Quote from Forum Archives on April 25, 1999, 7:49 pm

Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

Standing Shoulder To Shoulder With You In The Trenches
As We fight The Good Fight

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #67 ---- 4/26/99

TITLE: "The Confidence of Comfort"

My Dear Friend and Partner in Ministry:

It is nearly 10:30 p.m. Sunday night as I begin writing to you. For the
second week in a row, my schedule has been so full that I have been
unable to begin writing early in the week as I normally do. But I write
with no less excitement tonight than at any other time. How could I do
less to such an honor and blessing?

I am, frankly, stunned and overwhelmed by the responses I continue to
receive regarding this weekly letter. My heart is full, and I am deeply
humbled by some of the deep-felt comments that have been shared regarding
so many different struggles and circumstances that have been shared with
me.

It all makes me so thankful that God put this ministry in my heart. I
can't imagine what it would be like to not have the responsibility ----
no, the opportunity ---- to share my heart with you each week.

Something very special is happening in my own growth and understanding as
I write these letters to you. I am discovering a totally new,
bind-boggling, and unexplainable phenomenon that often takes place
between believers. It is not restricted to geography, circumstance, age,
background, or even acquaintance. It transcends them all.

In a sentence, "The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are
the children of God." This is an incredible truth ---- the Holy Spirit
lets both you and me know that we each belong to God; that is true.

However, an equally incredible truth is that the same Holy Spirit lets
you and me know that we are family ---- and, believe it or not, we can
love each other, care for each other, and pray for each other ---- even
though we don't "know" each other.

Because even though we don't know each other in the human realm, we do
know each other in the spiritual realm of the Body of Christ, the Church.

Isn't that an amazing truth???

Oh, I know we both acknowledge it in our minds, but, frankly, it's
doubtful that we understand it in our minds, and it is most certain we
don't fully comprehend it in our spirits.

Our God is, indeed, an awesome God! Thank You, Father!

THE NEED FOR COMFORT:

Each of us face times when we need comfort.

What is comfort?

Literally, "comfort" means "to relieve distress; to console".

You would certainly agree that, in life in general, and in ministry in
particular, there are times when we need to be comforted ---- we need to
find some relief to our distress; we need to be consoled and encouraged.

Earlier tonight, as I spoke to the church where I am presently serving as
interim pastor, I spoke on that very subject. This is a congregation
that has a 40+ hear history of ups and downs, of short pastorates, and
varying dynamics of conflict, discouragement, and re-grouping.

If any church ever needed encouragement, it is this one.

Their most recent pastor resigned in February, after an extraordinary
move of revival and spiritual awakening which was subsequently squelched
and then was followed by one and one-half years of struggle and agony.

I knew this young man casually; he was a fellow student with our
daughter, Cheri. Last year I stopped by two or three times to just visit
and encourage him.

However, I could see in his eyes ---- a weariness ---- a discouragement
---- a sense of futility ---- a deep sadness that what they had once
experienced was now only a dim memory of glory past.

Little did I realize at that time that I would be called by God to come
in after the pain and heart ache of "encouraged" resignation to minister
to the people who remained. I really expected to be ministering to him
instead.

As I anticipated that first Sunday when I was invited to simply "fill the
pulpit", I expected to walk into a building filled with people who were
angry and at each other's throats.

Instead, I found a group of people who were beleaguered, distraught,
discouraged, bewildered, and in great pain. They were, in may ways,
"like sheep without a shepherd".

My heart immediately went out to them.

And, our God was so very gracious to give me, for four straight weeks,
eight messages encasing words of hope and encouragement. From the very
first service I began to detect immediate response to God's precious
promises of assurance and hope.

It was like I was standing off to the side ---- watching hope and
possibility rise again in the hearts of those dear saints as I shared
from God's Word. I do not remember such an occasion as this ever before
in my ministry.

It was obvious that this was not the time or place to try to determine
who was right and who was wrong ---- who was responsible and who was
victimized.

They needed one thing ---- hope cradled in comfort for their tormented
minds, their frayed emotions, and their demoralized wills.

So, they were amazed tonight when I told them that the word "comfort" is
used 47 times in the Bible ---- enough times to validate that truth as
one of great importance and worthy of attaining.

Perhaps you, too, are emotionally a part of this little band, though
separated by miles and circumstances.

Are you void of answers? You need comfort.

Are you angry over something? You need comfort.

Are you in deep sorrow and grief? you need comfort.

Are you standing in disbelief? You need comfort.

Are you without a clue as to what the future holds? You need comfort.

Is there hardness and coldness in your heart? You need comfort.

You see, my friend, there is a time and place for confrontation, for
exposure of sin, for correction.

But, there is also a time for comfort.

And now is one of those times.

God opened up this concept to me just as I was beginning an interim
pastorate in Kansas City back in late 1993 ---- in a church that had also
gone through a heart-breaking experience in losing a pastor. It was such
a joy to try to bring hope to those folks.

The second time I preached on the subject was in January of 1995 to a
group of missionaries in the Ukraine, followed by a third time in a
little struggling church in Severine na Kupa, Croatia in November of
1997.

Tonight was the fourth time. You are the fifth occasion ----
interestingly, five is the number for "Grace". May God be gracious to
you as you read on.

I'd like to address four basic thoughts regarding Comfort:

1. The Source of Comfort.

2. The Channels of Comfort.

3. The Significance of Comfort.

4. The Availability of Comfort.

I. THE SOURCE OF COMFORT:

In studying the concept of comfort, I found that there are three basic
sources for comfort ---- Internal, External, and Eternal.

1. Internal Comfort is that which somehow comes from within one's self,
primarily from four different sources ---- the mind, memories, emotions,
and determination.

1) The mind offers comfort through positive thinking, good thoughts,
and pulling one's self up by his own boot straps. However, the problem
comes when we recognize that the mind is changeable ---- and therefore,
unreliable.

2) Memories also offer comfort. We remember the good times ---- the
way things used to be when all was good. However, memories also fail us
when offering true comfort, because, first of all, memories are mixed,
and second, memories ultimately only remind us again of the way things
are now.

3) Emotions can offer comfort as we try to gain it through nostalgia.
However, that's no good, because, at their very best, emotions are
volatile and totally unpredictable from one moment to another.
Therefore, depending on emotions and feelings for comfort causes us to be
victim to the whims of circumstances and mood.

4) Determination, or the act of the will, can offer some measure of
comfort, but, again, because determination depends primarily on how we
react to conditions, events, and circumstances, it is totally unreliable
when it comes to offering something so precious and desired as true
comfort.

So, in a nutshell, we'd have to admit that comfort that comes from within
ourselves is totally inadequate, and, frankly, totally useless. It only
adds to our misery.

So, let's consider another source.

2. External Comfort ---- which depends primarily on Things, Activities,
Circumstances, and People.

Again, we have some problems.

1) Things don't understand; they don't feel. They also lose their
value, and they ultimately disappear. So, to look to things for comfort
( ---- which so many people do, by the way ---- ) is to put your trust in
something that rusts, decays, breaks, and eventually gathers dust.

2) Activities offer some degree of comfort ---- but, in reality, it's
little more than distraction and preoccupation. And, activities are
limited by available time, energy, and resources. When you run out of
time, energy, and resources to sustain the activities, they cease. And
comfort again disappears. Activities are no substitute for true comfort.

3) Circumstances, if they happen to be the right kind, also seem to
offer a measure of comfort. But ---- what happens when the circumstances
change? What happens when your health fails? What happens if your
ministry is taken from you?

Because circumstances also change and are often fickle, dependent fully
on the whims, values, goals, and desires of other people who control
them, our search for comfort in circumstances is like grasping for a
vapor in the air.

4) Finally, people often offer comfort. However, people are not
always there. They have their own lives. They're not always in a state
of mind to help you. And, finally, they can let you down and disappoint
you. To choose people as your source for comfort is very dangerous,
because you are placing your hope in human beings with feet of clay and
often with a focus that is purely temporal.

So, again, we must look elsewhere.

3. Eternal Comfort.

Now we're getting somewhere!

II Thes 2:16-17 says, "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself ( ---- I
like that! ---- HImself! ---- ) and God our Father ( ---- our Father!
---- )Who has loved us and given us ***Eternal Comfort*** and good hope
by His grace ***Comfort*** and strengthen your hearts in every good work
and word."

Now, my friend, as one old preacher said ---- "That'll preach!" Just
take time to exegete that passage. There is so much truth there in every
phrase and every word that I dare not dig into it.

II Corinthians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies ---- And ---- AND ---- the God of ***All***
comfort;"

Psalm 23:4 says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I fear no evil for Thou art with me; Thy Rod and Thy Staff, they
Comfort me."

The Rod gave comfort because it had two purposes ---- Identification, and
Correction.

Nothing gave the sheep a greater sense of comfort and confidence than to
feel the touch of the rod on it's back as the shepherd counted the sheep
to make sure they were all there as they came back into the fold. I can
just hear it's thoughts ---- "He knows me! He recognizes me! He knows
I'm his, and I'm here!"

Likewise, when the rod was used to correct the sheep for getting out of
line, it gave that sheep a sense of comfort to recognize the shepherd
cared enough to correct it when wrong.

The Staff gave comfort because it also had two purposes ---- Security,
and Rescue.

The staff gave the shepherd balance while walking the rocky paths. It
could be used to fend off poisonous snakes and wild animals. It could be
used to flip aside rocks that made walking treacherous.

The staff also gave comfort because, as long as the shepherd had it with
him, the sheep knew that if it ever feel into a crevasse, the shepherd
could always get him out and rescue him by using the crook on the end.

So ---- it becomes immediately evident that there is only one source for
true comfort. You won't find it through internal or external sources
---- but only through the Eternal sources of our Heavenly Father.

Friend, no matter how hard you try to find comfort in other things ----
busy-ness, hobbies, harder work, gaining more approval, gathering more
things ---- you are doomed to fail.

Your only hope for comfort is in the strong and mighty arms of an Eternal
God.

II. CHANNELS OF ETERNAL COMFORT:

God makes His comfort available to us at all times in every circumstance.
He does it through one or more of the following channels:

1. God as our Father. Nobody can comfort a hurting child like a loving
Father. My own father, now 84, told me several years ago that the one
thing he was enjoying most about his Christian walk at the moment, after
62 years of faithful ministry, was discovering God as his Heavenly
Father.

Tragically, many have a distorted view of their Heavenly Father because
they had perverted experiences with their earthly father. They were lied
to, had promises broken, were condemned and put down.

As a result, it is so difficult for some to fully appreciate and receive
the role of God as their perfect Heavenly Father who loves them with a
perfect love and cares for them with perfection attention.

2. The Lord Jesus Christ. When He announced His public ministry in the
Synagogue, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61. Part of that announcement
included the fact that He had been uniquely and especially anointed to
"comfort those who mourn".

In II Corinthians 1:5 Paul declared, "Just as the sufferings of Christ
are ours in abundance, So Also Is Our ***Comfort*** abundant through
Christ.

3. The Indwelling Holy Spirit. In Acts 9:31 the Apostle Luke tells us
that the church " . . . enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in
the fear of the Lord And in the Comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued
to increase!"

Twice in John 14 (verses 16 and 26) Jesus described the Holy Spirit as
being "The Comforter".

4. The Word of God. In Romans 15:4 Paul says, " . . . that through the
Encouragement (Comfort) of the Scriptures we might have hope."

Psalm 119 is the greatest and most comprehensive chapter in the Bible on
God's Word (statutes, commandments, etc.) Read verses 50, 52, 76, and
82. They all refer to God's Word bringing comfort.

5. Finally, Other Believers. Simply put, Paul told the Thessalonian
believers in I Thess 4:18, "Comfort one another with these words."

What wonderful channels God has made available through which we can
receive His Eternal Comfort in times of need.

III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMFORT:

Why is comfort so necessary and so significant? For four very good
reasons.

1. The past cannot be changed. What's done is done. There is nothing
you can do to change it, no matter how hard you try. So, the best thing
you can hope for regarding past experiences that were painful is to find
comfort.

2. Facts and Events cannot be reversed. Again, no matter what kind of
gimmick you try to use, you can undo what has been done. You can regret
them, you can be sorry for them, you can be angry over them, you can deny
them, you can try to justify them, you can ignore them. But they remain
the same. The only thing you can do is receive comfort in them.

3. Today is here, and life goes on for you ---- with you or without you.
You must live in the here and now with the consequences or blessings of
the past. What you need to day is comfort, not rationalization, denial,
justification, or explanation. You cannot deny it ---- today is here.
It must be lived. Life goes on ---- yes, even for you. Will you face it
cradled in comfort or tormented with sorrow, grief, guilt, or resentment?

4. The future must be ---- and will be ---- faced. You will face it
emotionally, vocationally, relationally, and spiritually. You cannot
avoid it, your cannot ignore it. You cannot turn into an inanimate
object or a depersonalized vegetable.

It may be that the only way you can face the future is to know beyond any
doubt that God is there to comfort you with a comfort that is not of this
world. You must embrace it.

IV. THE AVAILABILITY OF ETERNAL COMFORT:

One of my very special and favorite passages is II Corinthians 4:7-15.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (clay pots), that the
surpassing greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

"Perplexed, but not despairing;

"Persecuted, but not forsaken;

"Struck down, but not destroyed;

"Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the Life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our body."

(Read the rest of that wonderful passage.)

Paul then concludes that chapter by saying, beginning in verse 16,
"Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of
glory ----Far Beyond All Comparison,

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, ---- but the
things which are not seen are eternal!"

IN CONCLUSION:

Therefore, my dear friend ---- be comforted with the comfort of Jesus!

Listen to the great weeping prophet, Jeremiah (31:13) ---- "I will turn
their mourning into joy! ---- And ---- will Comfort them! ---- and give
them Joy for sorrow! I will fill the soul . . . with abundance, and My
People will be satisfied with my goodness", declares the Lord!

Hallelujah, and Praise the Lamb!

Dear friend ---- receive your comfort. Your comfort. It is yours ----
today ---- right now!

It is some six hours now, at this writing, since I shared these truths
with that church. Shortly following the services, the chairman of
deacons came to me and simply said ---- "Thanks for that message. I
needed that."

He went on to say that just today he had discovered that his son and
daughter-in-law were in serious marital stress. His heart was broken.
He needed to know that God knew ---- that God cared ---- and that God
would comfort him during this time of heart ache.

He does. He will. And ---- He is.

Have a wonderful week, my friend ---- and be comforted with God's comfort
which He has allowed me to offer to you.

Getting it first hand is even better.

In His Bond of Mercy and Grace,

Bob

Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright April, 1999. All rights reserved.

If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.

If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.

__
/ |
(_/____)
/ ^ ^
{ (O) (O) }
------oOOOo--------U-------oOOOo------

Hang in there! I'm with you!

-------.ooooO--------------- Ooooo--------
( ) /
| | /
(_) (_)

TO SUBSCRIBE, send any message to <[email protected]>.

Bob Tolliver ---- Rom 1:11-12
Life Unlimited Ministries
E-mail: [email protected]

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]