Stop Trying to Separate Friends!
God’s Spirit is not at odds with God’s Word. God’s Spirit never contradicts the Word, and God’s Word never hinders the Spirit. If you want One, then you have to take the other. They’re a package deal. So stop trying to separate friends!
I’ve heard that there are people who are trying to cause a rift between two of my friends. People have been saying that these two just can’t work together. They’ve been saying that you have to choose between one of them, but you can’t have both. They’ve also been saying that they’re actually just too different to be in the same place at the same time. I’ve just got to clear this up, all of these things are untrue!
Oh wait, did I forget to mention who these friends were? I’m talking about the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
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Sufferings Reveals the Goodness of the Father
Every one of the good reasons I wrote about in my book decades ago are meant to point us to our kind and loving God. Because of Jesus Christ, he picks us up, holds us close, and assures us that everything is going to be okay. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us in our suffering. He says in Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” I’ve experienced God’s comfort in this way. I cannot begin to describe the sweetness of my Savior’s presence when I feel the crunch of my affliction. Suffering, like nothing else, has shown me the goodness of the Father. Oh, I hope you’ll take the time to view this video where I talk about my book Songs of Suffering and all I’ve gained in my suffering.
Decades ago, when I was still young in my wheelchair, I was excited about all the things I was learning about God
The more I learned about him, the more I wanted to pass the insights on to other people who were struggling through hardships. I even wrote a book about it, listing reason after reason as to “why God allows suffering.” I detailed as many spiritual benefits from suffering as I could think of: how it refines our faith, develops self-control, exposes sin, makes us dependent on God, teaches us to follow the Word, helps us empathize with other hurting people, binds Christians together, and fosters humility. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Now, these are all true and good benefits of suffering, but years later when I started to struggle with chronic pain—and later, battled cancer— the overwhelming weight of my suffering seemed to far exceed any benefit that might result.
To make sense of my suffering, I had to go a lot deeper and ask, “What good could possibly be worth overwhelming pain and agony?”
I’ll answer that question with an analogy: imagine that a little boy hops on his bicycle, races down a hill, and at the bottom when he turns the corner, he loses control on loose gravel and crashes to the asphalt. His knee begins to bleed, and his wailing alerts his father. What would we think of his daddy if he came and stood over his son and listed all the reasons as to why the boy is hurting and bleeding?
What would we think if he said, “Now, son, your speed was excessive as you began the trajectory of your turn. The loose gravel has accumulated here because of the rains. Your knees weren’t protected by knee pads.”
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Without the Trinity the Doctrine of the Atonement Goes off the Rails
We need to recognize that, through and through, the doctrine of atonement needs to be thoroughly Trinitarian. It’s centered on Christ. Jesus is the Son of the Father who is empowered by the Spirit.
The Apex of God’s Mission
The atonement is the apex of the triune mission of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to reconcile sinners and renew creation. And without the doctrine of the Trinity, everything in the atonement goes off.
I’ll give you a couple of examples. One is a classic—you could say infamous—sermon illustration by preachers where there’s the train track conductor who’s looking down and he sees his son playing in the tracks. He looks over and he sees the train coming down, and he has to make the decision. Does he sacrifice his son and save everyone else by shifting the gears, or does he not? And the train goes off of the tracks.
The problem with this illustration, even though it makes the point that God is a father who sacrifices his son, is that it puts the son in a position where he’s not willingly giving his life. He’s blindsided by the father, and the father’s not doing what he does out of love. He doesn’t even know the people on the train. It’s this utilitarian principle of saving the most people.
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In the Shadows of Grief
At the darkest moment, she ran her fingers across the grain of the wood bench. The beauty of its intricate veining and brown tones began to sing gently. He used to love working with wood and always said it was one of God’s finest creations. That is when she felt the warmth of the sun and the cool summer breeze work together to remind her of old pleasures. It caused her to breathe in deeply.
As she sat at her desk, the thought of her husband’s death stole the air from her lungs. She wanted to carry her weight, but gravity had multiplied seven times. She might as well have been physically ill, for the bodily fatigue was overwhelming. She barely had the strength to lift her arms to the keyboard. Somehow, the shadow of death had embedded itself within her heart. It eviscerated her, left a void nothing could fill, and it swallowed everything.
Every moment lingered. Grief had delayed the minutes. It wanted to make sure she slowed down to feel every pang. Every sense was heightened except those that experience happiness. A panic of sorrow began to envelop her.
She needed to get out of there. The luxurious furnishings of the corporate office, once symbols of her success, had turned to dust. She walked out as several finely polished coworkers looked on. She avoided their gaze, trying to hide the tears.
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