If I Only Knew Why

By Vaneetha Rendall

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“As we trust God with the things in life that we may never understand, we are transformed.”

I contracted polio long after it was supposedly eradicated. The doctor misdiagnosed my symptoms because she had never seen polio before. And the wrong diagnosis led to widespread paralysis, with a childhood spent largely in hospitals, marked by painful surgeries.
Over 30 years later, my infant son died because the substitute doctor was unfamiliar with his heart condition. The doctor took him off his life-saving medicine. Within two days, my son was gone.
How could I possibly reconcile these losses? They were unspeakable. Preventable. Unexpected. And in the face of such catastrophes, my natural question was, “Why?” Why did this happen? If God was in control, why did he allow it? Why didn’t he stop it? Why? Why? Why?
That question haunted me for years.

That Elusive Explanation

I was certain that if I had an explanation for my trials, if I could understand God’s purposes in them, if I just had a reason, then I could have accepted my losses with more grace. And I’ve heard countless others say the same thing: If they only knew why, they would be able to move on.
Knowing why seems to be the elusive key that will somehow unlock all our pain. The key that will bring clarity and peace. Freedom.
Not knowing why, having to trust God in a senseless situation—when the world feels like it has exploded and we are left picking up the splintered fragments of our life—seems impossible.

Trust Him in the Dark

God is asking the unthinkable. To trust him in the dark. To accept his will when we don’t understand. To submit to his sovereignty in the midst of uncertainty. To believe he has a purpose when nothing makes sense. Unthinkable as it is, God keeps asking me to trust him.
This invitation is not what I want. I want to understand. I want to see. I want to agree. Accepting God’s invitation takes faith, which I possess in great measure when I’m not in the furnace. But that faith wavers when the flames envelop me and my dreams fall apart.
My son’s death, my failing health, my shattered marriage—each brought inexpressible agonies. After each loss, I resolved to trust God implicitly, but fresh losses inevitably brought in new pain and brought back old questions. Are you good? Do you love me? Why is this happening?
Each time it took time to come to the place of release and trust. But as I saw how my questions only fueled my agitation, I eventually surrendered my demand to understand. And paradoxically, it was this surrender that held the elusive key for which I had been searching. This trusting, accepting, submitting and believing is what transformed me in my grief.

True Freedom Is Trusting God

The process of relinquishing my demand to understand is what freed me.
While I thought that freedom would be found in answers, true freedom was actually found in surrender. I didn’t need to figure it out. It didn’t need to make sense to me. I didn’t need to understand the details. I just needed to trust God. Trust him because he is infinitely wiser, more loving and more purposeful than I am.
He has a reason for my pain. Many reasons. Even when I am at a complete loss to name even one. John Piper says, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” We may see a few things God is doing, one or two ways he is redeeming our pain, but we will never see the full picture on earth. Often all we can see is our loss.
But if we could see what God sees, we would be stunned. There is much more taking place in the heavenly realms than we can fathom.

Encountering God in the Grief

The book of Job gives us a unique glimpse into this unseen world. We, the readers, are taken backstage to the throne room of God. We are privy to much of what Job cannot understand about his tragedy.
Job’s initial response to his unimaginable trials was acceptance and worship. But as the days and weeks wore on with no relief, Job began arguing with God, lamenting his situation, questioning why his life had been torn apart despite his faithfulness.
Then Job encountered God personally. And once again, his response was acceptance and worship. Now Job no longer needed to know. He repented in dust and ashes for questioning God. For accusing God of injustice. For demanding an answer.
Job learned that the Lord had a purpose. God had unequivocally demonstrated that all of his actions were intentional. From determining how far the ocean could go, to commanding the morning, everything God oversaw was perfectly orchestrated. Nothing in all of creation was random, or escaped his watchful eye.
After God revealed his incredible power to Job, Job declared, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). But remarkably, Job had no idea what that purpose was. God never gave Job any explanation for his suffering. Instead the Lord demonstrated his absolute wisdom and power. And that was sufficient for Job.
“God doesn’t defend himself,” says Ron Deal about Job, “he just defines himself. And somehow, in this response, Job’s faith is transformed.” Deal goes on to say, “Suffering had invited Job to ‘see’ God in a way he never had before. … Job learned that he could trust God with the things in this life he would never have the privilege of understanding.”
And so it is with us.

The Answer Is God

As we trust God with the things in life that we may never understand, we are transformed. We may never know why we are going through trials. But we can take comfort in knowing there is always a reason for our suffering—10,000 reasons. Reasons that are bigger and more magnificent than anything we can imagine.
One day our faith will be as sight, and we will see all of God’s glorious purposes in our trials. But for now, as we wait, we must trust him.
There is always a “why” to our pain. We may never understand it in this life, but this we can know: As we surrender our questions to him, God will answer us with nothing less than himself.

How Should Christians Use Guns?

By Tim Challies

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“Continue to study God’s Word and to believe that it contains the wisdom we need to know how to respond.”

John Piper sparked a firestorm with his recent article Should Christians Be Encouraged to Arm Themselves? Piper’s article was a response to Jerry Falwell Jr., who has encouraged the students at Liberty University to secure permits to carry guns. I appreciated Piper’s attempt to answer a difficult question, and equally appreciated some of the measured and helpful responses from those who disagreed with him. What follows is a summary of some of the points he made along with some of the major points of three people who interacted with and (tactfully) disagreed with him: Steven Wedgeworth, Bob Thune and Douglas Wilson.
Here is Piper’s big point in his own words:
My main concern in this article is with the appeal to students that stirs them up to have the mindset: Let’s all get guns and teach them a lesson if they come here. The concern is the forging of a disposition in Christians to use lethal force, not as policemen or soldiers, but as ordinary Christians in relation to harmful adversaries.
The issue is not primarily about when and if a Christian may ever use force in self-defense, or the defense of one’s family or friends. There are significant situational ambiguities in the answer to that question. The issue is about the whole tenor and focus and demeanor and heart-attitude of the Christian life. Does it accord with the New Testament to encourage the attitude that says, “I have the power to kill you in my pocket, so don’t mess with me”? My answer is, No.
In response to this, Steven Wedgeworth writes, “This is a good way to approach the issue and a very important one for the average pastor to be able to consider. An eagerness to shed blood is anti-biblical and a real temptation in our contemporary culture. But Dr. Piper’s declaration that he is not “primarily” interested in self-defense falls flat when he goes on to directly address self-defense and tie it in to a larger theological framework of sacrifice and exile.” Several others noted roughly the same thing, that Piper says he is attempting to deal with a limited and defined point, but actually goes significantly wider than that. Much of the disagreement comes from these wider points.
Wedgeworth goes on to offer these three critiques:
1. “Piper’s argument is biblicistic and dependent upon a specific understanding of the relationship between the New Testament and the Old.” [For a definition of biblicism, click here and scroll down to the heading Biblicism.]
2. “Piper confuses self-sacrifice with the protection of others.”
3. “Piper’s essay is actually a very confusing piece of argument.”
He concludes by saying, “[Piper’s] logic is badly confused, as he fails to distinguish between the spiritual and temporal realms, misunderstands the civic role of the family, and conflates the question of preservation of life with vengeance and bloodlust in general. Thus, he is unable to offer any sort of corrective and may actually give a cure that is worse than the disease.”
Later in his article, Piper writes, “[A]ny claim that in a democracy the citizens are the government, and therefore may assume the role of the sword-bearing ruler in Romans 13, is elevating political extrapolation over biblical revelation. When Paul says, ‘[The ruler] does not bear the sword in vain’ (Romans 13:4), he does not mean that Christians citizens should all carry swords so the enemy doesn’t get any bright ideas.”
Bob Thune responds, “[Piper] fails to reckon with the reality that in the United States, a Christian citizen who legally uses deadly force to stop an attacker is a legitimate extension of the government’s sword-wielding power. If God has given the ruler the right to bear the sword … and if the ruler extends to private citizens that right … then where exactly is the extrapolation?”
Similarly, Thune says, “Piper asserts that there is, in the Bible, ‘no direct dealing with the situation of using lethal force to save family and friend, except in regards to police and military.’ But can he point to the chapter and verse where the Bible deals with police and military using lethal force? No. Because there isn’t one. The assertion that police and military may use lethal force is an application of texts like Romans 13. And so is the assertion that a private citizen may use lethal force!”
Later, Thune writes,
I agree with Piper that Christians should not carry concealed weapons for the purposes of (in the order of his arguments) 1. avenging ourselves, 2. retaliating for unjust treatment, 3. handling hostility, 4. advancing the Christian cause by force, 5. returning evil for evil or 6. resisting persecution. …
Piper leans heavily on the book of 1 Peter, where Christians are urged to endure unjust suffering. But contextually, that persecution was coming from the government itself. If at some point in the future our government turns with hostility upon Christians and uses the “power of the sword” against us (as did Nero in the first century), then certainly we must bear that suffering without retaliation. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters are doing this right now throughout the world. But it’s a stretch to say: Therefore, Christians should lay down while a radicalized terrorist shoots innocent people.
Doug Wilson praises Piper for what he attempts to do in this article: “He is a biblical absolutist, and he is pursuing a tight, systematic, rational argument from the text of Scripture. … I don’t have a doubt in my mind that John will go wherever the argument requires him to go, and he will submit to the text, whatever it says. We need more of that, not less.” He then summarizes his disagreement by interacting with this section of Piper’s article: “I do not know what I would do before this situation [a man assaulting his wife] presents itself with all its innumerable variations of factors. And I would be very slow to condemn a person who chose differently from me.” Here is Wilson’s response:
Let us say that a member of John Piper’s leadership team shot and killed someone who was violently assaulting his wife. The prosecutor refused to touch the case because he said it was an open and shut case. The response was well within the law, and the force used to stop the assailant was not disproportionate. Let us also say that the man who did this believes that he did the right thing, the only thing that he could have done under those circumstances. He is not apologetic at all. In short, he had a gun on him, and he had that gun because he disagreed with John’s entire approach as outlined in the article. Now what?
The solution is, of course, to continue to study God’s Word and to believe that it contains the wisdom we need to know how to respond.
I would like to commend those who disagreed with Piper in a civil fashion. This is not an issue of first-order doctrine and, for that reason, there is every reason to have the discussion and to have it tactfully. I benefitted a lot from reading and considering the various positions. Between them, they aptly highlighted the complexity of the issue and put forward compelling arguments. This is exactly what the blogosphere can do so well.
As for me, I live in Canada where the laws are very different and so, too, is the relationship between citizens and firearms. For that reason, I have put little thought into the ownership and use of guns and found this discussion quite helpful in forming my thoughts. To tip my cards just a little, I find myself appreciating Piper’s efforts, especially related to demeanor and heart-attitude, but leaning more toward the points made by Wedgeworth and Thune. 

Nobody Is Too Broken for the Grace of Jesus

By Jarrid Wilson

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This false ideology that a human can be too broken for the all-consuming grace of our Lord and Savior is incorrect.

I meet a lot of people who say they wouldn’t be caught dead inside of a church building, that their life is too messed up to be embraced by the arms of God, and that their previous failures are too monstrous to be forgiven by the grace of Jesus.
This false ideology that a human can be too broken for the all-consuming grace of our Lord and Savior is incorrect, and I pray that more churches will open up their doors to prove it so.

Nobody is too broken for the grace of Jesus.

We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of, said things that we wish we could take back, and been places we wouldn’t dare go visit again. And while many of us have found redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus, we must remember that there are millions of other people in this world who have yet to do the same.
The Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, “For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.” The truth behind Paul’s words is revitalizing and scandalous—that even a man who once persecuted the church of Jesus Christ has now been redeemed and forgiven by His grace. This is revolutionary for all who hear it. The story of Paul is one we can all learn from. He is the pinnacle example of somebody who was far from God but found favor through the grace of Jesus. A second chance awaited him, and that second chance was discovered through seeking repentance, asking for forgiveness and allowing the spirit of Christ to transform him.
No matter what you’ve done in life, understand that the grace and love of Jesus is waiting for you with open arms. You don’t need to reach a certain level of “goodness” before you can pray, walk into a church or even read your Bible. God will take you where you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. Remember, nobody is too broken for the grace of Jesus.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” —Titus 2:11

GREAT QUOTES on BACKSLIDING

GREAT QUOTES on BACKSLIDING

"Whenever you make up your mind to refuse to go where God
wants you to go and to do what God wants you to do, you must
make up your mind at the same time to renounce the friendship
of God. You cannot walk with Him and at the same time be in
rebellion against Him... it is mere mockery, to say "Lord, Lord"
and then refuse to do the things that He commands you to do."
-Clovis G. Chappell

"Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort
precedes collapse."
-Vance Havner

"Prayer is the way you defeat the devil, reach the lost, restore a
backslider, strengthen the saints, send missionaries out, cure
the sick, accomplish the impossible, and know the will of God."
-David Jeremiah

"Most church members live so far below the standard, you would
have to backslide to be in fellowship with them."
-Vance Havner

"A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from her
backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and
women; and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part
of the Church. What a spell the devil seems to cast over the Church today!"
-Billy Sunday

The Gift of Being Limited

The Gift of Being Limited

On Monday I stayed in my pajamas until 4 pm. Although I woke up early and drank two back-to-back heaping cups of coffee, the fuzz of sleep didn't burn away until late morning. By that point, showering and changing into clothes felt a bit too strenuous, so I didn't force the issue with myself. Instead of choosing hygiene, I chose to do a lot of staring off into space, giving my brain a chance to think again after a whirlwind of activity the previous week.

Why is that when my body is exhausted, my mind goes into overdrive? As I lay in bed, staring into space, taking a moment in my room to get my act together, my thoughts began berating me. For being tired. For feeling the need to rest. For not having the mental capacity to immediately move on to the "next thing" on my agenda.

I immediately did what I always attempt to do: force myself through the tiredness. This never works, although I still try it every time. Instead of helping, trying to force myself only makes me more tired and more grumpy.

So I decided to try something else. Laying on my bed in my pajamas, I just asked for the Lord to remind me of what's true.

The first thing He brought to my mind was His faithfulness. I was tired precisely because of His faithfulness, which sounds funny to say, but it's true. He asked me to tick back through the days and think about what each had entailed: a meal with friends that God has used us to pursue for years, our church's women's retreat where dear women shared stories that I've seen with my own two eyes of how God has redeemed and healed them, our Sunday church gathering with so many beloved people built into a healthy community by God, and a wedding of someone I love who has faithfully endured tremendous pain.

And that was only the weekend.

As I ticked back before that in my mind, I found instance upon instance of how I'd encountered and experienced God's faithfulness. I was tired because I had been thrown around in a pinball machine of God's goodness.

The second truth He brought to mind is that I was tired because I am tire-able. I am able to tire. I am limited by design. I don't like being limited, which I am well aware is super prideful. I get mad at myself when I hit up against the borders of my humanity, and, no surprise here, I try to force myself through those limits and valiantly push on toward the "next thing".

I was starting to see what God was trying to say to me:

God = limitless goodness and faithfulness

Me = limited in every way

God-designed limits for me = God's goodness and faithfulness to me

How was this can't-get-out-of-my-pjs weariness God's goodness to me? He was offering me time and space not only to rest but to remember. Of course limits help us in a myriad of ways, but the main one is that if we don't have limits, we would never stop. If we don't stop, we don't take time to recall what God has done or to reflect on His goodness. Limits are gifts that help us remember that our greatest gift is a God who is limitless.

My mind cleared in those truths, and my heart settled back in peace. I don't have to force myself through limits, nor do I have to listen to the self-condmenation I'm so prone to berate myself with. I can, in fact, let my limits direct me toward dependence. And I can, in fact, receive a pajama day as a gracious gift from God.

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So many laws, so many genealogies, so totally ancient; what does any of it have to do with my life today? I live in the 21^st century, with automobiles, internet, and smartphones. What could ever be the benefit of reading all those years of drudgery which the Israelites went through? After all, I am part of the New Israel, the Church of Jesus Christ. I am saved, baptized and born from above. I live and walk by the Spirit. What could I possibly find interesting in all those many cycles of failure, defeat, repentance, and restoration. Does God really want to speak to me through them? And if so, what does He want to say?

Experience the first set of these Through the Bible videos absolutely free, right now! The 10-session series for Pentateuch, covering Genesis - Deuteronomy, begins airing February 17^th and continues with one session being posted per day for 10 days. Each session is about 15 minutes, and you can watch it anytime during the 24-hour period it is available.

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ESCAPE TRIBULATION? -WRONG! - Corrie Ten Boom

NOTE:  Miss Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch survivor of the Nazi
Concentration Camps, and a lifelong missionary. Corrie was a
believer in facing tribulation. She was one of the many people who
were persecuted in concentration camps during World War II.
Her family was murdered before her eyes, but though her life was
threatened, God led her through that terrible time. Here is her
exhortation to us from a letter she wrote in 1974:


ESCAPE TRIBULATION? -WRONG!
-Corrie Ten Boom.

"The world is deathly ill.  It is dying. The Great Physician has
already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work
for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water,
channels of mercy to those who are still in the world.  It is possible
for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ.  They are representatives
from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence
here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at
Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. 
Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and
Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred.  As far as I
knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of
hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus
said, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world."  We too, are to be overcomers -
bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this
world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the
Bible coming true.  Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid,
that I have just read the last pages.  I can now come to shouting
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written that
Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things:  and I will
be His God, and he shall be My son."  This is the future and hope
of this world. Not that the world will survive - but that we shall be
overcomers in the midst of a dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would
heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.  "Yes, the Lord will heal
me,", Betsy said with confidence.  She died the next day and I
could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete
floor along  with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a
purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am
traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that
the Christians will be able to escape all this.  These are the false
teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.
Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on
across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are
already suffering terrible persecution. 

In China, the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the
tribulation comes you will be translated - raptured."  Then came a
terrible persecution.  Millions of Christians were tortured to death.
Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,

"We have failed. We should have made the people strong for
persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell
the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand
when the tribulation comes - to stand and not faint."

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world
that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are in
training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body
of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation.
There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and
since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good
Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation." 
Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty
percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other
up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today."  But we
would find the next day was even worse.  During this time a Bible
verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

        "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
        for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you;
        on their part evil is spoken of,
        but on your part He is glorified."  (I Peter 3:14) 

I found myself saying, "Hallelujah!
Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!"

In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape
tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already
arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand
Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get
into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. 
But I know. I have been there.  We need to think about that when
we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our
steak dinners.  Many, many members of the Body of Christ are
being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right
on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new
government had come into power. The first night I was there some
of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to
register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night
they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with
other Christians. The third day it was  the same. All the Christians
in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came,
but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service
they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I
am sitting beside be the next one killed?  Will I be the next one?"

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the
screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the
bare wooden benches.  I told them a story out of my childhood.

"When I was a little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said,
'Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a
martyr for Jesus Christ."
"Tell me," said Father, "When you take a train trip to Amsterdam,
when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?" 

"No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we
get on the train."
"That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength.
Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be
a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need - just in time."

My African friends were nodding and smiling.  Suddenly a spirit of
joy descended upon that church and the people began singing,

"In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." 

Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed.
I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago. But I
must tell you something.  I was so happy that the Lord used me to
encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the
word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus
said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who
remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution?  First we need to feed
on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being.  This will
mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize
long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-
changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right
hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional
command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly
disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the
Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us
needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other
and encourage each other.  But we must not wait until the
tribulation comes before starting.  The fruit of the Spirit should be
the dominant force of every Christian's life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too,
am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years,
including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to
go through the tribulation also.  But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and
I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power
because the Holy Spirit was on us.  That mighty inner
strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through.  No, you will not
be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes.  Rather, you will
be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you.  For
seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has
He ever left me, or let me down.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", for I know that to all who
overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!