Why Is Life So Hard?

by Rick Warren

“All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.” (Isaiah 53:6 NLT)

Everything seems to be a battle. Nothing is easy. The fact is, life is difficult.

So, why is life so hard in this world?

The Bible says rebellion against God broke everything.

It all started back with the first couple, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. When God created the world, everything was perfect. It was paradise. And Adam and Eve had no problems, suffering, sadness, temptations, or troubles.

But one day Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to do what they wanted to do. God told them, “You can do anything you want to in this paradise except one thing.” And what did Adam and Eve do? The one thing God told them not to do.

Suffer with Me Awhile

Glynnis Whitwer

"Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'" Matthew 26:38 (NIV)

I dipped my piece of torn bread in the cup of dark purple juice and placed it in my mouth. I tasted the ripeness of the fruit and savored the texture of the bread. "I will remember, Lord." I spoke the words in my head, silently thanking Jesus for the sacrifice He made for me on the cross.

Within a minute, the aftertaste of the juice distracted my communion meditation. It was more bitter than usual and I thought about taking a sip of something else to remove the flavor from my mouth. Should I grab my coffee, or some water?

Immediately, the Lord spoke to my heart: "Suffer with Me awhile."

Sadness filled my heart as I realized how quickly I wanted to remove the unpleasant taste ... how fast my thoughts drifted from the suffering of Christ to my own comfort. And I wondered how many times my self-focus had led me away from obedience in the hard places of life.

The Bible tells of three disciples who also chose comfort over obedience. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus asked Peter, James and John to watch and wait for Him while He prayed. During the time when our Lord was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," His closest friends couldn't keep awake. Three times Jesus returned to find them sleeping.

You're a Jewel!

The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.     Zechariah 9:16 

The Bible gives us this unusual detail about the construction of the Lord's temple. "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built." (I Kings 6:7). An unbelievable amount of scraping, hammering, chiseling had to be done on those mighty rocks that were used in the construction. But it was all done out of view and out of earshot of the temple site.

It's a little like the way God "dresses" us, fitting us for heaven. The apostle Peter reminds us that you and I are living stones, and we are being mined in the quarry of earth, a place of noise, chiseling, and clouds of dust. God is using our sufferings and afflictions to hone and shape us so we might fit perfectly into heaven's landscape, where there is "no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool." Where there is no suffering. No tears, pain, sorrow, or death. 

Overcoming Obstacles

"In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil" — Job 1:1

Israel’s Moran Samuel made her country proud when she won the gold medal at the international rowing competition in Italy earlier this spring. She made us even prouder when she sang Israel’s national anthem, the Hatikva, on her own.

Apparently, the Italians did not have a copy of the right recording. When Moran realized that there would be no anthem played as she received her award, she asked for the microphone and simply began singing it herself, completely cool and collected.

When Moran was interviewed by the news shortly afterwards, she had this to say: “If you look at an obstacle as an obstacle, there’s a good chance it will knock you down. If you look at an obstacle as a challenge, then you’ll do the maximum to overcome it. There can be small challenges, like the anthem and me taking the mic and singing, and there can be bigger challenges.” She should know. She’s been paralyzed from the chest down since she was 24.

Music for the Dance

 by Max Lucado

Let's imagine that you want to learn to dance. Being the rational, cerebral person you are, you go to a bookstore and buy a book on dancing.

You take the book home and get to work. You do everything it says. The book says sway; you sway. The book says shuffle; you shuffle. The book says spin; you spin.

Finally, you think you've got it, and you invite your wife to come in and watch. You hold the book open and follow the instructions step by step.

You continue to read, then dance, read, then dance, until the dance is completed. You plop exhausted on the couch, look at your wife, and proclaim, "I executed it perfectly."

"You executed it, all right," she sighs. "You killed it."

"What?"

ESCAPE FROM CAMP 14

Shin is the first person born and raised in a North Korean monstrous slave-labor prison to escape and tell his harrowing tale.


by Jeff Jacoby

Shin Dong-Hyuk grew up in North Korea's Camp 14, one of the monstrous slave-labor prison complexes in which the world's most tyrannical regime has crushed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, working them to death in conditions of excruciating brutality and degradation. Though the North Korean concentration camps have lasted far longer than their Soviet or Nazi counterparts did, Shin is the first person born and raised in one of them to have successfully escaped abroad. His story is told in journalist Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14, a heart-crushing reminder that man's inhumanity to man has no limit.

A Mother’s Tears

Scripture Passage: Genesis 3:16; Proverbs 10:1; Luke 2:34-35

1. 
   

INTRODUCTION: The sorrow of childbirth is often exceeded by the sorrows of seeing the needs of your child and toiling over their wellbeing. A mother’s lot is often defined by her tears.

1. FOR THE CHILD NOT BORN
1. Sarah (Genesis 16:1-5)
2. Hannah (1Samuel 1:1-10)
2. FOR THE CHILD THAT DIES
1. Bathsheba (2Samuel 12:15-18
   )
2. Naomi (Ruth 1:1-5, 19-21)
3. FOR CHILDREN AT ODDS
1. Rebekah (Genesis 25:21-23)
2. Eve (Genesis 4:8-10)
4. FOR THE CHILD THAT SUFFERS
1. Syro-Phenician Woman (Matthew 15:21-28)
2. Mary (Luke 2:33-35)
5. FOR THE CHILD THAT STRAYS
1. Eve (Genesis 4:1-7)
2. Prodigal Son’s Mother (Luke 15:11-13)
3. The Heaviness of Heart (Proverbs 10:1
   )

CONCLUSION: The godly mother has many tears, but God keeps those tears in His bottle. Psalm 56:8-9 states, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.” Will you cry unto Him and know that He is with you?

David Reagan

http://www.learnthebible.org

Permission to Hurt

by Gordon

The Bible tells of a walk Jesus took with His disciples one day to a pool where people believed they could be healed of any disease or injury. The legend was that the first person into the pool after an angel created a disturbance in the water would be miraculously cured. For me, one of the most remarkable things that happened in the story is actually something that didn’t happen. As Jesus and His disciples walked into the area of the pool they must have been surrounded by broken, hurting, and sickly people. It must have been hard to walk without stepping on someone laying by the pool, waiting for the angel to stir the water. And this is what didn’t happen: Jesus didn’t lecture anyone about being hurt or sick. No one scolded anyone about being in the condition they were in. The Great Physician didn’t begin this episode with a lecture about why these people shouldn’t feel, or act, or hurt the way they were. No one discounted the pain by even remotely suggesting that it might be inappropriate to be in pain.

Why then, are we so uncomfortable with the idea of being hurt? Why is it that when I am manipulated, or used, or attacked, I get this sense that I shouldn’t feel the embarrassment, the betrayal, or the anger the situation aroused in me? Could it be that we are so uncomfortable with pain that we refuse to admit that it has a place in our lives and especially in our spiritual journeys? I know that in my case I tend to believe that I have to get beyond the pain quickly and get back to a level of productivity and business that I have almost always covered over my wounds without having cleaned them out first. And of course, that never helps.

So, today, I want to give you permission to hurt. You may feel your pain. You may examine your sorrow and bewilderment. You have permission to suffer without feeling the need to gloss it over and get on with life, and without the need to act as if everything is OK, or is going to be OK, even when there is no evidence of that anywhere. You and I both know that you should get over this, and I promise you that you can. But first, you have to stop and process the pain. You have to come to terms with what you feel and what you’ve experienced that has stirred up those feelings. If you don’t take this very first step of allowing yourself to feel the fullness of your hurt, you may never move beyond it. So, it’s OK… The time will come when Jesus will ask the question “Do you want to get well?”, but that time doesn’t have to be today if you haven’t yet admitted how much you need to get well in the first place.

So, knowing that relief, joy, and growth are certainly very near to you, it is safe for you to take a little time to acknowledge what your soul already knows. You are not alone, the Spirit is ready to stir your pool, but there is no rush. When you are ready for the next step, the next step will begin to take you. If you need help, or just someone to talk to, reach out to us here at the Refuge. We’re willing to walk this with you.

the refuge

http://therefugeonline.org/refugeblog/index.php?id=6463268584554554765

Jesus Came And Is Coming Again

By Bruce Collins

“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.’” Luke 2:9-12NKJV

There is usually joy when a healthy baby is born into this world. When the Lord was born, there was the manifestation of the glory of God. I wonder if that glory looked like a superb display of the northern lights coming from the angel. There were angels, and there was joy. This was the event for which Israel was supposedly waiting. But wait a minute! God didn’t do this right, did He?

In order to be the mother of the Lord, Mary had to appear to be a “loose woman” since she was not married. Isaiah was clear that a virgin would conceive (Isa. 7:14), but how many unmarried women have children out of wedlock without committing sin? Even though her husband Joseph and others accepted what God had done, I have no doubt that the stigma of being conceived before His folks married was something the Lord had to live with as He grew up. I’m sure His miraculous conception was something Mary and Joseph told others, but I’m sure most who heard their story snickered and said, “Sure! Sure!”

Born To Us

The Messiah was to be born a King, but Jesus came from a humble family. One would expect a king to grow up in Jerusalem, not in Nazareth. The Messiah’s family should have believed in Him, but they did not, until after His resurrection (Jn. 7:5). The nation did not understand that their Messiah was to suffer and die before He came to reign, so even though there was joy at the Lord’s birth there was also sorrow. Mary was told that a “sword would pierce her soul” (Lk. 2:35). This child would suffer. So would His mother. He was to be rejected and ridiculed. He was not accepted by the Jews as the promised Messiah. How could this be God’s will? How could this bring joy?

When we understand that the baby at Bethlehem was destined to be the Christ of the Cross because He was born to be the Savior, then and then only will we understand why there was joy “to all people.” This time of year we see a lot of manger scenes. I’ve been thinking that I should put three crosses in my yard with a light on the middle cross and a sign that says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). True joy comes when we realize that death could not hold the Lord in the grave. He lives, and He’s coming again. The joy of the angels when one sinner repents and believes (Lk. 15:10) is the true joy of this season.

Coming For Us

Just before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn. 14:3). Unbelief caused Israel to miss their Messiah when He came the first time. Unbelief will cause those who reject Him to be deceived when He comes again. In 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 we read, “For this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

The Lord’s second coming will be much like His first. Most will be convinced that His coming didn’t really happen, and that those who suddenly disappeared were not really caught away by the Lord (1 Th. 4:17). Not only will they miss out on the joy of going to heaven without dying, but also they will miss out on the joy of spending eternity with this One who was born in the City of David, announced by angels, foretold in the prophetic Scriptures, proven to be the Messiah by His miracles and teaching, crucified on a cross, raised from the dead and is coming again.


http://www.gtpress.org/gtweb/gtmag/mag06/apr06/feature2.html