Suffering

Theology of Death

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Continuing the thought in this post, what is your “Theology of Death”?

Death is something we were never designed to deal with. It was not in God’s original plan and is the result of the curse brought about by sin. The entire earth is affected by it and it permeates every layer of life, including the non-physical. 

As Christians, our theology needs to be proactive, prepared ahead of time, not reactionary. We must think ahead of time what our reaction to trouble and death will be, what God will expect from us, and what God has promised us.

Some thoughts on this:

  • This world is broken and there is ugliness all around. But God is the Great Healer and He is on the move. 
  • Revelation is true and He will return and make all things new. 
  • God delights in the death of His saints (Psalm 116:15). This verse seems somewhat contradictory, but it points to the reality that He delights when we are in fellowship with Him and what better place to be in fellowship than directly in His presence? 
  • Death is a stark reality – one that we cannot avoid. 
  • We will never fully understand death and it will always be a “familiar stranger”. 
  • When our work is done, He will take us home to be with Him. In this, we should find comfort. “I am immortal until God’s work for me is done. The Lord reigns.” Henry Martyn
  • We know not when our death will be, so even in this we must trust in Him. 

That word trust is key here. Trust that He knows what He is doing in every layer of our lives and the lives of everyone around us. Trust that His timing is perfect and purposeful. Trust that He is redeeming all the ugliness in this broken world.

Since death is and will be a stark reality in all of our lives, we must think ahead of time what our theology of death is. Let us wrestle with it now so that when we face it in our lives or the lives of those around us, we can stand on the foundation of our theology and trust in God.

Suggested resource: Beauty Will Rise CD by Steven Curtis Chapman

Theology of Trouble

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Something I’ve been churning in my head lately is this: when times are good, it’s easy to think that things will always be good. We get comfortable. We start feeling entitled to the good times. We feel secure in the easiness and we grow accustomed to it.

But the good times get replaced with troubled times. When this happens, what is our reaction? Do we kick and scream and shake our fist at God? Do we wonder what we did wrong to deserve the trouble? Do we see the hard times as a chance to die to ourselves and become more like Jesus?

What is your theology of trouble? Have you prepared ahead of time what your reaction will be when you begin to experience it? Psalm 27:5 says: “For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon the rock.” David had already prepared his response to when trouble comes – he will turn to God in trust, in hope, in belief that God will take of him.

As Christians, our theology needs to be proactive, prepared ahead of time, not reactionary. We must think ahead of time what our reaction to trouble will be, what God will expect from us, and what God has promised us. Then when the trouble comes, we need to hold onto our theology, which has been prepared head of time. Good theology will take us through the trouble – it will enable us to trust God and it will bring about joy and praise in the midst of the hard times.

Rooted and Grounded

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You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad; if you waste your time in overactive energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God’s Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in God on the unpractical line, you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

Oswald Chambers, reading for Oct 19

From the Horse and his Boy

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“And now my son, waste no time on questions, but obey. This damsel is wounded. Your horses are spent. Rabadash is at this moment finding a ford over the Winding Arrow. If you run now, without a moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.”

Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was:

“Where is the King?”

by C.S. Lewis, the chapter called The Hermit of the Southern

3 Months

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It’s quiet.

Life is quiet.

Not boring, just quiet. And different. Very different.

Gone are the late nights studying and pushing through homework and reaching deadlines just in time. Gone are the hours at Starbucks with my ipod and my books and calculator. Gone are the rushed dinners grabbed at Chik-fil-a as I jet off to class. Gone is the stress of unfinished assignments and assignments yet to come. Gone is the pressure to keep the grades up. Gone is the general burden that becomes a familiar companion, and is then missed (?) when it is put to death by strange things like graduation and diploma.

Gone are the McGarys and the McScotties. This is a chapter in itself and one I dare not delve into here in cyberspace. Yes, this chapter is best kept for phone calls or in-person conversations or for prayer.

I’m still not sure how much I like the quiet. It’s different.

But I trust it is good. And for my good.

Narnia

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But when he said “Yes”, he thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out:

“But please, please-won’t you-can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face.

What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

From the Magician’s Nephew

He will give us light and strength

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Let us then think only of the present, and not even permit our minds to wander with curiosity into the future. This future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be.

It is exposing ourselves to temptation to wish to anticipate God, and to prepare ourselves for things which He may not destine for us. If such things should come to pass, He will give us light and strength according to the need.

Why should we desire to meet difficulties prematurely, when we have neither strength nor light as yet provided for them? Let us give heed to the present, whose duties are pressing; it is fidelity to the present which prepares us for fidelity in the future.

Francois Fenelon

Sweetly Broken

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To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness
Jeremy Riddle – From the album Sweetly Broken