What does obedience look like for you?

What does obedience look like for you?  What is it you do in obedience to God in spite of your suffering?  

Please share it with me and, without revealing any names, I'll post it to this blog.  Your experience will be of great encouragement to others who suffer - whether or not their experience with pain is similar to yours.

Maybe obedience for you is not complaining to God or others.
Maybe obedience for you is not responding negatively to someone who provokes you.
Maybe obedience for you is not being anxious or afraid.

Do you see the little envelope below; the one with the little right-pointing arrow?  Just click on that to send your comments.  Please flesh out for us what it means to you to be obedient.  We will be encouraged to be obedient to God in the midst of our circumstances.


Do you know someone who is suffering physical or emotional pain who would be encouraged by this blog? Then please send them the link by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Even lonely seas

Here are encouraging words from the great 19th century British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, passed on to me by one who suffers.  What he says applies as well to those who suffer emotional pain.

Certain believers are called to bear great physical pain, and I commend to them the power of faith in God under acute agony.  This is the sweetest support in the presence of a physical suffering.  Go not to wine for comfort in the hour of depression.  Do not appeal to friends for consolation.  What do they know of your inward sorrow? 

There are seas of suffering that the sufferer must navigate alone.  No other sail is within sight.  Scan the horizon, and nothing is to be seen but wave after wave.  Now is the hour for faith in the great Lord, who holds even lonely seas in the hollow of His hand.  

He knows your poor body, and He permits it to be afraid.  He permits your heart to be trembling because He will glorify Himself in His tenderness to your weakness.  "I am the LORD that healeth thee"  (Exod. 15:26).  Give yourself to Him, and you shall yet sing of His lovingkindness and tender mercies.'

Do you know someone who is suffering physical or emotional pain who would be encouraged by this blog? Then please send them the link by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Why.

(This post addresses questions asked in the previous post, entitled "Why?"  You may wish to read it first.)

Imagine triune God, before creation.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist in exquisite fellowship.  They are utterly complete and wholly happy.  They lack nothing.  They need nothing. 

They want something, however.  They want to give.   They want to share.  They want to expand the volume (so to speak) of their happiness and joy.  They want others to share in their glorious being and existence.  They want to share with others their goodness, kindness and love.

How would God go about doing that? 

What God decided to do is stunning in its beauty and its power!  God chose to make Himself known by 1) creating a world populated by people, who would come to know suffering and death, then 2) entering into that world in order to suffer as a human (and tell of God's grace and forgiveness) and, finally, 3) submitting to His own sentence of death, thereby making the payment that He had decreed as the penalty for sin.

God didn't have to do that; but He wanted to do it; He planned to do it before the creation of the world – so we could share in His glory.  Because He has fully entered into the human experience, God now can be known to us and we can have fellowship with Him.  In Him we find our soul’s satisfaction. 

None of this would be possible without the pain and suffering to which Jesus willingly, even joyfully, submitted.  Likewise, it is in the midst of our pain and suffering that we can find our greatest fellowship with God.  If we, like Jesus, faithfully endure pain and suffering, we will “share in his glory.” (Rm. 8:17) 

You can rejoice in your pain and suffering; because it is a means of immense and eternal gain for you.  Your pain has afforded you a glorious opportunity to enter into greater and greater fellowship with Jesus.  You have reason to rejoice!

Do you know someone who is suffering physical or emotional pain who would be encouraged by this blog? Then please send them the link by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Why?

Why did Jesus do it? 

No, not why did he come into the world as a baby. 

Before that.  Why did He make the stuff we call “matter” and then make people out of that stuff – people for whom it would be possible to experience pain and to die?  Why the "body" thing?

And why did He decree the death of that body for disobedience?  When it all went awry in the garden, God would have been perfectly free to snap the world back OUT of existence.  But, instead, He promised disobedience would have lethal consequences.  Having said so, it must be so, because God always keeps His promises.  Sin would be punished, because He said it would be. 

Why did He do that?  Why did God make the punishment for disobedience so severe?  He didn't have to do that.  Why did He?

Why?

Can I get back with you on that?

Do you know someone who is suffering physical or emotional pain who would be encouraged by this blog? Then please send them the link by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Trust

I trust a chair to support my weight.

I trust my car to stop when I apply the brakes.

I trust the bridge over which I drive to not collapse.

I trust the water company to deliver safe and clean water.

I trust my financial advisor to give me good advice.

I trust my doctor to properly diagnose my health.

Why do I trust these things and these people?  Because they have demonstrated their reliability.  They have performed in the past and have given me no reason to doubt their future performance.

I trust God for the same reason.  He has demonstrated His reliability in my life and in the lives of others.  He is the very definition of trustworthiness.  “You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”  Joshua 23:14   Therefore:

I trust God to fulfill His promises.  

What promises?  Among other things, I trust Him to fulfill His promises to reward faithfulness. 

“So we aren't depressed. But even if our bodies are breaking down on the outside, the person that we are on the inside is being renewed every day.  Our temporary minor problems are producing an eternal stockpile of glory for us that is beyond all comparison.  We don't focus on the things that can be seen, but on the things that can't be seen.  The things that can be seen don't last, but the things that can't be seen are eternal.  II Cor. 4:16-18, Common English Bible 

Do you know someone who is suffering physical or emotional pain? Then please send them the link by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share the link on Twitter and Facebook.

Family Videos II

It occurs to me that the post entitled “Family Videos” might have been painful for some of you.  That is because your pain is to live in, or to have lived in, a broken family.  You don’t have the sort of warm memories of which I wrote.  You have known mostly, or even only, anger and sadness.  I am so sorry.

Can you accept a word of encouragement from me?  Whatever your circumstances in the past or in the present, God is your loving Father.  He longs to hold you in his arms and comfort you.  For you, too, he will gather all your old and new friends (I plan to be there!) to watch the “videos” of your life.  Together we will all rejoice at how God was faithful in your life and how you were faithful to Him.  We’ll all see how you trusted God, in spite of the pain; how you loved those who didn’t love you in return; how you forgave deep hurts against you. 

I look forward to meeting you in heaven.  (I suspect God will introduce us as the writer and reader of this blog entry.)  I can’t wait to hear about your great victories over loneliness and despair.  No matter how you feel about it at this moment, we will celebrate great victories.  God will see to that.  Just be faithful to whatever He calls you to do.  Don't forget his promise:

"This is what the LORD says: "Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded," declares the LORD.”  (Jer. 31:16 )


Send a link to someone suffering physical or emotional pain by clicking the envelope below, where you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

Don't give up

Don't give up
Help is surely on its way
And don't give up
And the dark is breaking in to day
And just keep on moving through these storms
And soon enough you'll find the door
Just don't give up
Oh, and don't give up

Those are lyrics from a recent Christian song.  Oh, my goodness.   That’s it?  “Don’t give up!  Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh, don’t give up!”  (Repeat, 3X.) 

How is that helpful?  What about those who don’t “find the door”?  What about those for whom the dark isn't “breaking in to day”?  People often die before help arrives.  Life isn't a Hallmark Channel movie.  All stories don’t have a happy ending, not even for Christians.   Not in this life, anyway.  To pretend otherwise is to mock the pain and desperate situations of countless millions of people who live or have lived - and died - with (seemingly) hopeless situations. 

Now, I know I may sound cranky; but I’m really not.  I’m just passionate about this.  It is hard for people who suffer - and they don’t need that kind of warmed-over humanism.  They are tired of cliches.  They need substantive answers (and, by the way, help and compassion, too.)

People need to know – maybe you need to know – that your suffering will not only end some day.  In the end, your suffering will have produced for you a great harvest of blessing.  It may not come in this life; however, you can begin to experience that blessing now: as hope.  Trusting anticipation.  A steadfast belief that it will all have been worth it – big time!  Be faithful and keep trusting in God – and you will find that God repays that patient trust with an enormous bounty. 

OK, so don’t give up!  Don’t give up - because “The LORD will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.”  (I Sam. l 26:23)

Family videos

We experienced a most wonderful, God-arranged serendipity last evening.  Sandy and I along with our children, Emma and Andrew, were in the den watching family videos, when daughter Rachel called from Thailand on FaceTime.  Since it was a video call, I trained my phone's camera onto the T.V. and we all, including Rachel half a world away, watched family videos together.

We watched a particularly fun tape of Andrew and Rachel at ages five and eight.  There was a sketch of the kids acting a scene from My Fair Lady.  Imagine Rachel (as Pickering) holding a plastic, quart-size milk bottle to her ear, as if it was a phone, saying, "Hummm, what color are her eyes....?"  Andrew (Higgens) opens a door from the next room and shouts, "Brown! Brown! Brown"!  There was a scene of me as drum major (large spoon as the staff) leading A and R around the house, the "band" banging on pans and crashing cymbals made of pot lids.  There was Rachel in a ballet recital.  Then all of us on the beach at Sanibel.  Then Rachel riding her bike for the first time - and Andrew pouting because he wasn't allowed.  Oh, I had forgotten about the time we (OK, it was I) marooned the pontoon when the tide went out, which occasioned a hilarious discussion with the kids about the cause of tides.

What a great moment that was last night.  It made me grateful for God's goodness.  Whenever I watch family videos, I imagine the fun we are going to have when God gets out His family videos.  You know He has them, with all the best shots of our lives: when we did goofy things, or when He saved us (and we didn't even know!), or when He was especially proud of when we served Him; or when we did something loving for someone - and nobody knew; except God knew.

Yes, last night's serendipity was a glimpse into heaven and a foretaste of the rewards awaiting the faithful.  

Sharing in Christ's suffering

December 12, 2012

My daughter texted yesterday, excited to tell me that one of our favorite actors, David Suchet, (Hercule Poirot) is a follower of Jesus.  The story is that one day in 1986, in his hotel room, Suchet picked up a Gideon’s Bible.  He opened to Romans 8 – and he just couldn’t stop reading! 

Well, Romans 8 certainly is a good place to start.  I mentioned one of my favorites verses, 28, in a recent post.  Another favorite is verse 18, “ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  That verse has always been a great comfort to me during hard times; but, it has come to have a richer meaning to me recently.

You see, I used to think Paul was talking about the glory of heaven in general.  The thought that my suffering will someday end and be replaced with something glorious certainly was encouraging; but, that understanding left me wondering:  If that glorious future is the destiny of everyone who is in Jesus, why do some have to suffer so much in this life?  What is the point of the pain if, in the end, we all will have the same moral perfection and we all will have the same experience of glory?

There is a clue to the answer in the previous verse.  “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”  (New Living Translation)  Yes, we who are children of God are heirs of God’s glory.  However, Paul says, there is an important qualifier:  If we want to share in God’s glory, we also have to share in his suffering.  While we are heirs of his glory if we are in Christ Jesus, we will share in that glory only to the extent that we share in Christ’s suffering.  The more we suffer, the greater will be our inheritance.  Wow!  That may not leave you exclaiming, “Bring it on!”; but, it certainly is encouraging, isn't it?

But wait, you say.  I’m suffering, sure; but, I’m not suffering for Jesus’ sake.  I’m not being persecuted for being a Christian - or anything like that.  So, my suffering doesn’t qualify.  Ahh, go back to the verse.  It doesn’t say that we must suffer for Christ’s sake, it says that we must “share in his suffering” if we are to share in his glory.  So, what sort of suffering did Jesus endure?   Well, even before he suffered torture and the cross, Jesus suffered the usual pains and deprivations of life.  He became tired.  He became hungry.  He often had no comfortable place to sleep.

He bore all of the same sorts of things you and I endure; though, he felt them more acutely because he had a clearer understanding of just how wrong things are in this world.  He keenly felt His separation from the Father.  He felt the sting of rejection.  He felt the pain of people’s waywardness and sinfulness.  He felt compassion for the suffering.  He cried at Lazarus’s death because of the sadness of His friends.  Then, finally, he endured the whippings and the cross.

All these Jesus suffered.  But for the torture and the cross, they are not unlike some of our sufferings.  Jesus willingly left glory to endure these for our sake.  We, too, can willingly accept the pain and deprivations of life in order to serve God and others.  To the extent we suffer our pain, as Jesus did, in faith and faithfulness, we will share in Christ’s glory. 

Think about that!  We are being offered the opportunity to one day share in the very glory that Jesus is right now experiencing!  The more faithful we are, the more glorious will be our experience of  heaven!

So, suffer with great hope!  “Leap for joy!” as Jesus said, “because great is your reward in heaven.”

God's Hall of Fame

“For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.” 

That verse from II Cor. 10:18 was the Verse of the Day on my iPhone this morning.  My daughter and I discussed it briefly at breakfast; then, while driving to school, a song on the radio presented a striking contrast of ideas....  

Yeah, You could be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the king kong banging on your chest

It goes on in similar vein (vain?) for several more lines.  Then the chorus:

Standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

The song, “Hall of Fame”, by The Script and will.i.am, with its energy, rap rhythm and catchy tune, is optimistic and inspiring.  It has a message some of us tell our kids:  “Shoot for the stars!  Go make a name for yourself!” 

There are worse messages out there.  It is good to encourage people to strive to do their best.  But, life doesn't always work out, does it?  Perhaps you used to have that sort of drive and ambition.  Now, it is hard sometimes to even get out of bed because of the pain.

What’s worse, you may have people in your life who blame you for the pain you are experiencing.  There is just enough truth in their criticism that it really hurts.  You know there are things you could have done differently.  Perhaps there are actions you could take now.  But people have no clue how hard it is.  They don’t understand the pain. They are like Job’s friends, condemning you for your situation. 

That is why those words from Paul (above) are of such encouragement to me.  We don’t need fame.  We don’t need approval from friends and acquaintances. We can live our lives in the quiet and peaceful hope that we will someday have the approval, the commendation, of God.  His opinion is all that matters.  

God’s approval, His commendation, will be one of your greatest rewards.  Continue being faithful and you will someday stand in God's Hall of Fame!  

No pain, no gain

I am taking a new medication that makes me feel terrible.  I hurt all over with a flu-like ache even when I'm at rest.  It hurts worse when I stand up or walk.  Nevertheless, I plan to continue taking the medicine for one, simple reason:  It may heal me.  I am willingly subjecting myself to an increase in pain so that I someday might be free of the pain.*

In the same way, I willingly submit to the pain that God has allowed me to suffer in this life - in order that I might have something more in the life to come.  I don’t enjoy the pain; but I rejoice in God’s promise:  “Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”   All I need do is trust in Him.  “Just persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.“  (Heb. 10:33; 36)

* The treatment is for fibromyalgia.  If you suffer this ailment, email me and I’ll give you information.