Was The Apostle Paul A Christian?

 It has been disputed even today whether Paul was an apostle or one duly appointed and even an inferior one at that. Paul was so questioned about it that he wrote 2 Corinthians to refute the idea in chapters 10 and 11 he makes his case. What else is an apostle but one who has seen the risen Lord, can do miracles, signs, and wonders, and is personally appointed by the Lord Himself?  But the contention was that Paul was just a troublemaker, not a peacemaker, a divider, was always in trouble with the law or in jail, got shipwrecked, stoned,  beaten with rods, unpopular, left for dead, gone without food,  not an uniter, and a poor preacher and even too hard to understand and didn't get along with Peter or other apostles even disputing with Barnabas. 

We see believers do likewise today thinking that if you haven't achieved the American dream or are not a success in the eyes of the world, then you are not measuring up as a Christian and not be one at all, especially if bad things happen like divorce, bankruptcy, unemployment, disease, disability, or trouble with the law.  The proliferation of prosperity theology is appalling and widespread and is popular as even the mention of the word "sin" is considered a killjoy and taboo.  What we must learn is that we are not to cash in on our spiritual lottery ticket but learn to be content in whatever circumstance God gives and be thankful to be in God's will.  

But we must realize that hardship is par for the course in our Christian experience of hard knocks and the spiritual adventure and road to Reality 101 learning. In short, we are not promised a bed of roses and our life is no rose garden. We can have just as many hardships as an unbeliever. It is written that the Jews thought they were immune to disaster or calamity by virtue of being God's people but had a wake-up call during the Babylonian captivity. It is true God can and does put a hedge of protection around us but God can allow short-term evil for long-term good; look at Joseph saying, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." and also Job saying, "Should we accept good times from the LORD and not evil times?" 

We are to judge Paul by his writings which Peter called "scripture" despite being hard to understand. He is the one we owe our understanding of the gospel message.  Paul is the one who preached to the Gentiles and founded more churches than the other apostles in Europe and Asia. But we must put his life into the perspective that Jesus said he would suffer 'great things for Him." Paul said it was a privilege to suffer for the sake of the Name. Paul wrote at least 13 epistles and is considered the chief New Testament writer. 

Knocked Out Of Your Comfort Zone

"Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction"  (Isaiah 48:10, HCSB).
"The LORD says, 'I will give you back what you lost ["I will repay you for the years..." or make it up to you (HCSB)] to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.  It was I who sent this great destroying army against you'"  (Joel 2:25, HCSB).

"... God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart," (cf. 2 Chron. 32:31, HCSB).

"... It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God," (cf. Acts 14:22, HCSB). 

We all must endure the fires of the testing of our faith to ensure its reality and genuineness. It's more precious than gold and silver which are refined by fire.  It's not for God's sake that we get tested--He knows all and doesn't learn from the experience--it's we who learn and must realize for ourselves how strong we are in the Lord and whether our faith is strong enough to endure hardship, or whether it's just fair-weather faith. When the chips are down we must find out where our heart is and what we're made of!  We should be proud to be able to say in sympathy:  Been there, done that!  And put ourselves in their shoes and be on the same page.

Job, the patron saint and poster child of suffering par excellence, was tested, but not beyond his ability!  He may have questioned God and defended his own record but he was self-righteous, and his faith hung in there and he never gave up the ship!  He left the bosom of the home and thought outside the box to wonder what was happening and to answer his miserable comforters who really were his critics.  We can all relate to his depression and can find ourselves in a melancholy mood too sometimes, but this was severe and he was experiencing the doldrums and was in the pits, in a real funk! The Bible says that when we are being tested at least our friends shouldn't dessert us and we should find comfort and solace with them as we seek empathy. Job had the additional discomfort of being condemned by his "comforters" and "friends."

Second Corinthians 1:4 says that God is a God of comfort and allows us to experience hardship and trial so we can comfort others with the comfort that we have received.  We should be able to relate to others and put ourselves in their shoes.  Paul said in Phil. 3:10 that he wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of His suffering-to suffer with Him!  There is a union and fellowship in suffering and God not only calls us to faith, but to suffering on behalf of Christ to fulfill His passion and to glorify God through them.  For we are participating in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).

When we get saved and surrender our wills to His and give up the ownership of our lives to be directed by God's will to His glory, we enroll in the school of suffering and decide to take up our cross daily and be willing to suffer for His name's sake--no cross--no crown!  We must learn to endure hardship to be good soldiers in Christ because this comes with the territory and we sign up for it!  It's only to be expected to suffer and should consider it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name!

The trials we have endured are like stripes on our shoulders or feathers in our cap and could be seen as the red badge of courage or our Purple Heart to show that we have been tried in the course of battle in the angelic conflict.  The purpose of our suffering may never be answered, for God owes us no explanation and isn't accountable to us (He's too deep to explain Himself to us too kind to be cruel and to wise to make a mistake), but we must learn to endure not only during the good times but through thick and thin when faith isn't so easy when push comes to shove and faith isn't an automatic given! 

The uniqueness of our faith is that we believe in a suffering God who bore our sorrows and griefs and didn't exempt Himself from hardship and suffering, so we can know He feels us in our pain and knows where we are in our time of need.  Adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials are inevitable but that's how we gain Christlikeness.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

PERTINENT VERSES TO PONDER:

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Gen. 50:20, ESV).  
"But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks [gets their attention] to them in their affliction" (Job 36:15, NIV). 

"God left him, to try him, that he might know all that is in his heart," (cf. 2 Chon. 32:31) 
"[F]or he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33, ESV).
"I create the light and make the darkness.  I send good times and bad times..." (Isa. 45:7, NLT).
"But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).  
"... Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (Job 2:10, NIV).  

"He speaks to them in their affliction." (cf. Job 36:15, NIV).
"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10,  ESV).  
"... 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God'..." (Acts 14:22, NIV). 
"... But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering" Romans 8:17, NLT).
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28, NIV).  
"Who best can suffer, best can do."  --John Milton

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?  Note:  There are many quick answers:  There are no good people!  In the book Robinson Crusoe Friday asks why evil isn't destroyed:  "What about you?" Robinson replies.  And so why do good things happen to bad people?  What is good and what is bad then, if there is no God?   When we call something good or evil, we are referring to some standard or Supreme Good, which was seen as God by Plato.  Ponder not about debating good but wondering where the idea of goodness came from, if not God?

In short, God is love, but we must see the big picture of what God is doing for His glory and also not forget that God is one of justice, wrath, vengeance, vindication, and judgment.  God will surely fulfill all His attributes.   Also, justice delayed is not justice denied!  We see no justice, but God lives in eternity and sees the big picture.  When we say that it's not fair for innocent people to suffer, how we do know of their innocence?  And if God were to eliminate all evil in the world, what about the evil in us--Jesus said that only God is good!  We must have faith that God is working for the greater good and short-run evil will result in long-range good.  Likewise, we must praise God for the opportunity to do good when we see evil.  Instead of asking where God is, we must realize where the devil is!

The point is that we only see good in light of evil and evil is not God's fault!  God didn't create evil, but only the possibility of evil, which was necessitated because of free will!  This would make no sense if no one turned evil and rebelled against God; therefore, evil exists and must be reckoned with and judged.  Remember, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they come as a package: we can distinguish them and separate them, but evil exists only as a parasite on good.  If mankind had no choice of good or evil, there would be no love or hate in the world; we'd be robots, puppets, automatons, or animals with no free will or opportunity to know and love God.  Don't break faith because we all have to pay our dues.  God simply couldn't create a world of free people who have a chance to obey Him and then have none disobey or do evil!

We talk of injustice, intolerance, inequity, et cetera.  How could there be injustice without justice?  If there were no good, there could exist no evil!  Mankind was created good and went terribly bad, even Satan was once good!  But, fortunately, God is able to turn evil into good and His glory and wisdom will be shown in the end.  Most people just object to evil when it happens to them, but don't realize they are part of the problem too if they don't know God.  The point is that God sends good in envelopes of affliction to make us grow in our faith.  In the final analysis, we ought to celebrate the opportunity to see good in light of evil and to turn evil into good and to have the opportunity to do good when evil seems so certain and unavoidable to everyone to some degree--no one goes through life trouble-free.

Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered (cf Heb. 5:8) and didn't exempt Himself from suffering, nor guarantee we would lead a life in a bed of roses or in a rose garden.  "Jesus was honest enough to tell us we'd have tribulations" and that life was a test of our faith.  Would you believe in a Savior who wasn't sympathetic to suffering and had experienced none first-hand?  But God is the great Sufferer and when we break God's laws, we break God's heart.  When bad things happen, people act differently: some become bitter, some better!

Therefore, it is by adversity in life that we build character and learn the lessons of life to become mature.  And the existence of Satan, evil, sin, death, and adversity is not an argument against God, but for Him.  The ultimate question should not be:  "If there is a God why is there evil?" but the opposite:  "If there is no God, why is there so much good?" God is able to make "the wrath of man to praise Him" (cf. Psa. 76:10).

Faith is a choice and we must decide between good and evil. If faith were easy, it wouldn't be worth anything!  There is no easy answer to the existence of suffering, but it's just as likely to produce sincere faith as to destroy insincere faith; in a way, it's a litmus test!   There is no smoking gun evidence for or against God, so it takes faith both ways.  It isn't a matter of faith versus reason, but faith versus faith--which set of presuppositions you want to accept;  Faith in man and science, or God and His Word as the revelation.  Most people don't have enough faith to be atheists!

We must decide to believe and be willing to do God's will for our eyes to be opened to the truth.  God will authenticate Himself to us if we are willing.  God will not force someone to believe against their will, though He can make them willing (a paradox).  Faith can only be valid and of value, if it's difficult to attain!  That's because God is all-powerful or omnipotent and can overpower someone's will and make the unwilling willing--no one can reject His will (cf. Jer. 20:7; Rom. 9:19).

In sum, upon salvation, we enroll in the school of suffering, which is a given, and we must celebrate it as a red badge of courage that gives us braggadocio as it were and the right to say, "Been there, done that!"--this is Reality 101 and no one escapes it! God owes us no explanations:  "He is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and too wise to make a mistake!"  We answer to God not the other way around!  We are not to second-guess God: John Wycliffe tenet says, "All things come to pass of necessity."  We ought not get a martyr's complex, thinking the more we suffer, the more holy we are, but everyone is called to go through the school of hard knocks at times.

God knows that in our affliction, we will seek Him (cf. Hosea 5:15) and we should know that He gets our attention by affliction (cf. Job 36:15).   "People are born for trouble as sure as the spark flies upward" (cf. Job 5:7, NLT).  In the final analysis, one must acknowledge the fact that there are no easy answers as God didn't even explain Himself to Job.  God is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and to wise to be wrong or mistaken.  No religion, philosophy, or faith has the complete answer!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Bearing Burdens

Sometimes the burden gets too heavy to sustain and we must unload, as it were, or vent.  We all need someone to share our problems with because we cannot go through the maze of life alone.  We need to be part of a body or church family, and not be rogue believers or Lone Ranger Christians.  There are no lone wolves out there!  The body is meant to share burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ as they take requests in common to the Lord in prayer, both corporate and private.  No one can go it alone, no matter how strong your faith, you will find yourself going off course and in your own way ("All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way").  We receive comfort so that we can share it with others, and we go through adversity to be able to counsel others and guide them on the good and noble path of righteousness, like 2 Cor. 1:20 says--then we can say, "Been there, done that!"

Now we bear each other's burdens per Galatians 6:2, but each must carry his own load--we don't become freeloaders or moochers on others, refusing to work out of laziness!  God allows you to experience hardship so that you can comfort others and you will grow to become Christlike.  It's meant to be a team effort to strengthen the body because you never know who will be able to relate the most to any given burden.  In conclusion, let me stress that prayer support is vital and a loving way to bear a burden and to carry it to the throne room of the Father.  Intercession is our priestly duty and calling!   Soli Deo Gloria!