Aim at Heaven and You Will Get Earth Thrown In, Aim at Earth and You Will Get Neither

1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your^a life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3: 1-4

The week before Christmas my wife , Danielle, and  daughter, Hadassah, went out of town without me. It was not optimal to be without them so close to Christmas. I , however, looked forward to opportunity of having a significant amount of alone time to spend with the Lord in hope that at the end of the week I would have gained some greater spiritual insight and application for my life and our family. Today , two weeks later, and in a new year, while sitting in my truck that insight came to me. What I am now reminded of is the power of forward thinking in the Christian life.

I normally do not think a week ahead especially when  it comes to household chores like laundry and vacuuming. The moment my wife left I had already taken hold of this vision of her walking back through the door to a home that was cleaner than it had been in months. It was not long after that I had in my mind and in a phone memo a list of daily objectives. I hit it hard every day and found that it was actually easier than I thought it would be to devote my time to the task. It was the daily forward thinking of her homecoming that made it easier to not watch tv, stay on facebook,  play video games, go fishing, etc. I had complete freedom for a week to do what I wanted , yet the only thing I found myself wanting to do was the agenda. The night before she was to return I had everything situated as I wanted that morning I made every effort to avoid messing anything up … and still managed to spill my coffee. Anyways, I do not say any of this to praise myself for a good week. In fact, since she has been home I have been rather unproductive.

What I took away from the week and would like to carry into the new year is the reminder that we have a Savior that we long for who is coming for us to takes us to our true home. Thoughts of homecoming should fill our minds. We should feel a sense of being strangers and aliens, sojourner and pilgrims as His word describes us. We are commanded in Colossians 3 to allow those eternal and high thoughts to change how we live day by day down here . How great it would be to start having spiritual agenda again and to live as one who is “hidden with Christ” as evidenced by a desire to please Him and to deny self as he asks of us in taking up our cross daily to follow him (Matthew 10:38).

It is my prayer for myself, my family and anyone that would come to mind in the new year that we would in the new year allow the things that we love to make us love God more and that we would begin to see those things as only foretastes to what he has for us in our true home.  Furthermore, I pray that worldly pleasures would not be a sufficient and satisfactory end to our daily existence. Lastly, I pray that these thoughts would translate to action in whatever plans He has for us. I leave with this C. S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity:

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.

I have Asthenia.

Chances are if you are living and breathing you have it also. Asthenia is the Greek word the bible uses in Romans 8:26 to describe our weakness.

Romans 8:26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness (Asthenia). For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because^g the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

John Bunyan had Asthenia too. He is best known for his classic novel ” A Pilgrim’s Progress” which is an allegory of the Christian journey  of doubt and faith in the promises of God. In it are concepts such as Doubting Castle (a giant’s dungeon  where pilgrim is incarcerated) and Swamp of Despair ( a bog  where pilgrim sinks under the weight of sin and guilt). He is also know for his autobiography “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” which chronicles his struggles in the faith or, put another way, his Asthenia. He says of prayer, “The best prayer I ever prayed had enough sin to damn the whole world.”

John Bunyan had a clear understanding of both the weakness and power of of prayers. I will go over a few quotes here.

1. “The best prayers have often more groans than words.”

This speaks to our asthenia of emotion. Prayer can be a highly emotional thing: The content of which includes the weightiest of matters. In prayer we can wrestle with God or a thing or our self. We can bring into all sorts of emotions spoken or unspoken. We also bring much weakness by way of impatience, anger , questioning, pride, complaining and selfishness and insincerity to name a few. All stem from the fact that we are a sinful and broken people. We are flawed in every aspect. But in bringing these imperfections , however imperfectly, we are taking them to their rightful place. We come as sinners and groan righteously or unrighteous before His throne of grace to the same end: That he love us and  embraces us there and listens to us.

2. “When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without a heart…It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in prayer, but whether the heart is so full of affection and earnestness in prayer with God, that it is impossible to express their sense and desire; for then a man desires indeed, when his desires are so strong, many, and mighty, that all the words, tears, and groans that can come from the heart, cannot utter them.”

This speaks to our asthenia of heart. We may babble on and on aimlessly in prayer and think much of the length that we are able to muster up yet fall short of being changed and having our minds renewed. We may find even that in praying for everything we prayed for nothing. In his message “Effective Prayer” by Charles Spurgeon he describes how so often we enter prayer with no real objective or intention. Rather than asking for a certain heartfelt thing we just go from one thought to the next with whatever comes to mind. Spurgeon encourages that we do as Job and “fill our mouths with arguments” Job 23:4. That is, that we engage our hearts and minds in pleading our case before God. In doing so we focus on the quality of our prayer over the quantity of our prayer and the quality of the object of our petition over the quantity of our objects of petition.

3.”Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer…Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God. and a scourge for Satan.”

This speaks to our asthenia of  prayerlessness. One of the hardest commands in the Bible is Paul’s exhortation to “Pray without casing”Thessalonians 5:17. It can be hard work to intentionally pray earnestly and from the heart for 1 hour a day let alone without ceasing.  We are all prone to spiritual laziness. We let our guard down and we live in the arrogance that we believe we are stronger than we are and that are enemy is weaker than he actually is. If prayer fullness is an indication of our reliance on God then we can all say that there are times we act as if we do not need him. There are other times that  inversely we know our need for him because of sin, sickness or other calamity and we are so worn or overwhelmed that we struggle to come to him.

The Spirit Makes A Petition For Us

Romans 8:26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because^g the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

While we all suffer from asthenia in different ways  we are not alone in this suffering.There is much strength and hope to be found in Romans 8:26.The Greek word for “help” can be defined as “coming along side” and the Greek word intercession  can be defined as “make a petition for”. Put into legal imagery, we have a case to be made and  representation to guide us in  this process. The Spirit (God manifested in the person of the Holy Spirit) is always praying perfectly and ceaselessly for us. His heart is fully engaged and is motives and emotions are always pure. Being omniscient He is in the perfect position to pray  “make a petition” for us. He knows us intimately and eternally. He knows our desires, emotions , dreams and ambitions and our needs spiritual and physical: Not just in the present but also in the future. He knows what we will become and how to create that new creature. He knows the “will of God.”

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. Isaiah 64:4

 

 

Give Me Life In Your Ways

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;and give me life in your ways. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 119:37;16:11

 

It has been a while since I last blogged. At that time I was experiencing the disappointment of not being able to join my Moldavian brother in Christ on his return to his country to do mission work. The below is what I was preparing in the event that I had gone and was given the opportunity to speak at a church.

When I think of the people of Moldova I think of a laboring and toiling people. Some say that being in Moldova is like stepping back in time. There you still see pre-modernized farming and lots of it. On my first trip to Moldova a man highlighted the fact that they are a hard working people saying “Go away you Americans , you do not work in the fields”.  When I think about that man and the people of Moldova in general I picture the Book of Ecclesiastes because of its description of  the vanity of a life of toil. Those who work the fields today will be as those who have gone before with the same end: Turning over the labor of their decades to someone else who will then turn it over again (perhaps in a neglected and degraded state). There is a perception throughout the world that if they could just be as the Americans then they would be wealthy and free of problems. Perhaps that was the mindset of that man. Sadly, the problems man faces , namely our  depravity and separation from God, knows no geographical , economical , or racial boundaries. That depravity leads to an vanity, inescapable but for the grace of God.

In Ecclesiastes we are told ALL is vanity. Self-indulgence, living wisely, working hard, obtaining wealth and honor: They all end in a existence that falls short of the glory of God and the pleasures that he has prepared for his creation to experience forevermore. They all last only as long as we last or as long as we are remembered or as long as the world in this present state exists. They all have an ultimate end. In the breadth of eternity our life  and all that goes with it is but a vapor.

Where is hope in this sea of vanity? What are we to do with ourselves in this vain existence? The book concludes : Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is echoed in the New Testament in Philippians 2 :12  where we are commanded to”work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. Furthermore, 1 John 5:3 tells us “the love of God is to keep his commandments and they are not burdensome.” Yet there are times in our fallen state that even eternally significant and eternally lasting pursuit to live out fearful obedience to God feels mundane,  trite, unfruitful or empty. Sometimes  in this world of vanity we need reminding that all that we do in obedience has  eternal trajectory reaching even the attention and pleasure of eternal God: God who sees us.

The Bible reminds us of the eternal significance of our fearful obedience. I will highlight this in our  areas of prayers, our suffering and our ministry.

1.  There is a place where our prayers go. 

It is one thing to believe James 5:16 “The prayers of an upright man avails much”. It is another thing to believe that our prayers last forever. How many times do we pray and feel like He did not hear us or that our prayers  were just words spoken within the confines of our own imagination and mind. Yet, Revelation 8 seems to indicate our prayers are stored up.

² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. ³ Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

2. There is purpose  in our sufferings. 

When we think of our suffering great comfort or inversely great discouragement hinges on the “Why” question. We ask it because we want to believe that there is some great purpose or silver lining to it. Suffering is certainly more tolerable when we know it is not something that just exists. The Bible reminds us that suffering is not a thing that just exists. It exists with an eternal purpose.  ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2 Corinthians 4:17). It has been said that the suffering on this earth is all the hell we will ever have. Worded that way more suffering equals more hell on earth. Put positively the more suffering we have on this Earth the more Heaven grows for us. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28

3. There is fruit in our ministry

The Bible shows us a glimpse into Heaven and there provides a picture of the results of his working through his church. We know that He finds great pleasure in saving his elect scattered throughout the world. He has given us plenty of reason to believe he will accomplish this purpose.  He is God, sovereign over all and mighty to save. He is a conqueror of Death . He made water from wine and an abundance of bread and fish from one small portion. He spoke the world into existence out of nothing. And in the present age he chooses to work through us. Regardless if we can see it we know that our labors will be effectual because he is nothing short of effectual. Revelation 7:9-10 shows us this: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

In conclusion, God has freely offered all people regardless of of geographical, economical and racial make-up the gift of eternal life in heaven and abundant life on earth.Death is the great equalizer between rich and poor, successful and unsuccessful, toiled and rested. What people all around the world covet as a better way of life is just trading one vanity for another vanity and one spiritual death for another spiritual death. The covetous will not inherit eternal life. Yet, for those that have  been shown  obtained eternal and abundant life through trust and obedience to Jesus Christ , The Way, The Truth and The Life , vanity exists to the extent that  fearful obedience does not exist. For those that live in fearful obedience  there is hope that nothing is in vain, everything is seen and everything is remembered. Unlike a  harvest field that passes from one laborer to the next, nothing that we do in the faith is lost.

^{1 Corinthians 15:58 “}Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

 

 

His Mercies Are New Every Morning

A few weeks ago I was making plans to embark to the Republic of Moldova for my third mission trip in this former Soviet Union country. My family received an invite to join our Moldavian friends  in returning to their home country to minister to widows and orphans. Unfortunately, things did not fall into place for us to go. The spiritual preparation has been a blessing. By that I mean that I was in the process of preparing a  few short sermon messages in the event that  I was given the opportunity to address a church or group in Moldova. Sometimes its good just to prepare stuff in the spirit of preaching to oneself.

When I thought about addressing orphans my mind and heart were taken back to my days working in a youth shelter with  abused and neglected teenagers who found themselves lost within the foster care system. One of my biggest regrets in looking back was the time I had the opportunity to  have spiritual conversation and did not make use of it. The youth shelter was faith-based, but faith was only discussed when the youth would bring it up. One evening while playing a video game with a high school aged youth, he asked me in very random timing “Mr. Chris, If God is good, why am I here? I knew in my mind that this is a question that none but God himself could answer and my tepid response of “I don’t know” was the usual response. This, however, has always left me in my heart wishing I would have been less taken aback by the question and more caring to not just shrug it off and leave it alone.

The realty is that the question, “If God is good , why ________” has been a hangup to many people either in not coming to faith in God, or losing their faith in God. I do not doubt that right now in the Republic of Moldova there are minds wrestling with this question. Everyone will at some point ask this question and those who have true saving faith will endure to the end in spite off it. Yet, the question is based upon a faulty assumption. Put another way the question is “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people”. The question assumes that because God is good we then deserve only good from him. The carnal mind is bent to believe that we are by nature good and are  thus entitled to receive goodness in return as a some kind of reward. Yet Romans:3 10 says there are “none righteous not even one”.  When the assumption is corrected the question then becomes “If God is Just and Holy, how does he allow unjust and unholy people any goodness at all ( including the ability to have life apart from immediate judgement and wrath)”.

The book of Lamentations is helpful in addressing these questions. It is believed that the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah is the author of the book as an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in  586 B.C.. God used such an event to judge his chosen people for their disobedience to him.  He describes a horrid situation the likes of which most of us will never witness:

⁴ The tongue of the nursing infant sticks
    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
    but no one gives to them.

⁵ Those who once feasted on delicacies
    perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
    embrace ash heaps.

⁶ For the chastisement^[a] of the daughter of my people has been greater
    than the punishment^[b] of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
    and no hands were wrung for her.^[c]

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    the beauty of their form^[d] was like sapphire.^[e]

⁸ Now their face is blacker than soot;
    they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
    it has become as dry as wood.

⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword
    than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
    by lack of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women
    have boiled their own children;
they became their food
    during the destruction of the daughter of my people. Lamentations 4:4-10 ESV

It is hard to imagine God allowing his chosen people to have their “compassionate” women boil their own children. It hard even to image the current statistics of worldwide suffering. According to worldhunger.org there are around 795 million people that do not have sufficient  food for heath. Dosomething.org reports 20-30 million people are in some form of slavery worldwide. The United Nations estimates that there are close to 43 million refuges displaced by war or persecution.  There are no shortage of atrocities in our current age to insert into the blank of “If God is good why ___________?” It is hard to imagine that in such contexts there is any room for hope. It is hard to image any shred of desire to worship a “loving” and “good” God that allows so much suffering and evil in the world he created. 

Yet the prophet finds hope and a reason to worship:

¹⁷ You have moved my soul far from peace;I have forgotten prosperity.¹⁸ And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.”¹⁹ Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.²⁰ My soul still remembers and sinks within me.²¹ This I recall to my mind,therefore I have hope.²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,because His compassions fail not.²³ They are new every morning;Great is Your faithfulness.²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,“Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3:17-24 NKJV

Three points from these passages:

• We like God’s chosen in Jerusalem deserve the wrath of God.  All people of the earth do receive some measure of goodness from God. It is God’s mercy that daily people all around the world regardless of their worship or lack of worship to their creator are given life instead of wrath. On a daily basis God holds back the flood waters of wrath with the dam of his hand. If God gives us what we truly deserve the earth would be destroyed in an instant. God created you and continues to sustain your life although he has every right and reason to take it. The longer he allows you to live the longer you go on sinning against him and not loving him and pursuing him and the higher the waters of his wrath become.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”

• Great will be the full wrath of God against sin and sinners when the final judgement comes. Lamentations is just a small glimpse into the wrath of God. Within in this context where women were eating their children there was still great mercy shown as the prophet acknowledges. Consider the picture of Jesus Christ on the cross bearing the wrath of God the father against sin. The word says that God the Father spared not his own son. How much less will he spare you. You will one day face an unrestrained wrath of God.

Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed to man once to die and then after this the judgement” Hebrews 10:33 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

• There is hope for those who put their trust in the Lord. Jeremiah exclaims, “Great is your Faithfulness”. God will not put to shame those who put their hope in him. God has offered bold access to the throne room of his grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal life to those who hear the preaching of his word and put their trust and hope in the complete work of Jesus Christ. To those he gives a hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness creating in them a new heart full of new desire for him. You can repent and believe today. Friend turn from your sin and hope in Jesus Christ.

John 3:16-19“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/

http://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-human-trafficking

http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/refugees/

 

Thy will be done on and off the dance floor

 

Some of the greatest christian lyricists never danced on “God’s great dance floor” as the popular and equally cheesy modern song goes. Case and point is Charlotte Elliot (1789-1871). She was stricken in her 30’s with a crippling illness , yet wrote many memorable hymns that are still relevant today. This past week in a moment of discouragement I picked up my guitar and learned one of her hymns “My God, My Father”. It was a good moment of renewing my mind and spirit. I have found that behind many hymns there is a great backstory. Often times that backstory deals with the issue of acceptance of God’s will amid difficult and unchangeable circumstances.

In secular psychology their is a concept of “Radical Acceptance” . This  acceptance is radical in that it is a total and complete surrender. Rather than warring against feelings and unchangeable circumstances which only perpetuates suffering one can complete the difficult process of surrender and find peace and rest. It is a willful choice to hurt and to heal and to live rather than to avoid one’s suffering or stay stuck in it. It is not picking yourself up by the bootstraps, sucking it up, drying it up or pretending to be well but rather committing to a trajectory of moving on to live a life of undiminished value: A life that includes trials and tribulations, loss and disappointments, injustices and wrongs  and all the while not being governed by them.It includes  a commitment to change the things that you say to yourself  like ” this is completely awful””this is not fair”, “I am missing out” “I deserve Better” ” I can’t handle this””I could never be happy unless______”.  For the Christian “Radical Acceptance” is not optional. It is much like confession and repentance  in that one has a changed mind and course regarding a circumstance and one agrees with God regarding a matter. We are tainted with sin and  respond sinfully to adversity when it comes. We will always need to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). We will always need to surrender to the Lord and say with Job “Though he slay me yet I will trust in Him” (Job 13:15).

So to return to Charlotte Elliot, she practiced a life of radical acceptance which is evident in her 150 hymns. She could have remained bitter toward God and others (as she was in her earlier years) or stayed in despair and self-loathing (as she did in times of depression) , but she instead lived out a good portion of her life  with faith with joy.  One hymn in particular, “Just as I am” has a bit of irony behind it  The story is that her brother was starting a school ministry and having a Bazaar  as a fundraiser. The family came into town to  help leaving Charlotte alone in her home sick and unable to contribute . As one who knew her wrote:

The night before the bazaar she was kept wakeful by distressing thoughts of her apparent uselessness; and these thoughts passed — by a transition easy to imagine — into a spiritual conflict, till she questioned the reality of her whole spiritual life, and wondered whether it were anything better than an illusion of the emotions, an illusion ready to be sorrowfully dissolved.

The next day, the busy day of the bazaar, she lay upon her sofa… . The troubles of the night came back upon her with such force that she felt they must be met and conquered in the grace of God. She gathered up in her soul the great certainties, not of her emotions, but of her salvation: her Lord, his power, his promise. And taking pen and paper from the table she deliberately set down in writing, for her own comfort, ‘the formula of her faith.’(Quoted from Louis Benson, Studies of Familiar Hymns, Second Series, 201-202)

The story goes on that after she wrote this poem it later was adopted into a hymn “Just as I Am” and is most known for its use at Billy Graham crusades to call people to come to Christ nearly 100 years later. She was an invalid writing for her own comfort when feeling useless and yet God was using her all along in ways she would never come to know (at least in this life). Like Charlotte and many others who have gone before we can yield to His will an accept the hand He has dealt us with great confidence knowing that “he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” Phillipians 1:6

“My God, My Father, While I Stray”
by Charlotte Elliot, 1789-1871

1. My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home on life’s rough way
Oh, teach me from my heart to say,
“Thy will be done.”

2. Though dark my path and sad my lot,
Let me be still and murmur not
Or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
“Thy will be done.”

3. What though in lonely grief I sigh
For friends beloved, no longer nigh,
Submissive still would I reply–
“Thy will be done.”

4. Though Thou hast called me to resign
What most I prized,  never was mine;
I have but yielded what was Thine–
“Thy will be done.”

5. Should grief or sickness waste away
My life in premature decay,
My Father, still I strive to say,
“Thy will be done.”

6. But if my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet Spirit for its Guest;
My God, to Thee I leave the rest–
“Thy will be done.”

7. Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
“Thy will be done.”

8. Then, when on earth I breathe no more,
The prayer, oft mixed with tears before,
I’ll sing upon a happier shore,
“Thy will be done.”

IF I ONLY HAD A HEART

 

 

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,^e and virtue with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.8 For if these qualities are yours… 2 Peter 1:5-8

This past week two of the elders of our church and a deacon came over to anoint my wife with oil and to pray for her healing. They asked how we are taking her chronic illness spiritually and my wife and I both admitted we struggle to believe that God will heal her and that  in fact we seldom actually pray for her healing. Sure we believe that God is sovereign over the illness and can and does heal. We just don’t believe (at least most of the time) that he will heal her. I am tired of praying for it only to experience a temporary lull in symptoms  making us think she may be getting better only to have follow new or worsening symptoms. In fact the day after this prayer session my wife found herself in the emergency room again  with more unresolved and unexplained issues. Every doctor visit seems to lead to more doctor visits and more medications.

We still believe God remains good and faithful in this challenge of faith . I still see it as a gift he has given us that, if handled correctly, is a means to knowing and loving Him more. In doing so there is an enduring and explainable joy to be found. Yet, at the present my lack of faith in this matter makes me feel rather faithless in general and dulls my sense of joy. Faith after all is the foundation that other qualities are built upon. That being said I have given much thought to the long term perspective of growing in faith  and perhaps the possibility that there already exists a great faith and joy beyond my conscious awareness.

This weekend I watched the Wizard of Oz multiple times with my daughter. The movie seems to highlight the struggle many find in asking for and seeking something that may already exist whether it be faith, love, courage, strength, etc . The lion wanted to have courage, the Scarecrow a brain , and the Tin Man a heart.  Yet the journey to the Emerald City and the capturing of the Wicked Witch of the West’s broomstick provided the characters many opportunities to exhibit the very objects they believed they did not have and desperately wanted. It was when they were before the Wizard that final time that they believed they would obtain courage, a brain and a heart. The reality was the Wizard could not grant them these things. He instead very cleverly made them believe the reality that they were already these things. He made them feel it and in feeling it they believed it. So in the long run they were really seeking feelings and for so long they were deceived by feelings.

It is very much in the realm of feelings that we fall into great confusion and discouragement in living the Christian life. C. S. Lewis points out how feelings can negatively affect prayer.  His book , The Screwtape Letters, is a collection of letters between a a mentor demon who is training his pupil in effectively attacking Christians. The mentor writes:

Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself [God] we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them [Christians] from doing that. The simplest way is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the actions of their own wills. When they mean to ask for charity , let them, instead, try to start manufacturing charitable feelings for themselves. When they mean to pray for courage let them instead try to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness let them instead be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at that moment. Pg. 20-21.

So in conclusion, as we ask for things that we do not believe we have let us not so quickly discount that these things may already exist beyond our awareness. Let us not be deceived by emotions and the misdirected conjuring of them. Let us instead look to Christ who has given us all that pertain to life and godliness.

3His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to^c his own glory and excellence,^d 4by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,^e and virtue with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8For if these qualities^f are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Peter 1:3-8

He Plants His Footsteps In The Sea and Rides Upon The Storm

Today marks one week since an EF-3 tornado swept through my neighborhood leaving a trail of devastation in its path. I can only image that as  families were gathering in their interior safe places wearing their baseball and bicycle  helmets that many prayers were going out. I remember running with Hadassah my three year old daughter into the bathroom after watching the trees blowing in increasing fury outside my living room window. As I could hear what reminded me of Hurricane Ivan and its 130 mph winds I just prayed “You are a merciful God”. Within a few seconds there was a loud bang and the panicked scurrying of puppy dog feet. I had forgotten to gather Lydia. When I ran out to get her I found it was already over.

As the night progressed the totality of the situation became clearer. Initially, I went outside and found several downed limbs. There were constant sirens like I had never heard before.I started seeing on my phone  reports of apartments destroyed nearby and possible cars blown off the interstate bridge into the bay. Then I saw a car drive by and turn around and I realized the road may be impassible. I went outside again to find a few houses down a tree laying all the way across the road. My wife was on her way home from work and I told her “you may not make it home tonight”. She ended up parking about a mile away  and walked home in the pouring rain through all sorts of debris. She texted me of what she was seeing beyond the tree that had separated us. She saw homes without roofs, trees on homes, cars flipped over , metal hanging from power lines over the road and the most terrifying sight, a front door in someones yard. I then saw flashing lights through the trees and knew it had come close. I went out to wait for Danielle by the downed tree and was turned away by police officers who were yelling at everyone to go inside. It was then that I really began to wonder what it looked like on the other side of that tree. The next day we walked less than a half mile up our road. It was not long past that tree that it looked like a bomb had gone off. Our road had homes that were completely destroyed as the home pictured above.

The amazing thing is that just as I prayed that “You are a merciful God” He showed himself to be truly merciful. No one was killed and there were very few minor injuries. In the subsequent days we talked to a neighbor we had not talked to for years and met some wonderful people within the neighborhood. One couple we met were Vietnamese and spoke very little English. We went over with the intention to help them and they had us come in and sit and drink wine with them and just talk. He was a green beret in the  South Vietnamese Army and was determined to do the work despite being 81 years old because he did not want anyone to get injured. We tried to pray with them , but every time Danielle would put her hands in a praying position as sign language they bowed with praying hands as if saying goodbye. They sent us away with eggs from their chicken coup. It was like the German family scene in National Lampoon’s European Vacation. These sorts of tragedies lend themselves to such unique and unforgettable experiences. I remember the effect that Hurricane Ivan had uniting communities and getting neighbors together. I only hope it continues. It is for that reason that  when walking around all of the devastation I thought more about opportunity than loss. I also thought of this poem by William Cowper which describes the workings of such a merciful God. Whatever your storm may be,  He is sovereign to ride upon it and merciful to let it become a blessing. It is hard to believe sometimes, but then again it is a mysterious thing.

1. God moves in a mysterious way
   His wonders to perform;
   He plants His footsteps in the sea
   And rides upon the storm.
2. Deep in unfathomable mines
   Of never failing skill
   He treasures up His bright designs
   And works His sov’reign will.
3. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
   The clouds ye so much dread
   Are big with mercy and shall break
   In blessings on your head.
4. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
   But trust Him for His grace;
   Behind a frowning providence
   He hides a smiling face.
5. His purposes will ripen fast,
   Unfolding every hour;
   The bud may have a bitter taste,
   But sweet will be the flow’r.
6. Blind unbelief is sure to err
   And scan His work in vain;
   God is His own interpreter,
   And He will make it plain.

When Love Cuts Deep and Leaves an Open Wound

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him (Job 13:15)

The word of God teaches that God chastises those that he loves (Hebrews 12:6). We are assured that while this chastisement may seem unbearable for a time, the end result is “the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). Furthermore, “It is for discipline that we have to endure” (Hebrews 12:7).

Believers often mistake this “discipline” as “punishment”: confusing the love of God with the wrath of God. We focus on ourselves and what we have done or not done rather than focusing on what God is doing. The word “discipline” literally defined means to teach, educate, or train (as in the instruction of children). It is the basis for the title “Disciple of Christ” or “one who is taught by Christ.” Thus, to be follower of Christ means that we are defined, or rather, refined by chastisement. Consequently, we can expect to have our foundation shaken and our faith tried. So often we are caught unexpectedly and unprepared by what could be, by God’s miraculous work, some of the greatest spiritual times of our lives. As John Piper wrote in The Hidden Smile of God:

“Nothing glorifies God more than maintaining our stability and joy when we lose everything but God. That day is coming for each of us, and we do well to get ready, and to help the people we love get ready” (46).

This is written that you may prepare for the love of God to be displayed in your life through His appointment of your suffering. My prayer is that you will endure to find the hand of a loving and sovereign God in the midst of your suffering.

Christ Our Example

When trials and tribulations come we desperately search the scriptures for some human character for which to relate our current suffering. Yet, the one human example of suffering most often overlooked is also He whom we are directed to fix our eyes. It is He whom Peter cried out to as he began to sink in the buffet of the sea. It is He whom the blind man grasped for in his darkness. It is He whom the dying thief turned to in his fear of impending death on a cross. It is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Mark 14: 32-36 gives a rare look into the suffering and humanity of Christ:

32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. 34 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” 35 He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

It is this passage that we see Jesus Christ in what is arguably one of His most human moments. Rather than the Jesus that walked on water and raised the dead this Jesus is “troubled and deeply distressed” (v.33). The weight of the moment is so heavy that he “fell on the ground and prayed“ (v.35). This was not a prayer of magnification as in the feeding of the five thousand. The immediate result was not the miraculous elevation of Jesus as God. Rather, we see Jesus brought down to the earth He created. In fact, from this moment through the crucifixion He would largely cease to look like God at all. He did not rise from his prayer with a glowing transfigured face as on the Mount of Olives, but rather would take on an unrecognizable appearance as a “man of sorrows and fully acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53).   We even see in Luke 22:44 that Jesus sweats drops of blood due to His great anguish. This is not a miracle but rather a medical condition resulting from His overwhelming distress. It is as if Jesus loses control of His own body.

This puts us in the uncomfortable position of looking upon a Savior who struggles. To exacerbate this feeling, we also see Jesus communicating a rare personal desire in a pleading with God to take his cup of suffering away. In essence, one member of the Godhead (seemingly weak and powerless) is pleading with another member of the Godhead (all powerful) yet they are one. How can this be? We will never be able to reconcile Jesus being fully God and fully man on earth, but what we can know is that He is much like us.

Have you prayed that God would take your cup of suffering away. Have you gone away feeling as though He did not hear you or did not care? Have you accepted the thought that He has abandoned you? Are you angry at God because He has not answered your prayer?
We do not know the inner thoughts of Jesus as he suffered. It is possible that He may have struggled with similar thoughts and feelings that you experience. After all, he said on the cross , “Father, Father, why have You forsaken me?“ (Mark 15:34). What we do know with certainty are His actions.

1. Jesus went to the Father.

The Father is the appointer of chastisement whom says, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD”(Isaiah 55:8). “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 1:19).

2. Jesus submitted to the Father and accepted his appointment of suffering.

Jesus was faithful to yield up His life to accept the full wrath of God poured out against sinners. Because of his unique and  infinite value to the Father there were no equals  to Jesus who could bear the penalty of the sin of  another man, much less the sin of the whole world. There was no other life that could be sacrificed that could equal the millions of lives given to Him to save. Jesus had been telling  his disciples all along of his appointment of suffering. Yet, at his time of commitment to this suffering  they were asleep in the Garden and all the while were asleep to the reality of what was to come. Jesus did not have a team cheering him on in his acceptance of the appointment. He did not have to be begged by Peter, James or John. It was simply Him and God and the choice to obey or disobey,  to accept or reject  and he accepted in faith.

3. Jesus proved through his suffering the faithfulness of God.

The Father in turn was faithful to resurrect Jesus ,  in a radiant display of his (Jesus’) glory. Jesus was not left in a dead state. His body did not decompose. His name did not leave the history books. He was alive and well. The resurrection was God’s stamp of approval at the end of Christs’ appointment of suffering .  Jesus could then say  that he was going away to be with the Father, the same  Father who had forsaken him on the cross.  And isn’t that the end result for all of us who suffer in Him. We will one day be with the Father who  at times seem to forsake us, yet is faithful to never leave us.

“The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.
The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.” (1 Samuel 2:6-7)
“Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19).

This is written not that you will read it and suddenly feel complete relief from your suffering. Rather, this is written that you may look to Christ for the strength to endure God’s display of love in leading you into chastisement. Just as the path to the cross was long, and Jesus being human could scarce traverse it, so is the path laid before you in chastisement. It took the Holy Spirit indwelling Christ to finish the work of God on the cross. Likewise it is the same Holy Spirit (He) who will allow you to continue to fight the good fight and finish the race of faith (2 Timothy 4:7). This in spite of what you, your friends, or your circumstances tell you. We are secured in his promise that we, like Jesus, will not be left in the tomb.

“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” (Philippians 1:6).

Recommended Reading

John Piper (2001) The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Perfect in Weakness

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

In my previous post I wrote about the concept of “Dark Night of the Soul”. My writing on the topic is largely inspired by my own experience of spiritual depression. In this post I want to show how the Lord help me go “strength to strength” as a pilgrim through the Valley of Weeping.

It was the 2007 and I was finishing up my college career and about to embark enthusiastically and optimistically into the next chapter of my life. I had experienced great satisfaction in employment, school, faith and friends. I had become involved in Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) and nightly prayer with other college students. For the first time really in my life I was growing in my faith . Soon I found myself preparing for my first  short-term mission trip to the Republic of Moldova.

Not long thereafter a darkness slowly crept over me like a  shroud. There was no big trigger and I had not buckled under the weight of any great stressor.  It started with initial feelings of something not feeling right. This uneasiness gave way to a greater feeling of detachment from my experiences and particularly my faith. It would not be long that I would have a daily struggle to pray and read the Bible. I felt totally detached from God and from his saving power and no degree of correct theology could (at least at the time) change that trajectory in my mind. I would put down my Bible with fear that I would never pick it up again and cry out for him to show evidence of his presence  in my life.  This was my routine day after day for several months and it was wearing me out to the point that I had given up all dreams and aspirations and I counted my  once optimistic self as dead.

I kept these feeling in all the while reluctantly continuing preparations to go to Moldova. The only one I deeply confided in was my Pastor. I told I was contemplating  not going on the trip and returning the money to my gracious donors. That thought  made me feel even worse because I felt that such action was letting my church and team down. Instead he encouraged me to go on the trip in my weakened state and he consistently went through Psalm 84 with me placing me in the “Valley of Weeping”.  So I decided to follow through with the trip and my Christian walk however difficult it would be.

In the lead up to the trip God provided opportunities in this weakened state to serve him. I was not really able to pray , but at the right time and the right place with the right person I found that I could. I may not have been able to read the Bible but at the right time and right place and with the right person I found that I could speak it. These were little moments here and there that I would come alive. It was a if every day had at least one thought or one action that gave me hope for the next day. He was truley taking me “from strength to strength.”

In the final few days before the trip God gave me a gift to spur me on with some degree of confidence. I was at the bank to take out money for the trip when a man behind me in line overheard I was going on a trip and asked about it. When I told him it was a mission trip and we were flying into Germany he gave me 100 dollars for the trip and told me he is a Christian from Germany and he told me how much Europe needs Christ. It was one of those random encounters some would call a  “Divine Appointment”. It could not have come at any greater time.

So I went in His strength on the trip. There God gave me another gift. This time it was an image that I could carry in my mind through the remainder of my pilgrimage. The trip consisted of going through villages sharing the gospel message. We spoke to hundreds of people over the course of two weeks yet we had very little knowledge if we had made any difference in peoples’ spiritual lives. The below image is of a woman who I had spoken to earlier in the trip. As we were leaving she showed up in town. She thanked us tearfully and shared hugs. It was as if God placed her there to send us off on a good note.Perhaps , even for me, as provision of hard evidence  that he  was in me and working through me.

It would be several more months before the darkness would dissipate. As strangely and tracelessly as it began so it ended.

You hide your face, and they are terrified.

Finding Your Way Through the Dark Night of the Soul

Thy saints are comforted, I know,
And love Thy house of prayer;
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.
“The Contrite Heart” William Cowper

The “Dark Night of the Soul” in concept is a unique working of God in our lives. Originating from a poem written in the 16th century , this reference has come to describe a trying of our faith marked by a period of spiritual dryness and depression. Believers divinely thrown into the dark night experience a crises of faith. This may include doubts about personal salvation, the existence of God, the divine inspiration of the Bible, the personal presence of God in the believer’s life and feelings of abandonment. It is the crises of faith which distinguishes the “Dark Night“ from normal depression. Prayers seem to return void, the word no longer seems to speak and God cannot be found anywhere or in anything. In darkest of nights sufferers may come to believe that they are “going crazy” or have “lost their faith ”. It is, however, not what the believer is doing , but what God is doing that creates this state. In essence, God denies the believer, for a time, of having a “normal” Christian walk. He hides his face and they are terrified.

Such a scenario is found in Psalm 84:1-7 where we see David denied normal temple worship a time when the temple was the very dwelling place of God on earth:

1How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord Almighty!
2My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

David goes on to describe what is very much like the “Dark Night”:

5Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6As they pass through the Valley of Baca (Literally: Weeping),
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.b
7They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84)

Here David describes the long and difficult journey believers took to experience temple worship. While some believers could directly and easily approach the temple of God others were led down a twisting path marked by “weeping”. The only way for them to make it to the dwelling place of God was to rely on God’s provision of strength. This strength waxed and waned as we see them going “from strength to strength.” It is akin to God’s provision of physical nourishment to Elijah in 1 King: 19 where Elijah is content to lay down and die. As God maintained hopeless Elijah and ultimately restored him so God is faithful to provide the strength for the weary pilgrim to “appear before him in Zion” .

Advice for Pilgrims

Men of God from various ages have both experienced the “Dark Night” and offered sound advice for those who are suffering. While God determines the duration and amount of our suffering we determine whether or not we intend to endure and glorify God in spite of our perception of his absence. If you are willing to endure then this advice will be of great benefit to you.

1. Cling to the Promises of God

God often, as it were, hides himself, and will not hear; yea, will not suffer himself to be found. When one is possessed with doubt, that though he call upon the Lord he cannot be heard, and that God has turned his heart from him, and is angry, … he must … arm himself with God’s Word, promising to hear him. As to the when and how God will hear him, this is stark naught; place, time, and person are accidental things; the substance and essence is the promise. For God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a Word of promise. We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise. He does not desire works, nor has he need of them; … But God has need of this: that we consider him faithful in his promises [Heb. 10:23], and patiently persist in this belief … Promise and faith must necessarily go together. For without the promise there is nothing to be believed; while without faith the promise is useless, since it is established and fulfilled through faith.
Martin Luther “Table Talk”

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path (Psalm 119:105).

2. Acknowledge the faith God has given you as you continue in your walk

[God] wants them [believers] to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there, He is pleased even with their stumbles. /…/ [Satan’s] cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and then still obeys.” C.S. Lewis “Screwtape Letters”

While the temptation for the sufferer is to retreat from spiritual service and discard prayer and Bible reading once must endure these things regardless of how painful or difficult. Faith is evidenced in doing so as “faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things unseen“(Hebrews 11:1). This is a volitional kind of faith which endures despite no immediate results. Your pain is a vital sign proving that you are alive in Christ. Being alive in Christ means you are thus able , through his strength, to live for him. He has led you into a unique time with a unique set of demands. While it may have once glorified God for you do great spiritual service, in the dark night the act of getting out of bed and continuing your walk is just as glorifying to God. One broken “Halleluiah” uttered brings just as much praise as the many sentences you used to speak.

We live by faith , not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

3. Recognize that the gift of faith and love are ever present

Never doubt in the dark, what God told you in the light.- Raymond Edman (Wheaton College) “The Disciplines of Life”

If you have ever had faith evidenced in your life then you will always have faith. “God is the author and Finisher of our Faith”(Hebrews 12:2). You can never be without life because God has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and “He who has the Son has life” (1 John 5:12). How can you be abandoned by God when He (in the person of the holy Spirit) indwells you. While you may not feel loved by God and while you may not feel you have faith you are promised that you do because of he who lives in you. If you experienced God working through your life in the light, then God has given you a point of reference in the dark. If you have ever experienced the love of God then you will always experience the love of God. As the Apostle Paul writes “[Nothing] can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).

The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4).

4. Guard your heart against Bitterness

This coexistence of faith and spiritual depression is paralleled in other biblical statements of emotive conditions. We are told that it is perfectly legitimate for believers to suffer grief. Our Lord Himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Though grief may reach to the roots of our souls, it must not result in bitterness. Grief is a legitimate emotion, at times even a virtue, but there must be no place in the soul for bitterness. In like manner, we see that it is a good thing to go to the house of mourning, but even in mourning, that low feeling must not give way to hatred. The presence of faith gives no guarantee of the absence of spiritual depression; however, the dark night of the soul always gives way to the brightness of the noonday light of the presence of God. R.C. Sproul “The Dark Night of the Soul”

Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23)

Friend, your “Dark Night” will break into a new dawn. Just as the blinding sun slowly rises spreading its rays across the terrain while gradually removing the darkness so will be the return of God’s presence in your life. This will be one “Dark Night” in the breadth of an eternity of radiant days.

Weeping may endure for the night but Joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

References

Doe, C. (2010 ) William Cowper’s Olney Hymns and Other Works. Minneapolis, MN: Curiosmith.

Edmond, R. (1942) The Disciplines of Life: Choosing Growth in Every Circumstance. Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press Foundation.

Lewis, C. S. ( 1942) The Screwtape Letters. New York, NY: Harper-Collins Publishers.

Luther, M. (2004-posthumous) Table Talk. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Sproul, R.C. (March 2008) The Dark Night of the Soul. TableTalk. Magazine. http://www.ligonier.org/tabletalk/