Trials, Temptation and Testing...its all good!

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds" - James 1:2

Its strange to think you should get excited about trials in your life. When hard things happen our first response is not usually, "Oh sweet! I am so excited!" Or when life hands us lemons what do we do? Joyfully make lemonade, atleast until juice squirts in our eye and then it starts to burn and we throw the lemons at who ever handed them to us in the first place.

So what is James saying here? What is the goal when trials come? And come they will, the Bible and every sinner around you (even the nice ones) guarantee that. When trials or temptation or testing comes we should consider it a joy to endure them. Well, what if it is the enemy tempting us to sin? Or what if we are the victim of someone else's poor decisions or what if even God himself is testing us? Does it matter? Does our reaction change? It shouldn't.

When the Lord is our goal we can have joy in trials. It does not matter if we are being tempted or tested. The end result and our focus should be growing in Christ. As a result of enduring trials we don't get a t-shirt or a trophy, what we get is much more valuable. We learn patience and by learning patience we can begin to endure and stand up under the pressure of more weight. Why? For the sake of struggling through the rest of our lives just because we can handle it? No! When we are tested in our faith it sharpens our character and when we stand up under the pressure of testing and trial we grow deeper and deeper in our knowledge of the Lord and in our relationship with Him.

When patience plays out in our lives and we learn to bear the burdens of life because we know that our struggles are not in vain we begin to mature in our relationship with Christ. James 1:4 says that we will be lacking in nothing. If you feel like you are lacking in your relationship with the Lord guess what. Good News! You will have the opportunity to struggle without shame, to consider it pure joy, to grow in your relationship because none of us are there yet nor will we be this side of heaven.

We can either look at that reality with an attitude of self-pity for what we may have to face throughout our lives or we can genuinely be excited about the fact that the Lord is not done with you yet. He has begun a work in you that he promises to complete and every situation, circumstance, joy, sorrow and trial is all part of his sovereign grace that molds us and shapes us into His likeness.

Carry My Cross Third Day/Passion of the Christ

Hosea Recap

As we look back at the book of Hosea one thing seems to stick out above the rest. God's unfailing, unconditional love for His people.

We see in the opening of the book that God gives a command to the prophet Hosea to go and marry a wife of harlotry. The next thing we see is Hosea and Gomer married and conceiving a child, Jezreel. What we did not see was an argument, a plea, a whine or even a question from Hosea as to why the Lord would ask him to do such a thing. All we see is a command, and obedience.

Only a few short verses later we see that Gomer was indeed a woman of adultery and conceived 2 children out of adulterous affairs. Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi.

A parrallel picture running through the book of Hosea is not only the prophet's relationship with his wife but the Lord's relationship with Israel as well. Isreal was God's chosen people, long before this book was written. The Lord knew their hearts, he knew they would worship idols, they would abandon Him as Lord and they would worship those things that satisfied their fleshly desires. Even knowing all of this God still chose this nation as His people.

Chapter 3 of the book of Hosea paints a beautiful picture of redemption. The Lord speaks to Hosea again and tells him to go get his wife. Not only did He tell Hosea to get her, but he told him to love her even though she was being "loved" by another. So, again Hosea obeyed. No record of complaint or question, just obedience. But here is where it gets interesting. Hosea did not simply go to where Gomer was and pick her up and ride off happily ever after. Hosea had to purchase his own wife back!

Lets put this in context, Hosea was told to marry an adulterous woman, he did it and she committed adultery. Hosea was told to go get his wife after she left him, committed adultery, had other children and again, he did it. Not only did he do it, he went above and beyond and paid a price to get his own wife back! Hosea literally had to pay for something that was already his! Would you or I do that? Gomer was not necessarily someone that we would see as being valuable enough to pay a ransom for. She was unfaithful, she committed adultery, she turned her back on her husband and pursued a life of immoral living! She didn't deserve to be purchased back.

Neither did we...."For God so loved the world, that He gaveHis only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

The Lord chose to rescue us back at the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned he immediately had a plan of redemption that was set in motion. Over the course of the next few thousand years His people were unfaithful, they worshipped idols and turned their back on Him. What was his response? He told his Son, go get them. But it will not be cheap, they must be bought back and the price will be death.

Jesus' death on the cross paid a ransom we did not deserve for sins that He did not commit.

In Hosea it never tells us what Gomer's response was when Hosea purchased her back. It does not say if they lived happily ever after. For us, however, the ending can be different. Your debt has been paid. Your guilt has been placed on the cross. How will you respond to the unconditional redeeming love of your Savior, Jesus Christ?

Fruit and Foxes

"Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." Song of Songs 2:3

Clearly this couple is working toward intimacy in their relationship. Throughout the first chapter the couple takes turns praising each other and the more they praise the more specific they get. Here, the Shulamite says that Solomon is like an apple tree among the trees of a forest. He is outstanding, different and noticeable. He stands out among all of the other men.

The second part of this verse is one of great debate. Dr. Daniel Akin in his book God on Sex explains it this way, he says that the woman is saying "what I taste, smell and feel is sweet and causes me to want more and more." The physical passions of this couple are igniting as they near their wedding day. James Dillow in his book Solomon on Sex says, "here we have a faint and delicate reference to an oral genital caress." The bottom line no matter how you interpret this verse is that this couple is specific in their wants and desires for each other.

Married couples today should be so open in their conversations about pleasure within their marriages. Many couples never talk about specifics in their sexual relationship and this is concerning for a number of reasons. One, they are limiting the possibility of new and exciting experiences. Secondly there is a danger of curiosity that one spouse may desire to try something and the other partner won't even discuss it. This is dangerous because a lack of communication in any area, not just sex is detrimental to the marriage and could lead to a search for pleasure outside the marriage relationship.

Sex is best when it is approached with an attitude of service. If our desire is to please our spouse and we come together with that intent then we will experience maximum sex. Phil 2:3-4 says: "let nothing be done through selfish ambition...look out not only for his own interests but for the interests of others." If we carry this attitude over into our physical relationships with our spouse we can then begin to discover the gift of sex the way God intended it.

"Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes." Song of Songs 2:15

We all have foxes in our marriages that must be caught. These can come in many different forms and come quickly before we even realize what has happened.

Some examples of foxes that steal the fruits of marriage are: lack of communication, lack of time, outside interference and stagnation. I'm sure there are others but these are just an example of some of the more common issues that couples deal with.

The sneakiest and most destructive fox is a lack of communication. If we as couples stop communicating we are allowing our marriages to be destroyed from the inside out. Men really need to grab a hold of this and make a point to communicate with their wives about everything. When, not if issues arise in your marriage will you be taken by surprise or will you know how to deal with it and work through it because it is something that you have openly talked about before?

The same is true of the Christian life, when we cease to communicate with God through prayer and His word our walk will become weak, and small issues will seem like major events because we don't know how to handle these things through the power of Christ in us.

Catching the foxes in our relationship is imperative for a healthy marriage. For many of us though the foxes have already destroyed much of the fruit of our marriages. But take heart, spring is coming again and know that God is the ultimate creator and ultimate cultivator and He can and will restore the fruit that the foxes have eaten. We must humbly repent and give our marriages to Him in order for us to be made holy not just happy.