NUMBER NINE, 2017
In this issue
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6
6 8
After the Avalanche
charles r. swindoll Out from the Ashes
robyn roste
Reality Testing
steve johnson
Names of Jesus
11 Saviour
The Hea[r]t of the Issue
12 Why Does God Allow Trials and Suffering?
steve johnson
Beyond the Broadcast
15 The Simple Secret of an Unsinkable Life
Insights is published by Insight for Living Canada, the Bible-teaching ministry of Charles (Chuck) R. Swindoll. Chuck is the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Texas. His international radio program Insight for Living has aired for more than 35 years. We hope this publication will instruct, inspire, and encourage you in your walk with Christ. Copyright Š 2017 Insight for Living Canada. All rights reserved. No portion of this monthly publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture passages are taken from the NLT. Unless otherwise noted, photography and illustration by Tim Schellenberg. IFLC is an autonomous ministry and certified member of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Printed in Canada.
Cover Image: Ian Espinosa on Unsplash | Article Image: Tori Nikkel
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by charles r. swindoll
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ob could write about wounds. His words were more than patronizing platitudes and armchair proverbs. He’d been there and back again. He could describe intense inner suffering in the first person because of his own sea of pain. Step into the time tunnel with me and let’s travel together back to Uz (not like the wizard of ___, but like the land of __). This place called Uz had a citizen who had the respect of everyone, because he was blameless, upright, God-fearing, and clean-living. He had 10 children, fields of livestock, an abundance of land, a houseful of servants, and a substantial stack of cash. No one would deny that the man called Job was “the greatest of all the men of the east” (Job 1:3 NASB). He had earned that title through years of hard work and honest dealings with others. His very name was a synonym for integrity and godliness. Then, without announcement, adversity thundered upon him like an avalanche of great, jagged rocks. He lost his livestock, crops, land, servants, and—can you believe it?—all 10 children. Soon thereafter he lost his health, his last human hope of earning a living. I plead with you to stop reading, close your eyes for 60 seconds, and identify with that good man—crushed beneath the weight of adversity. The book that bears his name records an entry he made into his journal soon after the rocks stopped falling and the dust began to settle. With a quivering hand, the man from Uz wrote: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) Following this incredible statement, God added: Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. (1:22) Right about now, I’m shaking my head. How could anyone handle such a series of grief-laden ordeals so calmly? Think of the aftermath: bankruptcy, pain, 10 fresh graves…the loneliness of those empty rooms. Yet we read that he worshipped God, he did not sin, nor did he blame his Maker. Well, why didn’t he? How could he ward off the bitterness or ignore thoughts of suicide? At the risk of oversimplifying the situation, I suggest three basic answers: First, Job claimed God’s loving sovereignty. He sincerely believed that the Lord who gave had every right to take away (Job 1:21). Stated in his own words: “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) He looked up, claiming his Lord’s right to rule over his life. Who is the fool that says God has no right to add sand to our clay or marks to our vessel or fire to His workmanship? Who dares lift his clay fist heavenward and question the Potter’s plan? Not Job! To him, God’s sovereignty was laced with His love. Second, he counted on the promise of resurrection. Do you remember Job’s immortal words? “I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last…I shall see God.” (Job 19:25–26)
Could it be that you are beginning to feel the nick of falling rocks? Maybe the avalanche has already fallen...maybe not. He looked ahead, counting on his Lord’s promise to make all things bright and beautiful in the life beyond. He knew that at that time, all pain, death, sorrow, tears, and adversity would be removed. Knowing that “hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5), he endured today by envisioning tomorrow. Third, he confessed his own lack of understanding. What a relief this brings! Job didn’t feel obligated to explain the “whys” of his situation. Listen to his admission of this fact: “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted…. Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful [too deep] for me, which I did not know…. I will ask You, and You instruct me.” (Job 42:2-4) He looked within, confessing his inability to put it all together. Resting his case
with the righteous Judge, Job did not feel compelled to answer all the questions or unravel all the burning riddles. God would judge. The Judge would be right. Could it be that you are beginning to feel the nick of falling rocks? Maybe the avalanche has already fallen...maybe not. Adversity may seem 10,000 miles away...as remote as the land of Uz. That’s the way Job felt just a few minutes before the landslide. Review these thoughts as you turn out the lights tonight, my friend, just in case. Consider Job’s method for picking up the pieces. Cloudless days are fine, but remember: some pottery gets pretty fragile setting in the sun day after day after day.
Charles R. Swindoll serves as the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Excerpted from Come Before Winter and Share My Hope, Copyright © 1985, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.
Be Bullish! SINGLE CD MESSAGE
STOP EXISTING
AND START LIVING!
For ordering information visit insightforliving.ca or view enclosed flyer.
by robyn roste
A
re you one of the fortunate few who have never endured heartache, loss, misery, loneliness, guilt, or shame? I’m not either. If most people are broken, needing God’s help and healing, why do we tend to value feeling good when most of the time we don't? Why do we act like we’re fine even when we’re not? Despite the command in Galatians 6:2, we tend to avoid sharing our burdens and hurts with others. Instead we allow fear, insecurity, and pride to hold us back. But maybe we should be afraid. People
are mean. Sometimes telling others could risk our safety or someone else's. Sometimes we are judged or rejected. And sometimes our secrets are shocking—disgusting even. It's scary, but if we don’t seek help and confront our pain we risk being chained to our past and our relationship with God could suffer. Tamar’s story begins as a fairy tale—as a beautiful princess (2 Samuel 13:1)—but doesn’t end happily ever after. The last time we hear about her she's described as a "desolate woman," (2 Samuel 13:20). What happened in those 20 verses?
Illustration by: Tori Nikkel
Accept the challenge to allow God to use your brokenness to increase your faith.
To be blunt, her half-brother rapes her and casts her out, refusing to right his wrong. She then tears her clothes, puts ashes on her head, and goes away crying. She was abused, rejected, and shamed. It’s a disturbing story, but I can’t get the torn clothing and ashes out of my mind—a public announcement of Tamar’s shame. We deal with brokenness so differently today! I don't know anyone who airs his or her dirty laundry in public as Tamar did (at least not by choice). Often we are humiliated and embarrassed, and don't want to think about it let alone admit our shame. To cope we ignore the bad feelings, and pursue the good ones. We ask God to take away the negative and strive to make ourselves feel good again. Larry Crabb's book Shattered Dreams explains how many of us believe—consciously or not—that God made us to be happy. Then, when bad things happen and we don't feel good, we find ourselves wondering if God really cares about us, or if He's even there. We begin to lose faith. Maybe your life is a huge mess right now. Give it to God. Trust Him to bring good out of your situation. Don't know what to say? Romans 8:26-27 says the Holy Spirit will help you pray. Don't think God can possibly make your situation good? Romans 8:28 says He can and will. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the
Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:26-28) We live in a sinful world, not a good one. And we are sinners, not saints. We make mistakes and we do things we regret. Sometimes bad things happen that aren't our fault but we have to live with the consequences anyway. It's not fair, but it doesn't mean God isn't good. We need to stop trusting in ourselves to put things back together and give control to God. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to get rid of every weight slowing us down and to keep moving. How do we accomplish this? "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Accept the challenge to allow God to use your brokenness to increase your faith. Are you ready to come out from the ashes?
Robyn Roste is the media and marketing manager at Insight for Living Canada.
by steve johnson
Here’s a spiritual reality: real faith grows in the crucible of crisis and struggle. Struggle builds character and resilience.
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here’s an interesting story about the English botanist who lived about 150 years ago. One day in his laboratory Wallace was observing an Emperor butterfly seeking to get free from its cocoon. The scientist was struck by the little butterfly's painful struggle and the length of time it was pushing and pulling, working to get free. He wondered, "What would happen if I assisted in the process?" And so he took his scalpel and cut down the length of the cocoon. He watched to see what would happen. The butterfly emerged from the cocoon, spread its wings, drooped perceptibly—and died. Why? What happened? The butterfly needed the struggle. It needed the exertion and the intense work required to extricate itself from its confinement. Otherwise, the fluid from its body would not be pumped into every square millimetre of its large, beautiful wings. Without all the effort, there would be no beauty, no colour, no character, no life. This is a principle of spiritual growth for all of us. The struggle that comes when our faith is challenged or our beliefs are questioned is a key way we grow spiritually. Struggle is also a principle of growth for young people as they mature, and something adults need to recognize. In the process of transforming from the caterpillar of adolescence into the but-
terfly of adulthood many young people go through the struggle of what I call “reality testing.” They are trying to figure out who they are as individuals and their relationship to God. They often question the reality of their faith, “Is it real? Is it my faith or my parents’?” And they are confronted with ideas and beliefs contrary to their upbringing that causes them to ask, “What do I really believe?” In trying to figure all these things out they test the realities of the world around them, often exploring and experimenting with different things. Seeking to assist their child through this phase, or maybe because it is painful seeing their child struggle, many Christian parents give pat answers to the probing questions or parrot what someone else said. Some bring in the “big gun” of their pastor while others respond with a straightjacket of tightly regulated codes of conduct designed to control and maintain parental authority. These approaches cut away the cocoon. Here’s a spiritual reality: real faith grows in the crucible of crisis and struggle. Struggle builds character and resilience. And a major factor making the difference between a strengthened, authentic faith or walking away in unbelief is the context in which the struggle takes place. What can we as parents and grandparents provide that will produce a better environment for our child’s (or grandchild’s) realitytesting struggle? Here are three suggestions.
1. Authentic personal faith It is critical that we are authentic and consistent in our own walk with the Lord because that is the first place our kids look to test reality. If we’re not living it, the Christian life lacks credibility as far as our young person is concerned. Authenticity doesn’t mean perfect. It means being real about your own struggles and showing how your relationship with Christ makes a difference. Model redemption to them, not perfection. We can also strengthen our own faith by making our child’s struggles a matter of daily prayer. 2. Unconditional acceptance Let your children know how much you love them now, in the midst of the reality testing, and always—no matter what. They will make poor choices and mistakes. And they will be quite aware of them so no need for us to remind them. It is our responsibility to love them; it is God’s responsibility to change them. 3. Continued honest communication Our relationships with our kids will come to a time where it will be a relationship of
influence, not authority. It is important to be present to influence and to keep talking about the realities of life (Deuteronomy 6:7-9). Don’t overreact when they say something you disagree with. Listen between the lines. Listen with your eyes and heart. Remember, they are testing, exploring, and thinking so conversations need to be ongoing. The struggling butterfly would have eventually broken through the cocoon without any help. It may have taken some time. It may have been painful. But his life would have been so much more fulfilling and meaningful had he been able to fight the battle on his own. The reality-testing time can be tough on both parents and kids. But exercising wisdom, seeing it for what it is, and providing a supportive environment will go a long way in helping them become the butterflies God intended. Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for Living Canada.
We have hundreds of Bible-teaching articles, audio programs, and other resources designed to help you grow in your faith. Visit insightforliving.ca today!
“Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.“ (1 John 4:14)
Origins: From the Hebrew word moshia (from yasha “to save”) and the Greek word soter. The Greeks used the word to describe their gods, philosophers, and politicians
Meaning: Used of a person who saves or delivers Usage: Jesus Christ’s main purpose in coming to the world was to provide salva-
tion for those who put their trust in Him. Jesus saves us from the righteous wrath of God the Father upon all who have sinned against him. Sin is breaking the law of God (1 John 3:4), and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and separation from God (Isaiah 59:2). Therefore, Jesus is the Saviour who saves us from eternal damnation and delivers us into safety.
Illustration by: Laura Vanderwel
Application: Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin when He died for us on the cross as our substitute. Jesus is saving us from the power of sin in the process called sanctification. We are progressively being made into the likeness of Christ as we put off sinful thoughts, words, and deeds through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will save us from the presence of sin when He returns to take us home with Himself and we receive our glorified bodies when He makes a new heaven and earth.
by steve johnson
W
hy do bad things happen to good people? You hear this all the time around you and you may have even thought it before. When speaking with others about their beliefs regarding trials and suffering, you may be surprised at just how far apart your view is from theirs. The fact is we are broken people living with other broken people in a broken world. The consequence of our brokenness is trials and suffering. However, the good news is this is not the final word.
into a cursed state. So you understand bad things happen in life because of sinful humanity and a broken world. But it still somehow seems unfair to you. On the one hand you want God to end your suffering and sometimes He does, but on the other hand you also believe in Romans 8:28 and that for the believer, all trials and tribulations must have a good divine purpose. You also believe God sometimes uses suffering to get people’s attention and teach them or others something
Here’s Where They’re At
Trials and suffering are part of living in a fallen world (Genesis 3:14-19; Job 5:7). While some trials come upon us because of our own wrongdoing (1 Peter 4:15) and sin can be forgiven, consequences may endure. The majority of suffering in the world is caused by people’s sinful choices. To stop it God would have to take away free will and choice. Satan and his demons are also active creating suffering, chaos, and havoc (Job 1-2). While on earth, Jesus suffered too (Philippians 2:6-8) so He understands our plight and can sympathize with us
When the subject of suffering comes up with people who don’t hold a biblical worldview, you may hear questions like, why would a good and loving God allow us to go through trials and suffering? Surely, if He loved us, He would take all these terrible things away from us. After all, doesn’t loving us mean He wants our lives to be easy and comfortable?
Here’s Where You’re At
You believe when Adam sinned he plunged the human race and the cosmos
Here’s Where Scripture’s At
(Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:14-16). God’s ultimate plan is the redemption of humanity and the creation (Romans 8:18-25). He is always consistent with His character as wise, loving, and good, and with His covenant to conform His people to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). In the end God will do away with all suffering. Till then, everything—including trials and suffering—is designed to enable us to reach that goal. Our faith is validated and tested by trials and is made stronger (1 Peter 1:6-7). Suffering also reveals what we really love. (Luke 14:26) and teaches us to value the blessing of God (Psalm 63:3). God tested Abraham but he believed God could raise the dead (Genesis 22:1; Hebrews 11:17-19). This tells us that we can go through the severest imaginable trials of life if we trust God.
grace of God is a good response to suffering (2 Corinthians 12:7). Remember, the Lord allows trials in our lives to wean us from trusting in and pursuing worldly things as well as to remind us this world is not our home. If our suffering is because of our own sin, we must repent of the sin and ask God to be merciful. He may choose to withhold the consequences of our sin. When people who are suffering ask why they may not be looking for an explanation as much as comfort and empathy. Show them the love and compassion of Christ.
Where to Go From Here
Recognize and accept trials and suffering as facts of life. We don’t choose whether we will experience them but we do have a choice as to how we will respond to them. Train yourself to look at your suffering and trials through the lens of God’s Word, His character, His attributes, His promises, and His purposes. Not the other way around. Going through any trial of life can be a joyous experience for a Christian if perspective is right. Allowing trials to humble and remind us not to rely on our own strength but depend wholly on the
REMINDER:
Ask yourself, “What can I learn here?”
This series provides training on having difficult conversations. How do you discuss difficult topics in a way you hear and are heard, maintain your influence, and avoid alienation? How do you deal with different worldviews while still valuing the person? Read our basic guidelines for having difficult conversations at insightforliving.ca/tough-talk.
The Simple Secret of an Unsinkable Life
“If your foundation is sure, no storm will cause your life to collapse. You can’t move an immovable rock.” - CHARLES R. SWINDOLL Storms and life go together. There’s no place on earth where we can be completely free of tension and pressure, trouble or pain. Escaping such is only a dream...a fantasy. Our need, therefore, is not to think of ways to get away from the storms but to learn the secret of going through them. This brings us to the last words Jesus spoke in His immortal Sermon on the Mount. As He drew His remarks to a close, He uses a vivid word picture of two houses built on opposite foundations. From this familiar illustration, we can learn the secret of an unsinkable life. The elements of Jesus’ story in Matthew 7:24-29 are simple. A wise man built his house on a strong foundation, and the home withstood the storms thrashing at its walls. A foolish man built his house on a sandy foundation, and his home succumbed to the storms. Part of what makes stories so effective as teaching tools is their ability to stick with us. But what gives the best stories staying power? Three reasons stories stay with us. 1. Because people and personalities give stories interest
2. They present us with life situations that we can imagine or identify with 3. They offer lingering lessons spanning the ages from which we can learn A closer look at the story and at Jesus’ commentary uncovers relevant truth for our lives. Notice the identical elements between the two sides of this story. Both of the characters are builders building the same thing. The houses and builders’ techniques are images of our lives and the approaches we take as we “build” them. As we embrace values and make decisions with eternal implications, which approach will we mirror? Will we build on the rock or on the sand? As you seek to make the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount a reality in your life, you need to recognize that you are a builder... and that the storm clouds are gathering in the distance, if they haven’t already arrived. With these truths in mind ask yourself, is my foundation absolutely solid? This isn’t a question about how often you attend church or how good you are compared to others. Are you completely committed to Jesus and His desire for your life? Will your “house” hold firm when the storms come?
“The Simple Secret of an Unsinkable Life” is from Chuck Swindoll’s series Simple Faith. You can stream this message online anytime at insightforliving.ca/audiolibrary.
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