- Uses Maria as an example:
- Beautiful wife of a close friend of his who was ravaged by cancer and died 1 year after their marriage
- Reads Maria’s last diary entry: “God I don’t understand, but I love you and I trust you. Don’t let me let you down in this battle. Help me Lord to be what you want me to be in this. To learn what you want me to learn in this – not to waste this experience, but to show the reality of knowing you.”
Archive for the Trials and Suffering Category
TFL: “Father’s Discipline, Part 2″ ***
Posted in Trials and Suffering with tags Discipline on January 11, 2008 by HarryTFL: “The Father’s Discipline, Part A” *****
Posted in * Favorites, Bible, Trials and Suffering with tags Discipline on January 10, 2008 by Harry- Hebrews 12:5-11
- 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:”My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”[a] 7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
- Anybody who sell Christianity as “some kind of soft soup wishy-wasy journey for mamby pamby nitwits” doesn’t have a bible in front of them
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- Because it will take everything in you as a man to live for Jesus Christ and it will take the striving of every fiber within you to resist the influences of those around you who mock us in our day who deny the truths of God’s word
- There is a struggle
- By our bibles we are given the map and food for our journey
- If God were to simply give us whatever we wanted then we would be lost
- God uses discipline to mold us into better followers
- We want to me strong without doing the exercise
- We want soft and tender eyes without experiencing that which makes us cry and weep and breaks our hearts
- We want to minister to others out of the fullness of our experience but we do not want the fullness of experience which allows us to minister
- The privilege of discipline
- God is treating us as sons and daughters
TFL: "My Times Are In Your Hands, Part 2, A"
Posted in Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering on December 19, 2007 by Harry“My Times Are In Your Hands”
- Psalm 31:15 (New International Version)
- 15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies, and from those who pursue me.
- The way a believer understands the passing of time and the world
- This is the affirmation of the person who knows himself or herself to be, despite the despair and disasters of this world, under the care of almighty God
- Nine things emerge from this simple statement (continued on next talk)
1. We are not trapped in the grip of blind forces
2. We are not tossed around in a sea of chance
3. We are being trained in the school of God’s providence- Continued exercise of God’s energy
- Whereby the creator preserves all creatures and is operative in all that comes to pass in the world and directs according all things to their appointed end
4. Prosperity should not be the occasion of pride
5. Uncertainty should not be the occasion of panic
6. Adversity must not become the occasion of self-pity
TFL: "My Times Are In Your Hands" ****
Posted in Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering on December 17, 2007 by Harry“My Times Are In Your Hands”
- Psalm 31:15 (New International Version)
- 15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies, and from those who pursue me.
- The way a believer understands the passing of time and the world
- This is the affirmation of the person who knows himself or herself to be, despite the despair and disasters of this world, under the care of almighty God
- Nine things emerge from this simple statement (continued on next talk)
TFL: "Christians grieve too, part B" **
Posted in Trials and Suffering on December 14, 2007 by Harry- About loss and grieving
LTW: "the Good Side of Discontentment" ** not archived
Posted in Envy, Trials and Suffering with tags Materialism on December 10, 2007 by Harry- Not all discontentment is mad
- Discontentment in our walk, prayer life, etc lead us to improve in these areas
- 10th commandment: covetousness
- Craving for what someone else has
- CD’s”
- Covetousness is deceptive
- Contentment is delightful
- If your values are based on material things, there will always be something better
- Playing the comparison game leads to misery
- 2 ways to react to a roadblock, ie there is an opportunity for two blessings:
- Opportunity for God to show only He can fill the void in my life
- Opportunity to place our trust in God
- Do not waste our pain and suffering , learn from them
- God wants us to be successful, but if it is our only aim in life, when we get there, we will not be satisfied
Manna: “Extracting the Precious from the Vile” **
Posted in Discontentment, Trials and Suffering with tags Complaining on December 9, 2007 by Harry- “Complaining kills our faith”
- Perspective -> Emotions -> Mouth
- Once our moth gets involved, our course is set
- We remove God from the equation
- With our mouth we set a course to follow our negative expectation
- Jeremiah
- Called as a prophet while a teenager
- Called to the southern tribes
- Never had one convert (no Jew repented)
- His second book was the book of lamentations
He began to complain:
- Jer 15:19
- Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.
1. Jeremiah had to repent
- Negativity is a sin, as complaining is a sin; we remove God from the equation
2. Before me you shall stand
- Lord says return to me and I shall restore you
- We want God close during hardships
- Yet by our negativity we run Him off
3. Lord did not say He will remove his troubles
- He tells Jeremiah there is always something from Me in every circumstance
- You will never find God if your mouth sets a negative course
- Complaining and negativity is the language of darkness
- Faith finds God in dark places
TFL: "Good News, Bad News, Part A" **
Posted in Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering, Trust, Weaknesses, Will - God's, Will - Our with tags Knowledge on November 29, 2007 by HarryWhen you suffer unjustly:
- Do not be suprised.
- Do not be mistaken that all will be well if we give our lives to Jesus
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
- “28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
TFL: "When Trials Come, Part 1, B" *****
Posted in * Favorites, Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering, Trust, Weaknesses, Will - God's, Will - Our with tags Knowledge on November 28, 2007 by Harry- Knowledge over feelings
- What is this knowledge?
- God’s Providence
- We know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
“28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
- We cannot accept trials for their own sake as a source of joy
- Trials are painful, but may become the occasions of joy if we respond from the right perspective
- Unless we think correctly we cannot respond properly
- Paul in Romans – transform your minds
- Romans 12:2 (New International Version)
- “2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
- Society teaches us to think that when we do not have trials then we have joy and so if we spend all our time removing trials, then we will have joy
- James says the opposite
- Now this is difficult, but God would not ask it if it were not attainable
- Gold will provide for us and is willing to do so
- Trials are inevitable, they are not unusual
- Jesus said “in the world we will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.
- John 16:33
- 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will[d] have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Why are there trials, a few reasons are offered:
- Faith rationalization
- We are unfit for heaven and by Jesus’s death on the cross he has made heaven available to us
- So that we may trust unreservedly in Him
- Trials are the means by which our faith is tested
- Is our faith genuine?
- It is easy to be faithful when everything is going “rosey-posey”
- It is when the wheels come off then we discover if our faith is genuine
- Is our faith growing?
- Perseverance
- By the means of the testing we develop staying power
- God knows how much we can take
- We are forced to learn in practice what we know in principle
- Look into the eyes of a person with soft eyes, ie a caring grandmother or a sensitive youth and you can guarantee they did not come to that point without persevering trials
- Perseverance when it finishes, renders as its product: maturity, completion, and lacking nothing
- We do not get the crown without perseverance
- We become mature, like Jesus through this process
- Trials are part of God’s program to make us more like Christ.
- Puritan writer:
- “The winds of tribulation blow away the chaff of error, hypocrisy, and doubt, leaving the element of Christian character.”
- More progress is made through disappointment and tears than laughter
- Spurgeon:
- “Look at the weather beaten sailor and he would not have gotten toughness if he stayed on the shore.”
- “You may go to school, but you cannot learn endurance there.”
- If we believe all this then it will dramatically affect how we respond to trials
- Trials hurt and may panic us, but we consider them pure joy because endurance and sacred toughness come down that road and not down the road of easiness.
- If we lack wisdom, ie if none of this makes sense, then ask God and He will get us sorted out -> PRAY
- It is a supernatural response that James prescribes and without God’s intervention, ie the Spirit’s power, we will never even come close to realizing it.
TFL: "When Trials Come, Part 1, A" *****
Posted in * Favorites, Faith, Trials and Suffering with tags Knowledge on November 28, 2007 by Harry- James is written to show believers how to live in the world
- The Christian experience is not revealed in a far off heavenly place, but it is revealed in the rough and tumble of everyday life
- Our lives are crowded in upon by trials and tribulations
- We are not yet in heaven
- Tears, doubts, trials, etc will come upon us
- There is no exemption
- One of greatest illusions of life is to look to another person and wish we were them
- James says have joy in trials – why?
- Because you know (see below)
- Bring how we feel under the dictate of what we know
- Knowledge over feelings not feelings over knowledge
- People are so used to the Christian success story
- 14:36 Christianity is a big cover up
- We all have wheel barrels full of sorrow, trials, and tribulations
- What do we know
- Testing of faith produces perseverance: Faith itself does not
- Just like a muscle, if not stressed, faith too will atrophy
- In shunning trials, we shun blessings
- Perseverance produces maturity
- In the creed we say we believe in the father, but we don’t really know we believe until everything collapses
- Until the day it appears He has left us, until the day it seems He does not even hear our prayers, let alone answer them
TFL: "God’s Faithfullness in Affliction, Part B" ***
Posted in Trials and Suffering on November 28, 2007 by Harry- Start at 27:00
- God chooses to use suffering to develop perseverance
- God uses sufferings to bring us to maturity
- James 1
- In suffering Jesus perfected the visibility of His humanity
- In shunning trials, we miss blessings
- We should not run from things God uses to fashion us according to the image of His son
- “Father knows best”
- Suffering ensures our sonship
- Romans 8,17
- Share in His sufferings and share in His glory
- Every son the father loves, He disciplines
- God uses suffering to prove the genuineness o our faith
- Deuteronomy 8
- 1 Peter
- To develop in us humility
- 2 Cor 12
- To keep us on track
- Sam 19:167
- Proverbs 3: 11
- To deepen our insight into the heart of God
- Opening chapters of Hosaih
- To enable us to help others in their trials
- Sometimes we should not speak when someone is suffering because we do not have “soft eyes”
- ie, we cannot appreciate the extent of their affliction
- God reveals what we really love
- Example of a softball player developing a brain tumor
- In order that we may display God’s glory
- We do not seek suffering
- We do not become monastic
- This externalism does not transform the soul
TFL: "God’s Faithfullness in Affliction, Part A" ***
Posted in Trials and Suffering on November 27, 2007 by Harry- Suffering does exist and it does hurt
- Laws of physical nature and being human are not suspended for the redeemed
- Suffering comes in many different ways
- Even a human lifetime is nothing in terms of eternal life
- Suffering is limited in its timeframe
- God is always with us through suffering
- “Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
- Suffering in of itself does not lead to a deeper relationship with God, but it may
- God is glorified in the death of His saints (ie, believers)
TFL: "Why Suffering, Part A ** and B ****"
Posted in * Favorites, Trials and Suffering on November 26, 2007 by Harry- 18:10 Part A
- Please see 8/12/08 entry for Part B discussion
2 Cor 4:16-18
Posted in Perseverance, Trials and Suffering on November 21, 2007 by Harry16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
