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If You Haven't Heard, This is Why I Disappeared. · Off The Kirb Ministries

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  This has been the worst month of my life.
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  We've just lost our daughter. Nothing in life can prepare you
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  for a moment like this. And while you're still
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  processing everything that's just happened, there are many
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  arrangements that have to be planned.
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  One big question is where do we lay Anna's shell?
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  I say shell because the real Anna Grace Kirby is safe in the
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  everlasting arms of Jesus. So here we are.
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  Me and my wife Emma in the space of a few days found ourselves.
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  I was travelling from town to town trying to find the right
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  site to Layana. But you want to see something
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  beautiful. Pretty much everywhere we went,
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  God kept blessing us with this beautiful flower.
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  The snowdrops are one of the earliest flowers to appear after
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  the cold British winter. But OK, where am I going with
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  this? Well, snowdrops are just like
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  you, and they're just like me. If you've ever done any
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  gardening before, you'll have come across what we call a bulb.
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  Bulbs go into the ground where they lie dormant.
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  On the surface, it looks like those snowdrops are finished.
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  There's no life in them. They've had their time, and now
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  they are gone forever. But when the sun shines on them,
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  even if there's a cold frost, even if there's snow on the
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  ground, these snowdrops eventually return.
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  Those bulbs which were out of sight, out of mind, they will
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  one day produce flowers again when it is due season.
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  And you know something? This has really made me think
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  because our world is full of bulbs.
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  It's full of Christians who were once part of the land of the
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  living, who once walked on earth, but their shell has been
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  put into the ground. However, when Christ returns,
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  all those believers will flower again.
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  They will be resurrected to eternal life with Christ.
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  The Bible says in Romans 8 verse 11.
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  But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
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  dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also
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  give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in
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  you. Listen to this poem.
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  It was written on one of the memorial stones that caught my
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  eye as we were searching for somewhere to lay.
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  Anna, where are the snowdrops, Said the sun dead, said the
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  frost buried and lost everyone. A foolish answer, said the sun.
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  They did not die asleep. They lie, everyone, and I will
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  awake them. I the sun into the light, or
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  clad in white everyone. Oh my dear friend, if you are
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  trusting in Christ as your Lord and Savior, when you die and
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  when you are laid in the ground, the world may say your time is
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  up. They will say you will never
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  come back. But it's all the Son of God has
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  to do is shine His resurrection light on you, and you will rise
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  again. Why?
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  Because He Himself is like a bulb that was laid in the
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  ground, dead, forgotten. But on the third day he rose
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  again, like a beautiful flower blooming in the spring.
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  The Lord Jesus Christ came back again.
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  Now may I ask you a personal question?
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  Are you grieving right now? Are you going through a
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  difficult season of life? If you are, where is the first
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  place in the Bible that you turn?
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  As you can imagine, my wife felt the loss of Anna in a much more
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  intense way than I could ever feel.
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  She carried Anna, she gave birth to her.
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  So where did Emma turn during this trial?
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  She went to the book of Job. Some people listening, I have no
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  doubts have gone through a lot, but I doubt there's anyone who's
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  experienced quite the same amount as this godly man Job in
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  the Bible. In one day he lost all of his
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  wealth, all ten of his children, all of his reputation, and even
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  his wife turned on him and said curse the God that you love and
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  die. So after all this, how do you
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  think the scripture announces such a terrible ordeal?
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  Job one, verse 3 simply says, and there was a day.
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  I wonder how many of those days you've had.
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  Perhaps you can say there was a day a doctor gave me the news
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  that I didn't want to hear. Maybe you could say there was a
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  day my boss told me that I was losing my job.
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  There was a day I found out that the one person I trusted with
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  everything decided to walk out of my life.
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  Come on guys, be honest with me. We've all had those days.
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  I remember when I was 15 there was a day I got jumped and my
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  friends just watched and did nothing.
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  I remember there was a day when I was supposed to get my GCSE
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  exam results but instead a doctor told me that I needed to
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  stay in hospital because I needed to have urgent heart
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  surgery. I'll never forget that day.
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  There was a day when me and Emma put all of our life savings into
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  buying a house only to lose everything because there was one
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  huge flaw that the house was hiding and that the surveyor had
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  totally missed. Then there was a day when my
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  wife gave birth to our little girl who was born sleeping.
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  I'm going to choose my words carefully.
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  But as heartbreaking as those days are in your life and in
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  mine, they are needful. You see the unbeliever, they
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  look at the Christian during a crisis and they say, what kind
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  of a God do you serve? How does this God who says he
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  loves you, how can he do this to his own children?
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  How Can you believe such a God like this exists?
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  What kind of a reward is that for you after all those years of
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  faithful service? And yet for the Christian during
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  the crisis, the Christian he has never known.
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  Sweeter fellow fellowship with their God.
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  And even though this trial, it sends shivers down their spine,
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  they've never known anything like this.
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  In one sense, they don't want to leave the trial because the Lord
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  God is so close to them. When I sent my newsletter out
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  explaining what happened to us this month, a precious brother
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  in Christ emailed me with a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
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  Spurgeon once said those who dive in the sea of affliction
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  bring up rare pearls. May I go deeper?
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  Do you know how an oyster forms a Pearl?
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  It starts from a crisis. In that little oysters world,
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  what happens is a grain of sand or an unwanted material enters
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  into the oysters soft mantle and so it creates discomfort as a
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  response. The oyster secrets an organic
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  protein which coats this foreign material, this irritant in its
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  own smooth and shiny coating. And after many, many years of
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  doing in this process over and over, of many, many years of
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  having this discomfort, this crisis, if you like, eventually
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  a beautiful Pearl is formed. Am I talking to anyone here
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  today? Can you testify of the goodness
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  of God despite the fact that He allowed you to walk through
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  these dark times? Sorry, I shouldn't have said
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  that. OK.
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  No, He doesn't allow us to walk through those dark times because
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  very often we don't walk through them.
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  The Lord God carries us through them.
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  But after many, many years that you've had of trouble, your life
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  has been filled with sorrow. Can you still say that you love
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  God? I'm sure you can.
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  You see, these crises that we all go through teach us so many
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  important lessons. And at the end of it, you've
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  probably become a better Christian, haven't you?
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  Even though at the time you couldn't see, you couldn't
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  understand, you couldn't fathom why God would bring this into
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  your life. But now you can see a wiser man
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  than me put it like this. God's Providence is like Hebrew.
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  It can only be understood when you read it backwards.
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  And to quote our friend Charles Spurgeon again, he said, I have
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  learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of
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  Ages. So I don't know what you're
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  going through right now, but I just want to say stay close to
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  the Lord. Don't ask the question.
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  Why? Why?
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  Why have you done this to me, God?
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  Because very often that gets us absolutely no word.
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  Instead, try asking this question, Lord God, what are you
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  trying to teach me through this trial?
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  And if you remember one thing about Job, remember this Job
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  said, shall we indeed only accept good from God?
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  Shall we not accept adversity? You see, the very hand that
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  feeds you every day is God's hand.
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  He feeds you, doesn't He? Well, that same hand sometimes
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  brings a trial, a trouble. And may we, in that time of
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  trouble, hold on to that hand that has given us that trial.
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  May we hold on to the everlasting arms of God because
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  only He can hold us up. OK, now I do just want to say I
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  am sorry if this is the first time you're hearing about our
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  news. I did make a community post
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  explaining all about what had happened to us and about our
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  precious little girl Anna. Grace and I did also make a
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  detailed video 6 days, just six days after we lost her.
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  But I was so emotional in the video and we just felt it was it
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  was too much personal details that we didn't really want it to
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  go out across all of the Internet.
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  So just for now, we've decided to sit on it and not release it.
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  However, I do actually have a few more things I would like to
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  share with a smaller audience with our readers on our
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  newsletter. So if you are someone who does
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  pray for us and does truly care about our gospel work, well,
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  please do sign up to our newsletter.
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  We'd like to share it with particularly our Off the Curb
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  family. You can sign up on Off the
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  curb.co.uk. And then there is something else
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  I probably should mention. As you can probably tell, this
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  video is very different from my usual content as it was made
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  primarily for Christians. As you know, I usually try and
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  make evangelist videos that are for both non Christians and
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  Christians alike. But just for a little while, I
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  believe the Lord God wants me to preach some more messages like
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  this just while we mourn over Anna, because there are some
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  particular things I believe that He alone has laid on my heart
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  during this time. But if for any reason you are
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  listening to this and you're not yet a Christian, or you're
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  unsure about where you're going when you die, would you do a
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  favour for me? Would you just click this video
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  and listen very carefully?