The Point Of Suffering

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. —Romans 5:1–5

God tells us that suffering isn’t pointless.

Pastor and author Randy Alcorn tells this story about the late Professor Howard Hendricks from Dallas Theological Seminary :

Howard Hendricks tells of visiting a leprosy center in India. The morning he arrived, the residents were gathered for a praise service. One of the women with leprosy hobbled to the platform. Hendricks said that even though she was partially blind and badly disfigured, she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen.

Raising both of her nearly fingerless hands toward Heaven, she said in a clear voice, “I want to praise God that I am a leper because it was through my leprosy that I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior. And I would rather be a leper who knows Christ than be completely whole and a stranger to His grace.”

WOW! I am practically speechless.  Truly we are called to know and experience Jesus through our sufferings

Although my suffering doesn't measure to the degree of leprosy, like that woman - during my life I have encountered Jesus in the sweetest ways and moments through personal suffering and hardship.  Jesus meets us most intimately in the midst of our pain.

This Saturday at team from CMDA Atlanta and others are going to serve in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. During our time there, we are going to meet many who are suffering in Haiti. Many who are still suffering from the deep wounds and scars from their many years of being ruled by cruel political dictators as well as the devastation of the earthquake over 5 years ago. People are still suffering from those scars, yet we are no only going to Haiti to care for people's physical wounds and diseases but also spiritually wounded people as well. 

In the middle of the Haitian's pain, God is using it to open up hearts to hear and receive the love of Jesus. Medicine is our lead foot in giving us the opportunity to share that hope. May God do an incredible Kingdom work in the community of Tokio within Port-au-Prince and throughout Haiti!

Is Your Gospel Too Small?

A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small.  - Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God 

I remember hearing years ago from pastor and teacher Jack Miller, that as Christians, we need to "preach the gospel" to our hearts and lives every day. In other words, we don't graduate from the gospel. The gospel isn't merely some set of propositional truths that we affirm only to become a Christian and then after our conversion it then carries no application or relevance. No, the gospel is more.

Rather the love and grace of the gospel is the beautiful and majestic reality that we must live in, sit in and let permeate us every day. The gospel not only saves us from eternal separation from God for all eternity...but the gospel saves us to live a changed, renewed, powerful and transformed life every day.

If you are anything like me, I have short term memory loss. I can easily forget. Yet more tragic than simply forgetting where I parked the car, I can forget at times that I am loved and fully accepted by Jesus. How is that possible? It becomes possible when I allow the stresses., failures and pressures of the day to overshadow Christ's love for me. Or I choose to listen to the voices of the world and the enemy define me by their lies. That is why I must double down on the gospel. Through the Word, I need to press down into my heart that I am accepted and loved by Jesus, and that no circumstance, feeling or failure can change that fact. 

I need to be reminded of what Paul said in Galatians (4:4-7) "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

In Jesus, I am a son or daughter of the King. I am deeply loved and accepted because I am united with Jesus. I need to apply these truths to my life every moment of every day. As Elyse Fitzpatrick says in her book, Because He Loves Me

"In order to grow in Christlikeness, we’ve got to intentionally apply the gospel to everything we are and everything we long to do. We’re not to sever our obedience from [Christ's] perfect sinlessness nor disconnect our mortal life from his resurrected life. We’ve got to understand ourselves in the light of our new identity, seeing ourselves as we truly are: sinful and flawed, loved and welcomed. Only these gospel realities have enough power to engender faith, kill idolatry, produce character change, and motivate faithful obedience."

My heart and prayer is that those of us with CMDA here in Atlanta would drink deeply of the gospel. The gospel must become for us a giant anchor that we constantly cling fervently to. We can't allow the gospel to become too small. What about you, is your gospel too small?