Month: February 2013

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better.
Ecclesiastes 7:3

Can this verse be true?  Is it really in our Bibles?  Can suffering be beneficial?  It absolutely can be and is!  How foreign this thought is in the world today as well as many churches, but it’s true nonetheless.  There is great blessing that often comes by way of suffering.  Some lessons can only be learned through sorrow.

Let’s be honest.  We don’t enjoy pain, but the reality is that, in general, we tend to seek the Lord more fervently when there is struggle, trial, or sorrow.  I understand exactly what the psalmist meant in Ps 119:67 when he wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”  Times of affliction have been of great spiritual benefit to my soul!  I’ve heard my pastor often say that God is far more interested in our holiness than our comfort.  I couldn’t agree more!

David was called a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), and as long as David was in turmoil as he fled from Saul, his heart was fixed on the Lord.  But when he was no longer running for his life and the throne was his, he fell into gross sin.  Affliction kept him close to God!  In 2 Cor 7:8, Paul told the Corinthian church that he didn’t regret making them sorry when they read his first letter, but it wasn’t the sorrow itself with which he was so pleased.  He was rejoicing over the effect of that sorrow.  “For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication!” (2 Cor 7:11) Sorrow had worked for their spiritual good!

Suffering is certainly not the only Christian experience, but as our text reminds us, sorrow is a great tool for making the heart better.  There are times when the opposite is needful.  As in Pr 17:2: ” A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.”  As we’ve considered the last several weeks, our peace, whether hurting or laughing, is in knowing that all of these things are guided by our loving Father and designed for our spiritual benefit.  “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.” (Ecc 7:14)  There is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance,” and our great Creator knows just when and how long each are needful in our lives. (Ecc 3:4) Jesus’ road to glory involved a cross, and all those being conformed to His image follow the same pattern.  Like Him, we don’t look forward to the suffering, but we can be encouraged to know that there is joy waiting for us on the other side! (Heb 12:2)

Jamie

Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
Psalm 37:1

The instruction above may seem like a dream to many of us.  Perhaps we or those we love have been deeply injured by someone, and we can’t seem to get beyond that fact.  Maybe the prevalence of wickedness all around us weighs heavily upon us and robs us of our peace.  It’s hard to not be troubled by the wicked prospering and metaphorically (as well as literally, at times) “getting away with murder”.  Yet, the word of God remains unchanged.  Ph 4:6 still stands: “Be anxious for nothing“!

No doubt, in the days of Pharaoh, there was great temptation to worry and fret with such a wicked ruler in power.  The children of Israel had been enslaved, and things were getting worse instead of better.  But, the comforting truth was that Pharaoh had not gained and maintained the throne because of his heritage, his skill, or his power.  In Ex 9:16, God said, “But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”  This verse in Exodus is quoted in the New Testament, but notice the context in which it is presented:

So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”  Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.  Rom 9:16-18)

The point in God making such a statement regarding Pharaoh is to show us clearly that He is in control and not man!  Did you know that before Moses ever approached Pharaoh, God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he wouldn’t initially release Israel?  “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.'” (Ex 4:21) Pharaoh refusing to heed the plea of the Israelites was not simply a wicked king fulfilling the evil intent of his heart.  God was working behind the scenes with a greater purpose in mind.  “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.  But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” (Ex 7:3-5)

Pain, suffering, trial, tribulation…they are a given in this life, but our rejoicing is based on the fact that Jesus has overcome the world! (Jn 16:33) He’s bigger than our circumstances.  He’s in charge of our trials.  He is insuring that all things, even the wrathful acts of sinful man, will only work to His eventual praise! (Ps 76:10) Yes, man is accountable for his sin, but his wrongdoing cannot overthrow God’s purposes.  God may even turn your affliction around and save the soul of your present afflictor so that you can exclaim with the apostle, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33) Remember, Paul and Stephen are rejoicing together in the presence of the Lord right now!

Nothing beneficial will come from worrying about that situation that has your stomach in knots.  “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.  Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.” (Ps 37:7-8) Embrace the peace that belongs to you, precious child of the eternal King!  God hasn’t forsaken you now, and He never will.  “For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.  But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Ps 37:10-11)

Jamie

“I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.”
Isaiah 45:7

There are far too many in our day that would leave off the words “and create darkness” as well as “and create calamity” in today’s text.  They would attribute the darkness and the calamity to Satan.  To such individuals I say, “You have one too many gods!”  The true God reigns over heaven and earth!  All things are in His power.  Even what we classify as bad or evil ultimately serves God’s purpose and falls within the confines of His will.  God asks, “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” (Am 3:6) Do you know this God?  Is your God that big?

The message of God’s absolute reign and control is missing from many pulpits, but listen to what Ps 96:10 instructs us to declare to the world: “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.’”  The LORD reigns!  That message needs to be preached to the world and within the church.  It’s a message the children of God should love.  “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Is 52:7) It should be good news to you, Christian, and contribute to your peace to know that whether good or bad befall you, your God is still in control!  There is no end to His reign nor any creature that is not under His power!  It’s this truth that makes possible promises like that of Rom 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I received an email recently about a supposed encounter between Einstein and an atheist professor.  In the story, the professor seeks to disprove God because of the existence of evil, but Einstein defends God’s existence, making the professor look very foolish in the process.  I had little confidence that the story was true and so visited snopes.com to validate it.  In the article that exposed the email as being false, the author made the following statement:

“That God permits evil to exist (and some would say thrive) is taken by non-believers as an inarguable sign that there is no supreme being.  This puzzle is pointed to by them as the unanswerable fallacy that proves the negative: they reckon that a loving, all-powerful God would have stamped out evil, ergo He doesn’t exist, of He is not all-powerful, or He is not all that enamored of His children.  As such, this paradox can be disquieting to those who do believe: not only do they themselves have to wrestle with the seeming disconnect, they are left unable to convincingly answer their critics when this topic comes up.”

You know what?  The author of that article is exactly right!  The average believer is “unable to convincingly answer their critics” when it comes to God’s relationship to evil in the world.  Larry King used to love to ask church leaders, “Where was God when this catastrophe took place.”  They would begin to flounder!  Some would flat out say, “God wasn’t there”!  They would almost all affirm that if He was there, He had nothing to do with it.  He may have stood back weeping that such an event was taking place, but He couldn’t do anything about it.  What kind of God is that?!!  We need to quit giving the atheist ammunition and declare, “The Lord reigns!”  Even if I can’t explain the reason a particular event happens, I have no right nor Biblical evidence to place that event outside of the eternal purposes and will of God, “who works all things according to the counsel of His will”. (Eph 1:11)

Remember the man that was born blind?  We would consider that an awful thing.  How sad that the child was born with no ability to see, to never enjoy a sunset or the view of a mountain vista!  How hard it must have been for his parents to raise a child with such an infirmity!  Some would say that such a bad condition must have been the result of judgment due to some sin.  After all, a loving God would only desire to do us good and would bring heartache in our lives only due to the fact that He must also be a righteous judge, right?  To be clear, there is no doubt that all suffering is the result of sin.  Death entered the world when man fell into sin.  Also, God certainly also judges and chastens, so it is wise for us to examine our own hearts, looking diligently for sin, when trials come upon us; however, “bad things” are not always the direct result of some committed sin, as some falsely teach.

The disciples had embraced this same error.  When they saw the blind man, they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  But Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (Jn 9:2-3) The point is that God is doing things behind the scenes that are beyond our comprehension.  Even if we can’t explain it, God has a purpose in mind!  As awful and as hard as an experience may be, it didn’t enter your life by chance.  God is guiding the affairs of this universe!  He is not the author of evil, but evil can’t go beyond the boundaries He has established.  These events, good or bad, are designed to bring Him glory (see Lazarus’ death in Jn 11:4) and to put you in the best place to seek the Lord!  “…He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us…” (Ac 17:26-27)

Jamie

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”  But now you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16

There was once a time in this nation that hearing someone say “Lord willing” was commonplace.  Today, the phrase is almost nonexistent.  We are oblivious to God’s absolute control in everyday affairs.  How many times have our plans been rearranged?  How often has the unexpected turned our lives upside down.  Yet, in spite of the frequency of our upheavals, we talk about our plans as if they are definitive.  We encourage such assertiveness, and label it as a quality to be desired; however, the Lord calls it what it is–arrogance!  Simply put: “All such boasting is evil.”

Just how much is God in control?  He’s so much in control, that a better word for “chance” would be “providence”!  A common way to make decisions in ancient times was to cast lots.  We might refer to the practice as “rolling the dice” in our day or perhaps accomplish the same thing by flipping a coin.  Pr 16:33 reveals the greatness of God by His directing of such games of chance: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”  We see this truth in practice in the book of Jonah as the mariners cast lots to determine who had so offended the gods as to bring such a horrific storm upon them.  Jon 1:7 says, “So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.”  The one, true God was in control of where the lot fell!

Some of you may be willing to let God oversee chance, but what about choice?  The book of Proverbs deals with that topic as well.  Consider the following:

The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. (Pr 16:1)

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (Pr 16:9)

There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand. (Pr 19:21)

Man in his heart makes his own plans, but God is in control of the outcome!  We can spend all day planning the smallest details of our schemes, but we will never override the providence of God.  This truth really disturbs some people, but it should be a great source of comfort to you, Christian!  How else can God promise to work all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28) unless He establishes the boundaries of every creature’s actions?  From the smallest to the greatest, God is in control.  Have you ever had someone with authority over you who’s will was set against you?  Even if you were living in a monarchy and the one who stood against you was the king himself, Pr 21:1 reminds us, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”  Yes, God is that much in control!  So, in the words of our Lord Jesus, “Do not be afraid; only believe…” (Lk 8:50)

Jamie