Steadfast Part 6 The "I CAN"T Places

When We Come to the “I Can’ts” of Life

Good evening. Welcome to the Monday Night Bible Study. My prayer for each of us, is that we will be able to draw apart from life and all that is going on and simply “BE” with our Abba God who loves us. We all NEED times to simply “be” with Him.Today we are going to look at some verses that will help us when we come into an “I Can’t” moment or season of life.

I really missed being with you all the past few weeks. The study we are going to do tonight was originally written for last Wednesday morning. It is part of the series on Isa. 26:3, He will keep in perfect peace those whose hearts are STEADFAST because they trust in him, but was not written as part of that. Events in my life have been….I don’t have a word for it….unexpected? I kind of think the series on being STEADFAST was/is in part God preparing me and maybe some of you to deal with events, He knew were arising in our lives.

Sometimes we get to a place in certain situations of life where our heart screams, “ I CANT”…Can’t do this anymore, can’t go on, can’t take one more second of whatever it is that has gotten on our last nerve. It could be something really minor but in that moment it is like the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Or it could something huge, like a death or a loss of relationship with someone we cherish. It could be the process of leaving behind behaviors that were not good for us, but we have not yet learned to live without them. It could also be a sudden trauma that comes upon us with no warning at all.

Anyone else ever experienced moments like that?

I know a few weeks ago I did, twice. This very weekend a situation arose in my life where I was in a REALLY difficult “ I can’t” circumstance. My situations are different than yours but whatever we are having trouble dealing with, whatever is our own place of “ I can’t “ we can be SURE that God does see, know and care.

In fact “God Who Sees Me” is a name of God in the OT. It was given to God by Hagar. Hagar was not perfect, but a lot of the difficult turns in her life were not by her choice. She was a servant. She belonged to Sarai. She was forced to have a child by Abraham because Sarai was seemingly infertile and that child was supposed to be an heir to Abraham. However when she did become pregnant she was snooty toward Sarai. Sarai went to Abraham who gave her permission to discipline/treat Hagar as she wished. And that was a very difficult time for Hagar, even though in a way, her attitude caused it.

So Hagar ran away to the desert but God sent an angel to her and instructed her to go back, to have her child. It was there, in the desert, that Hagar encountered the Living God via an angel and it was here that the name of God, El Roi (God who sees), was proclaimed and recognized. You can read this story in Genesis 16.

Whatever we are going through, no matter how hard life is, we can trust that God does see us. He knows what we are going through and in addition, He cares. Later in the story of Hagar we find her back in the desert thinking she and her son will die and again God saves her, this time by providing a well. Genesis 21:14-21

We are going to look at some verses about God’s provision, love and care for each of us. We need these especially when we are in an “ I can’t” moment.

Whenever I am in one… and usually it just seems to fall on me suddenly, in the past I would lash out at whoever was the “cause” or nearby.
Or else I would withdraw and begin to sink down in silent despair.

But now most of the time, I go journal and scream I can’t I can’t I can’t inside my head (well truthfully lately I have been saying it outloud sometimes) and every single time, God, our Abba replies (in my mind, In my heart, in my entire being) “I know you can’t but in Me you will.” Sometimes he simply says, “I know, I love you", or "I am with you”.

Our strength comes from God. He is our Strong Tower. He is our place of refuge during every time of need. He knows we will be overwhelmed at times. He knows we will be tempted too to fall back into old ways. He is always aware of us, always with us, and always loving us. He cares. He will invite us to REST our CARES on him.

The problem is, how do we do that?

We do it by talking to Him. We do it by crying with Him. We might journal. We might turn on music LOUD or SOFT. We might need to get in the shower and let those tears flow. Or go outside either to simply sit or walk. Or get in our car and run an errand (or say we are and actually run one) but really get in the car to step away from the situation and talk to Abba. Sometimes we may need to ask a brother or sister in Christ to pray either with or for us.

Anyone like to share what “nurtures your heart/spirit”? Meaning how do you de-stress when you are about to blow…or crash…or reach an “I can’t” place?


LOOK UP VERSES:
Our Strength Comes From God:

Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

Here we see the Psalmist reminding himself of what I bet he has kind of forgotten for the moment. He says, “The LORD is my strength AND my SHIELD.”

Strength is kind of an internal gift and shield implies external.

So we see the reminder that God, the LORD is our internal strength and our external shield.

Remember that the sort of shield they are talking about is no flimsy thing. Let me show you a photo of one:

The Psalmist goes on to restate…"in Him (GOD) my heart trusts”.

This is a choice we make. One time at salvation then every time we need to as we go through life. He says, “I am helped”.

You know back in the OT they would build what is called an “altar of remembrance” when God showed up in a special way. We can do that personally and I would encourage you to do that either in a notebook or on your computer. To record the times you had a special touch or revelation from God. Then, just as this Psalmist did, you can “remember” when things are difficult.

Anyone thinking of one you would like  to share? These things help us hold fast during times of stress, trial or other difficulty.

Then the Psalmist goes on to say, “My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to HIM….. a little praise can work miracles in lifting our mood and helping us focus on God again instead of the situation.

Let me show you something. Take your hand and make your hand out, palm open. Draw it up close to your face while you focus on something across the room. Then take your hand away. Do you see how whatever you focus on becomes THE FOCUS. When the hand is up close it looks huge and blocks the thing in the distance, but when your hand is further away, it does not.

We get to CHOOSE.
Sometimes it's hard to choose what to focus on, think about and talk about…. our problem or our God.

I believe that when the Psalmist wrote this and began to remember what God has promised and what God had done in the past and then began to FOCUS on God by singing in this case, the problem took its right perspective. I am certain that is true for me. I can focus on my current things I don’t have, or can’t do or I can focus on God and other things….Make sense?

Next verse:
Psalm 121 We are going to just read/listen to the entire thing, then break it down.
 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.


 I lift up my eyes to the hills.( I CHOOSE my focus, what to set my concentration upon).

 From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. ( We REMIND ourselves of truth, past, present and future. Our HELP comes from GOD.)

He will not let your foot be moved; (He will be our stability) he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ( HE DOES NOT SLEEP ON THE JOB. This is a good verse if we are in a time where sleep is difficult for us)

The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. ( Promise reminders of truth)

 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. (No matter what had happened to us in the past, or what is going on right this moment, or what will happen in the future, God KEEPS us. In part this reflects that whatever horrible things did happen in the past, here we are….right now tonight…. alive today. Also at the end of our time on earth, we WILL BE SAFE with GOD in HEAVEN)
 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Forevermore is a long long time…it is eternity.


God Is Our Strong Tower:

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 61:3 For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

Psalm 91:2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”


Let’s look at what a strong tower meant back in bible times and what it means today…I am using a source from a site called “Building Your Spirit. I was looking for the actual biblical definition but this next bit is great so I am sharing all of it. Sometimes we hear terms like “strong tower”, “refuge” etc and it has very little meaning for us personally. It helps to know what “everyone knew” back when the text was written.
Here is a picture of a strong tower:

In my town, or near me, in St Augustine there is a fort called Castillo de San Marco. It is made of limestone called coquina and has towers. When pirates attacked an alarm would sound and residents would hurry to the fort for safety. It is made out of a sort of rock like material that is actually harvested near there on the beach and composed of tiny shells. Coquina is unique because instead of breaking from cannon balls, it absorbed the shock and the balls actually lodged in the walls and did no or very little damage. Still standing since 1600s.
What is a Strong Tower? A tower is not a modern day skyscraper or any tall building. A Strong tower is a place of safe refuge. It fights more enemies in its range, it causes more damage to the enemies, and can take more damage than the normal watch tower. A strong tower has large areas to sleep large amounts of men, and can hold and store a large amount of food. Its huge and heavily fortified. They are built of thick stone blocks and they are tough.

Now the spiritual similarities: Strong towers have thick stone blocks and are enormous. Our God is a rock, He is our fortress, Our stronghold. In fact in  Psalm 61:3, David says of the Lord been his refuge and strong tower against the foe. How true. Our God is so huge. In Jeremiah 23:24 our Lord declares He fills the Heavens and the Earth. That's how big our God is. He fills it ALL. No situation is too Big for him. Luke 1:37 says ' For with God all things are possible'.

A strong tower is also a place of  abundance. There is a great storage of food and provision. Our Lord is a provider. He says cast all your burdens on Me because I care. Psalm 23 says the, 'The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want'! Matthew 6:31-33 says' Do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear? for the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom and righteousness , and all these things will be given to you as well'. Jehovah Jireh is His name, the Lord our provider in times of great need. The Lord will supply all your needs according to His great riches.

Wasn’t that fun information?

He is our place of refuge during every time of need.

Psalm 146:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.

He is our REFUGE and STRENGTH. A very PRESENT help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear….and then it says Selah which means… pause and think on this (truth).


And yet again in Psalm 144:2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
Did you notice a CHOICE and an ACTION?
We CAN go after “them”. We can plot revenge. Or we can CHOOSE to pray for them, release them and forgive them and THAT places US securely in the refuge of and under the DEFENSE of God.
I remember a long time ago when it finally got into my stubborn mind that God is a LOT better at taking care of ME and of taking care of “them” or “the situation” than I am.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
This is a powerful yet simple statement, isn’t it?
Anyone like to share a story of a time when God was YOUR refuge/strength/help in a time of trouble?

He knows we will be overwhelmed at times.
My favorite verse for this comes from Psalms.
Psalm 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto you, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
WHEN not if, WHEN then we simply call out to Jesus and ADMIT exactly how we are feeling…
Another one is Jesus’ own invitation in Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
If we were not going to ever be burdened and weary, aka overwhelmed, then WHY would Jesus offer this invitation to us?

A premeditated solution is found in Philippians 4:8.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

He knows we will be tempted too to fall back into old ways.
He even addresses that temptation in 1 Corinthians 4:8 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

He is always aware of us, always with us, and always loving us.
2 chronicles 16:9a For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
Deu 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

He cares. He will invite us to REST our CARES on him. It says so in 1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Tonight… let’s leave here with a heart that is assured of His loving care for us.
Let’s go knowing that when, not if, when, we are overwhelmed or when we need to go say/scream I CANT, we have a God who understands. He not only understands, He cares. He not only cares, He is WITH us and He is not only WITH us, He is UPHOLDING us.

  Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. and Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, 'Destroy them!’
And this my friends, includes the crafty enemy of fear and despair which wants us to think I CANT is the end, but in reality when our heart cries I CANT, it is the beginning of GOD reaching out to us, with HIS I CAN.

Prayer by Sylvia

Plead The Promises Sylvia Gunter Save

Good morning. Welcome to the Midweek Oasis Bible Study. My prayer for each of us, is that we will be able to draw apart from life and all that is going on and simply “BE” with our Abba God who loves us. We all NEED times to simply “be” with Him. For now we are using devotionals by Syliva Gunter. They are always full of Word and truth.

Format:

Welcome

Song

Prayer

Sharing

Closing

Let’s listen to the opening song. It is one that I dearly love and is kind of a prayer and a praise at the same time.

Song OnMy Knees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5BnVuEl1jY

When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees
When waves of doubt crash over me
I need to get on my knees

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand
When life feels like sinking sand
I need to reach for Your hand

In Your hand I find refuge
In Your hand I find grace
In Your hand I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand

When life leaves me with no choice
I must listen for Your voice
When lies confuse me with their noise
I must listen for Your voice

In Your voice I find refuge
In Your voice I find grace
In Your voice I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When life leaves me with no choice
I will listen for Your voice

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

Dear God help us to remember that when we have a need, we have YOU the One who desires to meet our every need. Lord would you touch every heart here today in the just perfect for them way? Would you help us to pause and simply “be” with you? We thank you for loving us, in Jesus name amen.

 Do you have a need that is bigger than you can solve? Are you needing more Peace, Joy, Hope, Healing, Restoration? I bet we ALL are. I know I am. Today Sylvia address prayer. But this is a specific sort of prayer. Let’s join Sylvia…..

           Prayer is like picking peas. You just get on your knees and do it. With an open Bible, praise the praises and plead the promises. Pleading the promises is a powerful form of prayer. God is a covenant-keeping God. He is faithful to His promises. I am an imperfect earthly parent, but as far as possible, I honor my promises to my children. How much more does our heavenly Father who is perfect and loves us perfectly!



           For every problem, burden, need, and circumstance, God has made you promises of His faithfulness. "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God," according to 2 Corinthians 1:20. Can you trust your heavenly Father? Absolutely.



            Use your Bible as your promise book. Ask God where to read daily. I always "pray the Bible" as I read it devotionally. I ask Him how to pray from each passage. Do Scripture searches on topics when you have a need.



            Plead the promises until you learn that everything is by prayer (Phil 4:6). God delights to fulfill His Word. Gaze at your Father through His promises and glance at your problems. When you gaze at the problem and glance at God, the problem looks bigger than God. When you focus your gaze on omnipotent God and glance at the problem, your faith increases as you see that God is more than able to abundantly meet your needs. In this way, you exalt the One who is the answer.



Here are a few of my favorite promises. Use these to start your own promise list.



2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 Dodi note: First what I am modeling here is personalizing the Word/Promise. We read it, we meditate on it, then we personalize and/or pray it back to God.

Sometimes I do not feel like I can “do this” whatever the “this” is at any given moment. But 2 Peter says that his divine POWER has GIVEN me ALL I need for life. I get that by knowing Who He is…if you have been to any of my bible studies on a regular basis, you will quickly see that is the bedrock of all of them. Knowing Who God is and who God says we are in Him.

2 Peter goes on to say, HE has given us this very great promise… that of having everything we need, so that we can escape the CORRUPTION in the world which is caused by evil desires. There is a verse which says…James 1:1-4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Those are in part what he means by corruptions of the world. The part I hold as a promise or reminder is “you do not have because you do not ask”. I had to learn to be willing to ask God for what i needed. Not things so much but I needed God to help me KNOW I really was loved. That it REALLY is OK, even GOOD to simply “be” who He created me to be.

2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

 Dodi note: This is an awesome promise. I/you/we are NEVER outside God’s awareness…His eyes range throughout ALL the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  And if our heart is NOT fully committed to Him yet, we can ask him :)

Jeremiah 29:11-14a For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. When you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD.

Dodi note: another favorite one to cling to. It is a promise with a stipulation which requires an intentional choice and action on our parts. To CALL upon Him and COME to Him and pray/TALK to Him. We do this knowing and expecting that He WILL LISTEN to us. We are promised also that we will FIND Him, when we SEEK Him with all our heart. And you know what else? He also promised us a new heart in Eze that is able to seek him. Eze 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. NLT says it this way: And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

I rather like that. A tender responsive heart. You know why? Why He does that? So we can know and obey Him. Which in turn makes life much easier and better. v 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28b you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Dodi note: See the theme? We call to Him, He hears and responds.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Dodi note: Again we place our hope in HIM, he renews our strength, which is in part our ability to live the life we have been given. And He does this just cuz He loves us and we are asking Him.



Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Dodi note: HE WILL UPHOLD YOU AND ME WITH HIS RIGHTEOUS RIGHT HAND. Wow. Do you need to be held up?

Habakkuk 3:18-19 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.



1 Corinthians 9:8 God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Dodi note: GOD is able to make ALL grace ABOUND to us..so that we will at ALL TIMES and in ALL THINGS, have ALL WE NEED and again,so we can abound in every good work.

 Do you remember the work God has given us to do verse? John 6:29 AMP Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent.”

I still vividly remember the day God highlighted this verse for me. It was such a relief and joy to realize I didn’t have to go to Africa or save the world, all I had to do was learn to TRUST HIM. And that was work at that time too. Hard. But God has done it for me. And when I forget for a bit, which I do he reminds me of His love and care and His presence with me ALL the days of my life.

2 Timothy 1:12 I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him.

Dodi note: Lord we/I do know Whom we have believed but sometimes I forget that you really are able to guard what ever I entrust to me. Would you show me/us any area, thing, habit, person, or circumstance we have forgotten to entrust to you? And then enable us to give it to you?





Ephesians 3:20 Now [he] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

 Dodi note: Another “keeper”. God is ABLE to do IMMEASURABLY MORE than we can ask or imagine. How? By HIS power which is at work within us.



Philippians 1:6 I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Mine right now is Isa 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

I believe that it is important memorize at least the text of verses that remind us what our hearts need to know/remember. Then if we awake at night, or an unexpected moment arrives when we are awake we have a promise to fall back into. Another one I use is found in Psalm 56:3-4 It says when I am afraid, I will trust in you Oh God. There is a cute children song about that. I will show you after. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwEXKPaG9Vg

Song Down In the River To Pray https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eu85pZNoWY

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!

O sisters let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sisters let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe & crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O brothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on brothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O fathers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O fathers let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe and crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O mothers let's go down
Come on down, don't you wanna go down?
Come on mothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O sinners, let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sinners, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe and crown?
Good Lord show me the way

Matthew 14:29 – Peter And The Rest

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. (Matthew 14:29 ESV)

Thunder rolled and lightening flashed, the storm was raging,
The tiny boat shook and swayed, how long they couldn’t say.
Battered by the winds, the disciples with the oars, struggling;
Tired and weary, their Master seemed so far away.

Suddenly in the hazy darkness, on the stormy waters, a figure seemed to loom,
In wild terror shrieked out they;
Their minds sensing impending doom.
Who was this – a phantom or a ghost, come furtively to spirit them away?

“Shh, it is I. Do not be afraid” a familiar voice reassured.
Seeking to drive out their fear, ingrained deep within.
But the disciples cowered in fright, even though the Master’s voice they heard.
All, except Peter, who boldly spoke up, ignoring the din.

Eyes focused on the Lord; Obeying His Master’s call,
Into the water Peter stepped, letting go of the boat,
One step, then two, moving ahead, walking tall;
Until he shifted his gaze from Jesus and floundered; his heart leaping to his throat

‘My Lord! ‘ he cried, ‘Save me! Save me! ‘
Jesus caught ahold of him, ‘wherefore did you doubt in your mind? ‘
I am with you in the storm, you see.
I will never leave nor forsake you, let me again remind.

Am I like Peter who stepped out believing?
Eager to do as his Master bade?
Or am I like the rest, His voice not heeding;
Unable to answer, sore afraid?

Dearly beloved, let us not shift our gaze – from ‘THE MASTER.’
And fix it on the stormy sea!
For in so doing – we may falter and confront disaster.
Let us look to the ‘ONE’ – who by His spoken word, created all things to be.

Genesis 25:23 – Think Of Future Nations

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23 ESV)

God is talking to Rebekah here. The two nations he is talking about are Esau and Jacob. Let’s focus on the word “nations” in this verse. Why would God use “nations” instead of children? It is because they grew up and had a large families and basically started two different “nations” as he said.

Should we think of our children or those we are discipling as future nations? Sometimes we focus on the here and now, or maybe even 10-15 years down the line, but we should think bigger. Our children will have children, and they will have children, and will create little nations within a larger nation.

The way we raise our children or teach those we are discipling could have an impact on a future nation. What you pour into someone’s life now might not be seen in your lifetime, but future “nations” will be thankful for it. Don’t get discouraged if there isn’t much progress in the here and now, think about the future.

Psalm 127:1 – Life In Vain: Your House

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

In the Bible, the building of a house can often be referred to as your life or family (Genesis 16:2, Ruth 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The most important part when building a house, or any building for that matter, is the foundation. I have a favorite Starbucks, and it’s my favorite because of how big and open it is (unlike the other two Starbucks in town). The reason it is so much larger and open is because it was built from scratch. They were able to lay the foundation they wanted for it, while the other two were constrained by the size of the pre-existing foundation they were using.

All of our lives are built on foundations which determine their direction. Jesus tells us in a parable that when we build our house on a foundation of our own choosing, it ends up crumbling when the bad times happen (Matthew 7:24-27). When we build our own foundation, instead of a foundation that is on Christ and his words, we build it in vain. All the hard work we put in ends up crumbling down from one thing, or another.

As we lay the foundation for our lives on Jesus, we allow him to do the heavy lifting. When we let God construct the foundation, He is the one who ends up building our house and the direction of our lives. When this happens, all things work for our good (Romans 8:28) and when the storms of this life come, we are still left standing (Matthew 7:24-27). We also begin to pray that not our will, but His will be done (Luke 22:42). We find our lives are no longer built in vain, but on a foundation that will never fail.
Daily Devotions

Psalm 127:1 – Life In Vain: Your House

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

In the Bible, the building of a house can often be referred to as your life or family (Genesis 16:2, Ruth 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The most important part when building a house, or any building for that matter, is the foundation. I have a favorite Starbucks, and it’s my favorite because of how big and open it is (unlike the other two Starbucks in town). The reason it is so much larger and open is because it was built from scratch. They were able to lay the foundation they wanted for it, while the other two were constrained by the size of the pre-existing foundation they were using.

All of our lives are built on foundations which determine their direction. Jesus tells us in a parable that when we build our house on a foundation of our own choosing, it ends up crumbling when the bad times happen (Matthew 7:24-27). When we build our own foundation, instead of a foundation that is on Christ and his words, we build it in vain. All the hard work we put in ends up crumbling down from one thing, or another.

As we lay the foundation for our lives on Jesus, we allow him to do the heavy lifting. When we let God construct the foundation, He is the one who ends up building our house and the direction of our lives. When this happens, all things work for our good (Romans 8:28) and when the storms of this life come, we are still left standing (Matthew 7:24-27). We also begin to pray that not our will, but His will be done (Luke 22:42). We find our lives are no longer built in vain, but on a foundation that will never fail.
Daily Devotionals

Suffering and the silence of God

SUFFERING AND THE SILENCE OF GOD How can a good God be all-powerful and allow suffering? How do we deal with unanswered prayer? Where is God when we hurt?
 by Derek Flood

Silence, disappointment, doubt, and suffering are not things that are foreign to Christians - they are common to us all. When we are at our end, desperate, alone, surrounded by darkness, and it seems like God is not there, that he is hiding his face; the feeling of abandonment can be devastating. It can feel worse than the trouble itself to feel alone in our pain. When we set our hopes on something, our trust, our heart, and it shatters at our feet, this can hurt more than to have never hoped at all. They say it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, but the pain and loss are very real. Silence hurts.
In The Doorway Papers, now published on-line, Arthur Custance writes,
At such times thoughtful men do not become atheists because they find it irrational to believe in a spiritual world which is above and beyond demonstration by ordinary means, but because of emotional insult, the feeling that if God is really such a Being as we His children claim Him to be, He could not possibly remain silent, He would have to act manifestly, mercifully savingly, publicly.
Theodicy, the issue of how a loving God can allow suffering, is a perennial atheist question, and a legitimate and honest one. But I think it is first and foremost a question for believers. It is of vital importance to us, precisely because we do believe in a good and sovereign God, that we resolve this issue with ourselves and with God. It is crucial to our development and a healthy growing trust with God that we face these questions and our pain head on. That is what this paper is about.
But first I would like to talk about what this paper will not be about.
I find it profoundly lame when Christians search to justify injustice as if it was a good thing: “it's freewill,” “it's cause of Adam.” In a misguided attempt to defend God they take a biblical concept that could offer profound insight into our situation and trivialize it into a trite intellectual justification for suffering. I find it equally naïve and dumb when atheists coolly condemn God as cruel and impotent as if they could objectively sit above it all, detached, untouched, as if these issues didn't effect them just as much as they do every other human being on Earth.
This is not an abstract concept, these are issues that touch us at the core of our being. We can justify suffering or say that God is unjust, but either way we pull the rug out from under our feet when we do. It is symptomatic of both sides to search for a detached intellectual answer rather than to really face the problem and ourselves. We need to all stop kidding ourselves. We are not above the problem so that we can push it off on God, in a denial of our human need, or say “well praise the Lord” and stick our head in the sand.
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Theodicy is not a cold theological question. It is one of passion. “I cry to you God but you do not answer. I stand before you, and you don't even bother to look” screams Job in desperation. Clever intellectual answers won't cut it here. The answer we seek in our pain is not so much one of explanation but of relief. When we cry “Why!” what we mean is “Make it stop.”
Before we can really approach an answer to the problem we need to stop for a moment and realize just how close this question is intertwined with our very being. We cannot approach this from a distance. This is not neutral for us. It deals with our lives in the most intimate and central way imaginable. So long as we, or our theories, stay on an intellectual level and do not touch us where we live, they will remain merely academic. We will have to approach these questions from a different angle, a personal angle, if we want an answer that will touch us and heal us rather than a superficial and theoretical explanation. Whether atheist or believer, these are our questions and no amount of mental gymnastics will make the questions, or our need go away.
GOD'S QUESTIONS IN US
CS Lewis said we live in a universe that contains much that is bad and apparently meaningless, but at the same time containing creatures like ourselves who somehow know that it is bad and meaningless. God has created us as creatures that cry, as creatures that recognize the injustice and emptiness and long for something more. He didn't have to. He could have made us like fish just swimming around and not noticing much of anything. But he didn't. This outrage at injustice, this cry for reconciliation, this need for love that sits at the fundament of who we are, has been put there by God.
The only reason you recognize injustice at all, is that you have been made with an God-inherited need for justice, just like God has given all of us an inborn need for love and meaning. These are primarily God's questions inside of you. You have these questions because God has placed them in your heart. God wants you to ask. When you stop asking you stop being truly human.
Ultimately, until “every tear is wiped away” we will carry these questions in our hearts. As soon as we stop asking why, as soon as we stop yearning for justice, yearning for God to step in and heal and restore, as soon as we accept the darkness, as soon as we justify suffering and Hell, there will be something very wrong with us. We cannot ever stop asking these questions on this side of eternity. It is fundamental to who we are and how God has made us. What we need to know is how to live healthily with these questions. How to live in the tension of being in a fallen world, full of pain and injustice, but having hope and trust in a good God. These questions - because they are so deeply ingrained in our being, so crucial to us - have the potential to pull us into despair and away from God, or, if we have the guts to face them, can tell us a great deal about ourselves, about what life is about, and who God is. The real question is, what does God want to tell us by making us ask?
THE FACE OF GOD
The question of Theodicy - “how can a loving and all-powerful God allow suffering?” is a question of God's character - of who God is. Therefore understanding this wont be accomplished with a theoretical explanation, but by encountering God in a deep, profound, and personal way. We need to look God directly in the face and see his character first hand if we really want to understand it.
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This is what Job longed for. When he was assaulted with suffering and tragedy and underwent the silence of God, he was not helped a bit by the theories of his friends. He wanted God. But how can you see God and live? How can you commune with one who is invisible? Job asks: “Can you by searching find God? Can you know the Almighty to perfection? It is high as Heaven; what can you do? Deeper than Hell; what can you know?” But Job longed to see God's face just the same. In the end he did, and it changed him. He had expected to find a cold uncaring face. Or even a sadistic one. But when he encountered God, Job was completely turned around as God opened his heart up to him. Job's bitter and cynical words turned to praise.
What did he see? What did that face look like?
Christianity offers a simple yet astounding answer. God's face looks like Jesus, because Jesus is God among us. Immanuel. The Word made flesh. In Jesus we see the face of God. It is a profound and amazing statement that the invisible unknowable unsearchable God is made known to us in the face and person of Jesus Christ. And that statement deserves some explanation. All too often it has meant that we take Christ and squeeze him into the narrow mold of a triumphalistic authoritarian judgmental God in heaven. But Jesus jumps out of this box just like he jumps out of every box we try to contain him in and challenges us to radically alter our concept about who God is.
Albert Nolan in Jesus before Christianity writes,
If we accept Jesus as our God, we would have to conclude that our God does not want to be served by us, he wants to serve us; he doesn't want to be given the highest possible status in our society; he wants to take the lowest place, without any status; he does not want to be feared; he wants to be recognized in the sufferings of the poor; he is not supremely indifferent and detached, he is irrevocable committed to the liberation of humanity, for he has chosen to identify himself with all the people in a spirit of solidarity and compassion. If this is not a true picture of God, then Jesus is not divine. If this is a true picture of God, then God is more truly human, more thoroughly humane, than any human being. He is a supremely 'human God'
And this is precisely what Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the father does the Son also does.” Everything he did, everything he said, was demonstrating the priorities and character of the Father. “Have I been with you so long and you still don't know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” God did not become human so that he could finally relate to us, we were made in His image and that image is perfectly reflected in Jesus. Jesus is the heart of God, everything that really matters about who God is we encounter in Jesus because Jesus reveals and embodies God at his core. The New Testament says “He is the image of the invisible God. The exact representation of his being”
Now how can we get a hold of that? Really we can't. But it can get a hold of us. This is what Christians mean by “knowing.” They don't mean that they have somehow proven by rational means something that is beyond human knowledge, but that they have been encountered, been loved, been known and their hearts reaction is to cry out “I know you! I trust you!.” This goes way beyond rational proof. It is a deeply profound and liberating revelation that reveals the core of what life is about, of what reality is, not in a reflection of our own superior reasoning and ability, but an expression of devotion and love to the Other who has come and known us, touched us intimately, like a sword piercing the heart.
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This is a very different paradigm from the predominant western one of rationalization and deduction, so it is hard to grasp for many people. The best way to understand “knowing” with God though, is how we mean it when we say that we know that another person loves us, or that we know another person. We know it through trust. We know it through relationship. Because we have seen that other person's heart and given ours to them, as we live in that relationship, we become more and more sure of the love. Out of that trust we say I know. It is exactly the same with God. This kind of personal relational proof is the only kind that we humans have available to us. It keeps us humble because we cannot prove it, or dissect it, or put it in a box. But once you really get a hold of it, or rather once it gets a hold of you, it is like dynamite. It completely turns your life up side down. When you give yourself to the reality of who God is, it can transform your whole life and all of who you are. It encompasses and touches you and changes you completely down to the core of your being. I do not argue this, I simply testify to its reality.
This is the only way something of this nature can be “proven” - individually. No one else can experience it for you. All I can tell you is of my subjective experience with the face of God and trust that as you open your heart to God that this same reality will be demonstrated to you personally, individually, subjectively so that it becomes yours. Truth can only be possessed, understood, owned when it is lived and experienced personally. I say Jesus is the face of God. I am absolutely convinced of it. How do I know? Because I have seen that face. My reaction was like Job's - it blew me away. Seeing God's face is the answer to the question of suffering embedded in our hearts. So let's look at that face.
JESUS WEPT
Since the question of Theodicy is essentially a question of the character of God, we are going to look at Jesus who is the embodiment of the very heart of God. It is my prayer that as you read this and meditate over it, that the truth of who God is as seen in Christ will go beyond mere concepts and theories and become a living reality in your heart and life. So I would ask that you would open your heart to God to encounter you, and that you would read on prayerfully.
We find in the gospel account of the resurrection of Lazarus profound insight into the nature and character of God in our lives in times of silence:
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (John 11:1–3)
It is clear from the text that Mary knew that Jesus loved her and her brother. It tells us that she is the same Mary who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, and in the letter the sisters refer to Lazarus as “the one you love,” so the familiarity and trust between them is quite evident. But Jesus chose to remain where he was for two days. He only conveyed the message “This sickness will not end in death.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. (John 11:4–7)
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Jesus did not come. Her brother died. Mary was absolutely devastated.
When she has most needed God's help he was inactive, and his promise that the sickness would not end in death turned out to be, in Mary's eyes, false. She felt abandoned, alone, helpless, and without hope. Even if we know that God loves us as Mary did, silence is crushing.
Four days after Lazarus' death, Jesus came. There were people all around who had come to comfort the sisters in the loss of their brother. Mary fell at his feet in tears and said to him “Lord if you had been here, he wouldn't have died.”
Partially because we know the story and its outcome already we half-expect Jesus to respond by saying something like “Oh ye of little faith did you not know that this is for the glory of God?.” But he doesn't. His response is extraordinary and offers great insight into God's character.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. (John 11:33)
The Greek word translated in the English as “deeply moved” means to make the snorting noise of a horse. In other words he was so overwhelmed with the sorrow that it literally knocked the wind out of him. It was the kind of pain where you can't catch your breath. Christ's second response is to be “troubled,” the Greek word translated here conveys a feeling of outrage or anger- in his heart Jesus was instinctually insulted at the injustice of suffering. To anyone familiar with grief, these two reactions: on the one hand shock - an intellectual and spiritual numbness, and on the other hand anger at the evil of suffering - are exactly how we feel. And at the same time it mirrors God's heart as seen in throughout the Old Testament in the prophets. Jeremiah writes,
My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sickened within me, because of the plight of the daughter of my people from the length of the land to he breadth of the land ... For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded. I mourn and dismay has taken hold of me. Declares the Lord. (Jer 8:18–19, 21)
This all culminates in what Jesus does next: two powerful words:
Jesus wept.
Even though he knows that in a few minutes Lazarus will rise from the dead, the next thing he does is to weep. Not some pious controlled socially appropriate tears, but hot honest choking tears. He is deeply and intimately involved with us in our pain. God suffers with us, feels every anguish, knows every doubt. Being infinite does not mean merely infinitely large, but infinitely small as well, so that he understands and experiences our silence, our pain with us, not just in a theoretical way, but deeply and completely. Sometimes in our suffering, in the midst of silence we have the wind knocked out of us, and there is nothing left to pray with. God knows this, and you can be sure that he is at that moment praying for you.
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man,
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“by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:38–44)
Mary knew that Jesus could have healed her brother, but she did not know that he was even stronger than death. Paul writes that “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” Nothing. Now Mary knew this first hand. She learned that she could trust in God, no matter what the situation looked like. Not based on her understanding of promises or principles, or the strength of her faith, or her at all, but based on the very character and person of God revealed in Christ. Jesus did not say “I will resurrect” but “I am the resurrection and the life.” The difference is immense.
Though this was a crucial lesson for Mary to learn, it did not make the death of Lazarus a good thing. Jesus felt this, and suffered it with Mary. God suffers with us and always has. God is not sitting comfortably in Heaven in our times of silence observing us from a far. God knows and experiences our pain vitally and intimately. This is not some celestial game of Chess for Him. God did not become human in order to finally understand and relate to our suffering, but to demonstrate to us that he always has understood it, felt every tear, known every doubt more that we know ourselves. God came down to us, not expecting us to rise above our suffering, or to deny it, but knelt beside the empty faces, and cried with us.
THE CROSS
But the story does not end with Jesus just crying. Like Job, we are most afraid of hearing God say in response to our cry of suffering either: “shut up!” or “sorry.” We expect to hear (to borrow a phrase from our parents) “Because I said so that's why! Now quit balling or I'll really give you something to cry about!” or else we fear to encounter a sad eyed emaciated Christ who would like to help, but just can't, so sorry. Both of these images of God are extremely limiting, and shortsighted. God is way bigger than that. And these two responses we fear the most, and half expect to hear from God, are blown out of the water by this account with Lazarus. We see in the story of the resurrection of Lazarus that this is patently not the way that God is.
We see that God is love, that God identifies with us in our pain, so much so that it is shocking. We see Jesus grieving and this revolutionizes our picture of who God is, and we see in the same picture that God is able to help us beyond anything we would have dared ask or expect. We see a God who is able to completely relate to us in the deepest way imaginable, and who is at the same time unimaginably powerful. Seeing the human aspects of God as revealed in Jesus does not limit God, it bursts the seams of our limited definitions. In seeing God small, our understanding of God becomes enormously big.
Jesus came to show us God's character, who God was, how God responded to suffering, to need. The culmination of this was on the cross, God's ultimate response to suffering. The answer to the question “where is God when I hurt?” is quite clear: He is on the cross giving everything to restore us, to bring an end to suffering once and for all. The cross demonstrates just how hard and grave the problem of suffering is. The same God that snapped his fingers and made the world had to sacrifice everything,
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dying on a cross to solve this. We see not only that love takes on all the sin of the world - that God takes on every hurt, every injustice, every rape, but that God takes on the blackness and the lostness as well, not just taking on the rape, but the blackness in the heart of the rapist as well - being both the rapist and raped. The image is staggering. The cross shows us that God is willing to break every rule, to sacrifice absolutely everything to solve the problem. It hurts him. He hates it. It shows us that he is deeply intimately involved in our suffering. And it gives us reason to hope.
I hope you noticed that I said that God died on the cross for us. Christ is the image of God, the heart of God, not the victim of God. As J.B. Philips put it, “the man on the cross was no demigod, no puppetgodling. no fragmented piece of Godhead, but God himself. Once people begin to realize that, there is bound to be an explosion in their thinking.” God was not sitting comfortably in Heaven, pouring out his wrath on a separate third party. God was in Christ on that cross, suffering, taking on the sin and pain of the world and securing hope and liberation for a lost world that he loved. This is an incalculable mystery that goes so beyond our ordinary ideas of God that it is difficult to comprehend. But this is absolutely crucial: God died for you.
This image of God that we see so vividly reflected in the character and life of Jesus and that culminates on the cross and resurrection needs to inform how we approach the question of Theodicy. The cross is about passion. God demonstrated how passionately he cares about us on the cross in wanting to break the silence, to end the suffering. God does not care how much it costs, who's fault it is, or what the rules are. God cares about you.
Through Christ, God put to death the worst of agonies - our fear of abandonment. God is with us. Imanuel. No matter how dark it gets or how bad it hurts, you are never alone. But pain hurts. Silence hurts. Knowing that God is there in the darkness is hard. When Jesus was in Gethsemane he clung to God, but he was in agony. He said “My heart is overwhelmed to the point of death” and asked his friends to stay with him for the night. On the cross he cried out to God “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” and heard nothing. And in this silence, holding onto a lifetime of trust and knowing who God is, he said into the darkness “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” When that same Jesus says to us “my peace I leave with you” we know immediately he doesn't mean some feeling, but a profound trust and a hope that was strong enough to carry him to Hell and back. It is the face of a God like that which allows me to pray even when it hurts. When it hurts too much, I need you to pray for me.
ANSWERS
So we have our answer, not in the form of an explanation, but in the form of Christ. Suffering exists, and Theodicy concludes that therefore God must either not be sovereign or not be loving. Jesus grabs our face in his hands and says to this “look at me! look in my face. I am love. I am in control. And it will be hard. Very hard. But trust me” Jesus calls us to see in that face a radical vision of a God who is one with us in our suffering, who is close to the broken hearted. In him we meet a God who identifies with us in our pain, and calls us to participate with him in healing it. Jesus does not come giving explanations, he comes giving himself.
You may wonder why there has to be suffering here, or why God couldn't have made the world different. Why is it possible for us to hurt each other so much? Why is God so hard to see? Some
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people say it is because we need freedom to develop character. This is not a bad concept, and it is certainly true in our world. But it begs the question: why couldn't God have made a different world with different rules?
Ultimately the question we are really asking is “God what are you doing?” and the answer we have is that God is intimately involved in answering us , in meeting us and providing a solution, and end to suffering. Our question at its heart is one of trust, and this is exactly what Jesus speaks to. God entered our world of suffering and showed us his heart. On the cross he showed us that he is willing to confront suffering head on and sacrifice everything to end it. And with the resurrection that redemption has begun here in us.
Throughout the Bible we are steered away from asking for an explanation and steered toward how we are to respond to suffering and to God. Honestly I don't think we'll ever find an adequate explanation for why there is suffering. If we were try to comprehend how God wants to establish justice it would blow up our heads. God tells Job if he can't make a sunset or and ostrige which is easy for God, then how does he expect to understand something as mind boggling as how God governs the universe? It isn't our job to understand this, but what we can do is participate with God in solving it. We can see on the cross a foretaste of the solution, a flash of what justice looks like. We can see how God wants us to respond to the question of suffering in us, by responding to God, by participating with God in a relationship of developed experiential trust, through real hope, and through participating in loving God and loving others. In the next section we will look at how we can do this.
AN OPIATE FOR THE MASSES?
God is working to end suffering and calls us to work with him, to participate in his heart. Suffering will not be a permanent part of human existence. The New Testament talks about a future world where it will be different; where there will be complete justice and restoration and healing. Biblical justice is not about vengeance but about restoration - doing justice by helping the oppressed, the poor, the lost. Heaven is the epitome of this kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. Heaven should be a model that shows us how we should live here on earth, seeking justice and healing and liberation. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. But all too often Christianity has presented a picture of heaven that goes more in the direction of unhealthy escapism and detachment from reality.
As Christianity became a religion of kings and power institutions, Jesus' revolutionary message of the kingdom of God among us - of a God who was near and identified with the poor, who proclaimed freedom for the oppressed, and loving your enemies - was kept from the populace because it was too subversive. They were told just to follow the authority and one day they could get to heaven if they were good and obedient. And so the whole point of the Christian message of the hope of heaven was lost. Instead of it being a model that showed us how we are to act here, the epitome of the “kingdom of God among you” that Jesus proclaimed to the captives and the outcasts, that he ushered in to the sick and the untouchables, it became something distant used as a carrot on a stick to promote compliance and passivity to the status quo. In the face of injustice, what was intended to start an inner revolution, to spur us on to fight to end suffering here, instead became an opiate to justify it.
Most people today still think of heaven in this passive way. And so, as we have moved away from monarchy towards individualism we have thrown this idea of heaven overboard as childish. We live for
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now and want to make heaven here. But because we have become so individualistic, heaven here does not mean working for social justice and loving each other, it means retreating to our little nest egg, to escape from the world into the safety of our Christian community, to fill our time looking to God above in Bible studies, quiet times, praise meetings, devotionals, seminars, and on and on in our safe tidy blessed enclave where we can “concentrate on the Lord.”
This escapist fragmentation of life into the sacred vs. the secular leads to an unhealthy schizophrenic view of life. It produces a subconscious guilt at honestly enjoying anything ordinary, anything “not spiritual,” rather than seeing the sanctity of the ordinary: seeing all things as sacred, the whole of life as sacred, and letting that sight inform everything we do with meaning. This separation leads to us being distanced from our own suffering and the suffering of others so that we deny our own needs and are callus to others. And so we become just like those old kings. We may kid ourselves into thinking that now it is different, that now there are no peasants outside the gate. But we only need to watch the nightly news to see that this is a lie, or take a good look in our own hearts to see that consumerism and individualism, even when we have wrapped them in spiritualized labels, have left us empty inside, alone with an inner poverty.
DISAPPOINTMENT WITH GOD
We are not fulfilled, but we keep thinking: all I need is to get more involved, or pray more, or be more disciplined, or have that revival come, or find that perfect partner, or that church, or be slain in the spirit, or get that spiritual insight. Then I will be fulfilled. Always just out of reach, one significant experience away, the same carrot on the stick as before. And so our life becomes a desperate neverending introverted search to find that elusive something that will finally fulfill us.
Our hearts long for freedom, to an end to suffering. This is a good desire, but when this healthy and fundamental desire becomes an addiction of always looking for that “blessing” fix, or wanting to have our problems taken away so that we will not have to face them, it ultimately leads to either a denial and disconnectedness with ourselves and others, or to an extreme disillusionment and disappointment with God and with life. In other words, if we want to justify our carrot on the stick world, we must deny the cries of others and the cries of our own unfulfilled heart in order to maintain our picture of safety, subconsciously saying: “Yes you can reach that carrot - that ultimate fulfillment. We're almost there, you just need more faith. Don't question. Don't tell me people are hurting here. I can't handle seeing that.” Instead of these dreams inspiring us to vigorously pursue them, and to have an inner revolution that confronts our problems honestly, we are told to submit and be obedient and wait, and one day revival will come and all our problems will be miraculously lifted away.
Once we have seen through this, and can finally admit that we are unfulfilled, we become severely disappointed and feel empty and lied to. This destructive culture of escapism is very widespread throughout western society and especially within western Christianity. It can get so intertwined with our Christian experience that we can hardly tell anymore where one begins and the other ends. So it wounds us at the very core of life. It makes us question the very reality of our faith.
A WINDOW TO HEAVEN
It is said that, “In Christ, the church carries within it the seeds of its own subversion.” It is this
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revolutionary nature of God which is our only hope in this twisted scenario. Jesus wants us to question, to break the rules, to burst complacency. He said things that were shocking to get us to think, proverbially plunging our head in a bucket of ice water. Often Christians are so quick to solve problems with pat answers that they don't let this revolution take place, and that means we don't move closer to Jesus. In this section we will look at how we can we deal with these needs and longings in a healthy way together with God. How we can regain the radical and liberating hope of heaven that Jesus proclaimed: the Kingdom of God among us.
The Christian life is not one characterized by being fulfilled and complete here, it is about seeing beyond and letting that vision spur us to action. We see God here in glimpses, little ambushes that shatter our gray world and leave us gasping for more. For just a moment a window is opened up to Heaven and we can see, and our heart cries out “Abba!” We naturally long for this home, to be united with God. Our hearts were made for that. These glimpses point us to something beyond the gray.
The Message's rendition of 2nd Corinthians 5:5 puts it, “The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so we'll never settle for less.”God has broken though to us in our dark and wounded world, shattered our blindness, and given us a deposit in our hearts that points us to him. If these glimpses were all there was, then that would be frustrating, that would not be enough. But they are there to let us see, to wake us up, to point us beyond, and to let that vision shape our world here.
In the on-line article Stuck on the Road to Emmaus Mark Buchanan writes,
Just at those moments when finally the scales fall from our eyes and we see that, behold, it is he, it is Jesus!--at that wondrous moment, he often up and vanishes. Our encounters with the risen Christ are mostly like that: enigmatic, fleeting, mere glimpses, little ambushes. And we're left with the question, “Didn't our hearts burn within us? Didn't they?” The portrait of the faithful is not a portrait of the fulfilled. What defines them - what defines all of us on the road to Emmaus - is hope. What defines them is a slow, burning heart. What defines them is a yearning: knowing in their bones, in spite of loss or sorrow or aloneness, that there is Something more, Something else, Something better. What defines them is a hauntedness, a shaky but unshakable conviction that the Christ they see now through a glass darkly, in little fleeting puzzling glimpses, they will see one day face-to-face. But for now, on this road, their slow hearts burn.
Sometimes our heart is opened to see and it is scorching - our hearts burn within us - at other times they are merely warmed. Sometimes the touch is phenomenal, but more often than not, it is just something simple and ordinary, like seeing how Jesus breaks the bread, and suddenly we recognize he has been with us all along. The caliber of our faith is not so much measured by the magnitude of theses glimpses and epiphanies, but by how we deal with the in-between times when it is gray, where we are carried by the faith and trust we have built. These glimpses through a dark glass need to lead to a developing and growing of that trust in God that can take us through the gray, they need to produce in us a hope of heaven that does not make us escapist, but fills our life here with depth, allowing us to embrace life because we see God in it filling the ordinary with value and meaning. They need to produce a life that is not detached from the world, but has its eyes wide open seeing what life is really about. I long for heaven because I long for an end to all suffering, for every tear to be wiped away. And that vision of Heaven causes me to work now to bring the Kingdom of God here by joining God in caring for those who are hurting, liberating those who are captive, and speaking hope to those who are lost.
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This is what it means to “share in the suffering of Christ,” to be a co-worker with Christ laboring to alleviate suffering for the sake of love. Jesus said “As you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me” and that implies something incredible. When you love me I am receiving God's love, and at the same time you are loving God through me. Intimacy with God is not an isolated relationship, but one that intertwines all of our lives. When you love someone you want to care for them, comfort them, protect them, nurture them, but it is hard to imagine doing these things for God. How could we comfort God? How can we minister to God's needs? Although there are many expressions of our loving God that may be shared directly, (trust, respect, affection), specifically these “parental” characteristics (comfort, protection, nurture), of our love for God find their expression in our loving the “least” - the weak, the tired, the lonely. In this very way we can love God with our whole being, with the complete expression of who we are as people.
Some Christian circles teach that as Christians we should not have trouble and suffering as a part of our lives. But this is just not something Jesus ever promised us. To follow Christ does not mean a troublefree existence, a life free from suffering, but a life devoted to caring for those who suffer, a life of bringing the Gospel to the broken, the neglected, and the unforgiven.
When we open our hearts to others, when we carry their pain, we hurt too, we suffer too. When you love someone you are not indifferent to their struggling, it becomes your own. We do not seek suffering, we seek to end suffering, to heal. But like Christ we take on and endure suffering for the sake of love. As we leave our insulation and open our hearts to care for one another, we suffer. We suffer the pain of those who we long to see free, and we suffer the outrage at injustice that we fight to make right, and we suffer in our own struggles just as Christ did at Gethsemane.
In doing this we encounter how God responds to suffering and injustice. We share in God's suffering and God's heart. When we love others we love God, we minister to God's wounds: “I was naked and you clothed me, I was a stranger and you took me in” Likewise, when we allow others to love us we become a sacrament to them - in our being “the least of these” we become a tangible means for them to encounter Christ by loving us.
SHARING IN GOD’S SUFFERING
In The Suffering God Charles Ohlrich writes,
An amazing amount of space in the Gospels is devoted to the healings of Jesus. This underscores for us that the problem of suffering is a matter for action. Because God works to fight suffering, so should we - vigorously. We should use every means at our disposal to combat suffering - prayer, medicine, social action, relief work, and so on - our attitude should be to regard it as an enemy. Have you ever felt anger welling up within you when you see someone in pain? This feeling is not wrong or unchristian. It is even proper to hate our own suffering. It is right to hate loneliness, or disease, or the death of a loved one. The image of the suffering God we see on the cross is the image of a protesting God.
These questions that God has implanted in us that cry out against suffering, that long for wholeness have been put there by God so that we can participate with him in the work of the cross, working to end suffering, tearing down the barriers that divide us. Being made in God's image, we too suffer. And this
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being so, God does not so much share in our suffering as we share in God's.
I know a couple who lives and works in the inner city “projects” of Chicago with the gangs. They long to see these people break out of the destructive cycles they are trapped in, to see them find Jesus, and to see the whole oppressive structure of crime and poverty reformed there. That is a tremendous burden. It is crucial for us to realize that these burdens we have to see deep healing and change in people's lives that we love, ultimately belong to God. We can participate together with God in working for transformation, but if we carry the weight alone it will crush us. Its pressure can be debilitating. We need to participate with God in sharing his burden in a proper balance, allowing our strength and source to be rooted in God.
In Christi-Anarchy Dave Andrews writes that “We often think that service is doing things for others. But service takes on its true character when we do things with others.” Our service is not only a participation with God, but a participation with others - allowing them to go at their own pace, supporting their growth but not smothering. This does not necessarily only have to mean doing something dramatic, like giving all your possessions to the poor and devoting yourself to volunteer work in a far off country. There is need right next to you; in the lives of the people you already know and see every day, in the little things, in sharing the ordinary joys and troubles of life. It simply means opening your life and being real and caring for others, and allowing them to care for you, wherever you are.
Jesus calls us to follow him in caring for others, in speaking life into peoples hearts. This is not the demand of a God in the sky, but a God who has made himself a servant and beckons us to serve too, to join him down on his knees amongst the wounded. And if you are wounded God is kneeling over you. He loves you more than you can possibly imagine and places no demands on that love. But that same love urges us, calls us to follow, to participate with him, an imperative of the heart born of the Gospel of love. It's a hard journey, filled with deep joy, incomprehensible peace and rock solid hope. But also with trouble, darkness, and tears. And it's a journey that we never ever walk alone.
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