Epicenter: Rome (Exchanging Death for Life) — Monday
Romans 8:18
…our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (NIV)
Romans is a meaty book. James Montgomery Boice preached 244 sermons from it. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached weekly from Romans for 13 years. I’ve got five days, 2250 words! Where to begin? I think we’ll start with suffering and end with hope. Please drop in daily. I promise not to waste your time.
Rome was a formidable place to plant a church around 50 AD. It was a cesspool of iniquity and rampant immorality. Human life was cheap in Ephesus. Unwanted children were killed, and Christians were regularly executed for sport. It was a place of abuse, pain, and injustice. Times haven’t changed; suffering finds us everywhere in all ages and seasons of life. Just pondering its scope can take our breath away. So what do we do when we feel like God is using us for target practice? There aren't any easy answers, but at the risk of sounding simplistic, allow me to suggest that we have two choices:
First, blame God and choose bitterness, which is a quite common approach. Someone said to me recently, “If there is a God, then I don’t like Him very much.” I appreciated their honesty. They’re not really done with Him, just ticked off. I’ve been there—have you? Aren’t you glad that it’s okay to be honest? Pretending otherwise is disingenuous. But frankly, when God doesn’t meet our expectations, a lot of people just say, “I’m done. I quit.”
The other choice is a better one: Trust Him regardless. That was Job’s choice (Job 13:15), and I’m with him. We can face hurt with God or without Him—but either way, we still hurt, so I’ll take option two. Someone once said, “A gem can’t be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” I tend to agree; adversity introduces us to ourselves.
D.L. Moody once said, “If a man is stealing nuts and bolts from a railroad track, and in order to change him, you send him to college—you’ll discover that at the end of his education, he will probably steal the whole track.” It was Moody’s way of saying that we’re hard-wired for self-destruction, and a lot of life’s suffering we bring on ourselves. I agree a little with that, but it would be simplistic to say that being a great person can or will ever eradicate suffering. More on that tomorrow.
Monday’s Reflection
Other than Jesus, Paul was probably the king of suffering in the New Testament. Take 45 seconds to read his “pain” rap sheet here. We’ll talk more tomorrow!
