“You must have done something awful for this to happen to you.” Has anyone ever said that to you? Have you said it to yourself?
Job had been through a lot. He’d lost his children, his home, his possessions, and his health. All he had left was his wife, and that was not necessarily a good thing. She wasn’t much help to him during his troubles.
Job needed some encouragement. He needed to know somebody cared and sympathized with him. He needed friends.
His friends came to see him, alright. But they didn’t provide what he needed. Instead, they told Job that he must have committed some horrible sins and that God was punishing him by sending all these calamities.
Many people think this way. They believe anything bad that happens must be punishment from God. Let’s see what God has to say about that.
In Job 1:8, God said there was nobody else on earth like Job. He was “blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil.” So why did so much evil befall Job? Because the devil complained to God that the only reason Job was so good was because God had given him so much. Satan thought if everything was taken away from Job, then he would not be loyal to God.
God knew how Job would react, though, and He wanted to show other people and Satan the sort of example Job was going to set. Even when Job’s wife suggested that he curse God and die, Job refused to denounce God or blame him.
God often uses people in difficult circumstances to teach others. (John 9:1-3) Jesus deliberately delayed going to see Lazarus when He’d been told his friend was sick. After Lazarus died, Jesus brought him back to life. Do you think that Jesus planned it that way, so that people could see His power? By allowing Lazarus to die, Jesus was able to teach others and to make it clear to them that He was the Son of God (John 11:15, 42).
There are many examples in the Bible of righteous people suffering through no fault of their own. Abel was killed by his evil brother who was jealous. Joseph was put into prison because of a wicked and deceitful woman, not because he’d done anything wrong. John the Baptist was beheaded, though he was a prophet of God. Jesus said there was no other man like John, but he died because of a woman who sought revenge.
Here’s what Peter wrote to New Testament Christians about suffering: “You greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faithof greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by firemay be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Suffering is greater than gold, which doesn’t last, because suffering refines our faith and makes it genuine. This results in honor for Jesus.
And, speaking of Jesus. He was innocent, yet he suffered more than anyone. He willingly left heaven to suffer cruelties he didn’t deserve and he didn’t have to accept. It’s hard enough to endure trials when we can’t do anything to stop them. Think of how tempting it would be, if you had the power to call angels to help you or if you could strike dead anyone who tried to harm you? Jesus had the power to avoid suffering, yet he gave up His right to do that and instead faced the pain . . . for us.
We may suffer a lot of pain in our lives, BUT when this life is over, we do not need to suffer through eternity. Why? Because of the suffering Jesus took on himself for us. He suffered because He didn’t want us to suffer. Does that sound like a God who is waiting for an opportunity to punish us when we do wrong? Jesus came to this world to seek and save. He was led, like a lamb to the slaughter, and it was because He wanted to spare us from eternal suffering.
So the next time trouble comes into your life, please don’t blame God for it. He’s not sitting on His throne looking for a reason to zap you. He made the supreme sacrifice in order to SPARE us from suffering the punishment we deserved for our sins.
Will you allow your pain to turn you away from the one who wants to rescue you from it? That’s what Satan would like to see. May we, like Job and Peter, allow our suffering to refine our faith and result in God’s praise, glory, and honor.
Author Marsha Jordan is founder of a nonprofit charity called Hugs and Hope for Sick Children (http://www.hugsandhope.org). More of her articles on depression are in her book, Hugs, Hope, and Peanut Butter, a compilation of encouraging essays illustrated with drawings by critically ill children. Proceeds from book sales will benefit kids battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Other essays in the book include, “More Than I Can Handle,” “Ten Tips For Beating Depression,” and “Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer?” Order the book or learn more at http://www.hugsandhope.org/book.htm
Spiritual Warfare…
Pastor Terry Dashner (www.ffcba.com.)
Introduction:
On October 28, 1997, a 12-year-old girl by the name of Samantha Zayzay was shot in the head during a drive-by shooting while she slept at her 5228 North Kenosha home in Tulsa, OK. She died two days later. An article from the Tulsa World describes the incident that led to her death, “Police said the bullet may have been intended for Samantha’s older brother–who no longer lived in the house–and may have been motivated by an argument about a drug deal.”
Because I was a Tulsa police officer at the time, I can give you a few more details about the shooting. Samantha’s brother was a local dope dealer who had made enemies and had moved from the house just two days before the shooting. In the early morning hours, a car load of armed gangsters released a volley of rounds from automatic assault weapons. The rounds went completely through the house exterior, through the interior, striking Samantha in the head as she slept. Other rounds struck the Mother who came to the funeral with her leg in a cast.
At Samantha’s funeral, the Reverend William J. Johnson gave the eulogy and said these words, “When drugs cause someone to take a life, it is time for a change.” The question I asked then and continue to mull over when I recall this incident is this. I agree it’s time for a change, but what do we change?
Do we change the social-economic environment that fosters gangs and drugs? Do we change the social injustices of society? Do we change the laws of community? What do we change to stop such madness?
Ray Stedman in his book entitled, Spiritual Warfare, writes the following regarding the fallacy of social reforms. Stedman says, “All our efforts to correct the evils we see in life are simply rearrangements of the difficulties. We succeed only in stirring them around a bit until they take a different form. But our methods can never solve the central problem of evil because they cannot come to grips with the power of Satan. As C.S. Lewis so aptly put it, ‘No clever argument of bad eggs will make a good omelet.’ When the full cycle of problems is run through, it begins again, and we say, ‘History repeats itself.’”
What do we change?
If reform is not the answer then what, if anything, is? There is an answer. The answer is as old as mankind itself. Changing the outward environment of man will do very little. This has failed time and time again. The one thing that needs change is the heart of man. And the only thing that can change the heart of man is Jesus Christ. These two sentences are the most import statements in this entire document.
This morning I’m going to speak on the heart of man. In Jeremiah 17:9 it reads, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Since the heart of man can not be cured of its evils, then it must be transplanted. The only way to change the nature of man is to build in him a new nature. II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away and behold all things are become new.” There are three simple things I want to say regarding the heart of man. For one, everyone born in to this world has a heart problem. Secondly, there is only one man who can give us a new heart, and His name is Jesus. And thirdly, spiritual exercise to maintain the new heart is imperative.
Body:
I. Regarding the heart of man, everyone born in to this world by flesh and blood has a problem heart. Romans 5:12 reads, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (NIV) You see, Adam was the seminal head for all mankind. That means that we who come after Adam, come from him physically. In other words, you and I were in Adam as seeds when he transgressed God’s command to abstain from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, you and I sinned with him.
You might say, “Hey, that’s not fair.” Well, some people say it doesn’t seem fair that children are born into dysfunctional families. It might not be fair in some minds, but the fact remains. No one can choose his or her parents or physical attributes. The fact that you and I are born into sin happens without a choice; however, there is an option which speaks of the fairness or perfect justice of God. The fact that Jesus Christ became the last Adam, He can impute His righteousness to us who are of the first Adam. God’s perfect justice demands that fairness be offered. And “fairness” is this. There is a way out of our sin through Jesus Christ. (Read Romans 5: 17-19)
II. Regarding the heart of man, only the God man, Jesus Christ, can give us a new heart. In I John 3:8 it says, “…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” The devil’s work is and has always been this–to steal, kill, and destroy God’s creation (John 10:10). When Jesus spoke these words as He died on the Cross–”It is finished”–He affirmed that Satan’s rule was broken over the first Adam and his seeds. That does not mean that anyone born in to the world now is automatically free of original sin. It does mean that God has provided an option for us who are in Adam. We can choose to stay in sin against God’s will, or receive by faith God’s imputed righteousness through His Son Jesus.
The Bible declares in Romans 10:9-10, “That if you will confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
III. Regarding the heart of man, conversion is just the beginning to a new life in Christ. As a matter of fact, once you are born again you must grow up spiritually or you will remain hindered by sin and the old sin nature. In Galatians 5: 16 it reads, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
What does it mean to “live by the Spirit?” It means this. Once you are born again, you no longer belong to yourself. You can no longer live for yourself only. And if you do, you will be miserable. I know because I have tried it. Once you receive your salvation in Christ you are His forever (ICor.3:16). In order to surrender your will to His, you must ask the Holy Spirit to rule from the throne of your heart daily. You must seek out the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life. You do this by starting every day with a pray of consecration–Lord, I am yours today. Holy Spirit fill me and use me for your glory. You do this by feasting on God’s Word. Direction for a Spirit filled life can only come by the Word of God. When you are walking daily with the Holy Spirit, you will be aware of Satan’s tactics against you. You will be aware of temptations to the flesh. And because you have the Spirit of God working in you, He will give you the power to overcome the traps of the enemy.
Conclusion:
These three things pertain to the heart condition of man. Every man is born physically into sin. His heart is the heart of the first Adam. It pumps the blood of sin. The remedy for this tainted heart is a new heart. The old heart can not be patched up to work better. The old heart must be removed by the hand of God and replaced with the heart of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Once we receive the new heart by faith in Jesus’ redemptive work of Calvary, we must exercise the new heart so that it will become strong and vibrant. This is done by the help of the Spirit of God and His Holy Word.
The disciple’s life in Christ is one of forgiveness, justification through the blood of Jesus, and sanctification through the help of the Holy Spirit. If you’ve never had a heart transplant, may I encourage you to ask God for a new heart today? If you will believe God’s promise of life and receive it by asking for it, God will save you. Once you are born again, don’t revert back to the old life. Reach forward in Christ by His power. Grow up in God. Fight the good fight of faith. Stay the course. Life will reward you graciously.
Pastor T.