God is most near when we suffer

Do you remember the Lynn Anderson song, Rose Garden? Though the lyrics describe a rocky, temporary relationship, the lines, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.  Along with the sunshine there’s got to be a little rain sometime”, are words all of us can take to heart.

Our Lord never intends any of his children to live out their lives without rain.  He desires us to grow and the only way to grow is with rain. A slow drizzle of adversity is good for strengthening our resolve to serve the Lord, and we may feel we are growing in our faith.

But what happens when the drizzle becomes a monsoon? Is God in it?  Does He expect us to grow in it, or will we give up and die? In the book of Isaiah, God comforts his people by telling them:  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

The floods will come and the monsoon will try to uproot us, but God is near, and if we hold on to his hand we will come through our calamity.

We waste our time when we forever try to avoid the rain or shorten its duration.  Instead we have to see the good in it and know that if our eyes are fixed on God there is  good in all our suffering.

Author Simone Weil wrote, “The supernatural greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that is does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.”

Pastor Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, testified in his book Tortured for Christ that when he and his fellow Christians were being tortured in Romanian prisons, their souls were lifted up away from their bodies and from their torturers and the prison cell walls became as glistening diamonds with the presence of God.

God was with them; God was in their suffering, and God gave them the resolve to endure, not shorten, the pain.  If God can help those who are in the most dire of circumstances, He can also help us.

Are you afraid to die?

It is inevitable.  Death comes a calling for all of us.  Too soon sometimes, and sometimes too late. It seldom comes at the time it is convenient for us because we have so much to do and our heads are often so much ado about nothing.

We spend our days searching for the fountain of youth in anti-aging serums, exercise programs, Botox, herbal potions, and the list goes on and on.

Why do we do it?  Why do we try to avoid what no one has ever been able to avoid?

Maybe it’s because what we most prize is here on this earth and not in heaven.  Maybe we believe that this is all there is. Or maybe we are just plain scared of the unknownness of it all.

There is no getting around it.  We don’t know the details of what will take place for each of us.  We’ve read the books on what others have encountered in their near death experiences.  We’ve heard about the light people see, the angels people hear, and the loved ones that meet someone who is near the river’s edge.  But we don’t know what it will be for us. And that’s just the way it is.

So what do we do to lessen the uncertainty and, for some, the fear?  St. Thomas Aquinas said in his Imitation of Christ, “Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out.  Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience....Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death?  If you aren’t fit to face death today, it’s very unlikely you will be tomorrow...”

I believe this is key: have a quiet conscience...today.  If my conscience is telling me I am not fit to stand before God because of unconfessed sin, then I had better confess the sin and stop practicing it.

If material things have a hold on my heart, then I had better sell the things or give them to the poor, as Jesus suggested to the rich, young ruler. If I want to accomplish X, Y, Z before I die, I must remember that X, Y, and Z don’t mean a hill of beans if it is not part of God’s Kingdom plan.

Jesus told the young ruler, and he tells us too, that when we focus on building for ourselves treasure in heaven where moths nor rust can destroy and thieves cannot steal, our hearts will eventually yearn to go home.

Joy Unspeakable

Anyone who has experienced a close encounter with God never forgets it.  The memory, if not in our immediate thoughts, occupies the back of our minds all the time.

I was around 15 or 16 years old when this happened to me the first time.  From the time I was a child until sometime after this experience, I would lay in bed at night and go through a myriad list of prayer requests.  It was long and laborious and I didn’t want to miss a thing.  Visually, for me, my prayers seemed like large, complicated scaffolding reaching up along side a sky scraper; a structure that I had to climb to the top of each night before I could go to sleep.

One night, I lay on my bed in the pitch dark room going through this routine when suddenly Jesus was standing next to me.  I did not see him, but I felt Him standing by the bed.  I also felt happiness.  And, in my mind I began to ramble a happy, bubbly, monolog. I don’t remember how long He was there, because I didn’t stop for air.  I just gabbed with Jesus as though the two of us were having our own slumber party.

Then just as suddenly as He came, He was gone. It was then that I realized I had been doing all the talking, something I rarely do when I am with people.  So I said that I was sorry, and He replied that it was ok.  In my mind’s eye I could see him standing there laughing and smiling at me.

What a gift! I have cherished that memory for 40 years, and it has recently made me rethink what heaven will be like.  If experiencing Jesus, silently and invisibly near me for just a few minutes can bring such overwhelming happiness and joy, what will it be like to be in His presence all the time in heaven?

I think the best answer, in part, comes from the old hymn: Joy Unspeakable.

It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
Full of glory, full of glory;
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
Oh, the half has never yet been told.

Your sin will find you out

We’ve all heard the mantra countless times.  A politician or an athlete is caught having an affair or using enhancement drugs, and they come out with a press conference saying how terribly sorry they are, and how they hope their families will forgive them, and so on.

Personally, I’m a skeptic and I question if these people are really sorry or if they  are sorry for having been caught.  I also question why high profile people think they can do these things and not get caught?

For that matter, why do any of us think we can do wrong and not get caught?  Can we act “Christian” in public while acting like the devil in private?  If no one sees, does anyone see? Fortunately, yes.

Ask any child this question and they will tell you that, somehow, they can’t get away with much.   “Mom has eyes behind her head,” they will say.  And that is a good thing. It is as though God has surveillance cameras set up so that when we think it is safe to do what we wouldn’t do in public, it still isn’t safe.

Jesus spoke to his disciples about this very thing in the book of Luke. “‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees,’ he said. ‘They just pretend to be godly. Everything that is secret will be brought out into the open. Everything that is hidden will be uncovered. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered to someone behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops.’”

I like to think that when the religious leaders dragged the prostitute to Jesus accusing her of her deeds, what he began writing in the sand were their names and the times they had paid her a personal visit.

From the oldest to the youngest, they dropped their judgement stones because their sin was made known. It is speculation, but whatever he wrote made a big impact on these guys.

It is holy and frightful to know that whatever we say, do, and think is written down in the records of heaven.  It should be a strong motivation to keep ourselves in check in every circumstance.

The Shepherd’s sacrifice

Where briars grow, unwary sheep,

Befogged by hungry need,

Entangle fleece in thickets where 

We only thought to feed.

The Shepherd comes to set us free

From snares of piercing thorn.

Released, we are made whole, but look,

The Shepherd’s hands are torn.

On every bare and rocky height,

The sheep in safety graze.

God shelters us from wind and rain

And from the sun’s bright blaze.

The Shepherd pastures us in peace,

To living waters leads.

All hurts now healed, we are at rest,

But see! The Shepherd bleeds.

These two stanzas of an old hymn make me ever more aware that every time I am focused only on myself and my particular interests, another wound is inflicted onto my Lord.

Every time I speak unkind words, or think unkind thoughts,  another thorn is driven into His temple. And every time I fail to do what I know is right, or fail do to what God has instructed me to do, another lash is laid into his back.

But, when I give Him praise for all He has done for me, I have helped him carry the cross to Golgotha.  When I give assistance to those who are in need, I am giving Him a drink of cold water after he has fallen under the weight of the cross. And when I sit quietly in his presence, I am standing vigil with His mother and John as Jesus cries, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When I read this hymn, I feel sick at heart because of my own sin and the sins of all humanity. God is calling us all to Him, and Jesus must shepherd the children back.

For he has other sheep than these,

Who have not heard his voice,

But when the last are gathered in

The heavens will rejoice:

The saints who crowd the gates of God

Stand waiting to extol

The last sheep found, for then, ah! look

The Shepherd is made whole.

Back on Track

Every once in awhile my devious self will want something badly, and it is usually something that is temporal.  Of course, the thing I’m craving will be used for “spiritual” purposes, don’t you know. 

So I approach God with different ways of requesting this something, explaining that it will be used to “glorify Him”, and used to help XYZ Christian Organization, and so on.

My request is always the last of a stream of requests for family, friends, and others, and it is worded so as to sound selfless and helpful for others. My reason for mentioning it last is so that it will be most prominent in His mind, so I think.

But after a few weeks of this routine, I get bold and just come out with it, “Lord, please I want this thing.” 

Who am I kidding with the nicey nice prayers anyway? Certainly God knows what I am up to, but I continue to persist until I get tired of silence. Then I put the request on the shelf and let it be as He wishes.

My deceitful prayers remind me of the mother of James and John who in the book of Matthew is recorded as coming to Jesus, “adoring Jesus wishing to ask something of him.” She boldly asks that her boys be given seats of power, the greatest seats of power mind you, when Jesus would begin his rule on the earth. 

“Bless you my Lord, bless you, oh by the way, can the boys have lots of power and influence when you set up your kingdom?” I can hear her say.

In response, Jesus told her she didn’t know what she was asking for and that he was not in charge of those assignments. When the other disciples got wind of this, they were pretty disgusted with James and John.  

But maybe the boys were trying to discourage their strong willed mother with, “Ma, please not now,” or maybe they were scheming together.  Who knows but God, who knows all hearts and intentions.

Getting caught in this trap of feigning worship in exchange for some favor from God is low and despicable. We are not on this earth to accumulate things, we are here to worship Him in everything we say, think, and do. 

For me, the quickest cure for this latest “gimme episode” was a few chapters in the book Tortured for Christ by Pastor R. Wurmbrand.  He tells story after story of Christians giving up everything for the Lord in Communist Romania over 50 years ago.  Not figuratively but literally life and limb.

So what am I doing asking for things so unimportant when my brothers and sisters on the other side of this world are, more than ever, suffering for their faith?

   

I thank God He loves me enough to gently wake me up and put my brain back on track. 

Victory in Jesus!

I found an interesting book at the local used clothing store recently. It’s by a very popular contemporary Christian author who used the pages to inform her readers how to live victorious lives.

It is a good read, but I tell you our Christian bookstores are overflowing with books of the same nature.  We all want to live victorious, joyful lives, and we all want new and enlightening answers that will give us those results.

For me there is something exhilarating about finding THE book at the local book store, paying for it, going home, and sitting down with a cup of coffee to start the journey to victorious living. 

While reading the book progress is made and, for a short time, after the book is done.  Then the search begins for the next book that will give me some more new and enlightening answers to jump start my journey to victorious living. 

But after many books read, I now have the perfect synopsis for every “how to live in freedom” book out there. (I also have the perfect centerfold photo idea for every women’s exercise magazine: a close-up of a push lawnmower sitting on about five acres of lawn stretching out into the horizon behind it.  Just thought I’d throw that in here.)

Anyway, here goes: You take a piece of paper and you write these phrases across the top:

Read and meditate the Scriptures

Pray every day

Go to church at least once a week

Say, do, and think only what would please God

And then along the side of the page you list the days of the week so that you can check each item off each day as you do them.

Now I’m not saying you literally have to do this, but I am saying that this is the basic prescription for a victorious, joyful life.  We don’t need to read long, albeit interesting, books to achieve it, we need to simply do what we already know we need to do. 

“But my problems are so complicated, this simple approach won’t do,” you might say. The Lord says, Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all the rest will be taken care of. 

When I let go of the complicated mess I have been trying to untangle and return to the simple to-do list above, the mess starts to get untangled because God is doing the untangling. 

Living a victorious life does not mean living a life of leisure and a life free of problems, it means having the strength to keep our eyes fixed on what is eternal while all else rages around us. That is victory!