3-13-11–CRCF<\/p>\n
Jennifer Yane
\nI try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.<\/p>\n
Have you ever felt that way?<\/p>\n
Jeff Johnston, friend from college and Asian Access missionary to Japan, wrote the following this week:
\nWith suicide at an all-time high, the economy at a depressing low, family breakdowns commonplace, and the moral compass directionless, Japanese people seem to be without hope. It\u201d\u2122s quite obvious to us living here. Our missionaries have seen this in the society as a whole, and in individual\u201d\u2122s lives.
\nNow this. Looking at the news reports, you can see the chaos everywhere. Though the Japanese government has meticulously planned for and methodically prepared for how to deal with natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, this double whammy is of the scope that it has always feared.
\nThe most powerful quake in Japan\u201d\u2122s history has brought a devastating tsunami (tidal wave). Villages gone. Ships on land and homes on the sea. Nuclear power plant explosion. Fires, people stranded and hundreds (probably thousands) of dead and missing. Aftershocks keep coming to remind us that it may not even be over yet. With rescue and recovery still underway, rebuilding infrastructure and, more importantly, lives must wait.
\nThere is complete chaos.
\nWhere is God in the chaos? Where is God when the tsunami hits?<\/p>\n
H.G. Wells<\/p>\n
Here I am at sixty-four, still seeking peace. It is a hopeless dream! (Swindoll, 432).<\/p>\n
Is peace that gives hope just a dream? Especially in crazy times like these?<\/p>\n
John 14:25-27 (NLT)
\n25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative\u201d\u201dthat is, the Holy Spirit\u201d\u201dhe will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
\n27 I am leaving you with a gift\u201d\u201dpeace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don\u201d\u2122t be troubled or afraid.<\/p>\n
Hope in Chaos
\nJohn 14:25-27<\/p>\n
I can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nJohn 14:25-27 (MSG)
\nI’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left\u201d\u201dfeeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nThe Reformer Martin Luther and his wife buried a son, and in the aftermath his wife demanded of Luther: \u201cWhere was God when our son died?\u201d And Luther responded, \u201cThe same place He was when his own Son died \u201d\u201c weeping.\u201d
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nTony Campolo retells an incident involving William Sloane Coffin following the death of his son, Alexander. Alex, as he was called, was killed in a car accident in 1983 when he was only twenty-four years old. His father, William, who was a pastor, theologian, and chaplain at Yale University, was forced into coping with the emotional fallout. Ten days after Alex\u201d\u2122s death, Coffin delivered a sermon entitled \u201cEulogy for Alex\u201d to his congregation at Riverside Church in New York City. It is one of the most tragically, beautiful things you will ever read. To his congregation, in the repercussion of his son\u201d\u2122s death, he said: \u201cIn my intense grief I felt some of my fellow ministers were using comforting words of Scripture for self-protection, to pretty up a situation whose bleakness they simply could not face\u201d\u00a6But what God gave me is what God gives to all of us: Minimum protection, and maximum support.\u201d
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nCaesar Augustus built a monument to the peace which he ushered in through his military campaigns called the Ara Pacis. The Roman Empire has long since fallen in destruction. And this monument still stands as a tribute to the skill of its architects and \u201cto the empty messianic pretensions of its emperors\u201d (Beasley-Murray, 262).<\/p>\n
However, the true Messiah of the world makes no empty promises. And only in a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus is there any real peace, any real hope in this world!<\/p>\n
Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence brings peace because it proves\u201d\u00a6<\/p>\n
1. God\u201d\u2122s Love<\/p>\n
Romans 8:31-32, 35-39 (NLT)<\/p>\n
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us
\n32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won\u201d\u2122t he also give us everything else?
\n35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ\u201d\u2122s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, \u201cFor your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.\u201d) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
\n38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God\u201d\u2122s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow\u201d\u201dnot even the powers of hell can separate us from God\u201d\u2122s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below\u201d\u201dindeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
\nRonnie McBrayer
\nWho among us have never pelted heaven with our questions and doubts: Where is God now? Why doesn\u201d\u2122t he intervene? Why is he ignoring me? How could he let this happen to me? Why doesn\u201d\u2122t God do something about the suffering in my life and my world? But I believe God is in the pain and the suffering. God has intervened, for in Jesus he knows what it is like to be found in the fashion of a man and subject himself to suffering. And every time you suffer, you will find him there, hurting again.
\nIn your most bitter prayers and violent outbursts against heaven, Christ kneels beside you. When you cry, Jesus weeps with you. When confusion overwhelms and frustrates you, the Lord himself holds your hand and keeps you company. When you turn your head on the cross of suffering, you will see that it is the Christ who bleeds and suffers beside you.
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nJesus\u201d\u2122 presence brings peace because it proves\u201d\u00a6
\n2. God\u201d\u2122s Control
\nRomans 8:28 (NLT)
\n28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
\nJeff Johnston
\nCould this time of disaster be an unparalleled opportunity? An opportunity for God to bring in a harvest? An opportunity for Japanese to forget their pursuit of affluence to finally and honestly contemplate the deeper meaning of life? Could it be an opportunity for a great display of Christ\u201d\u2122s love through his Bride, the Church in Japan?
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nConclusion<\/p>\n
Ronnie McBrayer
\nI don\u201d\u2122t know why God allows\/permits\/causes\/tolerates the things that happen in this world and in our lives. I have given up on that question altogether. I just know that he goes with us through it all. I take comfort in the fact that Jesus never explained injustice and suffering, but he never avoided it. He embraced it and brought redemption from it. God may not always rescue us, may never explain things to us, but He always identifies with us and can never abandon us.
\nFaith in God is not an insulator from tragedy or injustice. Following Christ or holding to faith does not guarantee a trouble-free life. Nor will having \u201cmore faith\u201d lead to less difficulty in this unfair world. Faith is minimum protection from suffering, but thank God, it is maximum support.
\nI can have hope in any circumstance because Jesus\u201d\u2122 presence with me is peace.
\nCommunion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
3-13-11–CRCF Jennifer Yane I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. Have you ever felt that way? Jeff Johnston, friend from college and Asian Access missionary to Japan, wrote the following … Continue reading