Feeding on God



The dullness of the human heart is easily seen in how we struggle with even the most simple and yet crucial requirement to study the Word. How many Christians are as committed to being in the Word as they should be? Surely from the Lord’s perspective none, but even from a human point of view most fall far short of the mark.

We know it is commanded (2 Peter 3:18). We know it is for our good (1 Peter 2:2). We know that it is the means by which we will slowly be rid of the sin in our own hearts which is always before us and which makes us cry out in frustration with Paul in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am!”  (John 17:17). We know it pleases the Lord we supposedly love that we feed on His Word (Psalm 1:1-2; Ephesians 5:26-27; 2 Corinthians 3:18). We know that it is our weapon of defence against the world, the flesh and the devil (2 Peter 3:17; Ephesians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Yet, we still struggle…

Arguably, most of what is wrong with the Church today would not be if we could just cultivate a life in the Word, constantly feeding on God’s Word. Surely, we are in fact now in the time “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths”. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Some practical principles for cultivating a life in the Word…

1. Pattern

Nothing becomes part of your life unless it is characterised by a pattern. Commit the same time each day, spent in the same quiet and tranquil place to feeding on God’s Word. Pray and read aloud if necessary to stop mental drift. Dedicate enough time to prevent being focused on time.

2. Prayer

Study needs to be accompanied by prayer. In advance, asking for understanding, cleansing, joy and correction and in closing, offering praise and thanksgiving, and asking for grace in responding to His revelation. Closing prayer can also incorporate your general prayer time, and using a standardised framework (like “ACTS” or “The Five Finger Prayer”) to ensure prayer covers all relevant areas is a good idea.

3. Purpose

The purpose of your study must always be learning about Him, seeing His glory, hearing His voice, being sanctified and conformed to His will.

Consciously prepare your heart to be in humble submission and focus on applying what you read to yourself. Have expectant anticipation for what the Lord has to show you.

Turning the Word into prayer as you read is a useful aid to enhancing your scripture memory and prayer and glorifies God.

4. Plan

This is the hard bit. You need a plan and you need to stick to it. Stretch yourself here.

A broad Bible reading scheme is a great idea for covering the overarching themes, characters and stories. There are loads of good reading schemes available including one for example in the ESV Bible. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible so you need to cover a little over three every day. Many schemes for example cover some parts more than once in a year and include reading from different parts of the Bible concurrently to enrich your reading time.

Many reading schemes would cover the Psalms and Proverbs concurrently with the rest of Scripture. Distinctly meditating on one Psalm or Proverb each day in addition to other study lends itself well to maintaining a heart-focus by nature of these books.

An in-depth study component is required to plumb the depths of the Word. Usually, study in pre-selected books that lines up with some kind of overall plan or for instance the content your home group is studying is a good idea. Aim for one chapter per night at minimum although repetition is helpful (for example studying each chapter every night for one week).

5. Protection

We live in a dark and hostile world, and daily we battle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) The Word of God though is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)  

The reality is that to meditate on the Word day and night it needs to be buried in your heart and mind. Scripture memory however is probably the most neglected aspect of study today. Spending time on memorising a verse for instance which was particularly relevant to you in your other study is a good way to do this because the link back to your life which makes a verse relevant also makes it easier to remember.

Now all we have to do is do it! As with everything else, we need grace! So cry out with the Psalmist “Incline my heart to your testimonies…”(Psalms 119:36)

X-Ray Questions

Idolatry sometimes seems like the sin that is most removed from our post-modern reality, yet it is at the top of the list in the Decalogue. We pay so little attention to idolatry because it is least visible to us. Idol's hide in the dark recesses of our hearts, and our divided nature feeds and nurtures them.

David Powlison, in his book, Seeing with New Eyes, talks about "X-Ray Questions" that help to uncover the idols that each of us has hiding within our hearts. He identifies 35 questions that can be focussed into your own heart to expose your idols. The Resurgence has a tidy distillation of them based on a blog by Jared Wilson.

Take a few moments, after prayerfully asking God for His help, to apply these questions to your heart. You will be amazed at what you find!

1. What do I worry about most?

2. What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live?

3. What do I use to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?

4. What do I do to cope? What are my release valves? What do I do to feel better?

5. What preoccupies me? What do I daydream about?

6. What makes me feel worthy? Of what am I proudest? For what do I want to be known?

7. What do I lead with in conversations?

8. Early on what do I want to make sure that people know about me?

9. What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?

10. What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?

11. What is my hope for the future?

 

Deluge: You – Part 2

We’ve come to the end of a difficult but important journey. Suffering is one of the most contentious topics of our time. Yet we do everything to seek only comfort but suffering is avoided like a plague in spite of the fact that we need to come to grips with it, because we live in a world full of suffering, and as Christians it will knock on our door.

Last post we started considering how we should respond to disaster, looking at the need to worship, and to weep. Let’s pick it up with some further direction from God’s Word, starting with the need for prayer in the wake of calamity.

3 Pray

According to James 5:13, we should pray if anyone among us is suffering. But what should we pray for?

First, we should pray for salvation for those who are caught up in the calamity but are outside of Christ, so that in him people can be more than conquerors in every calamity of life (Romans 8:37)! Eternal suffering is infinitely more terrible than anything we can experience in this life. Praying for temporal relief means far less if this relief is not combined with salvation. Remember, God uses calamity to draw people’s attention to Him and their need for Him – they are helpless and must fly to Christ who alone delivers from the final and ultimate calamity of God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Similarly, we pray for those unaffected but who are witnesses to the disaster, that they would see their destiny without God and repent from the adultery of treasuring anything more than Christ (James 4:4).

Many would say that the second priority should be to pray for relief from suffering for those affected. However, in respect of believers Paul for example in 2^nd Thessalonians 1 did not pray for this. Instead he prayed for steadfastness in suffering (v 3-4) which results in spiritual growth, and to this end He prays God would continue to use the trials which He has sent to achieve His purposes. In calamity, believers need to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10) and remember that they are to keep their eyes on things unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18) since this life is not of primary importance. They need to see and live the supreme worth of Christ in the calamity.

Then, we pray for relief from suffering for all those affected, and we pray that God would meet our needs as help and give to those in need…

4 Do

Disasters like these are an opportunity to show the difference Christ makes in your life and in the world, by being ready to go and help those affected, so we help in any way we can and we give generously.
This applies even more to those of us affected ourselves, because Christ wants you to reach out to others when you are suffering yourself, because “those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Pet 4:19)
The glory of the gospel shines through how we respond to calamity – “as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5)


5 Hope

In “doing” when we are suffering we display hope…” we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self [3] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18)
We are to endure suffering for righteousness' sake, so that people will “ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15)


6 Rejoice

Finally, where there is hope, we can rejoice – “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

Joy is the apex of suffering which magnifies Christ, which is why Jesus said in Luke 14:33 that anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be His disciple. If everything you have is taken away from you, but you still have Christ, you rejoice!
Scripture is filled with this pattern. Habakkuk 3:17-18 says “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

In Philippians 3:8, Paul says “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”, and earlier in the epistle before one of the most jarring passages in Scripture he says “Yes, and I will rejoice …… For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:18-21)

The Psalms especially resound with the rejoicing of saints in the midst of their suffering. Psalm 63:3 offers God joyful praise because His “steadfast love is better than life”.  Psalm 73:25-26 is a perfect example of how our lives should look when we suffer - “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Matthew 5 makes this relationship between joy and suffering clear. Our “saltiness” is the joy others see in us in the midst of suffering which other people cannot explain. That is why the imperative to be salt and light in verses 13 to 16 follows directly after verse 11 and 12 which instructs us to rejoice when we suffer.

The passage, which many would say is the crescendo of the most glorious chapter in all of Scripture, is an appropriate way to illustrate the basis for our joy...

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”


Before we leave this series on suffering in the face of calamity, I’d like to make a confession. Through this series of posts starting 11 weeks ago, the Lord has spoken most clearly to me, about my response to my own suffering. Especially recently, I faced a series of trials which arose partly because of my own sin (as usual), but no doubt also because of the purposes the Lord had in them for me.

I humbly acknowledge that my response to the suffering which God has granted me for His glory and for my ultimate joy is far from what it should be. As is so often the case, Romans 7:15 comes to mind – “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” That’s what is so wonderful about grace!

I leave you with a passage of Scripture which the Lord gave a dear friend to send me in the midst of my sinful disillusioned despair…

 “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” (Lam 3:19-33)

Deluge: You - Part 1

We’ve seen over the past weeks, that Scripture teaches God is sovereign over natural disasters and He has temporal purposes in these things including Judgement, Mercy and Purification. We’ve also looked at the ultimate purpose for these events, which is the same as that for which the universe was created and for which His blameless Son was crucified: the exaltation of His glory.

During our time of focus on this we’ve seen the floods that started in Queensland spread  across four states. Shortly after that Category 5 cyclone Yasi decimated a path hundreds of kilometers wide from North Queensland inland, and this was followed by the Earthquake in Christchurch that killed over 160 people. Finally, just this week the 9.0 quake in Japan which generated a Tsunami which has caused enormous loss of life and the threat of nuclear catastrophe. This surely reminds us of the passage which initiated Job’s trials, when each messenger bringing news of some affliction had not even finished speaking before the next messenger with news of another disaster arrived.

These events highlight one thing for us: suffering will come, including suffering as a result of calamity. 1 Thessalonians 3:3 tells us that we are destined for suffering. Over 50 million people die every year. That means in the time it has taken you to read to this point, almost a hundred people have died, and most of them died in absolute agony. This doesn’t count in the aborted unborn whose silent screams have been heard only by the Almighty who will judge the guilty at the relevant time. By God’s grace we are sheltered from this, (He hears the screams of each of these people) but it is worth reminding ourselves of this because we can easily forget that we live in a world where suffering is the status quo. Some of those who read this may die this year, be diagnosed with an incurable terminal illness, be paralysed after a car accident or lose someone in their family.

Acts 14:22 says that we must enter the Kingdom of God through many tribulations. As Christians who live in this world and minister to the needs of others, we’d better have a theology of suffering on which to base our lives. The conclusions you reach from a careful study of Scripture are difficult to come to terms with, especially in the context of a post-modern, first-world society that worships convenience and comfort. Sadly, the Church has avoided teaching about topics like suffering and this has left the flock inadequately equipped to live biblically in a world of suffering. However, we need to know how to deal with living in a world like this and our dealing with it must be biblical. Romans 8:16-17 even links the existence of suffering in our lives to our assurance that we are children of God, saying “we are children of God … provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” So this is very important.

Scripture reflects a number of the ways in which we should respond to disaster and suffering in general.  This post we’ll look at the first two…

1 Worship

Most importantly our response to any natural disaster should be to worship God. Job’s reaction to the suffering that “the Lord had brought him” (Job 42:11) was to worship Him in acknowledgement of God’s sovereign decision to send suffering, saying in Job 1:21 “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”.

The early chapters of the book of Hosea describe in detail the Lord’s anger at Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness to God and mention famine and whirlwind as examples of the many impending consequences of God’s judgment. God says at the end of Chapter 5 that He will turn away from them until they acknowledge their guilt and seek His face. Then Hosea 6:1 indicates the response which should follow saying, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” Similarly, Psalm 57 shows how the psalmist exalts and worships God, taking refuge in Him in the midst of storms of destruction.

Hebrews 12 instructs us to look to the sufferings of Jesus as the example we should follow in trials. In doing so, it draws into the argument both the example of persecution (which Jesus endured) and the struggle against sin (which we endure) in illustrating that the very existence of suffering in our lives is evidence of us being legitimate children of God. God’s use of suffering in our lives to achieve His infinitely wise purposes in us needs to draw us into thankful, submissive worship.

2 Weep

Disaster should lead us to weep for and with those who suffer and to mourn over our sin. The new heart which Christ gives us in the new birth causes us to feel for those who are suffering. The first thing to do after a calamity is not to give people answers. They need love and care and they need help getting their lives in some kind of order. There will be plenty of time for giving answers after comfort has been provided.

Calamity brings to light the immense potential within people for doing good. We see dim reflections of the nature of mankind before the fall. A friend who is not a Christian and who lost everything made an amazing statement after the floods earlier this year. After recounting the experience and the extent of his loss, he began to speak about his being “blown away” by the generosity of strangers who just showed up to help. Then he said “I think we should have a flood like this every ten years!” That is amazing! In fact a bible scholar in the time of Martin Luther once said that seeing the sinful nature of the world, he was surprised there was not a Noahic deluge every year!

Romans 12:15 says we should “Weep with those who weep” without any qualification. Our weeping with those who suffer does not depend on the cause of the suffering. We know from our reading of Scripture that the Lord sovereignly decides which disasters will and will not come. Empathy comes from the pain and is unrelated to the cause.

We know that the Lord is just in sending disaster, because the horrific nature of the sin of mankind in stark contrast to the worthiness of God to receive our worship and obedience means we are deserving of nothing better. However, this should not undermine our compassion for those suffering either. We are sinners too, and we feel their pain.

We should weep with those who suffer regardless of their faith or their lack thereof. Mercy is by nature undeserved, which is why Luke 6:27 says “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you”.

The other reason for weeping is over sin. We know that creation groans as described in Romans 8 because of the effects of the fall which resulted from sin. In James 4, in giving a warning against sinful worldliness, verses 8 to 10 tell us that the appropriate response is to “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Not only is sin often directly or indirectly the cause of calamity, but the depravity of man is evident even during and after disaster. It is tragic how many examples you see of people who, not being affected personally by a natural disaster, continue on in the midst of the destruction as if nothing has happened – mowing the lawn, jogging, having haircuts etc. Some who are much less affected than others help themselves first even as they receive help from those who choose to help them first. Others instantly move into a “victim” mode and instead of being happy for those whose lives and property is spared, they show anger and bitterness that they were not spared. Still others vent the stress in road rage, family arguments, and deceitful scheming to take advantage of government financial assistance, not to mention looting and theft.

As always, our response to sin should be sincere and godly repentance. We should mourn over the contribution our sin makes in general to a fallen world, we should be sorrowful if our response in disaster is not what it should be and we should repent for the fact that it is only when we experience disaster that we selfishly focus on all these things. Every day around the world, the majority of people on earth experience worse than we do in disasters, and yet we rarely even notice. Where are the good Samaritans among us?



Deluge: Why - Part 2



Last post, we looked at some of the temporal purposes God has revealed for suffering. These temporal purposes however can be seen as subservient to the ultimate purposes God has in ordaining suffering including the suffering we endure in calamity.

We’ve already seen that the notion of God not being in control of the events which bring suffering is not biblical even if it seems like the right answer. God controls the waves and the winds (Matthew 8:27). He controls people’s hearts and actions (Prov 21:1; Lam 3:37). He governs the outcome of things which appear to be chance (Prov 16:33). He ordains the actions of evil spirits (1Sam 16:14-16; 1Kings 22:19-23; Mark 1:27). In summary God is sovereign, or as He puts it in Isaiah 46:9-10, “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose”.

We also know that God is good. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Psalm 100:5 says “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” So we know that His purposes are good.

Ultimately, the entire universe and even the smallest events that take place in our lives are ordained for God’s glory. Suffering serves to magnify His glory too.

Redemptive History

This world, with all its suffering, exists to enable the necessary conditions for God’s redemptive plan as a theatre for the display of His character and His infinite worth through His undeserved grace towards sinners. 2 Timothy 1:9 shows us that God’s purpose in redemptive history was established “before the ages began”.  The names of those people who are not the undeserving recipients of His grace have “not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb” according to Revelation 13:8. Redemptive history is an opportunity for us the see the character of God revealed in His mercy, grace, justice, holiness and love. Without it we could not know Him as fully as we can.

Highlighting Sin

In our fallen nature, our view of sin grossly undermines its seriousness. Our sin is outrageous in view of the infinite worth of God to receive our love, attention and worship, and the suffering which exists in the groaning created order (Romans 8:22) is a physical manifestation which serves as a reminder of sin and how horrendous it is. Many examples in the gospels show that we are carnal by nature – unable to see beyond the physical. Suffering is the physical way that God screams at us about sin. C. S. Lewis said God whispers to us in our pleasure and shouts at us in our pain. The evil of the physical world is all pointing to the evil of the moral world.

Displaying Christ

A suffering world exists to confound people when they see that the followers of Christ are satisfied in the midst of suffering. As Paul shows in Phil 1:21 everything in life is about Christ and death only brings us closer to our treasure. Matthew 5:11-16 illustrates this well. The back-drop to our “saltiness” is suffering, and in this way suffering provides the contrast against which our joy and peace, which come from the Spirit of Christ, can be on display.

The Cross

Without a world where there is suffering and persecution, Jesus would not have suffered and been persecuted. The cross - the place where the greatest sin in history was committed - is the apex of God’s glory. It is the centre of the universe and of all  history. Acts 4:27 make it clear that the crucifixion of Christ was planned by the Father. As it says in Isaiah 53:10, “it was the will of the Lord to crush him”.

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12), and without the cross and the reconciliation the cross made possible, God’s power could not be displayed in our weakness. In heaven, the cross will forever be at the centre of our worship as we sing of how “worthy is the lamb” (Rev 5:12).

Thinking about these things stretches our minds well beyond our capacity to understand. We should be humbled that God chose to reveal these things to us, that we might get even these glimpses of His unfathomable glory.

He is our God, and by His grace we are His children. When He appears we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.

We are undone!

Deluge: Why - Part 1?



In the aftermath of a natural disaster, when we ask the tough questions and diligently search the Scriptures to see what the Lord has revealed, we see that God is decisive in these events, and that contrary to our instincts, our refuge from the storms of life is to be found in knowing this.

God "works all things after the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11) and governs all things “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’,.. (Isaiah 46:10).

So why do these things happen or become rephrased in light of our previous conclusions; why does the Lord send these calamities? From where we stand as human beings, it seems impossible at one level to imagine any reason that makes sense. The terrible images of carnage and grief beyond what we have ever experienced before flash through our minds as we grapple to find meaning in what seems so brutally indiscriminate.

We must accept that we cannot understand God’s purposes perfectly, because we are not meant to. John 8:23 says “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” John 18:36 reads “My kingdom is not of this world.” Isaiah 55:8-9 says further “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Psalm 145:3 says “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” Isaiah 40:28 emphasizes, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). Finally, Romans 11:33 repeats the same thoughts, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

Scripture is at pains to make sure we understand that God is not like one of us. That in itself is great news!  So we can’t know all the answers, but, as with the previous questions, the Lord has revealed something of His purposes in these things. There are really two levels at which we can ask why these things are sent. At the level of immediate purpose there are many specific examples of the kinds of purposes God has for us in suffering. We’ll look at these in a moment. At the second level, all these purposes are subservient to the ultimate reasons why this “groaning creation” exists as it does. We’ll take a look at the ultimate reasons in the next post.

One thing to keep in mind as we focus on the first category of temporal purposes, as we hinted at in the last post, is that the Bible does not separate types of suffering. From our perspective we would tend to separate natural calamity from persecutions for instance but the Bible does not do that when illustrating its applications. Romans 8 is the example we used before where in verse 35 Paul refers to a broad range of sufferings including natural disaster: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” In second Corinthians 11:25-29, Paul speaks of his own sufferings for the gospel, and again he groups together a wide range of sufferings including those related to nature saying “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” One final example is in the next chapter, in verse 10 of chapter 12, where Paul shares his position in relation to the “thorn” in the flesh which was given Him by God, and which God would not remove. Here Paul says “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

So let’s take an inventory of some of the temporal or immediate purposes God has for suffering as described in Scripture.

1. Judgement
The first temporal purpose God has for suffering is judgment. Especially the Old Testament is riddled with such examples. The most obvious example is the global flood in which the entire world was destroyed except Noah and his family. Genesis 6:13 gives God’s reason saying “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Micah chapter 1 describes the disastrous results of God’s “coming out of His place”, and then says that “All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel.  Nahum 1:3b-8 describes the effects of God’s judgment saying “His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.”

Verse 7 of Nahum 1 is especially interesting in the context of our previous post. In the midst of describing God’s furious judgement, the inspired writer says that the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. Deuteronomy 32:35 says “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.” Proverbs 24:16 says “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”

Finally, for those who do not treasure Christ, suffering and death are God’s judgment. Peter says in 1 Peter 4:17 “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

2. Mercy
God shows His mercy in disasters. In the Olivet discourse. earthquakes are a wake- up call alerting people that the end is near. Similarly, the earthquakes in Revelation are calls to repentance to unbelievers. Disasters draw people’s attention to eternity and to the Lord’s sovereignty, thereby calling them away from eternal destruction and to eternal joy in God’s presence. The joy that await us in eternity far exceeds what we can imagine in this life.

In Job’s personal disaster, God’s declares that "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away" (Job 1:21). Our lives do not belong to us and as Proverbs 111:10 says, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".

In Luke 13, Jesus shows that the falling of a tower in Siloam was a merciful call to repentance when he says “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The clearest illustration of how suffering is merciful, is the death of Christ. It was judgment on Jesus who bore our sins but it was mercy toward us who trust him to bear our punishment (Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24).

Lastly, disasters are a call to Christians to show love and mercy to those affected, that we might be salt and light in the midst of suffering and give an answer to “anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”.

3. Purification

God, in His wisdom uses many things to conform us to the image of Jesus. Job’s sufferings are a clear example of how God uses natural disaster to refine His people. Job is described as being “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” His sufferings, though extreme, were for Job’s benefit, and his willing submission to them shows that Job accepted God’s wisdom in sending them.

The natural reason for disaster is the “groaning of creation” described in Romans 8. In verse 23, Paul says we as Christians groan too, and this groaning is as result of the subjection of creation by God (v 20). Notice though at the end of verse 20 that this subjection was done in hope.

Suffering is also meant to test our faith. John MacArthur puts it this way, “God doesn't have to test any of us so He can find out what's in our heart, God tests us so we can find out. In other words, He assists us in doing that spiritual inventory. If you're shaking your fist at God, if you're wondering why it's happening, if you're fretting all the time and worrying, if you're in anxiety from morning till night, there's a good indication that you have a weak faith. If, on the other hand, you're going through a trial and you find yourself resting in the Lord, having placed it into His care, letting Him bear the burden of it, and going on your way rejoicing as best you can in a difficult situation, waiting for God to show you the way out, then you are seeing for yourself that you possess a strength of faith.”

Suffering comes to humble us too. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 that the thorn God gave him was “to keep me from becoming conceited…” God does promise blessings to His children, especially if they are faithful, but our nature requires that this be tempered or we would become proud.

Suffering also weans us from worldly ways. Like Moses in Hebrews 11:26 who “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt…” God used many trials in his life to draw him away from the life of wealth and worldly success that could have been his in Egypt.

Suffering in this world reminds us that it is a fallen world, and that we are fallen and it points us to the joy that lies before us in eternity. Afflictions prepare us for “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). As Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Suffering reveals what we treasure most in life. In the floods we went through, although there was loss of life, for most people their loss was material. It is never easy to lose your home and your livelihood, but the effect of these losses on us as Christians should not indicate that these things were our treasure. If you loved these things more than Christ, you’re going to question God, and be filled with anxiety. God does not suffer idols in the hearts of His people, and He often removes them. So in your own life, make sure nothing is dearer to you than the Lord. That’s the point of Jesus controversial remarks in Luke 14:26. Christ must be your treasure, or you cannot be His disciple.

Trials teach us to value God’s blessing. In the midst of trials and suffering, if we obey, we receive blessings. Jesus was our example in this. His perfect obedience to the will of the Father through the most extreme suffering is what gave us life. The psalmist says in Psalm 63:3, “Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.”

Finally, God sends trials to make us more useful as we grow in spiritual strength and maturity. Each time you suffer and learn the things God teaches you in it, you become stronger and as you do God uses you more. As Thomas Manton said, "While all things are quiet and comfortable, we live by sense rather than faith. But the worth of a soldier is never known in times of peace."

In summary, Peter has some advice for us…
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6)

Deluge: Hope...



Many who come face-to-face with what scripture teaches will be confronted by the conclusion that God was ultimately decisive in the recent floods. People may have good intentions for supporting the notion that God could, or would, not bring calamity. However, refusing to accept that scripture teaches God is decisive in calamity is an error with potentially serious consequences.

Although it would require omniscience to say for certain, it is likely that this is a response which is characteristic of Christians in modern times. The tentacles of modern social tolerance and the inadvertent effects of our increasingly “comfortable life” seem to have skewed the degree to which we are able to accept the biblical realities of suffering and sovereignty.

By saying that God could or would not act to bring about a calamity, we take an anthropocentric view of God, presuming that He should act as we would act. We need to be on guard that our difficulty in accepting these truths is not undergirded by a feeling that people deserve better than this disaster. As Christians we know what we humans deserve, but there is a vast gulf between mediocre assent to this and the deep sorrow we should feel over our depravity. All of us are sinners. We deserve to perish. Every breath we take is an undeserved gift.

Having said all this, we need to know that our conclusion is good news. God does all things with infinite wisdom and for good purposes. "He also is wise and will bring disaster" (Isaiah 31:2). God is good (Psalm 100:5), and even if what He brings seems not to be good, it must be good or we have to forsake our belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. So, God had good and wise purposes for this tragedy and we must humbly submit to them even if we don’t understand them.

Most importantly, the very thing which we remove out of empathy for those who have lost so much in a well-intentioned attempt to create hope, is the very same thing they need most. If we deny God’s decisive sovereignty in calamity we lose our only hope. If He has no control over this, then He is not in control when we need Him to save us in the hour of our trial, and there is no hope.

Our hope is founded on the death of Jesus Christ to purchase our forgiveness and righteousness for us (Eph 1:7; 2 Cor 5:21) and God’s promise to use His sovereignty to keep us for the inheritance He has promised (Jer 32:40; Rom 8:29-30). We surrender this hope if we sacrifice His sovereignty.

All suffering, including that which comes from natural disasters, is the furnace by which the Lord makes our cold hard hearts malleable, so He can mould and shape us according to His good pleasure. So know that He brought this disaster, for His own wise purposes, and in this know that when you call out to Him, He will answer. Our flesh may not like His answer, but we know that His answer is designed for His glory and our joy – for those who love God, all things work together for good (Rom 8:28).

Further into Romans 8, Paul boldly proclaims God's Everlasting Love by asking “If God is for us, who can be against us?” in verse 31, and then again in verse 35 asking “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” We know he has our sufferings in this disaster in mind, because the list of things which Paul gives to finish verse 35 includes famine – a natural disaster in itself which Paul chooses to be sure we understand that this applies to our kind of suffering.

God’s final word to us in our sufferings comes in the last verses, when through the inspired author God declares that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us… neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In giving Himself to you eternally, through the sacrifice of His precious Son, He has given you the greatest gift He could give, that your joy would be complete forever.

Let what you value most be in the next world, that the appeal of this one would diminish with each passing day...

Deluge: Who or What?

Natural disasters have a way of waking us up to the reality of death, making us think about the sort of issues we don’t usually think about in the relative ease and comfort of our first world lives. To a Christian, coming face-to-face with death and the destruction of the highly predictable world we are accustomed to can confront us with questions about what caused the calamity.

The most common explanation is to say that “God did not cause it, but he can use it for good”. This sort of statement has become a kind of slogan which even people who are not saved affirm in the face of calamity. It sounds reasonable at one level because God is good and compassionate and He is not the author of evil. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Habakkuk 1:13 says “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”

However, does this mean that God could not or would not act to bring about a flood like the one we experienced? Instead of trusting our fallen instincts we need to know what the Lord has revealed in scripture. We can’t believe something just because it sounds right, especially if it contradicts the clear teaching of scripture. So what does the Bible teach? Before we go looking for answers, let’s be sure to recognise that there is the potential for every fiber of our being to want to reject what the Bible says if the answers we find don’t fit with what we feel must be right. We are fallen and we live our lives immersed in a culture that has subtly but very effectively manipulated how we view the world we live in. Scripture says we should “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). So let’s be vigilant and tread carefully…

The book of Job is a natural place to start. The events in chapter one of Job present one of the most compelling incidences of suffering by natural calamity in scripture. Verse 19 describes how Job lost his ten children as a result of a “great wind”. Although Satan was the agent in Job’s affliction we see in verse 12 that it was God who gave him permission. In fact, in verse 8, God initiates the discussion that leads to the affliction by asking Satan “Have you considered my servant Job…?” In verse 21, in responding to the news of this natural disaster Job says “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”.

In chapter 2, the heavenly discussion between God and Satan that initiated the events in chapter 1 is repeated – God asking Satan to consider Job again in verse 3. Then in verse 5 Satan says to God “…stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” Then in verse 7 it says that “Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores”. Here we see that Satan’s delivering this affliction is the result of God’s “stretching out His hand”. Satan is real and his intentions are evil, but he did nothing which God did not permit him to. Then in verse 10 after Satan afflicts Job, Job tells his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Moving further into the book, in Job 9:6 the inspired author says “who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble” and in Job 9:12 he says “Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?” In Job 38:8-11 God asks Job “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, …and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” Job’s understanding of what happened in the first chapters is confirmed towards the end of the book where in Job 42:2 he says in prayer “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Again a few verses later it says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).

There is little doubt in this instance, that God is ultimately decisive in this calamity. But what about the rest of scripture - is Job’s affliction an isolated case? The Psalms are another part of scripture that is filled with suffering and affliction and a number of verses specifically relate to our quest. Psalm 135:6 says “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Psalm 89:9 says “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. (89:9); Psalm 104:32 says [He] looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! Also Psalm 147:18 says “He sends out his word, and … makes his wind blow and the waters flow”.

The book of Isaiah likewise makes it clear that God is sovereign over calamity when in Isaiah 45:7, God says “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. Isaiah 31:2 says “And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words”. The book of Amos asks rhetorically "If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?" (Amos 3:6). Similarly, Lamentations 3:38 says “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”

The global deluge that destroyed the entire world with the exception of Noah and his family is described in Genesis 6. In verse 13, God declares “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” In response to the depravity of Sodom in Genesis 19, the Lord “rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” Another example from the Old Testament is the foreshadowing of the “lifting up” of the Son of Man in Numbers 21, when God responds to the grumblings of Isreal by sending “fiery serpents among the people” which bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

What about the New Testament - do we see the same declaration of ultimate sovereignty over nature and natural disaster? Jesus showed His control over nature when He rebuked the waves in Luke 8:24-25, and commanded unclean spirits in Mark 1:27. The smallest events in nature are shown to be under God’s control including even the death of a sparrow (Matthew 10:29). Also, the very hairs on your head are all numbered according to Matthew 10:29-30.

In Luke 13, Jesus is questioned about the tower in Siloam which fell on and killed some Galileans. His response indicates that the event was an intentional form of temporal judgment saying in verse 5 “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” James refers in James 5:11 to the afflictions of Job as “the outcome of the Lord's dealings”.

Make no mistake, our conclusion is a hard truth. Floods are ultimately from God. In spite of the world’s tendency to attribute disaster to “Mother Nature”, the creation does not have a will of its own. God is sovereign and Satan has no freedom other than what God gives him. God governs everything in creation including natural disasters that result in pain and suffering. That is what the Bible teaches, and in light of that fact, no matter how good our intentions are we cannot say that He was not ultimately decisive in bringing the floods we suffered through.

There is good news though, and we’ll look at that next post…

For now, let us sing to the Lord as David in his Song of Deliverance:

“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me. . . This God—his way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31).