Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

Dealing with Adversity

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“we rejoice in our sufferings…”
Romans 5:3 (ESV)

“Into each life a little rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary” (Longfellow).  I think we can all understand and agree with Longfellow.  Each of us has known those dark and dreary days; some of us may be facing them even now.  Adversity, persecution, trial and hardship – these are experiences common to everyone, in one way or another.  How we respond, however, defines our character.

Jesus warned his followers that “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20 ESV).  Facing adversity for your faith, being persecuted for your beliefs, dealing with hardship because of your decision to live in righteousness and peace; all of this is to be expected for those who follow Jesus.  If you are truly living for Christ, you will face persecution.

There are those who, when faced with adversity, react poorly.  In anger they may lash out at those who stand in their way, or in defeat they may resign and run from their problems.  “Fight or Flight” are the two recognized biological responses of all animals facing acute stress. 

There is a third response; it is not biological, it is spiritual.  Romans 5:3-5 tells us to rejoice in our sufferings, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This third way, the way of rejoicing in the midst of suffering, is a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It is not natural to us.  But when God is with us, we will face difficulty with:

  • Faithfulness – Consider Job.  He lost everything, his farm, his house, his family – only his wife was left, and she told him to just curse God and die.  Job’s response, however, was one of absolute faithfulness, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21 ESV).  The overarching message of Revelation is that in the midst of the calamity, persecution, and general mayhem of the last days, God is still on His throne, and He has a plan of salvation for His people.  In spite of your trials, because of your trials, trust in the Lord.
  • Humility – Every time we face hardship, or we are persecuted by others, it is important for us to humble ourselves before the Lord.  Sometimes the adversity we face may be God’s way of disciplining us, weaning us from sin, teaching us to lean solely on Him.  Ask yourself, “How have I been wrong?  How have I contributed to this problem?  Am I guilty of doing to others the thing that is causing me suffering?”  You may be completely justified, you may be suffering unfairly, but each us of may learn, through humility and a teachable spirit, how to grow and mature through the struggles we face.
  • Grace – How much better would the world be if we treated one another, especially in times of great crisis and stress, with the same grace that God has given to us?  Jesus said in Matthew 10, “Freely you have received, freely give.”  In Jesus we have received the free gift of grace, the salvation from our sins, as God overlooked our sins and transgression to bring us forgiveness.  As He has forgiven and welcomed us, so we are to forgive and welcome one another.  Grace under fire offers forgiveness and seeks forgiveness.
  • Love  – One of the greatest questions we can ask in the midst of our suffering is, “How can I, even in the midst of adversity and trial, show the love of God to those around me?”  In the course of our struggles we come to know how God’s love has been poured into our hearts, until we come to the point of overflowing, so that God’s love spills out into the lives of others.  As we respond to adversity with love, we can encourage and equip those around us to do the same.

Friends, suffering is not easy, nor is it enjoyable; but neither is it without purpose.  Whatever you may be facing today, may God’s Spirit equip you to face the day with Faithfulness, Humility, Grace, and Love, and may your trials bring you closer to the Lord.

SDG

A New Way of Thinking

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“Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God”
Romans 15:7 (ESV)

Last Sunday I began a series of sermons here at Memorial Presbyterian Church on the New Life in Christ, focusing then on Ezekiel 36:26-28, how we recieve a New Heart from God to replace our hearts of stone.  In God’s mind-blowing way, and with no contrivance on my part, the sermon tied in so well with the “Midweek Message” which I wrote about being a loving congregation.  One of the reasons why the church has a hard time being the kind of loving community that Christ intends for us to be is our cold and wandering hearts.  This week, I am preaching on what it means to receive a New Mind from God, a mind not fixed on the things of the flesh, but on the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:5-8).  (You can listen to the sermons at www.cmpres.com.) If we’re honest, our old minds are another reason why we are not always the kind of community Christ has called us to be.

If you’ve done any reading on Church Growth, Mission Development, or just plain Church Management (though I can’t imagine why you would have), you’ll find most of the literature is written from a corporate or sociological perspective.  After all, if the business models work for corporations and non-profit agencies, shouldn’t they work for the church?  So many attempts have been made to model the church after the world, to judge the success of the church by the world’s standards – have we forgotten what it means to be the church?

If we are to really be the church, the body of Christ in the world, shouldn’t we look different from every other business model that the world offers?  We are not a corporation who gathers to put on a good show to entertain our audience.  We are not an organization that exists to serve its members. 

We are a community called by God, and when we come together, we are to renew and re-commit ourselves to the God who has covenanted to be with us.  We are a community marked by the cross, and when we come together we remember the calling of Christ to die to ourselves, our passions, our goals, and to follow Him.  We are a community filled with God’s Holy Spirit, and when we come together we need to listen to the Spirit’s teaching in God’s word, sing and pray in the joy of the Spirit, and go into the world to serve God in the power of the Spirit.

Too often, the worldly mind, the mind that is “set on the things of the flesh” can creep into and overwhelm the church.  When we start thinking about church in worldly ways, in ways that lead to death as Romans says, the life and joy of what the Christian community dies.  The church will not survive if it operates like the world, and the world will not survive without the church. 

If the church cannot be a place of forgiveness, what can?
If the church cannot be a place of peace, what can?
If the church cannot be a place of grace, what can?
If the church cannot be a place holiness, what can?
If the church cannot be a place of purity, what can?
If the church cannot be a place of love, what can?
If the church cannot be a place of service, what can?

What we need, once God renews our hearts, is for God to renew our minds as well.  We need to come to church, to do church, with our minds set on the things of the Spirit.  Letting the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) guide and direct our every word, our every decision, our every action will dramatically transform the church from a gathering of man to the community of Christ.

SDG