From the Pulpit ................................................................Pages

All of us have gone through a painful time in our lives at some point. It doesn't matter if it's a relationship break up or the pain of the rejection, I think we have all felt it. Or the pain from a divorce, which honestly feels like a death, because we were never meant to divorce once married; the pain from an injury, such as broken bones or as small as a cut on a finger that needs stitches; a sickness or death of a friend or family member. At times, life can be so hard. Without any warning, the storms in our lives just come over us.

I know for myself, I personally have gone through a lot of painful seasons. I also know that some people have gone through a lot more than I have, and that doesn't mean that their pain or my pain is any less or more painful. Pain is pain, no matter what anybody says, and God knows this; He feels your pain.

We have come a long way from the Garden of Eden, where there was no pain, no sickness, no hunger, no war, no violence of any kind. Animals didn't harm each other, nor did Adam and Eve eat meat; everything lived in perfect harmony and peace.

Genesis 1:29-30 says, "And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so."

The Garden of Eden was perfect until the fall came, when satan as a serpent deceived Eve with the fruit of trees.

Genesis 3:1-6 says, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, Knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She gave to her husband with

From the Pulpit...God feels your PAIN! her, and he ate." Pain, although it is for a season in our lives, can leave more than a physical scar; it also leaves very deep invisible scars that can last a lifetime if we don't seek help for Owner/Publisher: Rob Wood that pain.

So where does someone turn to for

help? Do they go to a family member or friend? You can do that. Should you go to a doctor? Yes, you can if you're not well. Should you go to a Psychiatrist? Again, you can do that. But wouldn't it easier to go to the Lord instead, to tell Him all that you are going through? The secret is that He already knows what you are going through and He feels your Pain! Isn't it easier to go to someone that truly loves you more than anyone else? I think it would be. Jesus Christ felt your pain through His own, almost two thousand years ago. He felt all these pains that we feel today, while He was in the hands of the Romans. Jesus was beaten so

July 2021 Our 3rd Anniversary! Page 5 From the Pulpit...God feels your PAIN! bad that He was totally unrecognizable. He was scourged with a whip that had metal tips on the ends of the whip strands. When hit by those metal tips, they would stick into the flesh and when pulled out, they would leave a terrible wound, pulling flesh and muscle off the body. Jesus had His bones and internal organs showing in places after His horrific beating. Isaiah 52:14 says, "Just as many were appalled at youHis appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being." Then after His trial ended, He was made to carry His cross as far as He could, before He had help. Jesus was then nailed to a cross for all of our sins. He knew abandonment also, when He was on the cross because He took all of our sins upon Himself, so God had to turn His back on Jesus; God could not look upon Him because God cannot and will not tolerate sin of any kind. Matthew 27:46 says, "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The next question would be, Why does

God allow us to suffer, if He loves us?

I hear this question a frequently from people and on social media. There are a lot of questions that can go with this, such as, Why did God allow His own begotten Son to suffer in the hands of Romans and to suffer on the cross as He did? Look at all the people who suffered in the Bible such as Jesus, Job, Paul, the disciples...so many. One thing that was not promised to us was we were never promised a perfect life when we became Christians. We suffer because of the fall. We live in a broken world; the minute that sin had entered into the world, death also entered it in the form of diseases and all kinds of pain. One thing we must remember is, despite all the bad things that may happen to us from time to time, we should always take our problems and questions to God. Don't allow them to become something that will fester up inside us, so much so that it starts to build a wall between us and God. Don't let our burdens interfere with our time or our relationship with God. When we sit and just overthink things, we tend to get very angry. Instead, talk to Him; ask God to take your burdens from you; lay them at the feet of Jesus. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." Suffering is one thing that we may never really know the reason for, but just know that when that season of suffering or hard time comes, God will take whatever you are going through and turn it into something really good. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." My wife knows this; you can read her article on Timeless Truths, to hear her story on how God turned something bad into something good with His promise to her. I also know this first hand to be true as well. When my son had passed in 2001, my life was turned upside down, yet three years later in 2004, I heard His voice tell me that it's all going to be okay. That very moment, my depression was gone and a few months later, I gave my life to Jesus. What a huge difference that was, my suffering from that was now over and my healing at that time was just starting. God turned it all into good for me for two reasons: The first

Page 6 Our 3rd Anniversary! July 2021

From the Pulpit...God feels your PAIN! reason was to realize how much I need Him in my life. We can't go to heaven on our good works, because none of us are good; we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:21-24 says, "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

I needed Him in my life because Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven; if you don't have Jesus in your life and you pass away, you will NOT be going to heaven. John 14:6 says, "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" Jesus is saying that the Father is in heaven, and if you don't have a relationship with Him, because He is the only way, then you will not being going to heaven. The second reason was that I realized, many years after my son's passing, that I was now able to talk to people who have lost children. I can tell them of my painful experience and help them through their pain; I could also counsel them on what to expect and how to work and live through that terrible situation they're going through. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." When others are suffering, it gives us compassion for those hurting; it also enables us to minister to them more effectively. People who are suffering really do want to be ministered to at that time. They want people to tell them that there is hope in what they are going through. Those who have suffered truly make the best comforters to people who are hurting. Suffering can refine us; pain and suffering always has a way of bringing out our strengths and weaknesses to the surface. When the debris works its way up to the surface, God scoops it all up and He purifies and refines and makes everything new. Isaiah 48:10 says, " Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." Suffering produces growth and maturity. If we turn toward God in all of our pain and affliction, He can take all of our suffering to strengthen us and mature our faith. We then begin to see the biblical truth which is shown to the persecuted church. After we hear all their testimonies, no one could deny that all the suffering that they had gone through produces so much beauty, strength, faith and a mature spirit. James 1:2-4 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." Suffering molds us to be more like Jesus. If we are willing to just sit still and let God work in us, we will start to notice that we are being transformed into the image of Jesus, and that is our main goal, or at least it should be, to let Jesus change us from the inside out. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Suffering produces intimacy with God. Job was one in the Bible who suffered greatly. At the start of the book of Job, we see that he was a

July 2021 Our 3rd Anniversary! Page 7From the Pulpit...God feels your PAIN! blameless and upright man who feared God and avoided evil. He had great riches and had seven sons and three daughters. He also had a great number of animals. Job 1:1-3 says, "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East." But God gave satan permission to take all that he had away, only satan was not allowed to lay a hand on Job. His suffering, began with first losing his property, then his sons and daughters to a great wind, which was probably a tornado. Job 1:1819 says, "While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" He had animals raided and struck down by fire that came down from the sky. Job was afflicted with terrible skin sores (boils) all over his body. Job 2:7 says, "So satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." Job's wife even tried to encourage him to curse God, then die. Job 2:9 says, "Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" Job refused to do that and didn't give up; he refused to sin against God by cursing Him; instead he praised when we see and God. At the end of the feel stress or anxiety book of Job, he was that comes upon restored everything, us. During deep, twice as much as he destressing times of had previously. Job suffering, we tend 42:10 says, "And the to lean on God more Lord restored Job's than we would if losses when he prayed we were in a good for his friends. Indeed season. This is when the Lord gave Job we experience God in twice as much as he a much deeper level had before." than when things are Job, who had good in our lives. suffered significantly, So just know that in ch. 42:5 says, "I God feels our pain; have heard of You by He knows when we the hearing of the ear, are hurting. It is up to But now my eye sees us to go to Him. Let's you." do that, give Him our Intimacy with God burdens, and watch often begins in the Him take care of our furnace of afflictions. problems, molding There is an opening of us into the person He our souls that happens wants us to be. WOOD Ministries

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Lynne Wood wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com Owned and published by Rob Wood of Wood Ministries. Contact us @ 905-380-4489, or email us at wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com