Trusting Trials

By: William Schneider

Romans 9:14-24

Romans 8:28

Proverbs 3:5

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”  -Corrie Ten Boom

            Did you just go through a hard time in your life? Maybe you are going through one right now. And I know that hard times will come in the future as well. The wonderful thing though is that as Christians we can call upon the Lord and look to Him to give us strength and peace of mind. We can trust in the Lord in the midst of our trials, knowing that God works all things out for good to those who love Him. But is it ever that simple?

            Our God is a God of love, mercy, patience, compassion, and forgiveness. When something bad is happening to us we cannot see how our God could possibly be sovereign over the situation. How can such a loving God allow so much suffering in the lives of those who love and follow Him?

            Let me give you another piece of this puzzle; and it’s only that, a piece of Gods puzzle. God is so big and we are so small, yet we think we are the ones in control of our lives. When we look at the events happening in our lives we are only seeing a piece of the puzzle. God has not yet put the whole thing together. It is hard not to look at our trials and say this isn’t going the right way, I want things to work out like this… and we explain to God how we would run our lives. Who are we to tell God how to run His own creation?

            God will do as He wishes in our lives. At times we may be stubborn and not see why God may be taking a good thing away from us. Other times it will be clear why God allowed something tragic to happen in our lives, but either way we need to trust God and the way He chooses to mold His clay. God knows what He is doing even if we do not fully understand.

            The next time you are burdened with a trial, remember to give God your trust and your heart. An easy way to do this is to think of the example of the ‘greatest thing’ coming from the most ‘horrible thing;’ that is the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God (the Father) put His Son (Jesus Christ) through unimaginable suffering; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Think of what the people alive while this was happening might say, “He can’t be the Son of God because God would never put someone He loved through trials of pain and suffering…” It’s the same thing we say in the midst of our trials too. Now look at the outcome of the trials that Jesus went through; our forgiveness, our salvation, our eternal life, and our undeserved grace. God does work through pain and suffering and He can mold us in whichever paths He chooses so trust in Him!

Point to Ponder: Are you trusting God and that He is doing what is best for you during your trials, even when you can’t see the good in them?

Eclipsing the Son

By: Dan Cole

Romans 1:17-18

Proverbs 3:5-6

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives."

-Ezra Taft Benson

            Going back to my analogy, “Man is like the moon, he can only reflect the glory of the Son and he has none of his own.” We know that we are to use the way we live to show Jesus to the world. However,  we often live our lives for ourselves and by doing so we push Jesus into the background. We live for experiences, temporary pleasures, or we just fall into the sins of our culture. We live our day to day to day lives for ourselves and submit to our passions and desires with no consideration for God or His will. We live as hypocrites and by doing so we eclipse the Son of God, unfortunately when we eclipse the Son there are consequences.

            Just as looking at a solar eclipse can cause incurable eye problems, in the same way when an unbeliever looks at a Christian living a life where their life style and their desires eclipse Jesus they are left blind to the truth. By living hypocritical lives as Christians we blind those who should otherwise be able to see Christ. So instead of seeing the changed life of a believer they see a person who lives a lie by claiming one belief and living another and a seed of doubt is planted instead of a seed of salvation. We have eclipsed Jesus for far too long and have left many blind due to our self glorifying life styles. It’s time to get out of the way and allow God’s light to shine. Pray for those eyes we’ve shut and thank God; for He can heal the blind.

Point to Ponder: What is the basis for your priorities? Are you basing them on God’s will or yours?

Like the Night Sky

By: Dan Cole

Romans 13:12

"Man is like the Moon, he has no glory of his own, he can only reflect the glory of the Son."

 – Dan Cole

Thinking about that recently, I decided I could expand it into a more accurate and a pretty decent analogy (if I do say so myself). As Christians we are called to be like Jesus and show His love and forgiveness to this ever darkening world. The day is gone and the Sun has set, it will rise again, but for now its dark and up to the moon to light up the world. And as we all know the moon doesn't have its own source of light in which to do so, it uses the sun's light. This is a great analogy for how we as Christians should be living, emulating the Son, to the best of our abilities, and being a light in a dark world. We're not called to blend in and keep our faith to ourselves, we are to stir up the waters and allow God to use us to change the tides. Have you ever experienced a night where the moon shined so brightly that you could see clearly everything in front of you? This is how we should be, reflecting so much of Jesus' light that everyone can clearly see what lays ahead for them in the darkness.

Unfortunately most of us choose not to do this, I guess we find it easier to blend in or stand out in hatred rather than love. We'd rather walk blindly in the darkness than let the Lord give us light, with which we can use to light our own and other's paths. We refuse to draw close enough to God to be good guides to those still in darkness. We have forgotten what love is and we have become a people of fear and hypocrisy and it has made us useless to God and to others. We have become slaves to the world because of our fear. We don't want the world to judge us or deny us acceptance, or we fear missing out on some grand experience that the world offers. Don't we realize that God is the only righteous and true judge and His acceptance is more important than that of the world or that the world’s experiences are nothing in comparison to what God has to offer. And by listening only to the judgment of the world and yearning only for it's acceptance, we are not only enslaving ourselves to the world, we are becoming useless to God and to those still in darkness. How can we reveal a path we refuse to walk ourselves? How can we show the love of God when we care only for ourselves? And how can we represent a God willing to sacrifice everything for his people when we sacrifice nothing?

Point To Ponder:    Is the way your living pleasing to God or do you live to appease the world? Are you being a light or do you merely just try to blend into the darkness? How do you want to be remembered when your time here on earth is up? 

Here Am I, Send Me

By: William Schneider

Isaiah 6:8

Genesis 22:1-3

"Oh, that I could dedicate my all to God. This is all the return I can make Him." - David Brainerd

            As a volunteer firefighter I wanted to touch on how the commitment that firefighters have to their community should be similar to the commitment that we Christians should have to God. Let us take a look at the routine of a firefighter first. To be a successful firefighter there are a lot of elements, but most of all you need to be dedicated. A firefighter must be willing to go, do and give his time, strength and abilities.

           

            When a firefighter is fast asleep at two in the morning and his pager goes off it startles him awake. Then he must automatically and instantly awake, get dressed and begin his pursuit to the incident he was called too. At times he may know exactly what the call is and where he is going to, but other times he has no idea as to what he is going to encounter or what is going to be needed of him when he arrives. The same is true when we are called by God. We don’t always know what He wants of us right away. Through the unknown and known, even when there is much hard work to be done, the firefighter is faithful and as he rises from the comfortable bed to serve the community he is saying, “Here am I, send me.”

            In the same way as the firefighter says, “I will go, do and give whatever it takes of me,” we too need say to God when He calls us to serve Him. Sometimes we think, “What would I say to God if He called me to do something for Him?” The reality of the situation is that God will call you to serve Him and you need to be ready and willing to say, “Here am I, send me,” just as Isaiah did. We often get called out of our comfort zones to serve the Lord and we should be able to instantly say, “Yes” to Him out of faith, love and trust.

            I bet there is something in your life right now that you feel God could maybe be calling you to do. Pray about this situation. Talk to some godly friends about it. Stay deep in God’s word because this is the most likely place that God is going to talk to you. Look at what God has done for you on the cross… now go… do… what God is asking you to do for Him!

Point to Ponder: When was the last time you said, “Here am I Lord, I will do whatever you ask of me?”

                        Are you going to answer like this the next time?

A Followers Fellowship

By: Dan Cole

Psalm 105:3-4

Jeremiah 29:12-14

“Human fellowship can go to great lengths, but not all the way. Fellowship with God can go to all lengths.” – Oswald Chambers

            How many of us are isolationists in our ways of dealing with troubles in our lives? Do we try to solve our problems, fight temptation, and grow stronger on our own, by our own strength and will? We say we believe in God, yet we fail to have fellowship with Him. We say Jesus is our savior but we refuse to take the time to get to know and communicate with Him. When we face trials, temptations, and times of weakness we fail, because we have no fellowship with God and are forced to rely on our own insignificant strength. Do we fail at relying on God because of ignorance of our own weakness, or is it our ignorance of God’s strength? If we simply took the time to get to know and grow closer to God, our Savior, we would have all the help we need to last through all trials and temptations with rejoicing and joy.

            So what things in our lives replace fellowship with God? Is it facebook, sports, work, movies, TV, or even friends? What, based on the time we spend, is more important to us than time with God? How would we react if they were all taken away? A man, imprisoned because of his faith, spent a year in solitary confinement. He had no interactions with anyone, nothing to take up his time, all he had was food slid into his dark cell once a day. After he was released, people asked him about his experience, most likely imagining the horrors such a year would mean to someone. His reply to their questions…. “It was like a honeymoon with Jesus.”

Point to Ponder: How long would you last with God as your only companion? Would that year have been torture or a honeymoon for you?