Why does life hurt so much?

It’s our aim in this article to address some of the questions that people ask in life and to discover what the Word of God (the Bible) has to say about it. We place real confidence in the Bible because we have become convinced that the Bible is God’s communication to men and women and we wish people to benefit from what God has said.

I’m sure that most would agree that life hurts! That hurt can be caused by the normal progression from youth to old age and all the problems that come with ageing. Sickness also brings its heartaches! Natural disasters are devastating and destructive! To say nothing of the dreadful treatment that people endure at the hands of their fellow man. War and acts of terror produce unimaginable horrors. I’m sure that at times we all question why life is such a difficult and a hurtful experience.

Is there an appropriate response to this? The first thing I’d like to say is that “it's not personal”. What I mean is that we are not usually suffering as individuals because of something specific we have done. Before I go any further let me qualify that statement.  There are times in life when we do reap what we sow. There actually are consequences to our actions! But all the awful things that happen in the world are not usually the direct result of our personal actions.

My main thought when I say it’s not personal is this: ;people don’t die as a result of some sinful thing that they have done; old age doesn’t come because you did something wrong. The fact that we die, that we have sickness, that we grow old is explained to us in the Bible. The bible states that all of these conditions and circumstances exist because sin came into the world. As a result of Adam, the first man in the world, disobeying God the floodgates to all that was evil and damaging were opened. The fact that all of this is the result of the first man’s rebellion to God is explained by the biblical statement “by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin”,; Romans 5:12.

The Bible clearly teaches that God gave man a choice:

Obey Him,

Enjoy His presence,

Enjoy all that He created for him….

But, there is a but, God warned him that the day he ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would die. And that is what happened! Adam didn’t die physically but he died as far as his relationship with God was concerned. He was dead spiritually. Sin, death, pain and suffering became the normal experience of life. He had to work by the sweat of his brow for everything. Childbirth became a painful experience for the woman and the earth was cursed. So life hurts as a result; a fact that we know only too well.

However, what is quite incredible about the biblical story of salvation is that God had already a plan in place. God’s plan to provide forgiveness and to offer salvation to men and women was devised long before time began, 1 Peter 1: 19,20.

God had always planned to send His ‘Son to be the Saviour of the world’. He made sure in the writings of the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, that we would know Him when he visited earth. In the Old Testament, God told the prophets how to identify His Son. There were specific facts such as what family He would be born into, His distinctive and sinless lifestyle and His mode of death. Normally how people will die is an unknown fact but God was making a point in defining how Jesus would die in advance (see Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Luke 2: 34,35 – all of these passages of scripture speak of crucifixion which at the time was unknown and of the piercing of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus). All of this information was so that when He came we would know Him.

To me the greatest and most amazing thing about this whole thing is that God came to earth in person. He was a real but sinless man. He suffered, He hurt and He endured death to pay for our sin. God wants us to be forgiven therefore the price and the legal penalty for our sin was dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died upon the cross.

The Bible explains it like this:  “Christ died for our sins.”, 1 Corinthians 15:3, “He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, Isaiah 53:3.

Today God offers us not hurt but forgiveness;

Today God offers us love.

The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3:16. The greatest proof of the love of God is that, “God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:8.

I want to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if you pray to God, today, confessing your sins He will forgive you.

I trust that you will do this.

May God bless you!

This blog is written by Stephen at

Don't waste my death!

www.seekthetruth.org.uk
I was reading recently in the business section of The Daily Telegraph, the comments of the Royal Bank of Scotland boss John Hourican who has left his job, he was the Investment Banking boss and as he left his job he made this statement, “Don’t waste my death” as they ordered them to recognise public anger over libel scandal that led to his resignation.

Don’t waste my death. It made me think really about the fact there are people in this world’s history and their death has been for a purpose. Most of us don’t actually realise it but our own death will have a purpose. The Bible teaches that, “the wages of sin is death”a. 

The reason behind any individual’s death is the principle of sin and wrong doing. We don’t intentionally enter into it but as a result of one man’s sin, we are all condemned. Everyone of us practices sin and that corroborates and confirms the fact we were born as sinners, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”b and our death is a direct result, there’s a correlation between our behaviour and our moral standing before God and our sin, which ends in death.

My message really isn’t to point out to you that your death is significant though it’s not the end I must say, it’s the death of your body. There is a moral death, that’s with you in life, dead in sin. That's the death that’s separating you eternally from the presence of God, who is life and light and liberty and joy and peace. That’s something you don’t want. 

But I would like you to think about these words for a second or two, because I could imagine my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ saying, “don’t waste My death”. The Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven to earth, He came and lived a very humble and ordinary life upon this earth. He lived His days upon the earth showing to men the love and kindness of God. He died upon a cross and took the judgement, the legal consequences of sin on our behalf so that we might be forgiven. But if we refuse to believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, if we refuse to accept His forgiveness, if we refuse to accept the eternal life that He offers, we waste His death.

Can I say to you today? Don’t waste the death of Jesus, trust Him, confess your sin to Him, accept the eternal life He offers to you. 

a-Romans 6v23
b-Romans 3v23 

A Binary Opposition - 1 John 2:7-11

A binary opposition is defined below.

A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.

Binary opposition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We have some examples of this principle in the following verses from the Bible. Old and New, Darkness and Light, Love and Hate. There is no middle ground; you either do one or the other you cannot take the middle ground. 

So it is with your response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

• You are either in darkness or light! 
• You are either still a sinner or you are now a saint!
• You have either believed the gospel or you are an unbeliever!
• You are either still dead in your sins or you have eternal life!
• You either love your brother (this is evidence that you are a Christian) or you still hate!

One of the classic verses in the New Testament in this regard is John 5.24; it reads:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Lets analyse this:

• You hear, deafness has passed. 
• You believe that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
• You no longer fear the judgement or condemnation of God. 
• You have passed from a state of deadness in sin to eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Please note the conditions: You hear (deeper than merely listening) the words of the Lord Jesus and you trust God, the Father (the one who sent Jesus Christ, his Son to be the Saviour of the world) for salvation.

1 John 2. 7-11

7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

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Lest we forget - Sister City - Poppies in the Moat

"Lest we forget". The amazing sight of poppies filling the moat at the Tower of London is a vivid reminder that there are something's in life that we dare not forget. The sacrifice of the men in WW1 was costly but effective. I suppose The issue for our generation, as our forces leave Helmand and Afghanistan is whether our forces have achieved their goal there and in Iraq - I guess only time will tell! As a Christian these great sacrifices remind me of the price that Jesus paid to provide redemption. The price was great - His death - but the outcome is assured - salvation for those who turn to God and believe. The New Testament teaches that "Christ died for our sins" the result of which means that if we "confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Men and women gave their lives for our freedom and we salute them. Let's make sure we don't make a mockery of the freedom that was bought both at Calvary and in WW1.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2810085/The-field-remembrance-grows-Tower-London-moat-nearly-ceramic-poppies-commemorating-World-War-s-victims.html?ito=social-facebook





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Loneliness - it's a major problem in our society!

One of the most undesirable experiences that a person can encounter is that of loneliness. Some look back to childhood days when they were surrounded by family members; there was laughter, companionship, helpfulness, mutual care and love. However the enemy, death, gate-crashed the family and one after another, loved ones were taken and loneliness followed.

Perhaps others feel the emptiness of loneliness because a spouse died after many years of happy marriage. How often we have heard the following sentiment expressed, "It’s not too bad during the day when I can get out and about, but it is when darkness falls and I am alone in the house. A house that formerly was alive with chatter and friendly banter is now silent."

If loneliness on earth for a period of time is so sad and painful, what an awful thing it must be to experience this for eternity. For every soul that dies without Jesus Christ as Saviour the only outlook is the "blackness of darkness forever" Jude v.13. Some foolhardy and spiritually ignorant people have the mistaken idea that when they arrive in hell they will meet their friends and enjoy an eternal party! Since the judgment of God will be absolutely righteous, no two people will have the same sentence allocated to them and so each will be alone for eternity. What a horrendous thought, lonely and in the dark, under the judgment of God for all eternity.

However, there is One Who can save us from such an eternity of woe. In wondrous love God sent His Son to die for sinners. He bore the judgment so that we, so undeserving, could be rescued from hell. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, experienced loneliness in His life. He was, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Isaiah 53.3. We read that He was homeless, John 7.53-8.1 "And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives". He had no comfortable shelter, "Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head" Matthew 8.20. However, when we want to see the depth of the loneliness He suffered for us, we must come to His death. As He anticipated His sufferings He said, "Reproach hath broken My heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" Psalm 69.20. But it was when He hung in the agony of dark Calvary’s cross He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27.46. God left Him alone when "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" 1Peter 2.24. 

H. K. Burlingham wrote these words:

"Alone upon His cross, God’s judgment Jesus bore,

He paid in full the cost of glory evermore:

His precious blood was freely shed,

And Jesus crushed the serpent’s head!"

"The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin" 1 John 1.7.

 By trusting Him as your Saviour you will never experience eternal loneliness, but will enjoy the bliss of His companionship both now and for evermore.

For access to more articles, audio messages and 

video bible teaching visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk.

Written for FTMP by a Guest Blogger (copyright Assembly Testimony)