The WHY and the WHO

1.        Genocide of Christians and other minorities in Iraq and other places around the globe

2.        ISIS- Islamic State threatening Caliphate

3.        Russia invading Ukraine

4.        Russia and China building trade relations without the US Dollar

5.        Ferguson Missouri Riots

6.        Ebola epidemic

7.        Scandals throughout the White House- IRS, VA, Benghazi, etc

Things that make you ask, "WHY!"

“God, Why do you allow such things to happen?”

I was reading in Habakkuk the other day when God answered this question.

Habakkuk begins his writing by stating he has a burden. He then proceeds to question God about WHY certain events were happening and how long must they continue before God would have mercy.

Though a prophet, Habakkuk began to have doubts about who God was and God's love for His people.

Habakkuk was in a theoretical crisis. 

God was NOT acting like Habakkuk thought He should. 

He wondered WHY God was inactive. Why He didn’t do something! 

Everything Habakkuk thought He knew about God was being challenged as Judah’s existence was threatened by the expanding of the Chaldean empire. Cruelty, corruption, and idolatry were rampant. 

And God was silent.

WHY was God allowing this to happen? How much longer must it go on? How much worse would it get?

God listened to Habakkuk’s doubts and fears. Then He graciously answered.

“For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, thought it were told to you.” Hab 1:5b NKJV 

God goes on to tell Habakkuk that His plan was bigger than what Habakkuk could see. Habakkuk just needed to trust Him and remember His past faithfulness. God would not remain silent forever.

There are reasons for God’s silence.

Reasons found in other parts of the Bible-such as in Jeremiah when God instructed His people to embrace the captivity. 

You see, God desires to use even the vilest of evil to draw ALL men to Him.

In Jeremiah, God used the captivity of His people to bring Salvation to the Babylonians (if they would chose to believe). 

There’s always a bigger picture than what we realize.

There are countless testimonies of people who have endured great hardships as prisoners of war who brought salvation into those dark places! 

Corrie Ten Boom

Esther Ahn Kim

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Louis Zamperini

These are just a few off the top of my head who suffered (and some died) at the hands of cruel people and yet the Hope and Grace of God changed, not only their lives, but the lives of the very people who set out to do them harm. 

I don’t know WHY certain events are taking place today.

I don’t know WHY God is allowing such sorrows.

But like Habakkuk, I know there is a reason and that my God will sustain His people through great trials and adversity.

Our questions shouldn’t be WHY God allows this. Instead we should seek to know more about WHO this God is that will help us through the things we don’t understand. 

It’s in knowing WHO God is that we find our hope, joy, strength and endurance to go on.

“…Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation, The Lord God is my strength…” Hab 3:17b-19a NKJV

It shouldn’t matter what the circumstances are. When doubts and fears arise, we can rest secure in a dependable God. He hasn’t failed His people yet.

He just chooses to use times of theoretical crises to draw us ever closer to His side...and this can hurt.

Don’t shy away from the pain. It’s through those times that our faith is strengthened and our understanding of WHO God is becomes clearer. 

Faith untested isn’t much faith at all. 

I pray you have peace, dear friend, as you see the world around us in chaos. 

Our God is in control and His Word will not return void.

“For the earth WILL be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Hab 2:14 NKJV (emphasis mine) 

It doesn’t matter WHY it's happening, it matters WHO you trust.

Interview with Missionary Caleb Suko

The things we worry about most are the things we trust God with the least.

 For a few years now, this is the lesson God has spoken to me about my sinful habit of worrying. Reading Caleb’s book, What If…How to Kill Worry and Anxiety Before They Kill You, really drove this home.  

One thing that truly stood out to me is Caleb’s testimony of NOT allowing worry to stop him from following God’s calling in his life.

It’s one thing to be able to write a book on Worry, it’s another to LIVE IT OUT!

Caleb and his family (wife and five kids) are full time missionaries in Ukraine. If you don’t follow world news you might not realize the severe instability and increasing violence going on there—especially against Christians. 

I have one kid to “worry” over. I’m not sure I could trust God to keep us safe in such a situation. 

But Caleb’s faith and trust have grown in Christ over a lifetime of serving Him. It didn’t happen overnight. Daily he commits his path, and his family, to his Lord. Daily he witnesses God’s hand guiding, providing and protecting those he loves. 

Now, I’d like to introduce you to Caleb with a short interview. I also HIGHLY encourage you to pick up your own copy of What If… Now on to the interview: 

Caleb, tell us about your journey of writing “What If…”

This book started with a paper that I wrote about 15 years ago when I was in seminary. It was a word study on the Greek word for “worry.”  I wrote the paper and then it sat in  file on my computer for a very long time. 

About 2 years ago I was searching through some of my old files and discovered that paper. I began to do some more study on worry and I also began to write more. After a couple of months of slowly adding to what I had already written I decided to keep going and turn it into a book.

From the time I finally decided to make it a book project till the time I got it published was just over 2 years. 

For me there were some pretty significant truths that I uncovered in my own life as I studied the topic of worry in the Bible. I had never so clearly seen the connection between my faith and worry (Click to Tweet). The process also helped me realize some areas of worry in my life that I struggle with and to face them head on with the power of God’s Word.

Do you believe writing this book helped prepare you for the trials you and your family are now facing being missionaries in war torn Ukraine? 

Some people, knowing the situation in Ukraine have mistakenly thought that I wrote this book in response to the war. Here’s the truth, when I decided to write this book everything was completely calm and peaceful in Ukraine. There wasn’t even the slightest hint that we might be facing a war soon! In fact, when people asked me if I thought Russia would ever invade Ukraine my response was always, “No way! They have no reason to and they’d be stupid to try!” I was wrong about that!

Now, looking back, I believe it was the hand of God that led me to write this book! God knew what was going to happen in Ukraine when I started writing. He knew how important these truths on worry and anxiety would be for me and for others! I’m so grateful that I followed his lead and completed this book before we returned to Ukraine last month! It has helped me immensely.

Please share with us recent experiences you’ve encountered where you’ve been tempted to worry and how you’ve handle those situations.

The fact is that we live in Ukraine and every day there’s a new reason to worry here. Every day I talk with people and you can see it on their faces. The Russian army continues to pour through the Eastern border and even as I write this they are moving our direction! People are scared, they have no assurance for the future. They see what happened in Donetsk and Lughansk and they are worried that the same will happen here in Odessa.

I read the news on Ukraine every day and that alone can sometimes make me feel anxious! We live about 30 miles from the border of Transnistria border where a couple thousand Russian troops are stationed. When I find myself start to worry about these things there are three things that I immediately do. First, I stop reading so much news, I don’t need to be obsessing over it! Second, I pray. That gives me something practical I can do about the situation. Finally, I focus my mind on a passage or verse of Scripture which speaks about God’s sovereign control. 

Explain to us how worry and faith interact.

After writing this book I’m more convinced than ever of the strong link between worry and faith. Jesus talks about it plainly. If you remember when the disciples were in the boat and Jesus was sleeping, they began to worry because a big storm came out of no where. When they called on Jesus to help his response was “Oh you of little faith!” (Mat 8:26)  Jesus understood this connection!

Again when Jesus taught about worry during his Sermon on the Mount, his conclusion was the same, “Oh you of little faith” (Mat 6:30). Worry is really a result of our lack of faith, our failure to understand God’s greatness and his abilities. In our lack of faith we worry because we are trying in our own strength and in our own mind to do what only God can do (Click to Tweet).

You say in your book, “If we feel our faith is not worth the risk we will compromise our faith every time.” Will you give us an example from your own life where your faith led you to do something completely contrary to what your flesh and rational mind wanted you to do? 

For me that has happened too many times when I had a chance to share the gospel with someone. I worry about sharing the gospel because I don’t know how people will respond. I worry that they’ll reject me, I worry that I won’t know exactly what to say, I worry that I won’t be successful. That worry keeps me from doing what I know I need to do. It keeps me from simply sharing the gospel. I need to put my faith in God and realize that if he wants me to share the gospel with someone then he will take care of the results.

How can someone begin growing their faith and trust in God?

The best way to grow your faith is to start but giving yourself a better understanding of who God is. I’m convinced that the deeper our concept of God, the stronger our faith will be. It’s just impossible not to trust in a God that we know is powerful, loving, and able! 

The second thing that we can all do to grow our faith is to test God’s truths by putting them into action in our lives. Personal experience with applied truth is powerful! It gives us confidence that we could never know otherwise!

Being a husband and father is a wonderful gift from God.  You love your family. With that in mind, can you expound upon this statement from your book, “Your worries tend to follow your highest values and greatest desires in life.”? Is it sometimes hard to put God first and trust Him with those He has given you to love?

I think all parents know what this is like. As a father it’s easy for me to worry about my child. In a way that’s good because I love them dearly. However, that can also be bad if we let our worry get out of control. Ultimately as a parent I have to put my child’s life in the hands of God. There are some things I can do to help ensure their safety and success, however, when it comes down to it I have to realize that I’m incapable of ensuring ultimate safety, only God can do that.

What advice do you have for those who are facing great fears/worries in their life regarding following God’s calling (be it to move, change jobs, become a missionary, give more to charities, or whatever)? 

This is really one of the reasons I wrote this book! I go into the topic in detail in chapter 16 called “Make Decisions Simple.”

There are so many “What ifs” in life! Some many unknowns. The truth is that we’d love to have a crystal ball and look into the future to know exactly what decision we need to make, what job to take, what person to marry, where to live, etc... 

However, we need to understand that instead of a crystal ball God has given us his Word. It doesn’t tell us exactly what school we should go to or what country we should live in. However, it does tell us the principles by which we should live our lives and that is what we need to be focusing on. It’s so easy to get caught up in the decision making process and start worrying about it. However, I believe that when we focusing on living the way God wants us to live, that he will naturally guide us and direct us in those other decisions of life.

Thank you, Caleb, for taking the time to share with us this important message for God’s people.

If you’re interested in donating to Caleb and his families mission work you can do so here. You can follow Caleb’s awesome (and highly informative) blog here as well as learn how you can follow him on twitter, facebook, and more.

And don’t forget to pick up your copy of What If…! 100% of the profits will go to helping those in the Ukraine, including translating What If into Russian to help give hope to those plagued with worry over their country!

What Questions do you have for Caleb? 

Circle of Forgiveness

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt 5:44-45 NKJV

As I read this I wondered what loving my enemies would really mean. What it would look like. What it would feel like. 

I kept reading my Bible.

In chapter 6 of Matt we read the “Lord’s Prayer”. 

Verse 12 stood out to me: “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.”

I stopped.

I re-read the verses about Loving my Enemies. Then I focused back on Verse 12.

Love means forgiveness.

I MUST forgive.

Even if they don’t want it, haven’t “earned” it, or won’t accept it—I MUST FORGIVE.

But there’s more to it than that.

Not only are we instructed to love our enemies and to forgive them- the Bible actually says that if we don’t forgive them, we’re in trouble.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt 6:14-15 NKJV

OUCH.

This seems contrary to 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But it’s not.

You can’t take parts of the Word of God and build your life upon them. You must read the Word of God and apply it to your life as a WHOLE.

You see, both passages on forgiveness are true. 

If we confess our sins to God, He forgives without condition or exception. And we are told numerous times in the Bible that we are to become MORE like Christ. It's a life long process. Christ forgives, therefore we must forgive. And when we can't. We need to ask God for help.

Part of the sins we may need to confess IS lack of forgiving another. 

He WILL forgive even that!

Plus, He will help you find the strength and ability to forgive those who have wronged you/hurt you/used you or whatever.

Eph 4:32 is how this is possible. “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

You don’t have to do it on your own. 

It’s IN Christ (through His act on the cross) that God is able to forgive us. It’s also through Christ that we are able to forgive others. Christ IN us. Enabling us to do what we humanly cannot do on our own.

But you must do your part first.

You must remain tenderhearted.

A hard heart can’t forgive someone.

It’s not open to forgiving.

Next, you must confess your trouble granting forgiveness to God. 

His grace will forgive your weakness and when you ask Him, He will then helpsoften your heart and make a way for you to forgive what seems impossible.

“But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matt 19:26 NKJV

It’s a circle.

God forgives us because of the sacrifice of Christ.

We accept His forgiveness.

We mess up.

We confess our sins.

God forgives.

THEN...Someone hurts us.

We forgive them. 

God forgives us.

OR… we can’t forgive them.

So we go to God asking Him to forgive our unforgiveness.

He forgives us and enables us (through the help of the Holy Spirit) to forgive others.

We forgive them.

God forgives us.

A Circle.

 Love and grace are wonderful things.

 There’s no limit to them. No set number on the times we can forgive others, simply because there’s no limit on the amount of times God will forgive us. (click to tweet)

The key is remaining open, tenderhearted. 

God’s love and grace are big enough for the evilest of evil. He’s sun shines on the just and unjust.

If He can love like that, why can’t we?

After all, “There’s none righteous, no, not one.”Romans 3:10

We all need forgiveness. So, let's all start giving it.

I'm BACK...Finally

Feels like I’ve been gone for a LONG time. 

I’ve missed you all (and have been praying for you).

So much has happened in my life. God’s doing amazing things and this time away facilitated me slowing down and focusing on what God wanted to do in my family. To sum it up:

1.        I’m still doing Physical Therapy for my arm/hand. It’s taking much longer to heal than originally planned. But I trust that this too is in God’s hands. It keeps me reliant upon Him to schedule my daily activities. Therefore, I am thankful that I was not healed in a few weeks.

2.       We sold our house and are purchasing another one (so I’ll be busy the next few months with moving and remodeling). This is a huge blessing. We’ve wanted to move for over a year. When we finally found a house to buy the seller agreed to a contingency (meaning we had to sell our house first in order to buy hers). Her house had been on the market over 75 days. After praying, we put ours on the market and within 5 days we had 4 offers on our house! That was ALL God!!!

3.       BIGGEST NEWS: God is blessing us with a new baby due in March! You may know we’ve struggled with the decision to add to our family. For a few years we’ve prayed about adopting but each time we got further in the process God would close the door. We didn’t understand why as we have hearts to care for those children. But God had a different plan. Even though I have health risks, God has chosen to use this weak vessel to bring another child into the world. My husband and I trust God to bring this child safely into our family. At the same time, our hearts are still open to adopting and we believe God will bring everything together in His time. 

With all this going on I’ve decided there will be changes coming to Wisdom of a Fool:

1.        For the time, I am suspending my Quarterly Newsletters. I hope to start them back up later this year. Since most of my political/current event posts are found in those, you may begin to see more of this type of writing on my blog, but I’m uncertain. It’s all in God’s hands.

2.       I will only be posting on Mondays and will do my best to read your posts throughout the week but God has shown me that my MAIN priority is being a wife and mother. I am the ONLY wife my husband has and the ONLY mom my son has (and soon to be new baby). They get top billing of my time. They are my MAIN MINISTRY. Yes, family is a ministry. We must not neglect what is right in front of us with other really good things. We all have different seasons in our lives. But for me, having a toddler and a soon an infant means they need more Mommy time. Later I will have more time to devote to writing/blogging. This means I am not pursuing publishing my next book at the moment, nor am I pushing my other book sales. All are in God’s hands. And there is a time for everything under the sun. ‘Thank You’ to everyone who helped with my writing/publishing/marketing journey. The Precipice would not be out there if it weren’t for each of you.

3.       While I will still be helping with book launches, I will be decreasing this activity. I’m sorry. Hopefully this too, like my Newsletter, will go back to “normal”. While away, I was privileged to be on two awesome book launches. The interviews will be coming soon! I can’t wait to share about these life changing/inspiring books. God is doing awesome things in the lives of His willing servants.

Finally I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for me while I was away. I really appreciate your support and concern. 

Thanks also to those who contacted me (via twitter mentions, emails, phone calls, etc) to let me know you haven’t forgotten me. Your words of encouragement mean so much. I appreciate you all. 

God’s awesome. I pray you grow in Him. I can’t wait to get back to blogging with you. Thank you for your patience while I was away.

My prayer for each of you is that, “… you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Eph 3:18 NLT

Now tell me, What's going on with you?