How far will it take you?

We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 2 Corinthians 1.8.NLT (Paul the Apostle)

http://bible.com/116/2CO1.8.NLT Bible.com/app

There's a lot of people handing out 'encouragement' and advice that don't know what they are talking about. Some people are being told that God won't let them suffer.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

But its obvious enough if you read what the Bible says that people who suffer (that's supposed to be everyone who follows Jesus) will sometimes feel like its too much. They'll think that the suffering is going to kill them. They're not immediately, easily, or peacefully finding 'the way of escape.'

The Apostle Paul is not some kind of sissy drama queen. He's seen his share of tough situations.

2 Corinthians 11:23-28 NASB

... in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

That's a list that puts Jason Bourne to shame. 

Paul's story is real life and far more exciting than anything Hollywood can dream up. But all that adventure doesn't make you into a rock. Paul wasn't transformed into a fearless, emotionless, 'never cry'- kind-of-action-hero. 

Paul thought sometimes it was too much. He thought it was going to kill him.

Go back to the top and read what super Apostle was saying.

CRUSHED   
OVERWHELMED
BEYOND our ability to endure
Thought we'd NEVER LIVE THROUGH IT

Today I'm writing to give you permission to feel crushed. Don't let your brother's and sisters tell you you are wrong for feeling crushed. I can already hear the hard nosed super Christians with the stiff upper lip and the faith to move mountains start to object and say this is Paul and it isn't an example. And in fact Paul's 'lack of faith' may have been sin!

I don't buy that.  

Let's look at Jesus. Jesus never sinned. So this account in Mark must not be sinful.

Mark 14:33-36 NLT

He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Faith has a long view. The view of faith extends beyond the grave. The view of faith trusts the plan of God. The view of faith says this life is only a short time at best. Faith can wait till thier wife is 99 before she has her first baby. Faith can willingly sacrifice thier son, because it believes in the resurrection of the dead. Faith feels pain but believes in heaven. Faith thinks things may be unbearable but believes God will make it come good even after death.

2CO 1:8-11 NLT

We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

Thankful

I laughed, I cried, I was blessed as I read about God's way of changing lives.

Please share in my joy and read this short life story of the 2nd Chapter of Acts.

http://www.2ndchapterofacts.com/History.html

Last Enemy

1 Corinthians 15:26 NLT

And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
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I got news this morning that a friend died. He was only 51. Premature death came to my life early with the death of my grandfather. And then the life changing, gut wrenching, loss of my best friend and only brother (and only sibling) visited my life when on the 4th of June 1987, Daniel Allen Bode suddenly and unexpectedly died. I was irrevocably changed by these deaths.

Death is inevitable. Death is our enemy.

But death is not the end.

I've pasted in at the end of this note the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus power over death and his ultimate victory over death.

Another passage that really helped me face death and make sense of it, is found in Hebrews chapter 2.
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Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
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Death and even more the fear of death has a great power over us. Jesus has a greater power.

I can not make sense of mortality and the ticking clock without lastly hearing Jesus.
The night my father called to tell me my little brother had died, I was stunned. I had been up most of the night studying and was deeply in academic mode and weary. Because of university and work I missed my brother's high school graduation. Luckily, my brother came to visit me in Chicago just before he died.

I told my dad, I'd be right there, a five hour drive. I called back to make sure it wasn't a bad dream or I'd misunderstood. No, it was true. (Thinking about it now makes me feel young, nearly a child again, and very vulnerable.)
I sat at the kitchen table and cried out to God. I had no idea where to turn. My Bible fell open to this passage and these were the words I read :
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John 11:21-26 NLT

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
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I answered, "I believe!"

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1 Corinthians 15:12-28 NLT

But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

God tried to kill you!

Genesis 45:4-9, 24 ESV

So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 

So it was not you who sent me here, but God. 

He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.

Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, "Do not quarrel on the way."

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Joseph has not had an easy life. But even though he could be full of bitterness and desire revenge against his brothers, he reassures them. There is no question that Joseph's brothers did a despicable thing throwing him into the well and selling him into slavery. And then lying to their father about Joseph's death really was evil. The brothers could have looked for Joseph since they saw the pain it caused their father. Truly Joseph and his brothers were like enemies. But Joseph became a powerful ruler of Egypt for nine years. And he held his brother in prison for one year. During that time his father could have died. Joseph for more than eight or nine years did not seem to have urgency about seeing his father. And that does not include the many more years in the house of Potiphar or in jail. Surely Joseph could have got word to his family that he was still alive.

As I've said the brothers don't go looking for Joseph and he doesn't try to contact them. So I'm not sure what Joseph was trying to do with the elaborate plan to put the money back in the grain sacks. I don't think we can assume that holding his brother in prison for a year wasn't Joseph planning revenge. But seeing his brother may have changed his mind. Now he wants to see his brother and his father. Could it be that during the meal, while Joseph sees his younger brother, God reveals to him the whole picture. It could be that Joseph knew all this all along and it was necessary that God establish Joseph as a crucial person of  importance in Egypt as the famine rolls along for the second year. I don't know how or when Joseph came to it but ultimately he hits upon the idea that God was in his brother's betrayal. In fact God used all his hardship to save him and his family. 

Could it be that like Joseph, God is the one saving you by making family members your enemies?

Could it be that you were given that promotion and the boss's wife came on to you only to put you in jail? Could it be God's plan that you have suffered slander? Could that sex-crazed liar be God's way of getting you closer to a position of salvation?

Did you ever think that being forgotten by the people you have helped is God's way of making sure you are in the right place at the right time?

Could this crisis facing the world right now God's way of saving his people?

Could it be that god tried to kill you via your brothers just to save all of you?

As the flood of emotion breaks loose with this odd family reunion, Joseph declares the purposes of God are found in the most hurtful of life situations. In the disappointments, in the betrayals and moments of being forgotten, God is working out his plan to save!

In my life I look back to these moments and I fail to see God! I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. And I'm not even sure Joseph always saw it. But here and now he does see it. He has compassion on his brothers. He loads them down with a windfall of gifts to convince his father that he is still alive! 

Put yourself in Jacob's shoes. Sooner or later you'd think he's going to know the whole real story, and who is going to blamed for the many years of deep grief. In the end he has no one to point the finger more than God.

Yet it was for his salvation. This was all God's plan. God was rescuing his people. But far more than the famine (which also came from God's hand) could it be that we can see even further? Can we see God is working out the plan to save mankind from the one thing that is of their own making? All this has been worked out by God to save you from sin! To save you and to save me from our own sin. The one thing we get a choice in, the one thing we can control is our love and recognition of God and we fail at this miserably, even when we know better. So God is going to use our sin to ultimately save us. Our murderous intentions will kill the one innocent man who will die in our place. And as Jesus dies he will say Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Joseph's brothers have won the lotto! They are getting to move to the best land in the richest country in the world. They are loaded with royal gifts. They are riding in style. They have a royal invitation from the very people who wouldn't before sit and eat with them. They have a royal pardon for treason, treachery, and the murderous intentions they've harbored these many years. During this time of famine they have a harvest of goods unbelievable even in the best of times. And why? Because the one they intended to harm, the one they condemned to death, the one they mocked and maligned has forgiven them and blessed them beyond their wildest dreams.

We don't take to salvation very readily. We look the gift horse of grace in the mouth and we still find a way to argue with our brothers. So the man who has suffered to save us, has to still tell us to not quarrel along the way. 

What's the problem?

(Audio Blog/podcast)
Isaiah 59:1-16 NLT

Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption.

No one cares about being fair and honest.

The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. They hatch deadly snakes and weave spiders’ webs. Whoever falls into their webs will die, and there’s danger even in getting near them. Their webs can’t be made into clothing, and nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark. Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads, and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace. So there is no justice among us, and we know nothing about right living. We look for light but find only darkness. We look for bright skies but walk in gloom. We grope like the blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime, we stumble as though it were dark. Among the living, we are like the dead. We growl like hungry bears; we moan like mournful doves. We look for justice, but it never comes. We look for rescue, but it is far away from us. For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are. We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lies. Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained him.

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The problem is sin. From time to time you'll run into a person who looks at the world around them and concludes, there must be no God. They'll say they've come to that conclusion because of all the pain and suffering in the world. They have wrongly assumed a number of things. First they might say if there was a God, he'd stop all the evil in the world. God would not let all the children die of hunger that do everyday. God wouldn’t allow evil men to rape and kill innocent women and children in war-torn countries around the globe. If there was a God, he'd put an end to the painful, evil diseases that devastate lovely people, even Christians suffer with.

Strangely, I've actually had a person tell me this while shoveling their third plate of food into their mouth at a meal someone else had paid for.

So let's assume for just a moment there is no God. And let's also assume this sentiment to save the world from suffering is right. So we'll call this person who decries the evil of the world for a moment God, because they are good and can see evil.

What have they done to relieve suffering?

Most of us in the wealthy west live a life that creates the very pain and evil that had been indicted. The argument is a smoke screen.

Interestingly, one of the most profound and enduring stories told by Jesus was that of the good Samaritan. And even without the far more powerful cultural context of the story that many people will understand or feel, it still makes a lasting statement.

God says in the passage above through Isaiah, I can save. But what really needs to happen is I need to save the world from you!

Have you ever taken ownership of the problem of evil in the world? The problem of pain and suffering is You! You are greedy, self indulgent, indifferent. Your life, history and desires have caused the pain you rail at God against. And what have you done to alleviate it?

Have you fed the starving? Clothed the naked, housed the homeless, visited the sick, or paid for thier medical care?  Really? Has your contribution to the cure actually even amounted to anything compared to your contribution to the problem?

And who was Isaiah talking to? He was talking to the people who should have known better. He was talking to the actual 'children of God', the religious people. The message of anti-oppression to the oppressors was preached to the supposed goody two shoes.

Before you go pointing the pious finger, look in the mirror.

God is saying, "If I wipe out the problem, I have to wipe out you!"
(https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-whats)

Keeping it simple

John 16:33 NLT

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

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Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
{- Man in Black (Wesley) from the Princess Bride}

The thing I like most about Jesus and the Bible is the it is so realistic. It tells the truth, 'warts and all'.
Jesus isn't selling something. In fact he's giving it away. But he's not glossing over the facts.

-'Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.'

There it is plain and simple. The bare truth with no caveats delivered to people had not even begun to see the worst of it.

But neither had they remotely seen the best of it. That was also yet to come. See I can believe Jesus when he says he has overcome the world at least in part because what he says about the world is true. Here on earth you do have sorrow!

That's not all though. Jesus has healed people, fed people, made lame walk, blind see, deaf hear, and raised people from the dead. Then there are all the prophecies he's fulfilled some very clear and ancient and he's ticked nearly every box. Lastly, he said it. So either he's crazy, a liar or he's telling the truth. And since it looks like he's been telling the truth I've got good reason to believe that he has overcome the world.

Jesus means that as an encouragement. Yep, you'll face sorrows. Some may threaten to undo you, uproot your sanity, and sink you into despair but Jesus has overcome the world. When it gets on top of you, just remember Jesus is on top of the world. He's in charge and large! Jesus can handle your pain. Jesus wants you to know that in the world to come, there'll be no more sorrow.

How does that make you feel?

Where is God in the darkness?

Monday, February 18, 2013
Where is God in the darkness?
Psalms 88:18 NLT

You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend.
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Jesus is the main character of all history. It was Jesus himself that revealed he was the key to understanding all the bible.
I've heard it suggested that we ought to consider that the Psalms may be more appropriately messianic prophecies rooted in King David's experience but more fully expressed in the life of Jesus. There are a few Psalms where it is easy to see that it describes the circumstances of the cross better than any thing David is recorded to have gone through. But it is easy to forget the link to Jesus when we read some of the Psalms and then we wonder what place it has in our daily life.

Jesus used the prophet Jonah's big fish saga to explain what his death would be like and maybe here we have a little hint of that too.

This Psalm is written before Jonah and before Jesus. But it foreshadows the judgement of sin that is bore by Jesus while on the cross and in death.

But don't stop there Jesus' has gone before and so we don't have to be judged but we will suffer in many ways as he did.

We will face rejection. We will be misunderstood. We may be oppressed and persecuted and some who follow Jesus will come against opposition so strong their own lives will be taken (only momentarily, for no evil can touch the soul.)

This is a dark Psalm and still we see the light within it :

It begins,  "God of my salvation..."  and then goes on to say that this individual so deep in despair is praying, crying out to God. No matter how low you feel, you can cry out to God, knowing he can save.

Yes it is true God judges sin but it is also true as this psalmist knew God is full of mercy, able to preform wonderful deeds, worthy of praise for His unfailing love, and he is entirely faithful.

See the lovely, uplifting, hope giving character of God can be found even at the darkest times. Praise is possible even in excruciatingly painful depression. Praise is what the psalmist sees as the reason for holding on to life. Will God's righteousness be your life line in your darkest hour?

Praise him and see the difference.

Repeat often the truth, he is good.

Our God is merciful, righteous, wonderful, just, faithful, and loving.

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Psalms 88:1-18 NLT

O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care. You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them. I am in a trap with no way of escape. My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Interlude Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness? O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me? I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors. Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have paralyzed me. They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long. They have engulfed me completely. You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend.

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