Yesterday I was on my way to Knoxville for a job interview and I drove through good ole Dayton, TN and visited Bryan College. I wanted to see a couple of my professors and ask for their prayers, pick up a friend of mine who wanted to tag along for support, and to hear a certain chapel speaker named Marva Dawn whom I love listening to dearly. Her words, however, were not the ones that moved me yesterday. Instead they were the words of a professor/friend at Bryan (whom we all call Mr. E).
He asked me how life was and I told him that it had been stressful and so on, but then he looked at me and told me that it was just another way that God was showing His love to me...and then he said "Let me put it this way. He loves you too much NOT to put you through difficulties and trials that are going to hurt you and ultimately leave you more Christlike than before." BOOM!
Ok, so when I'm going through crap and I'm needing consolidation it is best that you don't give me any of the following answers: "You should pray more", "You need to read your Bible more", "God Loves you and has a great plan for your life", "It's just the enemy trying to get to you" or "You are almost out of this and God is going to pour out blessing 'pressed down shaken together and running over'!"
I will smile and nod...but beyond that I wont benefit from your words and I will mark you off as having not listened (Unless of course your name is Matt Benson...in which case, all but the last answer is going to have an impact on my life). Why? I pray often...I read much less often (haha), but it's not about how many prayers you've prayed or how many verses you have memorized. Numbers and achievements don't promise a life without difficulty and pain. B) You probably didn't even ask about my spiritual life anyway, so you are assuming a suffering spirituality and are prescribing to me a remedy based off of ill thinking, and you not giving me the respect of actually listening to what I'm saying. C) The devil is not after me. Trust me. He has a great deal of other people far more important to focus on than me. I'm not the leader of a country, church group, or even a family. I guarantee you that Satan doesn't give me the time of day. D) Eisegesis doesn't help me any more than your not listening.
These words, however, that were given to me by Mr. E were encouraging and thought provoking. Pastor talk about the love of God in a way that says that His love will bring an end to our trials and that He will also give us material gains, but what my friend told me made a different statement. The implications are that God's love is actually the reason for the the hardship in the first place! Preach that from the pulpit and see how many come back next week! People don't want God unless He is going to sympathize with all their petty whims and desires and/or wants to erase all of their pain and suffering immediately. No one wants to think about the difficult truth of God leading us into times of shadow on purpose.
Even Paul of Tarsus talked about God causing him to have a "thorn in his side" and that God would not take it away from Him.
Also, God's goal in these hardships is not to bring us wealth, glory or even happiness! It's to make us more Christlike...
God's wants us to be cleansed of our sin so that we can live in greater unity with Him and his Holy Spirit, to be lights and witnesses in the darkness of the World, and He purges us through trials and sufferings. We live to glorify and serve Him, not to be served by Him. This self centered Christianity in America needs to come to an end, and a true Christ centered Christianity needs to rise from it's ashes.
Grace and Peace to you all,
Stephen
He asked me how life was and I told him that it had been stressful and so on, but then he looked at me and told me that it was just another way that God was showing His love to me...and then he said "Let me put it this way. He loves you too much NOT to put you through difficulties and trials that are going to hurt you and ultimately leave you more Christlike than before." BOOM!
Ok, so when I'm going through crap and I'm needing consolidation it is best that you don't give me any of the following answers: "You should pray more", "You need to read your Bible more", "God Loves you and has a great plan for your life", "It's just the enemy trying to get to you" or "You are almost out of this and God is going to pour out blessing 'pressed down shaken together and running over'!"
I will smile and nod...but beyond that I wont benefit from your words and I will mark you off as having not listened (Unless of course your name is Matt Benson...in which case, all but the last answer is going to have an impact on my life). Why? I pray often...I read much less often (haha), but it's not about how many prayers you've prayed or how many verses you have memorized. Numbers and achievements don't promise a life without difficulty and pain. B) You probably didn't even ask about my spiritual life anyway, so you are assuming a suffering spirituality and are prescribing to me a remedy based off of ill thinking, and you not giving me the respect of actually listening to what I'm saying. C) The devil is not after me. Trust me. He has a great deal of other people far more important to focus on than me. I'm not the leader of a country, church group, or even a family. I guarantee you that Satan doesn't give me the time of day. D) Eisegesis doesn't help me any more than your not listening.
These words, however, that were given to me by Mr. E were encouraging and thought provoking. Pastor talk about the love of God in a way that says that His love will bring an end to our trials and that He will also give us material gains, but what my friend told me made a different statement. The implications are that God's love is actually the reason for the the hardship in the first place! Preach that from the pulpit and see how many come back next week! People don't want God unless He is going to sympathize with all their petty whims and desires and/or wants to erase all of their pain and suffering immediately. No one wants to think about the difficult truth of God leading us into times of shadow on purpose.
"He causes me to dwell in darkness as those who are long dead..." (Lamentations 3:8a)
Even Paul of Tarsus talked about God causing him to have a "thorn in his side" and that God would not take it away from Him.
Also, God's goal in these hardships is not to bring us wealth, glory or even happiness! It's to make us more Christlike...
Grace and Peace to you all,
Stephen
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