Category Archives: Suffering

Beneath all those layers, who are you really?

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“Take heed and beware of covetousness.  For a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses”(Luke 12:15).

“What do you do?”  In our society, that’s often the first question people ask.  It implies…

–that you do something in the way of a career.  Woe to the unemployed and those who call themselves homemakers.

–that you are what you do.  That your identity is bound up in what you do to earn an income.  Too bad if you lose your job or retire.  You become a cipher, at least in the minds of some.

If you don’t have a job, who are you?  If, like my wife Bertha, you loved being married to a pastor, when God takes him home and you can no longer fill the role you loved so much–the wife of a pastor–then who are you?

In our world, people’s names were often given in accordance with what they did. They received names like Baker, Cook, Weaver, Smith, Taylor, Hunter, Fisher, Farmer, Shepherd, Miller, Marshall, Ward.

I want to call your attention to a little story found in Luke 12.  Then, I’ll be asking you to use your imagination with me…

A fellow came to Jesus and said, “Master, speak to my brother and tell him to divide the family inheritance with me.” Jesus said, “Sir, be on your guard against greed. For a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses.”

Now, using our imagination, let’s invent some variations on this little story…

One.  A woman: “Master, speak to my husband that he get more involved in life.  He needs to get out more and be more active, do more things, and work in the church more.”  Jesus: “Be on your guard against hyper-activity.  For a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things that he does.”

Two.  A man: “Master, speak to my wife.  She needs to study more, to use her mind, go back to college, become a Bible student. She takes everything a preacher says without question.  I value an inquisitive mind.”  Jesus: “Be on guard against the conceit of knowledge. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things that he knows.”

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You need some resistance in your life

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“Where there’s no friction, there’s no traction!”  –Overheard from an elderly Baptist preacher in North Carolina 30 years ago

Tim Patterson, executive of Michigan Baptists, had a great insight about catfish and codfish–natural enemies–on Baptist Press.

In the northeastern part of our country, codfish is a big deal. However, shippers discovered that freezing the fish to ship destroyed the flavor.  So, they tried shipping them alive in tanks of seawater.  In addition to that being too expensive, for some reason the cod still lost their flavor and arrived soft and mushy.  Something had to be done.

Eventually, someone hit on a solution. After the codfish were placed in the seawater tanks, one more thing was added:  catfish.  Their natural enemies.

“From the time the cod left the East Coast until they arrived at their destinations, those ornery catfish chased the cod all over the tank…. When they arrived at the market, the cod were as fresh as the day they were caught.  There was no loss of flavor and the texture was possibly better than before.”

There’s a lesson there.

All sunshine makes a desert, the American Indians used to say.  We need the rain and the occasional storm.

My friend George Bullard wrote a book by the title Every Church Needs a Little Conflict.  He leads conferences by that title.  It’s a great truth, and the point of this little article.

What a “little conflict” will do for a church–or an individual believer–is worth our consideration:

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Where is God? she asked. He had the answer.

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Patty Duke’s autobiography is Call Me Anna.  One evening last week Bertha and I caught the last of the movie The Miracle Worker, in which Patty Duke played a young Helen Keller.  For her amazing performance, she became the youngest person to win the Academy Award.

We were so touched by her performance, I went online and found her autobiography and ordered it that night.  It was delivered two days later.

Patty Duke’s childhood was a mess by any standards.  You read of how she was treated–used, abused, manipulated, lied to–and you feel some people are going to burn in hell for this.  I’ve not finished the book–I read a couple of chapters and lay the book aside for a day or two–it’s difficult.  And today I came across this…

Patty Duke became involved in the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  She says, For someone my age who had not been trained to deal with seriously ill people, (this work) was initially traumatic.  It takes an enormous toll to see these exquisite-looking, bright children who are withered and tortured in their little bodies.  You might be bright and cheery in front of them, but inside it hurts and you’re enraged.  You’re saying to yourself, ‘What the hell is life about? Where’s this just God I keep hearing about?’  It’s tough stuff to wrestle with, especially when all (the parent-substitutes) would give me were trite answers to serious questions.  

I have read further, but cannot get past this outburst in which she blames God for the suffering.

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Suffering for Jesus? Oh really?

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When a pastor friend preached that living for Jesus Christ in this country was easy, someone challenged him.

The critic was outspoken in insisting that we have it just as hard and difficult here as other believers throughout the world.

I wonder who else believes as he does.  Not me, I’ll tell you.

A missionary to a Southeast Asia country tells how he was teaching a group of evangelists from his part of the world. The missionary said, “They soaked up the lesson on First Peter like it was news from a long lost friend.”

At one point, he asked these men of God, “How many of you have been persecuted for your faith?” Having taught this lesson before, he was prepared to expect a number of responses.

But no.

Not a single hand was raised.

Thinking they may have misunderstood, the missionary said, “How many of you have suffered for preaching the gospel?”

Again, no hands were raised.

This had never happened before. He knew these men and women lived in a country where religious groups are required to register and get permission even to read their Bibles and pray. Why was he getting no response?

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Those who would serve God should expect opposition.

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“A great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (I Corinthians 16:9). 

“Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God?”   (Isaac Watts, “Am I A Soldier of the Cross?”)

This is a quiz.  Name the enemies George Washington faced in the Revolutionary War.

If you answered, “The British,” you’d be only partly right.

Washington did fight the British, as the thirteen colonies asserted their independence from the Mother Nation.  But Generals Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton and their armies were only the most visible of the forces Washington had to contend with.

He had to fight the weather.  Think of Valley Forge and even without knowing the full story, your mind immediately conjures up images of a harsh winter with all the snow, ice, sleet, and freezing temperatures that includes.

Washington had to deal with starvation and deprivation.  No one knows how many thousands of his soldiers perished from the cold and starvation at Valley Forge and how many deserted in order to save their lives.  Many surrendered to the British at Philadelphia in the vain hope that the conquerors would feed and clothe them.

Washington had to deal with a Congress that was either ignorant, misinformed, or outright hostile to his situation. He wrote letter after letter detailing the misery of his army and pleading for help.  Finally, a delegation came from the national capital, temporarily at York, PA, to see for themselves, after which congress began to act.

Washington fought disorganization, a country that made impossible demands but gave minimal support, and criticism on every side.

Washington even had to fight certain members of his own staff, including several generals. Every schoolchild knows the name of Benedict Arnold, one of his generals who betrayed the cause.  There was also General Horatio Gates, forever undermining his own commanding officer in the forlorn hope that Congress would appoint him to Washington’s post.  Time and again, Gates was shown to be a coward who ran from battle, but blamed his failures on others.  There was General Charles Lee, another pretender to Washington’s position as commander in chief.  Lee, called “a carbuncle of a creature” by historians Drury and Clavin (book: Valley Forge), was known to run from a battle and then brag about how he had won it.  Some years after his death, a letter was found in Lee’s handwriting giving British General William Howe detailed plans for defeating Washington.  Drury and Clavin write, “That Charles Lee was a traitor surprised few.  That he had refrained from boasting about it shocked many.”

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Is suffering the achille’s heel of the Christian faith?

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Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.  (2 Timothy 1:8)

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps….  (I Peter 2:21)

If you like your religious faith shallow and thoroughly thought-out for you without you needing to engage your brain for any aspect–that is, if you prefer a manmade and easy-to-digest religion–you’re not going to hang around in a real Christian church long.

The Christian faith is a lot of things, but shallow and neatly systematic it is not. Rather, it’s historical and complex and true. It is true-to-life. And it has been revealed to us in such a way that we are required to put our thinking caps on and engage the brain in order to appreciate what we have been given and how it all fits together.

If you say “Well, the Bible says what it means and means what it says” to explain difficulties, you and I have nothing to talk about, for you have chosen not to deal with the hard parts.

Take suffering, for example.

Adversaries and critics of the Christian faith–these Christopher Hitchens and Bishop James Pikes (google these if they are unfamiliar)–have always been with us, so don’t let the latest “smarter than God” genius upset you by saying the fatal flaw to our theology is suffering. Critics of the Christian faith are constantly insisting that the Bible does not adequately answer the question of suffering and pain in the world.

You read that and shake your head. Scores of books from Christian writers pour off the press every year dealing with just that subject, particularly after natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes and tsunamis. And the recent worldwide epidemic.

What the critics actually mean, but would not admit in a hundred years, is that Scripture has no easy explanation of suffering.  And they do want their religion to be easy.  And simple.

Which it is not.

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A resounding testimony for Christ will do a lot of things for you, including get you into trouble!

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A resounding testimony of faith in Jesus Christ will get you into more trouble than you’ve ever been in, in your life.

You thought we were going to say how good life would be if you went “all in” for the Lord and told everyone about Him?

Let’s say it again…

A strong outspoken witness for the Lord Jesus Christ will box you into a corner and make you put up or shut up.

That’s why you ought to do it. That’s why you ought to erect a neon sign in your front yard declaring that “Jesus is Lord at 203 Garden Cove” or wherever you live. You ought to put a Bible on your desk and wear t-shirts that celebrate Jesus and put Him in your conversation.

Pray in restaurants before meals, speak to waitresses about their spiritual welfare, and witness to your colleagues at work.

So live and speak that when someone wants to attack the Lord Jesus Christ and can’t lay hands on Him, they start looking for you. (Acts 5:41 comes to mind.)

In declaring yourself for Jesus, you ought to remove your safety harness and throw yourself totally into God’s hands.

Quit being so cotton-picking careful.

What are you afraid of?

Tell people you’re a Christian and that it’s the best decision you ever made and that to know Jesus is the best thing on the planet.

Keep doing it and then watch what happens.  It might be painful, so be strong.

We have a couple of stories, one from a longtime friend and the second from God’s Word.

Diane tells this story about her family.

There was a time when their children were small and times were hard.  Diane had quit work to be a stay-at-home mom, and they were trying to make do on Philip’s salary from the department store.

As if life were not already complicated enough, Diane got sick and had to have a battery of tests and medical treatments. The condition was on-going and the costs were frightening.

As the one who paid the bills, Diane always made sure they sent the clinic a payment of some amount each month. However, it hardly put a dent in the total bill, which kept increasing.

During all this time, they never missed tithing their income to the Lord through their local church.

One day, they received a phone call from the clinic.  “We appreciate that you pay toward your bill each month, but we are going to have to ask for one-half of the total now. Until you do, you can’t charge anything more to this account.”

That was a blow. They began praying in earnest about what to do.

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The amazing power of a life-altering crisis

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“No chastening for the moment seems enjoyable, but painful. But afterwards, to those who have been trained by it,  it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).

In the middle of the pain, no one enjoys the experience. Only in looking back–at some distant day–do you see how God used it. You lost a job, experienced the death of a loved one, went bankrupt, were falsely accused, had a near-death illness, and now at a great distance, you see what the Heavenly Father did with this in your life.  You are not the same person you were previously.

Life is understood only in looking backward, the saying goes. But it must be lived going forward.

It doesn’t work that way for everyone, Hebrews 12:11 is implying. For some, the trials are fatal.  It just depends.  To those who have been trained by it surely means “the people who have learned to give their woes to the Lord for His purposes.”

We can wallow in our defeat, be chained in despair by our sorrows and troubles, or we can rise above them by putting our trust in the Savior and finding His purposes.

In her book Character, Gail Sheehan tells of the lengthy rehabilitation Senator Bob Dole endured after his World War II injuries. German machine gunfire had hit him in the upper back and right arm. Medics gave him the largest possible dose of morphine, then wrote “M” (for morphine) on his forehead with his own blood, so no one who found him would give him a second, fatal dose.   Dole went through multiple surgeries and experienced recurring blood clots, life-threatening infections, and long periods of recuperation and therapy.

An interviewer once asked Senator Dole, “How did this delay your career plans?”

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This is a first for this blog. (Reposted. From Dr. Glenn McDonald’s “Reflections.”)

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(Each weekday Dr.  Glenn McDonald of Indiana posts a message he calls “Reflections.”  It’s always thought-provoking and so worth reading.  But this one hit me hardest.  This is as good as we could ask for.)  

Shaken

On November 1, 1755, the citizens of Lisbon, Portugal were crowded into churches. They were celebrating All Saints Day.

At 9:40 am the world as they knew it came to an end.

Somewhere offshore there was a sudden lurch at the intersection of two massive tectonic plates. What followed was one of the most intense earthquakes in recorded history, estimated at 9.0 on the Richter Scale.

For seven terrifying minutes, the city shook.

Fissures as wide as 15 feet opened up in the central squares. By comparison, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, estimated at 7.8 on the Richter Scale, lasted only half a minute.

Before the citizens of Lisbon could even make sense of what was happening, the first aftershock – almost as strong as the initial quake – rocked the city. Another aftershock came two hours later. But the real horror happened along the shoreline.

The waters of the Atlantic Ocean receded dramatically from the city’s harbor, then returned as a tsunami – a 50-foot-high wall of water. Within the space of an hour, some 60,000 people had died. Virtually every building of the nation’s historic capital had been reduced to rubble. Fires burned unchecked for days.

For all the suffering experienced by those in Lisbon, the most lasting damage happened in the minds and hearts of Europe’s intellectuals.

After this disaster, how could any thinking person seriously believe that the world was ruled by a powerful and benevolent God? Weren’t the citizens of Lisbon the very picture of innocent, faithful people – doing the right thing at the right place at the right time – on All Saints Day, no less? Why would God allow such a catastrophe?

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Where joy goes to die

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“Joy is the business of Heaven.”  –C. S. Lewis 

What started me thinking of this was a line from former FBI director James Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty.

“Although I have had a different idea of ‘fun’ than most, there were some parts of the Justice Department that had become black holes, where joy went to die.” 

Sound familiar, pastor?

“Where joy goes to die.”  A fit description for a place–a business, a family, a team, a congregation–characterized by low morale, battle fatigue and discouragement.

I’ve worked in places like that. I’ve pastored a church or two like that.  And I’ve known several such congregations.

God help your church.

Comey says,“The more stressful the job, the more intentional I’ve always been about helping my team members find joy in our work.  Laughter is the outward manifestation of joy, so I believe if I’m doing it right and helping people connect to the meaning and joy in their work, there will be laughter in the workplace.”

This blog is about churches and church leaders, not governmental offices or bureaucracies.  So, let’s think of those churches where joy goes to die…

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