Christian Living – Page 15

Pierced With Many Sorrows

city lights

Christians lose nothing when they lose temporal things. Because honestly speaking, what did they lose? Their faith? Their godliness? The possessions of the hidden man of the heart, which in the sight of God are of great price? Did they lose these?

For these are the wealth of Christians, to whom the wealthy apostle said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6: 6-10.

Source: Augustine of Hippo, City of God

And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” (1 Samuel 16:10, 11 ESV)

I can imagine the awkwardness of the situation. Jesse had all his sons pass before Samuel to see if one of them was fit to be king over Israel. “All his sons,” we were told. All seven of them.

Continue reading Forgotten

We Can Cry With Hope

Kevin DeYoung on grieving for the dead:

We grieve, as much or more than anyone. But not as those who have no hope. The Christian cries differently. Our tears are not tears of hopelessness. Death is not the end… We have something more than inspiring words or some vague notion about a place in the clouds or singing with the angels or looking up to grandpa as he watches down over us. We have a firm hope that is grounded in the work of Christ.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 1 Thess 4.14

There’s the difference. We do not grieve as those who have no hope, because Jesus died and yet he lives. There is no more important event in the history of the world than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if you believe that Jesus (Son of God and Son of Man) died for sins and rose again on the third day–if you truly believe that to the depths of your being, it will change everything…

When we are hurting, when we lose a husband or daughter or grandmother, when we face our own mortality–whether in a month or a year or a decade or seven decades–when we gather around the hospital bed to pray with the sick and dying, when we comfort the afflicted, do we talk about the resurrection? Do we talk about Jesus? Do we talk about the empty tomb? Or do we offer empty platitudes and nothing more than the well-meaning sympathy that says, “I’ve suffered too,” or worse, that God suffers with them? Do you tell them in a casual sort of way that everything’s going to be alright? Do you rebuke them for their doubts? Or do we encourage one another with our faith in the resurrection?

Director’s Chair

To many people, the book of Esther is a good story book filled with spiritual lessons. That is true. What many don’t realize is that whereas the book is in the Bible, it doesn’t have a single reference to God, ever. You can go ahead and read it quickly. You’ll be surprised Jehovah God is not mentioned there.

But maybe that’s exactly the beauty of the book. In the outset, it is just a beautiful narrative of a compelling story about the tenacity of the human spirit. And yet, no one who reads it would go away without feeling awed at the obvious hand of God calling the shots in the background. Everywhere you turn, you see divine providence directing every tiny detail of the story.

Continue reading Director’s Chair

Why Don’t We Have Proper Music for Grieving?

Have you ever stopped to consider that in our culture (which we conveniently copy from the West), there are very few songs that are fit for funerals? Not that death is something that needs singing about but because of the fact that of the many people who die every day, our churches’ music doesn’t offer much comfort for the grieving.

Two things led me to this thought. One happened yesterday when I chanced to read the most memorable quotes from Lord of the Rings. In the famous siege of Gondor, Denethor asked Pippin to sing a song for him. This was particularly grim scene. The army of Saruman was advancing, Boromir was dead, Faramir looked weak, and there was no hope. Pippin told Denethor that yes he knew some songs but that his songs were not fit for the great halls of Gondor, and especially not fit for the dark ocassion.

Continue reading Why Don’t We Have Proper Music for Grieving?

Don’t Suffer for Nothing

When you go through affliction, make sure that you filter all your experiences and feelings and reactions through the lens of the Word of God. Look for lessons to learn, things God must be teaching you through the hard times and resolve in your heart to make the necessary adjustments in your life to accomodate the lessons you learned.

This is the only profitable way to handle trials. If you miss this part, the affliction will be for nothing. It will just leave a mark of pain in your heart but there is no eternal value that was added to you. You will have suffered for nothing. Too bad. If you must suffer and go through pain, you might as well learn the lesson and grow from there or else every bit of it will just be wasted opportunity.

Puritan pastor Andrew Murray wrote in The True Vine: “It is only when affliction leads to this discipline of the Word that it becomes a blessing; the lack of this heart-cleansing through the Word is the reason why affliction is so often unsanctified.”