Ministry Update – February 2012

Posted on February 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THIS UPDATE LETTER

The Flight is Booked. I’m On my way!

Officially, I will be flying from Florida to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 1st to begin my 4 months of work there.

What has changed, however, is that I will not immediately begin working with the Heart of God – Haiti orphanage upon arrival, as we are still waiting on the government inspection that is required for the certification. The inspection should be scheduled early next week, and if all goes according to plan there will be no problems and the paperwork will move into the government bureaucracy for final approval.

As my presence at the orphanage prior to final certification could pose problems for the staff, I will in the mean time be dedicating myself to learning the basic navigation of the culture. This will include things like figuring out public transportation, learning how to exchange money, getting a local cell phone, buying food, and other basic skills necessary for daily life.

Upon arrival I will be meeting with other orphanages in the area to observe their day-to-day operations to get an idea of how we can run our program with excellence as God’s stewards, and I will also be making contact with some local non-profits involved in food distribution and healthcare, in order to build partnerships that will benefit our children.

Your prayers are greatly appreciated as the first week in a new place is always the hardest.

In addition to this monthly update, when possible I will also be posting weekly updates of the work being done on this blog and at www.heartofgodhaiti.org.

All of the departure delays the last couple of months have been somewhat of a blessing in disguise. They have given me the chance to do some fundraising, work on my spiritual preparation without the drain of working long hours in a truck, and also to minister personally to some friends in their time of need.

This month, I was invited to be a part of the mission conference at Friendswood Baptist Church in Friendswood, TX, and also to share my ministry with some local brothers and sisters at Odessa Bible Church in Odessa, TX.

Last week I also had the opportunity to preach my first funeral after the death of a dear friend, Helen Bond, who was like a second mother to me for a large part of my life.

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21:22)

  • Pray that I can make the most of these last few days of preparation here in the U.S.
  • Pray for the orphanage inspection to be passed, and a swift approval process.
  • Pray for my move to Haiti to be a smooth transition, and that my time alone there will be fruitful in making contacts and learning my way around the culture.

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Salvation Leads to Salvation

Posted on February 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

The other day, I started reading the book of Matthew, and as I typically do while reading, I had some thoughts come to mind that I wrote down to come back to and think on later. And it didn’t take long in Matthew for one of these thoughts to come to me.

The book of Matthew starts with the genealogy of Christ, and the situation surrounding His birth. Upon finding out that his fiancé, Mary, was pregnant before marriage, a man named Joseph, is trying to decide how to handle the situation.

“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).”  – Matthew 1:20-23

To Israel, long before the time of Joseph and Mary, the prophecy had been given that a Messiah would come who would be both a King in the line of David and a Prophet like Moses. And even in Isaiah 7:14 we find the passage the angel quoted about His name being ‘Immanuel’ signifying that this Messiah would somehow be God in the flesh. The Jews knew all of that, and it is why they had many expectations of what Jesus was supposed to be like and how He would live. But the thing that sticks out to me here, though, is that the angel doesn’t come and tell Joseph that this Son would be the King of the Jews or a great prophet.

Instead, the angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus, which translates as “Jehovah is Salvation,” because the life mission of this child is that “He will save His people from their sins.”

Now, of course anyone familiar with the Christian story knows that Jesus came to be the Savior of the world. Even those who barely know anything about Christianity have probably heard John 3:16 at some point. Have you ever considered this, though, that even Jesus name – His born identity – is wrapped up in this one mission.

What interests me about this, however, is not that Jesus identity is wrapped up in the mission of saving people from their sins. It is that as believers, our identity is wrapped up in His identity, which was wrapped up in the mission. Meaning that our identity, too, is wrapped up in the salvation of the world.

What I mean by this is that when we are born again by grace through faith in Christ, the Bible makes it clear that we are being transformed into the image of Christ – the image of the Savior. This means that since Christ’s mission in life, above all else, was to save people from sin, then our new-found mission now that we are in Christ is the same as His. We are, above all, to be heralds of the Gospel — the ‘Good News’ that Jesus made a way for humanity to be saved.

Another way to say this is that our own salvation cannot be separated from the salvation of the world. They are inextricably linked. Let me give you some biblical evidence of this:

  • “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” –1 John 2:2
  • “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”    –Ephesians 2:10
  • “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” –2 Corinthians 5:18

In each one of these scriptures, the writers jump straight from our salvation to the salvation of others. We are saved and then we help others find salvation. That is the biblical pattern.

Here’s what that means: your job, school, hobbies, friends, family, etc., etc., are given to you by God to be stewarded for the salvation of the lost world. Your God-given identity is found in Christ and because of that your life is to be “the aroma of Christ” to the world, and it is now a part of who we are that, “as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:15-17) That means in word and deed, it’s our mission.

We live Christ in the world, and we speak Christ to the world. Salvation leads to salvation, and the mission that Christ set in motion continues on.

So let me ask you this. When was the last time you let someone else know that God has come (“Immanuel”) to save His people from their sins (“Jesus”), and that they too can find freedom in Him?

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Posted in Christian Living, Evangelism & Missions, Jesus & The Gospel, Leadership

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Pixelated – Taking a Closer Look at Our Lives

Posted on February 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

I have a graphic design friend who is a genius at his job. Watching him work photoshop is like watching a master pianist quickly playing his keyboard to create something beautiful. Out of sheer inspiration after seeing him work his magic, I decided that I need to learn to do what he does. Unfortunately, as with most things, it is harder than it looks.

I have come to understand some of the basics of using programs like photoshop – working in layers, and using the different tools – yet it is usually the picture I am trying to create or manipulate that gives me the most problems.

In the digital age, colors are no longer blended together like mixing paint. Instead, everything you see on your computer screen is made up of extremely small squares called pixels that are each made to look a certain color, and as your eyes see the transitions from pixel to pixel, it appears that the colors are blended together to create the beautiful graphic you are looking at…

That is, unless you are looking at a graphic that I designed. Then, although it may be difficult to figure out exactly why, there usually seems to be something that is wrong.

My problem in using photoshop is that I cannot get the pixels to blend or run together to create the specific shapes that I am needing to make. Now, you can look at some of my little creations and they look ok, but then some, there is just something off-putting about them. It isn’t that they look bad, or that you can’t tell what it is supposed to be at all, it is just that at the pixel level, something is going wrong.

I think our lives are very similar to digital artwork.

When we look at our lives, it can be like we are seeing the picture on a computer screen. When asked how our life is going, we tend to say that things are going well or that their not, talking about the whole picture.

We also tend to break down our lives’ “whole picture” into different categories such as work, family, school, hobbies, friends, etc. These categories, then, would be like the colors that blend together to make our life what it is.

Now, this breakdown of our lives is usually as far as most of us go. Especially in casual conversation. We may get the whole life question, “How are things going?” But then at other times, we get the smaller color-specific questions, “How’s the family,” or “How’s work going?”

If that’s as deep as we look, though, then what about those times in our lives when everything is going good, yet something still seems to be completely be out of sorts and we can’t quite put our finger on the problem? Work is great, home life is great, and we have some free time to pursue our hobbies, yet for some reason, and we just can’t figure out why, there seems to be something wrong somewhere. These are the times that many of us tend to shut down and stress out. I think the problem lies in that most of us are not trained to do the pixel work in our lives.

You don’t have to look to the pixel level of the picture to see the separation of colors. Pixels are what you have to look at when you must begin to blend those colors together. This is the area where your family life and business life must overlap. This is where we can say things are going well at work, and things are good at home, but there is something in that transition that just isn’t right.

Before I stretch out the analogy too far, let me state my point as simply as I can.

As Americans we tend to look at our lives either as one big general picture, or categorically as the array of colors, but to take a digital pallet of colors and form them into a masterpiece, you can’t ignore the pixel level. The shades of colors must match up and blend together smoothly.

What if your life, no matter how good things seem to be going in each area of it, doesn’t match up? Let me give an example: Let’s say your home life is that of a solid Christian family that serves their local church, is involved in community service and wants to be a force for good in the world. Your work life, on the other hand, is that of a shrewd businessman who uses underhanded business tactics to build your business and keep customers. Although both of those things may be working great for you within their own realm, whenever you try to keep those things lined up with one another, you can’t blend the pixels together to make it work. They don’t match up.

So what do we do?

I think the place to start is to sit down and look at your God-given purpose and calling in every area of your life. If God is the Lord over your life, then He will work things to make you the person He wants you to be in each category of life and the whole picture will be beautiful and glorifying to Him.

If, however, you decide to determine your own life purpose and direction, then each area of your life will become very self-serving and ultimately disjointed. You may end up with a complete picture, but it will be obvious that something is wrong.

Where to start?

Try this. Sit down for an hour or two and make a list of every category of your life and then spend some time in prayer asking God what type of person He wants you to be and how He wants you to lead and serve in that area.

As He begins to give you that direction, if you will walk in obedience as His Spirit leads you, I promise that the pixels of your life will start to smooth themselves out. In following Him, your life will become the beautiful picture it was intended to be.

—————

Have you had a chance to check out the new website for Heart of God International? Here it is. Let us know what you think. 

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An Open Letter to Sasha Laxton

Posted on January 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

If you have not yet read any of the recent news articles about Sasha Laxton, the child whose parents are raising him as “gender-neutral,” you can do so here.

—————————————————————————————————

Dear Sasha,

I know that you are too young to understand what I want to tell you right now. I also know that you will probably never read this letter, but still my hope is that one day this beautiful truth will find it’s way to you one way or another.

What you may already know is that your parents are kind of crazy. Not crazy because they are trying to raise you as a gender-neutral kid, but crazy because all parents are crazy to one degree or another. Also, though, they are crazy over you. Everything they are doing as parents is because they love you and although they are misguided, deep down they really do want to do what is best for you. I hope you remember that when you get older. It’s a blessing that many children do not have.

However, what I want you to know is that no matter what your parent’s intentions are, there is no such thing as a gender neutral person. You see, having decided that equality between humans means that differences must be abolished, our society is going to great lengths to ignore reality. The truth is that you are a boy and we can’t ignore that. Physically, you have certain body parts unique to little boys, and you also have DNA and hormones that will one day grow you into a man emotionally as well. Sure, you can find doctors who can change a lot of those things, but to do so is to mutilate who you are meant to be.

I know that phrases like “meant to be” will be foreign to you at this point in life, and I’m sure you will hear the opposite of that plenty from people near you. Nevertheless, it is true. You do exist with a purpose, and being a boy is part of that.

See, the reality that people like your family want to ignore is that men and women were created equal, yet different, by a God who doesn’t make mistakes. The Bible says that God created humanity as male and female, and then stepped back and said that it was “very good.”

Later on in the Bible a great King named David sang this as part of a song to this God:

“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
(Psalm 139:13-16 ESV)

My favorite part of that song is when he says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” It was true of King David, and it is true of you, Sasha.

God made you to be who you are, and that includes the fact that you are a boy. That doesn’t mean that you cannot grow up to be sensitive, like things that our culture doesn’t consider masculine, or refuse to be a macho “alpha male.” What it does mean, though, is to deny what God has wonderfully created you to be is a slap in the face to a Heavenly Father who loves you infinitely more than your parents here on earth are able to.

He sees you in His perfect love, and wants you to grow up to be a mighty man of God, who follows in the example of His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ.

See, Jesus got a bad reputation, too, because although He was the epitome of what it means to be a man, He didn’t fit into the box of what His culture thought He should be. However, He didn’t bow to meet anyone’s expectations, either. Instead, He lived His life committed to following the path God laid out for Him, even though that path carried with it a lot of pain.

Sasha, I know your life will be confusing, and that you are going to have a lot to deal with one day as you begin making real life decisions about who you are, and who you want to be. Just know, that no matter what pressures you feel from outside, and no matter what it is your desires are going to lead you to become, God loves you, and wants you to follow Him. He has the best plan for your life if you are willing to follow Him.

If the life of Jesus-follower is the one you decide, I hope your parents will still be as open-minded about the decision you make. Maybe through your journey they could meet this Jesus, too. Know this, though, there are many of us out here who you will never meet, but we are praying for you all the same.

I hope you find your way to accept who you are, even in the face of those who want to deny it.

May God bless you and keep you,

Sincerely,

Scott Ingram

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Ministry Update – January 2012

Posted on January 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Click here to download and print this update letter

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Law Breakers

Posted on January 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Scenario: You are driving down the highway on a long road trip. The speed limit is 70 miles per hour, but knowing the chances of getting ticketed are slim, you push it up to about 73. Going around a long curve you are passed by another driver doing at least 85mph, which makes you mad. Then, at the end of the curve you see a police officer who pulls you both over and gives both of you a ticket.

Question: How do you respond?

If you are anything like me, you get really upset because you clearly weren’t speeding like that guy was speeding. He obviously deserved a ticket, but we were barely going over the speed limit. The cop could have let us off with a warning.

The thing is, in our minds we have a skewed sense of what’s “fair,” that in reality leans toward our own benefit. We certainly think the other guy should get a ticket for his obvious speeding, yet, although we were intentionally going over the speed limit, we don’t think we should get the ticket because we were barely breaking the law. It’s “guilt by comparison.”

The reality is that too many of us expect that same version of justice when it comes to our faith. We think that the judgement of God towards sin will be slanted in our favor because although we do struggle with minor sins, it isn’t like we’ve killed anyone. Since most of us live our lives only barely breaking God’s laws, and on that day there will be so many people at the judgement seat who have done way worse that we did, it is only fair that God punish them and not us.

Deep down we really want God to be like that police officer who we can negotiate with and get off with a warning. However God’s judgement on humanity must be seen more like that of a judge in the courtroom rather than the cop who may let you off because you weren’t doing too much over the speed limit.

I remember one time in High School when I got a ticket for not stopping behind a stop sign. I did stop, but it was about 10 feet after the sign. I even had good reason, too. It was late at night and I was on a road coming out of the pasture. Had I stopped behind the sign, I would not be able to see traffic coming from either direction due to the brush that extended all the way to the road. So, instead of stopping at the sign, I stopped at the roadside so that I could actually see traffic. To my dismay, though, I stopped at the roadside right as a police officer passed and who quickly turned back to give me a ticket. Because I didn’t have the skill to talk my way out of it, I had to go see the a local judge.

I thought that surely once the judge heard my side of the story that I would be let off, but that isn’t how things work in court. The judge only had one question for me. Did you stop behind the stop sign like the law requires. “No, but…” I was cut off. The judge didn’t care about my “but” once I had admitted to breaking the law.

God’s judgement will be the same. Did you keep my commandments? “No, but…” It won’t matter what we have to say next. If you break the law, the justice of God demands punishment.

The scariest part of this is that the Bible makes clear that everyone is guilty of breaking the law, and deserves the wrath of God. You can’t negotiate your way out of this. You can’t compare yourself with others to try and prove you aren’t as guilty as they are. It won’t matter. You can’t talk your way out of this ticket. You have sinned against God, and He will see to the punishment.

The good news is, though, that God is a God of mercy and He doesn’t want to punish all of humanity. He wants to show grace and offer forgiveness of sin. The problem is that the law requires punishment for the crimes committed?

That’s where the story of Jesus comes in. In order for God to meet the demands of the law, while also offering forgiveness of sins, He came into humanity and bore the punishment of our sins for us. That is why Jesus died on the cross, and that is the only “legal” way we have of finding forgiveness in the eyes of God’s law.

Most people don’t think they need a Savior, which is usually an issue of pride. They tend to think that they are decent people and that God will overlook their sin as long as the morality scales lean more toward good than bad. The problem is, they are judging this by what they judge is fair, instead of what the judge says is “legal.”

What you need to know is that it doesn’t matter how far over the line you cross into sin, the punishment is the same – death and eternal separation from God in hell. Either you will face that punishment yourself, or you will accept Jesus as your Savior who paid the ransom for your guilt when He died on the cross.

There will be no morally good people receiving eternal life, only redeemed ones. What will be your plea when you stand before the Judge of Creation? “Forgiven in Christ,” or “Guilty as charged?”

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Christians Who Don’t Love God

Posted on January 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

I have long said that if you don’t have a love for God and desire to pursue Him, then it doesn’t matter what your profession of faith. The reality is you are not saved.

I know that this is a pretty rough statement. I even know that it can push people to use that Christian cuss word, “judgmental,” to describe me, but I stand by it.

This week I came across a great quote in the book ‘Rumors of God’ by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson:

“Those who say that they believe in God and yet neither love nor fear Him, do not in fact believe in Him, but in those who have taught them that God exists. Those who believe that they believe in God, but without any passion in their heart, any anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God-idea, not in God.”

-Miguel de Unamuno

Despite the fact that America is claimed by many to be a great Christian nation, in reality we are not. However, if we do need a title, we might qualify as the greatest nominally-Christian nation, or maybe the greatest claiming-to-be-Christian nation in the world.

As I  live in middle-class America, observing our way of life, what I find is that there is a great number of people who live however they want to in whatever kind of sin pleases them. There is no love for God or desire to pursue Him. There is no fear that there may be consequences for their actions. They simply go about in the style of Romans 1:28, not even seeing it fit to acknowledge God…

That is of course until you bring God up. Then they will happily share their testimony of some time earlier in life when they attended church or youth camp, heard a message about Jesus, and gladly accepted His promise to make them happy and give them nothing but eternal blessings in exchange for simply saying a little prayer. So they said that prayer and walked into the rest of their lives with a sense of eternal security that meant they never even have to think about God again until they die. Of course, their version of the story won’t be that blunt, but the outcome will be the same.

Beyond that, I look at our culture and see a major cross section of atheists rallying against religion, and then on the flip side, a generation of “spiritual” people, who don’t want to deal with any kind of theology or dogma. They simply want to feel good. And then, an even sadder reality is that both of these groups could probably sit in many “Christian” churches and never even be challenged by the Gospel.

The fact of the matter is, Christianity was never meant to be the religion of pop-culture. It was never supposed to be cool and for most Christians in history, it was never easy or turned out great in the end. Yet, to be a real disciple of Christ we must answer the call to abandon all and follow Him wherever He leads.

So before I turn this into an all out rant, I want to get practical.

TO MY CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS

What do we need do to be faithful in our witness in a world that is so spiritually confused?

It must begin with us being renewed to a fresh love for God that draws us close to Him. We have to get a renewed perspective of who this God is that we serve and then be willing to share Him as He is. We can’t water it down, and we can’t make it something it’s not. Real faith is kinda messy, and often times unattractive, but it is the faith that God Himself established. I promise, we can’t make it any better or any more effective by pretending to be something else.

Jesus said to the early disciples, “take up your cross and follow me.” The way of the Christian is the way of the cross. We take communion where we remember Christ’s death, and we are baptized where we celebrate our own death and resurrection into Him. We have to realize that not everyone is willing to die to themselves in order to live in Christ.

TO NOMINAL CHRISTIANS

I know that you are caught in the middle of wanting the best of both worlds. You want to live life and enjoy the pleasures the world has to offer, but you also want the blessings of God and eternal life with Him. I can see the draw. But be warned, James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

As a hopeful follower of Christ, I pray that you will choose to pursue Him and be renewed in His image, but my plea for you today is that you will at least make a choice. To the church you are becoming the black sheep of the family, and to the world you just look foolish. Perhaps now is the time to go all in.

TO NON-BELIEVERS

Please don’t be upset with Christians when they act like Christians. We live a life of conviction, pursuing Christ and a life of holiness. We really don’t intend that to be an affront to you. In fact, we really would like the opportunity to share with you and invite you in, but that is a choice only you can make. But also, don’t be too upset when you meet a Christian who is a jerk or who acts like their faith isn’t that big of a deal. No one is perfect, and arrogance and pride gets the best of all of us once in a while.

—————

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Happy New Year

Posted on January 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

To all of my readers in 2011, I want to thank you for your continued support and encouragement. With this week being the holiday, and my final week of working part-time before I make final preparations to move to Haiti, I have decided to take the week off from blogging. I will be back to it on a weekly basis next week, but for now, just in case you missed any of them, here are the top posts from 2011.

1. Speaking in Tongues FAQ
2. Naaman and The Idols of our Hearts
3. Love God and Do As You Please
4. Confession and Community
5. No Shame

 

Also, be sure to check out all the updated links under the ‘About Me’ tab, and watch for my monthly missionary updates.

Hope you guys have a happy new year.

-Scott

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Celebrating New Year’s for Eternity

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 1 Comment

Well, it is now the last week of 2011. It almost seems as though the year just began, and now it’s over.

Many of us at this time of year begin to do some introspection of ourselves and analyze our lives over the past 12 months. We ask what we did well, and what we could have done better. We enjoy recalling the happy times and still feel sadness over the losses.

Although January 1 is only another date on the calendar, for most of us it marks a new beginning; a new season of life. It’s a chance to start over. But then you give it a few months into the new year, and we all return to the words of King Solomon:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
     vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
     at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
     but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
     and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
     and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
     and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
     but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
     there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
     a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
     nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
     and what has been done is what will be done,
     and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
     “See, this is new”?
It has been already
     in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
     nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
     among those who come after.”
(Ecclesiastes 1:2-11)

When we look at things from Solomon’s perspective, what we must realize is that we continually live between New Year’s celebrations. The farther behind us the last one gets, the closer we are to the next. And there is nothing that really changes on those days except the numbers on the calendar.

If we can be really honest with ourselves, if this is the totality of human existence — we live, and work, and watch the years come and go, until we finally die — then it really is all vanity. If this endless cycle is all we get, then we must purpose ourselves to take as much joy from our brief and meaningless existence as we can. “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32).

But for the Christian, our vision is much bigger than this. In Christ, our hope is set on the idea that there is something more than this life. We are eternal being created in the image of the eternal God. This thing that we find ourselves in now is only a small glimpse of the joys that we will experience when we move on and dwell with Him forever.

What that means then is that as Christians, we don’t despise the joys of the world as some have done, but we don’t look to worldly joys for our ultimate satisfaction either. Instead, we delight in God as we enjoy the good things He has made and allows us to experience here, year after year, and we look forward knowing that the days will only get better and better forever with God.

Yesterday morning on my way to church, I was listening to a song by Aaron Keyes that says, “You’ve only just begun to show your greatness and power. We’ve only just begun to see Your almighty hand,” and this thought came to me. Even a million years into our eternal existence with God, those lyrics will still be true. We will only have seen and experienced the beginning of the goodness of God. Even in eternity we will find that there are new aspects of God to delight in every day forever, and it will never get old.

That is why Christians have for centuries, now, declared in song that “when we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.” Every day of those 10,000 years will be filled with more and more reason to praise God. His goodness will overflow forever. We will never run out of time or reasons to delight in Him.

So bringing it all back down to earth, today: 2012 is about to enter the scene, pushing 2011 out for good. And in this new year as in the old, there will be reasons for celebration and reasons for sadness. So, just for now, before getting overwhelmed with grand ideas of how life will be different in the new year, can we just stop for a moment and recognize that no matter what has happened in the past or what the immediate future holds, that what our hearts are really longing for is to see and experience God’s goodness that will last for eternity.

If you haven’t taken the time to do so before, let me invite you one more time in 2011: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8) And then as we move into 2012, realize that the joy that comes truly is only just the beginning of what God has in store for you for eternity.

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Why Do Bad Things Happen to God’s People?

Posted on December 19, 2011 | 1 Comment

 

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” We hear that question a lot. It very well could be the oldest cliche in the English language.

As a Christian, we know the default answer: “There are no good people.” Right? I mean, Jesus Himself told the rich young ruler, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).

So then, if there is no such thing as a good person, then the question is not legitimate.

But for the Christian – those who have put their faith in the work of the cross and have been adopted as God’s children – the question changes. We do know that we are “not good,” but that doesn’t change the fact that we are God’s possessions.

So for us, the question changes. “Why do bad things happen to God’s people?”

And here is where we come into one of the most confusing aspects of the Christian life.

Right now, I have multiple friends who are Christian and living lives submitted to Kingdom work, yet (although very different circumstances from one another) are dealing with major suffering in their lives. Realizing that in times of crisis people’s emotions are heavily involved, this question can’t just be answered appropriately unless we are first clear on the nature and character of God toward His sons and daughters.

If you are born again in Christ, you are not under the wrath and punishment of God.

God cannot pour His wrath out again on a sin committed by a Christian who’s sin has already been dealt with on the cross of Christ. If Christ took the wrath of God for you, then it would be unjust for God to pour out punishment for that same sin again. Injustice is against the nature and character of God.

The truth is that if you are a Christian, all of God’s desires for you are all out of love and intended for your growth toward maturity in Christ-likeness. In fact, is is because of what we know of God’s grace, through the sacrifice of Christ, that we can understand what God means in the Old Testament when He said things like, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

God ONLY EVER seeks good for His people!

So then, back to the question at hand. “Why do bad things happen to God’s people.”

I suspect that the individual reasons for every bad thing that happens are as wide spread as the bad things themselves, yet I think the one thing that is certain in every one of them is this: God wants to use these things to draw you closer and closer to Himself.

The reality is that if God only ever gave you good things, and showered you with every blessing you wanted, you would lose a sense of love for Him and instead hold a sense of entitlement toward His stuff. That is what happens at the fall of man in Genesis 3, and what is repeated in human nature over and over again, as shown by the example in Romans 1:18-32. God will not stand to have spoiled children.

This is the difference between punishment (which Christ took for us) and discipline, which God promises to all that He loves to keep us from being spoiled brats.

 “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?:

‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,nor be weary when reproved by him.For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,and chastises every son whom he receives.’

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons”

(Hebrews 12:5-8).

What God wants more than anything else is for you to grow up into maturity as a child of God, and one that will run to Him when things go wrong or when you fail, rather than running away from Him. That is what this discipline is for. God is training us in righteousness as His children.

That thought, then, brings me to one of my favorite passages of scripture: Psalm 51:3-12

“For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

This passage demonstrates the epitome of Christian maturity: “God, I know that I am a sinner, I have always been a sinner, and my sin is directed against You. I also recognize that You are the only one that can clean me up, forgive me of my sin, and make me new again. God, no matter what that process looks like, don’t send me away. Don’t take your Spirit from me. Keep me close and give me strength to endure.”

That makes a great prayer, and one I wish I remembered to pray more often. However, in my little paraphrase, I did leave out one phrase from the scripture that none of us really want to acknowledge is there. Is is phrases like this that our eyes tend to pass right over because they make us uncomfortable.

“Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.”

What? In God cleaning us up and bringing us back to Him, bones get broken? That certainly isn’t the Christianity that most of us signed up for. And yet, in the context of the scriptures there is beauty in the pain that God will bring us. Broken bones CAN rejoice when they’re broken for a reason. Matt Chandler says it like this: “Sometimes God will crush your fingers to get your hands off of what will harm you. And that’s been true in every book of the Bible, in every year in the history of man.”

So why do bad things happen to God’s people? The answer is always to make us better at being God’s people. To put it very simply, when things go right most of us forget about God and don’t pursue Him, but as soon as things go badly, we pray more, we read the Bible more, and we run to Him more looking for hope. So God delights in sending us blessing but He also sends the bad things to draw us in. Or to use the words of J.I. Packer, “And still (God) seeks the fellowship of His people and will send them both joy and sorrow to detach their hands from the things of this world and attach them to Himself’.”

Christian, no matter what you are going through today, I pray that you will be encouraged. God is not out to get you. Quite the opposite. God is for you, and is working things out for your good (Romans 8:28).

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