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.
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