Praising God; June 27, 2020

Posted on June 29, 2020 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise.

I was quite torn in deciding what to write on. The 10 verses of today’s selection are incredibly rich, bringing to mind Psalms, Proverbs, or Isaiah. This doesn’t necessarily match my image of Jeremiah! That’s all the more reason to know that the Holy Spirit is the Author of the Bible, speaking and acting through many different human beings. This particular verse is an excellent faith declaration for any believer. At its root it is a statement of dependence and trust. The last line is an important part of it. We need not only to acknowledge that God is the One to whom all praise is due, we also need to be consistent in giving Him that praise. I have seen a Monty Python sketch that said that God is an insecure megalomaniac, requiring man to praise Him. It was intended as humor, but it betrays a tragic misunderstanding of God, one that is eagerly promoted by the devil. God doesn’t tell us to praise Him because He needs it, any more than He tells us to tithe because He’s short of funds. He tells us to do these things because we need them, to keep our focus on Him and rescue us from the traps of the devil. Praising God reminds us that He is our Healer and our Savior, as the first part of the verse says. On top of that, it feels really good to praise God! Praising Him lifts our eyes off of the junk we’re going through and renews our hope in His solution to it all. As Revelation tells us, heaven is filled with His praise, not for His sake but for the eternal blessing of those who live there with Him.

Growing up in a family that was both dedicated to God and quite musical, some of my earliest and happiest memories are of singing hymns together as a family. As a result, I could read the music before I could read the words! I still have a deep love for many of the old hymns of faith. However, it wasn’t until I was exposed to the Charismatic Movement, from around 1973, that I started getting more of a grasp of what it is to praise God, and why I needed to do it. So many church services I had attended seemed to sing a couple of hymns more out of obligation than anything else, not even singing all of the verses, no matter how rich the lyrics. It is somewhat ironic that it took simple little choruses to teach me to praise God! In this church now we sing a mix of hymns, choruses, and songs that perhaps come in between those categories, six or seven in every service. Because we do everything bilingually, if a song only exists in one language I translate it into the other, having done over a hundred in each direction with English and Japanese. Sometimes English hymns exist in very archaic Japanese translations, and I have re-translated them to make them more accessible to people today. It is a deep joy to be able to do that, to share the blessing of praising God in song with others. However, I must not limit my praise to singing! My regular conversation should always point people to God and give Him the credit, the glory, for all that He has done and is doing. I know from experience that the more I do that, the more His peace and joy fill my heart.

Father, thank You for the privilege of praising You. I didn’t expect to write on this when I started! Thank You for knowing, always, what I need and how I need it. Help me respond to Your grace more and more fully, so that Your will may be done in and through me for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prophecy; June 26, 2020

Posted on June 28, 2020 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.”

Jeremiah dealt with false prophets a good bit, and it often wasn’t pretty. Today in secular society we have economists and pollsters and various other pundits who make predictions all the time, and hope we don’t pay attention to what a ridiculously small percentage of those predictions are accurate. We do have people who operate as prophets in the Biblical sense, but they aren’t trumpeted on cable news. The point is, anyone who makes statements about the future should do it in humility, and doubly so if their statements are couched in spiritual terms. The New Testament pattern of genuine prophecy does include speaking of the future, but it is far more a speaking out of whatever God is saying, whether it deals with the future or not. Outside of Pentecostal/Charismatic circles the term, prophecy, is seldom used, but there is an assumption that preachers are speaking for God. The widespread use of the title, Reverend, is an indication of that. Today there are people who go by that title who, if they are speaking, can be safely assumed NOT to be speaking what God is saying! They fit into the description in this verse very well. No human prophet is infallible, but as the saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Paul had some excellent advice on the subject: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22) Every genuine believer has the Holy Spirit to act as a filter, a gateway to admit God’s truth and shut out lies. We’ve got to ask Him, and trust Him, to do that. Sometimes God says things that don’t “tickle our ears” and delight us, so we must be careful not to reject strong words out of hand, but we conversely must not think that if it’s good, it can’t be God.

This is extremely applicable to me, because I am called as a pastor and teacher and I seek to preach prophetically. I haven’t done much predictive prophecy, but any time I open my mouth I desire that it be God speaking through me. At times I almost envy preachers who “preach through” a book of the Bible, because they never have to wonder what their next message is going to be. At the same time, they often work hard in preparing their messages, whereas I seldom spend a lot of time in direct sermon preparation, but rather “receive messages whole,” as it were, just making an outline of what I feel the Lord is saying. Most of the time when I am preaching I include things that didn’t occur to me at all when I was making the outline! I sometimes feel a little guilty at not laboring over messages, when so many great preachers have done that, but my real preparation time has been the years I have spent with a consistent devotional life, seeking the Lord every morning and talking with Him throughout each day. Usually the Lord indicates what the message is going to be fairly early in the week, and I can get mildly anxious when that doesn’t happen. It was that way this week, but yesterday as I was posting to my blog I felt a confirmation, so now I need to get that into an outline. The important thing is that I say what God wants me to say and not say anything He isn’t saying. If I will do that, I will be safely out of the group described in this verse, and the Body of Christ will be built up.

Father, thank You for this reminder. You have been saying a good bit to Cathy and me recently that hasn’t been stuff I was to speak to the congregation. Help me not close my ears to anything You are saying, but protect me from the lying onslaughts of the enemy, so that I may walk freely in Your truth and lead others to do likewise, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Bible; June 25, 2020

Posted on June 28, 2020 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 8:8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise,
for we have the law of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?'”

This verse speaks volumes to me. Many people indeed treat the Bible like a good luck charm, thinking that possessing it makes them special, when actually it is taking the Word into your heart to do it that makes the difference. (James 1:22) There is indeed great wisdom in the pages of the Bible, but until it is internalized and applied, it is useless. That much is a truth that is expressed many times in many ways throughout the Bible. However, it is the reference to “the lying pen of the scribes” that really stands out to me. We sometimes forget that the printing press wasn’t invented until over a thousand years after this was written. Books of all sorts were hand copied, and the people who did that for a living were called scribes. This one verse could explain a lot of “textual criticism” questions about the Bible! Most scribes were probably very faithful in their work, but some “copied” the text to make it say what they wanted it to. We have that issue with translations today. It is all well and good to render the Hebrew and Greek in English that is as easy as possible to understand, but theological and even moral positions can have all too much influence on the outcome. Also, this opens up the whole matter of Bible commentaries. My seminary professor grandfather wouldn’t allow any Schofield Bibles in his classes, because some of the students treated the footnotes as being as inspired as the text! Even today, there are preachers who preach more from commentaries than they do from the actual text of Scripture. Such commentaries are “the traditions of the elders” that Jesus spoke so strongly against. (Mark 7:1-13, especially verse 8) Today we see politicians and others quoting the Bible to justify all sorts of things, like abortion, that spit in the face of God. Handled that way, the Bible has nothing to do with wisdom!

The most unpleasant thing about preaching class in seminary was the requirement that I reference commentaries in every message. I was strongly reminded of my grandfather’s position on Schofield Bibles! Background information on the culture of the time a passage was written is certainly helpful, and I am amazed at the ignorance of some people about such things as geography and history. I desire to be knowledgeable about such things, but the Word of the Lord is transcendent. I read it every day precisely because God speaks to me through it. That said, my blog puts me in the position of a scribe, and I must never place my own words on a par with the Bible. He does speak through me, for which I am deeply grateful, but I must never say, “Thus says the Lord,” when He has not spoken. I want the Holy Spirit to be my guide, and to guide those who read and hear my words, so that there will be no distortion in the message.

Father, pride is always a risk here. Help me be both humble and bold, hearing and proclaiming what You are saying, so that Your Word may accomplish that for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:9-11) destroying the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and setting people free, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pastors; June 24, 2020

Posted on June 26, 2020 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 3:15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.

The Bible mentions bad shepherds and false prophets in quite a few places, so it is actually very comforting to run across this verse – particularly when I’ve been assigned duty as a shepherd! There are indeed faithless shepherds, in it for twisted motives, but they are a small minority, just as there are bad law enforcement officers, such as have been grabbing the headlines recently, when they too are a small minority. In most countries pastors (which is how we usually say shepherds in this context) are very respected members of society, but in places like China and India, being a pastor makes you a target for all sorts of abuse. Because of their severe trials, such people often have faith that puts pastors in other countries to shame! The point is, it is God who makes a good pastor, and not the right school or organization. There are denominations that require academic tests before someone is acknowledged as a pastor, when that has nothing to do with it. Yes, “wisdom and understanding” are important, but those aren’t the same as intellectual knowledge. I’ve talked with one pastor of such a denomination who confessed that he was more familiar with the works of Carl Barth that he was with the Bible! (Fortunately, in the years that I’ve known him, he has dived into the Bible and now shows much more wisdom and understanding.) Knowledge of the Bible is indeed a high priority, but if that knowledge doesn’t make it from the head to the heart, it doesn’t produce wisdom and understanding. Many large churches in the US practically require a doctoral degree to consider someone as a pastor, but I am reminded of A. T. Robertson, who is still considered one of the greatest Greek scholars ever to have lived, who never got a doctorate. Ignorance is never desirable, but the primary qualification and requirement is a heart after the Lord.

I resisted being a pastor a good bit, not because I didn’t enjoy digging into the Word and sharing it with others, but because I wasn’t enthused about the day-to-day business of caring for the sheep. I still don’t think I’m very good at that, but by the grace of God I’ve come this far. Frankly, it can get really messy, and I quickly run out of my own resources. However, God is able to do everything whether I can or not, so I’ve got to rely on Him. I have had people walk out of this church for a variety of reasons, many of them connected with me, and I’m certainly not proud of that. However, God is my Judge, and my first accountability is to Him. I am to receive the wisdom and understanding He offers for each situation, not relying on what I feel I already have in that area, so that the people may indeed be nurtured as He intends, for their blessing and His glory.

Father, You’ve had to call me down for my complaining about my lack of “pastoral gifting.” Help me not complain, but rather rejoice that my weaknesses allow You opportunities to display Your strength, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Focus; June 23, 2020

Posted on June 26, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 58:8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

To me, this whole chapter is about one thing: getting your focus off of yourself and putting it on God and your fellow man. The whole thing is Isaiah speaking directly for God, and he is remarkably direct. There are lots of wonderful promises in this chapter, but they are thoroughly intermingled with the conditions necessary for their fulfillment. The early part of the chapter mentions people complaining that they have done the proper religious things, but God has not kept up His end of the deal. God’s response is that when we ignore the needs of the people around us, we can’t expect Him to do anything about our needs. Motive is essentially everything. Right now we are in the middle of a lot of people making a lot of noise about injustice. Some of them are genuinely sincere, but a lot seem motivated largely by material and political gain. The raw thirst for power can be downright revolting. We all want this verse to be true for us, but it is meaningless for many in the current turmoil because they have nothing to do with righteousness, and the glory of the Lord would be an absolute terror for them. In this chapter the Lord goes on to speak of honoring the Sabbath, which is a bedrock of His plan for us to acknowledge Him every day of the week. Practically the whole of society today considers that very “quaint,” an outmoded idea from ancient times. Conversely, Orthodox Jews take it very legalistically, and still manage to miss the gracious, loving Lord who instituted the Sabbath for our benefit. Being self-centered gets in the way of every one of the blessings God has prepared for us.

I am fundamentally as self-centered as anyone, and I have missed a lot of blessings because of it. God has been incredibly gracious to me, but I sometimes wonder how things would be if I had responded properly to everything, instead of being focused on I-my-me-mine. I see people around me who are constantly wounding themselves and those around them by their very self-centeredness, and it is tragic. The Japanese for this verse says, “Your wounds will quickly be healed.” We seldom realize how many of our wounds are self-inflicted! We all go through a lot of junk in life, just as Jesus cautioned us, (John 16:33) but what wounds us isn’t so much what we go through as how we respond to it. When we indeed “Fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) we will see the needs around us and be His agents in meeting those needs, and nothing will be able to do us any lasting damage.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. I am bombarded with requests for money, and some of them seem to be very noble causes indeed, but I turn them all off because of the sheer volume. Help me be available to You to meet the needs You want me to be involved in, and not shy away from giving money, either. Help me be so focused on You that I can see clearly what You want me to do as Your agent, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Repentance; June 22, 2020

Posted on June 25, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 57:21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

We love the many gracious promises in the Bible but we tend to ignore the conditional statements. We love, “Peace, peace, to those far and near,” in verse 19 and try to claim it for ourselves, However, verse 19 refers to “mourners,” that is, those genuinely repentant. What this verse is saying is, “No repentance, no peace.” It is worth noting that Japanese distinguishes between external peace and internal peace, and this whole section is talking about internal peace. If you want to be at peace with your conscience, then repent! Actually, the possibility of repentance is a major element of God’s grace. John Newton didn’t write the lyrics to Amazing Grace until after he had repented of a life that definitely put him in the category of “the wicked.” However, we often take repentance too lightly, equating it with saying, “I’m sorry” when you’re not really sorry. We tend to enjoy sin, or we wouldn’t do it so much! The Japanese term for repentance is very clear and accurate. Broken down, it means, “regret and start over.” It does no good to say, “My bad,” with no intention of never doing it again. In our human weakness we are prone to indeed doing it again, but repentance is first of all a matter of heart attitude. It does no good to think, “That was wrong, but boy was it fun!” That attitude is unfortunately all too common. This verse is warning us that such an attitude will certainly not give us the peace that we need far more than we need any momentary thrill.

This certainly applies to me, as I can say from experience. Growing up in a strongly moral and loving home, my conscience was well established from an early age, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t give it quite a beating! I couldn’t begin to list all the willful sins I’ve committed, not to mention the unintentional ones. However, God has taught me about repentance and forgiveness, and I am deeply grateful. It was quite a few years ago now that He taught me something I have found to be very important: to get free of sin, I need to believe and understand that I’ve been forgiven. The verse that opened my eyes is one that Peter wrote after writing about the characteristics of what we would call a good Christian, someone who accurately represents Christ. What he said was, “But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” (2 Peter 1:9) I discovered that the more I thought about the sin I had committed, the more likely I was to commit it again! As John said, when we confess our sins to God in repentance, they are genuinely cleansed, so they don’t hang onto us any more. (1 John 1:9) Getting free requires that we believe that!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me communicate this truth effectively to all who are open to receive it. I don’t want to bash people over the head with REPENT! because that would certainly be counterproductive in most situations, but I don’t want to miss any opportunities You give me to speak to those whose hearts are ready, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yeshua the Messiah; June 21, 2020

Posted on June 25, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 53:5-6 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

In many ways Isaiah 53 is the climax of the whole Old Testament, and certainly of Messianic prophecy. Even so, sadly many Jews today are unaware of it. That is very much by the devil’s design. Recently I have discovered OneForIsrael.org and the many video testimonies they have online, particularly of Jews who have come to faith in Yeshua but also of former Muslims and others who have discovered Him. A very frequent feature among the testimonies of Jews is their discovery of this chapter, and their realization that it could only apply to Yeshua, better known to Gentiles as Jesus. The imagery is very striking, with this verse saying that we are like sheep, and the next verse saying that the Messiah was “led like a lamb to the slaughter.” The reality of God becoming man and taking the penalty for man’s sin on Himself is so incredible that even with the facts laid out in front of us it’s hard to grasp. However, when we open the door of our heart just a crack, God will pour His revelation into our heart to enable us to grasp it and believe. It’s that first crack that makes all the difference! Sad to say, sometimes we try to shut the door again, saying that’s enough, because the more revelation we have of Christ, the more we are accountable to live like Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s scary, and sometimes we run from it. However, that fear is a lie of the devil, intended to rob us of the infinite riches of glory in Christ Jesus. We need to continually open our hearts for more of the Lord of Glory.

I first memorized this verse in elementary school as a part of Royal Ambassadors, a Southern Baptist group for boys, and I’m glad I did. Frankly, Scripture memorization was never a favorite activity, but it is certainly valuable! This passage of course also forms the lyrics of some of the well-known songs of Handel’s The Messiah, and I can hardly read it without the music running through my head. That too is a good thing, because music is an excellent way to implant Scripture in our hearts. The question remains, however, of how much I have allowed this verse, and all the others, to change my heart and make me more like Christ. He is the ultimate judge of that, but I rejoice in every indication of progress in that area. I am to make myself fully available to Him for however He wants to use me, drawing others to likewise open their heart to Him, so that the purpose of His suffering may be fulfilled more and more, for His satisfaction and glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for what You did yesterday, and for allowing me to be a part of that. I pray that today too I may flow with Your Spirit so that people may be freed from the lies of the enemy and brought to the fullness of Your salvation, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Language; June 20, 2020

Posted on June 22, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 38:16-17 Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.
Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.

Comparing different Bible translations, it’s easy to see the theological bent of the translators. Whereas it is true that by God’s grace we sometimes say things beyond what we know, it is also true that translations can make people “say” things they never intended, and that may or may not have been what God wanted to communicate in having that included in the Bible. One Hebrew word that can complicate that is ruach, which can variously mean breath, wind, or spirit. Here, where the NIV says, “my spirit finds life in them too,” the Japanese says, “the life of my breath follows/obeys all of this.” When Hezekiah obviously had very little concept of eternal life, it seems doubtful that he would have intentionally written about his spirit being alive. That said, the experience of suffering to the point of death and then recovering obviously changed him for the better. I am guessing that in verse 17 he said, “It was for my shalom that I suffered such anguish,” since the Japanese translates it as “inner peace.” Different languages add different things to the richness of human experience. God has brought some good out of the confusion of Babel! (Genesis 11:1-9) That said, any time we read the Bible we need to ask the Holy Spirit to be our guide, to speak to our heart what God is saying to us right now, rather than what translators wanted us to hear.

I’ve not been a student of Biblical languages, though my father was, but being bilingual in such different languages as English and Japanese has given me a real appreciation for this issue. Discussions of such things are fairly frequent in a Facebook group for adult Missionary Kids that I participate in. I have a Mexican friend who speaks not only Spanish, English, and Japanese, but also Latin, Italian, French, German, and Russian, and I think another language, since I have the total of nine in my memory. And he does it all so well that he interpreted both for Pope John-Paul II and Michael Gorbachov when they visited Nagasaki! (Maybe his other language is Polish, but then, the Pope could have spoken in any of a number of languages himself.) All of this gives me another reason to look forward to heaven, where all barriers to communication will be gone. I can’t know for sure, but somehow I think the richness of all the languages will be preserved, and we will enjoy every one of them in praising God. I am constantly faced with the challenge of communicating the richness of God’s grace and love, which is beyond all human language. I need to ask God’s anointing both on my mouth and my hearers’ ears, so that what He is saying may get through, whatever the language or the specific words used.

Father, thank You for language, and for what You have placed in me in relation to it. May I use it as You intend, building up and not tearing down, speaking Your words after You whatever language I’m using, so that Your will may be accomplished for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last Days; June 19, 2020

Posted on June 22, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 30:28 He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples
a bit that leads them astray.

This is certainly not a verse I had underlined previously! We like to overlook the Bible’s many statements of judgment, or else think they apply to other people, not us. We also forget that when the Bible speaks of nations it means people-groups, much more than political entities. The thing that grabbed my attention as I read this was the “bit (the Japanese says, reins) that leads them astray.” Several times in the Old Testament the Lord tells people, “If you’re going to be that way, then be that way, and suffer the consequences.” It’s like when he “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” after each succeeding plague, all the way up to the climactic death angel. Two recent decisions of the US Supreme Court, with its much-vaunted “conservative majority,” seem to fly in the face of natural law and common sense. I find myself wondering if God didn’t direct that to bring on America the judgment she has been earning, particularly in recent years. Many things seem to point to the Lord’s soon return, and the judgment that will happen then. The point for every believer is to examine their own life and discard everything that is not pleasing to God, just as is referenced in verse 22, and renew their commitment to the Lord of Glory. We don’t know God’s timetable, but we do have the Holy Spirit to show us how we ourselves are to live. We need to wake up and pay attention.

I find myself with very mixed feelings. For most of my life I have somewhat looked down on people who seemed obsessed with prophecies of the End Times. However, as the prospects for my own “natural life” have shrunk with each year, I am sharply aware that for me at any rate, the end will come in less than 30 years. That puts a point on living each day in obedience to God! Humanly, I am very pleased and even excited at various advances in science, medicine, and engineering, but at the same time I see the spiritual blight that seems so widespread, and I know that it is all totally insignificant compared to the glory of God. I am not to let my heart be troubled, (John 14:1) but rather seek God’s purpose for my every moment of physical life, doing His will on His schedule for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I do grieve at people’s rebellion against You, but certainly no more than You do. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, just as You have told me to do, so that I will be available for every task You have planned for me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Suffering; June 18, 2020

Posted on June 21, 2020 by jgarrott

Isaiah 19:22 The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

This prophecy is very interesting in light of the current pandemic! The Japanese doesn’t specify “a plague,” but with the repeated references to healing, that doesn’t seem an unreasonable translation. The most interesting thing about the whole passage is that it deals with Egypt and Assyria, Israel’s perennial enemies, and says that God will accept them as His people, His worshipers. This verse simply references what He will do to bring that about. Sometimes enemies turn into best friends, because at least they care. What is most difficult is when there is genuine indifference. I well remember one of my seminary professors talking about going door-to-door tracting/witnessing and having a man spit phlegm in his face. He didn’t give up, and later that man was not only saved, he became a deacon in the church! An adamant atheist could very well be just a step away from becoming a committed disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of the God they insisted didn’t exist. Their vehemence shows that they care about such things and think about them. God indeed uses such things as disease to get through to people, not at all because He’s mean, but because eternal life is far more important than physical life. If something, anything, causes you to repent and turn to God it’s a blessing, however horrible it might seem in the moment.

My mother had a frequent prayer that has stuck with me: “Keep them from unnecessary pain.” My mother had seen that sometimes pain is indeed necessary, to get our attention and cut us lose from what keeps us from God. Peter said, “He who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” (1 Peter 4:1) That’s a very desirable thing indeed! It’s not at all that we are to seek suffering, or fail to be good stewards of the body we’ve been given, but it is to say that we are to seek God for His purpose in allowing suffering, so that we won’t miss the blessing He intends. I’m reminded of Andrae Crouch’s beautiful song, Through it All. It deals with precisely this issue, and says, “If I’d never had a problem I wouldn’t know that He could solve them; I wouldn’t know what faith in God can do.” I have been accused of being uncaring because of having this perspective, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. I just see that God’s purposes are always higher than ours, and sometimes we really need some things we don’t want. That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes complain about my own circumstances! I’ve got to keep growing too, but along the way, I desire to help those around me recognize God’s love for what it is, and respond accordingly.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Looking back, You have been amazingly gentle and gracious with me! Help me communicate Your grace and love to all around me, so that they too may repent and believe, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment