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Start with How Do We Grow? (Video download from RightNowMedia) 3 mins
Start with How Do We Grow? (Video download from RightNowMedia) 3 mins
There's an old story about a Jewish tailor named Lev Ashram who goes to a synagogue to pray.
On his way out he meets a rabbi.
"Well, what have you been doing in the synagogue, Lev Ashram?" the rabbi asks.
"I was saying my prayers," said Lev.
"And did you confess your sins?" the rabbi asked.
"Yes, rabbi.
I confessed my little sins."
RABBI: "Your little sins?"
LA: "Yes, I confessed that I sometimes cut my cloth on the short side, and that I cheat on a yard of wool by a couple of inches."
RABBI: "You said that to God?"
LA: "Yes, rabbi, and more.
I said, `Lord, I cheat on pieces of cloth; you let little babies die.
I'll make you a deal.
You forgive me my little sins and I'll forgive you your great big ones.'"
Doubts, questions, and struggles are real.
Questions like why do you let tiny babies die?
Why do 11 year old girls get leukemia?
Why, why, why?
One of my favourite musicians Jon Foreman pens some of these questions in a song called Vice Verses.
He says:
Where is God in the city life?
Where is God in the city light?
Where is God in the earthquake?
Where is God in the genocide?
Where are you in my broken heart?
Everything seems to fall apart
Everything feels rusted over
Tell me that you're there
Jesus asked a lot of questions.
He sometimes even answered questions with a question.
Ten major questions that He asked within the Gospels are:
Who do you say I am? , and 20:28Do you believe?
, , :24Do you want to get well?
Why are you so afraid?
, Why did you doubt?
Do you still not see or understand?
Are you also going to leave?
What does Scripture say?
Who touched me?
Do you love me? ,
Jesus goes from one spectrum of emotion to the other in some of his questions.
Some were said in disappointment or frustration, such as Why did you doubt?
In reference to Peter walking on water and Do you still not see or understand?
In reference to his disciples still not believing and needing more proof.
While others he asked because he desired others to live their answer.
Such us the do you want to get well?
In reference to the man at Bethesda.
Or Who touched me?
In reference to the woman that had uncontrollable bleeding.
This shows that Jesus asked difficult questions, and sometimes they weren’t answered right away, and more importantly He didn’t always answer questions that were asked of Him.
In the Pharisees asked Jesus a loaded question.
They didn’t want the answer, they wanted to draw blood; they wanted to trap Jesus.
He doesn’t answer it; at least not directly.
He saw their motive and said I don’t want to play your game.
More on that later.
The truth is that I wrestle with things, and I think we all do.
Today I want to speak about those questions and that it is ok to question God, and in fact He doesn't get upset with us when we do.
IT'S O.K. TO QUESTION GOD ... BUT THEN WHAT?
Well frankly, don't expect an answer--at least not one that will satisfy you.
C.S. Lewis, in A Grief Observed, writes after the death of his wife to cancer:
"When you're happy, so happy that you don't have any sense of needing God, if you turn to him with praise you'll be welcomed with open arms.
But go to him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find?
A door slammed in your face, a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside & after that, silence.
You may as well turn away.”
What kind of questions should we ask?
Most of us can remember teachers telling us that there are no stupid questions.
While this is correct, it is not informative.
There are no stupid questions, but there are wrongly timed questions.
Such as asking a math question in an English class.
What questions should we be asking God, rather than just why?
I want to turn to to give a picture of questions, doubts and faith.
We are focusing on this psalm and how Asaph; one of Israel’s priestly singers prayed and worked through a crisis.
An emotional and intellectual crisis; he is having a crisis of doubt.
Before I begin I just want to draw attention to the fact that we are reading the Bible when we read .
You’re probably like, of course it’s the Bible what are you talking about?
Think about this though; the Bible contains within itself resources for doubt, even the Scriptures recognize how difficult it is to believe at times.
1 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.[a]
5 They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity[b];
their evil imaginations have no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.[c]
11 They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
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