Escape Worldly Cares by Reading the Bible

Reading the Bible is the Escape from Worldly Cares that You Need

Barbara Henderson

My family went to see 'Inkheart' at the movie theater a while back.

The story line was that when certain people read a book characters from the book come into reality; and, people from the present are sucked into the book.  I suppose it is sort of like the movie Jumanji - except it is a book instead of a board game.

Seven of us went to see it.

Three liked it; three didn't care for it; and one slept through most of it so he did not vote. Anyway, I began to think about the book that pulled me into it. It is the Bible of course. I read it over the years; I had favorite passages; I gained a general knowledge of what was in the Bible; I gained specific knowledge of scriptures providing evidence of the theology of the church that I grew up in.

Then something dreadful happened. My sister dropped dead of a heart attack at age 33. I was immediately comforted that April was in heaven, but I still had to deal with the present and the reality that she had died. I was overwhelmed with grief.

The Bible is what saved me. It pulled me into it like an escape from a nightmare. As long as I read the Bible I was in a different realm, a realm where I was somewhat comforted, where things seemed ok to some extent. I read it so much that it seemed like I almost memorized the Old Testament.

Prior to that time, I knew the people in the Bible were real, but it didn't really seem to sink in. During that time of sorrow it seemed that the more I read the Bible, the more I began to see the people in the Bible as people just like me. They struggled with grief and sorrow. They struggled to do what was right. They struggled to get by from day to day. I was 'pulled into that book'.

If you are a Christian today, struggling with something in your life, your daily salvation is also in that Book.

Great preachers and Bible teachers of the ages have been pulled into the Bible as well. Some people are pulled into the Bible by the Holy Spirit. They don't need a specific disaster or sorrow or in their personal life. They aren't necessarily called into full time ministry. They just get interested in reading and studying the Bible and it gets hold of them. They begin to 'live' in the Book.

Just as people are pulled into the Bible, the Word of the Living God, there are things and creatures in the Bible that live in this world. Evil is with us. Love is with us. Sorrow and joy are things from the Book that live here as well. There are some dreadful creatures mentioned in Revelation that will one day come into the world we now live in. You do not want to be here when that happens.

Along with these creatures will come earth's darkest hours. If you would escape these evil times, you need to act now.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today, There is time.

If you have already trusted Jesus Christ, the author of the Bible, then give thanks.

Thanksgiving is done in deeds as well as in words.

If you love Christ, you will serve Him.

You will do the things He says to do.

You will set out each day to:

be kind to one another,'

tenderhearted,

forgiving,

Because this is how Jesus Christ treated us.

AND, you will tell others that Christ died for them; and, they can also escape from the wrath to come through Jesus Christ.

Tell them, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.'

I would like to add one thing. Second in importance to the Bible is the Hymnal. I am not talking about hypnotic seven-eleven songs.  Seven-eleven songs are alleged songs that have seven words and are sung eleven times.  They are boring beyond bearing.  They make me want to scream.  They are not relevant to Christianity.  They are relevant only to emotionalism – a form of self-worship! 

Here’s a link to some great hymns on youtube. 

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0A8E2C3A0F8F0E9D

Hymns are great with a full orchestra and a large congregation singing at the top of their lungs. They are also good with just one voice singing while the singer goes about his/her daily business. 

I also like Tennessee Ernie Ford singing Gospel hymns and there are a lot of his hymns on youtube as well.

God bless you.

Barbara

Praying Your Way Through an Illness or Other Disaster

Where to Go When You Are Facing a Dark Night of the Soul

Barbara Henderson

In the Bible we are told of a man who needed food in the middle of the night to feed an unexpected guest.  He went to a neighbor and persistently banged on the door and asked for food.  Finally the neighbor realized he would not get any sleep until he got up and gave the man some food for his guests.

When thinking about this story I notice that there are at least two very rude people.  First, the unexpected guest who arrived in the middle of the night and demands to be fed!  Second the homeowner who goes to a neighbor and demands that he get up to give him some food for his rude guest.  If that happened often the neighbor probably listed his home for sale the next morning. 

This is sort of a complex story when applied to the lives of everyday Christians. 

First, the man had an unexpected ‘guest’.  In our lives we often have unexpected ‘visitors’. These visitors could include financial difficulty, illness, family strife, job loss, accidents, and many other unwanted things. 

Second, the man dealt with the unexpected guests by looking outside his own abilities and resources for help.  He went to his neighbor.  For Christians, when these unexpected circumstances and events come upon us, we also need to go outside our own abilities and resources.  We need to run to the Lord for help.  It is time to beat on His door until He gives us help. 

That does sound simple doesn’t it?  Feed the unexpected – and probably uninvited - guest – and then get on with your life.  Unfortunately, that dreadful ‘guest’ will usually overstay his welcome.  That is especially true when you are unhappy about the visit in the first place.

So, what do you do when the problem visitor moves in?  You keep knocking on the neighbor’s door.  However, Christians are not really ‘neighbors’ when it comes to God Almighty.  They are family.  I mean they are actual legally adopted family members.  When you pray to God through Jesus Christ the Son you are not banging on the door of a neighbor.  You are directly asking your adopted Father for help. 

Read Matthew Chapter 7:7-11.  The entire chapter is good, but these verses are especially helpful in this.

⁷ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
⁸ For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
⁹ Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
¹⁰ Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

And there you have it.  God is going to answer your prayers.  What often happens is we have a specific answer and a specific order in which we want things to happen.  Instead, God answers our prayers in a manner and order that is most beneficial.  It is like sewing a garment, or repairing an automobile.  For everything to work properly everything must be done in order.  For instance you can’t pour the oil into a new engine before all the gaskets and hoses are put in.  Sometimes, when we are pouring our heart out to God for help in one area He has to get things in order in another area before our particular prayer can be answered in a way that will actually  work. 

Remember the man who went to his neighbor kept beating on the door until the neighbor got up and gave him what he needed.  However, when going to God Almighty with a request remember that you do not have to wake God up.  He doesn’t sleep or slumber. 

Remember Psalm 121 which says:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

² My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

³ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

⁴ Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

⁶ The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

⁸ The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Verses 2 & 3 both tell you that God does not sleep.  You don’t have to wake him up.

It has been said, and I believe correctly, that prayers are not answered because people give up and stop praying.  Don’t let that be your story.  Keep praying.  Remember Luke 18:1-7 which says;

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

² Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

³ And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

⁴ And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

⁵ Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

⁶ And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

⁷ And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Keep praying.  Don’t give up on God.  He IS working on your behalf.  No matter how dark the night; no matter how deep the sorrow; or even no matter how trivial your request may be, God is with you and He will help you.

We have the tragic story in the Bible of Abraham and Sarah who had a direct promise from God regarding the birth of a son.  They grew impatient and took matters into their own hands.  Abraham had a son with his wife’s maid.  The entire world is currently reeling with the sorrow of that lapse of faith!  Of course we are to do what we can do, but we are not to manipulate a situation to make things come out in a manner that seems good to us.  God does not need us to manipulate a situation, or to take matters into our own hands on a large scale like Abraham or a small personal scale.  Also, none of us actually know what a small scale happens to be.  I am positive Abraham had no idea of what was going to happen to all the earth because of his impatience in waiting for the promised son.  God wants us to be obedient and patient in everything whether the matter is great or small.  He wants us to believe Him.  He wants us to trust Him that His blessings and His time table is the best for everyone concerned. 

Keep on praying. Pray without ceasing.  Keep on knocking on God’s door.  As you pray do not forget to give thanks.  The Bible says in everything we are to give thanks.  He doesn’t say to give thanks for terminal illness, heartbreaks, deaths of loved ones, financial disasters, or any other dreadful situation.  He says to give thanks during these times as well as during good times.  When my sister died unexpectedly at age 33 one of the first things I remember doing is to thank God that she was in heaven.  Giving thanks to God for His daily benefits is obedience to God, but it is also to our benefit as well.  Thankfulness gives order to things when the entire world may seem to be spinning out of control.  Do not discount the benefit to you personally of giving thanks and praising God during difficult situations. 

Do your best to listen to God as you pray.  You don’t want to miss your answer, or you don’t want to miss the first step in getting your prayer answered.  God is not going to speak to you from a burning bush.  He speaks through His word.  Read your Bible.  Bible reading does two things.  First, and possible most important during a difficult situation, reading the Bible provides a distraction from your problems!  Yes, that is right.  You can get so caught up in the story that you forget for even a few minutes that you have a problem or sorrow at all.  I definitely know what I am talking about.  Second, sometimes when you are prayerfully reading the Bible something will almost seem to speak to you personally.  It is usually a word of comfort or a word of hope that was written by God thousands of years ago, but the message is absolutely timeless.  It is inerrant, relevant, and it is enough!  You don’t need a sign or wonder outside God’s word and the comfort that it can give you if you are willing to look for it and accept it.

You can also find help and comfort in the written word of sound preachers and Bible commentaries.  These do not supersede the Bible in authority, but they are helpful.

Solid Christian friends are also helpful.  You do have God with you all the time, but a human shoulder to cry on can also be very comforting. 

In all this, pray without ceasing. Don’t stop.  Don’t doubt.  Don’t despair.  Unfortunately, we are all prone to stop praying, to doubt, and to despair.  Fortunately, the Bible tells us that ‘if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts’.  How wonderful is that?  If you fall into despair like Elijah did when he ran to the cave God will seek you out and speak to you again in that still small voice.  Read the Bible.  Don’t give up. 

Another thing to do when in the sucking blackness of despair is to pray for your friends.  I know, that really sounds impossible.  After all, isn’t that when your friends are supposed to be praying for you?  Well, yes it is; but that is their job. If they fail you that is on their record.  The Bible tells us that when Job was in the middle of sorrow, loss, and a discussion with God regarding exactly why everything had happened to him, Job’s so-called friends asked Job to pray for them.  Job did what a true friend would do.  He prayed for them.  THEN, the Bible tells us that God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends’.    So, from a selfish point of view, pray for others.  It will help them, but it could help you more.  Once again, pray without ceasing.

God bless you. 

Looking for the Good in Cancer

Is There Anything Good in Cancer or Other Illness?

Barbara Henderson

Ouch!  Groan. Moan.  Roll around in pain.  Bravely say through teary eyes, ‘No, it doesn’t hurt.  I’m fine.’  I am at the point where I am worried about weight loss instead of cheering when the scales say another pound has vanished.

So, while going through this cancer it seems pretty natural to look for something, anything, ‘good’ in the illness.  Whether you are the one sick or someone you love is sick, we all want to find something good in the illness whether it is cancer or something else, we all ask ourselves, ‘Why?  What is the purpose?  Is there anything good in this?’

People often waste time worrying about what they or someone else did to cause the illness.  Sometimes people do things that may bring on an illness, but for the most part that is not the way to look at an illness.  Job was tormented when he had not done anything to bring on his trials.  In John chapter 9 we have the word of Jesus Himself regarding a man born blind. 

            ‘And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

² And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

³ Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.’

My personal opinion is that most of the time illness just happens.  It rains on the just and the unjust.  The way to handle illness is to work to get through the illness while living within the boundaries set by your self-definition and self-discipline.  There are several things that can happen during an illness that are definitely good.

First, people learn to pray.  Your own life or the life of a loved one brings you directly to the throne of God.  In facing God with a very important request several things become obvious to the one praying.  We are convicted of sins, and due to wanting our prayers answered, we repent of sins.  This is good.  Even better is the overwhelming knowledge that no one has anything with which to bargain with God.  We may be able to go to various people and bargain or trade for certain things, but with God there is nothing with which to bargain.  All we can do is throw ourselves on God’s mercy.  Just pray, ‘God, have mercy.’  So, we learn we have no bargaining power with God.  That is a good place to be.

Second, the person facing the illness has time to get their heart right with God.  Christians are already saved, but many people facing an illness personally or in a family member are not saved or not living life in a way that is pleasing to God.  An illness instead of sudden death gives them time to get it right with God.  The illness is a blessing from a merciful God.

Third, the sick person and the family facing the illness have a chance to show their Christian faith to others.  No one looks forward to being sick or watching someone in the family be sick.  But during the sickness the people cannot escape the fact that illness happens.  People often recover from serious illnesses and live many more years.  But in the end, we all die.  That is what happens.  While going through any illness we are continually reminded that ultimate end of every individual is physical death.  This gives people time to think it over and get it right with God.

In the middle of cancer treatment, or treatment for any other illness, it is always good to consider the things that are not going to change.  God is not going to change.  He is still on His throne.  He is still in charge.

Heaven is still the same.  Heaven is still the eternal home of Christians.  Whether we go there sooner or later doesn’t change the fact that heaven is a wonderful place where God’s children live as joint heirs with Jesus Christ for eternity.  Nothing can change that.

Our relationship with fellow Christians does not change.  For Christians death is separation without communication for an unknown period of time.  I can assure you that it is very unpleasant when a loved one dies. But, the rock to which we can cling is that there is a reunion coming when God says it is time.  And, there will be no sad farewells ever again. This is one way we face illness.  We know if it doesn’t go the way we want it to go, if there isn’t healing, then the sick Christian goes directly to the presence of God when they die.  Family and friends who are Christians will eventually go into the presence of God also. There is a reunion coming, and there will be no more broken hearts from that day forward.

Personally, I would rather face the unknown outcome with as much knowledge as possible.  When facing cancer treatment there isn’t any promised outcome.  That is the same thing with many other illnesses.  The doctors can do their very best, but they can’t promise the outcome that we want.  We want complete healing and a return to a healthy life.  There may be a good chance that our prayers will be answered exactly as requested, but there is always the knowledge that things may not go as planned.  In that case, it is best to know exactly what will happen.  The truth is that even though we recover from cancer and live fifty more years, we will eventually have an illness from which we will not recover.  We will die.  Then we will go to be with God if we are Christians.  We will go to be with the devil in his home which is hell if we are not followers of Jesus Christ.  That is the truth according the God Himself.  It may sound harsh, but telling the truth is merciful.  When someone has the truth they have the knowledge to make an informed choice. 

On a lighter note, daily living goes on every day.  During a battle with cancer we are reminded of how precious each minute is.  Going through an illness gives us a chance to set a better pattern for daily living; one that is more patient, thankful, cheerful, and appreciative of the joy of the moment.  It isn’t all bad.  Right now, I am facing more pain than I was expecting.  I mean, if the cancer is in the stomach area why are my arms and legs hurting so badly?  I guess it is because just like all evil – the chemo rains on the just and the unjust.  It isn’t confined to the area of cancer.  It travels all over my body including what passes for the healthy parts. 

And, I don’t know what to do.  Things that are good for you may suddenly be bad for you because they may inhibit the chemotherapy from doing its job.  It’s ‘job’ by the way, is to almost kill you without actually killing you.

So, it is take it one day at a time, and try to see the blessings of each day. 

Getting the cancer doesn’t feel like a blessing, but finding the cancer in what the doctor believes is time to treat it is a blessing. Hearing from so many people that they care about me and are praying for me is an overwhelming blessing.  When you pray for me, please take a minute to pray for all the lost people, the sick people, the sad people, the hungry people, the people in financial distress, and the persecuted Christians.  It only takes a few seconds to pray for these people, and God knows them all by name.  And then pray for yourself and your own family.  Praying for our friends is definitely to our benefit, but praying for our own heart’s desire is pure joy. 

Sometimes when I am overly tired I just remind myself’:

God is with me

God has a plan

God will help me

Praise God – who has not given us as a prey to the enemy.

Dear Readers!

Please remember that your stories sent to me by email have been overwhelmingly encouraging and helpful.  I would love for you to post your comments, helpful hints in facing an illness, or full stories on my blog.  I know they have potential to help others also.  You are free to leave your name or post anonymously.

http://crapitscancer.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-your-story.html

Thank you very much.

Barbara