Jon Bloom has written a tremendous year-end article for anyone who has experienced any kind of sadness, hardship or suffering.
Along with a Bible reading plan, I also highly recommend a good study Bible. For example, this was from my reading on December 3 from Habakkuk 3:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV)
The meaning is plain from the text. But there is more, and my ESV Study Bible helped me see it:
Anticipating great destruction at the hands of the Babylonians, Habakkuk has radically changed-he began by informing God how to run his world, and ended by trusting that God knows best and will bring about justice. Though the fig tree should not blossom. Verse 17 contains a frequently quoted list of material disasters in which all crops and livestock are lost, and as a result it is unclear there will be food to eat. Yet even amid suffering and loss, Habakkuk has learned he can trust God, and with that trust comes great joy, not in circumstances but in God himself: yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Yahweh has become Habakkuk’s strength (see Ps. 18:32, 39).
ESV Study Bible, Crossway Bibles, p. 1727.
“Yet even amid suffering and loss, Habakkuk has learned he can trust God, and with that trust comes great joy, not in circumstances but in God himself.” Of course it is in the text, but I missed it! I’m grateful for good tools that help me see and think on and enjoy more of what God’s word has for us.
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I was delighted to see that the Global Partner of the week at church was Ellie Lundquist, who has committed her life to serving Converge’s deaf ministry in Brazil.
Here was her prayer request:
Pray for the 6 million deaf people of Brazil to know the good news of the gospel. Pray for wisdom and discernment as I think about the next term and what God might be pleased to do through me to reach them. Pray for others to be raised up to partner in this ministry around the world.
Yes, let us pray!
What made it even more fun was that Ellie was on the stage signing as Pastor Sam made the announcement! She’s in black in the middle of the picture. You can’t see it, but her picture is on the screen.
I thank God for you, Ellie!
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“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
(Luke 2:14 ESV)
Maybe my favorite contemporary Christmas Carol.
And just so we don’t get too sentimental about a little baby – this reminder that HE IS GOD!
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In his blog post from Friday, Jon Bloom considers Joseph’s desperation as his wife is about to give birth to the King of all kings. It is a lesson it is for us today:
There are times, while seeking to follow God faithfully, we find ourselves in a desperate moment, forced to a place we would not choose to go. It’s then we must remember: we are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Our lives and circumstances are not ultimately about us. They are about Jesus Christ. The Father has purposes for us and our hardships that extend far beyond us. And often what appears like a misfortune or a lack of provision in the moment later proves to be a means of great mercy.
So maybe what we need most this Christmas is not less turmoil, but more trust. For God chooses stables of desperation as the birthplaces of his overwhelming grace.
Jon Bloom, A Stable of Desperation
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In the same way, you might go through crosses and losses and cancer and sickness and family trouble and you might be treated unfairly and you might have your name smeared, but the good news is that you are going to go through all of that, get to Heaven and say, “It was WORTH IT!” No one will ever say, “I went through that for THIS? The message of the Christian life is not you become a believer and then it’s champagne and roses after that. The message is, you become a believer, and you will have to swim upstream against the current of the world. It will be hard, it will be painful, but it is worth it!
Pastor Jason Meyer, He Will Be a Risen King! Victorious Over the Last Enemy, delivered December 15, 2012.
His entire sermon was very helpful. But if you only have ten minutes, go to 36:36 on this sermon, and let his closing remarks on interpreting pain make your heart soar at the incredible goodness and mercy – and future hope we have – in Jesus Christ, including these final words:
If you are justified, you are as good as glorified because there is no fall out in this “golden chain” of God’s grace. No one can snatch you out of your Father’s hand. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how strong your grip is on your father’s hand. It matters how strong your Father’s grip is on your hand. We rest in the glorious knowledge of his resurrection.
I call you to remember the Resurrection. Look at the pain, the shame, and the injustice in the face and say, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death. Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave. O death where is your sting. O grave where is your victory. O church, come stand in the light the glory of God has defeated the night! The cross gives you a place to take the pain—the Resurrection points to a time when God will take all the pain and injustice and make it stop because he will make it right.
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Because in the story God is telling, evil does not have the last word. Good Friday is not the end (which is why it’s so good). He burst from the spiced tomb on Resurrection Sunday, commissioned his disciples, and ascended to his throne, where now he sits until all of his enemies are subdued under his feet, including and especially Evil.
This then is the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Christian answer to the problem(s) of evil. It is the confession of Jesus Christ, the Divine Author who never himself does evil, but instead conquers all evil by enduring the greatest evil, and thereby delivers all those enslaved and oppressed by evil who put their hope in him.
O Come, O Come Immanuel.
Joe Rigney, Confronting the Problem(s) of Evil
Joe also gave one of the most helpful sermons on prayer and God’s sovereignty I have ever heard: If God Knows Everything and Planned Everything, Why Pray?
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Another reason to read the Bible in a year: the interesting, hopeful, awesome things that prepare us for Christmas!
This was in my reading for Thursday:
1 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. Micah 5:1-4
Crossway has several reading plans, all for free at their website – mobile, print, email, iCal and RSS.
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I want to meet this family! Thank you to Larry Agnew for sending this video to me.
Of course we don’t get to see all the hard work and all the tears and all the failures in seven minutes. But this is still a pretty neat picture of a family God put together.
Russell Moore wrote a highly regarded book on adoption, Adopted for Life, in which he calls the church to care for orphans around the world, just as God through Christ adopted us into his family.
The song the young man without hands was playing on the piano is How He Loves Us by David Crowder Band.
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All conference audio and video for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability are now available at Desiring God!
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Those with disabilities are also created by God for good works
December 28, 2012 by John Knight
The God who creates some to live with disability:
Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11 ESV)
Is the same God who intends for those living with disability to do the work God has given them to do:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)
So, Christ’s church should be actively preparing everyone, disabled and non-disabled, to serve using the gifts God has given them!
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