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Table of Contents:
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Suffering: Where Is God When I Need Him Most? - 1
Leadership Lessons: Strength, Strategy, Security - - 2
Take Up the Cross - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
Exegetically Speaking- - - - - - - - - - - - 4
Living out the Living Word- - - - - - - - - - 6
Points to Ponder - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
The Story behind the Song - - - - - - - - - - 9
Church Builders - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10
Counselor’s Corner- - - - - - - - - - - - 11
Book Reviews- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12
News Update- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -12
Sermon Helps - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14
Puzzles and ‘Toons- - - - - - - - - - - - -15
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Suffering: Where Is God When I Need Him Most?
By Curtis Brickley
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 2, 1/24/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Today, amidst war and disease, amidst the unfathomable destruction of natural disasters, where is God? As children take their own lives and the lives of other children in suicide, mass homicide, rape, and unimaginable size and scope of abuse, where is God? If God is all powerful, why does He allow these atrocities to continue? Surely the God who spoke all of creation into existence has the ability to stop the suffering of those whom He created—those who now find themselves without a home, without family, without a job, struggling to rebuild a life that just yesterday seemed like it would last forever. Where is God in the moment of my greatest despair, my greatest need?
Early one morning I watched my then 6-month old son, Jacob Canaan, as he tried to scale an 18-inch “mountain” of pillows and blankets. At first I was amused as he struggled, without distress, to make his way to the other side of the bed. However, the longer he struggled the more discouraged he became. His mood began to change as his hard work became futile as he tried desperately to break the hold the blankets now had on his tiny legs. To him, it must have been like quicksand; the harder he worked the further he seemed to sink into the bottomless abyss of fabric and feathers.
As a father, instinctively I wanted to give aid, to ease his frustration and help him overcome his seemingly insurmountable problem. As I reached for him with arms extended, my eagerness gave way and I began to see value, both emotional and physical, in his struggle. If I intervened, I would cheat him of an opportunity for physical growth by depriving his developing muscles of a strengthening challenge. These are the same muscles that would soon carry the full weight of his body, allowing him the freedom to walk, run and play on his own. Certainly I had the power to give him immediate relief, but in the long run, my help would slow down his growth. If he was to grow, to find the freedom I wanted him to have, he would have to endure the struggle.
Now, a baby learning to crawl or walk could never be compared to the struggle of a mother overcoming breast cancer only to find her young son consumed by cancer as well. Or to the family that lost all they had ever known or owned to a disaster in the blink of an eye. A struggle of this magnitude ushers in an utter desperation that very few people could ever truly understand. To try to make sense, to find peace and comfort in the midst of such a violent storm is divine, it is supernatural, it is a gift that can only be given by God. A real God, a real Father, who knows what it is like to look upon His only Son, suffering undeservedly, for the sins of mankind.
Almost one year ago, this great truth became very real to me as my 18 month old daughter lie in a hospital bed with a kidney infection. There she lay in an unfamiliar place in a cold, sterile room, looking up at three complete strangers. In a moment these strangers would attempt to insert a catheter into my baby girl. As they began, she struggled in vain against them as they held her legs apart and the nurse tried unsuccessfully to complete the procedure. How frightened my child must have been. I could only watch and listen as my child screamed, “Daddy… Daddy…Daddy!” She looked at me through tears, puzzled and confused, wondering why her daddy would stand idle, allowing these strangers to hurt her.
I tried to comfort her and tell her it would be O.K., I held her close; with dry eyes and understanding beyond her own, I tried to explain to her that this terrible thing had to happen for her own good. I told her that daddy loved her, that daddy would protect her, that daddy wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. I knew it was not even remotely possible for her to understand, but I desperately needed her to. Despite my best efforts, I was sure that in her infant eyes, her daddy had failed her miserably, in the worst possible way.
This procedure was attempted three separate times over a 3 hour period before it was successfully completed. Each time it was the same, “Daddy…Daddy!” Each time, daddy could only stand idly by. I cannot tell you the depth of pain and endless sorrow that I experienced and still remember with remarkable clarity. Etched into the innermost recesses of my mind is the look of hopelessness and despair in my daughter’s eyes as she looked upon her father’s failure.
Later that evening (which seemed like an eternity) after they completed the procedure, I slipped away for a moment of silence before God, my Father. In that silence, God revealed to me a great truth which had escaped me for so many years. “Oh—my Lord and my God! I never knew! I knew the price that Jesus Christ, your Son, paid at the cross. But I could never have known the price You paid as your child became the sin of the world and cried out for His Father, ‘…saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”’ (Matt. 27:46).”
Is it conceivable that Christ, in His humanity, looked to His Father the way my daughter looked at me? Confused and alone as Daddy looked away in the midst of unimaginable suffering and pain. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
Still, I have only a glimpse, a very limited understanding of the sacrifice God made at the cross and it is almost more than I can stomach. Our acceptance of suffering, of the struggles of life, is not found in our limited understanding or experience but rather in our ability to trust in God, His Word, His character, His perfect understanding, and His perfect love for us which He demonstrated through His Son at the cross of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:8).
Imagine Jesus, abandoning His deity to walk in humanity, so He could pay the ultimate price for a thankless people who nailed Him to a cross while His Father, God, turned away. Can you imagine the love God has for you and me? He allowed the perfect and blameless to die for the wretched and thankless because He loved us that much. God knew that it was through the suffering of the One that the many would be reconciled to Himself. God knew that as Jesus became the sin of the world, that sin would have to be judged and that the judgment would fall upon His Son.
As a father, caring for and protecting my child whom I dearly loved, I had to allow my daughter to suffer. Her suffering had a purpose which she could not understand. Although her suffering seemed needless or even cruel to her, I knew that her life was in danger and that through her suffering she might be healed. Because I knew what she did not, I asked her to trust me, to trust my love, to depend on me, and to believe that together we would face our current struggle and all others that may come our way.
Likewise, God knows what we do not and He asks us to trust Him. God cannot, does not, never has, nor ever will fail or forsake us. He only allows the suffering for a purpose, never allowing more than we can stand. It is through this necessary suffering that we are perfected in Him. And like any earthly father, God does not take pleasure nor find joy in the suffering of His children. Summed up in a familiar phrase seldom heard today, we need to once again come to the simple understanding that “Father knows best!”
“My God, My God.” “Father, Father.” “Daddy, Daddy.” We all will cry out at some point in our lives, often times more than once and God will always be there, suffering with us, standing over us, holding us close, protecting us, asking us to come to Him in faith, to trust and depend solely upon Him and His ability to do all that He has promised in His Holy Word.
What has He promised you today? Where is He asking you to “trust” Him today? Is it with a circumstance in your life? A relationship? Your finances? A particular sin that has you ensnared? Your job? No matter where you are or in what area you are struggling there is only one response that will produce in you that which the Father desires. Just say “yes” to Jesus today. Yes, I will trust you. Yes, I will depend on you. Yes, I want you to live your life in and through me, Jesus. Yes, I will rest today in the loving arms of my heavenly Father; perfect in love, perfect in knowledge and understanding, perfect in power and authority over every circumstance that you and I will ever face.
Curtis Brickley and his wife, Stacey, are missionary candidates with AMG International. He has previously served as a missions pastor and church missions coach.
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Leadership Lessons: Strength, Strategy, and Security
By Pete Charpentier
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One of my favorite people in the Bible is Moses. As a pastor, I’ve had difficult days in ministry, but it appears Moses hardly ever had “a good day at the office!” Yet Paul writes that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us” (Rom. 15:4). So we can learn key leadership lessons from Moses’ struggles, especially as we look at Numbers 11:10-30.
In these verses we find Moses getting painfully honest with God. As he faced the frustrations of leadership, he opened his troubled soul to the Lord. He wanted to know why God was bringing so many trials into his life and if his burdens were the result of his sin (verse 11). Next, Moses basically told God that he didn’t ask for all these troubles because he didn’t conceive and give birth to the Israelites (verse. 12a), and he didn’t ask God to call him to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land (verse 12b). Lastly, after confessing his inability to shoulder the load of leadership (verses 13-14), Moses finished venting with a request to die (verse 15)!
Does anything here sound familiar to you? Have you been at this place before as a pastor? Do you ever wonder if your struggles today are linked to your sins from yesterday? Have you sought to lead God’s people but you’ve grown weary in the journey? Have you ever felt the temptation to quit?
If so, you’re not alone. Just a glance at men like Abraham, David, Peter, and Paul show us that leaders face painful struggles. In fact, God often uses these dark seasons to teach us, and we can see the Lord teaching Moses three powerful leadership lessons in Numbers 11:10-30.
I. God Taught Moses about Strength
Moses was right when he said, “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me” (verse 14). The reality is that God’s work depends on God. It never depended on Moses, and it doesn’t depend on us. We must take this truth to heart when we feel like buckling under the weight of leadership.
The fact that every pastor needs God’s strength is clear in Scripture. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:7 that “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” No person is adequate for God’s work, but God never calls people because they’re adequate. He calls them because He’s adequate (see John 15:5; 1 Thess. 5:24). The Lord is looking for pastors who will echo Paul’s words: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). One of the most important lessons pastors must learn and remain focused on is God’s strength for ministry.
II. God Taught Moses about Strategy
“Delegate” is the key word here. After Moses stopped venting his frustrations, God spoke, and His words were straightforward. The Lord told Moses to gather seventy qualified elders so He could distribute some of His Spirit from Moses to them (verses 16-17a). God told Moses that His purpose in doing this was simple: “[The elders] will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone” (vs. 17b).
Pastors can’t handle their burdens alone. So the Lord’s plan is to use others to serve alongside them. Paul outlined this strategy in Eph. 4:11-12: “[Christ] gave some…to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” Pastors must learn to delegate ministry responsibilities to others. In fact, their biblical mandate is to equip others to serve so the Church can grow. Delegation is what Paul preached and practiced (see 2 Tim. 2:1-2) because he knew it was the most effective way pastors have a strategic and sustained impact beyond themselves.