Sometimes I like to flip to random places in my bible and read random verses. Today my thumb landed on Habakkuk 3:17-18:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail,
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold,
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
(In other words, “Though life really sucks . . .”)
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
This made me think of a friend of ours who was disillusioned by the Christian Walk when he “did everything right” but, despite his efforts, things didn’t turn out how he’d hoped. Because of this, he walked away from the Lord, saying, “I tried the ‘Christian thing’ and, obviously, it doesn’t work.” (As if God is someone we can summon down from heaven at any given moment and command to do whatever we want Him to do.)
Incidentally, our young friend was a product of fallacious Bill Gothard teaching, i.e., “do these ten things and everything will go well for you” or “if you just follow this list of things to do, God will reward you, and you will be successful.”
Frankly, I don’t see anywhere in scripture where a Christian is promised “success” defined as health, wealth, fame, beauty, happiness, etc. On the contrary, many godly Christians in scripture were expected to endure torture, hunger, loneliness, famine, violence, etc. Although, as Christians, we experience many blessings (I wouldn’t want to go throughout life without the hope, peace, and joy I have as a Christian), none of us are guaranteed external abundance or happiness, as the world defines it.
The true test of our love for God lies in how much faith we have in Him when we go through trials and hardships. The true test of our devotion to God is evidenced when we can praise Him and, even “rejoice” in Him, though we have absolutely nothing.
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6 comments:
You have impeccable timing. My women’s Bible study at church is starting on Habakkuk this next week. “Moving from worry to worship.” (a topic I need to work on! ;-) ) I really appreciate your comments. It is nice to know I’m not the only one that thinks about these things. ~Alison
Slate has an interesting article that we commented on over at Mod-Blog (http://mod-blog.blogspot.com/2005/01/santa-clause-god.html) Basically, the author over at Slate took the stance, "We've tried thanking God for saving people in disasters and we still get more disasters. Maybe we should try hating/ignoring God and that will work."
On the same topic, we talked in Bible study this past week about "Train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it." Many people look at this as a promise. Instead, it's an admonition. Children, as we all are, are prone to go the way we shouldn't go. If we don't train up children in the way they should go, they won't go the way they should. If we do train them up, we are giving them the tools they need to make the right choice. It isn't guaranteed they will go that way, but they are at least given the tools to make the choice.
Speaking of Bill Gothard...just this fall at a conference, the preacher we listened to for a seminar told of some great things Bill is doing right now...but more than that, Bill is learning from this preacher, and maybe some others, more about what the WHOLE Bible says! We know folks who went his route but the outcomes with their children have not been good...yet. Some of his materials are good to use for homeschoolers...but we are not the "join up and be told what to do kind" of folks so we did not go that path.
But the project that we find so interesting is that he and some partners are setting up some colleges that actually honor God...as you know there are few of those...and that will go into the sciences, medicine, etc. to help the homeschooler kids have some good choices. Michael Farris has a good one for some fields...our kids all are science majors...so we could not go that route. But we are glad that even if these colleges are not here yet for our kids...they will be for others! One is to be in Jerusalem, one in Mexico, and one someplace in either Florida or Georgia, as well as be set up to be correspondence schools so much as is possible for those kids who would rather live at home...at least that is what we were told.
Thought you might find this interesting....plus hearing that Bill is changing in his old age even...that is not easy. There were some downright angry folks in the audience whose families had been ripped apart by belonging to his group...and the preacher said to give Bill some time...he won't be able to right all things right away...it will take some time...so it will be interesting to see how this all goes!
Elizabeth
Just a comment... Bill never says "do this and you will have success in whatever". He says "this is what I learned were principles to help with this situation". Success is entirely up to you. Bill is often misunderstood and beaten down on for things, but the bottom line is, he is a very wise, Godly man who, just like everyone else, makes mistakes sometimes. He has been a big influence on my life, and I am not one to blindly follow anyone.
Sorry to hijack your excellent post, Amy, but this is always a hot topic...
When you have many people saying the same thing about a given organization, especially those who grew up with it, shouldn't you stop and re-evaluate the pat opinion that "that isn't what he teaches"? A recurring problem can be traced to a common source, and IBLP has produced spiritually crippled people who all say the same thing: We were taught how to do things so everything would go right, and if it didn't go right, it was our fault.
I don't think IBLP is any more dangerous than most insular groups who think they have the whole truth. No one can grow up with a spotless spiritual experience, and I did reap good from those years. But there were some serious errors that I imbibed, and it gets monotonous to hear IBLP defended in exactly the same words every time regardless of what dissenters have to say. Bill likes to support his teaching with stories of How This Worked. Well, doesn't it have weight when others testify of How It Didn't Work?
So, right, back to Amy -- it's such a hard thing to rejoice when times are bad. Or even when they're inconvenient. But you're right: we're not promised a good life, merely a life with hope. It's a hard truth, but somewhat freeing, and I think it will take a lifetime to learn it. -- SJ
>>> Bill never says "do this and you will have success in whatever". >>>
Well, here's a direct quote from his website: "God promises that if we carry out one particular spiritual exercise we will have success in everything we do." (See http://www.iblp.com/iblp/seminars/basic/conflicts/).
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