to be men. Of course, we are what God made us, and no one can really become the opposite sex. They may try very hard, and even hurt themselves, but it just can’t be done. Still, sometimes we keep pretending, even though it really harms and shames us to do so. And when men or women pretend to be the opposite sex, they call it being “trans.”

So they took the whole month of June to pretend together that all these wrong and harmful things are good, and they call June “Pride” month. Like the Bible says, their “glory is in their shame” (Philippians 3:19).

But things are what God calls them, aren’t they? Not what we call them. So men are always just men, women are always just women, and we can only really marry someone of the opposite sex from us. A man marries a woman, a woman marries a man. Anything else can never really be marriage.

Isn’t it sad to think about people so badly wanting things that are bad for them? Isn’t it awful that what people think will be good for them is really bad for them? But that’s what sin does. It does that to all of us! It’s why children want to disobey their parents. It’s why parents sometimes fight each other, or don’t do such a great job being parents. Sin is behind everything bad that we do or feel.

But remember, God so loved sinful men and women that He sent Jesus to save sinners. Jesus can save any sinner! There is no sin too big for Jesus. He shed His blood so that His people could be forgiven and freed from every last sin of every size! When we turn from our sin and believe in Jesus, we can know that all our sins are forgiven. Isn’t that just the most wonderful news there is?

Even more, Jesus died so that His people could be given new hearts, and so that God’s Holy Spirit could live in our hearts. So God removes our old heart that wanted awful and bad things and hated God, and He gives us a new heart. That new heart wants to love God, and believe Him, and walk in His ways. So all of us, whatever our sins were, can be made new people, children of God, learning to love what God loves and hate what God hates.

So we don’t hate people who want bad things. We would be exactly the same if it weren’t for Jesus. We love people who don’t know Jesus, we pray for them, we want to help them, we want to tell them about Jesus. And when they believe, we accept them and love them and help them to learn to walk with Jesus, just like we’re doing.

Thank you for asking me. Always feel free to ask me any questions you have!

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Dan Phillips

Pastor, Copperfield Bible Church, Houston Texas

Timeline of the Reformation

Transcript (slightly edited) of an excerpt from a message by Dr. Steve Lawson entitled “William Tyndale and the English Reformation” from November 21, 2017 – original source – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWtWdAGjj4s – from the 7 minute 40 second mark)

If I could take a brief moment and help you just trace the flow of the Reformation. In its most simplest terms, the Reformation went from the German Reformation, to the English Reformation, to the Swiss Reformation, to the Scottish Reformation.

That is the flow of the stream of the Reformation. And there was one man in each of those four Reformations who became the point man, who became the chief influencer.

And in Germany it was Martin Luther.

In England it was William Tyndale.

In the Swiss Republics it was John Calvin.

And in Scotland it was John Knox.

In its simplest form, that is the flow of the Reformation.

Let me give you some dates.

Martin Luther was born in 1483. John Knox died in 1572. That is the tightest little brackets to put around the Reformation.

In reality, the Reformation continued in England under the Elizabeth reign, Elizabeth I, in England, which eventually became the birth of the Puritan era. But to understand the Reformation, you just simply need to walk from Luther to Tyndale, to Calvin, to Knox. And one man influenced the next, influenced the next, influenced the next. Let me try to create this for you in simplest terms before we look at Tyndale.

Martin Luther was born in 1483. He nailed his 95 theses in 1517. By his own admission, he was converted in 1519.

At that very same time, the greatest small group bible study in the history of Christendom was meeting across the English channel at Cambridge in the White Horse Inn. And in that small group Bible study was William Tyndale. And while Martin Luther was being converted and being summoned to the Diet of Worms, and while he was saying, ‘here I stand, I can do no other, God help me,’ God was raising up William Tyndale, who was reading Martin Luther.

The small group Bible study at Cambridge were reading the works of Martin Luther. In fact, that small group Bible study became known as ‘Little Germany’ and they would rock the English world.

In that small group Bible study were 9 martyrs, two of whom were burned at the same stake together. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, in which Hugh Latimer gave that all time famous line as they were being burned together at the same stake, ‘play the man, Mr. Ridley. We shall light a candle this day in England that shall never be extinguished.’

So they’re meeting in England at exactly the same time Luther is being converted and Luther is being summoned to the Diet of Worms. The flame is spreading to England and William Tyndale is coming to faith in Christ. And William Tyndale comes to the realization that the entirety of England is lost, with a few exceptions of Lollards and those who had been under the influence of the Lollards, who were the preachers sent out by John Wycliffe.

William Tyndale sets out on a mission, that is the most extraordinary mission – to translate the Bible into the English language. He would have to go underground for 12 years and live basically in a backroom closet and translate under candlelight the Bible into the English language. He would never marry. It would take him 12 years. He was burned, hung, and blown up in 1536. That is the very same year John Calvin went to Geneva.

One man steps off the scene, God has next man up.

And the very time that Tyndale is being martyred, Calvin is providentially being led to Geneva having no intention to go to Geneva. There was a roadblock in the middle of the night. He was forced to go to Geneva and he ended up staying and being the force of the Swiss Reformation.

Calvin went there in 1536. He was run out of town in 1538, he was run out of town in 1538. He was gone for three and a half years. He comes back in 1541. He remains for the next 23 years until 1564 when Calvin dies.

In 1553, there comes to the throne of England, Mary I, Mary Tudor, who became well known as Bloody Mary, for good reason. She put to death 288 Protestants – burned them at the stake. And the very first one she burned at the stake, I carry his picture in my preaching Bible. That’s 1553.

And because of the reign of terror that Bloody Mary unleashed upon England, English Reformers and people who were members of English Reformed Churches had to make a difficult decision. Do we stay and face being burned at the stake or do we flee for our life out of England? Many chose to stay, others chose to flee.

One of those who fled was a royal chaplain under Edward VI, the teenage Protestant King. His name was John Knox.

John Knox fled England for his life and he went to, of all places on planet Earth, he went to Geneva. And he sat at the feet of Calvin and was personally under the preaching – verse by verse – of John Calvin.

He was across the street at Calvin’s auditorium, which became in essence Calvin’s seminary in which men were being trained for ministry and were being sent out by waves to the nations. John Knox is now being personally trained and discipled through the pulpit ministry of John Calvin.

And when Bloody Mary mercifully dies in 1538, John Knox is now free to go from the feet of Calvin to his native homeland in Scotland and he hits Scotland like a category 5 hurricane. He hit Scotland like a tsunami would hit the beach. And he established within one year the Church of Scotland and the Reformation in Scotland went further than the Reformation in England.

But the point I want to make with you is there is an unbroken succession from Martin Luther to William Tyndale reading Martin Luther, and William Tyndale launching the English Reformation, to the year that he is martyred, John Calvin steps out of nowhere onto the pages of history and becomes the pastor of Geneva. And while Calvin is there through the persecution of Bloody Mary, it flushes John Knox out of England into the congregation of John Calvin, who (Knox) will then take the gospel and the message and the word of God to Scotland and give birth to the Scottish Reformation. It will be from there that it will be taken across the Atlantic to the colonies of my home country, America. And it will spread eventually around the world.

So just understand the domino effect. Understand the sequence.

Germany, England, Switzerland, Scotland. Luther, Tyndale, Calvin, Knox.

That is the simplest overview of the Reformation from 1517 to 1572, that little window of time.

The Job of the Pastor

Paul Washer in his interview entitled “The Preeminent Christ”. Transcript excerpt from the 30:44 mark (slightly edited):

“In Job 28, there’s a story about the miner who goes down into these dangerous pits and swings on a rope in darkness. He turns over mountains, he dams up rivers, everything he does to get this precious jewel and bring it to the surface. That’s the pastor’s study.

You see, one of the reasons I wrote this book, I write for the mechanic and the homeschool mom.

Why?

Whenever I don’t want to go to my study because I’m tired. I’m not just studying for me, I’m studying for that mechanic who works 12 hours a day and doesn’t have the library and doesn’t have the time. So I can go into that mine, I can study and study and study to bring out this jewel and hand it to him, the mechanic, hand it to the housewife. Do you see?

So that’s why pastors need to stop running around so much.

And they need to go into their study, but they go in there to find jewels, to find gold, to find things that that people who love Jesus very much, but they’re having to work all day in the world. He needs to go in there and bring that out for them.

You can call it food, you can bring, you can, you can call it another bracelet on the arm. When the servant was bringing back the wife for Isaac, you know, every, I believe that probably every time as they were going day after day, making that journey, he looked back and see the doubt in her eyes. He put another bracelet on her arms, says, no, no, no, He’s gonna be worth it, or maybe they stop at a well, and all of a sudden she looks over and there’s a young man drawing water and he’s a very attractive young man. And that servant brings out another bracelet and says, no, no, no, no, no, wait. He’s worth it. That to me is the job of the pastor.

And that’s why I write the way I do in this book – it’s going into that well and bringing out this and say, look at Him. Look at Him. Mechanic housewife, homeschool mom, look at Him. Keep going. He’s worth it. He’s worth it.”

Why I Teach Sovereign Election

Why I Teach Sovereign Election

There’s no doubt that the doctrine of election is controversial. Some Christians don’t like it. More than that, some Christians actually hate the doctrine with a vengeance.

Why then would I teach it, knowing this?

Well, firstly, because it is the responsibility of all Bible teachers to teach what the Bible teaches, I teach Sovereign election because the Bible teaches the doctrine. I have no right to say to the Lord, “I know your Word teaches it, but I don’t think the people of God need it.” Such would be sheer arrogance and even treason on the part of the Lord’s herald. No, the solemn charge I have been given (and every preacher has been given) is to preach the word in season and out of season – when it is welcomed with joy by many and when no one wants to hear it whatsoever. Of course, election is not all I teach, but in that it is a Bible doctrine, I do indeed teach it.

Secondly, while it is a controversial doctrine, there is very little in Scripture that is not in some way controversial. The very first verse of our Bibles is controversial, and almost everything else that follows is likewise so. The pastor’s/preacher’s job is to preach and teach what the Word declares, even as he knows ahead of time, not all will embrace the truth he proclaims. He preaches and teaches to please an audience of One. To quote Dr. Steve Lawson, “If He is pleased, it doesn’t matter who is displeased. If He is displeased, it doesn’t matter who is pleased.”

Thirdly, I preach the doctrine because of the great sustaining comfort it brings to God’s people. While some are outraged by it, God means it to be a comfort to the saints, and has revealed this truth for that very purpose. He didn’t reveal it to cause division in the body of Christ. He revealed it because He determined in His infinite wisdom, it would be a blessing to His people to know this truth.

How exactly can this doctrine bring comfort?

Here’s an email I received today from someone I shall simple call “A” (her full name is withheld). Though lengthy, I believe your heart will be encouraged to see the Lord’s great comfort found in this doctrine by this precious saint, in the midst of great torment of soul.

Hi Pastor Samson,

My name is A* (full name withheld), and I wanted to reach out because you have given me such an unexpected gift, and I wanted to thank you. I saw you on Justin Peters’ YouTube channel, and I just listened to your podcast about “Lost loved ones.” I have to say, I started crying so hard. I have been very conflicted over a certain situation, and you are the only person who has enlightened me on it.

My brother P* (full name withheld) died by suicide 1.5 years ago, and he was not saved. At the time, neither was I. (I’m a new believer, saved out of the New Age movement. My brother & I both went to church when we were young, but strayed in our teenage years.) He was my only sibling, and we were extremely close, so his death completely destroyed my life. 

I became suicidal myself, not wanting to live without my brother, and I came extremely close to ending my life. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit saved me in a moment of grace, without me asking for it or looking for it (this is partially why I believe in the doctrine of election, because my salvation was not my choice or my doing.) I had a sudden revelation that the Bible was real (just like that, a full-body flash of awareness that the Bible is real), and I was instantly convicted that Christ is real and Hell is real and Heaven is real, and I had a strong urge to read the entire Bible ASAP.

So that was the good news, but after becoming a Christian, I was grieved beyond words that my sweet, kind brother was burning in hell. He died alone in my mom’s garage (she found him), without the possibility of anyone saving him (either physically or spiritually). And because I now believed that Hell was real, I felt dread beyond belief to imagine my sensitive brother suffering there for eternity. You have no idea how this has tormented me for the past 19 months. I asked many Christians and the people at my church if there was any hope for him whatsoever, and I did lots of research on my own to see if God could possibly have mercy on his soul, after dying as an unbeliever. Was there ANY possibility that my brother was somehow saved? Most people didn’t give me any response whatsoever (I imagined they thought, “he’s burning in hell, but I’m too scared to tell her that”), and my own research also came up empty.

But Pastor Samson, you finally gave me an answer. You are the only person I’ve come across who has actually given a forthright response. I’ve spent HUNDREDS of hours listening to sermons and lectures on this topic, and nobody gave a straight answer. You finally turned on the lightbulb in my head, with your podcast on lost loved ones.

Although I already believed in predestination (I’m an avid listener of John MacArthur & I have his study Bible), I hadn’t thought to apply that to my brother’s situation. (HELLO!!!!) You made me realize that if it was God’s will for my brother to be saved, then the Lord Jesus would have saved him in his final moments. He would have found a way. In your podcast you said, “Absolutely no one is beyond God’s reach, even to the last moment of a person’s life.” Considering that my brother died by suicide, without any hope of resuscitation, you have no idea the hope this has given me. In my own suicidal moments, the Lord intervened and saved my life. In my brother’s case, although he died, there is still the possibility that he was saved before death, just like the thief on the cross.

And even if my brother wasn’t part of the elect, then that would still be God’s plan. Although I can’t understand it with my grieving heart, I can still accept it as God’s sovereign will, because He is supreme, and SOMEHOW it is for His ultimate glory. I will never understand it on this side of Heaven, but at the very least I can accept the reasoning. (When people get mad at the idea of predestination, I think they forget that God can do whatever He wants. He created us, and He can destroy us. None of us deserves to be saved, so we’re lucky if He saves even one person!)

In your podcast, you also quoted the scripture that says, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “All that the father gives me will come to me.” Those words went straight to my heart, and they changed my life. I’ve heard & read them before, but never considered the context or applied them to my brother’s death. It means, if my brother was meant to be saved, then the Lord saved him. And if he wasn’t, then He didn’t.

But most importantly, it made me realize that my brother had a 50/50 chance of salvation. Either he was one of the elect (in which case he’s safe & secure, and I will see him again), or he wasn’t. But those odds are the biggest blessing to me. There is now a 50% chance that my brother is saved. Before, that chance in my mind was 0. I did not see ANY way that my brother could be saved, because I hadn’t considered predestination, and nobody had explained it to me that way.

Pastor Samson, you gave me a 50% chance of my brother being saved. Do you have any idea what gift you’ve given me? There is hope. I’ve cried so hard over the idea that I will never see my brother again, that there was absolutely no chance of him being saved, and I have been hurting so badly over the idea of his sweet kind soul burning in hell. But now, there is a 50% chance that he is saved, and that I will see him again. 

You truly have no idea how much you’ve changed my life. I have cried so hard over this. I’m even crying as I’m writing this, but now it’s tears of hope and relief. I can live the rest of my life on these 50/50 odds. Before, I had a 0% chance of seeing my brother again. I had ZERO hope. I was so miserable, and couldn’t imagine living out the rest of my days with this burden weighing so heavily on me. I was even suicidal over it! But now, there’s a 1 in 2 chance of being reunited with my beloved brother. I will never forget you for this amazing gift you’ve given me. I will also be sharing this with my mom, who is equally grieved that her son is in hell.

And yes, I understand that there’s still that 50% chance that he was not of the elect, but I already lived and grieved in reality for the past 19 months. And having that framed as being God’s ultimate will, I can accept it. It doesn’t make it less painful, but at least I can accept it, as I humbly accept God’s sovereign will regardless of my preferences. 

The Bible tells us that there will be no more pain or tears in Heaven, so *even if* I never see my brother again, I know that my eternal soul will somehow be comforted. I can’t possibly understand that now in my brokenhearted state, but I have faith that Christ will wipe away these tears, and the remaining years of my mournful life will be nothing compared to eternity.

Anyway, I know this was long, but I felt compelled to email you because you truly truly have changed my life and my grief. I needed this so much. You have given me hope. A 50% chance is…. a gift from God, honestly. You took me from 0 to 50, from hopeless to hoping. I can’t express my gratitude enough. Thank you for putting this content out there. (I suppose I should thank Justin Peters as well, since I found you through his YouTube channel.) 

I have prayed to the Lord Jesus to please bless your ministry in this upcoming year, because you have blessed my life. The next time I’m in Arizona, I will be sure to stop by your church and thank you in person. You have given me the biggest gift. Thank you again, truly.

~A* (full name withheld)

P.S. P* (full name withheld) was my older brother, but next month I will officially be older than him. You know how weird that’s going to be? I have been dreading this milestone since he died. But now… it’s not as daunting as it has been. It’s just a little less painful. I’m curious to see how else this new “50% chance” will relieve & alleviate my grief in the future. Thanks again ❤💔