47 Sermon Illustrations on Trouble

The classic movie, A CHRISTMAS STORY, is a nostalgic look at growing up in Gary, Indiana, through the eyes of a boy named Ralphy. One scene depicts a school recess in the middle of winter. Two boys surrounded by their classmates argue whether a person's tongue will stick to a metal pole in below freezing weather.

Eventually one of the boys succumbs to the infamous "triple-dog dare." Hesitantly he sticks his tongue out and touches it to the school flagpole.

Sure enough, it gets stuck. The recess bell rings. Everyone runs into the school except the hapless victim. When the teacher finally looks out the window, she ses the boy writhing in pain, his tongue frozen to the flagpole.

While few of us have been in that predicament, we all know what it's like to have our tongues get us into trouble. When we suffer the pain that eventually recoils upon everyone who speaks boastful words, lying words, bitter words, we learn the truth of the proverb, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." (Prov 21:23)

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Sermon on Psalm 91.

1. Tragedies.

2. God is the great Protector.

a. Versatile protection.

b. Individual protection.

c. Miraculous protection.

3. Paradox of protection.

a. Believers never hurt?

b. Insight from other Bible passages.

4. Jesus and promises of Psalm 91.

a. Temptation.

5. Application of principle to Christians.

6. Conditions of protection.

The following incident took place in 1968 on an airliner bound for New York. Descending to the destination, the pilot realized the landing gear refused to engage. He worked the controls back and forth, trying again and again to make the gear lock down into place. No success. Disaster was only minutes away.

The passengers, meanwhile, were told of each maneuver in that calm, cheery voice pilots manage to use at times like this. Passengers were told to place their heads between their knees and grab their ankles just before impact. It was one of those I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening-to-me experiences. There were tears, no doubt, and a few screams of despair. The landing was now seconds away.

Suddenly the pilot announced over the intercom:

“We are beginning our final descent. At this moment, in accordance with International Aviation Codes established at Geneva, it is my obligation to inform you that if you believe in God you should commence prayer.”

The belly landing occurred without a hitch. A relative of one of the passengers called the airline the very next day and asked about the prayer rule the pilot had quoted. No one volunteered any information on the subject. Back to that cool reserve, it was simply, “No comment.”

In "A View from a Zoo," Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe:

"The first thing to emerge are the baby giraffe's front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn calf is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back. [several in congregation couldn't believe this] Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position he considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from his eyes and ears.

"The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over the calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heals.

"When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts... Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible in order to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it...

"I've thought about the birth of the giraffe many times. I can see its parallel in my own life. There have been many times when it seemed that I had just stood up after trial, only to be knocked down again by the next. It was God helping me to remember how it was that I got up, urging me always to walk with him, in his shadow, under his care."

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Another version from PreachingNow newsletter:

In an article in Men of Integrity magazine, Gary Richmond shares this story:

“The Angola giraffe was giving birth. I stood next to zoo animal keeper, Jack Badal, to watch. She was standing up, and the calf’s front hooves and head were already visible. ‘When is she going to lie down?’ I asked Jack.

“‘She won’t,’ he answered.

“‘But her hindquarters are nearly 10 feet off the ground!’ I said. ‘Isn’t anyone going to catch the calf?’

“‘Try catching it if you want,’ Jack responded, ‘but its mother has enough strength in her hind legs to kick your head off.’ Soon the calf hurled forth, landing on his back. His mother waited for about a minute, then kicked her baby, sending it sprawling head over hooves.

“‘Why’d she do that?’ I asked.

“‘She wants it to get up.’ Whenever the baby ceased struggling to rise, the mother prodded it with a hearty kick. Finally, the calf stood -- wobbly, but upright. The mother kicked it off its feet again! ‘She wants it to remember how it got up,’ Jack offered. ‘In the wild, if it didn’t quickly follow the herd, predators would pick it off.’

“It’s easy for us to view trials as unwelcome intruders in our lives, but they do have a way of prompting us to get up and seek the protection of our heavenly Father.”

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Gary Richmond, “It’s a Jungle Out There,” Men of Integrity, 12-15-2004; via www.PreachingToday.com newsletter

It is a popular notion that the warmest part of this island must be in the center, away from the cold waters and high gales of the inconstant sea. But the scientific fact is just the reverse. The sea has a benign and steadying influence upon the climate of the coast. The coldest place in England, according to the charts, is a spot at its very heart.

There is a certain grace that comes to our shore and knocks, yea beats, and even lashes, there; and it has more of the changeless love of God in it than all the affections that sweeten the inlands of life. Sea and shore may indeed meet in storm. But our peace lies through storm.

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"These are just speed bumps on the highway of life." - Andrew Wainrib, Los Angeles restaurant owner who lost a nightclub in the Rodney King verdict riots, who lost a Malibu home in the fires, and who lost a beachside cafe in the earthquake.

And I tell you that my heart's cry is that all of us will lay hold of this great delivering truth, that we may learn how to live through life taking it all at its very worst and rejoicing in those sufferings that come -- because this is the mark of having appropriated the fullness of the life of Jesus Christ. And, when this day comes, as Paul points out in Verse 11, we will not only rejoice in the hope of the glory of God -- we will not only go around singing, "When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there," but we will learn to rejoice in God himself -- God will be the important one to us. We will learn:

* That he is more than any circumstance,

* That he is greater than all his gifts,

* That he is fully adequate for every situation in our life,

* That he is El Shaddai, the God who is sufficient.

Jesus has come, you see, to prepare us to live -- to take life as it is at its worst, at its hardest, and to find in him those hidden streams that make it possible to rejoice in:

* All the difficulties,

* All the hardships,

* All the trials,

* All the defeats,

* All the adverse circumstances,

* All the crushing disappointments,

* All the heartaches,

because they are producing in us the very thing God is after, and making us what we want to be!

Some through the water, some through the flood,

Some through great sorrow, but God gives us song,

In the night season, and all the day long.

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Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church.

Your world is dark, safe, secure. You are bathed in warm

liquid, cushioned from shock. You do nothing for yourself; you

are fed automatically, and a murmuring heartbeat assures you that

someone larger than you fills all your needs. Your life consists

of simple waiting--you're not sure what to wait for, but any

change seems far away and scary. You meet no sharp objects, no

pain, no threatening adventures. A fine existence.

One day you feel a tug. The walls are falling in on you. Those soft

cushions are now pulsing and beating against you, crushing you downwards. Your body is bent double, your limbs twisted and wrenched. You're falling, upside down.

For the first time in your life, you feel pain. You're in a sea of rolling matter. There is more pressure, almost too intense to bear. Your head is squeezed flat, and you are pushed harder, harder into a dark tunnel. Oh, the pain. Noise. More pressure.

You hurt all over. You hear a groaning sound and an awful,

sudden fear rushes in on you. It is happening--your world is

collapsing. You're sure it's the end. You see a piercing,

blinding light. Cold, rough hands pull at you. A painful slap.

Waaahhhh! Congratulations! You've just been born.

page 202 Living on the Ragged Edge by Charles Swindoll

(pages 179-183 Where is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey)

Students involved in a research project at the University of Illinois called 2000 homes at random between midnight and 2 a.m. on a Friday night in the city of Chicago to see if parents knew where their children were. In 75% of the homes called, a child answered and didn't know where the parents were.

In her book "The Family Manager," Kathy Peel gives ten ways to demolish a home team:

1. Let your kids know that your adult world is more important than their world.

2. Make sure each family member has his or her own TV in their bedroom so they can spend a lot of time alone.

3. Be too busy to attend your kid's school and athletic functions.

4. Talk about doing a job like it is punishment instead of making it seem like the job is part of being in a family.

5. Don't go to the trouble to plan family outings.

6. Don't take family vacations together.

7. Regularly criticize family members for not meeting your expectations.

8. Whine about how one family member's corcumstances are affecting everyone else's life.

9. Be rigid.

10. Disapprove of family members' performances and belittle their efforts. Always make them redo the job.

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New Man, June 1997, p. 17

I've recently had a major shift in the way I view problems. I used to see them as impediments in the path of accomplishment. Now, I see them as opportunities to get better - chances to be unique in the marketplace.

Perhaps I finally realized what Father Alfred D'Souza had when he wrote, "For a long time it has seemed to me that life was about to begin: REAL life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

I've been calling problems "challenges" for twenty years trying to put a different spin on them. I knew that some of my biggest problems created some of the best changes in my life. But I didn't always recognize that while they were occurring. Now (at least most of the time) I'm able to look at problems with a more positive attitude.

The fact is, we're all going to experience problems. They're inevitable, and they'll keep coming as long as we remain on the planet. How we perceive these problems is critical to our success. If we view them as something to tolerate, something to just get through, we won't gain much from them.

However, if we embrace them and look for the good they can provide for us, we can make great progress. Otherwise they will impede us. It's all in the way we hold it.

Jim Rohn says, "Don't ask for things to get better, ask that YOU get better." Good advice. Ultimately, it's our challenges; it's our overcomings that shape our character and make us into better people.

One of the ways to change our perspective is to think of ourselves as well-paid consultants. In this capacity, we are paid to be solution-oriented. If we possessed this view, we wouldn't resent our investment of time or experience as much irritation. We would, in actuality, be glad there was a problem because if there weren't, there would be no work for us.

Make sure you understand the problem. Charles Kettering said that a problem clearly stated is a problem half-solved.

In practicing this exercise, you will have more objectivity and be more creative in solving the issue at hand.

If you approach problems as puzzles to be solved rather than disagreeable chores, you'll have more fun. Seeing our problems as challenges shift our attitude from coping to conquest.

And remember, every problem has a solution-usually many solutions.

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Michael E. Angier, President of Success Networks International

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In the closing days of World War II the city of Berlin came under a terrible siege. American and British planes by the thousands bombed the city by night while Russian artillery began pulverizing it by day. After four years of war, 78-year-old World War I veteran Konrad "Papa" Saenger had refused to be intimidated. In fact, it had taken all of Erna Saenger's powers of persuasion to prevent her husband from going out for his customary meeting with his World War I comrades-in-arms. She gave him the job of burying her jelly preserves in the garden to hide them, but when he was done he had gone out into the streets despite the pleadings of the entire family. They had found his shrapnel-riddled body in the bushes outside the burning wreckage of Pastor Martin Niemoller's house, only a short way from home. While shells blanketed the district, the family brought Papa home in a wheelbarrow.

As she walked alongside the cart, Erna remembered that during their last conversation she had a slight difference of opinion with Konrad as to which Biblical quotation was more appropriate for the times. Papa maintained the "one can only live by the 90th Psalm, especially the fourth verse: 'For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.'" Erna had disagreed. "Personally," she told him, "I think that psalm is much too pessimistic. I prefer the 46th: 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'"

There was not a coffin to be found, and a trip to the cemetery was too dangerous to attempt in any case. Still, they could not keep the body in the warm house. They left it on the porch. Erna found two small pieces of wood and nailed them together for a cross. Gently, she placed the crucifix between her husband's hands. As she looked down a Papa, she wished she could tell him that he had been right, for the 90th Psalm continued: "We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled."

"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity." -- Lou Holtz

Success in life depends upon being strong people with clear goals and indomitable spirits. Unfortunately most of us aren't born that way. We grow that way. And that growth can either come from us entering willfully into situations that will cause us to grow, [...] or from the way we react when circumstances come upon us without our consent. The latter is what we call adversity.

Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity, and I guess that is just as well. We shouldn't pursue adversity, but when she arrives, we should welcome her as a foe who, though our interaction with her, will make us into better people. Every contact we have with adversity gives us again the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge our character into one that will achieve much later on.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts on adversity...

ADVERSITY BRINGS OUT OUR RESOURCES. Horace said, "Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." When everything is going well, we coast. There isn't a lot of stress, and we don't have to draw too much on the resources that reside within us. But when adversity comes we begin to draw upon each and every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity then, keeps us sharp. It keeps us using our personal muscle, if you will. That is a good thing because we grow through the use of our resources.

ADVERSITY BRINGS US TOGETHER WITH OTHERS. Sure a team can have their problems with each other, but when they step on the court, when they experience the adversity of facing another obstacle, they pull together. One for all and all for one, as they say. The next time you experience adversity of some kind, keep your eyes open for how it can bring you together with your family, your co-workers or your team. Then when you are through it, you will find a bond that was created that wasn't there before.

ADVERSITY MAKES US BETTER PEOPLE WITH STRONGER CHARACTERS. Never underestimate the power of adversity to shape us inwardly. How will courage, discipline and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested? After adversity, we come out stronger people and able then to use our character and influence in an even greater way to lead those around us and to improve their lives as well as our own.

ADVERSITY MAKES LIFE INTERESTING. John Amatt said, "Without adversity, without change, life is boring." How true. Have you noticed that while we are in the middle of adversity we only long to get out of it, but we then spend a lifetime recounting it to anyone who will listen? This is because it spices life up a little. Imagine how boring life would be if everything always went well, when there was never a mountain to be climbed.

Question - If you are in the middle of some adversity right now, what resources are you drawing on? Who are you drawing closer to and working with? What part of your character is being tested, and built up? What can you do to view this adversity as one who will be better for it on the other side?

Remember the words of Napoleon Hill - "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." Believe it, it is true!

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Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer

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”Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28

– For reading & meditation: Matthew 11:25-30

Another area of life where many are broken is through troubles in the home. “Life “ as Hemingway put it, “breaks us all “ but perhaps nothing is quite as painful as being broken by difficulties in one’s home. Have you been broken by problems within your family circle?

Then take heart — out of the brokenness God can bring strength. What kind of troubles bring us to a breaking point in the home? These are just some of them: incompatibility, disagreements, separation, threats or the action of divorce, insensitivity, bickering, quarrels, misunderstandings and violence, not to mention such things as alcoholism, drug abuse, mental and emotional breakdowns, child and adolescent rebellion, or gross neglect of the aged members of the family. Even in some Christian homes, things can get pretty desperate. A study completed at the University of Rhode Island described the American home as the most dangerous place to be — apart from a war or a riot. It’s also getting like this in Britain.

All of us have experienced some hurt through broken relationships in the home. Many, out of loyalty to their families, face the world with a smile, but inwardly they are bleeding. I know a woman who was heartbroken by her husband’s adultery and the rebellion of her children, but today she has recovered and is busy stanching the bleeding wounds in other people’s hearts. So it can be done. To those of you broken by troubles in the home, our Lord says, “Learn from Me: I will make you so strong at the broken places of your life that you shall minister to others out of that hidden strength.”

PRAYER:

O God, You know how easy it is to blunder in this delicate and difficult business of relationships. I need someone to lead me in the right way. You lead me, Father — I will follow. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Psalms 46:1-11; 147:3; Luke 4:18; Matt. 12:20

1. What did God say to the psalmist in the midst of upheaval?

2. What does God promise the brokenhearted?

A. Impatient Prayer Psalm 6:2–4 (NKJV)

2 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD — how long? 4 Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!

B. What kinds of trouble are there?

1. Paul related his situation in 2 Corinthians 4:8: We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; … so what are some of the sides on which we can be troubled? These few verses suggest the following.

2. There are physical troubles — “my bones are troubled” — this is what usually leaps first to our mind as the answer to this question. But, difficult and serious as this may be, most of the time such trouble is short-lived: God made our bodies in such a wonderful way that in the main they are self-healing — and much more efficiently than the so-called self-cleaning ovens, by the way! This, though, does not make God any less attentive to our suffering in such situations: He knows our frame that we are but dust.

3. Also there are mental troubles — “for I am weak” — when we realize that we are up against something with which we are unable to cope. Knowing the difficulty that we face, dwelling on its danger, considering the outlook: all these prey on our mind so that we become mentally bound to our problem. Yet God cares. He tells us to cast all our care on Him, for He cares.

4. To which are added emotional troubles — “how long” — as we search for answers and for deliverance from our situation. So that as we wait, we find ourselves discouraged, dismayed and maybe even despondent. But our Saviour also knew sorrow as He grieved over the willful blindness of His nation.

5. And we face spiritual troubles — “my soul is greatly troubled” — and this is no surprise even though through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary we have found complete forgiveness because we still carry the vestiges of our old, sinful nature, and, like Isaiah, we dwell amongst a people with that same nature. Jesus Himself uttered similar words as he fought one of His last spiritual battles in Gethsemane.

C. Can God help?

1. Can He help now? Paul’s words certainly indicate that He both can and does. Despite the raging of trouble on every side, neither distress nor despair take control.

2. And the writer of this Psalm, despite his impatient prayer, is intimately acquainted with the God who can deal with all of our troubles … so that elsewhere we find Him described as the one “who healeth all thy diseases” (Psalm 103:3). And why? … because of His mercy and His faithfulness to His own merciful character.

3. So we understand that we can impatiently pray to this God, our Father, and expect an answer — not simply the removal of such troubles for that depends upon His sovereign purposes — but the measure of His grace by which we may overcome them. And does God chide us for our impatient prayer? No way! “As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.” (Psalms 103:13 NKJV)

Caesar Augustus was having trouble with his tax income. Prices were high and armies of occupation, plus each soldier’s need of a special bonus for danger money, kept the treasury low. Caesar needed cash!

This could be part of the trouble that furrowed the brow of Herod, vassal-king in the Roman-occupied Palestine. He must channel more money to his chief.

In the midst of his quandary, some star-gazers had asked audience with Herod because their craft had revealed to them that a person of royal birth had just entered the world, and in that vicinity!

Our story says Herod “was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” I imagine that there was a touch of fear about his message to the wise men: “When ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” Half an hour on horseback and Herod could have investigated the spot where the royal child was born. But the demanding affairs of state crowded the time sheet of the ruler. He took a short while out to inquire of scribes and chief priests, but he went no further. Just half an hour’s gallop away the greatest event in human history had taken place, and Herod had missed it. Had he gone and had he worshipped, his personal history and destiny might have been different.

Although Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled, there was a minority, too insignificant to mention, who were not troubled. Notice Mary and Joseph on their way to the temple with their holy child. The saintly Simeon is on duty to take the offering the poor couple bring at the dedication of Jesus. Notice the corners of Mary’s mouth curve upwards as the priest says, “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”

I think that often we overlook the first thing that Jesus ever did. Before He knew where He was, before He knew who He was, before He could walk, before He could talk-Jesus set a pattern for His life and, in measure, for eternity. He divided men!

The first thing that Jesus the Babe did was to divide the nation. Most were against Him, a few for Him. He divided men at His birth; He divided them on His blessed cross in death; He divided them in His life in the synagogue (John 7:43). He will divide them at the judgment seat. Jesus declared quite openly that His mission was to divide men (Luke 12:51). He still divides men, and He will do so until time ends.

Dr. Tozer once reminded us that after Adam sinned, he became occupied with things. Today we are too preoccupied with the complexities of our modern “rat race.” Bunyan had an old materialist who was so busy looking down at his muck rake that he had no time to see the crown of dazzling splendor above his head.

Men are now so occupied with getting to the Moon that they have forgotten how to get to heaven. They are so bent on inventing new ways to liquidate cities that they have lost sight of living. Some scientists spend their lives inventing death.

This troubled age so relentlessly broadcasts its groans over worldwide radios every hour on the hour that men have forgotten that there is a Prince of Peace.

Honesty is hard to come by even in the church of the living God. We believers are so preoccupied with the lesser things of the church that we have starved our own appetite for the moving of the Spirit.

As we enter this last phase of 1964, I challenge each reader, pastor, or missionary to check his record of soul-saving over the year gone. The strong wine of statistics has blurred the thinking of many. Just who of our group did get saved this year? Just which person was filled with the Spirit? Where are our ranks depleted because our members have moved off into full-time service for Christ at home or abroad?

Perhaps a nibble at Time magazine stirs us for a moment about the perils in Harlem. The flicker of the news on TV startles us as we see the deterioration in Vietnam and the setback in Cyprus. After our reading or seeing, we are back again so-preoccupied with events that the great event of His near return is clouded.

Had Christ come sweeping down the skies in the fiery chariot that Elijah went up in, the world would then have believed on Him. Had He come with ten thousands of His Old Testament saints and the blast of a million angelic trumpets, all men would then have fallen in worship.

Christ came veiled in flesh. He took the limits of any other infant. Today again He withholds His power and glory. Daily He hears millions blaspheme His holy name. He seems indifferent to the hourly breaking of His commandments and the wrecking of His Sabbaths.

But wait! Who shall abide the day of His coming? Of this I am sure: Jesus Christ came to produce a better church than we have here at the moment. He said, “I am the door.” He is the door by which we enter to greater power. By Him we enter into all the riches of the Godhead. By Him and through Him and for Him all things exist.

If we were not so preoccupied with lesser things, we would be grief-stricken that we have failed to inherit our possessions in Him. In failing Him, we hurt His dear heart day by day.

We are too preoccupied!

COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS:

Used by permission of Bethany House Publishers. This article by Leonard Ravenhill appeared in DAYSPRING copyright (c) 1964 by Bethany House Publishers, a ministry of Bethany Fellowship, Inc. All rights reserved. For further information about the missionary outreach of Bethany Fellowship or for a complete listing of Ravenhill titles and others, please contact the publisher at 11300 Hampshire Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55438; ph: (612) 829-2500; FAX: (612) 829-2768.

Psalm 44 — When Good People Have Bad Times — « Leader information shown in this fashion »

A. Charles Haddon Spurgeon gives this outline for this Psalm:

1. 1–3 — The Lord’s mighty works for Israel are rehearsed

2. 4–8 — In remembrance of them faith in the Lord is expressed

3. 9–16 — Then the notes of complaint are heard

4. 17–22 — The fidelity of the people to their God is aroused

5. 23–26 — The Lord is entreated to interpose

B. Background

1. now, we cannot place this at any specific point in the life of David, or of later kings of Judah, but the situation is that their armies had been defeated (see verse 9)

2. defeat of the armies of Judah and Israel was not a new thing — but this was normally a result of sin on the part of the nation; the children of Israel could look back on centuries of instances of such defeats … starting when they had first refused to enter the promised land, and then changed their mind (Num 14:29)

3. but it does not appear that this was the case at this time, so the writer — presumably David — is somewhat perplexed; there are some lessons here for Christians in similar situations

4. when you are having a bad time, what is there to do?

a. verses 17–22 « — check out if this is God’s chastisement; am I walking in known and unconfessed sin? »

b. verses 1–3 « — stop and encourage yourself with what God has done in the past; this tells me of His faithful character »

c. verses 4–8 « — commit yourself to determination to put your trust in God in the future, regardless of the situation; I know that He will care for me! »

d. verses 23–26 « — lay out before God your situation and pray for His intervention (in accordance with His will) »

”They that suffer according to the will of God.” I Peter 4:19

Pain, suffering, trouble, adversity, temptation, affliction, can exercise a wonderful ministry of spiritual discipline, refinement and enrichment. Some flowers, like the rose, must be crushed before their full fragrance is released. Some metals, as gold, must be flung into the furnace before they reach full value and purity. So it is with the saints. It is true with many of us that we must be laid low before we will look high. We must know God’s smiting before we can appreciate His smiling. The Potter must break the vessel before He can make out of the same material a new and beautiful vase. Our hearts must be broken before their richest contents can leak out and flow forth to bless others.

Whenever God sends a trial with one hand, He gives grace with the other. Thus trials become triumphs. Burdens become wings. Affliction, instead of being a bed of thorns and a pathway of nettles, becomes a quiltof roses. The very things which seem to break us are the things which really “make” us. Euroclydon blows its tempests upon us! We shall be dashed in pieces on the rock-bound coast. We shall be mutilated in the hidden reef. But no, we are self-deceived. God is in the hurricane, and instead of driving us to destruction, it beats the scared mariner into the safest of all harbours, the encircling arms of God’s love!

Trials, tribulations, adversity, are frequently our biggest benedictions. They are blessings in disguise, messengers from Heaven, come to bless us and make us more like the

Captain of our salvation, Who Himself was made “perfect through sufferings”. The crown of thorns was in the plan for Jesus, but the thorns have given place to diadems! The Cross was the step to the Throne! Let us learn well that pain may be part of the plan. “It is God which worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Yes, pain may be in the plan. This has been a sore problem to many a sincere Christian, yet others have testified that their choicest spiritual enrichments came to them on their “Via Dolorosa.” Moreover, it is supremely important that we relate this problem of pain to our ultimate destiny. Jude 24 tells us that in the coming consummation we Christian believers are to be “presented faultless” before the Heavenly Majesty, which means, of course, the entire perfection of our human nature — spirit, soul and body, But although we are all to be faultless, or perfect in our nature as human beings, does that mean, also, that we shall all be the same in character? No; our nature is what we basically are, whereas our character is a quality or blend of qualities which we develop from our nature by our reactions. Pain, suffering and adversity do something of external significance to our character, according to the way we react to them.

“My bow in the cloud.” Genesis 9:13

The rainbow is a picturesque phenomenon of nature, easily explainable in terms of modern science. What our text explains is the divine significance with which God invested it. Whether there had been storms or rainbows during the antediluvian age may remain indeterminate, but it must not dull our appreciation of the rainbow as God explained it to Noah.

First, the rainbow is a symbol; God’s symbol that “behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.” Life’s darkest episodes are overruled to contrive our richest blessing. The rainbow genius is that the very cloud which glowers becomes a chariot beaming with divine reassurance and salvation. The rainbow is formed by sunshades falling on raindrops which break up the rays into seven colours, and so paint on the opposite sky an arch of sevenfold hue. The cloud only needs the sun on it, and lo, the rainbow!

There is a rainbow in every cloud permitted to overhang God’s people. Christian, those ominous clouds which affright or dismay you, if only faced bravely and discerningly, will disclose heavenly goodness. I can imagine Noah’s perturbation when, soon after the Deluge, great buffalo clouds came tumbling and rumbling over the sky. “Alas, is there further destruction?” But no; the showers fling a lovely archway-sign across the expanse. God is in the cloud, as well as in the sunshine. His bow is the symbol!

God’s rainbow is in every cloud of trouble. Did it seem a dark cloud, that Paul was imprisoned just when most needed? Read the prison epistle, and see the rainbow! Was it an ugly cloud, that John Bunyan was unjustly incarcerated in Bedford jail? Read Pilgrim’s Progress, which he indited there, and see the rainbow! An aged minister told me how all

through his life he had been plagued with ill-health and adversities; bin now. on looking bark_ he could see a whole arcade of rainbows, for his troubles had kept him prayerful, and made him more widely usable by Christ.

The rainbow is in every cloud of sorrow. A dear friend of mine, who did not marry until in his forties, lost his dear one only five years later, when they had become all-in-all to each other. In his abysmal sorrow he besought God for some sustaining promise, and was strangely guided to Revelation 3:8. Soon after, God used him as leader in a spiritual revival which lasted teens of years; hundreds were blessed, and as a result I myself am in the ministry. Years later my friend said, “Yes, there was a rainbow even in that cloud. I could never have done all this if my dear one had lived.”

There is a rainbow in the dark cloud of death. Philippians 1:21 enrings it with, “To die is gain!” And even the dread cloud of coming age-end tribulation is over-arched with the rainbow promise, “I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:3.

When the days are hard or dreary

Till you scarce know what to do,

Lift your eyes, and see the rainbow,

With the promise shining through.

In the closing days of World War II the city of Berlin came under a terrible siege. American and British planes by the thousands bombed the city by night while Russian artillery began pulverizing it by day. After four years of war, 78-year-old World War I veteran Konrad "Papa" Saenger had refused to be intimidated. In fact, it had taken all of Erna Saenger's powers of persuasion to prevent her husband from going out for his customary meeting with his World War I comrades-in-arms. She gave him the job of burying her jelly preserves in the garden to hide them, but when he was done he had gone out into the streets despite the pleadings of the entire family. They had found his shrapnel-riddled body in the bushes outside the burning wreckage of Pastor Martin Niemoller's house, only a short way from home. While shells blanketed the district, the family brought Papa home in a wheelbarrow.

As she walked alongside the cart, Erna remembered that during their last conversation she had a slight difference of opinion with Konrad as to which Biblical quotation was more appropriate for the times. Papa maintained the "one can only live by the 90th Psalm, especially the fourth verse: 'For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.'" Erna had disagreed. "Personally," she told him, "I think that psalm is much too pessimistic. I prefer the 46th: 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'"

There was not a coffin to be found, and a trip to the cemetery was too dangerous to attempt in any case. Still, they could not keep the body in the warm house. They left it on the porch. Erna found two small pieces of wood and nailed them together for a cross. Gently, she placed the crucifix between her husband's hands. As she looked down a Papa, she wished she could tell him that he had been right, for the 90th Psalm continued: "We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled."

Students involved in a research project at the University of Illinois called 2000 homes at random between midnight and 2 a.m. on a Friday night in the city of Chicago to see if parents knew where their children were. In 75% of the homes called, a child answered and didn't know where the parents were.

In her book "The Family Manager," Kathy Peel gives ten ways to demolish a home team:

1. Let your kids know that your adult world is more important than their world.

2. Make sure each family member has his or her own TV in their bedroom so they can spend a lot of time alone.

3. Be too busy to attend your kid's school and athletic functions.

4. Talk about doing a job like it is punishment instead of making it seem like the job is part of being in a family.

5. Don't go to the trouble to plan family outings.

6. Don't take family vacations together.

7. Regularly criticize family members for not meeting your expectations.

8. Whine about how one family member's corcumstances are affecting everyone else's life.

9. Be rigid.

10. Disapprove of family members' performances and belittle their efforts. Always make them redo the job.

________

New Man, June 1997, p. 17

Students involved in a research project at the University of Illinois called 2000 homes at random between midnight and 2 a.m. on a Friday night in the city of Chicago to see if parents knew where their children were. In 75% of the homes called, a child answered and didn't know where the parents were.