Participants: Skip MacCarty, Don Mackintosh
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000111
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00:50 I'm your host Don Mackintosh
00:52 We're glad that you've joined us today. 00:54 We're going to have a very interesting program 00:56 that looks at the issue of STRESS... 00:58 And today joining us is Dr. Skip MacCarty 01:02 He has written a seminar on stress called... 01:05 "Stress Beyond Coping" 01:06 People can find out about that by calling us here at 3ABN 01:10 and also the Church Ministries Department... 01:12 But this is a different angle of that... 01:15 Church Ministries Department, I should say, 01:17 is the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 01:19 which has adopted your program. 01:21 This is a different angle when we look at stress. 01:24 You've entitled the presentation today or our talk today 01:28 ...what we're going to be talking about is "Divine Stress" 01:30 What exactly is divine stress? 01:32 Well Don, it's not something we ordinarily think about. 01:37 The whole field of stress management studies human stress, 01:40 animal stress and there are physiological-biochemical 01:45 responses to threatening situations in life; 01:48 when we process things, we have fears; 01:50 we process where it causes a chemical reaction in our bodies. 01:54 That's what stress is - it's the chemical and 01:57 the emotional reactions to difficult circumstances. 02:00 But divine stress takes us back to predating human stress; 02:06 predating animal stress and says, 02:08 God has had emergencies and He has responded through all this 02:13 at great cost and pain to Himself - through this whole 02:16 process - it's beginning to look at that. 02:19 And even to say, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit 02:21 at some time in the whole history of this process, 02:24 if we understand it right, made a choice to give 02:27 the creation freedom. 02:30 That's stressful in and of itself, isn't it? 02:31 Well they knew that there was going to be a cost, 02:33 a potential cost to that. 02:35 And they counted the cost, they were willing to pay 02:37 the price before they went into it and that in itself is awesome 02:41 So where did this divine stress then start? 02:44 Well, we go back in the Bible... 02:46 That first record of this in the Bible is in Revelation 12:7 02:50 It said there was war in heaven. 02:52 This predates anything on the earth. 02:53 Before the earth was created, there was war in heaven. 02:56 Michael, which is Christ and His angels fought against the dragon 03:00 and the dragon and his angels fought back. 03:02 Here we have war in heaven, 03:03 and in the book of Ezekiel, it talks about 03:06 how this war kind of originated. 03:10 There was a being, an angel that was named Lucifer, 03:15 and in Ezekiel 28 it says... "You were anointed as a 03:19 guardian cherub, A cherub is an angel. 03:21 for so I ordained you. 03:24 You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among 03:26 the fiery stones. 03:28 You were blameless in all your ways from the day you were 03:30 created till wickedness was found in you. " 03:32 You can imagine what that would have been like for God 03:35 to find wickedness... Very stress-producing 03:39 to see that they had chosen the evil instead of the good. 03:41 Yeah, and some of the other Scriptures say that somehow 03:46 in his mind, he began to aspire to be even greater than God, 03:49 and that led to that... 03:51 And then, Revelation 12:9 says... 03:54 " The great dragon... Lucifer then, this wonderful 03:57 angel became viewed as a dragon and evil, 04:01 and he was hurled down. 04:02 The ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, 04:04 who leads the whole world astray. Hurled to the earth, 04:07 and his angels with him. " 04:08 We don't have time to go into ALL the ramifications of that, 04:11 but needless to say, what was happening was 04:13 a divine divorce taking place in heaven. 04:16 God's heart was torn apart because one of the angels 04:20 closest to Him - an anointed cherub that covereth... 04:22 And that's a phrase in the Bible to say... 04:25 VERY close - intimate with God, pulled away from Him 04:29 and became his enemy. 04:31 Anyone who has gone through divorce or a child has left home 04:35 knows the pain involved in that. 04:38 This is GOD we're talking about. 04:40 It's almost too sacred to approach but we have to 04:43 because when we talk about stress we can't leave it out. 04:45 How did God then respond to this initial problem? 04:50 You know, Don, when Jesus was here, in Matthew 7:12, 04:54 He gave us an admonition that really is right out of the 04:56 heart of God - He said, "So in everything, 04:58 And that little word "so" in some other translations is 05:01 "therefore" because He just talked about - 05:03 If we're evil, we give good things to our children... 05:06 How much more will our Heavenly Father 05:09 give us good things when we ask for them. 05:10 He's saying "so" because God is like this, you be like this also 05:15 in everything, do to others as you would have them do for you, 05:17 this sums up the law and the prophets. " 05:18 This is right out of the heart of God. 05:20 This is the nature of God. 05:21 So God treats Lucifer and He treats those fallen angels 05:24 He treats all who were infected by their rebellion as 05:27 would want to be treated if He were in their place... 05:29 Even though that would mean great cost in pain to Himself. 05:32 So He just goes on with the creation of the world... 05:34 Goes on with the creation of the world. 05:36 He goes on with life - like we have to do. 05:38 If we lose a child, a child dies, 05:41 or some other very difficult painful experience happens 05:44 in our life, we HAVE to go on; 05:46 as hard as it is, we HAVE to go on. 05:48 There's work to be done; there's a job to go back to; 05:50 there are other members of the family to care for 05:52 and so forth - we have other responsibilities. 05:55 God went right ahead with the creation of the world. 05:57 So moving then from heaven to the earth, 05:58 was there stress involved in the creative act, 06:01 and all those different things when the world began? 06:03 Well there had to be because, you know the potential 06:05 for evil was there and then when Adam and Eve fell... 06:09 We're doing a lot of kind of shortcuts here in the story, 06:13 but Adam and Eve fell and became under the influence 06:16 of Satan willingly - they willingly did that; 06:18 used their freedom to do that. 06:20 A very interesting statement occurs in Genesis 3:22 06:23 that again lets us into the heart of God... 06:30 That's not just a cold statement, 06:32 that's a brokenhearted statement... 06:34 Because God had been infected by evil in heaven 06:38 through Lucifer's rebellion. 06:41 And God had suffered the pain of that separation. 06:44 He knew the pain sin could bring to personal experience 06:47 Now Adam and Eve had fallen into that same pain, 06:51 and He said, I didn't want you to have to experience the pain. 06:54 "I would that you be naive concerning that which is evil" 06:57 That's exactly... because He knew the 06:59 pain that it was going to bring them. 07:00 He didn't want them to have to suffer as He had suffered. 07:03 But now He said... You know good and evil 07:06 the same way I do by experience. 07:08 I didn't want you to have to experience the pain like this... 07:12 And so, again, it was just breaking His heart, 07:14 but He went on with them. 07:16 He stuck with them through that process. Started to intervene... 07:18 And then the next thing we know in that same chapter, 07:22 He's giving them a promise that he's going to enter into this 07:25 experience with them and go with them all the way. 07:26 He said, "The Lord God said to the serpent, I will put enmity 07:29 between you and the woman. 07:30 The woman represents the children of God. 07:32 Those would be born on this earth between 07:34 your offspring and hers; he will crush your head 07:37 and you will strike his heel. " 07:38 That's a promise actually of the Messiah coming. 07:45 The Messiah will crush the head of the serpent, 07:47 but the serpent will bite the heel of the Messiah 07:49 and God is saying... I'm going to enter into this 07:51 experience with you; I'm going to share your pain 07:53 with you and ultimately do whatever it takes 07:56 in order to save you from this - to rescue you 07:58 from the pain and suffering, and the stress 08:01 that you're going to endure 08:03 because of the choices that have been made. 08:05 Well then, of course, the next thing in the Bible that I recall 08:09 that it kind of went south from there, it seems to... 08:11 People just continued to get evil and then it was the flood. 08:14 That must have been stress-inducing. 08:16 Oh, I tell you, and the Bible language... 08:18 Again in Genesis 6... the language, 08:20 you just look at the language itself. 08:22 Look at this... The Lord God saw how great man's 08:24 wickedness on the earth had become, 08:26 that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart 08:29 was only evil all the time. 08:31 The Lord was grieved... That's stress! 08:35 Now, I know what it's like to be grieved. 08:38 I've grieved a few times in my life. 08:40 I mean, really, to the point where I couldn't help but cry. 08:43 I just couldn't stop myself from crying. 08:46 Now this says - The Lord was grieved that He had made man 08:51 on the earth, His heart was filled with pain. 08:56 Think of that, God is letting us 08:57 into a little bit of His own pain here. 09:00 He doesn't do this very often in the Bible. 09:02 It takes some research to put these texts together, 09:05 but God is suffering great pain... 09:07 And you know, Don, in stress management, we're thinking about 09:10 our stress. 09:11 I'm doing research in the stress field... 09:13 we're thinking about - we do research on animals, 09:15 so we can understand our own stress better. 09:17 We put them under stress, put them to death, 09:20 do autopsies to see how different techniques would... 09:24 It's about us, but just little glimpses here, 09:27 we see that our God has suffered so enormously in this, 09:32 and would that we had the heart to just look at Him 09:36 and say - God, I'm sorry you had 09:39 to go through this because of us. 09:41 We love you all the more for it. 09:42 So that's really what we're doing in this study. 09:44 Well sometimes people will talk about, you know, 09:46 well, God seems to be aloof; He seems to be passive; 09:49 He doesn't seem to be involved with our pain. 09:50 So what you're saying is, there's a different picture 09:53 that you found of God as you look at the Scriptures. 09:55 You know, it's all through the Scriptures. 09:57 You take the passage in Isaiah 63... 09:59 It says, "In all their distress, He too... 10:05 God you see - God was distressed" 10:08 Or another translation says - 10:09 "In all their affliction, He was afflicted" 10:11 That's it, I mean, we don't go through anything 10:13 alone here on this earth. 10:14 Isaiah 53- talking about the Messiah that we accept as Jesus. 10:19 "Surely He, the Messiah, took up our infirmities 10:22 and carried our sorrows. " 10:24 So what we call the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 10:30 have been identifying with our... 10:32 they have their own pain. 10:33 They have their own suffering. 10:35 But that's not enough, they're going to come down; 10:37 they're not going to let us suffer alone. 10:39 They're going to suffer WITH us. 10:40 My pain is also God's pain. 10:43 His isn't mine - I can't even wrap my mind around it, 10:47 let alone my emotions but my pain is His pain. 10:50 He takes it on Himself. 10:52 So in other places it says He 10:53 sees even every sparrow that falls. 10:55 So then He really enters into the pain of that. 10:57 Of course, some people would say that's because 11:00 those sparrows were brought as an example of His sacrifice, 11:03 but He's really involved with the pain of even 11:06 the whole creation groans! 11:09 The whole creation - it's just awesome to think 11:11 that we're talking about God here. 11:13 Now I imagine that just working with us and trying to 11:16 get through to us, just that thing alone is 11:20 sort of like a parent trying to get through to a 11:22 rebellious son or daughter. 11:23 I mean that's probably stress-inducing. 11:26 You know Don, I don't know what could be more 11:28 stress-inducing for - let's say a wife who loves 11:32 the husband and to have the husband choose somebody else 11:34 and leave her. 11:37 The week before I came to tape these programs, 11:40 I was with a wife whose husband had left, 11:45 and just uncontrollably weeping. 11:48 And there are places in the Bible, we see God just 11:52 in little glimpses of it, He just uncontrollably 11:55 begins to weep right in front of our eyes, 11:56 in a few texts in the Bible. 11:58 Take Isaiah 5:4, where you kind of hear the tears 12:01 here in this passage where he says... 12:03 "What more could I have done for my vineyard" 12:06 He's not talking about grapes here. 12:07 He's talking about His family. 12:10 His family here on earth - "What more could I have done 12:12 for my vineyard than I have done for it?" 12:14 Moving right through several Scriptures here, 12:16 Hosea - In Hosea He said, "How can I give you up, Ephraim" 12:20 You can just hear God pleading and just His heart is broken. 12:24 How can I hand you over, Israel? 12:26 They had turned against Him, 12:27 so He couldn't protect them anymore. 12:29 They're going to be turned over to their enemies, 12:30 but He's just so pained, He's weeping here. 12:33 My heart is changed within me. 12:35 His heart is torn up. 12:39 All my compassion is aroused. 12:41 When Jesus was here, he pleaded with His people 12:44 in Jerusalem - please, to believe in Him, 12:47 and they rejected Him. 12:49 And in Matthew 23, after He gives some denunciation 12:52 to the Pharisees, it just tore Him up to have to do that, 12:55 but He was trying to SAVE them; 12:57 trying to bring some of them back again, 12:59 and He just breaks down, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 13:02 you who killed the prophets and stoned those who 13:05 sent you out, often I have longed to gather your 13:09 children together as a hen gathers her chicks 13:11 under her wings, but you were not willing. " 13:14 You can hear Him crying there. 13:15 And then in Isaiah 15 and 16, He actually breaks down... 13:20 It is uncontrollable at this point. 13:21 He says... "My heart cries over Moab" 13:24 Now Moab was not the best nation in the world. 13:29 It was an evil nation; it had to be destroyed, 13:31 but God was torn up over that. 13:35 "I weep as Jazer weeps, He said, for the vines of Sibnah" 13:39 Talking about the inhabitants of Moab... 13:40 "O Heshbon, O Elealeh, I drench you with tears" 13:43 Now this is not getting over-emotional here... 13:47 This is God letting us into a little bit of His heart, 13:50 absolutely filled - torn apart with pain. 13:53 Talk about stress, Don, He understands our stress. 13:58 We don't have a clue hardly to His what He's going through, 14:02 what He has done for us; it humbles me. 14:05 It absolutely humbles me. 14:07 Even the most rebellious, that being Moab or 14:10 you see those examples in the Bible, 14:12 He just weeps over them as well. 14:14 We're talking with Dr. Skip MacCarty 14:16 and we're talking about stress from a different angle. 14:18 Trying to just through looking at Scripture 14:21 look at the divine piece of the puzzle; 14:25 the divine look at stress at what God must go through. 14:28 We hope that you can join us 14:29 when we come back because there is hope. 14:39 Have you found yourself wishing 14:40 that you could shed a few pounds? 14:41 Have you been on a diet for most of your life 14:44 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 14:47 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 14:50 then we have a solution for you that works! 14:53 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 14:55 have written a marvelous booklet called... 14:58 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:00 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 15:02 Here's a medically sound approach successfully used 15:05 by thousands who were able to eat more and lose weight 15:08 permanently without feeling guilty or hungry 15:11 through lifestyle medicine. 15:13 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 15:17 and in this booklet, they present a sensible 15:19 approach to eating, nutrition and lifestyle changes 15:22 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes 15:24 and EVEN cancer. 15:26 Call or write today for your free copy of... 15:28 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:30 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 15:33 It's ABSOLUTELY free of charge, so call or write today. 15:41 Welcome back, we're talking with Dr. Skip MacCarty 15:43 We're talking about stress from a divine angle - Divine stress. 15:48 And, if you haven't heard the first half of this, 15:50 you'll want to call 3ABN and get the whole tape 15:53 or listen to it again. 15:54 And we're talking about how God's heart must have 15:57 broken and kind of a picture built on not our reflections 16:01 but on the Scripture of what God's heart really might have 16:06 looked like or, in fact, it did if we believe the Bible. 16:08 This is how He relates and so it gives us an insight 16:12 that in OUR stress, He certainly can identify 16:15 because He has been through a lot of stress. 16:17 Don, it's a picture - you don't go to any one text 16:21 in the Bible and suddenly you have a whole teaching of this, 16:23 but several years ago, I began working my way through the Bible 16:27 ...from Genesis 1:1 and just working my way 16:30 all the way to the end of the Bible to find everything 16:32 I could find on stress and stress management. 16:34 So I had a biblical feel for the Bible's teaching on this subject 16:38 And one of the things that kind of emerged out of that 16:43 was this picture of the suffering of God 16:46 that just overwhelmed me and 16:49 it became more and more overwhelming. 16:50 I remember when I came up to Isaiah 53, 16:52 I was clipping along a chapter or 2 a day, 16:55 you know and I was doing pretty good in my progress I was making 16:58 I got up to Isaiah 53 and it just stopped me in my tracks. 17:02 That's the story of the suffering servant in the 17:04 Old Testament - the Messiah to come and how He would suffer. 17:07 I literally was like, for 2 weeks, just mulling over 17:11 that and just humbled by the pain 17:14 it was going to cost God to win us back. 17:16 One of the New Testament writers said that if 17:19 you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father, 17:21 and so what did you learn as you looked at the Bible, 17:25 and looked at the life of Jesus about divine stress? 17:28 You know a text that we don't often think about 17:31 and relate to this subject, but in the book of Hebrews 1:9 17:36 It says of Jesus - "You have loved righteousness 17:40 and hated wickedness" 17:42 I don't know if you've ever been in a place that just was 17:45 so hard to be in - maybe where people are treating each other 17:52 just awful or something and you were there observing 17:55 or something - I don't know how we could relate to that 17:58 but Jesus actually was repulsed by wickedness, 18:01 and yet it was all around Him when He was here. 18:03 It was among the 12 disciples - they were bickering 18:05 who would be the greatest. 18:06 He was torn inside that way. 18:08 And you talk about human suffering, Don, 18:10 you think about the different kinds of great human suffering, 18:13 and Jesus was there - He identified with it. 18:15 So He just recognized that He needed more of the Holy Spirit, 18:21 I mean, the last part of that text is... 18:22 "He was anointed with the oil of gladness 18:24 more than all His brethren" 18:26 He HAD to have the Spirit with 18:27 Him to help him through the stressful time. 18:29 It was like - hang in there, you're going to make it! Yeah 18:32 That's the whole idea. 18:33 And take suffering, for instance, like the 18:35 starving people of the world. 18:36 Where is God with all these people starving? 18:38 Well you know what, when He came down here and He said... 18:40 There is no way you're going to starve and I'm going to be 18:42 eating BIG sumptuous meals the whole time I'm here... 18:47 No, I'm your brother... 18:49 He went for 40 days without eating. 18:52 40 days - He literally identified... 18:56 I've got a whole list of experiences like this 18:59 where he's identifying with our suffering all along the way. 19:01 Then you take passages in Isaiah 52 and 53... 19:05 They're just awesome in showing this... 19:07 His appearance was so disfigured in talking about His 19:10 suffering at the end of His life now, 19:12 so disfigured beyond that of any man, 19:15 His form marred beyond human likeness. 19:17 I mean, they beat Him terribly and then just the 19:20 emotional strain and stress of what He was going through 19:23 as He was being crucified. 19:24 "He was despised and rejected by men; 19:27 a Man of sorrows familiar with suffering. 19:31 Like one from whom men hide their faces, 19:34 He was despised and we esteemed him not. " 19:37 And then another Scripture from the New Testament that says... 19:42 In essence - God was in Christ, He was suffering IN Christ. 19:46 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself so as 19:49 Christ was going through that suffering, God was also there. 19:52 A text in 2 Corinthians says that. 19:55 So God, the Father Himself was suffering 19:59 in and through the Son so that... 20:04 We're thinking in stress management about how to 20:06 help with human stress when God is the One who 20:10 is experiencing the MOST distress, 20:12 and yet He keeps going, He keeps going... 20:14 He keeps doing the most loving thing and keeps moving on. 20:18 Do you think this is why the apostles said... 20:21 I'm just thankful to be involved in the sufferings of Christ. 20:25 That well could be - they considered it an honor to suffer 20:29 I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, 20:32 Christ lives within me. 20:33 So they kind of entered into that pain. 20:36 Yeah, and sometimes in the book of Acts, it said they considered 20:39 it an honor to suffer for the name, as it would say. 20:42 I think of that passage where it says... it's a short verse, 20:45 one that everyone memorizes, "Jesus wept" 20:48 And that kind of summarizes it, does that to you? It does 20:50 It very well could, yes. 20:53 So, we usually think about the Second Coming as a very 20:57 WONDERFUL time, but maybe there are some other aspects 21:01 about that even that could be stress-inducing. 21:03 That's right - well there's, of course, the wonderful upside 21:07 of the Second Coming when death will be no more, 21:10 and pain and suffering are going to pass away, 21:12 and we have those wonderful benefits of the 21:14 Second Coming of Christ... 21:15 But the other side of it is - 21:17 There is some of God's children here on this earth 21:19 that He has worked for, done EVERYTHING for 21:23 and they're not accepting Him, all the way to the end. 21:27 They really seal their own fate in a sense, 21:29 and He has to let them go. 21:31 And it pictures that in Revelation 20:7-9 21:36 When you think about what this is going to be like for God, 21:38 but these are His children now. 21:40 "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released 21:42 from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations 21:44 to gather them together for battle. " 21:46 Even Satan, at one time, was close to Him. 21:48 All the evil angels were close to Him at one time. 21:50 Every earth person at one time, God just loved them, 21:55 and still does love them. 21:56 "They marched across the breadth of the earth... 21:59 Now this is at the very end of time. 22:00 Surrounded the camp of God's people, 22:02 So now the Holy City has come down to this earth 22:05 and here they are going up to try to kill God, 22:08 and try to kill those inside the city, the city He loves... 22:11 The fire came down from heaven and devoured them. " 22:15 God lets them go into an ultimate and eternal death. 22:19 Think what that is going to be like for God - 22:21 to let a child go like that. 22:24 You know, I'm reminded of some of these terrible atrocities, 22:29 if you will, in America, where many people have been killed 22:33 by a person and then their mother had to look 22:37 at their execution. 22:38 And so what you're describing here is perhaps 22:40 God just looks at it that way. 22:42 Or He says, man, I remember all those facial expressions 22:46 and everything when that was just a little tyke, 22:48 and even though they've done terrible things, 22:50 I hate to see them have to be given up. 22:52 I understand it but I hate to see it. 22:54 I think you're exactly right! 22:56 I think the final end of sin and these people 23:00 that have chosen not to be with God for eternity, 23:02 that made that choice, throughout their life 23:04 they demonstrated that, they settled in it. 23:07 I think that act, that final act for God 23:09 is going to be more like a parent laying a child to rest 23:13 for the last time, than it is like an executioner 23:17 pulling the switch with - okay, infinite justice - BOOM! 23:22 In fact, there's a text that I love - Romans 14:9 23:36 Now He's Lord of the living because He redeemed us. 23:39 He died for our sins, He was our substitute, 23:42 and that's the Christian doctrine of atonement, 23:45 but He is also the Lord of the dead. 23:47 And, I had a story one time, Don, and an experience 23:50 one time when I was living in Salt Lake City. 23:52 I was also pastoring our church in Provo, Utah 23:55 about 40 miles apart and I was on my way from 23:58 the Provo Church back up to Salt Lake City, 24:00 as I recall, it may have been up in Salt Lake City... 24:03 But anyway, I heard a report coming from the prison, 24:06 Salt Lake City Prison - it was on the radio that 24:10 someone had just been stabbed to death there... 24:12 And I recognized the name and it was a relative of the son, 24:19 in fact, of a member of our church in Provo. 24:22 So immediately, I stopped whatever I was doing, 24:24 and I drove down to that home, 24:26 and when I knocked on the door, I was thinking... 24:27 maybe it was a different person, it wasn't that person, 24:30 we didn't have cell phones in those days; 24:31 I couldn't call and check it out... 24:33 So I just showed up on the doorstep, opened the door, 24:35 and I could tell immediately when the mother opened 24:37 the door, I could tell by her face, it was her son. 24:41 I went in and I sat down and I tried to say some things 24:44 and she was sitting on one sofa 24:45 and I was sitting on the other sofa there, 24:47 and we were fairly close to each other, 24:50 and the other daughter was in the room and the other son... 24:54 I was TRYING to say things that I thought would be helpful. 24:58 I was thinking about it all the way down from Salt Lake to Provo 25:01 but, you know, it was like my words came out of my mouth 25:04 and just froze in the air and shattered on the ground... 25:06 And finally I just sat there in silence; 25:08 I didn't know what to do or what to say, 25:10 it was so awkward, I think for everybody. 25:12 And the look in their face was desperately pleading... 25:15 Please help us - and I just couldn't. 25:17 And then there was a knock at the door. 25:19 And the daughter went to open the door and when she opened 25:22 the door, I saw through the hallway who it was... 25:25 Instantly I recognized... this was a mother who had 25:28 lost a son just about the same age. 25:31 And she stepped in and when the mother whose son had just 25:35 been stabbed, saw her, she got up and they met in the 25:39 middle of the room and just hugged. 25:42 For the longest time, they just hugged. 25:44 And then they went and sat down and in very quiet tones, 25:47 they started talking back and forth to each other... 25:48 And I said - there it is, that's ministry taking place. 25:51 I had not had the experience to be able to help that person. 25:55 You know what Don, it occurred to me - 25:57 Jesus is the Lord of the dead and the living. 26:00 He actually passed through the experience of the second death. 26:04 He did that as a substitute for all of us. 26:06 But you know what else? 26:07 There's only One Being now in the universe 26:12 who can identify with those who actually 26:14 go through that experience. 26:16 One who can be there as almost 26:20 a minister to them to the very last. 26:23 And in order to be able to be a minister, 26:25 He had to earn the ability by suffering 26:28 at the same level they're going to suffer. 26:31 So the God of all comfort. 26:32 The God of ALL comfort to the ultimate. 26:35 And He's the ultimate stress manager, 26:39 and has experienced the ultimate stress. 26:41 We've got about a minute left, what can we say to summarize 26:46 your feeling about what you've learned concerning divine stress 26:50 Don, several Scriptures... Isaiah 63:9 26:55 Simply says again... "In all their distress, 26:57 He too was distressed. " 27:00 So the depth of His distress He identifies with our distress. 27:04 1 Peter 5:7, "We can cast all our anxiety upon Him 27:07 because He cares for us. " 27:08 He has been through more stress than we have. 27:10 He knows how to help us to the ultimate, to the depth. 27:13 He suffered equally with us. 27:14 Isaiah 26:3, "That will keep Him in perfect peace 27:17 whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusts in thee. " 27:21 We can just totally trust in God. 27:23 And then there is also a focus on - we can now be about our 27:27 Father's business which is going to be stressful at times. 27:30 We're going to be misunderstood at times, 27:32 and it's not going to be an easy road. 27:35 It wasn't an easy road for our Lord, 27:36 but He is with us every step of the way. 27:38 He is our ultimate counselor, our ultimate guide. 27:41 Thank you so much for sharing that picture of Divine stress. 27:46 It gives us confidence but it also kind of leaves us with a 27:49 decision, doesn't it? 27:50 If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, 27:54 why not turn to Him now? 27:55 Make the decision that can give 27:57 you Health that Lasts for a Lifetime. |
Revised 2014-12-17