You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Suffering’ tag.
In the last two posts, we have talked about two primary issues. The first was, “When terrorists strike, are they doing God’s will?”
The answers provided were “no” and “yes.”
Should a believer in Jesus Christ have a purpose-driven life?
The simple, one-word answer:
No.
The pushback I usually receive when I make this assertion is, “Well, that’s not true. God does have a purpose for your life. Your life does have purpose.”
Let’s take a quick look at Hebrews 11:32-38. This portion of Scripture is often the focus of our attention because it is included in this wonderful chapter about faith.
“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Samson of and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, mighty in war, foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”
In the last post about how we Christians are to commend Church leaders, we asked these questions:
What do we value in the Church?
What is commendable?
What kind of people are we looking for in our pastors and leaders?
Are the criteria we use for making these value judgments biblical?
As a follower of Jesus, I am challenged by what the Bible says. I mean extraordinarily challenged, to the core of who I think I am as a Western Christian man. The challenges are wonderful. Holy. Exciting. It isn’t a stretch to call them life threatening. A line from the song, Jeremiah, by Sarah Groves, comes to mind:
“At the slightest invitation, You came with total detonation. Now, that’s a fire.”
The “You” in that line refers to the Lord.
Have you ever had the Lord do that in your life? Lately, in my ongoing experience with the Lord, it is becoming more and more apparent that the Lord God, the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists, is now choosing to blow up—in a spiritual way, of course—our casual Western Christian belief system and its attending organizational structures.
We’re finally nearing the end of the study about the Lord’s Prayer. The last time, we talked about the difficulties surrounding the request, “Lead us not into temptation (or trial).” We noticed that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil and understood that the Lord will bring trials to our lives to test us. Perhaps we’ll understand this request about not being led into temptation better when we look at the last half of the sentence: “but deliver us from evil (or the evil one)”. Jesus seems to be teaching us to pray that when we are tempted, or even led to a place of trial or temptation by His Spirit, that the devil won’t achieve a victory as a result of that trial.
Christians are often taught that we are God’s children and “fellow heirs with Christ.” It sounds good, and it is good. It lines up with the biblical truth that He has given us everything we need to live our lives with Jesus and that He will continue to do so, often beyond our ability to comprehend it.
However, there is this interesting thing that Paul says in Romans 8 that I think we too often ignore. Look carefully, if you would, at the last part of verse 17: