A Comment Worth Reading

I recently received a comment on my blog from a person from Brisbane, Australia. I thought it was good enough to be its own post rather than to remain hidden in the comments section of a previous post, so I am posting it here for your edifcation:

Praise God for the way He leads us by His Spirit into truth as we read His Word. :) I happened on your blog a couple of days ago while googling for a photo of Ken Tada - my husband is reading Joni's memoirs (as I type!) and wanted to see a picture of him. I've been thoroughly enjoying your (and your mum's) writing, and your theological and personal reflections. Thanks so much for sharing them for the edification of your brothers and sisters around the world!I have recently read an article in 'The Briefing' about 'God and the Disabled', by Peter Avery. May I type out a brief section for you? It supports and expands on your realisation..."6. Jesus is the perfect priest who brings us salvation:But sin's hold on God's creatures can only be broken by a perfect priest who offers the perfect sacrifice. The passage I quoted earlier in Leviticus 21[:17-20] isn't mainly about the connection between disabilities and sin; it's about preventing the disabled sons of Aaron from serving as priests in the tabernacle / temple. Talk about discrimination! The Equal Opportunity Commission would have had a field day! But who is the one doing the discriminating? In vs 16, it is clear it's the Lord. It's bad enough that we live in a world where people are discriminated against all the time; why does God do it here in the Bible?The answer is in vs 23: '...he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them'. God discriminated against the disabled sons of Aaron so that our sins could be forgiven. God is holy and we are not. He cannot tolerate imperfection because of his holiness. In the Old Testament sacrificial system, God was teaching his people that we can only approach him through a perfect priest who offers a perfect sacrifice. That perfect priest could only be Jesus. So the Old Testament priests could not have any physical blemishes as they were fore-shadowing Jesus, the perfect priest. The writer of Hebrews says of him,
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. (Heb 7:26-28)As the father of a disabled daughter, you can probably understand my dislike of discrimination. But I rejoice in and am glad about the fact that God discriminated against the disabled so that our sins could be forgiven and we could come into a relationship with him." taken from Peter Avery, 'Then shall the lamb leap like a deer: God and the disabled', The Briefing Feb 2007, Issue 341, pg 15-18So no, God's 'discrimination' against blemished animals and priests wasn't in an 'absolutist' sense, but because they were the fore-shadowing (or 'type') of the perfect lamb-sacrifice -and- perfect High Priest to come - our Lord Jesus. As always, there was purposefulness and wisdom to His actions that we creatures clamour sometimes to understand, but how cool when it all clicks, and we see His glory so much more.thanks again for your great encouragement, kn. (Brisbane, Australia) Publish this comment. Reject this comment. ",1]
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For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. (Heb 7:26-28)As the father of a disabled daughter, you can probably understand my dislike of discrimination. But I rejoice in and am glad about the fact that God discriminated against the disabled so that our sins could be forgiven and we could come into a relationship with him."taken from Peter Avery, 'Then shall the lamb leap like a deer: God and the disabled', The Briefing Feb 2007, Issue 341, pg 15-18So no, God's 'discrimination' against blemished animals and priests wasn't in an 'absolutist' sense, but because they were the fore-shadowing (or 'type') of the perfect lamb-sacrifice -and- perfect High Priest to come - our Lord Jesus. As always, there was purposefulness and wisdom to His actions that we creatures clamour sometimes to understand, but how cool when it all clicks, and we see His glory so much more.thanks again for your great encouragement, kn. (Brisbane, Australia)

Compensation

I love it when every day life teaches invaluable eternal lessons.

Such an opportunity was given to me in the past 24 hours.

Yesterday morning, on the way to work, I collided with another car and put a huge dent in my front wheel basin. I am currently working for AmeriCorps, which means I get a small living stipend. The stipend is intentionally set below the poverty level so that we can empathize and understand the community that we are serving.

Well, $750 insurance deductibles and poverty level living stipends do not go hand-in-hand. Add to this a drunk driver hit my car about a month ago and cracked up the other side of my car and due to his lack of car insurance, it will require an additional $750 insurance deductible for those repairs. Not to mention the repairs to the vehicle I collided with yesterday morning.

That's a lot of money.

Being in the situation that I am in, I prayed a lot yesterday about God providing funds for me to fix the damages on my car. I was tempted a time or two to curse my current living stipend and look back with longing to the Egypt of my former salary.

On the surface, it looks like my problem is an economic one. My current job, while it affords me the pleasure of serving the poor - a very Biblical thing to do -- it does not afford me the luxury of buying food and clothing or fixing my car. So surely, my solution is as simple as finding a nice paying job, right? After all, I'm college educated, this would not be a hard task in the least to accomplish.

But I guess if I could solve all my own problems that would eliminate my need to cry out to God. And eliminating the need to cry out to God means robbing myself of opportunities to see His grace in my life. I cannot be a recipient of his grace if I don't need it.

Rabbit Trail: Two weeks ago I was at the bank and was informed that I had over drafted my checking account. I was devastated. I had been hoarding a $100 check from my parents for over four months in hopes to spend it on my business trip in D.C. As I flew to D.C. with empty pockets, I was disappointed that all of my spending money was gone. I had hoped to buy some much needed clothes with that money.

Two days before I flew back home, I met a friend in D.C. for dinner while my boss went shopping at Macy's. We met up later at the hotel room and my boss came in beaming, three shopping bags chock full of clothes. To my utter shock and delight - the clothes were for me. (Apparently they had some great clearance racks). They were all designer labels - something I have never owned or afforded in my life. When I got home, I tallied up all of the original prices on each price tag and it came to $1200.

My point in all this? What would I have gotten with my hoarded $100? God took the last dime I had and compensated me TWELVE times what I could afford. But he couldn't compensate me until he first depleted me of all of my own resources. This way, HE gets the glory, not me. It's not my job or my parent's check - it's just sheer grace.

So jump back now to the car situation. Where am I going to get $1500 for my car repairs?

After I prayed this morning for the $1500, I went to my trusty "Streams in the Desert" devotional (Mrs. Charles Cowman). The verse for today's entry was an old favorite - the one given to my mom the day I was born --
2 Corinthians 4:17 in the Weymouth translation:

For this, our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a weight of glory.

I saw two amazing things in this, one of which was pointed out by the author of the devotional, another which came via my current study of the book of Numbers.

"Achieving" the author says, is the key word. That we are in essence being "compensated for our sufferings." We do not suffer in vain because according to Paul, these afflictions are achieving an end.

The word "compensation" reached off the page and smacked me. For, isn't my entire prayer this morning, "Lord, I need $1500?" Will God give me the $15o0? Yes, I have no doubt that he will. But what I learned this morning is that God has a compensation of eternal value -- value that makes $1500 American dollars look like the useless scraps of paper that they are.

Eternal compensation. We are EARNING WAGES for eternity. Currency that we are earning towards eternity when we suffer. The dent in my car isn't just an accident or even a trial....it is a paycheck. Eternal wages.

This shifts my thinking from, "Oh my, how in the world am I gonna scrape up $1500" to "$1500? What a joke. The God of heaven sees me worthy to dent my car, so that I will call upon him, so that he will provide, so that my needs will be met, so that I will praise him, so that I will trust him more, so that I and others will see his glory..." I'm getting paid for this dent - and like my recent shopping spree -- he is giving me twelve times the $1500 I need because in addition to fixing my car (which I know he will) I am getting eternal compensation for my trials.

The second thing I found in this verse (that linked to something I just learned in Numbers) is the word "weight." A weight of glory. What an unusual phrase. Metaphorically speaking, "weight" often implies a burden. This word juxtaposes the phrases of the verse beautifully: your weight of trial will turn into a weight of glory.

But there's something hovering below the surface that perhaps makes the devotional author's "compensation" theory even stronger. In the Old Testament, the Israelites paid temple taxes. This was paid by shekels. I have always thought that shekels were coins that equate to our nickels and quarters. However, in reading an article in my archeological study Bible, I discovered that an ancient shekel was not a coin, it was actually a weight. The shekel value was not determined by price, but by the weight represented by different sized pieces of metal. So, in Old Testament culture, "weight" was equal to currency!

In light of this, ponder anew the phrase, "an eternal weight of glory." Could this at all be like us saying, "An eternal gold mine of glory" or "An eternal million dollar winning lottery ticket of glory"?

So, how does all of this relate to a blog about physical deformities and disabilities? I think the link is obvious. When we suffer, we look for meaning and understanding behind how or why a loving God would inflict us with such weighty sorrow. I just want to encourage the broken in heart today by saying, you are earning an eternal compensation for your perceived losses. Drop to your knees and praise and worship our heavenly banker - for his generosity is unfathomable.

The Unbiblical Absolutes of Self-Protection

This excerpt is taken from John Piper's book, The Roots of Endurance (pages 18-20). I read this section a lot - especially when I am tempted to forget that God's sovereignty is always directed with intentionality and love. This writing is a real buzz-kill if you're looking to spend the evening feeling sorry for yourself! I pray that it will challenge and encourage you the same way it has for me.


The Unbiblical Absolutes of Self-Protection
There is a mind-set in the prosperous West that we deserve pain-free, trouble-free existence. When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some systerm and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping, so that we have no time or energy left over for serving others.

This mind-set gives a trajectory to life that is almost universal - namely, away from stress and toward comfort and safety and relief. Then within that very natural trajectory some people begin to think of ministry and find ways of serving God inside the boundaries set by the aims of self-protection. Then churches grow up in this mind-set, and it never occures to anyone in such a community of believers that choosing discomfrot, stress, and danger might be the right thing - even the normal, biblical thing - to do.

I have found myself in coversation with Christians for whom it is simply a given that you do not put yourself or your family at risk. The commitment to safety and comfort is an unquestioned absolute. The damends of being a Christian in the twenty-first century will probably prove to be a rude awakening for such folks. Since we h
ave not embraced the Calvary road voluntarily, God may simply catapult us onto it as he did the home-loving saints in Acts 11:19: "Those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word."

Stress and Danger Are Normal
One way or the other, Christ will bring his church to realize that "in the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33); that "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted: (2 Timothy 3:12); that we are called to "share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God" (2 Timothy 1:8); that "we...groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23); that "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for [Christ's] sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:35); and that "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

IF we will not freely take our cross and follow Jesus (Mark 8:34) on the Calvary road, it may be thrust on us. It would be better to hear the warnings now and wake up to biblical reality. Existence in this fallen world will not be pain-free and trouble-free. There will be groaning because of our finitude and fallenness, and many afflictions because of our calling (Romans 8:23; Psalm 34:19). Frustration is normal, disappointment is normal, sickness is normal. Conflict, persecution, danger, stress -- they are all normal. The mind-set that moves away from these will move away from reality and away from Christ. Golgotha was not a suburb of Jerusalem.

Christians Move Toward Need, Not Comfort
For the apostle Paul, following Christ meant bearing the marks of his suffering. "We are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything" (2 Corinthians 6:8-10). Being a Christian should mean that our trajectory is toward need, regardless of danger and discomfort and stress. In other words, Christians characteristically will make life choices that involve putting themselves and their families at temporal risk while enjoying eternal security. "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing...having nothing, yet possessing everything."

Is it Uncommon for a Christian to Suffer?

While Christians will never have to suffer the wrath of God, it is no secret that we will have to endure temporal sufferings. I have been pondering lately the Prosperity Theology that is popular in American culture today. While it is being reported that "real Christians" do not suffer and people with "strong" or "genuine" faith are healed of their diseases...I wondered how those sort of statements match up with the reality of Christians in the world who experience pain on a daily basis.

Is suffering really a relevant topic? Is it something that is commonly experienced in the Church, or is pain, as Job friends so erroneously pointed out, just the product of God's judgment and unconfessed sin?

I decided to do a few Google searches. I guess I figured if there are not a lot of suffering Christians in the world, perhaps some key searches would turn up, "Sorry, no results found for your search" or maybe, "5 of 5 links displayed."

Here is what I found after a few off-the-top-of-my-head searches:

GOOGLE SEARCH # OF CORRESPONDING WEB PAGES
Suffering Makes us Strong 39,400,000
Suffering and Christ 13,600,000
Why do I suffer? 108,000,000
I love God but I still suffer 20,600,000
Why does God make us suffer? 22,800,000
Purpose of suffering? 36,200,000
Do Christians suffer? 9,050,000

108,000,000 people go online to ask the question, "Why do I suffer?"

It is easy to read this sentence with the emphasis on the word why, as in, "Why do I suffer?" But I wonder if it could not also be interpreted by emphasizing another word in the phrase, namely, "Why do I suffer?"

Maybe one reason over one hundred million people are asking this question is not because they do not know the source or purpose of suffering, but in light of what is being preached in many churches today (that good, godly, "real" Christians do not suffer) they wonder why in light of all their good works and love for Christ, they are "failing."

Preaching that Christians will not suffer will not automatically decrease suffering. It will perhaps, however, cause godly men and women who are deeply loved by God to question His faithfulness and goodness to them because God is not treating them the way their pastors say He should be treating them.

Suffering is real. The Bible tells us over and over again to expect suffering and to in fact, not be surprised when it happens. The Bible also teaches us how to prepare for suffering, how to respond to it, and what the rewards for overcoming it will be.

Verses in Scripture that talk about our "not falling" or our "not suffering" should be read in a broader, Christ-exalting, eternal sense. Namely, we will not fall away from God and ultimately lose our salvation. We will not suffer the loss of our souls or suffer the sheer terror of facing God's wrath on judgment day apart from the intercession of Christ Jesus.

Until then, we are called to suffer and to rejoice insofar as we share in Christ's sufferings, so that we may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

Bible Reading Plans

I posted an excerpt on Tuesday from Don Whitney's book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, which is proving to be a very helpful, sobering, encouraging, and convicting read!

Another tidbit that Whitney puts forth in the first chapter of his book is that the average Bible on cassette series has proven that the entire Bible can be read aloud in the space of 71 hours - which is about the same number of hours the average American spends watching television in two weeks time.

Yes, this is acceptable behavior for the “average" American - but is it acceptable behavior for Americans who believe the verses that say, "You are not of this world" and "be holy because I am holy" and "the earth and its desires shall pass away but the man who does the will of God, lives forever"?

I certainly don't expect anyone to sit down and read the Bible in 71 hours, nor would I even conclude that such a rushed reading would even be profitable. But how about a few minutes a day five times a week? Does that seem reasonable?

I thought for a few days over this post, thinking that the exhortation, while a good one, didn't fit the truncated subject matter of this particular blog. But upon further contemplation, I realized that one of the hardest obstacles to living life with a disability or a deformed face is the fact that you feel, everywhere you go, that you don't belong. This causes depression, isolation, bitterness, self-pity, despair, and complacency. And I wonder if perhaps some of those problems might not be hacked away at by putting away the mirror and picking up the Word?

May the Lord convict and encourage and inspire and motivate us to read and love and apply and share his Word!


Here are some Read-Through-the-Bible programs available online or for download:

Bethlehem Baptist Church's program (Scroll down to the "Weekly Fighter Verse" sidebar. There are two links: Print Program Part One and Print Program Part Two) Acrobat, PDF files.

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan ( printable PDF file)

Read the Bible in a Year by E-mail (sign up for daily e-mail alerts)

One Year Bible Online

Click here for reading plans that allow you to read the:

Whole Bible in a year
Old Testament in a year
New Testament in a year
Old Testament in two years
Words of Jesus 4 times in one year
Whole Bible chronologically in a year
Whole Bible chronologically in a year (option 2)
New Testament Letters three times a year
New Testament and Proverbs twice, Psalms once in a year
New Testament and Psalms twice, rest of Bible once in a year
Proverbs in a month
Gospels in a month
Psalms in a month

Taste and See That the Lord is Good

I began reading Don Whitney's, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life last night and was amazed and convicted and inspired and touched by this account found on page 35.

We should all have the passion for reading God's Word of the man in this story. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner, in his book, The Wonder of the Word of God, tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters. One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, "I can read the Bible using my tongue." At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times. If he can do that, can you discipline yourself to read the Bible?

"Undeserved" Human Pain

This excerpt was taken from the article, The Problem of Pain, based on the C. S. Lewis book of that same title.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? Exodus 18:25.

Probably four-fifths of all human suffering, says C.S.Lewis in The Problem of Pain, derives from our misusing nature, or hurting others. We, not God, produced racks, whips, prisons, guns and bombs.

Because we are rebels-against-God who must lay down our arms, our other pains may indeed constitute God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world to surrender. There is a universal feeling that bad people ought to suffer: without a concept of 'retribution' punishment is rendered unjust (what can be more immoral than to inflict suffering on me for the sake of deterring others if I do not deserve it?). But until evil persons find evil unmistakably present in their existence, in the form of pain, they are enclosed in illusion. Pain may provide the only opportunity they may have for amendment. It is hard to turn our thoughts to God when things are going well. To 'have all we want' is a terrible saying when 'all' does not include God.

So God troubles our selfishness, which stands between us and the recognition of our need. God's divine humility stoops to conquer, even if we choose him merely as an alternative to hell. Yet even this he accepts!

Lord, forgive me if I regard you as I do a heart-lung machine - there for emergencies, but hoping I'll never have to use it. Amen......

Here is the Amazon.com book review for C. S. Lewis', The Problem of Pain:

The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would an all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?" Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because our finite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that God loves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not more than he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "Divine Omnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds in lifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating these topics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallow and even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honest about his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being made perfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded that he is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through the dissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heaven and for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naively wish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for his children, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with his charming wit and pious mind. --Jill Heatherly

If God Wills Disease Why Should We Try to Eradicate It?

This is the latest Freshwords article (written by Pastor John Piper).

This question arises from the biblical teaching that all things are ultimately under God’s control. “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:10). “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6). “He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35). “[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

This means that God governs all calamity and all disease. Satan is real and has a hand in it, but he is not ultimate and can do nothing but what God permits (Job 1:12-2:10). And God does not permit things willy-nilly. He permits things for a reason. There is infinite wisdom in all he does and all he permits. So what he permits is part of his plan just as much as what he does more directly.

Therefore this raises the question: If God wills disease why should we try to eradicate it? This is a crucial question for me because I have heard Christians say recently that believing in the sovereignty of God hinders Christians from working hard to eradicate diseases like malaria and tuberculosis and cancer and AIDS. They think the logic goes like this: If God sovereignly wills all things, including malaria, then we would be striving against God to invest millions of dollars to find a way to wipe it out.

That is not the logic the Bible teaches. And it is not what Calvinists have historically believed. In fact, lovers of God’s sovereignty have been among the most aggressive scientists who have helped subdue creation and bring it under the dominion of man for his good—just like Psalm 8:6 says, “You have given him [man] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”

The logic of the Bible says: Act according to God’s “will of command,” not according to his “will of decree.” God’s “will of decree” is whatever comes to pass. “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15). God’s “will of decree” ordained that his Son be betrayed (Luke 22:22), ridiculed (Isaiah 53:3), mocked (Luke 18:32), flogged (Matthew 20:19), forsaken (Matthew 26:31), pierced (John 19:37), and killed (Mark 9:31). But the Bible teaches us plainly that we should not betray, ridicule, mock, flog, forsake, pierce, or kill innocent people. That is God’s “will of command.” We do not look at the death of Jesus, clearly willed by God, and conclude that killing Jesus is good and that we should join the mockers.

In the same way, we do not look at the devastation of malaria or AIDS and conclude that we should join the ranks of the indifferent. No. “Love your neighbor” is God’s will of command (Matthew 22:39). “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is God’s will of command (Matthew 7:12). “If your enemy is hungry, feed him” is God’s will of command (Romans 12:20). The disasters that God ordains are not aimed at paralyzing his people with indifference, but mobilizing them with compassion.

When Paul taught that the creation was subjected to futility (Romans 8:20), he also taught that this subjection was “in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (v. 21). There is no reason that Christians should not embrace this futility-lifting calling now. God will complete it in the age to come. But it is a good thing to conquer as much disease and suffering now in the name of Christ as we can.

In fact, I would wave the banner right now and call some of you to enter vocations of research that may be the means of undoing some of the great diseases of the world. This is not fighting against God. God is as much in charge of the research as he is of the disease. You can be an instrument in his hand. This may be the time appointed for the triumph that he wills to bring over the disease that he ordained. Don’t try to read the mind of God from his mysterious decrees of calamity. Do what he says. And what he says is: “Do good to everyone” (Galatians 6:10).

Longing to relieve suffering with you,

Pastor John

Don't Waste Your Cancer

That's the title of John Piper's most recent article, written on the eve of his surgery. For more information and updates on Pastor Piper's prostate cancer and recent surgery and prayer requests, click here.

I think this is all very applicable here because any one of us can remove the word "Cancer" from this article and put in our disability, our struggle, our issue, our pain...and all ten points apply. I was blessed by these exhortations and hope you will be also.


Here are his ten points:

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
   
   
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
   
   
3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
   
   
4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
   
   
5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
   
   
6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
   
   
7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
   
   
8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
   
   
9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
   
   
10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

The Pursuit of Pure Joy

This article will not satisfy the one who sees only morbidity and cruelty and irony and pain in the Christian walk – nor will it pacify the soul that denies the reality of all suffering and sees only prosperity, giddiness, laughter, and good health as the sole sign of God’s favor. And so before I go on, I ask the reader to critique my thoughts here with some balance, grace, and common sense.

I believe that in Christ there are pleasures forevermore and infinite joy and promises of goodness and provision and kindness. God is kind. God is generous. And God is an immeasurably happy God.

I also believe that this world is full of toils and snares and tragedies and suffering and that the Christian is often not spared from such realities.

This brings to mind the lyrics to the great old Swedish hymn, “Day by Day”:

Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best
Lovingly, it's part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and with rest.

Pain and pleasure…toil and rest. Not simply one or the other.

I have, believe it or not, spoken with several Christians over the course of the last couple of weeks who have all taken issue with the subject of joy. You would assume this is something we could all agree on. After all, joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit – something we are required to seek and obtain. It is not forbidden fruit.

And yet, these particular individuals who I have spoken with have argued that if we seek joy in God, we are no longer seeking God, but joy. And so in seeking joy, we become idolaters.

I disagree with this logic. Mainly, I disagree with it because it exposes blasphemy at its very core. To say that seeking joy is seeking something other than God is to say that joy lies outside of God. Or that joy can be found in things other than God. I completely disagree.

Joy – pure and real, biblical joy – can be found nowhere but in Jesus Christ.

You cannot have joy independent of Christ, nor can you have Christ independent of joy. You either have both or you have neither. If you cannot agree with this statement, you may have incorrectly defined what it means to have a relationship with Christ, or more probably, you have failed to correctly define joy.

Do not confuse joy with euphoria. True joy incorporates contentment and satisfaction. Feeling pleasure and having joy are two completely different things. Joy. among other things, includes an understanding of the sovereignty of God and requires faith and discernment.

Pleasure is something all human beings have the capacity to feel repeatedly over the course of their life time in temporary, limited spurts. Our brain releases something called Dopamine and depending upon the amount of Dopamine released, we will feel bursts of physical pleasure. Dopamine can be released while watching sports, eating a donut, or by cashing a paycheck. Drug highs occur when a drug tricks the brain into releasing more Dopamine than it is supposed to, resulting in an overwhelming sense of momentary physical pleasure.

This all, however, has nothing to do with joy. A person completed depleted of all Dopamine can still experience joy in the Lord, because biblical joy has nothing to do with physical feelings of pleasure, it has to do with faith and a correct understanding of the character of God.

James 1:2 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you meet trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

Here we see the Bible redefine two common human emotions for something much deeper. It takes our word for “trials” and redefines it in the next phrase as “the testing of your faith.” Because trials equate to sanctification, the Bible tells us that the proper response during “trials” is not to pout, whine, or get angry, but to consider it joy!

I am also intrigued by the word “consider.” The word “consider” has many definitions in the English language: think, ponder, heed, regard, judge, and believe are a few of them.

Interesting. When we “consider” something, we are testing something that isn’t instinctively apparent. James doesn’t say our trials are joy – but he tells us to “consider” them to be; to ponder our trials and judge them against our Biblical discernment, and believe that they are. Belief is indicative of having faith. There isn’t a word in this verse about enjoying the trial or having fun during the trial or wanting the trial to be prolonged – but only an exhortation to beat against the goads of human logic and to consider that something much deeper than a trial is really going on.

Scripture tells us that “because of the joy set before him, Christ endured the cross.”

Here is where we are forced to realize that “joy” may be defined biblically a bit differently than we traditionally have defined it.

The cross was agonizing and painful. Christ suffered physical pain, verbal abuse, the betrayal of friends, and the shame and humiliation of hanging on the cross naked. I don’t think “joy” in this context means that he was delighting in his present circumstances.

Christ’s joy was an act of faith – setting his mind on what was to come and what was to be accomplished through his suffering. Knowing that the sting of death would be removed, sinners would be saved, the serpent’s head would be crushed, and God’s name would be glorified as the result of his suffering -- and caring far more about these things than he did about his own body or physical comfort.

I think this is where most of us go wrong. Our own bodies are used as a thermometer to determine whether or not joy is being accomplished. Nothing could be more deceptive.

It all comes down to how you define joy.

If joy is wrapped up in prosperity, riches, money, vacations, good-looking friends, physical beauty, new cars, health, an impressive job title….then yes, pursuing joy will make you an idolater. However, there is a difference between pursuing joy and pursuing things that you perceive will result in your acquiring of joy.

But if you understand that biblical joy has in mind -- not feelings -- but a posture of unshakeable trust and faith during times of crisis and trial – you will find that joy can be found nowhere outside of Christ and the one who pursues Christ cannot be an idolater.

The Right Use of Serious Illness

Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher and theologian (1623-1662) was plagued with much suffering and poor health for the duration of his short life. Before his death at the age of thirty-nine, he wrote a lengthy prayer entitled, "The Right Use of Serious Illness." Here is a short excerpt from that prayer.

O Lord, whose spirit is so good and gracious in all things, and who art so merciful that not only the prosperities, but also the distresses which happen to Thine elect are the effects of Thy mercy, grant me grace not to act like a heathen in the state to which Thy justice has brought me; but that, like a true Christian, I may acknowledge Thee for my Father and my God, in whatsoever circumstances I am placed...

Thou gavest me health to be spent in serving Thee; and I perverted it to a use altogether profane. Now Thou hast sent me a sickness for my correction: O suffer me not to use this likewise to provoke Thee by my impatience. If my heart has been filled with the love of the world, while I was in possession of strength, destroy my vigor to promote my salvation...

O Lord, as at the instant of death I shall find myself separated from the world, stripped of all things, and standing alone in Thy presence, to answer to Thy justice for all the movements of my heart; grant that I may consider myself, in this disease, as in kind of death, separated from the world, stripped of all the objects of my affections, placed alone in Thy presence, to implore of Thy mercy the conversion of my heart; and that thus I may enjoy great consolation in knowing that Thou art now sending me a sort of death, for the display of Thy mercy, before Thou sendest me death in reality, for the display of Thy justice.

...Grant me grace, O Lord, to join Thy consolations to my sufferings, that I may suffer like a Christian. I pray not to be exempted from pain...but I pray that I may not be abandoned to the pains of nature without the comforts of Thy Spirit. Grant, O Lord, that...I may conform myself to Thy will; and that being sick as I now am, I may glorify Thee in my sufferings...Unite me to Thyself, fill me Thyself, and with Thy Holy Spirit. So that, being filled by Thee, it may be no longer I who live or suffer, but Thou, O my Saviour, who livest and sufferest in me; that having thus been a small partaker of Thy sufferings, Thou mayest fill me completely with...glory...Amen.

Craniofacial Birth Defect Research

I just read an article posted on the USC Newsroom website. Though the article is a few years old, there are some very interesting statistics included regarding cleft palate births.

• One in 700 American children is born with cleft lip or cleft palate, although the incidence is one in 300 for native Americans and one in 500 for Hispanic and Asian populations.
• Every child born with this condition needs four major surgeries,” said Shuler, director of USC’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology. “In California, these multiple surgeries cost the state’s children’s services agency an average of $1.5 million per child

Incidentally, the article concludes by saying:

“Some of these birth defects are genetic, some are environmental and some are both,” Shuler said, “but they all result from mistakes during fundamental reactions that occur as the craniofacial complex forms.”

On one level, I can read that paragraph and understand and agree completely with every word. From a medical, physiological, and development perspective, we can determine what is "normal" and "abnormal" by the frequency and rarity of which something occurs.

However, viewing the sentence through a spiritual lens creates some tension. When referring to babies supernaturally birthed by a Creator, we must ponder what words like "mistake" do to misrepresent the sovereign and intentional nature of God.

To believe that God knits us together in our mother's womb and to also believe that sometimes mistakes occur in the womb, is to conclude that God has made a mistake. But Scripture says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. (That verse isn't just for the pretty people)!

Is living with a deformed face difficult? Yes.
Is it painful? Yes
Do I wish it would go away? Yes.
Do I believe it was a huge mistake and God dropped the ball? No.

I know there are occasions when we have to use words like "normal" and "mistake" -- I point this out only because I want to make it abundantly clear that, biblically, God doesn't make mistakes when he knits us together. Our lives (and faces) are not the result of freak accidents or uncontrollable circumstances, or fate, of bad luck, or the sin of our parents, or whatever other lie we have conjured up and come to believe. And that doesn't just go for those of us with deformed faces - it goes for everybody.

I Saw Joni Dance

The following article was written by Sam Storm of Enjoying God Ministries. Sam was at the Desiring God national conference with us a couple of weekend ago. Sam, like myself, and hundreds others, no doubt, saw Joni "dancing" in her wheelchair as the choir sang, "We Are Marching in the Light of God." It was truly a very moving sight to behold.

I Saw Joni Dance
Sam Storms
October 10, 2005
One of the highlights of the Desiring God National Conference this past weekend was the appearance of Joni Eareckson Tada on Saturday night. As most of you know, Joni, a quadriplegic, was paralyzed 38 years ago in a diving accident. She is going to turn 56 years of age next week.

Joni, together with her husband Ken, and a team from Joni and Friends Ministries, were on their way to England and then to Africa, but arranged to stop over in Minneapolis at John Piper's request and address the conference on the theme of Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. Needless to say, it is doubtful that anyone present, whether those of us in the audience or any of the speakers, has suffered the way Joni has. And few understand its relation to the sovereignty of God with the biblical clarity and wisdom that she does.

She delivered a stunningly great message. That in itself isn't news, for Joni has been speaking on this theme for many years and the clarity of her convictions remains strong and articulate. I first met Joni in 1991 when we were speakers at a Ligonier Conference hosted by R. C. Sproul in Orlando, Florida. I felt so honored to meet her and even more so when she agreed to write the Foreword to my book, "To Love Mercy: Becoming a Person of Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness" (NavPress; now out of print).

But this past Saturday night I saw something that was as impressive, if not more so, than anything I heard. The worship that night began with the rousing song, "We are Marching in the Light of God" (at least, I think that's the title). It was great to hear so many Reformed folk singing and, yes, actually moving (ever so slightly!) while they sang! But nothing could compare with what was happening on the right hand side of the stage.

Joni handles her wheelchair as deftly as any Nascar driver on a racetrack. No sooner had the music begun than Joni began to "dance". As much as a quadriplegic can dance, she danced. Joni has just enough movement and strength in her hands and shoulders to grip the controls on her chair and maneuver herself without the aid of others. Suddenly the chair began to move with the music. She thrust forward, then backwards, then forwards again, then backwards. Smoothly, and yet with obvious passion, she turned to the right, then the left, then the right again.

I can't prove it, but my guess is that 2,500 pairs of eyes in that auditorium were fixed on the dancing quadriplegic! Suddenly, the forward and backward and side to side movements gave way to spinning. Well, as much as a paralyzed person can spin. Joni began to turn her chair in circles, first clockwise, then back again. If she ceased her movements, it was only so that she could lift her contorted hands as high as her paralysis would allow. It wasn't very high, but who's measuring!

How Joni moved and "danced" is secondary. What's amazing is THAT she did. What struck me, as I trust it struck others, was that a woman who has suffered so horribly and painfully and persistently for 38 years so loves her God and finds him so utterly worthy of her trust and hope that she WANTED to dance.

Joni shared in her message how she struggled spiritually in the early days and months after her accident. She wrestled with bitterness and self-pity and anger at God and longed to die rather than live in that condition. But here she was, 38 years later, celebrating God, enjoying God, honoring and glorifying God. Not simply in her mind or her spirit but with her body as best that body could worship.

I was standing, as were most of the others. All of us could choose when to sit down, were we to tire of being on our feet. We could easily clap or shove our hands into our pockets. Throughout the conference, up till that night, I had taken for granted that I could walk out of the auditorium under my own power and feed myself and tie my shoes and bathe and run and go to the bathroom without anyone's help. Joni, and others like her, don't take that for granted, because they can't do any of those things. Yet, there she was, "dancing" in joy and delight and singing, "We are Marching in the Light of God"! Marching indeed.

I thought to myself, "What she wouldn't give to do what you and I can but won't." I'm talking about worshiping God with her body. She longs to praise and celebrate her God, not simply in spirit and mind and soul, but with her arms and legs and hands as well. That comes easily for the rest of us, at least it does in the physical sense. Yet, many Christians are terrified of raising their hands or kneeling or clapping or, dare I say it, dancing?

I'm not saying that everyone has to worship in the same way. I'm not saying that you and I are obligated to any particular physical expression when we praise our glorious God. But perhaps we need to think a bit more than we do about how to worship as holistic beings, men and women whose bodies have been bought with a price and are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to put thoughts in Joni's mind or words in her mouth. But I can't help but wonder if every once in a while she looks out on an audience, and says: "Do they have any idea what a glorious gift and privilege it is to be able to celebrate and thank God and honor him with their bodies? I don't understand why they stand there like vertical cadavers." Actually, I don't think Joni would ever say anything like that. I think she's far too humble, too mature and obsessed with her God than to use precious energy to criticize the rest of us for how we do or don't worship the Lord.

So, let me put those words in my mouth and speak them to myself (and to you, if you think they apply). Sam, do you have any idea what a glorious gift and privilege it is to be able to celebrate and thank God and honor him with your body? There are many others who would give almost anything to be able to do what you can, but often won't. Yes, of course, worship is first and fundamentally an issue of the heart. It is the attitude of our minds and the passion of our souls and the commitment of our wills that we bring to God as we declare his majesty and proclaim his mighty works. But as I said, we are more than minds. We are bodies. We will always be bodies. So let us honor God with them, however that may seem fitting to you as you consider the magnitude of divine grace and mercy and love and beauty.

I know how self-conscious people can be in a crowd, especially a Christian crowd. What will others think? What will they say? Will I look like a fool? A weakling? An overly emotional, theological lightweight? I don't think Joni cared what any of us thought. Perhaps if the time comes when she is supposed to worship us, she'll give it some consideration. Until then (which is never, of course), she's only concerned with what God thinks.

Finally, the greatest thing in all this is what it tells us, not about Joni, but about her God. What kind of God is this who can inspire such freedom and joy in one who, from a human point of view, would appear to have every reason to hate him? What kind of God is this who can evoke such confidence and trust in a person who is so horribly disabled? What kind of God is this who has the qualities and characteristics and attributes and beauty and glory that he can be found worthy of the praise and gratitude and "dancing" of a woman who's spent the last 38 years in a wheelchair? Wow! Now that's some God!

---

Disabilities and Abortion

A friend sent me a link this morning to an article entitled, The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have. The writer of the article has a grown daughter with Down's Syndrome and is tackling the tough issue of prenatal testing used to weed out children with Disabilities from the general populous.

I could say a hundred different things right now. There are so many downsides to a world without disabled children! Even now, with all of its flaws, America has a lot of facades -- even our freeways and trash dumpsters have to be situated in the midst of planted flower beds. In a world of poverty and suffering and war and terror, America is the Disneyland of the planet. We look around at the pretty flower boxes and children laughing and perfectly manicured lawns and smiling caricatures and sno cone machines and think, "This is reality."

But it is not reality. Disabilities are, among many other things, mercy to a dying world. When we look at quarter of a million dollar houses and bright red Corvettes, we think, "What a wonderful world!" When we see children with disabilities, we are reminded, if even for a moment, that life doesn't always run according to our plans. For a brief moment, our false sense of reality is shaken - we are forced to realize we live in a fallen world where people get sick, people suffer, and where all of us will eventually die.

In America, those thought are all buried beneath layer upon layer of funny T.V. shows, restaurants, Krispy Kreme donuts, new cars, vacations, paychecks, and shoe shopping. Name your distraction - we all have a million of them.

It is not wise, nor healthy, nor beneficial to go through life never realizing that we are sailing on a sinking ship. Reality is a good thing to taste now and then. Never thinking about death or growing old will only make those inevitable fates all the harder to deal with when they happen to you, and they both will.

I believe that God has a thousand good purposes behind Disabilities. The one I am highlighting here is only one of them. But let me tell you, from a personal standpoint -- anytime I think life is designed around my having fun or being comfortable - or that God is designed around making me happy -- all I have to do is look in a mirror and see a face full of scars to be reminded that life is much deeper and more difficult than the American media would have me believe.

Interacting with children and families with Disabilities is difficult. By that, I mean, that it takes more thought and care to meet their needs. It can be intimidating. There is always risk of offense or saying something foolish or something wrong. There is the temptation to rudely stare or ask probing questions that are too personal. And there is the gut-wrenching empathy that we must wrestle with for days after the encounter as we wonder why some people are called to suffer so much in this world.

But these are all good things, despite being difficult or uncomfortable. Learning how to deal with people compassionately, learning how to judge a person on the inside rather that the outside, learning how to weep with those who weep -- these are all good, character-building, Christ-like attributes, and Disabilities is one place in the world where we can find a place to nurture those characteristics and behaviors.

Scripture says that God chooses the weak and despised things of the world to shame the wise. We would do best to follow God's lead. And by His grace, we will learn to value the things that He values.

Desiring God Conference on Suffering

I am swiping a large portion of this blog entry verbatim from JT's blog. Desiring God is hosting a conference this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center (Minnesota). The speakers will be: John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Steve Saint, and Mark Talbot. You can view there bios here.

The Desiring God National Conference--Suffering and the Sovereignty of God--will begin tomorrow night. Tim Challies and Doug McHone will be live-blogging the conference. So check their sites this weekend if you're interested.

I know that everyone at DG and all of the speakers would deeply appreciate your prayers. Many of us have the sense that this will be a very significant conference. A number of the speakers not only have a profound theology of suffering, but are currently dealing with various kinds of pain and suffering in their own lives.

Keep your eyes on the Desiring God website as audio and conference CDs will be available sometime after the conference.

For the Least of These

Several months ago, the Disability Ministry at my church held a luncheon for all of the families involved. One of the fathers led us in a devotional and I was very intrigued with his message. This blog is a summation of his thoughts along with some extended thoughts of my own.

His observation was simply that one of the passages where Jesus heals a man who cannot walk, after the people go to Jesus and ask him to heal the man, Jesus, interestingly, does not say, “Take me to him.” But instead, Jesus says to the people, “Bring him to me.” You see the point – Jesus required faith, not just from the one who was sick, but from those asking for the healing on his behalf. Jesus made them do some of the work. Jesus didn’t expect crippled men to hobble over to him – he expected others to take notice and bring these people to Him.

After mulling this over for a few weeks, I decided to take an even closer look. I perused all four Gospels and read every passage that mentions Jesus healing the sick. (Ironically, Luke, the physician, had the least to say about this topic than all four of them).

The results were somewhat stunning. In nearly every case that dealt with a person who was unable to walk or speak – healthy people were a key component to the story. Look at the language of some of these verses in particular.

Matthew 9:2: Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.

Note that it was “their” faith that touched Jesus – not the faith of the paralytic himself!

Matthew 15:30 says: Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.

Mark 2:3-5 is probably the most radical example: Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Look at the joy and importunacy involved in this descriptions: Mark 6:55: They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And Mark 7:32: There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. Mark 8:22 echoes the same sentiment: They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

There are many other examples: Matthew 8:5; Matthew 9:1; Matthew 9:32; Matthew 17:16-17; Mark 9:17,20, Mark 10:46-52; Luke 4:40; Luke 5:17.

John 5:2-7 is a unique situation and yet stresses the same point.

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

This is amazing to me. You would think one person in thirty-eight years would lend the poor guy a hand. It makes me wonder what would have been his fate should he never have run into Christ.

This brings us, of course, to application. How does the church today fit into this context? What is the Church doing for its sick and needy today? Are we, like the New Testament believers, running to find the sick and begging Christ to heal them?

Who Should We Take Pity Upon?

I had a very cool “moment” at Joni Camp. I was being interviewed and the question posed before me was one I have answered many times, “What do you tell people who say that they pity you?” (This is in specific reference to my having a deformed face). I had the pat answer all set up in the chute – “Why feel sorry for me? I have a great life…God has blessed me…I have so many things to be thankful for…I have a better life than a lot of pretty people do….yadda, yadda, yadda…”

And as I opened my mouth to speak, a train whistled and the cameras stopped rolling and the camera man told me to hold off my answer until the train went by. By the time they said, “Roll camera” I had one of those anesthesia moments – you know, you hear yourself talking from inside your head and you’re thinking, “Who is that talking?”

I found myself answering the question in a way I never have before and having now mulled my answer over for a couple of weeks, I am rather alarmed by what I said.

In short, I said something like, “No, I should not be pitied. The apostle Paul said that if we put our hope in Christ and in the end Christ is not the Son of God then our hope was for this life only and, therefore, we hoped in vain. Paul says of these people that they are ‘to be pitied more than all men.’ I have put my hope in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and Jesus Christ is the Son of God. My hope is not in vain. Therefore, I am not to be pitied, regardless of what my face might look like.”

The verse I quoted was from the passage of 1 Corinthians 15:19:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

I am still a little taken aback by that answer because it sobered me. I realized that I have participated in more than my fair share of self-pity in my lifetime – and pitied a lot of other people who I felt deserved it. And yet none of those feelings I had were based on Scriptural standards, but on earthly standards. The world says physical beauty is of utmost importance, so logic dictates that we empathize with those who have been robbed of it.

I want to be more biblically focused. I want to see people through biblical lenses. I don’t want to see as the world sees. Christ reserved his tears for eternal losses – unrepentant Israel (Luke 19:41), the death of loved ones.(John 11:35), and separation from God’s favor (Luke 22:44). In the interest of being Christ-like, I want to weep for the right things.

Deliver Us From Evil?

I started reading a book last week entitled, How Can I Ask God for Physical Healing, by David J. Smith. I have only read two chapters so far, and while I do agree wholeheartedly with some of his sentiments, there are others that I am frustrated with.

On page 20 he writes, “A sick body is, therefore, not normal. A sick body is not the perfect expression of God’s presence in your life.”

Yet, John 9:1-3 says, “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

The author says that sickness is not the perfect expression of God’s presence, but Scripture says, in the case of the man blind from birth, that his blindness was, “the work of God being displayed.” My opinion is that if God’s handiwork is being seen in my illness, then certainly this equates with God’s presence in my life.

The writer goes on (page 21), “The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Deliver us from evil.’ My point is this, if you deny that you have a physical need, then you will not engage in a quest for a cure.”

But is the “evil” mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer meant to infer all suffering and tragedy, including physical sickness?

Dan Wallace writes, “Take the adjective ponhrouæ (“evil”) in Matthew 6:13, for example. The King James Version (as well as more than one modern translation) translates this as 'but deliver us from evil.' But the adjective has an article modifying it (tou), indicating that it is to be taken substantivally: “the evil one.”

And there is no little theological difference between the two. The Father does not always keep his children out of danger, disasters, or the ugliness of the world. In short, he does not always deliver us from evil. But he does deliver us from the evil one. The text is not teaching that God will make our life a rose garden, but that he will protect us from the evil one, the devil himself (cf. John 10:28-30; 17:15)."

This concept is backed up elsewhere in Scripture. For example:

Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Peter 1:6, “...though now, for a little while, as is necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…”

1 Peter 2:20-21, “For what credit is it if you when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.”

1 Peter 3:14, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.”

1 Peter 3:17, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

1 Peter 4:12-13: “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

1 Peter 4:16, “ Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

1 Peter 5:10. “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

James 1:2, 3, 12, “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial.”

Matthew 5:45, “…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

2 Timothy 3:12, “ In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”


I am not making a case here that God doesn’t still heal people today.

He does!

Nor am I saying you shouldn’t pray to be delivered from your sicknesses.

You should!

In fact, the book of James exhorts the Church to do so. James 5:14 says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Verse 16 continues, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

I myself have experienced miraculous healing from the Lord (many times). I have seen so much mercy and kindness from the Lord in my own life that I will be the first one to encourage someone to pray importunately to be healed. And I will be the first one to tell you that God can do it.

But I have also suffered enough to know that sickness should not be credited solely to Satan or God’s punishment for sin. When longsuffering (a Biblical concept) is thrust upon you and in the end it sanctifies you, purifies you, increases your faith, draws you deeper in love with Christ, gives you a humble dependence upon God, deepens your prayer life, allows you to turn your back on the promises of the world, gives you a genuine longing for heaven, and leads others to know Christ as their Savior – then we have no choice but to give God the glory for that work in our lives. Those are things that can only be accomplished by the grace of God and we do the Lord a grave disservice when we credit all of his sanctifying work of grace in our lives to his Archenemy. Give God glory where glory is due. Satan knows more than we do of the gold that comes out of the furnace of suffering.

The Spotless Lamb

I stumbled across Leviticus 4:32 this evening and it triggered an old, forgotten memory from my youth. The verse says, “If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he is to bring a female without defect.”

At a very young age, I came across this passage (or one similar to it) and was very hurt, thinking that God was displeased with my deformities. Having a deformed face, I believed that maybe I wouldn’t be allowed into Heaven because God only approved of physical perfection. My heart sank as I realized that the God who had been eavesdropping on all of my prayers was just as shallow and critical of me as the strangers who stared at me in the grocery store. Then I wondered why God would even create me with deformities if he meant to condemn me because of them. Fortunately, I didn’t let my fears go unspoken for too long and I eventually talked to my mom about it. Truthfully, I don’t remember what she told me, but being as young as I was, I was easily comforted, even though the passage continued to perplex me. Yes, the passage didn’t mean that God didn’t love me, but it still didn’t answer the burning question.

Knowing what a verse doesn’t mean is a far cry from knowing what it does mean. I’ve thought about all of this through the years and have asked a few people about it, but still haven’t had many good explanations. But, I think something struck me tonight (it seems so obvious now)!

My answer here is in no way exhaustive, but just a few fresh, random thoughts.

I see now that my confusion as a child stemmed from a common problem – interpreting Scripture with the assumption that a verse is mainly something important that God has to say about me, rather than assuming it has something to say to me…about God.

The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament era was an analogous system set up to foreshadow Jesus Christ. The blood of lambs, sacrificed repeatedly, temporarily took away sin and this system paved a road of tradition and familiarity so that when the Lamb of God came into the world he would be recognized as the final sacrifice.

If I were to be superimposed into the Leviticus passage, I would not be playing the part of the lamb. I would be the man who had sinned. So, it is an unparallel analogy to say that God did not want deformed animals to be used as a sacrifice so that means he doesn’t value deformed human beings.

In order to be a perfect shadow of Christ, the lambs had to be spotless because the Lamb of God that would come to take away the sin of the world would be. If the traditions had allowed for any old filthy, tattered, sickly animal to atone for sin, then Christ’s deity, purity, sinlessness, and perfection could not be assumed. If his purity could not be assumed, he could not be recognized as the Son of God. If he was not the Son of God, his sacrifice would have been just as temporal as the sheep’s and goat’s. But because the Levitical law was explicit - that only perfect, unblemished lambs could be offered, it gives us the confidence that Jesus Christ was not a mere scapegoat, but indeed, the Spotless Lamb who came to take away the sin of the world.

And so I now finally realize that this passage has nothing to do with me and my imperfections at all, but everything to do with Christ and his perfections.

The Good, Insane Concordance Maker

Here is the latest online article written by John Piper. The article has been taken from http://www.desiringgod.org/.

May 11, 2005

There’s a catch to this story that comes later. I hope you read to the end. I think you’ll be encouraged. I was. I read in a recent issue of Books and Culture a review (by Timothy Larsen) of a new biography of Alexander Cruden, the man who single-handedly wrote one of the early concordances to the King James Bible (Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Who Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay). That means he recorded every one of the 777,746 words in the Bible and made a note of every place where it occurs. For example, the word “him” (6,667 occurrences), “her” (1,994 occurrences), “God” (4,444 occurrences), etc.

In the mid-1720s, Alexander Cruden took on a self-imposed task of Herculean proportions, Himalayan tedium, and inhuman meticulousness: he decided to compile the most thorough concordance of the King James Version of the Bible to date. The first edition of Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737. How could he have possibly completed such a project? Every similar undertaking before or since has been the work of a vast team of people—in recent times made incomparably easier by computers. Cruden worked alone in his lodgings, writing the whole thing out by hand. The KJV has 777,746 words, all of which needed to be put in their proper place. Cruden even wrote explanatory entries on many of the words—in effect, including a Bible dictionary as a bonus. The word “Synagogue,” for example, prompted a 4,000-word essay.

Furthermore, Cruden’s day job was as a “Corrector of the Press” (proofreader). He would give hawk-eyed attention to prose all day long. Then he would come home at night, not to rest his eyes and enjoy some relaxation, but rather to read the Bible—stopping at every single word to secure the right sheet from the tens of thousands of pieces of paper all around him and to record accurately the reference in its appropriate place. He had no patron, no publisher, no financial backers: his only commission was a divine one.

Cruden’s Concordance has never been out of print. Some hundred editions have been published, many of which have been reprinted untold times; shoppers at a popular online bookstore today can choose from 18 different in-print versions of Cruden’s.

For this, thousands of lovers of the Bible thank God. They have studied the Bible seriously for almost three hundred years with Cruden’s help. If this is all we knew, we would simply be amazed at his industry and give thanks. But here’s the catch. He was, if not insane, utterly maladjusted.

Cruden was institutionalized for madness four times in his life. His behavior was often bizarre.

On another occasion, Cruden had apparently gone to break up a brawl but ended up spending the best part of an hour admonishing disorderly soldiers not to swear while periodically whacking them on the head with a shovel. He also would propose to women with whom he had established no romantic bond (one such intended he had not even met). Being unable to take no for an answer, he would then turn himself into a persistent nuisance, if not a stalker.

Eventually he decided that God’s call on his life was to reform the morals of Britain. “He therefore started a one-man campaign to have the King name him to a position hitherto unknown in British government, ‘Corrector of the People.’ He then went rambling about the country admonishing strangers to observe the Sabbath.”

He simply could not discern what was fitting and probable. This meant he did foolish things. But not all foolish things are bad. “He did not know—as all normal people do—that when a man gets propositioned he can feel sad for the plight of the prostitute, but there is really nothing he can do to help. Cruden instead hired her to do legitimate work, and she lived a respectable and grateful life thereafter.”

On another occasion “Cruden did not know that a prisoner’s case was never reconsidered when he was only a few days away from execution. He went at this campaign in his usual obsessive and forthright way and pulled off a political miracle—the man’s sentence was reduced to deportation.”

What encourages me about this is to realize that God’s ways are strange. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). And in this strangeness, sinful and sick and broken people fit into God’s designs. He has purposes for the mentally ill and for the emotionally unstable and for the socially maladjusted. And he has purposes for you.

As Timothy Larsen observes, Cruden did not have the sense to know that “one man working alone in his bedroom could not produce a complete concordance of the Bible.” And from this folly millions have been blessed. Beware of belittling God’s crooked sticks. With them he may write the message that that makes a thousand people glad.

Looking for merciful design everywhere,

Pastor John