with Christ, but as long as you remain in the body, your family and friends have something to learn.  Something of eternal importance."
 
The Power of Example
     So many in our culture of comfort are not surviving crises.  Slump-shouldered and near defeat, they need the power of example.  They need to see someone experiencing greater conflict than themselves make it.  "We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (Heb. 6:12).
     If people are floundering in the mire of their problems, if they are infected by a spirit of complaint, or if they are (GOD forbid) lazy like the battle-weary believers mentioned in Hebrews, they need to be reminded that the power of GOD works - really works, not in theory, but in reality - in someone else's life.  It's a good "reason why" behind our suffering.  Karla Larson is a powerful example.
     "Do you realize GOD needs you?" I asked her.
     "He doesn't need anybody."
     "Look up another verse. Colossians 1:24."
     "Okay, here it is," Karla said after she found the verse. ... Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church."'
     She reread it silently then looked up.  "Huh?"
     "Nothing is lacking when it comes to what Christ did on the cross.  It is finished, just as He said, but something is lacking when it comes to showcasing the salvation story to others.  Jesus isn't around in the flesh, but you and I are.  When we suffer and handle it with grace, we're like walking billboards advertising the positive way GOD works in the life of someone with inspiration," I stammered, groping for words.  "It's you.  Because we are one in the body of Christ, we are linked together.  Your victories become mine" (I Cor. 12:26).
 
[CCCInc. Note: 1Cor12:12-28a qualify His true, holy body living 1Jn3:6 in Him.]
 
     No man is an island.  We are all connected.  "For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone" (Romans 14:7).  The purpose of life is to live for others.  Jesus showed us that.  Especially "Others" who are stiff-necked and stubborn against Him.  First Corinthians 1:27 talks about them:  "For GOD chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; GOD chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him."
 
For the Sake of Others
     After Karla and I prayed, she turned her wheels to go.  "I'm going to think about what we covered," she said over her shoulder as she went ahead.  I watched as a few of Karla's friends who had brought her to our retreat gathered around her.  One of them gave her a bottle of water, a straw, and a hug.  It is better, it is necessary for them that Karla remains.
     Something nagged, though.  Does this make hurting people nothing more than audiovisual aids in the hands of a utilitarian GOD?  Object lessons from which others can learn?  Do suffering people keep emptying themselves as mere role models of inspiration?  What does Karla stand to gain?  
 
[CCCInc. Note: We must copy Christ into His death to be worthy of His life Rom6, then we must be fellow-partakers
1Cor10+11 or 2Cor4:11 or 1Pet4:12.]
 
     I hearkened back to the example of Paul.  After he acknowledged it was more necessary that he remain in order to strengthen and encourage others, he added.  "I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me"  (Phil. 1:25).
     I like that part "on account of me."  What others gain from observing Karla gets credited to her eternal account.
     If they profit, she gains.  If they are rewarded, she reaps.  If they are lifted up, she is raised with them.  She shares in the blue ribbon for the fruit borne in their lives.  This is why the Apostle Paul spoke of those in whom he invested his life as "his joy and crown" (Phil. 4:1).  Other people are our crown!
 
[CCCInc. Note: Willing suffering in His purity is qualified in Rom8:17 2Tim2:12a explaining Dan12:3 Rev11:7
(Dan8:24; 11:31; 12:7) into Rev20:6.]
 

     "Praise be to the GOD and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the GOD of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from GOD.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which produces in you endurance of the same sufferings we suffer" (2 Cor. 1:3-6).
     "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  who, being in the very nature GOD, did not consider equality with GOD something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant... He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!  Therefore GOD exalted Him to the highest place" (Phil.
2:5-9).
     All the power, honor, glory, blessing and riches showered upon Christ on His crowning day, all of it, overflowing all the universe, we will share in.  What is it worth?  "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).
     GOD never would have chosen suffering as a path for His people, but since humans opted for that detour, since suffering is now part of what it means to be a homo sapiens, GOD is going to use it.  Not halfheartedly, but in delight.  For as dark and pernicious as it is, GOD will squash suffering like a grapefruit in the face of the devil, turning it inside out into something sweet, delightful, and heavenly.  If suffering can't be avoided, GOD's going to redeem it to usher us into the highest echelons of heaven.
     "GOD has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that each part should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it" (I Cor. 12:24-26).
     As the Church exercises its muscles in sacrificial service, it rises to its calling, it steps into the grand purpose for which it was designed.  As it does, GOD smiles.  Suffering is being squelched.  Pain is being purged.  And the darkness which chokes the hearts and blinds the eyes is being pushed back.  When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, an orderly list of "sixteen good Biblical reasons as to why this is happening" can sting like salt in a wound.  You don't stop the bleeding that way.  A checklist may be okay when you're looking at your suffering in a rearview mirror, but when you're hurting in the present tense, "Let me explain why this is happening" isn't always livable.
     We must use the Bible's answers from GOD.  The problem of suffering is not about some thing, but Someone.  It
follows that the answer must not be one thing, but Someone.  "Knowing our Lord Jesus Christ" is keeping your eye on the Sculptor - not on the suffering, or even suffering's benefits.
     GOD, like a father, doesn't give advice.  He gives Himself.  He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5).  He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1).  He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14).  He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5).  He is the healer to the sick (Exod. 15:26).  He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).
     This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish:  you respond to the plea of their heart by giving them your heart.  If you are the One who's the center of the universe, holding it together, if everything moves, breathes, and has its being in you, you can do no more than give yourself (Acts 17:28).
     Jesus lost His life.  Thankfully, He was not scorched by death.  He burst back to life.  What power!  If I'm to be held steady in the midst of my suffering, I want to be held not by a doctrine or a cause but by the most powerful person in the universe.
     Amazing love, how can it be?  That GOD should plunge the knife in His heart for me - all the while, me dry and indifferent, cool and detached.  That He, the GOD of life, should conquer death by embracing it.  That He should destroy the power of sin by letting it destroy Him.  This is "the foolishness of GOD... wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of GOD stronger than man's strength" (I Cor. 1:25).
     Once heaven has our attention, a fervid anticipation for GOD's ultimate reality - appearing with Him in glory - beings outgrow, making everything earthly pale in comparison.  Earth's pain keeps crushing our hopes, reminding us this world cannot satisfy; only heaven can.  And every time we begin to nestle too comfortably on this planet, GOD cracks open the locks of the dam to allow an ice-cold splash of suffering to wake us from our spiritual slumber.
 
Excerpted from When GOD Weeps:  Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty by Joni Eareckson Tada
and Steven Estes ©1997, published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

THE WAR CRY/ PASSOVER 1998  
 

     Recently I was asked to co-sign a statement on Biblical manhood and womanhood prepared and signed by several dozen evangelical scholars and leaders. The document's constitution-like set of scriptural affirmations and denials aimed to answer the modern need for clarification of the roles of each gender in a society where the distinct place of each has become blurred.
     I almost signed. In light of the clear, contemporary call of the Holy Spirit to awaken Christian men to their role as men, I so wanted to add my name to such a needed statement!
     But I ended up writing the brother who had invited my endorsement: "Sorry, I can't do it." As good as the work was I believe it was only almost right.
     The central weakness of the document, in my view, was a proposition stating that the Bible's placement of men as first, in terms of providing leadership, is based on a supposedly GOD-ordered preferential appointment of male over female at the time of creation. In other words, the paper's position was not simply that man has been assigned a leadership role in GOD's order, but that he was created with it. When I read this, my mental brakes locked and I screeched to a stop.
     My concern was more than academic. With the welcomed and widespread rise of attention coming to men's ministries throughout the body of Christ today, I rejoice in any call to Biblical manhood. I say, "Amen!" Let's retool every man for it, with all the implications true Biblical manhood holds for husbands and fathers in assuming their responsible role - and for every believing man in responding to the Master's call to devotion, discipleship and dutiful evangelism.
     And let's assert that men are to lead - to step forth first - not as substitutes for women, but as servants who lead the way so that others realize GOD's fullest potential for them. Men are ordained to lead. But the fact that the Word of GOD calls men "first" should not be founded on a worn-out ecclesiastical dogma persisting today. This "firstness" and its way of service must be established on divine revelation - on the facts of Scripture, not on the chauvinistic disposition of church tradition.
     GOD's intent. Let me put it plainly: There is no way that male authority or leadership over women can be properly deduced from the Bible as being the original intent of GOD. The Bible does show man as being assigned a distinct initiating responsibility with reference to the woman, but he is not assigned a higher authority. The combined records of the creation in Genesis 1-2 establish two facts about the first pair:
     * They were given equal authority (see Gen. 1:27,28).
     * The man was assigned a distinct responsibility. He was the one responsible to relay, share and beget this mutuality of partnership with the woman, who, solely by reason of creative sequence, arrived later (see Gen. 2:7-25).

     In short, before the fall of man the divine order for rule, for dominion, for leadership was entirely equal between the first man and woman. Theirs was an untainted joint-rule over all the earth and the affairs assigned to them by the Creator. At the creation there was no submission of the woman to the man enjoined - only the submission of both to their Maker, and to His divine order for the fulfilling of their destiny. ("Egalitarian" is the term often used by those who hold that men and women have equal roles, and this original order was exactly that. But please note: I am not arguing for the "egalitarianism" being demanded by evangelical feminists, as the following paragraphs will attest).
     A new order. In contrast to the male/female partnership in dominion before the fall of man, a new order was decreed by Father GOD after the fall - an order which both assigns the man's role to lead and, at the same time, asserts that the woman will likely chafe under the new order. Genesis 3:16 not only introduces the woman to the fact that childbirth with travail will now be hers (something her pre-fall condition might have averted), but another pre-fall condition is altered by the words "your desire shall be toward your husband."
     This phrase has been subjected to many interpretations, but too seldom the correct one. The Hebrew verb teshuquah essentially asserts a quest for dominance: "You will want to overcome or over-rule your husband-to lead him." It's an obvious reference to the fact that because she had held an equal role, GOD's new post-fall edict would be a tough pill for her to swallow. And understandably so, given that an inner sense of equality in dominion was created in both the male and female of the human species (not to mention the fact that both have been given equal creative potential and skills for leading to this day).
     But GOD was establishing a new order, intended for the redemptive process He was setting in place - in contrast to the originally arranged creative order which had been violated and rendered dysfunctional. In other words, the man's leading role was not by virtue of creation, but rather was instituted as a provisional part of the redemptive process GOD set forth.
     If one holds that the male is to lead because he is preferred by sovereign choice, the obvious question is: "What is the desired, ultimate objective in this structure of things - benevolent mastery?" Truthfully answered, that can be the only possible conclusion if the original order puts the man over the woman. And such a proposition carries with it a whole trainload of problems, not only where the concept is misapplied, but in the limits it reaches when it finally arrives at its "best case" goal: half the race is kept at a slightly inferior place.
     In contrast, if GOD assigned the male's leadership role after the fall as a means of setting forth a redemptive policy, a much higher goal is plainly in view. The target of GOD's postfall assignment of the man's responsibility to lead (not with privileged power or authority, but in the likeness of Christ, who came not to master but to serve) is clearly the recovery of the original order - of both male and female being restored to equal dominion.[if Ps66:12 into 91:1 or Gen3:24 Rom14:17.]
     In my small book, A Man's Starting Place (Living Way, 1992), I expand on this concept which I believe is not only fully scriptural, but ends in accomplishing what we would expect GOD's redemptive operations to always achieve: the fullest dignity and nobility for every human being who opens to this program of full salvation [1Thes 5:23] through His Son, Jesus Christ.
     An awakening. This month I'll be one of nearly 50,000 men who will meet for the National Men's Conference in Boulder, Colorado, July 30-31. I'll not only be there because I'm privileged to be asked to address this incredible gathering, but because I like the fundamental premise inherent in the name of the organization calling the men together: "Promise Keepers."
     I'm not suggesting that Promise Keepers has made a specific statement like mine in this article, but it is clear that their focus is in the spirit of the distinction I've drawn here. They are targeting the cultivation of a generation of men who keep their commitments, who serve their purpose under Christ and who see their leadership role as servants and not as masters.

     I am of the conviction that this "men's awakening" (for that's what many are calling it) is one of the most pivotal things happening in the Holy Spirit's strategy for the close of this century.
     Yes Sir, my brother, go for it! Rise to take your leading role. And as we do that together, expect the end result to be the fullest realization of both men and women's purposes under GOD. Not the submersion of one sex at the expense of the other, as though GOD had ordained one as secondary - but the emersion of men and women as partners unto GOD's highest destiny for all of us in Christ. [if 1Jn2:6]
 

     In the authentic letters of Paul, women are singled out by name and given titles the same as or comparable to those held by male leaders. Prisca, a traveling missionary, is described by Paul as a peer, a "co-worker." Phoebe, in Cenchreae, is called a diakonos, a title Paul also gives himself.