Book 4 of Musings Pain
Everyone has some kind of pain.
Those who accept the pain grow strong in their inner nature. Those who do not accept the pain, like the alcoholic who will not stop drinking, do not grow. They may be powerful on the inside but there is not enough steel on the inside. It's called carrying your cross. Those who do not carry their cross are not worthy of Christ.
It is natural for people to want to avoid pain. We would much rather be experiencing pleasure.
However, life is a painful experience. When we look back in time we often think how wonderful those days were. But this is an illusion. Those days were filled with worry, problems, pain of some sort, just like today.
King David referred to life on the earth as "the valley of the shadow of death.'
Once we are released through physical death we will discover we were attempting to survive in an atmosphere filled with demons. If we go to the land of the righteous, we will find ourselves in a vastly superior environment.
God did not create the world as a place of pain. Adam and Eve were located in a marvelous environment. Pain, sickness, insanity, worry, torment, are all the result of sin. When sin has been removed from the creation of God, as we read in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, the curses that plague the earth will be no more.
People make a great mistake when they attempt to avoid necessary pain. By this I mean, they are in some kind of a prison in which their most intense desires are not possible of fulfillment-not possible unless they are willing to break God's laws.
If we will stay in our prison as long as the Lord indicates, we will receive the crown of life. If we break out of our prison, we may be sent back for a much longer term. Or we may perish in our lawlessness.
I notice that Satan's emphasis to mankind over the past few hundred years is the concept that man is not to suffer. The right of the individual to enjoy every pleasure is held as the highest good.
Of course, this is an illusion. There is no way any human being can enjoy every pleasure for any length of time-unless he is willing to abandon his integrity.
The marriage contract is a good example of this. There is the attraction of flesh to flesh. Then two people are married, vowing to remain together until death.
What happens then? The novelty of physical attraction wears off and the couple discover each has a will of his or her own. The American woman does not often think of herself as a helper but as a partner. The man often is not mature enough to serve as the priest of the home. And so the two become irritated with each other.
Of course, God knew this would happen when their vows were taken at the altar. But God honored those vows and expects they will be kept.
But so much emphasis is placed on pleasure in our society that the man and woman cannot conceive of the idea they are supposed to be unhappy. They have irreconcilable differences, and this is grounds for a divorce.
But they took a vow to remain together!
That does not matter. They are not happy, and that is of paramount concern.
As a pastor I am well aware because of the self-centeredness of people today it often is true that one or the other of the couple makes married life impossible. In that case there should be a divorce. One of the partners has destroyed the marriage until the other person has to leave. I think I have the mind of the Lord in this.
But divorce is an extremely serious action in the sight of God, and should never be considered unless, as I have said, one of the two people is acting in such a manner that it is impossible for the other to survive physically or emotionally.
This happens in America. Five thousand women in the United States die in one year from spousal abuse, according to a recent statistic.
Every marriage is a source of tension and irritation, and, except for the extreme cases I have mentioned, is an excellent opportunity to grow in the Lord. There are some who believe God has designed marriage as a way of destroying our self-centeredness. This is not a very romantic manner in which to view marriage, but it certainly appears to be true.
From my point of view, the successful marriage is the one in which the two combatants emerge from the conflict as the best of friends. I think God is pleased with this.
The righteous suffer many kinds of pain in this world, numerous afflictions and problems. All of these serve to build character in us. One of the destructive mistakes we can make is to seek to avoid unpleasantness by breaking God's laws.
We are to enjoy the good times, and we are to endure the difficult hours, if we are to finish our pilgrimage successfully.
There are fiery trials. This is because we have inherited a sinful nature, and God wages war against it in order to save us. So God sends suffering upon us to burn out that which displeases Him and keeps us in bondage. Kind of like the three Hebrews young men who emerged without harm from the fiery furnace. So it is true that we will emerge without harm from the fiercest of flames, although at the time we may have been certain our end had come.
We have the sentence of death in ourselves that we must not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
Affliction was sent to the Apostle Paul to weaken him so God's power would be evident.
God chastens us so we may be partakers of His holiness.
We are never to seek to suffer but to enjoy the good things of life as much as we are able. To torment ourselves is never of the Lord. Those who deliberately torment themselves are approaching God in the wrong way. God has not required this of them, and it is not a wholesome, mentally healthy practice.
We rejoice always in the Lord. Whatever we do, we do with all our might, praising God all the while. This is pleasing to the Lord.
When we are put in the bed of affliction it is not always easy to praise the Lord. In fact, there are times when it is difficult just to keep trusting. But we must never give up and turn away from the Lord. At that point He is determining our future destiny. He wants to know if we will remain faithful and obedient under pressure.
I know we have been taught that we will never experience pressure once we "die and go to Heaven." We may not have been reminded of the colossal conflict that is ahead of us when the Lord returns, or the conflict that will arise at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age. God is preparing warrior-saints today who will follow Christ in the removal of all sources of sin from the earth.
No, we are not looking forward to pie in the sky but to the mightiest of all conflicts. So we must learn to endure hardness today.
Pain burns the sin and foolishness out of us. Pain burns the worldliness out of us. Pain burns the self-centeredness and personal ambition out of us. We see, therefore, that pain is one of the instruments God uses to save us.
We do not look for pain and suffering. We do not live in gloom and fear. We rejoice always in the Lord, for this is our strength.
But when we are called upon to suffer, we keep in mind that God knows what He is doing; and we will not experience one minute more of pain than is necessary for our perfect salvation in body, soul, and spirit.
We call on the Lord, and call on the Lord, and call on the Lord. We never take suffering for granted. We continually ask the Lord to deliver us. He will deliver us when the work has been accomplished. We might suffer needless pain if we do not pray continually!
Everyone is crucified in this world. God was crucified. The unsaved man was crucified. The saved man was crucified. That is the way the world is.
Because of the teaching of the "rights of man," many have gone berserk today-at least in the United States. People commit the most horrendous crimes without thinking about the pain they are causing other people. Why? Because they have been taught they have a "right" to be happy.
They may rape and murder someone's little girl. Why? Because they have a right to be happy.
They may steal the toys that a charity has collected to give to poor children at Christmas time. Why? Because they have a right to be happy.
And it is not just America. I notice that overseas, thieves steal the food from warehouses that were established by the United Nations. The thieves give no thought to the children dying of starvation, just as long as the thieves can be happy.
I really believe God has made the world the way it is in order to discover who is worthy of the wonderful age to come. This is why the "grace" teaching of today is perverted. It does not stress the need for people to deny themselves and behave righteously. The emphasis is on belief in religious phrases rather than on actual change of behavior. It has been noted that in Christian churches there have been many instances of the molestation of children.
Why should people be denied pleasure when they are "saved by grace"?
The righteous can be at peace for one reason. All the secrets of people will be revealed in the Day of Christ. In that day there will be no successful appeal to "grace." The individual will be rewarded in terms of how he behaved, not in terms of "grace."
As I said previously, God has designed the world to determine who will be admitted to the new world of righteousness. To qualify, we must have received Christ and maintained our integrity. No self-seeking people who care little for the feelings of others will be allowed to destroy the love, joy, and peace of the wonderful world that is ahead for those who love God and His ways.
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Revelation 22:15)