Rejoicing in Suffering

Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.—Rom 5:3-4 NET

At first we would say that a home into which no sorrow had ever come, is the happiest home. It has had only prosperity. It is a Christian home, too, and has all the blessings of true religion. It is a home of love, ideal in its fellowship. But it has never known a sorrow. The circle is unbroken. No tears have been shed in it. We would say that this is the happiest home we know.

But it takes sorrow to perfect ‘love’s happiness’. There is little doubt that the sweetest home, is one in which there has been grief. We do not find the richest things in the Bible, until we pass into shadows. We do not see the stars, until night comes. There is no rainbow, except when there are clouds. We do not find out the richest love, even of our human friends, while we are strong and well and prosperous; it is only when we are in some grief or trouble, that we discover how much they love us. And we do not get the best of God’s grace–until we are in sorrow.

Besides, grief softens our hearts, makes us capable of deeper affection and sympathy, and draws us nearer to each other. After a household has stood together around the coffin of one of its own–it is a new tenderness that unites the members. Suffering together, brings a new closeness in loving. Thus, even sorrow may be put among the elements of home happiness.

Selah.

-- J. R. Miller

Suffering as the door of Grace: Kingdom greatness through Affliction

When I call out, answer me, O God who vindicates me! Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place. Have mercy on me and respond to my prayer! — Psalm 4:1

This is one of the grandest testimonies ever given by man to the moral government of God. It is not a man’s thanksgiving that he has been set free from suffering. It is a thanksgiving that he has been set free through suffering: “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.”

He declares the sorrows of life to have been themselves the source of life’s enlargement. And have not you and I a thousand times felt this to be true? It is written of Joseph in the dungeon that “the iron entered into his soul.”

We all feel that what Joseph needed for his soul was just the iron. He had seen only the glitter of the gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams; and dreaming hardens the heart. He who sheds tears over a romance will not be most apt to help reality; real sorrow will be too unpoetic for him. We need the iron to enlarge our nature. The gold is but a vision; the iron is an experience. The chain which unites me to humanity must be an iron chain. That touch of nature which makes the world akin is not joy, but sorrow; gold is partial, but iron is universal.

My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering. Joseph’s dungeon is the road to Joseph’s throne. Thou canst not lift the iron load of thy brother if the iron hath not entered into thee. It is thy limit that is thine enlargement. It is the shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory. Murmur not at the shadows; they are better revelations than thy dreams. Say not that the shades of the prison-house have fettered thee; thy fetters are wings—wings of flight into the bosom of humanity. The door of thy prison-house is a door into the heart of the universe.

God has enlarged thee by the binding of sorrow’s chain.

Selah.

By George Matheson, quoted in Streams in the Desert.

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears

THE ALTAR

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,

Made of a heart, and cemented with tears:

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;

No workman’s tool hath touched the same.

 A HEART alone

Is such a stone,

As nothing but

Thy pow’r doth cut.

Wherefore each part

Of my hard heart

Meets in this frame,

To praise thy name:

That if I chance to hold my peace,

These stones to praise thee may not cease.

 O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

 -- George Herbert

Rely on God today, in this very moment, this present battle!

Get FROGGY in your faith!

Fully
Rely
on
God!

Alleluia!

The ANGEL OF THE COVENANT

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.—Psalm 34:7

by C.H. Spurgeon

We cannot see the angels, but it is enough that they can see us. There is one great Angel of the Covenant, whom not having seen we love, and His eye is always upon us both day and night. He has a host of holy ones under Him, and He causes these to be watchers over His saints and to guard them from all ill. If devils do us mischief, shining ones do us service.

Note that the Lord of angels does not come and go and pay us transient visits, but He and His armies encamp around us. The headquarters of the army of salvation is where those live whose trust is in the living God. This camp surrounds the faithful so that they cannot be attacked from any quarter unless the adversary can break through the entrenchments of the Lord of angels. We have a fixed protection, a permanent watch. Sentineled by the messengers of God, we shall not be surprised by sudden assaults nor swallowed up by overwhelming forces.

Deliverance is promised in this verse — deliverance by the great Captain of our salvation, and that deliverance we shall obtain again and again until our warfare is accomplished and we exchange the field of conflict for the home of rest.

Selah.

When Jesus Prayed Three Times

The day Jesus prayed three times and received a "No" is the day He saved the world

  

Jesus went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Mt. 26:44

 PRAYER TO JESUS, GIVING THANKS FOR HIS PRAYER

Jesus, all your prayers for human life and healing were only a matter of a few words; merely the nod of your head, or the assent of your heart would heal a child or stop a storm. And yet... when you prayed in the garden, you prayed three times. Three times you returned to the throne of the Father, asking, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” The horror of the darkness that you would have to carry for humans, the weight of all sin of eternity, the full rebellion of the cosmos that would rest upon your sinless shoulders... the shattering of your perfect Son’s heart, and the separation from the Father... these things you prayed to pass, three times: Let this cup pass, Father! If there be any way, let this cup pass from me!

Jesus, you returned to this prayer the third time. And the third time the Father said, “Son, it is my will. It is my will to crush you, that I might make my chosen children whole. Son, it is my will to bruise you, that I might bind up the wounds of sin in my hurting children, of all time.”

And Jesus, the third time you prayed, and the third time you said, “Not my will, but Thine be done!” And so you bought my salvation in this third prayer. Jesus, your utter faithfulness in the face of the cosmic horror of sin, the dark night of bearing my sin, has saved my soul. Praise you, Jesus! Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, I praise you! Holy Spirit, for mediating this gift, this life of the Father to me, in the Son, I praise you! My Comforter, my Counselor, my God, have your way in me.

Jesus, you prayed the third time, and accepted the "No" of the Father, that I might also pray tonight, and be heard by Him with an eternal "Yes!" Thank you. Words are not enough...

Alleluia!

Amen.

Theological reflections from World War Z

Recently I watched the movie “World War Z” at the Brahman Theater, by accident. Promising my mom and adopted mom that we would see Lone Ranger, we arrived to find that it only ran once per evening. So instead, we saw World War Z. And, I must say: watching my mom watch WWZ was worth the price of admission! The plot is riveting: A loving family finds a world suddenly gone mad, with things that look human but are dead inside -- human zombies, destroying life. Is there anything worse than something that looks human but lacks life, and spreads death?

As I watched the movie, a Scripture formed in my mind:  As for you, you have been made alive, who were once dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Walking dead men! People dead in spirit, who move about in body but lack true life, and bring destruction -- WWZ illustrates an ancient spiritual story. If the Bible is true, then without the supernatural regeneration of our spirit, every human is only a walking dead person. Even as we move about in our bodies and experience soul life [mind, will and emotions], without saving relation with God, we are dead in spirit. Walking zombies!

The zombie apocalypse is here and has been since the fall of Man. People, dead in spirit, wander throughout human time, slaying as they go. Ever wonder how humans can be responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the “Century of Progress?”  Ever wonder how a “civilized nation” can practice a barbarism of infant sacrifice, on the altar of convenience? Look no further than death in spirit: Humans may look alive, moving about in body, experiencing soul-emotions and mind-thoughts, but we are dead in spirit without being “made alive in Christ.”

World War z has a scene where bloodthirsty zombies frantically and frenetically climb over each other to breach a protective wall in Israel. They breach the wall and run through the streets consuming as they go: voracious madness, insatiable destruction… such a graphic picture of lost human nature! This is what we experience in our world: spiritually dead humans frantically pulling everyone down to their level of death. Consume. Destroy. Infect. Fallen human nature!

Thankfully, this is not the end of the story. In real time, God “sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Jesus Christ was manifested to destroy sin, and in Him was no sin (1 Jn. 3:5). He, the sinless One, took our curse for us. HE TOOK THE FULL EFFECT OF THE VIRUS OF SIN, that we might have spirit life. And in accepting Him, we are cured -- we are vaccinated against death, infused with the very life of God!

Numbers 21 describes a crisis of Israel in the wilderness. The people were bitten by thousands of deadly vipers and the venom passed quickly through the camp. God instructed Moses to raise up a brass serpent on a pole -- that all the dying children of Israel might look and live: In the very look of faith, they were healed from the curse! Scripture later calls this brass serpent a preview of Jesus: He hung on the cross, that we who are fatally bitten with the serpent of sin, might look to Him and live. "He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!" Alleluia!

Yes, the zombie apocalypse is here, and it’s worse than ever we imagined. The virus of sin has infected every human on planet earth, but there is Hope! You can make your calling and election sure, in the healing grace of Christ: Friend, look and live!

Alleluia!

Amen.

Note:This is updated to reflect an article that I wrote for the September 18th edition of the Okeechobee News.

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God. and a scourge for Satan. 

-- John Bunyan

Do not forget Repentance

In the temporal and social sense, repentance may come and go. But in the eternal sense, it is a quiet daily commitment before God. In the light of eternity, one’s guilt is never changed, even if a century passes by. To think anything of this sort is to confuse the eternal with what it is least like – human forgetfulness. One can tell the age of a tree by looking at its bark. One can also tell a person’s age in the Good by the intensity and inwardness of his repentance. It may be said of a dancer that her time is past when her youth is gone, but not so with a penitent. Repentance, if it is forgotten, is nothing but immaturity. The longer and the more deeply one treasures it, however, the better it becomes.

Selah. Kierkegaard, "Emissaries from Eternity," Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, edited by Charles Moore, 41.

A new kind of perfection vs. the saddest thing in the world

With respect to physical existence, one needs little, and to the degree that one needs less, the more perfect one is. In a human being’s relationship with God, however, it is inverted: the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God!

Selah.

Soren Kierkegaard, "To Need God Is Perfection," Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, edited by Charles Moore, 30.  

Miracle intent: A heart that sees and follows through

Do miracles still occur today as they did in Bible times? Yes, but they usually take place in such a manner as to preserve the need for faith. Even those who witness them must choose whether or not to believe in their validity.
 -- James C. Dobson, When God Doesn't Make Sense.

God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind but harm the will. Humble their pride.
-- Pascal, Pensees, 234. 

Seeing miracles requires a certain kind of heart 

I once met a man who was unwittingly saved by an oak leaf. He told of the day that something ruptured inside him. He was rushed to the hospital, outlook grim. "It was the darndest thing," he said. After surgery, the doctors told him that an oak leaf had wrapped around the aneurysm and saved his life. An oak leaf in his body, preventing death!

He told the story as a joke, a random event to laugh about with guys. Stunned at his dismissive treatment of something so crucial, I mentioned divine thankfulness. "Shouldn't you give thanks to God?" I asked. He shrugged and immediately turned away: "Just lucky," he said. No God to thank. No curiosity as to how an unknown, accidentally ingested oak leaf could have wrapped around the one thing that would kill him... Since God could not be part of his consciousness, there was no miracle to it.

It's interesting to see how many people directly witness the miracles of Jesus, yet turn away from following Him. It's unbelievable, yet true: The apostasy of John 6:66, where many disciples turn away from Jesus, follows directly on the heels of the great miracle of loaves and fishes -- thousands of people witness and participate in this miracle, but it leaves many of them radically disappointed in Him. As it works out from miracle to meaning, they turn away. The miracle demands a yielded heart, in order to remain a miracle. In the minds of those who turned away, the miracle merely becomes a "random event," and Jesus merely another man...

So what about the miracles in your life? The dozens of almost unnoticed signs and hints, things easily called coincidence... Have they remained signs, markers of God's presence and work, even in the midst of silence and questions? Or with the rush of human events and personal desires, does their remembrance merely pass into a blur of random eventuality, where life moves on, with faith a question, and not a life-changing reality...? Is that the case?

This is the temptation of every human, when faced with the quiet miracle power of God: Will I let it work out its providential meaning in my life, gratefully accepting the guidance and presence of God? Or will I pass it by, with a shrug and busy mind? "Just another coincidence that has no real meaning for me...!"

There will always be partial light and partial darkness, at the intersection of miracles in this current frame of human life. However hard it is for us to choose the light, we must. However much it goes against our personal wishes and inclinations, to choose light at that moment is to gain more light. And on we step up the divine stair, going from strength to strength, higher up and further in, in grace, receiving the destined promise. Alleluia!

Selah.

Divine pottery: Masterpieces from messes

Jer. 18:6 -- "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel."

Isa. 64:8 -- Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

2 Cor. 4:7 -- But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Selah.

Christians are the New Most Persecuted Religion

Religious Persecution and Safe Havens

Commentary Magazine reports that Christians have recently surpassed Jews on the world stage, as the most persecuted religious group. This is only surprising given the large levels of antisemitic hatred in our world -- not surprising, though, when looking at the facts on the ground.

Here's the article by Commentary Magazine:

In recent months, a new consensus has emerged: For the first time in millennia, Judaism has lost its title as the world’s most persecuted religion; today, that dubious honor goes to Christianity. “Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers,” wrote Rupert Shortt in a 54-page report for the London-based Civitas institute in December, which meticulously documented their persecution on a country-by-country basis. Even politicians have begun grasping this fact: German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly deemed Christianity “the most persecuted religion in the world” in November. In short, as one commentator put it last week, Christians have become the new Jews.

It's pretty surprising to me, the level of non-concern in America, regarding the persecution of Christians...

Anyway, here's the article.

Many blessings!

Human slavery higher today than ever before

Buying and selling people into forced labor and sex trade is higher than ever. Why then are people apparently unconcerned? Americans today often hear about the sins of slavery, usually for the goal of political power -- but these same persons are silent about the much worse level of slavery TODAY. There are now twice as many humans enslaved now than at the peak during the whole 350 years of the transatlantic slave. But no outrage among the leading politicians of our country! Interesting. Maybe they aren't concerned about slavery at all, but about political power and monetary gain?

Link: Slavery's Global Comeback.

Christmas Season child-slavery alert

In India, 15 million children of grade-school age are being forced to work full time or longer in child slavery "sweatshops." Cut-price Christmas decorations and items are made by child slaves. So, BE AWARE this Christmas Season. Please take an extra effort to be sure that you don't purchase items made from sweatshops.

Priyanke Ribhu of Global March Against Child Labor says many children in India are often lured away from their parents by gangmasters who befriend their parents in the remote villages where they live.

The gangmasters reportedly promise parents their kids will be taken to a better place where they will be provided a real education and many great opportunities they could not receive in their villages. Parents are also often told the children will be able to send money back home to help their families.
 

Far too often the children simply end up locked away behind padlocks only to work 17-,18-, even 19-hour days with no one to help them. Holiday decorations similar to those discovered in the recent raid can be found on eBay and in other marketplaces online or in stores.

PLEASE NOTE: The items are often sold off into a sophisticated network of suppliers that make it nearly impossible for retailers or consumers to know whether the goods they are purchasing have been made by child labor.
 

Be aware of items, especially sold on eBay and online Markets. If it says "handmade" or does not list the country in which it was made; or, if it is extremely low-priced or if it says "handmade" and comes from India. Key: Too-low prices and species manufacture and/or country of origin. The people exploiting these children and marketing these items on the backs of child slaves are sophisticated, btw. And they are motivated. They are making millions from the broken lives of children.

Link: Enslaved children article.

Also: You can sign an e-petition asking the Indian Government to take immediate action. Here: www.educationenvoy.org

Let's do our part in making sure that the greatest Season of All is celebrated with honest items!

Selah.

NOTE: 61 million children are currently denied education and life-freedom. 115 Million are currently involved in hazardous work. Many children are sold into slave work markets, especially the boys. The girls are often sold as child brides or sold into child-prostitution. It's a horrid state of affairs. Make a difference!

Thanksgiving confession

I saw this picture of Thanksgiving revisited, and just had to juxtapose it with the original. It's very convicting... perhaps it reveals some underlying reasons why America has gone down suicidal paths in national practices and politics.

When I shared this picture with friends, it surprised me to hear many of them laugh and equate this with people who like football. Yes, the subjects in the second picture are watching football, but that isn't the meaning of it, in my opinion. The real significance is much larger -- and no! I don't think that we should return to the trappings of that first Thanksgiving, before anyone takes such a foolish notion, lol. I just think the picture is convicting, fairly indicative of America's heart -- we've lost our absolute sense of dependence on God and what lived thanksgiving means; and, we are now caught in the life expectation of self-expression and creature-comfort, living out our lives in excess, essentially unhinged from dependence on God. We are not so much interested in seeking divine will as we are interested in the next corpulent meal and winning team -- or latest favorite show or program.

Does this mean I will not eat turkey and watch football on Thanksgiving? Not necessarily. But it does mean that I will try to match that commitment to the food and football with a passion for seeking divine will that day, and giving utter thanks -- with more than words.

Selah.

It is truth and not serenity that a man’s nature requires of him

Neither doing nor knowing but Being. And Love is the Test

What is the righteousness which is of God by faith?

It is simply the thing that God wants every man to be, wrought out in him by constant obedient contact with God himself. It is not an attribute either of God or man, but a fact of character in God and in man. It is God’s righteousness wrought out in us, so that as He is righteous, we too are righteous.

It does not consist in obeying this or that law, not even the keeping of every law, so that no hairsbreadth did we run counter to one of them. To be righteous is to be such a heart, soul, mind, and will, as would recoil with horror from the than lightest possible breach of any law of God. It is to be so in love with what is fair and right as to make it impossible for a person to do anything that is less than absolutely righteous. It is not the love of righteousness in the abstract that makes anyone righteous, but such a love of fair play toward everyone with whom we come in contact, that anything less than fulfilling, with a clear joy, our divine relation to him or her, is impossible.

More powerful than all powers is being. To be is more powerful than even to do. Action may be hypocrisy, but being is the thing in itself and is the parent of action.

If by neglect of its wings an eagle should sink to become a sparrow, it would then recognize only the laws of sparrow life. For the sparrows of humanity do not generally believe in a consuming fire and an outer darkness, where all that will be left is an ever renewed “alas!” The “alas” is that they neglected their wings, neglected to try to see beyond their own horizons, neglected to do the words of Him who alone is life.

It is truth and not serenity that a man’s nature requires of him. It is help, not the leaving of cards at doors, that will be recognized as the test. It is love, and no amount of flattery, that will prosper. Differences as wide as that between a gentleman and a cad will contract to a hairsbreadth in that day. The customs of the trade and the picking of pockets will go together, with the greater excuse for the greater need and less knowledge. Liars the most gentlemanly and the most rowdy will go as liars just the same.

The first shall be last and the last first.

Selah.

George MacDonald, Discovering the Character of God, edited by Michael R. Phillips, 175-176.