Archive for the ‘Bus Tour’ Category
On the Road Again
After a great weekend of preaching through Revelation 14, we left Tuesday morning on the second (final!) leg of our Bus Tour with Walk in the Word. This week, I have 40-some pastors from Harvest Bible Chapel traveling with me and the Worship Team. Praise God for the lives that He is changing for eternity in every city on the tour.
God at Work on the Road
Hey, I just got home from the first of two bus tours with Walk in the Word. 10 cities in 11 days. Great time, but it’s good to be home. I preached at Harvest over the weekend. And I’ll be teaching at Harvest University for the next three days . . . then back in the pulpit next weekend. On April 27, we travel to Indianapolis to kick off the second bus tour. 8 more cities in 10 days. I’m fired up just thinking about it.
My son, Landon, put together a video blog of our trip. See what God’s been doing. Check this one out from Asheville, North Carolina . . .
To see all of the videos, check out this link.
Consider Your Trials . . . What?
I’d like to nominate James 1:2 as one of the most outrageous statements in the Bible.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Count it all . . . joy?
That is what James wrote, through the inspiration of God’s Spirit, but it doesn’t add up from our perspective. Getting a more biblical definition of joy really helps make sense of the encouragement to find joy when life is hard. Joy is something very different than what we commonly refer to as happiness. So when Scripture says, “Count is all joy,” the Lord is not saying, “Be happy about your trials.”
You cannot make yourself joyful. Joy only comes from God. When James says, “Consider it all joy,” he’s telling you, “Reach out to God. Get God’s heart in this matter.”
So, what is joy? Here’s a definition: Joy is a supernatural delight in the Person, purposes, and people of God.
“Count it all joy . . . when you meet trials” (v. 2, italics added). The New King James Version translates “when you meet” a little bit better: “when you fall into.” Because that’s how it happens, right? I was going along. Life was just rockin’ out, then BAM! I was flat on my face. I did not even see it coming!” Is that how it’s been for you? That’s been part of the pain for the MacDonalds—people we trusted, circumstances we couldn’t see, events beyond our control and . . . surprise! But here the Word of God is honest and true to reality.
“Of various kinds” (v. 2b). In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, various kinds is the same phrase that is used to describe Joseph’s coat of many colors. Our trials are very different. My trials are different from yours. Some trials are tough and some are tragic. Some are difficult and some are devastating.
Watch out for the temptation to think, I wish I had her trial! It’s never helpful to compare God’s work in others to what He’s doing in and around you. To do so is to question God’s wisdom in what trials He allows into someone else’s life. That is a very bad plan. Don’t get between the hammer and the work on that one. Just leave other people’s situations with God and focus on what He is doing in you.
“For you know that the testing of your faith produces . . .” (v. 3). If you don’t know it now, you will know it tomorrow. Trials separate men from the boys; sheep from the goats; wheat from the tares. The proof of whether you are a true follower of Christ often comes with trials.
When life is hard, you discover whether you’re really in Christ or just an imposter who showed up for a sunny day at the beach. Matthew 7:20 declares, “By their fruits you will know them” (NKJV). One of the fruits of a genuine believer is that you endure hardship. You continue. You don’t give up.
Defection is proof of a false conversion. John said in 1 John 2:19 (NASB), “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” When the heat is turned up, false believers run in a hurry. That’s why I thank God for Bible-teaching churches that actually deepen people’s faith. Otherwise when trials come, a lot of people who have been served up pep talks from smiley preachers will bolt for the exits. They didn’t lose their salvation; they never had it as their response to hard times testifies.
You say, “Okay, so my hard times are testing my faith, but what benefits do they bring me beyond a confidence in my conversion?” More to come.
Why Trials?
Hey, I am on the road today heading toward the first stop of a bus tour with Walk in the Word. You can follow the trip at WalkintheWord.com/bustour. Please join us at a stop on the tour if you live near one of those cities.
Anyway, my message on the tour is about trials. Why trials, you might ask? In the New Testament, the Greek word has the idea of proving through testing. An event that demonstrates the genuineness of your faith in Christ and refines the quality of your spiritual life. By studying the term in all of scripture and by experiencing quite a few of my own, I’ve come up with this definition:
A trial is a painful circumstance allowed by God to change my conduct and my character.
My conduct—that’s what I do. And then to a deeper level, my character—that’s who I am.
Trials are about what God is adjusting in the actions I choose, and what God is doing to the character that helps me choose the actions. Several of the biblical terms covering this concept or kind of interchangeable: suffering, hardship, tribulation, chastising, and discipline. Trials are hard times!
These hard times vary both in intensity and duration. Tribulation can take you by storm, fast and furious. Or a trial can stretch over months or years or, in some instances, decades. It can be small and irritation or huge and shattering.
The thing we know for sure about trials is that all God’s children experience them.
In fact, if you’re one of God’s children, you’re going through a trial right now. Some size. Some shape. It is the most difficult aspect of your life: Is it physical? Is it relational? Is it economical? Is it emotional? Is it circumstantial?
It’s hard to argue with Hebrews 12:11? “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but afterward it yeilds the peaceful fruit of righteousness [a synonym for holiness] to those who have been trained by it”
To make the most of the Lord’s discipline through trials, remember these three things:
1. The pain is momentary. This is not going to go on forever. Better days are ahead. God won’t let it go on one minute more than it needs to.
2. The profit is immense. You will receive “the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” the practical quality of godly living—a bushel of blessing, a barn full of bounty. My mom recently told me, “I wouldn’t want to be the person I would have been were it not for my trials.” Wow, that’s it!
3. The promise is conditional. The peaceful fruit of righteousness comes “to those who have been trained by it.” Your trial can train you for righteousness. I hate the thought that I ‘m wasting my time here or going through this pain for no purpose. Make sure your not just ‘gutting it out.’ Make sure you are actually being ‘trained’ by your trial or it will go on too long and you’ll have to come back to it again.
Why trials? Because the God who loves you and saved you through His wonderful son Jesus, is also committed to changing you and He is using the painful circumstances of life to accomplish that purpose it you. Make sure your cooperating through submission and letting God have his way today.
James
