God doesn't interrupt our lives for small things. God asks Noah to build an ark. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to stand up to the King when no one else would. Joseph was made a slave and imprisoned. Moses had to defy Pharaoh. These people did not lead comfortable lives, but God used them through their challenges. Hebrews 11 gives a whole list of people who were called by God. They didn't have to respond in the way they did, but they made that decision to trust God, and God used them through that.
In these stories of God calling these people, you never hear them asking for an even bigger challenge. Their first response is generally fear. Sometimes people like to say that God would never ask them to do something they can't handle easily. They will often quote 1 Cor. 1:13, where Paul says "[God] will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear". People are given more than they can handle everyday in our fallen world. Holocaust, death, martyrdom, cancer, war. People are given burdens they cannot handle.
When God challenges us, our 1st response is almost always fear. It is up to us how we respond to God's calling, and see how God will use the challenge to grow us and help reach others around us.
We need to be reassured that through any challenge we face, God has promised He will be there for us. In Joshua, God says "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." God doesn't promise bad things won't happen to us. The promise is that nothing can separate us from God's love. We may suffer. We may hurt. We will eventually die. God will never leave us though.
Back to Andy's words- Sorry for writing so much. I felt like Ortberg does a good job of dealing with a tough subject though. If you want to read the actual book sometime, I'll let you borrow it. And, now to lighten things up a bit, here is a photo of Janell and I in our Halloween costume.
5 comments:
Thanks Andy, for the enlightening paragraphs. I have been pushed farther than I could handle. Like trying to transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer and then from the computer to the blog. Or Green Bay winning, again! That has been a trying issue this week. I thought when I became a Christian life would get easier. I do, on a serious note, like the explaination of the verse in 1 Corr. I was confused why I always felt that I wasn't trusting God enough when I felt overwhelmed. I now have a little better understanding.
I dont know if this will even publish...this is Jeremy by the way,
I guess it did...I think Good Will Hunting is a great movie, but has a bit too much language in it for a church function, I know we're all grown ups, but just my thoughts, nice pictures! Adam and Dawn- it was a lot of fun the other night at the Halloween shin-dig too.
I agree with who I think is Jeremy(but is suspiciously anonymous...hmm) that Good Will Hunting is an excellent movie but naughty language prohibits it from contention. Gladiator is an obvoius choice as a great film with much better language, but with a little more gore. It also seems to be kind of an allegory film with the main character betrayed by evil, but with sacrifice is able to exact his well deserved revenge.
This is why we're voting folks. If you don't like a movie, vote for something else.
I'll take write in submissions too, I suppose.
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