Conversing the Kingdom: Why Me!

Hebrews 12:4

The problem of evil and suffering in this world is a difficult question to answer for those who claim the existence of an all powerful, good, God. If God allows suffering because he could stop it he may be all powerful but wouldn't be good, right? On the other hand if God wanted to stop suffering but couldn't then he must be good but not all powerful, right?
The fact is that trying to answer this question without God what are we left with? Do we think that answering this question from the stand point of nature only will provide quite heart? Quite the opposite the only thing that science has to offer on the subject is that violence is natural, it was were we came from and is where we are going. You will find no peaceful answer in secularism.
However leaving God in the equation this is actually still a tricky question to answer for a couple of reasons... First the Bible doesn't give us the complete answer and secondly it is an emotionally charged question because we all suffer it and even if presented with a well structured argument it cannot completly answer our emotional turmoil.
What we need to do is combine the knowledge that God gives us on the topic with the personal relationship that he offers. These two together can settle our hearts about the topic of evil and suffering. So here is a quick run down of he biblical presentation of evil and suffering.
1) It's cause is sin and has it's origin in the fall.
2) We are still around despite our fallen state because God is patient for salvation. When Adam and Eve sinned that could have been the end of it but instead God through the work of salvation is showing us just how much he loves us by showing us the extent of cost he is willing to bare on our behalf. So he patiently waits till the elect have been called and the bride of Christ, the church is complete.
3) God actually limits evil and suffering in this world by in the garden of Eden preventing us from tasting the tree of life and living in these physical bodies forever. In that way suffering in this physical body last only as long as life itself.
4) God uses evil and suffering for the good. For the none Christian it works to drive one towards God. Like the pain response the consequeses of sin points out to us a problem. For the Christain God uses evil and suffering for discipline, this earth becomes a training ground of righteousness.
5) God is not ignorant of suffering. The Bible tells us that Jesus having lived and died here on earth is able to sympathise with our weaknesses, and in every respect was tempted but wihout sin. And he sits at the right hand of the father interceeding on our behalf. What better companion can we have enduring with us and interceeding for us!

Therefore as Christains we have the hope in our salvation that enables us to endure WITHOUT growing weary or fainthearted v3 because we know that the discipline we endure though evil and suffering is a sign of our identity as son's of the Father. We are called to resist sin even to the point of shedding blood because although is seems painful now later it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Like the non-christian who stokes the fire of their own hell hotter and hotter the greater their disobedience on earth the reverse is true for the Christian. The greater our endurance of suffering that produces a fruit of righteousness the greater our reward in heaven...

Conversing the Kingdom: By Faith...

Hebrews 11

This Chapter begins with the definition of faith that most of us can recite. 'Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' What follows in chapter 11 is a list of many of the Old Testement characters and the way they showed faith. In each case there was something hoped for, something of greater value than the trial or task that faced them in that moment. They responsed to that task on the basis of assurances they held in faith. As verse 13 clearly puts it. 'These all died in faith, not having recieved the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from far and having achnowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. So this faith was not just the case of, I go to work each day in the faith that at the end of the month my employer will credit my bank account with what is due. No this is faith on a different level, this is the faith that hopes for things promised that we will never received in this life time. The example the Hebrew writer gives is that faith should be played out here in our earthly home in view of the rewards to be received once we reach our heavenly home. So whatever consequences those actions have here in this temporary earthly home we live as if the consequences of our heavenly home are all that matter.
So what is the practical outworking in our lives. What does it look like if we truely understand faith and the hope it has in the our heavenly home.
When it come to reading our Bibles as a Christian we know that without it we can't gain knowledge of God or wisdom for life and that we need this everyday as our spiritual food like we need physical food to even survive. So what does it mean if we lapse in our Bible reading if we are not in the Bible everyday? It means that we think we can manage, we can make it on our own, that our earthly wisdom is enough to get us through the day. This is not exercising true faith, what we know about reading our Bible has not made it from head knowledge to heart action.
When it come to prayer we know we need God's grace and mercy new every morning, that we need to be constantly repenting of our sins and religious virtues, and thankful for all God's provision everyday. So what does it mean if we lapse in our prayer life? It means that we can make it on our own, it means that we forget where our job comes from, or where our money comes from. It means we think we can make it through the day in our own strength and that there is no consequences in our lives to not keeping on top of our repentance. This is not exercising true faith, this is not transfering our head knowledge about prayer to a heart action.
What other areas in our life do we need to consider where we haven't transfered the head knowledge about our relationhip with Jesus to a heart action that plays itself out in our lives. Particularly in the faith action that James talks about in his book and that the Bible constantly takes about the action of compassion and justice for the poor.

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Conversing the Kingdom: The Outside vs The Inside

Hebrews 9:6-14

Having never lived through the Old Covenant period it is often difficult for us to grasp what obedience to the law cost the israelites. Or what the effect in their lives was.
The Tabenacle was split into two sections the first section was the Holy Place and the second section called the Most Holy Place. This passage in Hebrews helps to shed light on this set up. The Holy Place was where the priests would go regularly to perform their ritual duties of gifts and sacrifices. But these gifts and sacrifices were only about keeping the outside clean. They were all about purification of the flesh and avoidence of the temporary judgement. But despite that fact that these sacrifices and gifts cost, blood was shed, they could never 'perfect the conscience'. These rituals never dealt with the israelites deepest need of a 'purification of the conscience from dead works'. That work, the work of atonement, could only be done in the Most Holy Place the shadow of which was played out once a year by the high priest. In this the Israelites were being shown through the Holy Spirit that the way into the Most Holy Place was not yet open whilst the inperfect sacrifices of the Holy Place continued. In this way there was a constant remeinder of the hoplessness of the situation and that the only hope lay in the perfect and complete sacrifice of the one to come. What a privaliage position we find ourselves in that have a knowledge of that perfect sacrifice where Christ our high priest entered once and for all into the Holy Places not with the blood of goats and bulls but his own blood, the perfect sacrifice. In the first section he dealt with the sin of the flesh and in the second section he made atonement for our spiritual state and thus purifying the flesh and the conscience that we can be free from our dead works and free to serve the living God, free to enter the Most Holy Place through the curtain of Jesus sacrifice on our behalf.
So as the israelites awaited eagerly the fullfilling of the Old Covenant we too wait eagerly for the fullfilment of the New Covenant that we might be fully redeemed and be removed not only from the power of sin but the presence of sin also. As the Israelites lived in the truth that the sacrifice system would one day be fulfilled let us live knowing that what we suffer now because of sin will one day pass away. Let us consider it an honour that we can share in the sufferings of of Christ and not live for the power, security, sucess and praise that this world offers but the weakness, need, morning and rejection of the kingdom of heaven.

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