Down in Your Gut (Radio / Podcast)

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:6-7)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
(1 Peter 4:12-13)

Q: What's the difference between 1 Peter 4:12-13 and 1 Peter 1:6-7? Is he talking about the same thing in both or are they two different types of trials? Is one like the sufferings you endure because you're a Christian and the other is trials to see if you really love God?

A: Excellent question!

Basically both are speaking of enduring persecution, but 1 Peter 1:6-7 is also talking about how suffering reveals the bottom line nature of your faith, that even through it is like fire your faith remains when tested. For some people and in some situations it may not just be one area of suffering and grief, but it can be like when everything seems to stink. You just want to give up, but you can't. Something at the bottom of your gut won't let you go; you just know that you believe no matter what. You can't get rid of it. That is the Holy Spirit working. That is your faith that has been given to you. Nothing can take it away. It can be shaken and you can be depressed, but you cannot let God of go completely...He has you and you have Him.

So the trial is not really about seeing if you really love God but how God proves to you that you have a love for Him, and you feel His love for you despite the fiery trial, and you are somehow filled with joy (vs.8). It is like our sermons, “A Fresh Touch” and “No Matter How Bad”, from Romans 5:1-6…we go through a difficult time and we get a fresh understanding, a renewed feeling, a touch of the love of God and for God.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Joyful Captivity (Radio / Podcast)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(Jeremiah 29:11 – ESV)

Jeremiah 29:11 is certainly applicable as a great and precious promise from God to us. However, we need to see the fuller context, because the surrounding verses give us a clear picture of the often difficult process God uses to deliver this promise into our lives. Let’s briefly outline the passage, and consider some vitally important concepts that arise from the text.

Vs.4 – God is orchestrating these events

Vs.5-6 – Bloom where you are planted, wherever you are planted. Yes you are moving on, this is only temporary, but make your mark for Christ while you are there.

Vs.7 – Be a blessing even when you are bound and you will be blessed. Do everything right that you would normally do because God can and will use it. Think about the stranded man whose hut was set on fire by lightning but that acted as a smoke signal. We don’t always see beyond the surface.

Vs.8-10 – Don’t listen to those who say your faith will never be tested, your situation will never have sorrow, and you will never have to go through any pain. They lie. You will have seasons of pruning, purifying, but they are for producing a closer and more passionate walk with God. They will get you to plug into the power source.

Vs.11 – God says my plans include this prison. You have to go through it but I mean it to give you a future full of hope. You will be captives to them but captured by me.

Vs.12 – this will cause you to look to me.

Vs.13 – now you will seek me without reservation, with prayer and worship.

Vs.14 – I will be available to you and will reverse your plight.

Here is something vital to think about. In considering that scenario, we can see that many were born into captivity, many would have to die in captivity, and many would live most of their lives in captivity. Yet God says they had a hope and a future, and He tells them it includes coming back into their own land. Now, does that only mean as a whole and exclude individuals, since many would not be alive to witness that day? What about those others, how could they be promised a hope and a future while still living and dying in Babylon? What could it be?

This is where we need to expand our vision. God WAS their hope and future! We follow Christ and lead the way for others, with God Himself AS our hope and our future. God allows us in our lives to go through some things to show others the way out. Moses got to see the Promised Land, but never got to be in the Promised Land. God gave David the plans to build the Temple, but David never got his hands to build the Temple. The Apostle John saw the vision of the triumphant Second Coming of Christ but it was for the future. Some of us may or may not be here for that Triumphant Return, but we get to walk in the Triumphal Procession even now.

You may think you’re going nowhere but you need to see the Triumphal Procession for what it really is. Paul was in it, he was a joyful captive of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14). That paradise parade may lead you into prison, into poverty, into persecution, into pain and into all sorts of problems, but Christ is also leading you all the way home. If you truly want to be filled with spiritual passion and power, you can’t just sit on the sidelines and cheer on Jesus like a spectator. You must be a spectacle (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:9, 13); the world must see Christ as having conquered you.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

A Fresh Touch

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:1-5 – ESV)

In this text we see that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you, that even when what happens to you seems bad God uses it for your spiritual good. Through Christ we have been justified by faith, forgiven by God, who has made a lasting peace with us and we can be at peace towards Him. Having been introduced to the grace of God we will stand forever righteous in His sight and can glory in the fact that we have a hope of eternal life in heaven with Him. We now have access to the grace of God and we know that the bad times produce good results, as we stay under God’s hand during the trial and testing it produces patience, which produces proven character, which produces hopeful confidence, which does not disappoint us because once again the Holy Spirit pours the love of God and love for God into our hearts afresh. We see the eternal hope of verse two made manifest as a timely hope in verse four.

This is that initial realization about us having been made at peace with God and having hope for eternity being brought into the temporal circumstances of today. This is the more than that the text speaks of. We know we are children of God in our heads but God brings it home to our hearts in the most trying of circumstances. This is how we once again know in our experience, and not just in our minds, that God is our Father, Jesus our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter. This is made real again by a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the difference between staying locked into the tragedy and shining forth in triumph; it is that in the midst of tragedy triumph can come forth in our character.

When the text says we rejoice in trials it doesn’t mean we should say, “Hooray, look at my scars, yes, I am so glad to have this open wound!” No, it means we can still rejoice in God because we know something. We can still exult in God, despite the trials, because we know that whatever happens, we are the children of God, with ultimate hope. We may not understand all of what is going on or all the reasons for our trials, especially when they are “not our fault”, but we can still be “knowing something” about how God is going to mold us into the image of Christ through these situations. The text says “knowing that”; we know something about what is going on. God is redeeming our suffering to His glory, and giving us a fresh touch of hope through the power of the Holy Spirit which we feel in our hearts. This is not theory; this is experience, our justification made sure in our hearts. Can you feel it?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Hope in Heaven

…since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
(Colossians 1:4-5 – ESV)

When we see faith, hope and love in others we have discipled, it is an encouragement to and an incentive in prayer, as it was for Paul and his team. Recall Philippians 2:16-18 – Paul knew that his work really abided in people, so that if those people did not continue on strong with the Lord, there was a sense in which he felt his own ministry was in vain (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). This is the true heart of a shepherd, having fewer burdens for one’s self than for others, and not being content just with one’s own relationship with God, but longing to see others walking with the Lord. Paul was thankful that this church was trying to grow in the faith, and that is why he prayed for their increase (Colossians 1:9-11).

This wasn’t just a matter of feeling; it was a matter of fervency (1 Peter 1:22). It is not an emotional love, although it may have an emotional element to it. It is a love for the truth, a love for those in the truth, and a love to spread the truth. The fruit we see, faith in Jesus Christ and love for the saints are predicated on the hope we have in heaven. The more we focus on our heavenly destiny the more we will see and experience this fruit. This does not make us a bunch of monks living in a Christian ghetto, with an “us four and no more” mentality. On the contrary, such a hope is not to the exclusion of being active on earth, but to motivate us to action on earth. Our faithfulness and our fellowship will increase. What we love governs the way we live. Hope precedes faith, and faith precedes faithfulness.

John Piper, in his commentary on these verses, says this: Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love! It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise – these are the cords that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope!

Look at what the Apostle says in 1 Peter 1:3-10, 13-17, 22 – we have a hope, so set your mind on that hope, and act in accordance with that hope. Peter and Paul agree – the harmony of the Scriptures – hope bears loving fruit.