CARM Newsletter 11-17-08

It is easy to talk about how good God is when things are comfortable. It isn't always easy to praise God when things are unsure. When the pressures of life are heavy, and when uncertainty is a constant companion, those are the times we need to make sure that we are giving glory to God by praising His goodness and faithfulness, in spite of our circumstances.

I have met Christians who are going through and have gone through incredible adversity (failing marriage, rape, loss of children through accident or murder, loss of a job, loss of a spouse, etc.) and yet they have praised God. I know of one woman whose child was murdered in her front yard -- yet she continues to trust and praise God. Another man, a pastor, lost his teenage child in an auto accident -- yet he continues to trust and praise God. A woman has discovered her husband is abandoning the faith and is into drugs -- yet she continues to trust and praise God. When I meet these people and they testify of their faithfulness to God, I am humbled. They exemplify trust in God that is independent of circumstances.

Our trials and difficulties are great opportunities. First of all, they help us to see ourselves by showing us where our hope is, how deep our faith is, and what exactly we are relying on. Second, they are opportunities to trust God in order to see Him work. We need to have such periodic times in our lives in order to refine our faith. It isn't fun, but it is good.

Difficult times do two things: They show us ourselves and they show us God.

The Psalmist says, "But as for me, I trust in Thee, O Lord, I say, 'Thou art my God,'" (Psalm 31:14). If God is God, and if He has saved us from our sins by giving Himself (God in flesh) whose plan of salvation has been from eternity (Heb. 13:20), will He now forsake us through our trials? Never, for God says, "...I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," (Heb. 13:5). This doesn't mean that our trials won't be difficult -- otherwise we couldn't call them trials. But, God won't forsake us. This means that through our lives, through the good and bad, the Lord has not and will not forsake us. He will be with us always (Matt. 28:20). Therefore, we need to praise Him no matter what. He is good and faithful. We may not fully understand the reasons or scope of the trial, but we can trust Him through it.

Ask yourself what is the reason for your faith? Why do you trust God and how much do you trust Him? We need to know the answers to those questions so we might better glorify God as He sanctifies us through His son Jesus. God is faithful.

Faith is only as good as who you put it in. What are you trusting in?

• Weston, Florida
  • All last week Ryan and I (and a friend named John) were in Weston, Florida. I was invited out there to speak and to preach. Every day except for the first day, was filled with at least two places to go in groups to speak to. It was very interesting. Weston, Florida is a very affluent area with well manicured lawns, gated communities, and a plethora of palm trees. It was very interesting. John and I drove down to the end of the Florida Keys. What a beautiful site. If you would like to see some pictures, click here.
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These past two weeks have certainly been eventful. I spend about a week and a half in Charlotte, North Carolina visiting my family and attending the National Conference on Christian Apologetics. The Conference was extremely interesting with well known speakers such as James Dobson, Chuck Colson, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, and many others. There were approximately four thousand people in attendance. It is encouraging to see that there is interest in the Christian community to better understand and defend the Christian faith.

During my time in Charlotte, I spent Halloween night sharing the gospel with trick or treaters who came to my family’s house. My family and I would give them candy, but also include a tract with the candy that we handed out. We had the opportunity to witness not just to the kids, but also to some of the parents who were trekking the neighborhood with their children. We probably gave out around three dozen tracts.
We also had a neighbor with whom my mom was able to share the gospel with. We had not seen this neighbor in quite some time, but because we were getting out of our box and trying to influence the neighborhood with the gospel, another opportunity arose. Please pray for our neighbor’s salvation.

I also had the privilege of going with Matt down to Weston, Florida as he spoke at numerous events at First Baptist Church of Weston, an Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship meeting at Nova Southeastern University, and a local public high school. The most interesting speaking engagement that he had was with these secular high school kids. It was truly amazing that when Matt spoke about logical and ethical absolutes, many of the kids denied that either one of them existed. They would reply, “Well, it is true for you, but not for me.”

Matt demonstrated the absurdity of their statements by showing that no human would actually live this philosophy out in the real world. Eventually some of the kids started to see the fallacies in their thinking. The most striking thing about the public high school experience was the fact that so many of these kids are buying into the cancerous philosophy of relativism. When one shares the gospel with the relativist, the response quite often is “Well, that is true for you, but not for me.” It is amazing that many people in our culture have bought into a relativist worldview which will constantly be a barrier to the presentation of the gospel. May we seek to educate our kids and friends regarding the true worldview.

Love and Hate Mail

• Hate Mail
  • You guys have to stop blaspheming against holy prophet mohammed and the Quran or be prepared to pay with your life! Prophet mohamed married a child of six years and so what! Get lost into hell fire. You can call it that if you wish. You must find solutions to the financial crisis and not talk about things you donot understand. If you ever come down here in Africa, we will take care of you. Get lost into hell!
  • What a rubbish about atheists… Have a look at Christian priests who are (or were) raping the kids…
  • Your website is so full of errors and flasehoods that I simply will report that the whole thing is in error.    Superstition, religion, belief in “words of god” books – are all at the root of agony in today’s world.    After all, an Islamist is being “true to his book” if he kills people in the name of religion.     Religion is backward and irrational.  You ask people to accept on faith utterly fantastic crap.  You ask people to turn off their brains – critical thinking is where you find real truth.    Get a life.
• Love Mail
  • Hi, My name is David. I wanted to email and thankyou for your ministry on the website. I'm currently 20 but when i was 12 I learnt the gospel from the internet and gave my life to the Lord. For 6 years I had no Bible-believing church to support me and during those times I learnt most of what I hold true from your website. I am now in a ministry school in Redding California (although I come from the UK). I just wanted to thank and Honour you for your input in my life. I really think your ministry over the years changed and shaped my life and even now I occasionally flick back onto CARM.org when I think," is what this person's saying really true?". So thank you, bless you and keep on saving souls and sheperding the Church! Your impacting more people that you know!
  • I use your site quite regularly, and I appreciate you.  I and the other college students in our campus ministry depend on the concise, clear, biblical, unwavering truth that you exegetically pull from scripture for us.  We know that we can count on you to help us understand and collect our thoughts when we sit down with the Lord to prepare bible studies and sermons.  I use other commentaries and systemic theology books, but when I really need to provide someone with resources to help them understand the truths of scripture, I point them to your site.  I can't calculate the number of crowns that you will be able to lay at the feet of our Lord as a result of this ministry. Even from the work that has been completed on our small college campus with your help, the smile on Jesus' face at your works here will be glorious to witness.  I look forward to being allied with you in ministry for years to come.
  • This is not a question, it is a thank you for you website, and work. I (sad to say) spent almost the entire day reading articles on your website. I was reading about religious movements, I ran across the one, how to have perfect face, with the self proclaimed apostle (sp) Eric. I checked out that website, now called the Second 8 weeks. How sad it is , seems they still preach that grace alone is not sufficient for salvation, it still requires works. I don't know why I am sending you the information that I copied, you already know about it. Seems sad that his followers seem to be growing in numbers, they now boost that they are in 30 states and other countries as well. Thanks for you guidance and education on this. I noticed that you stated that you once went to Calvary Chapel, I went there when it was a circus tent. Have not been back to "Big " Calvary in years. I hear some distressing things about it now. I did attend Chuck Smith Jr church in Capo Beach, but understand that he left it. Some things I read on the Cavary Chapel site said he was leaning to the Emergient Church movement, don't know if it is true or not. Sorry I am such a bad speller. Anyway wanted to share with you what I found today about Erick the end time "apostle"  ( he in now the "Chief Apostle, guess he got a promotion.