The Lord has impressed on me a few different things as of late. You see, my family and I have been going through a lot of trials. I know that many, no, all of you are in one of three categories; 1) you are in a trial right now, 2) you’ve just come out of one, or 3) you are headed to one. One thing I know is that the Bible is true and Jesus, Himself, promises in John 16:33 that "in this world you will have trouble...". During the storm of affliction my wife had surgery, she had complications and was hospitalized. At the same time, yes exactly the same time, her employer wrote pay checks with insufficient funds. The bills mounted as I stayed home to care for my wife during the busiest time of the year for retail sales people. We also had children with medical conditions that required treatment that couldn't be postponed, we were paying for private school, we put them in public school to alleviate that bill. Oh yea, we also had a mortgage and two car payments. One car got repossessed and the house was foreclosed on.
Our church seemed bothered that we would ask for help. We were both lay leaders and got the impression that leaders were not supposed to have this kind of stuff happen in their lives. It pains me to reveal this as I was introduced to Jesus and subsequently baptized there, baptized my 2 older kids there and met my wife there, but it's part of the story and must be told. I was in a dark tunnel and saw no light, not even the light of Christ. I couldn't see that light until we started meeting with a counselor who came to our home in the Fall of 2014. Our home was a small apartment that was very cluttered and had barely enough room to get around for the 4 of us and our 90 pound dog, much less for the counselor to come in once a week with all of us there. You read that correctly, he came into our messy life and sat down with us. My wife and I had been to many counselors and not one of them offered to come to see us. We always have had to get cleaned up, get the kids to a sitter and drive across town to a suburban upscale office building at a time that was convenient to the counselor and at least one of us. My intent is not to demean counselors who have offices but rather to say that Simon Tradition Ministries is different. They come into the home to see the family dynamics first hand and we, the clients, are less apt to wear masks. On this journey I forgot about God and what He had done in my life. As we worked on the myriad of things we have had to work on I eventually came to a place where I was craving God's Word. The Lord led me to a preacher named Tony Evans and the first two sermons I listened to were aptly named "Why God Allows Your Crisis" and "The Purpose of Pain". In "Why God Allows Your Crisis" I hear of Judah's King Jehoshaphat referenced in 2 Chronicles 20. His country was being pursued by a "vast army" and the Bible says that he was "alarmed" (v.3). What he did immediately is what I wish I would have done. The King called for a fast and said a long prayer that ends with "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (v.12). The prophet Jehaziel then proclaimed a Word from the Lord. He said "This is what the Lord says to you: Do not be afraid of this vast army, for the battle is not yours, but God's". So it is with us, our battles are God's, not ours. My take away is that God allows crisis in order to bring His people to Him so that He can win the battle for us. Then I listened to "The Purpose Of Pain", a message on 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. In this exposition of Scripture I saw that with every trial or affliction God provides comfort (v.4a) and He provides that comfort for a purpose, "so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God" (v.4b). So I must comfort others while I am in the affliction? That is what God says. A simple word for this is ministry. Ministry is messy work and none of us are perfect so remember, we all fit into one of these categories at any given time in our lives; in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or headed to one, so what the Apostle Paul says here makes sense. The world we live in is broken and decaying (John 16:33), we will not see a crisis free existence on this side of physical death. Dr. Evans calls 2 Corinthians 1:5 the "second most important theological reality" (#1 is the Gospel of Christ) which states "just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows" (#2 God is in control). Christ suffered tremendously. Go back to the Old Testament and read about the prophets and others who had faith in God and their trials. Then after Jesus in the New Testament one can read about Stephen, the first martyr, and the most notable sharer in Christ's sufferings, the Apostle Paul. But wait, there's more! Through Christ our comfort overflows as well...even while we are in the trial! My deduction is that God is in control. He allows for pain, affliction, and trial but He also provides comfort through the comfortor (Holy Spirit). One can see this play out in the book of Job. Satan had to ask God for permission to attack Job and God limited Satan by telling him not to take his life. In all of that turmoil, Job was comforted by God. Nothing can get to you unless it goes through God first. Paul continues in verses 6-7, "If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And now our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in his sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." These are my sermon notes on that section: God wants us to be comfortors while we are waiting to be comforted God uses people to comfort other people You can't experience God the way you want to without ministering to others Not ministering= limiting your experience of God God must remove our self sufficiency: we are in the perfect position for God to work when we don't know what to do. Friday was not fair for Jesus, it was a real bad day...then Sunday came God is able to take my mess and make it a miracle I say all of that to get to this. I see a light in the tunnel now and it gets brighter everyday as the Lord exposes Scripture to me and teaches me new and exciting truths. As I have reflected on our journey through all the pain and how there is more peace in our lives I was uneasy about why He showed me these passages and sermons. The thought occurred to me that if we are coming out of a crisis we were headed to another crisis. Yes, one was looming and is here. Three of our four parents have long term illnesses which have needed more attention within the past few weeks and the fourth just recovered from a two week illness. There is a different mindset today in our home. One where we are actively acknowledging that God is in control and He will not allow any trial "except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not allow any temptation beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." For the believer in Christ as Lord affliction and comfort ALWAYS come together. God's got this.
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