Redemptive Suffering

 7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.   II Corinthians 4:7-11

As our steps take us nearer Holy Week and the Passion of the Lord, I am reminded of the words of the old Scottish preacher, George McDonald: 

     The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that we might not suffer, but that our suffering might be like his.

However, as much I’d like to think that being a follower of the Lamb exempts Christians from life’s trials and difficulties, I know that it just isn’t so.  But what is so is this  – that through his Passion our Savior is able to transform all our suffering into Redemptive Suffering.  Our suffering will be made like his.  Through Christ all our suffering and heart ache will bring life and blessing to others!

In today’s text Paul speaks of such Redemptive Suffering.  Yes, Paul says, followers of Christ are afflicted – perplexed – persecuted – struck down.  We are, he says, “always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus.”  We feel the sting of Christ’s Passion in our lives all the time.  But notice that this suffering is “so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”   Out of suffering and death, the Savior brings life in us and through us to others!

Just as Christ’s sufferings on Good Friday were transformed into new life on Easter morning, so in Christ all our sufferings are transformed into Redemptive Suffering.  Jesus went to the Cross, not to make for us a way out, but to make for us a way through.  He suffered not to make our way easy, but to make our way great.

Cling to this Gospel truth!  In ways we cannot yet see, in ways we cannot yet imagine…………every tear, every heartache, every cross, will be redeemed to make visible in us the very life of Christ.   Glory be to God!

P. S. For details on how you can participate in a Book Forum on the novel, “The Shack,”(Saturday, April 4), as well as other upcoming events, go to www.waterfromrock.org and click on the Schedule tab.    

Weekly Classes with Tim Smith: Every Wednesday at the Franciscan Renewal Center  (Garces Room of Piper Hall)

Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M. Jesus’ Teaching on the Spiritual Life:  John 13-17

Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. Soulful Living: Everyday Spirituality for Busy People

NO CLASSES ON WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK, APRIL 8.

Keep Looking Up

8He who alone stretched out the heavens

   and trampled the waves of the Sea;* 

9who made the Bear and Orion,

   the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; 

10who does great things beyond understanding,

   and marvellous things without number…

   Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”  Job 9:8-9, 10

Job was a careful watcher of the night sky. The stars proclaimed to him the glory of God.Job could have traced for you the star clusters of Orion, Pleiades, and others beside.  

Starting in late 2003,astronomers looked in the direction of the star cluster Orion, within the constellation of Fornax. They pointed the Hubble Space Telescope toward a patch of dark sky that to ground-based telescopes appeared empty. With the orbital telescope they made a tiny pinprick in the night that represented only 1 ten millionth of the sky. Over a period of twelve days spread out over four months, they snapped a photo that some scientists have called the most important picture every taken. It is the farthest we’ve ever seen into the universe, a deep-core sample of creation, cutting across billions and billions of years. The astronomers said they were not prepared for what the picture revealed. In what had been thought to be a dark and empty part of space they saw galaxies and galaxies everywhere. As far as they could see, galaxies!

They tell us, that our neighborhood galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, is an average size galaxy, about 100,000 light years in diameter.The Milky Way Galaxy contains, along with our sun, an estimated 100 thousand million stars. Write that another way: it is 100,000,000,000 stars making up our back yard. If you tried to count the stars in just our galaxy, and counted at the rate of 1 star every second, it would take you over 3,170 years to count them all. 

Then imagine if you can, far beyond our galaxy, as astronomers tell us there are millions upon millions of other galaxies. Carl Sagan said in his famed PBS series,The Cosmos: “There are more stars in the universe than grains of sands on the earth.”   Think about that the next time you’re lounging at the beach or trekking across the desert….yes, more stars than grains of sand!

Four thousand years ago, Job was wrestling with God about the things going wrong in his life. He was struggling with the Almighty over the way He was running the world. Then Job stopped his tossing and turning, went outside his tent, and there under the night sky he bowed and worshipped his Creator and Redeemer. For a moment Job was lost in wonder in the presence of Him “Who alone stretched out the heavens.”  And then Job understood, “Who will say to Him, ‘What are you doing?’”   

Yes!  Our lives are part of something astoundingly magnificent and glorious that God is doing. Far beyond our ability to grasp or imagine!

For an incredible picture of our planet earth go to  A Pale Blue Dot on the Internet. See and wonder at this photo of the earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 from 4 billion miles away. Job was right. “He does great things beyond understanding.”  

Rejoice!

Tim Smith  

P. S. For details on how you can participate in a Book Forum on the novel, “The Shack,” go to www.waterfromrock.org.  “The Shack” is a top of the best sellers book that wrestles with the problem of evil and suffering in God’s good universe. 

Weekly Classes with Tim Smith – Every Wednesday At the Franciscan Renewal Center    (Garces Room of Piper Hall)

Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M.             Jesus’ Teaching on the Spiritual Life:  John 13-17

Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.         Soulful Living: Everyday Spirituality for Busy People

Adversity or Adventure

“You will bring forth water from the rock for the community. Numbers 20:8
 
Water from Rock! It’s a curious, unlikely image we have chosen for a new ministry, a ministry of renewal. Satisfying, life-giving water bubbling up from dry, desert rock. But consider just a few reminders to us of God’s miraculous mercy to his people in desert places:

• “God made water for them from the rock; He split open the rock and the water gushed out.”  Isaiah 48:21
• “God made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.”  Psalm 78:16

As the people of God journey through the desert wilderness to the Promised Land they come to a “place of no water.” And what do they do? They do just what we might do when faced with need and trouble  – they complain. “Why did You bring us into the desert to die? Why didn’t You leave us in slavery in Egypt?”  
 
And then God does the miraculous – He brings forth water from rock for the people. For there to be a miracle, you must first be facing a need. For there to be divine intervention, you must be in trouble. For there to be renewal there must be loss.
 
Every difficulty we face – this need, this economy, this thorny situation – becomes redemptive opportunity. Our need is linked to God’s supply. Our weakness to his strength. That is what turns adversity into adventure, an adventure of faith and not of sight.
 
There has to be pressure, opposition, struggle, or we cannot experience our sufficiency in Christ. The desert wilderness cannot be avoided. The waterless places cannot be gone around. They press us into Christ. They compel us into conscious abiding in our ever faithful God.
 
Through God our adversity becomes adventure!
 
Check out our new website in progress: www.waterfromrock.org
 
Grace and Peace,
Tim Smith

Expectancy

“And we will be careful to give You the praise, O Lord.”
 
With those words my father would end our daily prayer time. And with those words I knew my father was expecting an answer, and that he expected to be praising and thanking God for the answer. 
 
It is with fondness and respect that I remember my father’s simple and expectant prayers. We had talked with God about the cotton crop, about Uncle Otis’s bad back, and about our church. And my father expected that we would be praising God for his answers. For my dad, praise and thanks said ahead of time were all a part of prayer. 
 
I have wondered where my father learned to pray like that, and I think he probably learned it from people in the Bible. In Psalm 22, David begins his plaintiff prayer by telling God how he feels completely “forsaken” and “forgotten” by Him. It’s no holds barred with David!  He tells God everything that’s on his mind and then tells God he expects to be praising God for the answer that will be coming: “I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you (Psalm 22:22).
 
Then there’s Paul in Philippians 4:6, telling believers: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”   
 
Paul says, go ahead and talk to God about whatever it is you’re worried about, and while you’re at it, go ahead and thank Him in advance for what He’s going to do. 
What is it that you’re worried about today? Is it the plunging Dow Jones? Is it your children? Your dwindling bank account? Your doctor’s appointment? Talk with Abba Father about it, and yes, thank him in advance, and “be careful to give Him the praise.” 
 
God’s perfect answer for you is coming in HIS time, in HIS special way, and in HIS wisdom.  And when HIS answer finally comes, you will be caught up in amazement and praise at His wisdom and love.  So why not begin to enjoy God’s answer now and let the praise begin?  
 
Grace and Peace,
Tim Smith

Soaring with the Eagles

I often say that I became a bird watcher because the Lord Jesus told me to. “Consider the birds of the air” Jesus said, (Matthew 6:26), and so I did. And what great fun it has been ever since. I love to watch and consider the Canadian geese, cormorants, mallard ducks, mockingbirds, starlings, gamble’s quail, and assorted hummingbirds. What a delight just to watch them, and as Jesus said, to consider the Father’s astonishing creativity and faithful care for them and for us.

But it was a true God Sighting for Rita and me last Friday to see and consider two bald eagles in the McCormick Ranch area. There, high in an old cottonwood alongside a lake we caught sight of a magnificent bald eagle. With its head crowned white it exercised a commanding view over the realm. Then we looked up from the tree and saw a second eagle playfully riding back and forth in the thermal currents. Without even a flap of its wings it sailed. Then suddenly swooping downward towards the cottonwood it bid its partner in the tree to play. Rita and I stood speechless as the two danced in the wind and then rocketed upward. I envied them for their ease and lightness, their playfulness. It was all so effortless for them and so much fun! When they had soared from our sight, Rita and I recovered our speech, and recited the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). Oh to soar with the eagles!

That is our possibility, our potential today, as we wait on the Lord. If we are worn down by life, weary and discouraged about the economy, and worried about the future, the Lord can breathe his very life and power into us as we spend time with Him and join Him in the dance.   

In ancient Israel they regarded the yearly molting of the eagle’s feathers and the resulting new plumage and color as symbolic of new life.  It’s like the eagle is hatched again fresh every year! And so the Psalmist rejoices in the Lord who “satisfies you with good as long as you live, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5). Spend time with the Eternal One. With every passing year, with every passing day, the Lord will satisfy you with good, and renew you as you wait for him.

Grace and Peace!

Tim Smith