Tag Archives: suffering

Suffering Complaints

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Are you suffering under a burden that threatens to drive you to the dust?  Has your heart become calloused, so that you will not call out to God for the sake of the things that oppress you?  Have you allowed yourself to blame the One who made you?  Have you come to believe that you are righteous in blaming God for your trouble?

Jesus did no such thing!  Faultless, blameless, and full of love for his Father, the Lord was beaten beyond recognition.  Yet he did not blaspheme the will of God.

He endured his Holy Father’s will, because he knew his God can do no wrong.  And he considered even the greatest of torment as if it should not be compared to the Glory that awaited him.  How is it that we cannot even sustain the sufferings of the common cold without complaint?

The Holy Bible uses a very curious word to describe the testing of the Holy Lord Jesus, “crushed”.  Have you been so treated?  And that for no apparent cause?  Are you without sin?  Don’t we deserve to be crushed?

10 “But the LORD was pleased
            To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
            If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
            He will see His offspring,
            He will prolong His days,
            And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53)

For our sake, and his love for God, he was sustained through it all.  For the sake of his Father’s love for man, he endured the most vicious possible death.  For your sake Christ was purified of all possible pride.  Stripped of his Glory and Majesty, humbled to the likeness of an animal, Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins.

He did not complain.  He did not beg for mercy.  He did not resist the ungodly hands.  He did not strive to evade the whip.  He offered the tender portion of his hands to the nails.  He forgave sins as he hung toward death!  And all of this with the most resolute heart!

And then horror came to visit him; his Loving Father turned his face, as his son became a curse for hanging on a tree.  As it is written in the law of the Most High God, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God”.

Still he did not all allow sin to encompass him.  He endured the will of his Holy Father.  Shall we do any less? 

Consider the tiny burden we bear.  Even if we suffered as Christ Jesus, we deserve the beating. 

As we consider these things, so we become more like him.  As we consider these things, we reach to the victorious one for the strength which sustains. 

Do you want strength to overcome your intolerable need to complain?  You will find that strength in Jesus the Christ of God.

Amen!

By His Grace

Spurned Beauty

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All men love the truth, for a moment or two or three. 

Whisper in their ear, and their eyes alight with glee.

But speak of their obligation, and their lamps quickly grow dim. 

For they desire glorious reception.  Certainly not to obey Him.

By His Grace

Filthy Putrid Tares!

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Are you a “Tare”?  It’s highly unlikely that you’d be reading this if that were so.  Tares don’t go looking to better themselves in Christ.  And they don’t go snooping around in holy oriented writings.

They might be able to mingle among the wheat.  But they do that for identity purposes.  It’s not that they admire the wheat.  They’re not “wannabe” Christians.  They’re socialites that like being identified with the “glamorous” lifestyle of dedicated Christianity.  How pathetically lacking in insight.

There’s nothing glamorous about Christianity.  Dying to self, serving with no thanks, being hated for the way we think, and being outcast (often) from even those who seek to serve the Lord.  There is nothing glamorous about such a life.  How pathetic then are those who desire to be identified with such, yet make no attempt to “become” on their own.

No, if you’re a tare, you’re not likely to sit at home and read such an article as this.  So that begs the question: “Why did you write this then?”

Because I wanted to write something about the problem of the wheat and tares among us.  Because there are so many articles already written by a myriad of authors.  Because the problem still persists, and little can be done about it.  Because the wheat often suffer at the infiltration of filthy hearts.  Because I despise such a soul’s disregard for what is holy.  Because I wanted to poke fun at their obvious lack of respect for the Living God.  And because I hate what such people have done to the beautiful assembly of dedicated hearts.  Wherever they appear, there is a putrid stench of “self” floating through out the body of Christ!  And this comes to us courtesy of Christ’s enemy.

 

Let them come read.  Let them come and be ashamed.  Let them come and consider that they have no part in the promises of Christ to His people.  Let them come and realize that they will be gathered before us!  Let them come and understand that the Consuming Fire awaits their “first plucking”.  Let them repent of their selfish ways!  Let them realize that God desires none to perish, but for all to come to the full knowledge of salvation.  Let them REPENT and LIVE!

 

Which Way

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Sweet God in heaven, help me know.
Which way this son of yours should go.
This dream I had, it touch me so.

If it comes true, I’ve choices to make.
A split in life, what path to take?
The choice is made before I wake.

Your will is first, as always Lord.
For I am tied with holy chords.
Just let the split become Your road.

May your will be done forever, O’ Sovereign God of heaven.  As you are first, so may be Your will.  What loss is mine if the bounty belongs to you?  Yet whose tears shall fall, mine or someone elses?

What choice is there?  You have given me promise on promise.  So if someone should cry or suffer, let it then be me.

By His Grace

Prosperity Doctrine

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9 “His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”  (Job 2)

To those who think that believing in Christ Jesus is prosperity in the things of this world.  You will one day stand side by side with Job.  What will you have to say then?

You will stand next to those who have suffered intensely for the name of Christ Jesus.  What will you say then?

You will stand before the One who gave his very life for your sake.  What will you say then?

There are scars upon all the great men of God, but you will have none.  What will you say then?

By spouting this lie, you injure yourself and all who hear.  When the Holy One confronts you with this, what will you say then?

But you don’t have to listen to me.  Fill up your cup, for you will drink it.

By His Grace

At “Least”, There is Hope

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I had a very short dream this morning.  I and some loved ones were cleaning the house.  I don’t know what I was doing but I was not cleaning I was organizing or polishing or something.

Someone sent someone somewhere else to do something else and I asked to be able to go clean.  The newer member of the family said to me, “Are you sure you want to do that?  You don’t do well when it comes to detail”.

His comment was true and it cut my heart like a knife.  I woke from the dream and did not go back to sleep.

For hours this morning I have pondered the meaning of this dream and it is not obscure.  In fact it reveals something that all men struggle with.  And though that is true it is not less painful to speak of it.  In this topic there is no safety in numbers.

There are great men and there are small men.  There are some who are able to do wonderous things, and there are some who can barely learn to tie their shoes by themselves.  The pitiful thing is that the majority of us fall somewhere in between.  We are neither great, so as to be praised nor small, so as to be coddled.  Most of us are forced to accept who we are, silently suffering a peculiar loss.

Please forgive the length of this article, but there is more to discuss.

In this world we have tribulation.  Men will push each other out of the way.  Men will kill one another.  Men will despise one another.   And men will trample one another.  You will be told you don’t matter in a variety of ways.  And if by chance this “telling” falls on truth your shame is within you.  So their attack is far more painful than they realize.  Yes, in this world we have tribulation.

If this were the extent of our being who could stand to live another moment.  But there is something that is so much more than flesh.  There is a life that is not full of tribulation.  And without further adieu, I introduce you to Jesus, The Son of God.

He will accept you specifically as you are; even as you grow in Him, or possibly regress from time to time.  In him there is no abuse because you are not the greatest.  There is hope for every one of his people to become what they envision they are able to become.  And where do his people get their vision?  They receive from the Word of God, the Bible

All that the Lord asks of us is that we continue to try.  Now someone may ask me, “Try what”? Let us allow the Lord to speak on his own behalf in this matter.

“He has shown you, O mortal,
what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly (prudently) with
Your God.  (Micah 6: 8)

And if by chance you find you are unable to do any of those three, the living God is quite able to teach you how. 

In Jesus there is freedom to be least, as well as freedom to be great.  Only bring him your desire.  Only believe in him.  Only wait on the Lord.

By His Grace.