Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this Friday. Sunday is coming. Tomorrow night, don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour. "Spring forward."
Today, there are all types of addictions and many who have them: One in four Americans is a nicotine addict, dependent on smoking. One in six Americans is a shopping addict, always feeling an urge to shop and taking advantage of every sale. One of every seven Americans is addicted to the Internet, surfing and role game-playing. One of every eight Americans has a significant addiction to alcohol or drugs. One in nine Americans is addicted to pornography. One in every ten Americans is addicted to gambling. Then, there are those who are addicted to sugar, chocolate, food in general, sports, and the list goes on. I believe that a person can become addicted to just about anything. Did you know that the Apostle Paul praised one family in the church for being addicts? 1 Corinthians 16:15 reads this way in the KJV - “ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” The Greek word translated “addicted” in the KJV is Tasso. It means ‘to wholly give oneself to something’, ‘to devote oneself completely to something’, ‘to appoint oneself to a position or task.’ Most modern translations translate this verse, saying that the household of Stephanas “devoted” themselves to ministering to the saints. When you read this and other New Testament passages regarding Stephanas and his family, you find that they did devote themselves to other Christians by showing hospitality, meeting basic needs and assisting and supporting preachers such as Paul. Their life was consumed with looking for opportunities to serve other Christians. They were, in a good sense, addicted to the ministry of the saints. The Apostle Paul highly commended the family of Stephanas for dedicating themselves to serving other Christians. Paul held them up as an example for all of us. One things that catches our attention in reading about the Early Church is the fact that the early Christians were in frequent contact with each other. Acts 2:44, 46, “And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common….And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” They prized fellowship with one another and shared in spiritual gladness. Fellowship is vitally important and it promotes spiritual growth. It provides an opportunity to encourage each other in our Christian walk. In other words, it provides peer support for Christian living. It provides opportunity to get to know how each of us are doing so that we might know if there is a need to serve. We are commanded , in Romans 12:10, to “be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Becoming addicted to serving fellow Christians starts with devotion to fellowship. David said, in Psalms 122:1, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” David had it right. We ought to be glad when Sunday comes.
Hebrews 10:25 (The Message)
22-25So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFaIGSyENsY
Kimber is the wife of John, mother of two small girls. She wasn't feeling that great recently, but no one expected something like this.
This family is very close to my Son and his family. They go to the same church. The men both work in computers for the State.
Please join us in prayer. Every hour is crucial right now.
Update:
I just talked with my Son. (Thursday morning)
Kimber's alive! Let the Lord's name be praised!
Diagnosis: flu and double pneumonia.
Around 4:00 a.m. Oregon time, Kimber's doctor tried a new procedure. It could have killed her. She did tolerate it, but basically no improvement.
She still hangs between heaven and earth. Between her eternal reward and her husband and children and other loved ones.
Father, we come strongly against this disease that has Kimber so near death and the family and friends shell shocked.. We plead, in the name of Jesus, that you have mercy upon her and her husband and children and allow her to stay with them. We ask that the medical team be given special wisdom to know what to do. Let it be effective. We know you can and we ask you to consider a direct touch upon her body. In the name of Jesus we command the flu be overcome. In the name of Jesus we command that the lungs throw off the infection and re-inflate. In the name of Jesus we command that her health be restored. For the glory of God alone and in the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Fred
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 3-5-09
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for His great faithfulness and for His wonder-working power. He brings cosmos our chaos. He brings fullness our of emptiness. He brings life out of death. I recently had a conversation with one of our ministerial colleagues, whose wife is a brilliant financial planner and prudent money manager. She was very successful in engineering their family finances for their children's education and for their own retirement. They were very successful in investing and launching their portfolio into the two million dollar range. Then the stock market headed south. Like all of us they lost lots of money. Their portfolio declined rapidly. The wife of my colleague friend is going through some genuine anguish and pain, a deep emotional upheaval and turmoil. How do we face these uncertain days and situations? We have the Good News.
Our Lord God does his greatest, his most significant, and his deepening works individually and corporately during times of uncertainty. Our favorite Bible stories, our favorite Psalms, and the most comforting passages of Scripture were birthed during times of uncertainty. Our Living and most loving God was not absent during these transitional times. He was more active than at any other time. In each example, the lives of these women and men of the Bible were interrupted. The familiar, predictable things were wrenched away. The structure of their lives disintegrated. There was, no doubt, a sense of panic. It must have seemed as if God had fallen asleep at the wheel. Then, in the middle of what felt like total chaos, He showed up in ways we are still marveling about. He specializes in bringing cosmos out of chaos. We read about and ponder the faithfulness of the heroes of the Bible. We wonder what would have happened if they had abandoned God. Think of what they would have missed. God was at work and they would have never known. From God’s perspective, uncertain times are opportunities for Him to do a work in us. He can do more in us during times of uncertainty than we see in the normal 9 to 5, everything-the-way-it-ought-to-be times. All of us are idolaters at heart. We each have a natural propensity to lean on and trust in the things we create or are created by someone else. Our job tenures, our businesses, our finances, our 401Ks, other investments, our network of friends and associates, our families, and our good health all give us a false sense of security. All of these things represent STRUCTURE, familiarity, and order and there is nothing wrong with that. However, they can become comfort zones that wean us away from dependency on the Father - there is much wrong with that! It is the image of God in us that motivates us to create order from chaos. So, when God comes along and shakes our structures or allows them to be shaken, we tend to panic. But when our structures are shaken, when we move through transitions, God has our undivided attention. When He has our undivided attention, we are positioned to grow like crazy. Suddenly, that which is real and truly important becomes the focus of our attention. It is then, when He is all we have, that we discover He is all we need. From God’s perspective, uncertainty creates opportunities for Him to do something in and through us. For God to accomplish something great in and through us, we must respond correctly in times of uncertainty. We all are familiar with the wonderful and grace- filled story of Joseph, who got it right. He was a favored son who became a slave -a slave who became an inmate - an inmate who became a prime minister. Through all of the years of uncertainty, Joseph remained faithful. The Lord exalted him. That same Lord desires to use us, to get our focus and attention, and to do great work in and through us for His kingdom purposes and to the glory of His name. Our Lord is the same yesterday, today and for ever.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU
Praise the Lord for His great faithfulness and for His wonder-working power. He brings cosmos our chaos. He brings fullness our of emptiness. He brings life out of death. I recently had a conversation with one of our ministerial colleagues, whose wife is a brilliant financial planner and prudent money manager. She was very successful in engineering their family finances for their children's education and for their own retirement. They were very successful in investing and launching their portfolio into the two million dollar range. Then the stock market headed south. Like all of us they lost lots of money. Their portfolio declined rapidly. The wife of my colleague friend is going through some genuine anguish and pain, a deep emotional upheaval and turmoil. How do we face these uncertain days and situations? We have the Good News.
Our Lord God does his greatest, his most significant, and his deepening works individually and corporately during times of uncertainty. Our favorite Bible stories, our favorite Psalms, and the most comforting passages of Scripture were birthed during times of uncertainty. Our Living and most loving God was not absent during these transitional times. He was more active than at any other time. In each example, the lives of these women and men of the Bible were interrupted. The familiar, predictable things were wrenched away. The structure of their lives disintegrated. There was, no doubt, a sense of panic. It must have seemed as if God had fallen asleep at the wheel. Then, in the middle of what felt like total chaos, He showed up in ways we are still marveling about. He specializes in bringing cosmos out of chaos. We read about and ponder the faithfulness of the heroes of the Bible. We wonder what would have happened if they had abandoned God. Think of what they would have missed. God was at work and they would have never known. From God’s perspective, uncertain times are opportunities for Him to do a work in us. He can do more in us during times of uncertainty than we see in the normal 9 to 5, everything-the-way-it-ought-to-be times. All of us are idolaters at heart. We each have a natural propensity to lean on and trust in the things we create or are created by someone else. Our job tenures, our businesses, our finances, our 401Ks, other investments, our network of friends and associates, our families, and our good health all give us a false sense of security. All of these things represent STRUCTURE, familiarity, and order and there is nothing wrong with that. However, they can become comfort zones that wean us away from dependency on the Father - there is much wrong with that! It is the image of God in us that motivates us to create order from chaos. So, when God comes along and shakes our structures or allows them to be shaken, we tend to panic. But when our structures are shaken, when we move through transitions, God has our undivided attention. When He has our undivided attention, we are positioned to grow like crazy. Suddenly, that which is real and truly important becomes the focus of our attention. It is then, when He is all we have, that we discover He is all we need. From God’s perspective, uncertainty creates opportunities for Him to do something in and through us. For God to accomplish something great in and through us, we must respond correctly in times of uncertainty. We all are familiar with the wonderful and grace- filled story of Joseph, who got it right. He was a favored son who became a slave -a slave who became an inmate - an inmate who became a prime minister. Through all of the years of uncertainty, Joseph remained faithful. The Lord exalted him. That same Lord desires to use us, to get our focus and attention, and to do great work in and through us for His kingdom purposes and to the glory of His name. Our Lord is the same yesterday, today and for ever.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 3-4-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. It is going to be wonderful and beautiful. We will meet for our mid-week fellowship and study at 6 p.m. We are currently studying "The Purpose Driven Life". We are blessed to have several resident chefs. Tonight, one of them is making a special meal of Chicken cordon bleu and all the specials foods to go with it. At every meal we would like to celebrate the presence and the goodness of the Lord. The choir will meet for practice at 7.30 p.m. The choir is currently practicing for the Easter Cantata.
I am reflecting on Psalm 8 this morning. King David was a poet, a lover, an astronomer, and a theologian. He gazed into the night sky and was properly dazzled at what he saw. He saw a lot, but there was much more that he could not see. Ten minutes looking through a telescope at the wonders of the night-time sky would have seized him with wonder. It is estimated that there are at least 10 billion galaxies in the universe, with each galaxy containing perhaps 100 billion stars. We can see only the tiniest fraction of the universe that our God created.
Even Psalm 8 admits that the wonders of the universe are humbling. Of course, you don't need to go into space to see wonders. The wonders of God's creation are all around us. For instance a teaspoon of topsoil from the forest floor viewed under a high-power microscope, could reveal upwards of 1,400 beetles and springtail's, not to mention about two billion fungi, algae, and protozoa. On both the macro and micro levels, in both human and non-human creatures, the cosmos teems with life, with complexity, with music, and with movement. It is every bit as humbling as Psalm 8 claims.
But Psalm 8 is not intended by its writer to make us feel as if we are nothing. In only 70 Hebrew words, Psalm 8 directs us how to think about God, about creation, and about how God relates with His creation. Psalm 8 is the first psalm of praise in the Book of Psalms. It is also the only one of the 150 psalms that is a direct address to God throughout the entire poem. In Psalm 8 the psalmist has no problem saying that the physical is the glory of God. The stars, sun, moon, flocks, beasts, birds, and all the rest declare the glory of God. This psalm begins and ends with a declaration that God's name is visible in all the earth. Psalm 8 authorizes us to look for and to find God in the beauties of the galaxy. Whether you are peering into a telescope or a microscope, or gazing in wonder at a red fox passing through a meadow, what you are beholding is nothing less than the glory of God.
All of that, however, is just half of Psalm 8's larger purpose. The other is sometimes called "the humanity question." Who are we really? How do we fit into God's greater design? Knowing nothing of the true scope of the universe, the psalmist saw the moon and stars and felt like nothing by comparison. If there is anything more marvelous than the sheer scale and splendor of the universe, it is the revelation that in all of that vastness, we really do matter. We have been endowed with the image of God, or as Psalm 8 puts it, with a crown of glory and honor. We are put in charge of this gift so graciously bestowed on us by our loving Creator, to tend and keep and rule it on God's behalf.
All through the Bible man is given tasks and commands by God. God in the Old Testament demanded that his people pay attention to widows and orphans. In the New Testament Jesus charged the disciples to pay attention to the poor. These tasks are to be carried out in ways that glorify God. We are intended to enjoy the fruits of creation, using trees for wood or oil for cars or water for boating and fishing. In all things, however, we must always keep God in mind, thanking him for the bounties we can consume but also giving careful thought to how we can simultaneously keep alive the works of God's creative fingers. In a fallen world, this is difficult to achieve. Yet, the Bible everywhere assumes that it is possible.
It is possible to tend, keep, till, and consume the fruits of Eden while still keeping it Eden. It is possible to care for this world in a way that will keep the majesty of the Creator on display for all to see. Remember that we have been crowned with glory and honor by the Creator himself! "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
In that holy Name, Amen.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8BVF1NPfE
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. It is going to be wonderful and beautiful. We will meet for our mid-week fellowship and study at 6 p.m. We are currently studying "The Purpose Driven Life". We are blessed to have several resident chefs. Tonight, one of them is making a special meal of Chicken cordon bleu and all the specials foods to go with it. At every meal we would like to celebrate the presence and the goodness of the Lord. The choir will meet for practice at 7.30 p.m. The choir is currently practicing for the Easter Cantata.
I am reflecting on Psalm 8 this morning. King David was a poet, a lover, an astronomer, and a theologian. He gazed into the night sky and was properly dazzled at what he saw. He saw a lot, but there was much more that he could not see. Ten minutes looking through a telescope at the wonders of the night-time sky would have seized him with wonder. It is estimated that there are at least 10 billion galaxies in the universe, with each galaxy containing perhaps 100 billion stars. We can see only the tiniest fraction of the universe that our God created.
Even Psalm 8 admits that the wonders of the universe are humbling. Of course, you don't need to go into space to see wonders. The wonders of God's creation are all around us. For instance a teaspoon of topsoil from the forest floor viewed under a high-power microscope, could reveal upwards of 1,400 beetles and springtail's, not to mention about two billion fungi, algae, and protozoa. On both the macro and micro levels, in both human and non-human creatures, the cosmos teems with life, with complexity, with music, and with movement. It is every bit as humbling as Psalm 8 claims.
But Psalm 8 is not intended by its writer to make us feel as if we are nothing. In only 70 Hebrew words, Psalm 8 directs us how to think about God, about creation, and about how God relates with His creation. Psalm 8 is the first psalm of praise in the Book of Psalms. It is also the only one of the 150 psalms that is a direct address to God throughout the entire poem. In Psalm 8 the psalmist has no problem saying that the physical is the glory of God. The stars, sun, moon, flocks, beasts, birds, and all the rest declare the glory of God. This psalm begins and ends with a declaration that God's name is visible in all the earth. Psalm 8 authorizes us to look for and to find God in the beauties of the galaxy. Whether you are peering into a telescope or a microscope, or gazing in wonder at a red fox passing through a meadow, what you are beholding is nothing less than the glory of God.
All of that, however, is just half of Psalm 8's larger purpose. The other is sometimes called "the humanity question." Who are we really? How do we fit into God's greater design? Knowing nothing of the true scope of the universe, the psalmist saw the moon and stars and felt like nothing by comparison. If there is anything more marvelous than the sheer scale and splendor of the universe, it is the revelation that in all of that vastness, we really do matter. We have been endowed with the image of God, or as Psalm 8 puts it, with a crown of glory and honor. We are put in charge of this gift so graciously bestowed on us by our loving Creator, to tend and keep and rule it on God's behalf.
All through the Bible man is given tasks and commands by God. God in the Old Testament demanded that his people pay attention to widows and orphans. In the New Testament Jesus charged the disciples to pay attention to the poor. These tasks are to be carried out in ways that glorify God. We are intended to enjoy the fruits of creation, using trees for wood or oil for cars or water for boating and fishing. In all things, however, we must always keep God in mind, thanking him for the bounties we can consume but also giving careful thought to how we can simultaneously keep alive the works of God's creative fingers. In a fallen world, this is difficult to achieve. Yet, the Bible everywhere assumes that it is possible.
It is possible to tend, keep, till, and consume the fruits of Eden while still keeping it Eden. It is possible to care for this world in a way that will keep the majesty of the Creator on display for all to see. Remember that we have been crowned with glory and honor by the Creator himself! "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
In that holy Name, Amen.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8BVF1NPfE
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 3-3-09
Good evening,
The Lord gave us a very bright and beautiful day today. I stopped by to see a friend of ours. She indicated that she had been about to read this morning the morning devotions from me, but there was none. She said, "I was worried about you." I got side-tracked this morning. Thus, I did not get to write the morning devotion. I am gathering my wandering thoughts this evening.
I was on my way to Robert Packer Hospital this noon, and saw a sly red fox walking carefree and a flock of wild turkeys grazing unhurriedly. The man I went to see, Steve, had undergone a 10 hour surgery last week. He is making a speedy recovery, and is expected to be going home this Friday. He is praising the Lord. Dave is going in for surgery tomorrow. Please pray for him. Sandy went through her surgery today in Pittsburgh. Her family is with her. Millie had fallen several times resulting in several fractured ribs, and so she is hospitalized. These are servants of Jesus. Please intercede for them.
A college Chaplain was told that he had cancer. He resolved to read and think about one psalm each day, as a way of keeping track of the days and numbering them, and also as a way to read through the psalms in the hope of deriving strength from them in a time of need. He wrote that Psalm 103 is one of the splendid ones. Psalm 103 is a psalm of thankfulness. It thanks God for healing, for forgiveness of sin, for justice and for compassion in the world. It acknowledges that human beings are mortal, while God's love is everlasting. These themes both comfort and challenge us in almost all situations. If there is any one psalm that the heart can return to time and again, it is this one. Let me simply identify two or three parts of the psalm that have been especially meaningful to me and that may be to you.
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all God's benefits - who forgives all your sin, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit ..." It is impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known forgiveness; and it is impossible to know forgiveness if you have never known what it is to sin. It is also impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known healing, and it is impossible to know healing if you have never known illness. It is impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known what it is to stare into the bottomless pit of despair, and it is impossible to stare into the pit if you are constantly distracted with illusions.
Many people are haunted by guilt; others are not. Some of you perhaps have been very ill, or have had loved ones who have been very ill, and some of you perhaps have not. The experience of illness is, or will be, universal. Healing is a mercy that comes to us as commonly as day-break. We take it for granted, until it seems that the sun will not rise, that we will not see it again. In those extreme situations, some of us die, and others are given new life. In such a time, we know that healing comes to us as a gift - and sometimes death does too. When we are healed, we can only be thankful. If we are not healed, or if we die, we face the third peril - staring into the Pit - the abyss of nothingness.
Mortality and eternal life, sin and forgiveness, sickness and healing are always profound themes for us to think about, especially in Lent. I do not know how often you think about them. It is easy, if we are great achievers, if we are busy, healthy, active, wealthy, and beautiful, not to think about these great themes. But we can not always avoid them. When we do focus on them, our hearts cry out for strength.
I think of Leo Tolstoy, who, in his short book called, "A Confession", recounted various things that occupied him and gave his life unsatisfactory meaning in his youth. He showed how he came to see that faith is necessary for life. We cannot live, he says, without faith. Faith is what enables us to live, even if we are not especially aware of it. While people of wealth in the world can rely upon their wealth, beauty, or power to give them meaning for a while, Tolstoy learned from Russian peasants that a simple faith in God was what sustained their lives. He closed the book by talking about a dream, a nightmare really, that he had. In it he felt himself suspended over a bottomless pit, in a hammock that was not firmly supported, that could fall into the pit any moment. He awoke to find that being suspended over the pit was a metaphor for life, and that only faith, in the end, holds us up.
May our faith grow and become strong. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God's holy name". Amen.
In Christ,
Brown
The Lord gave us a very bright and beautiful day today. I stopped by to see a friend of ours. She indicated that she had been about to read this morning the morning devotions from me, but there was none. She said, "I was worried about you." I got side-tracked this morning. Thus, I did not get to write the morning devotion. I am gathering my wandering thoughts this evening.
I was on my way to Robert Packer Hospital this noon, and saw a sly red fox walking carefree and a flock of wild turkeys grazing unhurriedly. The man I went to see, Steve, had undergone a 10 hour surgery last week. He is making a speedy recovery, and is expected to be going home this Friday. He is praising the Lord. Dave is going in for surgery tomorrow. Please pray for him. Sandy went through her surgery today in Pittsburgh. Her family is with her. Millie had fallen several times resulting in several fractured ribs, and so she is hospitalized. These are servants of Jesus. Please intercede for them.
A college Chaplain was told that he had cancer. He resolved to read and think about one psalm each day, as a way of keeping track of the days and numbering them, and also as a way to read through the psalms in the hope of deriving strength from them in a time of need. He wrote that Psalm 103 is one of the splendid ones. Psalm 103 is a psalm of thankfulness. It thanks God for healing, for forgiveness of sin, for justice and for compassion in the world. It acknowledges that human beings are mortal, while God's love is everlasting. These themes both comfort and challenge us in almost all situations. If there is any one psalm that the heart can return to time and again, it is this one. Let me simply identify two or three parts of the psalm that have been especially meaningful to me and that may be to you.
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all God's benefits - who forgives all your sin, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit ..." It is impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known forgiveness; and it is impossible to know forgiveness if you have never known what it is to sin. It is also impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known healing, and it is impossible to know healing if you have never known illness. It is impossible to know the power of these words if you have never known what it is to stare into the bottomless pit of despair, and it is impossible to stare into the pit if you are constantly distracted with illusions.
Many people are haunted by guilt; others are not. Some of you perhaps have been very ill, or have had loved ones who have been very ill, and some of you perhaps have not. The experience of illness is, or will be, universal. Healing is a mercy that comes to us as commonly as day-break. We take it for granted, until it seems that the sun will not rise, that we will not see it again. In those extreme situations, some of us die, and others are given new life. In such a time, we know that healing comes to us as a gift - and sometimes death does too. When we are healed, we can only be thankful. If we are not healed, or if we die, we face the third peril - staring into the Pit - the abyss of nothingness.
Mortality and eternal life, sin and forgiveness, sickness and healing are always profound themes for us to think about, especially in Lent. I do not know how often you think about them. It is easy, if we are great achievers, if we are busy, healthy, active, wealthy, and beautiful, not to think about these great themes. But we can not always avoid them. When we do focus on them, our hearts cry out for strength.
I think of Leo Tolstoy, who, in his short book called, "A Confession", recounted various things that occupied him and gave his life unsatisfactory meaning in his youth. He showed how he came to see that faith is necessary for life. We cannot live, he says, without faith. Faith is what enables us to live, even if we are not especially aware of it. While people of wealth in the world can rely upon their wealth, beauty, or power to give them meaning for a while, Tolstoy learned from Russian peasants that a simple faith in God was what sustained their lives. He closed the book by talking about a dream, a nightmare really, that he had. In it he felt himself suspended over a bottomless pit, in a hammock that was not firmly supported, that could fall into the pit any moment. He awoke to find that being suspended over the pit was a metaphor for life, and that only faith, in the end, holds us up.
May our faith grow and become strong. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God's holy name". Amen.
In Christ,
Brown
Monday, March 2, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 3-2-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord this the Month of March. Praise the Lord for the season of Lent, where we join Jesus our Lord on His journey to Jerusalem. In Mark 8, the Lord makes His first prediction of His coming passion, death, and resurrection. He declares that the Son of Man must suffer. Here we read about the must-ness of the suffering that Jesus took upon Himself. He is the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with our grief. Jesus came into the world of sin and suffering, and He made our suffering redemptive. We have the Good News of redemptive suffering because of Jesus, who conquered sin, suffering, and death.
Hinduism has a clear and comprehensive answer to the question of Suffering. All events are sincerely regarded as a result of karma. For example, a Hindu family that has lost a baby sincerely believes that they are reaping the consequence of actions either of this life or a previous one as a result of karma. Similarly, if you pass a beggar on the street, you shouldn't feel compassion but you should see someone who is reaping the consequence of his or her karma. Suffering, then, is not seen as an inversion of the Creator’s purpose, but a divine kind of balance. Buddhism, on the other hand, arose directly from this question of Suffering. Buddhism originally was a quest for how to solve the problem of suffering, and the answer was rigorous meditation. From that meditation comes the realization that suffering is an illusion and that it arises from desire. For example, when a child’s father dies, the pain is not loss for the father, but it is a result of the child’s desire for a father’s affection. The suffering of a beggar is not about poverty, but the beggar’s desire for a better life. If a child can remove their desire for the father’s life, the suffering will be reduced. Therefore, to extinguish suffering, one must completely remove desire. The whole of Buddhism is concerned with this problem. The Muslim world view states that suffering is not bad or evil – all events are thought of as determined by the will of God, the finger of Allah, the cause of all causes. Every time a baby dies, a car crashes, someone is murdered, it is the result of the finger of Allah. It is a fatalistic approach. They teach that God moves all things, but is himself moved by nothing. If you were to ask why does Allah do that, the answer comes directly back that he is Unknowable and Unquestionable. It is a blasphemy to even ask that question. In Islam, you resign yourself to the will of Allah. The word Islam, in Arabic, means Submission to the will of Allah; the act of questioning God is clearly a refusal to submit your will. For the great religion of the Western world, atheism, suffering is a result of the sheer natural forces of the world. There is no purpose. There is no grand unfolding of history. All that happens is just natural! Atheism views the world totally in the absence of God. Richard Dawkins is perhaps the best known proponent of atheism. “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect. There is no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music." Try using that to comfort a family who has just lost a child. A Hindu cannot bother to care about suffering, a Buddhist deals with pain by convincing themselves that pain is a phantom, denying it’s there, a Muslim must not and cannot know why God is doing what he is doing. The atheist is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. What is the Christian perspective? How do Christians deal with the fact that they follow an all loving, all powerful God, yet live in a world full of such horrible pain? The Bible does not avoid dealing with suffering. In fact, it acknowledges the link between sin and suffering, but not in a karmic sort of way (where if I commit a specific sin, God will send a specific punishment). It is important to note that the connection between sin and suffering is at a general level. We cannot draw a specific link between a person's suffering and someone’s sin. In fact, we even get a snapshot of just such a conversation in the gospel of John. As the disciples were walking along, they came across a man who had been blind from birth. “Who sinned”, they asked, “this man, or his parents?” "Neither," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
The words of Jesus tell us that someone who dies in a car crash is not any more sinful than anyone else. Their tragic death is a symptom of a sinful, fallen world. The Bible, in Romans 8, tells us that the whole world groans, waiting to be freed from the bondage to sin and death and suffering. If you are in the world, you are under its bondage to decay. Every time we feel pain, we are reminded that this world is not as it should be. Death is not right, pain is not right. The world groans…..the world hates suffering, people rightfully hate suffering. God also hates suffering.
Because God hates suffering, Christians have a magnificent obsession with Jesus’ death. Jesus took the judgement for all of our sins on the Cross. It was the judgement that we so thoroughly deserved. He took our sins in His death, but the resurrection is vital. Jesus did not stay dead. The resurrection means that Jesus is himself the first fruit of non-suffering. He is the first part of the redeemed and perfected creation, the tip of the iceberg of life after death! The point being made here is that what has happened to Jesus will happen to all those united with him and it will happen to the whole world, a transformed world as we read from Revelation 21. It is guaranteed because it has already started. It started in Jesus. In the face of suffering, we are confident that God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Son, yet we are also confident that there will come a day when there will be no more crying, pain, or injustice. God will make all things new once again. Yet, what does this mean for us while we wait, while we survive, while we hang on in a world full of hurt? Does the death of Christ offer a quick fix to the pain we feel? No, there is no quick fix to grief, nor does God want Christians to pretend that everything is fine and there is no sadness in this world. He does not want us to pretend that being a Christian means only having a life full of prosperity, blessing, and eternal happiness. There are blessings and there is happiness, but there is a time for grief. The evil of suffering is very real, and very painful. Does the death of Christ answer the question of "why me God"? There are still no easy answers but we can be sure that Suffering drives you to the love of a God who has Himself suffered!
In Jesus the Suffering Servant,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP4JSVMBdZg
Praise the Lord this the Month of March. Praise the Lord for the season of Lent, where we join Jesus our Lord on His journey to Jerusalem. In Mark 8, the Lord makes His first prediction of His coming passion, death, and resurrection. He declares that the Son of Man must suffer. Here we read about the must-ness of the suffering that Jesus took upon Himself. He is the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with our grief. Jesus came into the world of sin and suffering, and He made our suffering redemptive. We have the Good News of redemptive suffering because of Jesus, who conquered sin, suffering, and death.
Hinduism has a clear and comprehensive answer to the question of Suffering. All events are sincerely regarded as a result of karma. For example, a Hindu family that has lost a baby sincerely believes that they are reaping the consequence of actions either of this life or a previous one as a result of karma. Similarly, if you pass a beggar on the street, you shouldn't feel compassion but you should see someone who is reaping the consequence of his or her karma. Suffering, then, is not seen as an inversion of the Creator’s purpose, but a divine kind of balance. Buddhism, on the other hand, arose directly from this question of Suffering. Buddhism originally was a quest for how to solve the problem of suffering, and the answer was rigorous meditation. From that meditation comes the realization that suffering is an illusion and that it arises from desire. For example, when a child’s father dies, the pain is not loss for the father, but it is a result of the child’s desire for a father’s affection. The suffering of a beggar is not about poverty, but the beggar’s desire for a better life. If a child can remove their desire for the father’s life, the suffering will be reduced. Therefore, to extinguish suffering, one must completely remove desire. The whole of Buddhism is concerned with this problem. The Muslim world view states that suffering is not bad or evil – all events are thought of as determined by the will of God, the finger of Allah, the cause of all causes. Every time a baby dies, a car crashes, someone is murdered, it is the result of the finger of Allah. It is a fatalistic approach. They teach that God moves all things, but is himself moved by nothing. If you were to ask why does Allah do that, the answer comes directly back that he is Unknowable and Unquestionable. It is a blasphemy to even ask that question. In Islam, you resign yourself to the will of Allah. The word Islam, in Arabic, means Submission to the will of Allah; the act of questioning God is clearly a refusal to submit your will. For the great religion of the Western world, atheism, suffering is a result of the sheer natural forces of the world. There is no purpose. There is no grand unfolding of history. All that happens is just natural! Atheism views the world totally in the absence of God. Richard Dawkins is perhaps the best known proponent of atheism. “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect. There is no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music." Try using that to comfort a family who has just lost a child. A Hindu cannot bother to care about suffering, a Buddhist deals with pain by convincing themselves that pain is a phantom, denying it’s there, a Muslim must not and cannot know why God is doing what he is doing. The atheist is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. What is the Christian perspective? How do Christians deal with the fact that they follow an all loving, all powerful God, yet live in a world full of such horrible pain? The Bible does not avoid dealing with suffering. In fact, it acknowledges the link between sin and suffering, but not in a karmic sort of way (where if I commit a specific sin, God will send a specific punishment). It is important to note that the connection between sin and suffering is at a general level. We cannot draw a specific link between a person's suffering and someone’s sin. In fact, we even get a snapshot of just such a conversation in the gospel of John. As the disciples were walking along, they came across a man who had been blind from birth. “Who sinned”, they asked, “this man, or his parents?” "Neither," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
The words of Jesus tell us that someone who dies in a car crash is not any more sinful than anyone else. Their tragic death is a symptom of a sinful, fallen world. The Bible, in Romans 8, tells us that the whole world groans, waiting to be freed from the bondage to sin and death and suffering. If you are in the world, you are under its bondage to decay. Every time we feel pain, we are reminded that this world is not as it should be. Death is not right, pain is not right. The world groans…..the world hates suffering, people rightfully hate suffering. God also hates suffering.
Because God hates suffering, Christians have a magnificent obsession with Jesus’ death. Jesus took the judgement for all of our sins on the Cross. It was the judgement that we so thoroughly deserved. He took our sins in His death, but the resurrection is vital. Jesus did not stay dead. The resurrection means that Jesus is himself the first fruit of non-suffering. He is the first part of the redeemed and perfected creation, the tip of the iceberg of life after death! The point being made here is that what has happened to Jesus will happen to all those united with him and it will happen to the whole world, a transformed world as we read from Revelation 21. It is guaranteed because it has already started. It started in Jesus. In the face of suffering, we are confident that God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Son, yet we are also confident that there will come a day when there will be no more crying, pain, or injustice. God will make all things new once again. Yet, what does this mean for us while we wait, while we survive, while we hang on in a world full of hurt? Does the death of Christ offer a quick fix to the pain we feel? No, there is no quick fix to grief, nor does God want Christians to pretend that everything is fine and there is no sadness in this world. He does not want us to pretend that being a Christian means only having a life full of prosperity, blessing, and eternal happiness. There are blessings and there is happiness, but there is a time for grief. The evil of suffering is very real, and very painful. Does the death of Christ answer the question of "why me God"? There are still no easy answers but we can be sure that Suffering drives you to the love of a God who has Himself suffered!
In Jesus the Suffering Servant,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP4JSVMBdZg
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