HOSPITAL
VISIT
Charlene
and I are pleased & grateful for the visits, conversations, inquiries and
prayers of our Christian friends at
My
wife, Charlene, began bleeding rather heavily and shedding blood clots Tuesday
afternoon. This continued all
night. Wednesday I took her to the
emergency room at
The
state of modern medicine certainly makes today a great time in which to
live. We learned a few things this
trip. One thing that is not particularly
new to us is that bleeding stops when your blood pressure drops after you run
out of blood. We suspected this. We were surprised that this was the method
used in the hospital. They have a neat
thing where they draw some of the blood you have left (after 2 days of heavy
bleeding) and test it. Then a couple
hours later (when the results are no longer current), they come up with,
"you have lost a lot of blood, your red cell count is really low." The emergency room nurses are very responsive
too. When I told one that the heavy
quilted pad covering the gurney Char was laying on was completely soaked with
blood, she came right in, removed it & gave Char a fresh one to bleed on.
THOUGHTS
ARISING FROM CHAR’S PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES
I
regard trouble that comes upon us first as a call to worship.* My inclination is to bow before God, to be
quiet & think about Him, to be overwhelmed by the wonder and mystique of
His majesty. I am filled with gratitude
and content in His sovereignty, the very thing I fight against at other
times. Usually I am uncomfortable asking
Him to reverse a situation that just changed (whether by His will or allowance
is mostly semantics). I find that at
this time it is enough to worship.
Praying at such times for God to fix and restore things is not in me as
my requests are spoiled by self-interests, "What will happen to me? What will it cost? I don't want this setback."
In
the same way, I am reluctant to first pray for others when their difficulties
are made known to me. It's one thing to
worship as I am pressed by fearful and desperate circumstances. It's another to enter into someone
else's. It's too easy to ask God for
help and then continue on relatively unaffected myself, divorced and abstracted
from their situation and anxieties. I
need some time before The Sovereign in meditation about Him and them before I
am affected and can take their struggles to myself. I don't do this near well enough. [When I face discouragement and grief, I read
Francis Schaeffer and listen to Discussions of scripture]
------------------------
* There is a parallel here in trouble's call to people who
have not come to Christ. People of
different cultures and times have been very creative in communicating through
signals. The trumpet is one such method
spoken of in the Bible. Revelation 8-11
speaks of judgments (calamities and tragedies) brought by God upon the unconverted
all the time everywhere in the world.
They are calls to repentance (Lk.13:1-4). When disasters strike, whether affecting many
such as 9/11 or few such as a traffic accident, the call goes out to turn from
idols and bow to the Living God. And,
people know this. They feel it in their
guts along with all the other emotions including anger toward God…just like we
do as Christians facing troubles of our own.
See NPR Interview, God and Tsunamis at desiringGod.org
TRIALS
- OUTLINE
1.
Attitude toward
trials 2 Cor.4:16-17; 12:9-10
2.
Types of trials 2 Cor.1:8; 4:8; 7:5; 11:23-29, 32; 12:7-8
3.
Purposes of
trials 2 Cor.1:9, 11; 4:10; 7:6; 12:7,
9-10
A.
God calls us to
separation and takes us down a different path
B.
The journey is the destiny [destination is not all there is]
C.
Endurance of faith is necessary and challenges will arise to contend
with our faith
D.
Confidence in the Lord is what grows in us through endurance in
trials
E.
Hoping in His promises
is what keeps us through the trials
F.
Getting to know the
Lord through the in between times helps us in crises
G.
Trials of persecution involve identifying with and
standing with Christ (being rejected, scorned, cast out and crucified with Him)
Psalm 77 - A Psalm of Asaph
a lament [sorrow; regret; veiled
form of complaint] that reveals Asaph's working through his troubles.
{notes from a message by Mark Stuenzi}
HIS ANGUISH
[Asaph is consumed with his grief (I, me, my -
18 times). It seems like God is not
hearing]
1.
I cried out to God for Help; I cried out to God to hear me.
2.
When I
was in distress, I
sought the Lord; at night I
stretched out untiring hands but my
soul refused to be comforted.
3.
I remembered you O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint.
4.
You kept my
eyes from closing; I
was too troubled to speak.
5.
I thought about the former days, the years of
long ago; (6.) I remembered my
songs in the night.
[Who among us is exempt
from experiencing a dark night of the soul?
As anguish continues and no help is found, the heart begins to question
on its descent into doubt and despair.]
HIS
QUESTIONING
My heart mused and my
spirit inquired:
7. "Will the Lord
reject forever? Will He never show His
favor again?
8. Has His unfailing
love vanished? Has His promise failed
for all time?
9. Has God forgotten to
be merciful? Has He in anger withheld
His compassion?"
[In such times, the temptation is to ask "Why?" which
may never be answered. If all one does
is relive his grief, he cannot consider the truths that under-gird his
life. The most important question is
"How will I handle this?".]
HIS
DECISION
10. Then I thought, "To this I will
appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." [the times when God has demonstrated His power and
authority]
11. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember
Your miracles of long ago.
12. I will meditate on all Your works and consider all Your
mighty deeds.
HIS
CONCLUSION
Though Asaph doesn't have firsthand
knowledge of God's deliverance of
13.
Your ways O God, are holy. What God is so great as our God?
14.
You are the God who performs miracles; You display Your power among the peoples.
15. With Your
mighty arm You redeemed
Your people, the
descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
16. The waters saw You O God, the waters saw You and writhed; the very depths were convulsed.
17. The clouds poured down water, the skies
resounded with thunder; Your
arrows flashed back and forth.
18. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, Your lightening lit up the world; the
earth trembled and quaked [signs of the Lord's
coming in redemption and judgment].
19. Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, though Your footprints were not seen.
20.
You led Your people like a flock by the hand
of Moses and Aaron.