protection in times of trouble…

let’s do one more step.

the fourth step is you pray for GOD’s help.  you talk to HIM.  that’s what we have been dealing with here on the front porch, prayer.

if you’re not talking to GOD regularly you have no protection against temptation.  that’s what JESUS said, matthew 26.41 (nlt).  JESUS gave this advice to HIS followers. keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.  talk to GOD about it. 

now as simple as this is i don’t know about you but i often forget to pray.  i forget to pray about my temptation.  sometimes it’s because i’m selfish.  i want to go my own way.  but more often than not you know why i forget to pray?  i’m too busy.

i’m just rushing off to the next thing.  i don’t take the time to talk to GOD about it because i rushed on to the next thing.  because we’re all busy we need to learn what i would call microwave prayers.  quick prayers.  just send it up.  pray it immediately.  you pray it in the middle of the circumstance.  when you’re going through it.

the bible says in psalm 50.15 (gnt), call to me when trouble comes.  I will save you.  when trouble comes.  not a long conversation but you immediately call when trouble comes. 
learn one word prayers: help!  that’s a great one word prayer.  just say GOD i need help.  and you do it when the trouble comes. 

if you’re out on the freeway and the jerk next to you in the lane is making you angry and you want to cut him off you don’t think, i should add this to my prayer list for my devotion time tomorrow morning.  that’s not going to work.  you have to pray a prayer for help in that moment.  when you do, GOD answers.

the bible is filled, literally filled, with examples of how when people call for help GOD answers.  david and daniel and peter and paul and mary (and all the other music groups in the bible) when they call for help, GOD provided assistance to those who asked 

why?  why should GOD help me?  because HE cares.  because HE is sympathetic to your needs. 

just a thought from the front porch…

it’s your choice – swear or prayer?…

miles mcpherson in his book, do something!: make your life count says, “without prayer, we have no relationship with GOD.”  you need to talk with someone to have a relationship with them and prayer is our way of talking with GOD.

the word “prayer” is mentioned seven times here in james 5.13-20.  that’s what it’s about.  prayer.  there is tremendous power in prayer.  prayer is the greatest privilege of the CHRISTian life, being able to talk to GOD, and it’s the greatest power in the CHRISTian life.  what prayer can do is what GOD can do.  anything that GOD can do can be done through prayer. 

verse 16 of james 5 (niv) says, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. so that is what we are going to be looking at here on the front porch.

JESUS said, the things that i do, you’ll do also even greater works.  how do you do greater works than JESUS?  JESUS said that, it’s by prayer.  anything you need, you pray for.  it’s our greatest responsibility.  it’s probably our greatest failure in the CHRISTian life. 

james, in this passage, mentions some specific times when i really need to pray.  one is when i am hurting emotionally.  james 5.13 (niv), is any one of you in trouble?  he should pray. 

now the word trouble here in greek literally means, “to suffer misfortune, to be in distress”.  in the nt book of timothy it’s translated “hardships”.  he’s talking about internal distress caused by external circumstances. 

it may be a financial crisis, a relational crisis, something on the outside, your heart is breaking, tension is at an all-time high, when life gets hard.

now james here is referring  back to verse 12 where he says, above all, my brothers, do not swear. 

when you’re under tension, that’s when you’re tempted to swear.  when you have distress in your life you have two alternatives – swear or prayer.  verse 12 or verse 13.  two alternatives – swear or prayer.  it is your choice.

just a thought from the front porch…

more than making things easy…

most of us are slow learners.  most of us have had to learn something more than once.  if you don’t learn something GOD will bring it again in your life.  it will come back.  GOD is more interested in your character than HE is in your comfort.  GOD is more interested in making you change to be more like CHRIST than HE is in making things easy for you.  you never graduate from the school of hard knocks.  GOD allows difficulties.

does GOD have a word for you while you're going through your difficulty?  absolutely.  GOD brought you here to the front porch so HE could say this to you, “don't give up.  grow up.”  that’s what GOD wants to do through that difficulty.  HE doesn’t want you to give up, HE wants you to grow up.  HE wants you to mature, develop, become more and more like the person HE wants you to be.

how do you use your difficulties and problems to grow up?  by doing these things.  determine the reason, determine the result and then determine the response.

and you determine your response by asking yourself, “how should i handle this?” you’re going to be hurt in life many, many times because life is not fair.  it just isn’t.  you will have problems, difficulties and hurts that will make you bitter or better.  you will either grow up or give up.  you’ll either become what GOD wants you to be or you will shrivel and your heart will become hard.  It’s your choice. 

when you go through those situations in life, those difficult times, what happens to you is not nearly as important as what happens in you.  what you’ll take with you is your long-term character, what the circumstances have made you – bitter or better. 

just a thought from the front porch…

how long, whose fault, and why?...

an important question to ask in the midst of going through difficulties is “what does GOD want me to learn from this difficulty?’ 

2 cointhians 4.17 (ph), these little troubles, which are temporary, are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain.  

there is a line between troubles and temporary and then permanent and reward.  paul is saying that the problems you have in your life are not going to last.  the problems are temporary but the reward is permanent.  the purpose is permanent. 

when we go through difficulties, the first thing we try to do is blame somebody else.  whose fault is this? 

it doesn't matter where your problem came from GOD still has a purpose for it in your life.  HE wants you to grow as a result of it.  even when you do stupid things yourself, GOD can use it.  even when other people hurt me intentionally HE can use it.  even when the devil plans bad things for my life, GOD can bring good out of it. GOD’s purpose is greater than your problem and your pain.  GOD has a plan behind your pain, your problem.  HE’ll use it.  you need to look past the temporary pain and look at the long-term benefit, the results in your life. 

romans 5.3-4 (tlb), we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials for we know ... they help us learn to be patient.  and patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust GOD more each time. 

the result?  GOD wants you to learn something.  that's the whole purpose for the problems and difficulties you're facing.  every storm is a school.  every trial is a teacher.  GOD wants to teach you through your troubles.  every experience is an education.  every difficulty is for your development.  GOD says, “I want you to learn something from this difficulty – that's the purpose, the result.

just a thought from the front porch…

three mistakes that get us into trouble…

when the guys in acts 27 in the nt decided to sail the ship into the mediterranean sea and paul said, “don't do it or we'll go into a storm”, they made three common mistakes.  they are the exact three mistakes we tend to make that get us into trouble.

1.  we listen to bad advise.  verse 11 (niv), they followed the advise of the pilot. 

GOD had already said not to do it.  paul had warned them.  but because the “expert” said it was ok, they did it.  there are a lot of experts in the world.  they are on every talk show.  they’ll tell you all kinds of stuff.  if GOD tells you to do one thing and all the experts in the world tell you to do differently, don’t listen to the experts.  listen to what GOD says. 

2.      we follow the crowd.  verse 12 (niv), the majority decided that we should sail.  

there were 276 on the boat.  the vote was 273 to 3 to sail.  the majority is often wrong.  one of the phrases you hear “but everybody’s doing it”.  so what?  everybody can be wrong. 

don’t base your morality on some popular opinion poll.  peer pressure keeps a lot of people from doing what GOD wants them to do.  peer pressure causes a lot of people to get into problems. 

3.  we rely on circumstances.  verse 13 (niv), when a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted.

they thought it was a nice day for sailing.  paul said, “don't do it, we're heading into a storm”.  but they went anyway and they shipwrecked.

satan can arrange circumstances.  you should not go through every open door you see.  you should not take advantage of every opportunity you have.  you should not accept every job offer given to you.  you should not date everybody that asks you out on a date.  you need to ask if this is what GOD wants. 

the most difficult type of difficulty to deal with is when you’re the innocent victim and it’s not your fault.  it’s a problem you didn’t bring on yourself but you have it anyway.  in paul’s situation, he had already told them, GOD says don’t do this or the ship will be wrecked.  they did it anyway and he’s a prisoner and he has to go along.  he experiences a shipwreck because of other people.  not all of the shipwrecks in your life are your fault.  some of them you just happen to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.  those are difficult difficulties to deal with but you’re in the shipwreck because you happen to be there. 

just a thought from the front porch…

it clarifies things in my life…

when i’m going through a tough time, how do i know the cause of it?  you must pray about it, talk to GOD. 

psalm 73.16-17 (tev), i tried to think this problem through but it was too difficult for me until i went into your temple. 

when you worship, GOD uses getting together with other believers to help you clarify things that are going on in your life.  that's why i hate to miss church.  even when margaret and i go on vacation, we go to church and GOD always speaks to us.  

listen, i don’t go to church out of guilt, habit, because somebody forces me to, because of a ritual.  i go to find out if GOD has anything to say to me.  almost every one of the major decisions in my life, many of the major turning points, happen when i was in a church service.  before i went that day i had no idea what was going to happen.  but because i went, i heard something from the bible and it made a change in me, a major decision. 

i don’t know when those are going to happen so i go to church whenever i can.  what if GOD had that speaker or that message just for me, what if i didn’t show up?  so, on the possibility that HE might want to speak to me any particular week, i show up. 

i am going to be in church this weekend at least once and i am excited about and anticipating what GOD is going to share with me about what is happening in my life.  GOD has given brian moll the teaching pastor at forefront church in new york city a general word for all of us who are there to hear but in it GOD has a specific word for me personally to hear and i will be there to hear it.  i don’t want to miss it.

psalm 73.16-17 (tev), i tried to think this problem through but it was too difficult for me until i went into your temple. 

just a thought from the front porch…

in, out of, or headed into trouble…

everybody has difficulty in life.  JESUS told us this would happen in john 16.33 (niv), in this world you will have trouble.  but take heart! I have overcome the world. 

either you have just gotten out of trouble, or you’re in it right now, or you’re headed into it.  trouble is a part of life.  you will have difficulties. 

few people faced the difficulties though that paul did in life.  yet he never gave up on his dream.  2 corinthians 6.4 (tev), in everything we do we show that we are GOD's servants, by patiently enduring troubles, hardships and difficulties. 

you show what kind of CHRISTian you are by the way you respond to problems.  your testimony of how emotionally mature and how spiritually mature you are is evidenced by your reaction to difficulty.  if you cop out, complain, gripe, run from difficulty, you're not a very mature person either spiritually or emotionally.  but if you learn from difficulty you just keep growing and growing. 

in acts 27 there is one of the stories of the many difficulties in paul’s life.  he was being taken as a prisoner to rome and he warned the captain, “don't sail out of this harbor, because GOD has told me there’s going to be a storm.”  but they got impatient.  and any time you get impatient you’re going to head right into a storm. 

so they decided to leave anyway and they sailed into a storm which inevitably caused them to shipwreck.  some of you have had an emotional shipwreck.  you have lost all of your energy.  some of you have had a relational shipwreck and a relationship that you thought was solid fell apart.  some of you have had a financial shipwreck or a career shipwreck or a health shipwreck.  what do you do when you face those difficulties in life? 

strart by asking the question, “what caused this?” and there are only four different causes for difficulty in your life.

1.  i cause a lot of difficulty in my life.  most of your problems you bring on yourself.  i’m the first and greatest cause.

2.  other people

3.  the devil

4.  GOD can be a cause of difficulty in your life.  HE allows problems to come into our lives to get our attention, test us, mold us, many different reasons.

just a thought from the front porch…

why pain, why suffering?...

do you ever read some of the warning labels on medicine where they talk about the side effects? steve martin did a whole monologue on side effects.

come to think of it that would be a good thing to have on life. on one side it would talk about all the wonderful things about life. life can be full of wonderful adventure and joy. then on the other side it would mention the side effects because there are side effects to life. there is pain. there is suffering. there is heartbreak. there is disappointment. there are broken relationships. there is crime. there is victimization. there’s abuse. there’s even death.

in fact, JESUS did warn about this. in john 16.33 (niv) HE said, in this world you’re going to have trouble. you’re going to have tribulation. but HE didn’t really in that passage address the question of why. and that is the question that has been on peoples’ minds since the beginning of time. why is there pain? why is there suffering? why do bad things happen to good people?

it’s gone back to the beginning of time. we can see it in the old testament. that was the cry on the lips of job. “why is there suffering?” that was the cry of the psalmists as they wrote. and especially, coming out of the twentieth century as we just did. that was the century we saw suffering on the biggest scale of any civilization – two world wars, the holocaust, the killing fields of cambodia, the devastating famines that took place in africa, the emergence of aids, genocide in uwanda, ethnic cleansing in kosovo. we’ve seen all this stuff and the world wants to know why. why pain, why suffering?

i know for many of you this is not just an academic question, this is not just a theological issue that you bat around the dining room table over dinner. this is a very real issue. you have gone through pain. you have gone through the loss of a child. you are going through illness. you’ve had suffering. you’ve seen loved ones who have gone through pain. and i really wish i could give you the perfect answer from GOD on this issue but i can’t.

now in life we may not be able to make out all the peripheral answers in terms of why. they still may be enshrouded by our limited ability to understand. but there are some key biblical truths that are illuminated to us through scripture. and if we keep our eyes on those points of light just like if you are in a deep fog and you are following the taillights of a semi in front of you i believe they will take us to a place of understanding where our hearts and our minds can be satisfied.

just a thought from the front porch…

in or on top of the storm?...

JESUS provides the means for each of us to ride out our storms. storm systems will inevitably move into the life of every disciple. but stormy skies will also eventually blow over.

now JESUS doesn’t promise your life and mine perfect climate control. but HE does promise to stay close beside us no matter how hard the winds blow or how fiercely the rains beat down. HE’s our refuge in the time of storm.

with no air-conditioned, central-heated, insulated, weather-tight homes to dwell in, wild creatures are probably the best meteorologists. their survival from one season to the next, from one day to the next, depends on their ability to accurately “interpret the present time”.

for example, an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks. the majestic bird will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. when the storm hits, the eagle sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. while the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. the majestic eagle embodies the old norwegian saying that proclaims, “remember, above the clouds the sky is always blue.” the eagle does not escape the storm. it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. it rises on the winds that bring the storm.

when the storms of life come upon us—and all of us will experience them—we can rise above them by setting our minds and centering our trust on GOD. the storms do not have to overcome us. we can allow GOD’s power to lift us above them and become over-comers. GOD enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure, disappointment, even death into our lives. we can soar above the storm.

remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down. it is how we handle the weights. like the eagle, when we sense storm time, we can use that knowledge to lift us upward and help us soar.

the bible says in isaiah 40.31 (msg), but those who wait upon GOD get fresh strength. they spread their wings and soar like eagles.

just a thought from the front porch…

where is GOD when you hit bottom?

ephesians 3.17-18 (niv), i pray that you will grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of CHRIST.

GOD's love is wide enough to include everybody…GOD's love is long enough to last forever…GOD's love is high enough to be everywhere.

and GOD's love is deep enough to meet my needs

psalm 40.11 (lb), my only hope is YOUR love for my problems are too big for me to solve and are piled higher than my head.

do you feel, i'm going under for the last time? i'm about to sink! the fact is GOD's love is not shallow. it's profound. no matter what problem you have, HIS love is deeper than that problem.

some of you are in deep despair, deep trouble, under deep stress, you've got deep problems, emotional problems, physical problems, financial problems. GOD's love is deeper still.

corrie ten boom and betsy ten boom were CHRISTians who lived in the netherlands. during the war they hid jews in their home to protect them from the nazis. and when they were discovered, not only were the jews taken to the concentration camp but corrie and betsy were taken to the concentration camp too and they spent their lives there during the war. corrie came out alive. but her sister was killed.

at one point in the movie where they had seen one atrocity after another, corrie says to betsy, “this place is the pit of hell!” betsy says, “there is no pit so deep that GOD's love is not deeper.”

some of you in the last few weeks and the last few months have possibly hit bottom. maybe financially and you think, “i am going broke!" or you've hit bottom emotionally or your marriage has hit bottom or you're having health problems and your health has hit bottom and you're frustrated and you think, “i am going under.” where is GOD when you hit bottom?

deuteronomy 33.27 (niv), the eternal GOD is your refuge and underneath you are HIS everlasting arms. notice it says, underneath you.

when you hit bottom guess who's underneath the bottom? GOD is. drop into HIS arms of love. let HIM catch you and support you when you have nowhere else to go.

just a thought from the front porch…