Letters From Grandpa #520

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 520

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will deal with the inevitability of trouble. The book of Job deals in particular with this problem. The Scriptures say Job “was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) In spite of this, Job still suffered a great deal of trouble. The book states:

• “Man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7)
• “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1)
• I am told that a new born baby has only two fears: (1) The fear of loud noise. (2) The fear of falling.
• In the course of a normal life span we acquire some 5,000 other fears.
• Truly every one of us inevitably faces trouble.
• The point of this letter is to help you make your troubles an asset instead of a liability.

Paul wrote five different letters from prison: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and 2 Timothy. Every one of these letters is filled with optimism and joy. The secret to this joy is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) When a seed has life within it, the dirt, water, fertilizer, and sunlight will cause that seed to grow. A pocket knife does not have life within it. So if you drop your pocket knife in the garden, the dirt, water, fertilizer, and sunlight will destroy it. Therefore, if you have Jesus in your heart your suffering can cause you to grow. Paul wrote to the Romans: “but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5) Christians can glory in our sufferings, while unbelievers cannot!

The poet said it like this:

The tree that never had to fight, for sun and air and space and light.

That grew out in the open plain and always got it’s share of rain.

It never became a forest king, but lived and died a grubby thing.

The man who never had to toil with hand and mind in life’s turmoil.

Who never had to win a plan for sun, and air, and sky, and space.

He never became a manly man, but lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow in ease. The rougher the storm the tougher the trees. The further the sky, the greater the length. The rougher the storm, the greater the strength.

So through rain and cold, through sleet and snows, in trees as in men, good timber grows!

The Apostle Paul was once young, athletic, and handsome. In fact, the people of Lystra thought he was the Greek God Hermes (Acts 14:12). “Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.” (Acts 14:19-20)

If you are trying to kill someone with stones you will probably throw at their head. It is my “opinion” that Paul’s head was crushed by stones and some bones of his body might even have been broken.. After this Paul was crippled. His eyesight was bad, his face was filled with scars, and his

broken jaws made it difficult for him to speak. Some people said: “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” (2 Corinthians 10:10) Paul himself acknowledged: “I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge.” (2 Corinthians 11:6)

It is my “opinion” that the lingering affects of his stoning remained with him the rest of his life. I believe it was the “thorn” in his flesh that he wrote about to the Corinthians: “Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:6-10)

Please do not be discouraged by suffering – Paul said it like this: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) A pearl is formed when a grain of sand causes pain to an oyster. It is not an accident that we will enter into glory through gates made of pearls (Revelation 21:21).

` I love you,

Grandpa Boyce