If You’re Struggling…

My thoughts are on those of you who are struggling in some manner right now and I want to share three verses that I believe will minister to you:

They come from Mt. 11:28-30:

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Here are a few explanatory notes to lend more insight into these marvelous verses:

When Jesus tells us, “Come to Me,” those words are in the present tense: they mean to continually come to Him as a lifestyle.

When we do this, His promise is “rest.” That Greek word can also mean “refreshing” and it’s noteworthy that He emphasizes this to us by repeating the word twice (vv.28, 30).

One additional thought: The word translated “easy” (v.30) can mean “good,” “kind,” “useful,” or “comfortable.”

Now the question is, how do we come to Jesus? We do so by talking to Him; by reading His Word back to Him, out loud; we come to Him through songs of praise and worship and we come to Him by lying prostrate on our faces before Him in silence to allow Him to minister to us.

Friend, are you struggling right now in any way? Apply this open invitation from your Lord right now and watch what He’ll do for you!

Why Does God Allow Us to Suffer? Part Two

                          How King David Viewed His Suffering

Psalm 119 has been my “go to” chapter in Scripture for about three decades now, whenever I need renewal or revival.

And I’ve learned a great deal about how to handle suffering in its variety of forms from its author, King David.

In this study, I want us to see how David links suffering and revival or renewal together as we focus on six different verses that give us encouragement and the right perspective in the midst of our suffering.

The first four verses give us this insight: suffering ought to draw us to God – the One who best knows how to comfort us – and one of the greatest ways He comforts us is through His Word:

25 My soul cleaves to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.

50 This is my comfort in my affliction,
That Your word has revived me.

71 It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.

107 I am exceedingly afflicted;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word.

I would much rather have God to go to in my suffering than anything or anyone else; this is precisely what David teaches us in this Psalm.

                                    Suffering that is Self-Inflicted

We often hear the refrain that experience is one of our best teachers and that we frequently learn “from the school of hard knocks.”

In effect, this is what David teaches us about the kind of suffering that we bring on ourselves, in v.67 (in the previous four verses, David doesn’t tell us why he was suffering, though we may assume the suffering was due to circumstances outside of his control):

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.

It’s frustrating to do unnecessary things that bring about our own suffering, but even in those situations, David teaches us that God can bring about good for us.

Another lesson we learn from David about suffering is that God either allows us or puts us into situations where we suffer in order for us to grow in areas that we ordinarily would not grow in apart from suffering:

75 I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

Romans 5:3-5 gives us a progression of insight into one reason that God allows us to suffer: Suffering teaches us perseverance – one of the greatest and necessary qualities we can have.

In addition, Rom. 5:4 tells us that suffering results in “proven character.” I always like to say, “If we lose our character, what else do we have?”

When our character is established, we develop “hope” (v.4). The biblical definition of “hope” refers more to an assurance of what will happen in the future, while we wait for that assurance to come to pass.

Finally in Rom. 5:5 we find a connection between “hope” and God’s love: We can have true biblical hope because we trust in a God who is faithful, reliable and steady with His love toward us.

Friend, are you enduring some sort of suffering right now? If you are, may I encourage you to open up your Bible to Ps. 119 and read slowly through it – but before you do, pray first and ask God to speak to you?

If you do this and take your time in and through Ps. 119, I believe you’ll come away with the encouragement and perspective you need to overcome.

Let me know how it goes for you!

One of My Favorite Quotes

One of my favorite quotes:

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak.

“As he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” Astronomer Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992), 107.

Which Has Been More Responsible for Killing?

Here’s a quick quiz for you, but you might want to think carefully before you answer: Which has been responsible for more deaths in history: Christianity or secularism?

If you answered Christianity, you would be wrong, for the facts will show that far, far more people have been murdered under secular rulers or governmental regimes than under Christian leaders.

For example, in the 20th century alone, Mao Zedong murdered (conservatively) 70 million of his own people in his ruthless quest for power over the Chinese.

Joseph Stalin executed at least three times as many people as Adolf Hitler did: approximately 20 million Russians died under Stalin’s reign of terror.

Hitler murdered six million Jews and was responsible for the death of at least four million more: his own people by sending them to war and the Allies that were killed as well.

Still in the same century we may cite Lenin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Nicolai Ceausescu, Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-Il.

Again, a conservative estimate of all the lives lost due to secular fanatics in the 20th century alone would amount to at least 100 million.

Now, it is true that many thousands of people have been killed in the name of religion: We may cite the Spanish and other inquisitions, for example.

But it cannot be said that the entirety of all Christian leaders over 2,000 years has resulted in anything remotely approximating 100 million in merely one century.

Moreover, those who came into positions of authority or power in the Church must always have their actions compared to Scripture: Did Jesus allow His disciples to kill in order to convert?

The answer to that question is quite plain and stark: it is an emphatic “no” (Luke 9:51-54).

Thus, such leaders may have been false Christians (it is a well-known historical fact that many in the medieval Church bribed their way into positions of power), or they were in great error in misinterpreting Scripture (as were some who in the name of Christianity legalized slavery).

Indeed, true, sound, biblical Christians have actually brought more good into the world – despite our own greatly fallible nature (growing daily in grace) — through scientific inventions, the birthing of educational institutions, the founding of hospitals or orphanages, helping the poor and disadvantaged through benevolent institutions, the abolition of slavery, insistence upon basic human rights, working to eliminate the sex-slave trade, etc.

Abortion

Poll finds 56% of all Americans and 58% of those 18-29 years old say abortion ‘morally wrong’

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On the eve of the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion throughout the United States, a new survey shows a strong majority of Americans believe abortion to be “morally wrong.”

“Millennials” (those 18-29) consider abortion to be “morally wrong” even more (58%) than Baby Boomers (those 45-64) (51%). Generation X (those 30-44) are similar to Millennials (60% see abortion as “morally wrong”). More than 6 in 10 of the Greatest Generation (those 65+) feel the same.

The most recent Knights of Columbus – Marist survey – conducted in late December and early January – is the latest in a series of such surveys commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and conducted by Marist Institute for Public Opinion. In October of 2008 and July of 2009, the survey has

been tracking an increasing trend toward the pro-life position – a trend confirmed by Gallup and Pew surveys in mid-2009. K of C – Marist surveys are available online at www.kofc.org/moralcompass.

“Americans of all ages – and younger people in even greater numbers than their parents – see abortion as something morally wrong,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “America has turned a corner and is embracing life – and in doing so is embracing a future they – and all of us – can be proud of.”

He added: “Advances in technology show clearly – and ever more clearly – that an unborn child is completely a human being. That, coupled with the large number of Americans who know one of the many people who has been negatively affected by abortion are certainly two of the reasons that Americans are increasingly uncomfortable with Roe v. Wade’s legacy of abortion, and with abortion generally. The majority of Americans now understand that abortion has consequences, and that those consequences are not good.”

The question on abortion was part of a larger survey, which will be released in the next several days.

This report presents the findings from a survey of 2,243 Americans — including an oversample of 1,006 Millennials. Reports for Americans have a margin of error of +/-2% and for Millennials it is +/-3%. Data were collected from December 23, 2009 through January 4, 2010 using an online, probability-based panel from Knowledge Networks, Inc. Additional information is available at www.kofc.org. Data on the polls commissioned by the Knights of Columbus are available at www.kofc.org/moralcompass.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus

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