Preached a couple of weeks ago on James 1…

There’s that somewhat shocking, disagreeable, interesting, vexing, deep, confusing, enigmatic, truthful, heart-warming, [insert adjective here] verse which goes something like…

“Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds”

I would say this verse is a little bit challenging, to preach, and even more so to live out!

Download the MP3 here

Script here

“It is not my calling to help you to have chipper feelings while the whole of creation groans. My job is to put the kind of ballast in the belly of your boat so that when these waves crash against your life, you will not capsize but make it to the harbour of heaven – battered and wounded but full of faith and joy”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 28]

Me and my dad are both reading one of John Piper’s recent books – ‘Spectacular Sins and their global purpose in the glory of Christ’. It’s a book about God being in complete control of EVERYTHING, and not just that it’s about EVERYTHING having one purpose – to give God glory… everything means everything, even the worst sins ever committed in human history!

“At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That’s the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of the ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display – the very glory they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace.”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 12]

When I read this it blew me away, and this is just part of the introduction! I’m going to give a full review when I finish reading it… shouldn’t be long, it’s hard to put down!

Andy Shudall works with students in New Zealand, for TSCF – I don’t know him, never met him, but I know he’s a friend of lots of friends (11 according to Facebook). Anyway he’s just written a great post summing up 2008 for him… sounds like he’s had a pretty rough year… I’d echo much of what he says…

1. God is good, sovereign and true no matter our experience.

3. Sinfulness is so ingrained in the human heart, soul and mind that weakness strengthens it and strength is laid low before it.

4. Seasons change and there is glory in every season.

5. Of all the things to treasure here friendship is of great value.

“Goodbye 2008 – you weren’t what I asked for, but I’m confident that you are what I needed.”

Something that really annoys me is theology-geeks, you get a lot in Christian blogging circles… theology-geeks do annoy me, but not simply because of that, I get annoyed when people have their theology all sorted in nice little boxes, they’ve read Grudem, Milne, Berkhoff etc. and all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. I used to be like that, I probably still am.

Anyway, it’s not just that they’re geeks, it’s that so many live their lives with their nice theological position but it’s disconnected from reality, it’s not qualified by any life experience that tests whether your beliefs are modelled in the way you live in response to real life events.

I’ve had a pretty crap year… it’s not as bad as most, not as bad as being a Christian in Orissa, not as bad as running a AIDS orphanage in the midst of cholera in Zimbabwe… but it’s not been great! Part of me has to rejoice though; a few months ago I had to preach on James 1 – “consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” – God has been teaching me what it means to suffer in the knowledge that He’s in control, He’s brought me through trials of many kinds and teaches me lots in those times.

What will you do when you face death, when you face illness, rejection, pain, heartache, poverty, depression, despair, anger, bitterness, doubt, loneliness, unbelief, relationship breakdown, shattered dreams, crushed hopes…?

Will you cry out to God, your Rock and refuge? (Psalm 62)

Will you trust that God works all things for your good (Rom 8:28) and that through trials He brings about maturity (James 1) in the believer?

Does your theology of God’s sovereignty provide answers and comfort in the midst of trials?

Has your theology of God’s sovereignty been tested through trials? (If not, it will be – are you prepared?)

Have you had the opportunity to reconcile what you believe about God with how you live your life in the midst of trials?

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

I say these things not as someone who did all the right things, who responded rightly in all of life’s situations, not as someone who has the right answers… but just as someone who knows that having a big view of God is a comfort in hard times, and knowing that coming to Him, seeking His refuge has gotta be better than not doing that!