Faith Growing Can Be Painful

“And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.” (Joh 11:15 AV)

The context is Lazarus’ death and resurrection.  The suggestion is, had Jesus returned days earlier, Lazarus would not have died.  This was the observation of both the disciples, and later, the mourners.  Whatever took Lazarus’ life, it was assumed a Messiah who could open the eyes of the blind and cause the lame to walk could have healed Lazarus.  This suggests, then, that the death of Lazarus was part of the plan of God.  God allowed tragedy when tragedy could have been avoided.  At least momentarily.  Lazarus would eventually die one more time.  But he didn’t have to die that first time.  Jesus explicitly states His delay was for the furtherance and growth of the faith of His disciples.  Note also that it made Jesus glad.  As much as it hurt those who mourned Lazarus, God was pleased with the opportunity for faith-growing.  From our perspective, it may be uncomfortable.  It may even be painful.  But growing in faith is what our existence is all about.  Faith is the basis for a deeper relationship with the LORD.  If we do not learn to trust, then we cannot love.

Faith can only grow if it is tested.  One clip I find insane is bungee jumping.  I am quickly becoming addicted to short videos.  It is a whole lot better than what Hollywood can produce.  Real people doing real things or teach profitable subject matter that improves our lives.  No commercials that are offensive.  We can pick and choose our content as our interests vary.  I cannot remember what clip it was, but I watched this man bungee jump off a very high bridge.  It looked like he was having the time of his life.  He didn’t go off the edge with little zeal.  No!  He ran to the edge, jumped off, and did some spins and tumbles on the way down.  The reason this clip was popular was the bungee chord was not easily seen at first.  It appeared as though the fella was free-jumping off a bridge with no parachute.  The fact he ran made one think there was no chord attached to his feet.  Then I got to thinking about this.  First, I would never, ever, ever, base jump in any form!  However, if my life depended on it, I would want to see a weight equivalent to mine go first.  I need to see that the chord could handle the stress.  However, not until I jump off that bridge and come to a safe stop would I ever say I have complete faith in that chord.  My heart would be pounding.  My palms would be drenched.  I would almost throw-up!  The only way to learn to trust that chord is to subject oneself to a very stressful situation.

God is not cruel!  He isn’t.  What He is asking we do with our own children.  We put them is stressful situations that force them to learn to trust.  We might throw them in the air and catch them.  At first, they might be terrified.  But soon enough, they are laughing and asking for more.  We might start them off holding them up as they learn to walk.  But there has to come a time when we let go.  It is at these times, our children learn the depth of relationship they can have as they learn to trust.  As an adolescent looks up to his or her father’s eyes with that look that says, “I completely trust you and feel totally safe” is the moment you, as a parent, know that that child loves you.  Both child and parent are bound in love, honesty, mutual care, and respect.  This is what the LORD is accomplishing as He asks us to trust Him.  It is not cruel.  What He is doing is producing a much deeper relationship with Him that can come no other way.  No doubt, fewer tears would have been shed had Lazarus not died.  No doubt his sisters would not have felt pain.  But those things will return the second time Lazarus dies.  The difference is, the second time around, they will believe in the resurrection because of what Jesus did and the pain will be immensely less.  We may not appreciate the trials of faith as they happen, but in the long run, they increase our faith toward God and our love for God.

Living With It

“Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with [his] finger wrote on the ground, [as though he heard them not].” (Joh 8:5-6 AV)

This is an interesting passage.  I once had a church member use this passage to justify pre-marital intimacy, adultery, and remarriage after divorce.  His reasoning was if Jesus did not condemn the sin of adultery, neither should we.  The mistakes he made were in his understanding of ‘condemn’.  A group of men who were not qualified to bring charges against someone for adultery brought an adulteress to Jesus for a civil judgment.  There were two things wrong with their actions.  First, it must be the victim who brings the charges.  If this woman was married to another, her husband must bring the charges.  If she was not married, but her lover was, it required the spurned wife’s testimony.  Second, Jesus frequently declined acting as a magistrate.  He was the Son of God.  He still is.  But what He ministered in human flesh, He subjected Himself to human authority.  He obeyed Joseph and Mary.  He observed the law as required by the Pharisees.  He paid taxes.  In other words, even if the charges were brought correctly, He did not have the human authority to condemn.  So, when He says He does not condemn her, Jesus is referring to the civil authority to render judgment.  His divine judgment is shown when He tells her to go and sin no more.  Calling the act of adultery a sin is rendering condemnation.

There is another way in which I care to look at this.  With the Spirit’s leading, it occurred to me that Jesus ministered in a villainous culture and, as the son of Man, He could do little about it.  As God, if He so chose, He could have rendered judgment on this woman and would have been fully justified in doing so.  As the son of Man, Jesus had to live among some very horrible sin all the while, doing miracles and loving people hoping some would be converted.  Not that He approved of the sin of this woman.  It is that He had a greater vision of what the Father wanted Him to do.  There was a greater caused than correcting what was right in front of Him.  Again, not to be repetitive, but Jesus’ response was not toleration.  He was not excusing her sin.  Otherwise, He would not have called it a sin.  There will come a time when Jesus sits as King on this earth and things like this will be dealt with severely and quickly.  For now, Jesus must go to a cross and die for the sins of mankind.   He must serve wicked mankind and love on them so they will trust Him as Savior and Messiah.  As God, sin repulses Him.  As a man, He has compassion on the sinner so the sinner will be reconciled back to God.

When I look at the surrounding wickedness, mine included, heaven cannot come quick enough.  It is beyond sad.  It is beyond wicked.  Man, in his rebellion, as redefined God’s creation to fit their perverse desires.  Infanticide and sodomy are the greatest of all sins.  God calls them an abomination.  Yet, here we are.  We are still on this filthy planet for a reason.  It is not an excuse to become hardened against sin and cease to preach on it.  Quite the contrary.  Unless we preach on sin, the sinner will not understand his or her situation.  There must be accountability before there can be redemption.  The soul must be convicted before he or she can be converted.  The thought came to me by the Holy Spirit that if Jesus can live and walk in filthy Rome, then I am required to do the same.  God is not asking us to become hardened or cold.  He is not asking us to ignore the corruption and perverse.  The LORD is not asking us to cease fighting against it.  What we can to is look to the perfect Son of God who dwelt among the most perverse of all people so that He could preach the way of righteousness to those with no hope.  Why preach in a perfectly holy society?  Jesus came to seek the sick.  Jesus came to save the lost.  This means He lived and ministered among the worst, so they might become children of the most High!

The Marvels Never Cease

“For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.” (Joh 5:20 AV)

Why is it we limit the miracles of God to the gospels?  Or, at the very least, we think of the miracles of God are a very rare thing.  We have lost the marvel of what it means to be a believer.  God does not seem to work because we do not expect Him to work.  This promise was to the disciples.  Jesus promised them that if they believed and followed, then they would see things they would see no other way.  It is interesting that Jesus gave this promise a chapter before He lost most of His congregation.  In chapter six, Jesus preaches Himself as the bread of life.  He it speaking metaphorically.  Those asking the questions know this.  He states they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.  Taking that literally, anyone would have been confused and offended.  No wonder Jesus promised to show them marvels a chapter before He lost almost everyone.

To stand in amazement over who God is, and what God does should be the norm.  We should always be taken with amazement in all we see.  Just the other night, I was watching a short video on the mathematical precision of the observable universe.  The speaker was comparing the statistical realities of certain physical forces in our universe with something we could understand.  He explained the precision of the balance of gravity, the nuclear precision of all material things, and the balance of the universe in terms of mass and time.  Although I do not remember the exact characteristic he was explaining, but I remember the comparison.  He explained that, if the mathematical value of one of these forces was off by in infinitesimal amount, the material universe would not exist.  He compared it to a pile of dimes ascending from the earth, beyond the moon, to a point ten light years away.  If this value was off, even in the smallest of fractions, it would be like randomly picking one red dime from that pile on the first try.  Another comparison was a rifle target with a one-inch bullseye.  He asked if anyone could hit that target with a small caliber rifle in the auditorium in which he was presenting.  Many raised their hands.  Then he asked if anyone could hit that one-inch bullseye if the target was placed at the edge of the observable universe.  That would be the tolerance of a physical attribute of the universe which God created.  In other words, the existence of the material universe is a marvel in and of itself.

We allow the events of our lives to cloud our observation.  We cannot marvel at what God does because we are not looking.  Rather than see the mathematical precision of the known universe, we are overwhelmed by our current trials of faith.  We cannot see that food on the table and heat in the house are a marvel.  The fact God would have anything to do with us is a marvel.  That Jesus died and rose again that we might have eternal life is a marvel.  Miracles of God are all around us.  In our case, we see God doing one miracle after another.  Health issues are resolved beyond our expectations.  God is good.  All the time!  If we are not living in amazement, then our eyes are in the wrong place.  Jesus gave this promise.  He did not give it to some.  He gave it to all.  If we are not marveling at the work of God that occurs all around us, it is because we are blind to it.  If we are to live in amazement over the hand of God, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us His marvelous works to the children of men.