Category Archives: Struggles

Daily Struggles of Life, Divorce, Healing, Marriage, Prayer, Reconciliation, Repentance, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, Struggles

Holding the Ropes

Posted by admin on August 21, 2010 at 10:34 am.

And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ (Eph 1:9).

 

                Some friends of mine are struggling in their marriage, and there is a possibility of divorce. It is a stain upon the God that we believe in and Who revealed Himself in Christ that Christian people get divorced. Just like the four men that lowered their paralytic friend to Jesus in Mark 2, I am going to “hold the ropes” for my friends and call upon God to bring real healing and reconciliation. After all, the whole purpose that He came was to reconcile men to God and each other (Eph 2:14-18). To that end, I am praying through the book of Ephesians for them, confident that since the Scriptures are His revealed Truth, He is more likely to answer prayers based upon them than those that are based just simply on my own ideas.

 

                The verse above guides my prayer today. First, I want God to reveal “the mystery of His will” to them. While He has made it known in some ways, my friends haven’t fully grasped that His will is reconciled relationships. The reconciliation that we enjoy with God through Christ is to be extended to human relationships as well. Just as we necessarily must be humble in our dealings with God the Father, so we must exhibit humility in our human relationships as well. When there is the threat of divorce, someone, at least, is allowing pride and self to govern their lives.

 

                The second aspect of my prayer is that they would realize the purpose God has for their lives. He brought them together; they recognized that it was His will that they marry; and they vowed before Him to stay together through all of life’s troubles. Now they think they want to renege on that vow. Is God’s purpose for our lives something that changes with every whim of emotion? Certainly not, but their children might think so if Satan wins this and they divorce.

 

                Now, divorce is not the ultimate or unforgivable sin. But it is a concession to our weakness and not His perfect plan. And since it is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church, Satan delights to step in and suggest that our Lord is not Who He claims to be when He can’t keep His own children together in a covenant of marriage.

 

                I have no guarantee that these friends won’t divorce, but I can’t let Satan win without a fight. Perhaps a key to their reconciliation will be when they realize His larger plan and purpose for their lives. Tomorrow, I’ll read further in Ephesians and pray about the ideas that are included in the next few verses of the text. Perhaps you would join me…  

Bewilderment, Daily Struggles of Life, Doubt, God's care, God's goodness, Humility, Perseverance, Prayer, Psalms, Scripture, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

The Trust Fund

Posted by admin on August 18, 2010 at 4:06 pm.

 

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you (Ps 31:19).

 

                Unanswered prayer is the grief of many Christians today. There are usually no answers to the questions of “Why does He delay to answer me? Doesn’t He see how much I am suffering?”

 

                As one who has wrestled with these questions many times, I have taken great comfort in Psalm 31:19. It seems that the Lord has a “savings account” of His goodness toward me that I will one day be able to cash in. Perhaps a better illustration would be a “trust fund,” because it is an account that cannot be drawn from whenever I would like. Someone else determines when I will receive it.

 

                To access this “trust fund” of God’s goodness to me I must exercise the same kind of faith that a child with a financial trust fund would exercise. It is only a matter of time before I will receive my store of God’s blessing. I must trust that the Word of the One that is managing this fund is true. The only difference is that the time for me is uncertain while the child will know when his inheritance will be given to him.

 

                While I am waiting for the display of His goodness the verse tells me the two things I must continue to do: fear Him and take refuge in Him. These are not passive, but active verbs. “Fear” carries the idea of seeking Him wholeheartedly, rather than in just a perfunctory way. “Taking refuge in Him” is an admission of our own weakness and inadequacy.

 

                Some believe that this verse suggests that the display of God’s goodness to us will be apparent to all at the Judgment, but my opinion is that the phrase, “in the sight of men,” is that it will be here on earth, just at a later time. David had earlier stated, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Ps 27:13).

 

                The Lord has His goodness in store for those who trust Him. We don’t always understand why He tells us that we must wait, and it sometimes distresses us when people around us are looking for external evidence of His reality, but He has His purposes, and those purposes are perfect.

 

                Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

                Stoop to my weakness mighty as Thou art, And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

 

                Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh; Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear:

                To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh, Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

(George Croly, 1780-1860)

God's Standard, God's people, Maturity, Promise, Scripture, Struggles, Truth, Walk with Jesus

The Anchor

Posted by admin on August 4, 2010 at 2:22 pm.

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near (Rev 1:3).

Theologians and Bible teachers have debated for centuries what “this prophecy” refers to. Does John promise blessing for reading the twenty-two chapters of the Book of Revelation or is the blessing for those who read the whole of the Scripture? We won’t resolve this debate in this blog, but we will testify to the blessing that reading either this book or the whole of the Scripture brings.

For more than 30 years I have been committed to reading the Bible, cover to cover, each year. It started with merely reading five minutes a day. My reasoning went something like this, “If God created me and has a purpose for my life, should I not set apart – at a minimum – five minutes each day to listen to Him?” Certainly He deserves much more than a mere five minutes, but since I could not predict how my life would go and what demands would be placed upon it over the course of time, I vowed only to this small amount. Still, that vow has kept me in the Scripture daily – usually for more than five minutes. On the rare occasion when I have failed, I have been conscious that the Holy Spirit has awakened me – sometimes from a very deep sleep – and has prompted me to fulfill my vow.

This vow to read the Word has created stability in my life like nothing else could. It has comforted me in trying times; it has reminded me of the Source of every blessing when times have been good, keeping me from thinking too highly of myself. When the world around me has been uncertain, whether due to politics, economics or personal loss, the Word has brought assurance that it will remain and that He is my refuge.

This vow has also brought real direction to me over the years. It has been – in the words of David – “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). There have been many times when my daily reading schedule has brought me to a passage of Scripture that was clear direction for that moment, if not that day. Most of these have not been profound, out-of-body experiences, but the quiet confidence that I had heard from God.

Whether you regularly read all sixty-six books or just the last one, John’s promise is true – you will be blessed. Nothing can be an anchor to our lives like reading this Book.

Daily Struggles of Life, Prayer, Purpose, Scripture, Struggles, hardship

Prayer’s Content

Posted by admin on June 3, 2010 at 10:18 am.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:16-19).

                Prior to almost any group session of prayer, it is the usual custom to ask the group for specific requests that should be prayed for. Typically these requests include a relative’s minor physical ailment or an acquaintance or family member that has become involved with a vice of some sort. There is nothing wrong with praying for these things. God is concerned for every care that weighs down our hearts.

                But when we read the New Testament we see a completely different content to Paul’s prayers than ours. The prayer quoted above (and it is representative of many others) is not concerned with relieving the temporal physical needs of individuals. Paul seemed to know that if his Ephesian friends understood how great is the God we serve, the minor physical needs would take care of themselves. The goal of his prayer seems to be closer to the formation of the likeness of Christ in his friends than it is to the relief of some physical pain.

                Now we all understand that there are times when a physical malady inhibits our service to Christ, so it is appropriate to pray about that physical malady. But why not rather make the focus of our prayer to be the restoration to fruitful service or to the accomplishment of the internal qualities that God may be seeking to develop rather than simply the relief from physical suffering?  An outsider might properly get the impression that our first and foremost concern is freedom from pain and difficulty. This was not the kind of prayer that Paul modeled for us in the New Testament.

                Here’s a challenge: identify an individual for whom you regularly pray. Then find a passage of Scripture that describes what you think God wants to accomplish in that person’s life. For example, since I want my son to take the Truth he has been taught and apply it more fervently to his life, I pray “that the eyes of his heart be enlightened that he may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18-19).

Each day as you pray for him/her, remind God of His own Word. By the end of a week you will have accomplished two things: (1) you will have prayed for your friend about what God Himself says He wants accomplished, and (2) you will have memorized a passage of Scripture.

9-11, BP Oil Spill, Christian, God's people, Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katrina, Matthew 5:45, Samaritan's Purse, Struggles, The Christian & Misisonary Alliance, Why does God Allow bad things?, hardship

God’s Care Amid Trouble

Posted by admin on June 1, 2010 at 11:56 am.

He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:45).

                Disastrous events like Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico typically cause people to question the goodness of God. Why does He allow these things? Why doesn’t He intervene? Isn’t He interested?

                These kinds of disasters often evoke warnings of judgment from God by the nation’s prophets, just as were heard after 9-11. Their warnings were true, though the men themselves were rebuked for not being “politically correct.”

Most of the disasters that confront us afflict the godly as well as the ungodly, largely because the proof of our faith as believers is in how we respond in times of adversity. If believing in Christ shielded us from pain and trouble, how would we know in ourselves whether our trust in Him was because we loved Him or whether it was because He provided for us? He who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12) would know, but we could never be sure.

Another reason that disasters afflict us all is that they give opportunity for God’s people to demonstrate His care to a world that denies His existence. Most unbelievers strut about imagining their invincibility until a force against which they are powerless suddenly emerges. Then they are confronted with their own mortality, or at least their own impotence, and their minds suddenly must try to make sense of the whole of life. That is when they are able to listen to His voice.

Wisely, therefore, my church – the Christian & Missionary Alliance – has a relief arm to its ministries that arrives in the aftermath of a disaster to give aid to the people. The assistance is offered to all freely (though it is usually dispensed through the local church) as a way of demonstrating the love of God for hurting people. Following the Tsunami disaster of 2004, the Muslims went into the westernmost island of Indonesia – Sumatra – and immediately rebuilt the mosques that were destroyed. But Christians – including the Alliance and Samaritan’s Purse – went in and built boats to restore the fishing industry that is the lifeblood of that region. Their concern was for their religion; ours – and God’s – was for the people.

Daily Struggles of Life, Death, Discipleship, Humiliation, Perseverance, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

A Choice Group

Posted by admin on May 18, 2010 at 4:48 pm.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world (1 Cor 4:8-13).

                It’s no wonder that there is a high dropout rate among people in ministry, if this is what we can expect! The consolation, of course, is that the retirement is “out of this world!”

                The United States Marine Corps calls their people, “The few, the proud, the marines!” because they are an elite group. They don’t mind a high dropout rate because those that do stick are choice men and women. There is a character about them that nothing but hardship can create. It is what makes them elite; it is what gives them confidence in each other in tough times; it is what makes them valuable to our nation.

                But as impressive as the military is, the character that has been tested by the hardships of ministry is even more so. The New Testament describes these as “men of whom the world is not worthy” (Heb 11:38). They are humble because they have been humbled; they endure because their eyes are fixed on the One who endured for them. They are not all impressive by the standards of this world; indeed, there were not many “wise…influential… [or] noble” (1 Cor 1: 26), but there is a quality about them that makes them precious to the Church and to her Lord. He can rely upon them to represent His interests before a watching world. And He will one day reward their faithfulness, whether or not it receives the applause of men.

                The famous words of Theodore Roosevelt apply to these people: “The credit belongs to the man in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Daily Struggles of Life, Decisions, Repentance, Restoration, Struggles, Suffering

A Jewel for His Glory

Posted by admin on May 2, 2010 at 7:09 pm.

 

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will (Eph 1:11).

                A seminar speaker once made the observation that the foolish decisions that we make are not completely irreversible. We can always repent and turn from our wrong ways and be restored. Even when those decisions have consequences that cannot be reversed, God is always in the restoration business.

                He made his point by using the idea that we are like a diamond in the rough. God’s perfect design might be that we would be a large diamond for His glory and praise. His hands hold the hammer and chisel, but if in our sinfulness we make a decision at the wrong time (that is, we move while He is preparing to remove some impurity), He can still make a perfect diamond from our lives – just a bit smaller.

                We will never be able to re-visit the decisions in our lives to find out what might have happened. Those things are sealed in the mind of God, but His purpose and plan are never out of reach, never beyond His ability to restore. He is able to re-convene the circumstances of our lives to accomplish what He desires.

But restoration is a function of a tender, repentant spirit. He will be first in our lives and He will test His place there by the decisions that we make. If we persist in a spirit of stubborn willfulness – rebellion – He will “tighten the screws” to make us realize that rebellion, and the consequences will be increasingly severe until we repent. There are times – documented – when He removes people because they persist in their rebellion. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) and the sinful man of I Corinthians 5 (potentially) were such cases, but there are many more apart from the text of Scripture.

No one is beyond restoration; no one has so fully rebelled that God is unable to make a perfectly faceted jewel from his life. But the key to the “size” of that jewel is our repentant spirit.

Church Today, Daily Struggles of Life, Pain, Struggles, Suffering, Training, hardship

Basic Training

Posted by admin on April 4, 2010 at 8:14 am.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9

                For the past few days I have not had the opportunity to write because I have been away from home at my son’s graduation from Basic Military Training (BMT). He is now an Airman in the USAF. We are very proud of him.

                One of his buddies joined us for lunch one day just after a ceremony because his family had not yet arrived. As we talked about the BMT experience, he told us that there was one day, about 2-3 weeks into the training, that things got so bad that he had to duck into the latrine to keep from crying and giving up. The comment was made in our conversation that everyone reaches that place in any significant endeavor. I thought to myself, “How true…how many times I have ‘ducked into the latrine’ myself to keep people from seeing that I was ready to give up ministry.”

                The verse above is only representative of the thrust of much of the Scripture, encouraging us to press on despite adversity. Adversity tests our resolve; it helps us understand our true motives, some of which would not really be known without the trial.

We in the human race are very adept at deceiving ourselves. God, of course, sees our true motives, but often we sugar-coat our attitudes with noble thoughts of how good and pure we are. NOT! Trial helps us see ourselves for who we are. Jeremiah was right when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9).

The USAF (and the military as a whole) has always understood the necessity of BMT. My son understood going in that the purpose of these two months would be for the Training Instructor to “get into his head.” God wants to do the same.

Daily Struggles of Life, Maturity, Pain, Perseverance, Prayer, Purpose, Struggles, hardship

Never Give up

Posted by admin on March 8, 2010 at 9:08 am.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

                One of the most famous speeches that Winston Churchill ever delivered was given, as I understand it, after WWII. Churchill was the Prime Minister of England who stood up to Adolf Hitler, instead of giving in to the “peace in our time” policy of his predecessor. In this famous speech, he came to the podium and simply said, “Never… Never… Never give up.” Then he sat down.

Whether my memory of this speech is exactly accurate or not, it is the same theme that Jesus had in His parable in Luke 18. I admit to you that I don’t understand why prayer often seems to go unanswered, but the reason is not the apathy of the God we serve. Neither is it that He is too busy or that He has forgotten us. As best I can understand, it has something to do with the work He is trying to accomplish in me.

Unlike parents whose job it is to give their children “roots and wings,” maturity in Christ involves an increasing dependence upon Him for every need we have. The more we are conscious of our need, the greater will be the glory He will receive when He answers our prayer. It was not a failure on God’s part that Abraham and Sarah were barren up to her 90th birthday; it was not an oversight that Moses found himself between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army; it wasn’t because God didn’t care that Jehoshaphat the king found himself threatened by a vast army; and it wasn’t because God had overlooked something that Hezekiah faced impending destruction at the hands of the Assyrian army. Each of these events – and many more – became an occasion for the Sovereign King to show the glory of His power before a watching world. Each of the human characters found himself in an acutely uncomfortable position, but they had surrendered themselves to His purposes and to live for His honor.

This is what Jesus tells us we need to do as well – never give up. We are to recognize that unless He delivers us, we are lost; unless He intervenes, we have no hope. Though this position is exceedingly uncomfortable, our comfort is not His primary concern, and should not be ours either. We are here to glorify God – to demonstrate the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His light. And if we die in the process – either figuratively or literally – our reward will be that much greater.

Jesus' Teachings, Messiah, Pain, Scripture, Sin, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

Hang on Jesus’ Words

Posted by admin on March 5, 2010 at 5:20 pm.

Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. Luke 19:47-48

                Things certainly are different in our day! Today we ignore, rather than “hang on to,” His words. The difference between the response in the time of Jesus and our own is not a matter of the delivery because the Holy Spirit has breathed life into the words of Scripture just as the breath of Jesus carried them through His lips. It is also not because men are innately different today than in that day. I would suggest that the reason we don’t hang on Jesus’ words because we don’t have the motivation that they had in the time of Jesus.

                The people of Jesus’ day were looking for a Messiah, a deliverer. They were oppressed by an authoritarian political regime that didn’t care about their Jewish laws and practices. Rather than being the head, they were the tail (see Deut. 28:13-14) because they had not paid attention to the Lord’s commands. His judgment upon them had led to their subservient position.

                People in America today – even Christians – are not looking for a Messiah, at least not a Messiah like Jesus. We are too comfortable in our position on top of the world. When our bank accounts run dry, when our health gives out, when our families decide to blow us off, then we’ll hang on Jesus’ words. But probably not before, unless we have been trained well (and sometimes, not even then!).

                I’m glad that the Church can be there when life happens for people in our world, but the truth is that the fix is not an easy one. It’s always simpler to get into trouble than to get out of it, because the source of that trouble is always sin. Sometimes it’s the original sin that plagues all mankind on this side of heaven, sometimes it is a specific sin that has led to our circumstances. But either way, the remedy is Jesus – His death for us or His words to us.

                I am very thankful for the easy life God has blessed us with in America with our many freedoms and creature comforts and I recognize their Source, but I fear that unless we wake up and hang on his words again like our Founding Fathers did, we’ll repeat the cycle that plagued the Jewish people.