Session 8: Suffering for the joy set before you Part2

John Piper started the session of how words as used by teenagers come and go. He observed that only the word “cool” has been used for a very long time. He narrated the lives of Jack Lucas and Ray Dollins, both of them lived their lives during World War II. Piper exclaimed that what both of these young men did was “cool”. Jack Lucas was only 14 years old when joined the marines, but in those days you have to be 18 to enter. Since he has a big body, the marines thought that he was already of age. During his combat with the Japanese, a grenade was thrown towards him and he jumped into it and was thrown by blast of the grenade. He was surprisingly found to be still alive by his comrades and was rushed to the hospital. He was the only teenager to be awarded a medal of honor. Ray dollins on the other hand was a pilot. When he lost control over the plane and was supposed to hit his other comrades who were at that time were on the ground, he maneuvered the plane so as not to hit them, thereby caused his own death. Before the plane crashed, he was heard singing “what a beautiful morning….”

Piper continued to explain that “suffering is not only the price you will have to pay in the pathway of obedience sustained by joy in God, suffering is also designed by God to intensify your joy in Him”. Never has he heard anyone said that God is most real in a bright and sunny day. For people would always testify to the fact that God’s presence and care had been real for them in the midst of a stormy life. The Lord’s purpose for pain and suffering is to refine us as gold that we be cleansed of our sins and things that would lead us to be satisfied in the world rather than to the most-satisfying person in the whold Universe, God himself.

Piper also used the life of Joni Eareckson Tada, author and speaker; steve saint, son of missionary nate saint who was speared to death along with other 4 missionaries including Jim Eliot, husband of author and speaker Elisabeth Eliot.; and the Backstromss, who losed their 3 children, killed by a drunken driver who was also a teenager.

The lives of these three Christians exemplified joy in God in the midst of suffering because of their unwavering faith in the Sovereignty of the Lord. Though they cannot explain what happened, yet they believe that God is in control and He reigns in every situation.

Personal Application and Reflection:

1. There is no other explanation as to what occurs in our life, that explanation is the Sovereignty of the Lord. That He is in control of everything, even the minute things that occurs in our universe.
2. A cool life is a life not wasted. A life well lived is a life that has a single, soul satisfying passion for the supremacy of God in all things. Perhaps you are wondering what is the chief end/ purpose of life. And the answer is that God created man, including you for His glory. Our search for joy and God’s glory are not in conflict. For God is most Glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

3. People would sometimes hate the Lord because for them God’s love for man is to have a problem free life. However this is a man-centered and a wrong definition of God’s love. In our day and culture, man defined love as making much of the other person, meaning we let the person feel and know that they are important. Sad to say this is not applicable to the Lord.

God’s definition of Love: “God’s love is not making much of us or making life easy. Love is doing what He (God) must do, at great cost to Himself (the cross) and often to us, to enable us (man) to enjoy making much of Him forever.”

This means that God does everything in the world in order for us to see Him as the best and enjoyable person in the whole world which consequently would lead us to be joyful.

4. As Christians we are to said to be “dead to the world” or we are called to consider ourselves to be dead to the world.. ““Dying to the world” does not mean having no feelings about the world. What it means is that every legitimate pleasures in the world (may it be money, love life, a good career…etc) becomes a blood brought evidence of Christ’s love and an occasion of boasting on the cross. We are can only say that we are dead for a “higher salary” or a “good boy friend or girl friend”, when money or love life is not what satisfies you the most, but Christ crucified, the giver that satisfies you the most.”