Josh Benner

Tag: hope

  • Strength through the toughest struggles

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    At the beginning of Romans 5, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the glories of justification by faith.
    Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
    -Romans 5:1-2
    But beginning in verse 3, Paul seems to randomly change topics:
    Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
    -Romans 5:3-4

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  • Election day: politics matter but not as much as we think

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    Another election day.

    A day when millions of Americans will breathe a sigh of relief and think “Ok, maybe it’ll be ok,” and where millions of other Americans will be despondent and thinking “It’s over. This was our last chance.”

    It’s utter nonsense.

    Certainly, this stuff matters.

    But it’s not all that matters.

    Political ads play to our fears, not to our hopes. They try to scare us. The media does the same thing. We hear how this is the most important election in history. (more…)

  • When we’re tempted to second guess God…

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    I was going through Lee Strobel’s latest book The Case for Miracles last week. The final chapter in the book was a poignant discussion entitled: “When miracles don’t happen.”

    In that chapter, Strobel interviews Douglas Groothuis who’s a professor at Denver Seminary. In the interview, they talk about the health of Groothuis’s wife Becky, a Mensa member and author who developed a rare form of dementia which impacts the brain’s ability to recall words.

    In the interview, they talk of day to day challenges of seeing his wife taken from him. The interview talked about faith, spirituality, lament, and hope.

    I was particularly struck by one of the answers Groothuis gave. Strobel asked “Do you feel like if you were God, you would definitely heal Becky?”

    “God is perfect and he acts accordingly. If I were God, I’d be perfect – and therefore I’d act in the very same way he does. We might not understand why he does what he does, but it’s folly to think we’d do things better.”

    I found that to be brilliant and insightful. It’s easy for us to look to things in God’s rule of creation and to think it could be done better or should be done differently. But God is righteous and eternal. At times, it can be very hard to see the good in the struggles of our lives. At times, it’s hard to see the goodness of God in the wrongs others afflict on us.

    Groothuis saw a brilliant woman lose her mental faculties and pass away at just 59 years of age. But the faith to trust that God is still good in that. To trust that God is so good that his plan cannot be improved upon in spite of all of the bad, all of the evil, all of the suffering in our world. God still works that for good. God still weaves that into his plans and uses it for his own glory.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Strength through the toughest struggles

    pexels-photo-372098
    At the beginning of Romans 5, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the glories of justification by faith.
    Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
    -Romans 5:1-2
    But beginning in verse 3, Paul seems to randomly change topics:
    Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
    -Romans 5:3-4
    For a Christian who has been justified, God gives them his Spirit. And through God’s Spirit, a person is sanctified (made Holy).
    There are other places in the Bible that talk about sanctification and its result. In Galatians, Paul. talks about the fruit of the Spirit. And the point of that passage is that for a person who has the Spirit, which is synonymous with a person who has faith, the Spirit of God working in a person produces fruit, virtues like love, joy, peace, patience. (Galatians 5:22-23)
    In Romans 5, Paul is saying that another way how people grow with God is through struggles.
    That might seem absolutely counterintuitive.
    Many people get frustrated with God when they’re struggling, suffering.
    It can so naturally be this sense of “where are you God?” Or “Why is this happening to me?” “It’s not supposed to be this way.”
    Suffering is part of life.
    It rains on both the saint and the sinner.
    And the Christian life is one that is lived in a fallen world. Where we still sin, and have to deal with the ramifications from that. Where other people still sin, and where we have to deal with the ramifications from that. And where there is still sickness, illness, disease, hurt.
    And there’s something we all have to understand. The Bible doesn’t promise a Christian’s life will be free from suffering.
    In fact, the Bible literally promises the opposite of that.
    James tells us to look at trials as a reason for joy:
    Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
    -James 1:2-4
    So in James, the result of trials is that it refines a person. It’s meant for a person to actually be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” God uses suffering to refine a person.
    We so often think life is all about happiness.
    It’s not. That is not what the Bible says the Christian life is all about.
    It’s all about knowing God and serving God.
    If life were all about happiness, if this life were all there was, then yes, suffering would interfere with that.
    But suffering does not interfere with knowing God. And in fact, it can often times enhance our relationship with God.
    Some people struggle and suffer, and they turn their back on God.
    It’s tragic.
    But for others, they grow in a deeper relationship with God than they ever thought possible when going through the greatest challenges and struggles. You name it, people have been able to love and follow God through it.
    And again, it’s not that suffering is good for its own sake.
    It’s that the result, the strength that comes from the tension, the greater relationship we can have with God is what can often times be the biggest blessing.
    A radical idea that is puzzling to our world.
    When you lift weights, you don’t get from the workout itself. It’s that when you lift weights, it creates all of these little micro-tears in your muscles. And after you workout, the muscles repair themselves and as a result of that, you’re stronger.
    Faith gets strengthened through the heavy lifting.
    If we never face difficult situations, then we never grow.
    And different types of workouts work different muscles. Different ways how we’re tested strengthen us in different way.
    Sometimes it’s not until the dust has settled that we can look back and truly appreciate what God was doing in us.
    Sometimes you don’t see the beauty of the journey until you’re on the top of the mountain and are able to see where the difficult path was leading you and to appreciate the beauty that it brought.
    I’m sure some of us have experienced things that were extremely difficult at the time, things that were horrible. But things we can look to and as hard as it was at the time,we can see how it helped shape us, how it helped make us into who we are today.
    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

  • Glimpses of the work of God in the world

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    Jesus taught: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
    With the promises of the Lord, there’s a sense of the present fulfillment of the promise, but it points to a later and greater fulfillment in heaven.
    So for the present day, we do get a sense of the Lord, we are invited into a relationship with Christ, growing in our knowledge of him, knowing him better.
    There can be times in our lives, seasons of our lives where we find his presence especially strong in our lives. We get glimpses.
    We can appreciate and have a sense of awe for the Lord who created everything when we truly behold his creation, see the beauty of the sunset or stand at the foot of a mountain.
    We have moments when we see people coming to faith in the Lord, born again to the hope of the gospel, and when we see lives transformed, people made new by the power of God’s saving work.
    So in little ways, we get glimpses of God’s glory, of his work in the world.
    But the pure in heart, shall see God.
    The Christian life, is still being lived in a fallen world, we still deal with our own sins and the ramifications of the sins of others. We still get sick and die.
    We shall behold of his glory and holiness in heaven. Not in a glimpse or a flicker of light, but beholding the glory of God, the awesomeness of the Lord for eternity
    In the Old Testament, we are told that a person could not see God the face of God and live.
    God is so glorious, he is so holy, he is so pure, so full of life and light that sinful people cannot behold his glory.

    But the promise of Jesus is an eternal blessing in the presence of the Lord. And for that, we should rejoice. We should enjoy the blessings he has given us today. But to know that they are merely appetizers to the greater feast.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.