Open Hands - Relinquishment - Part 4

Relinquishment is always a part of the process of maturing.   When Christian parents have done all that can be done to shape their children for God, the time comes when the hands must let go.  The child, now a responsible adult, must be released.  For any parent this is painful, even when the child is moving in the direction the parents prayed for.  The child's continued development, and the spiritual health of the parents as well, depend on the willingness to accept this next stage of the cycle -- hands off, ready to part without a struggle, giving up authority and control, entrusting that child to God.

When, on the other hand, the child has obviously rejected what the parents have taught, the severing is painful in the extreme.  All has been done that could be done and all has been done in vain.  Nevertheless the time comes to let go, as it came for the father of the prodigal when he turned his wayward son over to God.  He must have foreseen the direction he would take, but he prayed for him and waited every day for his return.  God cared for that young man as the father could never have done, brought him to bankruptcy (another severe mercy), and returned him to his father, repentant and willing even to be a mere servant. 

It is merciful Father who strips us when we need to be stripped, as the tree needs to be stripped of its blossoms.  He is not finished with us yet, whatever the loss we suffer, for as we loose our hold on visible things, the invisible become more precious --where our treasure is, there will our hearts be.

He may be asking us to sell a much-loved house, to part with material things we no longer need (someone else may need them), to retire from a position in which we feel ourselves irreplaceable, to turn over to Him fears which hold us in bondage, forms of self-improvement or recreation or social life which hinder obedience. 

"Does all this seem hard?" asks Lilias Trotter, "Does any soul, young in physical or in spiritual life, shrink back and say, 'I would rather remain in the springtime -- I do not want to reach utnot he things that are before if it means all this matter of pain and dying.'

"To such comes the Master's voice, 'Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer' (Rv 2:10,).  You are right to be glad in His April days while He gives them.  Every stage of the heavenly growth in us is lovely to Him; He is the God of the daisies and the lambs and the merry child hearts!"

Open Hands - Part 3

We are not told that we must go out looking for suffering.  It will come in God's time, int eh measure He meets out.  We must hear the call (He calls His sheep by name) and we must answer, even if it means taking a solitary way, misunderstood and even scorned by others of the same flock.  We will then find our chance to know Him, to reproduce the pattern as He relinquished His hold on all that was His, emptied Himself to share our lives, came to earth where even His own did not receive Him, and was finally obedient even to the point of death.

Why this waste ---of His perfectly pure life?

So that through death he might break the power of him who had death at his command, that is, the devil; and might liberate those who, through fear of death, had all their lifetime been in servitude.  It is not angels, mark you, that he takes to himself, but the sons of Abraham.  And therefore he had to be made like these brothers of his in every way, so that he might be merciful and faithful as their high priest before God, to expiate the sins of the people.  For since he himself has passed through the test of suffering, he is able to help those who are meeting their test now.  (Hebrews 2:14-18).

Whatever today's test may be, through accident, physical disability, our own mistakes or failures or disobedience, perhaps the hostility of others, He is able to help us meet our test.  He was made like us.  He had to be in order to die.  He had to die in order to break death's power.  His was a surrender, not to a fate He could not avoid, but to His Father.  When we open our lives to the will of the Father, we enter into that same mystery.  It is true that Jesus was put into the hands of evil men.  There are times when following Him means just that, as it has in a radical and costly way.... for a numberless others in the history of the church who have been imprisoned or killed for their faith.  It is not the external circumstances themselves that enable us to reproduce the pattern of His death, but our willingness to accept the circumstances for His sake.

Open Hands - Part 2

Joan Andrews is an example of the cost of an utter "unclasping" of one's own rights and privileges.  The call --Will you do this one thing for Me? -- comes to each of us in some form.  The thing required may be severely criticized, as Joan's stance has been.

Often the things which are taking place in the spiritual life are hidden to all but the eye of God, while the outward appearance seems nothing but unnecessary waste.  The judge who imposed Joan Andrews's sentence said, "It's a shame Miss Andrews has chosen to waste her life in prison instead of accomplishing something."  He could not fathom her regarding it as a privilege, as the apostles also did, to suffer shame for the name of Christ.  Paul even called it a happiness.  Joan had not chosen to waste her life but to spend it for her Master -- a very different thing, frequently misinterpreted.  She unclasped her hands utterly, "past all power of closing again," and there she sits in a cell, praying, singing, writing her letters, encouraging and ministering to other prisoners (even in solitary she was able to read her Bible to the girl int he next cell).

This is what it means to be a witness --to live the life of sacrificial love, a life which makes no sense whatsoever if this world is all there is.

Often there seems to be no visible reason for our having to let go.  But life, our spiritual life in Christ, depends on it.  The life-out-of-death cycle must proceed.

There are many voices to advocate escape from suffering through drugs, divorce, abortion, euthanasia, suicide.  "How far we are,"writes a friend of mine, "from saying with St. Paul, 'All I care for is to know Christ, to experience the power of his resurrection (no problem there) and to share his sufferings, in growing conformity with his death'" (Phil 3:10).

Eternal life means knowing God.  All our life on earth is designed to facilitate that.  But knowing Him must include sharing His sufferings by reproducing the pattern of His death.  Instead of seeking first for escape from suffering, the soul hungry to know Christ will seek in it the means to know Him better.  Our human nature would look first for someone to blame, and focus its responses on that person.  The spiritual mind looks first to God, "Teach me Thy way."  The rest can wait.

A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot

Open Hands - Part 1

Open hands should characterize the soul's attitude toward God ---open to receive what He wants to give, open to give back what He wants to take.  Acceptance of the will of God means relinquishment of our own.  If our hands are full of our own plans, there isn't room to receive His.

I have been reading the letters of Joan Andrews, a woman willing literally to renounce her rights and her liberty for the sake of the liberation of others ---those smallest, most helpless and voiceless ones, the preborn.  She serves the pro-life cause by her willingness to be treated as the unborn are treated, rejected as they are rejected.  For her unbreakable passive resistance she was arrested more than one hundred twenty times, and finally sentenced to five years, most of it in solitary confinement.  Her letters describe prison conditions, from the almost continuous screaming and cursing, and the mental breakdowns that occur, to so small a thing as not being allowed to write a letter with a pen.  "Never thought something so little would mean so much, says Joan."

By our love and humility and gentleness this attitude of accepting injustice upon oneself for Christ will shine through to others even while we noncooperate in prison.  We 'noncooperate' in love.  In this way, for purposes of witness, of example, of purification, and thereby far from taking an easier road, we join ourselves more closely to the preborn who are abandoned by society"  (You Reject Them, You Reject Me, edited by Richard Cowden Guido, Trinity Communications, Manassas, Virginia, 1988, pp. 104f).

A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot

Spiritual Pruning - Part 3

But oh, the pain of that pruning process!  Yet the hardness is softened as we concentrate on the truth the Lord has given us:

     "If you dwell in me and my words dwell in you, ask what you will, and you shall have it.  this is my Father's glory, that you may bear fruit in plenty and so be my disciples...If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father's commands and dwell in his love."  

Pruning leads to joy.  "I have spoiken thus to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete" (John 15:7-11).

To "abide in the Vine" is to live our lives in Christ, living each event as Christ lived, in the peace of the Father's will.  There is nothing by which death can hold any of His faithful servants, either.  Settle it, once for all --we can never lose what we have offered to Christ.  We live and die in Him, and there is always the resurrection.

A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot
I highly recommend this book!  Get it today and finish this wonderful study!

Spiritual Pruning - Part 2

Vines must be pruned. This looks like a cruel business.  Perfectly good branches have to be lopped off in order for better branches to develop.  It is a necessary business, for only the well-pruned vine bears the best fruit.  The life of the vine is strengthened in one part by another part's being cut away.  The rank growth has to go and then the sun reaches places it could not reach before.  Pruning increases yield. 

When we ask for the correction of our thoughts, and all the rest, we are asking that the life of the Lord Jesus flow freely in us and develop His graces in us.  When it happens, we need to submit humbly, trusting the skill of the Gardener who prunes us with tenderness.

When a man or woman belong to God it is the hand of God at work when the pruning comes.  A life's work --what to us is a perfectly good branch, perhaps the only "important" branch --may be cut off.  The loss seems a terrible thing, a useless waste.  But whose work was it?   Jesus said God is the Gardener, the One who takes care of the vines.  The hand of the Gardener holds the knife.  It is His glory that is at stake when the best grapes are produced, so we need not think he has something personal against us, or has left us wholly to the mercy of His enemy Satan.  He is always and forever for us.

So we let go our hold of things we held very dear.  things that once were counted as gain we now count as loss, and out of what seems emptiness come beauty and richness.  "Those who receive...God's grace, and his gift of righteousness, live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).  The branches "live and reign" through the Vine.


A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot
I highly recommend this book!  Get it today and finish this wonderful study!

Spiritual Pruning - Part 1

In God's management of the affairs of men suffering is never senseless.  We can find plenty of good sense in the metaphor of pruning found in the Gospel of John.

When Jesus was about to say farewell to His disciples, He was straightforward with them about what they should expect when He was gone.  They would face much suffering.  They would be hated as He has been.  they would be persecuted.  People would follow their teaching as little as they had followed His.  They would be banned from the synagogues and even killed by those who believed that killing them was a special service to God.

It was for them to continue to work, represent Him on earth, be the very bearers of the divine life when the Word Himself was taken away.  And how would they do this?  They would have to dwell in Him-- abide, remain, make their him in, stay --sharing His life, drawing His strength.  Their relationship to Him was that of branches to a vine.  The life of the vine is the life of the branch.  It has no other life.  As long as the branch remains in the vine it is nourished.  Cut off, it dies.

"Apart from Me you can do nothing."  In the spiritual realm there is no other life but Christ's.  In Him we live.  Without Him we die.

A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot
I highly recommend this book!  Get it today and finish this wonderful study!

A Clean Severance - Part 2

From earliest memory I understood that everybody ought to love Jesus.  Then I began to hear that everybody ought to "receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior."  To the best of my understanding that is what i wanted to do, so I did it -- I asked Him to come into my heart, as I was instructed to do.  It was a once-for-all decision, and I believe He accepted the invitation and came in.  So far so good.  I was told that I was now "saved," saved by grace.  That was a gift, a free gift, from God.  Amazing.  Simply amazing that the Lord of the Universe, the One who is "the ruler over all authorities and the supreme head over all powers" (Col. 2:10), "the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters, the only source of immortality, the One who lives in unapproachable light, the One whom no mortal eye has ever seen or ever can see" (1 Tim 6:15-16) --amazing that the same One bends His ear to the prayer of a child or of a sinner of any age and, if asked, comes in and makes His home with us.  For His name is Immanuel, God with us.

How shall He be at home with us unless our lives are in harmony with His holy life?  Unless He lives His very life in us and we live our lives "in company with Him"?  Salvation means rescue fromt he pit of destruction, from the miry clay of ourselves.

So my decision to receive Him, although made only once, I must affirm in thousands of ways, through thousands of choices, for the rest of my life -- my will or His, my life (the old one) or His (the new one).  It is no to myself and yes to Him.  This continual affirmation is usually made in small things, inconveniences, unselfish giving up of preferences, yielding gracefully to the wishes of others without playing the martyr, learning to close doors quietly.  We may think of them as little "deaths."

Sin no longer holds authority, "exacting obedience to the body's desires.  You must no longer put its several parts at sin's disposal, as implements for doing wrong.  No:  put yourselves at the disposal of God as dead men raised to life; yield your bodes to him as implements for doing right; for sin shall no longer be your master, because you are no longer under law, but under the grace of God" ( Romans 6:12-14).


The further we travel on this pathway to the glory the more glorious it becomes, because we are given to understand that every glad surrender of self is merely a little death.

A Path of Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot

A Clean Severance - Part 1

In Old Testament Times suffering was seen as evil.  In the New Testament, suffering and evil are no longer identical.  Think of the shock the crowds must have felt when Jesus said that those who mourn, those who are poor and persecuted and have nothing are happy!  How could he say such things?  Only in light of another kingdom, another world, another way of seeing this world.  He came to bring life-- another kind of life altogether.  And it is in terms of that life that we must learn to look at our sufferings.  I have found it possible, when I see suffering from that perspective, wholeheartedly to accept it.  But it takes a steady fixing of my gaze on the cross.

If the cross is the place where the worst thing that could happen happened, it is also the place where the best thing that could happen happened.  Ultimate hatred and ultimate love met on those two crosspieces of wood.  Suffering and love were brought into harmony.

It was while we were still powerless to help ourselves that Jesus died for us.  It is a rare thing, as Paul points out, for anybody to die even for a good man, "but Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God's own proof of his love towards us.  And so, since we have now been justified by Christ's sacrificial death, we shall all the more certainly be saved through him from final retribution" (Romans 5:89).

To be "saved" requires a severance from the former life as clean and sharp as though made by a knife.  There must be a wall of separation between the old life and the new, a radical break.  That means death -- death to the old life, in order for the new to begin.  "We know that the man we once were has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be the slaves of sin, since a dead man is no longer answerable for his sin" (Romans 6:6-7).

This wall of separation, this barrier, is the cross.

A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot

The Discipline of Darkness, Part 2

Here's part 2 of that wonderful sermon I heard that Adrian Rogers spoke.  These are the words that spoke to me.....

Sometimes in life we come to a time of darkness when the lights go out and nothing seems to make sense. Job was so perplexed, he demanded, “God, you owe me some answers!” Although God never specifically answered Job’s questions, Job came to learn something critically important: that God alone was enough — even without the answers.

Sometimes God may put us into darkness so we’ll learn that even without the answers, He is enough. We may not be able to say that and mean it until He is all that we have.

#3: Some Things Are Seen in the Dark That Cannot Be Seen in the Light

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45:3

Sometimes the greatest treasures are discovered in the darkness. Darkness is not always the work of the evil one. It’s also one of God’s ways to teach.

Sometimes on the darkest night, the stars seem brightest. In the daylight, we may think the brightest thoughts, but at night we think the deepest thoughts.

#4: It Is Better to Lean on God in Darkness Than to Stand Alone in Man-Made Light

Isaiah 50:11 warns about lighting our own fire.  Man-made enlightenment can be deceptive.

 If we light our own fires and walk in that light, we’ll ultimately lie down in sorrow.

Abraham kindled his own fire after receiving God’s promise of a son. Tired of waiting, he produced Ishmael. Today the children of Abraham are still lying down in sorrow because of their conflict with Ishmael.

Moses received God’s promise but took things into his own hands. He became a murderer and set God’s work back forty years. Moses knew for forty years what it was to lie down in sorrow.

Simon Peter boasted that he would follow Jesus even to death. Then came dark Gethsemane. Peter did not understand and tried to light his own fire, cutting off the high priest’s servant’s ear. What an embarrassment to the cause of Christ! Peterwould lie down in sorrow that terrible night.

In a time of darkness, don’t create you own man-made light.

Adrian Rogers really has shown me how the most learned men of God can so easily fall.  I see that we can be so excited about what the Lord has taught us and shown us that we walk right into our own man-made light.  We must watch out for this and realize that all we have and know is from the Lord....without HIM we have nothing.

#5: If Your Sun Has Set, Be Sure Morning Will Come

Your dark night will come to an end. God will turn every hurt to a hallelujah, every tear into a pearl. Your Calvary will one day be an Easter.

It was a dark night for the disciples when Jesus was nailed to the cross and hung there, three hours of it literal darkness. It all seemed so inky black. His kingdom had shrunk to the narrow dimensions of a grave. But then came that glorious morning.


God sees through the dark.  His eyes are upon you in your darkness.

A little girl’s mother had died. Her first night apart from her mother, she felt alone in the darkness of her bedroom and left it to sleep with her daddy. They tried to sleep, but unable to see her father’s face, the little girl said, “Daddy, it is so dark. Is your face toward me?”

“Yes, darling, my face is toward you.”

“Daddy, you love me through the dark, don’t you?”

“Yes, sweetheart, Daddy loves you through the dark.” The little girl drifted off to sleep.

That strong man slipped out of bed, fell on his knees and prayed, “Heavenly Father, it is so dark. Is Your face toward me?”

The answer came from heaven, “Yes, My child, My face is toward you.” “Father, do You love me through the dark?”

“Yes, My child, I love you through the darkest night.” The father joined his precious daughter in much-needed sleep.

An unknown poet has written:

So I go on, not knowing;

I would not know if I might.

I would rather walk with Christ in the dark

Than to walk alone in the light.

By Adrian Rogers

Click Below to Read Adrian Rogers' Article: 
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/read/articles/the-discipline-of-darkness-part-2-11899.html

Click Below to Listen!

http://bit.ly/XYVBc0

The Discipline of Darkness, Part 1

Thank you for joining me this wonderful Sunday morning!  I listened to a wonderful sermon...  Adrian Rogers, now with His Lord, gave this awesome sermon which reminded me of the importance of suffering.  I hope you will take the time to check it out Part 1 and Part 2!


Here are some important points that really spoke to me and I hope they will speak to you during your time of need or maybe during someone else in your lives that may be of need.

#1: Those of Greatest Devotion May Know the Deepest Darkness

“Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” (Isaiah 50:10)

Darkness is not unusual for God’s choicest saints. No matter how close we walk to God, it’s not always sweetness and light. Who ever came up with the distorted idea that if we give our lives to Jesus, all will be joy and rose petals?

Job was a saint who went through much suffering.  Remember what he said.....
Job, godly man, wrote, “He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and He hath set darkness in my paths” (Job 19:8).

Paul, the great apostle, said, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

So if you’re in darkness, you’re in good company.

Notice that Isaiah describes the person in darkness as one who “fears Him and obeys the voice of His servant.” Darkness, therefore, does not mean we have sinned or are out the will of God.

# 2: The Faith That Is Born in the Light Often Grows in the Dark

“We should never doubt in the dark what God has shown us in the light.”

I like this...really let this sink in.  I had not stopped to think about this in this manner.  It seems that at times when we are in suffering its hard for us to really grasp what is going on because we are focused on just surviving...when if we would focus on God...there would be no need for us to do anything.  God has done it all for us!

It is in darkness that we have to trust the Lord and “stay” upon Him. Think carefully: when have you grown the most? In sunny days when everything seemed perfect? Or at midnight when you cried out to God? It was in the darkness that you grew, wasn’t it?

 God wants us to develop a faith that goes beyond our understanding and experience. How you act in the dark is the real test of your character

I like what Adrian Rogers concludes in his sermon....  It makes a lot of sense.

What should you do when the lights suddenly go out in your life?
·  First, look to the Lord. Isaiah 50:10 says “trust in Him.” Just because things don’t make sense to you doesn’t mean they don’t make sense. And just because they don’t make sense now, doesn’t mean they won’t make sense some day. If it doesn’t make sense, nonetheless trust the Lord.

·  Not only trust, but also obey. Don’t stop praying for an unsaved spouse, even if they seem to get worse. Don’t stop giving in a financial reverse. Don’t stop witnessing, even if no one seems to respond. Don’t stop praising, even if you don’t feel like praising.

·  Lean upon the Lord. “Stay” comes from the word for “staff.” Just as a shepherd leans on his staff, lean upon the Lord. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thouart with me.” (Psalm 23:4) It’s better to be in a dark valley, leaning on Jesus, than on a sunlit mountain without Him.

We may not understand, but relationship is really more important than reason. It may be that we do not know Why in order that we may know Who. In the dark valley, David no longer talks about the Lord (“the Lord is my shepherd”), he now talks to the Lord (“Thou are with me”).

However dark life becomes, you will find Jesus standing somewhere in the shadows.

Awesome!  Jesus is always with us!!!

By Adrian Rogers

Click Below to Read Adrian Rogers' Article:
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/read/articles/the-discipline-of-darkness-part-1-11898.html

Click Below to Listen!

http://bit.ly/XYVBc0

Why Doesn't God Prevent His Children From Suffering? -Part 5

As we come now to the seventh and last reason God’s children suffer, let us read Hebrews 12:6.  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)

The word “chasten” is a bit misunderstood because it is interpreted as meaning punishment.  Actually it is not that at all. It belongs in an altogether different category. It literally means child training. Our word today for it would be discipline. In other words, God does not have undisciplined children. He disciplines His own, and there are certain lessons He gets through to us by suffering. Therefore we have this matter of discipline. The Judge punishes; the Father chastens.

Punishment is for breaking the rules of the Father, as we have seen. God deals that way with His children. But when He chastises, or child trains, He is doing that in love. It does not have the same background as does punishment. However, this does not mean it is not severe and that it does not hurt.

It’s rather like the old chestnut about the father who took his son out to the woodshed for a little discipline. But before the father whipped the boy, he sat down and wept. As he looked up at the boy, he said, “Son, this hurts me more than it does you.” And the son said, “Yes, Dad, but not in the same place.”

Our heavenly Father, I’m confident, is not severe because He takes delight in disciplining us, but He does it for our benefit. Therefore, the writers of Scripture did not show us, as God’s children, how to escape suffering but how to endure suffering. That is the most important thing.  There is a worthy purpose and a productive goal to be gained in the chastening or the discipline of the Lord. God uses that method.

Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Why Doesn't God Prevent His Children From Suffering? -Part 4

There is a fifth reason why God’s children suffer, and that seems to be some lofty purpose of God that He does not always reveal to the believer. Job is an example of this. I am inclined to believe that Job wrote the book that bears his name, and I wonder if Job was made to suffer, not because there was anything wrong in his life, but because Satan had made a spurious remark, an accusation against him and God. In substance, Satan’s charge was, “Job is serving You only for what he can get out of it. If You let me get to him, I’ll show You. He’ll turn against You. He’ll curse You to Your face!” So God then took down the hedge He had around Job and let Satan move in. And, as this man suffered, he demonstrated that he was no paid lover — Job didn’t love God for what he could get out of it. He was really genuine.

Also God said a strange thing about Paul the apostle when he was converted. He said He was going to make him a missionary to the Gentiles, then He said, “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). While it is true that Paul suffered for sins in his life before his conversion and he reaped what he had sown, he also suffered immeasurably in his life as a missionary. He details this in his second letter to the Corinthians:  …In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (2 Corinthians 1:23–28).  He suffered so that no one can say, “Well, nobody has ever suffered as I’ve suffered.” Paul has experienced the limit, friend. You and I never have suffered as much as he has. He is to stand as a witness to that for every child of God.

Now we come to the sixth reason Christians suffer. Some believers suffer for their faith in a heroic manner.

Who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.… (Hebrews 11:33–35)

Here is a group of people who, by faith, gained great victories for God. This is wonderful. And, friend, it is wonderful to be able to say, “I’ve been healed.” No one knows how happy I’ve been to be able to say that. But there are some who haven’t been able to say that. In the middle of verse 35 we are introduced to another company. Notice what we are told about them.… And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover,
of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tested, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins;  being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.  (Hebrews 11:35–38)

Now this is a strange thing. We first saw a group of people who by faith escaped the edge of the sword. Then here is another group of people who were slain by the sword, and both acted by faith. Frankly, I don’t even propose to reconcile the two. There are some folk whom God permits to suffer — you have known saints like this. I rather think they are His choice saints. James and Peter, you recall, were arrested by old Herod. Herod took James and put him to death. Peter he put in prison, but God got him out. Is the Lord playing favorites? No, He is not. James could endure martyrdom; Peter could not at that time. Later on he was a martyr also, but not then. He was growing in grace. It is my opinion that God does not permit some Christians to suffer for the simple reason that they can’t take it. God lets one group escape the edge of the sword, and they do it by faith. But I don’t think they had quite as much faith as the other group.

Thru the Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Why Doesn't God Prevent His Children From Suffering? -Part 3

The fourth way in which God’s children suffer is that we suffer for our past life of sin — sin committed even before we were saved. Now I want to be very careful here because a great many people will say, “But since I came to Christ, doesn’t that mean all my sins are forgiven?”

Yes. If you’ve accepted Christ, you will never come before Him for judgment which will affect your salvation. Never! “Well, if I committed a sin before I was saved, do you mean to tell me that I suffer for that?” You surely will. Listen to Paul as he writes to the Galatians:  Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

What kind of a man is he referring to? A Christian man. Paul is writing to believers. We reap what we sow. This is, I think, applicable to people in any walk of life, whether they are believers or nonbelievers. But Paul is writing to believers, and he says we are going to reap what we sow.

That principle is at work everywhere in the physical world. You sow corn and you reap corn.  You sow peanuts; you reap peanuts. You sow cotton and you reap cotton. You plant an orange tree, and you’re going to pick oranges someday. “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Saul of Tarsus, a brilliant young Pharisee who hated Jesus and hated Christians, stood one day while men brought their outer garments and put them at his feet. Then he gave the signal to begin the stoning of Stephen. “But,” you say, “Paul was converted on the Damascus Road. God has forgiven him.” He certainly has. Paul is on the way to heaven, you can be sure of that. But, you see, he committed an awful sin. And so on his first missionary journey in Lystra, they dragged him outside of the city, stoned him, and left him for dead.  But you never hear Paul complain about the stoning. Paul knew that whatever you sow, you reap — he’s the one who wrote these words to the Galatians (see Galatians 6:7-9).

Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Why Doesn't God Prevent His Children From Suffering? -Part 2

The second reason God’s children suffer is for taking a stand for truth and righteousness.  I turn to 1 Peter:

But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. (1 Peter 3:14, 15)

In other words, Peter is saying here that when trouble comes to you because you have taken a stand for righteousness, first be sure you are right and that you have a right relationship with Jesus Christ. Then when you are sure of that, you can take your stand knowing that God will see you through.

There is a third reason God’s children suffer. We suffer for sin in our lives. If a child of God commits sin, does he get by with it? The answer, of course, is no. But God says that He will give us an opportunity to judge sin in our lives.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:31)

In other words, when we sin God gives us an opportunity to confess that sin and make it right. If we do that, God will not judge us.  If we don’t judge ourselves, then God says, “I will judge you.” And I think that is what John meant when he said there is a sin “unto death” (1 John 5:16), meaning physical death for a child of God. In other words, a child of God can go just so far, he can commit certain sins for which God will take him home, remove him from this life. A child of God cannot get by with sin.

There are two good Bible illustrations of God’s dealing with the sins of His children. In the Old Testament it is David. Now David committed two awful sins; he broke two of the Ten Commandments. Did he, as God’s man, get by with it? Well, he thought he had, and how long he concealed it we do not know. David, I think, came in, sat down on his throne, looked about him at his court, and thought, I wonder if anyone knows. He came to the conclusion that no one knew, so he went on with the state business.

One day there slipped into the group a man who actually was a very fine friend of David’s. He was Nathan the prophet. I think David said, “Hello, Nathan,” not thinking that Nathan knew anything about his hidden sin. And when there was a lull in the business of the court, Nathan said, “I have a little story I’d like to tell you.” You will find this incident recorded in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan told him about two men in his kingdom. One was a very rich man with flocks and herds. The other was a poor man with just one little ewe lamb. He loved that little lamb and had raised it with his children. Then a visitor came to see the rich man and, instead of reaching into his own flock and taking a lamb for the visitor’s dinner, the rich man went over and took the pet lamb that belonged to the poor man and killed it. David, who was redheaded, stood up in anger. (It is interesting how we can always see the fault in the other fellow. We can clearly see the other person’s sin, but it is difficult to see our own!)

David said, “As the LORD liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die” (2 Samuel 12:5). I tell you, that’s righteous indignation on the part of David.  But Nathan, who is the bravest man in the Bible in my opinion, pointed the finger and said, “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7).

Now David could very easily have denied that he was guilty. He could have just lifted his scepter, and his servants would have taken this man Nathan out and executed him. Nobody would have been the wiser. But that’s not what David did. He bowed his head and confessed, “I have sinned.” You see, David had tried to conceal his sin. Instead of confessing it to God after he had done it, he went on to commit a far greater sin and was attempting to rationalize that. So God took him to the woodshed, and He never took the lash off his back. Very frankly, when I read the story of David, I feel like saying to the Lord, “You’ve whipped him enough!” But David never said that. He went through it without complaining because he wanted the joy of his salvation restored to him (see Psalm 51:12). He wanted to be back in fellowship with God. So David learned that God judges sin in the lives of His children.

Then in the New Testament, in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira illustrate the sin unto death. I believe they were children of God. They lied, but in the early church they could not get by with a lie. Death isn’t the immediate result today, by the way, but because the early church was a holy church, they couldn’t get by with it. God judged them. They committed a sin unto death, and God took them home because God will deal with His own children.

Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Why Doesn't God Prevent His Children From Suffering? -Part 1

God can prevent His child from suffering. I don’t think anyone would argue that point. The question is, of course, why doesn’t He? Why has not God kept His children from suffering — especially the severe suffering that a great many saints have had to go through?  Lets discuss seven reasons why.

The first reason God’s children suffer is for our own stupidity, our own willfulness, our own selfishness, and our willful ignorance. Many times we try to blame God for this kind of suffering, but it is our fault. For what glory is it if, when ye are buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?  But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. (1 Peter 2:20)

Now the word here for “faults” is the Greek word hamartano, which means to miss the mark. It is a picture of a man with a bow and arrow who is shooting at a target. He comes short of that target, which simply means he misses the mark. Many of us today, because of our willfulness we miss the mark in many judgments that we make.  Also there are those who get out of the will of God.

Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

What God Hath Promised

What God Hath Promised

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
Never a river, turbid and deep.

But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the laborer, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

Annie Johnson Flint

Annie Johnson Flint was born on Christmas Eve, in the year 1866, in the little town of Vineland, New Jersey.  Her life was lived, as someone has said, from hand to mouth, but as she liked to have it expressed, the mouth was hers, and the hand was God's and His hand was never empty.  This is one of her sweetest sonnets, "What God Hath Promised," which she says was born of experience of another would never have found expression if it had not been for her own trials.  Annie's sweet songs prove that God's purpose in allowing pain is not to destroy us but to conform us to the image of His Son, for "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves." (2 Cor 4:7).

Does God's Children Escape Pain, Disappointment, and Sorrow in Life?

Still a popular question asked today is:   “Why do God’s children suffer?”

One of the factors that has added to the perplexity and complexity of the problem is the unbiblical sales pitch to the unsaved that is given in some quarters. It is claimed that if you will only trust Christ you will move into the green pastures where all is calm and the problems of life are solved. Even prosperity and healing abound as a bonus for believing. Another addition is joy without any sorrow and with no cloud to darken the sky.

Let’s understand one thing: Salvation is a redemption paid by Christ for the penalty of your sin and my sin. And the primary benefit is that a hell-doomed sinner is now going to heaven because Jesus died in his stead, and the Holy Spirit has brought conviction of sin into his heart and life while he was still “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).

 If you go back as far as Job, which would take you back probably to the time of Moses or even to Abraham, you will find that he illustrates this truth by a great law of physics:

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)

According to the laws of aerodynamics, because of the heat being generated, sparks will fly upward. Just as that is true, man must experience troubles. We will face trouble in this world.  David wrote:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)

And actually the Lord Jesus told His own (sometimes I think we forget Scriptures like this):  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Paul likewise makes the dogmatic assertion:

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)

There is no if, and, but, or perhaps about that at all. It is an axiom of Scripture that God’s children suffer.  God’s child is not promised that he will escape pain, disappointment, and sorrow in this life.

Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Jesus' Suffering

The words which have the deepest understanding of suffering are Jesus' own, "In truth, in very truth I tell you, a grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls into the ground and dies; but if it dies, it bears a rich harvest."  This, He told His disciples, was the key.  There is a necessary link between suffering and glory.