A thing we forgot

In the early 1990's I began reading sermons and books written by Christian pastors and theologians who lived in the 1600's and 1700's and some in the 1800's.  Two things struck me with great force as I read.  First, the gospel these men preached did not sound like the gospel I was preaching (I had been int he ministry for 15 years when I started this reading).  The facts of Christ's life, death and resurrection were the same but the way in which they spoke to people and spoke of the glory of God in the person of Christ was very different from how I was speaking and teaching.  Second, it was very clear that we, the church in the USA, at least that part of the church of which I was a part had forgotten a lot.  The biblical and theological knowledge of the average Christian in those days was superior to the best Christians that I knew.  It was clear that we have forgotten many of basic Christian practices that sustained and supported Christian living.

One of the chief things I saw that these older Christians understood was the place of suffering in the Christian life.  They understood God's purposes in sending suffering and they helped each other be trained by it.  They suffered together.  So today I am going to post another selection from the great British Baptist preacher of the late 1800's, CH Spurgeon.  It is his "devotion" for March 29th from his great devotional work, "Morning and Evening".  So let's listen to him remind us of something that the modern church has by and large forgotten.

Morning, March 29

“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”

Hebrews 5:8

We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too. Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease? Must Christ pass through seas of his own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers? No, our Master’s experience teaches us that suffering is necessary, and the true-born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might. But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ’s “being made perfect through suffering”—it is, that he can have complete sympathy with us. “He is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” In this sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power. One of the early martyrs said, “I can bear it all, for Jesus suffered, and he suffers in me now; he sympathizes with me, and this makes me strong.” Believer, lay hold of this thought in all times of agony. Let the thought of Jesus strengthen you as you follow in his steps. Find a sweet support in his sympathy; and remember that, to suffer is an honourable thing—to suffer for Christ is glory. The apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to do this. Just so far as the Lord shall give us grace to suffer for Christ, to suffer with Christ, just so far does he honour us. The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions. The regalia of the kings whom God hath anointed are their troubles, their sorrows, and their griefs. Let us not, therefore, shun being honoured. Let us not turn aside from being exalted. Griefs exalt us, and troubles lift us up. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”

The humbling effect of affliction

In my Bible memory system this morning I reviewed verses I've had memorized for almost 20 years.  It struck me that here is an example of how sickness, indeed all suffering, is meant by God to "keep us from becoming conceited" as Paul says about the purpose of his physical disability.  Here are the verses from Psalm 25:16-18: "Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.  The troubles of my heart have multiplied, free me from my anguish.  Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins."

Clearly we have here a suffering saint; a believer who is beset by trouble.  As is true for all affliction, of ever variety, he feels isolated, lonely, bereft of companionship.  The external affliction has created turmoil in his heart.  His heart is weighed down with anxiety.  He is on the edge of despair.  He is in emotional anguish.  He is hemmed in and trapped and sees no way out.  So he calls out to God and asks that the Lord himself would intervene and graciously help him and free him from his emotional anguish and look upon, that is, take note of  and pay attention to his affliction and his distress. 

Please do not miss that word "gracious".  He knows that he does not deserve God's help.  He has no grounds for demanding that God help him.  He knows he is a sinner and sinners do not have a right to be free  from suffering.  God is not obligated by us to do anything good for us.  Our pleas for help must always come from hearts that know we deserve nothing.  We always pray like the tax collector in the temple to whom Jesus refers in his little story in Luke 18:9-14.  Jesus describes his prayer in this way: "But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God have mercy on me a sinner.'"  This is how the psalmist prays and this also is how every suffering Christian must also pray.  The ground of our petitions is always God's delight to be kind to miserable sinners like us.  We ask him to deal with us not according to our sins but according to his grace and mercy.  Don't give us what we deserve but be kind to us because you are a God of grace.

The phrase that really caught my attention is that last clause: "take away all my sins."  While it is possible that all of the psalmist's distress is due to his sins; I don't think the language points in that direction.  Especially when you look at the first verse of the psalm and the verses immediately following these the psalmist is being persecuted by his enemies.  He is suffering at the hands of others.  His affliction is caused by the mistreatment of other humans.  However, and this is what is striking, the experience of affliction has caused him to see his sins in a deeper way and to desire deliverance from his sins.  In fact in a couple of earlier verses he asked the Lord, "Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways."  "For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great."

Thus one of God's chief purposes in all our sufferings is that we would see and feel our own sinfulness in deeper ways and recognize that our greatest need is to be forgiven.  Suffering is designed by God to keep us from becoming conceited because through the weakness which affliction produces we are reminded of our many sins and then of how gracious God has been to forgive us our sins by the giving of his Son to die for them.  Suffering produces humility by drawing out attention to our sins and to God's grace in forgiving them through Chrsit. 

I mentioned this before but this has been my experience in this affliction.  I regularly think about and feel how much I have failed to love God and to love others.  My selfishness and greed and self-indulgence and impurity looms large in my sight.  I think part of the reason is because I feel so vulnerable and weak.  I think when I am strong and active that I am simply too preoccupied with what I am doing to recognize what I have failed to do.  I think also I am so dependent on other people right now that their kindness towards me reminds me of how unkind I have been to others.

So I find here a prayer that I can pray and I think that all who suffer can pray: "Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.  The troubles of my heart have multiplied, free me from my anguish.  Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins."

Suffering for the sake of Christ

I've had several other thoughts through the day on 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  First, I think one of the keys to understanding why Paul "boasts all the more gladly" in his illness/disability/weakness is in v. 7 when he says twice that the reason for the thorn in the flesh is to keep him from becoming conceited.  The temptation to pride is due to the fact that God has given him such grand, unique revelations of his glory and purposes.  The Creator and Ruler of the universe, the most important and the coolest being ever has chosen to make Paul a part of his "inner circle."  This is better than the President of the USA making you one of his closest advisers.  This is better than being considered a close friend of your favorite celebrity or athlete or politician.  It would be an easy thing for Paul to flaunt his knowledge and insight and "pull rank" on people by simply asking: "So when did God himself speak to you?"

So God sends this ailment and all the other forms of hardship and human opposition that come to Paul to let him know that he is nobody special.  God did not give him these revelations and show him this favor because of who he was or is.  This is all by grace and the "weaknesses" all serve to remind Paul that he is not in the position he is in and he has not had the success which he has had because of him.  He is not an apostle and a successful church planter because of who he is but because of God's gracious acts on his behalf.

Second, I am struck by that little phrase "so that" in v. 9.  He boasts all the more gladly "so that" the power of Christ might rest upon him.  Thus, if Paul grumbles and complains or is discouraged by all the various "weaknesses" in his life, then the power of Christ will not rest upon him.  Glad boasting in sickness, etc. is what faith in Christ does.  It is his response of faith that is the means by which the power of Christ will rest upon him.  It is not optional for the Christian to not boast gladly in weaknesses.  It is what those who believe in Christ do.  We believe not only that what Jesus promises: forgiveness, eternal life, etc. is true but that what he promises is better than the whole world.  If our great Savior says that a certain trouble is necessary for us to know and experience his power in our lives then we say "amen!"  We can, as Paul did, ask for it to be taken away.  But when he says no, we do not argue or complain but we gladly boast in the suffering so that his power might rest upon us.  This is the fight of faith.  The fight to believe the promises of God are superior to a trouble free life on planet earth.

Third, I notice in v. 10 that it is "for the sake of Christ" that Paul delights in disability, insults, hardships, persecutions, etc.  This is a phrase that is regularly sprinkled throughout the whole NT.  What does it mean to do something "for the sake of Christ"?  It means that we are so delighted with Jesus and who he is for us that we want to enjoy him more and we want the whole universe to know how awesome he is.  This is just like what motivates music fans to spend lots of money and travel long distances and interrupt their whole life and recruit their friends in order to attend their favorite band's concert.  If you were to ask them why they are giving up so much time and money and energy, they would say it was "for the sake of their band."  Their joy in their band and their joy in sharing the music of their band motivates their behavior.  In the same way Paul delights in all his weaknesses because he knows that as the power of Christ rests on him he will both enjoy Christ more and show off the beauty of Christ to others in greater ways.

I'm going to ask the Lord again that he will take away the negative side effects from the next cycle of chemo-therapy next week.  If he says no I will, for the sake of Christ, seek to boast all the more gladly in my sickness and delight in it so that the power of Christ may rest on me because it is most certainly true that when I am weak, then I am strong.  Please join me in these prayers not only for me but also for yourself and those you love who are also suffering.

Happy to be sick?

I was able to preach at first service this morning though I felt pretty weak throughout.  I was not strong enough to preach at second service.  One of our very smart sound and AV guys was able to video record my first sermon and so he played it at second service while I went home.  Honestly, it does not make me happy to feel so weak and to not be able to do the work I love.  My attitude stands in stark contrast to the apostle Paul's attitude which he expresses in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  (I quoted the entire text in yesterday's post so you can scroll down to read it if you want.) 

After he understands that God sent the "thorn in the flesh" for his good (that he might not be conceited by the revelations given to him) and after he hears Jesus' word to him that his power is made perfect or brought to fulfillment in Paul's weakness he says this most amazing thing: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses."  Then in v. 10 he says (I am quoting the NIV which I think captures the sentiment better than the ESV), "For the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in calamities."  Paul gladly boasts of his sickness and delights in it.  He does not boast of his ability to teach the Scriptures.  He does not boast of all the churches he has planted.  He does not boast of writing a third of the NT.  He does not boast of his obvious intellect.  He boasts about being sick and insulted and experiencing all manner of hardship and difficulty.  He boasts about everything that accentuates his human limits and weaknesses and inability.  This is hard to comprehend and honestly, not the attitude which I have towards the debilitating weakness that chemo-therapy is giving to me.  My family can testify that I am not boasting gladly of my sickness, nor am I delighting in it.

It is a cliche in Christian circles to say that God wants us to give thanks in difficult circumstances but he does not expect us to give thanks for difficult circumstances.  Usually 1 Thessalonians 5:18a is quoted: "give thanks in all circumstances."  I don't think that Paul would agree with this cliche.  He would agree that Christians should always be grateful.  However, there is no question but that he is happy to be sick, grateful for the sickness, for the hardships which include hunger, thirst, sleepless nights, hard work, shipwreck, being on the road much of the time and not at home, danger on his journeys from the normal hazards of travel, no heat in winter, etc (see 2 Corinthians 6:4ff and 11:22ff for a complete list), he is happy for the insults, for the persecutions and for the calamities.  Either he is crazy or he understands something that I do not understand and I'm pretty sure that most of us comfort loving American Christians do not understand.

The reason Paul is happy to be sick is because he knows that the power of Christ only rests on people who are weak and who know they are weak.  All humans are weak in relation to doing anything good as God defines good.  Jesus himself says, "apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).  The problem is that most of us, myself being the chief culprit, do not know that we are weak and helpless.  We think that because we can talk or act that we are strong.  So God sends sickness, hardship, insults, persecutions, calamities, etc. to show us, we really are "jars of clay" and that any good that we do is not us but him.  He has to make us weak so that it is clear to us and to all that whatever good is done is God's doing not man's doing.

In Paul's case, when we see all the churches which were begun by his ministry, when we see that 1/3 of the NT was written by him, when we see the enormous impact he had on world history but then we realize the spent years in prisons, that he was physically disabled and as he himself admits, physically unimpressive in person and not a great speaker we are forced to recognize: only God could have done this.  In addition, when we see the enormous amount of suffering which he endured (Read 2 Corinthians 11:22-33) and yet he remained faithful to Christ and to the commission given to him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, we are forced to recognize that only God could have done this.  The power of Christ rested on Paul for both work and for endurance because he was so weak in so many ways.

So for me the issue is simply this: what do I want more--the power of Christ to rest upon me for doing true good and for endurance or not to be sick and weak anymore?  Which I want will be evident by whether or not I gladly boast of the chemo induced sickness, whether or not I delight in it.  In writing this I cannot honestly say I want to be sick so I can be truly strong.  So would you pray for me that God would enable me to see the infinite superiority of his power resting on me instead of not being sick so that I might be able to join Paul in boasting more gladly in my weakness.

Who likes being weak?

I had hoped I would be close to "normal" today but I am not.  I awoke feeling weak and shaky.  I had to go the oncology center to get 2 liters of fluid pumped into me with other meds.  I feel better but nowhere near "normal."  I stopped by the YMCA to drop off some paper work on my way home and was reminded of how I was there just before my surgery on February 10 to exercise on the elliptical trainer and lift weights.  I was strong then, but not now.  Dear friends came to rake my lawn today.  I couldn't help.

So I am drawn this evening back to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  This little paragraph follows Paul's enigmatic description of his experience of receiving direct revelation from God about the gospel and God's purposes in the world.  He only recounts this episode because the Corinthians are in danger of following after false teachers who claim that Paul is not a true apostle.  So right after reporting the experience he had while receiving God's revelation he says this:

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I've referred to this passage before to show that God sends suffering to his people and he uses Satan to do it.  God sent the thorn in the flesh, even though it is also a "messenger from Satan" because the purpose of the thorn is to "keep Paul from becoming conceited".  Only God would want Paul to be humble and thus God is the ultimate cause of the thorn for Paul's good, even while Satan causes the thorn to destroy Paul.  I've also pointed out that the thorn most certainly was a chronic physical ailment as the term translated "weakness" is usually translated "illness" in the rest of the NT.  It is also of particular comfort, as I've mentioned before, that the great apostle asked the Lord Jesus, the great physician, by whose wounds we have been healed, to take away the thorn, the illness and he said no.

However, the main thing in this passage for me is the main point that God makes to Paul and which Paul makes in relation to himself.  Let me restate the points the text makes personally.  "God's grace is sufficient for me while I suffer the effects of chemo therapy.  His power is made perfect in my weakness, my cancer and its treatment.  I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness today so that the power of Christ might rest on me.  For the sake of Christ then I am content with this weakness, this pain, this interruption of my life, this being disconnected from people, this inability to do much of anything, this fog, this uncertainty; because when I am weak, like I am right now, then is when I am really strong."

What does this actually mean in the midst of the suffering that his grace is sufficient for me and that right now, in this weakness, I am stronger than I ever was before I knew I had cancer?  I've talked with several friends about this.  I definitely do not have a full or maybe even a partial answer to the question.  I am certain that learning what this means in my own experience is what I want and I think God wants for me also.  I think I have a little understanding if I limit my inquiry to simply considering what does it mean to say that God's grace is sufficient for me in this weakness.

One of the things that I am very aware of as I sit in the chair with chemicals and fluid being pumped into me and when I sit in the chair at home unable to do much is of how great my sins are and of how great God's grace is towards me in that he does not and will not hold my sins against me because of Christ's dying and rising for me.  I am regularly brought to tears (which really hurts, it's a side effect) when I think of all the ways I have failed to love God and to love others.  I feel deeply how unworthy I am of God's love for me.  Always immediately upon that sorrow for sin follows the sweet knowledge that God does love me and that Christ has suffered the hell I deserve and is risen so that I can be counted perfectly righteous in God's sight.  The grace of God in Christ truly is sufficient for me in this sense: that if I never get better, yet I am loved by God and secure in that love and will live with him forever and thus I have nothing to fear and must simply hold on. 

The one thing I am sure of in this is that I am not thinking about this correctly.  I think of power primarily as "power to act, to do something" and I do not think that is what God means here.  It's time for bed.  I will pick this up tomorrow.  I'm too weak to go on right now.

A better bad day

Woke up this morning not feeling well.  No appetite.  Very weak.  I took some meds and forced myself to eat and drink.  The pump was removed at 1pm.  Glad to have it off.  However, though I'm not 100% I am way better than I was this day in the first cycle of treatment and so I am very thankful for that.  Thank you for your prayers.  I thank the Lord Jesus for restraining the worst side effects this time.  I thank God for his gift of medicine to us and professionals who can help.

Yesterday I referred to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 in order to see God's purposes in the suffering and thus to show what it is that we should pray for those who are afflicted.  Paul continues his thought into chapter 5.  When he describes our "outer man" as wasting away he recognizes that all of the physical decline we experience is going to end in our death.  The illnesses and accidents and such are all the warnings and precursors to the ultimate death of our physical bodies.  So he addresses that very issue as he writes: "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."  Our earthly body is compared to a tent, a temporary dwelling place, by Paul whereas our eternal body, our resurrection body is compared to a permanent house which is made by God and is eternal in the heavens.

As Paul said back in Romans 8 we are groaning in this temporary tent body while we wait for our eternal heavenly body.  The groaning again pointing to the pain of labor which results in a joyful "birth" into the eternal resurrection existence.  In vv. 3-4 Paul tells us that his ultimate ambition is to be clothed with that heavenly dwelling, that eternal resurrection body.  What he doesn't want to happen is to be found "naked".  He doesn't want to be "unclothed".  What is the condition that he would prefer not to experience?  AGain, what he wants to be "further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." 

The point Paul is making is this: the ultimate end of the saving work of Christ is eternal existence with a physical, immortal body in the new heavens and the new earth.  Paul knows that if we die prior to the return of Christ, if we leave behind this earthly tent that we will be "naked", "unclothed' that is without a physical existence.  We will be disembodied spirits in the presence of the Lord.  Now Paul views that existence as superior to living in this earthly tent which is what he says in vv. 6&8.  He also makes this very clear in Philippians 1:21-24.  However, the ultimate desire of every Christian is for that final vindication when, at the return of Christ, the heavens and the earth are made new and all of God's people receive their resurrectin bodies which we will possess and live in and work in and worship God in and through forever.
This helps us to understand why we so love the physical world and all the beauty and pleasure that is in it.  When I think about dying I do think of how I will miss this physical world and all the pleasures it contains, which are all God-given pleasures.  Thus as I think of the future a portion of the joy I feel in anticipation of it is that I will one day rise again from the dead with an immortal, physical body and intol a perfect, incorruptible universe where we always enjoy the pleaures of creation as gifts from God and never as competitors for his glory.  We will prefectly appreciate the creation and perfectly worship God for it with no ablity to prefer creation to God himeslf.  To die and be in the presence of the Lord as a disembodied spirit will be a great thing but not nearly as good as being raised from the dead to live with our resurrected Savior in his perfect universe, doing his perfect will and enjoying his perfect creation to his glory.

Prayer for the afflicted continued

Other than a few weird and annoying side effects I am feeling pretty good right now.  I've been able to work today without interruption for which I am grateful.  Last time this was when I began feeling bad and tomorrow would be the day I was really sick.  I am so grateful for all who have communicated with me that they are praying for me and my family.  I am hopeful that the Lord will be pleased to restrain the most difficult side effects.  But again, his will, not mine be done.

After my post yesterday I have been thinking about a number of other passages in which God shares his purposes for our suffering and his will for us in it and through it.  As I said yesterday, one of the chief things that all Christians desire and pray for earnestly is "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Thus, whenever we find a clear statement of God's will in the Bible then we can safely and confidently ask God to enable us to do that which he wants.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 describes several purposes God has in our afflictions.  First, Paul, after praising God for being the Father of mercies and God of all comfort says this about God: "who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we can comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."  So you can pray for me and for my family and for every other believer that you know who is in the midst of any affliction that God would enable us to not only know his comfort but comfort those around us who are also suffering.  I have seen God do this through us during the past 10 years we have lived with our brain injured son.  I can also see ways he can do this through us now as we are coming in contact with many people who are suffering the ravages of cancer and cancer treatment.

Later in this same passage Paul writes of his current afflictions: "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed we felt we had received the sentence of death.  But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."  So here is God's will for all his suffering children, the reason he sends to us: "that we will not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."  So here is something you can ask our heavenly with confidence to do for every suffering Christian: God would enable us to stop relying our ourselves but that we would rely upon him alone because he alone is the one who raises the dead.  It is God's will that we look beyond the suffering to that resurrection which is guaranteed to all who trust in Christ.  Whether or not he delivers us from our present distress we live in hope and joy because we know that he is going to raise us one day beyond the power of death and sin and sickness and accidents and broken relationships and the attacks of wicked people.

In 1 Peter 1:6-7 Peter writes, "in this (coming salvation) you rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief of various kinds.  These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, may be proved genuine and may result in praise and glory and honor on the day Christ Jesus is revealed."  So it is God's purpose, his will that through the various trials which he sends to us that our faith is proved genuine.  He uses the metaphor of refining gold.  The heat is applied to the gold and all the impurities rise to the surface and are burned off by the heat so that you only have pure gold left.  So we can ask God for every suffering Christian that he would perform that purifying work through the "heat" of the suffering so that our faith would be pure.  What does that mean?  We would be trusting that our many sins are surely forgiven because of Christ and that Christ and his salvation is infinitely superior to a trouble free life.  Our trust would not rest upon ourselves or our bank accounts or our health or our families or our success in this world but upon Christ alone.  He alone will be our treasure.  This is something you can pray with confidence for all Christian who suffer.

Finally, in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul writes, "Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though our outer man is wasting away, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal."  So we should ask God to renew each day the inner man of all those whose outer man is wasting away.  It is what God wants to do for all of his sick and suffering people.  You can pray that all who are afflicted recognize all this trouble as light and momentary in comparison to the eternal glory that will one day be ours.  You can pray that God would enable us to fix our eyes not on this temporary trouble but on the unseen, eternal reality which awaits us.

Prayer for the afflicted

This afternoon I received my second infusion of chemo-therapy and had the portable IV pump attached which I will now wear for the next 46 hours.  I have all sorts of weird side effects that are mostly annoying.  The doc says they pulled out the big guns for fighting nausea.  Hopefully they work.  I'll know by the end of tomorrow.  I preached for the first time in 8 weeks yesterday.  I love God's word and being with God's people and teaching God's word!

I asked our congregation to pray for me that God would keep the nausea from immobilizing me in accord with his will for me.  However, the main thing I asked them to pray for me was God's enabling power to obey his command in 1 Peter 4:19, "So then, those who suffer according to the will of God should entrust their souls to a faithful Creator and continue to do good."  This is what I want as I suffer whatever God has ordained for me this week and in the coming months.  (If you are having a hard time with this language: "God has willed suffering for me as his child and I am asking God to take away the suffering"--I would encourage you to read my previous blog entries.  You could also read Psalm 38, which I read today in which the Psalmist is suffering from both physical illness sent by God and persecution sent by God and yet he asks God to remove both.)

Anyway, back to the point.  God's will for his suffering children is that we entrust our souls to him, our faithful Creator, and we continue to do good.  I would say that most of the prayers we pray for those who are sick or suffering are at best incomplete and often not even close to what God wants us to pray.  This is God's will and our Lord Jesus taught us that at the top of the list of things that God wants to do for us and what he wants us to ask of him is: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Thus we can take every command of God to his people and turn it into a prayer that you can know with absolute certainty that God will say yes to it.  God wants us to pray for healing and the relief of suffering but we do not know exactly what God's will might be in any particular case.  However we do know with certainty that God wants me and all of his other suffering children to entrust their souls to him while they do good.

What does it mean to entrust your soul to your faithful Creator?    The verb is used by Jesus when he is hanging on the cross and he cries out, quoting Psalm 31:5, "'Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last."  I don't think there is any question that Peter is using this verb to remind us of this cry of Jesus on the cross.  (My certainty arises from Peter's statement earlier in this letter where he says to Christians who are suffering unjustly at the hands of their employers: "To this you were called because Jesus suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in his steps.")  We are to do what our Savior did, he willingly endured the suffering knowing that at the end God would preserve him.  He knew that he was going to be raised from the dead.  He knew he was safe and could not be harmed even as he died on that cross.  Thus, we entrust our souls to our faithful creator by trusting his promises to preserve us and bring us safely into his heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:17) not matter what might happen to us while we live on this earth.  So I would ask that you pray for me, for my family and for every suffering Christian that you know that God enables to do what our Savior did and entrust our souls into the loving and powerful hands of our faithful creator.

Clearly, "while we continue to do good" also has reference to our Lord Jesus.  For when he was suffering and dying on that cross he was doing the best good thing that could be done for any human being.  He was suffering the wrath of God against the sins of everyone who will in Christ.  It was the ultimate good that he performed.  Thus we continue to do good by holding fast to Christ and showing the love of God to others in the midst of suffering which includes telling others about this ultimate good which Jesus performed for all who will believe.    It is important for suffering Christians to help their families and those around them see the beauty and wonder and greatness of being a forgiven, loved child of God.  It is infinitely superior to living a pain free life on this perishing planet.

Please do not misunderstand me.  It is not "suffering with a smile" that is being commanded here.  Peter acknowledges earlier in this letter that those who suffer grieve (1 Peter 1:6).  It is right to weep and to groan over the various afflictions God sends to us.  However, grieving is not the same as grumbling.  We do not do what the Israelites in the wilderness are famous for doing in the midst of their sufferings.  They  continually grumbled against God even though God had saved them from slavery and had promised to give them the land of Canaan (see Numbers 13 & 14, 16:11, 17:6, etc.).

Always secure

My disabled son had surgery this morning to remove a golf ball sized "stone" from his bladder.  The surgery was successful.  He will be in the hospital overnight and come back home tomorrow.  Taking him into surgery reminded me of the many months we spent in the hospital right after the accident iin 2002 and all the surgeries he required trying to repair his shattered skull.  In return this reminded me of numerous conversatoins I had during those months with a wide variety of people in which I assured everyone that my son had lost nothing that mattered, that he was secure and we had nothing to fear.  In most of those conversations I would refer to some portion of Romans 8:28-39. 

This is one of the most powerful and comforting paragraphs in the Bible.  All those people who love God and who are called according to his purpose, which is to say, all those who are children of God and heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ who suffer with him (vv.16-17)---all those people, well God foreknew them all, that is, he decided before he made the world to enter into an intimate relationship of love with them and he predestined them all to be conformed to the image of his son.  All these people whom he thus predestined he called to himself by the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel just like Jesus called four day dead Lazarus out of his tomb.  All these called ones he justified, that is, he declared them not guilty but perfectly righteous on the basis of what Christ did for them.  All these justified ones he glorified, that is, he placed within them the seed of eternal life which will come to full blossom on the day our great Savior returns.

Now in v. 31 Paul asks, in view of this enormous grace, this powerful and complete salvation, "what shall we say to these things?"  Then he launches into one of the greatest litanies of God's blessings upon his people beginning with the rock of security: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  The fact is there are lots of people and demons against the people of God.  Paul's point is not that people and demons don't oppose us but that no one and nothing can successfully oppose us. 

However, the key verses that I went to in all those conversations and which I still regularly draw people's attention to is vv. 35-37.  It reads,  "Who will seperate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written, 'For your sake we face death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'  No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  Paul's point is that if you are loved by Christ, then you have been given the best thing in the universe.  When you are loved by Christ, nothing and no one can take that away from you.  No trouble, no hardship, no persecution, no famine, no homeless, impoverished condition, no danger or threat, no war, nothing and no one can remove the love of Christ from the foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified, children of God. 

Jared has always been safe; he never lost and never can lose what really matters, because Jared is one of those people.  How do I know?  Because the children of God are all those who have trusted in Christ alone to save them and Jared expressed that faith in Christ from the time he was a teenager.  As Paul says in v. 36 by quoting Psalm 44:22 every true Christian should expect the bad things listed in v. 35 to happen.  It is what we are destined for in this life.  But every Christian should also be fully aware that none of it can remove that which is most precious to justified sinners: the love of Christ.  That is what Paul means when he says we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  We will always and forever be loved by Christ, no matter what evil may befall us in this life.  So there is nothing to fear for we can lose nothing that matters.

Things I've taken for granted

Last week, when I was in the throes of the chemical poisons in my body it occurred to me that I have taken a number of God's gifts to me for granted.  That phrase, "taking things for granted" means that I did not recognize certain things as gifts nor did I feel grateful for them nor did I express thanksgiving to God for them. 

I think it is important to say something about what we mean when we say that something is a gift.  Gifts are freely given, that is, a true gift is not a payment or the fulfilling of an obligation.  God does not owe me anything.  He is not obligated to give me anything good.  When God gives a gift he does it because of who he is not because of who we are.  To describe a gift from the recipients side, it means we do not deserve the gifts we receive.  A gift is not something we have earned or merited in some way.  A true gift is unexpected by the recipient.  I am surprised by that which is truly a gift.

There are three gifts which I daily and weekly experienced for decades and for which I was not grateful: good health, appetite for food and sleep.  I recognized these gifts and my lack of gratitude for them last week because I did not experience them last week.  I felt sick from Wednesday through Sunday.  I had no appetite for food at all until this past Monday.  I did not sleep through the night until last night.   

For decades, each of these things was a gift from God to me which I did nothing to deserve or earn.  Let me give you a few statements from the Bible that confirm that all these things are gifts from God.
Acts 17:25 "he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything..."
1 Corinthians 4:7 "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
Psalm 127:2, "It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep."
Ecclesiastes 5:19, "Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil--this is the gift of God."
Acts 14:17 "...for he (God) did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Today is the first day since last Monday that I have felt "myself."  In other words I am enjoying good health and an appetite and sleep .  What I find is that because this is my normal condition I expect it and am not grateful for it.  Being sick and no appetite and no ability to sleep and no conversation is not normal and thus I am surprised by the lack, the suffering, more than I am surprised by the gifts.

What shall I do?  First, it is very important to realize that ingratitude, a lack of thanks to God, is one of the chief evidences of the sinfulness of human beings (Romans 1:20-21).  Thus, not giving thanks is a wicked sin which must be confessed as such.  Then I must trust that Christ suffered and died even for this ingratitude.  My ingratitude is forgiven because Christ has suffered the hell I deserve for my ingratitude.  Finally, I must resist and put to death my ingratitude and seek the help of the Holy Spirit to give to me a truly grateful heart which produces actual prayers of thanksgiving.

Wanting God's good

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

When a woman is in the throes of labor there is one thing she wants to know from the doctor or midwife, well, actually two things: how much longer?  Is the baby OK?  So too for the suffering Christian we cry out with the generations of suffering believers who have used the words of the psalmist (Psalm 90:13 for example), "How long, O Lord?"  Rarely, if ever, does God answer that question.  However the second question, "Is everything going to be OK?" He answers with a resounding yes in Romans 8:28.  Here is the ground of our hope, the guaranteed promise from God that whatever evil has come upon me, whatever loss I have encountered, whatever pain I am enduring, it is, while I suffer it, working together for my good.  The good that it is working does not depend upon me in any way.  It depends upon the sympathetic, according to the will of God prayers of the Holy Spirit on my behalf.  That is why every suffering Christian can know that whatever evil has come upon him or her that it cannot and will not harm him or her but will result in her good.

The verse does not say bad things happen and then somehow God makes good out of the mess.  No, the thing itself, good or bad, is working for our good, even while it may be causing us pain.  Cancer has no will of its own to do good or bad to me.  Thus, the only way the suffering can possibly be working for good is if God himself is working in and through and by it for my good.  As God the Spirit knows my pain and intercedes on my behalf according to my need and according to God's will, this is how it is certain that all things, including cancer are working for my good.  I do not need to fear the cancer or the chemotherapy or my son's disability because all these things are are work for my good accoring to the direction and will of my Father.

What is the good for which all things are working in my life?  That is v. 29.  "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."  The good that God is working by means of all the trouble is my conformity to the image of his Son.  It is a process now underway that will not be completed until Jesus returns and makes all things new (1 John 3:2).  At that time all of God's children will be perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus so that it will be obvious to all of creation that we are of the same family as Jesus.  We will perfectly reflect the character of our elder brother.

So the real question that every Christian must ask himself or herself: how important is it to you to be like Jesus?  What are you willing to pay to be conformed to his image?  Our ability to endure the suffering in hope is directly related to our desire to be like Jesus.  This is the chief good for which every true Christian longs.  We suffer with Christ when we believe what God says in Romans 8:28-29, God is making the suffering work together for our good, which is conformity to the image of Christ forever.

The help of the Holy Spirit

In Romans 8:26-27 an amazing promise is made to the suffering children of God.  The previous metaphor Paul has used is that we are like women in labor who are groaning in our pain but full of hope for what is about to happen.  The "baby" is not here yet and it is all very painful, but we are absolutely confident that this pain is not for nothing but is about to result in a glorious end, the return of Jesus and the resurrection of our bodies from the grave and the whole universe made new.

Paul begins his next sentence with a curious word, "likewise" or "in the same way".  In the same way that we groan and wait in hope so the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  What is our weakness?  First, it is the weakness that comes from our sufferings and second it is the weakness of our ignorance.  We do not know what to pray for as we ought.  Paul has just told us that the sufferings we encounter in this present world are like labor pains, the necessary precursor to birth.  As he said in v. 17, all who share in the glory of Christ are going to suffer these things with Christ.  Therefore, should we ask God to take away the pain or not?  What exactly does God want to do in this situation?  We do not know. 

Let me be specific: I do not know whehter or not it is God's will to heal my son's broken brain in this life or not.  He can, if he wants to but he has not told me whether or not he wants to heal him now.  I do not know whether or not God aims to heal me of cancer.  I do not know if he wants to releave me of the pain of chemo therapy.  He has not told me.  I have no doubt that God can heal and can enable to go through chemotherapy pain free if he wants.  But does he want?   Or does he have another good purpose for the suffering?  Like he did in Paul's case when he refused to alleviate the apostle's chronic, painful ailment (2 Corinthians 12:1-10) even though Paul asked three times.

So how does the Spirit help us?  First, in the same way that the creation groans and believers groan so too the Holy Spirit groans with us and for us.  He intercedes for us with groans.  This means that while we don't know what to pray in the midst of our suffering, the Holy Spirit does know what to pray.  And his prayers for us are not indifferent, unsympathetic prayers but prayers that are offered in full recognition of the pain we are enduring.  The Holy Spirit in some sense shares our pain and also our hope that the pain will one day end with the return of Christ.  He cares for us and knows our pain and knows God's plans and so he knows exactly what we need that accords with God's will.

That is the second point in v. 27.  "The one who searches hearts" is God the Father.  God the Father knows perfectly what the Spirit is praying on our behalf and always answers the Spirit's prayers with a yes because the Spirit always prays in accord with the will of God.  The Holy Spirit fully knows us and sympathizes with us and he fully knows the Father's will and so he always asks God to do for us exactly what we need. 

This does not mean that we do not pray.  We are commanded always and everywhere to pray.  Later in this letter Paul himself says, "be constant in prayer."  Even though we often do not know what to pray yet we need not be afraid to ask for whatever we want because even when we ask amiss in the midst of our sorrow and suffering, the Holy Spirit always asks God the Father to meet our real needs in perfect accord with God's perfect will.

So "suffering with Christ" means that we are never afraid that God does not care or that he does not know what we need.  It means that we are always confident that the Triune God is with and working in and through all the suffering for our eternal good.  It means that we are "constant in prayer because we know that the Spirit himself is always praying for us with groans in perfect accord with God's will.

My Biggest Problem

As I've explained previously, my oldest son, who is now 32, suffered a severe Traumatic Brain Injury in a skiing accident 10 years ago.  He had just finished college and was engaged to be married but now he is blind, mute, fed through a feeding tube and can do nothing to take care of himself.  Our family with three other excellent caregivers have taken care of him at our home since the spring of 2003.  Now, I have stage three cancer and am undergoing the tortures of chemotherapy.  So what is my biggest problem?  Or to put it in the positive, what would be the best thing that could happen to me?  It would appear, from the human perspective that my son being healed or my being definitively declared cancer free and not have to go through chemotherapy would be the best things that could happen to me.  However, as I said at the beginning of this blog what things mean cannot be determined by mere human speculation.  What God says about the meaning of things is the actual meaning of things.  So, I ask again, what is my biggest problem?  What is the best thing that can happen to me?

In Mark's gospel, the second chapter we are given some clear insight into these questions when Jesus encounters a young man, probably a teenager, who has been a paragalegic since birth.  It is a very poignant story.  Jesus is in Capernaum and is in a home teaching the people.  There are so many people crowded in the house and around it that the house itself has virtually disappeared in the sea of humanity.  Four friends from the neighborhood upon discovering Jesus in the home have run off and now returned with a fifth friend, the aforementioned parapalegic.  They are carrying him on a homemade stretcher.  They have brought him so that Jesus will heal him.  However,  they encounter the impenetrable wall of humanity surrounding Jesus and cannot get to him.  Being enterprising teenage boys they see a way through the problem.  They climb on the roof of the home and hoist their friend, lying upon the stretcher, up onto the roof.  Then they proceed to remove the roof from over Jesus's head.  After the demolition is done, they lower their friend down on his stretcher in front of Jesus and, I am sure, in front of the astonished crowd.

This is how Mark records what happens next: "...when Jesus asaw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, byour sins are forgiven.'"  Really?  Is Jesus out of touch with reality or what?  These friends didn't go to all this trouble to have some religious mumbo-jumbo muttered over their friend.  They wanted him to be healed.  Can't you imagine their outrage?  Who cares if his sins are forgiven, he's been a cripple since birth.  He can't have a normal life.  He needs to be healed.  Besides that, how many sins can a paralyzed, teenage boy have committed?  Jesus, you're being pretty harsh and judgmental.  This boy's a victim, not a criminal.  But Jesus looks at this paralyzed boy and says, "Son, your biggest problem is not that you are paralyzed.  Your biggest problem is that you are a willful sinner who deserves God's just condemnation.  So the best thing I can do for you is to forgive you of your sins."

Now the religious leaders, as soon as Jesus tells this young boy his sins are forgiven, are offended because they understand something about reality: only God can forgive sins and thus when Jesus forgives this boy's sins he is saying he is God.  Obviously, it is blasphemy for a mere human being to claim to be God.  Jesus knows that this is what they are thinking and so he asks them a simple question: "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'?"  If you ever wanted a perfect illustration of the classic rhetorical/literary device called "irony", here it is.  Which is easier to say?  On one hand it is easier to say "your sins are forgiven" because no one knows whether or not they truly are forgiven, whereas, if you tell a paralyzed boy to take up his bed and walk, everyone knows whether or not that happened.  On the other hand, being a man and having the authority which God alone possesses to forgive sins is an impossibility, for God is not a man.  Do you see how Jesus hangs them on the horns of a dilemma?

But then, Jesus does what only the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh could do: to prove that he is God and thus has the authority to forgive sins, he commands the paralyzed and now forgiven young man, take up your stretcher and go home.

How I love this Lord Jesus Christ.  He always tells the truth.  My biggest problem is that I am a hell-deserving sinner, not that my son is disabled or that I have cancer.  So the best news I could ever hear is that my sins are forgiven.  They will not be held against me.  I have been pardoned and made right with God by Christ's dying and rising from the dead.  Once a person has heard this best of all possible news, everything is going to be OK, no matter what happens to him or her in this life. 

Suffering with Christ in hope

I finally feel up to thinking and writing.  I have been a healthy person for most of my life.  The thought of being sick like I've been this past week for the next six months or longer is not a very pleasant thought.  In the midst of the physical pain and discomfort of the past 3 days I've been reflecting on what Romans 8:17 really means when you are actually in the midst of suffering.  To remind you, it reads (ESV), "...and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."  So when you are laying on a "bed of pain", too weak to move, to sick to care, what does it mean to "suffer with him"?

First, it means that you suffer in hope.  Clearly that is the point that Paul aims to make in the verses that follow.  Verse 18 declares the hope we have: our present sufferings cannot be compared to the glory to be revealed to us.  Verse 19 says the entire creation is eagerly longing for that final glory when all those who belong to Christ will be made fully visible to the naked eye at the resurrection from the dead.  Right now it is not always clear who are those who are truly trusting in Christ.  No one can see those who are now dead.  But one day, all of God's people will be raised out of the dead, just as was our great Savior and we will be recognized as the redeemed children of God by the entire creation.

Verse 20 tells us that the reason the creation is waiting for that day is because when Adam and Eve sinned the entire creation was subjected to fuility by God "in hope."  God knew on the day he cursed the universe that one day he would restore that universe by the work of the eternal Son of God who became man.  Then Paul uses the metaphor of labor and birth to describe both how creation groans and how we groan.  Like a woman in labor who is full of pain, yet full of hope as she knows the baby is about to be born so we are full of pain but know that the pain has a purpose.  There is a "birth" coming to all those who trust in Christ and to the entire creation when Jesus returns.

As v. 23 says we "wait eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."  In 8:15-17 Paul says that we have already received the "Spirit of adoption as sons", that we already belong to the family of God, so how can he say here we are waiting to receive our adoption?  Many of us know a family who has adopted a child out of an orphange in a foreign country.  The process is long and often grueling.  In some of the cases I have heard of there is sometimes a period of time after the decision has been made and the child is legally adopted prior to the new parents being able to pick up the child and bring her home.  The child will have received the news of the adoption and had gifts given to it and knows that soon, she will be leaving the orphange and going to live in her new home.  That is the sort of situation we are in.  We have been legally adopted and made God's children but we are waiting for our elder brother, the Lord Jesus, to come get us and take us home.  We are still in the orphanage but we know we soon will leave.

That is exacltly where Paul goes in his argument.  In v. 24 he says, "For in this hope we were saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."  Hope, in the Bible, is not a wish.  Rather we have a confident, eager expectation that we will one day be raised out of the dead.  Our hope is grounded in the actuaal, historical person and work of Jesus.  He truly did live upon this earth.  He did die upon that Roman cross and most importantly, he was raised from the dead and has now ascended to his Father's right hand where he waits to return for us.  We are not yet living in the new heavens and the new earth with our resurrected Savior with new, eternal bodies which will never die.  We are confident and eagerly waiting for that day, but we are not there yet.  Thus while we lay in the "bed of pain" we remember and in our hearts rejoice in the fact that this is temporary and we will soon be home and we won't even remember the pain in the midst of the overwhelming joy.

We don't grow discouraged.  We don't wonder if God has abandoned us.  We remember that it is because of what Jesus did for us that we have a sure and certain future.  We are like the woman in labor who knows the pain is leading to the birth and then the pain will end and the joy will come.  There is an end to the pain and O what a day that will be!!  We will wait with patience, just like our Lord waited for 33 years to be delivered from the miseries of this world through the torture of hell for us.  There is more in Romans 8 about how to suffer with Christ, but I'll save that for another day.

God's encouragement

My wife read me the entry for yesterday morning in CH Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening".  My heart is full of praise to God for faithful, truth telling servants through the centuries.  My heart is also full of praise that I follow a suffering, sympathetic savior.  Here is the entry  from CH Spurgeon:

"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." --Acts 14:22

God's people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when he chose his people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, he included chastisements amongst the things to which they should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestinated for us in Christ's last legacy. So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by him, so surely are our trials allotted to us: he has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Mark the patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and by his faith under them, he became the "Father of the faithful." Note well the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you shall discover none of those whom God made vessels of mercy, who were not made to pass through the fire of affliction. It is ordained of old that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the royal mark whereby the King's vessels of honour are distinguished. But although tribulation is thus the path of God's children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has traversed it before them; they have his presence and sympathy to cheer them, his grace to support them, and his example to teach them how to endure; and when they reach "the kingdom", it will more than make amends for the "much tribulation" through which they passed to enter it.

I am pretty weak today.  Not as nauseous.  Praying that God does his work in me and through me in this trouble.

Here is another quote my wife sent me, from Winston Churchill: "If you are going to go through hell, keep going."

Painful discipline

I am very sick today.  Spent several hours in the oncology center trying to control the naseau.  Home but not much relief.  Remembering Heb 12:11, "All discipline at the moment is painful and not pleasant, yet later on it yeilds the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it."  Much groaning this day and remembering that this is part of the "labor" which will end in a glorious resurrection and the full experience of being God's adopted son through Christ (Romans 8:18-26).  That's all for now.  Pray for endurance. 

Suffering with Christ

My wife Jane and I were at the oncology center at Mercy hospital yesterday from 8am to 1:45pm.  I had one of the chemicals infused into me for 2.5 hours of that time.  I am carrying a small IV pump in a fanny pack which is infusing the second chemical for 46 hours.  I will have it removed tomorrow around noon.  I have expereienced a few weird side effects which are not difficult to manage.  Mostly today I feel weak.  Thank you for your prayers on my behalf.  I have been so encouraged by the many expressions of concern and care from so many different people.  I thank God for the love of his people towards us.

One thing was very clear as we spent the day at the cancer center.  There was a steady stream of people coming and going all of them receiving various treatments for the various kinds of cancer.  People of all ages and walks of life and gender.  Cancer is no respector of persons.  As we observed this common form of suffering that is in the world I was reminded of another passage that has been so important in our lives as we have lived with our brain injured son these past 10 years and now go through my battle with cancer.  The eighth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans is full of help for suffering Christians.  It is a climactic chapter in Paul's explanation of the gloroius good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The first verse is one of the great summary statements in the Bible of what Christ has accomplished for his people.  Paul states, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

In spite of the fact that we are sinners who justly deserve God's condemnation for our rebellion against him, yet, once we have been placed in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of our faith in Christ, God no longer condemns us.  We have been justifed on the basis of Christ's life and death on our behalf.  God has pardoned all of our sins because he poured out his just anger against our sins upon the perfect Son of God upon that cross and he has counted us righteous in his sight by crediting the actual righteousness of Christ to us.  The just and holy God is satisfied with Christ's work on our behalf and so no longer condemns every person who is in Christ by faith.

 In vv. 2-13 Paul describes how the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives causes us resist sin and to grow in actual obedience to God.  In v. 13 he says that now we are people who, by the work of the Holy Spirit put to death the misdeeds that arise from the sin that still dwells within us.  In v. 14 he says that as we follow the Holy Spirit's lead in fighting our sins we show that we are indeed God's chidlren.  Having identified us as God's children he tells us of how God confirms our status as his children by the work of the Holy Spirit. 

He writes (vv.15-17a): "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..."  It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we no longer fear God as our judge and executioner but we love him as our Father.  The Holy Spirit assures us that God has indeed adopted us as his dearly loved children.  If we are God's children then we are his heirs.  We know that one day we will inherit the entire earth.  There is a day coming when all the misery of sin and God's curse upon sin will be undone and we will live as God's heirs.  We will enjoy this status because we are fellow heirs with Christ.  We are in Christ and thus everything that Jesus deserves by his obedient life and willing death will be ours as well.  We live in the confident expecation that this is indeed our futre.

However, Paul finishes verse 17 with a very strange and perplexing comment.  He says that another evdience that we are fellow heirs with Christ and will obtain all of God's riches with him in the future is this: "provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."  God by his apostle tells us that what marks all those who are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ is that every single one of them suffers with Christ.  All the true children of God, who will enjoy the glory of Christ suffer with Christ in this life.  If you do not suffer with Christ then you will not be glorified with him; you are not one of God's children.

What sufferings is Paul referring to?  Why must all of God's children suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him?  What exactly does that mean that we suffer "with" Christ?  In vv. 18-23 Paul identifies the sufferings about which he is speaking.  In v. 18 he says it is the "sufferings of this present age."  In v. 20-22 he says it is all the sufferings that have come upon the created order by the will of God as his curse upon human sin.  The creation does not currently function the way that God orginally created it.  It is full of futility and decay.  He decribes the whole creation as groaning right now like a pregnant woman who is in the midst of labor.  In other words, the sufferings which must be endured with Christ are all the sufferings that make up this world.  Disease and accidents and broken realationshiops and hurricanes and floods and earthquakes and plagues and the acts of violent and wicked men and wars and everything that makes this world  a place of pain.

The reason that Paul makes this point is because many people arrive at the mistaken conclusion that if we are God's children, if the Holy Spirit lives in us and we are heirs of God, then we will not experience any of these sufferings.  Many false teachers in the Christian church have said through the centuries that if we are God's children then God will keep us from all suffering.  Paul directly contradicts this false teaching.  He says that just as Christ experienced all this misery so all of those who are his fellow heirs will also experience these sufferings.  However we will experience them "with Christ".  That is, these sufferings are not evidence of God's condmenation but evidence of God's love.  We experience these sufferings as Paul says in vv. 23-24 like a woman in labor experiences the pains of childbirth.  The woman is not in despair over labor pains, even while she groans in pain, but she experiences them as the harbinger of the birth of her child.  In the same way we groan in the pain of this fallen world but not in despair but in hope of what is coming.  As Pauls says in v. 18 we consider these present sufferings as not even worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

Tomorrow we will look further at what Paul says about how we "suffer with Christ" the pains of this fallen world.  But for today we recognize that the experience of suffering in this world is not a sign of God's displeasure with us but the mark that we belong to Christ.  Our present sufferings are necessary for the "birth" that is coming to the creation and to us when Christ returns and makes all things new.

Should we seek to escape God's discipline?

First a brief update on where I am at in my treatment.  Last week I had a CT scan of my upper chest and an MRI of my liver to look for other tumors.  Praise be to God, there were no other tumors.  This morning I had a "port" placed under my skin in front of my right shoulder.  This will be the site where the chemotherapy will be placed into me and other IV meds.  Blood can also be drawn from here as the doctors moniter my blood counts.  Tomorrow morning I begin chemo-therapy.  Four hours in the hospital hooked up to an IV pump and then I have a small, portable pump attached to the port which will pump meds into me continously for the next 46 hours.  Then I go back in two weeks to repeat the process.  I will do this 12 times.

There is a question which many people have when they begin to realize that God ordains all the trouble that comes to his children for their good and for his glory.  As Hebrews 12 says, all trouble in the lives of believers is discipline from the hands of our loving Father to enable us to share his holiness.  The question that arises is this:  If God has sent trouble for my good then should I seek to escape the trouble; should I ask the Lord to deliver me from the trouble?  Let me be specific.  As I've written previously, it is God's will that I have cancer.  It is his loving and good discipline in my life for the purpose of enabling me to share his holiness.  Thus, should I be pursuing healing by medical means for my cancer?  Should I and  scores of friends and family be asking God to heal me?  The answer to both of these questions is yes, I should seek to be healed and we should ask the Lord to heal me.  How do I know that this is the right thing to do?

There are three examples in the NT that illustrate how we are to respond to bad things that we know are God's will.  First, we have the example of Jesus the night before he was betrayed.  He knew it was God the Father's will that he be betrayed, beaten and crucified on that cross (Luke 18:31-34).  He knew that his death was paying the ransom for his people (Mark 10:45).  He knew it was God's will that he suffer the horror of hell on our behalf.  Yet, the night before he was killed he asked his Father three times if he would deliver him from the horror of that cross.  Each time he added, "yet not my will but yours be done."  Thus the perfect Son of God who came into the world to do his Father's will and who knew that will included all the horror of the cross yet asked his Father to be delivered from it, but only if it was his will.

Second, Jesus told the apostle Paul on the day he was converted that it was his will that he suffer much for his name.  Numerous times in Paul's travels he avoided certain persecution by fleeing from cities.  He fled from Damascus, he fled from Thessalonica, he informed the centurion who was about to beat him that he was a Roman citizen and thus avoided being flogged.  In Acts 20:22-23 Paul tells the elders of thre church in Ephesus: "And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me."  Here we have a specific example of God the Holy Spirit informing Paul that he is going to suffer in Jerusalem.  Yet, in his letter to the Romans, written just before he began this journey to Jerusalem and after he knew that this was God's will for him says this to the church in Rome: "I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company."  Paul knows that God has ordained suffering for him and yet he asks that these believers join him in asking the Lord to deliver him from the unbelievers in Jerusalem.  If you were to read the story of his coming to Jerusalem (Acts 21) you would also discover that he took action to avoid being persecuted as well.

Finally, in 2 Corinthians 12 Paul describes the "thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan" that was given to him to keep him from boasting.  to keep him from boasting (v.7).  While Satan was God’s instrument in giving the “thorn” to Paul, ultimately it was God who sent it as Satan would never desire Paul to be humble, which is one of the purposes for the “thorn”.  In spite of the fact that Paul knew that God had sent the thorn to him for his good (promote humility in him), yet he asked the Lord three times to take it away.  The Lord told him no all three times because he had something better for Paul than not having this "thorn".  His good purpose was to show off his power in and through Paul's weakness.  (This passage is particularly important to me in that the “thorn” is most certainly a chronic, physical ailment.  The word translated “weakness” is used 24 times in the NT and 20 of those times it clearly means physical illness or ailment of some sort.)

There are scores of other examples in the Bible of this same fact: while God sends trouble to us for our good and his glory it is right for us to seek appropriate remedies to the trouble and to ask the Lord to deliver us from the trouble always recognizing that our God is better and wiser and more loving than we are and thus we will submit to his will no matter what it is. 

Trusting God by trusting doctors

In my last post I used my faith in the doctors' diagnosis of cancer and their prescription for health as an illustration of the gospel and saving faith.  In writing that post I recognized that there are certain religious people who would say that trusting doctors is not trusting God.  There are many, from various religious traditions, who teach that faith in God is antithetical to faith in doctors.  It is not only faith in doctors which is often cast as unbelief in God but there are lots of religious people who suspect that when a person is trusting in some man-made knoweldge or skill or technology that person is automatically not trsuting in God.  Last week I watched about a half hour of the PBS TV documentary on the Amish.  At one point they were discussing the numerous conflicts with building codes that Amish people regularly encounter.  As an example they cited the unwillingness of Amish people to put smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in their homes as most building codes now require.  The logic of the Amish is that to install these detectors is to trust them rather than God.  If God wants to send a fire through a home and they all die, they will go to heaven and so they will trust God to save them rather than a smoke detector to save them.

It is is possible to trust doctors or smoke detectors or insurance policies or police departments or any number of human beings and their technologies and not God.  Psalm 20:7 says, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."  However, the biblical way of life is that we trust God by trusting the human instruments God has provided to protect and heal us.  First of all, all lawful human institutions and technologies are God's gift to us.  Acts 17:25, "God is not served by human hands as if he needed anything.  He gives all men, life and breath and everything."  What is inculded in the word "everything"?  Skill, intelligence, resources, insight, wisdom, concern for others, social institutions, physical ability, knowledge...everything is given to us by God.  This fact is repeated all over the Bible. 

Just think about this one thing.  We are commanded to thank God for our food (1 Timothy 4:4-5).  Let's say you have a plate of spaghetti and meatballs with a nice salad for dinner, along with a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.  Before you eat, you thank God for giving you this food.  So how did God give you that plate of food?  The complex web of human beings and human technology that brought that food to your plate would take lots of pages to fully describe.  All the way from the agricultural research that took place to grow all the ingredients to the machinery used to till, plant and cultivate to the technology used to proces it and transport it.  All the busniess acumen needed to bring it to the store you bought it from at an affordable price.  All the research and development and then manufacturing of the utensils used to prepare it and serve.  Finally the person who cooked the meal itself.  So, who provided you with that great meal?  You thanked God, not all the people involved, thus you must believe that God gave and worked in and through all those human beings, institutions and technologies to provide your food.  Every time you eat a meal for which you give thanks you show you are trusting God by trusting all these intermediary human processes and tools.  So I would ask, how is that different from trusting a smoke detector or a doctor and thanking God for each?

The Bible regularly describes God's people praying and asking him to act and then immediately these same people do something to deal with the problem.  They trust God by trusting human work and technology.  My family and I are reading through 2 Samuel right now.  We just read chapter 15 which recounts how David's son Abasalom fomented a rebellion against King David.  When David found out that Abasalom was marching on Jerusalem he and his household and friends had to flee for their lives.  As they are fleeing he is told that his most trusted advisor, Ahithophel, is part of the conspiracy.  So David prays, "O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness."  So David trusts God to protect him from Ahithophel.  However, in the very next verses David tells a trusted friend, Hushai, to return to Jerusalem and to go to Abasolom and tell him that as he served David so he will now serve Abasolom as the new king.  He wants him to do this so that he will "defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel."  What's the deal?  Is David trusting God or man, God or his own strategy?  He is trusting God by trusting his friend Hushai.  I would encourage you to see how God answers David's prayer in the chapter 17.  This is not an isolated example. 

Thus we trust God by trusting God's gifts to us in the human beings and human institutions and human technologies which he provides to us for our welfare.  I am trusting God to heal me through the knowledge and wisdom he has given to us through medical research and the resultant technology.

Cancer and the gospel

Here is a little illustration I've used hundreds of times as I have sought to explain to people the good news of Christ: If on a visit to your doctor he begins, with no explanation, telling you about the newest and best treatments for cancer you will be confused and might say to her, "What are you telling me about cancer for?  I don't have cancer.  I could care less about cancer treatments."  However, if the doctor, after performing some tests says you to, "I have bad news.  You have cancer.  However, it is very treatable.  Let me tell you how we are going to beat this cancer."  When she then goes on to describe the treatment regimen, how interested will you be?  You will be very interested and you will view all that she now says as good news.  It is only when you know you have cancer that cancer treatment is good news to you.

I've given further reflection to this little illustration in light of my having been told on January 18, following a colonoscopy that I had a soft tissue tumor in my colon that was probably cancer.  I have not had any symptons of cancer.  I felt and I feel completely healthy.  I do not feel as though I am in any danger of this dread disease.

Yet, I  submitted to the surgeon taking out a foot of my colon.  This next Tuesday I am willingly submitting to another doctor who will begin pumping strong anti-cancer chemicals into my body which can have significant, negative side effects.  I am going to submit to this procedure 12 times during the next 6 months.  Why am I doing this?  It is because I trust the doctors.  I am taking the doctor's word for what my problem is and what treatments will cure me of the disease.  I am doing nothing to cure my cancer.  I am trusting the doctor's to cure it by surgery and medicine.  Because of my faith in the doctor's I obey their commands.

Every human being is afflicted with a far more dread disease than cancer.  All of us are sinners by nature and thus by practice.  We all, because of sin, justly deserve the eternal wrath of God against us.  Most people in the world do not feel that they are in any real danger.  They do not see themselves as particularly sinful and most certainly do not fear God's anger against them.  The good news about Jesus is only good news to those who know that they are afflicted with the disease, sin and God's just wrath against us for our sins, which Jesus came to heal.

I did not think of myself as a sinner or think that God was opposed to me for the first 20 years of my life.  Then in the spring of 1975, by the grace of God I believed what God says in his word.  His command to me and to every human being is that we love him with our whole being 24/7 and that we love our neighbor as ourselves 24/7.  He says that if we do not obey him that he will justly punish us in hell forever.  Again, by God's grace, I saw that I did not love God, nor did I love others as I ought.  Thus I believed God's diagnosis of my problem.  I am a sinner who deserves hell.  Then by the work of God's Holy Spirit I saw that God had provided a solution for the disease of sin with which I am afflicted.  The eternal Son of God took on human flesh, being born of a virgin.  He did what I never did.  He obeyed God's law perfectly throughout his whole life.  He willingly suffered the death I deserve when he died on that cross, bearing the full weight of God's just wrath against me.  Then he rose from the dead and ascended to God's right hand where he now intercedes on my behalf.  This is all true for me because I have believed God's word concerning my disease and concerning the cure he has provided in Christ.  I did nothing and I do nothing to cure me of sin.  Christ has done everything for me.  I simply trust him to do for me what he has said that he has done and will do.

I live now by faith in the Son of God who loved and gave himself up for me.  I seek to obey his commands because I believe he is the cure and has the cure for what ails me.  I aim to submit to whatever he sends to me because he is out to do me good, to enable me to share God's holiness.

The discipline of our Father

The main help that this passage (Hebrews 12:1-11) has given to me over the past ten years is in vv.5-11.  Here God tells us the purpose for which he sends us trouble of all kinds.  In vv. 5-6 he says to these Christians who are on the edge of quitting because of the suffering: "Have you forgotten the exortation that addresses you as sons?"  The fact that the pain you are suffering is causing you to want to quit the race, stop the struggle merely shows you have forgotten that God is your Father and you are his son and he has told you what he is doing.  Then he quotes a passage out of Proverbs 3:11-12.  "My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines everyone whom he loves and he chastises ever son whom he recieves."  (The word translated "chastises" is the same word that is translated "flog" several places in the gospels when Jesus describes what is going to happen to him when he is arrested in Jerusalem.  In John 19:1 it says: "Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.")  The mark of our Father's love is his wise and perfect discipline.  Every person he loves and every person he receives as a son he causes to suffer pain of some variety. 

The Greek word for "discipline" is often translated "instruction" or "training" (Acts 7:22, 22:3, Titus 2:12).  This is not punishment but pain sent for the purpose of instruction and training.  The author goes on to make the point that every good, loving human father disciplines his children to train them.  He asks, "We submitted to our earthly parents, should we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and so live?"  In v. 10 he gets to the main point.  Earthly parents discpline us as it seems best to them but God disciplines us for our good.  Now, what is the good purpose for which God sends the suffering which is his discpline:  God's good purpose is that "we might share his holiness."  What does that mean?

The fact that God is holy is the most often repeated fact about God in the Bible.  The word means "to be cut from a different cloth," to be set apart as absolutely unique in every way from everyone and everything else.  To say that God is holy is to say that is utterly different from us in every conceivable way.  He is a being unto himself with no rival and no equal.  In some ways it is the word that describes the "Godness" of God.  To share in the holiness of God is to share in God's delight in being God.  It is to be taken up with the greatness and glory and wonder of God himself. 

Like the child who can think of nothing better than to know and be like his favorite sports star or super hero or movie character, so those who share in God's holiness can think of nothing better than to be known and loved by this glorious God and to know and love and be like him in every way possible.  The fact of the matter is that without the loss of earthly pleasure and comfort, without the presence of pain in our lives we will not prefer God to creation.  We are hard wired to seek our pleasure in the created world (Romans 1:18-25).  Even when we become Christians we continue to be attracted to the pleasures of sin and of this world.  We are daily battling to believe that to have Christ, to be known and loved by God, to have sins forgiven and a home in the new creation is better than food and sex and hobbies and families and accomplishment and the approval of others and alchohol and drugs and work and shopping and vacations and everything.  We want the gifts, not the Giver.  So, our loving Father sends us trouble, the loss of these things so that we can discover that being loved by him and being like him is better than everything.

The only wise God is the one who is in charge of the discpline.  He knows what kind of discipline each of his children need and when they need it.  We don't choose the suffering. God chooses it for us because he is our Father.

Verse 11 is so important:  It says, "At the moment, all discipline is painful, not pleasant yet later on it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it."  None of my children were ever happy when I discplined them.  Discipline is pain.  It is the loss of things we love and care about.  It is not pleasant and we are not required to say that it is pleasant.  We are to recognize and grieve the pain.  It is right for children to cry when they are disciplined.  Seeing my son suffer as he has the past 10 years and remembering who he was and thinking about who he might have become have been tremendous sources of pain in our lives about which we have shed many tears.  However, our good and loving Father has sent this trouble for our good that we might share his holiness.  Thus, it is good for us.  It is no fun to have cancer and I'm sure I will learn more of the unpleasantness in the coming months.  Yet my loving Father has sent this to me and my family for our good, that we might share his holiness.  I would much rather know and experience the delight of God than not have cancer.

Finally, notice also that in v. 11, as in v. 9 the effect of the displine upon us is determined by whether or not we are gong to submit to our Father or be trained by it.  We must use the pain to pursue the Lord.  We must use the pain to evaluate ourselves.  We must be trained by it through our submission to it as discipline.  Ultimately the question comes down to this: what do you want--a pain free life on planet earth for 70 years or a sharing in the holiness of God forever?  If you want the former than all loss and pain will be a threat and a source of bitterness in your life.  If you want the latter, then pain and loss will be for you the path to greater joy in God.