Breaking Point

May 27, 2026

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

Acts 16:25-36 (NIV)

Lately I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of suffering and pain.  Naturally I’ve been reflecting on the following passage:

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:3-5)

And it occurs to me that at times God wants us to suffer.  You may think, “Pastor David, you can’t be serious!  How could that be?  Are you insane?”  For anyone in this camp, have you forgotten all of the remaining eleven disciples were executed except for John?  Have you forgotten God the Father did not even spare his one and only Son from the worst kinds of torment, beatings, persecutions, sufferings and even death on the cross?  Have you forgotten that all of Christ’s friends and earthly family all deserted him, turned their backs on him and left him all alone?  Keep in mind these are his closest people while here on earth.  These are the people Jesus ate with, cared for, shared great experiences with, built incredible ministries with and they all rejected him.

…..then what makes you think serious kinds of sufferings won’t happen to you?

Yes, those are bold words, but many times I quoted from John 16:33 where Jesus tells his followers in this world there will be trouble.  It’s simply unavoidable.  And the other amazing part is – God is good all the time!

Some people may think, but how can that be?  How can God be good all the time when he lets such painful and traumatic events take place?  Does God care?  Where is God?  Of course, he cares and he’s there with you going through these times.

Sometimes you may think God is trying to break you and you’re reaching your breaking point.  You may be surprized when I tell you this, but God is actually building you!  This is what God did with Paul and countless followers in the Old Testament and New Testament.  David had his Goliath, Joseph (Old Testament) had his prison.  Paul was thrown in prison many times and even shipwrecked and here is Paul’s first time being in prison (with Silas).  He was thrown in prison for doing the right thing (casting out a demon), which caused financial unease and an uproar in the local customs.  I think as readers, that just means Christianity was not welcome.

Could you imagine the thoughts racing through Paul and Silas’ minds when they were flogged and thrown into prison?  The text doesn’t say, but I assume nobody visited them.  Nobody asked if they were alright.  I basically assume nobody cared for them – except God!  And that’s all that matters!  Not only did God set them free, but God also built them up to be stronger, tougher, and better equipped to spread the gospel and used this time to make disciples of the jailer and his household.  Of course I skipped over one amazing part that I’m still trying to use on a practical level in my life – verse 25 tells us Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns.  I have to tell you, I’m okay with praying at all times, but I have trouble finding the words to sing when I’m down and gloomy.  Not so with Paul and Silas!

Does God care? He sure does.  But even when times seem bleak and even when you think you’ve reached your breaking point, I believe it’s okay to suffer, because God wants to use this time to be your building point!  And remember, the story is not about you, it’s about God! – We’re just privileged to play small roles in God’s greater story for his glory!

___________________________

R&R

May 20, 2026

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Psalm 127:1-2 (NIV)

Rest and relaxation (R&R) is important!  None of us would function properly without proper rest on a regular basis and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to experience good R&R the more busier our lives become.

I just came across this quote by an unknown author:

“Rest is a weapon given to us by God.  The enemy hates it because he wants us to be stressed and occupied.”

It sounds like a great quote, doesn’t it?  However, I can’t seem to find it in scripture or anything like it in scripture.  And I can’t exactly say it’s incorrect either.  Indeed, I believe rest is a God given gift and indeed I believe Satan delights when Christians (or anyone for that matter) are stressed and occupied, or at least occupied with ungodly matters.

It’s great to know from our text today that the LORD grants sleep to those he loves.  Remember, he just doesn’t give true sleep/rest to anyone, but to those he loves.  He may grant or allow a kind of rest to those he doesn’t love, but indeed a true and deep sleep/rest is given to those he loves.  How can that be?  Well in context verse 1 tell us.  It describes two forms of labours regarding building a house and watching over a city and within both scenarios, God shows he is sovereign.  Moreover, it also shows nothing is accomplished without the LORD’s hand at work.  The most striking part that sticks out to me is it doesn’t say we do the work to build the house.  It doesn’t even say the LORD enables or allows us to do the work, but it says the LORD himself does the work to build a house and a lifestyle for us.

I’m convinced the more we realize how helpless we are and how dependant we are without the LORD, the better we’ll be and the better life will be.  Especially as North Americans, we’re fooled into ever believing we somehow become independent in life upon maturity, adulthood or in any other situation.  Continuous dependency upon others for life is a much more regular and experienced concept in many developing countries.  For instance, there are many South American countries where it’s not uncommon to see three, four and sometimes five generations all living in the same house.  In some places of Cuba if you lived there, you may come home to find a fork or a bag of flour missing from your kitchen and then a week later your neighbour at the door returns it after using it. Such lifestyle patterns of being codependent on others is usually unheard of in North America, and I don’t think it’s an entirely good thing for us.  And I think the more independent we become, the harder it is to see the importance on being dependant on God….so when’s the last time you had a real good rest?  It’s been a while for me, and know I need it.  And although physical rest is good, it cannot replace true rest within the LORD, which is a spiritual and life realigning with him.  I encourage you, please spend time with the LORD today.  Rest and relax!

___________________________

Vying for Your Time

May 13, 2026

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

-Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV)

At any given season we can go through periods when people or things are vying for your time.  If we’ve had an unresolved grievance with someone in our lives sometimes comedians like to say, “ _____ is living rent free in your mind” (fill in the blank with any name of someone).  Of course, that space in our mind doesn’t have to be a person but also can be a circumstance or an item that seemingly needs to be attended to with great focus and energy.  This was the danger for the seeds that fell upon thorns in the Parable of the Weeds story in Matthew 13:7. It says, “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.”  The explanation of this situation was explained in Matthew 13:22 saying, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

And if we’re honest about ourselves, sometimes it’s as if though we can go through periods where we’re consumed by worries, wealth or living too comfortably.  And don’t get me wrong, because caring about people is important.  It’s just that caring about and loving Jesus is more important! – and this is where the conundrum usually happens.  If you truly love someone, wouldn’t you want to spend more and more time with that person if you could?  Now how about with Jesus?  Do you actually want to spend time with Jesus?  Remember when Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42?  Jesus didn’t ignore the responsibilities that Martha was trying to attend to and acknowledging she is worried and upset about many things. Instead, Jesus pointed out the only thing that mattered most – quality time with him.

Moreover, it’s easy to find our minds preoccupied with any xyz things in life.  Watching too many unfruitful movies, tv shows, books, websites, etc., are all vying for your time.  In our text in Philippians 4:8-9 Paul instructs believers to focus on matters that are Godly, gracious and holy and put such learned behaviours into practice!  If you ask me this pairs nicely with Romans 12:1-2.  In particular and for me, the more I spend time in God’s Word (scripture) the more I’m changed for the better, which of course is good, reformed theology.  And the more I do so, the less I spend time in other unfruitful thoughts occupying space in my head rent free!  And we must make every effort to fight for it because our flesh works against us (2 Cor. 10:5) and we naturally do not want to dive into God’s Word and we naturally do not want to be deep in prayer!  I’m as guilty as the next guy at times!  And so I’m fighting for space in my head, with God’s help so God can fill it and dominate my head space….are you?

___________________________

It’s a Process

May 6, 2026

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

-Mark 8:22-26 (NIV)

Whatever happens in any situation in life, my hope is we always remember who is in charge (God) and how infinitely powerful he is.  It’s easy to remember this statement when life is good and everything goes well, but the moment we go through difficulties and challenges we tend to forget that.  In dire moments, times of uncertainty or difficulty, and even when initial results are not up to our own personal standards we may sometimes get fooled into believing there’s been a mistake here, but I’ll just live with the results.  Let me tell you with God’s planning, timing and anything about God there are no mistakes!

In the case of our text in Mark 8:22-26 with this blind beggar at Bethsaida, the encounter with Jesus seems different from all other encounters with Jesus in scripture and you’ll see why.

Now it’s nice that our story starts out with compassion and mentioning some people brought this blind man to Jesus and begged Jesus to touch him.  They knew Jesus had some kind of authority and ability to heal, but the story doesn’t tell us who these people were, but I’m going to assume at the time they didn’t know Jesus was the Messiah.  Thank goodness for the love and care from friends in our lives!  The blindman surely needed that extra care and attention from his friends, and certainly from Jesus!

Verse 23 may seem a bit out of place to some, but we must understand that in God’s wise sovereignty he appoints the time and place to reveal himself.  And so, in this instance, Jesus wanted to keep his identity hidden.  Obviously as readers of scripture looking backward at history, we know that later, his true identity as the Son of God, Saviour of the world and Messiah was fully revealed in various other moments in his earthly ministry and most prominently through his death, resurrection and glorification!

And the seeming peculiarities don’t stop just yet with this story.  Now don’t be too squeamish or grossed-out because our text says Jesus spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him.  We may not know the exact reason why Jesus used this method at first to heal this blind man, but it’s known in ancient times that saliva was regarded as therapeutic and a healing ointment.  We also see Jesus using saliva mixed with mud to heal a blind man in John 9:1-7.  To heal, he also spit and touched the tongue of a man with a speech impediment in Mark 7:33. Note in these three instances, Jesus used saliva on the diseased bodily areas.  Now I can’t exactly suggest performing such maneuvers now and thank goodness for modern medicine practices, but these were the methods used by Jesus in biblical times resulting in miracles.

Lastly and the most peculiar thing about this story is the healing took place over not just one moment (as in the case of all other miraculous healings by Jesus), but it was done over two stages.  In this unique story, it took a process of two stages, or in other words, multiple intimate moments with Jesus.

And I mentioned with God there are no mistakes!  In Jesus’ first stage of healing here, the man saw something (people like walking trees).  Hey, for someone completely blind, I bet just this blurred vision was incredible to him!  But Jesus wasn’t finished yet!  Once again Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes and not because his healing power or sovereignty was flawed or limited during the first stage.  Do I really know why it took two stages this time compared to other healing stories about Jesus?  Actually, I don’t because the text doesn’t mention the reason, but I’m assuming he wanted the man to trust in him and for whatever reason I believe Jesus doesn’t always give you the entire picture right away. 

In God’s sovereign and perfect timing, Jesus appoints moments and snippets of his plan for us to witness in his perfect timing.  And sometimes we need multiple encounters and multiple times of intimacy with Jesus to reveal his big picture for us.  If you encountered the real Jesus before, congratulations, and now how is your vision and outlook in life since before knowing Jesus?  I bet life is a lot better and clearer now.  Do any of us see perfectly in life now?  No, and that’s a good thing.  If we knew everything ahead of time, then we would falsely not need God – remember how the serpent tempted Eve with knowledge in Gen. 3:5?  We don’t want that to happen again.  Trust me, it’s better not to know everything ahead of time, and trust Jesus in the process and know he won’t fail you!  Trust in the process – he’ll lead you to paths of righteousness for his glory’s sake!  You just got to be close to him and spend intimate time with him again and again!
________________________