One Reason God Allows Suffering

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.”—Psalm 119:67

God will sometimes allow suffering and sickness to get our attention! For instance, we may be rebelling against Him, and He wants it to stop. This was the case with the reluctant prophet Jonah. Psalm 119:67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.”. So the Lord may allow a hard situation to wake us up to our real need—even something as tragic as the death of a child. One person whose child died wrote me saying,

A person expects to lose a parent, maybe even a brother, sister, aunt, or uncle; but never a child. My son would have been 16 years old this year. It has been 15 years since his death. He was the person who brought me to the Lord. Because of his death I received my salvation. The comfort I found when I fell into God’s hands . . . God knows my pain; He lost a son too!

Fifteen years later . . . I still cry at Christmas; that’s when I remember his life and my loss. I still cry at Easter; that’s when I am assured I will see him again. I know I will never get over it because I don’t want to get over it. The intensity is less; but, like the joy of life takes the pain of birth away, I have found salvation through God’s Son because of the loss of mine!

God used unimaginable tragedy to bring this person to the Lord. Maybe something radical or tragic has happened to you lately: the death of a loved one, bad news from a doctor, a close brush with death. Or maybe something else has gotten your attention, and you hurt! Perhaps your marriage failed, your parents divorced, you got fired, your girlfriend or boyfriend dumped you.

It’s possible that the Lord is trying to get your attention in all of this hardship. Remember that God is in control of all circumstances that surround the believer. As shown in the story of Job, the devil can do nothing in the life of the believer without express permission on the part of God.

But why would God give Satan that permission? Because Satan’s attacks will show what you are made of. It will separate the real from the false, the wheat from the tares. When attacked, a real believer will turn to God. A nonbeliever will turn against Him. People react in different ways to crisis. It seems you either turn to the Lord, or against Him. And the result is you either get better or bitter. Suffering does not create character; it reveals it.–Greg Laurie

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

GOD’S GUIDANCE 

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye”.– Psalm 32:8

How good is your vision? Can you see accurately up to 20 feet? Maybe even 50 feet? Only about 35 percent of all adults have 20/20 vision without correction, but maybe you are among the fortunate, better-than-average group. Even so, can you see into the future? What about into the hearts of your friends? Are you able to see every possible outcome of any given choice?

When we consider the limitations of our vision, no matter who we are, we come to realize what an incredible privilege is offered to us, by God Himself. He promises to instruct and inform us of the correct paths to take in life, using—not our finite and limited vision—but His perfect, all-seeing, all-knowing eye as our guide. The One Who knows all ends offers to lead us to the perfect destination for each of us!

Knowing that each of us faces a myriad of hair-pulling, gut-wrenching decisions at different times in our lives—and recognizing that even the smallest decisions can have big ramifications for our lives—what an amazing gift this is! And, yet, so many of us prefer to stumble blindly through the deadly obstacle course of this world, setting our own course and choosing our own turns, just so that we can say, “I did it my way.”

If you are wrestling today with difficult decisions, know that God’s perfect wisdom and vision is available to you—it is only a prayer away. When we go to God, asking His help and looking into His Word for direction, He gives us this guarantee: I will lead you where you need to go, guiding you with my eye.– Baptist Bible Hour

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

 TIME, PLEASE!
“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”–Psa. 119:160
 
Here is a story which is humorous and at the same time points a moral worth considering.
 
At almost the same hour each day a man’s voice would ask the telephone operator in a little New England town for the exact time. Day in and day out this went on. Finally, at the end of two years, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, the operator inquired, “Would you mind telling me why you call here every morning to ask the correct time?”
 
“Why, certainly,” the man’s voice answered; “I blow the town whistle at noon, and I want to be sure that my clock is right.”
 
“That is strange,” the operator replied. “For the last two years I have set my clock every day by the town whistle.”
 
That is what I call getting in a rut! But theirs was the sort of rut a merry-go-round would make if it had wheels— around and around and around.
 
To get the right time, one must go to an observatory clock. The observatory gets time from the stars; and to be absolutely correct, a clock must be set by this celestial time. God’s clock, the heavenly bodies, never gains or loses one second. Every timepiece which man has ever invented is fallible and variable, it is to be kept accurate, its time must be checked by the stars.
 
So it is with all things which man can devise. Social institutions, customs, morals, laws, governments—all these, if based wholly on man’s conceptions or on some other man-made institution, custom, moral, law or government, are quite as apt as not to be wrong. All human institutions and human concepts must, if they have value, be checked against the eternal verities of God’s Truth. The Bible gives us the divine standard.
 
As the time kept by the heavenly bodies is the only safe and accurate standard by which men’s clocks may be set, so is this Book the only unchanging and eternal standard by which institutions and customs may be measured. Principles of right and wrong are unchanging. That which was true five thousand years ago is true today. Men’s ideas of truth may change. Man’s standards may vary from generation to generation, but God’s Word is forever fixed in heaven. Only that concept or that institution which is based upon the truths revealed in the Word of God can make claim to Truth. — Bob Jones, Jr.
 
“Jesus, my Truth, my Way, My sure, unerring Light, On Thee my feeble steps I stay, Which Thou wilt guide aright.
 
My Wisdom and my Guide, My Counselor Thou art; O never let me leave Thy side, Or from Thy paths depart!”— Charles Wesley

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

SINGING IN THE FIRE
“ And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”-Rev. 15:3

The following incident is related by Mrs. Charles Spurgeon, who was a great sufferer for more than a quarter of a century:

“At the close of a dark and gloomy day, I lay resting on my couch as the deeper night drew on; and though all was bright within my cozy room, some of the external darkness seemed to have entered into my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. Vainly I tried to see the Hand which I knew held mine, and guided my fog-enveloped feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering. In sorrow of heart I asked,

“’Why does my Lord thus deal with His child? Why does He so often send sharp and bitter pain to visit me? Why does He permit lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?’

“These fretful questions were quickly answered, and through a strange language; no interpreter was needed save the conscious whisper of my heart.

“For a while silence reigned in the little room, broken only by the crackling of the oak log burning in the fireplace. Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, a little, clear, musical note, like the tender trill of a robin beneath my window.

“’What can it be? surely no bird can be singing out there at this time of the year and night.’

“Again came the faint, plaintive notes, so sweet, so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke our wonder. My friend exclaimed,

“’It comes from the log on the fire!’ The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak’s inmost heart!

“Perchance he had garnered up this song in the days when all was well with him, when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with gold. But he had grown old since then, and hardened; ring after ring of knotty growth had sealed up the long-forgotten melody, until the fierce tongues of the flames came to consume his callousness, and the vehement heart of the fire wrung from him at once a song and a sacrifice. ’Ah,’ thought I, ’when the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed we are purified, and our God is glorified!’

“Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log, cold, hard, insensible; we should give forth no melodious sounds, were it not for the fire which kindles around us, and releases notes of trust in Him, and cheerful compliance with His will.

“’As I mused the fire burned,’ and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely set forth before me.

“Singing in the fire! Yes, God helping us, if that is the only way to get harmony out of these hard apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before.” (Copied)
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”–Matthew 6:31–34

In one of the early Peanuts cartoons, a little girl named Marcie says, “Don’t worry about the world ending tomorrow. It’s already tomorrow in Australia!” The truth is that many people are worried about the future. And certainly there is much uncertainty and danger in our world. There are plenty of things that could go wrong. Yet Jesus tells His followers not to worry. The future will have troubles, but God will still be there.

Too many times we act as though God is taken by surprise by the things that befall us. While the events of life may catch us off guard, nothing ever causes God to revise His plans. He already knows not only what will happen, but also how we will respond. The world may worry about the future, but God’s children should not. Instead, we should trust that as we seek His Kingdom as our priority in life, He will provide for our needs and guide our path.

The command against worry is not a promise that nothing will ever go wrong. In fact, Jesus tells us that the coming day will have “sufficient” trouble—a word that indicates a full supply. The cure for worry is not that everything will go the way we would prefer, but that we remember God will be in control. Corrie ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” We can trust God to do what is best for us every day. –(Daily in the Word)

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346