THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
MARCH 14, 2010
During our worship service a couple of weeks ago when our friend Guy was
with us; I did something I had never done before. I told everyone I planned on dedicating
this morning’s message to him and his wife Carroll because they are two of the
people who are in my constant thoughts and prayers. Although I intended this
message to be encouraging for everyone, I hoped it would be used by God as a
means of bestowing a special blessing upon them. I asked you folks to pray on
my behalf and ask God to help me craft it. For those of you who are unfamiliar
with some of the prolonged burdens this Christian couple has been enduring, Guy
has graciously provided the following chronology.
“Carroll” my wife and mother
of our son Travis was “once was extremely physically active. Skiing, bike
riding, aerobics, and other leisure activities were very much a part of her
life. Now, my dear wife has been brought to a place where all of this has
been taken away.” “About 20 years ago Carroll began having jaw and neck pain
along with severe migraines. As time went on this pain began to spread to other
parts of her body, legs, back, arms, shoulders, hands, etc. She went to many
doctors and specialists, but no one was able to figure out what was going on.
All her tests would come back negative. At one point her primary care physician
refused to treat her unless she agreed to see a psychiatrist; he was convinced
that Carroll’s pain was psychosomatic. Carroll started having doubts as to
whether he might be right. In her heart she believed there was something
physically wrong that the doctors were missing, yet the seed was planted that
she might have a mental problem. This seed weighed heavy on Carroll.”
“Carroll’s symptoms continued
to worsen, though she continued to work as a nurse at
“After leaving the Hospital
Carroll’s symptoms continued to worsen and the unknown disease was now
attacking her brain. Carroll began to experience psychotic symptoms,
screaming and cursing at the slightest provocation. At times when I would
come home from work I would find Carroll curled up on the floor crying, or
pacing frantically around the kitchen table stamping her feet and moaning out
loud. She was unable to reason, and also unable to make intelligent decisions.”
“Finally, we went to a holistic
physician that had Carroll tested for Lyme disease. The test results were
positive. When Carroll received the diagnosis she broke down in tears of
joy. Finally, she had the reason for her pain and mental state. Finally, she
could get treatment that will cure this bug. Well the joy turned to
discouragement as several years of treatment by Lyme disease specialists have
proved for naught, or almost for naught. Carroll has made improvements with the
neurological involvement; she no longer has bouts of “Lyme Rage.” However,
Carroll’s physical condition continues to deteriorate. Her body is being slowly
broken down by constant pain, depression, anxiety, and other symptoms too
numerous to list.”
“Ask Carroll how she is able
to persevere and she will tell you, “It is because Jesus is by my side. If I
were not a child of God I could not endure this, I would have killed myself a
long time ago.” Guy concludes: “And we know that for those who love God all
things work together for good, for those who are called according to his
purpose, (Romans 8:28). Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow!”
When you add those problems to
the typical divinely ordained challenges such as those at work, or with
relationship problems and other annoying stuff, you could say this couple have
been, and are continuing to experience, a little bit of hell on earth. I don’t
think any of you folks would disagree, would you? In one way or another, each
of you also continues to experience difficult trials. And, unless I’m greatly
mistaken, those of you who are trying your very best to follow the Risen Savior
believe all the painful experiences that we are exposed to are somehow working
together for our ultimate good and God’s glory. I would also be surprised to
learn that we didn’t cry out to God in
anguish pleading with Him for immediate relief from whatever it may be
that’s been tormenting us during those prolonged difficult times when you and I
continue to endure a great deal of physical and or emotional distress.
Compounding our frustrating dilemma is often the fact that as hard as we try,
we can’t get our conscience to convict us of what we may have done which has
displeased Him so much, and which He finds to be exceptionally offensive, that
all our prayer requests, and those of the folks who truly care about us, seem
as though they’re falling on deaf ears.
I believe the more we focus on
our plight, the more we tend to magnify our suffering and heartache. If we
continue, we run the risk of convincing ourselves we’re helpless and our situation
is hopeless. And, just as Carroll does, unless we believe we are one of God’s
adopted children, and that Jesus is at our side in the midst of our suffering,
we couldn’t continue to endure. In fact, we may reach the point where we may
not even want to try. We will be tempted to conclude that God doesn’t really
love us, or that we would be better off dead, although none of these thoughts
could be further from the truth. We often become bewildered when our prayers
aren’t answered, especially in light of the following promises.
Psalm 50:15 (ESV) … “call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
I find it hard to believe that
Guy and Carroll haven’t been calling upon the Lord pleading for deliverance
every day for the past twenty years. And, since becoming aware of their plight,
so too have many others such as those of us who truly care about them have been
doing on their behalf. We do the same for ourselves and also for folks we care
about deeply, don’t we?
Psalm 55:22 (AMP)
22 Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it]
and He will sustain you; He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be
moved (made to slip, fall, or fail).
Who of us haven’t done this--many times? The fact that we are
still here today is irrefutable evidence that, not only has He in the past, but
that He continues to sustain us moment by moment in the present. But don’t we
desire more than that? Of course, we do! Nevertheless, we’re still awaiting His
answer to the prayers we believe are the most importan.
1 Samuel 2:30 (AMP) … “those who honor Me I will honor,”
It’s as though God is saying: honor Me by sincerely striving
to love Me with all of your mind and heart and soul and strength, and love your
neighbor just as you love yourself. Do this and I [your Father] will [must]
honor you! I love it whenever one of My straying children humbly acknowledges
the fact that he or she has been sinning against Me and sincerely feels awful
about it and then pleads with Me to forgive and help them to overcome the
temptation in the future, because they know they can’t do it without Me. I’m
delighted that those children have learned what truly pleases Me and how I must
respond.
Psalm 51:17 (AMP)
17 My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken
spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and
humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
Isaiah 57:15 (AMP)
15 For thus says the high and lofty One—He Who inhabits
eternity, Whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, but with
him also who is of a thoroughly penitent and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the thoroughly penitent
[bruised with sorrow for sin].
Isaiah 66:1-2 (AMP)
1 THUS SAYS the Lord: Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My
footstool. What kind of house would you build for Me? And what kind can be My
resting-place?
2 For all these things My hand has made, and so all these
things have come into being [by and for Me], says the Lord. But this is the
man to whom I will look and have regard: he who is humble and of a
broken or wounded spirit, and who trembles at My word and reveres
My commands.
It behooves each of us to meditate frequently upon these
verses and sincerely strive to take them very seriously. We can avoid a lot of
unnecessary heartache whenever we do. For instance, it was only after
experiencing much hardship that the Lord finally got through to King David as
he acknowledged to God.
Psalm 119:71 (NIV)
71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn
your decrees.
Psalm 119:75 (NIV)
75 I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in
faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Look at what Peter told those early Christians and us through
them about this issue.
1 Peter 5:6-7 (AMP) “Therefore humble yourselves [demote,
lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in
due time He may exalt you, 7 Casting the whole of your care [all
your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him,
for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.”
Isn’t the fact that we constantly turn to him in continual
fervent prayer indicative of someone who is humbling themselves under the
mighty hand of their Creator, and acknowledging that neither he or she or
anyone else in the whole world can provide what they so earnestly desire? Can
you think of a single Bible believing Christian who has been enduring prolonged
physical and or emotional pain who isn’t tenaciously clinging to the following
promises?
Isaiah 40:28-31 (AMP) “Have you not known? Have you not
heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. 29 He gives power to the faint and
weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to
multiply and making it to abound]. 30
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall
feebly stumble and fall exhausted; 31 But those who wait for
the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew
their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount
up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.”
I can’t imagine that Guy and Carroll haven’t been looking
forward to that day, can you? And they aren’t the only ones, are they? Just
look at the facial expression of your brothers and sisters in Christ who are
sitting in the other pews listening to this message, and you will know the
answer.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the
desires of your heart.
I’ll give you three guesses and the first two won’t count.
Can you think of what may have been just one of the desires of Guy and
Carroll’s heart over the past twenty years, or remember what one of the desires
of your own heart has been during those seemingly never ending divinely
ordained challenges you have endured?
Psalm 50:15 (ESV) … “call
upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Now we’re back to square one. Who can fault anyone from
wanting immediate relief from pain? I’m sure Guy and Carroll and the rest of
you who have been crying out to Him for a long time pleading for something you
want very, very much, but are still waiting for Him to give you the major
desires of your heart? Do you have any idea why He hasn’t? Although there are
various reasons for Hid delays, there is one which we often forget. For
instance, has it ever occurred to you that perhaps He can’t at the present
moment, or can’t ever on this side of eternity? I have, because I have found it
to be absolute biblical truth. In case any of you have just made a mental
note to move me to the top of your prayer-list, and are thinking about calling
a special congregational meeting to decide whether or not to “put me out to
pasture,” allow me to explain.
Ephesians 1:3-14 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has
blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his
purpose, which he set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been
predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to
the counsel of his will,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to
the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised
Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire
possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Revelation 3:5 (ESV)
5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments,
and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess
his name before my Father and before his angels.
Ephesians 1:3 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Ephesians 2:4-10 (ESV)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with
which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is
not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Romans 8:28-29 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work
together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
Matthew 3:17 (ESV)
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 17:5 (ESV)
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
Please listen carefully while I repeat the verses which I
have just emphasized in the Power Point presentation by underlining them.
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
And we know that for those who love God all things work
together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 17:5 (ESV)
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased; listen to him.”
Take comfort in knowing with the utmost assurance that the
time will finally come when each of His adopted children such as you will hear
Him say something similar: “This is
My beloved child with whom I am very pleased.”
Whenever we ask Him to deliver us from our seemingly never
ending divinely ordained physical and or emotional pain, we must remember our
immutable Creator (Psalm 33:11; 102:27; Malachi 13:6; Hebrews 1:2, 13:8;
James 1:7) never changes. He can’t grant our request a moment before He
has accomplished everything He planned to develop within us through an often
very painful process. Until then, it’s always helpful for us to turn our eyes
upon His only begotten Son and remember: “In bringing many sons to glory, it
was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should
make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering,” Hebrews 2:10
(NIV).
Although we are new creatures in Christ, we are still not
fully developed. As much as we may want Him to, infinite wisdom (Job
12:13; Psalm 104:24; Proverbs 3:19; Daniel 2:20; Romans 11:33; 1 Corinthians
25) and perfect love (Jeremiah 31:3; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Ephesians
2:4-5; 1 John 3:1) cannot alter or abort what He has planned concerning each
of His children back in eternity past. He cannot complete the work He is doing
in us prematurely. Contrary to evolutionist beliefs, we are not evolving.
On the contrary, we are deeply involved in the life altering possess of being
conformed by our Creator into the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. And that takes time! In addition, thanks to His Word,
we’re aware of that magnificent encouraging and comforting awesome fact.
Please try to remember and also remind each often that Christians are living in
what most of you folks have heard me refer to many times in the past as being “The Eight Day Of Creation.”
Lord willing, next week I’ll be able to share how we can
apply these eternal truths in our own lives and be blessed whenever we do.
Until then, please continue praying for me as I do for each of you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’ve been hoping and praying God would use this particular
message to bless Guy and Carroll and each of you who just heard it preached and
many others who may read it later.
Please take a moment
and post your thoughts in my Guest Book.