Hold ON!

Mike Leake

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face”.  Job 13:15

This verse has long been a hallmark of rich biblical faith.  It is, but it may not necessarily be in the way that you think.  Often Job’s faith, here, is compared to that of Habakkuk. 

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  God, the Lord, is my strength…”

Habakkuk is trusting that God knows best even if it hurts.  Habakkuk has come to learn that even though there is great suffering and loss he can trust a good God.  Habakkuk finds His joy in God and no longer in circumstances. 

Is Job’s faith in 13:15 like Habakkuk’s? 

I submit to you that it is actually more like Peter’s in John 6. 

Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Peter’s confession comes on the heels of Jesus’ famous “eat my flesh and drink my blood” sermon.  That one did not go so well (at least on Jesus’ ACP report).  The beginning of John 6 is a rousing“we love Jesus” rally, with the hopes of crowning Him as the their King.  John 6 ends with these same people leaving…probably thanking YHWH that the cannibal Jesus didn’t accept the crown. 

As everyone is leaving Jesus turns to the disciples and asks, “are you going to join them?”  To this we have Peter’s response…there is nowhere else to go. 

Peter’s faith is more like Job’s in 13:15.  Job is not chipper or speaking of joy as Habakkuk does.  Job, just as I am assuming Peter and the disciples were, is still scratching his head.  He is still longing for answers. 

Job wants and audience with God even if it kills him.  Why?  Because he knows that God is the only one that “has the words of eternal life”.  He knows that God is the only one that can redeem him, and so even though it may kill him he ventures to have an audience with God. 

I have no idea what many of you are going through.  Some of you are perhaps at a spot of Habakkuk faith—where you are finding joy in drinking from the fountain of God’s riches, despite outward circumstances that still cause pain. 

Some of you may be closer to Job.  He’s just sitting in the fountain wishing he could enjoy a drink.  He knows that there is no other fountain to find life in, that is why he is sitting in this one.  But Job isn’t at a spot yet where he can taste and see that the Lord is good. 

Hold On!

Why Did This Tragedy Happen? Response.

Mike Leake

Paul Tripp has wisely stated that we are all “meaning makers”.  We are constantly looking for meaning and answers.  One of our favorite questions is, “why”. 

These questions are never more prevalent than when tragedy strikes.  And usually there are plenty of pundits that rise to the occasion to give us reasons why this happened.  Within Christian circles the answers are…wait for it…diverse.

Consider what happened to Job or the Hebrews in Egypt.  Think through that story and consider how many different “Christian” responses there would be to this tragedy. 

Different Responses

You would have the Westboro Baptist type of folks that would without a shadow of a doubt—nor a shred of humility—“this obviously happened because God is judging Job for his sinfulness.”  Then of course there would be the people that would be quick to absolve God from any sort of involvement but almost fall into dualism:  “God did not wish that these tragedies happen, Satan has obviously gotten a foothold, but don’t worry God will beat him up in the end”.  Then there are about a million different responses somewhere in between. 

Apart from a long embrace, to me the best response is simply this:

Job, I don’t know why all of these things have happened to you.  I know that God is in control.  But that is not new information for you.  I also know that God is good, even if that is hard to believe right now.  I am hanging on to the promise of Romans 8:28 that, “all things work together for good”.  You and I know, Job, that our greatest good is conformity to Christ.  That does not necessarily take away the pain, but it at least mixes the pain with hope.  Somehow through this you will be brought into a deeper enjoyment of Jesus.  So in the midst of this hurt and pain just hang on.  And I’ll be hanging on with you. 

Conclusion:

I am convinced that pat answers do not really help suffering people.  In fact most people that are suffering KNOW that God is in control.  That is what is bothering them.  It’s not His sovereignty they question—it is His goodness.  And that is what we somehow must hang onto. 

Why do tragedies happen?  I don’t really know.  All I know is that we cannot hide behind saying, “the devil did it”.  This undercuts our hope; because if God couldn’t stop this cancer then what makes me think He can resurrect the dead?  Nor can we arrogantly assume that we know the specific “why”.  All we can really do is cling to the promise that our suffering will pale in comparison to the glory that awaits us. 

Suffering (as if I truly know anything about it) is painful.  It sucks.  Cancer, rape, adultery, murder, death, genocide, starvation,…the list could go on and on…are horrendous and they hurt.  So, I have to wonder how amazing must Jesus be that when we finally “attain” Christ that we would look back on these horrible tragedies and say, “what suffering?” 

I don’t know what your “tragedy is” or what the specific reasons why.  But I do know the One that is so glorious that the real pain you feel pales in comparison to His very real glory, splendor, and joy-producing majesty.

Why Did This Tragedy Happen?

Mike Leake

Tragedy strikes a small up and coming nation.  They are in the middle of a fierce drought.  They are ravaged by this famine.  People are starving to death.  Babies are starving to death.

The famine gets so bad that this nation is easy prey for a much more powerful nation.  At first it is a good relationship.  The more powerful nation takes this fledgling nation under her wing to protect her from the famine.  But eventually the policies change.  It’s not long before the bigger nation enslaves the smaller nation.

As if slavery were not enough, these people are abused by their owners.  They are no longer starving but now they are being made to work ruthlessly for cruel task masters.  These are cruel task masters that eventually attempt ethnic genocide.  They put together a cruel plan to kill every male child among this people.

For those knowledgeable of Scripture you probably guessed that this was the beginning of the history of Israel.  Hang with me as I ask a rather deep question.  Was this part of God’s plan?

Mull that over for a moment while we consider Job. 

A guy loses EVERYTHING…well, all accept his unhelpful friends and his very unhelpful wife.  The same wife that told him after this tragedy, “curse God and die”.  So, yeah Job lost EVERYTHING. Was this part of God’s plan?  Or was it an aberration; a plan “B”, of sorts?

Listen I do not understand how all of this fits together but I do want to let Scripture speak for itself.  Consider what God said to Jacob before he began his journey into Egypt:

“I am God, the God of your father.  Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.  I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” 

God is reassuring Jacob that going to Egypt is keeping with his promises.  Notice how God recapitulates his promise to Abraham.  We can see the themes that will run throughout all of redemptive history: “I will make you a great nation…I will be with you…I will also bring you up again”. 

The Israelites are in Egypt because the all-knowing God told them to be there.  This is not plan B.  God is reassuring Jacob that their presence in Egypt is absolutely NOT plan B.  This is plan A.  And certainly this includes their slavery. 

Or consider Job.  You know how he answered our question?  In Job 12:9-10 he says, “who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?  In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” 

This whole chapter is Job proclaiming the absolute sovereignty of God.  If something happens ultimately it happens because of God.  Job does not allow us to hide behind secondary causes.  You can say that he was a loon, a raving mad man.  Job said this much about himself.  But at the end of the story it is Job that God says has the proper theology.  It’s hard to get around that. 

When tragedy strikes we like to say, “the devil did this”.  I am not so certain that Scripture allows us that freedom. 

So what does all of this mean?  Ultimately you will have to wait for eternity to get that one.  But I hope to try to tie a couple of loose ends together and consider where Jesus is in the midst of all these question. 

For that you will have to read my response….

Review of Bringing the Gospel Home by Randy Newman

Mike Leake 1 Comment

If it wasn’t so sad it would be hilarious.  OK.  I confess.  I laugh at it.  “It” being C.S. Lovett’s (any relation to Lyle?) magic formula for evangelism.  You can read a sample of that lovely book here.  Essentially, Lovett unashamedly does what many books on evangelism have mildly done for decades; they promise quick results by following an easy formula that any person that loves Jesus can follow, and do without fear. 

The myriad of these books, and their infiltration into the church, leave those of us that still wet our pants while doing personal evangelism feeling as if we are failures as followers of Jesus.  This emotion is only magnified whenever we feel the burden of evangelism for those within our family that do not know Jesus. 

We think to ourselves, “If only I were obedient and had the guts and the know how to follow C.S. Lovett’s formula, then my family would be saved”.  Or worse yet, we use Lovett’s formula—it doesn’t work as promised and then we wonder why God dropped the ball.  No wait.  Even worse; we use the magic formula’s and we get somebody in our family to pray a prayer (just to shut us up), and then assume they are good with the Lord and we move on to evangelizing others within our family. 

Meanwhile those of us that aren’t so successful at using formulas and who especially have damp trousers when sharing the gospel with family continue to feel burdened but overwhelmed.  Thankfully Randy Newman has written a book, Bringing the Gospel Home, that is realistic, gospel-saturated, and remarkably helpful. 

Summary

From the very beginning Newman breathes fresh air into the countless number of evangelism books.  Newman notes that “when we’re told that witnessing should come naturally, we’re set up for failure and frustration”.  This is what drives Newman’s realistic and humble approach to evangelism. 

Newman also rejects the typical formulaic method of most evangelism books.  His philosophy is to give us a “richer understanding of biblical truth” and with this we will have a “firmer foundation for bold witness and clear communication”.  Because of this philosophy you will not find chapters on specific questions or how to minister to a specific family member. 

What we do find are 7 helpful chapters on family, grace, truth, love, humility, time, and eternity.  The first chapter is an exploration of the difference between God’s plan for the family and Satan’s plan for the family.  After this Newman weaves together six chapters that adequately display the maxim in his epilogue: “Witnessing to family takes TLC…”T” stands for time, “L” stands for love, and “C” stands for comprehensiveness.” 

Analysis

In the introduction the reader is given the purpose of this book:  “to offer hope”.  Newman certainly does that.  He manages to practically present an unapologetic biblical theology of the gospel and evangelism that infuses the reader with hope.  But not hope because I now feel equipped with awesome Ninja-like evangelism skills.  No, what happens in this book is that my evangelism “skills” do not necessarily grow, but my confidence in God does. 

Your view of God will get bigger as you read through this book.

As your view of God gets bigger you will be infused with hope.  And this new found hope that maybe God actually can and will save your family members is further refined with Newman’s patient and humble approach to living the gospel and speaking the gospel. 

What I love most about this book is that Newman not only applies the gospel to “them” but also applies the gospel to the one hoping to see a beloved family member come to Jesus.  After all the deeper the gospel goes in our own hearts the better witnesses we will become.  I found this particular selection refreshing:

“Isn’t grace amazing—and breaking?  Isn’t it absolutely breathtaking that a holy righteous God forgives people like me…and you!  Doesn’t that just break your pride and arrogance and self-absorption!  Doesn’t that kind of news sound really good?  Doesn’t it change your tone of voice and posture as you tell your family that Jesus died for them?  Until the grace of God strikes you as both amazing and breaking, it may be best for you to just pray for your family.  Pray that God brings others into their lives to witness to them while he works in your life to fill you with wonder and joy.” 

This book is full of such gospel-centered wisdom and insight.  Each chapter even ends with a few “steps to take”. 

If you have a desire to “bring the gospel home” to your family then this is a great book to read.  It will infuse you with hope, strengthen your own relationship with Jesus, and assist you in taking the gospel to your family. 

You need this book. 

Get your copy here!!!

Randy Newman Interview- “Bringing the Gospel Home” from Crossway on Vimeo.  (HT: JT)
**I apologize that I was not able to cite the page number for various quotes.  Chalk it up to my technological ignorance.  I am unsure how to get the page numbers off of my iPad when I use the Kindle app for books I bought somewhere other than the Kindle store.