Hi pastor John,
I was at a seminar today listening to a scientist at our company talk about new technologies that are being developed to image tumor cells in cancer patients prior to and during surgery. He made a very convincing argument for this new fluorescent imaging technology, describing his own personal experience with his son-in-law, who now has cancer throughout his body because each of the seven surgeries to remove the cancer had missed enough to allow for the cancer to spread. In his emotional presentation, this scientist, whom I happen to know is a fairly devout Christian, was putting all of his faith and all of his hope into this technology, to save future cancer patients from the pain & suffering that his son-in-law endured.
It’s wonderful the things that are being done to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases, but I wondered where he thought the cancer came from? Or where he thought the wisdom for new therapies, methods of early detection, etc. come from? I couldn’t help but think about Uncle Joe, who was completely cured of cancer, which was spread completely throughout his entire body.
While I was pondering these things afterwards, I had a thought which I feel like came from the Spirit: “We can’t believe that we can be healed unless we believe that Jesus may have afflicted us with the very thing for which we are asking healing.”
Does this sound right to you? I know I have heard you teach on this and I know God is in control, but are there afflictions, diseases, suffering, etc., that don’t come from God (either on His children or anyone else)?
[Name Withheld]
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Hi —-.
In light of what the Bible clearly teaches, from Genesis to Revelation, I am convinced that those who deny that God is in absolutely control of their circumstances are victims of pride and ignorance. Pride, because humans do not want to face the fact that we are by nature “desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). And ignorant because they do not know how holy God is and how great an offense to His holiness our sin is. “The wages of sin is death”; therefore, faith in God sees whatever we suffer before we die as designed by God to help us humble ourselves and prepare for death.
Who can read Deuteronomy 28, or the book of Job (carefully), or even consider Jesus sent by the Father to the cross, and not see that God was in perfect control of every affliction and suffering of His people? One seminary professor taught our class that God would not afflict children. David didn’t know that, and when God struck his first child by Bathsheba dead, David knew it was for his sin that the child died, and that God had done it. When the prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin, he said, “because you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that is born of you shall die!” And in the next verse, the author of 2Samuel had no qualms about saying, “And the Lord struck the child, and it was very sick” (2Sam. 12:15).
Any time I hear a man begin a sentence with, “God would never…”, I know that man does not know God. God will do whatever He pleases, whenever He pleases, to whomever He pleases, for as long as He pleases to do it. Psalms tells us that “whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth.” It has never been any other way. He may or He may not use someone else to carry out His design, but God is always in charge of His creation and everything thing in it, and who “works all things for good to them who love Him and are the called according to His purpose.”
I recall the words of Job, after he had lost everything, including his children and his health: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,” but even more important is the Bible’s immediate assessment of Job’s words: “In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job. 2:21-22). In the end, God Himself testified on Job’s behalf, that Job had said “right things” about Him (Job. 42:7).
If we humble ourselves, we will “get the gold” from our trials, as Job did, and we will eventually look back and thank God for whatever valley He designed for us. Jesus begged the Father not to make him suffer crucifixion, but I suspect that afterwards, he was glad the Father’s will was done instead of his own. On the other hand, if we are proud, we will rebel against God’s will, fail to attain to God’s good purpose, and become bitter, even cruel toward those whom He used in our trial.
If God has numbered the hairs of our head, as Jesus said, surely He has designed all the other circumstances of our lives. I would hate to think that he spends His time counting hairs on our heads, but is not attentive to how we feel, or whether we are well in need.
Pastor John
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Pastor John, thank you [for your reply].
The following statement from your reply concerns me, and it is something I have prayed about many times:
“On the other hand, if we are proud, we will rebel against God’s will, fail to attain to God’s good purpose, and become bitter, even cruel toward those whom He used in our trial.”
I know in my mind that the past year, with my divorce and the situation with my (ex) wife, my children, the family counselor, lawyers, and everyone else involved, was designed by God. But I don’t know if I have really taken that to heart and gotten the gold out of this trial. There have been many times where I have felt angry and resentful towards her – and even now when I think on all of the events of the past year, those feelings still get stirred up in me.
Does this mean that I have been proud and rebelled against God’s will for me? Is this the bitterness that you are talking about?
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From everything I have seen from you, and I have followed your situation fairly closely, no one could say that you have rebelled against God’s will to be patient and kind. If anything, you have fallen short in the “be angry” category. I think you could have benefited from feeling more anger, from the very beginning of the abuse you suffered at the hands of your former wife. She misled you, lied about you, turned your children and even your own mother against you, and God only who knows who else in your town, while you did not contest anything. You were not even going to hire a lawyer until I talked you into it. Even then, you have given in to the vast majority of her demands, trying to show her and others that you were a good person, trying to serve Jesus and harm no one. If you have rebelled, it has been against God’s will that you stand up for what is right about yourself as well as for what is right about Him.
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I want so much to be able to get past it all, and “love my enemies and treat well those who hate me”, but in my heart I just haven’t felt that forgiveness – even knowing that God is the one who used my wife and everyone else to get me where I’m at right now.
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Loving our enemies has nothing to do with forgiving our enemies. You can love them, and you do, but forgiveness comes from God; it is God’s response to repentance. Your wife has not even begun to feel regret for her cruel abuse of your heart, and the hearts of your children and others, and for her taking advantage of your sincere efforts to be a good husband and father.
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You have taught us that we should not try to forgive someone who has not repented.
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Not really. You can try all you want to. But genuine forgiveness does not exist where there is no repentance because God alone creates forgiveness, and He has never created it for someone who does not repent. What I have taught you is that we have no power to create forgiveness where none exists. We would forgive everybody if we could; but that is God’s work, not ours, and it is our duty, and privilege, to wait on God and do as He does.
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Is it possible to love and treat your enemy well, but to never forgive them (if they never repent)?
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That is what I am saying. Until sinners repent, what else can we do but follow God’s example?
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I guess I’m still a little fuzzy on the difference between love and forgiveness, and how they pertain to our enemies, our acquaintances (who are sinners), and our brothers & sisters in Christ.
[Name Withheld]
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I hope this clears it up for you.
jdc
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Ok, the forgiveness part makes more sense to me now. We can say we have forgiven someone (as we hear people say all the time), or desire to forgive someone all we want, but it really means nothing without God granting the forgiveness. I love this: “genuine forgiveness is God’s response to repentance.” (not man’s).
And, though different from forgiveness, truly loving your enemies and doing good to those who hate you are also things that can only be felt/done in response to the Spirit leading. Right? What happens if someone were to try to do good for an enemy (or friend, for that matter) – but only because they think it’s “the right thing to do” rather than waiting to hear from God? Let’s see, I think (maybe) I can answer my own question, based on what we’ve learned from Job: “trying to do good” in the flesh will only do harm to the person trying to do the good and the person receiving it. Because without the Spirit letting us know, in any given circumstance, what is good or what is evil, it is impossible to know if what we are doing is good or bad.
Sorry, sort of asking and thinking aloud at the same time here. I just want to make sure I have a good understanding of how God sees forgiveness, love, doing good for others, etc. Thanks again!
[Name Withheld]
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Great question . . . and answer!
There are times to “do good for those who hate you, etc.” But sometimes, people have actually provoked God’s wrath by being good to certain people whom God hated, such as King Ahab when he showed mercy to Benhadad, the wicked king of Syria (1Kgs. 20:20-43), and King Jehoshaphat when he made an alliance with King Ahab and helped him in in battle (2Chron. 18). In the latter case, God sent a prophet (called a “seer”) to rebuke Jehoshaphat: “And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and he said to king Jehoshaphat, ‘Should you help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? Therefore is wrath upon you from before the LORD!’”
jdc