A few days conflict will be crowned

The believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life. We have known many who have gone into the field, and liked the work of a soldier for a battle or two, but soon have had enough, and come running home. There are so many professors and so few Christians indeed; so many that run and so few obtain; many go into the field against Satan, and so few come out conquerors. Few have the courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in the way. Israel came joyfully out of Egypt, but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger, they were ready to fly from their colours, and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt. Many who profess the gospel fail to endure when trouble comes, and alas! their hearts fail them. O how many depart from Christ at this crossroads! Do not say you have royal blood running in your veins, and you are born of God, except you can prove your pedigree by this heroic spirit; to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils. How uncomely a sight it is to see a bold sinner and a fearful saint; one resolved to be wicked, and a Christian wavering in his holy course; to see hell keep the field while the saints hide their colours for shame. Take heart, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good. God himself adopts your quarrel. He shall lead you on with courage, and bring you off with honour. He lived and died for you. For mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, there is none like him. Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal your wounds. He never turned his head from danger: no, not even when hell's malice and heaven's justice appeared in the field against him. A few days' conflict will be crowned with heaven's glory. In a word, Christians, every exploit of faith causes a shout in heaven while you slip out of your enemies' hands.

William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour; 1:15-17

Taken from Voices From The Past

How do we "take heart and be strong?" Consider him who endured (Hebrews 12:1-2) and pray for the Holy Spirit to help you want what you have in Christ. For more on that, check out "The Disciple and His Devotion" from Faithwalkers 2011.

The mingling of grace and corruption in our lives... Why?

The last few weeks have been brutal for me. Not because I am a victim, but because I am a sinner. The stubborn pride of my heart and my inability to change has, at times, caused me to despair. But it has occurred to me that this season is one of the "all things" of Romans 8:28. What good could God possibly be working through my own wretchedness? Puritan Richard Sibbes' classic work "A Bruised Reed" has provided tremendous encouragement. I offer this section as encouragement to those who feel overwhelmed by their sin. There is always a mingling of "smoke and fire" in our lives; grace and corruption.  Thankfully, Christ will not snuff out the smoldering wick (Isaiah 42:1-3).

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not quench the smoking flax, or wick, but will blow it up till it flames. In smoking flax there is but a little light, and that weak, as being unable to flame, and that little mixed with smoke. The observations from this are that, in God's children, especially in their first conversion, there is but a little measure of grace, and that little mixed with much corruption, which, as smoke, is offensive; but that Christ will not quench this smoking flax.
 ...

GRACE IS MINGLED WITH CORRUPTION

But grace is not only little, but mingled with corruption; therefore a Christian is said to be smoking flax. So we see that grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office. When we pray, we need to pray again for Christ to pardon the defects of our prayers. Consider some instances of this smoking flax:

Moses at the Red Sea, being in a great perplexity, and knowing not what to say, or which way to turn, groaned to God. No doubt this was a great conflict in him. In great distresses we know not what to pray, but the Spirit makes request with sighs that cannot be expressed (Rom. 8:26). Broken hearts can yield but broken prayers. When David was before the king of Gath (1 Sam. 21:13) and disfigured himself in an uncomely manner, in that smoke there was some fire also. You may see what an excellent psalm he makes upon that occasion, Psalm 34, in which, on the basis of experience, he says, `The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart' (Psa. 34:18). `I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.' There is smoke. `Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications' (Psa. 31:22). There is fire. `Lord, save us: we perish' (Matt. 8:25), cry the disciples. Here is smoke of infidelity, yet so much light of faith as stirred them up to pray to Christ. `Lord, I believe.' There is light. ‘Help thou mine unbelief.' There is smoke (Mark 9:24). Jonah cries, `I am cast out of thy sight.' There is smoke. `Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.' There is light (Jon. 2:4). `O wretched man that I am!', says Paul, with a sense of his corruption. Yet he breaks out into thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:24). `I sleep,' says the church in the Song of Solomon, `but my heart waketh' (Song of Sol. 5:2). In the seven churches, which for their light are called `seven golden candlesticks' (Rev. 2 and 3), most of them had much smoke with their light.

The reason for this mixture is that we carry about us a double principle, grace and nature. The end of it is especially to preserve us from those two dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest on justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains. Our spiritual fire is like our ordinary fire here below, that is, mixed. Fire is most pure in its own element above; so shall all our graces be when we are where we would be, in heaven, which is our proper element.

From this mixture arises the fact that the people of God have so different judgments of themselves, looking sometimes at the work of grace, sometimes at the remainder of corruption, and when they look upon that, then they think they have no grace. Though they love Christ in his ordinances and children, yet they dare not claim so near acquaintance as to be his. Even as a candle in the socket sometimes shows its light, and sometimes the show of light is lost; so sometimes they are well persuaded of themselves, sometimes at a loss. 

Additional Resources
Complete in Christ - Spurgeon
What should we seek in Scripture? - Calvin

How to Realign Your Church on The Gospel - Matt Chandler

Some great thoughts on preventing moralistic creep in the church's Christianity and some bonus thoughts on trusting Christ as a daddy with cancer.

Backstage: Matt Chandler from SBC Greater Things 2010 on Vimeo.

(HT: theResurgence)

In the next five minutes...

Prepare for suffering before it comes - (video of Chandler and Mahaney at Together For The Gospel))

T4G 2010 -- Special Session -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

"Why do we suffer, God?" The ever-popular question with horrible popular answers, today at NPR

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" was interviewed today on National Public Radio. His interview confirms the fact that the problem of suffering is still a very present issue in people's souls and that solid, biblical, hope-giving, God-exalting answers are hard to come by.

Consider his thesis statement in the interview:

"What I realized is, where did we ever get the notion that worshipping power was the greatest compliment we could pay to God? If I, walking through the wars of a hospital, have to face the fact that either God is all powerful but not kind or thoroughly kind and loving but not totally powerful - I would rather compromise God's power and affirm his love.

So the conclusion, the theological conclusion I came to, is that God could have been all-powerful at the beginning, but he chose to designate two areas of life off-limits to his power. He would not arbitrarily interfere with the laws of nature and, secondly, God would not take away our freedom to choose good and evil." - Rabbi Harold Kushner

Let's consider the Rabbi's claims in light of the Old Testament. They are not that simple, not that Biblical and not that hope-giving.

"I would rather compromise God's power and affirm his love."
It is important to note that Rabbi Kushner begins with his intellect being superior to God's (if we are assuming the Bible to be God's revelation). He is subjecting the revelation of God in the Old Testament to his preferences ("I would rather...", "...the theological conclusion I came to..."). If God exists, He is not subject to Rabbi's Kushner's preferences. If (as if we had any say in the matter) we compromise God's power, doesn't that destroy our hope for deliverance? Why pray? Isn't God's choice to no longer "interfere with the laws of nature" arbitrary and cold?

The Old Testament does not compromise either God's power or His love.
God is gracious and compassionate:

The LORD passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34.6–7)

And, in the words of Nebuchadnezzar, His dominion is everlasting:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” At the same time my reason returned to me, (Daniel 4.34–36 ESV)

Note that reason returned to Nebuchadnezzar when he subjected himself to God - not the other way around.

"He would not arbitrarily interfere with the laws of nature."
This is a facinating statement from Rabbi Kushner. Every year, I would assume, he faithfully celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt via a series of God's interferences with the laws of nature - the greatest being the parting of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:21). The Passover is a celebration of God's miraculous keeping of covenant promises. This celebration of the past was meant to solidify a hope for the future. That is why God continually addresses Himself to Israel as the one who delivered them from Egypt (1 Sam 10:18). God was able to deliver then and, one day, He will finally deliver His people from every enemy including evil, sin and suffering (Isaiah 60 and 61).

Again, to satisfy his limited intellect, Rabbi Kushner rejects God's infinite delivering power. It's not helpful and eventually everyone who adheres to this theology will find its limits in despair.

"God would not take away our freedom to choose good and evil."
Here the Bible agrees. But the Bible does not agree with the Rabbi's subtle implication, namely that God is therefore not sovereign over the choices of man. Consider Joseph's statement of God's sovereignty over his brothers intentions to sell harm him by selling him into slavery:

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50.19–20, emphasis mine)

Our brains prefer "either/or" statements. They are nice and clean. The Bible is not limited by that preference. "Both/and" ideas exist all over the Old and New Testaments (Acts 4:27-28). Man, therefore, is responsible for evil and God remains sovereign over it - working it together for the good of those who love Him as recounted in the most hope giving (and God's-sovereignty-celebrating) passage in the New Testament proclaims:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.28–39)

Rabbi Kushner's fundamental error is that he begins with himself. His intellect is the standard by which we judge God's revelation and actions. Answers that provide hope, fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore are found when you begin where the Bible begins - "In the beginning, God..." God is all-powerful, He is intentional (Ps. 115:3) and He seeks His own glory first for our own good (Ps 16:11).

To examine this more in the life of Jesus, listen to last week's message.

Additional Resources
A much more Biblical and hope-giving NPR Interview

"Who Is This?": the answer to the problem of suffering - Luke Series #10 (Luke 8:40-56)

The problem of suffering and evil has often been presented as one for which the Bible has no answers. The simple truth is, the Bible has the only answers. But we must be willing to accept God on His terms to hear them.

Our intellect must be subject to God's here but that is not bad news for us. Indeed, God's answer to the problem of suffering is the best news we could ever hear.

Find out why here (from Luke 8:40-56).

Additional Resources
Discussion Questions
"Where are you O Lord?" - Haiti
Imperishable, Undefiled and Unfading
If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil - by Randy Alcorn

Haiti: Where are you O LORD?

As the news of the Haiti earthquake broke yesterday, Reuters reported this:

Panic-stricken residents filled the streets desperately trying to dig people from rubble or seeking missing relatives as dark fell shortly after the quake.

"People were screaming 'Jesus, Jesus' and running in all directions," Delva said.

A major earthquake, of magnitude 7 or higher, is capable of causing widespread and heavy damage.

It isn't hard to read between the lines. "O the pain and destruction! Where is your God now?" Throughout the world, the question resounds to the faithful. Our response must be biblically accurate and, accordingly, filled with compassion.

After the Tsunami in 2004, John Piper provided tremendous grounding for both in a sermon to Bethlehem Baptist and an interview with NPR. I would encourage you to review both. The NPR interview is amazing in content and countenance (you'll note that the interviewer is rattled throughout) - if you don't have time for both, listen to the interview today or download the .mp3.

Here's a summary of Piper's main points in both the sermon and the interview:

1. Satan is not ultimate, God is.
2. Even if Satan caused the earthquake in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, he is not the decisive cause of 100,000+ deaths, God is.
3. Destructive calamities in this world mingle judgment and mercy.
4. The heart that Christ gives to his people feels compassion for those who suffer, no matter what their faith.
5. Finally, Christ calls us to show mercy to those who suffer, even if they do not deserve it.

Show Mercy
Many relief organizations have already established funds for earthquake relief in Haiti. Help.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3.16–18)

Some respected relief organizations
Compassion International

A video from Compassion president, Wess Stafford on Jan 15th, 2010

Samaritan's Purse
American Red Cross
A nice collection organizations from the Desiring God blog

Adoption organizations that work in Haiti (to think about after the news is gone)
haitiadoption.org
Haiti Adoption through Bethany Christian Services

Additional Resources
Does God Hate Haiti? - a piece from Al Mohler (in response to Pat Robertson)
Randy Alcorn interviewed at Justin Taylor's blog regarding his latest book "If God is Good..."
Jesus in Haiti - a poem by Piper