Yesterday I had one of the most difficult assignments in the life of a pastor, the funeral for a young man who had committed suicide.  While I spend most of my time these days teaching seminary and filling in for regular preachers who are away, I still get calls to do funerals for those whom I have known from my years back when I was the pastor of a small church.

The funeral was for a person whom I did not know, but his wife was a friend of mine from many years ago. As I wrestled with what I should say, I thought about what books I had that might help me.  Then I thought of my Logos software.

Through the use of Logos I was able to find many very helpful articles and book chapters.  I found what many systematics had to say about suicide as well as a very helpful article by Steve Brown on “Preaching the Hard Cases.” These were articles that I would never have found by simply searching around in my print library and I was so thankful that I had Logos to help me during this trying time.  It was truly a Godsend.

In the end, I simply said that we should not judge a person’s entire life by the way that it ended and that anyone who has placed their trust in Christ cannot be separated from the love of God.  I reminded them of the Apostle’s words from Roman’s eight:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is a word of hope in the midst of terrible tragedy and that is what the Gospel is: hope for those who don’t deserve it, but who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful that God gave me the opportunity to speak the message of the gospel to that room full of people last night, and thankful for the tools like Logos that help me to find the right words when I most need them.

DrSamLam