GodsView : God Is Good Even When Life Is Bad!

GodsView : God Is Good Even When Life Is Bad!: Daniel 1:3-8 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel,...4 youths without blemish,...

God Is Good Even When Life Is Bad!

Daniel 1:3-8 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel,...4 youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans....6 Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. 7 And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. 8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food.
When things are going smoothly in your life, you might not find it hard to believe that God is good. But if life takes a bad turn and something devastating happens, you might ask, "How could a good God allow this?" If you know that kind of pain, then you can empathize with Daniel.
Across the pages of the Scriptural account of Daniel's life-from teenager to old man-you can write, "Sovereignty at work." God was directing Daniel's life, whether Daniel saw it at the time or not.
Do you know Daniel's story? One bright day in Jerusalem when Daniel was just a teenager, he was captured as a POW and was ripped away from everything warm and familiar. Daniel's enemies were working a cruel strategy. They singled out the best young people-the all-American teenagers voted "MVP" and "Most Likely to Succeed" and brought them to their capital city near modern-day Kuwait. Their plan was to brainwash these kids with their culture and make them leaders. Daniel was given a foreign name, Belteshazzar. He was forced to learn a new language and was given a new diet.
Had Daniel decided what God was like by looking at his circumstances, he would have become a disillusioned, confused, angry, young man. Kidnapped from his homeland, forced into slavery, most likely castrated to become a eunuch in the palace, Daniel's eyes were still on God. Don't gloss over these facts like they're from some made-for-TV movie-this story is true in every detail. Imagine the suffering connected with his circumstances, yet Daniel went through the fire...successfully. This certainly gives us hope that we can make it through our firestorm, too.
No doubt a situation comes to mind right now from either your past or the present. You may wonder how a God of love could have allowed some painful, wrong injustice. Yet I would bet on the fact that you've not come full circle yet. There will be a day when you will look back and see how God's sovereign hand was at work. Truth is, He is in the center of the situation that troubles your heart right now. He's right in the middle of it.
Just because you can't see Him doesn't mean He isn't there. Look for Him. Trust Him. He is at work.

GodsView : Not All There Is!

GodsView : Not All There Is!: Not long ago, I had a conversation with two people after church. One was in a wheelchair with a severe disability, and the other was ...

Not All There Is!

Not long ago, I had a conversation with two people after church.

One was in a wheelchair with a severe disability, and the other was speaking at length. I listened to her for a while, and then I turned to the woman in the wheelchair and said, “Well, how are you doing?”

“I am doing fine,” she told me.

But then her friend said that she actually had just had two brain surgeries to remove cancer, and they were successful.

I looked at this young woman with her disability, someone who had just come through such a difficult time, and I thought, “And where is she now?” She is at church.

I think of all of the excuses people come up with as to why they can’t make it to church. It’s cold out, or it takes too long to get into the parking lot, and so forth. Yet here was this young woman who, despite her severe disability and recent surgeries, was at church, praising God and saying she is doing fine. I was touched by her example.

So I said to her, “You know, the Bible promises a special blessing and crown to those who have suffered in this life. I admire your faith. You are an inspiration to me.”

James 1:12 says, “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (NLT). It all will be made up to us in the life to come. Have you lost something to follow Jesus? Whatever losses you may have incurred for following Christ will be more than made up to you.

Make no mistake about it: our life on earth isn’t all there is. There will be rewards for our faithfulness to God.

GodsView : God Knows Your Ways!

GodsView : God Knows Your Ways!: “God has the whole world in His hands.”  Remember the old gospel song? He’s got the wind, the rain, the tiny little baby, yes, even you...

God Knows Your Ways!

“God has the whole world in His hands.” Remember the old gospel song? He’s got the wind, the rain, the tiny little baby, yes, even you and me in His hands. How easy it is to forget that! And it isn’t limited to our geography or our culture, you know. He’s got the Middle East in His hands (that’s a relief, isn’t it?), not to mention North Korea and Iran, Cuba and India, Indonesia and Russia—all right there in the palms of His sovereign hands. And while we’re at it, He’s got our future, our children, our circumstances, our friends, and our foes in His hands . . . within His grasp . . . under His control. Even when imaginary fears slip in like the morning frost to blight our faith. He’s there—in charge.
But there are times when we find it really hard to believe that our circumstance is truly in His hands. Not only are the wind and the rain and the tiny little baby in His hands, but so are life’s minor interruptions as well as major calamities. In fact, would you believe they never leave His attention?
There will be times we will need the reminder of the wise prophet named Isaiah.

“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.” (Isaiah 49:16)

In other words, God sees us exactly as we are . . . warts and all, needs and all. He sees everything. And how close does He view it? It’s in the palms of His hands.
God knows your ways . . . and He knows them continually. That includes your responses, your experiences, your reactions, what you call your calamities, your dead ends, your so-called impossible situations.
Not only does He have you and me, the wind and the rain, and the tiny little baby in His hands, He has yesterday’s failures. He has today’s challenges, He has tomorrow’s surprises right there in His hands. And not one of them causes God to gasp. Not one causes Him to react with surprise, “Ah! I never knew that.” Not one. He is unshockable, He is immutable. He’s got the whole world in His hands. What’s more, He has inscribed you and me on His palms. Things aren’t out of control.

GodsView : And Nothing but the Truth!

GodsView : And Nothing but the Truth!: God never intended His people to worship Him apart from the use of their minds. Real spirituality begins with a precise understanding of...

And Nothing but the Truth!

God never intended His people to worship Him apart from the use of their minds. Real spirituality begins with a precise understanding of truth. Yet I see much of contemporary Christianity heading down the paths of mystical experience and fantasy.
That was illustrated in an article I once read in the Los Angeles Times:

PASADENA, Calif. — Under the militant banner of "spiritual warfare," a growing number of evangelical and charismatic Christian leaders are preparing broad assaults on what they call the cosmic powers of darkness.
Fascinated with the notion that Satan commands a hierarchy of territorial demons, some mission agencies and big-church pastors are devising strategies for "breaking the strongholds" of those evil spirits alleged to be controlling cities and countries.
Some proponents in the fledgling movement already claim focused prayer meetings ended the curse of the Bermuda Triangle, led to the 1985 downfall of guru Baghwan Shree Rajneesh and produced a two-week drop in crime and freeway traffic in Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics.
Fuller Seminary professor C. Peter Wagner, who has written extensively on the subject, led a so called summit meeting on cosmic-level spiritual warfare...in Pasadena, Calif. Two dozen men and women took part, including a Texas couple who head a group called the "Generals of Intercession" and an Oregon man who conducts "spiritual-warfare bootcamps."
In his opening remarks, Wagner said, "If you do not know what you are doing, and few...have the necessary expertise, Satan will eat you for breakfast."

I am fearful that this type of mindset is just one example of how the church has fallen victim to the New Age Movement, a thinly veiled form of Hindu mysticism. It is belief in everything, and a belief in nothing — with no distinction between reality and fantasy.
Much of the professing church is in perfect harmony with the New Age movement's spirit of anti-intellectualism. For example, the Roman Catholic Church emphasizes ritual — a mechanical anti-intellectualism in which mystical ceremony replaces intelligent worship. Here Scripture becomes subservient to the church.
Liberal Protestants have emphasized social reform — a political anti-intellectualism produced by the despair of trying to find truth without submitting to the authority of Scripture as the standard for ruling the church.
Charismatics have long emphasized subjectivism — an experiential anti-intellectualism that is the product of weak theology and a careless handling of Scripture.
Those trends all contribute to a kind of mindless, mystical Christianity that is the antithesis of God's design for His church.
That's why I'm so concerned. A seminary professor claims that if we don't learn some mysterious techniques of spiritual warfare, Satan will eat us for breakfast! Is that true? The apostle Peter said, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). But the context is calling for sobriety and vigilance, not a mystical cosmic warfare strategy.
Some suggest all we need to do is bind Satan — just say, "Satan, I bind you," and he is caught. They cite Matthew 12:29, where Jesus says, "How can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house."
But Jesus was dispelling the Pharisees' foolish accusation that He worked under Satan's power (vv. 27-28), not relating a scenario whereby believers could "bind" Satan. He used the illustration of a thief, who, planning to rob a strong man's house while the man was there, would first have to bind him or risk being arrested and beaten. Jesus' point was that He had demonstrated to the Pharisees and all Israel His power over Satan and the kingdom of evil. Only God has the power and authority to enter the very house of Satan, successfully bind him, and carry off his property. Even Paul was hindered by Satan (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Are we to assume he didn't know the correct formula?
There is no magic phrase or mantra we can say that will bind Satan, but God has not left us without a divine strategy for dealing with him. God's strategy centers on objective truth, not subjective experience. It begins with sound doctrine, not cabalistic technique. Yet ironically, those who talk most about warfare against Satan often minimize the importance of doctrine.
In Ephesians 6:11 Paul says, "Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." What is our armor? It consists of the belt of truthfulness (not merely knowing the truth, but being committed to it), the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace (confidence that we have made peace with God), the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation (confidence in our security in Christ), and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. None of those hints at any secret technique. Rather, they speak of clear understanding and a solid commitment to biblical truth and holiness.
When we resist Satan by taking our stand in the armor of God's truth, he flees. James 4:7 says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Peter said, "Resist him, firm in the faith" (1 Peter 5:9, emphasis added) — firm in the Christian faith, which is the revealed truth. This is objective truth, not some unseen cosmic force. Since Satan is a deceiver and a liar, we can successfully resist him only by knowing and obeying the truth.
Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Again, we don't battle Satan with magic words and imaginary forces; we rely on the power of His truth as it brings even our thoughts captive to our Lord. That is genuine and ultimate victory over satanic forces.
No matter how Satan attacks, the solution is the same. We stand in the truth. We don't need to learn hidden strategies to fight Satan. God's truth is the supreme weapon against the father of lies (cf. John 8:44). Only when we know the truth and commit ourselves to obey it will we stand strong.