Finding Joy in Suffering, Pt.1

             The topic I will be talking about today is not necessarily a popular one.  I will dive into the idea of rejoicing during our suffering.  Yes, we should rejoice in our suffering and I hope to help you better understand why.  We are all going to suffer, in a sense, to be alive means you will suffer.  Perhaps some of you are suffering in such a way that hurts so badly you begin to ask God why you were born.  Your life is full of pain and disappointment; you just do not understand why God created such a downtrodden life.  I tell you that Job is a testament to your suffering.  There is ongoing, continual suffering in this world all the time.  Why has such a loving God created a world that is filled with so much pain and hardships?

            Take for a moment if you will, to contemplate what it must be like, though we are unable of fully experiencing this, what it must be like to be God.  As we learn from the bible, God sees everything.  This means that God sees all evil, sin, pain, suffering… there is never a moment that God is not seeing suffering.  See, we can make an effort to block out suffering from our lives; we can turn the TV set off or not read the paper if we choose.  Unlike us, God never has a moment in which He turns away from the suffering that is constantly taking place.  We also know from the bible that God hears everything.  At all times, God hears those who are weeping and wailing, screaming out in pain.  So again, I ask you to imagine what it must be like to be God.  Now let us be careful not to question God when doing this, recall that God is perfect in all He does, so we should not think in such a way as , “if I was God I would take the pains away from the world.”  Though God has promised this to us in Revelations 21:4, we are living in a time before this has come to pass and God’s timing is perfect.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelations 21:4)

God is Our Hope

            Isaiah 40:28-31 -- Do you not know?  Have you not heard? 
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. 
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Every day we hear of news that is unfortunate.  Whether it comes from a national news station, a local station, or from the mouth of friends and family.  We are surrounded by difficulties, both the worlds and our own.  We must push through these hardships with hope.  Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for happiness, hope for grace, hope for this world to be a better place.  Let us focus our hope in God above all others, for He is our eternal hope.

            When we stop and think about the holiness of God, we can easily be frightened because of the sins we have committed.  Think about it, He who judges us sinners has never sinned, and the furious wrath of God is coming for sin.  He is without error; there is not one thing God has done that was wrong.  God is so magnificent, He has no equal as we read in Isaiah 45:

            I am the LORD, and there is no other; 
apart from me there is no God. 
I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me.  I am the LORD, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:5-6)

Such A Big World: Do I Make A Difference

2 Timothy 2:3 -- Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 -- When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.

Living in such a massive world makes it easy for us to feel like our actions have no significant meaning.  If we just venture out into our solar system we see even more so how small we are.  It is funny though, at the very time we feel so small, we also have the pressures of this world on our shoulders.  Is it not interesting that in the very same second that we feel we cannot make a difference in this world, we allow this world to bring us down to such a level that we feel the size of a sand pebble?  What is it about us that let the burdens we face, directly and indirectly, affect our daily lives to the extent of stealing our joy from us?  Why are we not as quick to be motivated to do good for others, as we are to do good for ourselves?  We need to make a strong effort to reprogram our brains to get just as motivated to help others in whichever way God has placed in our hearts as this is pleasing to God.

            Philippians 2:4 – Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.

            Hebrews 13:16 – Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 

Questioning God?

Why do we question God?  He has never failed us, yet we question Him when things do not go our way.  And that's just it, we are quick to ask God why things go the way they do when they are not in our favor.  Seldom do we question God when everything falls in place just as we hoped it would.  How many times each day do you thank God for the job you have, the roof over your head or the means of transportation you use each day?  Once? Twice? A few times? Yet we will constantly pray to God for a blessing if we are unemployed, homeless, or had no way of getting from point A to point B.  We need to give God our full attention always, regardless of our current circumstances. 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. –Ephesians 6:18

Faith in God's Greatness

           Many of the decisions we make in life are centered on fear, or lack there of.  Fear is always directly tied to doubt.  We fear what we doubt.  When we doubt our decisions or circumstances, we fear the possible outcome.  If I take a test and have doubt in my answers, I fear that I will make a bad grade.  Another example, some Christians will feel an urge to promote and spread the Word of God to people in hard to reach places, either in this country or another.  But many who have this feeling will turn their back to it.  They doubt the situation, and as a result turn away in fear.  They may feel they do not have adequate resources or protection, or both, so they ignore the calling.  We see the Israelites doubt God’s greatness in Numbers 13-14.

In Numbers 13-14, the Israelites doubted God’s promise to deliver them into the promise land.  When the men Moses sent to explore Canaan (the land God was giving the Israelites) returned, they presented a negative report on the land.  We see these men show immense doubt in God’s greatness in Numbers 13:31-32, “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.”  Due to the negative reports from the men who scouted the land, fellow Israelites began to express the same amount of fear and doubt. In Numbers 14:1-4 the people rebel against the LORD:

“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Heaven or Hell, Pt.2

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” – John 3:36

            In part 1 we learned about the one true account out of the various ones circulating this world concerning death.  This truth comes from the Bible and only the Bible.  Anybody out there who denounces the Bible’s explanation is lost and I pray they will find God and seek His word for clarification.  God is infinitely wise, hence His word is perfect; therefore He has no need to “edit” any of the text found in the Bible, He had it right the first time. 2 Samuel 22:31 says this so wonderfully, “As for God, His way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; He shields all who take refuge in Him.” 

            Hell is a wretched, cursed place.  It is isolated from all; there is no special link to Heaven that allows communication between the two places.  If loved ones are touched by the grace of God and can call Heaven home, you will forever be isolated from them.  This is such a painful thought for me, to think of a day in which I could be forever separated from those I love including Jesus, the One who loved me the most (if the destination is Hell that is, for in Heaven you will forever be in His presence).  This is a driving force as to why we all need to put faith in Jesus and do all that we can to help those around us trust in Him as well.  Jesus explains this separation in the parable found in Luke 16:19-31, the parable about a rich man and Lazarus.  When the rich man died he went to Hell, from which he pleaded with God to relieve him of the torment he was enduring.  Then Jesus tells us about the isolation from Heaven in Luke 16:26, “…between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”