Archive for June, 2023
A Short Course on the Significance of Suffering – Part Four
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” James 1: 2, 3
Put downs and knockdowns alike often leave us wounded.
Some major trials necessitate that we “walk” as Isaiah 50: 10 says, “in darkness.”
Different people walk in darkness in different ways. Not always, but basically, have you ever thought how men and women walk in physical darkness in different ways? A woman who walks in a dark room at night may stump her toe. How does she react? She grabs it and responds, “Oh, oh, I hurt my toe.”
How does a macho male react? He stumps his toe and hops around grumping, “Who put that chair in the middle of the room.” In reality, he put the chair there about two years before.
Those two types illustrate the diverse manner in which we respond to trials.
What do you do when you don’t know what to do? You do what you know to do. Then God reveals what to do about what you don’t know what to do.
You “trust” and “rely upon… God.”
When trials come, “count it all joy.” “Count” is an accounting term meaning to add things up and reach the right answer. Reason results in rejoicing.
Our tests vary.
Our attitude remains constant: “joy.”
Here and now is the time to predetermine your response to what is as of yet indiscernible.
Jesus gave us a classic example. He spoke of a condition none of us like. Have you ever had anyone misrepresent you? Has anyone ever maligned you by distorting half-truths? The danger in half-truths is most folks believe the wrong half. Jesus knew what it was like and warned His followers it would happen. Then He said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely for My sake” (Matthew 5: 11). “Blessed,” come on Jesus, you have got to be kidding. He didn’t stop there, He continued: “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…” (V. 12).
The Scripture is realistic and I Peter 1: 6, 7 chronicles our response on occasion: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that (purpose clause) the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
In summary, “Glorify God in your body.” Warehouse it!
The only thing you can really control in this life is your mental attitude.
Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional. The choice is yours.
Reflect now on James 1: 2, 3: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
A Short Course on the Significance of Suffering – Part Three
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” James 1: 2, 3
The text refers to “various” or “diverse” trials.
In order not to make robots out of us God allows diversity in personalities and predicaments. How you look at a thing is important. The word means different or assorted ways.
Preset the control board of your mind to expect various adversity. Your assortment of suffering may make you look like a walking Baskin-Robbins of trials. However, as you step into every new never-been-lived-before day, face it knowing any day above ground is a good day.
Consider these philosophical responses to trials.
A man fell in a pit and couldn’t get out.
A subjective person came along and said:
“I feel for you down there.”
An objective person came along and said:
“It’s logical that someone would fall down there.”
A Pharisee said:
“Only bad people fall into pits.”
A mathematician
calculated how he fell into the pit.
A news reporter
wanted an exclusive story on the pit.
A fundamentalist said:
“You deserve the pit.”
A charismatic said:
“Just confess that you are not in a pit.”
An I.R.S man
asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
A self-pitying person said:
“You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
An optimist said:
“Things could be worse.”
A pessimist said:
“Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the person in the pit took him by the hand and lifted him out.
You may have had a variety of advisors regarding your time in your “pit,” but Jesus does more than advise us, He lifts us when we trust Him.
He takes no pleasure in you being in a pit, but he doesn’t want you to merely be in a pity-party. He wants you to align with Him and be lifted. Tell Him now if you need picking-up.
A Short Course on the Significance of Suffering – Part Two
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” James 1: 2, 3
When trusting the Lord there is much to be learned. Even adversity offers us advantages to learn. Out of struggle comes strength.
George Washington, the patient statesman, learned from the snows of Valley Forge.
Lincoln, the liberator, learned from his poverty.
Theodore Roosevelt, the disciplinarian, from his asthma.
Edison, the inventor, from his deafness.
Walter Chrysler, the genius, from the grease pits of a train roundhouse.
Sir Walter Scott, from his lameness.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the poet of pathos, from tuberculosis.
Helen Keller, our inspiring example, from her blindness.
Without suffering these would not stand out on history’s horizon like Mount Vesuvius on a lily pond, and we would be robbed of their greatness.
The certainty of trials is noted in the text by the word “when” not “if” trials come. They are undesirable, but inevitable for all.
Trials is the reference. The Greek word “peirasmos” translated as “trials” can also be properly translated “temptation.” When it relates to Satan, it always means an appeal to do evil. When associated with the Lord, it always means an occasion to prove one’s character and faith.
Temptations come from Satan and are intended to bring out our worst.
Trials come from God and are intended to bring out our best.
This contrast is seen in James 1: 13, 14, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”
During the time Moses was leading God’s people out of slavery it was written, “And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.’”
Dan Jansen was anticipated to be a sure gold medalist skater in the Olympics, but he fell in two races. He was no quitter. His perseverance in his last race resulted in him winning his well deserved gold medal.
Some “trial,” some fall, may have robbed you of a golden moment. Failure or suffering of some type may have interrupted your life quest. Now is your opportunity to let the Lord use it to enable you to achieve what you could never have accomplished without it. In these moments of heartbreak we need to have on our cranial overhead projector, the words of I Corinthians 6: 20, “GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY.”
A Short Course on the Significance of Suffering – Part One
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” James 1: 2, 3
Jesus suffered the pain of loneliness, the agony of ostracism, the anguish of isolation, the craving of hunger, the anxiety of betrayal, the dilemma of denial, the humiliation of public rejection, and the torture of the cross.
You gotta problem? He can relate. The issue is whether you will relate to Him in your time of suffering.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
There are times when we can’t see. That is, things happen that we can’t understand. It is then we must exercise faith in what is unseen.
It is then we can relate to Isaiah 50: 10, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”
Put this in the warehouse of your memories: “Joy isn’t the absence of pain and problems, it’s the presence of Jesus Christ.”
When you come to the point of realizing all you need is Jesus, then Jesus provides all you need. That is a clever cliche, but I know personally it is a good biblical worldview.
Play that over and over on the soundtrack of your mind until you can repeat it in your sleep — or in your hours of sleepless agony.
Our sovereign Creator, the Lord God, made a choice to give human beings a free will. With that came the choice between good and evil; good and bad. A paraphrase of a statement by Augustine says it well”, “God thought it better to bring good out of bad than not let the bad exist.”
God is not out to bring about bad things for us, but to bring the good out of the bad things that happen to us.
Consider that in light of Isaiah’s comment regarding walking in the dark when there is no light. Some things can only be seen in the dark. For example, the darker the night the brighter the stars. The more difficult the circumstances, the more precious is our Lord. It is when we can’t see we must “trust in the name of the Lord, and rely on… God.”
Then your adversities become your advantages.
Tribulation can result in triumph.
Hear Emerson again, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
Follow the beloved Lord, He sees around the curve in the road.
Heaven or Hell? You Choose
They have done it again. Two women, one in America and one in Ecuador, allege they have gone to heaven and/or hell, and come back to tell about it.
Charlotte Holmes, in America, says she died for 11 minutes and went to heaven where she saw beautiful colors, scenic landscapes, and heard beautiful music. She also states she visited hell which smelled of rotten flesh.
In Ecuador, Angelica Zambrano was dead for 23 hours and visited both extremes. She did so four times. For her visit to hell she was escorted by Jesus. The devil and demons were tormenting a former popular singer/dancer while he was being forced to dance amid flames. She saw one former Christian who is there for refusing to tithe. There is a new twist.
Persons who claim to have died and gone to heaven and returned discredit themselves for the Bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9: 27).
She said she saw babies and infants in heaven. Heaven is eternal so there will be no ages in heaven. We will all be a heavenly age which is beyond our description.
Have these and others before them who claim similar experiences really had what they claim? Before explaining, I will answer that question. NO! I will give reasons for such an emphatic answer, but first I want to give persons who claim to have visited heaven and/or hell the benefit of the doubt.
Have you ever had a dream so real that when you awakened it took a bit of time to determine if that was really true? When in a deep dream state the brain is as active as when awake. Your mind dreams it and emotionally your body experiences the surreal happening.
Certain medicines, and doubtless illicit drugs, heighten such experiences. When in the hospital for five weeks I was administered some medicines that caused me to have hallucinations. They were so real, these virtual experiences were frightening. I begged to be taken off those medicines.
Some who profess to have been to heaven/hell have been proven to be charlatans, liars. I heard a destiny traveler give his testimony in a local church. It was so phrased it seemed to be true. He was internationally acclaimed and broadly publicized in America. A movie was made of the experience. Shortly thereafter he admitted he made up the story.
Now, how can it be said professed destination travelers have not been to heaven and/or hell. When measured against Bible texts on the subjects they don’t align. First, the devil does not torment, he is tormented. Scripture says hell was created for the devil and his rebellious demons (Matthew 25: 41).
Scripture notes: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2: 9).”
Overall heaven is not just an earth of steroids. It is unexplainably different. All the description we need is in the Bible. The best we can do in explaining it is to say of certain features is “it is like,” that is, illustrated by a likeness to what we know.
Those who claim to have been to heaven talk about how wonderful they felt, how joyful they were, how blissful, and comfortable they were. Their testimonies usually reveal how narcissistic they are. Little or nothing is said about the majesty and glory of God that fills the place. None have spoken of a state of holy awe.
The clincher defining disproving factor is found in II Corinthians 5: 8: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” If an American teen were translating the Greek text it would read, “The moment a believer dies he or she is eyeball to eyeball with God.” The point is an encounter with God is immediate. Most who claim to have been there talk about taking a walking tour without mentioning God.
Heaven and hell are real and we determine where we spend eternity.
Commitment to, obedience to His word and will, and faithful loyalty comprise a ticket to heaven. Make sure you have it.