Interrupted Lives: When Cancer Or Other Major Tragedy Permanently

Interrupted Lives When Cancer or Other Major Tragedy Permanently Interrupts Your Life

Copyright © Bill Moore, 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Millennial Mind Publishing An imprint of American Book Publishing American Book Publishing P.O. Box 65624 Salt Lake City, UT 84165 www.american-book.com Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Interrupted Lives Designed by Christina Czeszewski, [email protected]

Publisher’s Note: This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold or distributed with the understanding that the publisher and author is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person in a consultation capacity should be sought Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request. ISBN 1-58982-018-5 Moore, Bill, Interrupted Lives ___________________________________ Special Sales These books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases. Special editions, including personalized covers, excerpts of existing books, and corporate imprints, can be created in large quantities for special needs. For more information e-mail [email protected], or call 1-801-486-8639. _________________________________________

Interrupted Lives When Cancer or Other Major Tragedy Permanently Interrupts Your Life Bill Moore

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Dedication

I know a dear Christian sister who, on a daily basis, battles the most severe interruptions described in this book. For the last eight years she has struggled with a very debilitating disease called myasthenia gravis. She has a very advanced form of the disease and is right now in a struggle for her life at Fort Saunders Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. When I first met her nearly ten years ago, she was one of the most enthusiastic, upbeat, positive Christians I had ever met. After eight years battling this disease, her nature has not changed one bit. However, if there was ever a person who had a right to be bitter, complain, or—like Job was encouraged to do—curse God and die, it is Jennifer Hicks. She and her family—Tom, Julie, Kelly, and Jonathan, along with grandparents Lynn and Judy, and Ed and Carolyn—live interrupted lives. Yet Jennifer has

lived in victory over Satan’s attempts to rob her of her faith in God and Jesus Christ her Lord. I dedicate this book to Jennifer Hicks. Her life is the embodiment of so many of the things described in this book. Secondly, I dedicate this book to the students—past, present and future—of Pike Christian Academy, along with its parents, teachers, staff and friends. PCA’s commitment to excellence in education has changed the hearts of many students and adults, myself included. Their motto says it all: “Quality Without Compromise.” It was an honor to serve the Lord with them for four years. Ten percent of the proceeds from this book will benefit the work of the Lord at PCA. Thirdly, there is a group of ladies at our church who has given my wife, Ruth, and me so much encouragement not to give up on this book. When it seemed like I would never find a publisher, they were there. They have been especially good at encouraging my wife, who never dreamed of spending her life in the situation we are in. These ladies are known as the GEESE (Giving Encouragement Essential for Spiritual Equipping) GANG. The GEESE GANG chose their name because of the way geese fly. The lead goose in the V-formation breaks the airflow, making it much easier to fly the great distances that geese fly. The lead goose position frequently changes as the goose tires and another goose fills its spot. The GEESE GANG at our church has been used by the Lord to help many people living interrupted lives.

In fact, the head honker, Becky Purpero, recently wrote this poem to give me encouragement: Interruptions serve to remind us Of blessings taken for granted ’tis true, And help our hearts see clearly Precious truths we never knew. Like thanking God for brokenness Through trials that cause our hearts to ache, And we stop praying for a way out And let Jesus choose the paths we take. When a routine day is nevermore, When each hour becomes a test, It is then we experience the grace of God And in His arms, He gives us rest. Finally, I dedicate this book to my faithful wife of twenty-eight years, Ruth. She has been by my side through thick and thin and has lived more than half of her married life with a man she did not marry. Nearly fifteen years ago, cancer changed me physically, emotionally and mentally. I know that in so many ways I am not the man she married. Yet she has never once left my side. Even when I lay in a coma for six weeks, she was there, never once leaving the hospital for nearly three months. She has been my main source of encouragement. I love her more than words can describe. Ruth, one day, my love, the Lord will restore everything of which Satan has robbed us.

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Foreword By Max Woosley

I was standing in the hallway of a large corporation after an interminably long meeting. I needed to go to the bathroom, but the day had been long and laborious, so I wanted to take a minute to lean against the wall and just say a silent prayer. The other people from my meeting were busily engaged in continued discussion, getting something to drink, or going to the bathroom themselves. I watched them go along the corridors and waited for the atmosphere to grow a little quieter. The Bible states that you can watch and pray, so I kept my eyes open and told the Lord my concerns of the day. I prayed for my family and, of course, asked for assistance in working through the problems we were having with the design of a piece of military equipment. While I was in prayer, a man in a wheelchair rounded

the corner and came in my direction. I could tell he had been in the wheelchair a long time; he had gloves on to roll the large wheels, his arms were heavily muscled, and his legs were small. Still in silent prayer, my heart went out to the man and I asked God to bless him and his family. Now, I’m not sure how to describe the sensation of the Lord speaking to us in our minds. But, as surely as I type this at my computer, God spoke to me that day. What he said completely took me aback. “You look on the outside of a man, but I see the inside.” That’s all He said to me. But I knew what He had left unsaid. We are concerned when we see a family that is destitute, or starving children, or drunks on the street, or prostitutes, or a host of other precarious conditions in which humans find themselves. We Christians are especially touched when we see people of all sorts in need. We want to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. We want to reach out a helping hand to drug addicts and alcoholics. And all that is Christian and right and good. But what God said to me that day was that we overlook the spiritual condition of people all around us all the time. We go to work every day, and simply because the people we work with are healthy, we overlook the condition of their hearts. Many of these people are just as destitute as the people I listed above. Yet we feel no pity for them and most often don’t extend a helping hand to tell them about Jesus. Only eternity will tell how we could have helped so many people by just paying attention to their inward selves and not their outward condition.

When I first read Bill Moore’s book, God thrust me back to that hallway, to those old feelings. I was enthralled by the story of how this man went from being in the prime of his life to sinking to a place where most of us would be in utter despair. Yet, he found strength to rise above his condition and worship God for His goodness. Bill Moore is an overcomer. The Bible declares that we will overcome the devil by the blood of Jesus and by the word of our testimony.1 The sad fact is that most of us want to live comfortable lives with a good mate, good children, and a good job. We want a nice house, a nice car or two, good friends and plenty to eat. And those things make us weak. They make us overlook the truly important things in life: the love of God and the love of each other. In our constant battle to have, we forget to share, and even worse, we forget to pray. One of the greatest failings of mankind is that we are weak. Yes, ever the macho types with bulging muscles and rugged brawn. We avoid pain at any cost. Yet, it is in the living through pain and adversity that we grow. If we don’t live through some difficult experiences, it is almost impossible to help someone else. Let me give you an example. When I was thirty-one, my wife entered the hospital three-and-a-half months early in her pregnancy. The doctor examined her and told me I had to make a life or death decision. Take the baby or not. Simple, huh? Her chances were fifty-fifty if they took the baby and almost nothing if they didn’t. I asked what Revelation 12:11

the baby’s chances were if they took him early. Almost zero. I prayed about it and told the doctor to take the baby. Those were his words: take the baby. A twopound boy was born a few minutes later, and I watched the doctors struggle to save my wife’s life. She was infected and they had to scrub her intestines and other organs to remove some of the infection. Her chances were not good. I kept glancing at the nurses and doctors struggling with my unbelievably small, two-pound baby boy. When the other doctors could take over, my wife’s principal doctor took me aside and told me to prepare myself to tell my wife that my son was gone. I could only nod. We went back inside the operating room and I gently took my wife’s hand. “There’s no way that God is going to take our son,” I told her. The doctor was disgusted. Every hour on the hour for the next two weeks, I called the neonatal clinic to check on my son. I lost a lot of sleep and I prayed harder than ever in my life. My wife was discharged from the hospital after the longest two weeks of my life. Every day that I entered the neonatal clinic to see my son, one or more of the other premature babies had died. I fought. I cried and I prayed. I couldn’t understand and even asked that wellworn question, “Why me?” My son survived and is now nineteen years old. The doctors’ declaration that he would be a vegetable, unable to feed himself or even comb his hair was way off the target. My son graduated high school with honors and will enter college this year. I lived through the experience. My faith grew. My relationship with God was strengthened. Numbers of times

I would reach into my past and cling to that experience where I knew that God carried me and saved my wife and son. Eleven years later I “chanced” upon a woman who had a son born that weighed two pounds and two ounces. The circumstances were almost identical. I was able to help this woman, her grandmother, and ultimately her son come to know God, simply because I endured the challenges God gave to me. I dare you to read this book. I know that when you do, your life will be changed. You’ve heard the expression, “Live every minute as if it’s your last”? Read this book and find out how one man was made to wake up to real life. Life isn’t in the having. True life is in the doing. Matthew Henry said that true Christians are not only good, they do good. Bill Moore has obeyed and written a book that, I promise, will change your outlook on life and just may give you an inner desire to know more.

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Table of Contents Chapter 1 When Cancer or Other Major Tragedy Permanently Interrupts Your Life Chapter 2 Job, the Interruptions Specialist Chapter 3 Joseph, a Man of True Charater Chapter 4 Mephiboseth, the Obscure Chapter 5 Samson, the Mighty Chapter 6 Onesimus and Philemon Chapter 7 Paul, the Interruptions Expert Chapter 8 Godly Interruptions Chapter 9 My Godly and Ungodly Interruptions Chapter 10 How to Overcome Major, Permanent Ungodly Life’s Interruptions

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Chapter One When Cancer or Another Major Tragedy Permanently Interrupts Your Life∗ What do you do when your life is progressing smoothly and, without warning, you are faced with a situation so monumental that it interrupts your life forever? There are millions of Christians who face such interrupted lives every morning when they get up. They are confused by what has happened to them. They blame themselves for what has happened or, worse yet, they blame God. Most of the major life interruptions that I see in the lives of other Christians and in my own life are not designed by God but are manufactured by the Christian’s enemy, Satan. Sometimes God gets the ∗

Please note that all scripture (unless specifically noted) used in this book is taken from the King James Version, except for several references in chapter 2, which use the New International Version (NIV).

Interrupted Lives blame for these permanent interruptions, but wrongly so. This book is an attempt to place the blame for these interrupted lives squarely where it belongs: on the doorstep of hell itself. God plans interruptions in our lives from time to time. Sometimes we get so comfortable in this present world that the Lord has to remind us that we are simply passing through this life on our way to our final, glorious home, heaven. These God-designed interruptions may require change and faith but NEVER include pain, misery, disease, and heartache. If you are reading this book, it is probably because the title caught your attention. Quite possibly your life has been interrupted, perhaps even permanently, by some situation, some circumstance over which you had absolutely no control. You feel helpless and wonder in your heart WHY? Why, God, did you cause this terrible thing to happen to me? What is the reason for this interruption of my life? Lord, what do you want me to do with my life now? Perhaps you feel that you are at the end of your rope and need help to bring some sanity back into your life. All these were questions I asked when I was struck down in the prime of my life. It has taken me a long time, after struggling with this ungodly interruption in my life, to come to any sort of answers to these questions. It has not been easy. In fact, it has been like no other period I have ever faced. During those years, I was in the deepest pit of depression and thought seriously about taking my own life to ease my family’s

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Chapter One burden of having to deal with a physically broken man. However, through it all, only one thing has enabled me to endure this trial. It is the peace that passes all understanding, which I have through Jesus Christ. His love and mercy have enabled me to try to pull together what is left of my life and use it for the glory of the Lord. In this book, I will attempt to lay the blame for these permanent, life-altering interruptions squarely where they belong−at the door of the evil one, the enemy of all Christians, the one who wants to destroy our abundant life, that ole serpent, the devil. We will look at seven biblical characters—Job, Joseph, Samson, Mephibosheth, Onesimus and Philemon, and Paul. We will then look at three godly interruptions and draw some general applications from the first nine chapters. Each chapter will contain insights drawn from these biblical personalities. Satan will be exposed as the author of all the interruptions that God could not possibly have been responsible for because they do not fit within His nature. God is the God of love. My God could not possibly be the author of cancer (my case), loss of everything (Job), betrayal (Joseph), sexual lusts (Samson), physical disability (Mephibosheth), slavery (Onesimus and Philemon), and a horrible death (Paul). Many of these saints of the Lord also suffered other, less severe, interruptions that we will look at as well. We will contrast ungodly interruptions with godly ones in chapter eight. Of all the many biblical personalities who experienced interruptions, we will examine

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Interrupted Lives three who give clear indications that the interruptions in their “normal” lives were God-designed. We will look at Abraham and Paul to see the nature of godly interruptions and how they differ from ungodly ones. We will also look at Mary, the mother of our Lord, and see the very special, unique interruptions that God brought into her life. I find this look at Mary the most touching of all. When cancer struck me and my life was interrupted forever, I was a strong hoss of a man, but no more. Once I was a strong-voiced preacher of God’s Word, but no more. Once I could sing the songs of the faith in a strong tenor voice, but no more. Once I was an authority figure to my children, but no more. Once I was a well-respected pastor of a church, but no more. Once I could support my family with no help from anyone, but no more. On November 25 (Thanksgiving evening), 1987, cancer stepped into my life and interrupted it forever. Now, I have determined not to wallow in discouragement or self-pity. The devil will not win the victory in my life. I will not give him the satisfaction that he has defeated this man of God. I battled that cancer, and today I am cancer-free, praise the Lord. However, I am left with the side effects of the cancer and the treatment. These side effects have interrupted my service to the Lord, and I am mad about it. I am not angry with God. He has been right by my side through the valley of the shadow of death and has

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Chapter One put life back into this lifeless body. He has walked with me through the long rehabilitation process to bring me to where I am today. He has been my constant companion when people have looked at me with pity. The Lord has preserved my life for an unusual reason; of that I am positive. I am positive because of the unusual experiences He has allowed me to persevere through for fourteen years. I am confident that my experiences will help make you stronger if you will open your heart and read these pages. God Is Building a Life Message in You The experiences of these last nearly fifteen years form the core of my life’s message. A life’s message is what the Lord is trying to develop in the life of each and every Christian who has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. A life’s message is composed of the unique experiences the Lord wants to incorporate in the life of each Christian. Each Christian is a unique, special creation of the Lord. God will allow Christians to go through certain experiences that will shape our life’s message. God may not have caused many of your life experiences, but He can use them to develop a message in you that will be unique to you. God will then put you in contact with so many people who have similar experiences that you may think you are a lightning rod attracting certain types of people. In a very real way, you will be a magnet for people who have walked where you have walked. They will

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Interrupted Lives need to hear how you handled the situations you faced. They will need to see the faith that God has developed in you. You will then become an encourager in their lives to help them face their interruptions in a way that will give them victory. This is a very real part of God’s plan to win the world to Him. As you reach out, you will meet others who will want to listen to your message because they are struggling with the same sort of thing that you are. Just as you, right now, are reading this book because you have had a serious, possibly permanent interruption in your life, so will there be people in your life who will need to hear what you have to say. Your life message will give meaning and purpose to what you have been through. As you share your experiences with others, your life will have a sense of purpose once again. As you share what you have been through and how the Lord has enabled you to handle it, the Lord will work through your life; He will use you to reach out to others who need your insights. People today are desperate for answers to the questions that life has brought them. This is why they are turning to alcohol, drugs, and psychics in record numbers. It is one of the reasons they leave their mates in search of love and answers in another. I Am Angry with Satan As I have said, I am not angry with God for what happened to me. However, I am angry—no, I am down-

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Chapter One right furious— with the devil for what he has done to me. Nobody on planet earth will convince me that my Lord caused this interruption in my service to Him. No one will convince me that God is the designer of cancer. The Bible describes the devil many times as a thief and a robber (as, for example, in John 10:1). And that he certainly is. He robbed me of my most fruitful years of ministry when cancer struck me at age thirty-four. He robbed me of nearly a year of my life while I was in and out of the hospital from November to September, lay for six weeks in a coma that nearly took me from this life, and spent a month in a rehabilitation hospital. He robbed me of a normal family life interacting with my children as they were growing up. The devil robbed me of my powerful voice with which I would proclaim the Word of the Lord and sing His praises. He robbed me of the church that the Lord had called me to shepherd. The devil robbed me of the future that I know God had designed for me. I reject any theology that says my God predestined me to be on the sidelines for the Lord at age forty-eight. While I praise the Lord because He can take any situation no matter how bad and turn it around for His glory (Romans 8:28), I will never believe this verse even implies that God is the cause of anything remotely related to pain and suffering. Those things are a part of the world that Satan has ruined by sin. I will not blame God for my situation; I will, however, give the dishonor where it is due: to the Prince of Liars, the Author of

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Interrupted Lives Chaos, the Father of Darkness, that old serpent which is the devil, sometimes called Satan, Lucifer himself. God’s Challenge to Me Through the book Damaged But Not Broken by Larry Burkett, the Lord challenged me to do the research and study to write this book. Larry Burkett is the founder of one of the finest, most respected Christian ministries today, Christian Financial Concepts. His ministry has inspired many Christians, including me, to gain financial freedom by resisting the pressure of the world to go into debt. For the last twenty years, Burkett has been one of the foremost encouragers of Christians to gain and maintain financial freedom. As a minister of the gospel for seventeen years, financial freedom has enabled me to serve the Lord in places most ministers could not serve in because of their financial bondage. A few years ago, Burkett was diagnosed with cancer, and Damaged But Not Broken is Burkett’s account of his cancer experience. On page eighty-four of his book, Burkett writes, “If you want to pursue an interesting Bible study, trace how God worked in the lives of His people when He interrupted their plans and lifestyles.”* As I read that sentence, the Lord challenged me to do this study. The very title of Burkett’s book, Damaged But Not Broken, echoed my thoughts about my life. No, I am not the man I used to be. However, I still am a child of the King of Kings. I am still very valuable to Him.

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Chapter One While I may be damaged physically in some ways, the core of who I am has not been damaged one bit. My spirit is stronger than ever; and the faith I have in the Lord is much stronger than it was before I was struck down by cancer. I am more mature in the Lord than I was then. Even though the outer man is weaker, the inner man is stronger. While I may be damaged, I am not broken from the Lord’s service. In his book, Burkett∗ said that he thought there would be a very interesting Bible study in looking at the saints of the Bible whose lives were interrupted by tragedy. I took up Burkett’s challenge and began to research the lives of some of my favorite Bible figures, looking for interruptions both godly and ungodly. I looked at these examples of God’s work in the lives of His children and tried to find how His children handled their interruptions and then found insights that would help me with my interruption and possibly help the reader as well. This book is the result of that challenge. The Threefold Purpose of This Book The main purpose of this book is to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and to exalt the Lord as high as I possibly can. I give glory to the Lord for what He has done in my life. I praise His name that He spared my life from the valley of the shadow of death. I will give glory to Him because He has never left my ∗

*Burkett, Larry, and Michael E. Taylor. Damaged But Not Broken. Moody Press, 1996, p. 84.

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Interrupted Lives side for one second during these last nearly fifteen years of struggle. God alone has the power to transform a devil-initiated interruption into one that brings glory and honor to His name. Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). Another purpose of this book is to expose Satan as the author of so many of the interruptions that occur in Christians’ lives. So many times God gets the blame for causing things that are completely foreign to His nature. Satan is the cause of all diseases and afflictions of mankind. From cancer to AIDS, the devil conceived them all as a torture for mankind. Regardless of the fact that sometimes man brings certain diseases on himself, Satan is the father of all afflictions that beset your family members, your loved ones, your church family and you yourself. This book will attempt to reveal the interruptions that are facing most Christians today as attempts of the devil to rob us of our joy, our testimony, our witness, and our reason for living. We are engaged in an all-out war with Satan in these last days. He is not pulling any punches in these days but is hitting below the belt and is attacking any place he sees a crack. In some cases, he has created a crack where there was none. Then he uses dynamite in the form of an ungodly interruption to accomplish the task. The third purpose of this book is to encourage anyone who is facing an ungodly, permanent interruption

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Chapter One in his or her life. The Lord needs hardened soldiers in this battle of good against evil. He does not need soldiers who lack faith. Romans 8:37 tell us that we are “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” If you are feeling like the interruption you are facing is about to destroy you, then you are acting not like a conqueror but more like a captive. In order to meet the devil head-on in this conflict, we must have courage. That courage comes from knowing that the battle is already over, and we, who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only son, have won the war. WE HAVE WON! Satan is now, presently, a defeated foe. The only power he has over you is the power of illusion. He is not as powerful as he wants you to think. He is defeated, completely powerless over the Christians if we walk by faith and not by fear.

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Chapter Two Job, the Interruptions Specialist Of all the people God’s Word tells us about, the first person most people think about in terms of major interruptions is probably Job. His life was filled with trials he did not deserve: illness, catastrophe, death of loved ones, and financial collapse. He had just about every problem known to man, including marital difficulties. Often, when a Christian’s life is interrupted by the devil or one of his demons (i.e., cancer, death, sickness, tragedy, or one hundred other of his demons), the Christian compares himself or herself to Job. Yet never has there been a man whose life had so many major interruptions and who was so undeserving of those troubles as Job. Satan sifted him like wheat, yet Job still came out on top. From the start (Job 1:1), the Bible tells us that Job had no major sin in his life for which the Lord would

Interrupted Lives chastise him. He had done nothing to warrant what happened to him. On top of that, the Lord had blessed him with a fine family, and Job had prospered beyond measure. However, Job suffered many major interruptions. We will examine Job’s major life interruptions one by one. The Attack upon His Possessions Job must have been one of the wealthiest men of his time. Job 1:3 says that Job was the greatest of all men in his region of the world. In a day when the wealth of a man was measured by his flocks and servants, the same verse tell us that Job indeed had a massive fortune. The Lord had blessed Job’s righteousness. There is nothing in the Old or New Testament that says being wealthy is a sin. The key to determining whether wealth is a sin is whether it, rather than the Lord, becomes the focus of a person’s life. Job’s life was focused on the Lord. Financial loss can be a major, permanent interruption in a person’s life. It can mean, at the very least, an interruption in lifestyle. Even a temporary disruption in a home’s cash flow due to a job loss or other large, unexpected expense can cause major readjustments to a family’s standard of living. Or it can mean a lifetime of poverty. I have known several widows who lived at the edge of poverty because their lives were interrupted forever when their husbands died early in life. But in each case, these fine saints of the Lord have had their

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Chapter Two basic needs met because God is true to His promises to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. Satan’s first attack on Job was to interrupt his financial empire. Today, this might have caused Job to jump off the tallest building he owned. We have seen a lot of lost people commit suicide after losing a lot less than Job lost. If you build your life on the possessions of this world and then lose them all, the entire foundation of your life will be gone. If your foundation is gone, what do you have to live for? Therefore, these lost people choose to end their lives rather than live without the only thing that gives their lives meaning. As servant after servant came to Job describing the loss of a portion of his financial dynasty, Job’s heart must have sunk, if just a little. Bad news always seems to do that at first. It is like being slapped in the face. It hurts. Before you can turn the other cheek, you must first endure the pain of the first slap. However, in Job’s case, he no sooner heard the news of one major disaster than another servant came to him with the news of another loss, even worse. Within a few moments, all his fortune vanished. Interruptions of this sort are all too common. I once knew a prominent Christian leader who had placed most of his life’s savings in a “surefire” investment only to have the person representing the investment take more than $200,000 from this man and flee the country with his money and the money of several other fine, trusting Christian men. Their loss was devastating. Instead of retiring, my friend had to continue to work, even when his health did not permit it,

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Interrupted Lives and he died a broken man. One of his fellow investors even took his own life. Satan’s Attack on Job’s Family When Job lost his financial resources, the first thought that came to him may have been, “At least I still have my family.” However, Satan would very soon take care of his family, as well. When I lost my father about a year ago, it was the first time that I had lost an immediate family member. For the first time, I faced what Job faced. How would I have handled it if my entire family had been wiped out? Not as well as Job, I am sure. When Satan interrupted Job’s life once again with an even greater tragedy, Satan was once again trying to dislodge Job’s faith in the Lord. After seeing that Job’s trust in God had not been disturbed by the loss of his possessions, Satan immediately turned the level of torment up a notch and viciously snuffed out the life of Job’s children in one stroke. It has even been suggested that, with cruelty only the devil is capable of, the day of the celebration at the eldest son’s house (Job 1:13) might have been Job’s birthday party. I was a pastor long enough to realize that losing a child at any age is probably the most difficult grief to bear. Even the death of a spouse cannot compare to the death of a child. We naturally assume that our children will outlive us. In my first pastorate, there was a sweet old couple who were delights to be around. They had

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Chapter Two four children. I helped bury all three of their sons. I know how hard it was for them to give up three of their children. Each time they lost a son, they would tell me how much they wished it had been them instead of their children. When Job lost his entire family of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, it surely must have torn his heart out. The scripture says in Job 1:20 that Job tore his clothes (a sign of great grief and mourning). He also shaved his head, another custom of mourning. His grief was just about more than he could bear. His heart ached; his entire body cried out in pain. Yet, in spite of his pain, he was able to praise the Lord. In his prayer to God (Job 1:21), Job acknowledges that everything he had received in his life were gifts from God. In an amazing act of faith, he even praises the Lord in his current situation. This verse is probably the greatest single expression of the acceptance of God’s will to be found anywhere in the Word of God. “Then [Job] fell to the ground in worship and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised’” (Job 1:20b-21). Even though he thinks that God caused these things to happen to him, he still praises and blesses the Lord. Although God did not cause these interruptions, God allowed them to come to pass. Instead, our enemy the devil caused these interruptions. If you want to get an-

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Interrupted Lives gry with someone, don’t get angry with God; get angry at the devil. He is the Christian’s worst enemy. When I look at my life, at all the things that I have had to endure, sometimes I want to get angry. But I do not get angry with God for my interrupted life; I get mad, sometimes I get downright boiling mad, at Satan for all of the things he has robbed me of. He has robbed me of a career tending God’s flock. He has robbed me of the most productive years of my life. He has robbed me of experiencing the teenage years with my children; instead, I just watched the years go by with them. He robbed me of a “normal” life. And the thing that I most resent is that Satan robbed me of my ability to sing. Once I had a powerful singing voice; now what is left is just squawking. But I know that one day soon my King Jesus will restore to me everything that the devil has stolen, just as He did for Job. I even take joy in knowing that in the great judgment day of God, Satan will be thrown, bound hand and foot, into the lake of fire. The best thing is that my God has given me peace in that thought. One day the devil will get what he deserves. When I stand in my glorified body, totally restored and enhanced, singing the glories of the King of Kings, and watch Satan be bound as weak as a kitten by the hand of Jesus and thrown into the lake of fire, I will lift up my voice in a great thunderous AMEN, and all the hosts of heaven will rejoice with me. Now that will be a truly great day.

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Chapter Two Satan’s Attack on Job Himself It was not enough that the devil had taken Job’s vast possessions nor that Job had met the test when his children were removed from his life. Satan had to test Job to within an inch of his own life. After Job had successfully met the devil’s first two tests, we see that Satan went to God a second time and asked permission for a second attack, still trying to break down Job’s faith. This time Satan attacked Job’s life, afflicting Job with painful sores. Exactly what sort of affliction this was is not known. There are so many skin disorders—leprosy, boils, ulcers, elephantiasis, or skin cancer, just to name a few—that it is fruitless to speculate on the nature of his affliction. Needless to say, it was very painful and life threatening. Here is where I can identify with Job somewhat. I have never had great possessions that the devil could take away from me. We have had the Lord meet our needs, sometimes on a day-to-day basis. I have never known the pain of separation caused by losing my beloved children. But with a life-threatening illness, I have had some experience. Over the Thanksgiving holiday of 1987, I was diagnosed with a lymphoma (cancer) of the stomach. There was no real cause for alarm at that time because I was told that I had one of the most treatable cancers known to mankind. I took a series of about twenty radiation treatments that ended right after Christmas. Those radiation treatments reduced the size of the tumor consid-

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Interrupted Lives erably. In January 1988, I began a series of “radical,” to use my doctor’s word, aggressive chemotherapy treatments which I was told would eliminate the cancer altogether. In the process of eliminating the cancer, the same chemotherapy treatments very nearly eliminated me as well. The first treatment caused some unusual problems. My thyroid swelled up so large that my neck was the same size as my thighs. After the second chemotherapy treatment, I began slipping into a coma. The last Sunday morning before the coma, someone noticed how erratic my driving was. I dismissed it as a product of their imagination. The next day is like a blur. I am told that I behaved like a drunken man. On Tuesday morning, my wife and I headed back to the hospital. I remember virtually nothing after being wheeled into the hospital until about seven weeks later. I had slipped into a very deep coma from which I very nearly didn’t return. The chemotherapy produced an extremely rare side effect; it caused my brain to swell. The chemicals in the chemotherapy, which are actually poisons introduced into the body to kill off the cancer cells, had actually gone to work on the good cells of my brain. The doctors, at the deepest point in my coma, told my wife not to expect me to live through the night. There were many doctors attending my case, and they could agree on nothing except that I would die. The Lord chose to confound the intelligence of the doctors and spare my life. At the time, there were thousands of Christians praying for me literally around the

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Chapter Two world. In addition, I had a secret weapon that the devil didn’t know about or had simply ignored. I had a wife who would not let me go. This fine Christian lady stayed by my bedside praying for me for nearly three months until the day came for me to be released to the rehabilitation hospital where she was not permitted to stay. Job’s So-Called Friends For most of his life, Job had been surrounded by his family and friends. He was insulated from the storms of life by their love and concern. That is just one of the functions family and friends serve. They help us through the trials that may come our way. That is why they are so valuable and should be so highly regarded by each one of us. Family and friends are a gift and a blessing from God. However, even Job’s friends and wife let him down. The first friend, who didn’t have a clue what Job was experiencing, was his lifelong friend, his wife. Although the Bible does not reveal her name, she was Job’s great love. She had born all ten of Job’s children. It is very interesting that Satan did not take Job’s wife when he took the rest of Job’s family. Perhaps she played a part in Satan’s plan to ruin Job’s life. The devil surely used her lack of faith to send Job his first bad advice. Job’s wife’s counsel to her faithful husband was, “‘Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die’” (Job 2:9).

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Interrupted Lives Instead of supporting her husband, Job’s wife advised him to abandon his positive view on life and his trust in the Lord, and to put an end to his suffering. In effect, she encouraged Job to commit spiritual suicide and blaspheme his God, face the wrath of an angry God, and die. Apparently Job’s wife did not share Job’s faith in a loving God. Job’s response to his wife was swift: “‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?’” (Job 2:10). Immediately after, the Bible records that “Job did not sin in what he said.” Nevertheless, Job may have begun to question his faith somewhat. When the closest person to him, his wife, openly questioned Job’s faith and trust in the Lord, it might have weakened that genuine trust that Job had possessed in the good times. Obviously, she played right into the devil’s hands to dislodge Job from his trust in his almighty, loving, caring God, and she set Job up for an even less understanding crowd to follow, Job’s “friends.” Perhaps Job’s other friends could best be described as “misdirected.” When Job’s life was interrupted and he lost all his vast fortune and family, Job’s friends took on a different dimension. When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, heard of his catastrophes, they came to “comfort him” (Job 2:11). When they laid eyes on Job, they were shocked at what they saw. They could hardly recognize him at first. Imagine the picture: here is the once well-to-do, well-dressed Job, once surrounded by his family, sitting

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Chapter Two all alone, in torn clothes covered with ashes, just sitting in the dust, probably in a catatonic state, and covered with sores. They were good friends in that they knew the best thing they could do was simply spend time with Job. The Bible tells us that for an entire week “no one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was” (Job 2:13). When Job finally began to recover from this state, he began to speak from a state of deep depression. His friends must have thought that this could not be the same optimistic Job they once knew. Basically, his message in chapter 3 is “I wish I were dead.” His “good” friend Eliphaz was the first one with enough courage to say anything to Job (Job 4 and 5). His approach to Job’s predicament was that, in essence, it was Job’s fault. In Job 4:7 Eliphaz implies that Job must not have been altogether innocent in the situation. “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?” (Job 4:7). He boldly states that Job must be a foolish man because of his situation. Much of what Eliphaz says about God is true. However, Eliphaz’s pious nature seems false when he makes erroneous applications to Job’s life from those truths. He is typical of those who think they know it all even though they have not experienced the same trials as those to whom they so freely give advice. Job’s answer to Eliphaz is best summed up in this statement: “Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid” (Job 6:21.)

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Interrupted Lives After Eliphaz’s bit of “encouragement” to Job, Job sinks even further into his depression. Of course, there is nothing unnatural about Job’s depression. Considering everything that had happened to Job in a very short time, who among us can say that we would have reacted any better? Depression is a natural by-product of interrupted lives. It is not God’s way, but it is a normal reaction to shock. Christians should not be too alarmed if they find themselves depressed after a major shock. However, it should be a warning sign to seek the Lord and find God’s way of handling the situation. Job’s next friend to offer to “help” to Job was Bildad. Bildad was harsher with Job than Eliphaz was. As Job continued to maintain his innocence, Bildad’s first words to Job were harsh, “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind” (Job 8:2). Even though Bildad probably had good intentions to help Job come to grips with his situation, he simply compounded Job’s depression. In his reply to Bildad, Job begins to entertain the thought that he, indeed, might be the cause of his calamity. In Job 10:14-15, Job for the first time entertains the thought that perhaps he really was to blame for his condition. Of course, God’s Word tells us from the beginning that there was nothing in Job’s life to warrant such a punishment from the Lord. However, now Job says, “If I sinned…” and “If I am guilty…” Zophar rejoins the discussion in chapter 11 and tells Job, in effect, “Job, you might as well give in to the Lord right now and confess your sins. God is so much

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Chapter Two more powerful than you are.” Now that would be good advice for someone who is running from the Lord because of his sins, but this was not the case with Job. Zophar, of course, does not realize that Satan is trying to tear Job away from his faith in the Lord. Back and forth Job’s friends go, trying to help Job out of his depression, but with each round of discussion, Job seems to slip further into his state of confusion about what the Lord is doing in his life. Finally, his three “friends” leave poor old Job alone. Then another, younger, friend—Allah—comes to “help” Job. Allah is angry with Job because Job would not confess his sins and he is angry with the three older friends because they failed at their assignment. Consequently, his advice is no better than that of the first three. God’s Response to Job’s Cries It wasn’t until the Lord Himself spoke to Job “out of Job’s storm” (Job 38:1) that Job got his answers. In Chapter 42, Job’s questions are answered in his mind. Job comes to accept that his situation is within God’s will for his life. “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” He has drawn closer to the Lord than he has ever been in his life: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). In verse 3, Job comes to the point where the Lord has been trying to bring him: acceptance of his situa-

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Interrupted Lives tion. “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” The point that the Lord was trying to bring Job to was the point of trust. God wanted Job to trust him no matter what his situation, his possessions or lack thereof, his family or lack thereof, his health or lack thereof. Simple trust is all the Lord really wants from each one of us. Insights from Job’s Life Realize Who Is the Real Enemy The very first thing that the Christian must do is understand that these major catastrophes do NOT come from the Lord. We serve a loving, caring heavenly father who cannot violate His Word by bringing something like cancer (my case), loss of everything (Job’s case), betrayal (Joseph’s case), disability (Mephibosheth’s case), sexual impurity (Samson’s case), slavery (Onesimus’s case), or physical affliction (Paul’s case) into the life of the Christian. These permanent interruptions in our lives come from our enemy, the devil. Satan deliberately selected Job to be the target of his attack because of his strong faith in God. Why the devil singles out people such as Job for these diabolical attacks is not a mystery. Of course, he is trying to defeat their faith in the Lord. Apparently, he must be successful with some because he continues to use this same plan today. But I would think that he would give up

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Chapter Two since many times his attacks just serve to strengthen the faith of the believer, including Job. From God’s perspective, perhaps He allows it to happen to test Christians to prove to ourselves what we are really made of. The best answer is found in the life of Paul after his physical afflictions. The Christian is tested so that the grace of God may abound on the Christian who has been so attacked by the enemy. In each of these saints’ lives—Job, Joseph, Mephibosheth, Samson, Paul, Onesimus and Philemon—we can readily see that if Satan had succeeded in ruining God’s future plan for these children of the Lord, the history of the world would be much different. They kept their focus on the future. So must you and I keep our eyes on what is yet to be in our lives. We must not surrender to these permanent interruptions in our lives. Do not surrender your future to the devil when he comes into your life to sift you like wheat. Allow Satan to see that what is left after his sifting is the best part of your life. He may be successful in driving the chaff away, but what is left serving the Lord is the real essence of whom God intended you to be. Why does God not stop these attacks on His children? The book of Job implies God has the ultimate authority over these things. The fact that God allows these things to happen should not suggest God does not care for His children. It simply says God does not value these things—the possessions, the condition of our lives, even our very physical lives—as highly as we do. God’s view of this world is temporary at best. It is just

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Interrupted Lives the proving ground for the “real” life to be spent with Him for an eternity. The Lord is so focused on what is yet to be that the things on earth do pale in comparison. He will give us His Grace to enable us to endure this life on earth until all things are made ready in our eternal home, heaven. Compared to our future life in heaven, life on this earth will mean very little to us. Therefore, we should not get too wrapped up in it. This earthly life should not become the focus of the Christian, but rather our focus should be on the life to come: our eternity with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Overcoming Financial Losses When your life is permanently interrupted by some sort of financial loss or other loss of possessions through fire and earthquake, flood, a stock market crash, embezzlement, et cetera, you must remember the key to understanding possessions. The key to overcoming financial loss is to readjust your level of contentment. The Apostle Paul said it best when he said in Philippians 4:11, “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am in, therein to be content.” Many American Christians just assume that God wants us to be nice and physically comfortable, but nothing could be further from the truth. God condemns those who get too comfortable with the things of this life. In Amos 6, God condemns those who are comfortable with their possessions: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion…that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their

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Chapter Two couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock…” This is not a popular message in America today, is it? Most people work far too hard for things that will not last. Perhaps a good question to ask ourselves is this: “Will what I am doing make any difference in one hundred years?” Do you really need a brand-new Lexus with all the accessories, or do you need reliable transportation? Do you really need a five-bedroom house with three baths, a fireplace, and a hot tub on fifty acres with an ocean view, or do you need shelter for your family? Do you really need a big boat, a motorcycle, two additional cars, a vacation cabin in the mountains, a winter home in Florida? And the list goes on and on and on. Will all those things make any difference in eternity? Compare your wants with God’s promise in Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” God has promised to meet all our needs and He sometimes chooses to grant us some of our wants as well. Financial interruptions may give you the opportunity to separate your wants from your needs. While we may be driven by our wants, God is not. Sometimes we need a new point of view. After my near-death experience, the Lord gave me a new point of view. I had become so focused on this life, on being successful, climbing the ladder in my denomination, and making more money, that I had the wrong point of view. One of the positive things to come out of my cancer experience is that the Lord opened my eyes to see the important things—my family, my faith, the souls of

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Interrupted Lives others, and my future hope. That is it. All the other things I thought were important were not. I spent a lot of time trying to climb the ladder of success in my denomination. (There is probably just as much ladder climbing in the pastorate as there is in the corporate world.) And all of it required time away from my young family. Serving within the denomination’s organization requires lots of time because it is all volunteer work. Getting noticed within your denomination, if you are a pastor, requires time. I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time; I was just following everyone else. Serving within your denomination is a very good thing. However, there must be balance between your volunteer work, your ministry, and your family. It was only after my life had been interrupted by cancer that I came to understand what I was doing. As Dr. James Dobson has said well, I had “spent all that time climbing the ladder of success only to realize that it was leaned against the wrong wall.” From the life of Job we learn that money and possessions are only fleeting at best. At their worst they are like anchors around the neck of the Christian, slowing him down in his service to the Lord and ultimately drowning the child of God. Job’s Depression Went Deep After these major, permanent life interruptions, the resulting depression may indeed go very deep. While I am no psychologist, I can see in the life of Job that his

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Chapter Two depression shook the very foundation of his soul. Please realize what kind of interruption Job had experienced: his whole family and his fortune were all wiped out. His body was plagued with very painful sores. He did not get a moment’s relief from them. That sort of physical pain, on top of his emotional pain from losing all his possessions and his family, threw Job into the deepest depression imaginable. Sometimes such catastrophes throw a person into a shock similar to deep depression. While Job may not have been in physical shock, his soul most certainly was in that state. For the first week, Job did not speak a word. That fact alone indicates that Job was in a state of shock. However, Job eventually worked is way out of his depression by talking his way through it. It should not surprise us when our Christian friends who have experienced major life interruptions sink into depression. Depression is a natural result of the trauma they have experienced. We should not condemn them or think less of them but should try to offer understanding help. Our help must never be the type that Job’s wife and friends offered him. Their help was to condemn Job for his situation. They blamed him for being the cause of his situation. Their help only served to push him further down into his depressed state. The help the understanding Christian must give to those whose lives have been permanently interrupted needs to be positive in nature. At first you may need to say nothing at all. As others feel your presence, they will have the freedom to open up and begin to speak.

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Interrupted Lives This portion of the chapter is not intended to offer advice on counseling the depressed. There are others who can do that much more skillfully. But the focus of our help must be positive. Even Your Closest Friends Won’t Fully Understand Job quickly discovered that his closest friends, even his wife, could not understand what he was experiencing. They didn’t have a clue what Job was feeling about this situation. I am convinced that no one can understand what you are going through if your life has been permanently interrupted because of an attack of Satan to trick you into giving up on your hope in the Lord. As Job experienced this, so did I. Even my closest friends could not understand what I was experiencing. My wife, who stood by my side through the three months of my hospitalization, never once leaving my side, whom I consider my closest friend on this earth, did not and still does not understand fully the way I feel. The circumstances surrounding my situation lead many people simply to stay away. There are probably a couple of reasons why friends cannot understand what you are going through. First, some of my “friends” were like Job’s friends and formed their own opinions about what had happened to me. Some looked for causes in my life. Some blamed stress, some blamed a secret sin in my life, some blamed heredity, and some even believed there was a

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Chapter Two weakness in my faith in the Lord. These friends did not consider that the devil simply selected me as a focus for his latest attack on the body of Christ. What they could not know is that Satan chose me for his attack because of my love for the Lord. As with Job, Satan is continually selecting Christians as the focus of his attack in order to tempt them to give up. Second, others looked at me through the eyes of my present circumstances. Today, when some look at me, they see a weak, nearly helpless person to be pitied and they feel sorrow for me. That is not what I want. All I want is a chance to prove myself once more. I want to be respected for who I am, inside as well as outside. When I consider myself, I am looking through the eyes of who I am inside. I am just as strong a personality now as I was before. The essence of what makes me “me” has not changed any more than Job’s essence had changed. What makes up the inner me is just the same, if not enhanced, as it was before. Paul, in Ephesians 3:16, talks about how the Holy Spirit strengthens the inner man. Since my coma, the Holy Spirit has been strengthening and encouraging my inner man. The reason no one but the Lord can understand me is that no one understands my inner man like the Lord. This is why the Lord is the only help and the only hope I have. While I dearly love my wife and friends, I cannot rely on them to help me deal with a problem that can only be solved in the inner man. For that I must rely on the Lord.

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Interrupted Lives What the devil fails to understand is that trials like these permanent interruptions only serve to strengthen the Christian who keeps his focus on the Lord. Job Discovers That the Lord Is His Best Friend Only God could heal Job’s troubled mind. Not until you finally realize there is no one, absolutely no one, who can help you overcome these permanent interruptions will the Lord be free to assist you. Now, determination is a great thing. Without the determination that I had, I know that I would probably still be lying in the same hospital bed I was in when I first came home. Anyone who has faced a permanent interruption in his or her life must have determination. However, determination alone is never enough. It cannot heal the mind the way the Lord can. Only when I rediscovered that my best friend was the Lord did He begin to help me overcome this devastating loss that I had experienced. Make no mistake about it: Jesus is your best friend in the good times as well as in the bad times. If you haven’t experienced Jesus as your best friend, wouldn’t today be a good time to accept what Jesus has done for you and accept His free gift of salvation? The way of salvation is a very uncomplicated way. Right now, simply bow your head and pray, and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your heart. Tell Him that you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive you of all your sins. Ask Him to come into your heart and save you from Satan and hell. Thank Him for His free gift of eternal life.

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Chapter Two If you prayed that simple prayer and believe in your heart that Jesus is your only hope, my friend, let me be the first to welcome you into the family of God. Praise the Lord for His free gift of eternal life. The Key Is Acceptance When you have done everything that you can humanly do to overcome your interruption, when you have petitioned the Lord over and over and over (as Job did) and have gotten no answer, then you must face the fact that your interruption may be permanent, as with the case of Paul and his thorn in the flesh. You must accept that, for some reason known only to God the Father, your life will never be same as it was before. But you must thank the Lord for your life no matter what condition it is in. Anything that we get out of this life beyond the fact that we have been saved from hell (which is far more than this sinful person deserves) is icing on the cake. Acceptance is the key to looking toward the future and getting on with your life. You have to accept your life as it is, let your past life go as a fond memory, and make the best of your life in its present condition. Speaking from personal experience, I know that this will probably be the single hardest thing to do when your life has been permanently interrupted. It was very painful to realize that I would never again step into the pulpit and deliver a sermon or sing a song with full power to the Lord in praise to Him. It was heart

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Interrupted Lives wrenching to understand that I would never again be able to rough-and-tumble play with my children as I once did. It was so very difficult to accept that the physical relationship my wife and I enjoyed had changed forever. But I am convinced that no amount of looking back to the way it used to be will do any good. It will not help one bit with getting on with the rest of my life. Who knows how many years I will have to live with this condition? And who knows what God has planned for my remaining years? Acceptance is the key. God Restored Job’s Life God restored everything that Satan had robbed from Job. But it wasn’t until Job accepted his situation and began to focus on his future and not on his past that the Lord began to pour out His blessing on Job once again. Job 42:12 says, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s [interrupted] life more than the first.” The latter part of his life was not like the first part, but it was even better. Those who serve the Lord despite a permanently interrupted life can take comfort from the fact that God will make the latter part even better than the first. However, we must realize that it will be different. There is no way to re-create the past. The child of God must accept his or her present state and move on from there into the latter part, the post-interrupted state of life. I am confident, absolutely confident, that someday the Lord will restore to me everything that Satan stole from me when he interrupted my life forever. It may be

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Chapter Two here on this earth while I yet live, but if not here, I am absolutely positive that in glory my God will give me back everything the devil so viciously took from me. Either way, I know that my life with the Lord will be better. Job’s Secret to God’s Blessing The secret to Job’s receiving God’s blessing even after he had lost everything except his life is clearly identified in the Word of God. Job 1:22 and 2:10 tell us that Job did not blame God for his affliction, as so many times we are prone to do. Job 1:22 says, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Job did not accuse his God of afflicting him with the loss of his possessions, his family or his health. He did not say that it must have been God’s perfect will of God for him to have all of his calamities. Job came to understand that it was within God’s permissible will for his life. I cannot begin to remember how many times I have heard some Christians say their cancer or other problem was somehow God’s perfect will for their lives. Job did not believe his God would do that to him, and neither should you believe that your major tragedy is God’s doing. The book of Job clearly identifies the author of sickness, death, and calamity as Satan himself. Job 2:10 says, “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” Job was wise enough, mature enough in the Lord, to know deep down in his heart that the Lord loved him too much to be so cruel to him. He knew his life was

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Interrupted Lives pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Job’s faith was strong enough to know that even though it seemed his life was, for all practical purposes, over, the Lord still had a task for Job. Likewise, in my life and yours, our faith must grow strong enough to help us understand that God is the author of love, joy and peace for those who are obedient to Him. He is not the author of death, sickness, disease, calamity and tragedy. Thoughts of those things are completely outside His nature. So the secret to overcoming the diabolical scheme of Satan is to praise the Lord no matter what state you find yourself in. Praise Him in the good times and in the not-so-good. Praise Him in sickness and in health. Praise Him in want and in abundance. Praise Him in life and in death. The secret is simple: praise the Lord for everything that happens in your life.

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Chapter Three Joseph, a Man of True Character Of all the personalities to be found in God’s Word, my favorite and that of many other Christians is Joseph. I have learned more from studying the life of Joseph than from any other person in the Bible. Joseph spent a lifetime facing ungodly interruptions, yet the Lord used these Satan-led interruptions to bring Joseph to the top of the world just in time to be able to help his family when they faced annihilation through hunger. In his life, Joseph faced three major interruptions, which can only be explained in terms of a conspiracy of the devil to ruin his life. God does not cause the things to happen to His people that happened to Joseph. Yes, God can use them, but God does not cause them. I think God gets blamed for many things that happen in our lives, which He had nothing to do with. Christians do battle every day with a fierce, cunning opponent named Satan. He is our true enemy. His desire is to defeat

Interrupted Lives every Christian who is growing and trying to serve the Lord. He hates all that is good. His very name means accuser, and he spends his existence accusing Christians of their past sins; accusing God, in our minds, of not providing for the Christian as He promised He would; accusing God of doing things that he, the devil, was responsible for. Unfortunately, many times even Christians explain these permanent interruptions in their lives in terms of God’s will or God’s plan for their lives. There is no way that I am going to blame God for my cancer. I certainly did not cause it, and there is no way that I am going to explain it in terms of God’s plan or will for my life. Cancer is a result of living in a world so corrupted by sin that it lashes out against many millions of people, both saved and lost. I have no way of explaining why certain cells of my body began to grow out of control, forming a malignant tumor the size of a cantaloupe, except in terms of the enemy’s attack against a child of God. The devil influenced the events of my life, leading to the cancer formation. This permanent interruption of my life was caused by my enemy, the devil. In Satan’s attack against the body of Christ on the battlefield played out in the lives of God’s people, I am a casualty of the war of the ages, the war between good and evil. Joseph was also a casualty in this war. In three different situations, Joseph was attacked by the devil in an attempt to defeat Joseph’s life’s work. We will look at each of these three interruptions in Joseph’s life and

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Chapter Three attempt to learn from them for the times when our enemy attacks us. Joseph’s Betrayal by His Brothers We first encounter Joseph in Genesis 30:24 at his birth. Joseph was the eleventh of twelve sons born to Jacob. However, he was the firstborn of Joseph’s second wife, Rachel (who was first in Jacob’s heart). Joseph was the love child of Jacob and Rachel, the son of Jacob’s old age. That Joseph quickly became Jacob’s favorite is understandable, especially when you know the history of the love that Jacob had for Rachel. That history included working for Rachel’s father Laban for seven years for her hand in marriage and being tricked by her father into marrying her older sister, Leah. Jacob was smitten with Rachel from their first meeting. After marrying Leah, he was then forced to work seven more years for the right to marry Rachel. It is truly one of the most romantic love stories in the entire Bible. Resentment began to build between Joseph and the rest of his older brothers. Jacob, who loved Joseph more than all the rest of his children, was the cause of the resentment because he openly showed favoritism to Joseph over his other older sons. Jacob is the perfect example of how not to be a father. When Joseph was seventeen years old, Jacob made him a coat “of many colors” and gave it to Joseph, probably in the presence of all his other children. Genesis 37 contains the account of the broken family relationship that this coat

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Interrupted Lives caused. By the time Joseph was seventeen, all his brothers “hated him and could not speak peaceably with him” (Genesis 37:4). Then the situation went from bad to worse when the Lord gave Joseph a dream. This may have been Joseph’s first encounter with God’s giving him a dream or vision. His first dream consisted of his family binding wheat sheaves. Binding wheat was a common practice up until the twentieth century. However, this dream was different because the sheaves came to life and eleven sheaves bowed to one sheaf—Joseph’s. When he told his brothers of the dream, they immediately knew the implication they thought Joseph was trying to make: that one day they would bow down to little brother Joseph. “And they hated him yet the more” (Genesis 37:5). Shortly after that, Joseph had another dream that included the entire family. In this dream, Joseph said that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed before him. When he told this dream to his entire family, his father Jacob as well as his brothers reacted against it. Once again, his brothers’ reaction was intense hatred. But his father’s reaction, though harsh at first, was different. Jacob, as the spiritual leader of the family and a godly man, “observed the saying” (Genesis 37:11); in other words, Jacob realized that there might be more to this dream than met his eye. Perhaps much later Jacob would remember Joseph’s dream when he stood before Joseph in Pharaoh’s court.

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Chapter Three In the meantime, Joseph’s brothers took the sheep out to pasture at Shechem. A little while later, Jacob sent Joseph, wearing his coat of many colors, to check on his brothers and the sheep to make sure everything was all right. When Joseph went to Shechem, he found that the brothers had gone to the city of Dothan. The implication is that they had left their sheep in the field to tend themselves. As Joseph drew near Dothan, his brothers saw him coming and hastily hatched a plan to kill Joseph. The plan was to kill him and then throw him into a pit and tell their father that a wild animal had killed him. Apparently Reuben, the oldest son, was not with them at first when they had planned to kill Joseph. Reuben persuaded them to change their plans and to put Joseph into a deep pit until they decided exactly what they were going to do with him. In the meantime, as they sat down to eat, it happened (by coincidence? NOT) that a caravan of merchants was passing by on its way to Egypt. Another brother, Judah, suggested that they make a little money and eliminate Joseph from the picture at the same time by selling Joseph as a slave to these merchants, who were often slave traders as well. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants then left with Joseph, his life permanently interrupted by the sins of his brothers, pawns in the hands of Satan.

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Interrupted Lives Joseph’s Betrayal by Potiphar’s Wife Potiphar, an important official of Pharaoh, bought Joseph as a slave from the auction block. Now the Lord was with Joseph even in slavery to Potiphar and made all that he touched prosper. It didn’t take long for young Joseph to rise to the top of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar had such confidence in the character of this young Hebrew slave that he made Joseph the overseer of his entire estate, which may have been quite extensive. Potiphar came to depend so heavily on Joseph that “he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured” (Genesis 39:6). Potiphar’s financial affairs prospered under Joseph’s direction. All was going smoothly until the devil conspired with Potiphar’s wife to cast her wishful, carnal, lustful eyes on this strong young man, Joseph. Satan would once again interrupt the life of this man of God. Sexual temptation is very powerful. It would take all the character Joseph had to turn away from it. He tried to reason with her when he told her that her husband had entrusted his entire household to Joseph. Joseph would not betray the trust that Potiphar had placed in him; neither would Joseph betray his faith in the God of his father Jacob, who had taught him what was right and what was wrong. “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Day after day, while Potiphar was serving Pharaoh, his wife came at Joseph. She probably enjoyed this little

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Chapter Three game of hers, this game of alluring and teasing. However, it came to a head one day when all the other servants were out of the house. Joseph came into the house on business, and she trapped him. As he tried to flee, she grabbed his clothes and in the struggle tore them off his body. This time she was angered by his rejection, so angered that she decided to show Joseph how powerful she could be. She must have screamed and called for the other servants to come to her rescue. She had the smoking gun in her hand with Joseph’s garment that she said he dropped in his escape from her screaming. When Potiphar came home, of course he would listen to his wife rather than to a slave. Please remember that in the Egyptian society, slaves, even good ones, had no rights whatsoever. It is doubtful that he even questioned his slave about what had happened. And even if he had, Potiphar was in a tough position. His wife had made this a public issue. Would he abandon his wife and believe a Hebrew slave and risk public humiliation? No way! It was within Potiphar’s right as a slave owner to kill Joseph on the spot. However, he did have mercy on Joseph, probably much to the chagrin of his wife, and sentenced him to life in prison. Perhaps Potiphar knew his wife and knew Joseph’s character and spared his life because he knew in his heart that Joseph was innocent. Whatever the reason for Potiphar’s mercy, Joseph was taken to Pharaoh’s prison and left in charge of the prison keeper.

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Interrupted Lives Joseph’s Betrayal by His Friends Even in the deepest part of this dirty, rat-infested sewer of a prison, Joseph still loved his God. Even in prison, he did not turn his back on God. Therefore, God rewarded Joseph’s faith and “gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (Genesis 39:21). Soon Joseph was running the prison just as he had run Potiphar’s house. Soon the “keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand” (Genesis 39:23) because the Lord prospered everything that Joseph touched. Joseph did not abuse his position in prison nor in Potiphar’s house for personal gain. He still ate the same prison food that the other prisoners ate. He still slept every night on the rock floor of the prison just like all the other prisoners. He still wore the same rags that all the other prisoners wore. It would have been very easy for Joseph to use his position to ease his suffering, but he did not. We know that he did not because of the respect the other prisoners as well as the prison keeper gave him. And it came to pass that Joseph was joined by two new prisoners. These two were servants of Pharaoh who had offended their master somehow. One was Pharaoh’s butler. Perhaps Pharaoh’s mattress was too lumpy one night, but whatever the reason, he was cast into prison for displeasing the king of Egypt. The other was Pharaoh’s baker. He too had displeased his master somehow. Perhaps he had burned the Pharaoh’s biscuits

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Chapter Three one morning. Whatever the reason, just or not, both found themselves in prison alongside Joseph. During the course of their prison stay, both the butler and the baker had a strange dream that they could not explain. When Joseph came the next morning to look in on them, both had very sad expressions on their faces. He asked them what was wrong, and they told him that they each had had a dream that no one could interpret. Joseph, the dreamer, said “tell me them” (Genesis 40:8). The butler began first and told Joseph his dream of three branches that budded and brought forth clusters of grapes that the butler pressed and gave Pharaoh to drink of the fruit of the vine. Joseph interpreted his dream to mean that within three days Pharaoh would call the butler from the prison cell and restore him to his prior position. Joseph then asked the butler to remember him to the Pharaoh when he was in Pharaoh’s good graces once again. When the baker heard what Joseph had said about the butler’s dream and that it might mean good news, he asked Joseph to listen to his dream and interpret it for him. The baker told that in his dream he had seen three baskets sitting on his head. The top basket was filled with baked goods that birds came and ate. Once again, Joseph told the baker the meaning of his dream. Within three days, Pharaoh would take him from prison and hang him and the birds would come and eat the flesh off of his head. That was not what the baker wanted to hear, I am sure.

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Interrupted Lives Three days later it was Pharaoh’s birthday, and the chief butler was restored to his former position of honor and the baker was hanged, just as Joseph had said. With the butler back in Pharaoh’s court, Joseph had hoped that his days in prison would soon be over. However, that was not to be. Once again, the devil entered the picture and caused the butler to forget all about Joseph: “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). It would be two full years before the butler remembered his promise to Joseph. It was when Pharaoh had a dream that disturbed him that the chief butler remembered to tell Pharaoh about this amazing young Hebrew who had the ability to interpret dreams. The butler told Pharaoh about his and the baker’s dreams in prison and Joseph’s amazing interpretation of those dreams. Pharaoh immediately sent for Joseph to interpret his dream. For the purposes of this book, we will not look any further into the fascinating life of Joseph. There are many other, much better written accounts about the life of this extraordinary young man of God. Joseph’s life was filled with many setbacks, interruptions from the evil one, but nothing could stop him from accomplishing great things for the Lord. Not even Satan can stop a man of God from accomplishing his place in history. Joseph would occupy a very special spot in Hebrew history of saving the Jewish race from extinction as a result of hunger. When Moses would bring the nation of Hebrew slaves out of Egypt four hundred years later, they would be over a million strong and would be in a

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Chapter Three position to possess the land that God had promised to Abraham many years earlier. Insights from the Life of Joseph The Nature of Broken Interpersonal Relationships Broken relationships are always the work of Satan when those relationships are between family members, both physical and spiritual family members. The devil delights whenever he can persuade two Christians not to talk. He shouts for joy when he can get church members to start fussing and feuding with each other. He squeals with glee when he can get members of a denomination at odds with one another over “theological issues.” Yes, there are times when the Christian must take a stand on an issue. There are times when we cannot compromise on one of the core issues that we must be willing to stand and die for. However, there is a difference between standing on a principle of scripture, and backbiting, gossiping, forming “unholy” alliances in dark, back rooms, gathering support like one running for an election, burning up the telephone lines before a church vote, and doing things in secret which you hope will never be made public. All these things have the smell of evil about them. They do not honor the Lord. They only bring disgrace to the cause of Christ. Whether the broken relationship is between two people or two nations, the result will always be counter to

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Interrupted Lives the will of God. The Lord never causes such tactics in accomplishing his purpose. In Joseph’s case, we can only see from hindsight what the Lord was able to do through the broken relations between Joseph and his family. We have no way of knowing what may have been accomplished for the glory of the Lord if they had been able to resolve their problems in a way that brought honor to the Lord. It is God’s perfect will that all Christians walk in unity. Psalm 133:1 expresses this thought perfectly: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” If you are feuding today with another Christian brother, go to that one. It doesn’t make any difference who is right and who is wrong. It matters not who should go to whom and apologize. You be the one to go first. Wouldn’t it be great if each of you were going to speak to the other when you met halfway? God does not want His family at odds with each other. While we are attacking each other, we miss who the real enemy is. While Christians are so busy fighting each other, Satan is quietly robbing the church of all its power, its witness, its impact in the community, its beacon in the dark and dying world. If you are at odds with anyone right now, whether that person be within your blood family, your church family or anyone you know, right now go to that person and submit yourself to him or her, seek forgiveness, and allow old wounds to heal.

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Chapter Three What About Coincidence? In the Christian life, is there any such thing as coincidence or luck or chance or good fortune? These words are all foreign to the Lord. The Christian needs to replace them in his or her vocabulary with words like divine plan, master design, and the will of God. Was it just a coincidence that a caravan happened to be passing when Joseph’s brothers were trying to figure out what to do with his body? At the time, it might have looked like a coincidence. However, when seen from many, many years later, the hand of God can be very clearly seen in it. Human beings are very limited in only being able to see today just for today. We are unable to see today in light of tomorrow. God, however, knows no such limitations. He can see the past, the present, and the future with just one look. He is able to order the lives of Christians so that things that appear just to happen are more than they seem. Each event has implications for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s events have implications for today’s events as well. We sell the awesome power of God far too short when we dismiss something as luck or chance. As Christians, we should look at each good thing that happens to us as an event God planned for us to experience. If it is a bad event, we know at least that it did not take the Lord by surprise. I take great comfort in knowing that even before I was conceived, God knew what I would be doing on this night at 7:48. Nothing takes the

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Interrupted Lives Lord by surprise. My life’s interruption, cancer, did not take God by surprise. Therefore, it did not surprise God that, when I slipped deep into a coma, I would emerge six weeks later completely cancer-free. Whatever the situation the devil has thrown into your life, the Lord has already, even before it happened, planned a way for you to overcome that obstacle. Christian, think about what you are saying the next time you say, “I sure was lucky that such and such a thing happened.” Luck had nothing to do with it. In the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as luck! The sooner we realize that, the sooner we will grow to the level where we can see these things. How ungrateful we must seem to God when we attribute something to the god of luck when we should be giving thanks to the God of glory. We need to guard our words because our words, especially hastily spoken words, reveal the true content of our hearts. Doing Well in an Interrupted Life We can do well even though we are living a life interrupted by the devilish plans of Satan if we are pleasing to the Lord. Each of the biblical personalities that we will look at did very well even in his interrupted life. This can be most clearly seen in the life of Joseph. Whether it was in Potiphar’s house, the prison cell or Pharaoh’s court, the Lord was with Joseph. All those around him in these places could see God’s blessing on his life. The key to this blessing was that Joseph stayed

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Chapter Three focused on the Lord. Joseph did not get depressed and whine and long for what might have been. Instead, he stayed fixed on the future and what was yet to be. Wherever he was, he served the Lord faithfully. No, he wasn’t a perfect man, but his character revealed his true nature, that his heart’s desire was to be pleasing to the Lord. When your life and my life have been interrupted through some evil plan of Satan, we must stay fixed on pleasing the Lord. We cannot allow ourselves to be bogged down by fretting over what happened. More than likely, you had no control over what happened to you. In my life, I must admit that I have spent a few days down in the pits thinking about what might have been. I have discovered, though, that that position is right where the devil wanted me to be. Despair over the past will not do the Christian one ounce of good toward creating a future. We must stay focused on doing what the Lord leads us to do each and every day. The future belongs to the Lord. It is His. By being obedient every day, just as Joseph faithfully served his earthly masters as well as his eternal master, we free the Lord to create a beautiful future. No, it will not be like the one we imagined for ourselves. It will be even better than our wildest imaginations could possibly construct. You have a choice that you must deliberately make in your mind and in your heart. The choice that each Christian has to make is whether to live above present circumstances or to allow his present situation to rule his life. Joseph, even while in the dirty, filthy, rat- and

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Interrupted Lives disease-infected prison, made a choice to live above the situation he found himself in and to live in his heart like the child of the King that he knew he was. You can let your circumstances rule your life, or you can rule your circumstances. But it is a choice that you must conscientiously make. You must do it now before the next attack of the evil one hits you. Shortly after Joseph was in the prison cell, he was feasting in the house of the king of Egypt. Very soon, much sooner than we humans could possibly imagine, we too will be feasting in the courts of our Eternal King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At that moment, all the ungodly interruptions that we have ever faced will pale into the seas of forgetfulness as we say, “It was worth it all.” The Difference Between Tests (Trials) and Temptations Quite often Christians confuse tests and temptations. It is no wonder they then become so confused when they get into either situation. They do not know how to react. Tests or trials are designed by God to strengthen the child of God. This is why James says to “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2 NIV). Tests are designed by God to increase the faith of the Christians in the power of God. They are engineered by the Lord to improve us, as Christians, to prepare us to be fit citizens of heaven, to receive our heavenly reward. Tests and the type of un-

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Chapter Three godly interruptions called temptations are different. They are different because God engineers tests in a way that is consistent with His nature. For example, we know that Joseph experienced temptations and not tests in each of the three examples we looked at in this chapter. We know that these were temptations because God never uses or designs anything for us outside His nature. It is not within God’s nature to use hatred (as with Joseph’s brothers) to accomplish His will. It is not within God’s frame of thinking to use lust (as with Potiphar’s wife) to increase faith in a Christian. It is not within God’s way of doing things to use betrayal (as with Joseph’s cell mate) to make us fit citizens for our eternal reign with Jesus Christ. Those things are no more than the tools of Satan to bring the Christian down in his or her faith development. These tools—hatred, lust and betrayal—are the perfect tools for Satan to use to fashion all types of temptations in an attempt to drag the Christian down to the devil’s level. A Christian who falls into one of these snares of Satan will feel worthless. Temptations are not the work of God. James 1:13 tells us the truth about temptations: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” James 1:14-15 goes on to explain that temptations are the enticements of Satan to lure us away from faith and bring us to sin and death. On the other hand, tests and trials are designed by God to bring us to faith and eternal life.

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Interrupted Lives The Christian must be very careful to distinguish between trials and temptation and never blame the Lord for placing him in a temptation nor give the devil credit for putting him into a place of testing his faith. True Character Withstands Temptation True character can withstand any temptation that the devil can throw at the Christian. Joseph was able to withstand all the interruptions that Satan could muster and still remain true to his godly character. Godly character is a by-product of living each day for the Lord. Godly character is obtained by careful study of God’s Word. It is gained by being teachable, by opening our minds to the truth of God’s Word and applying it to our lives. Godly character is not something that we acquire overnight. It takes years of development. True Christian character does not mean that we are incapable of sin. It does mean that when we sin, the act of sinning pricks something in our hearts that will not let us rest until we have asked the Lord for forgiveness and made the deed right, whatever it was. True character is being obedient to all the truth of God that we know. True Christian character is ever-expanding as we learn new truths when God reveals them to us. True Christian character is never content at the level where it is at the moment. It realizes that, until we see Jesus face to face, we all have new things to learn from the Lord. True Christian character is a constantly changing, ever-

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Chapter Three growing fact of life for the Christian who would be pleasing to the Lord. Again, true character is a choice made in the mind and heart that, regardless of your present circumstance, you will live as a true child of God. Joseph had the type of character that God loves to bless. One of the keys to receiving God’s blessing is to decide in your heart that, no matter what happens to you in this life, no matter what kind of ungodly life’s interruptions you face, you will live your life trying to be pleasing to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. However, that choice must be made now before the interruption strikes. No Interruption Has the Power to Defeat the Christian No matter what sort of ungodly, Satan-devised life’s interruption you are facing at this moment, it does not have the power to defeat you. No matter how big and overwhelming the interruption may seem, it is only an illusion. The devil is the master of illusion. The Bible says that he can even appear to be an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). I have experienced this enough times to be able to say with confidence that everything Satan tricks us with is mere illusion. These illusions seem big and awful at the time we first encounter them, but with patience and faith in the awesome power of God, they will soon reveal their real nature. Their real nature is nothing but smoke and mirrors that a bad magician would use in an attempt to deceive people. In the

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Interrupted Lives end, that is all Satan really is. He is just a bad magician trying to deceive as many people as possible into following him into hell and trying to persuade Christians that he is much bigger and more ferocious than he really is. The Bible describes the devil as a roaring lion, stalking about, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). Now that sounds frightful, doesn’t it? However, I am told that in the jungle, the roaring lion is an older lion that has lost his speed and much of his strength. The roaring lion is one who has lost most, if not all, his teeth. All this old lion has left is his big roar. He uses his roar to paralyze his prey with fear. The younger lions then pounce on the prey for a feast. The best way to picture the devil is as an old, broken-down, toothless lion. The most that he could possibly do to you is gum you to death. Yes, he is the master of illusion. The next time you face him in a permanent life’s interruption, just realize that what you see at first is an illusion. The devil is just trying to paralyze your Christian life into ineffectiveness. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus, not on the situation, and you will see how fast the circumstance will be seen for what it is: a master illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. Satan may think that he has defeated the Christian man or woman of true character, only to encounter a much stronger Christian the next time he faces you.

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Chapter Four Mephibosheth, the Obscure The third person we will look at in our biblical search for figures whose lives were interrupted by some form of tragedy is a relatively obscure young man named Mephibosheth. You will find his story in II Samuel. To understand Mephibosheth’s situation, we must first understand the relationship between King David and Mephibosheth’s father, Jonathan. Jonathan was King Saul’s oldest son. Just when David and Jonathan became acquainted is not clear. They may have known each other before David killed Goliath, but what is clear is that after David had killed Goliath, their friendship took a quantum leap. They were probably about the same age, young men, perhaps even in their late teens. During the time right after David killed Goliath, their friendship was cemented. It would be a friendship that would last a lifetime. Even when Jonathan was drawn

Interrupted Lives into battle against David and ultimately killed, David still considered Jonathan his one true friend. The relationship between David and Jonathan was more than just friendship. Jonathan and David were more than friends; they were “soul brothers.” “The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (I Samuel 18:1). After Saul took David into his household as a permanent member, their friendship grew even stronger. David took that kinship one step farther by becoming a covenant brother with Jonathan. I Samuel 18:3 says, “Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.” Unlike today when a man’s word is loosely given then quickly forgotten, a covenant to a man of God in the Old Testament was a very serious thing. When David and Jonathan entered into this covenant agreement, they knew exactly what they were doing. They were pledging themselves, their honor, their possessions, even their lives to the aid of each other. Exactly the same Hebrew word for covenant is used when God established His covenant with Abraham. The Hebrew word for covenant meant a treaty, agreement, compact or alliance. It comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to bind together.” To a man of God in Old Testament times (as it still should be today), it meant to bind the parties of the covenant together for life. David knew all this when he entered into this covenant with Jonathan. The covenant ritual was one that involved the sealing of the covenant agreement with a solemn, external act. We do not know how David and Jonathan

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Chapter Four sealed their covenant, but one thing is certain: it was an agreement that David would honor all the days of his life. When David learned that Jonathan had been killed in Saul’s final battle with David, David’s heart was pierced worse than if he had been stabbed by a knife. When David got the news of Jonathan’s death in Saul’s final battle, he went into a period of deep mourning (II Samuel 1:11-12). David knew that Jonathan was only fighting against David because of his allegiance to his father. He grieved over Saul’s death, but more intensely he grieved over Jonathan’s death, even though Jonathan was fighting on his father Saul’s side. David’s covenant brother had been killed. In those times, when a new king took over from another defeated king or after the death of another king, the common custom was to kill all the remaining family of the defeated king to keep challenges to his new throne at a minimum. Virtually every new king did that, including David. The Bible, which never sugarcoats the truth to make it more palatable to modern tastes, tells it just like it happened, right or wrong by today’s standards. It records that David purged the kingdom of leftover Saul loyalists.

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Interrupted Lives Mephibosheth’s Lifelong Physical Disability Here is where Mephibosheth, the only surviving member of Jonathan’s family, comes into the story in II Samuel 4:4. When those caring for five-year-old Mephibosheth heard about the defeat of Saul at Jezreel, they immediately assumed that David would very quickly get around to eliminating all descendants of Saul. Mephibosheth was Saul’s grandson. When the word reached the nurse who was caring for Mephibosheth, she immediately wrapped up the boy and began to flee with him. In the process, the Bible implies she was in such a hurry that she accidentally fell on him and broke both of his feet. Now, the break must have been serious because it left him lame for the rest of his life. His young life was interrupted by a tragic, needless accident. I say needless because David would extend his covenant relationship to Jonathan’s family, Mephibosheth. That covenant relationship went further than Jonathan’s life. David extended it to Jonathan’s surviving heir, Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth’s life was never in danger. When David did get around to asking if Jonathan had any survivors, it was for an altogether different purpose than eliminating any contenders for the throne. David remembered his covenant agreement with Jonathan in II Samuel 9:1 when he inquired, “Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

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Chapter Four It was then that David learned of Jonathan’s crippled son, Mephibosheth. David sent word for him to be brought before him. Now we do not know how many years had transpired between Jonathan’s death and David’s discovery of Mephibosheth. Apparently some years had passed because when Mephibosheth appeared before David, he was keenly aware of his predicament as Saul’s only heir. When he walked awkwardly into David’s presence, he immediately fell on his face to worship his king. Then David did something that shocked everyone present in the court that day. David said, “Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul [Jonathan] thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually” (II Samuel 9:7). When Mephibosheth saw that he was not going to be immediately killed (remember that Mephibosheth probably knew nothing of David and Jonathan’s covenant), he made an unusual statement, which we will look at later. He asked, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (II Samuel 9:8). I am positive that when Mephibosheth came into the king’s presence, he expected it to be his last day on earth. Can you imagine how he felt as he left that day, knowing that he would live, that he wouldn’t be in poverty anymore, and that he would enjoy the king’s good pleasure? His blessing was sealed when David commanded the former slave of Saul, Ziba, and his sons and personal slaves (thirty-five in all), to take care of Mephi-

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Interrupted Lives bosheth’s newfound estate (II Samuel 9:9-10). Mephibosheth was then able to get on with the rest of his life. He lived in Jerusalem, very close to David, and was a frequent guest in the house of King David. Mephibosheth married and had a son, Micha, and was well taken care of by Ziba and his household until Ziba saw an opportunity to advance his own cause. Ziba’s Betrayal of Mephibosheth Mephibosheth’s life was interrupted once more through no fault of his own when Ziba, the servant whom King David had assigned to Mephibosheth, was disloyal to his master. This happened while David was once again on the run, this time from his own son Absalom when Absalom attempted to seize the kingdom from David. Apparently when David fled Jerusalem, he did not have much time to gather supplies and horses. Mephibosheth knew the situation and ordered his servant Ziba to round up some supplies for David. Ziba seized the opportunity to promote himself and to ruin Mephibosheth for good. Ziba rounded up the asses and supplies that Mephibosheth told him to get and took them to David before Mephibosheth could get his donkey saddled and mounted (remember how disabled he was with two lame feet). Ziba took them to David, much to David’s delight, and presented them to David as though it was Ziba who was giving the gift. When David asked Ziba where Mephibosheth was, Ziba lied and told him that Mephibosheth was in Jerusalem. Ziba

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Chapter Four also told King David that Mephibosheth was, in effect, plotting to steal the kingdom of Israel from David since he, Mephibosheth, was the rightful heir. In II Samuel 16:3, Ziba tells David that Mephibosheth had said, “To day shall the house of Israel restore me [Mephibosheth] the kingdom of my father [Saul].” Ziba’s motives were obvious; with Mephibosheth out of the way, all the property that David had given Mephibosheth would have been his. David had neither time nor presence of mind to question Ziba any further and believed his tall tale, and Ziba temporarily succeeded in putting himself in the good graces of the king. It would be some time before David learned the truth about his loyal friend Mephibosheth. After David succeeded in putting down the revolt and came back to Jerusalem to separate his friends for reward from his enemies for punishment, one of the first ones he intended to look up was Mephibosheth. However, he didn’t have long to wait because he found Mephibosheth on his way to greet David. When David first took a look at his presumed enemy, Mephibosheth, he was in for a shock. Mephibosheth must have looked and smelled awful because the Bible records that he hadn’t shaved, washed his clothes, or changed the bandages on his feet since the day David was driven out of Jerusalem some time before (II Samuel 19:24). In II Samuel 19:25, David asked him, in effect, “Exactly whose side are you on anyway?” As the gracious king that David was, he gave Mephibosheth a chance to tell the truth of the situation. Once again Mephibosheth

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Interrupted Lives threw himself on the mercy of the king and told King David to do whatever he thought was right. Once again David remembered the covenant that he made with Jonathan and spared Mephibosheth’s life. We can only assume that Ziba got his just deserts as any traitor would because we do not hear any more about Ziba. The scripture is silent about his final outcome. But of Mephibosheth’s final outcome there is no doubt. The last we hear about Mephibosheth is in II Samuel 21:1-7. When the Gibeonites came to David and asked for their measure of revenge against Saul, David released the last of Saul’s family to the Gibeonites. Seven men were hung by the Gibeonites, the last remaining descendants of Saul. All but one, Mephibosheth, the one whose life had been interrupted time and again through no fault of his own, were killed by the Gibeonites. Once again David honored his covenant with Jonathan. Without a doubt, what happened to Mephibosheth was the work of the devil. Would God intentionally plan for a young boy of no more than five years to be crippled for the rest of his life? The God that I serve would not do that to one of His children. Is God the author of betrayal? Would God plant the thought in Ziba’s heart to betray his master for his greediness? Both of those situations have the fingerprints of Satan all over them.

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Chapter Four Insights from the Life of Mephibosheth His Interruptions Were Unexpected When his nurse dropped him and quite possibly fell on him trying to flee a nonexistent threat, Mephibosheth had done nothing to cause this unexpected interruption in his, up until that time, perfectly normal life. How can we plan for these major life interruptions, anyway? None but the most pessimistic would imagine everything that could and would happen to him or her. God does not intend for us to live that kind of fearful, pessimistic life. Jesus wants us to live the abundant life (John 10:10), to think (concentrate, dwell, focus) on the good things of life (Philippians 4:8). Today, we have an advantage that very few Christians down through the ages have had. It is called insurance. Insurance is designed to protect the individual who has it from the financial impact of major interruptions. Today, we have all kinds of insurance—car, house, fire, flood, life, hospitalization, disability, intensive care, and cancer—and in recent days, I have even heard of legal insurance. We have many forms of socialized insurance—Social Security, Medicare, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, etc. If modern society can affix a dollar value to it, then somewhere there is probably somebody willing to insure it. Marilyn Monroe had her legs insured. We can insure our job, car, possessions, health, homes, injuries,

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Interrupted Lives even our lives, although we know that everyone will someday die. I would be willing to venture a guess that if the cost of insurance were to be figured on our gross national product, it would probably equal nearly half of the sum total of the value of our goods and services. With all these types of insurance, have you ever heard of emotional insurance that will take care of you when one of these major interruptions invades your life? What about happiness insurance? Is there a company that can guarantee me I will be happy when my life has been interrupted by cancer? Sometimes in court these days we see a cash award for “suffering and anguish.” But is there anyone who can promise me I will receive happiness settlement, when a major life interruption causes me pain and suffering, which will repay me for the anguish the interruption has caused? Can I sue the devil and collect a happiness settlement? However, Jesus can do something even better. The Lord has guaranteed happiness, emotional well being, and peace if we keep our eyes focused on Him. I trust the Lord completely for all my needs, for my health, wealth, and family. It is Satan whom I do not trust. And the devil certainly is a real factor in the life of a Christian. Now, is it wise to have insurance today? Why not trust the Lord to protect you from sickness and to meet all your needs, present and future? Of course, it is wise to have insurance! God has given each one of us a mind to be able to make critical, financial decisions. It was not lack of faith that prompted me to get the best possi-

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Chapter Four ble health insurance for my family back in 1984. This insurance had no twenty percent co-pay stipulation with a high deductible; it was one hundred percent coverage. When I got ready to check out of the hospital after my longest stay (about ten weeks, six weeks of it in a coma in intensive care), I very clearly remember that the total bill for that stay alone was over $128,000. The total bill for my yearlong battle with cancer was well over $200,000. About the only charge I remember paying was a dollar per day charge for the telephone in my room. In 1982, when I took my first church, it was not lack of faith, which caused me to opt to pay from my own pocket a small monthly fee for disability insurance. I had no idea that ten years later I would be drawing a disability check from the same insurance plan. That insurance plan would provide a nice check for my family for two years. Do I trust the Lord to take care of my needs? Yes, absolutely, and He has never once let me down, although I often let Him down. Does He expect me to plan for an uncertain tomorrow with the resources that He has given to me? Yes, I think that He does. Right now we are trusting Him to guard our health because at the moment our health insurance is limited. There is a balance that every person must strike with the Lord, a balance of blind faith and pragmatic reality. This is, after all, an imperfect, sin-filled, and disease-ridden world.

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Interrupted Lives Then we must do all that we can to try to plan for an uncertain tomorrow with the unexpected interruptions coming at some time to all Christians. After we have done all that the wisdom that comes from the Lord would have us do, then we must trust that God will be with us when the unexpected interruptions come our way. We must strike a balance between planning for an uncertain future and trusting in God who holds our future. God gave us both the ability to think and the ability to trust. Mephibosheth’s Interruptions Were Not His Fault It was not his fault that his nurse dropped him at age five. It was not Mephibosheth’s doing that led his servant Ziba to betray him. I am sure that Mephibosheth must have asked himself a thousand times over if his situation was somehow his fault. I wonder how many sleepless hours he spent imagining what would have happened in his life if his nurse had not dropped him as a young child. Would he have been king after Saul and Jonathan had been killed? I hope he saw that he was much better off in his crippled condition than to be healthy and the opponent of God’s man, David, in a struggle for the throne. After several years of careful analysis, of wondering how I might have caused my cancer, what I could have done differently, what circumstances brought it about, I have come to the conclusion that I did not cause my

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Chapter Four cancer. I have come to the same conclusion that Mephibosheth must have come to. My conclusion is that it will do me no good to worry and fret about the past. The best thing for me is to concentrate on my future. The “what ifs” occupied my mind for an even longer period of time. “What if” the cancer had not invaded my body; where would I be today? “What if” I had not done this, eaten that; how different would my life be? “What if” I had gone in another direction with my life instead of into the ministry; would I be any better off than I am today? Over the years my mind has pondered many “what ifs,” to no avail. I have concluded that it does not do me one ounce of good to occupy myself with the “what ifs” when there may be years of “yet to be’s” ahead of me in my service to the Lord. Along with that analysis of fault also comes “who to blame.” Mephibosheth must have tried to affix blame for his condition. He might have been inclined to blame his nurse for being so careless with him. He may have wanted to blame his father, Jonathan, for leaving him alone in the midst of a battle. Or perhaps he decided that there was really no one to blame for his condition, including himself. In my own life, I searched long and hard for someone to blame. There were people in my church who caused me a great deal of stress. And most people know that stress can sometimes produce illness. For a while I focused on my doctors as the proper place for blame. But placing blame there did not work for me. As I searched for someone to take the blame, I can truly say

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Interrupted Lives that I never did turn to the Lord as a vent for my anger. If God hadn’t done it, if no man had done it, and if I hadn’t done it, that left only one to blame. And he is the one actually to blame for all interruptions of this sort in a Christian’s life. The one whom I am talking about is the devil. He caused Mephibosheth’s crippled condition. He caused my cancer with all its resulting brain damage. Satan is the source of all disease, all sin, anything that takes away from God’s child’s abundant life. Mephibosheth Was a Victim of Low Self-Esteem Just about every person who experiences a major, permanent disruption in his or her life will also experience a period of depression, of pity, of low self-esteem. I have to battle this constantly. Ever since cancer permanently disrupted my life, I have had this battle from time to time. Right now, I am between ministries with very little on which to focus my mind. My last ministry ended in a dispute between the ruling board and myself, which ended in my resignation. In that whole situation, I have God’s perfect peace that my heart was pure and that I am blameless. A servant is not happy when he or she is not serving the Master in the way he or she thinks is necessary or desirable. This causes me to get depressed when I let idleness gain a foothold in my mind and distract me from my main mission—serving the Lord. Therefore, I must keep focused on serving the Lord. Each and every day I must discipline myself to work for the Lord at

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Chapter Four least eight to ten hours a day, just as I did when I had a full-time ministry. Cancer may have interrupted the temporary assignment that the Lord had given to me, but I have not allowed it to interrupt my permanent life’s work, serving my King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When Mephibosheth was called into the court of David after Saul’s defeat (II Samuel 9), he immediately did the only thing that he could do; he threw himself on the king’s mercy, face down, prostrate before David. Of course, he assumed, like everybody else in the court that day, that David would do what every other king would do: eliminate the line of the former king. However, David surprised everybody when he showed mercy to Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth’s response to David was very interesting and, I think, reveals his low self-esteem coming from his disability. Even after David, king of all Israel, promised Mephibosheth that, in effect, his worries were over, Mephibosheth remained in his defeated demeanor and called himself a “dead dog.” What he seemed to be saying was, “Now, King David, take a closer look at me. Don’t you see I am a deformed reject? Look at my feet, oh King; don’t you see I can’t walk like everyone else does? Don’t you see my feet are so badly mangled that everybody who looks at me just shakes his or her head? King David, don’t you know I shouldn’t even be here in your court? I am not ‘normal.’ I am a reject by the laws of the priesthood which says only ‘normal’

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Interrupted Lives people are acceptable in your court. Are you sure you haven’t made a mistake?” Now it is quite possible that the laws governing the priesthood had been applied to the king’s court as well. Leviticus 21:18-21 strictly forbade anyone who was not “normal” from even coming into the temple to offer an offering to the Lord. It was the prevailing thought of the day that anyone with an abnormality had a secret sin that caused the defect. (Remember how Job’s “friends” kept encouraging him to confess his sins.) Mephibosheth’s low self-esteem was probably due in part to his society’s view of his physical defect. It is very difficult to overcome having been put down for most of your life since age five. Being told that you are useless, no good, a reject, in fear for your life, would certainly pull even the most optimistic person down into the pits of depression. Even for me, having been able-bodied with a good self-image for thirty-four years, since the cancer, low self-esteem is something that I have had to battle nearly every day. I have had to remind myself continually that my mind is the same as or even better than it has ever been and that my spirit still belongs to the Lord, that I am still His child, and that He still loves me. But when I go into a situation with others, sometimes the bottom drops out of my selfesteem. This is especially true when I get “those looks” that people give me, many times without even realizing what they are doing. Those looks of pity, those looks of condescension, those looks of “I wonder if he is all there” really irritate me and sometimes even anger me.

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Chapter Four Often I am tempted to cry out, “I am still all here, and I haven’t lost the essence of who I am. I am still the same ‘ole Bill’! I am more than the shell that you see from the outside!” His King Cared for Him Mephibosheth found out that his king would care for him, not because of who he was but because of who his father, Jonathan, was. Mephibosheth did not do one thing to merit the king’s favor. It was because of who David was that Mephibosheth received all the blessings of the king. David was a man of his word. When David swore the covenant with Jonathan, he planned to keep it all the days of his life. So too are you and I safe in the arms of Jesus, the Christ. When my life was interrupted by cancer, I discovered that the Lord would care for me in several ways. First, He spared my life. At one point my wife was surrounded by twenty doctors, each one with a different opinion of my condition, what caused it, and how to treat it. But on one point they all agreed: I was going to die. Not one could offer her even the slightest ray of hope. Doctors only have a tiny bit of the medical knowledge that the Lord has. After all, He isn’t called the Great Physician for nothing. These doctors were at the top of their respective fields. However, my situation, its cause and its cure, baffled even the most respected doctors. When I was at the depths of my coma, the doctors told my wife to begin making preparations

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Interrupted Lives for my funeral. They were absolutely sure that I would not make it. However, my King, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was about to do something that would astound my doctors. My King was about to get the attention of one of my doctors, a non-Christian skeptic who would write in his report that I “made a near-miraculous recovery.” My King was about to answer the prayers of my wife, my family and literally thousands of other Christians around the world, and spare my life. Second, He cared for my young family. Just as King David cared for Mephibosheth and his family all the days of his life, so too did my King care for my family. While my wife was constantly at my side during every day and night at the hospital over the nine months of my cancer treatment, nearly one hundred days, her parents came to our new home and took care of our children. Her father-in-law had just retired from the post office a couple of months earlier. (Coincidence? I think not!) It broke her heart when she was forced to leave me in the rehabilitation hospital due to hospital rules. My King sent different Christians from all parts of our past ministries to encourage my wife’s spirit. My King enabled my brand-new church to continue my salary for nearly a year while I was in the hospital, in the rehabilitation hospital, and at home recovering. My King was there for me and my needs and the needs of my family. Praise His name forever! My King, just like King David, was true to His Word. He promised to supply every one of my needs:

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Chapter Four “But my King [God] shall supply ALL [emphasis mine] your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Every Christian who places his or her faith and trust in the Lord will experience that same truth. No matter how badly your life has been interrupted, my King will meet every one of your needs. Mephibosheth Was Able to Get On with His Life Even though his disruption occurred at an early age, Mephibosheth was able to have a fairly normal life. II Samuel 9:12-13 gives us a brief synopsis of the rest of his life when it tells us that he lived in Jerusalem, that he had a very good relationship with King David, that all the household of Ziba served him, and that he married and had a son, Micha. That is the kind of life that many today only dream of having. No matter what sort of interruption you may have, you must focus on getting on with your life. When I came home from the hospital, I had to be brought into the house in a wheelchair. I could not walk. My wife had to rent a hospital bed so she could raise and lower me for feeding and changing my soiled clothes. The month in the rehabilitation hospital did very little for me. Had I given up and lost the desire to get on with my life, I would probably still be in that hospital bed today. But I knew that God was not finished with my life. I knew that I had to walk again. I had to improve my situation. Thus, it was by the drive and determination

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Interrupted Lives the Lord placed in my heart that I slowly, ever so slowly, began to make improvements. It took many months of determination, but eventually I was able to get rid of the hospital bed and return to my own bed for the first time in about ten months. The wheelchair and walker were the next to go. My focus was on being able to walk into church and assume the pulpit that the Lord had given me nearly a year prior. I would pastor that church for the next five years and serve as an administrator of a Christian school for four years, then serve the Lord as a Gideon and as a missionary in the public school as a substitute teacher for the last three years. That brings me to the present. The key is to allow the Lord to focus your mind on getting on with your life. God Did Not Heal Mephibosheth II Samuel 9:13 tells us that Mephibosheth had two crippled legs for the rest of his life. For whatever reason known only to God, He did not choose to heal Mephibosheth. I am sure that Mephibosheth must have wondered why God did not choose to do that. But in time, he had to accept that it was God’s plan to bring him into the life of David in order that David could show the world what sort of king he was. David was a compassionate king and full of mercy. It should be enough for me that God spared my life when He lifted me out of that deep, deep coma. That was far more than I deserved. In all reality, anything that I receive from the Lord is more than I deserve. If I

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Chapter Four got what I deserved as a sinner, I would deserve the fire of hell. Anything that I receive in this life sure beats hell. However, to be perfectly honest, I have spent a lot of time wondering why the Lord did not finish my healing process. Did I lack enough faith? After nearly thirteen years of asking myself that question, my answer is no, it wasn’t because of lack of faith. Now, I know that there is room for every Christian’s faith to grow throughout his or her life. I have, in faith, asked the Lord time and time again to complete the healing. However, the Lord always leads me back to II Corinthians 12:8-10. It took Paul three times to understand that the Lord wanted him to live with his condition and trust the Lord to see him through it. Paul learned that there was more grace with his affliction than there was without it. I have learned the same thing. I have learned that there is the sweet grace of the Lord to comfort me when I am weak. I have seen the Lord perform some truly incredible acts through my weakness. Now sometimes there are people who talk to me about my lack of faith. At times they produce guilt in me. I know that they mean well. But they do not have the peace that only comes from my King about my life. I know that the Lord has a plan for me in my present situation, just as He did when I was strong and on top of the world. God is sovereign over my present life. If He chooses to restore me completely, I will sing His praises, but if He chooses to leave me in my present

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Interrupted Lives condition, I will praise Him even more because His grace is sufficient for me.

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Chapter Five Samson, the Mighty Satan has so many ways to interrupt our lives. With Mephibosheth and Job, it was physical. With Joseph, it was interpersonal relationships. With Onesimus, it was a broken master-slave arrangement. With Paul, it was all of the above. With Samson, it would be something with which a great many Americans are familiar— sexual lust and impurity. Samson was one of the most courageous judges in Israel’s history. He was a one-man army who fought a one-man war with the chief enemy of the nation of Israel at the time. Never once in the account of Samson do we find one single man of Israel even lifting a finger to help Samson defend their land. In fact, in one incident, the “mighty” men of Israel brought Samson to the camp of the Philistines in an attempt to appease the Philistines (Judges 15:10-13). Despite his problems,

Interrupted Lives Samson can be regarded as one of the true heroes of our faith. Satan chose a way to interrupt the life of Samson that he uses time and time again. We see it today in numbers that exceed anything in the past. Once Christians were thought to be immune to this type of interruption. Today, reality has completely debunked that myth. From the highest leaders in the Christian world to the average pew-sitting Christian, it would seem today that this interruption would strike anyone. In my own church, I have seen this interruption pop up its ugly head in individuals whom I thought would never have been susceptible to such an interruption. In my own life, I can see how easy it would be to get caught in this interruption. Satan knows our weaknesses better than we know them ourselves and uses that advantage against us. Satan knew what Samson’s Achilles’ heel was and permanently interrupted his life with it. Even Samson’s great strength was no match for the conniving of the enemy of the man of God. From the news media we have learned of the sexual interruptions of some of the biggest names in the faith. We have watched this interruption ruin their good ministries. We have watched, in our own churches, from the pastor on down, this sexual sin sneak up on many unsuspecting Christians. During my brief ten-year experience as pastor for two rather small churches, I have counseled more couples than I care to admit. Some marriages the Lord was able to restore, but many more

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Chapter Five marriages were hopelessly shattered. Those the Lord was able to restore are now fine, solid testimonies to the power of the Lord. The birth of Samson was a miraculous event. His mother was unable to conceive children. However, God selected the family of Manoah and his wife for the birth of a very special child for a very good reason. They turned out to be fine parents, as we shall see. They were obedient to the Lord. When the angel appeared to Manoah’s wife to announce that her childless days were over, he also carried some very specific instructions for raising the child. He was to be raised as a Nazarite. The sixth chapter of Numbers is totally dedicated to describing the Nazarite lifestyle, which was very strict. A Nazarite could be a man or a woman. The Nazarite could not drink or eat anything that had a touch of alcohol in it. The Nazarite was prohibited from drinking strong drink and even freshly squeezed grape juice. He or she was taught not to eat either fresh grapes or even raisins. A Nazarite could not cut his or her hair as long as he or she lived. The Nazarite could not touch a dead body. All these requirements were outward symbols of an inner separation. The Nazarite lived a separated life totally committed to the Lord’s use. He or she was to live so that there was no doubt that he or she belonged to the Lord. This was the way Samson was raised. When we think about Samson, we must put out of our minds the Hollywood image of Samson as a dumb jock, hormones raging, a man out of control. That is not

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Interrupted Lives the picture we find in God’s Word. Instead, we find a godly man, full of faith, who was able to do incredible things because of his faith in God. It is no mistake that we find the name of Samson listed in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. He deserved this position in that chapter. Samson was raised by his parents exactly the way the Lord had instructed them. In fact, Manoah wanted to make sure that they raised him correctly. Judges 13:12 records his asking the angel, “How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?” Thus, Samson was raised as a man of God. Ungodly Interruption− −Marriage to a Strange Woman As a young child, Samson had the blessing of the Lord upon him (Judges 13:24). As he grew into manhood, the Spirit of the Lord became strong in his life. As a young man, he wanted to see the world. Of course, curiosity is a good thing. It is what keeps our minds sharp. So there was nothing wrong with this man of God wanting to explore the world. However, on his very first expedition, his eyes fell upon the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was a Philistine girl, an erotic, strange new girl, different from all the girls in his camp. The problem was that since she was a Philistine girl, she worshiped the Philistine gods. Nazarites, as well as all the other Jewish men of his day, were prohibited from marrying women outside the Jewish

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Chapter Five faith. The women from other countries were called strange women. The reason for this law was clear. It was to keep these strange women from bringing the worship of other gods to the Hebrews. Even though his parents tried to talk him out of it, he was not to be persuaded and married the woman from Timnath. She proved to be nothing but trouble for this naive young man. Samson was so naive about the cunning, ungodly ways of the Philistines that he fell easily into the trap Satan had so cleverly placed for him. Satan knew his weakness—beautiful women—and constructed an interruption to snare Samson. Even during this interruption, the Lord was still with Samson. Samson killed a lion and slew the thirty companions who had tricked him during this segment of his life. His exceptional strength gave the Philistines great cause for fear. However, in the process of destroying those who had set out to take advantage of him, Samson lost his wife. She chose to live with another man after her conspiracy with the Philistines (Judges 14:20). The Philistines had about the same respect for marriage as our American society has today. When he went back later to try to repair his marriage, Samson flew into a rage after hearing that his wife was living with another man, and he burned the grain fields of the Philistines with three hundred foxes.

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Interrupted Lives Round Two with Strange Women Apparently Samson settled down for the next twenty years. In skirmish after skirmish with the Philistines, no one could touch Samson. He had been able to put his past failure behind him for those twenty years. Satan’s next attack began twenty years after Samson thought he had it whipped. For those twenty years, Samson judged Israel like the man of God he was. Samson had the Spirit of the Lord with him. Samson and the rebellious men of Judah (their plan was to try to appease the Philistines) were able to trick the Philistines into taking Samson into their camp by delivering Samson bound to the Philistines. Once inside the camp, “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” (Judges 15:14). He broke the cords that had fooled the Philistines, picked up the jawbone of an ass, and made short work of the Philistine army. With that uncommon weapon, he was able to defeat and kill one thousand of the Philistines’ finest soldiers. Sometime after that mighty victory, Samson’s lust would ensnare him in another of Satan’s traps, a brief liaison with another strange woman. This time the woman was a harlot, a prostitute. Once again, Samson was in a place where he probably should not have been when the devil caught him off guard. The sin that he thought he had already overcome was waiting for him once again in Gaza. This ungodly interruption in the life of this otherwise godly Nazarite would last for only one night, but the

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Chapter Five impact would be with him for the rest of his life. After he had once again tasted the sin of this pawn of Satan, his appetite that he had been able to control for twenty years was awakened once more. It would lead Samson to his ultimate downfall, Delilah. The Third and Final Round, Delilah Samson’s third and final encounter with “strange women” would prove to be his undoing. The Philistines worshipped the god Dagon. Dagon was the Philistine counterpart to Baal, the human-sacrifice-demanding god of the Midianites. The Philistines were the latest in a long line of nations to conquer Judah, but they found themselves to be the rulers of a very unruly bunch of people. Their polytheistic viewpoint of the world was a stark contrast to the one-God belief of the Hebrews. Their differences clashed time and again. Just as good and evil will always clash, this clash soon came to center on Samson, the Nazarite man of God. Samson’s courage in standing against their occupation was a constant irritation to the Philistines. They wanted nothing more than to get Samson out of the way. And Samson provided them with the perfect opportunity when he first saw Delilah. Once more he had fallen in love with a “strange woman.” Almost everyone knows the story of Samson and Delilah. It is a story of love, passion, betrayal, and the ultimate ruin of this man of God. After teasing Delilah with the secret of his great strength, Samson finally re-

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Interrupted Lives vealed his secret, which was that he had kept his Nazarite vow from his very first day. He had been true to his one God for all his life. Despite his failures with strange women, he had kept his vow to the Lord. Until the Philistine “barber” slipped into his tent, Samson had never cut his hair, nor broken any of the other parts of the Nazarite vow. He had stayed true to his pledge to the Lord. However, the very second he compromised his vow, he lost his strength. Had Samson been awake before they came in, he would have destroyed the Philistines. He did not deliberately compromise his vows. He was tricked by the devil into doing it. However, it did not matter to the Lord. God had promised to be with him as long as he was true to his vow. It is very interesting to read what Samson said when Delilah woke him the third time after his hair had been cut. He said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself” (Judges 16:20). However, this time would be different. This time the Spirit of the Lord was not with Samson, and he had no great strength. To me, the most striking thing about it was that he did not realize his strength was gone. “And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20). It was a very sad commentary on the life of this once great leader of Israel that he did not even realize it when the Spirit of the Lord had left him. His life was permanently interrupted as his eyes were gouged out of their sockets. His once proud life was ruined as he was brought fettered in chains into the

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Chapter Five Philistines’ capital city. His life was wasted as he was made to grind wheat in the prison house. And the Lord was not yet finished with Samson’s life. As Samson, day after day, turned the millstone in countless circles, something amazing began to happen. His hair began to grow and with it his determination to serve the Lord once more as he had done in the past. How many days or years Samson was shackled to the millstone is unknown. Nevertheless, there came a day when Samson was ready to serve the Lord as before. That day came when the Philistines were preparing a great feast to honor their god Dagon. It was to be a celebration because their god had brought Samson into their hands. It was a great feast in honor of their god, Dagon, because he had defeated the God of Samson. However, our God is the God of last chapters and He wrote the last chapter in the life of Samson. The Philistines wanted to make a great show of this once mighty, now blind, shell of a man. They led him into the coliseum and with the help of a young boy Samson found the pillars of their great arena for the multitudes, at least three thousand. In his final moment of glory, Samson began to push on the two pillars supporting the coliseum. With his last breath, Samson cried out to God, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God” (Judges 16:28). And with that confession request, the Spirit of the Lord once more filled his body and his strength was renewed: “with all his might; and the

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Interrupted Lives house fell down upon…all the people that were therein” (Judges 16:30). This was Samson’s final testimony: “the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life” (Judges 16:30). The Philistines are not mentioned again in the whole book of Judges. Samson had set Israel free of the bondage of the Philistines. Israel would be free of the slavery of the Philistines until David’s time when they would once more be a thorn in Israel’s paw. Samson’s permanent life’s interruption may have been different from some that we have looked at, but the result was the same. He did not let his permanent interruptions prevent his serving the Lord. If the same will be said of you and me, then we will have done well. This is the kind of testimony that I desire—one which will impact my family, my church, my community and, thereby, the world. Insights from the Life of Samson Everyone Has a Weakness Before we judge Samson’s life of rather questionable morality too harshly, we need to remember that each one of us has some sort of weakness, some sort of Achilles’ heel. The same could be said for the prominent Christians in the press recently who have been taken in some sort of sexual imperfection. Christians today spend far too much time condemning what they

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Chapter Five see others doing and far too little time examining their own lives for imperfections. Was it not Jesus who said, “He that is without [emphasis mine] sin among you, let him first cast a stone” (John 8:7)? As far as we can discern from God’s Word, every other area of Samson’s life was aligned exactly where it should have been with the truth of God revealed at that time. He was a good judge. He delivered the nation from bondage to the Philistines. His inclusion in the book of the Hebrews Hall of Faith is a testimony to the impact of Samson on the history of Israel. Everyone has a sinful weakness. It might be sex as was Samson’s, money, power, self-pride, manipulation, or any one of the thousands of traps that Satan has set for the unsuspecting Christian. And the devil knows exactly what your Achilles’ heel is, as well. Make no mistake about it: Satan knows on precisely which door to have sin come knocking. We should not condemn Samson for falling into that trap three times. If you are truthful, you will admit that you have fallen victim to that same old sin far more than three times. That is not to excuse any of our sins, in any sense, but just an admission of how sinful each of us truly is. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) in the sight of a holy God. “Filthy rags” in today’s terminology would mean greasy, dirty rags. However, in the Hebrew, it meant much more. It meant the rags that women wore before the times of sanitary napkins. They would most generally be worn during the whole course of the menstrual period and then disposed of (most

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Interrupted Lives probably burned). In the light of that more biblically correct meaning, how absolutely revolting our sins must appear before our God. Satan knows our weaknesses even better than we know them ourselves. How else could he sneak up on us and trap us time after time in the same sort of sin? Even though most Christians will not admit it, most generally in the life of every Christian there is at least one sin which will dog us until we stand complete in the Lord before our Holy Father, without blemish, completely cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. For Samson, it was his love for exotic women, “strange women.” Only each one of us knows in his or her heart what our weakness is. No One Is beyond Any Sin The most vulnerable place the Christian can be in is the position of thinking that he or she has completely overcome a particular sin. While very few Christians would even think much less dare say that they are beyond all sin, sometimes the devil will deceive us into thinking that we are beyond certain sins. “I have gotten control of that sin,” we boast to ourselves. If Satan can get us to think like that, then he has us right where he wants us. He has us set up for a great fall. For when that same sin comes dressed up just a little bit differently and we fall for it again, Satan just loves to pour out guilt on us. He wants to make us feel pretty low as Christians. I can speak from experience on this matter.

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Chapter Five This is especially important for the prophet of God to understand. Prophets—i.e., preachers, pastors, missionaries, et cetera—occupy a very important position in our society. They are looked upon, rightly or wrongly, as spiritual leaders. Such an elevation does a great deal of damage to some in the ministry. It encourages abuse of their power over people. Depending on their psychological makeup, they can be very influential, to the point of being virtual gods. For example, Jim Jones was able to convince nearly one thousand people to do something that horrified the world. He convinced them that it was in their best spiritual interest to take their lives. His position of power over a small group of people was just the tool that Satan needed to tempt him to do things that he would never have dreamed of doing during the early days of his ministry. Sexual immorality ran rampant in Jonestown, according to most accounts. Jim Jones became the god at Jonestown. We have seen similar events played out in the press with many formerly highly-regarded Christian leaders. Men and women who thought that, by preaching the Word, they would somehow be isolated from any temptation to fall into this snare of the devil. This sort of position instead makes them lightning rods for temptation and sin. From prison cells or in utter disgrace, they now see where they were led astray. They are no different from Samson, who realized late in his life that no one is beyond any sin. Never say to yourself that you have overcome any particular sin. You only invite the devil to prove you

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Interrupted Lives wrong. And he will tempt you with that same sin. You can take that to the bank. Honor Every Vow Vows made to God are different from resolutions we make each new year. Generally, we make those resolutions knowing that we won’t keep them most generally. We may give our word to a friend that we will do this or that. While our word should mean a great deal to us, while resolutions are important, they are different from vows made to the Lord. Vows made to the Lord are binding vows, and God expects us to keep them. Samson took the Nazarite vow early in life. God honored Samson with great strength as long as he kept his Nazarite vow of separation. But as soon as Samson turned his back on his vow, God withdrew His Spirit. In effect, He turned His back on Samson. I have been in the audience of some preachers who ask their listeners to make a vow before God to do a particular thing. They are always good things that I am asked to take a vow to do, like reading my Bible, praying every day, having a quiet time every day, witnessing to those who need the Lord, et cetera. However, I never take those vows by saying them aloud or whispering them in my heart. Vows made to God are too important and too binding to be made in haste. Vows made to God must never be made lightly or hurriedly. I have taken very few vows in my lifetime. My marriage vow, made before the Lord, is very important to

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Chapter Five me. Twenty-eight years ago, I pledged myself to my wife, and that is a vow I plan on keeping. There have been times when the marriage vow has been the only thing that has kept some Christian couples together. Those marriages had the time they needed to work out their differences. Today these vows mean very little except that you have to say them in order to get married. And in some circles you can write up any kind of vows and pledge them to each other rather than including the Lord in the exchange of vows. For nearly all of his life, Samson honored the vows he made to the Lord, and during that time, the Lord honored Samson. God regards the vows that we make to Him as sacred vows. Let’s not forget that point. Yoking Faith with Faith The story of Samson illustrates why it is so important for Christian singles to date and marry only other actively serving, like-minded, Christian singles. Samson thought that he knew better than God what kind of woman would bring him happiness. The allure of the opposite type of person is what brings many Christian singles together with the wrong kind of young person. This is probably what attracted Samson to the wrong type of woman not once, but three times. When I was pastor, I had a three-point test that I tried to teach our teenagers and single adults to follow when dating and later marrying. 1) Date only actively serving Christians because of the command of the Word

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Interrupted Lives of God in II Corinthians 6:14. 2) Never date a divorced person because of the admonition of Matthew 5:32. And 3) never marry without the consent and blessing of both sets of parents. In premarital counseling, I always stressed the importance of taking the marriage vow seriously. In most services, I even reiterated what I had said during the counseling sessions about the wedding vows by asking the couple if they were willing to take the vows for life. For What Sin Will God Remove His Blessing? God will not remove His blessing from our lives just because we allow an interruption of sin to sidetrack our lives temporarily. God did not remove His Spirit from Samson when he took a liking to strange women, even though Samson knew that it was contrary to what he knew to be the truth. If God took His Spirit, His blessing, from our lives when we sin, we wouldn’t stand a chance of living the abundant life Jesus promised. When we commit these sins in our everyday course of living, instead of immediately punishing us, God allows us to live with the consequences of our sin. As we see how sin affects our lives, that experience is generally enough to teach us a better lesson than simple punishment alone. Not until Samson violated the most basic commitment that he had made to God did God withdraw His Spirit, His blessing, and allow Samson to experience what living without the Spirit of the Lord was like. God

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Chapter Five never completely abandoned Samson, though to Samson, it must have felt like He had. So, too, in your life and my life, there is a limit as to how far God will let us stray until He is forced to let the sin take its course. It wasn’t until Samson hit rock bottom—blind, grinding grain, a slave of the Philistines—that he lifted his heart up to God in submission to His will. When Samson did that, he felt the power of the Lord once again filling his veins. If you are a Christian and the life interruption that the devil has entrapped you in has you at the very bottom, there is only one way to look. Look up to the Lord, ask Him to forgive you for your sin and renew His blessing on your life. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that He would rather do for you. Compromise May Come While You Sleep Had Samson known what Delilah was plotting, he would never have gone to sleep that night. Yet he was lulled into sleep by the tender stroke of Delilah on his long, uncompromised hair. When he finally awoke from that deep, deep sleep, it was too late. He had been trapped, outfoxed by a smart fox of a woman. So, too, are America’s Christians today being lulled to sleep by a beautiful woman called materialism. The most cunning fox of all, the prince of foxes, Satan, is outfoxing us. Many have tried to warn us, yet it seems that their voices go unheeded. I pray for our sake and the sake of our children and their children that the Lord will some-

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Interrupted Lives how awaken the sleeping strong man, the church, from his slumber. If the Lord tarries in His return, we as God’s children will be as helpless as Samson was against the Philistines. O Lord, send a GREAT AWAKENING as you have done in times past to stir the slumbering church. Lord, awaken me from my slumbering ways. Do We Even Recognize That the Spirit Is Gone? When Delilah woke Samson from his sleep, he did not even realize that the Spirit of God was missing. This is the saddest commentary on our time. The church, as a whole, doesn’t even realize that the power is gone. With few exceptions, the power is gone from our pulpits. Our church people are mired down with numbers, buildings, budgets, and petty differences, and we spend most of our time on things that will pass away rather than on things that are eternal. I know how easy it is to do. I have been there and done that, and now I see that the only power in most churches today is the power of human effort. Ninety-nine percent of what happens in most churches today can be explained by human effort. Very little that happens today in most churches can only be explained in terms of the power of the Lord. It must be appalling to the Lord that we are carrying on as if we still feel the Spirit of the Lord in our churches when, in fact, the only thing we feel is nothing but hot, windy air. These must truly be the last days,

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Chapter Five when the love of so many has waxed so cold. Preachers will deny that it is happening in their churches. Church leaders will deny it is happening to their pastor, but the POWER is gone. Mistakes Make No Difference to the Lord If you are a true, born-again Christian, it does not make any difference how few or how many mistakes you make in your life if, in your heart, you know that you are still true to our God. He is never finished using your life. God, who knows just how far short we fall from His glory, knows that we human beings are all alike, sinners by nature. God is not so much interested in our own “perfection” as He is interested in our admitting our imperfections. Our “perfection,” if the truth was known, and someday it will be known, makes God sick to His stomach. The Lord cannot even stand to look upon us because of our sins. Don’t let one Satan-initiated interruption discourage you from standing up again and serving the Lord. More than we can ever possibly realize, we are the light in a battle, allied with the Lord against the powers of darkness. If we allow defeat in one small skirmish to dim our light or if we retreat altogether and hide our light, we will abandon our Lord in this fight. Just as Samson used his death to serve the Lord in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines, so too my desire is to give my life in service to the Lord.

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Interrupted Lives The battle belongs to the Lord, but He still needs foot soldiers in the fray.

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Chapter Six Onesimus and Philemon We find the very interesting story of Onesimus and Philemon in one of the shortest books in the Bible, the book of Philemon. Only II and III John are shorter. Philemon is the book that most Christians are least likely to identify as a biblical book. It is the book that we flip right on by when looking for Hebrews or I or II Timothy. It occupies a mere one-half page. The book is obscure, yes, but insignificant, no. It tells of the broken relationship between two Christian brothers. The relationship between Onesimus and Philemon is one of the most intriguing in all of the New Testament. It is a story of two people caught between two worlds. The first world is one of a master-slave relationship. The second is the world of the brotherhood of two new Christian converts. It was a situation that very few Christians had encountered before. They were caught between two worlds. And just perhaps Onesimus and

Interrupted Lives Philemon were the first two to walk that way in the New Testament. There were no established norms for this situation. In the culture of their day, the masterslave relationship was taken for granted. Very few escaped with their lives from the bondage of slavery. And even fewer masters were willing to part from their slaves without compensation for their “property.” Slavery has been one of the last strongholds of the devil that the gospel of Christ has been able to penetrate. It would take nearly twenty centuries for the good news of Jesus Christ to tear down the walls of this division between people. And even given the advances made in the last 150 years toward eradicating slavery, there are still many places in the world where citizens are treated as virtual slaves, mostly in areas where the gospel of Christ has failed to make an impact. Even in this country, the most gospel-saturated country in the world, we still face the remnants of slavery—racial hatred. It would take the gospel many centuries to challenge slavery. Yet the gospel message of the New Testament clearly carried the message of equality for all people almost from the beginning: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). For Philemon, it would be an economic interruption. For Onesimus, it was an interruption of his newfound freedom. For Paul, it was a potential no-win situation. Yet Paul found that this was a problem in the early

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Chapter Six church that he would have to deal with during his first Roman imprisonment. This was what happened: Onesimus was a young slave belonging to Philemon, a Christian at the church of Colossae. Onesimus, as is the nature of all slaves, longed for freedom. When he found the opportunity, he ran away. At the time of his running away, Onesimus was not a Christian. He ran from the small town of Colossae to the big city of Rome. While in Rome he met the apostle Paul, the free Roman citizen then in bonds in a Roman prison cell. How Onesimus may have met Paul while Paul was in prison is unknown. Yet it is clear that Onesimus was still enjoying his freedom. While in the company of Paul, Onesimus heard about this man named Jesus. As with many who shared any amount of time at all with Paul, Onesimus was led to a saving belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Onesimus might have looked at Paul as a father figure. Their bond of friendship was very quickly formed. Paul became his discipler. Paul found Onesimus very “useful” to him while he was in chains. (The Greek word for Onesimus means “useful.”) Onesimus had the freedom to go and come at Paul’s bidding. Philemon was already a Christian whom Paul had won to the Lord while Paul was ministering at Colossae. Philemon was a slave owner at the time of his conversion. It was not uncommon to find both slaves and slave owners in the same church. In fact, it was not that uncommon to find slave owner and slave being saved at the same time. For example, the Philippian jailor was

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Interrupted Lives saved and baptized at the same time (Acts 16:33), and when the Philippian jailer was saved, his entire house was saved with him, slaves and all. However, slavery was so entrenched as a way of life that it probably never even occurred to these new Christians, who were but babes in Christ, that there was anything wrong with their way of life. When Philemon discovered his slave was missing and some of his possessions or money were missing, he was understandably upset. No doubt he reported his slave’s escape to the professional slave bounty hunters. His intention was to punish this slave for his crimes of running away and stealing. By the time Onesimus met Paul, he was already a wanted man. This is what probably led him to Rome. In the largest city in the Roman empire, there were many places for a slave to hide. This became apparent during the time of Christian persecution when the Christians would hide themselves in underground caves, the famous catacombs of Rome. Philemon’s Interruption It is certain that Satan orchestrated this interruption to get Philemon to act like any other pagan of the day. Philemon’s economic picture was interrupted by the loss of a very valuable slave. No doubt Onesimus was a young man at the time of his escape. Perhaps Philemon had raised this slave from a baby. He probably gave him his name, “Useful” (Onesimus). To be born into the world by slave parents meant being a slave for life.

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Chapter Six A slave represented a very valuable investment of his owner’s time and money. If Onesimus had been bought from the slave traders, Philemon, it is certain, paid a handsome price for him. Philemon was no different from you or me today. He was trying to protect his investment. Philemon’s interruption was a financial one. Satan just loves to throw financial interruptions at us in an attempt to “prove” to us that God really doesn’t care about us. Philemon was such a babe in Christ, this interruption was more than likely designed to distract him from his newfound faith in the Lord. Satan designed this distraction to shift his focus from serving the Lord with his life to concentrating on the world’s way of looking at things. Philemon’s name, just like Onesimus’s as we saw earlier, gives us a reflection of his character. The Greek root of Philemon’s name is “phileo.” “Phileo” means brotherly love, affection, from which we get the name of Philadelphia, “the city of brotherly love.” It implies that Philemon may have been a tenderhearted person. Paul appeals to his merciful side when he says to Philemon, “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself” (Philemon 17). In other words, Paul asked Philemon to treat Onesimus just as he would treat Paul. Philemon was a leader at the church at Colossae. The church, or at least part of the church at Colossae, met at his house (Philemon 2). His entire family, including his wife Apphia and son Archippus, were a vital part of the

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Interrupted Lives church. Paul, knowing the example they set, might have thought that they would be influential in showing others how to treat runaway slaves. Therefore, Paul was very careful in asking Philemon for mercy for Onesimus. Paul did not want to overstep his authority in asking for freedom for Onesimus so that he could rejoin Paul in the Roman prison. Paul walked a very fine line in the book of Philemon. He wanted Onesimus’s freedom to be Philemon’s idea. Onesimus’s Interruption When Onesimus ran away from Philemon, he had not yet converted to Christ. He thought that running away was his ticket to freedom. He thought that the way to freedom was being in rebellion to his master. When he encountered Paul in the Roman prison, Paul would challenge everything that he had ever understood about freedom. Paul would share with him that there was a better way of living. Paul would introduce him to the teaching of Jesus, the Messiah, who said that the way to greatness was by servitude, that he who would be great must be the servant of all. Paul considered himself the bond slave of Jesus Christ. Onesimus, the bond-slave of Philemon, knew exactly what Paul was talking about. Paul wanted Onesimus to trade masters, from human to divine, but he would still be a slave. As a bond-slave, either way, he would have no rights, no personal rights at all.

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Chapter Six Onesimus gladly received Christ as his Savior and immediately began to serve Paul in prison. As mentioned above, the Greek word for Onesimus means “useful.” Paul makes reference to Onesimus’s name in verse 11: “[Onesimus] in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me.” What Paul was saying was that before Onesimus became a Christian, he was just another rebellious slave, but now in Christ, he was a useful servant of the Lord. As a new Christian, Onesimus was instructed by Paul to go back to Philemon and live in submission to him. In Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul spelled out the responsibilities of Christian slaves, whether their masters were Christian or not. Slaves were to serve their masters “as the servants of Christ…with good will (willingly) doing service, as to the Lord and not to men.” Paul also stressed the responsibility of the Christian masters to their slaves, whether Christian or not. Masters were to “treat your slaves in the same way [as they were to treat you]. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him” (Ephesians 6:9 NIV). Onesimus’s life of freedom would be permanently interrupted if he went back to his master. He was a runaway slave and also a thief of his master’s goods. He could expect to be beaten at the very least or even killed as an example to the other slaves. Yet with Paul’s encouragement, Onesimus knew what he had to do. He would have to go back and face his master, Philemon. However, I am sure that he must have struggled long

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Interrupted Lives and hard over his choice. He wrestled with the devil before making his choice, but he chose to go back and face the consequences of his actions, knowing that he would have the smile of God on his life, no matter the outcome. Of course, Paul helped as much as possible by writing this letter on Onesimus’s behalf and sending it along with him and Tychicus. By sending Tychicus along, Paul would be sure to get a report of the outcome. Paul, in this encounter, seems to be as wise as a fox when trying to bring to this matter a conclusion that would bring glory to the Lord. Paul’s Interruption Paul would face a serious interruption in his ministry if he sent Onesimus back to Philemon, for Onesimus had become Paul’s eyes and ears to the outside world, keeping him up-to-date on what was happening in the world of the believers. It was very important to Paul to know what was happening in the churches. On many occasions, Paul wrote from his prison cell to address problems that he had heard about while in prison. If Onesimus could read and write, perhaps Paul might have even dictated this letter to his “useful” companion because of Paul’s problem with his eyes. Onesimus was also Paul’s arms and legs, assisting Paul to obtain needed supplies to carry on his ministry while confined to Roman prisons. At one time, he asked for parchments to write on, and at another time, he asked for a

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Chapter Six cloak for the oncoming winter. Onesimus and others like him served Paul from his prison cell even though they were not under arrest. Paul’s life would also be interrupted when he would be forced to give up Onesimus, his adopted “son” (Philemon 10). Paul had come to love this young man, and his lonely life would become even lonelier without Onesimus. Satan would have loved nothing better than to keep Paul all alone in his prison cell, cut off from the rest of the underground church. However, the Lord always provided someone to assist Paul in the work of the ministry. The Outcome Although the outcome of the interrupted relationship between Philemon and Onesimus is foggy at best, we can reasonably speculate on the outcome. Exactly when the book of Colossians was written in relationship to the book of Philemon is unclear. However, we find Onesimus still in Paul’s company in Colossians 4:9. The two letters may have been delivered at the same time, which would make good, common sense. However, we cannot be certain of that. If they were written at different times, then most definitely, Colossians would have been written later. However, the most compelling reason to think that Philemon had mercy on Onesimus, as Paul had asked, can be found in a letter written by St. Ignatius of Antioch to the church at Ephesus in the early second cen-

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Interrupted Lives tury, circa 115 A.D. He writes in glowing terms of a bishop of the church named Onesimus. Given the fact that Onesimus was probably no more than a young lad (remember that he looked at Paul as a father figure) when he found Paul in Rome in the early 60s A.D., by 115 A.D. his age would have been approximately 60-70 years old, not an unreasonable age for an elder and leader in the church. Regardless of the outcome, we know that Onesimus was obedient to the Lord, and we can only assume that Philemon was likewise obedient and merciful. Anyone who is obedient to the Lord will have done well in the sight of the only one who really matters: God. Insights into the Onesimus-Philemon Relationship There are No No-Win Situations with the Father On the surface, it looked like Onesimus was faced with a no-win situation. He had a choice to make. Either he could go back to Philemon and risk slavery and possibly a cruel punishment for his crimes, or he could resist the will of the Lord and Paul’s counsel and risk being in rebellion against God. Often in life, on the surface, it would seem that we who call upon the name of the Lord face no-win situations. We can do what seems reasonable to our natural way of thinking, or we can do what we know is right in the eyes of God. I am sure no one could have been

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Chapter Six more shocked than Philemon when Onesimus walked into the church gathering one Sunday with a letter from Paul, the man who had won him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. To think of all the coincidences that would have led to this event would boggle the mind. Yet he must have known, as we know: with God there are no coincidences. They are all part of God’s plan. These “coincidences” were nothing less than God’s master design, just like those “coincidences” which happen in our lives. We must remember God is in control of all the supposed coincidences that happen to us each and every day. We need to give the Lord what He is due. Even in writing this last statement, I realize there is no way, until we reach the kingdom of heaven, that we will ever know all the intricate details of our lives God has designed for us. Even though He does not design the ungodly interruptions, He designs our way of escape so we may be able to bear them. Coping with Economic Interruptions Economic interruptions are often the hardest for American Christians to handle. When things are running smoothly, we seldom give God the glory for our prosperity. We tend to give ourselves the credit for our hard work. We reason that we have worked hard to earn this level of success. When Onesimus returned to Philemon with Paul’s letter, Philemon had an economic choice to make. Would he choose to absorb the finan-

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Interrupted Lives cial loss or guard his financial empire? Even though we do not know the outcome for certain, I am inclined to think that Philemon did what made no economic sense and freed Onesimus to serve Paul and the Lord as a free man. Very often we are faced with similar choices. Almost always, the decision that makes absolutely no sense to the checkbook will be the correct one to make. However, when we make the correct decision, we then free God to release to our account from His riches in glory exactly what we need to supply all our needs. I have often had decisions to make which seemed like financial suicide, only to find that the Lord was always there to supply my every need and many wants as well. My call from God to leave a promising career in the public school system and pull up my roots and go to seminary was one of those decisions. When we left for seminary, I had $210 dollars in my pocket, the sum total of money that I had to my name. Prior to that decision, we had lived just like everyone else in the world that we knew, from payday to payday, with two small children, deep in debt. The Lord convicted us before we left for seminary to become financially free from the bondage of debt. When we left for seminary, we were debt-free, although we only had $210 to our name. The first few months were extreme faith-building months for us. There were times when I was concerned about food for my children. Yet it was beautiful to see how God provided for our every need, sometimes right at the last minute. This is when I learned the truth of a saying that

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Chapter Six I had once heard: “God is seldom early but never late.” Since that time, serving the Lord full-time, we have had many such close encounters of the financial kind. But my Father has ALWAYS taken care of us. Thinking Like the World Thinks The way the world thinks is not the way God thinks. Isaiah 55:9 makes that very clear: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In fact, the ways of the Lord are exactly opposite the ways of the world. This is because good is the opposite of evil. This is why the Christian appears so strange to the ungodly man. However, for most Christians today, we have been so brainwashed by the humanistic mind-set that we think we are thinking like the Lord when we are really thinking like the world. This is why such things as home schooling, the pro-life movement, large families, creationism, and financial freedom are resisted by so many, even in the church. For example, let’s look at the home schooling movement for a moment. Down through the centuries, Christians have home schooled their children because there was no public education. In America in the nineteenth century, when public education became popular, the Bible was the basic textbook of the school. The McGuffey Readers were filled with stories that taught morality and godly ways. However, early in the twenti-

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Interrupted Lives eth century, under the influence of John Dewey, the humanist, public schools became more and more dominated by humanistic thinking. The bottom line of humanistic thinking is that there is no God and that man is the highest form of life. As the humanistic thinkers began to turn out humanistic educators, we slowly began to see our nation leave its Christian heritage. By the 1960s, the Supreme Court, dominated by humanistic judges produced by humanistic public schools and humanistic institutions of higher education, began to alter the direction of the nation through a series of rulings that virtually declared war on Christianity, the family, the unborn, and the principles on which America was built. Many Christian parents became alarmed at what their children were learning and decided to take back their responsibility as established in Deuteronomy 6:47: “And thou [parents] shalt teach them [God’s precepts] diligently unto thy children.” The public reaction, even in the church, was condemnatory. Home schooling was looked upon as strange, weird, and cultist, and above all, it was misunderstood. However, as more and more parents saw the benefits and became aware of what was happening in the public school system, the trend toward home schooling continued. Today, at least in the area in which I live, hundreds of children are being schooled by their parents in their own home. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Christians still send their children to public schools and wonder why

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Chapter Six their children come home believing in evolution, with little respect for authority, rejecting the belief system of their parents. Giving Up All Personal Rights Perhaps one of the most difficult transitions for the Christian in conforming to the image of Christ is learning to give up all personal rights. This is especially difficult for Christians in America to understand. In America, we have been taught from the cradle that we live in the land of the free. We have been taught to understand that freedom means insistence on our personal rights. This is why our court system is overwhelmed today by lawsuits. Everyone seems to focus on making sure that no one steps on his or her personal rights. If someone does, then “take ’em to court.” However, Jesus taught that the way to true freedom is to become a slave to everyone. His example at the Last Supper is truly the greatest example of surrendering personal rights that is recorded anywhere in the Word of God. When Jesus washed the dirty, smelly feet of the disciples, He set an example for all Christians to follow. The washing of feet before a meal was an established Jewish custom. However, the job of washing the feet of the host and guests was given to the lowest slave in the household. When Jesus girded His loins and took a towel and basin and began to wash the feet of each of His disciples, they must have been shocked. No wonder Peter rose to his feet and said, “Thou shalt never wash

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Interrupted Lives my feet” (John 13:8). This was outside even their idea of personal rights. By now they had come to realize that Jesus was the Son of God, the highest of highest, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He had all the rights of God, yet there He was doing the job of a slave. By doing so, Jesus taught what true humility was all about. By surrendering our personal rights, we allow the Lord to be the guardian of our lives. If we have any rights at all, it will only be as the Lord gives them to us. If we enjoy another second of happiness, it will be because God, sovereign God, allows us to have it. The Word of God tells us “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble” (James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5). If you are wondering what kind of personal rights you have, I will make it simple to understand: As a born-again Christian, you have absolutely NO personal rights whatsoever. You are a slave of Jesus Christ. Just as masters purchased slaves on the open market, Jesus, your Lord and Master, purchased your life with His blood on Calvary. When we insist on our rights, we are actually in rebellion against our Master, just as Onesimus was when he stole and ran away. Onesimus, when converted, went back to his master to a life of no rights. So too must the Christian be willing to live with no rights with the Lord and with our fellow man.

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Chapter Seven Paul, the Interruptions Expert Of all the people in the Bible who experienced interruptions, Paul had the best insights on why they happen and how to handle them. I have called Paul the “interruptions expert” because Paul experienced so many different types of interruptions, both Satan-conspired and God-inspired interruptions (see chapter 8, “Godly Interruptions”). And he handled each in the best possible way. He had enough discernment to be able to tell them apart. From the life of Paul, the Christian can understand what to do when these permanent life interruptions occur that are designed by our enemy to bring us nothing but grief. Paul faced ungodly interruptions and came out on top. His faith did not waver. He did not question God. He did not grow bitter. He did not throw up his hands and quit.

Interrupted Lives Paul’s ministry was constantly beset by interruptions. Satan had his hands full trying to dissuade Paul from preaching the Good News to the known world. Whether the interruptions were beatings, imprisonment, a disagreement between brothers, shipwreck, physical affliction, or even death, the devil had to be very inventive to think of ways to try to distract Paul from his destiny: to nurture the early church through its formative years. Satan seems to target, for his attacks, men and women whom the Lord has chosen to do great things for Him. We will look at the some of the more unusual interruptions Paul faced and once again look for insights into our own lives today. The Dispute between Paul and John Mark I mention the first two interruptions because we know that they came from Satan. We know they are from the devil because we know that God does not work in this fashion. The first two interruptions involve disruptions in the relationships between Christian brothers. We know that God’s ways are harmony, consideration, love, compassion, and concern and not hostility, fighting, disputes, and anger. The dispute between Paul and John Mark, and later Barnabas, was cleverly caused by that very cunning prince of darkness. This first interruption is different from any other interruption that we have looked at thus far. It is different

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Chapter Seven because it involved two Christian brothers. It is different because it involved two like-minded Christian servants of the Lord. It is different because it split two friends. That Paul had a strong personality is a vast understatement. His biblical personality profile lists Paul as a “creative pattern.” One characteristic of this personality is that he or she will judge others by his or her own personal standards. Often, Paul was a critical person. In his letters to churches we see, especially in his letters to the Corinthians, that Paul was very blunt and straightforward about the wrongs he saw in the Lord’s church. Paul in I Corinthians 5:1, confronts the sexual immorality that was common in the church. In most of our churches today, Paul probably would not be a very popular speaker. He had no tolerance for disobedience. Paul often lacked tact in dealing with people. In Philippians 4:2 Paul singles out two women for a rebuke. Apparently, Euodias and Syntyche had been feuding to the point that it was disturbing the church at Philippi. Paul dealt with the problem head-on. In Acts 13:13, the Bible briefly refers to an incident between Paul and John Mark. The Word of God simply says, “and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.” Digging into the Greek word for “departing” reveals a little more of the truth. Apparently their parting did not produce sweet sorrow. There must have been a bitter exchange between Paul and John Mark. This dispute caused an interruption in the lives of both Paul and

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Interrupted Lives John Mark and others as well, most specifically Barnabas. It is fruitless to speculate what the dispute was about. It may have been that John Mark was so young and lacked the determination to stick to the mission until the end. The Bible does not give us a definite cause. What is obvious, however, is that the devil was behind this terrible argument. The way of the Lord does not cause Christian brothers to argue among themselves. The ways of God are the ways of peace, love and harmony. Whenever Satan can get Christians to act like Paul and John Mark did, then he has won the victory. Paul’s Dispute with Barnabas This interruption is different from the dispute between Paul and John Mark because it was John’s idea to leave Paul and Barnabas. John Mark chose to depart their company. However, the division of Paul and Barnabas was not something that either one wanted. As serious as Paul’s disagreement with John Mark was, his dispute with long-time companion Barnabas was even more serious and painful. Barnabas had been with Paul almost from the very start of Paul’s ministry. Barnabas was the one who accompanied the newly-converted Paul to visit the elders at the church in Jerusalem when everyone else was afraid of the old Saul. It was Barnabas who sought out Paul out after his wilderness experience in Tarsus, and both of them went to Antioch. It was Barnabas along with Paul who stepped out

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Chapter Seven as the first two missionaries to arrive on the New Testament scene. The two had been companions since Paul’s conversion, approximately 36 A.D., through Paul’s first missionary journey, approximately 48 A.D. It was right before Paul set out on his second missionary journey that Paul and Barnabas broke fellowship. For more than ten years Paul and Barnabas had been soul mates. They had spent most of that time together preaching and teaching the Word of God, first at Antioch and then throughout the region on the first missionary journey of Paul. However, at Antioch, as they were discussing leaving again to visit the churches that the Lord had led them to begin, Paul and Barnabas had a bitter dispute. Barnabas, ever the encourager, who had the spiritual gift of encouragement, wanted to take John Mark with them again on this mission. He saw something in John Mark that Paul didn’t. However, Paul, who was still wary of John Mark because he had deserted them a few years before on their first expedition, was vehemently opposed to taking John Mark. Perhaps Paul felt that he would only slow them down, or perhaps Paul had questions about John Mark’s commitment. Remember that both Paul and Barnabas were much older than John. Colossians 4:10 seems to indicate that John Mark was Barnabas’s nephew. The Bible says that Mark was Barnabas’s sister’s son: “Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas.” Perhaps Paul felt that he needed to grow up a little more, or Paul might even have felt that he would

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Interrupted Lives have to “baby-sit” the spoiled brat of Barnabas’s wealthy sister. Hindsight shows that Barnabas was right in his judgment of John Mark. Mark did have much to contribute. With Barnabas’s encouragement, no doubt, Mark would write the first gospel, the Gospel of Mark. The Shipwreck Another unusual interruption that the devil tried to use to deter Paul was to shipwreck him. At this time, Paul was under arrest and was in the process of being transferred from Jerusalem to Rome since he had made his Roman citizenship an issue. Instead of being transported to Rome by land, Paul sailed to Rome from Jerusalem (probably from Joppa). During the trip to Rome, a storm arose and the boat ran aground. The soldiers on board, charged with their lives not to let their charges escape, wanted to kill all the prisoners—Paul included—in order to prevent them from escaping. However, the captain of the guard, a centurion, wanted to spare Paul’s life, perhaps sensing that he was an extraordinary man, and he persuaded the soldiers to allow the prisoners to swim to shore. They ended up on the island of Melita. Apparently some friendly natives, whom the scripture calls barbarians—a term often used to describe anyone who was non-Jewish and non-Greek—found them and tried to help them out. To build a fire, Paul had gathered some wood. A poisonous snake, a viper,

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Chapter Seven was warmed up by the heat and bit Paul, the closest to the fire. Once again that old serpent, the devil, raised his ugly head and sent one of his cousins to grab Paul and pump him full of deadly venom. The natives of the island immediately recognized how poisonous the viper was. They watched very closely to see how this man of God would react. Since Paul was a Roman prisoner, they assumed that he must be a criminal of some sort, perhaps a murderer. They thought that Paul was getting the sentence of “fate,” death, since he had escaped Roman custody. The natives of Melita thought that justice had been served when they saw Paul with a highly poisonous viper hanging from his hand. Paul rather quickly shook the viper off his hand but not before it had bitten him. The natives watched to see how long it would take for Paul to drop dead. But when he didn’t feel any effect whatsoever from the snakebite, they recognized that they were in the presence of a very unusual man. They then concluded that Paul must be a god. After that they took very good care of Paul. The plans of Satan were foiled once again because a man of God was true to the Lord. By now you would think that the devil would have figured out that there was no way to defeat this man of God no matter what he threw at him. However, Satan was not through with his diabolical interruptions in Paul’s life. If the devil could not defeat Paul emotionally and mentally as in the first three attacks, then he would try to defeat him physically.

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Interrupted Lives Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh Paul was not a man to complain about anything. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see even a hint that Paul ever complained about his frequent beatings, his many imprisonments, his various stonings, et cetera. He endured these painful experiences as a true soldier for the Lord. Paul counted himself the most blessed man in the world because the Lord counted him worthy of suffering for Him. Paul gloried in his suffering for the Lord. He only mentions them in his letters to give validity to his ministry. He never once asked the Lord to remove any of these things because he knew that his sufferings were for the Lord. He also knew that his sufferings were nothing in comparison to the sufferings of God’s only Son, Jesus. So why did he mention his thorn in the flesh? Why did he ask God to remove it from him? He never asked God to remove any of his other sufferings. Paul wouldn’t have dreamed of asking to be removed from suffering for the cause of Christ. The reason Paul asked God to remove this very painful affliction is that Paul knew where this affliction came from. In II Corinthians 12:7, Paul describes this thorn in the flesh as a “messenger of Satan” sent to afflict him. That Paul even mentions his “thorn in the flesh” at all indicates to me that he knew this interruption was different from the others. It is also an indication of how painful, how bothersome this affliction must have been.

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Chapter Seven Paul knew that this affliction was different from all the other types of sufferings that he had experienced. His other afflictions had been temporary but this one was permanent. Paul knew that Satan was his archenemy. Paul clearly defines who the enemy of the Christian is better than any other Christian of his time. Other than from the teachings of Jesus, most of what we learn about the work of the devil comes from Paul’s writings. Paul knew who the enemy was. He knew how cunning and clever the enemy of Christ was and still is today. Therefore, Paul teaches us to be on guard against the attacks of the devil. Although not mentioning the devil by name, Paul in Romans 8:31-39 lists many of Satan’s tactics against the Christian. He lists tribulations, distress, persecutions, famine, nakedness, peril, and the sword as just a few of the devil’s weapons against the saints of the Lord. But then in Romans 8:37, Paul tells us, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Paul knew how to overcome the attacks of the evil one: Simply CLAIM VICTORY! Exactly what Paul’s affliction was is a matter of pure speculation. For our study, it is fruitless even to discuss the possibilities. Suffice to say that it was real, painful, and very disconcerting to Paul and his work. Why did Paul ask the Lord to remove it from him when he never complained about any of his other sufferings? One of the meanings for the Greek word translated as “buffet” in II Corinthians 12:7 is “curtail.” In other words, I think what Paul was saying was that this

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Interrupted Lives thorn in the flesh was slowing him down. It was hindering the work that he wanted to do in spreading the gospel. That was Paul’s reason. It was not for personal reasons that Paul wanted to be relieved of his suffering from this thorn in the flesh. It was for reasons having to do with the advancing of the kingdom of God. Paul could not do all that he wanted to do for the Lord because he was shackled with this affliction. Death, the Final Interruption On very rare occasions, the Lord even suspends the natural laws of death that have been in force since Adam’s time. In both the Old and New Testament, we see it in a few select people. In the Old Testament, we see it in Enoch, whom God simply reached down and snatched home: “and he was not” (Genesis 5:24); Elijah, the prophet of God, whom the Lord took home without seeing death (II Kings 2:1-11); and the Shunammite widow’s son (II Kings 4:8-37). In the New Testament, we find Lazarus (John 12:1-17) and several others who were in the valley of the shadow of death before Jesus intervened. However, there is one final interruption in Paul’s life through which we get a brief description of what it is like on the other side of death. Because Paul was unwilling to speak of it except on one occasion, it must have been an unspeakably incredible, awesome experience. Paul carried it around in his heart for fourteen years before even mentioning it in his letters.

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Chapter Seven The final interruption that Paul faced was his stoning in the city of Lystra (Acts 14:19-21). Paul had created such a stir healing a man lame from birth that the people of Lystra thought that he and Barnabas were the gods Mercury and Jupiter. Lystra was a city heavily involved in the worship of the Roman gods. There probably wasn’t even a synagogue in the city. When the people saw that Paul had merely commanded the lame man to walk and he walked, they thought that the gods Mercury and Jupiter had taken human form. The priest of Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, was prepared to throw a feast in honor of such a momentous occasion. However, when Paul learned of his deification, he would have nothing to do with it. Just about the time he had wiggled out of that situation, a group of pharisaical Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium. They immediately stirred up the people and persuaded them to stone Paul. After stoning Paul, they dragged his body out of Lystra, probably taking him to the garbage dump, and left him there. The Word of God says that they were “supposing he had been dead” (Acts 14:19). The first reading of that verse indicates that they had just thought that he was dead. However, digging into the Greek meaning of that word “supposing” reveals a deeper meaning. The Greek word for “supposing” is a legal term. It means to conclude a matter from the evidence as in a court setting. The Jews knew he was dead. They were the experts at death by stoning, a very cruel way of executing a prisoner. The stones used were not small rocks, but stones the size of softballs and larger. These

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Interrupted Lives stones were large enough to break bones, shatter skulls, and kill in a slow, very painful way. Paul was dead when they took him to the city garbage heap for the dogs and wild animals to devour. As further proof that Paul was dead, the Bible says that the disciples gathered around and prayed and he “rose up” (Acts 14:20). Once again, study into the Greek will help us understand what this word truly means. The word translated as “rose up” is translated thirty-five other times in the New Testament as referring to a resurrection. It was used referring to Jesus and Lazarus. Even though he surely had many broken bones and a dashed skull, and even though he was most certainly dead, Paul simply “rose up” and walked back into the city. The very next day Paul and Barnabas were on their way to Derbe. Paul had been resurrected and healed from all the physical damage of the stoning at the same time! The final proof that the stoning killed the Apostle Paul is found from the pen of Paul himself. In II Corinthians 12:1-7, Paul writes of being taken to the third heaven. He speaks of an experience that happened fourteen years before, which would make it right about the time of the stoning at Lystra. Until then he had never mentioned this experience, probably out of a sense of humility. He chose that point in time because he had been under attack as not being a true apostle of Jesus Christ. Out of his humility, he describes this experience in the third person, “I knew a man.” No one who reads this could possibly miss the fact that that man was Paul.

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Chapter Seven He was uncertain whether it was just a vision (out of the body) or a real resurrection of the body after death (in the body). But given the implication of Acts 14:19, we will draw the conclusion that Paul was actually in paradise as he describes in II Corinthians 12:4. What did Paul see and hear during his brief few moments there? He saw such things that he was unable to describe. He heard such things that he was unable to repeat. We only could wish that Paul had given us more than just a taste of what it is like in glory. Paul no doubt would much rather have stayed in heaven with the Lord; however, that was not to be. The Lord had His purpose for bringing Paul into His glory for just a few seconds, but then He brought him back to life again so that he could fulfill his destiny to build a church that would be able to withstand the attack of the devil. Why did the Lord give Paul such a brief taste of what awaited him in heaven? Perhaps it was to strengthen Paul for all that awaited him as he ministered here on earth. Paul never once complained that he had been so terribly mistreated by the world. In fact, Paul gloried that he had been counted worthy to suffer for his Lord. He was fearless when threatened and tortured. Perhaps the reason is that he knew it would be worth it all when he was finally able to enter heaven permanently. If the devil had been successful in completing this last and final interruption for Paul, he would have won his greatest victory. However, a Christian is indestructible as long as he or she has work to do for the Lord.

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Interrupted Lives The minute the Christian’s life’s work is completed, the Christian does not want to stay around on this sin-filled earth a second longer than is absolutely necessary. Satan is ultimately behind all death. That was his intention from the garden. In the garden, man was created immortal. It was God’s intention that man live forever. However, when sin entered and destroyed what God had made, Jesus became the way to eternal life. In this way, God’s plan would ultimately be accomplished. Yes, Satan is the grim reaper. But his plan has been outfoxed, outdone, evaded, destroyed by our sovereign God, the Master of the universe. Insights into the Life of Paul Personal Disputes among Christians Are Rooted in Satan Personal arguments among Christian brothers are always rooted in the devil, the author of all such conflicts. As a Christian of over thirty years, involved in the leadership of five churches, I have seen far too many disputes of the nature of Paul’s with Barnabas and John Mark. In every case, they were needless disputes. If the people involved had taken a moment and thought it through, the disputes could have been very easily avoided. If they had thought about the real source of their conflict, the devil, they would not have attacked each other but would have turned their emotions on the prince of contentions, the devil. If they had poured as

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Chapter Seven much time, energy and emotion on defeating Satan as they did on each other, Satan would have been whipped from the very beginning. Sadly, I must admit that I have even been pulled into some of these confrontations. Just like Paul, I thought that I was right and the others were wrong. Many times, I based my position on the Word of God, not realizing that is one of the tools of Satan. The devil knows the Word of God probably better than any Christian. He knows how to use personalities such as Paul’s and Barnabas’s to his benefit. Very sadly, I have based my disagreements with other Christian brothers and sisters on the Word of God. Most of the time, I have been right and they have been wrong in their position (there are absolute rights and wrongs in God’s truth), yet what I, along with many others, failed to realize is that it is not about right and wrong in these personal disputes. What it is about is whether we fall into the trap so carefully prepared by the great deceiver, Satan himself. If we fall for the trap, then he wins. If we can realize who the enemy is, then we can win the victory over the devil. The Reconciliation May Take Years God’s desire for all Christians who have let Satan disrupt their fellowship with each other is that they be reconciled with each other. It took at least twenty years before Paul and John Mark were reunited in spirit as well as in body. In one of Paul’s last epistles, if not his very last book before his martyrdom, Paul thinks about

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Interrupted Lives John Mark once again. In II Timothy 4:11, he simply instructs Timothy to “take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” The word translated as “profitable” comes from a Greek word that implies fruitfulness coming from being pruned. Apparently the John Mark whom Paul desired be with him was a changed John Mark from twenty years earlier. In the course of time, the Lord had pruned John Mark’s life. He had rounded off the rough edges of his youth. Perhaps that was what Barnabas had seen that Paul could not see: John Mark was a diamond in the rough. Whether John Mark made it to see Paul before his death is uncertain. What is certain is that Paul’s opinion of John Mark had taken a 180-degree turn. It may take years for Christians, once close but now at odds, to be reconciled. But it is God’s desire that ALL Christians to have the bond of unity and harmony between them, no matter how long it takes. This is God’s way. In my experience, the pride in many Christians makes this reconciliation nearly impossible. It may take years for the Lord to work through the pride in both party’s lives. However, if you have been involved in a broken relationship with another brother or sister in the Lord, be prepared; the Lord’s ultimate aim is for two people, who right now can’t stand to be in each other’s presence, to be reunited arm in arm in complete unity. If it does not happen on earth, then just be prepared for it to happen in eternity.

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Chapter Seven Praise the Lord for Your Interruption If you are experiencing a permanent interruption, then PRAISE THE LORD! Satan never bothers people who are doing nothing for the Lord. He never plans to bother the Christian who is so far out of fellowship with the Lord that an interruption just might drive that person to cry out to God for help. The devil would never intentionally do anything that would cause a person to seek the Lord. If you are currently experiencing a major interruption in your life and you know in your heart that you are right with the Lord, then you should rejoice! It is exactly because you are in the center of the Lord’s will that Satan has targeted you for his terrible barrage. It is because you have been faithful to the Lord that the devil is picking on you. The devil never bothered Paul when he was persecuting the church. He never afflicted him when he was carrying in his hand the decree to go to Damascus and clean out the deadly infection that was poisoning the Jewish status quo in Damascus. That deadly infection was the group of Christians spreading the good news of a risen Savior. Instead, it was God who interrupted Paul’s life that day on the road to Damascus (see chapter 8, “Godly Interruptions”). If you are a Christian who is faithfully serving the Lord, never fear these Satan-devised interruptions. Never get discouraged when you are being attacked by the devil’s latest brainstorm. Rather, you should be en-

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Interrupted Lives couraged as Paul was when attacked by these fierce storms. He felt it an honor that the Lord counted him worthy to suffer for the Savior. When Paul and Silas were praising the Lord at midnight in the Philippian jail, I am sure that they were praising the Lord for having chosen them to suffer for Him. There Are Always People Watching How We Handle Our Interruptions There will always be lost people as well as Christians who will be watching how we handle our afflictions. Just as the “barbarians” watched Paul to see how he handled his viper bite, there will be people all around us who watch how we handle these major permanent interruptions in our lives. And just as the natives of Melita were touched and moved by what they saw in the life of Paul, so will those around you be touched when you handle these interruptions in a way that pleases God. On the island of Melita after Paul was shipwrecked there, after they watched Paul shake the snake off his hand and calmly continue doing what he was doing, many came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. The result of seeing how we handle our permanent life’s interruptions should be that many people will come to the Lord and the faith of Christians will be strengthened. There is no way to escape this public scrutiny. I am constantly aware of this fact every time I go out in public. Many people come up to talk to me and ask me how

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Chapter Seven I am doing. What is so amazing is that many people whom I don’t even know will know my name and my situation. The city I live in is by no means a small country village. I live in a town of about ten thousand people. Every time I go out in public, I must always be aware that people are watching me. Therefore, I must guard my witness that it always honor the Lord. Paul must have felt the same way. Or perhaps he was a step or two beyond where I am in my Christian life and just lived his life as it was, totally committed to the Lord. He was who he was. I must admit that sometimes I am like ole Popeye the sailorman in that “I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam.” The Christian Whom the Lord Is Using Is Indestructible A Christian whom the Lord is currently using is indestructible. As much as Satan would like to put an end to his witness and life, however, the Lord will not allow it. From the book of Job, we have already learned that the devil has no power over life and death for the Christian. He may have power to interrupt our lives; however, he has no power to end life. He cannot directly end a person’s life. He uses people and things to do that. Only God has the ultimate power over life and death. When I was in the depth of my coma, my wife had faith that the Lord was not finished using my life. Therefore, she knew that I would not die. Regardless of

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Interrupted Lives what the doctors told her about my impending death, she had faith that God would raise me up once more to serve Him. As I lingered for nearly six weeks in the valley of the shadow of death, she did not give up hope. Sometimes I think that my faithful wife was the only one who did not give up hope. But her hope was not a “wishful” hope; it was a “know-so” hope. She KNEW that God would raise me up. However, knowing that you are immortal while the Lord is still using you is no excuse for foolishness. It is no excuse for putting God to the test. You may quickly find out that the Lord has no use for people who tempt Him. The New Testament is filled with at least six different admonitions against putting the Lord to the test, e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:9: “neither let us tempt Christ.” God may protect Christians through ignorance but not through willful acts of our own. When Paul looked eye to eye with that serpent, it was not because he wanted to see if God would protect him from the bite of that poisonous viper, but because he was, in innocence, looking for firewood. Because God protected Paul from his one-time encounter with a venomous snake does not mean that we should purposely place ourselves in the path of such vipers. Common sense should tell us that much. God protected Paul from the snake that the devil had placed there to kill this servant of God because He had much more work for him to do.

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Chapter Seven Paul Knew Where His Affliction Came From Paul knew where his affliction, his “thorn in the flesh” came from. In II Corinthians 12:7, Paul very clearly identifies who is to blame for this affliction. He calls it the “messenger of Satan to buffet (torment) me.” He knew that the devil was the cause of his affliction. Paul knew that the pain he had with him all the time was a product of his enemy, Satan. So, too, must you and I know who is the source for the interruptions in our lives. He is the same one who afflicted Job with his very painful boils, Mephibosheth with his crippled legs, Joseph with Potiphar’s wife, and on and on, clear down to my brain damage and me. All too often the devil tricks people into blaming God for their interrupted lives. However, if you have lived your life dedicated to the Lord, it is almost a certainty that your interruption is from Satan, the prince of pain and suffering. God was not to blame for Paul’s interruptions, including his thorn in the flesh, no more than He is to blame for yours or mine. That Satan sometimes uses people in his plan is a fact. Sometimes those people may even be Christians as in the situation with Paul, John Mark, and Barnabas. Sometimes the devil uses physical disruptions such as Paul’s thorn in the flesh and my brain damage. The fact that Satan is to blame for our afflictions should intensify our anger against him. It should strengthen our resolve to be wholeheartedly engaged in the battle against the forces of darkness. It should make

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Interrupted Lives us angry as “perdition’s fire” to turn Satan’s plans against him. Right now in my life, I am at that point. I am tired of being pushed around by that big bully, the devil. I want him to know that I am not a bit happy with what he has done to my life. I want him to realize that he picked on the wrong Christian when he picked on me. I want him to understand that I have a big, elder brother named Jesus who will not tolerate anyone picking on me. I want him to know that there will be a day coming not far away when my elder brother, Jesus the Messiah, will engage him in the final battle. I want him to know that, because he has picked on me and all the others like me, he will lose that final battle and will be cast into the lake of fire. I am writing this book in an attempt to expose the devil for what he truly is: a foul, low-life, liar who is the enemy of every born-again Christian. Preventing Future Interruptions The best way to prevent future interruptions in your life is to be strong in the Lord during the interruption you are currently facing. The best way to weather the current storm that you are in is to realize that a man or woman of God can handle anything that the devil can mete out. We have the victory in Jesus Christ. As God looks through time, he sees that Satan is already defeated. We finite human beings have a hard time understanding how God views time. Time means nothing to

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Chapter Seven God. He lives in the past, the present, and the future simultaneously. When we look at our lives, we see the present mostly. Sometimes we look to the past, but mostly we live in the present. We make plans for the future; however, deep down inside we know that the future is totally out of our control. But when God looks at our lives, He sees past, present and future as one thought. Some people during near-death experiences describe how they see their lives flash before their eyes. That experience must be somewhat akin to how God sees our lives. It is just one instantaneous thought to Him. Even just thinking like this causes my mind to shudder. So too must we look at Satan as God does. He is now, currently, a defeated foe. We have the victory. Let me repeat: we have the VICTORY! Even though he will probably not leave Christians alone, we must realize that we already have the victory. The victory was won on Calvary. If we will stand firm each and every time Satan attempts to interrupt our lives, sooner or later he will realize that there is nothing he can do to defeat us. He might as well stop wasting his time on us. Near-Death Experiences Most Christians have not known what to think of the near-death experiences so commonly reported in the news media. Yes, we know they are possible because Paul had one. But how valid are all the accounts that we

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Interrupted Lives hear about today? Many people linger in the valley of the shadow of death. (I did). But are those valid near death experiences? Modern man seems to have a fascination with these near-death encounters. What are people experiencing in these brushes with death? My sense is that they are a very clever ploy of Satan to deceive the general public into thinking that, with or without Christ, everything will be all right. These near-death encounters are almost universally described as pleasant experiences. Christian or non-Christian seems not to matter. Yet we know that this cannot be true. Death for the non-Christian will not be pleasant at all. It will be sheer terror. I tend to be very skeptical about this phenomenon. Be very careful not to play right into the devil’s trap to lull you into thinking that you will be all right even if Jesus is not your Savior. Satan’s Purpose Vs. God’s Ultimate Good Work Satan’s purpose for these interruptions is obvious. His desire in bringing these bad things into our lives is to defeat us as Christians. It is so obvious that the devil afflicted Paul with the thorn in the flesh to try to prevent him from spreading the gospel and starting new churches. He was trying to “nip it in the bud,” so to speak. He wanted to make Paul feel so defeated that he would give up and ask, as so many Christians today ask, “What’s the use in trying?” So many Christians give up today. When the first attack from the enemy

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Chapter Seven comes, they are ready to pack up everything that they have in Christ and go back to where they came from: bondage to sin. They have no stomach for the battle. In this battle of good and evil, Paul knew what his position was. He was a front line soldier. Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” He was telling Timothy, as the Word of God would speak to us today, to be a soldier worthy of the name of Christ. So also, today, are you and I, who have dedicated our lives to the cause of the Lord, soldiers of Christ Jesus. We are on the front line just as much today as Paul was then. The only difference is that we are not there alone as Paul many times was. We are fighting the battle alongside many other Christians. Of course, Paul was never truly alone. He had the Lord right with him each step of the way, and he had a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). However, the ranks of fellow Christians fighting alongside him were very thin. Paul knew the purposes of Satan. Since he recognized the enemy, Paul knew that with the power of the Lord he could resist him. The problem with many Christians today is that they don’t know who the real enemy is. They get upset with other Christians. Many will pout for years until it dawns on them that they have been the devil’s patsy pawn all that time. Until they realize who the real enemy is, they will never be able to let go of the bitterness and forgive that Christian who offended them. Our enemy is not each other. It is time that many church members realized that. Do all that you

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Interrupted Lives can to patch up broken relationships and leave the rest to the Lord to work out. We, the saints of God, have more important battles to fight and win. We have a nation to take back from Satan, who stole it from us while Christians were fighting against Christians, denominations warring against other denominations, the right battling against the left. Wake up, Church, and fight the real enemy! Paul knew the purposes of the enemy. He also had enough discernment to understand the purposes of Almighty God. Paul knew that what the devil had intended to defeat him God could transform into a godly, glorious purpose (Romans 8:28). He understood exactly what God wanted to teach him. Paul identifies it very well when he says that the purpose of the thorn in the flesh was “lest I should be exalted above measure” (II Corinthians 12:7). Paul would understand that God’s strength was made perfect in Paul’s weakness (his thorn in the flesh). In other words, he learned that there is strength in weakness. If only the Christian of today could understand that simple spiritual fact of life in the kingdom of God. It is not how high you climb that is important, but how low you are willing to humble yourself before the Lord. It is not how much money you have or how big your church building is that is important, but how much of yourself and your resources you are willing to give away. There is strength in weakness, much in little, and greatness in humility.

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Chapter Eight Godly Interruptions Until now we have looked at some of the interruptions with which Satan has plagued good, godly men and women. Now we must turn our attention to some godly interruptions. These interruptions are completely different from the ungodly interruptions that seem to beset Christian men and women of virtue. The difference between the two is like night and day. We will look at three of the most significant cases of godly interruptions in the entire Bible—Abraham, Paul, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Godly interruptions are altogether different from ungodly ones in their scope, their intent, and their outcome. While ungodly interruptions are intended by Satan to discourage the Christian, to defeat him, godly interruptions always, always, always strengthen the relationship between the individual and the Lord. While they are not easy to go through at the time because they

Interrupted Lives will interrupt our lives permanently, godly interruptions ultimately bring the glory of the Lord. Yes, they will mean tremendous changes in our lives, but they will always lead to joy and peace in the present and the future. Abraham, the Beginning Point of Our Faith The First Interruption When God spoke to Abram for the very first time, it must have been quite a shock to Abram. Abram’s parents were most probably not worshippers of the one true God, but probably worshipped the sun and moon gods of the Chaldeans with whom they lived for part of their lives. Abram’s father, Terah, had moved away from the Chaldeans when the Lord found Abram and his wife Sarai (Sarah) living in the land of Haran (Charan in Acts 7:2-4). In fact, Abram, for the first part of his life, may have been a worshipper of the moon and sun gods of his region. The conversion from a life of pagan worship to a life of worship of the one true God is sometimes a long process. I think that it is safe to say that, when God first spoke to Abram, his faith in the one true God was rather shaky at best and nonexistent at worst. Yet the Lord saw in Abram something of immense value—a heart that could learn to develop great faith. At age seventy-five when the Lord first spoke to him, Abram had settled in the land of Haran and, I am

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Chapter Eight sure, had no intention of moving. He was successful there, having amassed a considerable fortune. He was very comfortable by his day’s standards. He had many servants and great herds (Genesis 12:5). When God first spoke to Abram, he had settled into a very comfortable lifestyle, surrounded by his wife Sarai, his possessions, and his servants. Godly interruptions often come when we are at our most comfortable point. Just when we think we have finally gotten life figured out, God most likely will come in and turn over the apple cart. God is not so much interested in our comfort as in our obedience. It must have taken a great deal of faith in this new, unknown God for Abram to uproot his life and the lives of all those around him to move to a place he did not know. God’s instructions to Abram were very vague: “Get thee out of thy country…unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1). Abram had no destination in mind when he began to move their entire lives. All he had was the promise of an unknown God that he would make a mighty nation out of Abram’s descendants. Abram had not even seen this God into whose care he was placing his life. This was a radical departure from the beliefs of all the other people of his day. Their gods consisted of carved images of the sun and moon gods, made of wood or stone, that they could see with their own eyes. And yet Abram, whose whole life was lived in the presence of idol worship, was willing to follow a God whom he had not seen and had only heard. We,

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Interrupted Lives today, living four thousand years in the tradition of the one true God, have no concept of what a radical Abram was. He had to leave the gods of his father, his home in Haran, everything familiar to him, for a place whose location he didn’t even know. No wonder the Bible regards Abram as such an incredible man of faith. We have little comprehension of the type of man Abram was. The Second Major Interruption The second interruption in the life of Abram (now Abraham) was an even greater interruption than the first. It involved surrendering his son, the son promised to him by God, to the will of this unknown, unseen God. The Word of God says nothing of the tremendous inner struggle that Abraham must surely have gone through after the Lord once more spoke to him. Perhaps Abraham spent a sleepless night before he started on his journey to Mt. Moriah very early the next morning. Once again, Abraham saddled his ass and took off for an unknown destination: “Get thee…upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2). As Abraham made that long, three-day journey to Moriah, I am sure that he was moving very slowly. He needed time to think, time to ponder what the Lord had commanded him to do. With Isaac, his only son of promise, riding by his side, perhaps even in his lap, Abraham must have done a lot of soul-searching. We

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Chapter Eight can only speculate how old Isaac was. He could have been a young child of five or six, an older teenager, or a young man. No matter the age, the fact was that this father loved his son very much. As Abraham considered what he must do, I am positive that he thought about the impact of this action upon his life and on Sarah’s life as well. What a permanent interruption this would be! Abraham would have to give up all his dreams for this new nation that the Lord had promised to him. As he prepared the altar for the sacrifice of his son of promise, Abraham was torn between following the dream that God had given him, obeying God, and following his own natural heart of love. He was torn as to which to believe. At this point, his faith in God took a quantum leap. “God is so powerful that He will be able to do both conflicting things at the same time,” he must have thought. As Abraham lifted the knife to sacrifice Isaac, the child of his old age, he knew that the Lord he served could do two conflicting things at once. That leap of faith enabled Abraham to raise the knife, prepared to thrust it through the heart of this son with all his might, believing that somehow he would see Isaac and his mighty nation. No wonder Abraham is called the father of our faith. This permanent interruption, or so Abraham thought, raised his faith to the nth degree. What great faith Abraham had in his unknown, unseen, no-name God.

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Interrupted Lives Paul, The King of Interruptions We have already looked at the life of Paul from the standpoint of a number of ungodly, devil-invented interruptions. Now we will look at Paul from the viewpoint of God-intended interruptions. Paul is like most Christians. We receive, in this life, godly interruptions along with the ungodly type. Paul had many ungodly interruptions, such as his stoning incident at Antioch where he was miraculously restored to complete health after having been judged dead by the professionals at stoning. Paul’s life was filled with similar acts of God on his behalf as he served the Lord. The Lord rescued Paul from a prison cell more than once. God delivered Paul from shipwreck and snakebite. He delivered Paul from many sorts of ungodly interruptions. However, for the purposes of this chapter, we will look at only one of Paul’s godly interruptions. Paul’s Salvation Saul, Paul’s Jewish given name, was a very bad dude in the early history of the New Testament church. As a young Jewish Pharisee, he took his job very seriously. It was his purpose in life to stamp out the followers of this criminal, Jesus Christ (they were not yet called Christians). Paul had a one-track mind, which the Lord would later use for the cause of Christ. Paul set out to exterminate the early converts with as much determination as Hitler had to exterminate the Jews in World War

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Chapter Eight II. By Paul’s own estimation, he persecuted the church “beyond measure” and had attempted to “waste [destroy] it” (Galatians 1:13). Saul first appears on the scene at the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Stephen must have been a fireball preacher. Almost immediately after being appointed a deacon by the Jerusalem church, Stephen was brought before the Jewish council, probably the Sanhedrin. It was before the Sanhedrin that he preached his first and last sermon. He must have given them both barrels. Even before he could finish, they rushed him out of the city and stoned him to death. Acts 7:58 records that they stoned him and laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul had at least watched the stoning of Stephen, if not casting a stone or two himself. As a Pharisee, Saul gave his consent to the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1). It was at this time that Saul began his assault on the church. The Jewish leaders had found someone who was willing to do their dirty work for them. Armed with his orders from the Sanhedrin, Saul began a frontal assault on the church, which had by now abandoned Jerusalem and scattered. There must have been a large pocket of believers in Damascus because Saul chose that city for his first major campaign. He was prepared to round up any Christians he found there and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial and probable stoning. However, before Saul could even get to Damascus to carry out his orders, he encountered a godly interruption in his life that would permanently change his des-

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Interrupted Lives tiny. On the road to Damascus, he encountered the one whose existence he had sought so hard to deny. He encountered the presence of Jesus Christ. God normally uses angels to carry messages for Him, but this time it was Jesus Himself who appeared to Saul. It had to have been Jesus Himself because the light of the glory of the Son of God surrounded Saul. That light instantaneously blinded Saul so that he could only hear the Lord. This would be the last time that Jesus appeared to anyone at any time; an angel spoke to even John, in the Revelation. Saul’s major life’s interruption included blindness that, for all Saul knew at the time, was permanent. It is amazing what lengths to which the Lord has to go to get our attention. God had to strike him down, blind him and speak personally to Saul to get his attention. What a stubborn man Saul must have been! Yet he is no different from any one of us. Saul’s conversion came when he was at the end of his rope, as helpless as he had ever been in his life. It was truly one of the more dramatic conversion experiences in the history of our faith. Yet it was no more remarkable than yours or mine, if you know the Lord. If you are reading this book, it is probably because you have had some event that has permanently changed the course of your life. I pray that you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian and have refused to listen to that small voice of the Lord, then, my friend, your tragedy may have been for nothing. If Paul had refused to listen to the voice of the Lord, he would have spent the rest of

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Chapter Eight his life in misery. Only after he believed that this Jesus, whom he hated, was a man to be loved, worshipped and obeyed did the scales fall off his eyes, both physically and spiritually. For the very first time in his life, Saul could see a new life through the born-again eyes of Paul, “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”. II Timothy 1:1. Yes, Saul’s conversion experience was a godly interruption that changed his life forever. Even though he was called by the Lord and came kicking and screaming, there is absolutely no doubt that Paul never wanted to go back to the life of Saul, the chief persecutor of the church. Paul is like all true Christians whose attitudes have been changed by the Lord; we never want to go back to the old life, no matter how many obstacles Satan throws in our path. Each new challenge only makes me more committed to the anchor of my life, Jesus Christ. Mary, the Mother of Jesus Mary occupies a truly unique spot in the history of Christianity. To say that Mary is misunderstood is to say a mouthful. Mary is exalted, revered and adored by millions around the world. She has been exalted by a few recently to the level of Christ. Mary never wanted nor enjoyed the spotlight. She was so very humble, always a background figure. But Mary was in the mind of Jesus every minute of His earthly life. Every time we see the compassion of Jesus, we are seeing the nature of

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Interrupted Lives Mary as well as the nature of God. He never forgot her kindness or her love. From the cross, as Jesus was breathing His last breath, he gave John instructions to take care of His mother. With the weight of the sin of the world on His shoulders, with the excruciating pain of the cross, Jesus took time, out of His love for His mother Mary, to make sure that she was provided for. Protestants, on the other hand, go to the other extreme and simply ignore her. She is relegated to a footnote in the Christmas story and to a postscript in the Easter account. Surely our misconceptions of Mary must make Jesus extremely angry today. Most Protestants are afraid to speak the name of Mary, except at Christmas as the mother of Jesus and at Easter as she stands before the cross. Yet Mary was an incredible woman of faith. She occupies a unique position in the history of Christendom. She rocked the cradle of the King of Kings. She suckled the Lord of Lords. She kissed the face of God, as a popular Christmas song so well puts it. Mary gave life to the Messiah, our Redeemer. She, above all others, loved her son Jesus. But because of the ill-placed worship of Mary by some, she has been almost completely ignored by writers and preachers alike in evangelical circles. Both extreme views of Mary are wrong. We cannot be afraid to look at this amazing example of faith and trust in God. That she had her life permanently interrupted by God would be the understatement of a lifetime. Of all the gospel writers, Luke has the best appreciation of Mary. It is Luke who records the godly heri-

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Chapter Eight tage of Jesus through His mother Mary’s lineage. It is Luke alone who records Mary’s visit with Elizabeth before she gave birth. It is Luke alone who records Mary’s magnificent praise to God for choosing her to be the mother of the Savior of the world. That the Lord directed Luke to spotlight Mary, so to speak, is indication to me that Mary is worthy of some well-deserved attention by this author. Mary’s Lifetime Interruption When Gabriel appeared to Mary (Luke 1:26-33), Mary’s parents had already decided her future. Her parents had arranged her marriage to Joseph. It was the custom of the day for parents to select the best possible husband for their daughters. (To many fathers today who have unmarried daughters, that system may sound like a pretty good one.) They had selected Joseph to be Mary’s husband. Joseph was probably much older than Mary, well established and a man of good reputation. Mary most probably had never met her husband-to-be. (These arranged marriages, strange as they may sound to modern thinking, are still practiced in many parts of the world today.) Mary had no choice in the matter. As an obedient young woman of probably no more than fourteen or fifteen, she had prepared herself for the standard life of her time, being a servant to her husband, raising many children, and being a second-class citizen. However, when God interrupted her life, it would never be the same.

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Interrupted Lives In the sixth month of the Jewish year, when Gabriel appeared to Mary, her life would experience an interruption of monumental significance. Her life would, at this early age, be permanently interrupted for a very godly purpose. The birth of the long-awaited Messiah would completely alter the entire course of Mary’s life. This godly interruption would have earth-shaking importance. Mary’s Public Disgrace Virginity was not taken lightly with the devout Hebrew. A woman was expected to be a virgin until she spent her first night in marriage. There were very serious penalties for promiscuity in those times. A young girl who was found to be pregnant before marriage was very often stoned, much the same as the woman who was taken in adultery (John 8:1-11) was being prepared to be stoned before Jesus entered that picture. Now Joseph must have been a very kind man; the Bible calls him a “just man” (Matthew 1:19). He did not want to make a public example of her by stoning her. Instead, it was Joseph’s idea to send her privately away to someplace new where the public disgrace would not be so hard on Mary. However, when the Lord appeared and explained the whole picture to Joseph, plans were changed. Joseph, being the godly man that he was, took Mary as his wife and raised Jesus as his own. After the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph raised a family of their own. We know that Jesus had brothers, one of whom,

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Chapter Eight James, was an elder in the first church in Jerusalem and is the author of the book of James in the New Testament. Mary’s public disgrace was probably one of the reasons that led her to seek out her cousin Elizabeth during the early stages of her pregnancy. Gabriel had told Mary about Elizabeth’s news when he told Mary about her unique blessing. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah had had a divine encounter with a heavenly messenger themselves, even before Mary’s encounter. Zechariah, a priest in the temple in Jerusalem, and his wife Elizabeth were well past their child-bearing years when an angel, probably Gabriel, announced the birth of John (the Baptist), the forerunner of Jesus to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Therefore, the Lord directed Mary to just the right person with whom to discuss her unique problem. Implied from the scripture is a special relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, her much older cousin. Mary must have looked up to Elizabeth as a mother figure. In the comfort and protection of the priest’s home, Mary, with the help of Elizabeth, had time to sort through all that had happened. She had time to gather strength for all that lay ahead of her. She had time to prepare for this vastly interrupted life. The Lord used this period before Mary’s marriage to Joseph to give this very young woman all that she would need to give birth to and raise this extraordinary, supernatural child, Jesus, the Savior of the world.

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Interrupted Lives Mary’s Final Interruption—The Loss of Her Son I believe Mary knew what awaited her son. Jesus must have certainly prepared His mother privately for what lay ahead. He would not want His mother to experience any more hardship than necessary. He was just that kind of son. As Jesus tried to prepare Mary for the cross, I am positive Mary told Him that even though all others would abandon Him, He would never leave her heart. Sure enough, when the cross was set in its final position, Mary was right at the feet of her son. John was the only disciple with her; the rest were nowhere to be found. She, without a doubt in my mind, had followed Jesus from Pilate’s courtyard step by step to Golgotha. She watched Jesus struggle for every breath. How great her pain must have been. But also, how even greater her sense of pride and satisfaction must have been, knowing her son, who was the Messiah, was about to do something the world had been waiting for since sin had first entered the world by the first man, Adam. Mary knew why Jesus was hanging there, suffering on the cross. The Bible says, “Mary kept all these things [memories] and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Mary knew even when nobody else had a clue about what was going on; she knew. So Mary treasured her memories of her son, Jesus, in her heart. When Jesus looked down from the cross and His eyes met His mother’s eyes, both were filled with love. In the tenderest moment from the cross—a scene that was filled with anger, hatred and pain—Jesus looked at

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Chapter Eight His mother and, in His final act of mercy in His earthly body, commanded John, the disciple whom He loved, to take Mary in as his own mother. “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved [John], he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27). When Jesus committed John to the care of His mother, He charged her care to another who was filled with the spiritual gift of mercy, John. Without a doubt, God the Father chose Mary because she was such an example of mercy. Then Jesus placed her in the care of another, John, who shared the same gift, the gift of mercy. Insights into the Differences Between Godly and Ungodly Interruptions Only Momentary Pain in Godly Interruptions, But a Lifetime of Joy Yes, there is pain connected with godly interruptions. But it only lasts for a short time. All three of the people we looked at in this chapter experienced a great deal of pain because of their godly interruption. Abraham experienced the pain of having to kill his son Isaac. Paul faced the pain of constant rejection, torture, and even death. Mary experienced the pain of a lifetime of public disgrace and the pain of knowing that her son’s life would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.

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Interrupted Lives However, the pain that they endured was more than overshadowed by the joy they experienced throughout their lifetimes as children of God. Each gladly endured his or her pain as a very small price for what he or she received as a child of God. So, too, must you and I look at the godly interruptions that have occurred in our lives. In my own life, outside of my salvation experience, the most important godly interruption that I have experienced was when God called me to a life of service to Him. I had been a schoolteacher for five years when the Lord called me to surrender to full-time service. It was a major change of course for my life. I was headed toward a career as a school principal. I had started my master’s program in elementary principalship. My wife and two young children had settled into a nice, comfortable life in a small Norman Rockwell town. When the Lord interrupted my life at that point, it was a major interruption. To give up my good teaching job in an upscale school district and to uproot my family and go to seminary was not in “my” plans. Yet the pain of doing all that was nothing compared to the joys that I have experienced during the last twenty years as a servant of the Lord. The pain has been temporary; the joy is eternal. The peace of God truly passes all understanding. Godly Interruptions Are Never Regretted When Abraham saw the fulfillment of the promise, he never regretted for a minute the changes that the

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Chapter Eight Lord asked him to make in his life. When Paul experienced firsthand the blessings of the New Testament church, he never once looked back at the former life that he had led. When Mary saw from the foot of the cross the plan of salvation being completed through her son, she never had one regret that she had been willing to surrender her life to God’s use. I am not as saintly as these three. So I have to admit that there are times when I think back on what might have been if I had lived out my Christian life as I had originally planned. It would have been a nice, quiet, comfortable life. Yet when I think of all the things the Lord has allowed me to experience, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am right where the Lord wants me to be. The peace and contentment that I feel, even though my life has been forever changed by ungodly interruptions, is incredible. I would not trade my life now for my former life of ease and comfort for anything this world has to offer. You will never regret anything that God brings into your life by godly interruptions IF you cooperate with God’s plan. Abraham, Paul, and Mary were willing to be obedient to God’s plan. Obedience is the key to this life of no regrets. If you fight against the plan of the Lord, you will find yourself in the same position as Saul when Jesus spoke to him and said, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5). That position is the position of misery, of unfulfillment, of confusion.

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Interrupted Lives We Are Not Insulated from Pain Godly interruptions do not insulate the Christian from the pain of the cross. Sharing in Jesus’ pain on the cross is a universal necessity for all Christians. Your pain will be different from the apostle Paul’s and from my pain. Mary’s pain must have been heartbreaking as she watched her son take His last breath from the cross. Jesus bids us deny ourselves and daily take up His cross and follow Him (Mathew 16:24). Each and every Christian must experience some pain on this earth in order to better appreciate the joys of heaven. Pain is the one universal thing that binds all Christians together, besides the salvation they enjoy through Jesus Christ. Why else would the Book of Revelation record twice that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17 and 21:4). Just as a mother with great love comforts a child who has been hurt either physically or emotionally, so too will God delight in comforting all His children who have been hurt by this world. God adds NO lasting pain to our lives whatsoever, but will take great delight in wiping away all tears from our eyes. Oh, what God has in store for the Christian in heaven. The half has not been told. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us that we really have no idea about all that God has planned for those who love Him; “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then [when we are in heaven] face to face,” we shall see Him as He truly is. Hallelujah!

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Chapter Eight Getting Too Comfortable in Life? It has been my observation that godly interruptions often, if not always, come when we get comfortable with our lives. Just when we have everything figured out, just when all our ducks are in a nice row, God will interrupt our lives with a godly interruption and say, “Wake up, O Sleepyhead.” He has done that in my life several times. It may have been a move in ministry locations; it may have been an unexpected change of address. It may have been the death of a close family member. Whatever it was, it served as a wake-up call that we were getting too comfortable with this world. It signaled that we had strayed a little from the course that God had intended for our lives. Abraham was nice and comfortable right where he was when God came and disrupted his comfortable world. Saul was comfortable with his newfound popularity with the chief Pharisees. Mary was just getting ready to settle down into a comfortable life with older, well-established Joseph. Christian, are you settling into a comfortable routine? If you are, then be prepared: the Lord may have a major, godly, life-changing interruption ahead for you. Just when you think that you are in for some smooth sailing, be on the alert. God doesn’t want His children living too comfortably with the things of this world. Too many Christians live so cozily with this world. The Lord tells us to fix our sights on things eternal, not

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Interrupted Lives things temporal. If it won’t matter in a hundred years, then you had best not make it your priority. Nowhere that I can find in the Bible does it say that God wants us living on easy street. God warns Christians in Amos 6:1-4, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion...that lie upon beds of ivory…and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.” If right now you are living the life of ease in Zion, be prepared for God to interrupt your life in such a way that will bring even more joy and happiness into your life. Godly Interruptions Always Require a Leap of Faith When God permanently interrupts your life, it will require a leap of faith on your part to comprehend it. If your faith doesn’t grow stronger, then you have missed the whole point of the interruption. If you miss the point of the interruption, then you will more than likely resist the Lord or become angry with or bitter at God. What God is trying to do with our lives on this earth is make us fit citizens of the heavenly kingdom. What happens to us here on earth will fade into nothingness the very moment we take our very first view of our kingdom of heaven. The difference will be so overwhelming. The things that we thought were so important during this life will mean absolutely nothing when we look into the eyes of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

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Chapter Eight There is no one set way to acquire faith. God must tailor-make a road for each of us, leading to increasing our faith in Him. There is no book that you can read which will guarantee faith. Church attendance, while a very important part of the Christian’s life, will not guarantee that your faith will grow. Some of the fattest spiritual midgets I have ever met are faithful every time the church doors are open. Not even reading the Bible cover to cover each year of your life will guarantee that you will grow in faith. It is how you react to each ungodly and godly interruption that will determine whether or not you will grow in the Lord. God Has the Right to Do Confusing (to Us) Things God has the right to do what, on the surface, appears to be two very conflicting things at the same time because He is our master; we belong to Him. Often when we are going through these permanent godly life’s interruptions, it may look at best as though we are getting conflicting signals from the Lord and at worst as though God doesn’t know what He is doing. God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is one such example. When God told Abraham to saddle up and take Isaac to Mt. Moriah for a sacrifice, Abraham must surely have thought that the Lord had gone plum loco. Our response must be the same as Abraham’s. Simple obedience in the face of conflicting, confusing signals from the Lord was Abraham’s response. We must

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Interrupted Lives simply be true to what we know the Lord has taught and shown us to do. Even as I write this book, I am in the middle of a very confusing situation. After seventeen years of fulltime ministry, I have no place to serve the Lord in the way I know He wants me to. This book was born out of the battle of trying to figure out what the Lord wants me to do. I serve the Lord in every way that I have opportunity in the church and community, yet I am frustrated. It makes absolutely no sense to me at all. But like Abraham, I see two things that make absolutely no sense together: God’s call on my life and my physical limitations. These are two very conflicting things. This book is the only way I know to serve the Lord with my whole being. Where this will lead, I don’t have the foggiest notion. But I know that with my anchor in the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever life leads will be God’s perfect path for my life.

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Chapter Nine My Godly and Ungodly Interruptions Your ungodly interruption will most likely not be the same as mine. However, Satan-devised interruptions share a lot of common features. They are undeserved, totally unexpected, overwhelming and absolutely baffling. From those commonalities, some universal applications can be drawn. That is the purpose of this book. As I have already mentioned, I was once a pastor whom the Lord was using to build His kingdom. In 1980, the Lord interrupted my life with a godly interruption. He called me to follow Him into full-time Christian service, the pastorate to be specific. I left a very promising career as a teacher after five years to go to seminary. I was headed to be the principal of a school in a very comfortable, uptown suburban setting.

Interrupted Lives A Godly interruption My seminary years, which were designed by the Lord to be faith-building years as well, were two of the most challenging years of my wife’s and my lives. They were part of a godly interruption in my life, which produced a stronger Christian in myself and a stronger Christian family in my wife and two small children. There were times when we had to step out on faith because there was no other place to step. However, nothing about those years caused pain, misery, suffering, or any other such negative thing. They did produce long, semi-sleepless nights working to support my family. They did produce enough anxiety to cause my faith in the ability of the Lord to provide for our every need to grow by many giant steps. For example, when we left for seminary in 1980, I had $210 in my pocket, $200 of it in the form of a check, to get us established in our new surroundings. That was it—$210. When we got there, I soon discovered that it would take two weeks for that check to clear the bank. Now prior to our leaving for seminary, I had secured a small apartment for us to live in and had paid the first month’s rent, so we were not on the streets initially. We had to take several items to the pawnshop to tide us over those first two weeks. I remember that we got $40 for some old coins and my wife’s class ring from that trip to the pawnshop. I took some of that money and went to the grocery store and bought a few groceries. Two items in particular that I remember buy-

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Chapter Nine ing were instant mashed potatoes and turkey legs (very inexpensive, $.29 a pound). Mashed potatoes were my five-year-old daughter’s favorite food. The first two weeks were the hardest. The fear of an unknown place and of how we were going to make it financially, looking for the perfect part-time job to match my class schedule, having virtually no money for the first month, were just a few of the challenges we faced. Yet the Lord sustained us through that difficult transition. He proved Himself strong on our behalf, confirming to me that we were right where He wanted us to be. Along with the difficulty was the excitement of beginning a brand-new phase of our lives. Those seminary years were very challenging academically, financially, and spiritually as well as physically. My daily routine would consist of going to work at midnight, catching a few catnaps during my shift (which was permitted as long as I answered the telephone), driving to classes at 8:00 A.M., sleeping in the student lounge between classes, coming home in the afternoon to be with my family, studying for a while in the evening, trying to get in a couple hours of sleep before going back to work at midnight. This was my schedule for about four or five days of the week. The other two days were less hectic. It was tough, but those days were some of the most memorable of my life. They were memorable because it was a godly interruption.

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Interrupted Lives Racism—An Ungodly Interruption After seminary, the Lord led me to my first church, a small, rural church located in beautiful central Kentucky. I loved serving the Lord there. For the first two years, I served the church as a full-time pastor. However, serving as a full-time pastor on a part-time salary was causing some financial hardships for us. The Lord opened the door of opportunity for me to teach school for three years as well as to pastor. Serving the church nearly full-time as a bi-vocational pastor was a very challenging responsibility. Yet the Lord gave me the ability to do it for His glory and honor. However, in the midst of this idyllic situation, the devil raised his ugly head to ruin it all for us. The devil knew the weakness of many of the Christian people in that area of Kentucky. He knew that one of their greatest spiritual weaknesses was racism. As pastor of a smaller country church, the pastor wears many hats, one of which was youth leader. As part of our successful youth program, the Lord led us to a young black man. This was one of the finest young black men I have ever met. He was a National Honor Society student, a star athlete, and a leader, and he became a strong Christian witness for the Lord. After he was saved, he became a vital part of our youth group. When the time came for his baptism, the roof fell in on my ministry there. Such ugly opposition arose that, as a young pastor, I had no way of knowing how to handle it. It was wrong, biblically wrong, and that was all I knew. I had to stand for

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Chapter Nine my convictions, sometimes almost totally alone, against the racial hatred of almost an entire church. There were a few people who supported me; however, most were reserved in their support because they had lived in this community all their lives. Supporting me would have meant standing against many friends of a lifetime. They knew it was wrong; however, they felt they were in a no-win situation. My Life’s Major Interruption—Cancer The pressure was enormous, but I was determined to do the right thing. How could I live with the Lord and myself if I turned this young man away? And I just couldn’t compromise, even if it meant being forced out of my ministry there. As the pressure began to build, the devil introduced a new variable into the equation— cancer. On Thanksgiving of 1987, I got very sick, which led to my being admitted to the hospital. It was determined that I had stomach cancer. My doctor told me that it was a very treatable cancer and the chances of a complete recovery were very, very good. The course of treatment was a series of about thirty radiation treatments and an “aggressive” combination of chemotherapy drugs. I thought this was just another obstacle to overcome. I really did not give it much thought at the time. I just continued to concentrate on my ministry there at the church. By this time, I had decided that my ministry at this church was concluded and that it was futile to continue

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Interrupted Lives to fight against a whole culture of racial hatred. The Lord would have to take care of that. I had my family to think about. Even before the cancer struck, I had been in contact with several churches about moving from my present ministry. I really didn’t foresee the cancer as a problem serious enough to stop that process. I told each church about my medical condition and my doctor’s prognosis. I had finished my radiation treatments and my first round of chemotherapy when a fairly large church contacted me and set up a trial sermon. In late January, I preached at that church. They knew as much about my medical condition as I did. I had been up front with each church I had talked to. Two weeks later, they called me to be their pastor. In the meantime, I had my second round of chemotherapy in the first week of February 1988. My treatments were a month apart. Soon after this round, things began to change in my body. I became disoriented; my reactions began to slow down. I felt fine, however; I didn’t even realize that something drastic was happening. The last Sunday I preached in my first church, I don’t even remember a thing about it except the emotions of leaving a place where I loved the people, even as racist as they were, and where I had first come to know the joy and satisfaction of serving the Lord. Even though, at the time, I didn’t have a clue there was anything wrong, in retrospect I see now there were signs Sunday of the fact that something definitely wrong.

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Chapter Nine The day after, Monday, the men from my new church came to move our possessions to our new home and new ministry. Even though I did not notice it, I was behaving very strangely. I was in a daze. The last stop we made in our old town was a stop at my doctor’s office. He was alarmed but did not know what was happening either. So my wife drove me to our new ministry’s location. I remember very little of that day. I only remember a little bit about the welcoming reception that church had for my family and me. During the evening and night, the disorientation progressively got worse. I was slipping into a coma and didn’t even know it. The next morning, after moving into a new ministry, my wife and I headed back to my hospital in the state I had just left. It would be six weeks later when I finally emerged from that coma, a coma that baffled everybody. My doctors (by the time I awoke from the coma, I had been seen by over twenty specialists at one of the top hospitals in the region) were completely perplexed at the cause of the coma. At first, it was thought that the cancer had spread to my brain, but biopsies would later rule that out. The most probable cause, even though the doctors would not admit it due to obvious malpractice reasons, was that I had had a reaction to the aggressive chemicals used in my chemotherapy that caused my brain to swell, producing the coma. When I awoke from my coma, my entire life had changed. Nothing would ever be the same. The coma produced some disabling side effects: I could barely

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Interrupted Lives talk, I couldn’t walk, my handwriting ability was completely destroyed, my reflexes were slow, my balance was unstable, my short-term memory was faulty, and other minor things were different as well. The only thing that had not changed was my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who was right by my side throughout the entire ordeal. After waking from the coma, I began the long process of recovering some of the ground that I had lost. However, there is a plateau beyond which not much more improvement can be made. About six months from the time when I first lapsed into the coma, I actually stepped into the pulpit for the first time as pastor of my new church. And when I did, I was not the same pastor the church had called earlier in the year. The church was faithful to me and my family throughout the coma and the recovery stage. However, after about the first three years, the reality of very little more recovery was apparent to all. I was still not the type of strong preacher that they wanted and that I was before the coma. Satan Loves to Stir Up the Christians to Act in Ungodly Ways Once again, the devil would stir up controversy that would eventually lead to another forced resignation. With my disabilities, I was not the type of pastor the church felt it needed or wanted, even though it was obvious to everyone that the Lord had brought me there. It

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Chapter Nine was a difficult time for me, coming to grips with the possibility that my ministry would come to an end. What would I do with my life at age forty? Retirement was not an option. Retirement would have left my family without any source of income. So I had to look elsewhere for a place to serve the Lord. One of the things that the Lord allowed me to accomplish as pastor at my second church was to provide a temporary home for a new Christian school to meet. Over many vocal objections, the church voted to allow this new school to meet in the church for its first year of existence while its permanent building was being remodeled. I had always been a supporter of Christian education. This occurred during the fifth year of my ministry at the church. After my forced resignation from the church, a position became available as administrator of the school. It was a lot of responsibility for very little pay; however, the Lord showed me that this was where He would use me for the next chapter of my life. For the next four years, the Lord used me to develop this small, struggling school into an established, well-respected, statechartered school. Nevertheless, during the fourth year at the school, my physical disabilities began to catch up with me. After working hard to bring the school into public acceptance, I was no longer acceptable to the public in the eyes of some leaders of the school because of my disabilities. And through a series of philosophical differ-

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Interrupted Lives ences, I was once more forced to resign from a ministry that I dearly loved. Every ministry in which the Lord had me serve was a ministry I dearly loved. I loved the people in each position I served in. I gave each ministry my all, and I served the Lord in each place with my whole heart, mind, body and spirit. I held back nothing because I would not give the Lord anything less than my one hundred percent effort. The Lord has rewarded me for doing that. He has rewarded me with peace of mind. I know that I did not compromise my convictions; I gave each ministry my whole heart, and I did nothing that I have any regrets about. I can sleep well at night knowing I have served the Lord to the best of my ability. I did not do one single thing that I would not do again, even knowing the final outcome. Now, I am in the waiting stage once again; for four years, I have been waiting on the Lord to reveal this perfect will for my life. I do not know how the Lord will use this situation to His glory. I have begun to substitute teach in the public schools in the area. I view myself as a secret missionary to the children whom the world has abandoned. However, I am willing to go whichever direction He will send me. A servant of the Lord who has no place to serve is not a content servant. I have been doing some writing, including this book. However, I want to be with people once more. A computer screen offers no interaction, no response, no smiles nor hugs. It is my heart’s desire to serve the Lord

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Chapter Nine in whatever way He desires. I will be satisfied serving Him in whatever position He calls me to. I know that the next chapter of my life remains to be written. I am trusting that the Lord will use me in a way that brings honor and glory to His name. If the past is any indication, I will soon be busy serving the Lord again. I am willing to do anything the Lord leads me to do, go anywhere the Lord wants me to go. Right now I am waiting for His perfect peace to take me to work where He is working. Insights from My Own Life The Devil Is the Author of All Cancer and All Diseases God created a perfect world, a world free from all diseases and cancers. When Satan invaded the garden with his lies, he brought sin into the world. With sin came all the associated evils: death, diseases, cancer, wars, racial hatred, and everything else that we consider to be the enemy of humanity. God did not create any of these things. He did not plan to have mankind’s lives continually interrupted with these things. They were not part of His initial design. We cannot blame God for any of these bad things that happen in our lives. It was not God’s perfect will for me to get cancer. It was not God’s perfect will that this dreaded disease permanently alter my life. The blame for all these ungodly interruptions that happen to

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Interrupted Lives mankind rests solely on the shoulders of our enemy, the devil. Satan is the architect of these diabolical plans to disrupt the lives of God’s children. It is his plan to steal the joy from our lives, to ruin our witness, to disrupt our families, and to create a ripple effect of bitterness toward God. And all the things that happen to us affect not only us but also those around us and our future generations as well. However, as the All-Knowing Lord of the Universe, He knew that these things would be coming into our lives. Looking through the corridors of time in a way that only sovereign God can do, He saw my need of comfort and help from the very foundation of the world. He then planned something very special to help me out. It is called grace, God’s grace. God’s grace IS sufficient for all my needs (II Corinthians 12:9). God’s grace was what enabled me to obtain salvation (Ephesians 2:5). It has only been God’s grace that has enabled me to rise above the self-pity, despair, and depression that would naturally accompany these ungodly interruptions. I could not have done that within my own self. It has only been through the wonderful, matchless grace of Jesus Christ my Savior that my God has empowered me to mount up with wings as eagles and soar above my situation. There is no bitterness in my heart today for what has transpired in my life. The only thing that is in my heart is thanksgiving. I thank God that He spared my life from the shadows of death. I thank God that He has given me such a fine family, which has stood by my

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Chapter Nine side ever since cancer first struck in 1987. I thank God for a wife who never once left my side during the first three months of my hospital stay. Through the intensive care, through the six-week coma, through the period leading to the rehabilitation hospital, through the period when I wasn’t even aware of anything, she was there. I thank God for a church that loved and supported my family just as if I had been in the field working. I thank God for salvation in Jesus Christ that made all this grace possible for me. Satan Is a Robber As I have already said, I am very angry with Satan because of all the things he has stolen from me. Make no mistake about it: Satan is alive and well on planet earth today. He is more active than at any other time in the history of man. The devil is assaulting Christians in new and even more devilish ways today because he must sense that this is his last chance to stop the spread of the gospel. Because even Satan realizes that we are living in the end times, he has pulled out all the stops in this battle between good and evil. He will try to rob you of everything you have that is good and pure and godly. Do not be surprised when the devil comes knocking at your door as he did mine in 1987. But instead, fortify yourself by serving the Lord with your whole heart, with all your mind, body, and soul. Dig deep into His Word for the strength you will need to sustain you. Most generally, Satan merely attacks us with small

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Interrupted Lives things. He does that to wear us down. If the devil can wear the Christian down with small, petty issues, he can then attack with the heavy-duty stuff. In my case, he wore me down with problems within the church while I was working two basically full-time jobs and handling the normal headaches of pastoring. Just when I thought I was on the way to resolving the situation, Satan exploded his secret weapon on me—cancer. I thought that I was as healthy as a horse, having never missed for sickness a day on the job for fifteen years. When I was taken down by cancer, I just figured that I would do exactly as the doctor ordered and be as good as new again in a few months. The devil couldn’t defeat me with cancer, so he turned the attack on me up a couple of notches with the reaction to the chemotherapy. If you are actively serving the Lord as all the people in this book were, then you must prepare yourself for an attack by the devil. He and all his demons are your worst enemy. They will tailor-make a plan just for you. That plan will surprise you. Every one of his attacks took me by complete surprise. That is why Christians are so vulnerable to the attacks of Satan; they take us by surprise. There is really no way to see the attacks coming. That is just the nature of how Satan works. The best way to prepare yourself is the way of I Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

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Chapter Nine Be Ready for a New Assignment I have always been rather naive. When I first entered the ministry, I had the idea that there was only one way for me to serve the Lord, by pastoring a local church. I knew that the Lord had all types of work to be done to reach a lost world, but I assumed that God’s will for my life was static and would never change. However, I have come to understand that God’s will for each and every Christian is constantly changing. He is our master and owner. The Lord has every right to move us to whatever location and whatever ministry pleases Him. He has that right as God. He does not have to ask our permission, gain our approval, or in any way consult with us first. He is the sovereign God, the creator of the universe and everything in it, including you and me. Sometimes He does give certain Christians lifetime assignments. However, more frequently, His will may take us to many different assignments, many different types of service. Flexibility is a characteristic of a good disciple. We must be flexible enough to accept these changes when they are God-given adjustments in His will for our lives. However, there is nothing that the devil would rather do than remove a servant from where he or she is serving when God is blessing that ministry. I am convinced that not every change of ministry I have experienced was God-initiated. Sometimes the pressure of Satan-initiated problems in a ministry will cause some

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Interrupted Lives servants to take the easy way out and leave, looking for greener pastures elsewhere. It takes a mature Christian to be able to tell the difference between God-initiated moves and moves that are forced on the servant by a conspiracy of the devil and his cohorts. Discernment is the key. “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14 NIV). The servant must be able to tell the difference between the will of God and the plans of Satan. The Christian servant of the Lord will experience both in his everyday life. A miscalculation of either one will have serious consequences in the servant’s life as well as on others to whom that servant would have opportunity to minister. So I would tell each Christian servant who is trying to determine the will of God for his or her life to be on guard. First of all, do not lock your mind-set into just one mode of service to the Lord. Be open to new ministries that the Lord may be leading you into. Second, be sure that it is the Lord who is initiating the change. If it is the devil, who through situations or circumstances is pressuring you to move on, then you must resist the devil and his plan for your life. If you agree with Satan and decide to move, then you will lose the impact of your ministry. Third, pray that the Lord will give you the wisdom to be able to discern between His perfect will and Satan’s clever plan to defeat you.

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Chapter Nine Stay Focused on the Lord It is very easy for the Christian who is caught right in the middle of an ungodly, permanent interruption to lose his or her focus. The Christian becomes so focused on the immediate situation that he or she forgets to praise the Lord in the midst of that situation. There is a song that has helped me many, many times get through a momentary disruption in my focus. I believe that it is worth every Christian buying and playing again and again, thereby committing it to memory. It is called simply “Praise the Lord,” and the first verse goes like this: “When you are up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams, when your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes, when you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears, don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear, Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him, Praise the Lord for our God inhabits praise, Praise the Lord, for the things that seem to bind you, serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you when you Praise Him.”∗ I was leading a youth choir at my first church when we learned this song. This song helped me through my first ungodly interruption in that church, and countless times since then I find my mind gently singing that song to the Lord when the devil attacks me. ∗

Praise the Lord, words and music by Brown Bannister and Michael Hudson, 1979.

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Interrupted Lives The devil must flee when we are focused on praising the Lord. Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Just think of it. God lives in the praises of His people. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So if we resist the devil by singing praises to God for His greatness, God will inhabit our praises and the devil will be forced to leave us alone because he cannot stand to hear us singing praises to our Lord nor stand to be in the presence of the Living God. The key to defeating the schemes of the evil one is to stay focused on the Lord and His plan for our lives. We stay focused by serving the Lord faithfully wherever He has placed us. We stay focused by doing everything that the light of God has revealed to us. We will not have God’s full revelation; no man has that. However, the revelation that we do have will keep us occupied until He comes back in glory for us or until He reveals more of His plan for our lives. The Main Ingredient—Determination Determination to overcome the ungodly interruptions that Satan places in our paths is the key ingredient to defeat his ungodly plans. In my life, it was my determination not to fall prey to the attacks of the devil that has enabled me to continue serving the Lord for these last nearly fifteen years. If I would allow the devil to win the battle, then what I am saying, in effect, is that the

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Chapter Nine powers of darkness are stronger than the powers of light. If I give up in discouragement, in despair, in defeat, then I am telling the Lord that I don’t believe His promises are true. I have determined that as long as God gives me breath, Satan will not get the best of me. This determination is something that you must decide beforehand. If you wait until the trial is upon you before you decide who is greater, then you will most certainly become a victim of the master of evil. If you wait until you are in the fiery furnace before you make your determination, then the fire will most certainly consume you. Remember, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had already pronounced their belief that the Lord would be with them either in the furnace or in heaven. Whichever way it went, they had determined to place their allegiance with the Lord. Right now, before another minute passes, commit your life to the Lord. If you are looking for meaning in your life, accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. If you are a Christian, determine right now before God and eternity that you are committed to the Lord. No matter what sort of ungodly, devilish thing Satan throws at you, you have placed your life in the hand of the Master. Determine right now that Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will be the victor in your life.

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Chapter Ten How to Overcome Major, Permanent, Ungodly Life’s Interruptions We have talked about many, many varied applications in our journey so far. It would be impossible to restate them in this last chapter. Instead, we will look at some commonalities that tie them all together. We will look for the overarching principles, the common bonds between all types of ungodly interruptions. In this book, we have looked at many different types of interruptions, both godly and ungodly. With Joseph, it was interpersonal relationships; with Job, it was familial, physical and financial; with Samson, it was sexual. In the case of Mephibosheth, it was physical disabilities; with Onesimus and Philemon, it was a broken master-slave relationship; with Paul, it was all of the above except for sexual. In my own life, the interruption took the form of cancer. The interruptions from the

Interrupted Lives devil are easy to identify when you know who you are doing battle against. However, the most difficult thing to do is to determine how you will respond to these ungodly interruptions. Responding to your interruptions will determine if you emerge the victor or the victim. This last chapter is designed to try to direct your path to make you the victor over your life interruptions. We will try to tie all the insights that we have seen in this book together into a few overriding principles which will help the Christian navigate the rough waters ahead after experiencing an interruption in his or her life. Godly or Ungodly Interruptions? The first thing you must determine when you are faced with a major or minor interruption is where does this interruption come from? Is it from God, or is it from the enemy of the Lord, Satan? The way you answer that question will go a long way in determining whether you will be successful in overcoming the interruption. There are a few things to remember when trying to distinguish between the two: 1) Remember that God is never the origin of any disease, sickness or other degrading condition. It is not within His nature to afflict His children with such things. Now there are times when He allows them into our lives to discipline us, but He is never the direct

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Chapter Ten cause of them. It is simply not within His nature to do so. Exodus 15:26 says, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee…for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” This is God’s promise to us, that He will not afflict His children with any of the diseases that are so common today. If you are faithfully serving the Lord and you experience a type of interruption that we have talked about here, then you can be sure who is behind it all. It is the adversary of the Christian, the prince of darkness himself. The devil has caused this problem because we live in a sin-filled world and Satan is the ruler of the darkness of this world. His domain includes diseases, war, hatred, bitterness, sexual perversion, and every other evil thing. They are all tools in his arsenal with which to attack the faithful Christian. 2) If, then, God has promised (Exodus 15:26) not to afflict His children with sickness of any kind, then there is only one answer left as to the source of disease. There is no doubt in my mind that Satan is the source of all the sickness known to mankind. Disease is the product of the devil who is the ruler of the sin-sick world. You don’t have to wonder who the source of your sickness is. You can lay cancer in all of its horrendous forms as well as AIDS, heart attack, stroke, MS, birth defects, everything that is the enemy of a healthy life, at

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Interrupted Lives the feet of Satan. He has so corrupted the world and its environment with pollutants, sexually transmitted diseases, homosexuality, et cetera, that the world is a hazardous place for the human body to live in. Satan has done all this in order to defeat God’s creation. Since man is created in the image of God, Satan really cannot stand to look at us. Every time he looks at us, it is a reminder to him of what awaits him in hell. He will plan anything that will cause harm to God’s creation. Satan hates mankind just as much as he hates God because we are created in His image. 3) Look at your interruption for a second. Does it involve sickness or disease? Is it related to any sin on your part, for example immorality, alcohol, or drugs? Does it involve broken relationships, such as divorce? If your interruption is related to anything outside of God’s nature, then be assured that God did not cause it. He did not afflict you with it. But rather, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the devil is the cause of your interruption. 4) If, on the other hand, your interruption involves a step of faith on your part, if it requires you to grow in your Christian walk, then you can be certain that it is from the Lord. If the end will bring you love, joy, peace, satisfaction, et cetera, then you can know to cooperate and not to resist the interruption because it is from the Lord.

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Chapter Ten Sorrow Is Universal; Bitterness Is Optional It is a foregone conclusion that the Christian will undergo at least one major, life-changing, ungodly interruption in life. If you have not experienced this yet, then praise the Lord and prepare yourself for the roof to fall in on your head because it will. Of that the devil will make sure. He will use the sickness of yourself or a family member, cancer, divorce, a serious car accident, a teenager’s rebellion, an affair, homosexuality, or any of a hundred other disruptions to interrupt your life in an ungodly way. Satan will use the old tried and true ways as well as inventing new ones to plague the saints and the slightly-less-than-saintly Christian, like you and me. He will attack when and where you least expect it, and he will probably take you by complete surprise. Interruptions are universal; they will happen sooner or later to every Christian. However, how you handle these interruptions is anything but universal. Some Christians just quit and give up their faith and hope in the Lord and begin to live like the world again. Others will resort to a life of constant complaining. Still others will try to handle their problems themselves. Some will allow the devil to so fill their lives with bitterness and blame toward God that they will live defeated lives from that point until the end of their unhappy lives. However, a few will look their interruption squarely in the eye and win the victory over Satan’s manifested schemes.

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Interrupted Lives Yes, bitterness is optional for the child of God. You have a choice in the matter. You can live defeated, bitter lives and give the devil the victory, the very thing that he designed your interruption for, or you can live your life soaring above your problems and interruptions just as an eagle soars above the earth. You can spend all your efforts trapped in misery and torment, or you can spend your life in the sky gliding effortlessly on wind currents supplied by your Heavenly Father. The choice is up to you. But you have to decide now before it strikes. Make up your mind now that you will battle Satan tooth and toenail until you have the victory over his schemes for you. We are in an all-out battle. The victory is ours. The price has already been paid on Calvary two thousand years ago. But you must believe that you have the victory. You must live like a victor with a victor’s mindset. You must think as Jesus thinks. You must think like a victor. It is then and only then that you will possess the victory that is yours. Yes, suffering is universal; defeat, however, is optional. The Never-Ending Battle Against Depression Depression is nothing new to the man of God. Elijah faced it when he thought that he was all alone in his struggles against Jezebel. Jonah faced it when he was struggling with the Lord about his feelings toward the Ninevites. Even Paul may have faced it when he looked at all the hardships he had to endure against all the glo-

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Chapter Ten ries that awaited him in heaven. Anyone who experiences a major, life-altering, ungodly interruption will more than likely undergo periods of depression. It may be as simple as longing for the carefree, happy days before the interruption. Or it may be as serious as thoughts of ending your own life. I have always thought of myself as a very well balanced, levelheaded, emotionally stable, and psychologically sound human being. However, when my interruption occurred, I know how strongly I had to battle depression while lying in a hospital bed, not knowing if I would ever walk again. Later it was depression over being without a ministry through which to use the gifts the Lord had given me. Even today, knowing how wonderfully the Lord has provided for my needs, there are still moments of self-pity when I ask why. Lord, why did this have to happen to me? Yes, depression is common following any permanent life’s interruption. You are not alone in your battle against depression. Find someone with whom you can share. Find someone who is going through the same thing. It will amaze you to find out how many people the Lord will bring into your life who need to hear what you have to say. This is the life’s message that the Lord is working to build in your life that we talked about earlier. God wants to build a life’s message in each and every one of His children in order to give us something to share with others who come into contact with us who need to know the Lord or who are Christians in need of encouragement.

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Interrupted Lives Praise the Lord No Matter What As strange as it may sound, praise the Lord even when it seems that there is nothing to praise the Lord about. Praise the Lord when Satan’s attacks are the fiercest. Praise the Lord for His goodness, for your salvation, for anything you feel that you have been blessed with. When the Christian begins to praise the Lord even when he sees nothing worth praising, he will soon begin to see all things in a whole new light. Instead of focusing your attention on your problem, focus your attention on the Lord; it will change both your mental and spiritual attitude and allow the Lord to change your physical circumstances as well. We see a perfect example of this in the life of Moses. Numbers 21:6-9 records this incident in the life of Israel. When Israel was in one of its rebellious periods, the Lord sent serpents into the camps. These were poisonous vipers. However, just like in our lives, the Lord sent a way of escape. God told Moses to fashion a long wooden pole and a brass serpent upon the pole and to lift it up so all could see. The Lord told the people, through Moses, that if they were bitten to look up to the pole and they would live. Now, I am sure that didn’t make any sense to the people. Why would a person even think of looking up at a brass serpent when there were thousands of real live vipers crawling around at their feet? The natural response to the situation would be to look down. But by faith, all those who obeyed the Lord lived, and those who followed their natural in-

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Chapter Ten stincts died. The serpent of brass pointed the way to another wooden pole that would come much later, the cross. As Jesus was lifted up onto the cross, He became our serpent of brass. If by faith we look to Him and believe upon Him, then we will live eternally and escape the death coming to Satan and all those who have been deceived by him. The way to gain victory over your major permanent interruption is to look up to Jesus and begin praising His name. Do not look down at your present circumstances. If you do, then you will never find victory. But instead, look up to Him who has all power and who does know all things. Praising the Lord in word and in song is the best way that I know to fix your focus on the Lord. This is why Christian music from the heart is so important for the Christian. I surround myself with good music of the faith. Every night before I go to sleep, I turn my radio on for one hour to a good gospel station that plays quiet, soothing, contemporary and sacred music all night long. It is amazing what frame of mind I have when I get up in the morning. As I listen to the music, I drift off to sleep quickly; the cares of this world are far from my mind. After I am asleep, the reassuring praise music subconsciously gives my soul the peace it needs. I highly recommend this practice.

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Interrupted Lives No One Will Understand Like Jesus When you face your interruption, you will discover that no one will understand you like Jesus. Your church family won’t have a clue as to what you are feeling inside; your family won’t understand your feelings; even your spouse, who knows you like no other, will not be able to comprehend what you are going through inside. Only the Spirit of Jesus will be your main source of comfort. Only He will know what you are thinking. Only He will know the depths of your depression. Only the Holy Spirit will be able to help you. Others may think that they understand, but NO ONE understands like Jesus. This is why the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter. As a Christian for many years, I thought that I knew what that meant. However, when I emerged from the six-week coma, the Lord took me to deeper levels of comfort that I didn’t even know existed. As I came to trust Him more and more, the level of comfort grew and grew. There was nothing wrong with my level of trust before the cancer. My level of trust was proportionate to my spiritual depth and my life’s experiences. There is no way to grow deeper in the Lord without facing interruptions of the kind described in this book. Yes, fervent prayer and Bible study will give you the skeleton for a deeper walk with the Lord. However, it is by the experiences of life, the interruptions that we face, that the skeleton is fleshed out. Faith muscles are

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Chapter Ten strengthened. True character becomes the skin and facial features by which we are known. This growing in faith is what Romans 8:28 is talking about when it says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Our life’s experiences, our godly and ungodly interruptions, are the tools that God uses to craft us into the type of Christian the Lord has designed us to be. I am not talking about predestination here, that we will be God’s slaves with no will of our own. Each of us has a free will by which we choose to cooperate with God or not. If we refuse to cooperate with the Lord, then we will not receive all the good things the Lord has in reserve for us. We will lose out on many blessings that could have been ours. I am talking about post-destination, that we will be what we will be after we complete the process called life and enter the plane of existence called eternal life, in heaven or in hell. Cooperating with the Lord in this process enhances what we shall become. To be all that you can be in God’s army, you must be obedient to the Commander-in-Chief. Two Completely Opposite Philosophies of Life To many Christians, philosophy is a dirty word. However, it should not be so. Philosophy is the only way of making sense of the world. Everyone has a philosophy of life, whether they believe it or not. Philosophy is the way of analyzing life. Everything in the uni-

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Interrupted Lives verse can be explained by your philosophy of life. In the entire world, there are basically only two philosophies of life. Everything that happens can be explained by either philosophy of life. The first way of looking at life is the humanistic point of view. Humanism says that man is the center of the universe. Man is the highest form of intelligence. It says that man and the entire scheme of life on planet earth is a product of chance and an evolutionary process. It says that man is evolving to a higher and higher plane of existence. The humanistic point of view believes that man will be able to rid himself of all evil by the process of evolution. This is the philosophy that Satan espouses. While I do not believe for one second in evolution (many in the scientific world are coming to the same conclusion), I do believe in the opposite of evolution: de-evolution or, as I like to call it, devilution. Devilution is the process of Satan’s breaking down all mankind’s civilized thought processes. Technology may be evolving but man himself is less intelligent, as a whole, than his ancestors. His moral standard, the thing that civilization is based upon, has been in decline for generations. I call it devilution because Satan is the author of this clever deception. The other philosophy of life is the godly point of view. It says that God is the center of the universe. It teaches that man was created by design, that there is order in the universe, that a master hand, the hand of the Lord God, created all that is in existence. This is the Christian philosophy of life. Instead of chance, the

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Chapter Ten Christian philosophy of life says that God created the universe with a definite purpose. It says that even though science does not yet fully accept that God created everything from nothing, science is incomplete, ever discovering more knowledge. Even today, we see that many scientists have already abandoned evolution because it just does not fit the facts as we now know them. If we give science enough time, the conclusion they will have to reach is that there is order in the universe, an intelligence behind it all. Of course, we know that that intelligence is the Master Designer, God Himself. Just as the struggle of life can be explained as a battle between good and evil, light and darkness, truth and the lie, “the force against the dark side,” God pitted against Satan, so your philosophy of life will be creationism against humanism. This is the battle of the ages. There is only one real struggle, God versus Satan. Everything in life can be explained in terms of these two opposing forces. One philosophy of life is truth, and the other is error or the lie. Make no mistake about it; we are in an all-out WAR. The battle is fought on many different fronts, under many different aliases, but when you boil everything down, there is only one real struggle in the world today: the battle for control of the universe. Paul understood this when he wrote, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Both sides are very real and

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Interrupted Lives very powerful. The sooner you see that you have to choose whose side you will be on, the better you will understand life. God’s Plan Will Ultimately Prevail There is no doubt who will win this war with good and evil, God versus evil. Even though it would seem as if Satan is prevailing in the world right now, and he is, the Lord has told us that it would be like that right before the final victory dance. Jesus, in describing the last days said, “And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:1113). I have determined in my heart that I will endure until the end of my life or the end of time. Within myself, I do not have that type of determination. The Lord will give me the resolve to stay true to my convictions and my Lord. Convictions seem to be going out of style, being replaced with political correctness. Some men of God have lost sight of the need to be true to their convictions. I am giving the benefit of the doubt to most men of God that they have convictions. Instead of political correctness, what we see in the church today is more like elder or deacon correctness or board correctness. Very few are willing, as John the Baptist was, to rock the boat. Very few men who call themselves men

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Chapter Ten of God are willing to stand alone, if need be, against something that their heart tells them is wrong. But the plan of God will ultimately prevail. One day “Every [emphasis mine] knee should bow… and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). With or without you and me, the plan of the ages will come to pass. I would rather be included in the victory celebration than be left out. The Anchor Holds My friend, as one who has been to the very shadow of the valley of death, let me reassure you that the anchor holds. Praise God, it stills holds. If you are a Christian, no matter what life and the devil throw at you, you can depend on the promises of God. For as many days as you have in this life, you can count on the Lord. Your life may be one with very few interruptions. If that be so, then praise the Lord for being doubly good to you. Your attitude will determine if you feel blessed or defeated. If, however, you have to struggle with Satan’s constant attack on you, you can rest assured that the anchor you have in Jesus Christ will hold you safely near the Rock of Ages. No matter what obstacles the devil places in your path, you can have faith that God knows all about what you are facing and has a plan of escape for you. He will be faithful to His children. Do not give into fear. God is not the author of fear, but rather fear is a tool of our enemy to defeat the

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Interrupted Lives Christian. II Timothy 1:7 tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” God has given us power to defeat the devil’s plans to interrupt our lives. He has given us His mercy to comfort us when we are attacked. Finally, God has given each and every Christian a sound mind to discern the interruptions that come our way. My prayer is that this book has helped you develop the strong mind that you will need as you live in this sin-polluted world. God Is a God Who Writes Last Chapters God loves to write last chapters. Whether it be the last chapter in Samson’s life in pulling down the Temple of Dagon or the restoration of Job’s life to be more than it was at the beginning of Satan’s attack, God specializes in writing last chapters in the lives of those who love Him. I have absolute confidence that the last chapter in my life has not been written yet. The Lord is not yet finished with my life. I also have faith that when it is written, it will bring honor and glory to my King, King Jesus. I am not afraid to die because I know that death is just the ending of Act I. When the curtain is opened on Act II, it will reveal that it was all worth it. All the attacks of the devil will be remembered no more simply because they will fade into the background so very quickly as “real” life truly begins, serving my Lord throughout eternity.

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Chapter Ten The book of the Revelation of John is the ultimate last chapter. It is the last chapter in the Bible. What it describes will be the last chapter in the life of Satan. It tells about the last chapter of sin, diseases, cancer, pain, sorrow, and ungodly interruptions. I look forward to the day when I stand at the throne of my Lord and watch Satan and all his demons cast into the lake of fire and brimstone once and for all time, forever tormented day and night. I will shout with joy, and I think all those around me will too as we watch God pronounce the final sentence on Lucifer. I will shout with glee knowing that all ungodly interruptions are finally over. I think that the cheer rising up from heaven that day from all the Christians whom Satan has plagued will be deafening. Paradise will begin again, just as God had intended in the Garden of Eden, free from sin, pain, disease, sexual immorality, and all of the other things that the devil has showered down on the human race. Yes, God does love to write last chapters. The greatest thing to know is that if you know the Lord as your Savior, then you and I will experience it firsthand. We will see Satan get his reward for tormenting you and me for all those years. His sentence will be an eternity of torment. Revelation 20:10 says, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” and ever and ever, Amen.

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Interrupted Lives One Final Thought God will never permanently interrupt your life with pain, disease, sickness, broken relationships, or any other ungodly thing. But when those things come into your life, know that the Lord will give you the ability to defeat the purpose of Satan and bring God all the glory.

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Addendum

I am interested in the story of your interruption. If you would like to share it with me, please do so. You may contact me at my e-mail address ([email protected]), at my mailing address (238 St. Mary’s Lane, Waverly, Ohio 45690), or through our web site (www.geocities.com/interruptedlives). If the Lord leads, it is possible that there may be another book, with a collection of how each of you has battled your major life’s interruption. If you have had a major, life-changing, permanent interruption (either godly or ungodly), I would like to hear about it.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my editor at American Book Publishing Company, Sherry Gott, for being so extremely patient with this first-time author. We share a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that has made communication easy. She made me work, explore new things and strive for the best that I can offer. Ms. Gott took the time that I needed to help me understand my small portion of publishing this work. I sincerely believe that the Lord handpicked Sherry Gott to work with me though the publishing process. Thank you, Sherry, from the bottom of my heart. But most of all, I want to thank my wife, Ruth Ann, for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself anymore. She has encouraged me when I felt like giving up. She has loved me when I wasn’t very lovable. I thank God for bringing us together twenty-eight years

ago. She has been my proofreader and number-one critic, all to help me be pleasing to the Lord. Living these last fourteen years with a man whom neither one of us ever dreamed I would be has been hard on her. In so many ways, she is so much stronger in her own faith in the Lord because of what we have been through together. I love you with all my heart, my sweet baby girl.

About the Author

Bro. Bill Moore was educated at Wright State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education. Subsequently, he graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in Christian education. He taught in public schools for eight years, was pastor of two churches for ten years, and was the headmaster of a Christian school for four years before the disabilities arising from a bout with cancer forced him to seek an early disability retirement.

Cancer entered into his life fourteen years ago, and the subsequent chemotherapy caused his brain to swell, pushing him into a deep coma during which he lingered in the valley of the shadow of death for six weeks. When he finally did arise from this coma, he was faced with many disabilities related to his damaged brain. He couldn’t walk or write, he could barely talk, and his reflexes were considerably reduced. His once booming voice was barely a whisper. His thought processes were slowed but not reduced. He tried to regain his former skills and abilities but, as is the case with most brain damage, the damaged cells never totally recovered. His life was permanently interrupted by cancer. When Bro. Moore accepted Larry Burkett’s implied challenge in his book Damaged But Not Broken to do a study of biblical personalities whose lives were permanently interrupted by circumstances beyond their control, he applied his seminary training together with his faith in God to expose Satan as the chief architect behind these ungodly interruptions which plague millions of Christians every day. From his study of the lives of seven men faith, he was able to find many applications for those who are facing interruptions of all kinds in their lives. These insights can be of help to anyone whose life has been turned upside down by events that don’t make any sense. If you are tempted to blame God for your interrupted life, think again.