The Pains of Testing
We must be prepared for the challenges of the testing that will be sure to come in the Christian life, passing these tests without falling to the schemes of our spiritual enemy.
trials
March 6, 2025
Questions in this episode: – Can you please elaborate on cremation versus burial after death? – How do you answer someone who says they are going to heaven because they are a good person? – Why did King Ahab and King Josiah disguise themselves and what should we take away from that? – Proverbs 26:4 …
January 22, 2025
Questions in this episode: – Can you help me how to trust God and his promises even during difficult times? – Does sentimentalism or emotionalism have any place in the church? How should our feelings inform our thoughts? – In the Book of Isaiah verse 43:66, is this passage written as prophecy or was it …
Suffering and Trust
If we read through the God-breathed songbook of Israel we’ll find plenty of psalms which remind us that in this life God’s favored people are in no way exempt from serious pain and intense suffering. It is how the psalmists’ deal with their pain…
Responding to Trials
Modern Christians tend to misplace a good portion of their compassion. Often when they learn of someone who is struggling or hurting, regardless of the reason, they are quick to offer…
No Exemption from Trouble
The Christian life will be filled with various difficulties which can be endured with great courage as we cling to God with an accurate understanding of who he is.
Drawing Near to God
When life is hard we must purposefully seek the Lord, knowing he is responsive to our pain and that he will give us the hope and courage that we need.
The Kinds of Opposition to Expect
We can expect in our day all sorts of opposition for being faithful to Christ and biblical truth, but we must remember our calling and courageously endure whatever comes our way.
Count It All Joy?
It is admittedly a challenge to “count it all joy, when you meet trials of various kinds” (Jms.1:2). But if we start by understanding that “counting it joy” is not the same as “enjoying” or “feeling good” about the painful situations in our lives, it may help us…
Caring Less about Your Own Comfort
We must evaluate our competing desires to serve God and our own comfort, resolutely deciding to persist in fulfilling the particular calling he has laid on our lives as Christians.
Perseverance
So many Christian virtues orbit around the “stick-to-itiveness” of the biblical word “perseverance”. To be patient or long-suffering, to look to the future with steadfast hope or “wait on the Lord”, to endure trials or persistently pray – these all relate to this fundamental godly trait called perseverance. To exercise biblical
Needful Lessons for Life’s Ups & Downs
We must revitalize our engagement in prayer, knowing we have access through Christ to bring our requests to a holy and omnipotent Creator.
Be Strong!
We intuitively prefer strength to weakness. And we should. It is a biblical virtue to possess the strength to resiliently face life’s challenges and to “bear up under the pain” we all inevitably encounter (1Pet.2:19; Eph.6:10-13). Thankfully God is desirous of granting his children
When Bad Things Happen
God has obviously not promised us an exemption from the bad things that happen to people in this world. As Christians we are saved from the coming wrath of God, but for now in God’s providence we are variously exposed to the painful and tragic events that plague mankind. This, of course, was God’s promise in…
Enduring Slanderous Attacks
As messengers and representatives of the gospel we will experience unjust and costly opposition, in which we should continue to entrust ourselves to our powerful Savior.
Perfection
It has been observed that our insatiable appetite for what is perfect should be a clue that this world is not our home. Who can argue with the fact that we all spend plenty of time and effort imagining and pursuing flawless realities that…
Rejection
Rejection hurts. And unfortunately our Christianity increases the likelihood that we will encounter it more often. Part of the cost of “taking up our cross” and “following Jesus” is the harsh reality of “bearing the disgrace he bore” (Heb.13:13). As Jesus himself said: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (Jn.15:18). It is a vain hope…
Rejoice
In Philippians 4:4 we are commanded to “Rejoice in the Lord always!” That is quite a remarkable command given that we had already been warned by Christ that life won’t always feel good (cf. Jn.16:33). But the directive is given and our response is expected…
The Postponement for Moses
The vindication of the gospel always involves waiting, difficulties, and rejection—but God provides the resources to patiently and resolutely endure.
Injustice & Vindication
The world is filled with injustice. Our lives at times seem to be filled with it too. While we should always seek to pursue justice for the sake of the One who embodies it (Ps.97:2), there are many times when equitable solutions are not attainable this side of heaven. Thankfully, God has promised…
Pain and Thanksgiving
Pain hurts, and few of us would choose it if we had a choice. But often God chooses it for us, so we can experience his strong deliverance and learn to praise him more perfectly. Consider Psalm 102 (a psalm with a preface that reads “the prayer of an afflicted man”) where we…
Thankful Always
First Thessalonians 5:18 requires that Christians “give thanks in all circumstances.” While to some this may seem crazy or at least a strange kind of spiritual masochism, the Bible has good reason for directing us to be grateful even when…
Future Peace
You cannot have a peaceful heart if your expectations about life are inaccurate. When we seek to achieve a calm and contented spirit by asking God to fix all our problems we can be certain our lives will be filled with angst and anxiety. While it may be intuitive…
Deliverance and Gratitude
It is easy to simplistically assume that if we trust in Christ and are considered by God to be his favored and adopted children then all should go relatively well for us—but of course that is not what the Bible teaches. Throughout the Bible we are reminded of the wide variety of reasons God chooses to providentially lead
The God Who Is
God, by definition, is “Almighty.” In our desire to “humanize” God and relate to the softer and gentler side of Deity we often lose sight of the fact that the God who actually exists is a God who possesses all authority, all power, and all dominion. He is a Being who is unchallenged in his rank, sovereignty, and supremacy. He speaks things into existence, and at will chooses things to come to an end. There are times in life when we sense the profundity of
Patience
It should not come as a surprise to those of us who make it our practice to ponder timeless biblical principles and worship an eternal God, that many aspects of the Christian life are going to require a lot more waiting…
Wait Patiently
Sometimes the way we read the Bible becomes a disservice to our Christian life. When a tension is presented in the plot of a biblical narrative we naturally “can’t wait” to see how it will be resolved; so we rush on to see how God works it all out. And after we’ve become familiar
Pain and Sickness
The Bible promises us that this life will be punctuated with sickness and pain. For some it will be more chronic than others, but unfortunately for all of us there will be certain seasons of severe and almost unbearable discomfort. While we’d wish that God’s children were exempt, we must remember that for now, Christ has not granted us any such immunity. When sin entered the world
Trusting God When You’re Scared
Fear, worry, and anxiety for the Christian is sinful and illogical because we have an omnipotent Father who is willing and able to strongly support us when we put our confidence in him.