LUTHERANS FOR LIFE of IOWA

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End of Life


End of Life


How Can I Do God's Will When Confronted with Decisions at the End of Life?


We can begin now by helping to make a difference in the lives of our families, friends, and the medical community -- Christian or not. We can:


  • Stop evaluating people by worldly standards of medical expense, court rulings, suffering, or "quality of life" and, instead, see people the way God sees them.

  • Help prepare food or offer child care for the parents of a son or daughter with a physical or mental challenge so that their stress is not so great or their "burden" so heavy.

  • Influence doctors and nurses trained in medicine, not social welfare or economics, by your behavior at the bedside of a loved one.

  • Encourage medical personnel to treat life whenever possible and to re-learn the art of comforting the dying.

  • Influence community by providing patoral care, remembering that all of us -- ordained minister or layperson -- have a call to serve one another
    • .
  • Influence congregations and families by providing Bible studies on life and death issues (Contact LFL ) Organize prayer and support groups for families of the dying.

  • Raise awareness by providing credible information on the growing practice of euthanasia (visit LFL or Life Issues)

  • Comfort others by using the same comfort you have received from God in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:3-7). Imitate the Good Samaritan who showed love for his neighbor by giving of his own money and time (Luke 10:25-37).

    • Our Creator God never intended that we shoulder a load of suffering by ourselves. That's the whole purpose of the Christian community. Truly, "Two are better than one . . . for if one falls, the other can help his friend get up. But how tragic it is for the one who is all alone when he falls. There is no one to help him get up . . ." (Eccl. 4:9-10 God's Word)


    We are designed to need each other. We are called not only to say "choose life," but "let me help you choose life."


    (SOURCE: Ventilators, Feeding Tubes, and Other End-of-Life Issues by Linda Bartlett & Karen Rehder, M.D., Item #800B from LFL)




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