Reports are emerging across the world that God is doing something new, particularly amongst young people, Gen Z. For example, evangelical churches are booming in France, a country often seen as one of the most secular in Europe. They’re multiplying so fast that every ten days, a new evangelical church opens its doors. In this documentary, they dive deep into France’s evangelicalism: meeting pastors, experts, and converts to understand why so many young people are turning to evangelical Christianity. From Paris to Lyon, they explore how this minority movement is becoming one of the fastest-growing religions in France, and what that means for its future. Glory to God.
Category Archives: God controls history
REMEMBER GOD APPOINTS LEADERS OF NATIONS
With the American presidential election imminent Christians must remember that God appoints leaders for His purposes. The bible records for us how God used the leaders of the most powerful nations: Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian Empire 600 years before Christ. He received a vision from God. Why?
“in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” Daniel 4:17
The Bib;le clearly shows that God will place terrible leaders in positions of great power for the explicit purpose of fulfilling His plans. This was certainly true of the pharoah of the Exodus, whose heart God hardened time, after time. God had Moses tell Pharoah:
“Indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Exodus 9:16
One of the most convincing proofs that the Bible is the inspired word of God is fulfilled prophecy. God inspired the prophet Isaiah to announce 150 years in advance the rise to power of Cyrus the Great to fulfill His purpose to bring God’s people back to their land after 70 years in exile for their rebellion and not keeping 70 Shemitah’s. 2 Chronicles 36:21 says, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.”
“Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” Isaiah 45:1-7
Know that whoever is elected, it is God’s choice for this season: if Trump, maybe a short repreive from escalating judgement; if Harris it will be escalating judgement.
PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE
To finish strong for God’s glory you require patient endurance. You have received the Holy Spirit to enable you if you will only say “Not my will but your will be done today“. Moreover, there is no higher calling, no bigger privilege, no greater joy, and you will be kept from the coming wrath of God.
“Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.“ Revelation 3:10
The following Scripture delivers a tough message but Jesus must be at the top of our pecking order.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:3
We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:9-14
Each of the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3 represents the church in each of the last seven years (Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy) before Jesus returns first to rapture His church and then to return with the glorified Saints to conquer the Antichrist army at the battle of Armageddon.
The Scripture Revelation 3:7-13 is to the church of Philadelphia, the sixth church in the sixth year.
“Jesus says, I have set before you an open door, no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial (Rapture) which shall come upon the whole earth (wrath of God).” (Revelation 3:7-13)
Just as the six churches represent the church in each of the last seven years, likewise the seven seals also represent what is happening on Earth in each of the last seven years. It is at the sixth seal, the sixth year, that we see the celestial signs that precede Jesus’ return to Earth to rapture the Saints and to begin to pour out His wrath upon the unrepentant.
“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” ” Revelation 6:12-14.
It is at the trumpet blast at the opening of the seventh seal that the rapture takes place and the trumpet and bowl judgments are poured out on an unrepentant world for one year and ten days. Why one year and ten days. The year before a Jubilee year is always one year and ten days and the year following Jesus’ return will be a Jubilee year. It so happens that when God poured out His wrath the first time with Noah’s flood it also was for one year and ten days. Check it out.
If the rapture happens at the start of the seventh year it means that the seventh church. the church of Laodicea (Laodicea is a combination of two Greek words (LAO, meaning “God’s people”; and DIKE, meaning “justice or judgment”) Judgement of God’s people)
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:15-19
Do you belong to a church that says we are rich, have prospered, and are in need of nothing? Or are you in a church like the church of Philadelphia?
“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name… Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial (Rapture) which shall come upon the whole earth (wrath of God).” Revelation 3:8,10
NEXT ON GOD’S KINGDOM AGENDA
The Kingdom of God has many facets to it. One important phase of God’s Kingdom which many of the denominational/institutional churches have got wrong is Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom. This is difficult to understand for several reasons: 1. The Christian church for the first two hundred years took the Millennial Kingdom position. 2. All of the O.T. prophets were shown the end of the story for Israel with their Messiah ruling and reigning over the nations. 3. Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and particularly the New Covenant given to Jeremiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34
4. Explicit prediction is given in the Bible of an intermediate kingdom that is one thousand years long when Jesus and the resurrected Saints will rule the nations with a rod of iron. The curse is not fully lifted off the earth as people still die and need to be saved. Satan is bound in the Abyss for most of the thousand years but God allows him one last chance to deceive people on Earth and sadly we know he raises an army of rebellious people, their number like the sand of the sea. That rebellion is quickly put down and God finally destroys this Earth with fire. The second resurrection and the White Throne judgement follow. Only then does John see a new Jerusalem of incredible size descending from a new Heaven onto a new Earth where only the righteous will dwell.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” Revelation 21:1-3
JESUS COMING MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
The time is coming when this world will be radically changed for the better. It will last for a thousand years, bookended by resurrections. The following passage in Revelation is the summation of the event. However, many O.T. Scriptures give much detail on Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom with Jesus ruling the nations from a much elevated and improved Jerusalem compared to the Jerusalem that exists today. In fact, all of the O.T. prophets were shown the triumphant end of Israel’s story with their Messiah ruling the nations. God has unfinished business with the nation He established for His purposes. The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, Gen. 15:7-12, 17 ), Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-16), and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) have yet to be fulfilled
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:1-6
Go to http://www.millennialkingdom.net for more information and free resources on Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom.
APPOINTMENT OF MIKE JOHNSON AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Representative for the 4th District of Louisiana, sits down with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (www.frc.org) for a personal interview covering his Christian faith, the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide, and pressing priorities on Capitol Hill.
The House of Representatives had been in chaos for weeks after Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a motion to vacate. The House was paralyzed, and in such volatile times with tumultuous events in Israel and across the globe, the need for a strong Speaker of the House was evident. By an evident display of God’s providence, that need was filled by Speaker Mike Johnson.
Tony Perkins reported that before Speaker Johnson was elected, FRC had prayed for a speaker who would stand firm for biblical truth. In a remarkable display of the power of prayer, Mike Johnson was unanimously elected by the House Republicans as speaker. We are immensely grateful to have a speaker who shares our vision of advancing faith, family, and freedom.
IF ONLY HAMAS AND THE NATIONS THAT WAR AGAINST ISRAEL KNEW THIS TRUTH
For YHVH (God of Israel) of Armies says this: “After glory, He has sent me against the nations that plunder you (Israel), for the one who touches you (Israel) touches the apple of His eye” Zechariah 2:8
“Therefore, all who devour you (Israel) will be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity. And those who plunder you will become plunder, and all who plunder you I will turn into plunder. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares YHVH – because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her.’ This is what YHVH says: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on its ruins, and the palace will stand on its rightful place” Jeremiah 30:16-18
This is just what God revealed to two of the Old Testament (O.T.) prophets. In fact, all of the O.T. prophets were shown the triumphant ending for Israel with its Messiah ruling and reigning over all the nations of the Earth – Jesus Millennial Kingdom (www.millennialkingdom.net)
Read what the New Testament prophet (N.T.) Paul has to say about the future of Israel.
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”” Romans 11:25-27
Israel’s calling as a nation was (and remains) to love the God of Jacob “with all your heart and all your soul, and to obey His word“.
“And now, Israel, what does YHVH your God require of you, but to fear YHVH your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep YHVH’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Deuteronomy 10:11-13
“Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years... Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4,6
GOD IS AT WORK IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE USA
Over 1,000 students attended the Texas A&M Corpus Christi worship event:
More than 120 people were reportedly baptized during a recent revival event on the Corpus Christi campus of Texas A&M University, a gathering that has spurred increased attendance in church young adult groups in recent weeks.
New Life Church of Corpus Christi helped organize an on-campus worship event on Aug. 31 known as “One Night,” an annual gathering held in the area for the past eight years and on campus for the past two.
New Life Church Young Adults Pastor Tarik Whitmore, whose church has a student organization on campus known as New Life Young Adults, told The Christian Post that their ministry outreach to Texas A&M began in 2015, saying its influence on the campus has “gradually increased over time.”
Whitmore reported that while last year’s One Night event had about 600 attendees and 51 baptisms, this year, they saw more than 1,000 in attendance (out of a student enrollment of around 10,800) and 124 baptisms.
“From the very beginning of worship, it was clear that something significant was happening because it was just, it was so powerful,” White said, noting that the gathering included “faces [we’ve] never seen [in church] before” who were “lifting up the name of Jesus.”
“For young people, it’s one thing for them to do that in a comfortable, familiar context like the Sunday morning; it’s another thing for them to do that at their college outdoors in front of their peers.”
Whitmore was amazed by how much anticipation there was for One Night. In the days leading up to the event, when he and other NLYA members spread the word, they came across many students who already knew and were planning to go. God is doing something with students in certain colleges and universities in the USA.
In February, Asbury University in Kentucky garnered national headlines when students held an impromptu worship service at the campus chapel that lasted 16 days and brought in tens of thousands of visitors from across the United States.
The revival service also inspired the launching of worship events at other schools, both public and private, as well as the creation of “outpouring teams” comprised of Asbury students to share their experiences with others off-campus.
God is at work across the world, particularly in countries where Christians are being persecuted.
Also, we know the end of the story; Jesus will return first to rapture the Saints to heaven and pour out His wrath upon an unrepentant world. Then Jesus returns to Earth with the glorified Saints to rescue the nation God established for His purposes, Israel. This needs to happen so that the covenant promises God made with Abraham and David will be fulfilled. As well, the new covenant spoken by the prophet Jeremiah must be fulfilled.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34
Christians, we need to show the Palestinians, better still all Muslims that this prophecy will be fulfilled. All the Biblical prophecies of Jesus’ first coming as well as many other Biblical prophecies have already been fulfilled exactly as prophesied so we can be sure the many prophecies of Jesus’ future Millennial reign from Jerusalem will be fulfilled as well.
Jesus will rule and reign on this earth for a further 1000 years before it is destroyed by fire. The rest of the dead are raised (saved and unsaved) to face Jesus at the White Throne Judgement. The unsaved are thrown into the Lake of Fire where they face punishment and a second death. The glorified Saints go to a new Earth where only the righteous dwell.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:22-27
Note that even on the new earth there are kings and nations. There is a hierarchy on the new Earth as there is in heaven now with the Angels. The difference with the world today is the leaders on the new Earth will be humble servants of those they are assigned to direct their activities. Yes! there will be work to do on the new Earth and new Heaven.
GOOD NEWS STORY – ON FIRE FOR GOD
‘On fire for God’: Over 11,000 students attend worship event to pray, celebrate the Lord
Amid ongoing concerns about the younger generation’s religious dedication, thousands of students attended a worship event aimed at equipping youth with the knowledge of Jesus.
The latest Motion Student Conference, which concluded on July 29 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, hosted over 11,000 students representing 230 churches from 31 states and six countries. In addition, 2,000 volunteers assisted with organizing the event.
Motion is organized by the Church of the Highlands, a congregation with multiple locations throughout Alabama and Georgia. Attendees ranged in age from middle school to college and participated with their youth leaders.
Mark Pettus, president of Highlands College and associate pastor at Church of the Highlands, told The Christian Post in an emailed statement that Motion exists to empower a generation to live out Ephesians 2:10, which states:
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
“It provides an environment where students discover their identity in Christ and set their faith in motion to do the good things He planned for them,” Pettus stated.
During the conference, students had an opportunity to attend sessions featuring speakers and worship band members before breaking into community groups to “unpack” what they learned, Pettus added.
“Motion is more than a conference and more than bands and speakers,” Pettus continued. “It’s about a generation of young people empowered by Jesus, equipped to make a difference, and living out their faith.”
This good news story follows my recent post which reported that about half of Gen Z respondents in the American Bible Society’s State of the Bible USA 2023 study agreed with the statement that “the message of the Bible has transformed my life.” Among Gen Z adults between the ages of 18 and 21, 49% agreed that the Bible had a transformative effect on their lives. That number rose to 52% among Gen Z respondents between the ages of 22 and 26.
As we move towards the last seven years prior to Jesus’ return, Biblical prophecy tells us that persecution of Christians will increase. Tribulation, even great tribulation is ahead when the Antichrist declares himself to be God in the new temple yet to be erected in Jerusalem. I do hope that Highlands College know where we are in Biblical history and therefore end times prophecies so that they prepared these young people for the escalating tribulation that is coming.
GOD IS SOVEREIGN – YOU CAN BANK ON IT
The arrogant ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest king of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia (605 -561 BC) made a humbling discovery. God promised to take Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom from him for a time, and told him, “Your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules” (Daniel 4:26). That’s exactly what happened, and the truly humbled king afterward insisted that God “does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
“Dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28). Because God has absolute power, no one—including demons and humans who choose to violate His moral will—can thwart His ultimate purpose.
Paul wrote, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). What does “everything” not include?
Even what appears random is not: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh” (Proverbs 16:33). If we believe this, our reaction to many of the difficulties we face will change. Problems will seem smaller, for although we can’t control them, we know God can—and that everything will work out for His glory and our good.
God is sovereign over evil and disaster.
Though evil had no part in God’s original creation, it was part of His original plan, because redemption from evil was part of His plan. Therefore, Scripture doesn’t distance God from disasters and secondary evils the way His children often do. Amos 3:6 says, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?” A description of natural disasters follows in Amos 4:6–12, where God says He intended these not only as punishment but also as a discipline designed to draw His people back to Himself. (These passages have specific contexts in which God is bringing judgment on His people; they do not prove that all disasters are God’s judgment.)
Satan may bring about a “natural” disaster, but the Book of Job makes clear that God continues to reign, even while selectively allowing Satan to do evil things. Evil never takes God by surprise, nor makes Him helpless.
God isn’t the author of evil, but He is the author of a story that includes evil. In His sovereignty, He intended from the beginning to permit evil, then to turn evil on its head and use it for a redemptive good. God didn’t devise His redemptive plan on the fly, simply making the best of events that spiraled out of His control.
God is sovereign in the outworking of historical events.
Jesus declared that some events “must” happen, in line with Scripture and God’s sovereign will, among them, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21).
Because of what the triune God knew and decided in eternity past, Jesus not only might or could go to the cross, but had to. God chose.
Peter, speaking to a Jerusalem crowd, said of Christ, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). God planned His redemptive work and did what was necessary to make it happen.
God is sovereign over disabilities and diseases.
Every day since 1985 I’ve had to deal with the implications of my insulin-dependent diabetes. As a result, I recognize my absolute dependence on God. This has drawn me closer to Him, and I’m deeply grateful.
Some Christians try to distance God from disabilities, arguing that if we attribute them to the sovereign hand of God, we’re making Him out to be a monster. This argument doesn’t change what Exodus 4:11 actually says with startling clarity, that God directly claims to give people their disabilities: “Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?’”
I may fail to understand it, but if the Bible is my authority, don’t I have to believe it? I’ve spoken with many disabled people who didn’t find comfort until they came to believe God made them as they are.
My brilliant friend David O’Brien lived with a severe form of cerebral palsy since birth, and yet he demonstrated joy that transcended his body’s bondage.
At a conference for the disabled, David commented, “If Christ had to suffer to be made complete, how can we expect not to have some form of suffering?” Then he said something unforgettable: “God tailors a package of suffering best suited for each of his own.”
David spoke the following, in words difficult to understand, yet prophetically clear: “Dare I question God’s wisdom in making me the way I am?”
Skeptics may say of disabled believers, “They’re denying reality and finding false comfort. If there’s a God who loves them, he wouldn’t treat them like this.”
David’s audience found better reasons to believe and worship the sovereign God who purchased their resurrection with His blood—and who offers them comfort and perspective—than to believe the skeptics who’ve purchased nothing for them and offer only hopelessness.
We can trust God’s loving sovereignty in every hardship.
Benjamin B. Warfield taught at Princeton Seminary for thirty-four years until his death in 1921. Students still read his books today yet few know his story. On their honeymoon, lightning struck his wife, Annie, permanently paralyzing her. Warfield cared for her until she died. Because of her extreme needs, Warfield seldom left his home for more than two hours at a time during thirty-nine years of marriage.
Warfield viewed his personal trials through the lens of Romans 8:28–29 and wrote this:
The fundamental thought is the universal government of God. …If He governs all, then nothing but good can befall those to whom He would do good.… And He will so govern all things that we shall reap only good from all that befalls us.
Really, Dr. Warfield? Only good from all that befalls us? Warfield spoke from the playing field of suffering, answering an emphatic yes to the loving sovereignty of God.
Our state of mind determines whether the doctrine of God’s sovereignty comforts or threatens us.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “There is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty.… On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings.”
Imagining that God should let us run life our way sets us up to resent God and even “lose our faith” when our lives don’t go as we want. However, that’s a faith we should lose—to be replaced with faith in the God of sovereign grace who doesn’t keep us from all difficulties but promises to be with us in all difficulties.
God has a way of making what seems worst into the very best.
Nancy Guthrie writes of a speaker asking people to fold a paper in half. She then instructed them to write on the top half the worst things that had happened to them, and on the bottom half the best things.
Invariably, you’ll find things at the top of the page that are also at the bottom. Experiences labeled as the worst things that had ever happened, will, over time, give birth to some of the best things.
It’s the same with my own list. If enough time has passed since some of those “worst things” have happened, then almost certainly we’ll find an overlap.
Our lists provide persuasive proof that while evil and suffering are not good, God can use them to accomplish immeasurable good. Knowing this should give us great confidence that even when we don’t see any redemptive meaning in our present suffering, God can see it…and one day so will we.
Adapted from Randy’s book Hand in Hand: The Beauty of God’s Sovereignty and Meaningful Human Choice.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 