Here is another story that will get me into trouble but I trust it will make
sense because if there was ever a time we needed to know the Lord for who He
really is, it is now.

                          CHASTENED BY THE LORD?



                                    By

                               Phil Scovell



     Switching the radio on, I began listening, as I often do,  to a popular
program hosted by a well known Christian psychologist.  I missed most of the
broadcast so failed to hear the name of his guest.  They were addressing
common questions which so many of us ask as Christians concerning the nature
and character of God.  He, the host,  was saying, "And what about this one?
God wants to heal everybody and if you aren't, there's something wrong with
you?"  I wasn't listening closely; the radio was playing softly, but the
response had something to do with the sovereignty of God - God's will for a
person's life.

     The program concluded with the host telling about an experience he had
when his son was little and suffering from a severe ear infection.  He told
of how the infection resisted common treatment and since his son's inner ear
simply wasn't healing, the doctor had to probe the young boy's ear with a
surgical instrument to literally scrape the infection from the ear drum.
He said he had to wrap his two hundred pound frame around his little boy's
body  and hold him tightly while the procedure was performed.  He then
expressed the great personal agony and sickness of heart he felt as his son
cried out for mercy; demanding why his Father would allow them to do such a
terrible thing.  He said there was a mirror in the room and he could clearly
see his son's eyes in the reflection as they flashed more than his demeaning
words could verbalize.  He then closed the program by comparing this story
to our relationship with God.  How often we accuse our Heavenly Father of
bringing us pain and hurt; questioning why He would allow such to come to
us, doubting is love, and begging for His intervention.

     Silencing the radio, I sat in my chair and considered my own situation.
Two months earlier, the church I had been trying to pastor for nearly a
year, folded.  All of the furniture, electronic equipment, instruments, and
materials had been given away, the final bills paid, and the remaining
members released to go their way.  I had dreamed my entire life of preaching
and pastoring to and with God's chosen people; now it was all over, and
after just eleven months.  What had gone wrong?  Who was to blame?  Why had
I failed?  What could I do?  How would I provide for my family?  I lay in my
bed night after night and cried till there were simply no more tears left.
My grief and pain swept over me like an angry summer storm.  My blindness,
the result of retinal surgery as a young boy, threatened as never before.
"If you could see, this would never have happened," echoed a haunting voice.
The financial failure of my business two years earlier, along with its
bankruptcy, struck violently once again at my emotions; ramming, pounding,
crushing my mental stability.  I had even been informed by the IRS that my
tax returns were being audited.  I easily identified with this man's story
because I felt as though I were that little boy being held down by his
Heavenly Father in order that spiritual surgery could be performed.
Somehow, and for some reason, however, I felt uneasy.  Suddenly I sensed the
illumination  of the Holy Spirit and I understood.

     I had been raised with the philosophy that God brings certain things
into our lives as either punishment or opportunities for development of
spiritual character.  Such tragedies as the death of a loved one, sickness
and disease, failures, automobile accidents, financial lack and poverty,
brokenness in body and mind, pain, grief, fear, and even rejection and
alienation all for the benefit of the Believer.  All these, and more, were
to bring us closer to God.  In order to justify our Biblical interpretation,

we often quoted from the book of Hebrews; assuring those suffering that
chastisement was of God.  I never heard, especially by those teaching such,
anyone ever praying that God would bring all such things upon one that they
might grow in the Lord.  If such were true, why were not we asking God for
these things to occur in our lives?  Why weren't we having all night prayer
meetings to beg God to bring these things upon His people?

     As I sat in my living room contemplating what I had just heard on the
radio, the Lord identified the missing element.  Although he had taken his
son to the doctor, although he had been forced to hold his son down while
the doctor worked on the infected ear, and although he had felt the pain and
frustration of his son's infirmities, he; the father, had not given the
sickness to his son.  He was not punishing his son for being bad, he wasn't
trying to teach him a lesson, he wasn't trying to help him grow up, he
wasn't teaching him the virtue of patience, he wasn't attempting to make him
a better, more productive, more keenly aware human being.  He, his dad, the
one who cared more for him than any other person on earth,  was simply there
when his son needed him the most.  Why, then, are we as Bible Believers so
dedicated to accusing God of perpetrating sickness and disease upon those He
loves and cares for personally?  Why do we believe God uses infirmities to
teach us something His Word already has taught?  Why must we conclude that
all physical dysfunction are somehow connected with His sovereignty?  I am
not suggesting that this broadcast, it's host or guest, were saying that all
such is from God.  I do, however, feel the necessity to expose the fallacy
of those who indeed believe God would hold the frail hand of one of His
children over a fiery flame to teach them it burns.  I suggest it is time
for we, as His children, to spiritually mature.  Remember our Heavenly
Father promised He would always be there: "I will never leave you or forsake
you."  Stop blaming God and start doubting the devil.


It Sounds Like God To Me.
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com