Category Archives: Pain

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.

Christ's afflictions, Daily Struggles of Life, Pain, Struggles, Suffering

The Fellowship of His Sufferings

Posted by admin on February 17, 2010 at 4:54 pm.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings (Phil 3:10).

                C.S. Lewis wrote that “Pain is God’s megaphone.” In other words, it is often how He gets our attention. Sometimes pain is the natural consequence of our sin; sometimes it is the indirect result of the original sin that grips the whole human race; sometimes it is a test of the enemy of our souls; and sometimes it is the privilege of the believer to share in the sufferings of Jesus.

                The concept that we as Christians would experience pain and suffering willingly in order to know Him better is foreign to us in Western Christianity in this era. Even though we may reject the “health and prosperity” teaching that is popular in some corners of Christendom, most of us still believe deep down that if we please God He will make us happy and satisfied. We can’t understand why he doesn’t make us “successful” if we really are pleasing to Him.

                But this world stands opposed to God’s Truth, and if I am on His side, why should I expect to be popular and successful according to the world’s system? According to Jesus, God’s system says I am successful if men reject me because I follow Him (see Matt. 5:11). Shouldn’t I expect to be treated as He was and is treated by this world? Shouldn’t I be willing to endure the pain of rejection that He bore, if I am “in Christ”?

                The old hymnist, Isaac Watts, had it right:

               

                Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb

                And shall I fear to own His cause Or blush to speak His name?

 

                Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease

                While others fight to win the prize And sail through bloody seas?

 

                Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?

                Is this vile world a friend to grace To help me on to God?

 

Since I must fight if I would reign, Increase my courage, Lord.

I’ll bear the cross, endure the pain, supported by Thy Word.