Remarkable Joy in the Lord

When Pete was a newly converted follower of Christ in Birmingham, a Campus Crusade minister came to his church to speak at at his Wednesday night prayer meeting.  He said, “I’m so excited to be a follower of Jesus Christ.!”  This was the first time Pete had heard this biblical message about rejoicing in the Lord.  His conservative church had never taught him the verse that says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”

Dennis in our Irvine Band of Brothers wrote a letter to God.  God’s answer came back to him at 2:00 in the morning.  The letter from God said, “Dennis you are my son whom I have watched over since you were a child.  I saw you put on your armor.  It’s now time for you to put away your armor and to take up my armor.  The life I’ve called you to is not only about the destination,  I’ve also called you to rejoice in the journey.”

A letter from God doesn’t condemn us.  Our Father reminds us that he loves us and gives us a hope and encouragement to walk in the newness of spiritual life.

Have you ever told anyone that you love being a Christian?  When we walk with him in fellowship, five reasons why we love our life in Christ should easily come to mind.  The remarkable joy of the Lord overwhelms us when we abide with him and within him.  

The book of Philippians is Paul’s letter of remarkable joy.  Paul and Silas went to Philippi and met a group of people who had gathered by the riverside to pray.  Lydia a seller of purple fabric who was well respected in her community received Paul’s message of salvation along with her whole household.  She invited Paul and Silas to stay at her house while they were in Philippi to preach the gospel.

Paul and Silas cast out a devil spirit from a slave girl whose masters used her to tell fortunes.  When her masters realized that their means of income was gone, they stirred up the crowd in the marketplace against Paul and Silas.  Then they complained to the city leaders and had them thrown into jail.  Paul and Silas were beaten in the prison’s inner chamber.  In the middle of the night Paul and Silas sang hymns of joy.  A miraculous earthquake opened the doors of the jail.  The jail keeper knew that he would be tortured and then executed for allowing prisoners to escape so he drew his sword to kill himself.  Then Paul said, We’re all here, don’t harm yourself!  That night Paul and Silas led the Philippian jailer to Christ along with his household.

It’s important to reflect on times of God’s remarkable joy.  Sometimes these moments of joy punctuate life’s trials and tribulations.  Pete recently found a keepsake box that his mother had saved while she was alive.  Inside the box, he found a box of clippings that his wife Suzan had kept.  One was a journal entry that Suzan had written from Mexico before she came to North Carolina to tell Pete about her new beau Armando she had met in Mexico.

In one of the letters Suzan had written, she mentioned that she wanted to keep dating both Armando and Pete.  When she came to North Carolina to break the news, Pete had read the Bobby Richardson story and had dedicated his life to the Lord.  He had prayed, “Lord, I know I’m not the man you meant for me to be.  Please, Lord, make me that man.”  When she said to Pete, “I’ve found a new beau in Mexico,” she was taken aback by Pete’s gracious response.  She expected Pete to erupt in a jealous rage like he had done so many times before when they dated at Auburn.  Pete simply said, “I’ll pray for you.”    She said to Pete, “I  want to date both you and Armando.”  Pete said, “I may be a new Christian, but even I know there’s something wrong with that picture.”    She was confused and said, “maybe I’ll move here to NC to be with you.”  Pete said, ”that’s not going to happen.”  She said, “then why don’t we just get married?”  They were married five weeks later.  She wrote him a letter from Mexico that said, I love the man you’ve become and I know it’s because of HIM.  She had seen the newfound joy in Pete’s heart.

According to Philippians 1, “PAUL and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:  2  Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  3  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,  4  Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,”

In verse 21 Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Paul’s joy was for Christ to be glorified.  Joy is the major theme of the book of Philippians.  In this book, Bible commentator Warren Wiersby says that there are five thieves that will steal your joy.  In the first chapter, the thief is circumstances.  Paul’s circumstance was imprisonment.  He had been falsely accused of starting a riot for preaching the gospel.  Paul said, whether in weakness or in strength, in strife and contention, or any adversity, my joy is in the Lord.

If we harbor resentment because others have violated our rights and we feel that we’ve been wronged, this resentment bank will steal our joy.  Joy is only in the Lord.  When we focus on the joy of the Lord, Joy will displace resentment and our resentment bank will empty out.

When we turn our hearts to the Lord in prayer, this will concentrate our joy in the Lord.  Prayer is aligning our hearts with God’s heart.  Prayer is confessing God’s word to the point that His word is our word.  Prayer is believing that the Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.  Prayer is seeking the Blessor instead of the blessing.

Paul said, count it all joy when you fall into tribulation.  And let tribulation have her perfect wrork that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing.  He said, whether life or death or tribulation or distress, my joy is in the Lord.  Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning.  We find our Joy in the Lord despite the pain of circumstances.  As Suzan often said, Joy is not the absence of pain.  Rather, joy is the presence of the Lord.

Therefore Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice…” that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

Remarkable Joy

Pete recalls that when he was a young Christian in Alabama, a  guest teacher from Campus Crusade came to speak at his Wednesday night prayer meeting.  The speaker said, “I’m so excited to be a follower of Jesus Christ.”  This was the first time anyone had said anything like this in his church.  Pete didn’t realize that God expects us to be on fire as a Christian.  No one had taught him the verse that says, “Not slothful in business, fervent (white hot) in spirit, serving the Lord.”

Shortly thereafter, Pete was sharing with one of his baseball teammates about the gospel of salvation.  He heard himself saying, “I’m so excited to be a Christian.”  That’s when he realized that this verse described his joy in the Lord.  God will open the eyes of our spiritual understanding the moment we realize that our joy and rejoicing is in Christ.

The book of Philippians is Paul’s epistle of joy.  The word Joy is used nineteen times in this short letter.  Happiness depends on outside circumstances.  However, our Joy is in the Lord.  Joy is our response from the heart of Christ in us the hope of glory.  In the book of Philippians, Paul and Silas met a group of people who came to pray by the riverside.  Lydia, a seller of purple fabrics believed Paul’s message and she and her household were baptized. She invited Paul and Silas to stay at her house while they were in Philippi.

Philippi was a Roman colony that was known for its salt mines.  This colony was important because Rome paid its soldiers in salt.  This is why wages are called a “salary” from the Latin word for salt.  

In Philippi, Paul cast out a devil spirit from a young slave girl who was used by her masters to tell fortunes.  When her masters realized that their means of income was gone, they went to the local magistrates, stirred up the crowd in the marketplace and had Paul and Silas thrown in jail.  There they were beaten and put in stocks in the inner prison.  Despite their mistreatment and imprisonment, Paul and Silas rejoiced with prayer, praises and hymns to the Lord.  At midnight, a miraculous earthquake released the prison doors.  The jailer, knowing that he would be tortured and executed for allowing the prisoners to escape, took his sword and was about to kill himself.  Paul said, “Do yourself no harm.  We are all here.”  That night Paul and Silas led the jailer to the Lord along with his whole household.

Paul said in Philippians 1:3, “I thank my God upon every remeberance of you always with joy in my prayer for you in view of your participation with me in the gospel.”  

God’s plan to redeem mankind from sin is revealed in Philippians 2:  “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

God’s plan for redemption was for his son to become a servant, humbly submitting himself as God’s perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf.  Because of sin we were found guilty before God the righteous judge.  We were worthy of condemnation unto death.  However, Jesus Christ who was without sin, was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Because of his sacrifice on our behalf, the purpose of our life is that we may be to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.  Our joy is in the Lord, not in the things of earth.  Pete’s wife Suzan often said, “Joy is not the absence of pain.  Joy is the presence of the Lord.”  

There are five thieves in Philippians that will steal our joy.  In Philippians 1, one thief is circumstances.  Paul’s circumstance was imprisonment.  However Paul determined to live in the Joy of the Lord.  He understood that regardless of circumstance, he would rejoice in the furtherance of the gospel. When Paul was imprisoned, they beat him and then said that they would release him.  However, Paul said, “I don’t want to be released, I’d rather appeal to Cesar as a citizen of Rome.”  Paul’s heart’s desire was to preach to Cesar in the heart of the Roman Empire.

Jesus said, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.  One of the things that Jesus was speaking of is Joy.  The joy of the Lord is available through the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we’re in circumstances that have stolen our joy, this is an opportunity to repent.  This opportunity is to turn from our focus on broken circumstances and to turn our eyes upon Jesus….look full in his wonderful face.  Then the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace.

Joy is a fruit of the spirit.  Fruit is not the result of effort.  Fruit grows when we’re planted by the river of living water.  Jesus Christ himself is the water of life.  He is the vine and we are the branches.  As we abide in him we will bear fruit.

Where do you find your joy and gladness?  Paul said, My joy is that I’m a drink offering poured out upon the altar in praise and glory to God.  

As Paul said in Thessalonians, Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!  In everything give thanks,

That in all things we may be to the the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

What’s In Your Hand?

In 1921 David and Svea Flood, a young Swedish missionary couple, felt God calling them with their two year old son to the Belgian Congo.  There they teamed with another missionary couple from Scandinavia Joel and Bertha Ericsson. David and Svea believed God called them to minister to the remote village of N’dolera.  However, the village chieftain would not allow them to enter the village.  He feared that Christian missionaries would offend their local gods.  They built a small hut outside the village and spoke the gospel to everyone they met.  After a year the only one that listened to the gospel message was a young delivery boy who the chief allowed to sell them eggs and chickens twice a week.  That year Svea although sick with malaria gave birth to a baby girl they named Eina.  Svea died only seventeen days after Eina’s birth.  David buried his young wife on a mountainside in Congo.  He was overcome with waves of grief.  His grief turned to bitterness.  His faith shaken, David left the mission field and returned to Sweden.  He gave his newborn baby girl to Joel and Bertha.  The Ericsson’s both contracted a mysterious illness and died only eight months later.   An American missionary couple adopted Eina and moved with her back to the states.  They renamed their little girl Agnes.  Aggie’s adoptive parents loved their daughter and settled in South Dakota where they pastored a local church.  

Agnes graduated from North Central Bible college in Minneapolis where she met and married Dewey Hurst.  They dedicated their lives to Christian ministry and raised two children in a loving home.  Agnes and Dewey served many years and God blessed them with a fruitful ministry.  Dewy became president of a Christian college near Seattle.  There were many families of Scandinavian descent in their community.  Aggie found a Christian missions publication in her mail written in Swedish.  Although she couldn’t read the flyer, she noticed a picture of a small white cross that marked a gravesite in a remote area.  On the cross was inscribed the name Svea Flood.  She recognized the name on the cross.  Aggie drove to the college to meet with a professor she knew who spoke Swedish.  She begged him, “Please tell me what the flyer says.”  

Here is an excerpt from the biography, Aggie, The Inspiring Story of a Girl Without a Country:  The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago…the birth of a white baby…the death of the young mother…the one little African boy who had been led to Christ…and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ…the children led their parents to Christ…even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village…

All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.

On their twenty fifth wedding anniversary, the college where Dewey served presented Dewey and Aggie with a trip to Sweden.  Aggie made plans to see her biological father.  After Aggie had been born, David Flood left Africa, returned to Sweden, remarried and fathered four children.  Aggie visited with her half brothers and her half sister and they emotionally bonded as long lost siblings.  They told Aggie that their father had recently suffered a severe stroke.  They warned her that even after fifty years he was still bitter over the death of his young wife in Africa.  David Flood had turned his back on God and and whenever anyone mentioned the name of God, he flew into a rage.  He had turned to alcohol and lived a life of despair.

Undaunted, Aggie found the squalid apartment where her father lived.  She entered his bedroom strewn with empty liquor bottles and approached the bed where he lay suffering from the effects of his recent stroke.   “Papa,” she said softly.  David turned toward his daughter and began to cry.  “Aina, I never meant to give you away,” he said.

“It’s all right, Papa,” she reassured him.  “God has taken good care of me.”  

David instantly stiffened at the mention of God.  He said, “God forgot about all of us.  I’m living in despair because of him.”  He turned away from her, facing the wall.

She stroked his his face and continued.  “Papa, I need to tell you a true story.  You didn’t go to Africa in vain.  Mama didn’t die in vain.  The one little boy you led to Christ grew up and started a school in N’dolera.  He taught the children there about Jesus Christ and they taught their parents about the gospel.  Even the chief accepted Jesus Christ.  Today because of the one little seed you planted, there over six hundred Christians who serve the Lord because you were faithful to follow God’s call for your life…   

Papa, Jesus never hated you.  Jesus always loved you.”

The old man faced his daughter, looking into her eyes filled with tears of love.  His face began to soften as they reunited as father and daughter.  By the end of the afternoon, he had reclaimed the faith he had forsaken decades before.  They spent the next precious days bonding and encouraging each other before Ages and Dewey had to return to the states.   Just a few weeks later, David passed into eternity.

Five years later, Dewey and Agness attended a Pentecostal conference in England.  The speaker was the superintendent of the national church of Zaire, formerly known as the Belgian Congo.  He spoke eloquently of the explosive growth of Christianity in Zaire where 110,000 people had recently been baptized for Christ.  Aggie felt compelled to approach the speaker after his speech, “Do you know anything about David and Svea Flood?  I’m their biological daughter.  They were missionaries in the Belgian Congo in 1921.”  

He responded in French through a translator.  “Yes Madam.  Svea Flood led me to Christ.  I was the little boy who brought your mother food twice a week before you were born.  I think I was the only one who believed their stories about the Bible.  I remember her little girl named Eina and I’ve often wondered what became of her.  I placed flowers on your mother’s grave not long ago.  I thank God that because of her sacrifice thousands of people in Zaire have come to Christ.”

God called Moses to lead the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt to the promised land.  God got his attention and talked to him from a burning bush that was not consumed.  Moses protested, “I’m not worthy to lead your people.  I’ve been banished from Egypt.  I can’t even speak.”  God asked Moses, “what’s in your hand?”  Moses replied, “It’s a shepherd’s staff.  God said, “throw it down.”  Immediately it turned into a snake.  

God works in mysterious ways.  He uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.  What’s in your hand?  God places his tools in our hands to do His work.  When David Flood looked in his hand, all he could see was a dead wife, a baby girl he couldn’t care for, and a little delivery boy, the only one who listened to the Bible after a year in Congo.  He couldn’t see what God had placed in his hand.  Like God said to Moses, “what’s in your hand.”  Moses saw a shepherd’s staff.  It was the symbol of his profession.  It was his identity as a shepherd.  The Lord said to Moses, “throw it down.”  Sometimes God asks, “what’s in your hand?”  The next thing he says is “Throw it down, let go of it.”  Our command is to throw down our identity and the things we hold dear.  The staff in Moses hand represented his good life as a shepherd in the wilderness.  What God saw in Moses hand was a staff that would represent the power of God to part the Red Sea…a staff that would bring forth the water of life in the desert.

God places in our hands tools for His purpose.  He asks us, “throw it down, surrender it to me.”  If you don’t relinquish it for God’s purpose, it will just be a shepherd’s staff.  According to Ephesians 3:20, “now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.”

Two fish and five loaves in our hand adds up to seven.  Two fish and five loaves in the hands of Jesus adds up to five thousand, miraculous food to feed hungry souls.  

We’re tools in the masters’ hands.  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do All in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the father by him, for it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.

In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi:  

Lord make me and instrument of thy peace…

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may 

Not so much seek to be consoled, as to console

To be understood, as to understand

To be loved, as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

And it is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are born again into eternal life.

Amen.

What’s in your hand?  May we pray that we are instruments in God’s hands, fit for the master’s use,

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

Remarkable Men

Men of God are remarkable.  Not because of who they are but because of whose they are.  A man of God is God’s man.  God made his men remarkable through Christ:  The Lord said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.  Christians are remarkable…. they are outstanding in a world of darkness.  

The devil is up to his old tricks.  Einstein said that the definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing while expecting different results.  Men cannot change themselves.  Only God can change a person’s life.  Repentance means to turn around.  It means to change your mind.  Repentance is to change the focus from myself to turn unto God.

When virtuous character is lost, then all is lost.  Plato sought after the Greek concept of “Arete.”  Arete is characterized by virtue, superior excelling excellence, and complete wholeness.  He never found it.  Perfection is only in the perfect lamb of God, Jesus the Christ the son of the living God.

Ron Tovar’s wife said, “I didn’t understand what it meant to be a Christian until I saw the change in my husband’s life.  He walks every day in the newness of life following after Christ.”  Ron was raised in a violent environment where “turning the other cheek” was a foreign concept.  He had been taught the gospel of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  When you live in such a world, everyone is blind and toothless.

The devil and the politically correct culture will indoctrinate us to adopt the victim mentality.  The world teaches us to say to Christians who speak biblical truth, “you hurt my feelings.  I’ll sue you for intentional infliction of emotional distress.  You’ve infringed on my right to the pursuit of happiness.”  In the world of political correctness, we’re in for a rude awakening.  Jesus said, “blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake….for great is your reward in heaven.”

Ron had been associated with the Assemblies of God as a lay minister.  His pastor had said, ”Ron, you’re a steamroller.  I don’t want to stand in your way.”  A steamroller is good at breaking and crushing things in its path.  However, after seventeen years, Ron fell from ministry because he would not allow the Holy Spirit to break his heart.  

Proverbs says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.  When Ron was introduced to the Men of God of Influencers, he could only weep.  God prompted him to pray, “Lord, I need the fellowship of like minded men who love God above all.  Men who influence me to choke in the dust of others who chase after Christ.”  At Influencers, Ron came to understand that ministry is where God creates an environment where the Holy Spirit can come help himself to our lives.

Hebrews 10:31 and following says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  32. But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;  33  Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.”

You can’t have a testimony without a test.  A gazingstock is an example held up so that others can see what God has done.  The Greek word translated “gazingstock” means to be made a spectacle of….to be brought before the theater.  Many of those whom God has made a spectacle of in the theater of life have given their lives as gladiators in the arena for Jesus Christ. 

The next chapter of Hebrews 11, is known as the “Hall of Faith.”  Most Christians are eager to quote examples of God’s deliverance.  By faith these men and women of God parted the Red Sea, stopped the mouths of lions, brought excellent sacrifices for God’s glory, conquered the city of Jericho, subdued kingdoms, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong and their dead were brought back to life.  These believers were made a gazingstock to show the power and the glory of God made manifest.  

However, some men and women in the hall of faith lost their lives as a spectacle in faithful service to their Lord.  They were sawed asunder, some were burned at the stake, some were stoned to death, afflicted, shamed and beaten.  Others have died figuratively in obedience to the call, “the just shall live by faith.”  This is the meaning of Galatians 2:20, “I was crucified with Christ.  Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”  

Those whom God has called will see God’s hand of deliverance through the affliction.  The deliverance will be either in this life or the next.  As God’s remarkable men, we will see the victory according to God’s timeline.  This is the conclusion of the great fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians about the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.  “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord inasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”  2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.”

God has made us a gazingstock, a spectacle to manifest His power and love.  We reflect His glory and grace.  In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  15  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

As His remarkable Men of God, may we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ, 

Michael

Faith Or Fear

Living life is a series of choices.  These choices are either fear based or faith based.  God never honors fear.  He always honors faith.  According to Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.”  Faith is the blessed assurance in the object of faith.  According to Proverbs 3, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path.”

Thomas learned this lesson after the resurrection.  Jesus had appeared to the other disciples and they said to him, “we’ve seen the risen Christ.”  Thomas said, “I won’t believe until I put my finger in his nail prints and feel the wound in his side.”  Eight days later, Jesus appeared to the twelve and said to Thomas, “Reach for my hand and examine the nail prints.  Put your hand in my side and be not unbelieving (without faith) but believe.”  Then Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus said, “You believed because you saw me.  Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe.”

Without God, men put their faith in their own abilities and their own performance.  They live for their own accomplishments and the praise of others.  However according to Ephesians 2:8-9,  For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Not of works lest any man should boast.

The devil’s ploy is to distract our attention away from trusting in the Lord.  The most frequent command in the Bible is, “Fear not.”  According to Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”  To resolve a crisis of fear, we must pray as Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “not my will but thine be done.”  

Coach Bobby Bowden said he and his family attended an old fashioned revival.  The evangelist had a 2 x 4 plank on the stage, pointed to Bobby and said, would you walk across this board?  Bowden answered, of course.  The evangelist said, If I took this plank and placed it to between the Twin Towers, would you walk across it?  Bobby said, Of course not.  Then the evangelist said, If I dangled your child over the edge of the tower, and said, I’ll drop your child if you don’t walk across, then would you walk the plank?  Bowden thought for a moment and said, “Which child?”  

Do we value life on earth more than we value life in heaven?  What does it take to conquer fear and walk by faith?  A wise man once said, “men fear death like children fear the dark.”  An oncologist said to Pete and his wife Suzan when cancerous tumors had returned and spread all over her brain, “how aggressively do you want to treat this?”  Pete said, “What do you mean by aggressive?”  The doctor said, “We’ll take her to the operating room today, drill a hole into her skull and inject medicine directly into her brain.”  Pete asked, “How much more time will that give her?”  The oncologist said, “If we do nothing she may have another two months to live.  If we operate, it may not make any difference or she may live another two years.”  Suzan had already undergone brain surgery at MD Anderson in Houston to remove the tumors when they first discovered her cancer a few months earlier.  Suzan had said to Pete, “When I woke up this morning, I was soooo disappointed.”  When Pete asked her why she said, “Because I thought I’d wake up in Jesus’ arms but here I am with you.”  She knew that she had finished her course and she was ready to leave this life.  God had said to Suzan, “I’ve got this.”  They opted not to operate.  She died two and a half weeks later.

Hebrews chapter 11 is known as the “hall of faith”. In this chapter, Enoch was taken up to see God.  He was a man of faith.  

James said, Faith without works is dead.  Show me your works and I’ll show you the fruit of your faith.  Faith is evidenced by the results when we love, praise, serve and honor the Lord.  

Men fear what they cannot control.  Through trials, God will teach us that he is In control…  that he is sovereign over all.  Pete learned this lesson in the father’s waiting room when his wife was in labor with their second son. Just moments before, he had been in the delivery room helping his wife focus her breathing during her contractions.  The doctor said to Pete, “We’re losing the baby’s heartbeat.  You then need to leave the room so we can perform an emergency c-section.  Pete prayed, “Lord please save my wife and baby.”  God answered, “How much control do you have over this situation?  Pete answered, “none.”  God’s next question was, “no matter what happens, will you still honor, love, and praise me?”  Pete searched his heart.  He and Suzan were a young couple who had dedicated their lives to full time Christian ministry.  He asked himself, “does God do everything with our best interest in mind?  Do all things really work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose?  Pete answered, “Lord, even if you take my wife and child, I’ll still honor, love, and praise you.”  

The doctors came into the hospital room where Suzan and Pete were waiting, they said, “I’m sorry but we lost the baby.”  God had prepared their hearts for this news.  Even though their baby did not survive, Suzan said, I think God’s teaching us through this trial.  Pete found her devotional, “come away my beloved”. Pete turned to the chapter about comfort and affliction.  As a young Christian couple they read, “Trust in the Lord.  Don’t lean to your own understanding.  Do not take matters into your own hand.  When have I promised and not kept my word? I will make your paths straight.  Will you not then trust me in this present crisis as you have trusted me before.  I deepen you in the furnace of affliction.” 

Pete had prayed, Lord I want to follow you.  I want to become more like you.  He realized that God had given them this trial to deepen them.

“What seems to be a wind of destruction is a trial so that you can rest in my love.  Through the pain and affliction, I will show you that my love is certain and unshakable.  Through the trial and discipline you will learn, like as a Father cherishes his children, so the Lord has mercy on them that fear him.  Rest assured that I have you in my own intensive care.  Through the pain of loss, draw on the resources of my grace.  If I’ve allowed your heart to break, heaven rejoices when you proceed through the trial with a singing spirit.  If you abide in me and my word abides in you, ask whatsoever you will and it shall be given to you.  Therefore be as beacon light to reflect the glory of the Lord.  Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.”  For we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that he excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

The testing of our faith works patience.  According to James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”  Verse 12 says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

As Cory ten Boom said, “We will never know that God is all we need until he’s all we have.”  Through trial God will comfort us as he transforms us according to purpose to which he has called each of us to be holy and without blame before him in love.

Through the testing of our faith we will understand that our purpose is that we should live to the praise of the flory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael