darren,
it was such a sweet and loving post you just wrote. i have been sitting here, after reading mepogo's latest thread "a little bit to share", and have been reading through ray's paper on death, and reading over old emails to ray, trying to find some encouraging words and scriptures to give our dear mepogo. and then, as you say, there is ray (and his manuela), eileen and her jack, mepogo and her wayne, and marlene and her teresa, as well as all the sweet babies that ninny brings to us for prayer, and meee's grandson with autism, and my niece with autism, and g. driggs' wife and her weight issue, and on and on and on. there is much suffering for believers on this earth, and indeed "judgement begins with the House of God" and of course, that ain't talking about a literal church house building. it speaks of us. it is true that we all deserve a break, but our break WILL come at our resurrection. i continue to pray for those i have mentioned and those i have not mentioned here. prayer and petition are the best prescription, along with love and compassion, for all that we suffer on this earth.
love in Christ,
claudia