why me?

These are questions we tend to ask when things aren’t going the way we would desire for them to go.  Why me?  Why this? Why now?

Justin Taylor posts an answer tree from David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Sufferings,”  in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (pp. 172-173)..

here is a paragraph from the middle, but you really have to go read and perhaps meditate on the whole thing

As that deeper question sinks home, you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God’s story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long.

I have the Kindle version of Suffering and the Sovereignty of God on my iPhone. Obviously, I need to read past the introduction.

interview

here is an interview with a man that will likely not be alive at the end of this year. fascinating difference in perspective even though any of the rest of could die this year too.

There is a tendency that’s especially strong in Calvinist circles to read Romans 8:28, “All things work together for the good,” as though it says that “All things aregood.”  I heard some of that, and that hurt me too.  I am not blaming anyone else; I am sure this is more my fault than anyone else’s.  These are honest opinions, if (I think) probably misguided, and they were delivered by completely well-meaning people.  But hearing repeatedly that suffering is discipline from a loving Father, and that my circumstances are all gift — no curses, they are all blessings — made me feel sometimes as though God were coming after me with a baseball bat.

It’s impossible for me to hear and absorb those messages and then also think that the God of the universe actually loves me.  I got close at some points to losing my faith, to seeing God as having declared Himself my enemy.  It’s hard to worship your enemy.

The pain and the cancer in themselves are not good, then, and yet we as Christians believe that God can bring good out of evil.  Not to paper over the negatives, but what good has God brought out of it?  What lessons has God taught you, or how has He shaped you?

My experience of cancer especially is that God is just so eager to bless.  I find blessing all over the place, not in the cancer itself but all around it.  It would almost be easier to answer what blessings I have not found.

…..

Many people wonder what it will be like when they learn that their death is drawing near.  Is there anything that surprises you?

Yes, absolutely, but I think that this is just another one of many, many pieces of divine mercy.  One thing that has certainly surprised me is just how easy it has been to absorb that message that I’m going to die soon.

I will probably not survive 2010.  Yet that message is much easier to take than I would have expected.  I don’t fully understand why.  I would have thought that the knowledge that I am very likely in my last year of life would lead me to dwell on the dying.  A certain amount of that is unavoidable.  Death hangs in the air.  It’s as though I am living with an hourglass right in front of my face.  You cannot look away from it.  You cannot close your eyes to it.  It’s always there.  But actually I think it has led me to dwell more on the living.  It sounds really trite to say that things that seemed like very small matters seem really precious to me now.  It’s no novel thought — but, in my case, it really is true.

Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler’s surgery to remove a mass from his frontal lobe begins in about 20 minutes. Be in prayer for him during the surgery and for a complete recovery.

Here is a post from Matt going into surgery about the things for which he is thankful.

The beginning:

The last seven days have been some of the most interesting of my life. I have felt anxiety, fear, sadness and a deep and unmovable joy simultaneously and in deeper ways than I have felt before. I am grateful for this heightened sense of things. Today at 10:45 a.m. CST I will have a good portion of my right frontal lobe removed. I head into that surgery with a heart that is filled with gratitude and hope.

Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order:

1. I am thankful for the thousands of you who have prayed and fasted for my health. It has brought far more tears to Lauren’s and my eyes to receive this kind of attention from the Church universal than this tumor has.
2. I’m thankful for health insurance because I’m guessing they aren’t doing my five-hour surgery for free!

Glory to God in suffering

Here is a video from John Jordan’s facebook page explaining further how God can be glorified in the midst of suffering.

further information on this topic in II Corinthians 4:7-5:15 and Hebrews 10:32-39.

two on suffering

first courtesy of Vitamin Z we get this comforting bit that we will never be able to fully explain the problem of evil but that we can trust God anyway:

So how do Christians explain the problem of evil?

The reality is, we can’t provide an exhaustive theodicy or explanation of the existence of evil.  Our minds cannot fully fathom “why.”

But, in his recommended book, Return to Reason, Kelly Clark, explains why Christians need not feel intellectually compromised if they cannot explain the existence of evil.  Here is how he concludes the discussion.

The Christian theist need not be troubled by is his ignorance of a theodicy.  This ignorance is not insincere, questionable or obscurantist.  Rather, it is quite consistent with his theistic beliefs.  The Christian theist will believe that God has a good reason for allowing evil, although  he does not know what it is or know it in any detail.  He believes that God has a good reason because of God’s redemptive incarnational revelation.  It is not rationally incumbent upon the theist to produce a successful theodicy; the theist, in order to be rational, must simply believe that God has a good reason for allowing evil.  A God who shares in our pain, who redeems our sorrows and our shortcomings, who wipes away ever tear, is surely a good God. (page 89).

and then Halim Suh is making plans. He is thinking about what he wants his friends to tell him when suffering comes in his life. It is so very helpful to have right theology and right thinking about suffering firmly in place in your mind before the suffering hits. before the cancer diagnosis, before the layoff, before the horrible accident etc. etc. Here are some of Halim’s prospective advices to himself. Go read the rest.

Yesterday in our book group, we were discussing suffering. Honestly, I haven’t endured a lot of suffering, yet, in this life. Especially not the tragic, life-changes-in-a-moment kind of suffering. But, only the Lord knows if it is coming. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would want people to tell me if I do go through a crisis – and these are things that I think I would need to hear:

Tell me that there is a God in heaven, who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. Remind me that my crisis, my suffering, is not a surprise to Him, and that it has not happened outside of His control. Tell me that my God has a purpose in everything – my suffering included. Remind me that He is the God who sees everything – not one thing has ever escaped His attention. He sees me now.
….
Tell me that there is a Savior that suffered – a lot more than I can ever imagine. No matter how much suffering I am enduring, remind me that Jesus suffered so much more, infinitely more. Tell me that He can comfort me because He knows my pain. He knows my suffering. Tell me that my Jesus is there.

Tell me that God loves me with a fierce love – the kind that rips open seas, that drowns armies, that throws hailstones from heaven, that shuts up lions’ mouths, that saves from consuming fires, that heals the lame, that feeds the hungry and that conquers death. Remind me that my God loves me like that. And that this God doesn’t change, nor does His love for me change. So, if He has ordained suffering in my life, He is still loving me – although I may not see it or understand it.

Halim is one of the staff at Austin Stone Community Church.

II Timothy 3:12

II Timothy 3:12 says “12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. Do you believe that? Do you believe that all means all and that persecution really means persecution? Really?

here is a John Piper quote from Vitamin Z:

“Obedience in missions and social justice has always been costly, and always will be. In the village of Miango, Nigeria, there is an SIM guest house and a small church called Kirk Chapel. Behind the chapel is a small cemetery with 56 graves. Thirty-three of them hold the bodies of missionary children. Some of the stones read: ‘Ethyl Armold: September 1, 1928-September 2, 1928.’ ‘Barbara J. Swanson: 1946-1952.’ ‘Eileen Louise Whitmoyer: May 6, 1952-July 3, 1955.’ For many families this was the cost of taking the Gospel to Nigeria. Charles White told his story about visiting this little graveyard and ended it with a tremendously powerful sentence. He said, ‘the only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango is to remember that god also buried his Son on the mission field.’

And when God raised Him from the dead, He called the church to follow Him into the same dangerous field called ‘all the world’ (Mark 16:15). But are we willing to follow? In Ermelo, Holland, Brother Andrew told the story of sitting in Budapest, Hungary, with a dozen pastors of that city, teaching them from the Bible. In walked an old friend, a pastor from Romania who had recently been released from prison. Brother Andrew said that he stopped teaching and knew that it was time to listen.

After a long pause the Romanian pastor said, ‘Andrew, are there any pastors in prison in Holland?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Why not?’ the pastor asked. Brother Andrew thought for a moment and said, ‘I think it must be because we do not take advantage of all the opportunities God gives us.’ Then came the most difficult question. ‘Andrew, what do you do with 2 Timothy 3:12?’ Brother Andrew opened his Bible and turned to the test and read aloud, ‘All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ He closed the Bible slowly and said, ‘Brother, please forgive me. We do nothing with that verse.’

We have, I fear, domesticated the concept of godliness into such inoffensive, middle-class morality and law-keeping that 2 Timothy 3:12 has become unintelligible to us. I think many of us are not prepared to suffer for the gospel. We do not grasp the truth that God has purposes of future grace that he intends to give his people through suffering. We can speak of purposes of suffering because it is clearly God’s purpose that we at times suffer for righteousness’ sake and for the sake of the Gospel. For example, ‘Let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.’ (1 Peter 4:19, 3:17 and Hebrews 12:4-11).

To live by faith in future grace we must see that the suffering of Gods people is the instrument of grace in their lives.”

– John Piper, Future Grace

emphasis added.

more prosperity gospel

back to vitamin z for an update on Joel Osteen’s newest book.

check it out:

So, Joel Osteen sent us an email yesterday to let us know about his new book, It’s Your Time. Joel wanted us to know that we could achieve our dreams with his new book. That was the subject line, seriously.

Here’s more encouragement from Joel O.:

Get your hopes up. Raise your expectations. Expect the unexpected. In challenging times, it may be hard to see better days ahead.

You may feel as though your struggles will never end, that things won’t ever turn around.

This is exactly the moment when you should seek and expect God’s blessings.

It’s your time to declare your faith, to look for God’s favor and to give control of your life to Him so that you can find fulfillment in His plans for you!

here’s more disgusting bilge from the toothy spewer of sewer:

God wants to breathe new life into your dreams. He wants to breathe new hope into your heart. You may be about to give up on a marriage, on a troubled child, on a lifelong goal. But God wants you to hold on. He says if you’ll get your second wind, if you’ll put on a new attitude and press forward like you’ll headed down the final stretch, you’ll see Him begin to do amazing things.

Tune out the negative messages. Quit telling yourself: I’m never landing back on my feet financially. I’m never breaking this addiction. I’m never landing a better job.

Instead, your declarations should be: I am closer than I think. I can raise this child. I can overcome this sickness. I can make this business work. I know I can find a new job.

Take your dreams and the promises God has put in your heart, and every day declare that they will come to pass. Just say something like, “Father, I want to thank you that my payday is coming. You said no good thing will You withhold because I walk uprightly. And I believe even right now you’re arranging things in my favor.”

When you’re tempted to get down and things are not going your way, you need to keep telling yourself “This may be hard. It may be taking a long time. But I know God is a faithful God. And I will believe knowing that my payday is on its way.”

Whenever life grows difficult, and the pressure is turned up, that’s a sign that your time is near. When lies bombard your mind. When you are most tempted to get discouraged. And when you feel like throwing in the towel. That’s not the time to give up. That’s not the time to back down. That’s the time to dig in your heels. Put on a new attitude. You are closer than you think.

God promises your payday is on its way. If you’ll learn to be a prisoner of hope and get up every day expecting God’s favor, you’ll see God do amazing things. You’ll overcome every obstacle. You’ll defeat every enemy. And I believe and declare you’ll see every dream, every promise God has put in your heart. It will come to pass.

emphasis added.  Our “payday is on its way?”  are you kidding me?  check out Matt Chandler right quick, “But you don’t put God in your debt. I know this because really really faithful men in the Scripture have it go really really bad for them.”

Do you believe the witness of scripture or do you believe the spewer of sewer with the big toothy smile?

what does God say in the Bible about our payday?  That we have earned the payment/penalty/wages of death:  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If we were to get our “payday” we wouldn’t enjoy it very much.

now just for comparison with the O man, go check out the last 6 or 7 verses in Hebrews 10.

Or, better yet, look for a minute at I Peter 4:12-19

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at^(A) the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice^(B) insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad^(C) when his glory is revealed. ^14(D) If you are insulted^(E) for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory^[a] and of God rests upon you. ¹⁵But^(F) let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or^(G) as a meddler. ¹⁶Yet^(H) if anyone suffers as a^(I) Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God^(J) in that name. ¹⁷For it is time for judgment^(K) to begin at the household of God; and^(L) if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who^(M) do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And

^(N) “If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”^[b]

¹⁹Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will^(O) entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

could the contrast be any more stark? What Joel Osteen is spewing is a lie from the Liar himself.

As Z says it is damnation with a smile:

What you preach is not Christianity. It’s motivational, positive sounding legalism. “Just follow these rules and you’ll be set” is essentially your message. This is not the gospel. As Michael Horton says, this is “law light”. Sounds good and very nice, but is just as damning. It’s damnation with a smile.

powerful stuff

Timmy Brister posted this video “Choosing Thomas” and like he says it is worth the next ten minutes of your time.

somewhat related, Randy Alcorn talks here about the absolute necessity for Christians to have a well developed theology of suffering to avoid falling into serious error when something like the events in the video above come into our lives.

I wrote If God Is Good because the question of suffering and evil is the most commonly raised and perplexing problem there is. It’s unusual to have serious prolonged interactions about believing in God, with either believers or unbelievers, without them raising it.

I am also deeply concerned with how radically unbiblical viewpoints are being assimilated into the thinking of evangelical Christians. In If God Is Good, I wrote four chapters critiquing the attempts of misguided theologians to resolve the problem of evil by minimizing the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, goodness, or love.
….
I also wanted to address the issue of mystery and faith, and our need to trust God even when we can’t see his purposes. That used to be a central part of faith, but somehow it seems more difficult for modern Christians. I argue that while the nature of faith is to trust God for what we do not see, we may base our trust in him on many things we have seen—His Word, His creation, and how he has shown himself in others in our lives and throughout history. I point out that if you write down the worst things that have ever happened to you and then write down the best things, there is often, especially when sufficient time has passed, a shocking overlap of the lists, confirming the workings of God’s sovereign grace.

suffering as a tool to edify the church

Challies has another great post today. This one discussing Ligon Duncan’s exposition of how God uses suffering in our lives to build up the church. Go read the whole thing.

So I guess this is something we ought to keep in mind in those times that God calls us to suffer. Our suffering is not pointless; it is not meaningless. At least in part, our suffering is mandated by God so we can strengthen and edify our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they, and we, may strive toward Christian maturity. “Your suffering does not just belong to you. You are members of a body. Your suffering is for the body’s maturity as much as it is for yours. Your suffering is there to build up the church of Christ. It is there for the people of God to be given faith and hope and confidence in the hour of their trials. Your suffering is also the body’s suffering because one of God’s purposes in suffering is the maturity of the whole church.”

Jeff Mangum talked yesterday at the Austin Stone from I Corinthians 15 about the hope of the resurrection being a sure hope. As a result of the certainty of the resurrection and heaven to come we can endure any hardship that this temporary world has to offer. He talked about how the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation emphasizes that following the way of Christ is fraught with uncertainty and difficulty. Nonetheless, we are called to suffer for Christ in this life. He talked in particular about invitational suffering and how the American Church as a whole refuses to acknowledge this aspect of God’s plan for us.

The idea that God would call us to suffering in order to bring glory to His name is completely alien to the modern American church where the Godly live prosperously and comfortably without pain and illness. In the modern American church job loss, illness, poverty, rebellious teenagers etc. are proof of poor choices or worse God’s judgment on the sufferer’s life.

Ligon Duncan and Jeff Mangum might actually be onto something. Maybe God can actually be magnified in our weakness. Maybe when we mature through suffering we can help the whole body become more mature at the same time. Maybe………

or maybe they are reading a different Bible than the rest of us and God really wants us to be healthy and happy all the time with all the toys and distractions that our selfish hearts desire. Maybe we should just name today’s desire and claim God’s power to make it so and forget all that stuff about suffering for the Name of Jesus, about no student being better than his teacher, about denying self taking up the cross and following. Yeah, that’s right…. Where’s the remote?

theology of glory or theology of suffering?

Should Christ followers have a theology of glory or a theology of suffering? Horton makes the case that, according to the Bible, it should be the latter.

Jesus knew why he came. It was not to help people find a little more happiness and success in life. In fact, his life was filled with suffering, under the long shadow of Calvary. “For this purpose I have come,” he said, referring to the cross (Jn 12:27). “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19:10). The disciples thought that the road to Jerusalem led to victory. Entering as conquerors at the side of the Messiah, they would drive out the Romans and usher in the everlasting reign of God. Each time he reminded them that he was going to Jerusalem to die on a cross and be raised on the third day, they either didn’t respond or (especially in Peter’s case) reprimanded Jesus for his “negative thinking” (Mk 8:31-38; 10:2-5; Mt 16:21-23). Ever since his temptation by Satan, Jesus had been offered glory without a cross, but it was a false promise, and that’s why Jesus rebuked Peter’s attempt to dissuade him from the cross by saying, “Get behind me, Satan. For your thoughts are the thoughts of men, not of God” (Mt 16:23). We can be grateful that Jesus embraced the cross and then entered his glory, instead of demanding glory first.

Paul regularly picks up on this theme. Familiar to suffering himself, Paul was always joyful not because of his circumstances but because of the gospel’s promise that after we suffer for a little while we will share in Christ’s resurrection glory. He warned the church of false teachers who deceive “by smooth talk and flattery.”

……
Christianity announces the good news that God in Christ has saved us now from the condemnation of the law, dethroned the tyranny of sin, and delivered us from Satan’s oppressive regime. But it gets even better: One day, this salvation will be consummated in the gift of resurrection, glorification, and everlasting life, free of the very presence of sin, pain, evil, and violence.

the Good News of Recession

Matt Carter is doing a sermon series at the Austin Stone Community Church on the Biblical christian response to trials and suffering. I have listened to the April 26 message twice already and I highly recommend it. I have downloaded the May 3 one and I will listen to it on the way to work this morning.

Like Matt says. The one thing the believers have the power to do differently than the rest of the world is to “suffer well.” and like Piper says: that makes God look glorious.

suffering

I noticed in the sidebar at the Straight Up blog a three part series on God’s role in suffering by Gerald Hiestand. Here is part three which contains links to the first two parts. Go check it out.

I like these bits here especially well, but it is all good and very much worth a read:

And it is at this particular point that I find indeterminism wanting. As a theodicy, indeterminism generally attempts to lessen the tension between God’s goodness and human suffering by appealing to moral freedom. It is through the wrong choices of free moral agents, we are told, that suffering has been introduced into the world. Well and good—even determinists would agree so far. But then indeterminists often (not always) make a logic-leap and conclude that when faced with suffering, we should look not to God, but rather man, Satan, and the random effects of a fallen world as the ultimate source. The subtle and (often not so-subtle) implication of indeterminism is that God has no causal relation to our suffering. Now I affirm human freedom. And I affirm that much of the suffering we experience is the direct result of creation’s choice to live independently of God. But one cannot simply sprinkle the pixie dust “free will” over all suffering and magically resolve the tension between God’s goodness and human suffering.

At the end of the day, there’s no way around it. God, by very nature of his being, is the ultimate “buck stops here” person in the universe. Nothing can happen apart from his divine sovereignty. He could have prevented the planes from crashing into the towers. But he chose not to. From massive natural disasters, to the death of the smallest creatures, God’s eye beholds all; his hand oversees all. And nothing happens apart from his divine counsel. Not even open theism, with it denial of God’s exhaustive foreknowledge, gets God off the hook. Even the open theist has to admit that God knew the intentions of the terrorists—if not from the dawn of time—then at least on the morning of 9/11. And still he chose not to intervene. The fact remains that creaturely freedom, however immediately the cause of suffering, does not operate outside the exhaustive scope of God’s sovereignty. The story of Job is a classic example.

…..

As far as theodicy is concerned, I prefer determinism’s willingness to call a spade a spade. It acknowledges up front that God is the ultimate first mover, the One who ordains all things. Nothing happens apart from his divine will. At the end of the day, peace in the midst of suffering comes through submission to the divine will. It comes through trusting that God has a good reason for why he ordains what he ordains in relation to my life. And perhaps even more significantly, it acknowledges that he has the right to do so. Any theodicy that attempts too vigorously to wipe the blood off of God’s hands robs us of the rest that comes from resting submissively in the wisdom of God’s divine care. Such theodicies are an emotional quick fix, but they can’t satisfy the hurting heart in the end. Like Job, we find our ultimate peace in bowing before the mighty hand of a sovereign God who, beholden to no one, has the right to purposefully ordain all things—even suffering—for our good and his glory. Determinism reminds us that God owes us nothing, and yet has given us everything.

that bit about trying to wipe the blood off of God’s hands reminded me of Roger Olson being scared of the “calvinist” (I think he means the Biblical) God. The way I read the Bible it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. As a matter of fact, the Bible talks a lot about fearing the Lord. hmmmmmm.

bart ehrman’s new book

Bart Ehrman has written a new book and Methodist bishop William H Willimon takes it down with style in this review.

here is how the review begins, but take some time and go read the rest.

Bart Ehrman has written another book that is probably destined to be a best seller. God’s Problem is a lively, though thoroughly conventional and utterly predictable, dismissal of Jewish and Christian views of God. It is a real page-turner, quickly written by an author who assumes a position of moral and intellectual superiority to just about everyone who is unlucky enough not to be a tenured professor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

God’s Problem begins not with God but with Ehrman, and with antitheology as autobiography. We learn that suffering has “haunted” Ehrman “for a very long time” and that it is the reason he lost his faith. The faith he lost was Christian evangelical fundamentalism, which, as we are told, crumbled under “critical scrutiny.” Ehrman told NPR’s Terry Gross that for a while he tried the Episcopal Church, finding its rituals aesthetically pleasing, but that he eventually left because “even in the Episcopal church they say the creed.” Even Episcopalians were too gullible and credulous for the agnostic Ehrman.

Being subjected to the puerile theodicy of undergraduates while he was teaching courses in religion at Rutgers was the coup de grâce for what was left of Ehrman’s faith. So the professor ventured forth on the journey that he apparently considers heroic, even though it has been made by millions in the West before him: the journey of taking God less seriously and himself more so. While this is now an old story, Ehrman seems invigorated by the telling of it—I presume because it his own story. The radical subjectivity and narcissism of evangelical pietism must be tough to shake.

While reading God’s Problem, I kept asking myself, why bother? There are no new insights or discoveries here. All of this is common knowledge to anyone who has taken a few Bible classes in any first-rate, state-funded, secular department of religion. And if one no longer believes in God, why attempt theodicy in the first place—who cares whether the God who isn’t is just or unjust, caring or uncaring? Any argument against the goodness of God that begins with the announcement that God probably doesn’t exist is a strange argument. Why beat a dead horse?

Hat tip to Challies

another thought for the day

Charles Spurgeon from Reformation 21:

“Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee; but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord’s sending, and come to us with wise design.” (Morning and Evening)

thought for the day

here is a cheerful thought for the day from the Ikonograph.

The ironic thing here is that we don’t grow unless we hurt. Pain makes us evaluate what it is we cling to, and God wants to teach us to cling to Christ. Suffering forces the Christian to see that everything else is vanity, and that we have to look to “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Php 3:8).The more we suffer, the more we can see the foolishness of fixing our affections on things that will pass away. The more we suffer, the more we see that worldly affections can’t even make a return on investment before they pass away.

just a thought. go read what else he has to say about burning forests and lightning. good stuff.

D.A. Carson

Here is a quote from D.A. Carson via Vitamin Z about why Christians are surprised by suffering.

Here is his first reason:

We may get the balance of Scripture wrong. We remember the wonderful triumphs of Joseph, Gideon, and David; we meditate continuously on the miraculous healing of the man born blind, or on the resurrection of Lazarus. We are less inclined to think through the sufferings of Jeremiah, the constant ailments of Timothy, the illness of Trophimus, or the thorn in Paul’s flesh. A righteous man like Naboth perishes under trumped up charges (1 Kings 21). The “good guys” do not always win. We shall have occasion to return to such topics. For now it is enough to note that we may be infected by a pious version of the raw triumphalism that prevails in much of the surrounding culture because we have not taken care to follow the balance of Scripture.
– D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 25

I would agree with Mr. Carson on this point, but I think the problem is even a bit more basic still. Almost all of the people who go to church for an hour on Sunday morning would have absolutely no idea who Naboth is if you went up to them on the street and asked them. I would bet that a pretty large majority wouldn’t even know who Jeremiah was and they sure wouldn’t know that his nickname was the “weeping prophet” or why in the world he might have such a nickname. They wouldn’t know about Timothy’s stomach problems. Anyway, you get the point.

Most people who go to church and call themselves christians have absolutely no idea what is in that mysterious book they carry for a short while one day of the week.

How could they then help but be surprised when they suffer? They hear flashy smiling smooth talking preachers talking about christianity as a way to have our best life now and they think that if they aren’t having (in their subjective opinion, of course) a good life, much less their best life, then something must be wrong with them.

The level of ignorance of what the Bible actually teaches is absolutely astounding and inexcusable in this age with such ready access to God’s word.

Just pick one up and read it. God breathed it for you to have and read. He wants you to get to know him as he really is and not as the cartoon character that his opponents and “friends” have made him out to be.

Take a chance. Read a Bible. It might just shift your perspective a wee bit.

Desiring God Regional Conference

Piper was good tonight. Looking forward to tomorrow’s session. We start at Job 32. Elihu is my favorite.

real persecution

Real persecution still exists and real christians are still being called upon to endure hardship.

here is a hard to read story about one faithful pastor’s struggle along with his family. Pray for Pastor Bike Zhang and his family:

October 16, 2008

BEIJING – ChinaAid has learned that Zhang Jian, the elder son of Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan, was severely beaten by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials while at home with his mother, Xie Fenglan, in Beijing on October 16. Xie Fenglan testified that at about noon Beijing time, 15 Beijing PSB officers entered their residence and secured the exits before severely beating Zhang Jian with iron bars for 25 minutes. As Zhang Jian lay bleeding profusely, his mother called an ambulance, but the receptionist told her that a higher government authority gave a directive not to dispatch any ambulance to rescue her son because he is related to Pastor Bike Zhang. Zhang Jian’s mother then called her younger son, Zhang Chuang, who rushed to the house where he was also beaten by the same authorities. After some time, a personal friend of the Zhang family was able to take Zhang Jian to the Beijing Min Hang (Aviation) Hospital emergency room where Zhang Jian remains now. His doctor said Zhang Jian’s right eye may lose sight forever because of the severe damage resulting from the repeated beating. Pastor Bike Zhang, who was traveling in Yunnan province at the time, is currently unable to be contacted. It is assumed that he has been detained by authorities.

Pastor Bike Zhang’s wife, Xie Fenglan, was kicked out of her legally rented apartment, located at Room 206-102 at the Beijing Olympic Garden apartments, after her elder son Zhang Jian was sent to the hospital. The family’s furniture was thrown into the street. Government authorities ordered all hotels in Beijing not host her so she is now residing at Dr. Fan Yafeng’s home. Dr. Fan, a house church leader in Beijing, is an internationally renowned Chinese Constitutional law scholar and rights defender.

…..
During the past 22 years, Pastor Bike and his family members have been arrested, beaten and evicted from their home numerous times because of their Christian faith, yet he and his family continue to serve the house church Christians in Beijing. ChinaAid is standing with the Zhang family and will continue to send out updates on their situation.

Death by love

Death by Love is out now.

here is what Adrian Warnock says about it:

Without in any way softening his commitment to the centrality of Jesus taking the punishment of sin in our understanding of the cross, Driscoll is far broader in his understanding of and application of the cross to hurting people’s lives today. From convicted child molesters, to cheating husbands and raped women, Driscoll shares pen outlines of the destruction manifest in the lives of specific people to whom he has ministered. He then shows in a letter written to each individual how a specific aspect of what Jesus has done on the cross can bring wholeness and salvation to them.

This is a vital book that should be read by every Christian who is serious about reaching out with the gospel into this dark and damaged world.

More information on Suffering

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More information is now available on the Desiring God Conference in Austin in October. Thanks to Creation Project for the heads up.

Here is the scoop:

Registration

The registration fee is $25.00 per person if received on or before August 31, and $35.00 per person if received after August 31.

There are no group discounts, reduced rates, or partial registration options available.

Seating is limited, so please register early. Once the conference fills, registration will close.

Register:

Online
By phone: Call 888.346.4700, 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. CT, Monday-Friday

Piper remembers Solzhenitsyn

John Piper has put up a remembrance of Alexander Solzhenitsyn with a quote from the Gulag Archipelago

here is a portion of the quote, but go read Piper’s post for the whole thing as well as John’s prayer of gratitude for this man’s life:

In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts…. That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: “Bless you, prison!” I…have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!” (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Vol. 2, 615-617)