my plug of the day

peeps.
i know many of you will not listen to this link...or have time...or really care.
but i would be remiss if i did not AT LEAST direct you to if -- in the case that you are suffering hardship and need to know why.

does it seem like too much?
does the burden seem too heavy?
how can God in his goodness...still be good, and allow you to endure your trial?
how can He be worth your trust?

if you have found yourself asking these questions...please listen to this sermon.
if you haven't found yourself asking these questions...you will, one day.
and if you're not currently undergoing a trial that can bring you to the end of yourself...you definitely know somebody who is.

i've listened to is twice this morning...while wrapping presents...and found myself frozen and nearly in tears by full and unbiased Truth.

i urge you to be encouraged by this message.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church
Pastor Mark Dever
"The Message of Job: Wisdom for Losers"
June 29, 1997
Cut and Paste this into your browser or upload to your iPod:
http://chbcaudio.org/audio/1997/06-29-97.mp3

Excerpts:

The danger we face is this: because we have, at some events in our past life, been able to figure out the reasons God causes us to struggle...Because we can AT SOME TIMES see the way God weaves our good and His will together through our sufferings -- we then insist that we must be able to always do so....and we grow a counterfeit trust in our feable reasoning, finding consolation only when we can justify His work in our life by seeing a finished product.

...just because God at some times allows us to see his purposes, with which we comfort ourselves --- we start to only trust in our own ability to figure it all out, rather than a trust in God himself and his character alone, as He revealed to us on the Cross.

our counterfeit trust will not work, we cannot trust in our cleverness to piece His puzzle together...
HE is the only being worth our trust.

Jesus responded to his disciples in John, Chapter 9, when asked, "what caused this man to be blind? his sin...or the sin of his parents?"

.....His response being: "niether this man's sin NOR his parents causes this -- but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

if we can't trust -- how then can we be believers?