1. Yes there are times I feel accused. But Romans verses here say I am not condemned because I am in Christ. All the accusations of failure come from Satan. And now so more often when I hear a voice of accusation I remind myself of what I believe, of Whom I believe, of what He says is Truth: NO CONDEMNATION because I am in Christ Jesus. I remind myself of all the people I know or read about that have overcome the accusations, that live victorious lives in Him.

Condemnation by the Holy Spirit compels me to repent and seek forgiveness. Condemenation by the evil one defeats me further, consumes me and drives me away from God.

2. God allowing Satan to live brings glory to Christ because despite his evil ways, God’s plan triumphed in Christ on the cross. Despite the evil one’s ways, we run into God’s arms and praise God.

3. Well the one thing I put a question mark next to was from the 4th item under 4 Things Never to Do with Evil in which Piper says “Only mercy comes to us from God, not wrath, if we are His children through faith in Jesus.”. I think God could get angry with me. And sure mercy is from Him, we deserved punishment and death at one time but are now saved from this. But I guess I’m just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that God’s wrath could not be the consequence of perhaps unconfessed sin, or willfull disobedience.

4. Whoa, this is a hard one. It’s difficult, uncomfortable to even imagine being in that situation and wondering how I would act. Well what might bright comfort but what else then knowing that God is GOD. Believing despite the present circumstances that He IS totally for me.

Now…on to reading Chapter 4 for me!

I did want to reply to question 4 dealing with Martha. I read Voice of the Martyr regularly and am overwhelmed at what others endure. The truths in Piper’s book pointing to the greatness of our God helps me to pray and have hope for those in situations like Martha. A heavenly reward awaits and God himself will divide justice. Selfishly, I pray that I nor my children would ever have to endure those things, but if He wills it then my only response is to bring Glory to Him.
A high and risky calling indeed.

1. *Yes, I do feel accused at times. I don’t think the enemy ever stops trying to tear us down.

**Paul states that there is no condemnation in Christ and we are freed from the power of sin that leads to death.

***Accusations about our failures come from Satan, the deceiver and our enemy.

****Consciously rebuke the enemy in the name of Jesus Christ!

*****The Holy Spirit convicts with love to nuture, lead and direct. He does not belittle or shame.

2. Piper’s seems to be saying that it is the choice of Jesus over Satan that gives the ultimate form of glory to Jesus. When we make the choice of choosing Jesus over Satan, we fulfill God’s purpose in letting Satan live. Thus glorifying the infinitely superior worth of Jesus. There has to be the choice for it to gloriously, magnify Jesus to the fullest and if God had not allowed Satan to live there would be no choice.

3. I finally came to the conclusion that giving thanks can still be the most difficult for me. Giving thanks through illnesses, loss of loved ones, loss of finances or loss of your independence can be hard enough, but giving thanks through some of the wicked, vile and detestable things that some people especially children endure can be almost impossible to phathom. It is hard to comprehend that the good is worth the pain. Yet, I do believe that the final reward will be truly worth anything that I bear in this life and giving thanks during the pain is really the only choice.

4. Knowing that the evil of this world is never out of God’s control no matter what it looks like to our human eyes and knowing that persecution serves the purpose of bringing glory to Jesus seems to be truths that would give comfort to someone enduring such trials as Martha. Also, it seems to me, the act of being able to pray for escape from these trials even as I held tight to the truths already mentioned would provide another form of comfort.

That being said, I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through what Martha and others are going through because of their faith. I hope that reading this book and your answers will help prepare me for what certainly is to come.

1. a) The law of the Spirit of Life has saved me from the law of sin and death.

b) The accusations come from the “accuser” and they are lies. We should believe in the saving act of Christ crucified and the power it gives. I liked the quote on pg. 51; “Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath.”

c) Conviction of our sin by the Holy Spirit is to modify the direction we are going; to get us back on the path that God has us travel. Condemnation is without forgiveness. It is a guilty verdict, and when it comes from the Evil One, it is a lie.

2.By allowing the trials, evil and suffering to go on, the power of Christ to bring grace and peace into our lives is profound. As Luke says in Chapter 7:47″Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Christ is glorified when He saves us from much, forgives us much, and we love Him much. As Piper ends this section, “Satan, and all his pain, serves in the end to magnify the power and wisdom and love and grace and mercy and patience and wrath of Jesus Christ.”

3. To give thanks for suffering and to never doubt that God is totally for me in Christ. It is easy for me to let self doubt creep in and to think of suffering as punishment from God, not re-direction. I need to keep these lists in the forefront of my mind as I survey all the pain and sorrow around me.

4. Thank you Missy for sharing this truly horrifying story! Yesterday I read a devotion in “Praying the Names of Jesus,” week 7, day 2, by Ann Spangler. The name is King of Kings (Basileus Basileon). In this lesson she talked about nations developing extreme measures for controlling their people. After citing several examples, she pointed out that Jesus, the King of Kings, reversed the usual formula whereby we are forced to conform, and instead, transformed us through the power of His Spirit. She writes; “As one early Christian writer put it, God “was determined to save us by persuasion, and not by compulsion — for there is no compulsion found with God. His mission was no pursuit or hounding of us, it was an invitation.”1 In this way, step by step, Christ builds the only kind of kingdom that will last — the only kind worth living in forever.” She exhorts us to remember there is no compulsion in Christ, “Each of us is called not to advance the kingdom by force but to spread it through the contagious power of Christ’s love.”

I am praying for this family, and for all the family of Christ, that His love will shine through us and that others will see the deliverance He brings and will love Him and glorify Him for His wisdom, love, grace, mercy, and patience, and yes, even wrath against those that persecute Him.

Be Blessed,

Karen

My appropriate guilt kicks in when I don’t give God the glory he is due when I have opportunity to. That doesn’t make me less righteous in his eyes though, because he sees me as his child.

2. God purposefully allows Satan to live on. Otherwise, Satan would be gone. I think I follow Piper’s logic here on an intellectual viewpoint, but I still have trouble totally “getting” this. My human mind wants God to defeat Satan NOW and bring even more glory to Christ in that way. I have to trust that HIS ways are FAR superior to my thinking though.

3. Of the 8 things to do with evil, I have most trouble giving thanks for the refining effects of evil.

I also still get caught off-guard by evil, so I guess I also have trouble with “expect it.” I get disappointed too easily when I hear of people falling prey to evil, including myself.

4. I also will pray for Martha. I think this “weighty doctrine” can give her a measure of peace in knowing that there is purpose in her suffering, and that God is being glorified because she is retaining her faith through it. Such a tough, sad situation.

I finally got caught up on my blog posts to correlate with this study. More here:
http://lisanotes.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-does-god-permit-satan-to-live.html

The difference between Satan’s condemnation and the Holy Spirit’s conviction is shame. The Holy Spirit’s conviction is specific to the sin; however, He does not attack us personally, nor does He bring up past sins. Satan condemnation immediately brings shame and the sense of “you are awful and a complete failure” and he piles it on by dredging up every other time we have failed. Also, the aim of Satan’s condemnation is defeat, and the aim of the Holy Spirit’s conviction is victory.

2. The greater the evil, the greater the glory when it is overcome. Piper says:

“A single, sudden, and infinitely holy display of power to destroy Satan immediately after his fall would have been a glorious display of power and righteousness. But it would not have been the fullest possible display of all the glories in the Son and the Father. God chose an infinitely wise way of displaying the full array of divine glories in letting Satan fall and do his work for millennia….We would not know Christ in the fullness of his glory if he had not defeated Satan in the way he did.”
I have one caveat about this, and I will preface it by saying that I am certainly no theologian and do not have strings of initials after my name. I think Piper makes a very good point. However, Isaiah 40:13 says Who has known the mind of the LORD, or instructed Him as His counselor? Also, God clearly tells us “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). I do think we need to be very, very careful in declaring why God did something that is not fully explained in Scripture. Especially areas such as this when our finite minds can barely grasp the “what”, much less the “why”. God is perfectly capable of glorifying Himself in His total fullness even if He had defeated Satan instantaneously. God is not limited. He may choose to work a certain way. But that is certainly not because His glory won’t be seen if He doesn’t. Omnipotent and Almighty mean just that!

Again, I’m not necessarily disputing Piper’s conclusion, just reminding us all that it is one man’s interpretation and conclusion, not an absolute.

3. I guess I struggle the most with the last one – “never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. Evil that happens to me is not “God’s punishment in wrath.” It may be “fatherly discipline” or refinement. I don’t struggle with it mentally but practically, primarily due to the way I was raised. Because my dad was very strict and legalistic, it is much easier for me to see the parts of God’s character that are related to justice than those that extend grace and mercy.

4.There is a world beyond what we experience. Not just heaven, although If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (I Corinthians 15:19) But God is working in ways that cannot be seen – both in the invisible world as well as in this world – for His glory. Martha and her family will likely never know this side of heaven all the ways their situation was used for God’s glory and to witness of His saving grace and power. Only God knows the impact they are having on others who hear their story, who witness their faithfulness, and who are changed eternally. And while evil may think it is triumphing over good right now in this situation, God’s glory will burst forth at just the right time and overcome all the forces of evil – decisively, completely, and eternally.

My brain hurts. . . ! Love this study!!

2. To quote Piper, “The Son of God, Jesus Christ, will be more highly honored and more deeply appreciated and loved in the end because he defeats Satan not the moment after Satan fell, but through millenia of long-suffering, patience, humility, servanthood, suffering, and decisively through his own death. A single, sudden, and infinitely holy display of power to destroy Satan immediately after his fall would have been a glorious display of power and righteousness. But it would not have been the fullest possible display of all the glories in the Son and the Father.”

He goes on to say, “Satan, and all his pain, serves in the end to magnify the power and wisdom and love and grace and mercy and patience and wrath of Jesus Christ. We would not know Christ in the fullness of his glory if he had no defeated Satan in the way that he did.” (page 49)

3. “Give thanks for the refining effect of evil that comes against you.” Give thanks? For evil? For suffering? This is counter to my preference for ease and comfort and absence of conflict. But the Word is clear that we are to rejoice in our sufferings, particularly those sufferings that come to us from those who are opposed to us, knowing that suffering produces the good work of endurance in our lives. It is through suffering that Christ because all the more precious to us!

4. Surely knowing there is a plan and purpose, as inscrutable as they may be, brings comfort and strength to those suffering for the cause of Christ. I cannot fathom being persecuted for the sake of the gospel (and am correspondingly ashamed of my whining and complaining), but I can’t help but think of the early church that rejoiced that they were counted “worthy” to suffer for Christ. I pray that Martha and other persecuted believers will stand firm in the faith, knowing that these trials are achieving a greater weight of glory. He is worth it! May we trust Him, knowing that our enemy is already defeated and one glorious day we will know our victory in full!

Great stuff! Thanks again for hosting!