When God Causes Pain

Most of us don't like to think about pain - painful relationships, sickness, accidents, and situations that bring discomfort.

We like to think that bad things only happen to bad people and that when bad things come our way we must have done something to deserve it.

How about I add to that the fact that sometimes it is actually God who brings pain into our lives - and not always because we've done anything to deserve it?

The difference is that when God allows trials, it is for a redemptive purpose. He is trying to bring about good ultimately.

So I ran across this verse in Lamentations that really intrigued me:

Lamentations 3:31-33 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. ESV

Like a good parent, God knows that sometimes pain is better than pleasure to remind us of things, challenge us in things, and spur us on to depend on the Lord more than we are.

End by considering another verse you may not have known came from Lamentations - which is probably one of the most depressing books of the Bible - written by Jeremiah as he surveyed Jerusalem, ravaged by invading armies. Yet this verse is so encouraging!

Lamentations 3:22-24 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." ESV

So let's hope in the new mercies of the Lord each day. Though he causes pain, he also brings healing!

Pastor Tom

Deceitfully Yours

A friend of mine recently went to the doctor for some tests. He said he felt fine but the doctor wanted him to take a look inside his heart. After it was all over he told me that 90% of one of his arteries was closed and another was completely blocked. He said "I was on deck for a major heart attack." Fortunately the doctors were able to fix it without a bypass or open heart surgery. It reminded me of a verse the prophet Jeremiah wrote:

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ESV

My friend thought his heart was okay, but it had deceived him. In reality he was indeed desperately sick.

Jeremiah wasn't talking about the physical heart, of course, but our souls - that part of us that is our personality, our needs, wants, and desires - what makes us unique. The prophet says that our own souls deceive us. The heart (pardon the pun) of deception is that you don't know something is wrong. We go along our merry way thinking we are okay with ourselves and our universe.

What we don't realize is that we have been infected with the sin bacteria - given to us at conception - the result of one sinful act long ago in the Garden of Eden. That bacteria spreads and leads us to do other things that are outside of God's character. It separates us from a relationship we desperately need and makes it so that even if we think we are doing the right thing, most often we are not!

So Jeremiah goes on to say:

10 "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds." ESV

My encouragement to us today is to go to the doctor, The Doctor, and ask for a checkup. The good news is that when this Doctor finds problems in the heart because of our ways, His procedure involves not just unclogging arteries but giving us a brand new heart and a new life.

Ezekiel 11:19-20 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. ESV

That "heart of flesh" comes from Someone who was not born with the sin bacteria - Jesus Christ. In relying and trusting on Him, the saying of Paul comes true:

2 Cor 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ESV

The doctor will see you now.

Pastor Tom

My Holy Spirit GPS

I was using one of those new GPS units the other day to guide me to my niece’s wedding rehearsal. The thing is supposed to pick up signals from outer space and turn them into turn by turn directions from one place to another. As we approached Portland on I-205 the voice kept insisting that I get off onto 82^nd Avenue. I ignored it, of course, knowing that 205 was a much better route. Every time we would pass an exit the voice kept telling me to get off. It got pretty annoying. Pretty soon I wanted to just chuck the little voice out the window! Finally I figured out how to mute her and I continued on my merry way.

It wasn’t until I was well passed the possible turn off that I realized what was happening. As the cars slowed to a complete halt on the freeway I understood that the annoying little GPS voice was trying to route me around stopped traffic. Had I listened, understood, and acted upon her advice, I would have arrived on time and less stressed.

A few days later the Lord brought this little incident to my mind and reminded me of His Holy Spirit. Isaiah 30:21 says: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." God promised that for the person who trusts and relies on Jesus, His Spirit, His Mind, His Voice actually lives in us. It can work through our conscience, through His Word in our memory, even through our intuition—that “still small voice” trying to get us to avoid the downfalls of sin and temptation.

At each intersection He tries to point us in the right direction. The question is, are we listening, understanding, and obeying?

New Bible Hits the Streets

I know it has been forever since I posted to this blog, and I hope to get back to regular posts soon. But I wanted to share a recent contribution I wrote for a couple of blogs on the new Holy Bible Mosaic. The post is a kind of "behind the scenes" of why I wrote the meditation on worship.

You can find the Holy Bible Mosaic on Amazon.com. Anyway, here's the post:

An email crossed my computer way back in February of 2008. The email was from the editor of a unique project and the invitation it contained was exciting – the opportunity to contribute a meditation to a new and unusual Bible project.

As an author I am always interested in new opportunities to use my craft. As a pastor I am always excited to help promote the teaching, understanding, and application of God’s Word. When I took a look at the subjects, the choice for me became obvious right away – worship.

My wife and I started leading worship at a then small Calvary Chapel in Santa Barbara California back in 1978. We met in the YMCA and were so poor that even to mike my guitar I had to jury rig a holder to my vocal microphone stand! That didn’t stop us from falling in love with worship. We’ve spent the last thirty-plus years learning about and helping people come into the presence of God. Having the chance to put some of those thoughts down in a permanent form was a wonderful blessing. I accepted the invitation right away. Then came the hard part: how to present worship in a meaningful way in just a few hundred words!

The guidelines for my worship meditation read: “Through worship, we find a way of reflecting back to God His glory. Worshipful environments are places where God's people can express their adoration to Him through various mediums.”

The words “worshipful environments” stuck out at me. What are some of the places and situations in the Bible where worship was the focus?

I first thought of Joshua. In Exodus 33:11 there is a great statement about Moses’ young assistant: “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” The “tent” was the tabernacle in the wilderness – God’s presence among His people, the children of Israel. While Moses conversed with God, Joshua stood by – he wasn’t the main focus there, God was. But when Moses left to speak God’s word to the people, Joshua stayed behind, perhaps to linger in the afterglow of God’s presence. There was something that held Joshua. He didn’t just visit God’s presence, or even just spend time with God. Joshua refused to leave God’s tent at all!

I thought of our headlong flight in and out of the presence of God on Sunday’s. We rush into church just in time for the music to start. We’re hassled and hurried and try to close our eyes and focus on the Lord but our minds are moving so fast that before we know it the music is over and the sermon has begun. Instead, what would it be like if we never left God’s presence? I’m not talking about walking around singing praise or with eyes closed. But I am talking about living a life where God is right beside you all the time – where you live in his presence. You may not be in conversation constantly but you remain in proximity to the almighty.

Next I thought about one of my favorite Bible people: Jehoshaphat. In 2 Chronicles 20 Jehoshaphat had come from a place of major error and God’s discipline. He may have thought that his positive response would save him from difficulty, but in reality it merely prepared him for the battle to come. Old enemies approached and threatened to destroy his nation. Jehoshaphat reacted with fear, and then faced God. He sounded the alarm and invited everyone to join him in seeking the Lord. The answer came from an unusual source with a very unusual method of fighting. Jahaziel came along to give God’s answer to their plea. The man was descended from Asaph, David’s worship leader, and he told Jehoshaphat that they need not fight in the battle to come. Instead of taking up spears, they were to take up songs of praise. In this wonderful miracle the singers sang and the enemies dropped like flies.

How many times do we fret and worry and panic when trouble hits? If we would only come before God with honesty, then sing before Him with all of our hearts. What victories would we see? More importantly, we could be still before Him, casting our cares to Him, running into His strong tower, being enfolded in his wings. What peace we would see in the midst of the storm?

Finally, though, my mind went to another section of Scripture – one not used often to teach on worship. At the time I was teaching through the gospel of John and remembered Mary. In John 12, as Jesus’ crucifixion approached, he joined His good friends Martha and Mary for one last meal before the trial. While others may have enjoyed the time, oblivious to what was to shortly transpire, Mary did something shocking – she took a jar of very expensive ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair. It says “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

There was something so all consuming about what Mary did. Yes, she anointed Jesus for burial. But thinking about all that Mary did, I could sense that something much more beautiful was taking place. I imagined her feeling the jar in her hands – a year’s wages in one flask. I could hear the sound of her breaking the jar open, I could feel the ointment on her hands as she approached the Lord. What expression was on the Lord’s face as she came near, then bent down on her knees? Then the soothing cool ointment applied to the warm flesh of a Savior – whose feet would soon feel the sharp pain of a Roman nail. The smell of the nard filling not only her nostrils, but the entire house!

It got me to thinking about the all consuming nature of worship. Jesus was to die for her –t o take the blame for her sins, and ours. Worship, I realized, isn’t just about living in God’s presence, it isn’t just about focusing on God as we see Him move on our behalf and give us peace. Worship is the expression of a whole life given wholly over to the One – the Lamb of God, who will always bear the scars of our sin, but whose hands are always held out to us in love.

That’s when I knew this would be my text. It wasn’t the most obvious choice, but an unusual passage fit this unusual project.

I hope you enjoy reading my meditation on worship. You can find it in the 10th week of Pentecost. I pray it spurs you to study, meditate, and worship – like you’ve never done before!

Pastor Tom