The Struggle Within!

Lesson from watching this video. "A physically blind person knows that he is blind, but a spiritually blind person doesn't know he is blind, but thinks he can see really well"

Because of sin in our lives, we are unable to see the spiritual things of God. Mark 8:18 - having eyes you do not see? 3 things we struggle with on this earth as Christian: The Devil, The World and The Flesh!!

David Powlison on Suffering: A Personal Story

by David Powlison

"The truth of Christ speaks to every aspect of our situations. It rewrites the script of our soul." - David Powlison

You have a successful counseling and teaching ministry. Thousands read your books, attend your classes, and grow from your teaching. You have gifts from God, and you've been able to use them to the blessing of many.

Then one day you wake up to realize that your gifts may be gone forever.

This was the situation renowned biblical counselor, author and teacher David Powlison faced just a few years ago. If he lost the ability to teach and write, would his life still have any value? Would he be of any use to God? In this very personal video Dr. Powlison describes how grasping the truth of Christ—combined with a small act of obedience—brought light into his moment of darkness.

"How should a Christian deal with feelings of guilt regarding past sins, whether pre- or post-salvation?"

Everyone has sinned, and one of the results of sin is guilt. We can be thankful for guilty feelings because they drive us to seek forgiveness. The moment a person turns from sin to Jesus Christ in faith, his sin is forgiven. Repentance is part of the faith that leads to salvation (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Acts 3:19).

In Christ, even the most heinous sins are blotted out (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 for a list of unrighteous acts that can be forgiven). Salvation is by grace, and grace forgives. After a person is saved, he will still sin, and when he does, God still promises forgiveness. “But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

Freedom from sin, however, does not always mean freedom from guilty feelings. Even when our sins are forgiven, we still remember them. Also, we have a spiritual enemy, called “the accuser of our brothers” (Revelation 12:10) who relentlessly reminds us of our failures, faults, and sins. When a Christian experiences feelings of guilt, he or she should do the following things:

1) Confess all known, previously unconfessed sin. In some cases, feelings of guilt are appropriate because confession is needed. Many times, we feel guilty because we are guilty! (See David’s description of guilt and its solution in Psalm 32:3-5.)

2) Ask the Lord to reveal any other sin that may need confessing. Have the courage to be completely open and honest before the Lord. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

3) Trust the promise of God that He will forgive sin and remove guilt, based on the blood of Christ (1 John 1:9; Psalm 85:2; 86:5; Romans 8:1).

4) On occasions when guilty feelings arise over sins already confessed and forsaken, reject such feelings as false guilt. The Lord has been true to His promise to forgive. Read and meditate on Psalm 103:8-12.

5) Ask the Lord to rebuke Satan, your accuser, and ask the Lord to restore the joy that comes with freedom from guilt (Psalm 51:12).

Psalm 32 is a very profitable study. Although David had sinned terribly, he found freedom from both sin and guilty feelings. He dealt with the cause of guilt and the reality of forgiveness. Psalm 51 is another good passage to investigate. The emphasis here is confession of sin, as David pleads with God from a heart full of guilt and sorrow. Restoration and joy are the results.

Finally, if sin has been confessed, repented of, and forgiven, it is time to move on. Remember that we who have come to Christ have been made new creatures in Him. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Part of the “old” which has gone is the remembrance of past sins and the guilt they produced. Sadly, some Christians are prone to wallowing in memories of their former sinful lives, memories which should have been dead and buried long ago. This is pointless and runs counter to the victorious Christian life God wants for us. A wise saying is “If God has saved you out of a sewer, don’t dive back in and swim around.”

© Copyright 2002-2010 Got Questions Ministries.

A Word about Family Tensions and the Holidays

A Word about Family Tensions and the Holidays

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When the Pastor Suffers

When the Pastor Suffers

Matt Chandler comforts an anxious church following his Thanksgiving seizure.

Collin Hansen
posted 12/14/2009 09:28Am
Few understand cancer better than pastors. They regularly visit hospitals and counsel church members who suffer from this devastating illness. Cancer strikes nearly every family at some point. But for pastors caring for multiple families at all times, cancer is a never-ending fight. They watch beloved friends who formerly looked so healthy begin to whither away as they withstand bouts of chemotherapy treatments. In the worst cases, pastors are left to comfort the grieving family and conduct the funeral.

But who is left to comfort pastors when they get the dreaded diagnosis? Cancer doesn't exempt pastors, either, no matter how sizable their influence. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis announced in January 2006 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Then on Thanksgiving last month, rising young pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Dallas suffered a seizure and hit his head. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where doctors eventually discovered a tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain. Surgeons removed the tumor on December 4, but the pathology report has not yet returned. Meanwhile, the rapidly growing church that draws about 6,000 each week waits anxiously to learn the diagnosis.

The spotlight turns on pastors in these cases because we're accustomed to them offering words of comfort and wisdom to the suffering. Perhaps we wonder if they will heed their own advice to trust God despite the circumstances. Maybe they will forsake what they have been telling the grieving all these years and forsake God. But good shepherds don't stop shepherding when danger threatens. That's when their work really begins. Both Piper and Chandler have modeled for their congregations how to turn the dreaded diagnosis into cause for thanksgiving, praise, and sanctification.

Chandler wrote shortly before his surgery that he felt "anxiety, fear, sadness and a deep and unmovable joy simultaneously and in deeper ways than I have felt before." In the aftermath of his Thanksgiving seizure, he expressed gratitude for a "heightened sense of things." Then he offered a list of 10 things for which he gives thanks. The list included health insurance, his friends on the pastoral staff, his wife Lauren, his three children, the doctors, and the people of Village Church. Chandler acknowledged the support from thousands who heard of his condition through the Internet. Their prayer and fasting "has brought far more tears to Lauren's and my eyes to receive this kind of attention from the Church universal than this tumor has."

Then in a widely distributed video recorded between the seizure and surgery, Chandler shared reflections on his career and future. Chandler has been preaching lately about the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, the moving description of leaders such as Samson, David, and Samuel who stopped the mouths of lions and put foreign armies to flight (Heb. 11:32-34).

"I'm 35 years old, and up until this point in my life, we've shut the mouths of lions and put foreign armies to flight and we've fought against injustice," Chandler said. "Nothing but good has come."

But Chandler observed how the passage's tone abruptly changes in 11:35. Some of these champions of faith were tortured. Some were sawn in two. Some were destitute. How did they still walk by faith? Chandler is learning, because God has now counted him worthy to suffer. If God should allow Chandler to preach from Hebrews 11 again, no one will ever wonder if he truly understands the implications of God's Word. Speaking as a "guy who could lose everything," Chandler promised that he would demonstrate through his suffering that God is enough, come what may.

"For those of you who keep living in fear and would try to use this as an excuse to continue in that fear, don't you dare use me as an excuse to continue in your lies," Chandler told his church. "My hope would be that you would see that he is good in all things, and he would never send any of us things he does not provide strength for."


Chandler's message resembles what Piper wrote in February 2006 when he urged Christians, "Don't Waste Your Cancer." Chandler explicitly credited Piper for teaching him to hold his life cheap as he trusts in a "strong view of God's sovereign will." Piper is no stranger to suffering, either. The implications of his theology hit home in a powerful new way after his cancer diagnosis. Yet Piper did not back off.

"It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it," Piper said. "What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design."

Piper urged Christians suffering from cancer not to look for comfort by calculating their odds. Invoking Psalm 20:7, Piper likened taking comfort in the percentages of survival to trusting in chariots, and weighing the side effects of treatment to counting horses. But as for Christians, they trust in the name of the Lord alone, even as they submit to treatment. This trust transcends even the worst cancer can bring.

"Cancer does not win if you die," Piper said. "It wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God's design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ."

Cancer quickly reveals who and what we ultimately trust. It can bring life into eternal perspective, so long as we don't despair in our illness. If we feast on Christ, we will find our sins don't taste so rich any longer. Even well-known pastors must fight this battle. They might appear to have it all, but they actually have more cause for despair that we usually imagine. Thousands turn out to hear them speak in conferences. Thousands more buy their books. Megachurches sprout where they serve. But cancer threatens to end that influence. Of all people, they are tempted to think they are too important for God to take.

Yet God wants us to count all fear and pride as loss so we may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8). After all, the God we worship did not spare his own Son the suffering of the Cross (Rom. 8:32). And he did not spare his servant Paul the thorn in his flesh. Still, God's grace was sufficient for him, as it is for all who believe.

"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today.

Life's Toughest Question

Q -

How would you go about structuring a message titled: answering life's toughest questions?

Jim -

I have a brief answer. Woody Allen said in one of his films (they all run together at some point) that humans spend their time creating trouble and dilemmas in their life so that they won't have to face the really big issue, which is that we are all going to die. There's a lot of truth in that. I would add that we create dilemmas that are actually within our power to control or solve in order to fool ourselves into believing that we are the masters of our destinies and that we actually will have some control over our ultimate fate.

But, the real issue remains - we are all going to die.

I've heard a whole rash of sermons on the radio lately [they seem to run in cycles. I think the radio guys all listen to each other and when somebody comes up with an idea or series that sounds intriguing the rest of them jump on the bandwagon so as not to lose their audience...but, I digress) that have to do with Life's Tough Questions, and similar titles. And, of course, they all run through the litany of human troubles, especially those that are "big press" items, like abortion, race relations, marriage, crime, drinking, etc.

To be honest, those messages don't do much for me. I listen to them to try and get the pulse of "the church as entertainment" movement. But, they are always little more than popular questions with semi-Biblical, or pseudo-Biblical, answers. Abortion? Hate the sin; love the sinner. Race relations? Love your brother as yourself. Marriage? Husbands, love you wives as Christ loved the church. Crime? Thou shalt not steal. Drinking? Be not drunk with wine.

You get the picture. Basic answers to complex questions. It's sort of like Nancy Reagan's answer to the drug problem - Just Say No. Well, if the drug problem in America were so simple it could be solved with a slogan, we'd have licked it a long time ago.

Nevertheless, these questions are hardly anything new. These are problems that are typical of the human condition in any age. Sinners do sinful things. The sinful things that sinner do will always be a problem for the church. Well, at least they used to be a problem, until the contemporary church decided to embrace them as opportunities to be more "seeker sensitive."

My point?

The supposed "hard questions" of life aren't really that hard. They may be complex, but they are ultimately manageable. That gives us frail humans some sense that we can, by own effort, solve some of our own problems. And, most of what I hear called "the hard problems" are really quite basic, according to Scripture.

Human actions fall into two categories: right and wrong. Most reasonably educated people, or at very least people indwelt by the Spirit of God, have some sense of what's acceptable and what's not in God's eyes. Only sociopaths don't understand that killing people is at very least "anti-social." We may act as if we don't recognize any authority but ourselves, but deep down we all fear that there might actually be a God, He might actually be watching, and we may in fact be held accountable for our actions. But, we don't have to think about that if we fill our time and thoughts with problems we might actually be able to solve with a little brain-power and effort. We'll just push that "God" thing to the side.

So, are there answers to our social problems and ills? Sure.

Abortion? Don't do it. Children are a gift from God. Murder is wrong. There, that wasn't too tough. Race relations? Esteem every man as better than yourself and remember that the purest races are mixed breeds. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. He has made of the two "one new man." So, act like it. I could go on, but you get my drift. God actually has provided answers to our "toughest" questions. We just don't like His answers. Murder? Don't kill. Crime? Don't covet; it leads to stealing. Sexual immorality? Don't fornicate. Don't commit adultery. Those are the answers.

The simple reality is that God has laid down His standard and He expects His standard to be upheld. Now, will it be? Nope. Sinners to sinful things. Will it be upheld in Church? It should be, but that's why grace is so necessary. We all have come short of the glory of God.

So, are life's toughest questions that same list of social ills that's repeated ad nauseum in these sermons? No, absolutely not. Life's toughest questions are the ones nobody asking, because they are afraid of the answer. So, to avoid the answer, they don't ask the questions. It's easier to deal with questions we can answer in a thirty-minute, radio-friendly sermon.

So, what are the tough questions?

Let's start at the top: Is there a God and will He really judge me for my actions?

The answer, of course, is: Yes, there is a God. And yes, everywhere that He presents Himself in Scripture He represents Himself as a jealous God, who will judge in righteousness and who is willing to condemn people eternally.

Life's toughest questions #2: Is it true that all men are sinners, born dead in trespasses and sins and there's not one thing we can do to satisfy the holiness, or appease the wrath, of God?

Answer: That's right. You're born dead in sin. It doesn't matter whether you think you're a sinner or whether you have verifiable evidence that you're better than, say, Hitler. The standard of righteousness is not other people, the standard is the Holiness of God. And, whether it's Hitler or Mother Teresa, all we like sheep have gone astray and turned, everyone of us, to our own way. No human being that is tried on the basis of his or her personal works and individual level of sanctification will be allowed into Heaven. We are all guilty, and our best works of righteousness are nothing more than filthy, bloody rags.

Life's toughest question #3: Is it true that God is absolutely holy and that people have to attain a standard of holiness commensurate with God's in order to avoid eternal damnation?

Answer: Yep, that's the deal. The standard is impossibly high. Don't attempt to lower the standard in order to convince yourself that you can attain it. I mean, if real holiness could be achieved by how you dress, or wear your hair, or what church you attend, then we could certainly live up to that. But, those are manmade standards designed to convince egocentric people that they actually are impressing God with their actions.

Nevertheless, the true standard, according to Jesus, had to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (who were actively attempting to achieve salvation through the actions of the Law). In other words, neither the Pharisees nor the disciples had yet to achieve a righteous standard sufficient to obligate God to save them. No one gets in by their personal merit. The standard remains and the standard does not bend. God does not grade on a curve. Only absolute, eternal, spotless holiness will achieve eternal salvation.

Life's toughest question #4: Oh my Heavens!!! What if those first three questions and answers are right????!!!! What will I do???!!!! I mean, if God is absolutely holy and I am absolutely depraved, then I am absolutely hopeless!!! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

And that, my friend, is life's toughest question. God is holy. I'm dead in sins. The gulf between us is insurmountable. What will I do?

That's the question no one seems to ask anymore. They want to make sinners look good, or bring God down to our level. Either way, they are creating a false answer to a seemingly impossible question. God's standard does not bend and dead men do not make themselves alive. We are in desperate trouble.

Life's one toughest question: What will I do about eternity?

Answer: Christ. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's the answer. Christ did not live and die in order to give us a simpler, calmer, more blessed life here on earth. He did not agonize on the cross in order to supply us with endless health and comfortable shoes. He did not endure separation from His Father, causing Him to cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" in order for us to make Him our bellhop and let Him know when we need something from Him.

The answer to life's toughest question is that only faith in Christ's finished work will result in salvation, the only thing you absolutely, positively must have when you leave this world. And, as I said, we're all going to leave. You can suffer through life's other miseries and do it with great aplomb or with wailing and gnashing of teeth, but if you don't know the answer to that one question, you will be cast off from God's presence for the rest of forever. Get that one question right, and Christ's own righteousness will be imputed to your account, and you will live gloriously through eternity, accepted in the beloved, and securely wrapped in the powerful, unchanging love of the Father.

Spend the rest of your life debating the minutiae of the human experience and you may never have to address that question.

So, if I were constructing a message with that title, that's the approach I would take. I know that life has bumps and troubles. But, that's life. The big questions are those that lead to eternal life or damnation, and those questions are far too frequently ignored in favor of the minor, more immediate dilemmas that are within our grasp.

Grace and peace, philos.

Jim Mc.

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