217 Sermon Illustrations on Suffering

Perhaps few facts would more forcibly illustrate the views, which even reflecting military men take of the nature of war, than the following:—

Thomas Mullet, Esq., an English gentleman, being in America, called on General Washington, at his residence at Mount Vernon, soon after the close of the contest between that country and Great Britain. Washington asked him, in the course of conversation in his library, if he had met with an individual in that country, who could write the history of the recent contest. Mr. M. replied that he knew of one, and only one, competent to the task. The general eagerly asked, "Who, sir, can he be?" Mr. M. replied, "Sir, Cesar wrote his own Commentaries." The general bowed, and replied, "Cesar could write his Commentaries; but, sir, I know the atrocities committed on both sides have been so great and many, that they cannot be faithfully recorded, and had better be buried in oblivion!"

# 437. Testimonies against War.

"The French soldiers," says an eye-witness, "on their retreat from Moscow, would, on halting at night, throng into the houses, throw themselves down on the first dirty straw they could find, and there perish, in large numbers, with hunger and fatigue. From such sufferings, and from the infection of the air in the warmer season by putrefied carcasses of men and horses that strewed the road, there sprang two dreadful diseases, the dysentery and typhus fever, before which they melted away like dew before the sun. At times they were so overwhelmed with whirlwinds of snow, that they could not distinguish the road from the ditches, and often found their grave in the latter. The roads, league after league, were checkered with dead bodies covered with snow, and forming undulations or hillocks like those in a grave-yard. Many of the survivors scarce retained the human form. Some had lost their hearing, others their speech; and many, by excessive cold and hunger, were reduced to a state of such stupid frenzy, that they roasted the dead bodies of their companions, and even gnawed their own hands and arms. "No grenade or grape," says an eyewitness, "could have so disfigured those victims of the cold. One of them had lost the upper joints of all his ten fingers; and he showed us the stumps. A other wanted both ears and nose. More horrible still was the look of the third, whose eyes had been frozen; the eyelids hung down rotting, the globes of the eyes were burst, and protruded from their sockets. It was awfully hideous; but a spectacle yet more dreadful was to present itself. Out of the straw in a car that brought them, I now beheld a figure creep painfully, which one could scarcely believe to be a human being, so wild and distorted were the features. The lips were rotted away, the teeth stood exposed; he pulled the cloth from before his mouth, and grinned on us like a death's-head!"

A general riding on horseback at the head of his troops heard a soldier complain and say, “It is very easy for the general to command us forward while he rides and we walk.” Then the general dismounted and compelled the soldier to get on the horse. Soon a bullet from a sharpshooter struck the rider, and he fell dead. Then the general said, “How much safer it is to walk than to ride.”

One of the happiest men I ever knew was a man in Dundee, Scotland, who had fallen and broken his back when he was a boy of fifteen. He had lain on his bed for about forty years, and could not be moved without a good deal of pain. Probably not a day had passed in all those years without acute suffering. But day after day the grace of God had been granted to him, and when I was in his chamber it seemed as if I was as near heaven as I could get on earth. I can imagine that when the angels passed over Dundee, they had to stop there to get refreshed.

When I saw him, I thought he must be beyond the reach of the tempter, and I asked him: “Doesn’t Satan ever tempt you to doubt God, and to think that He is a hard Master?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, “he does try to tempt me. I lie here and see my old schoolmates driving along in their carriages, and Satan says: ‘If God is so good, why does He keep you here all these years? You might have been a rich man, riding in your own carriage.’ Then I see a man who was young when I was walk by in perfect health, and Satan whispers: ‘If God loved you, couldn’t He have kept you from breaking your back?’”

“What do you do when Satan tempts you?”

“Ah, I just take him to Calvary, and I show him Christ, and I point out those wounds in His hands and feet and side, and say, ‘Doesn’t He love me?’ and the fact is, he got such a scare there eighteen hundred years ago that he cannot stand it; he leaves me every time.”

That bedridden saint had not much trouble with doubts; he was too full of the grace of God.

My God, I have never thanked thee for my thorn. I have thanked thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Thou divine Love whose human path has been perfected through sufferings, teach me the glory of my cross, teach me the value of my thorn.

— GEORGE MATHESON

G

GAIN THROUGH LOSS

Ella Wheeler Wilcox writes:

I will not doubt, tho sorrows fall like rain, And troubles swarm like bees about a hive; I shall believe the heights for which I strive Are only reached by anguish and by pain; And tho I groan and tremble with my crosses, I yet shall see, through my severest losses, The greater gain. (Text)

There was a man during the reign of Kaiser Otho, who wore puffed breeches. Puffed breeches then were filled with flour, and when the wearer of the breeches sat down on a seat he sat down on a nail, and the nail tore the breeches and the rent emitted three pecks of flour. Why he should have sat down at that particular time, and in that particular place, is a mystery; and why there should have been a nail there, is to me an inscrutable mystery; but there is the fact, and the sufferer I consider an ill-used man.

— GEORGE DAWSON

In the Persian desert the sad sight may be seen of brick pillars in which many an unfortunate victim has been walled up alive, as a horrible method of inflicting capital punishment. Some awful tales of cruelties perpetrated here are told. The victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness, then, if merciful, the executioner will cement quickly up to the face, when death comes speedily; but sometimes the torture is prolonged, and the inmate has been heard groaning and calling for water for three days.

How many lives are walled lives--built around and bricked in by torturing limitations that suffocate joy and hope, and are no more than a lingering death!

Madam Guyon, in the Bastile, speaks to us still of patience in suffering. The walls of her prison were nine feet thick and a narrow slit through the massive masonry admitted all the light that ever reached her. The cell was narrow and dirty with the mold of ages. Dreary and cold in winter and suffocating in summer. No privileges, no books, no recreations or employments. But here was born that blithe bird-song of her captivity:

“My cage confines me round: Abroad I can not fly; But tho my wings are closely bound, My heart’s at liberty. My prison walls can not control The flight, the freedom of the soul. And in God’s mighty will I find The joy, the freedom of the mind.” (Text.)

You eat the heart of life like some great beast, You blacken the sweet sky--that God made blue, You are the death’s-head set amid the feast, The desert breath that drinks up every dew.

And no man lives but quails before thee, Pain! And no man lives that learns to love your rod; The white lip smiles--but ever and again, God’s image cries your horror unto God.

And yet--oh, terrible! men grant you this: You work a mystery. When you are done, Lo! common living turns to heavenly bliss; Lo! the mere light is as the noonday sun!

--MARGARET STEBLE ANDERSON, _The Century Magazine_.

Slaves of both sexes in South Africa were chained together in pairs, many being mere skeletons from the misery, want, and fatigue of their march. In some the fetters had, by their constant action, worn through the lacerated flesh to the bare bone, the ulcerated wound having become the resort of myriads of flies. One captain had thrust his slaves between decks and closed the hatches for the night. When morning came fifty of the poor wretches were found to have been suffocated. The captain swore at the untimely loss, had the bodies thrown into the river, and went on shore to buy more negroes to complete his cargo.

As the summary of the facts recorded, it may be stated that:

Of 1,000 victims to the slave trade, one-half perished in the seizure, march and detention 500

Of 500 embarked on the transports, one-fourth, or 25 per cent, died in the middle passage 125

Of the remaining 375 landed, 20 per cent died soon after 75

Of 1,000 slaves, total loss 700

So that the annual loss to South Africa in its inhabitants was 500,000.--EDWARD GILLIATT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

Oberlin, the illustrious pastor of the Ban de la Roche, used the following figure in comforting the sorrow of an afflicted lady:

Dear madam, I have now before me two stones; they are alike in color, they are of the same water, clear, pure and clean. But there is a great difference between them; one has a dazzling brightness, the other is quite dull. What is the reason of this difference? The one has been carefully cut, the other hardly touched. Now, had these stones been endowed with life, so as to have been capable of feeling what they underwent, the one which had received eighty cuts would have thought itself very unhappy, and would have envied the fate of the other, which, having received but eight, had undergone but a tenth part of its own sufferings. Yet the stone which had suffered little is dim and lusterless; the stone which has suffered greatly shines forth in dazzling brilliancy.

Storms may rend the giant oak Yet may pass the floweret by; Feeble lives may long be spared, Strongest men may soonest die.

— PASTOR CLARK

Sermon in Job series. Is death preferable to suffering? Job 3:20-26

"BETTER OFF DEAD?"

================

Job 3:20-26

I. Is it a Wonderful Life?

A. Classic Capra movie with Jimmy Stewart.

B. Imagine if someone special to you had never been born.

C. Job faces this abyss.

II. Losing it all.

A. First trial - loss of wealth and family. 1:21

B. Second trial - personal disease. 2:7-8

C. Wife's rebuke: "Curse God and die." 2:9

D. Friends and ash heaps. 2:11

III. Job's cry from the heart.

A. Dramatic change in spiritual tone.

B. Removing a birthday. Jeremiah 20:14-18

C. Death seen as an escape. Revelation 14:13

IV. Hedged in by God. 3:23

A. Hedge: protection or trap?

B. God as our enemy.

C. Don't be trapped in a limited point of view.

V. Finding peace and quietness. 3:26

Philip Yancey was researching a book and found a man whose life closely resembled Job’s. The man’s name was Douglas and, like Job, he was not perfect, but was a model of godly faithfulness.

Douglas chose ministry over a more lucrative psychotherapy practice. Seven years before, his wife had experienced a series of cancers in both breasts and then a lung. A drunk driver hit their car head-on and his 12-year-old daughter received a broken arm and severe cuts on her face from windshield glass. Douglas himself had a massive blow to his head which caused excruciating headaches. His vision was permanently affected. Impaired at work, he could only read a page or two at a time.

Yancey asked Douglas about his experience of disappointment with God. Douglas thought for a moment and then said, “To tell you the truth, Philip, I didn’t feel any disappointment with God.” Yancey was stunned by this, but Douglas continued, “The reason is this. I learned, first through my wife’s illness and then especially through the accident, not to confuse God with life. I’m no stoic. I am as upset about what happened to me as anyone could be. I feel free to curse the unfairness of life and to vent all my grief and anger. But I believe God feels the same way about that accident -- grieved and angry.”

Douglas continued, “I have learned to separate the physical reality in this world from the spiritual reality. We tend to think ‘Life should be fair because God is fair.’ But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life -- by expecting constant good health, for example -- then I set myself up for a crashing disappointment.”

Most heroes of the Old Testament (Abraham, Joseph, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, and Daniel) went though trials much like Job’s. For each of them, at times, the physical reality surely seemed to present God as “the enemy.” But each managed to cling to God despite the hardships of daily life.

“If we can have a relationship with God APART from the physical reality of our life circumstances,” said Douglas, “then we may be able to hang on when the physical reality breaks down. Isn’t that, after all, the main point of Job? ... I challenge you to go home and read again the story of Jesus. How ‘fair’ was life to him? For me, the Cross demolished for all time the basic belief that life is supposed to be fair.”

Douglas’s stark separation of the physical and the spiritual troubled Yancey, since both are part of God’s creation, but his idea about the unfairness of life is something Yancey spends time meditating on every Good Friday.

Good Friday demolishes the instinctive belief that this life is supposed to be fair. But Easter Sunday gives a bright and startling clue to the riddle of the universe. Someday, God will restore the physical reality of planet Earth to its proper place under his reign. It is a good thing to remember, when disappointment with God hits, that we live out our days on Easter Saturday.

Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, visited a prison in Brazil that is operated by Christians and founded on Christian principles. This is what he found:

When I visited this prison, I found the inmates smiling, particularly the murderer who opened the gates and let me in. Wherever I walked, I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas, people working hard. The walls were decorated with biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs. My guide escorted me to the notorious prison cell once used for torture. Today, he told me, that area houses only a single inmate. As we reached that cell, he paused and asked, "Are you sure you want to go in?"

"Of course," I replied impatiently. "I've been in isolation cells all over the world." Slowly the guide swung open the massive door and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a crucifix, beautifully carved by the inmates -- the prisoner Jesus, hanging on a cross.

"He's doing time for the rest of us," the guide said softly.

“I’m sure you must be wondering why God let this happen to YOU.” Friends who visited me in the hospital after I had been seriously injured in an automobile accident said that, or some variant of it, to me many times. “No,” I would respond, “I don’t ask that question. I think it is an exercise in futility.”

“But it is natural to ask that!” some objected, implying that if I were not asking why God let it happen, I ought to be.

My friends were being kind, of course. They were saying, subliminally, “We think you are a good person and God shouldn’t let bad things happen to good people who are trying to serve him – unless, of course, he is bringing about some specially fine result.” They shared the common belief that God only lets GOOD things happen to good (Christian) people, and so eventually we will see that these apparently bad things really turn out to be good.

That is a comforting thought we would all like to embrace. But a realistic reading of the Bible indicates something is lacking in that view of God, the world we live in, and our place as human beings in it.

God has placed us in a world in which moral evil, suffering, and death are universal. All of us will die — Christians and non-Christians — regardless of our devotion to God. All of us have bones that can be broken when they conflict with the laws of gravity, or are damaged by disease. Christians and non-Christians seem equally subject to most of the lethal diseases of this world: cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure. Most of us have wept with Christian parents who have lost a child because of leukemia or an auto accident. Bombs dropped in war on “enemy” cities kill men, women, and children — Christians and non-Christians alike — regardless of whether the bombs are dropped by Christians or non-Christians. Christians share fully the pain and sorrow of this world.

God apparently does not make us more immune than our non-Christian friends. Pain, sorrow, and death are a part of this world of sin. We hurt, we mourn, we struggle with long-term problems that seem to have no answers and no relief.

Yet we intuitively cling to the idea that God is providing us with some special protection from the terrible things that would otherwise happen. Many times I have breathed a fervent “Thank you, Lord,” when we narrowly missed a calamity of some kind. Most of us, if we missed a plane on which we were scheduled and that plane later crashed, would feel that God had miraculously preserved us. But on that fatal flight also may have been a Christian pilot, Christian flight attendants, and many Christian passengers whom God did not choose to deliver. Who of us can ever explain the terrible 1981 private plane wreck in Alaska that took to death the head and founder of a mission board plus three devoted missionaries and a consultant?

“GOOD” IS SOMETIMES STRANGE

Our determination to find “good” reasons for the tragedies of life sometimes leads to strange conclusions. A young man once told me he believed God had let his father die so that he, the son, would be eligible for the social security benefits that permitted him to attend college. I wondered what great benefit God had in mind for his mother and three younger brothers and sisters!

Romans 8:28 teaches, I believe, that God does bring blessings even out of bad situations. But that is quite different from saying that God CAUSES, plans, or even permits tragic happenings BECAUSE of the good that can come out of them. We know that God is sovereign, but we also know that, in his sovereignty, God has placed us in a world of sin and suffering from which we have no immunity.

Jesus was not immune to pain and suffering, nor were his disciples. In the biblical account of the death of John the Baptist, there is no clue as to why God permitted John to be beheaded in a silly display of power by Herod. So far as we know, Jesus did not tell his disciples either that great good would result from it, or that they should “praise the Lord” for the tragedy. He just went away alone to mourn John’s death.

God’s love and concern for John the Baptist, or for us, does not place us in a protected position. After all, God loves my non-Christian neighbor just as much as he loves me. He is just as concerned about the well-being of the pagan as he is about that of the Christian. “The rain falls on the just and on the unjust,” and so do the sunshine, the floods, the good crop years, and the bad crop years. We have no special claim on God’s love or care because we are Christians.

But God does have a special claim on our love because we belong to him through the redemption of Christ. When we commit ourselves to Christ, our attitude toward God changes — not his attitude toward us. His attitude toward us — before we became Christians as well as since — has always been one of loving concern.

SPROUTING WINGS

Lying in my hospital bed after many visits – from people who posed the question, “Why did God let this happen to you?” I tried to imagine a world in which God always delivers “good” people from “bad” things. I thought of my own accident, in which our car was struck by one that went through a red light. In my protected imaginary world, I suppose God would have made the other driver’s car suddenly sprout wings so that it would fly over our car without impacting. Or perhaps God should make it impossible for any driver to go through a red light and hit another car. Maybe God should make cars stop automatically at red lights regardless of the attention of drivers.

In such a God-protected world, brakes would never fail on a car or truck. Airplanes would automatically be free of all defects — mechanical or those of the pilot or weather — especially if there were Christians on board. Christians would suddenly become very popular people if God gave special protection to them. You would want to be sure there was one in every plane, in every car, and, to protect from fire, in every hotel.

When we put it that way, it seems ludicrous, of course. Yet our underlying assumption is that God is supposed to give us some special protection from the unusual dangers and tragedies of life-unless he has some very special blessing in wait that will far outweigh the suffering and pain involved.

After all, does not the Bible say, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you ... he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:7,11)?

Yes, but in our troubles his angels still have charge, to keep us in all our ways. To keep us from what? From illness, accidents, disappointments, poverty, sorrow, death? Sometimes God does deliver us from these things; sometimes not. But God and his angels always keep us from separation from him. That is the most crucial way we need to be kept.

SHORTCHANGING SIN

To assume that God lets bad things happen so that we can experience greater good is to deny the basic reality of sin and its evil nature. Christ gave his life to deliver us from the ultimate penalty of sin and moral evil. When we say that good will always be the ultimate outcome of any “bad” happening, we are saying that moral evil does not really exist — it only seems that way to our mortal minds.

When an innocent child is murdered (or John the Baptist), that is EVIL. Yes, God can, and often does, bring good results (conversions, family reconciliations, and so on) from such horrible events. But no parent would choose to let his child be cruelly murdered SO THAT these “good things” would result. Friends who have faced tragic losses are not usually comforted by well-meaning friends who tell them that “someday you will understand God’s reasons.”

“VICTORY” AS A HANDICAP

When we face tragedy of any type, we can, and often do, grow through the experience — often after weeks or months of painful mourning and “working through.” Those Christians who feel they must be “victorious” in the face of tragedy usually later go through a normal, painful (sometimes secretive) mourning time. Their desire to be a “testimony” often only delays the mourning and the slow, genuine healing that God can and does bring.

The false belief that God is supposed to protect us from the tragedies and pain common to humanity, or that he “sends” us such tragedies only to “teach something” we need to know or to “bring some great blessing,” may impair our ability to open ourselves to God’s healing.

That false belief was, in part, the problem of Job’s comforters. They said in essence, “God doesn’t let bad things happen to good people. Therefore, Job, you obviously are not really good; there must be some hidden sin in your life, and you must admit it. Otherwise you are impugning Cod.”

Some very profound statements appear in the advice of Job’s friends. The difficulty was that what they said did not apply to Job. Actually, Job had much the same concept of God as his friends had: God was not supposed to let such tragedies as his happen to people who had tried hard to serve and to please him. Job, in his anger and frustration, complained bitterly to God about God’s treatment of him.

In Job 38, God finally intervenes with the words, “who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (38:2), and in chapter 40, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (40:2). Job’s answer was, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee?” His final response to God was “I have heard thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes,” (42:5-6).

According to the biblical account, Job never did learn why God permitted him to suffer so deeply and so long. (The reader knows that the suffering was due to Satan, to the presence of evil.) No particular “good” came out of it except Job’s deep encounter with God, and the marvelous account of it that is part of our Old Testament. At the end of the story, God gives Job double what he had before; but that was simply the grace of God and not directly related to his previous losses or his long suffering. I am sure Job never stopped mourning for his first seven sons and three daughters who died in the violent storm that struck their home.

Perhaps the real point of the Book of Job is not to answer the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” but rather to answer, “How does a person of faith respond to the tragedies and joys that come in life?” (Job had already been tested by the joys of success.) Does our trust and confidence in God grow, or is it destroyed? Do we reach more deeply into fellowship with God? Do we gain more appreciation for those who help us or those whom we can help? Do we use the changed circumstances or changed relationships to serve God and to grow?

RESTING IN THE ARMS OF JESUS

In the worst days following my accident, I had no energy to ponder deep questions or to think about the “good” that could come out of it. I had hardly strength to smile and converse a little with family members who came in for short visits. But I found it required no energy at all simply to rest in the arms of Jesus and experience his healing presence. Moving in and out of half-consciousness, I knew I was not alone. Cards with the simple message “we are praying for you” took on great significance, for I had no energy to pray more than, “Let your healing power flow through these broken bones.” Supported by the prayers of friends, I felt no need to do more.

Our periods of helplessness may make us more sensitive to the needs of others, or they may make us bitter or depressed. We may become more conscious of our need of God and more conscious of his presence, or we may become angry with God.

DONE IN BY SUCCESS

Our response to the good and bad happenings of our lives will largely determine whether we grow or deteriorate in them. Actually, people are as apt to be destroyed or damaged by good happenings as by bad — by fame, success, beauty, outstanding talents. These have sometimes led to inner poverty, insufferable ego, misery for family and friends, even suicide. Yet we rarely ask, “Why did God let those ‘good’ things or these ‘blessings’ come to this person?”

God gives us the capacity to respond to the ills and joys of life in ways that are constructive or destructive. Whether we respond negatively or positively, God’s love remains constant. He does not withdraw it because we respond badly. His presence is always there, whether or not we recognize it.

Why did God let that accident happen to me? I do not know, nor do I feel a need to ask. What I did need, and still need, God gave me: a deep and abiding sense of his presence. And I am content with the words of Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

God has revealed in his Word a great deal about what I should do — far more than enough to consume my energy and mental capacity. The secret things I will leave to him.

________

Alvera Mickelson is Assistant Professor of Journalism at Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota. She and her husband, Berkeley, co-authored the two-volume, “Family Bible Encyclopedia” (Cook, 1978).

A Christian perspective on near-death experiences. They are culturally conditioned. One researcher, Carol Zaleski, compared medieval and biblical accounts with modern ones. The medieval NDEs surely reflect what we know about life. Life is difficult. It is attended by failure and even tragedy. In life, hope is real but hard won; suffering is unavoidable but sometimes redemptive. By comparison, contemporary NDEs feature no ordeals, cater easy hope, and ignore suffering. The climax of a modern NDE states, "She learned and grew in her learning. This was satisfying. Phyllis was okay."

Zaleski correctly identifies the dominant cultural influence here as client- centered psychology. In modern NDEs, God is created in the image of therapist Carl Rogers. Does it really help us better learn how to live and die meaningfully?

Persecution against church in Ethiopia described. 700 churches in one province closed. 1,800 of Word of Life churches out of 2,500 have been closed. Few Orthodox churches closed, but restrictions imposed. Government is Communist. [1985]

In-depth presentation on animal rights and experimentation. Benefits and costs outlined. Militant Fran Stephanie Trutt planted a radio-controlled pipe bomb near the Untied States Surgical Corp. Chairman's parking place. The Animal Liberation Front is a militant group.

Examples of abuse of animals: baby monkeys were stabbed by mechanical mothers and killed by psychotic real ones, to study human child abuse. Benefits: smallpox and polio vaccines. Jane McCabe (p55) argues for research because her 9 year old daughter Clair has cystic fibrosis.

"What is the relevant difference between a human subject and an animal subject? ... [A] possible answer is that we humans enjoy certain God-given prerogatives. We are, after all, the only creatures the Bible says were made in God's image. 'Most Judeo-Christian religions make distinctions about the special nature of man,' says Frederick Goodwin, director of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. 'To me, that is a distinct, qualitative difference between our primate relatives and man.' It may be a difference, but it's not an empirical, observable one. It has to be taken on faith."

[Above verses speak of compassion toward animals, and man's superiority over them.]

[For hard copy, see #903.]

Anxieties of growing old. It often involves suffering but hope can result.

Fundamental realities of human existence:

1. Our essential loneliness as humans - we need love and companionship.

2. Our freedom to choose.

3. Our limit as creatures.

4. Our anxiety of awareness.

Three forms of suffering:

1. Misfortunes and trials.

2. Sanctification. (struggle with sin, persecution)

3. Vicarious. (suffering for others)

Suffering produces muscles. Stoics saw life as a concentration camp, but Christians do not. Christians know that pain can drive us to the Source of love.

A look at Psalm 22 and the cross. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken

me?" reflects the modern preoccupation with putting God on trial before men,

rather than men on trial before God. On the cross, Jesus knew existential

despair. Jesus' quote of Psalm 22 is not a fluke but full of meaning. Jesus

is identifying with the believing community by quoting from its hymnbook. All

Christians can do likewise.

#1158

*

“I don't see why God is putting me through ... all this suffering ... Why doesn't He just ... take me home ... now? I am a Christian.” Lori, 21, was severely paralyzed in an accident two and a half years ago. Since then she has gone from one hospital to another. The doctors have done all they can. Now they are deliberating where to send her next. Her parents can't take her in. Independent living centers are overcrowded and have long waiting lists. Her respirator puffed and wheezed as she labored to speak between breaths.

Why do we have to fight the battle to be holy? Worldly wars bring out the worst passions in people, but Christian warfare brings out the best.

1. Peace and Warfare.

2. Pleasing God.

a. The sign of Life.

b. The Prelude to Glory.

3. The Glory of Sacrifice.

4. We Battle for Others.

5. Encouraging Fellow Believers.

6. A Testimony to Eternity--the power of God to sustain is shown more

clearly if appropriated in the lives of tempted and tested people.

7. Learning Through Suffering.

8. No Shortcuts.

“You see, Lori,” Joni began to explain, “I had a friend named Denise when I was in the hospital. She lay in bed for eight years, blind and paralyzed. In much worse condition than you. She hung in there, striving to be holy despite the odds.” There was a long silence on the other end and Joni knew Lori was listening intently. “Denise died after eight years in that bed. My human logic said, 'God, You should have taken her on the shortcut. What did all her striving accomplish for the handful of nurses and doctors who happened to know her?' But then I read Eph. 3:10, which says that God uses our lives like a blackboard on which He chalks lessons about His grace and His power to sustain. And He does it for the benefit of angels and demons ... maybe not people, but quadrillions of unseen beings.”

I am relieved that God has not zapped us into automatic holiness. Instead, He has pushed us down the path of practical holiness to reach the unsaved, to build up believers, and to instruct the spirits in the heavenly realm.

One of my favorite stories is about the famous artist Auguste Renoir. One of his best friends, Henri Matisse, even though he was 30 years younger, was a constant companion of Renoir. During the last decade of the famous artist’s life when he was confined to his home because of his crippling arthritis, Matisse visited him daily.

In spite of his torturous pain Renoir kept painting. In fact, he did so almost to his dying day. “The Bathers,” one of his most famous paintings was completed only two years before he died — 14 years after he was stricken with this disabling disease.

On one occasion when Renoir was struggling with every brush stroke, his friend Matisse said to him, “Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you are in such agony?” To which Renoir replied, “The beauty remains; the pain passes.”

“Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete [mature].” – James 1:2-4 (TLB)

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5179]