JOURNEY OUTSIDE THE CAMP

By This Name Class (January 2012)

Would you like to have a clear and thorough understanding of the Bible’s main message? Have you ever struggled to fit together the different books of the Bible to get an overall picture of salvation?

Or would you like to know how to share the gospel message one-on-one or to a small group? Then the By This Name class is for you.

Tim Keller's The Reason for God: More than just arguing that God exists

Where does morality come from? How do we judge if an action is moral or immoral? Who sets the standard for what is right and what is wrong? There are some people who believe that you can't impose your standard of right and wrong on another culture. It's cultural imperialism to think that anyone has the moral authority to tell another culture or another person that the way they live is wrong. Moral standards are relative. Yet, if you ask these people if there are others out there in the world doing abhorent evil right now, they would say of course there are! But by agreeing there is evil in the world, then they've contradicted their own stated belief that one cannot judge another. How can we insist that we cannot judge another culture or person and still believe there is evil in the world? If one tribal group decides they need to get rid of a neighbouring tribal group for no reason other than the colour of their skin, can we judge them as being immoral and evil if we claim that all moral standards are relative? If we can say, yes, genocide is evil, where does this standard of morality come from?

These are some of the lines of reasoning that Timothy Keller wants people to think through in his book, The Reason for God. As the pastor for the very urban Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, he has met people with the most sophisticated worldviews for not believing in Christ. This book is the distillation of the wisdom he applies when engaging people across many fronts: logic, science, culture, art, philosophy, and religion.

The main point he espouses is we need to get people to think through their worldviews and follow them to their logical conclusions. What most people will find is that their worldviews don't hold up to close scrutiny or people don't actually subscribe to the worldview they profess and they are simply living in denial or self-imposed blindness regarding the truth about life, the universe and God.

Going back to the example of who gets to set moral standards, Keller gently prods people to think through the question of who has the right to set morals. Is it the majority that decides? That sounds good but what if the majority decides that a minority race needs to be exterminated? Or if no one can set moral standards, then the world may as well descend into chaos for no one rightly can call anyone else evil and all actions (killing, forgiving, helping, stealing, etc.) are just as neutral as another. If we're all just a ball of cells and chemicals thrown together through cosmic chance, then no one can set a moral standard and hold anyone else to that.

But the fact is, everyone believes there are moral lines that cannot be crossed. We should not kill another human being. We should not steal from another person. It's terrible to cheat on our wives. Children deserve to be protected. These moral standards sound right. But they had to have come from somewhere or someone. Who sets the standard?

Christians have an answer of course: the one who is in charge of the universe sets the standard. The one who created the world sets the standard. That person is God.

Morality is just one angle that Keller uses. He talks about science, logic, philosophy, and art. In each of these areas, he shows the reader how each angle reveals clues to God. Each point taken alone can be rejected. But like a court case where more and more clues add up to a huge body of evidence, the overwhelming effect of following through each of these areas to their logical conclusions really presents a compelling case that God really is the creator and ruler of the universe and he does have a purpose for creation and man.

I found his tone very comforting, humble and clear. I learnt that my beliefs should affect the way I live, how I treat my wife, my kids, my colleagues and how I view life. If my beliefs don't affect how I live, I can't say that I believe them at all. And my most important belief is in who I trust has the answers to life and the meaning of life. It's also not about how strong my faith is but in whom I put my faith in. Keller explains it thus:

The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word "trust". Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose you footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don't actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

 

The object of our faith is more important than the strength of my faith. I really do need to believe in the right thing. But more than belief, I need to let my faith affect my life. As Keller puts it, "There [is] no use just saying you believe in Jesus unless you let that change your life and affect your view of everything." 

Keller quotes these powerful words from C.S. Lewis:

The Christian way is different—both harder and easier. Christ says, "Give me ALL. I don't want just this much of your time and this much of your money and this much of your work—so that your natural self can have the rest. I want you. Not your things. I have come not to torture your natural self... I will give you a new self instead. Hand over the whole natural self—ALL the desires, not just the ones you think wicked but the ones you think innocent—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead."

 

I want to let Jesus affect every part of my life. I want to follow him all the days of my life. I want to echo Peter's response to Jesus' question after his hard teaching about being the Bread of Life: “Do you want to go away as well?” 

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

What is original sin?

Many Christians struggle with what we call original sin. What is it? How come we're saddled with it from birth? In teaching Bible classes, I sometimes encounter people who do not think that people are born with original sin. They have the notion that people are born neutral, i.e., there is no inherent leaning towards good or evil in babies. Some others believe people are born good but when they do their first act of sin, they then become sinners.

To frame the thought carefully in people's minds, my wife and I often ask this pair of questions: Are we sinners because we sin? Or do we sin because we're born sinners? At first glance, there doesn't seem to be any difference in the two. But if we phrase the questions in another way it becomes more obvious: Is an apple tree an apple tree only when the first apples appear on its branches? Or has the apple tree always been an apple tree, and it's just that we can't tell easily until it has its first fruit? The answer of course is that an apple tree is an apple tree since it was a seed. But the 100% surefire way to confirm is by looking at its fruit.

So it is with sinners. We are born sinners. But it becomes obvious when we see our fruits: our actions, words and thoughts.

Why is it that everyone is born like that? For the answer, we have to go back all the way to the garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve chose to trust a stranger rather than their Creator who had so graciously and lovingly taken care of them. Satan—whom Adam and Eve knew nothing about—appealed to their pride. He told them that they could live independently from God and could decide for themselves how they led their lives. God had created Adam and Eve to have a relationship with him and they were supposed to be his representatives on earth (his mirror image, so to speak). They, in their pride, chose a new identity for themselves. They turned their backs on God. They turned away from the purpose they were created for.

Thus, they broke trust with the One who loved them and when trust is gone, the relationship is gone too. They no longer found their value and identity in God but they found it in themselves instead. Their pride and self-centeredness are what God calls sin.

In his book, The Reason for God, Tim Keller describes sin in this way:

Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him. What does this mean? Everyone gets their identity, their sense of being distinct and valuable, from somewhere or something. Kierkegaard asserts that human beings were made not only to believe in God in some general way, but to love him supremely, center their lives on him above everything else, and build their very identities on him. Anything other than this is sin.

In Romans 5:12, the Bible says:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

In other words, the sin of that first man, Adam, spread to all men who came after him. This pride and self-centeredness is in everyone from the moment they are conceived. (See also Psalm 51:5; Job 14:4) This is the essence of original sin. This original sin causes us to rebel against God's purpose for our lives, causes us to live selfishly, at the expense of others, and causes us to put ourselves on the throne of our heart. Simply put, we worship ourselves.

John 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

All people, because of original sin, are born separated from God and already stand condemned to live the afterlife apart from God. But in Jesus, we can be reconciled to God. When we put our trust in Jesus, he wipes out our original sin but putting his perfectly righteous life over our own (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in our day-to-day life, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will war against our pride and self-centeredness, replacing that sin with true worship of God that leads to joy.

Therefore, even though we are born with original sin, we don't have to remain in it. Jesus offers us an escape. He's here to do what God promised in Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

How wonderful indeed that God would do this for us. He will restore us to what we were made for. How amazing that at such great cost to himself, he is willing to make right what man has warped. Thank God for his great love.

 

When we hurt (Part 6 of 6)

Part five of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg.

[Read: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5.]

4. God ordained it in love for us
God is sovereign and in control of everything in the world. God is not a firefighter who is running around the world trying to put out fires, trying to fix situations, trying to make right bad situations that happen to his people. He is not harassed, befuddled and thwarted at every turn. No. This is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is fully 100% in control, all of the time.

So the bad times and bad things we experience are actually the loving and nurturing discipline of our Father. His intent is to train us, to prune us, to cut away what is destructive and dead in our lives so that we can grow.

Earlier on, we said that God does not punish us for our sins because Jesus took on all the punishment for them already. How then do we understand this verse from Hebrews?

Hebrews 12:6
…the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son…

We are to understand it for its objective. The objective is not to have us take the rap for our sins. The objective is to train us, mould us, discipline us. And towards what end? A good end.

Hebrews 12:10-11
God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

God’s discipline, while sometimes painful, is purposeful. It is never punitive. It is never random. It is never too harsh. Most importantly, it is always out of love.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

This verse tells us, believers, i.e., for people who belong to God, that in ALL things… not in some things, but in ALL things, God works for the GOOD of those who love him. And if we believe this verse, it means we will believe that even bad things are for the good of those who love him.

Earlier on, we said that when people get hurt and suffer pain, most people want to know why. As believers, when these things happen, we should humbly turn to God and ask “What is your purpose for this Father? What are you working to accomplish in my life?”

God’s purpose is always meaningful. We need to remember that God loves us. His love is not merely sentimental or just a commitment to our comfort. His love is an active commitment to do what he must for our ultimate good and eternal happiness.

This deep faith and belief that God is sovereign and means even the worst suffering for our good is what helped David and Nancy through their pain. While they did not get to see Hope and Gabriel being healed, they experienced a miracle nonetheless. Someone said to David and Nancy,

“The miracle likely isn’t going to be that God will heal Hope. The miracle is going to be that God will heal you.”

Nancy said,

“The Spirit of God working in us to give us a spirit of acceptance and joy in the midst of tremendous sorrow has produced nothing less than a miracle. Hope and peace beyond our human capacity to generate and maintain have shown us that God is at work in us and through us in a way we can’t explain or take credit for.”

We like to think that the way God can get the most glory is by doing the miracle we asked for. But God got the most glory in David and Nancy’s life by sustaining and satisfying them as they lived with this tragedy in their lives, by making them content when they didn’t have their babies to hold, by giving them joy in the midst of this great sadness and by giving them rest in the midst of chaos. To them, God was not a consolation prize. He was the main prize which they received.

Some of you know that a little 9-year old boy in our church has an incurable genetic disorder as well. It only surfaced last year when he was eight years old. Today, he is bedridden and not responsive. Many of us have been praying for him and his family and journeying with them. Just like Hope and Gabriel, it does not seem like he will get cured. But understanding what the Bible says gives us a framework and understanding of God in all of this suffering.

Is he ill because God is punishing him? No.

Is his getting cured dependent on the size of our faith and the persistence of our prayers? No.

Does God owe him a healthy life free from trouble? No.

Do passages like Psalm 91 apply to him? Yes.

How about your own life? What can you do when disaster strikes, when calamities befall you or when you suffer hurt and pain? Instead of asking God to remove the pain and suffering, ask this instead:

Dear Father, teach me what I must learn from this. Give me the strength and courage to endure this. Show me your glory in all of this. Let me drop what does not glorify you and instead cling to you, the greatest treasure in my life.

Remember:

1. God is the goal and treasure of our lives. All suffering points us to him.
2. In the time of suffering, draw strength and joy from God’s companionship.
3. Ask God to reveal his purpose in suffering and ask for the humility to submit to his will.
4. Trust that God is for you, not against you.
5. Know that God is not punishing you but this trial is a refining fire to make you like Jesus.

God’s heart is tender towards those who hurt. Jesus himself knows what it is like when God says no. Jesus knows what suffering is. Cling to him and look to him as the goal in your life. God is not a consolation prize. He is our treasure and our goal. When we hurt, he is putting suffering into our lives so that we turn away from the world and towards him.

Let’s pray.

 Lord, thank you for your word which tells us the great love you have for us. We know better now that in your love, you do ordain that we be refined by pain and suffering. Lord, help us not to count ourselves above pain and suffering but to remember that you count us worthy to put on the afflictions of Christ. Let us therefore prepare for what you have in store for us and cling to you in the storms of life to come so that passing through each storm, we will become a little bit more like Jesus.

We pray this in our Lord’s precious name, amen.

When we hurt (Part 5 of 6)

Part five of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg.

[Read: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4.]

1. Natural consequences of our sin
Remember that because Jesus was punished and died for our sins, we no longer face punishment for them. However, this does not mean that we will not experience the natural consequences of our sin.

For example, if I murder a man, I will have to face the consequences of that sin. Jesus takes the eternal punishment for that sin, and when I repent of it, God declares me righteous because of the blood of Jesus. But the man I murdered remains dead and the consequence of that is I will get the death penalty. That is the natural consequence of my sin. 

If I break someone’s things, I may be forgiven, but the object will remain broken. If I betray my friends, a natural consequence is that they would want to stop being friends with me. If I cheat by tearing the wrong time off my parking coupon, I get caught and fined… another natural consequence.

2. Natural result of living in a fallen, broken world
Other times, the difficulties and the problems we face are a natural result of living in a fallen, broken world where accidents happen, natural disasters strike and bodies age. This was not always like that. God created the world perfect, but man’s sin brought death, pain and suffering. Sometimes, when bad things happen, people like to get mad at God or blame someone. It is probably more accurate to exclaim, “I am so mad at sin!” 

It is true that what Jesus did for us on the cross set in motion the process of restoration and perfection. But the process is not yet complete. It will only be perfected in the age to come. 

So in this age, we experience the results of living in a broken world: accidents maim or kill us or our loved ones; disease and gene mutations take their natural course; earthquakes, and typhoons strike the earth again and again. All of these are symptoms of a fallen world.

On March 11, Japan was struck by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Some Christians were quick to point out that Japan has so few Christians, so God was surely punishing them for being unbelievers. This is not our place to say such a thing! Instead, we acknowledge that the world is shot through and riddled with sin. Earthquakes will happen all the time because the world is groaning under the consequences of the fall of man. We can be angry with the fallen world but it would be wrong to get angry at God for natural disasters. Man’s sin caused this brokenness and we live with the consequences. 

But we know for certain that it will not be like this forever. There will come a day where the whole creation will enjoy full restoration and perfection once again. But for now, hurt, pain and suffering will persist because of the consequences of living in this fallen world.

3. Supernatural work of Satan
Some problems are because of the supernatural work of Satan. He wants us to be alienated from God. 

Satan asked God for permission to harm Job because he wanted to prove to God that Job was faithful only because God blessed Job with so much earthly possessions. Without these blessings, Satan was convinced that Job would turn his back on God and reject God. And so, God allowed Satan to bring great suffering to Job.

Likewise, Satan wanted to drive a wedge between God and Peter. Satan hoped that bad things would make Peter’s faith fail. Jesus told Simon Peter:

Luke 22:31-32
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”

In both these cases, where it really mattered, Job and Peter did not fail. Job came to a much deeper understanding, love and reverence for God through all his suffering, never once cursing God. Peter became the key evangelist and church planter in the early church, from a simple clueless fisherman to a mighty Spirit-filled leader of the early church.

What is very interesting for us is that the tool of suffering that Satan wanted to use to destroy their faith is the very same tool that God used to develop their faith. The circumstances that Satan sent to tempt them to reject God were what God used to train them.

As believers, we know that Satan has no hold over us aside from what God allows.

Most people would like to attribute any difficulty they go through to one of the above. It’s a natural consequence of my sin. Or it’s a natural consequence of the fallen world. Or it must be the work of Satan.

Is God therefore not able to prevent these pain and difficulties? Is God weaker than these circumstances or Satan? 

No. When we as believers go through hurt, pain and difficulty, we can be sure of one thing.

[Read part 6, the final part.]

When we hurt (Part 4 of 6)

Part four of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg.

[Read: part 1 | part 2 | part 3.]

4. Are some passages in the Bible just empty promises?

Psalm 91:3-4, 9-12, 14
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
      and protect you from deadly disease. 
4 He will cover you with his feathers.
      He will shelter you with his wings.
      His faithful promises are your armor and protection… 
9 If you make the LORD your refuge,
      if you make the Most High your shelter, 
10 no evil will conquer you;
      no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
      to protect you wherever you go. 
12 They will hold you up with their hands
      so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. 
14 The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me.
      I will protect those who trust in my name.

Reading this psalm, Nancy got really upset. She could not stop crying out because it really seemed like empty promises. To her, God had not protected her family from a deadly disease. He had not kept them from hurting their feet on a stone. In fact, he had allowed much worse. So is the Bible not to be trusted? Is it just full of empty promises?

Have you ever felt that way too? When you were really upset and hurting and you turn to your Bible for help and face such passages. Have you also wondered why those promises seem so far away from you? Or have you journeyed with a friend in pain and you’re looking for a Bible verse to encourage him or her and you quickly skim past such passages because you cannot imagine that these would be of any comfort to them at all?

As believers we hold to the fact that God never lies and the Bible is the true Word of God. If so, how are we to understand and make sense of such passages? To understand them, let’s take a look at some other passages where Jesus talks what this psalm appears to be talking about: our physical condition and safety.

Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 18:8-9
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Jesus says in these two passages that we are not to be afraid of those who can kill us physically. In fact, even for ourselves, we are better off being maimed and losing our feet and eyes. Jesus seems to be okay with such horrific physical harm. Why? Because God’s agenda is far more important than merely protecting us from physical harm. 

We know that God cares for us because he tells us that we are more valuable to him than birds and flowers, but there is something even more important to him than our bodily comfort and safety. He cares far more about our spiritual condition. He cares more that we don’t end up in the fires of hell.

Jesus came to save our souls for eternity. The whole gospel and indeed, the whole Bible is about Jesus saving us from eternal wrath and giving us eternal reconciliation with God. Looking through the Bible, we see that everyone, even those who have been healed by Jesus while on earth, eventually died. So when the psalms promise us that God protects us from deadly disease… indeed, it is true but not in the way we think. There will come a time where we will get new bodies that will be absolutely free from disease, and free from plague. There will come a time when we will be absolutely safe, when we will not even hurt our feet against a stone. No evil will conquer us because we will be safe in God’s hands. God will rescue those who love Him and protect those who trust in His name. And protecting our souls for eternity is indeed so much bigger and so much better than merely physical deliverance now.

But the problem arises when we try and take such verses to apply to our physical bodies and earthly life now. What we really want from him is to give us everything he has promised us here and now. We think that physical life on this earth—the length and quality of it, is of utmost importance. We don’t value the eternal promises of God as much as we want him to fix what we see as our most significant problems. 

God’s promises of protection are intended for our souls. If we force an application to what it was not meant for, what we will end up with is being constantly disappointed with God. Until our value systems line up with God’s, until we value the eternal life of our souls more than the temporary life of our earthly bodies, we will continue to feel disappointed with God.

Let’s therefore be very careful how we read our Bible. Let us not force the promises which were meant for our souls into what we want them to mean for our physical well-being. Let us also encourage others with love and care and accuracy so they too will not be led to seeming empty promises and feel let down by God. 

So, we can say that David and Nancy’s suffering is (i) not because they are being punished by God; and (ii) it’s not because they lacked faith or persistent prayer. And (iii) if God never promised a pain-free life, and (iv) if many of the promises in the Bible are about kingdom advancement rather than physical protection, then how are they and we, to understand difficult times, pain and suffering?

For most people, the biggest question that plagues them when faced with problems and challenges is “Why”? Why are we experiencing hurt and pain? Many cannot get past the pain and hurt until they find an answer this question. There are a few main reasons for pain and suffering.

[Read part 5.]

When we hurt (Part 3 of 6)

Part three of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg.

[Read: part 1 | part 2.]

3. If I am a believer, will God give me a victorious life of blessing and prosperity and limited difficulty?
Have you heard such words yourself? Perhaps you have heard close friends or family members say things like, “I’m sure you’ll do well in your exams. God will not let you fail”; or “God is on your side right? He will bless your team with success… you’ll surely win the match”; or “You worked so hard and such long hours. God will bless the work of your hands… he will give you the promotion”; or “I’m sure God will heal you from your sickness. He loves you. He will definitely heal you.” 

But is this true?

Well, some people believe that God owes them. Because they have chosen to trust God, then God has to come to the table with the ability and willingness to submit to their wants and wishes. 

 

But is this really what the Bible teaches? Let’s take a look at a few passages.

Matthew 16:13-1913
[13] When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” [14] They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” [15] “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” [16] Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [17] Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. [18] And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

Jesus told Peter that he was blessed and that he will be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was speaking words of victory, blessing and power over Peter. In fact, Jesus also said that the powers of hell would not be able to defeat them. These were good things, words that no doubt Peter was excited to hear. But then, Jesus went on to say something a little different.

Matthew 16:21
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

First, Jesus said that hell would not defeat them, then Jesus said that it is necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and be killed? It must not have made sense to Peter. And I think he could not bear the thought of Jesus whom he loved so dearly being killed. So Peter had to respond. He had to say something!

Matthew 16:22
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Peter was so pained by the thought of Jesus having to go through that. This couldn’t possibly be God’s plan, could it? Just like David and Nancy’s friends, they could not imagine that God would do something like that. They did not want to believe it… it was way too painful. How did Jesus respond?

Matthew 16:23
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

One minute, Peter was called the foundation of the church. The next minute he was being called a tool of Satan! One minute, Jesus told Peter he was speaking what was revealed to him by God, and the next minute Jesus chastised him for speaking the foolishness of a mere man! What was going on here?

Peter loved Jesus. In his humanness, he refused to think that God’s plan for Jesus included a cross! In his humanness, he valued victory, strength and success the way he wanted to see it. In his humanness, he disregarded what God’s purpose and plan was.

It was this way with many of the God-fearing, well-meaning and loving people who were David and Nancy’s friends. They loved them so much that they could not bear to see them hurt, so they said things that were not true. Likewise, sometimes, the people who love us so much say things that may not be scripturally true. They speak their wishes and hopes for us, but it is not based on fact or the Bible.

Yet, we do know that God’s plans for some do include pain, hurt, suffering and a cross. For most of Jesus’ disciples, it included a literal cross. For David and Nancy, it meant to put to death their own wants and desires and their definition of what their happy Christian life should look like. 

For us, while we would love to think of a life of happiness with no pain and hurt, it would be far better to know the truth and the reality: that sometimes, God’s plans for believers do include pain and hurt.

In the midst of Nancy’s pain and sorrow of losing two children, she chose to turn to God and the Bible for solace, for comfort, for promise. During one such season, she read Psalm 91. But reading this Psalm did not give her any comfort at all. In fact, she felt empty and hollow and she wondered if some passages in the Bible are just empty promises.

[Read part 4.]

When we hurt (Part 2 of 6)

Part two of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg.

[Read part 1.]

2. If I pray hard and persistently enough and have enough faith, will God answer my prayer?
There are some who claim that strong faith is shown by throwing our energies into begging God for a miracle or for what we want and then believing without doubting that he will do it. 

You may have heard some people say things like “If you pray hard and just believe, just believe and don’t doubt, then God will answer your prayer… you will surely get into the school that you want. God can do miracles, right?” Or you may see people getting a whole army of people to pray for them because they believe that more prayers mean that God will hear you better. Or maybe you quietly believe in your heart that with faith, you can always move mountains… and if the mountain does not move and you do not get what you want, then it means you lack faith.

Some think that faith is like a magic mustard seed in Matthew 17. With it, we can manipulate God into doing what we want. Others think that we are to be like the persistent widow in Luke 18. Through her sheer persistence, she got the judge to grant her justice, so we make the parallel that God must be asking us to keep begging him for what we want. He will eventually give in. This is not so. This would be a misunderstanding of both passages. The parable of the persistent widow teaches us to pray persistently and specifically for God to give justice to the oppressed. And what Jesus said about the mustard seed in Matthew 17 is contingent on having faith and understanding of who God is and what His will is. Neither of these passages is about begging God for any random request we may have.

To illustrate this more clearly, what example do we have in the Bible where someone has a huge amount of faith and was persistent in asking God for something and yet God said no to what he asked for?

Hebrews 5:7-9
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

Jesus pleaded persistently to God with cries and tears. God could rescue him from death, God could take away the horrible cross, take away the suffering. Did Jesus lack faith? No. He had more faith than any man who ever lived. Did Jesus lack persistence? No. The verse tells us that Jesus offered prayers (plural) and pleadings (plural) with  a loud cry and tears. This was not a simple casual request he was making. Why then would God not answer his persistent magic mustard seed prayer? Because God had a higher purpose. God fully intended to save the world through Jesus. Jesus was to be the source of eternal salvation.

And what was Jesus’ response in that case? The verse says that Jesus “learned obedience” from the things he suffered. This means that Jesus learnt to submit his own will and his own wants completely and entirely to the will of God. Some people may wonder if this verse means that Jesus was disobedient before and then through suffering learnt how to be obedient. No it does not. Jesus is perfect. He was never disobedient. But even then, he learnt how to release and commit his own wants to God and chose to embrace God’s will into his life.

And we are glad and infinitely grateful that God said no to Jesus. “No, I will not save you from the cross because this is the only way my people can come back to me.” So what did Jesus say and do when God said no?

Matthew 26:39c
Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

1 Peter 2:23
He left his case in the hands of God…

Jesus submitted to God’s plan. Jesus was confident that God’s plan and purposes are perfect, all the time. He struggled with it, he cried over it, he prayed about it, he pleaded with God, but he submitted to God, willingly and without resentment.

Some people claim that all we need to do is pray hard with faith and not doubt, then we will get our way. But true faith is not measured by our ability to manipulate God to get what we want; rather, it is measured by our willingness to ask God what He wants and then to submit to his will.

So when we do not get what we ask for, we should not assume immediately that our faith is deficient or God is unable or unwilling. It probably just means that God has a different purpose than us.

Also, while we should ask God for what we want, even more so, we should pray that God will put the right desires in our heart, that we learn to pray the will of God into our lives and that we will learn to joyfully and obediently submit to it. 

Another person said to David and Nancy after they learnt about Gabriel was that God would certainly not give them another child with the syndrome because “God is not like that and could not do that”. Yet another said that God will definitely give them a healthy child as a reward for their faithfulness to God in the face of losing Hope. 

Everyone who spoke to David and Nancy loved them and desperately wanted to comfort them, to be positive and encouraging. They couldn’t imagine them going through a second devastating loss. But you know, David and Nancy would be the ones who were going to have to live with disillusionment and disappointment if they believed what they said. This is because their friends had no scriptural foundation for such certainty. 

In essence, these well-meaning folk were saying that believers should have a victorious life of blessing and prosperity and perhaps limited difficulty.

[Read part 3.]

 

When we hurt (Part 1 of 6)

Text of a sermon delivered by my wife and me on 9 October 2011 at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The sermon audio is also available at kkmc.org.sg. The sermon was inspired by our reading of Nancy Guthrie's book, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow.

Scripture text:

Hebrews 5:7-9
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

Let's pray:

Heavenly Father, this morning, we come before you and humble ourselves. Would you please, in your gracious love for us, come upon us now. Remove falsehood from our hearts and our misconceptions about you. Let your Spirit work your truth into our hearts and minds so that we can understand you better, love you more and rejoice that you are our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

David and Nancy Guthrie’s story
We’d like to begin by telling you a story about David and Nancy Guthrie. In 1998, Nancy gave birth to a daughter named Hope. But looking at Hope, the doctors knew immediately that something was wrong. Hope had club feet, was extremely lethargic and was unable to suckle. The next day, Hope was diagnosed with Zellweger Syndrome, a rare disorder that causes the body not to be able to get rid of toxic substances in the liver, kidneys and brain. There is no treatment and no cure for Zellweger Syndrome. Most children with this syndrome live less than six months. Nancy and David, together with their son Matt, were devastated. Hope lived 199 days and then they buried her.

When something so tragic and so painful happens to faithful followers of Jesus, many questions, doubts and thoughts invariably creep into everyone’s minds including Nancy’s and David’s.

In the hospital the day after Hope was born, Nancy woke up and she immediately thought that this was all her fault. She thought that she did not pray enough for a healthy baby… that if she had prayed more faithfully, then maybe God wouldn’t have needed to do this to get her attention. She wondered if somehow God was punishing her.

1. Is God punishing me?
Deep down in our hearts, do we also sometimes wonder this? That when we hurt it is God’s punishment? 

Maybe you stopped coming to church during the exams, because you wanted to study and then if you do badly for the exams, do you wonder if God is punishing you for not coming to church? Maybe you forgot to pray for a big business meeting and you messed up the meeting and got yourself into trouble. Do you wonder then if God is punishing you? Or maybe you lied about something to your friends and then they found out and decided to ostracize you. Do you wonder if God is punishing you then?

Well, this is not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches us that if we belong to Jesus, we never ever have to agonize over the thought that our hurt or suffering is God’s way of making us pay for the mistakes we have made. Whatever pain we go through is not a punishment for our sin. How do we know that? Because the Bible tells us that. It says this about Jesus:

Isaiah 53:4-5
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Jesus was punished for our sins. All the sins that we have ever committed were laid upon him. He paid for it all, completely and sufficiently. He paid for all our past sins, our present sins and our future sins. 

Jesus did not give just a down payment and then we have to pay the rest. He paid all of it. If God were to punish us for our sins AFTER Jesus died for them, that would make a mockery of Jesus’ death on the cross. It would mean that what Jesus did was not enough. It would mean it was a half-hearted effort. And we know that this is not what the Bible teaches. This verse clearly says that we now have peace with God. Peace means no more estrangement. Peace means harmony in the relationship between God and us. There is no more punishment for all true believers of Christ.

To have a child with Zellweger Syndrome requires that both parents be carriers of the recessive gene trait for the syndrome. So, after Hope was born, David and Nancy took surgical steps to prevent a future pregnancy. But three years later, in 2001, they discovered that Nancy were pregnant once again.

Their church family had walked them through their most difficult days with Hope, loving Hope when she was alive and sharing the deep sorrow and emptiness David and Nancy felt after she died. So when David and Nancy stood up in front of the congregation to tell them that they were expecting another child, the people could not hold back their joy. They burst out in applause before David could finish speaking. But there was more he had to say. After the applause died down, David added, “And this child will have the same fatal syndrome his sister, Hope, had.” The congregation reacted in dismay. This was not the happy ending that they wanted to hear. It didn’t fit their idea of the way they expected God to work in the lives of believers. Gabriel was born and then died 183 days later.

After they first told the church about Gabriel, several godly people came up to them with various responses. One lady told them not to be afraid but to believe that this child will be healthy, almost as if that confidence alone would have the power to make it so. Others told them that they just needed to have faith. In fact, some even suggested that if they had more faith, their children would not have died.  

Is this true?

[Read part 2.]

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. No thanks.

People around the world are sad at the passing of Steve Jobs. I am among their ranks. As I watched my Twitter stream this morning, it was impossible to read the tweets that were literally flowing by in an endless stream. Such is the influence of the man and the degree of love people have for him and for Apple. Even I'm typing this on a Mac. I have a great respect for his genius and truly appreciate the products that he has created.

Many friends are sharing snippets and the video clip of Jobs's 2005 commencement address at Stanford. My Facebook newsfeed is littered with various cries of "Stay hungry. Stay foolish", and "Death is the destination we all share". I'm familiar with his commencement address. My heart ached when I first read it. It aches all the more today.

It's an inspiring speech until you get down to the final portion. For me, a follower of Christ, it begins to unravel at that point. First let me quote and then let me explain. Steve said:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

It is true that death is the destination we all share. We die because all of creation is under the curse of sin (Romans 5:12). It started at the fall and will continue to be this way until Jesus comes again to end death completely. Jobs says that no one has ever escaped death. Well, Jesus did something better than escape death. He conquered it. He utterly destroyed its power (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). The power that death has over us is fear. Jesus promises that when we put our trust in him, death will not be the end. Instead, death is the doorway that will lead us into his presence. So believers need not fear death. In fact, death is welcomed because it leads us straight to Christ, who is preparing a place for us in Heaven (John 14:2).

Death is also not an invention of life. Death is a result of man's rebellion against God. (See Genesis 3). Death is not a process for the earth to renew itself or for the earth to get rid of the old and usher in the new. Death is a consequence of sin. And again, Jesus dealt with death once for all, by his own death on the cross. His death was in payment for the death we deserve, for the sins we have committed. His death means we won't stay dead. People who trust Jesus will pass on into an eternity where there will be no more sickness, disease, strife, tears or pain (Romans 5:6-11).

Now, about dogma. Yes, there is bad dogma. But there is also truth and doctrine. As humans, we tend to live for ourselves and in the process, act selfishly and hurt others. The Bible says the truth will set us free (John 8:32). There is such a thing as absolute truth and knowing the truth is knowing what we were made for. Knowing the truth is discovering our purpose in life and that purpose is to love God and enjoy him forever (Psalm 73:25-26). Following our heart and intuition will only lead to sorrow, pain and alienation (Genesis 8:21; Ecclesiastes 9:3). Following Jesus leads to freedom, happiness and a joy that is everlasting. (e.g., Psalm 86:12-23; Psalm 35:27).

Then there is Steve's quote of the Whole Earth Catalog: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." Why would anyone want that when instead we can say, "Eat the Bread of Life. Enjoy God's wisdom." Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35). He satisfies us completely. Christ is also the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Knowing Christ is understanding the world and understanding ourselves. The "stay hungry" path leads us to be dissatisfied with life and always seeking something better. Jesus says he is the ultimate treasure and in him there is fulfilment, rest, peace and joy. So yes, I do want to live someone else's life. I want the life that Jesus led. I want to be transformed into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). The Treasure of the universe is far better than any apple on the earth.