Suffering for Good

You are familiar with the word “perfect.”  It goes with statements about clothing such as, “that is a perfect fit.”  Or about food, “that is a perfect steak.”  The word perfect lets us know something is flawless.  If something is perfect it fits the requirements.  For a car part it is important to get the right one for the car for it to fit the requirements.  So now that you have a perfect idea of the word let’s look at the value of suffering in shaping us for a perfect fit. 

Recently at Grace Bible Church we looked at Hebrews chapter 5 and these words were found:

⁷While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. ⁸Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. ⁹In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest

Jesus, God’s Son, instead of receiving preferential treatment and the comforts of His birth-right He suffered.  The intended goal was for Jesus to be shaped and fit perfectly for what He had to do.  One of those areas of responsibility was to be the ongoing High Priest.  Suffering was part of it.  Jesus learned by His experience of pain what living in obedience to God was like on earth. 

Have you ever asked God to stop the suffering?  Yeah, me too.  It really hasn’t mattered to me what kind of suffering.  Physical pain…Lord, please make it stop!  Relational pain…Lord, please, I am suffering.  Make it stop.  Emotional pain…Lord!  Financial pain…Please, Lord, make it stop!  Spiritual pain…Lord, I need You to make it stop!  I have been fairly consistent in my requests.  Make it stop.  But then I come across something like this in Hebrews referring to the Lord Jesus and I wonder if I was approaching my suffering properly.  Maybe the suffering was bringing me closer to God.  What if God was shaping me in character and conduct by using suffering as a chisel and hammer and knocking off the ugly stuff that was keeping me from being perfectly fit for His purposes? 

If I do what God wants it will be painful.  Obedience carries with it suffering.  Suffering like Jesus endured which prepared Him for what God the Father had planned is good.  And that is so different from the way I as a human being look at suffering.  Suffering equals bad.  Pain is awful.  God’s ways are not our ways.  If you try to gain the whole world you will lose your soul.  Give up your life and you get real life.  Suffering in obedience to God brings surprises for us only God can explain. 

What about daily ongoing pain?  Is that kind of suffering worth anything?  Yes, indeed.  If we are listening to God speak to us out of our pain we will gain a great deal.  If we are instead of being submissive to God, we are submissive to the pain we lose a great deal in our suffering. 

Let’s suppose that I want to relieve my suffering because it hurts me in some way but the result of that relief leads me away from God and His best for me ought I to seek the relief?  Many would answer, “Yes, by all means, get your relief.”  Jesus, however, suffered that God might accomplish all that He desired so that greater good could come.  To keep the suffering and allow God to do His work is the best. 

Pride is something that afflicts every human being, and it is hated by God.  Suffering has a way of addressing pride.  But we humans often prefer pride over going God’s way and being shaped by suffering. 

Are you ready for some areas that come along?

• Finances are tight and maybe debt is pressing, but there is an awareness of need and dependence on God which can lead to humility rather than pride.  Getting finances in order is a good thing and can make one less stressed and in a position to give more if a person can avoid the ego trap. 
• Physical image with weight or teeth or whatever the issue seems to be.  Suffering with things not being all you would want.  Get it fixed and watch out pride.  Or for some the desire is to be desirable and they are ready to turn from God’s instructions on relationships and begin to practice immorality. 
• Having the appreciation of others is nice.  It can become an area of ego rather quickly.  Discover ability at sports or at business or at music and suddenly the attention and applause is addictive.  Pride moves in and God…well, He can come along if He wants.    
• Parents go to a lot of expense and encourage their children to get an education so they can get a good job so they can be successful.  If they accomplish it, then what?  Have the eternal values been increased?  Is there a desire for more of God?  Is there more self-satisfaction, self-promotion, self-interests, self becomes the new divinity.  The thing that we think would be all good has set up a situation that leads directly from God into the pit of pride which God hates.  

You get the idea.  As much as we despise suffering it may be the very thing that teaches us and shapes us under the mighty hand of God to become the very amazing, noble and enlightened people He has designed us to be. 

Disclaimer: Saying that the idea of suffering has a positive place in the Christian’s life is not to say we shouldn’t relieve suffering where we can.  Jesus applied suffering to Himself.  He faced suffering with courage.  But Jesus also healed the broken.  He raised the dead.  And He said it was a good thing to care for those who were suffering.  The Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us, did a good thing helping an injured man. 

However, I need to get over my pity parties and self-promotional ideas and realize the value of God’s work in my life which from time to time includes suffering. 

• Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 1 Corinthians 4:10
• For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.  Philippians 1:29
• And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. 2 Thessalonians 1:5
• So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.  1 Peter 4:19

God knows me and knows the very things to add to my life which will make me more fit for His purposes.  It is His work in me that will get me ready, that will tear my grip off the world and reveal the treachery in my own heart.  He knows exactly what you need as well.  Prepare yourself for being perfected!  Happy suffering!

Bible Challenge-Hebrews 6

Many challenges face us.  Light for instance is it a wave or a particle?  Through the years different folks have seen light differently.  Our current consensus?  Light is both wave and particle. 

The Bible challenge in Hebrews 6 has set many people to research the Scriptures and others into despair.  I read recently of a man called to pastor who decided which denomination to join based on the denomination’s interpretation of Hebrews 6. 

The issue is one of salvation.  Is a believer’s salvation safe for all eternity or is it fragile and subject to being lost?  Hebrews 6 interpreters arrive at different answers. 

One human problem in finding answers in the Bible is like finding answers in other areas of life.  We see what we expect to see.  You know the tendency.  A young man and woman find each other.  They have a fondness for one another.  The character flaws (supposing there are some) which are obvious to others not in the same emotional state as the young couple are blindly lost on the young couple.  They see the person they want to see.  If a person has a perspective on what the Bible ought to say then it is difficult not to see that perspective on the pages of the Scripture. 

This human tendency to see what we expect to see will impact those who approach Hebrews 6 just as it does other areas of the Bible.  That tendency, by the way, does not mean the meaning of the text is always misinterpreted, but it is good to realize how what we see can be colored. 

Here is our passage.  Feel free to read it in the wider context of Hebrews, but for our quick look this will do.

 

⁴For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—⁶and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.  Hebrews 6:4-6 NLT

Take a look at the passage.  What do you see?  What does it mean?  What consequences does that interpretation bring?  You may want to do some further study on this.  Here is a video from a Bible teacher explaining one possible approach. 

Can believers forfeit their salvation?  Q & A with John MacArthur 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fez2y7tqWo8

After you have looked over the passage see what you come up with.  Write it down for future reference.  Do you agree or disagree with the various interpretations and applications you have seen?

The Sunday message at Grace Bible Church will include this passage from Hebrews 6.  Get ready.  

Thoughts on Christian Ranting

A Christian ranting at the ways of the world is like someone being upset that a ship’s propeller stirs up the water.  It does what it does. 

It isn’t the rants of Christians that makes a difference, but the God of the Christian.  The world doesn’t need to see what we can do, but what God can do through us.  It is God and His ways that make a difference.  God is inviting those in the world far from Him to come.  Come without payment.  Come and have sins like scarlet made as white as snow.  God’s people revealing Him in the fruit of the Spirit with love and joy and patience and in their proclamations of His way in truth show a bright light.  It may be rejected but wherever it is lived all those nearby benefit from it.  And when they speak it is with the substance of the life of God lived in the real world.  It is not the rants of finger pointing moralists shouting from their lofty heights that really change people of the world.  No, it is the call of the one who called Himself humble and gentle at heart, the one who forgave the cruelest of His day from the cross He was nailed to, the one who says “Come, follow Me.”  If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation.  Those not in Christ are as they were, and no amount of ranting will change that.  The corruption that extended throughout the Roman world was not stopped by politicians, but people empowered by the Holy Spirit spoke God’s news of life-change possibilities in Jesus and people were changed.  One by one, family by family, group by group people were drawn to Jesus and His way of living and the life they once lived was changed into a greater one. 

The late Charles Colson who had seen power at the level of the White House realized there was greater power in Christ than in politics.  He described Christian leaders who came with their rants to meet the President and wilted as they came into the Oval Office.  We are to be righteous and to approve righteousness which may require raising our voices and taking action, but that differs from ranting which seems empowered by rage.  James approaches a better way of handling this in ourselves:  You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. James 1:19, 20 NLT   I submit that God’s people would rather produce the righteousness God desires.  Some may say, “But what if I am right and what I say is true?”  Then speak the truth in love.  The Apostle Paul I am sure wanted to rant on occasion, but chose another way.  He gives us a clue in 1 Corinthians 13:1-4:

¹If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.  ⁴Love is patient and kind.

The world is indeed broken and injustices abound, let us live in such a way that the reality of God bursts forth from us.  Reaching out rather than ranting at the wrecked world seems to be a place to start.  Offering spiritually powerful solutions to a world in need of something better than what they have seems good.  (I hope this wasn’t too much of a rant.)

Listening to God

Out of the many amazing, wondrous, and incredible things of life God rises above all.  To know Him. 

The Creator of stars near and far has come close.  He calls people to come near to Him.  God, the Almighty and Wise God, reaches out in love to love.  Like the candy called divinity is sweet the Divine is sweeter still. 

To know Him is to come to Him as He is, to learn of Him, to embrace Him.  God is God as He was, as He is and as He always will be undiminished, unlimited, unrestricted.  Humans often invent God to their own liking, but to know Him requires loving the God who is without human invention.  In kindness God reveals Himself.  He may be discovered and people may learn of Him who He is, what He is like, and what He has to say.  Often with hearts full, minds racing and hands filled with the things of life people find it hard to get hold of God.  But in coming to Him as He is rather than how I as a man have made Him I find that everything else falls away, pales by comparison, and the more I learn of Him the more relaxed I am in letting things go.  I want to embrace Him.  To trust Him.  To follow Him.  To be with Him.  To act as He would have me act.  To be as He would have me to be.  To know Him is a relationship deserving of the term awesome. 

Relationships require communication.  God built things that way.  He has spoken since the beginning and things have been happening ever since.  He still speaks.  He wants us to hear Him.  And He wants to hear from us too.  It’s about building a closer relationship.   Listening to God seems to be really important.  All through Scripture people have had God speak to them and sometimes they listened and sometimes they didn’t.  Listening to God was better than not.  When God speaks it seems to me we should listen. 

God has spoken and created.  God spoke to Noah and saved the remnant of His people for the task of repopulating the world.  God spoke to Moses on the mountain with sounds of thunder and provided detailed laws and instructions.  God spoke to Samuel as a boy in clear audible tones.  David recognized God was communicating through all of nature.  And David rejoiced in the written communication of God in the Scriptures. The prophet Elijah heard God in many ways, but on one occasion was reminded that He also speaks in a still quiet whisper.  Isaiah heard from God in voice and in vision and could point to the movements of nations and leaders as God’s continued communication to the people.  In these last days, the book of Hebrews says, God has spoken to us in His Son.  Jesus said there would be more communication to come and He was sending the Holy Spirit to be with us.  From earth shaping and earth shaking to the quiet whisper God speaks.  His communication can be in sign language, the language of the heart, in audible language, or the language of the spirit in dreams and visions.  At times He sends messengers to communicate who may be angels from the heavenly realms or His people speaking for Him to His people.  There are many ways in which God speaks, and however He chooses to communicate it is good to listen. 

The picture of Jesus standing outside the door and knocking based on Revelation 3:20 is a helpful image of what is going on.  Our God, the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is trying to communicate and establish a close relationship.  He has in His wisdom allowed us to shut the door on Him.  He is knocking and when we hear His voice we have the option of responding and letting Him in so that we can have fellowship or we can leave Him out.  Letting Him in and beginning to dialogue in true fellowship with Him is dynamite.  Quick note about the hearing.  It may be that a person hears a message or reads the Bible or has a conversation with a friend or is knocked down by a bright light with the voice of God calling out to them.  However the communication comes it now falls on the person who experiences it to respond…to listen to God.  And listening implies acting in obedience.  Get up, open the door and get close to Jesus.  Very cool. 

There is much to say on listening to God which will have to wait for another time.  But a starting point for hearing His voice is important for now.  As Hebrews 4:7 says:

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

This assumes God is speaking today and you will hear His voice and you have an option in how you respond. 

Determining if God is speaking

God’s voice (audible, inaudible, signs, thought placed in your mind, urging of the inner spirit…):

• Will lead you closer to Him
• Increases your desire for His Word
• Emphasizes love for God and others
• De-emphasizes your ego
• Leads you to make His kingdom and His way of life a priority

Enemy’s voice

• May pretend to be a messenger of God
• Decreases faith and increases excuses for failures and sin
• Excites the ego
• Emphasizes your right to have it your way
• Entices you to see the enemy’s kingdom and his way of life as paradise
• Acts as a conscience but is really an accuser not sent by God to point out old failures or to highlight mistakes

Self’s voice

• Disguises the deception and wickedness of one’s heart
• Inflates excessively the self’s needs for physical comfort, pleasures, relief, safety, control, approval of others
• Delights in comparing one’s self with others
• Better than:  this voice says you are better in one way or another than others (Self-aggrandizing)
• Less than:  this voice says you are less than others in one way or another (Self-pity)
• Confuses one’s understanding and perspective for God’s view and wisdom
• Substitutes self determined religious values, traditions, & emotions for God’s valid truth, love and real abundant life
• Exalts trusting self and what self can do over trusting God and what God can do
• Uses people (even for good purposes) rather than really loving them

There you go.  God’s voice, the Enemy’s voice and the self’s voice.  Things will come up today and when you hear God’s voice don’t harden your heart.  The hardening of the heart means we chose to listen to another voice. 

Remember this extreme situation from Acts 5 where Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, wanted to look good to the Christians around Jerusalem?  They sold some land and said they were giving ALL the money to the church.  But they didn’t.  They kept some back.  Which was fine.  God didn’t tell them to sell the land or give all the money.  They listened to other voices.  Look at this:

³Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. ⁴The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

⁵As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. ⁶Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.  Acts 5:3-5 NLT

Practicing

If you were tempted with the possibility of stealing a car or committing adultery you would have a good idea of what voice is speaking to you and what you ought to do, right?  Yeah, that’s it, don’t do either one.  Let’s check out some other scenarios. 

As God’s man you have done well.  You have your ducks in a row in business, and, in fact, you have done really well.  And the ducks are doing well in your spiritual life too.  So, then, you hear the voice saying to you, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  Options:

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

You know that story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man found in Matthew 19.  The man decided not to go with Jesus on this. 

Another man had a business that was going well and it was a family business at that.  He had responsibilities financially and to the community.  There were always projects that needed to be done.  He was a fisherman so nets needed to be fixed boats patched up.  He was committed to God and more involved than most in religious activities.  Then one day a former carpenter stopped by and said, “Come, follow me.”  Options:

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

Of course, that was the story of Peter being called by Jesus.  Peter listened to the voice of God and went.  He was close to Jesus.  He learned to be like Jesus.  His life was altered because He didn’t harden his heart and say, “no.”  (He did have other issues later, but none kept him from following Jesus)

How “today” is that story.  God wants to have a relationship with us.  He knocks at the door.  He speaks.  We may harden our hearts or listen to Him.  Consider the priorities of today: Activities, phones, TV, projects, work, school, food, exercise, sports and many others.  You may approach the day with a schedule or with chaos, but you take it on.  What voice do you listen to for the priorities of your day?  Your week? Your month?  If a voice says, “Come, follow me” what voice is that?

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

Listening to the voice of God requires accepting what He says and going His way.  Here is an exciting thing.  Start practicing listening to God.  It may be as small as how you are going to spend time with Him.  Choose Him over everything else.  Or you are confronted with a frustrating situation and you choose to follow Jesus and bless rather than curse the person.  Listen to Him.  Maybe you have an urging in your inner spirit to go encourage someone and this time instead of talking yourself out of it you go do it. Way to go!

What if you have two good options before you how do you know which one God would have you do?  Great problem to have.  Remember the rich young man and Peter?  They each probably had two good things to do.  Jesus had something totally different for them.  God got bigger than any good things on their agenda.  Be ready for God to take you beyond your plan.  

Also, if you are following Christ, listening to God and He has not spoken to you in some way about one or the other then you can be safe in moving ahead with whatever you have decided.  He often does things this way with shoes too.  He may have a particular pair He will urge you to put on, but for the most part you get to choose.  

OK, there’s more.  As you practice listening to His voice and get better at doing what the Lord says then He will show you more.  Here is what Jesus said: “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” John 14:21 NLT  That is a promise!

God’s Voice for You

God may reveal Himself in any way He chooses any time He chooses to whomever He chooses.  How He chooses to speak to you is up to Him.  Whatever the method of communication it is suited for you by your loving Heavenly Father.  Enjoy His company, get close, and listen to Him. 



For sermons at Grace Bible Church go to http://www.sermoncloud.com/grace-bible-church

God Will Allow People More than They Can Handle and He will Allow Them to be Broken

A common saying is “God will not give you more than you can handle.”  The song, “He Said” with all its good also returns to this idea:

You may be knocked down now
but don't forget what He said, He said

I won't give you more, more than you can take
and I might let you bend, but I won't let you break
and No-o-o-o-o, I'll never ever let you go-o-o-o-o
Don't you forget what He said

Jesus did say He would be with us, but as for more than you or I can take that is a different matter.  The idea flows from the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul is dealing with the temptation to sin.  Here it is:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.  1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

Temptation to sin is not sin but it can lead to a transgression so God works to get us out of its way so we that we don’t break and give in to sin.  That battle is real and I need that assurance even when I choose sin’s way rather than the way out.  This passage in Hebrews is far too real for me:

In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Hebrews 12:4 HCSB

But temptation to sin is different from the pressure of the world on me or the shaping of my character or my destiny by God.  God allows a broken world to continue to run and as I live in it I run into the brokenness and sometimes it breaks me.  God hasn’t abandoned me by allowing it.  He will instead use it for my ultimate good.  (Remember God’s ultimate good includes the uncountable ages to come not just my comfort in the years on earth.) 

Here are some examples of tough times for good people. 

• ·        Job suffered the loss of his children, his business, his health, his good standing among his friends.  That is a list that is more than I could take, how about you?  God used it for His good and the good of others. 
• ·         John the Baptist came to announce the Kingdom of God and the Messiah.  He was imprisoned.  He was beheaded.  That is more than bent.  That is broken.  That is more than I could take. 
• ·         Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick, but he let him die.  That is broken not bent; although the Lord did bring him back to life because there was more to his story on earth. 
• ·         Jesus sat at a table for a meal with His friends and announced that the bread He was breaking symbolized His body broken for them. 
• ·         Stephen was helping people and telling them about new life in Christ and he was crushed by stones hurled at him. 
• ·         Paul was rejected, beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned and eventually beheaded. 

A.W. Tozer has said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”  And Alan Redpath has said, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.”  And the Scripture says of those broken for the Lord:

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.  Hebrews 11:35-38 NLT

These who were broken were too good for this world.  God was with them.  He loved them and loves them still as they are with Him.  And He loves His people.  You and I.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  Look at Romans 8:

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:35-39 NLT

How wonderful is His love that is greater than all that may break me. 

Negative outcomes of the idea that God doesn't give me more than I can take

I can be tempted to imagine that I am able with the smarts, strength and sweetness that is me to handle it. “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” –Invictus, William Ernest Henley.  I may imagine that the “seeds of greatness are in me.”   Where is humility beyond the nod to God? Oh, no, it is all about me.  If God doesn’t give me more than I can take and I have overcome.  And if I have somehow made it “good” by this world’s standards I am all the more convinced of my own greatness and of my special place in God’s order of things because He did not give me more than I can take. 

But for some the pressures of life and the pain is too much and they break.  What then?  Then there is the possibility of intense guilt.  Guilt over failing when they believed God doesn’t give more than I can take.  So if I can’t take it I must be weak and worthless and abandoned.  And then I can be washed over with guilt. 

Another outcome for those who may buckle beneath what they experience as too much.  They may have a feeling of being justified in their anger and disappointment with God when things don't go as they intended.  Satan sneers at God. And the blood boiling in me if I expected God to keep more-than-I-can-take far from me leads me to join him. 

Bless You God for My Brokenness

God can allow exactly what He desires at any time.  In any amount as it is measured by His perfect standard for His purposes and for my ultimate good.  At times things come, and they have, which have broken my heart.  Things surprised me with outcomes that seemed unfair and I wondered where God was.  I have not endured by any measure those things which were too much for me to handle.  I have under the hand of God been crushed and broken.  And if it were not for Him I would have been destroyed.  But as Lazarus was brought back from the dead so the Lord has pieced me together in new ways according to His design.  And for me to consider not being broken is the worst thing.  It is there in the flames that I saw one walking with me who was like the Son of God.  I remember these helpful words on brokenness by Solzhenitsyn who was imprisoned for criticizing Josef Stalin and share them here:

In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.... That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: “Bless you, prison!” I...have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life.”  -The Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 And I say, “Thank you, my God, my friend, for having placed the heaviness of life upon me so that I could take no more.  I have learned to lean on You.  I have learned to better listen to You. Bless you, Lord, for having been my life.”

God allows more than you or I can handle so you and I will hand ourselves and our burdens to God who can truly handle all things.  

Right Thinking God’s Way Returns Good Results

Bring it on! (I like good results.) 

Imagine 26,732 years from now.  You are standing with Jesus conversing while eating some fruit from the Tree of Life.  You hear the sound of trumpets and then the voices of masses of God’s people and other of God’s creatures all beautiful and radiant and joyous.  The sounds go up as God the Father sits on the throne and Jesus goes to join Him at His right hand.  There is a scene of gratitude and grandeur.  There is appreciation and praise. 

And you in a flash think back to today.  You think of your accomplishments and awards.  You remember all you have and how hard you worked to attain it.  The sacrifices you made to make something of yourself.  You remember the feeling of having other people think well of you.  You remember the floating sensation that accompanied your recognition that you prevailed.  You have proven your greatness.  You showed them.  But standing by the Tree of Life observing the scene 26,732 years from now you know that the best you ever did, the highest you ever attained, and the most you ever collected is but dust in the rearview mirror of eternity. 

It would seem odd in the presence of God and of eternity to highly value things which have such importance to us now. They will be put in proper perspective.  Yet we often strive for those things we see as so important or we see others and wish we could have what they have.  For some right thinking take a look at this from the Bible:

¹⁹Don’t bother your head with braggarts

or wish you could succeed like the wicked.

²⁰Those people have no future at all;

they’re headed down a dead-end street.

²¹Fear God, dear child…  Proverbs 24:19-21 The Message

Fearing God not self-promotion is vital to those who want good results.  Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.  Electricity can do much good as you can attest.  It is generated at huge power plants with turbines spinning and energy harnessed.  It is wise for the workers to fear the electricity and not enter with fearlessness and stick a hand into the turbine or grab the wires coming from it.  The result is not good.  It is a dead-end street. 

Imagine the scene again 26,732 years from now.  This time imagine a life that was well-lived.  A life lived abiding in the Vine.  Jesus spoke of this life and it is recorded for us in John 15. 

¹Jesus said to his disciples: I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit. ³You are already clean because of what I have said to you.

⁴Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. ⁵I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. ⁶If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire.  John 15:1-6 CEV

Jesus is the true vine.  His people who stayed joined to Him produce fruit.  The fruit He is talking about lasts.  It adds to the life of the person and it benefits others and it glorifies God.  The person who goes their own way even though they may say it is God’s way will be thrown away and the result is a pile of ashes. 

While observing the wonderful scene of worship 26,732 years from now the flash of memory for one who lived abiding in the vine would be so very different, wouldn’t it?  The focus would be on God.  The rivers of living water would rise up inside that person like a spring fresh and pure and overflowing in thankfulness and happiness.  The intimacy of conversation with Jesus around the Tree of Life for the one who had lived abiding in Him would be so sweet and refreshing. 

Right thinking God’s way returns good results.  Always has and always will.  Most of the world around us will disagree, and, sadly, so will we at times.  But we keep at it.  Reset the course.  Fear God.  Abide in the Vine.  Strive at it.  Seek Him.  Love Him with all we are and all we’ve got.  Let Him produce His fruit in us and through us. 

God’s people who live life God’s way will be seen as fools by this world’s standards.  They will be difficult to understand by the rules of self-aggrandizing society.  Those strange Vine-abiders will be awkwardly included in family and community gatherings.  Jesus said to His people the world would hate them if they loved Him so it is to be expected.  The awkwardness for Vine-abiders extends to those who operate in the name of the Lord but are not connected to the Vine.  They are the Namers.  Jesus refers to them in Matthew 7

²¹Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. ²²On the Day of Judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.” ²³ But I will tell them, “I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!” Matthew 7:21-23 CEV

There are many Namers in ministry.  There are movements of Namers creating more institutions, more groups, and more churches of Namers.  They have the approach, attitudes, value systems and goals of the broken world system Jesus came to defeat.  It is so easy to indulge in the tastes and pleasures of this world.  It is difficult to break away from the accolades and applause gained by success.  And, yet, Jesus says His followers in order to really be His disciples had to die.  They had to die to all of that.  Their life is in the true Vine.  Their fruit is produced by Him His way, in His time.  Their cheers come from the untold multitudes of witnesses cheering from across the ages.  Their rewards come from God (Hebrews 11:6). Their crowns of achievement come from the Righteous Judge.  Their works of “gold, silver, and precious stones” will bring joy to their Lord and honor to them.  Their hearts long for the familiar sound of their Shepherds voice in saying to them, “Well done.” 

Imagine being in the presence of God and lying.  No way.  Would you be in His presence and thinking why that other person got something you didn’t?  No.  The glory of God before you the angelic host around you and you think “I need some me time.”  Really?  Don't think so.  God upon His throne the 24 elders placing their crowns on the ground before them and worshipping Him while you think of how well you have done and what you have accomplished.  Imagining this is as far as it goes.  No one in the presence of God would have those things come to mind. 

So if that is how God’s people will be in His presence then why don’t we act that way now?  Jesus said, “I am with you always.”  God the Holy Spirit is here.  The witnesses are observing and cheering even now.  The Watchers (angel observers) are seeing how we are doing with all God has given us.  We are to ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Why not start with my life today?  If I live today considering what I will be living 26,732 years from now my life from now on might be considerably different.  Don’t you think? 

Fearing the Lord does sound wise.  Abiding in the Vine doesn’t sound like a chore but the very source of joy and life and fullness and fruitfulness and beauty and…

Thoughts for today

Randy

Success God's Way

Success. Power. Position. Influence. Money. Status.  Boss. Ruler. Judge. CEO.  Driving words in our world.

 

Reading in 1 Chronicles I was struck by the life of Saul, King of Israel.  He had it all.  All the driving words above applied to him.  He was the man you wanted to be seen with.  Saul would have been the one to know for business and politics.  He is the one people wanted to be like.  When you looked up success in the Hebrew dictionary there would be Saul’s picture. 

The end of Saul’s life came on Mount Gilboa in a battle with the Philistines.  Three of his sons died that day.  The army of Israel was being crushed and Saul was at his end so we are told he fell on his sword and died.  That was a tragic day. 

The death of Saul as described in 1 Chronicles 10 also includes a summary statement in verses 13 and 14 which struck me.

 

¹³So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD. He failed to obey the LORD’s command, and he even consulted a medium ¹⁴instead of asking the LORD for guidance. So the LORD killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

We are told “the LORD killed him.”  Well, that is instructive.  There is more to the story than the physical details.  Just as there is more to the story of our lives than the physical details.  The Lord killed Saul.  The time had come.  The elements lined up.  The Lord was at work.  But there were the three strikes against Saul which are listed: He was unfaithful to the Lord, He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he didn’t ask the Lord for guidance.  It seems the Lord is serious about His people and His expectations of them. 

In human terms Saul had arrived.  He would have been the envy of the people of Israel.  He was a success story.  In God’s evaluation Saul had failed and ultimately God killed him. 

What would that look like, I wonder, for the average American Christian?  The evaluation of success based on “Power. Position. Influence. Money. Status.  Boss. Ruler. Judge. CEO” would still be central.  The Lord would continue to use a different standard for success than many Christians.  He would look for faithfulness, obedience, and a relationship based on humility. 

Even for those who know what really matters it is challenging to stay consistent.  There is a difference in the way many Christians treat those they consider “successful.”  So, churches and Christian organizations use that as a marketing tool in their brochures, web sites and various conferences.  When a pastor or a speaker or an author is introduced the list of how many books written or sold is included, the numbers attending, the many countries ministered in, the accomplishments, titles or degrees are included.  Why?  Is that to indicate the individual’s faithfulness, obedience and humility or to highlight that person’s success?  It seems to me that often it is not just informative, but designed to prove this person’s right as a successful Christian to sell me a book, teach me a lesson, train me in some aspect of Christian living.  I have been sold and taught and trained as a result.  But I would like to move in a new direction.  One in which the Lord’s values are more central.  In my limited capacity I would like to be better at affirming those who practice faithfulness to the Lord, obedience to His commands and are routinely asking the Lord for guidance.  They may have great success or little success on the world’s stage, but they are living the right things and are exalted in God’s eyes. 

I would really like to avoid having my epitaph state that “the Lord killed him.”  And I would like to listen to the Lord and not wind up slowly then finally killing myself like King Saul did. 

The Lord is gracious, patient and kind.  His love is enduring.  I want to go His way.  

To be faithful, obedient and to listen to His guidance is true success.