O.J.T. In The Real World

"[B]ut man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward"  (Job 5:7, ESV).

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous:  but the LORD delivereth him out of them all"  (Psalm 34:19, KJV). 

"But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold"  (Job 23:10, ESV).  

"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him"  (Philippians 1:29, NIV). 

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character..." (Romans 5:3-4, ESV). 

"For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow [" for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men," ESV]"  (Lamentations 3:33, NLT).

"... Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad? ..." (Job 2:10, NLT).

"Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty"  (Job 5:17, NIV).

"Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law"  (Psalm 94:2, ESV).

"I create the light and make the darkness.  I send good times and bad times..."  (Isaiah 45:7,
NLT).


Christians would be wise to heed the Word of God and pay attention to their elders and teachers, much more their parents as children, because they stand in loco Dei [in the place of God]!  We learn to rebel and question authority at a very young age and we all lose faith at some time in those that deserve our respect.  If we don't learn our lessons the easy way from Scripture, we will learn the hard way in the school of hard knocks!  We all do need backup training in the on-the-job-training (OJT) of real-life--this may be the dog-eat-dog world, the rat race, or the law of the jungle with the survival of the fittest, but we should be assured that when we go through the fire we will not be overwhelmed according to Isaiah 43:2, ESV:  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience [and the Word, of course], but shouts to us in our pains," C.  S.. Lewis has said.  There are no shortcuts, easy paths, nor simple formulae to follow to maturity--no magic formula or Eightfold Path [of Enlightenment] either like Buddha taught.  No matter how many noble truths we think of we cannot save ourselves nor find the truth.  We all learn by discipline as God is putting us through the crucible of life as one does a piece of silver, refining it till one sees himself in the reflection.

Experience is not what happens to you, but in you, it has been said, but note that the same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay, some people become bitter, and some better because of the same event--God knows what is best for us and what we can handle. Christ didn't exempt Himself from suffering and our crosses pale in comparison--He doesn't expect anything of us He didn't accomplish or endure; suffering, trials, temptations, adversity, trouble, and discipline are inevitable!  This is par for the course!

There are pitfalls to life and God doesn't promise us a bed of roses or a rose garden.  We learn from our mistakes and hardships, not our successes and prosperity.  Trials are a learning experience that we should welcome as friends that teach us the basics of life--the facts of life.  If we don't learn from the Bible, we will learn one way or another, probably by our mistakes and failures.  We will learn that making plans without God in them is vain and futile.  We don't bring our plans to God for His approval but seek His will in all we do.

Our life is but a pilgrimage or spiritual journey that is meant to glorify God and mold us in the image of Christ.  Just like a sculptor makes a horse from a slab of marble by taking away everything that doesn't resemble the horse, God is taking away everything that doesn't look like Jesus!  There comes a time to apply what we know and get our heads out of the books and step into the real world and learn by trial and error, if not by heeding the Word,  how to obey Christ, and abide in His will.


We have matriculated in the school of Christ and discipleship is largely discipline, accountability, and acceptance of authority.  God is determined to make us Christlike--it comes with the territory! We cannot opt-out of discipline--it's a mandatory course and a requisite--"for whom the Lord loves He chastens," and Christians don't get away with anything and God oversees everything--the good news is that everything is Father-filtered, and nothing happens outside His will for our lives.  (Note Lam. 3:37, NLT, "Who can command things to happen without the Lord's permission?")   

We must not disdain the Lord's corrective discipline:   "But consider the joy of those corrected by God!  Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin"  (Job 5:17, NLT); "Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?" (Lam. 3:39, NLT).  Christ exhorted us to "count the cost"--don't be surprised that your faith must be tested!  We will find out by experience that the Christian life is not hard, it's impossible!

One can endure any suffering if one sees purpose and meaning in it--Christianity alone offers this--and we can be assured of what we signed up for:  no cross, no crown!  God places nothing in our path we cannot handle and cannot learn from.  Trials are a vote of confidence from God that He deems us worthy of being tested--if the Lord got you to it, He'll see you through it!  

Jesus wasn't afraid to get His hands dirty doing the Father's work, He joyfully got down and dirty with the so-called scum and outcasts.  In summation, when Christ makes the final audit of our lives at the Bema, Tribunal, or Judgment Seat, of Christ will we have accomplished His will for our lives and glorified Him with all our resources, talents, skills, money, opportunities, gifts, relationships, and time management?
Soli Deo Gloria!  

Time To Weep...

As Ecclesiastes 3:4 says:  "A time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."
"...to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion--to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit [a spirit of heaviness]..." (Isaiah 61:2-3, ESV).  PLEASE  READ ON!

God works everything according to His timetable, "...for he hath made everything beautiful in its time" (Eccles. 3:11); also, "There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven" (Eccles. 3:1, NLT).  We must not question Him:  Job 12:13 (ESV) says, "With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding [His wisdom is profound, His power is great]."  And  King Nebuchadnezzar says:  "...none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What hast thou done?" (Daniel 4:35).   We wouldn't do any better of a job running the cosmos as God, who is still at work micromanaging the time-space continuum with all its matter and energy--there is not even one maverick molecule that escapes His sovereignty, and nothing surprises Him that He has to revert to Plan B. 

One reason we have trials, tribulations, suffering, and adversity or calamity is to show what we are made of--Christ didn't even exempt Himself because it's part of the required curriculum of life (Reality 101) and everyone should experience it.  It doesn't show what they were made of but what you are made of.  The same sun hardens the clay melts the butter.  Experience is not always just what happens to you, but what you do with it--what happens in you.   God is determined to make us in Christ's image.  When does a silversmith know when he is done polishing;  when he can see himself in the silver!  When asked a sculptor how he could make a horse out of a rock, he said he simply takes away everything that doesn't look like a horse!  Michelangelo found a rock of granite that had been rejected by other artists as useless and formed the statue of David out of it.

Therefore, God can make something out of nobodies and uses common people to accomplish His purposes just as readily as anybody else.  It follows that we are works in progress and must keep in mind that He will not give up till He is finished with us:  "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion..." (Phil. 1:6).  Remember that God isn't finished with us yet and no one has arrived:  "I have seen a limit to all perfection" (Psalm 119:96); "Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12); also, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended..." (Phil. 3:13).

I postulate that God is the"...Father of all mercies and the God of comfort..." (2 Cor. 1:3).  God's in the "comfort business" so be comforters!  That's why Paul says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep" (Rom. 12:15, ESV). He wants us to have empathy and that means putting ourselves in their shoes.  We find out what we are made of and not what kind of people they are by our experience.  He comforts us so we can return the gesture to others in their bereavement in kind.

Mourning is a therapeutic thing to do for coping with tragedy and death (it is not escapism or a sign of weakness) and all of must get the closure sufficient to readjust and carry on.  For instance, in the military, they practically force you to go on emergency leave when your next-of-kin passes on, because they don't want you to be maladjusted and have emotional problems later coming on.  You cannot predict a moment of breakdown into tears and sorrow.  When Jesus wept I'm sure He was taken aback Himself and didn't anticipate it.  A person may go to a funeral and seem unmoved, but it will sooner or later hit him and he will pay the piper as it were.

Rest in faith and be assured that God has a purpose for everything He does:  "The LORD has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for punishment"  (Prov. 16:4, NLT).   Jesus had to get "acquainted with grief" and weep for Lazarus to be in the position to identify with our sorrows. "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" according to Isaiah 53:3.

It is not appropriate to have a spirit of levity, or jest at funerals for the sake of humor (we don't want a comedian there to change the mood, for instance) but to feel their loss and comfort them in their bereavement.  We console them and not make light of it if we can relate to them at all.  Humor should be appropriate:  I have seen much laughing going on at funerals, which isn't wrong per se; there is a place for holy humor, but we shouldn't get carried away and put it into its place (if something funny happened in his life, that's different) and not let it disturb the spirit--that's why we attend funerals with our condolences:  Solomon says that "it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting [mirth]" ( Ecclesiastes 7:2).

Somehow it seems that we are closer to God in our tears than in our laughter for Jesus said, "Woe to you who laugh [inappropriately] now, for you shall weep" (Luke 6:35).  "Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief" (Prov. 14:13).   It is harder and better to make someone cry than to laugh;  anyone can tell a joke:  "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad"  (Eccles. 7:3).

Funerals are a necessary ingredient to the healing process whereby we get closure and reach a conclusion about the matter and can go on living, having learned something from it--they are to console the survivors and not to judge the deceased.  Like God said of Abel's blood, that it spoke, though he was dead ("And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks," from Heb.11:4b, ESV), every person that dies has a story to tell and we have something to glean and relate to--our chance to get to know them from people that did.  The concept of putting ourselves in their shoes and empathizing, and trying to say their message as they would tell it if they were with us, is quite a gift and part of the grace we can give others from our learning experiences or wisdom.  We may experience the gamut of emotion and show transition from tears to joy and even laughter!  We must all say our goodbye's and go on living and know that we have done all we could have done and have no regrets,  (we must acknowledge that it's over and we must go on)--not blaming ourselves and develop guilt that could scar us, for instance.

We don't want to be inappropriate but supportive in our fellowship with the mourners, and reassure them that Christ came to "comfort those who mourn in Zion" (cf. Isa. 61:1).  When we grow strong from our afflictions, we can testify with Paul:  "But none of these things move me..." (Acts 20:24, KJV).  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Divine Curriculum

"For it has been granted unto you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but to suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1:29).  "We glory in our afflictions," (cf. Romans 5:3).   Let's not suffer as offensive Christians, but for the offense of the cross, okay?
Job proclaims: "Shall we receive good at the hand of God? and shall we not receive evil [trouble]?" (Job 2:10). The psalmist says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..." (Ps. 34:19)
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, cried in Lam.3:1: "I am the man who hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath." But he also said: "He does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33).

Suffering is the crucible that God uses as a change agent. A sculptor was asked how he could make a horse out of a rock of marble. He replied that he simply takes away everything that doesn't look like a horse! The psalmist said in Ps. 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word." "It is good that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes" (Ps. 119:71).

Suffering, whether it be an ordeal, punishment, discipline, trial, affliction, adversity, disaster, or troubles come to Christians as a given. They are part of Reality 101 and every student of Christ is enrolled in this school: consider it a joy to suffer for Christ's sake like the disciples did. Christ did not exempt himself from difficulty or pain of suffering. Paul shared that he wanted to obtain "the fellowship of sufferings" of Christ. Most of us have our "thorn in the flesh" like Paul and we all have our crosses to bear. Fortunately, our problems are "Father-filtered." Nothing happens apart from His providential guidance. Suffering is par for the course! It comes with the territory!

Adversity builds character and that is the good news. There is an upside of down, as it were. Suffering and success are correlated: Judson said that if you are suffering and not succeeding, it is so that others may succeed; if you are succeeding without suffering, it is so that others may succeed. So, lay out the welcome mat and welcome adversity and trials as friends and rejoice! They help us conform to the image of Christ. God sees the long-term result and the goal is Christ-likeness. If we let the world change us we are conformers if Christ changes us we are transformers. We have Christ's sympathy, for He did not exempt Himself from suffering.

Life is no bed of roses and God never promised us a rose garden. But we are not to get paranoid or develop a martyr's complex either, thinking the world is out to get us. "For it has been granted unto you not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake" (cf. Phil. 1:29). Christ learned obedience from what He suffered and was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (cf. Isa. 53:3).

Grief or trouble makes us bitter or better. NB:  experience is not what happens to you but what happens in you.  The same sun melts the butter and hardens the clay. Christians are like tea bags that you don't know what they're like till their in hot water. We should refrain from pity parties and have the attitude of Viktor Frankl, Viennese psychiatrist captured by the Nazi's, that "this too shall pass." He said that man can survive any "what" if he has a "why." Our attitude cannot be taken from us and it determines our altitude.

When we see others suffer we are not to gloat or feel superior, but think, "There but for the grace of God, go I." Scripture says in Obadiah 12: "Do not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune." God wants to teach us by other's examples but may have to get our attention by other means. It has been said, "God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains." All suffering is to bring glory to God and conform us to His image that we may share in His holiness. God had said what great things Paul would suffer for the kingdom and some are mentioned in 2 Cor. 11:16ff such as shipwreck, stoning, exposure, scourging, et cetera. "When times are good to be happy; but when times are bad to consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (Eccl. 6:10).

Remember, that it only takes a night to make a mushroom, but many years to make an oak. A good summation would be as Job said: "The Lord knows the way that I take; when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Hebrews says not to despise the chastening of the Lord! Job said in Job 5:7 that "But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." And "Man, born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble" (cf. ob 14:1). So, why do bad things happen to good people? There are no good people in God's estimation and also, bad things happen to bad people, too.

Pertinent verses are as follows:  "He gets their attention through affliction, "(cf. Job 36:155).  "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..." (cf. Ps. 34:19). "I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." But God's crucible is Father-filtered so that all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). What faith Job has: "Though He slay me I shall trust Him" (cf. Job 13:15). Soli Deo Gloria!