Is Aslan Safe?

I'm reading CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before I watch the movie adaptation. Upon first hearing about Aslan (the original Lion King), one of the children asks if Aslan is safe. The reply (p75-76) is well worth considering:

'If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than me or else just silly.'

'Then he isn't safe?' asked Lucy.

'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver. 'Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'

Rookmaaker on Films

HR Rookmaaker was a Dutch art historian and critic and a close friend and colleague of Francis Schaeffer. In his work Modern Art and the Death of Culture he offers an interesting critique of popular films:

"Many of the films people see, for instance, are good entertainment, and often have a little moral point. Yet they are bad. For they depict as true a world which is limited and superficial, one without God, without the deeper questions in man's heart, without real matters of life and death, for life and death are reduced to sentiment, or adventures, or crime and violence or cruelty, without any sort of judgment expressed. Most films of this type are good in the bourgeois sense, and they are certainly not meant to be anti-Christian. But they help to close the sky. They leave God out of the picture."

"The strange belief in innate (rather than learned) human goodness that animates much so-called 'liberal' thought seems to me a delusion that even a cursory familiarity with human history and human nature should expose."

-- Bruce Thornton, Plagues of the Mind

On Worldview

You may have noticed that I'm doing PhD work in the field of Christian apologetics and worldview. Here's a nice description of what exactly that means:

"The purpose of worldveiw studies is nothing less than to liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity, unleashing its power to transform the world."

"The purpose of worldview thinking is far more than a mental strategy or a new spin on current events. At the core, it is a deepening of our spiritual character and the character of our lives. It begins with the submission of our minds to the Lord of the universe - a willingness to be taught by Him. The driving force in worldview studies should be a commitment to 'love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.'"

Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, 17 and 24

"Moral character is assessed not by what a man knows but by what he loves."

-- Augustine

Kuyper Quote

Abraham Kuyper was a remarkable man - a theologian, educator, journalist, and politician. He served four years as Prime Minister of the Netherlands near the turn of the 20th century, and founded the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880 with a vision of education founded upon a commitment to the sovereignty of God and the lordship of Christ over all things in all branches of knowledge. In his inaugural address at the university, he said,

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

(as quoted by Naugle, Worldview: The History of a Concept). I'd love to read a good biography of Kuyper one day.

Culture and "cult"

David Naugle offers an interesting insight:

"Culture, as the term suggests - though it is often forgotten - is ultimately the product of the cult. How people think and what they worship determines what they make and how they live."

(in Worldview: The History of a Concept)

Interesting Quotes from John Paul II

Pope John Paul II, born Karel Wojtyla, was a great philosophical thinker in the Catholic Church, one who did much to develop Catholic thinking in the direction of worldview thinking. The worldview he worked to promote has been described as "Christian Humanism." It is a fundamentally Christ-centered view that emphasizes the intrinsic value and worth of human personhood.

He wrote:

"The evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person."

And:

"In Christ and through Christ man has acquired full awareness of his dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpasssing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence."

Elijah Part 1

When we first meet Elijah in 1 Kings 17, times are not good for prophets of the Lord. King Ahab has just been introduced as King and we are told right off that "did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him." (1 Kings 16:30) His wife Jezebel (who, it seems, really "wore the pants" in that household) only made matters worse. They worshiped Baal and erected altars and even a temple for this false god. Ahab was awarded the dubious distinction of doing "more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." He was a bad guy.

So Elijah comes on the scene as God's man, and obediently proclaimed the Lord's word in predicting the severe drought that was to come, and then went and hid. The Lord directed him to hide near a brook and commanded ravens to feed him. Talk about being totally dependent upon the Lord — Elijah saw God's provision in a miraculous way during this period.

But life must have been difficult there all alone in the wilderness, being sustained only by God's gracious provision of a brook and food from ravens. No doubt there was still the nagging fear that he might be discovered by those who would kill him. So we can only imagine what Elijah must have been thinking as the brook - the one God had led him to - began to dry out as the drought worsened. Here he was, totally dependent upon God, who had provided for him in miraculous ways, and slowly but surely the creek ran dry. Where was God? What happened?

Sometimes, even when we have seen God working on our behalf, our circumstances begin to change and we wonder if God has forgotten us. Maybe we wonder if he's really all-loving and/or all-powerful after all. We wonder where he went. Maybe Elijah had these thoughts, but God was no doubt at work building his faith. After the creek totally dried up, God again spoke to Elijah and sent him somewhere else.

A last observation is that Elijah did not leave that creek before God directed him. Even as it was obviously running dry, Elijah did not take matters into his own hands to try to fix the situation. He probably did wonder what was going on, but ultimately he trusted in the Lord to take care of him, just as he had done through the ravens to that point. We can learn a lesson from Elijah here because I suspect that many of us are prone to want to "fix" tough circumstances quickly (after all we live in the "your way right away" culture). But Elijah demonstrated uncommon patience and trust in the face of a worsening situation. How would we respond in similar trials?

Well God was not done building Elijah's faith....

Thoughts on the Word

A few nice quotes on the Scriptures from Daniel Montgomery:

"The Scriptures are God's Voice: The Church is his echo." -John Donne

"We enjoy Christ only as we embrace Christ clad in his own promises." -John Calvin

"God has opened his heart to us in the Bible." -Richard Sibbes

On sin, sinners, and moral introspection

There is a significant difference in thinking about sin as wrong acts versus understanding what it means to be a sinner. John Piper quotes N.P. Williams to that effect:

"The ordinary man may feel ashamed of doing wrong: but the saint, endowed with a superior refinement of moral sensibility, and keener powers of introspection, is ashamed of being the kind of man who is liable to do wrong."

-- from John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, 48.

Cutting through the early Twentieth Century prose, there's a few nuggets for us to chew on. Why would the ordinary person feel ashamed of doing wrong? For starters, let me suggest that it is increasingly the case in our culture that we don't have any idea what "shame" feels like. Often people will exult in what was once considered shameful. Today it is more common for people to think of shame as some kind of psychosis that must be overcome. In the past, however, shame was the result of a conscience pricked by doing what was commonly regarded as wrong. It was probably sometimes simply the result of a breach of public decorum, but it may also be thought of as a result of the fact that God's law is indeed written on the heart of all people.

Williams also notes that saints (believers; followers of Christ) have a heightened sense of moral responsibility because of the Holy Spirit living within them. Curiously, he also mentions "keener powers of introspection." I wonder if we tend to think of Christians today as introspective people. How often do we really ponder the condition of our own hearts? How often do we look inward in a healthy way to discern where God is moving, stretching, calling for more of us? Sure there is a kind of naval-gazing introspection that is morbid and/or self-absorbed. I don't think that's what Williams (or Piper) have in mind. But do we know what a healthy and keen sense of introspection looks like?

Do you ever feel shame because of sin? Do you ever feel shame because you have within you the ability to sin? Have you cultivated a godly sense of moral introspection, to look inside at the condition of your own heart? What do you see?

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jesus visiting the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. While Martha was stressing out over the details of having so many people in their home (cooking, cleaning, who knows what else), she famously complained to Jesus about the fact that Mary was just sitting there listening to Him. Jesus, however, affirmed that Mary had chosen best. Commenting on Luke 10:42, Nancy Pearcey reminds us of the difficulty of pausing from busy lives to sit and listen to Jesus:

"Given our fallen human nature, we typically do not really sit before the Lord until our legs are knocked out from under us by crises - sorrow, loss, or injustice. It is only when stripped of our personal dreams and ambitions that we truly die to our own agendas. Union with Christ in His death and resurrection is the only path to sanctification of both heart and mind - to being conformed to the likeness of Christ."

--- Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, 26

What does it mean to sit at the feet of the Lord? How can you cultivate such an experience in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life?

Substituting Generic "God-talk" for Jesus

Russell Moore, in a recent post at Touchstone Magazine's blog, describes how the use of the term "God" is an easy substitute for talking about Jesus. He says that "God" is an abstract enough term that people can load all kinds of meaning into it. He says that's why people in the culture would rather talk about vague notions of spirituality and God rather than about Jesus Christ. Such equivocation is also true among liberal Christians. But....

The gritty flesh and blood reality of Jesus of Nazareth, however, is much more
particular and much more exclusive. I think the fatal flaw of contemporary
Christianity, on both the right and the left, is what Adrio Koenig called "the
eclipse of Christ." We speak of the glory of God, and we aim for "God-centered
worship," but we forget that God's glory is tied up in what Maximus the
Confessor called "the Christic mystery," namely that God's purpose is "to sum up
all things in Christ" (Eph 1:10). Contemporary Christians may have "WWJD"
bracelets and other sorts of "Jesus junk" in our closets, but too rarely do we
hear the big picture of how our God is no generic God, but the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jesus of Nazareth.

Bonhoeffer on Prayer

My last post was from Bonhoeffer, and so is this one. (His classic work Life Together is a short book that I commend to anyone). In writing about the Psalms, he draws some important lessons about Christian prayer:

Here we learn, first, what prayer means. It means praying according to the Word of God, on the basis of promises. Christian prayer takes its stand on the solid ground of the revealed Word and has nothing to do with vague, self-seeking vagaries.

It is really easy to pray using vague, self-seeking vagaries. These prayers don't tend to be specific for one thing, and tend to be focused on what I want rather than on what God wants. Such prayers tend to treat God like a cosmic Santa Claus - "I'll be really good if you'll give me this thing I want." What does it look like to "pray according to the Word of God?" That's a good question to ponder. I suppose that it involves praying the kinds of prayers we see in Scripture. Bonhoeffer is pointing to the Psalms as a good place to start. We might also look at the model Jesus gave us in the Lord's prayers. The epistles often include challenging and wonderful prayers that can be made on behalf of yourself or others. See, for example, Ephesians 3:14-21 or Philippians 1:9-12. I suppose it also means that we anchor our prayers in revealed Truth. We often pray "in Jesus name," but don't often really ponder what that means.

These are a few thoughts off the top of my head. What do you think? What is the difference between biblical prayer and self-serving vagaries? Which do your prayers more resemble?

Coming Soon

To any readers:

The Great Pursuit blog has been lagging lately, as a brief glance at the dates of the more recent posts will show. I have been really busy of late with a really intense semester of work that has not left much time for this blog. My intention, however, is to return to The Great Pursuit shortly after the semester's work is done, so don't give it up for dead just yet. I would love to see The Great Pursuit Blog grow and become useful as a devotional tool for people, so the focus will continue to be on brief examinations of biblical texts or on helpful and inspiring quotations from those ahead of us on the journey. I also hope it will become a place where others can discuss these things in the comments. So come back soon!

Thanks

Bonhoeffer on Mornings

"For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 43.

Backing into heaven?

I was in a discussion the other night in which a friend said that sometimes he feels like he's "backing into heaven." He was saying that we often become so concentrated on trying not to do certain things that the entire Christian life becomes an exercise in defense. Don't lust. Don't get angry. Don't lie. Don't be greedy. Don't.... etc.

And of course all of this is true. We are commanded to get rid of sin in our lives, to avoid certain behaviors and mindsets. Yet, very often, these negative commands are closely linked with positive commands. For example, in Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul writes:

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

Sometimes we become so focused on putting off the old self that we don't think at all about putting on the new. (By the way, this is a big part of the problem with legalism.) Obviously we have to put off sin, but it is so helpful to think about it in terms of pursuing something greater. Look again at the theme verse for this site, 2 Timothy 2:22: "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of pure heart."

So, for example, instead of being so consumed with not being angry, focus positively on showing kindness to others. Instead of being consumed by not being prideful, cultivate humility in your life. You get the picture. The image in Ephesians 4 is of changing clothes - taking off one coat and replacing it with another. If you just take off the one without putting on the other, you're only halfway there, and you're going to get cold! So, no we don't back our way into heaven - we press forward by the grace of God in Christ, pursuing the abundant life in His presence.

How do you approach sin in your life? How do you respond to sinful patterns and behaviors?
In what specific way do you need to focus on taking off the old self and putting on the new? How will you pursue it?

John Owen on holiness

"Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and realizing of the gospel in our souls."

-- John Owen, the great Puritan pastor/theologian

Solitude

"Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life... We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do no set aside some time to be with God and listen to him."

-- Henri Nouwen, quoted by Ruth Barton in Invitation to Solitude and Silence.

We often try to squeeze prayer into our day wherever it will fit - in the car, in the shower, on the go. And there's nothing wrong with praying like that. But that kind of prayer will not take us into the depths of relationship we desire with God. We need time alone with Him. In a famous passage from the Gospel of Mark (1:35), we read of Jesus:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."

What is your habit of prayer? Do you find it desirable to spend time in solitary prayer? Why or why not?

Tozer on Sin

Aiden W Tozer wrote often about the need to press beyond an intellectual understanding of Christian theology and doctrine into a real experience of and relationship with God. In his day he saw an emphasis on such intellectual understanding at the expense of really knowing God. I think that in many circles the situation has reversed itself in our day - we crave experience and minimize theology and doctrine. This is equally dangerous. One place this problem manifests itself is in our response to sin. When we don't grasp the personal nature of our relationship with God it is easy to think of sin in merely legal terms, something that must be tolerated or dealt with according to certain procedures. Likewise, if our focus is entirely on a content-less experience of Christ, we may not have a high view of the holiness of God and of His wrath against sin. We may simply say, "Sorry," as if we just bumped into Him in the hall. Sin is very serious business. Tozer reminds us, however,

"Regardless of what men may say, we are still face to face with the sin question, and no man who has neglected to deal with his sins can even remotely understand the question of the deity of Christ and the mystery of the Godhead. Until the sinner has been brought before the bar of God and convicted of personal guilt, any notions he may have about Christ are bound to be academic, nothing more, and wholly unrelated to life. One deadly result of our failure to face up to the fact of sin is the widespread moral insensitivity which characterizes Christians these days... The nerve has died in the Christian conscience and the sin that would have driven our Christian fathers to their knees in a paroxysm of repentance leaves us almost untouched."

How do you think about sin? How do you respond to sin in your own life? Do you take it as seriously as God does? What would change if we did?

Steadfast Peace

A long time ago I memorized Isaiah 26:3, which says,

"You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in You."

But I think verse 4 helps develop the idea further:

"Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD , the LORD , is the Rock eternal."

Perfect peace is certainly a desirable state, and here we learn it is promised to those whose mind is steadfast. But not just steadfast in any particular direction - steadfast in its focus and trust in the Lord, who is the Rock eternal. The whole image of the Rock is oriented towards the fact that the Lord is forever to forever unchanging; He is the very definition of constant and steadfast. When our minds and hearts are constant in our faith and trust in Him, no matter the circumstances, we can find peace that, in the words of Philippians 4, "defies all understanding."

The English Standard Version (a newer translation that I heartily recommend) translates verse 3 above with a slightly different emphasis that draws greater attention to the point we're discussing:

"You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.

Is your mind "stayed" on Christ? Do you trust Him in all circumstances; in His unchanging grace and goodness?

James 1:6-8

Continuing our stroll through James 1 we happen upon some verses that may at first trouble us a bit, 1:6-8:

6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double minded man, unstable in all he does.

Now should we take this the way many Pentecostal TV preachers and "faith-healers" might preach it - that if we just believe enough and have enough faith we can get what we want and, conversely, when our prayers aren't answered (or we don't get the answer we want) it is because we don't pray hard enough or exercise enough faith? NO! Those who preach it that way are dead wrong! As if God's will was dependent upon some subjective level of faith or prayers on the part of finite men.

The key to this passage is, I think, in the concept of being double minded. The double minded person is one who has two agendas, who is pulled in two directions, and tries to serve two masters. On the one hand he wants God's favor and may have genuine desire to live for God. On the other hand, he wants to please this world and serve himself or something other than God. Thus he has two minds, figuratively speaking. He is unstable because he is constantly aiming for two targets at once. The slightest bump in the road could send him teetering way off course. When hard times come (and remember the context is suffering, read the first few verses), he doesn't know how to respond because he doesn't know where his heart really is. Thus he is blown about by the waves.

God demands our whole hearts and lives. Jesus taught that we cannot serve two masters; it just isn't possible. To ask God for wisdom (or whatever) without being fully committed to His agenda in our lives (and in the universe as a whole) is to want to have our cake and eat it too. We want His blessing and the assurance of His will, but we also want to manage our own agenda and pursue our own selfish and/or worldly desires. This cannot be.

Are you double minded? Does your life, your prayers, your speech, etc, indicate that you have one mind or two? To be sure we all struggle with sin in our lives and struggle with what Paul calls the "old self" and its sinful desires. But does the overall flow of your life show a single-minded follower of Christ, or an unstable, double minded person?

Heart and Minds, response to a question

Recently a reader posted this question:
"I have a question: what do you mean by "Is your faith limited to thinking, or does it go beyond that?" I've always been a bit perplexed concerning the relationship between head & heart, knowing & believing. I'm not a very intellectual person (It's a bit harsh to say "I'm not smart"), and at times I really wonder how much I need to know and understand. What is the "....beyond that"? "

This is a great question, and one that many of us struggle with, so I decided it deserved a new entry rather than a comment. And it's a question that the book of James, which I've been writing about recently, helps us answer.

When we think about knowledge versus belief, head versus heart, I think that most of us tend towards one extreme or the other. Some of us tend to intellectualize our faith such that it becomes exclusively a matter of proper theology and doctrine. Others of us tend to simply rely on the experience of faith and worship, and don't want to get bogged down with deeper issues of Christian thought. Most of us could pretty easily identify which extreme we tend toward.

When I asked "Is your faith limited to thinking, or does it go beyond that?" I was echoing the challenge Piper issued in that quotation to those of us who tend to intellectualize our faith. James tells us that "faith without works is dead." Faith in Christ calls us to action, and James, throughout his epistle, shows us particular examples of such action. Paul often talks about pursuing holiness, being conformed to the image of Christ, of putting off the old self and putting on the new. True faith in Christ should inevitably lead to action, and it should also engage our whole beings - emotions and, yes, intellect.

Yet we must be sure that action (or experience, which is what many cling to in our culture) without the foundation of knowledge is misguided and even deceptive. I wrote about a month ago on contentment, pointing out that our faith does rest on content - the truth of the gospel and of Scripture. We should strive and work to understand it, to grow in grace and knowledge, as Scripture exhorts us to do.

So, my long winded answer to the question is that we must continue to grow in our understanding of Scripture. The mind is like the body, capable of being stretched and exercised, and we are called to love the Lord our God with all of our minds. But not just our minds - but also our hearts, etc. I hope this helps. I'll pick back up with James tomorrow.

James 1:5

A couple of days ago we took a look at James 1:2-4, and discussed the call to take joy in all kinds of trials - and discovered that even in our struggles God is at work. He redeems our struggles for good. They have purpose in our lives - good purposes! It is interesting that this exhortation is immediately followed by a promise of wisdom to those who ask.

James 1:5 reads: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." Doesn't that just make so much sense? When we are faced with trials and struggles we often don't know how to respond, what to do, where to go, what to say, etc. By definition, struggles are tough and they present us with a challenge that must be met and overcome - but how? James, inspired by the Holy Spirit, understands this particular need, and assures us that God will meet it if we would but ask him.

Again, perhaps its overly obvious, but it bears mentioning at this point that we must ask for wisdom in our struggles. One of the marvelous results of struggles and trials is that they (should) bring us to a greater awareness of our need for God and to prayer. We must ask God for wisdom. There is no harm in seeking godly counsel from others; indeed this is something that is quite healthy. Yet if we do not first turn to the Source of all wisdom (not to mention strength, grace, comfort...), we are just being plain silly. He knows you and your circumstances better than anyone (including you). Not only that, but he knows what tomorrow will bring.

Do you struggle to think of God's generosity when times are tough? Yet James points us to this characteristic of God in his discussion of trials and troubles. When it comes to wisdom He "gives generously to all." And isn't wisdom what we really need anyway? Not the wisdom of this world, but the wisdom of God. The apostle Paul describes that wisdom in Ephesians 1: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

Who do you look to in trouble? Do you earnestly seek wisdom from God, do you ask that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you might find an eternal perspective on trials?

Flannery O'Connor on fighting for joy

"Always you renounce a lesser good for a greater; the opposite is what sin is.... The struggle to submit... is not a struggle to submit but a struggle to accept and with passion. I mean, possibly, with joy. Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy - fully armed too as it's a highly dangerous quest."

Flannery O'Connor, quoted by John Piper.

Piper on Desires

John Piper, in When I Don't Desire God, writes of the importance of fighting for joy:

"God is glorified in his people by the way we experience him, not merely by the way we think about him. Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires."

If you've read much Piper, you know how vitally important it is to him that we think properly about God and understand the marvelous depths of truth about Him and in Him. Yet if that's as far as we go, then we haven't really understood. Does your theology and understanding lead to greater desire for God? Is your faith limited to thinking, or does it go beyond that?

James 1:2-4

After his initial greeting, James the brother of Jesus writes in his epistle,

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Do you find it interesting that he talks about trials "of many kinds?" I'm glad he put it that way. Often we in the West forget that many believers suffer serious persecution for their faith, including imprisonment, ostracization, even death. Yet sometimes when we do remember the plights of others we tend to discount our own troubles. Now, to be sure, they pale in comparison and keeping things in proper perspective is to be commended, but our trials, nevertheless, are real. How do you respond to trials in your life? With complaining? Despondancy? Do you withdraw and hide? Or do you rejoice?

What a marvelous thing it is to know that, in Christ, our trials are meaningful! They have a purpose. James elucidates that purpose for us - they develop perseverance and maturity, they help conform us to the image of Christ. For example, often our trials will remind us that we are dependent upon God and not on ourselves, they will remind us that our hope is in Christ rather than in this world, they will cause us to be in circumstances where we will see God act as only He can. So we learn to persevere in Him.

Those who do not embrace a worldview centered on Christ must suffer doubly because, for them, there is no higher purpose or reason for suffering. The universe is a coldly random place, this life is devoid of any real and lasting transcendent meaning. Many Eastern religions hold that to live is to suffer. The best one can hope for is release from the cycle of birth/suffering/death/reincarnation, release from conscoius existence.

In our trials and suffering, no matter what form they take, believers in Christ thus have an opportunity to present a powerful witness of hope to the reality of the Gospel and the God whose purposes cannot be thwarted.

Providence

The concept of divine providence is one that has been much debated in some circles in recent years, and in light of recent events, bears some reflection. Bruce Ware, in his book, God's Greater Glory, defines divine providence thus:

"God continually oversees and directs all things pertaining to the created order in such a way that 1) he preserves in existence and provides for the creation he has brought into being, and 2) he governs and reigns supremely over the entirety of the whole of creation in order to fulfill all of his intended purposes in it and through it."
(page 17)

God knows your circumstances (and those of every person). He knows the past, the present, and the future in full. He preserves His creation (including you and me) and fulfills His good purposes. The universe is NOT random, and stuff doesn't just happen. God has a plan and a purpose in all things that ultimately cannot be thwarted. This is what we have in mind when we say "God reigns."