I have at times in SFTD talked about my father who is approaching his 94^th birthday. He has earnestly studied the Bible since his days in high school when he became a Christian, and following high school with his days in college and seminary and 70 years of ministry as a pastor and military chaplain. He repeated in a recent email that he feels we are drawing much closer to the Second Coming, and that it might occur sooner than many think. Yet he is always careful to point out that neither he, nor any other man or woman has any knowledge of the specific time; only that it will come. Jesus does tell us, though, that we are to be aware of the season of His return, “When you see all these things, you know that He is near, at the very gates.” (Matthew 24:33) One of the signs the Lord gives us that my father finds particularly significant in determining this season of His return is: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The instant communications and technological world in which we now live makes the fulfillment of this sign a real and near accomplishment.

If we have ears to hear what has been clearly told to us from His mouth we will know that our time of preparation is now. We are even today to be filling our lamps with oil (Matthew 25) by knowing His Word and doing it, by keeping our hands on the plow of our work for His kingdom, by confessing Him before men, by living as though He will come tomorrow, while not standing around gazing into the sky. He wants to catch us in the act of doing His will.

I can imagine the response of many people today to such deeply cutting words, can’t you? I have heard most of such responses all my life: “I tried Jesus and it doesn’t work”; “I tried to speak to Him and all I ever got was silence”; “That blankety-blank can’t be the only way to heaven”; “He never did a thing for me”; “Other stuff works better for me than Jesus and the Bible ever did”; and you can add your own, ad nauseum.

The woman’s response to Jesus’ hard words is priceless. It characterized the nature of this woman’s push-through, all-out faith, humble but indefatigable. She simply would not be denied, but neither would she become self-defensive, thinking she deserved more. “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus’ whole tone changed, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:21-28)

The faith of Jesus’ mother was of this very sort. At the wedding of Cana when the wine ran out, Mary said to Jesus, “They have no more wine.” In other words, Mary was saying, I know you can fix this problem. Jesus told her, “Woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” Mary’s push-through faith simply responded this way; she immediately turned and spoke to the servants standing nearby, “Do whatever He tells you,” and walked away.  Mary knew who her son was, and her faith said as much.

Push-over faith is no faith at all. We have no business approving of it in others’ lives, much less our own. Yet we do and still wonder why so many are spiritually dropping like flies while the kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing against fierce opposition. The Canaanite woman and Mary were examples of what Jesus meant by “forceful men” who lay hold of that heavenly kingdom. Their faith would not be deterred. For them it was Jesus and His word or nothing. It is the only kind of faith that will cut it in the world. In reality this is what faith is. I don’t know what you call the other; whatever one chooses to call it, it’s not faith.   “And [yet] without faith [whatever else you do], it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Sin raised its ugly head in a garden millenniums before and now meets its doom, once more in a garden. Eden and Gethsemane span the ages. “The first Adam began life in a garden. Christ, the second Adam, came to a garden at the end of His life. In Eden Adam sinned. In Gethsemane Christ the Victor overcame sin. In Eden Adam fell. In Gethsemane Jesus conquered. In Eden Adam hid himself. In Gethsemane our Lord boldly presented Himself. In Eden the sword was drawn. In Gethsemane it was sheathed.” (R. Kent Hughes) In Eden Adam fled from God. In Gethsemane Jesus fled to God. The symbolism is too rich to ignore; the message too grand to smother; the medicine too powerful to diminish.

What issued from Eden is too horrendous for our eyes to behold as down through the ages the wages of sin have wreaked pain and ruin upon mankind. Perhaps by lumping the sufferers together into a generic, less personal, “mankind,” we can “manage” the contemplation of it; but not when we see and feel the misery visited upon individual babies, children, women, and men. Neither the eyes nor the heart can bear to see or hear the pain up close, devoid of the anesthesia of distance. When my first wife was dying of cancer which was ravaging her body she whispered the words into the dark one night not knowing anyone was around to hear, “Cancer is so terrible!” When we see the affects and results of sin near and far, when we contemplate its horror in life after life after life, when we confront its anguish and gruesomeness in our own personal experience, maybe then we can grasp a clearer picture of the awfulness of sin, coming to hate its existence with everything that is in us; to hate it so much we want nothing to do with even the hint of it; to hate it with such passion we cry out for its Conqueror, and flee to His protection. We won’t go there if we can stomach sin. We will go there if it nauseates us sufficiently. Nausea simply cannot be tolerated for long. We need to be nauseated by sin. If we are not we are too sick to care about anything that is truly good.

Sometimes the only way to combat sin in our lives is following the example of Jesus in Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:36-46) The second Adam, Jesus, is not like the first.  Adam succumbed without a fight because of a wishy-washy view of sin.  Jesus prayed with perseverance and determination seeing the awful reality of sin and the devil; He would not be deterred from the path necessary to your salvation and the removal of your sin.  There is not a better goal for these weeks of Lent than to get a clear view of the sin in your own life.  Then Good Friday and Easter and the lesson of the cross and the tomb will breathe life into the tired bones of your soul and you just might leap for joy.

We receive news of our world in a number of ways: newspapers, other print media, TV, radio, internet, speeches and conversation.  Is that really true?  Do you believe what you read, hear, and see? And if your response is “sometimes,” then how do you discern what you believe and what you discount as a lie? C. S. Lewis, one of the most brilliant Christian writers and scholars of the twentieth century, once wrote what he thought of newspapers, “I never read the papers. Why does anyone? They’re nearly all lies, and one has to wade through such reams of verbiage to find out even what they are saying.” That was 1955. I can only imagine what he would think today.  He also wrote, “To abstain from reading—and… from buying—a paper which you have once caught telling lies seems a very moderate form of asceticism. Yet how few practice it.” The most prominent newspaper in America today is constantly caught telling lies, yet people still buy and read it…and most unfortunately, in too many cases, believe what they read.

Every day in our technologically advanced world we receive (it might be more accurate to say we are flooded with) information which we will accept, filter, or reject. There doesn’t even have to be an immediate decision what you do with it; information purposefully sifted and tucked away or not even dealt with when heard can still influence your thinking somewhere down the road, framing your perceptions rightly or wrongly. This is especially true of the person who is not constantly sharpening and maturing his or her world-view, empowering a capacity to discern good from evil. Being a professing Christian is obviously in itself not enough to guard you from wrongly discerning the truth or lie of information, since the author of Hebrews in writing to an audience of Christians bluntly said some of them had become dull of hearing, needed to learn the basics all over again, and in regards to the knowledge and discernment of truth were still “babes in the woods” who could not handle a diet of “meat.” This evaluation had nothing to do with how long they had been Christians. It had to do with how skilled they were in the Word of righteousness.  This skill will not be gained or improved by spending more time in the newspaper or before the TV than you do in the Word.  It’s fairly simple logic. Lewis wasn’t dumb.

Living as we do in an information world, more so than all our predecessors, a trained and practiced world view is absolutely essential to every Christian who desires, in Christ’s words, to overcome the world, and not be overcome by it. Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Hear what? “What the Spirit says to the churches.” And where does the Spirit speak to the churches, to individual Christians, and to the world that has an ear to hear?  God’s Word. The message of the Word is not PC (politically correct), nor inoffensive or tolerant. In fact, it is an offensive stumbling block to those who are dying. It declares a world-view (a God-view) concerning matters of controversy contrary to the now-accepted norm of the culture no longer condemned. Rather, those who hold to the teaching of God’s Word are themselves condemned in the public square, becoming the prey of those who call evil good (Isaiah 59:15 above). Numerous attempts to acculturize the Scriptures to allegedly “bring them into the modern age” fulfill the prophetic warnings of Paul, Peter, Jude, John, and the Lord Himself.

Will your Christian world-view meet the test? Because the waters are rising fast, the winds are blowing into a gale, and your foundation is being exposed (Matthew 7:24-27).

Scriptural Basis:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

Application:

A recent issue of World Magazine recounted the story of Sam Kolden. He is a Wisconsin High-Schooler who has autism.  From the eighth grade to his senior year Sam practiced and participated with the Menomonie Indians football team. On homecoming night this last October his years of perseverance and commitment paid off with a 66-yard touchdown play which none of the spectators, coaches, and players from either side will soon forget. Late in the fourth quarter when the Indians were leading 46-14, the Menomonie coach yelled over to the opposing coach with a request. Would the Superior Spartans, who were already soundly beaten, be willing to fulfill the dreams of a developmentally challenged young man? He asked the Spartan’s coach if they would allow Sam to catch a pass and be sure to not injure him by tackling him gently after he caught the ball.  But the opposing coach, Bob DeMeyer, had a better idea: “Let’s let him score a touchdown, coach. That’s what it’s all about.” So on the next play, Sam ran into the left flat, hauled in a short pass, and raced 66 yards past the futile tackling attempts of the Spartan players. The touchdown ignited a cheering frenzy throughout the stadium of fans from both teams appreciating a moment far grander than any common football contest. Sam’s father, watching from the sidelines, was deeply moved by this display of character and sportsmanship. Sam’s teammates who had known and played on the same team with him for years celebrated enthusiastically, while the opposing Spartans’ reaction was even more impressive. Once downtrodden from suffering their fifth straight loss, they now saw the game in a whole new light. One of them put it into perspective, calling the moment “the highlight of anybody’s life.”

This act of kindness, compassion, and concern for the other stands out simply because it is not the expected behavior of man. We notice when behavior does not conform to man’s typical nature. Oh yes, as we have heard so often before, there are those who will describe such an event as proof that most people, if not all, are “basically good at heart.” But any thoughtful observation of humanity puts the lie to such an idea quickly. At least it ought to. Even those in the football stadium who were so impressed in the moment would not necessarily be transformed by it.  Within a day or two they might not show even their spouse the same compassion and concern displayed that night.

This is the first week of Advent, a season of the year with the glorious purpose of reminding us of our Savior’s Advent in history, and of His promised Advent ahead. St. Bernard (not the Swiss mountain dog, but the saint) in one of his Advent sermons contrasts the devoted disciple of Christ with those who pay no attention to the coming of the Savior. These are in no way aware that they even need a Savior! Consequently, they are unaware of His presence. Bernard develops in his Advent sermons the idea of the “three Advents” of Jesus. The first and the last are obvious to us: Jesus’ incarnation and birth and Jesus’ return, His promised coming again. The first is that in which He comes to seek and to save that which was lost. The third is that in which He comes to take us to Himself. But what is this second, or “middle Advent” of which Bernard spoke?

He describes it like this: every moment of time between the first and last Advent is a moment of judgment; that Christ is passing by and that we are judged by our awareness of His passing.  If we join Him and travel with Him to the Kingdom, the judgment becomes for us salvation. But if we neglect Him and let Him go by, our neglect is our condemnation! The night last October in the Menomonie Football Stadium was just such a “middle Advent;” Jesus was there and He gave those who witnessed and participated an opportunity to respond to His grace and be transformed by it. This “Sam Kolden story” did not just happen as though man’s nature in itself would produce what took place. There are countless “middle  Advents” in each of our lives. Just as Jesus’ noticeable “visit” in the stadium that night, so he passes by in each of our lives over and over again. Sometimes we notice His presence, while other times we may be completely oblivious. Meditating on the first and the last Advent of our Lord and Savior awakens us to His countless “middle visits” where we are judged by our response to Him. Think about it. This is a season to do just that. But there may not be many more.

Encouragement:

“Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, close by me forever and love me I pray; bless all the dear children in thy holy care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.”

(Last verse of the “Cradle Song” attributed to Martin Luther,” Away in a Manger”)

Scriptural Basis:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place………Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Revelation 1:1, 3

Application:

We celebrated the birthday of my 93 year old father last Friday. After 66 years of ordained ministry, surviving two wars, serving as a Chaplain to Marines in combat, founding and shepherding two churches over 27 years, and traveling the world for many more years to pastor chaplains and their families, he is still at this age teaching a weekly bible study to men in his retirement community. Today his study begins the seven trumpets of Revelation, which is not about the horn section of an orchestra; though many Christians today have little clue what the seals, trumpets, and bowls of Revelation are or whether they have any relevance to their life.

The book itself, except for portions of Daniel, is so different from the other books of the Bible, that some Bible scholars of the past even wondered whether it should have a place in the canon of Scripture. John Calvin, one of the most brilliant scholars of Scripture in Church history, wrote a commentary on every New Testament book except that of Revelation. He believed it to be an inspired book of the Bible, but leaving it (or avoiding it) to the last he ran out of time with his death in 1564. There is little argument that it is a daunting read; and few there are that rush to spend time in Revelation over other books of the Bible.

But consider this and please take note: it is Jesus Himself who personally trumpets Revelation’s vital importance for your life and unequivocally promises blessing for everyone who reads it, hears it, and takes it to heart! Though there are parts of it that are difficult to understand, as Peter describes portions of Paul’s Epistles, Jesus would never have revealed to us what He specifically commanded John to write unless He knew we needed it, would benefit from it, and would be able to understand it. Do not sell your God given faculties short; instead use them to be a student and workman that does not need to be ashamed, correctly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

Spend time in Revelation in developing your world-view, your understanding of the person of Christ, your fitness for heaven, your motivation to overcome in this world’s battle, God’s sovereignty in all of history, and the consummation of everything. Do not allow the various views of eschatology (the study of the end times) to deflect your personal reading of the text as you pray for the Holy Spirit to open its truths to your own heart and understanding. Take to heart what specifically speaks to your life in the admonitions and encouragements to the Seven Churches in the 2^nd and 3^rd chapters.  Take seriously the description of eternal judgment, as well as the clear promise of reward for all who rest wholly in the person and work of Jesus Christ for their salvation. And then, get your vision and your mind on the Lord’s final exclamation: “Behold, I am coming soon!” Finally, consider if you truly empathize with John’s passionate response to the Lord’s promise: “Even so. Come, Lord Jesus!”

Encouragement:

“The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of heaven breaks, the summer morn I’ve sighed for, the fair sweet morn awakes; Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand, And glory, glory dwelleth in Emanuel’s land.”

(1^st verse of Samuel Rutherford’s and Anne Cousin’s hymn, “The Sands of Time Are Sinking”, 1857)

“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan…and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 

Application:

Can professing Christians be deceived by lies? Absolutely! We have all seen evidence of believers led astray by that which is not true. Unfortunately, it is to their great detriment as it is to those who follow them. Can they lose their salvation by following and perpetuating a lie? According to Jesus’ own words a genuine believer cannot be plucked out of His hands. But the effectiveness of his testimony and the holiness of his character will always be diminished whenever he capitulates for a time to the lies of the evil one and his minions. As we draw closer to the time of Christ’s return and the end of the age, the warning of New Testament passages about this very time is how the spirit of anti-christ will perpetrate such powerful deceptions that “even the elect might be persuaded—if that were possible.” (Matthew 24:24) Such language ought to cause every Christian to pause and consider how capable he or she is in discerning truth, and how to dig it out in the midst of lies on every side. Many are simply too lazy.

Satan, the evil one, is called by the Lord Jesus, the father of lies, and as the prince of this world it is his greatest weapon in wreaking havoc and destruction in the lives of men and women. His preeminent target is the person and work of Christ. He lives to sabotage the path of salvation. He uses every means at his disposal to denigrate the authority and truth of Scripture. He hates the institution of marriage and the family. His goal is the utter destruction of everything God has made and called good. To this end he manipulates people, using their innate sinful desires, to believe the lie and live it to their own ruin.

The widespread belief that homosexual behavior and lifestyle has “come of age” in our day and ought to be accepted and protected as normal and “God-created” is sweeping this generation. Any voice to the contrary is considered bigoted and homophobic. Despite all the accumulated evidence of the destructiveness of couples living together outside the bonds of marriage, it is now more accepted for most young people than chastely pursuing marriage. In fact “chaste” is a totally unknown word today, much less a behavior. Lawlessness is simply the norm for many as exhibited by the rampant denunciation and totally false description of an Arizona bill passed recently to make an attempt at enforcing laws the national government will not enforce itself. They won’t even change the immigration bill to fit their lawless avoidance of their own legislation. Very few critics have even read this Arizona bill as plainly exhibited every time the media opens its mouth to deceive about what it actually says. Meanwhile, Arizona is going bankrupt and its law abiding citizens are being shot. This is the age in which we live.

Every believer today requires a far more healthy diet of “solid food,” what the author of Hebrews calls the “meat” and not merely the “milk” of God’s word. (Hebrews 5:12-14) He writes: “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Don’t be swept away by the avalanche of “modern” ideas saturated with lies as you “wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” 

Encouragement:

“And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.  The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! His doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”

(3^rd verse of Martin Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, 1529)

Anderson’s Applications:
My wife and I landed in Quito, Ecuador on a mission trip last fall as the native people were celebrating “Dia de los Muertos”: Day of the Dead. The country kind of comes to a complete halt. From the days of the Catholic Spanish conquerors the pre-Hispanic celebration now coincides with All Souls’ Day (November 1st) and flows over into the days preceding and following. We very much enjoyed the blueberry/blackberry, corn based drink, colada morada, which was everywhere available, and observed a fascinating, some might think macabre, exhibition labeled “Memento Mori,”  translated, “remember you must die;” a truth certainly prominent in the Scriptures. After Adam and Eve brought about the fall into sin of the entire human race, God tells Adam, “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19) The familiar words of the Common Book of Prayer for funeral services is derived from God’s words in the committal of the body to the grave, “…earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” Wise King Solomon wrote, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2) And the writer of Hebrews declared, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

Ashes and dust certainly symbolize the mortality of our bodies and what happens to them in the grave; and these same elements, dust and ashes, were utilized by those in the Bible who came to the realization that they, above all else, were sinners. Job is one among many souls sprinkled throughout the Scriptures who both said and did the following: “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” The use of dust and ashes and sackcloth signified a grieving, repentant heart, but it also graphically alluded to the certain condition and consequence of sin: death and rot!

Yesterday, February 17, was Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent, leading up to Holy Week, our Lord’s last week in Jerusalem before his crucifixion, including Palm Sunday, Passover, and Good Friday. It all culminates in the celebration and joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Ash Wednesday, like Lent is never mentioned in the Scripture, nor commanded by God, but the truths to which it points are truths intended to lead us to a greater knowledge of God and of ourselves, and to lead us to the Savior who alone redeems us from our miserable condition. Ash Wednesday is observed in the rubbing of ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead making a public statement quite opposite of cosmetics. Make-up is applied to beautify the face, cover blemishes, add color, and show us at our best. On the other hand, ashes on the forehead are a visible mark intended to declare the true nature of our heart, which cannot always be seen by others.  As our text says, the heart can be cunningly deceptive to the world. This mark of ashes says rather that I am a sinner, and I abhor my sin. It is as if I am joining together with Job and the saints of Scripture, “I desire repentance in my life; therefore I repent in dust and ashes.” Now, not all who participate may genuinely be expressing such faith by this observance, but that is true of any of the outward manifestations and rituals of our faith. There are always pretenders. But such should not detract from the serious penitent desiring to display his or her love for their Savior and His work.

C.S. Lewis was drawn to the writings of Alexander Whyte the 19th century Scottish minister because he said “he brought me violently face to face with a characteristic of Biblical Christianity which I had almost forgotten: For him, one essential symptom of the regenerate life is a permanent, and permanently horrified, perception of one’s natural and (it seems) unalterable corruption. The true Christian’s nostril is to be continually attentive to the inner cesspool.” This is at the heart of the use of ashes and use of the season of Lent to say to myself and the world, “I remember who I am, and I remember Whose I am, and I repent in dust and ashes. Lord, make me clean.”

Encouragement:
“Broken, humbled to the dust by thy wrath and judgment just, let my contrite heart rejoice and in gladness hear thy voice; from my sins O hide thy face, blot them out in boundless grace.”

“Sinners then shall learn from me and return, O God, to thee; Savior, all my guilt remove, and my tongue shall sing thy love; touch my silent lips. O Lord, and my mouth shall praise accord.”

(4th and 6th verses of the Psalter version of Psalm 51:1-15, The Psalter, 1912)

If I were to categorize the biggest behavioral problems I see in teenagers today, there are seven: Anger, Apathy, Deceit, Depression, Disrespect, Laziness, and Rebellion. The latter, of course, is the core behavioral problem out of which all the others emanate. Satan rebelled against his Creator, and refused to submit to God’s ultimate authority. He rose up and asserted himself to wrestle God for control. Isaiah 14:14 describes his real motivations:

“You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high.’”

This is exactly what a problem child does: he/she stands defiantly against his/her parents and refuses to submit to their authority and in doing this, are trying to put himself/herself above their parents authority. When the parent fails to hold him/her accountable, the child takes over and begins to rule. It is at this point the family begins to disintegrate…and will continue to do so until the child is stopped or until the family is destroyed. Even in that scenario, what the child has learned is the power he/she is able to wield. Our only hope is for parents to wake up and take back their dominion to be THE AUTHORITY in the home. Parental control is a God-given responsibility. Our children have been entrusted to us to mold, to care for, to protect, and we are not taking those responsibilities seriously when we do not maintain order in the home. God tells us to “take the land” and “possess it.” What else could this “land” refer to except that which is ours…our families?

We as a nation have and will experience tragedy.  With the upcoming anniversary of 9-11 as a reminder or the memory of those killed on the campus of Virginia Tech, it is not hard to remember. But a few years ago we were horrified by the heinous killing of the young Amish school girls. The 10th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School has just passed. These and others are tragedies to the nation or community because of the large number of people affected in a location where killing is never expected. Death in a war such as Iraq and Afghanistan is not unexpected though it is still tragic. The mass killing at Virginia Tech came as a shock and left us with many questions and fears.

My wife and I recently experienced profound sadness in the drowning of a little 1 1/2 year old boy very dear to us. This is a tragedy in our lives and family as much as Virginia Tech’s massacre is to the nation and the families of those who were murdered. We normatively use this word “tragedy” to refer to the sudden, unexpected loss of a family member, a loved one, or someone very close. It may speak of the death by accident or crime of a number of persons in our life or community. We label any variety of painful events in life “tragedies,” even when the loss is less than human life; whether health, possessions, freedom, or livelihood.

Tragedy and God are not foreign to one another. Most Christians understand that God is good, and tragedy is bad. So what do they have to do with each other? When tragedy happens, some may be quick to blame Satan, the purveyor of evil. Seldom is God left out of the picture, because we expect that if He is all powerful, He could have prevented this. Tragedy can turn some to anger toward God, an anger that lasts in some cases a lifetime. Some even cease to believe He exists. Ironically enough, they retain anger toward Him even while claiming His nonexistence. Job was angry with God, but he never doubted His existence. In the tragedy of his life, he came from knowing about God to the place where he truly saw Him. Tragedy can evoke blame toward God: “God, if you are good, if your promises about our care and protection are true, if you can prevent evil from overtaking us, why did you allow this to happen?” Why 9-11, why Hurricane Katrina, why Virginia Tech, why Columbine, why my child?!

Why, indeed! “Why” is always THE question with which we struggle after tragedy; it is usually addressed to God when we can find nowhere else to place blame. This is a part of our human nature, to assign blame, but tragedies often leave us with no one to blame, and so we wrestle with God.

In tragedy and its aftermath remember that it is not a bad thing to wrestle with God. For it is always and ultimately Him with whom we have to ask the question! He, not Satan, is the anchor of all life; the only One who can and will answer all our questions.

I believe the book of Job is the primary text God has provided for the problem of evil and for dealing with tragedy in life. Not that there are not many other texts in the Bible helpful to us at such a time. But it is the story and lesson of Job that God in His wisdom uses so that we might wrestle, and come by faith to an understanding of tragedy, pain, and the “evil” of suffering. On purpose I have placed “evil” in quotation marks in describing suffering. This is because both the Bible and our spiritual experience teach us that suffering in life has a beneficial purpose. If not immediately, eventually we come to understand its nature in increasing our faith and deepening spiritual maturity. This is the message of such texts as Romans 8:18-39 and Hebrews 12.

However, we certainly do not pray for tragedy in our lives. We pray for protection from it. We ask God to keep it from us and those we love. Even Jesus prayed for God to remove the “cup” of suffering that He would undergo for our salvation, because in His manhood He was not sure He could endure it. Nevertheless, He went willingly to the cross in the strength of His utter faith and trust in His Father. No one desires tragedy, but then no one should believe that it will never come. Rather we should prepare our hearts and minds for it, and teach our children what to do if and when it comes. This should be done and can be done in a manner that does not instill a paralyzing fear of life and the future. The tragedies that have come upon us as a nation, and the personal tragedies that we have suffered closer to our own homes, or even in them, can become useful tools to teach our children about the reality of tragedy and how God uses it to bring needed spiritual growth in our lives.

Visit Paul Anderson Family Ministries to find the strength you need to heal.