{"id":14,"date":"2006-06-25T20:43:21","date_gmt":"2006-06-26T02:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/?p=14"},"modified":"2007-01-27T20:51:02","modified_gmt":"2007-01-28T02:51:02","slug":"contrasting-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/contrasting-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrasting Troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned Friday, I will be gone this week, so this is the last post you’ll see from me for a bit.<\/P>
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Today was a great service.  We had a lot of new people involved, including a couple youth who hadn’t been involved before and they did a great job.  Our high school (soon-to-be-college) guitar player did very well on a guitar lick for one of the songs.  The song list was:<\/P>
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Stir Up a Hunger – Baloche
You’re Worthy of My Praise – Ruis
Receive the Glory – Kauflin
At All Times – Beeching (I think)
It Is Well – Horatio Spafford
You Shine – Doerkson<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Pastor John spoke about the fact that everything we think about our troubles, God contrasts our thoughts with His.  When we think our troubles are going to last forever, God lets us know that they are only temporary and will be gone before we know it.  When we think our burdens are extremely heavy, God lets us know that they are light, for He carries them.<\/P>
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What an extraordinary God we have!  A thought I had, though, was what do people consider “troubles” or “burdens?”  Do they consider not getting along with their manager at work a “trouble,” even though they might be the ones with a bad attitude towards the boss?  Do they consider being in debt “trouble,” even though they lack self-control that could have kept them out of debt?<\/P>
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My point is not to belittle those who might be in debt for a reason that really was a true burden, or those who might really have an extremely difficult supervisor, but to point out that sometimes the “troubles” we have come because we don’t think of consequences.  Those are not the kind of troubles that Paul was talking about in this passage from 2 Corinthians.<\/P>
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God takes away our true burdens, but we have a responsibility to worship Him by thinking about the consequences of our actions.<\/P>
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But the amazing thing about our God is that, even though we might have to face consequences because of bad choices, He still loves us and carries us!<\/P>
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Again, what an extraordinary God we have!<\/P><\/p>\n