we're seeing all of these tangled threads..

I saw my book on my desk this morning, Lead Your Staff,Think like Einstein,Create like DaVinci,Invent like Edison and the felt flower that was made for me years ago fell on my book, upside down. From the bottom the threads look a mess. I was reminded of an illustration of making sense of suffering i read years ago.

Does suffering always make sense?

by John Piper

does-suffering-always-make-sense


Certainly it doesn't make sense to us, no. But it does make sense to God. Therefore it is not irrational or ultimately absurd.

Our perspective is not God's perspective. We don't have the sight he has. There are numerous analogies of this. The one I like best, I think, is of the carpet. This one was used, I believe, by Corrie ten Boom, who suffered much as a person during World War II when she was imprisoned for helping Jewish people.

She said the suffering of the world is like looking at the bottom of a tapestry. God is weaving it from the top down, and he sees the picture developing. We're looking at it from the bottom up, and we're seeing all of these tangled threads. It doesn't look like it's making any sense at all, but it's the same tapestry.

In the Bible God gives us enough evidence of his wisdom as a tapestry maker, enough glimpses of the big picture of the tapestry, and enough promises that he is going to make all the threads of our lives beautiful that, even when we can only see the bottom from time to time, we can trust him. And that's what we do in trouble.

We don't have to understand our own or another's suffering to the extent that we understand why it happened now, to this degree, and with these effects. We can't see all of that. What we can see are the promises, "I will work all things together for your good," and "I will magnify my grace in your weakness." God has given us enough in the Bible to know that there is a tapestry up there that I am a part of and that it's going to be beautiful. I'm going to hang on to him.

Would you pray for the person who is wrestling with suffering right now?

Amen. Let's pray.

Father, I pray with the apostle Paul that you would grant everyone listening to me right now to be strengthened in the inner man, according to the riches of your glory, through your Spirit. I pray that Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith, and that they would be rooted and grounded in love. I pray that they would have power, spiritual power, with all the saints to comprehend what is the height, depth, length and breadth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, right in the midst of their suffering.

I pray that Christ would be a treasure to them, that he would be their hope, their strength, and their joy. Lord, make Jesus so real, so powerful, so deep, so authentic, so unshakably sure, that they would not waiver in unbelief as they deal with the pain in their lives.

O Lord, give sustaining grace.


Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.
Sustain everyone, Lord, by your grace as they cast themselves on you.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Used by Permission.

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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Suffering and The Sovereignty of God by John Piper

God cares about us in the midst of the pain. His goal isn’t just to get

us out of the pain to the joy; he also wants us to see that he is for us and

with us in the pain. It is true that weeping may tarry for the night, but

joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5). The morning will dawn and God

will remove every tear (Rev. 21:4), but God is not just concerned about

the morning, the new day when you can shout for joy. He is with us even

in the night when there is nothing but weeping, when the tears are so

thick that we can’t see. When we are in the deepest pit and darkness

weighs on our souls and God feels so absent that we wonder if he is even

real, this psalm reminds us that he is with us even then. (Page 184-185)

blossom as the rose

I saw some rose blossoms that looked dried and withered. A single rose stood out with some glistening water droplets. Hope! Refreshing Hope!

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Isaiah 35:1(KJV)

Finding Peace in Life's Storms- Charles Spurgeon

Make the desert blossom like a rose.

and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

the fact that His love to us knows no variation

I received a picture from my daughters on the beach, a shadow , a heart.. thought of how God's love is not like a shifting shadow but unchangeable, and solid.



"How often it is called unchangeable, everlasting love!
He loves me now as he did when first he inscribed my name in his eternal book.."

"He varies not in the goodness, and generosity, and benevolence of his nature. He is not become an Almighty tyrant, whereas he was once an Almighty Father; but his strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity."

(CHS Sermon #1-)
The Immutability of God

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

    The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow... Psalm 36:7

"As part of creation the sun speaks of the character of God but even at its brightest can only give a glimpse of his glory."

Through and Through

Through and Through

by Will Reagan, United Pursuit Band

Album: Endless Years

by Will Reagan, United Pursuit Band

I find that I'm safe and warm 

In your loving arms

I find that I'm safe and warm 

In your loving arms

You see me

And You know me

And You love me

Through and through

You see me

And You know me

And You love me

Through and through

You see me

And You know me

And You love me

Through and through

Lake in Washington

Endured as seeing him who is invisible...

^" By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible."  Hebrews 11:27 (ESV)


I read this verse this morning not knowing that I would see some beautiful sunbeams this morning on a walk.

I saw a "raven" type bird in the beam.
I recalled reading one time something from John Piper about a "sunbeam" being a glimpse of the source of the beam.

“The sunbeams of blessing in our lives are bright in and of themselves. They also give light to the ground where we walk. But there is a higher purpose for these blessings." (John Piper)

I thought raven, new morning, new mercies, fog lifting after the rain

John Piper reminds us of the illustration from C. S. Lewis, “‘I was standing today in the dark tool shed. The sun was shining outside, and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

“‘Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no tool shed, and above all no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside, and beyond that, ninety-odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.’

“The sunbeams of blessing in our lives are bright in and of themselves. They also give light to the ground where we walk. But there is a higher purpose for these blessings. God means for us to do more than stand outside them and admire them for what they are. Even more he means for us to walk into them and see the sun from which they come. If the beams are beautiful, the sun is even more beautiful. God’s aim is not that we merely admire his gifts, but, even more, his glory.

“Now the point is that the glory of Christ, manifest especially in his death and resurrection, is the glory above and behind every blessing we enjoy. He purchased everything that is good for us. His glory is where the quest of our affections must end. Everything else is a pointer–a parable of this beauty. When our hearts run back up along the beam of blessing to the source in the blazing glory of the cross, then the worldliness of the blessing is dead, and Christ crucified is everything.

“Therefore every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ–the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life–the onlyGod-glorifying life. All others are wasted.”

These paragraphs are from Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life, Crossway (2003). When we center our attention on the gifts God gives, and not on God who is the giver of the gifts, we demean both the gifts and the giver. The Psalmist understood this. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8) And again in Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits….”





I then thought about this "raven: again and recalled a writing by Charles Spurgeon

“The glory of the Gospel is not that it paints ravens white, and whitewashes blackbirds, but that it turns them into doves. It is the glory of our religion not that it makes a man seem what he is not, but that it makes him something else. It takes the raven and turns him into a dove; his ravenish heart becomes a dove's heart. It is not the feathers that are changed, but the man himself. Glorious Gospel…
… trophies of regenerating grace, new creatures in Christ Jesus.” CHS- Sermon
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0063.htm

I was thankful that God is so kind to show us a glimpse of his nature in Heb 11:27 in that He gave Moses faith and strength to endure and walk in the plan created for him before he was born... and he did..

for he endured as seeing him who is invisible."

recalling - his steadfast love endures forever

Psalm 136 

recalling - his steadfast love endures forever (His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever) or ("for his mercy endureth for ever.")

This is repeated 26 times, (Commentary below is helpful)

"This most excellent sentence, that God's mercy endureth for ever, is magnified above all the truths concerning God,"

Psalm 136 136:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.	136:1 O GIVE thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.
136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.	136:2 O give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.
136:3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever;	136:3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever--
136:4 to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;(ESV)	136:4 To Him Who alone does great wonders, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever;(Amplified)

"The scope of this psalm is the same with that of the Psalms 135:1-21, but there is something very singular in the composition of it; for the latter half of each verse is the same, repeated throughout the psalm, "for his mercy endureth for ever," and yet no vain repetition. It is allowed that such burdens, or "keepings," as we call them, add very much to the beauty of a song, and help to make it moving and affecting; nor can any verse contain more weighty matter, or more worthy to be thus repeated, than this, that God's mercy endureth for ever; and the repetition of it here twenty-six times intimates (MHC)

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 ESV)

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! (Luke 12:24 ESV)

One Thing Remains- Jesus Culture

Higher than the mountains that I face
Stronger than the power of the grave
Constant through the trial and the change
One thing remains
One thing remains

Your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on mel ]
On and one and on and on it goes
It overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never ever have to be afraid
One thing remains

In death and in life I'm confident and covered by the power of your great love
My debt is paid there's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love

A glance, the rooster- the pain and the promise

Today  I heard  new insights to chapter 18 of  the Gospel of John from our pastor. The first was the following when the faith of Jesus and the faithlessness of Peter was recorded and contrasted in this reading.

Peter Denies Jesus Again

²⁵  Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” ²⁶ One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” ²⁷ Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. (John 18: 25-27 ESV)

I have often imagined the dark, internal anguish, and condemnation Peter would have possibly felt when the rooster crowed after he denied Jesus three times.  Perhaps he could see Jesus from the area where he denied knowing him. Also , just maybe his eyes met the eyes of The Savior at this time. How despite Peter's fear, and denial and where he may have been expecting a condeming glance, Jesus look reveals love and compassion. "Jesus never forgets his sheep; he is always watching out for us, and never lets us go."

The Cross the great Leveler- a full and effective ransom 

Bloodlines: Race, Cross,and the Christian - John Piper.

“The cross of Christ is the great leveler of human beings, not only because it shows that we are all desperate sinners, and not just because it can only be received by faith, but also because it is such a full and effective ransom for the elect that no child of God dare ever think that we made any contribution to the purchase.” [i]

[i] Piper, John. Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. Page 139.  Crossway.  2011

^{The next insight --}

The Gospel of Mark 16 :1-7 records:

The Resurrection
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back— it was very large. ⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. ⁶ And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee

So Peter is mentioned by name by the angel at the empty tomb. Jesus was so kind to use this in the gospel to show how he loved Peter, how his sins were forgiven, and to recall the hope of the resurrection and justification.

What a beautiful picture of what the Cross has accomplished in our lives. The innocent One takes all the wrath we deserved and we are granted forgiveness , made right and looked upon 'just as if we have never sinned'.  "Perfect justice . perfect mercy side by side .."

Justification is what a judge does in a courtroom. It is a declaration that a defendant is found innocent. And the declaration is made because the judge (or jury) presumes there is real innocence—real righteousness. So for an infallible judge, there are no mistakes. No innocent people are punished. And no guilty go free. In the courtroom of an infallible judge, the only time there is justification is when there is real innocence—real righteousness. The defendant is declared to be just, because he is found to be just.[ii] 
[ii] Piper, John. Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. Page 171.  Crossway.  2011

What A Savior (Man of Sorrows) - Sovereign Grace



Man of Sorrows, what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah
Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Savior, You showed Your love
Defeated our sin, poured out Your blood
So we praise You, Lamb that was slain
We offer our lives to proclaim
What a Savior

Guilty, vile, and helpless we
Spotless Lamb of God was He
Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah
Lifted up was He to die
“It is finished” was His cry
Now in heav’n exalted high
Hallelujah, hallelujah

When He comes, our glorious King
All His ransomed home to bring
Then anew this song we’ll sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

Verses by Philip Bliss (1875), Music and chorus by Devon Kauflin 

One

New every Morning is the love--hope unseen

I was reading a book "Hope Unseen" that had a section that gave hope to this blind soldier and family and  will give hope for anyone's life.

"And we'll see what God has in store for you....for the rest of your life. The one thing I know is that it's gonna be good.... and it's gonna be exciting. And so we're holding on here, and we're with you."

Hope Unseen- Website of Captain Scott Smiley

New Every morning is the Love- John Keble , 1822

New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If on our daily course our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
as more of heaven in each we see;
some softening gleam of love and prayer
shall dawn on every cross and care.

The trivial round, the common task,
will furnish all we ought to ask:
room to deny ourselves; a road
to bring us daily nearer God.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
fit us for perfect rest above;
and help us, this and every day,
to live more nearly as we pray.

Lam 3

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

ALL Things New- Elevation Worship

"All Things New" 

Hear the sound of our chains

They come crashing down

There's freedom in your name

The cross erased our guilt and shame

The past can't condemn the ones

Who bear your name

Pre-chorus:

We found our hope in you (repeat)


Chorus:

You make all things new, new life found in you

You restore the years that we have wasted

You make all things new, your love breaking through

There's healing in your wake and we are changed


Verse:

Hear the shout of your church

The rescued and redeemed Lord we are yours

Saved by grace by grace we live

Nothing separates the love you give



Chorus 2:

You make all things new, new life found in you

You restore the years that we have wasted

You make all things new, your love breaking through

There's healing in your wake and we are changed

You leave healing in your wake and we are changed

There is healing in your name for us to change

Songwriters

BROCK, MACK DONALD III / JOYE, WADE / BROWN, CHRISTOPHER JOEL / RICHTER, BEN


Published by

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC