God Has a Plan

Are you in trouble?  The most important thing to know is that God has a plan.  Our trials are not random events outside of his control.  Where the enemy has attacked us and caused us harm and pain, we need to know how to work with God in it.  

What is he teaching us?  Why has he allowed us to go through this?  How is he refining us?  How is he drawing us closer to himself?  Is he dealing with wrong dependencies on people or things other than himself?  Are there areas of disobedience in which we have opened ourselves to attack?  

Maybe, as with Joseph,  there is a greater plan involving more than just our individual lives, in which our testing is a positive part of something wider God is preparing.   

Let’s get one thing straight, though.  God is not the source of suffering.  Our rebellion, which allowed sin and death into the world, is leveraged by Satan for his purposes, and that is the culprit.  However, God uses even the plans of the enemy for good.  

Suffering becomes the occasion of God’s fatherly  and constructive discipline, and thus an opportunity for a deeper understanding and receiving of his love.  God’s discipline is not punishment.  It is a loving drawing of us toward him through his teaching us and holding us in adversity.  Though painful, it is always for our good (Heb. 12:5-11).  It yields the “peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).  It brings peace with God, maturity and fruitfulness in God’s service. 

Often we put up walls and hide behind them, because we are afraid of a greater demand of God on our lives or families.  God graciously uses suffering to tear down those walls.  His goal is to make us more fearful of disobeying him than of any possible personal challenges.  

Other times we are just scared of going through things because we don’t really have the assurance that God will show up for us.  God will use trials to enable us to discover that he does keep us in the midst of them.  Overcoming fear through suffering is often the beginning of our usefulness for God.  

It can be hard, especially when things are difficult, to discern what God is doing.  But with a right heart, solid friends around us and lots of prayer, and sometimes after the dust has settled a little, we can usually begin to see his hand at work.  How many times have we looked back and said something like this, “I wouldn’t want to go through that again, but I am glad somehow that it happened. I’m stronger, not weaker, because of it.”

Even if we can’t see his plan, he still has one and he’s working it out.  If times are tough, hang on, get help and trust in his goodness.  He will not fail you.

CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.

Eyewitness Account

Like many young men in his twenties, Papias was a man in a hurry.  But his reason was unique.

It was around the year 80.  Papias lived in the city of Hierapolis, which was strategically located in the middle of a road system that linked the major cities of Asia Minor with each other, and ultimately linked Jerusalem with Rome.  Christian teachers would regularly visit the church there.

Papias knew that the earliest generation of disciples — those who had personally known Jesus and heard him preach — were quickly dying out.  At least two he knew personally, including possibly John the apostle.  Papias decided to record as many eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ ministry as he could.  He wrote them in a book which unfortunately has been lost, other than places where it is quoted by others.

But by the grace of God, around the same time Papias was at work, several others who were actual eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry recorded their own accounts, which we still have.  

There is nothing like the value of eyewitness testimony.  It’s the gold standard as far as evidence is concerned in a court of law.

None of us today has eyewitness testimony of Jesus in the way that the first disciples did.  But we still have eyewitness testimony in a different sense.  We are people who have met Jesus through his Spirit, and he has changed our lives.

Maybe we’ve forgotten what the phrase to “give your testimony” means.  It’s drawn from the language of the law courts.  To give our testimony to Jesus is to give our eyewitness account of what he has done for us.

You may not be the most eloquent person.  You may not be a public speaker.  You may not have had multiple miraculous experiences.  But you have something even more powerful.  You have eyewitness testimony.

Never underestimate the power of sharing what the Lord has done personally for you.  It’s fine to talk about a miracle that happened to someone else, but it’s the account of your own experience that will make a difference with your work colleague, your college roommate or your next-door neighbour.

People may filter what you say any number of ways, but it will still make a difference.  A young man I shared a house with at university lived a completely godless life.  I shared my story with him, but despaired of it having any impact.  Shortly before we graduated, he came to me privately and told me after watching me for three years, he wanted what I had.   His problem was, as he put it, he didn’t want to pay the price.  One thing I know, though — he will still remember my testimony today.

Peter told his readers he didn’t make up stories about Jesus.  He was right there when it happened.  That’s part of the power of the New Testament.  It wasn’t made up a hundred years later, as liberal theology once alleged.  It was hot off the press, as better scholarship today has verified.  Was it true?  The eyewitnesses were ready to back up their testimony with their lives, and many of them did. 

Are you ready to take a much smaller risk than they did?  Share your story of what Jesus has done for you.  Even if your friends don’t accept it, they’ll  never forget it.  You may be the only eyewitness they ever need.

CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.

Opinions or Convictions

I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt what causes almost every church split.

In a word — the tongue.

Yes I know there are situations where other factors are involved.  But James had it right when he warned us that the tongue stains the whole body, sets on fire the entire course of life, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James, those are strong words!  And if they weren’t right there in the Bible, most of us would say they were a bit overstated.

The problem we face today is much worse than ever before, because social media has given free access to anyone who wants to shoot their mouth off in public.

Part of the problem is that we have completely lost track of the difference between an opinion and a conviction.   A conviction is something I believe to be a clear expression of Biblical truth, such that anyone who believes in the Bible would understand what I am saying.  I will hold to it regardless of what it costs me.

A conviction is God’s idea of reality.  An opinion is my idea of reality.  The difference is only one of those is backed up by clear Biblical truth.

So what can we do?  The first practical step is to create a verbal filter.  Think before you speak.  Is what you’re about to say merely your opinion, or do you truly believe it is God’s opinion?  And can you back that up?  If not, better to remain silent.

Second, think about this.  Is what you’re going to say really edifying or upbuilding to the other person?  That’s the test Scripture applies to the words that come out of our mouth.  If you are speaking out of Biblical conviction, the words will most likely be helpful, even if they are challenging.  If not, what you say may well be destructive and unhelpful.

Third, remember that speaking brings accountability.  Are you ready to be open to response or correction?  How many of you have observed a conversation where, even while one party is speaking, the other party is devoting all their attention to producing a rebuttal rather than listening?  Don’t be that person.

Finally, I think we need to adopt a rule of thumb that on the whole, fewer words are better than many words.  If you disagree with me, you can find that stated in Scripture also.

If we are prepared to walk with one another in love and humility, and to listen just as much as to talk, and if we guard what we say in the ways I’ve suggested, we can tolerate differences of opinion on all sorts of things.  

Political differences exist — we live in a democracy after all — but political opinions should never divide a church.  Neither should opinions on vaccination or pandemic lockdowns, to pick a couple topics from recent history.  All these are contentious out there in the world, but it is a scandal and a disgrace when they divide the body for which Christ died.  Yes, we can talk about them, but only when edifying to the other person, and being mindful of the fact they are our opinions, nothing more and nothing less.

And just remember this: God’s word counts a lot more than yours or mine does.  Never forget it.

CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.

The Best Seats at The Table

The problem has always been the same.

Too much of my world revolves around me.  And I venture to say the same is true of you.

I see it in all sorts of obvious ways.  I get impatient with the person driving too slowly in front of me.  I’ve ordered something online and it’s late in coming.

But it comes in more subtle ways.  For instance, what if I wind up singing songs that describe my feelings about God more than about who God actually is?  What if I decide to edit bits out of the Bible I don’t like to allow the Bible to reflect my truth rather than God’s truth?  What if I put far too much value on expanding my ministry rather than serving someone else’s?

A spiritual father once told me the story of how he had gone to great efforts one day to reschedule his whole family’s activities in order to make everything run more efficiently.  Then his wife told him bluntly all he had done was re-craft everyone else’s day around his own.  Ouch!  I am sure I have never been guilty of that, though wait till Elaine reads this and we’ll see.

Jesus told us if we only prayed in line with God’s will, we could see mountains moved.  In context, he was talking about mountains as obstacles to the will of God.  The only mountains we can pray and see successfully moved are those which are truly obstacles to what God wants to do so that his kingdom can advance.  For any of us who have might think the world revolves around us, that can be a rude awakening.  Name it and claim it!  You can have anything you want if you pray and believe hard enough.  But it doesn’t work that way.

James and John sent their mom to Jesus to ask for the best places at the table.  Jesus said it was easy — all they had to do was drink his cup.  “Wow!  That’s an offer we can’t turn down.”  Then he let them in on the fine print.  I think he knew their heart, in spite of their immaturity.  They just had to adjust from a world revolving around them having the best seats at the table, to a world in which they might be the first to die.  James did in the end, but John lived on a very long time.  Long enough to write to us from Patmos that we are partners with him “in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.”

A world revolving around us is a world which will perish, and we will perish with it.

A world revolving around Jesus will last for ever, and us with him.  

With pretty good seats at that table.

CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.

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Faith That Works

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A short but very significant phrase occurs at the beginning and the end of Romans.  That phrase is “the obedience of faith.”  The meaning of the phrase is this: obedience is faith and faith is obedience.  You can’t have faith unless you are walking out your faith in obedience, and you can’t have obedience unless you’ve first been given the gift of faith in salvation.

Pretty well all of the important doctrines of the New Testament appear in Romans, so for this phrase to book-end the letter means we need to pay attention to it.

We’ve suffered in the body of Christ from various misinterpretations and misunderstandings of faith.  I try to cover this in a chapter of my book “No Diving.”  But suffice to say, one of the most lethal misunderstandings is that merely by summoning up a quantity of mental belief we can speak things into being and cause things to happen.  Or that our mental belief somehow obligates God to do what we want.

When that doesn’t happen, because none of us can manipulate God — and who would want to worship a God who could be manipulated? — people get disillusioned and walk away from faith and from God.  The problem, of course is that they got disillusioned by believing an illusion to begin with.

Yes, Jesus did say whatever you believed in faith you would receive.  But the context in Mark 11 shows he was talking about what you believe that’s already in alignment with the will of God.

But let’s go back to the obedience of faith.  You won’t get far by just sitting back in your armchair and summoning God to give you what you want.  Maybe you need to take some steps of kingdom obedience.  Ask at church what needs doing.  Look around at your place of employment, college or neighborhood, and ask what God would have you do.  Look for people who need help and reach out to them.  And then go back to your prayer room and see what God does.

I don’t have any formula to offer for how to get your prayers answered other than do everything you can to line your life up with his Word and then spend regular time with the Lord.  And when you do, make sure not just to talk but also to listen.  You might be surprised by what he says and then what he does.

The bottom line is always this.  God will never fail those who truly call on him.

CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.