Soon after we returned from vacation last Sunday the boys were on the computer playing baseball. (The game was a father’s day gift to me and they let me play occasionally.)
One of the things that I have heard over the years about good pitching and good pitchers is that they have a variety of pitches and they learn how to move the ball around the strike zone. However, a good pitcher also learns how to mix up his pitches so that the hitter is kept off balance with the hope and the goal that the batter strikes out.
There are several kinds of pitches used in baseball. There are two kinds of fastballs, called the two-seam and four-seam because the pitcher holds the stitched seams in his fingers two different ways. Another pitch is a called a change-up because it changes speed as it approaches the batter. A good change up will have the batter swinging well before the ball gets to the plate because it dramatically slows down.
Finally, there is a curve ball. A good curve ball ‘curves’ suddenly when you least expect it. And, like the changeup, will have you swinging through the air and hitting perhaps nothing.
As I watched the boys play (I also served as umpire when they started getting upset with one another), I noticed that one of the computer pitchers had a mean curveball and the one who controlled that pitcher had the hitter at his mercy. The pitch was used on a regular basis.
Has life thrown you a curve ball lately? If it has, you are not alone! But as followers of Jesus Christ, as we allow the Lord to strengthen and mature our faith through difficult and challenging circumstances and to help us stay away from the temptations that arise from within, we show the world our faith, hope, and commitment in Jesus Christ!
In a recent article from Christianity Today.com songwriter and author, Michael Card reminds us of the four ‘successive curve balls’ that Job had thrown his way. There were the three ‘curve balls’ of financial destruction as Job’s wealth was taken away in a string of attacks on his property and possessions. Then a final ‘curve ball’ of tremendous pain came through the tragic death of every one of his children.
Card notes, “Everything a person could imagine losing, Job lost. He was the target of practically every sort of pain and loss a human being can know. He was the successful businessman who experienced sudden and total financial ruin. He was the AIDS patient, hopeless and beyond all cures, full of sores, abandoned by his friends. He was the victim of a senseless terrorist attack. He was the parent who lost not one but all of his children in one unthinkable catastrophe.”
But Card goes on to point out that while Job “made the motions of entering into mourning” he did something unexpected, “he fell to the ground in worship.” Here is what is said in Job 1 verses 20 through 22:
“Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground before God. He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be stripped of everything when I die.
The LORD gave me everything I had,
and the LORD has taken it away.
Praise the name of the LORD!”
In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
Why did Job worship God in the midst of all the pain and grief? Why didn’t he, as his wife suggested, ‘curse God and die?’
He worshipped God in the midst of great loss because he was a man of great faith and confidence in the Lord. I believe that we can say with a good deal of confidence that ‘Job showed what he had’ during the deep trial of loss and the refusal to turn away from a quiet confidence in God and toward the great temptation to ‘curse God and die.’
Job illustrates the opening of the book of James. He shows what he had within himself when faced with terrible tragedy and loss – a strong faith and ability to grow in the midst of terrible pain.
We need to first look at verse 5 and following because it forms a foundation, upon which the ability to preserve, as Job demonstrates and how that assurance and confidence is described in verses 2 through 4, is built.
Two weeks ago I shared with you a bit of the controversy regarding the book of James that took place in early church history. I noted that Martin Luther had trouble with the book because of the very open link between faith and works that concerned Luther because of his fear of ‘salvation by works’ instead of ‘salvation by faith’ as the way to a right relationship with God through Christ.
However, the book of James did become an accepted part of the ‘canon’ or ‘authorized books’ of scripture prior to Luther’s views. James is a practical book written by the half-brother of Jesus who became the first pastor of the church in Jerusalem.
And the very practical ness of James is seen in these opening verses when there are moments we need to be reminded of some plain truths about life and God and sin and suffering. They are concerns that people bring to pastors, both in those days and in these days, on a regular basis.
Faith is a critical element to our life and relationship with God and much is said about faith in the Bible especially in Hebrews 11:
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.
It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.
…It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
But what kind of faith does James write of in his book? A faith in action. A faith of action. A faith that is told in the stories of those written of in Hebrews 11.
Now, verses 5 through 8 do not directly speak of faith, but they strongly imply faith. Wisdom that the Bible teaches is about the ability to make the right decision at the right time with God’s help and according to God’s will.
And verse 5 makes clear that God wants to give us wisdom; He wants to tell us what He wants us to do. However, such wisdom requires a faith that believes God no matter what, no matter when, no matter how.
Faith is what calms the soul storms spoken of in verse 6: “But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” But what kind of faith makes this possible?
Well verses 2 through 4 tell us:
‘Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.’
Now it may seem at first glance that James is nuts! ‘How can anybody be joyful when trouble comes?’ ‘Why is it important for us to develop endurance?’
Let me suggest an answer this morning: Our relationship with the Lord is more like a 26-mile marathon than a 100-meter dash. (I just wonder sometimes if the reason people drop out of not just the church but the faith has to do with a failure to help people learn to think and act like a distance runner and not a sprinter and develop the spiritual endurance and stamina needed to keep going forward. Some might call it spiritual burnout.)
The endurance of which James speaks is an endurance that comes from letting God help us grow up in our faith because our spiritual endurance is essential for the kind of faith that asks and believes when God speaks! Therefore, to answer the question “What kind of faith is necessary to navigate the soul storms of life and have the steady assurance to clearly hear God’s voice?” the answer is a healthy and maturing faith.
Now you might be thinking, “Jim, I don’t have this kind of faith, I would like to have it, but I don’t have it. I have the kind of faith that screams, “Run Forest, run!” when difficult times come after me.”
I have two responses to that statement. First, look at the wording of verses 2 through 4. The language used is a language of process, journey, and action. Yes, a level of stability and growth is implied but a total 100% completeness is not.
In other words, James, who is a believer of many, many years when he wrote this letter as well as a pastor who had practically heard and seen it all, knew that nobody had arrived to the place called perfection. He knew that those, to whom he wrote, were still learning how to deal with difficulties and uncertainties in life. But he also knew that God wanted to bring them into a greater faith, a greater life, and a greater future in the Lord!
My second response is this: the choice between growing in our faith and life in Christ or not continues to be a choice throughout our lives. Every time a trial or testing comes our way, we have a choice of how we are going to respond.
And the choice is between two courses of action: Choice number 1. Ask God to help you get through it, learn from it, and grow by it. Choice number 2. ‘Run from it!”
The consequence of choice number one is victory and maturity. The consequence of choice number two is defeat and misery. Which do you want? More important, what does the Lord want for you? There are implications to both choices.
I think that Job knew the implications of both choices and he made the choice to remain faithful to the Lord. But that decision came (and this is part of my second response) because down through the years Job kept making many little decisions to let God help him grow and learn through other difficulties. That is probably why God spoke so highly of him to Satan in the opening chapters of Job.
Job was a wise and aware person. We read of this wisdom and awareness throughout the book of Job as he refused to accept his friends’ views that he had done something wrong to deserve his losses.
I started this morning talking about pitching but now I want to us to focus our attention on the batter. He stands in the box and he has to figure out what the pitcher is going to throw to him.
He probably has the benefit of a scouting report that has told him and his teammates a great deal about how the pitcher operates. However, at this particular moment, the pitcher is in control for one very good reason, he has the ball.
A lot goes through a hitter’s mind when he stands there looking at a ball that sometimes comes at him at 95 miles per hour. Not a lot of time to decide what to do. What kind of a pitch is it? Fastball, slider, or curve ball? A split second decision is made by the batter in the box.
Batters have a lot to deal with, just as pitchers do. They have the pressure to perform, they have several thousand people suggesting to them they could do better from the stands than the batter’s box, and they have their successes and failures going around in their heads.
It is interesting to note that there are batters that can hit against an All-star, Hall of Fame pitcher year after year with no problem, but whiff right and left to a rookie during an entire course of one season. Or vice versa.
Which leads me to the latter half of James 1 in which James writes about the inner ‘curve balls’ that are thrown our way on a regular basis. They are the curve balls of warped and sinful desires; of temptation; of sin itself that comes out of nowhere within the desires deep within us. And they are as devastating as external tragedy itself.
Job, I believe, was aware of this. And because of the choices, large and small, over the years that he made which kept him walking closely with the Lord, he had learned how the ‘inner man’ worked.
I believe that it is safe to say that Job never felt the pressure of temptation to give up and ‘curse God’ as much as he did when the news of his kids’ tragic death hit his soul. I also think that Job resisted the temptation to blame God for the tragedy when voices all around him gave credence to that very possibility.
Let’s hear from the middle of verse 13 to verse 15 again: “no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death.”
Please hear the Lord plainly this morning: “I don’t tempt you. Satan does that. I test you but I don’t tempt you.”
God created us with many legitimate needs that He wants to fulfill in the right ways. Satan knows what those needs are and he comes along and tempts us to fulfill those needs in a different way. Hence, the inner battle that rages within us between right and wrong.
James has more to say about this battle of desires a few chapters away and we will look at that in a few weeks, but for now, we need to understand that Satan and his forces will throw things into our minds or use circumstances to tempt us away from the Lord. This is one reason why Paul wrote what he did in Romans 12:2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” (Ties in perfectly with verses 2 through 4 doesn’t it?)
So, the batter has two kinds of curveballs to think about during the game: The outer physical curveball coming at him at around 80 to 85 miles per hour and the inner curve ball coming at him from within that attempts to get him to doubt and swing recklessly.
Can you relate to that picture? I can. Really, we all can.
How do we then successfully connect?
1. By making a choice to trust and obey the Lord. Such a choice will help us to tap into the power of the Spirit who will make very clear to us the will of the Lord and provide us with the power to walk through the challenges that life and Satan throw at us.
2. To ask God to help us recognize our weak spots, our weak moments, and our weak emotions.
All of us have ‘hot buttons’ that when pushed create turbulence within us and can lead us to doubt and give into temptation. What are your hot buttons? You need to know them.
There are also ‘weak moments’ that come at certain times during the day or month or year. Certain dates or holidays that have events attached to them that allow doubt, anger, fear, or other emotions to engulf us and challenge our faith and confidence in the Lord. When are your weak moments? You need to identify them.
Finally, there are certain emotions that cause us problems. Some of us are tripped up by fear that comes out of nowhere as we encounter a situation or person that we don’t know how to handle. Anger causes some of us to lash out when we are threatened or don’t get our way. Depression sets in when a sudden change of events happens and we are rendered helpless. What are those emotions? You need to acknowledge them.
God wants us to live victoriously! He wants us to live in the power and joy and peace of His spirit. He wants us to grow and mature and be strong in Him.
As followers of Jesus Christ, as we allow the Lord to strengthen and mature our faith through difficult and challenging circumstances and to help us resist the temptations that arise from within, we show the world our faith, hope, and commitment in Jesus Christ!
My hope and prayer this day is that it will be true of all of us. Amen.
Source: Michael Card The (Broken) Heart of Worship located at www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/004/5.28.html
