Charlotte Iserbyt- The Miseducation of America
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Evolutionary Scientists Suppressing the Truth
Georgia Purdom
Evolutionary Scientists Suppressing the Truth in Unrighteousness
Posted: 06 Mar 2012
At a recent event in Austin, Texas, I was asked the following question by several people: “If the evidence so clearly does not support evolution, why do scientists believe it?” The reply I always give in response to that question is that people do not want to be responsible to God. It shows us this is not an issue of the evidence but rather one of worldviews—does man determine truth apart from God or does God determine truth? If God determines truth and He is our Creator, then we have a responsibility to Him as His creation. Since we all have a sin nature, those who have not received Christ as their Savior try to reject and deny the existence of God so they can live their lives the way they please.
Read what Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, wrote in response to the question, “What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?”
A wonderful example is how local rules about attraction and repulsion (i.e., positive and negative charges) allow simple molecules in an organic soup to occasionally form more complex ones. Life may have originated this way without the requirement of bolts of lightening [sic] to catalyze the formation of complex molecules.
And why is self-organization so beautiful to my atheistic self? Because if complex, adaptive systems don’t require a blue print, they don’t require a blue print maker. If they don’t require lightening [sic] bolts, they don’t require Someone hurtling lightening [sic] bolts.
The real motive in attributing design in living things to random chance is that “a blue print maker” or God is not necessary. Richard Lewontin, professor of biology emeritus at Harvard University, stated the following:
Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
Again, evolution is believed and promoted in spite of the evidence because some scientists have a commitment to materialism (no supernatural) and “cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
An atheist recently said to me, “If God does, in fact, exist, can there be any doubt that he could provide you with the words that would convince me?” I replied to him, “There are no more words I can say that God has not already said. God has given us His Word in the Bible, and Romans 1:20 is clear that God has made Himself known through what He has created so that people are “without excuse.” Like Romans 1:18 states, this atheist and many scientists are willfully “suppress[ing] the truth in unrighteousness.” Romans 1:18–21 states,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Please pray for these people to be brought to light, the truth of God’s Word, before it is too late.
Keep fighting the good fight of the faith!
Evolutionary Scientists Suppressing the Truth in Unrighteousness
Posted: 06 Mar 2012
At a recent event in Austin, Texas, I was asked the following question by several people: “If the evidence so clearly does not support evolution, why do scientists believe it?” The reply I always give in response to that question is that people do not want to be responsible to God. It shows us this is not an issue of the evidence but rather one of worldviews—does man determine truth apart from God or does God determine truth? If God determines truth and He is our Creator, then we have a responsibility to Him as His creation. Since we all have a sin nature, those who have not received Christ as their Savior try to reject and deny the existence of God so they can live their lives the way they please.
Read what Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, wrote in response to the question, “What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?”
A wonderful example is how local rules about attraction and repulsion (i.e., positive and negative charges) allow simple molecules in an organic soup to occasionally form more complex ones. Life may have originated this way without the requirement of bolts of lightening [sic] to catalyze the formation of complex molecules.
And why is self-organization so beautiful to my atheistic self? Because if complex, adaptive systems don’t require a blue print, they don’t require a blue print maker. If they don’t require lightening [sic] bolts, they don’t require Someone hurtling lightening [sic] bolts.
The real motive in attributing design in living things to random chance is that “a blue print maker” or God is not necessary. Richard Lewontin, professor of biology emeritus at Harvard University, stated the following:
Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
Again, evolution is believed and promoted in spite of the evidence because some scientists have a commitment to materialism (no supernatural) and “cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
An atheist recently said to me, “If God does, in fact, exist, can there be any doubt that he could provide you with the words that would convince me?” I replied to him, “There are no more words I can say that God has not already said. God has given us His Word in the Bible, and Romans 1:20 is clear that God has made Himself known through what He has created so that people are “without excuse.” Like Romans 1:18 states, this atheist and many scientists are willfully “suppress[ing] the truth in unrighteousness.” Romans 1:18–21 states,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Please pray for these people to be brought to light, the truth of God’s Word, before it is too late.
Keep fighting the good fight of the faith!
So You Want to Be a Leader?
By D.Brandt Berg
Nearly every great building, every great accomplishment, every great war, every great movement, took years of planning and laborious engineering. Every Michelangelo painting was engineered with meticulous care, with advanced sketches, designs, etc., before he finally got to the finished product.
It takes a lot longer to plan a building than it does to build it. It took me a whole lot longer to select the property, plan my church building, scrounge the materials, design it, and do all that figuring to prepare the ground and lay the foundation than to lay the blocks, build the walls, and stick the roof on! That was the fun part, the fast part! That was when you could really see something happening! But the people who got excited as they saw the walls and roof go up only saw the smallest part of the job.
Every builder loves to get to the part of the job that is seen—the visible! It’s the invisible—below the surface, long, hard hours and days and weeks and months, and sometimes years of planning, designing, and preparation, and the slow laying of the foundation that’s the hardest part, takes the most time, and for which you get the least credit—but without which there would never be a building and it would never stand.
You can ask any businessman about that: The pleasurable part is the finished product—the shiny new car standing there, the people raving about it. But they don’t see the blood, the sweat, the tears, that lay in the months and years of planning and designing, trial and error, and the preparation that lay behind it. They can’t see the intricate and delicate wiring and mechanical systems beneath the surface, which are far more difficult to install and much more vital to the efficient operation of the car than any nice shiny polish and paint on the surface.
But what really appeals to the people who buy them? It’s the looks of the product—the pretty surface things—the color, the shape, the upholstery. Most people don’t begin to understand the intricate mechanism of the engine, the lights, the ignition system, the transmission system, and all of the other complicated mechanical and electronic parts beneath the surface, which took a lot more time to design and install and make work than the pretty paint and polish.
Even a well-cooked meal takes hours of thought and labor and organization and preparation, and only appears and looks and smells good for a few minutes—and then it’s gone. The consumer can’t possibly appreciate all the time and effort that’s gone into the brief moment that he enjoys it, unless he has been a cook and knows what it is to have to plan the meal, buy the ingredients, and prepare it, cook it, and serve it.
That’s really the way it is with most things in life. A banana is another example. It just appears for a moment. It’s here today and gone tomorrow, and all the hard work of the farmer behind it is invisible! The months or years of clearing, planning, plowing, planting, growing, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, transporting, marketing—all of this is unseen behind that little banana! All we have to do is stick it in our mouth and enjoy it momentarily, without even thinking about the hard work behind it.
I don’t even understand the clothes I have on. I don’t know what it took to have to design this pair of pants—the raising of sheep, shearing, wool gathering, selling it to the thread maker, the spinning of each tiny little thread, and then the intricate weaving of the cloth into complicated designs of different colors!
Think of the elaborate machinery it must have taken—years of planning, invention, design, and labor that have gone into just the making of the cloth. Then the tailor had to design and plan the pants—how to cut the cloth, how to put it together, how to make it fit, what shape it would be, how it would hang, what it would have—pockets, belt straps, zipper, etc., waist size, length, and all these things! We don’t think about most of these things when we buy a pair of pants. All we see is a pair of pants, and we decide whether we like what we see and whether they fit!
All the unseen handiwork, time, thought, and labor behind one pair of pants! We just see it, buy it, wear it, and don’t worry about it! But it took somebody, or a lot of somebodies, years of time and thought and invention and discovery, as well as labor, to produce it.
Every bit of food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings we live in, the vehicles we travel in, and all the little necessities of everyday life are just the brief and temporary visible end products of generations of thought, invention, discovery, experimentation, designing, planning, and producing, by a world of laborers and a world of labor. “We have entered into other men’s labors, and reaped that on which we bestowed no labor.”1 “One planteth, one watereth; but it is God that giveth the increase.”2
God’s behind-the-scene labors are almost totally invisible—the work of His creation that produced the universe and keeps it running, His design and plan for man, His constant care for His creations from the spiritual realm, that behind-the-scenes workshop where God does most of His labor. Set not, therefore, your affections on things of the earth, for the things which are seen are temporal (only temporary, only the slightly visible manifestation of all the unseen work behind them), but the things which are not seen are eternal (the spiritual world which produces them)—the power and planning of God!3 You don’t know how He did it. All you do is enjoy it! You can’t comprehend it. All you do is consume it!
But somebody had to do it. As Dr. Robert Millikan said, “Behind every watch there had to be a watchmaker, and so behind the intricate precision of this great universe there had to be a divine designer and creator.” Even so, behind every great creation, whether of God or man, there had to be worlds of work, planning, preparation, designing, invention, discovery, exploration, organization, and cooperation, in order to produce the final product—the thing that’s seen—which does not begin to reveal the vast unseen labor and the multitudes of laborers behind it!
With the creation of a new nation, a war, a reformation, or a revolution—or any major change in history—somebody had to dream of it before it could happen. Somebody had to have the inspiration, the vision, the faith, the ingenuity, the genius, the spark that kindled the fire. You only see the fire, and thrill and marvel at its glory. You don’t see the work and planning behind it, the problems in gathering materials, figuring out how to start it and keep it going.
Maybe you used to look at a big business and wish you were the boss, to enjoy the glory and the riches, and to get to tell other people what to do! But you'd have been better to work your eight hours and not worry, lest someday you’d become the boss and work at all hours, and have all the worry! Because until you’ve done it, you can’t possibly see all the problems, the difficulties, the obstacles, the troubles, the complications behind it—how hard it is to know what to do, to make decisions, to tell other people what to do, and to be willing to take the blame for the failures as well as the credit for the successes. As Solomon said (and he should know), “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, but the rich cannot sleep, for the abundance of his riches.”4 Because possessions, employees, businesses, and governments are much more responsibility than enjoyment, much more hard work than pleasure.
As the great Scottish poet Bobby Burns wrote as the world was toasting his fame, “Would that I were back with the wee sma’ daisy,” “For the best-laid plans of mice and men aften gang aglae.” He was wishing he were back, a wee small boy again, playing on the heather, gazing in wonder at the tiny flowers, without a care or responsibility in the world, unconcerned about the world around him—a world that didn’t even know he existed! But now that he was famous, he had to worry about his work and his writing, the opinions of man, his successes and failures—and he no longer had the time to enjoy the simple, uncomplicated little things of life, or even the poems about them which had made him great. He was too busy!
Most people don’t realize how much goes into leadership: the years of the school of hard knocks, years of experience, trial and error, success and failure, suffering and tribulation—the years of following, obedience, and training, the innumerable lessons, the grades you had to take over again, the demotions as well as the promotions, the failures as well as the accomplishments, the blame as well as the fame, the unseen labor, the unrealized thought, the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of planning, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the agony with the ecstasy—all that goes into the making of a leader!
Leaders are made, not born. It takes so long to grow into the full bloom of leadership that your actual brief span of leadership is short by comparison to the years of preparation!
Most of the leaders in the Bible tried to get out of the job. It’s too hard, and you’ll never get enough credit for it. Most of your work is unseen and will never be known by anybody but God and you, and perhaps a few of those closest to you. Nearly every great leader in the Bible had to be pushed into it. Only in the folly of this world do men fight each other for fickle fame and fortune, for power, positions, riches, and glory—only to find it doesn’t satisfy!
Like Alexander the Great, who, having conquered all the known world, died drunken and weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer! Or Napoleon, who made all Europe tremble at his feet, but died in exile, whimpering like a baby, just to have his boots pulled on, that he might die like a soldier! Or Caesar, whose friends stabbed him in the back at the pinnacle of fame! All these died in vain! The elusive butterfly of fortune weighed them in the balances and found them wanting! They paid such an awful price for it, when it wasn't worth it. They sacrificed everything for it, only to discover it was ashes between their teeth! Husks... Husks... Husks... Like the Prodigal Son in the swine pit, with nothing left but the “husks that the swine did eat.”5
At least God’s leaders, who pay the same price and make the same sacrifices, can look forward to eternal rewards and everlasting glory, and can die with a feeling of genuine permanent accomplishment, from a lifetime of investment in His work, that will reap eternal dividends hereafter!
Most of your sufferings, your sacrifices, and your years of labor will never be appreciated in this life, nor realized by others until the rewards are handed out in heaven, and the medals are pinned on at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, and the cities are distributed in the Millennium.
Just thank God for your leaders. When the time comes when you see the job that has to be done and there is nobody else to do it but you, and you know you have to do it, God will have prepared you. When it’s God’s will, God’s plan, you’re ready—even if you don’t feel like it! Ready because of the long preparation, planning, designing, and making of a man by the hand of God.
As Kipling said, “If you can meet success and failure, and treat these two impostors the same ... then you’ll be a man, my son.”—Simply because you have the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing the will of God, that you were made for the job, that you can’t help it, you have to do it! He expects it of you!
After all the years in the making, preparation, and planning, you may only be a brief flare which lights up the landscape for a moment in the heat of battle, that the victory may be won. But that lifetime of preparation is worth it all, even if only for that “moment of truth” and recognition by the Lord, that moment of usefulness that you were designed for, that day when you stood in the gap, that hour when you met the need, that time when you fulfilled your mission. And you can hear His, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of your Lord!”6
You’ll never fully appreciate your leaders until you have to join them in leadership! We’ll probably never fully appreciate God until we join Him in glory and see what it really cost Him: How much time it took, what infinite care and love and patience. How much unseen labor went into the end product—little old insignificant you and me! Praise His name forever! “All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who hath borne all our sins and hath cleansed every stain!”7
“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”8
Originally published December 1970. Revised and republished February 2012.
TFI
1 John 4:38.
2 1 Corinthians 3:6–7.
3 Colossians 3:1–2; 2 Corinthians 4:18.
4 Ecclesiastes 5:12.
5 Luke 15:16.
6 Matthew 25:21.
7 From "Revive us Again" by William Mackay and John Husband, 1863.
8 Hebrews 12:1–2.
Nearly every great building, every great accomplishment, every great war, every great movement, took years of planning and laborious engineering. Every Michelangelo painting was engineered with meticulous care, with advanced sketches, designs, etc., before he finally got to the finished product.
It takes a lot longer to plan a building than it does to build it. It took me a whole lot longer to select the property, plan my church building, scrounge the materials, design it, and do all that figuring to prepare the ground and lay the foundation than to lay the blocks, build the walls, and stick the roof on! That was the fun part, the fast part! That was when you could really see something happening! But the people who got excited as they saw the walls and roof go up only saw the smallest part of the job.
Every builder loves to get to the part of the job that is seen—the visible! It’s the invisible—below the surface, long, hard hours and days and weeks and months, and sometimes years of planning, designing, and preparation, and the slow laying of the foundation that’s the hardest part, takes the most time, and for which you get the least credit—but without which there would never be a building and it would never stand.
You can ask any businessman about that: The pleasurable part is the finished product—the shiny new car standing there, the people raving about it. But they don’t see the blood, the sweat, the tears, that lay in the months and years of planning and designing, trial and error, and the preparation that lay behind it. They can’t see the intricate and delicate wiring and mechanical systems beneath the surface, which are far more difficult to install and much more vital to the efficient operation of the car than any nice shiny polish and paint on the surface.
But what really appeals to the people who buy them? It’s the looks of the product—the pretty surface things—the color, the shape, the upholstery. Most people don’t begin to understand the intricate mechanism of the engine, the lights, the ignition system, the transmission system, and all of the other complicated mechanical and electronic parts beneath the surface, which took a lot more time to design and install and make work than the pretty paint and polish.
Even a well-cooked meal takes hours of thought and labor and organization and preparation, and only appears and looks and smells good for a few minutes—and then it’s gone. The consumer can’t possibly appreciate all the time and effort that’s gone into the brief moment that he enjoys it, unless he has been a cook and knows what it is to have to plan the meal, buy the ingredients, and prepare it, cook it, and serve it.
That’s really the way it is with most things in life. A banana is another example. It just appears for a moment. It’s here today and gone tomorrow, and all the hard work of the farmer behind it is invisible! The months or years of clearing, planning, plowing, planting, growing, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, transporting, marketing—all of this is unseen behind that little banana! All we have to do is stick it in our mouth and enjoy it momentarily, without even thinking about the hard work behind it.
I don’t even understand the clothes I have on. I don’t know what it took to have to design this pair of pants—the raising of sheep, shearing, wool gathering, selling it to the thread maker, the spinning of each tiny little thread, and then the intricate weaving of the cloth into complicated designs of different colors!
Think of the elaborate machinery it must have taken—years of planning, invention, design, and labor that have gone into just the making of the cloth. Then the tailor had to design and plan the pants—how to cut the cloth, how to put it together, how to make it fit, what shape it would be, how it would hang, what it would have—pockets, belt straps, zipper, etc., waist size, length, and all these things! We don’t think about most of these things when we buy a pair of pants. All we see is a pair of pants, and we decide whether we like what we see and whether they fit!
All the unseen handiwork, time, thought, and labor behind one pair of pants! We just see it, buy it, wear it, and don’t worry about it! But it took somebody, or a lot of somebodies, years of time and thought and invention and discovery, as well as labor, to produce it.
Every bit of food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings we live in, the vehicles we travel in, and all the little necessities of everyday life are just the brief and temporary visible end products of generations of thought, invention, discovery, experimentation, designing, planning, and producing, by a world of laborers and a world of labor. “We have entered into other men’s labors, and reaped that on which we bestowed no labor.”1 “One planteth, one watereth; but it is God that giveth the increase.”2
God’s behind-the-scene labors are almost totally invisible—the work of His creation that produced the universe and keeps it running, His design and plan for man, His constant care for His creations from the spiritual realm, that behind-the-scenes workshop where God does most of His labor. Set not, therefore, your affections on things of the earth, for the things which are seen are temporal (only temporary, only the slightly visible manifestation of all the unseen work behind them), but the things which are not seen are eternal (the spiritual world which produces them)—the power and planning of God!3 You don’t know how He did it. All you do is enjoy it! You can’t comprehend it. All you do is consume it!
But somebody had to do it. As Dr. Robert Millikan said, “Behind every watch there had to be a watchmaker, and so behind the intricate precision of this great universe there had to be a divine designer and creator.” Even so, behind every great creation, whether of God or man, there had to be worlds of work, planning, preparation, designing, invention, discovery, exploration, organization, and cooperation, in order to produce the final product—the thing that’s seen—which does not begin to reveal the vast unseen labor and the multitudes of laborers behind it!
With the creation of a new nation, a war, a reformation, or a revolution—or any major change in history—somebody had to dream of it before it could happen. Somebody had to have the inspiration, the vision, the faith, the ingenuity, the genius, the spark that kindled the fire. You only see the fire, and thrill and marvel at its glory. You don’t see the work and planning behind it, the problems in gathering materials, figuring out how to start it and keep it going.
Maybe you used to look at a big business and wish you were the boss, to enjoy the glory and the riches, and to get to tell other people what to do! But you'd have been better to work your eight hours and not worry, lest someday you’d become the boss and work at all hours, and have all the worry! Because until you’ve done it, you can’t possibly see all the problems, the difficulties, the obstacles, the troubles, the complications behind it—how hard it is to know what to do, to make decisions, to tell other people what to do, and to be willing to take the blame for the failures as well as the credit for the successes. As Solomon said (and he should know), “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, but the rich cannot sleep, for the abundance of his riches.”4 Because possessions, employees, businesses, and governments are much more responsibility than enjoyment, much more hard work than pleasure.
As the great Scottish poet Bobby Burns wrote as the world was toasting his fame, “Would that I were back with the wee sma’ daisy,” “For the best-laid plans of mice and men aften gang aglae.” He was wishing he were back, a wee small boy again, playing on the heather, gazing in wonder at the tiny flowers, without a care or responsibility in the world, unconcerned about the world around him—a world that didn’t even know he existed! But now that he was famous, he had to worry about his work and his writing, the opinions of man, his successes and failures—and he no longer had the time to enjoy the simple, uncomplicated little things of life, or even the poems about them which had made him great. He was too busy!
Most people don’t realize how much goes into leadership: the years of the school of hard knocks, years of experience, trial and error, success and failure, suffering and tribulation—the years of following, obedience, and training, the innumerable lessons, the grades you had to take over again, the demotions as well as the promotions, the failures as well as the accomplishments, the blame as well as the fame, the unseen labor, the unrealized thought, the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of planning, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the agony with the ecstasy—all that goes into the making of a leader!
Leaders are made, not born. It takes so long to grow into the full bloom of leadership that your actual brief span of leadership is short by comparison to the years of preparation!
Most of the leaders in the Bible tried to get out of the job. It’s too hard, and you’ll never get enough credit for it. Most of your work is unseen and will never be known by anybody but God and you, and perhaps a few of those closest to you. Nearly every great leader in the Bible had to be pushed into it. Only in the folly of this world do men fight each other for fickle fame and fortune, for power, positions, riches, and glory—only to find it doesn’t satisfy!
Like Alexander the Great, who, having conquered all the known world, died drunken and weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer! Or Napoleon, who made all Europe tremble at his feet, but died in exile, whimpering like a baby, just to have his boots pulled on, that he might die like a soldier! Or Caesar, whose friends stabbed him in the back at the pinnacle of fame! All these died in vain! The elusive butterfly of fortune weighed them in the balances and found them wanting! They paid such an awful price for it, when it wasn't worth it. They sacrificed everything for it, only to discover it was ashes between their teeth! Husks... Husks... Husks... Like the Prodigal Son in the swine pit, with nothing left but the “husks that the swine did eat.”5
At least God’s leaders, who pay the same price and make the same sacrifices, can look forward to eternal rewards and everlasting glory, and can die with a feeling of genuine permanent accomplishment, from a lifetime of investment in His work, that will reap eternal dividends hereafter!
Most of your sufferings, your sacrifices, and your years of labor will never be appreciated in this life, nor realized by others until the rewards are handed out in heaven, and the medals are pinned on at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, and the cities are distributed in the Millennium.
Just thank God for your leaders. When the time comes when you see the job that has to be done and there is nobody else to do it but you, and you know you have to do it, God will have prepared you. When it’s God’s will, God’s plan, you’re ready—even if you don’t feel like it! Ready because of the long preparation, planning, designing, and making of a man by the hand of God.
As Kipling said, “If you can meet success and failure, and treat these two impostors the same ... then you’ll be a man, my son.”—Simply because you have the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing the will of God, that you were made for the job, that you can’t help it, you have to do it! He expects it of you!
After all the years in the making, preparation, and planning, you may only be a brief flare which lights up the landscape for a moment in the heat of battle, that the victory may be won. But that lifetime of preparation is worth it all, even if only for that “moment of truth” and recognition by the Lord, that moment of usefulness that you were designed for, that day when you stood in the gap, that hour when you met the need, that time when you fulfilled your mission. And you can hear His, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of your Lord!”6
You’ll never fully appreciate your leaders until you have to join them in leadership! We’ll probably never fully appreciate God until we join Him in glory and see what it really cost Him: How much time it took, what infinite care and love and patience. How much unseen labor went into the end product—little old insignificant you and me! Praise His name forever! “All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who hath borne all our sins and hath cleansed every stain!”7
“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”8
Originally published December 1970. Revised and republished February 2012.
TFI
1 John 4:38.
2 1 Corinthians 3:6–7.
3 Colossians 3:1–2; 2 Corinthians 4:18.
4 Ecclesiastes 5:12.
5 Luke 15:16.
6 Matthew 25:21.
7 From "Revive us Again" by William Mackay and John Husband, 1863.
8 Hebrews 12:1–2.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Patience Is Tough!
By Phil Lynch
What is it about patience that God seems so intent that we learn it? Yesterday my wife and I were in the supermarket for what we thought would be a quick in and out. We queued up in the express lane to check out, and there was a glitch with the customer in front of us. The scanner malfunctioned and wanted to charge her $20 for two tomatoes. And it took about 20 minutes before the glitch was worked out and we could proceed with our checkout.
Funnily enough, a few days before this we had both been reading about patience, and the author had made the comment that we are destined to spend a lot of life waiting; therefore we might as well learn to be patient, because we are going to have to be whether we like it or not. And she specifically talked about waiting gracefully in checkout lines.
It was not exactly convenient for us to just wait in line, because we had things to do and places to be. But there was no getting around it unless we wanted to pull out of our line and go to one of the other long lines on what was a crowded Christmas-season shopping day. And so we waited. I think we took it gracefully. A little agitated perhaps, but we tried not to show it.
But why is our learning patience so important to God that He tests us on it on pretty much a daily basis? Granted, patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit—so it is an attribute of God—and God wants us to become godly, like Him. So perhaps that is enough in itself. But I suspect it is more than that.
We are going to be eternal beings. Spiritually, once we are born again we have eternal life, so we are eternal already; but because our current physical body is mortal, it is not eternal and has an end. But our spirits, although created at a point of time, will have no end. Whether we will continue to exist in time or exist in a future timelessness, either way we will have a lot of “time” on our hands. “Hey, when is John coming over?” “Maybe in like a century. He wasn't specific.” See what I mean? So is learning patience a requisite for being happy in such an environment? I suspect it is.
The author of the book of Hebrews writes that in heaven the righteous are made perfect; in other words, complete.1 It seems our time in this life is very important for us to learn the skills needed to be complete. And that learning process can be pretty frustrating. But if we get only one chance at this particular type of life, then it behooves us to come out of it with the skills and attitudes that life is trying to instill in us.
The other day I was watching a show in which a panel of believers—I think there was a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim—were trying to make the case against abortion. The Christian stated that he thought that God in His mercy would take the aborted immediately to heaven. A well-known atheist comedienne in the audience (apparently a plant) was then given the mike. She said something to the intent that the Christian should then be happy that the unborn made it straight to heaven, and why was he making such a fuss about abortion if the end result in his eyes was of so much benefit to the aborted? I wasn't able to see his response, as I was called away, but that encounter started me puzzling over that issue. Although I understood that good can come from evil, was this really for the best of the aborted?
But then it occurred to me that even though they were in heaven, they really hadn't gotten the best outcome. Yes, they are in an exquisitely wonderful place we call heaven. Yes, they like it there; anyone would. But they have been deprived of the opportunity to learn the lessons and for their characters to be shaped in ways that can only be learned and be shaped by experiences on earth. Learning life lessons is not always fun, or even generally so. Experience can be a hard schoolmaster, but if we can learn and pass the tests, then we are the better for it.
Here's a shocker, or at least it was to me: I have come to understand that getting to heaven as it now is, is not the goal. It is only a stage and a respite. To travel the journey of life, though, is a goal all its own, and maybe it will be the more important one. Dying and going to heaven is arriving at only a way station. It is a temporary place. The greater goal, and the one we are in training for, is beyond that. It is when the kingdom of God comes to earth at Christ's second coming and when we receive our new super bodies. Our training in this life is to prepare us for that, and that is why it is important for everyone to have a chance at this life.
And so I come back to patience, the current issue that God is working with me on. People will tell you I am generally an easygoing, roll-with-the-punches, don't-get-frazzled kind of guy, the kind of person one would suspect is just patient by nature. But lately I have come to see that that type of patience is superficial; it doesn't really have much endurance. And I must confess that I have been less than patient regarding waiting on God. He has told me that at the moment waiting is what He wants me to do. But regrettably, I am wearing a bit thin.
There is a fine line between laziness and waiting, and at times I am not sure which one applies to me. I don't want to be lazy, so I am trying to figure how I can be productive with side issues and still wait. But I don't think that is what the Lord wants. For some reason He wants me to wait expectantly and be ready when the time comes. He wants me to keep training at my calling and not get off on a side track that may keep me preoccupied but lessen my readiness. And so I learn patience, and I pray that she is having her perfect work, that I may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.2
1 Hebrews 12:23.
2 James 1:2–4 KJV.
Published by the Family International
What is it about patience that God seems so intent that we learn it? Yesterday my wife and I were in the supermarket for what we thought would be a quick in and out. We queued up in the express lane to check out, and there was a glitch with the customer in front of us. The scanner malfunctioned and wanted to charge her $20 for two tomatoes. And it took about 20 minutes before the glitch was worked out and we could proceed with our checkout.
Funnily enough, a few days before this we had both been reading about patience, and the author had made the comment that we are destined to spend a lot of life waiting; therefore we might as well learn to be patient, because we are going to have to be whether we like it or not. And she specifically talked about waiting gracefully in checkout lines.
It was not exactly convenient for us to just wait in line, because we had things to do and places to be. But there was no getting around it unless we wanted to pull out of our line and go to one of the other long lines on what was a crowded Christmas-season shopping day. And so we waited. I think we took it gracefully. A little agitated perhaps, but we tried not to show it.
But why is our learning patience so important to God that He tests us on it on pretty much a daily basis? Granted, patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit—so it is an attribute of God—and God wants us to become godly, like Him. So perhaps that is enough in itself. But I suspect it is more than that.
We are going to be eternal beings. Spiritually, once we are born again we have eternal life, so we are eternal already; but because our current physical body is mortal, it is not eternal and has an end. But our spirits, although created at a point of time, will have no end. Whether we will continue to exist in time or exist in a future timelessness, either way we will have a lot of “time” on our hands. “Hey, when is John coming over?” “Maybe in like a century. He wasn't specific.” See what I mean? So is learning patience a requisite for being happy in such an environment? I suspect it is.
The author of the book of Hebrews writes that in heaven the righteous are made perfect; in other words, complete.1 It seems our time in this life is very important for us to learn the skills needed to be complete. And that learning process can be pretty frustrating. But if we get only one chance at this particular type of life, then it behooves us to come out of it with the skills and attitudes that life is trying to instill in us.
The other day I was watching a show in which a panel of believers—I think there was a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim—were trying to make the case against abortion. The Christian stated that he thought that God in His mercy would take the aborted immediately to heaven. A well-known atheist comedienne in the audience (apparently a plant) was then given the mike. She said something to the intent that the Christian should then be happy that the unborn made it straight to heaven, and why was he making such a fuss about abortion if the end result in his eyes was of so much benefit to the aborted? I wasn't able to see his response, as I was called away, but that encounter started me puzzling over that issue. Although I understood that good can come from evil, was this really for the best of the aborted?
But then it occurred to me that even though they were in heaven, they really hadn't gotten the best outcome. Yes, they are in an exquisitely wonderful place we call heaven. Yes, they like it there; anyone would. But they have been deprived of the opportunity to learn the lessons and for their characters to be shaped in ways that can only be learned and be shaped by experiences on earth. Learning life lessons is not always fun, or even generally so. Experience can be a hard schoolmaster, but if we can learn and pass the tests, then we are the better for it.
Here's a shocker, or at least it was to me: I have come to understand that getting to heaven as it now is, is not the goal. It is only a stage and a respite. To travel the journey of life, though, is a goal all its own, and maybe it will be the more important one. Dying and going to heaven is arriving at only a way station. It is a temporary place. The greater goal, and the one we are in training for, is beyond that. It is when the kingdom of God comes to earth at Christ's second coming and when we receive our new super bodies. Our training in this life is to prepare us for that, and that is why it is important for everyone to have a chance at this life.
And so I come back to patience, the current issue that God is working with me on. People will tell you I am generally an easygoing, roll-with-the-punches, don't-get-frazzled kind of guy, the kind of person one would suspect is just patient by nature. But lately I have come to see that that type of patience is superficial; it doesn't really have much endurance. And I must confess that I have been less than patient regarding waiting on God. He has told me that at the moment waiting is what He wants me to do. But regrettably, I am wearing a bit thin.
There is a fine line between laziness and waiting, and at times I am not sure which one applies to me. I don't want to be lazy, so I am trying to figure how I can be productive with side issues and still wait. But I don't think that is what the Lord wants. For some reason He wants me to wait expectantly and be ready when the time comes. He wants me to keep training at my calling and not get off on a side track that may keep me preoccupied but lessen my readiness. And so I learn patience, and I pray that she is having her perfect work, that I may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.2
1 Hebrews 12:23.
2 James 1:2–4 KJV.
Published by the Family International
The Mountain Lodge
Adapted from a message from Jesus
Picture yourself on a rugged, windswept mountain path. The boughs of the fir trees sag under the weight of fallen snow. This is no beginner’s trail. It’s steep and rocky and there are treacherous crevasses and gullies. It’s snowing so hard that you can’t see very far ahead. When the snow lets up momentarily, the sky is gray and bleak. Your path isn’t marked and you’re not traveling with a guide, so you have to go by sight and intuition.
You trudge onward, knowing that the hardest is yet to come. There will be even steeper grades and less visibility. You’ll come to places where you must use your climbing equipment just to be able to hold on to the mountain. Even now it takes every ounce of your strength to press onward. Your muscles ache and your face stings from the cold. The wind causes tears to form, then blows them from the corners of your eyes and they turn to beads of ice on your cheeks. Your hands are numb. But you have great courage and tenacity, and you are spurred on by a tremendous compulsion to reach the peak. These obstacles can’t stop you. You forge onward.
Still, your strength is waning. You’re being stretched to the limit in body and spirit, and deep down inside you wonder if you can make it.
Just then, through the trees, you see a glimmer of light. As you move on, the forest parts and there’s a mountain lodge, a sort of way station for travelers. It’s built of logs, with a steep pitched roof and wide overhang. It looks so warm, so inviting.
There are probably hot drinks inside—perhaps coffee or tea or hot chocolate, perhaps even brandy, you think.
Smoke from the chimney tells you that a fire is burning in the fireplace. As you get closer, the fire flickers and gleams through a break in the curtains at the window. You hear people laughing inside as they eat and drink, and you catch glimpses of them. It’s so warm inside that they don’t even have their jackets on. The lodge is like an island of warmth, cheer, and encouragement in the middle of the snowstorm.
You pause for a moment to observe the travelers inside, who are getting warmed, refreshed, strengthened, and rested for the rest of the journey. Maybe they’re exchanging information about what lies ahead or tips on how to make it the rest of the way, you think. Or maybe this is their first time too, but there are guides inside who know the way, the pitfalls, and dangers, who are advising them of the safest and quickest route.
And there’s food inside—good, hearty, nourishing food. You’ve been hungry for so long that you can hardly even remember what it’s like to enjoy a warm meal. You’ve just been eating trail snacks along the way because you didn’t want to stop long enough to fix anything more substantial.
There are probably guest rooms where you could nap or even spend the night. The place seems to have everything a weary traveler might need. You feel drawn by the happy voices inside. You could use some companionship and a chance to compare notes, draw encouragement, and learn from fellow travelers.
Yet, as you survey the lodge and consider the benefits it offers, you have second thoughts. You’ve got to keep up your momentum, you reason. Sure, your muscles ache, you’re half-starved, and your extremities are numb and stinging with cold. But stop? That’s for weaklings and quitters. You can make it. You’d rather find the way yourself. You’ll get a little more glory that way.
A little voice inside you says, “What if you don’t make it? What if you take a wrong turn? What if you have an accident because you didn’t know the danger points? What if you run out of strength?” But you ignore this voice that is telling you to stop and get rested and refreshed at that lodge.
Onward you press, into the dark forest and the blizzard, up the menacing mountain. It’s better to go it alone, you reason, relying on sheer determination to carry you through to the end.
And that’s the last you’re seen or heard from.
It’s hard to imagine anyone doing such a thing, but this is actually what many of us do in spirit when we’re faced with difficult challenges and when a rest in the warm and caring arms of Jesus could make all the difference. He has given us everything we need to make the rewarding yet sometimes difficult and perilous journey of life—His Word, prayer, communion with Him, and Christian fellowship and partnership—yet so many of us try to make the journey on our own. If we stopped for spiritual rest, we’d find food for our soul, fellowship with Jesus, and answers to our problems in His Word and through prayer. We’d find guidance from helpers who know the way.
Why then do we ignore this help and go it alone? Does pride get the better of us? Is it partly because we don’t want to admit that we’re not sufficient in ourselves—that we need Jesus, the guidance of His Word, and the help of fellow Christians?
And so we trudge on, and oh, the way is so difficult!
Jesus can’t take away the steepness of the climb or the difficulty of the path, but He can make your journey easier. These rest stops with Him along the way will make the journey a joy because you’ll have the strength to meet each challenge as it comes.
Listen to His call in your heart, “Stop at My lodge, won’t you? Have a cup of comfort with Me. Warm yourself by the fireplace of My Word. Learn from those who have gone before you. Rest in one of My big comfortable beds. Then you’ll be ready to start out again. And when you reach the mountaintop, you’ll rejoice at the breathtaking view and drink from crystal-clear mountain pools—and you’ll return to tell others how they can get there too.”
Originally published April 2001. Republished January 2012. TFI
Picture yourself on a rugged, windswept mountain path. The boughs of the fir trees sag under the weight of fallen snow. This is no beginner’s trail. It’s steep and rocky and there are treacherous crevasses and gullies. It’s snowing so hard that you can’t see very far ahead. When the snow lets up momentarily, the sky is gray and bleak. Your path isn’t marked and you’re not traveling with a guide, so you have to go by sight and intuition.
You trudge onward, knowing that the hardest is yet to come. There will be even steeper grades and less visibility. You’ll come to places where you must use your climbing equipment just to be able to hold on to the mountain. Even now it takes every ounce of your strength to press onward. Your muscles ache and your face stings from the cold. The wind causes tears to form, then blows them from the corners of your eyes and they turn to beads of ice on your cheeks. Your hands are numb. But you have great courage and tenacity, and you are spurred on by a tremendous compulsion to reach the peak. These obstacles can’t stop you. You forge onward.
Still, your strength is waning. You’re being stretched to the limit in body and spirit, and deep down inside you wonder if you can make it.
Just then, through the trees, you see a glimmer of light. As you move on, the forest parts and there’s a mountain lodge, a sort of way station for travelers. It’s built of logs, with a steep pitched roof and wide overhang. It looks so warm, so inviting.
There are probably hot drinks inside—perhaps coffee or tea or hot chocolate, perhaps even brandy, you think.
Smoke from the chimney tells you that a fire is burning in the fireplace. As you get closer, the fire flickers and gleams through a break in the curtains at the window. You hear people laughing inside as they eat and drink, and you catch glimpses of them. It’s so warm inside that they don’t even have their jackets on. The lodge is like an island of warmth, cheer, and encouragement in the middle of the snowstorm.
You pause for a moment to observe the travelers inside, who are getting warmed, refreshed, strengthened, and rested for the rest of the journey. Maybe they’re exchanging information about what lies ahead or tips on how to make it the rest of the way, you think. Or maybe this is their first time too, but there are guides inside who know the way, the pitfalls, and dangers, who are advising them of the safest and quickest route.
And there’s food inside—good, hearty, nourishing food. You’ve been hungry for so long that you can hardly even remember what it’s like to enjoy a warm meal. You’ve just been eating trail snacks along the way because you didn’t want to stop long enough to fix anything more substantial.
There are probably guest rooms where you could nap or even spend the night. The place seems to have everything a weary traveler might need. You feel drawn by the happy voices inside. You could use some companionship and a chance to compare notes, draw encouragement, and learn from fellow travelers.
Yet, as you survey the lodge and consider the benefits it offers, you have second thoughts. You’ve got to keep up your momentum, you reason. Sure, your muscles ache, you’re half-starved, and your extremities are numb and stinging with cold. But stop? That’s for weaklings and quitters. You can make it. You’d rather find the way yourself. You’ll get a little more glory that way.
A little voice inside you says, “What if you don’t make it? What if you take a wrong turn? What if you have an accident because you didn’t know the danger points? What if you run out of strength?” But you ignore this voice that is telling you to stop and get rested and refreshed at that lodge.
Onward you press, into the dark forest and the blizzard, up the menacing mountain. It’s better to go it alone, you reason, relying on sheer determination to carry you through to the end.
And that’s the last you’re seen or heard from.
It’s hard to imagine anyone doing such a thing, but this is actually what many of us do in spirit when we’re faced with difficult challenges and when a rest in the warm and caring arms of Jesus could make all the difference. He has given us everything we need to make the rewarding yet sometimes difficult and perilous journey of life—His Word, prayer, communion with Him, and Christian fellowship and partnership—yet so many of us try to make the journey on our own. If we stopped for spiritual rest, we’d find food for our soul, fellowship with Jesus, and answers to our problems in His Word and through prayer. We’d find guidance from helpers who know the way.
Why then do we ignore this help and go it alone? Does pride get the better of us? Is it partly because we don’t want to admit that we’re not sufficient in ourselves—that we need Jesus, the guidance of His Word, and the help of fellow Christians?
And so we trudge on, and oh, the way is so difficult!
Jesus can’t take away the steepness of the climb or the difficulty of the path, but He can make your journey easier. These rest stops with Him along the way will make the journey a joy because you’ll have the strength to meet each challenge as it comes.
Listen to His call in your heart, “Stop at My lodge, won’t you? Have a cup of comfort with Me. Warm yourself by the fireplace of My Word. Learn from those who have gone before you. Rest in one of My big comfortable beds. Then you’ll be ready to start out again. And when you reach the mountaintop, you’ll rejoice at the breathtaking view and drink from crystal-clear mountain pools—and you’ll return to tell others how they can get there too.”
Originally published April 2001. Republished January 2012. TFI
