Category Archives: Suffering

Laudable Linkage

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Wow — came across some deep, thought-provoking posts this week as well as some fun ones. Hope you find a few you enjoy!

What is Success? Life in the Upside Down Kingdom by Ann Voskamp, HT to Lisa Notes. I’d urge any of my blogger friends who are Christians to read this if you don’t read anything else here. I need the constant reminder that whatever else my blog is or does, it is first and foremost done as unto Him.

Also by Ann, HT to Addy, When you’re trying to get your priories straight. Beautiful. I’ve been referred to and blessed by Ann’s blog so often that I finally subscribed.

Seeing past what it seems, HT to Lizzie, had me in tears.

‘Twas the night before chemo and Cary Schmidt puts this journey into perspective. HT to Susan.

On a lighter note:

Flourless chocolate cake.

Do you love turkey? — jokes and cartoons for Thanksgiving.

Turkey finger puppet tutorial.

Free decals for kitchen use.

This little girl is soooo cute! She tells the story of Jonah, and though she doesn’t have every little point exactly right, she has wonderful presence, a variety of voices, and a sweet way of saying “sh” for “s”. “Forgive us for being shelfish.”

And if you’d like to spend 3 1/2 minutes listening to some beautiful instrumental music, here you go:

And

Green Leaf in Drought

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In 1950, Arthur and Wilda Mathews and their 13 month old baby, Lilah, traveled to Hwangyuan, China. China had fallen to Communism, and other missionaries were leaving, yet the Chinese church had invited them to come, with the approval of the Communist government. They felt this was a miraculously opened door God would have them go through.. Yet, when they arrived, they could sense that all was not well. The Christians pastors who met them were strained, and they discerned that between the time of their invitation and arrival, the Chinese learned that association with the white people would be a liability under Communism, not a asset. The Mathews thought perhaps then that, if they could not be a help to the church, they could endeavor to evangelize the unreached Mongols in the area and nearby. They had a few weeks in which to minister, but soon found that they were restricted in ways they could help. They endeavored to set up an inn with which to reach the Mongols, but Chinese troops took it over the day before it was to open. Arthur protested, but soon found it would have been wiser to have said nothing. In two days a policeman came to the mission compound to announce that no one there could do village work without permission, and the white people were forbidden everything: they could not have meetings outside the compound, they could not give out tracts or dispense medicine. They were restricted to the mission compound.

They finally decided that since they were more of a hindrance than a help, they would apply for exit visas. They thought, since the government did not want them, they would be allowed to leave quickly, and so gave away or sold dishes, curtains, etc., keeping just the bare minimum to function until they could leave. Arthur was summoned to the police station and asked to sign a statement that he was for world peace. He had heard of another missionary having to sign some document before leaving, so he signed without thinking much of it. The government official then asked what contribution Arthur was then willing to make toward world peace, outlining a plan in which Arthur would go to India and essentially be a Communist spy. Arthur realized that the Communist definition of world peace was a world dominated by communism, and of course could not consent.

A government official called Arthur in and promised his exit visas if he would do something for them, like write a report of five other missionaries. At first Arthur did write glowing reports of the missionaries in question, but someone told him he dare not turn that in: the Communists would change what he had written but keep his signature. So Arthur threw his report in the fire and told the official he could not be a Judas. The official then told him that he could have given him a pass, if he had cooperated, but now a charge had been laid against him which must be investigated, and “investigations take a long time.”

Thus began a two and a half year ordeal. Their provisions from their mission were frozen by the government, which made Arthur submit a report of what he would need, and then they doled out to him much less than what the report said he needed. Every victory they mentioned in a letter seemed to be immediately challenged by the enemy of their souls: once when they wrote what a blessing Lilah was, she then came down with scarlet fever, and they almost lost her. All of them had turns being ill. Eventually they were told that no one could speak to them, and they could only leave home to draw water from the creek and get food.

They wrestled with the “what-ifs” and the frustration of what they called “second causes,” finally coming to the conclusion that they had to trust that the Lord was in control and had them there for a reason, though it was hard to discern that reason when they were so restricted. Yet the Lord did use them even when they could not speak to the people. The few weeks they had had to minister before restrictions set in, people knew their hearts and saw their love. When the Mathews could no longer speak openly, the people saw them in tattered clothes, persecuted, attacked by illness without much medical aid, laughed at, jeered, humiliated, doing menial, degrading work just to survive, tantalized by the government offering release and then not giving it or doling out money that was theirs in the first place. They saw the Lord provide miraculously for them in many ways. Yet more than that, they saw them endure graciously and joyfully until, finally, the Mathews became the last CIM missionaries to leave China.

How the Lord provided for them and ministered through them in unexpected ways are some of the most exciting parts of the book Isobel Kuhn wrote of their story titled Green Leaf in Drought. She says,

But most amazing of all was their spiritual vigour. Whence came it? Not from themselves: no human being could go through such sufferings and come out so sweet and cheerful. As I was in a small prayer meeting… one prayed thus: ‘O Lord, keep their leaf green in times of drought!’ I knew in a moment that this was the answer. Jeremiah 17:8: “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” That was it! There was an unseen Source of secret nourishment, which the Communists could not find and from which they could not cut them off…That is needed by all of us. Your drought may not be caused by Communism, but the cause of the drying up of life’s joys is incidental. When they dry up — is there, can we find, a secret Source of nourishment that the deadly drought cannot reach?…Is it possible for a Christian to put forth green leaves when all he enjoys in this life is drying up around him?

The answer, by God’s grace, is yes!

“Thy Calvary stills all our questions.”

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The following is excerpted from Rose From Brier by Amy Carmichael, a book compiled from letters she wrote to those in the hospital on the Dohnavure compound after she herself had been bedridden and in pain for many years. This is from the chapter “Thy Calvary Stills All Our Questions.”

Yet listen now,
Oh, listen with the wondering olive trees,
And the white moon that looked between the leaves,
And gentle earth that shuddered as she felt
Great drops of blood. All torturing questions find
Answer beneath those old grey olive trees.
There, only there, we can take heart to hope
For all lost lambs – Aye, even for ravening wolves.
Oh, there are things done in the world today
Would root up faith, but for Gethsemane,

For Calvary interprets human life;
No path of pain but there we meet our Lord;
And all the strain, the terror and the strife
Die down like waves before his peaceful word,
And nowhere but beside the awful Cross,
And where the olives grow along the hill,
Can we accept the unexplained, the loss,
The crushing agony – and hold us still.

Children who love their Father know that when He says, “All things work together for good to them that love God,” He must mean the best good, though how that can be they do not know. This is a Why? of a different order from that of the little mosquito. It is immeasurable greater. It strikes at the root of things. Why is pain at all, and such pain? Why did God ask Satan the question which (apparently) suggested to the Evil One to deal so cruelly with an innocent man? Why do the innocent so often suffer? Such questions generally choose a time when we are in keen physical or mental suffering, and may (the questioner hopes will) forget our comfort. They seize us like fierce living things and claw at our very souls.

Between us and a sense of the pain of the world there is usually a gate, a kind of sluice gate. In our unsuffering hours it may be shut fast. Thank God, it is shut fast for tens of millions. But let severe pain come, and it is as though the torture in us touched a secret spring, and the door opens suddenly, and straight upon us pour the lava floods of the woe of a Creation that groans and travails together….

O Lord, why?

…I have read many answers, but none satisfy me. One often given is our Lord’s to St. Peter: “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” And yet it is not an answer. He is speaking there of something which He Himself is doing, He is not doing this. “Ought not this woman whom Satan hath bound be loosed?” That was always His attitude toward suffering, and so that blessed word is not an answer to this question, and was not meant to be.

There are many poetical answers; one of them satisfied me for a time:

Then answered God to the cry of His world:
“Shall I take away pain,
And with it the power of the soul to endure,
Made strong by the strain?
Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart,
And sacrifice high?
Will you lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky?
Shall I take away love, that redeems with a price,
And smiles at its loss?
Can you spare from your lives that would climb unto mine
The Christ on His cross?”

But, though, indeed, we know that pain nobly born strengthens the soul, knits hearts together, leads to unselfish sacrifice (and we could not spare from our lives the Christ of the Cross), yet, when the raw nerve in our own flesh is touched, we know, with a knowledge that penetrates to a place which these words cannot reach, that our question is not answered. It is only pushed farther back, for why should that be the way of strength, and why need hearts be knit together by such sharp knitting needles, and who would not willingly choose relief rather than the pity of the pitiful?

No, beautiful words do not satisfy the soul that is confined in the cell whose very substance is pain. Nor have they any light to shed upon the suffering of the innocent. They are only words. They are not an answer.

What, then, is the answer? I do not know. I believe that it is one of the secret things of the Lord, which will not be opened to us till we see Him who endured the Cross, see the scars in His hands and feet and side, see Him, our Beloved, face to face. I believe that in that revelation of love, which is far past our understanding now, we shall “understand even as all along we have been understood.”

And till then? What does a child do whose mother or father allows something to be done which it cannot understand? There is only one way of peace. It is the child’s way. The loving child trusts.

I believe that we who know our God, and have proved Him good past telling, will find rest there. The faith of the child rests on the character it knows. So may ours, so shall ours. Our Father does not explain, nor does He assure us as we long to be assured… But we know our Father. We know His character. Somehow, somewhere, the wrong must be put right; how we do not know, only we know that, because He is what He is, anything else is inconceivable. For the word sent to the man whose soul was among lions and who was soon to be done to death, unsuccored, though the Lord of Daniel was so near, is fathomless: “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

There is only one place we can receive, not an answer to our questions, but peace — that place is Calvary. An hour at the foot of the Cross steadies the soul as nothing else can. “O Christ beloved, Thy Calvary stills all our questions.” Love that loves like that can be trusted about this.

“Why am I still here?”

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Last night Jim’s mom was thinking back through all the people in her life who had passed on — parents, husband, sister, cousins — and wondering why the Lord left her here. I tried to reassure her that if God had her here, He had a purpose for her. She grinned and said, “To be an example in suffering?” Then she reassured me that though she had had some tough spots in her life, she wasn’t really suffering, especially as compared to some others.

The conversation reminded me of an article years ago in Frontline magazine called “A Psalm for Old Age” by Esther Talbert. We knew the Talberts: we attended church with them for several years before we moved out of state. Esther’s mother-in-law, Jean, had been one of the sweetest, merriest hearts I had ever known. Then she got Alzheimer’s, and it was so sad to see her standing away from everyone looking confused and uncertain. She was one whose situation caused me to wonder why the Lord let some of His children go through such things instead of taking them on Home. Part of Esther’s article addresses that:

Verse 18 of Psalm 71 says, “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to every one that is to come.” As a nursing instructor cherished by her students (of whom I was one), Mom imparted to her young charges far more than nursing skills. To many she was a surrogate mother and spiritual counselor who showed the strength and sweetness, the love and faithfulness of the Lord. Now God is using her to show His strength and power—perfected through weakness—to my husband and me.

There is a reason God leaves the elderly and infirm among us, and it is often not for their benefit but for ours. If we are not too busy and self-absorbed, we may learn the qualities of Christ that we lack and that He desires to mold in us, the transformation of character He intends to accomplish in us, by confronting us with their presence and needs. By the time something like Alzheimer’s strikes, God is about done with His earthly work in someone like Mom. “Why, then, does He leave someone to linger like that?” we wonder. His earthly work in Mom is done, but much of His earthly work in us and others, through Mom, is just beginning. He strengthens us daily to love and care for her. In the gentle rebuke of His mercy, He is molding and changing us—revealing our selfishness, unfolding His fifth commandment in new ways. Only as I myself am moldable will God’s power, in my turn, shine through me to “this generation and . . . to every one that is to come.”

Romans 8:17-18 says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Some day that glory will outshine everything else, even the trials of this life that loomed so large at the time.

When a little one dies…

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Tonight at church we were surprised and saddened  to learn that a little baby girl, less than a week old, of one of our newer church families passed away today. She was born prematurely and developed a bowel infection that developed too quickly and extensively to be treated.

The family is grieving, naturally, but solid in their faith in God’s goodness and timing.

When I hear of a little child being taken on to heaven, I often think of a passage from one of my most often read books, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton. There is a section quoting Amy’s writing about the death of one of their little ones at Dohnavur and a passage from a letter of Samuel Rutherford’s to a grieving mother over 200 years before which was a comfort then to Amy. I posted this last fall in connection with the death of a little boy, Canon, for whom many in the blogging community had been praying. It came to mind again today, and I wanted to share it:

You have lost a child. Nay, she is not lost to you who is found to Christ; she is not sent away but only sent before, like unto a star which going out of our sight doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere: you see her not, yet she doth shine in another country.

If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time that hath she gotten in Eternity; and you have to rejoice that you have now some treasure laid up in heaven…Your daughter was a part of yourself, and you, being as it were cut and halved, will indeed be grieved; but you have to rejoice that when a part of you is on earth, a great part of you is glorified in heaven…There is less of you out of heaven that the child is there.

I also thought of Jesus’ prayer, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

We rejoice that this little one is with Him where He is, beholding His glory. We could not wish her back. That was one thought that came to me often after my mom passed away, and I missed her sorely and so wanted to talk to her again and give her a hug…but though I could wish her here for my sake, I really couldn’t wish she were here when I have some small inkling of what she is experiencing there.

Yet we are “indeed grieved” by the loss of our loved ones’ presence and fellowship. I know this child’s family will feel this intensely both now and for many days to come. A verse that someone shared with me that was a great help (I am including the preceding and following verses as well) was from Psalm 119: 75-77: “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.”

Scriptural reasons for suffering

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One of the most perplexing and troubling questions people deal with is “Why is there suffering in the world?” — or, more often, “Why am I suffering right now?” There have been whole books written on the subject. Among the best I have found are When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada, Rose From Brier by Amy Carmichael, and A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot.

In the back Elisabeth Elliot’s book she has an appendix titled “A Summary of Reasons for Suffering” which I want to reproduce here. These verses do not deal so much with how to respond Scripturally to suffering, though some touch on that: that will have to be the subject of another post. These are just several of the reasons we find in Scripture for why God allows suffering. I wish I could print out all the related passages here, but it would make this post exceptionally long. I did try to link to most of them so you could just click on the reference to read the passage.

For the LORD will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:31-33

We may group God’s reasons [for allowing suffering] into four categories. The list of references is by no means exhaustive.

1) We suffer for our own sake:

That we may learn who God is — Ps. 46:1, 10; Dan. 4:24-37; Job
That we may learn to trust — II Cor. 1:8-9
That we may learn to obey — Ps. 119: 67, 71
Discipline is a proof of the Father’s love and of the validity of our sonship — Heb. 12: 5-11
It is the condition of our discipleship — Acts 14:22; Luke 14:26-27, 33
It is required of soldiers — II Tim. 2:3-4
We are being “pruned” that we may bear fruit — John 15:2
That we may be shaped into the image of Christ — Rom. 8:29
To qualify us to be fellow-heirs with Christ — Romans 8:17 (I don’t know if I would have used the word “qualify” there — it is certainly not meant in a salvation-obtaining way.)
To qualify us for the kingdom of God — II Thess. 1:4-5 (Same herewith the word “qualify.” These verses isn’t saying that once we’ve suffered then we can go to heaven)
To qualify us to reign with Christ — II Tim. 2:12
That our faith may be strengthened — James 1:3; II Thess. 1:4-5; Acts 14:22
That our faith may be tested and refined — Isaiah 43:2; Dn. 11:35; Mal. 3:2; I Cor. 3:13; I Pet. 1:7
That we may reach spiritual maturity — James 1:4
Power comes to its full strength in weakness — II Cor. 12:9
To produce in us endurance character, hope — Romans 5:3-4
To produce in us joy and generosity — II Cor. 8:2

2) We suffer for the sake of God’s people:

That they may obtain salvation — II Tim. 2:10
To give them courage — Phil. 1:14
That because of death working in us, life may work in them — II Cor. 4:12; Gal. 4:13; I John 3:16
That grace may extend to more — II Cor.4:15
That our generosity may bless others — II Cor. 8:2

3) We suffer for the world’s sake:

That it may be shown what love and obedience mean — Job; Jn. 14:31; Mt. 27:40-43
That the life of Jesus may be visible in our ordinary human flesh — II Cor. 4:10

4) We suffer for Christ’s sake:

That we may be identified with Him in His crucifixion — Ga. 2:20
Suffering is the corollary of faith — Ps. 44:22; Acts 9:16 and 14:22; II Tim. 3:12; Jn. 15: 18-21; I Thess. 1:6 and 3:4
That we may share His suffering — I Pt. 4:12-13; Phil. 1:29, 2:17, and 3:8, 10; Col. 1:24; II Tim. 1:8; Heb. 13:13
That we may share His glory — Romans 8:17-18; Heb. 2:9-10; II Cor. 4:17.

There are a few I didn’t see in her list:

Deut. 8:2-3: “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”

To comfort others: II Cor 1: 3-7.

That we might know His grace is sufficient in our weakness: II Cor 12:7-10.

To spare us from a greater trial He knows would be too much for us: Exodus 13:17-18.

For our own foolishness.  There are many verses in Proverbs about the results of foolish behavior.

To show people that what they’re trusting in is not sufficient. One of the reasons God caused the events in Exodus was to get people’s attention and to show that their gods were no gods, that He alone was God. He did get their attention, and there are signs some believed. Exodus 18:5-11; Exodus 14:18; 14:31; 11:9.

To bring to repentance: In some of the calamities God will cause in the time frame Revelation tells us of are designed to get people’s attention, for He says often in that book, “Though I sent this and did that, yet you still did not repent,” indicating that that was His purpose, or at least one purpose, behind the events.

There are instances of natural disaster as judgment in Scripture (being without rain 3 years in Elijah’s time), but not every natural event is judgmental (just as sometimes individual illnesses are judgmental — Asa being diseased in his feet, Miriam being turned leprous, but not every illness is judgmental for that person [i.e., the man born blind in John 9] except in the sense that evil happens because sin is in the world).

That God’s work may be shown: John 9:1-7

“When all you have is Christ you find that Christ is all you need.” I don’t remember who said that or something like it, but I do know that times in my life where I have felt the rug pulled out from under me, so to speak, are times when I came to know by experience that Christ truly was sufficient for every need. Spurgeon has a wonderful devotional here on Hebrews 12:27: “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

Sorrow teaches our hearts things that could not be learned otherwise. Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 says: “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.  Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

We live in a world affected by sin: Though I can’t think of one single passage that states this, there are several places that indicate that suffering came into the world when sin did and sin, sorrow, sickness, etc., will be eliminated for believers when they get to heaven. Rev. 21:4

Another thought is that God does not view death as we do. This was one thing that helped my son when he was troubled about why God let natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina happen. Death is in God’s hands, whether it is the death of an individual or hundreds of people, whether it happens in a car crash or an illness or a natural disaster. And, for the Christian, God looks at death differently than we do. On His side of it, He is ushering us into His Presence, and nothing could be better. To the lost and to the saved as well, these things can be a wake-up call — we all have a time limit, it is not guaranteed that we will live a certain number of years, and we need to be ready to meet eternity at any moment.

We have to accept, though, that we may never know why God allows certain particular things to happen. There’s no record that Job ever knew of the conversations between God and Satan about him during his lifetime. But as I mentioned earlier, we can cling to what we do know of God’s goodness and character, rest in the fact that He will bring good out of it, and trust that He will provide grace and strength.

Though everything goes wrong…

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Sometimes life throws people for a loop. Even Christians. And I think maybe for Christians the hardest part is that we thought we had figured out how God was going to handle it. We pray, sure that we know what would best glorify the Lord in a certain situation — and then nothing happens like we planned. And, worse, not only is the prayer seemingly unanswered, but disaster strikes, resulting in confusion, pain, and loss.

A couple I once knew were on deputation for the mission field when their young son was stricken with leukemia. Not only did they have to deal with the heartbreak of a seriously ill child, but when there was no miraculous healing, no improvement from the treatments, and trial upon trial rolled in on them, they had to rethink their whole life’s work, wondering if they had been mistaken to think God wanted them on the mission field in the first place. One of the things they said that stayed with me was, “God isn’t who we thought He was.” They were shaken, not just in their circumstances, but to the core of their faith.

These folks hung on in faith, though shaken. But I have known people who, when wounded or dismayed by the events of life, turn on the Lord like a wounded animal might snap at the hand of one trying to help.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the little book of Habakkuk, only 3 chapters long tucked in the minor prophets. He starts out his prayer by saying, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” Then he registers his complaint with the Lord about how things are going. The answer he gets certainly wasn’t what he was expecting: not only is the Lord not going to relieve Habakkuk’s (and Israel’s) problems just yet, but He reveals something worse is about to happen. The Chaldeans are coming as a judgment upon Israel. Habakkuk argues back to the Lord, that, no, this can’t be! One of the things God says in response to Habakkuk is, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4b). All of chapter 3 is a prayer of Habakkuk in response to what God has told him, and he ends it this way:

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

Though everything is going wrong, I will take joy in the God of my salvation, He is my strength.

Now, those who know me, don’t worry — I am not facing any disasters or faith-shaking situations at the moment. I have in the past, and I am sure I likely will again in the future. Anyone who lives for any length of time will. It would take too long and be too tedious to trace the train of thought that led to this post, but I’ll just say that I know several people going through various degrees of trials right now, and I have seen various responses. The last thing anyone needs is one of the miserable comforters like Job had. There have been whole books written on the subject of the trials of life that I’m sure I can’t add to or condense down to a single blog post. Grief, confusion, pain — those are all normal responses. In many of the Psalms David pour out all of those things to the Lord. But it is just on my heart to encourage anyone reading this who is going through one of life’s trying times in this way: cling to the Lord. Cling to what you know of Him. Encourage yourself in His Word. Hang on for dear life. Charles Spurgeon in the June 22 entry of Morning and Evening puts it like this:

“That those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
Hebrews 12:27

We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain “things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, “He is my Father still. In my Father’s house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled.” You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

One reason for struggle

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I received this story a while back via e-mail and thought it was a good illustration of at least one reason why we have struggles in life: that we may grow and develop through them.

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A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly by taking a pair of scissors and snipping off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. We could never fly.

Of course, we can’t take the analogy too far — this doesn’t mean no one should ever help anyone through a struggle. The Bible teaches that there are some burdens people are meant to bear, but others that we’re supposed to help each other with. But at least one reason for some of our struggles is the growth and strength we will develop as a result.

Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience
And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

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(Photos taken by my husband, Jim at Callaway Gardens Butterfly Conservatory)

Satan’s goal

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You know how you can read a particular Bible passage for years, be blessed by it, get much from it, and then someone asks a question or brings an insight that you did sort of know on one level, but the way they put it opens up whole new vistas for you?

That happened yesterday in Sunday School. The overall topic was afflictions, and the teacher mentioned a few verses in Scripture that spoke of afflictions, reasons for them, etc. Then we spent most of the class period on Job. After reviewing a little bit about Job’s situation, and the discussion between Satan and God in Job 1 and 2, our teacher asked, “What was Satan’s goal in afflicting Job?” He wanted Job to curse God.

I knew that — but putting it like that made me think — when we are going through any kind of trial, do we think about this aspect of things? So often we just want relief, we want out. That’s normal — Job did, too. We don’t have any record that he had any idea of this conversation behind the scenes. But we have it — and we can seek God’s grace not only to get through any trial, but to uphold God’s honor.

In the Presence of My Enemies

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One of the books on my fall reading list was Gracia Burnham’s In the Presence of My Enemies. I had heard of it and seen it a few years ago and somewhere read an excerpt from it, but I avoided reading it. I couldn’t face it. I’m not sure why: maybe because it was too fresh, maybe because the people responsible for the Burnham’s captivity were still alive (maybe not the specific people, but the extremist Islamic groups are still active), maybe because in the portion that I read, Gracia was having to deal with something that I struggle with. But our youth pastor saw a DVD presentation of Gracia sharing her testimony at another church where he was ministering and recommended it to me. I ordered it, watched it, and was so touched on so many levels. I then felt that I had to read the book.

For those who might not be aware, Martin and Gracia Burnham were missionaries in the Philippines: he was a missionary pilot who reminded me a lot of one of my church’s missionaries who also pilots a small plane. They had gone for a quick weekend get-away to celebrate their anniversary at a resort. They didn’t usually go to the “touristy” areas, but decided to go this once. During their stay, an Islamic extremist group stormed the resort and took guests and a few staff members hostage. Several of the hostages were able to arrange for ransom and were released after a few months. Some were killed along the way. The Burnhams were held for over a year. Martin was killed in a rescue attempt by the Philippine military and Gracia was wounded.

I don’t want to take away from what she shares on the DVD or in the book, so I won’t go into the details of the story here. I do want to mention just a couple of impressions, though.

As the Burnhams struggled with negative thoughts and attitudes toward their captors, I kept finding myself thinking at first, “But they had a right to feel that way!” I knew better, but that was the thought that kept coming. They had to put into practice the Bible’s teaching about loving their enemies, praying for those who were despitefully using them, in a very real way and only by God’s grace.

I also was grieved that I did not pray for them more. I don’t recall if I prayed for them at all. Often when I hear reports of stories like theirs on the news, I try at least to pray right then in the midst of loading the dishwasher or driving or whatever I am doing. I may have prayed for them in that way, but I don’t remember. The scripture came to mind to remember those in bonds as if bound with them, and I failed to do that for the Burnhams, but this caused me to determine not to neglect that ministry again.

I was also struck by the Muslim group’s twisted sense of logic. They wanted Islam to rule the world so it would be ruled by “righteousness.” They advocated the cutting off of someone’s hand for stealing — but excused their own stealing because they “needed” the stolen items for their cause. When people died in the course of what they did, it was “their destiny.” They had a strong sense of “justice” but saw mercy as a weakness. When discussing that last point with one of their captors, Martin said, “You know, I hope my children don’t take up the attitude you have. I hope they don’t ever shoot some Muslims because of what you have done to us.” The man to whom they were speaking looked shocked. “Done to you? What is my sin against you? I have never done anything to you.” Martin and Gracia could only look at each other incredulously.

Gracia tells of her very human struggles, like depression, anger, and resentment over their situation and the realization that not only was her attitude not helping, but it was hurting. She writes, “I knew that I had a choice. I could give in to my resentment and allow it to dig me into a deeper and deeper hole both psychologically and emotionally, or I could choose to believe what God’s Word says to be true whether I felt it was or not.” That was a turning point for her as she chose to believe God and handed over her pain and anger to Him. I thought how often we get tripped up over pain, resentment, and anger over much lesser things.

She shares also how the Lord provided for them in unexpected ways, how she and Martin encouraged each other, how they had to battle a captive’s mindset, how they were able to talk about the Lord with their captors and other hostages, as well as the details of how she and Martin originally came together as a couple and what happened in the aftermath of her captivity.

One final impression: God’s Word is true no matter what, and thankfully He doesn’t see fit to put all of us through that kind of experience., but when someone who has been through what she has speaks of God’s goodness and faithfulness, the truth of God’s Word and the reality of His Presence….it rings true. There is an authenticity about that person’s testimony. Their faith, their beliefs have been tried in the fires of testing.

I Peter 1:6-8:

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory…