“If Christ has not lied to us, then there is a reason behind even the darkest providence. There must be a reason, for God rules; and the reason must be good, for God is good.” ~Peter Marshall The Problem of Falling Rocks

Perhaps the most difficult issue we must face as Christians is “bad things happen”. Not evil, not demonic, just bad; the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the destruction of a tornado. Things happen that aren’t a result of our sin, nor are they the result of an evil spirit waging war against us. What are we as Christians to do with these things?

Grieve, pray and praise God and bring Him glory.

Grieving is pretty obvious, and prayer is a common response to grief. What good does praising God do? Why bring glory to the One orchestrating the very event that has caused so much pain?

By praising God in the midst of suffering, we testify to the truth of Scripture. We affirm that “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”  (Rom 8:28) We affirm that His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts (Isa 55:8-9). We affirm that He is the Potter and we are the clay and it is His right to do with us as He wills (Rom 9:14-24).

By praising God, we encourage and strengthen ourselves, our    families, and our church. We witness to all those whose lives intersect ours that God is good and worthy of praise, regardless of circumstances. It is not an easy thing to do. It requires humility, grace and faith in tremendous measure. But that’s the key, isn’t it? When we surrender the grief that shatters us through praise and worship, God pours out the grace, comfort and peace we need to be whole in Him.  

~Ben

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       I trust those are things you’d fight for.  I trust they are things you would give your life for.  Now ask…do I take pleasure in these things as well?  Pleasure is a funny thing.  There are different takes on what it means.  Hollywood tells one kind of story of what pleasure is.  Our consumer culture offers other alternative understanding.  What about the Bible?  Specifically, what about the pleasures of God?

    Read the story of Jesus’ baptism in one of the Gospels.  What does God say?  “This is my Son in whom I take great pleasure.”  Read the story of the Transfiguration.  What does God say?  Again, “This is my Son in whom I take great pleasure.”  God’s pleasure is in His Son.  Specifically, it is in the work of his Son.  Why do we know this?  Read Philippians 2:1-11 and meditate on this great hymn to the beauty of Christ.

     We can stand in the presence of our Holy God because He takes pleasure in the work of His Son.  From that fountain of joy flow all grace and all joy that we can ever know.  Let everyone who is thirsty come. 

 ~Richard

 There is a Rock to be found.  There is an inner rest to be experienced that’s deeper than conceptual understanding, human love, personal success, and the accumulation of possessions.  There is a rock that will give you rest even when all of those things have been taken away.  That rock is Christ, and you were hardwired to find what you are seeking in him.  In his grace, he won’t play hide-and-seek with you.  In your weakness and weariness, cry out to him.  He will find you, and he will be your Rock.

 He is the rock for which you are longing, he is the one who alone is able to give you the sense that all is well.  And as you abandon your hope in the mirage of rocks of this fallen world, and begin to hunger for the true rock, he will reach out, and place you on solid ground.

 -Paul Tripp, “A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God in Trouble,” pages 33-34

If you have the time this week, I challenge you to read  Romans.  All of it.  As the intro in the ESV Study Bible puts it:  “The theme of Romans is the revelation of God’s judging and saving righteousness in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In the cross of Christ, God judges sin and yet at the same time manifests his saving mercy.”  Some have said Paul’s letter to the Romans is the most complex of his writings.  In its depth, it wonderfully describes the freedom we have in Christ.  If we will just take the time to read it and wrestle with it, we will see the beauty of who Christ is and what he has done for us.  So, if you have the time this week, read all of Romans.

Here’s what one man says about Romans:  “The Epistle to the Romans has sat around in the church since the first century like a bomb ticking away the death of religion; and every times it’s been picked up, the ear-splitting freedom in it has gone off with a roar.  The only sad thing is that the church as an institution has spent most of its time playing bomb squad and trying to defuse it.  For your comfort, though, it can’t be done.  Your freedom remains as close to your life as Jesus and as available to your understanding as the nearest copy.”  {Robert Farrar Capon}.  So read Romans at your own risk.

Be of Good Cheer,

Richard

OUR DILEMMA

In our own day, Paul David Tripp – counselor, pastor, and author – takes his own turn at examining all this. In A Shelter in the Time of Storm, he tells his reader about “the dilemma of your humanity”; then, with wise and loving care, he shows where this can lead:

You are clearly not in control of the details or destiny of your life, yet as a rational, purposeful, emotional being, you cry for a deep and abiding sense of well-being. In your quest, what you are actually discovering is that you were hardwired to be connected to Another…In this way, every human being is on a quest for God; the problem is we don’t know that, and in our quest for stability, we attempt to stand on an endless catalog of God-replacements that end up sinking with us…

There is a Rock to be found. There is an inner rest to be experienced that’s deeper than conceptual understanding, human love, personal success, and the accumulation of possessions. There is a rock that will give you rest even when all of those things have been taken away. That rock is Christ, and you were hardwired to find what you are seeking in him. In his grace, he won’t play hide-and-seek with you. In your weakness and weariness, cry out to him. He will find you, and he will be your Rock.

He is the rock for which you are longing, he is the one who alone is able to give you the sense that all is well. And as you abandon your hope in the mirage rocks of this fallen world, and begin to hunger for the true rock, he will reach out, and place you on solid ground.

Pray on these things.

Don’t count me out yet. I know I’m just a shepherd, but in a moment by the grace of God I’ll take down Goliath with a single stone.       (1 Samuel 17)

Don’t count me out yet. I know I’m just an apprentice to God’s greatest prophet, but in a moment by the grace of God I’ll bring down the walls of Jericho with some trumpets. (Joshua 6)

Don’t count me out yet. I know I’m just a girl engaged to a carpenter, but in a moment God will use me to usher His greatest gift to mankind into the world. (Luke 2)

Don’t count me out yet. I know I’m just a single mom, a penniless student, a struggling father, an old man, a sickly child or any number of disadvantaged people. Give me a moment and God will use me to change the world.

If you are going to pick only one thing to do in your Christian walk let it be this: Obey God in each moment.

The Bible is brimming with examples of ordinary, broken, fallen and even rotten people that God used to accomplish His divine  purposes. God specializes in using the underdog (1 Corinthians 1:27), so be of good cheer.

If you’re not the underdog, don’t fear, God can use you too! Your task is this: Obey God in each moment.

~Ben

I’m sure, when her day started, the farthest thing from Jael’s mind was driving a tent stake through some bad guy’s head.  Life doesn’t always go as planned, though, does it?  We’ll probably  never have to do what Jael had to do, but life interrupts.  Take a moment and jot down a few instances of when life didn’t go the way you planned:

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Jeremiah 4:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Notice it doesn’t say God knows the plans you have for you.  How does God want us to live our lives?  What plans does God have for us?  How does God want us to engage the culture and live out our faith in a sinful and fallen world?

You won’t know the answer to these questions unless you spend time in God’s Word.  It’s best to do this with others.  But however you do it, pick a book of the Bible and start reading it.  Bring two questions to what you’re reading:  {1} What did this text mean in its original context?  {2} What does this text mean for our lives  today?  Start doing that, and you’re on your way to understanding God’s plans for your life.

As you end your time in prayer, ask God to help you live with Him and surrender to Him.  As always, ask it in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Be of Good Cheer,

Richard

           Take some time, thumb through any of the gospels, and see how long it takes to find a teaching of Jesus or an encounter Jesus has with someone where he drives home the point of selflessness or servanthood or helping someone in need.  It shouldn’t take you long.  Go ahead, start looking…I’ll wait.

Now, a quick question – what’s the first thing that pops into your head when I ask, “The Church exists to…”  Was your first thought inward directed or outward directed?  Which best describes your attitude:

The Church is here to meet my needs or

I exist to serve others?

How you answer that question will help you understand where you are in your walk with Jesus Christ.  God’s Word tells the story of how He calls His creatures to think beyond themselves.  Now that is counter-cultural.

Spend a few minutes listing ways you can serve others.   Perhaps helping with Awana, or God’s Bread Basket, or Care  Pregnancy Center, or some outreach or ministry you’ve always dreamed of starting:

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Jesus says our will only be rich in meaning, purpose, and satisfaction if we care more about the well-being of our neighbor than we do about our own natural impulses to feel dominant, maximally safe, and ever more comfortable.

 ~Richard

If you spend your life going on about how you know Jesus and even do wonderful things in His name it will do you no good come the day of judgment if you have no relationship with Him.  If, however, you spend your life developing a relationship with Jesus based on God’s Word, regardless of what you do or don’t accomplish in His name, Judgment Day will find you being welcomed into glory like royalty as Jesus Christ Himself stands in your defense.  (Romans 8:34)

It is this relationship with Christ (John 14:6), bolstered by the truth He gives us in His Word (Matthew 6:25-34) that allows us to live each day as an exciting adventure with our last day on earth being the most exciting of all.  Take the time now, today, to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ so that you may enjoy tomorrow resting in His presence.

1. Exploring Christ – Believe in God but not sure about Jesus.

2. Growing in Christ – Believe in Jesus and working on what it means to know Him.

3. Close to Christ – Close to Christ and depend on Him daily.

4. Christ-Centered – Jesus is preeminent in your life.

Think about where you are on this continuum.  It is important to speak to people at all stages.  And it’s of equal importance for us all to be helping each other grow in our     relationship with Christ.  How do you encourage others?  Are you a gracious presence in other people’s lives?

John Piper has said:

“What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ.”

What did Jesus do?  Jesus didn’t come to make us better people.  Jesus died on the cross for our forgiveness and He is our exalted Lord.  We tell people to be nice because Jesus was nice…sweet because Jesus was sweet…good because Jesus was good, and so on.  But we could substitute “Mother Theresa” for Jesus and end up with the same message.

Our problem is sin and only Jesus can address it.  Did you know there are preachers who flat out won’t talk about sin because it hurts people’s feelings?  How much and how often should we talk about sin?

How do we shift the focus from our awesomeness to the glories of Christ?

Thought for the week:

Inspiration sells…but only Jesus transforms

In the love of Christ,

Richard