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Tag: Chris Surber

  • Learning to Lament

    by Chris Surber

     
    GriefWe’ve forgotten how to grieve. In our efforts to sterilize and glamorize our lives we have ostracized anguish. It isn’t allowed in our smoke filled light show worship services because it’s frankly a downer. It’s not welcomed in our mass marketed DVD Bible Studies because it doesn’t draw crowds.
    Today we want to happy and in the process we’ve forgotten that God is usually found most easily in our pain. We usually move too quickly through pain and grief. We treat it like a hindrance to spiritual growth rather than the beautiful opportunity for spiritual growth that it is.
    In fact, grief is a necessary part of connecting human pain to divine healing and God’s purposes in it.  “Christians grieve, just like all other human beings.  But the major and all-important difference is that Christians grieve in hope.” (James R. White, Grieving: Our Path Back to Peace) We need to learn how to lament! That is, we must actively grieve before the Lord because it is a necessary part of the process of connecting personal pain to the divine plan and the will of God for us.
    When we suffer the loss of a loved one there is a natural reaction of sorrow and sadness along with the possibility of many other emotional responses. When we are personally attacked or slandered or when someone we love is the victim of violence or abuse it’s ok and even good to allow ourselves to suffer for a season. A lot of Christians today are trapped in unprocessed grief and pain because rather than finding God in their pain through active lament, they glossed over it to get “happy” again. Sometimes we need to weep.[ene_ptp] There is a great tradition of lament in the Scriptures.  Public and private cries of pain and sorrow abound in the Bible. In Psalm 56:8 the Psalmist writes, “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record?”  Lament is a normative part of the life of the child of God.  The local community of faith is called to be a community of healing.  The local church is more than merely a place for love to be shown.
    The calling of God on the people of God in community extends well beyond the borders of showering one another with the love of God. In his book, Being the Body, Charles Colson writes, “Fellowship is more than unconditional love that wraps its arms around someone who is hurting.  It is also tough love that holds one fast to the truth and pursuit of righteousness.”   The Church is a place of horizontal connection with one another in our grief and suffering, and vertical connection with God in all things. The fellowship of believers is not only a place for discussions of salvation and broad Bible doctrine—it is a place for lament.
    Lament is the uncommonly tapped resource of God’s people on the path of discipleship. Yet, it is a recurrent theme in the Bible. As evidenced by Scripture, lament is not simply a passive acceptance of the will of God or of the presence of pain in one’s life.  Rather, it is an active response to the external stimuli of pain and sorrow in direct connection with one’s faith in God.
    In other words, it is a natural part of the process of knowing God and following Christ. Contrary to the stoic or snide, happy attitudes found among so many people today, lament in times of trial and grief is common, almost assumed in the Scripture.
    Expressing our pain through prayers, cries, and groans of lament does not divorce us from God.  It is an integral part of honest dialogue with one’s creator.  The biblical genre of lament is abundant and rich, both theologically in the expression of the heart of God for those who suffer, and practically, giving insight and examples for those who suffer today.
    If you are in pain today, cry out to God in anguish! If you are sorrowful, groan with utterances only God can comprehend. My friend, don’t fall into the trap of much of modern church life that you have to be happy to know God. He is very often found in our pain, where He is there, offering healing and love.
     

    “A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.” (Psalm 102:1-12 ESV)

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  • The Command to Compassion

    by Chris Surber

    CompassionJesus is compassionate. While walking the roads of Galilee, Jesus was above all things compassionate.  It is God’s immeasurable compassion that saves us. Were it not for compassion borne of genuine love for His creation surely God would have left us alone in our sin or simply eradicated humanity as an imperfect sinful blight on creation. But He didn’t because God is compassionate and Jesus is that very compassion for man incarnate.
    In the King James Version of the Bible, in the Gospels, the word compassion is found fourteen times. In nearly every instance it speaks directly of the character of Jesus as He shows concern and kindness to individuals, crowds, and multitudes.  Here are three examples from Matthew’s gospel. They give us specific insight into how we can mimic the compassion of Christ in our lives as we shine the light of the Gospel through our lives into this dark world:

    • “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) They had no leadership.
    • “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14) They were sick and in need of healing.[ene_ptp]
    • “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. (Matthew 15:32) They were hungry and Jesus fed them.

    Jesus showed compassion because they had no leader. God is calling us to provide godly leadership those who are lost. At the very least this means that we should be active in sharing the Good News. In a richer sense it means that we should be leading the way to wholeness in people’s lives. We should be shining the light of salvation in terms of eternity and in the saving power of God to transform lives today. Get in somebody’s broken life and help them pick up the pieces.
    Jesus showed compassion because they were sick. Jesus showed compassion because they were hungry. It isn’t enough to pray for someone who is in need or to count on somebody else, some agency, or some government office to help those in need. “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”  (James 2:18 ESV) Do you believe God can change lives? Then make your faith real by being the hand of Christ in the broken life of another human in need of grace.
    My friend, too often we measure our orthodoxy as Christians solely in terms of right belief. We hoard sound doctrine instead of using is as a platform for resounding Gospel living. A recommendation for a new person in our town to a “good church” often means a church with a biblical preacher. There isn’t anything wrong with that but its only part of the story. A bible preaching church should be a compassionate-reaching church.
    Right belief is the foundation for right action, and right action for Christians entails a lot more than writing a check to a missionary to preach the Gospel, or to volunteer once a year for Vacation Bible School at your church. I’ll say it again. These are good things but the life of a follower of Christ also has a lot to do with how we simply interact with the world around us in compassion to the brokenness of this world.
    You’ve got right belief? You own the right study Bible? You prayed the right prayer? You read the right books? Fantastic! Now, what about being the living breathing incarnation of the compassion of God to the people you encounter in your life?  “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:23-24 ESV)
    Right belief and right doctrine are good things but they aren’t the only things! When was the last time you gave a cup of cold water to someone who was thirsty? (Matthew 10:42) Have you visited a widow or an orphan in their affliction lately? (James 1:27) Take note, I didn’t ask if somebody on behalf of your church did it or if some missionary you know did it. What is currently happening in your life that fulfills those commands?
    In Acts 1:8 Jesus spoke to His disciples. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV) If we are called to pick up our cross and follow Him that means that we too are the disciples that are called to be His witnesses. If we are His witness then we must reflect the truth and compassion of Christ. It isn’t enough to know or even teach the truth if we don’t live it.
    To preach Christ is to be Christ to those who need Christ.
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  • Don't Take Jesus Seriously

    by Chris Surber

    Rich Ruler banner            The most dangerous thing you can ever do is take Jesus seriously. If you like your life the way it is, then don’t do it. If you are comfortable and want things to stay the same, take Jesus teaching as mere metaphors and nice ideas, but don’t ever, ever, take Him seriously.
    Was it a figure of speech when Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he owned, give it to the poor, and only then he could be His disciple? (Mark 10:21) I’ve taught it that way. I’ve heard others teach it that way. Truth is, we were both wrong. Jesus simply told that man, “Hey, sell your stuff, give it to the poor, and then you can be my disciple. Oh, and by the way, you’ll be trading wealth in this passing, fleeting world for wealth in Heaven that can never pass away.” He said what He said. That’s what He said and that’s all He said!
    We cling so tightly to the stuff of this life that we seldom experience the rich, deeper beauty that is available to us when we let go of this world. We are in love with houses that constantly need maintenance, cars that break down, entertainment that only lasts a few minutes, and all the while Jesus is saying, “That stuff will never satisfy the inner cravings you have for meaning. I’m offering you a better way.”
    My wife Christina recently came back from leading a week-long mission team to Haiti to work and support our friends and activities there with our ministry Supply and Multiply. She came back from giving her life away for a week refreshed. A very sweet older woman in the church I Pastor told me, “She just looks so beautiful after having come back from Haiti.” The truth is that she looks the same. The difference is that her countenance is different. Her soul is smiling through her eyes and face.
    You see, what she and I have discovered is that the more we give away this world the more God gives us things that really matter. The less money we have the more joy we have because we’ve used God’s money for things of eternal value. The less time we have, the better we sleep because we’ve used our life for lasting Kingdom things.
    When you share a cup of cold water with the least of these, you are in turn unleashing the cool refreshing spiritual water of the Holy Spirit in your own life. That’s not to say that we serve to be served. That is simply to say that when you participate in God’s plan for your life in this world you step into the stream of His pure love and gain things far greater than things.
    In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (ESV) Material stuff is only as valuable as its intended purpose. If I were drowning I’d not want a life preserver made of gold. Today, people are drowning in oceans of meandering meaningless connection to stuff that is dragging them down. The only way to float is to let go of those heavy earthen treasures so we can swim to shore grace.
    If you love this world be careful taking Jesus too seriously. When you lose your life for His sake, His promise is that you’ll enter a life of sacrifice where His joy becomes your treasure.

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  • Pray for Rain

    By Chris Surber

     
    [ene_ptp]To say it’s hot in Haiti is a bit like saying its muddy in the swamp. It’s just plain part a’ the deal. Living a year in Haiti was among the hardest things I’ve ever done, but not only because of the commonplace suffering and hardship my eyes endured. I’m built like an arctic polar bear not a Caribbean lizard!
    For me, the heat was almost unbearable. Some days, constant, often  heart-wrenching requests to help truly poor people with real needs that I couldn’t always meet, coupled with the highest temperatures were almost too much to take. On the hottest, hardest days I prayed for rain. Strangely, almost miraculously, on so many of those hard hot days the rain would come to our dry mountainside cinder block home and quench my parched spirit.
    Haiti is in a drought. It’s common for the evening showers to last only a few minutes and hit the mountainsides spottily – only hitting a small tin-roofed neighborhood here and there. It almost always seemed to hit ours. When I needed the rain, when I thought I couldn’t go any further on the dry hot journey of faith my family was on, my sons and I would enjoy a few shirtless refreshing minutes standing arms raised enjoying the cool rain.
    Pray for rain. Pray for God to quench your soul in the trial. Pray for rain. Pray in faith for God to quench your soul with His healing love so that you can keep going on your journey of faith! Pray in faith believing that God can and will answer the petition that is offered consistent with His will and Word. That’s what Elijah did:
    “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” (James 5:17-18 ESV)
    Elijah was a man with a nature exactly like ours. He was a fellow sufferer and God honored his prayer! He prayed for rain and got it. What are we waiting for to pray for the rain of God to fall in our lives?
    Living a year in a Third World country has shaken my life and my faith to its foundations. It has sharpened or changed me in every way. I have seen incredibly poor people trust God and receive miraculous answers to prayer. I have felt the rain on my skin at just the right time as I prayed for God to refresh my spirit and keep my family strong for just a little while longer.
    Stop praying half-hearted, indistinct prayers. Pray in faith believing God is not a liar but faithful to His Word. Pray like you mean it. When a man prays he must know that whatever comes is ultimately God’s will “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6-8 ESV)
    Friend, the God who separated the waters on the earth from the waters in the heavens is but a prayer away from sending the rain in your life. Cease with the halfhearted desultory prayers of the double minded. Get into God’s Word and unleash the prayer of faith which is that prayer consistent with the promises of God!
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