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 from her uterus rather heavily and shedding
blood clots Tuesday afternoon. This
continued the rest of that day and 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, though
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are no longer current), they come up with, "you have lost a lot of blood,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
circumstances. 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. Mostly I ask that God will help them to
appreciate Him and see something of the grace that comes with the trouble.
------------------------
* 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 by earthquake,
vicious intent affecting many such as 9/11, or by accident affecting a 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?" a
question 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 judgment and redemption].
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.