Offerings

"Accept your loneliness. It is one stage, and only one stage, on a journey that brings you to God. It will not always last. Offer up your loneliness to God, as the little boy offered to Jesus his five loaves and two fishes. God can transform it for the good of others. Above all, do something for somebody else!" 

            - Elisabeth Elliot

Understand the Blackness

The Silence of God

Andrew Peterson- The Silence of God.  - Some of you will need these words today.




HT: Dane Ortlund

Between Extremes of Solitude and Community

Wisdom from Bonhoeffer on Solitude and community:

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.

He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and given an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refused to be alone you are rejecting God’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. “The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. . . . I will not be with you then, nor you with me” (Luther).

But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.

Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer, they [the fellowship] suffer with me” (Luther).

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together   (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 77 [italics and ellipses original].

HT: Justin Taylor

The God Who Knows Despair

“Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment.

On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken.

Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.”

        — Tim Keller,   The Reason for God    (New York, NY: Dutton, 2008), 30

Suffering & the Cry of Jesus

Reading this I just said Wow.  Just wow. This is just an excerpt - Read it all at the link. From Tim Keller on "The Cry of Jesus"

Understanding the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross gives us two terrific resources for suffering. This cry on the cross gives us two amazing resources for suffering. If you’re in trouble right now, if you’re in pain right now, take hold of these.

You Can Make It without Answers

The first is the cry of Jesus on the cross (Psalm 22) gives us the greatest possible companion for our suffering. Do you know the thing you mainly need in suffering is not answers? You can make it without answers.

What do I mean by that? I mean that when you suffer, you have questions. You say, “Why? Why is this happening to me? Why does this have to happen? Why at this time?” I mean, when you suffer, you have lots of questions. But, you know, you can make it without questions. But you can’t make it out, you can’t make it, without companionship.

You Can’t Make It Alone

You can’t make it if you have to suffer alone. You can’t make it without friendship. You can’t make it without companionship. And Christianity is the only religion on the face of the earth that says God is your companion in suffering, that God has suffered, that God does suffer.

David Watson, who was a Christian leader some years ago, was dying of cancer when he wrote this. He says:

Someone once said to me, “There cannot be a God of love, because if there was and he looked upon the world, his heart would break.” But the gospel points to the cross and says, “It did break.” Someone once said to me, “It’s God who made the world, it’s he who should bear the load.” The gospel points to the cross and says, “He did bear the load.” God weeps with those who weep. He feels our pain and enters into our sorrows with his compassionate love.

The Tragedy of a Self-Centered Life

This post by Joe Thorn on The Tragedy of a Self-Centered Life is worth quoting in full. Think on it and let its message burn in your soul, for it will bring you freedom.

A self-centered life is not just one in which we simply put ourselves first, but one in which God is eclipsed by our own stardom. When we see ourselves as the main character in our story, the great protagonist in our decades-long drama, we are at best relegating God to a supporting role whose influence is minimal. We have taught, and been taught, that everyone is special and unique. After all, there is only one me, and this is my life.

The reality is that our lives aren’t even about us. God is both the author and the central character of our story, for our stories are but a part of his. As Christians we do not live or work for ourselves, or for any other person in this world. We have been created, and put where we are, for the glory of the One who made us in his image, redeemed us from sin through his Son, united us as one family in his church, and through the church sends us into the world to make disciples of all people. Yes, there is only one me, but I exist for Another. I am the supporting cast member in the divine drama. I am an individual, but I am not only an individual. As a human being I am a part of the world, and bear God’s image as well as the mark of sin with everyone else. As a Christian I am a part of the body of Christ, and have been adopted with everyone else who has been born of God. I am one, but I am not alone.

The tragedy of a self-centered life is that in centering on ourselves we ultimately wind up alone; isolated from others and God. Even if we have many possession, friends, and prestige, by exalting ourselves to the highest point possible we have no one else to look to for help, because we allow for no peers. No one is beside us for genuine fellowship. Even worse, there is no God above us in whom we find our redemption, purpose, and identity.

Your life, my life, is not about us. We are written and told into His story, Only there is true redemption, purpose and identity.