God loves you and has a difficult plan for your life...

I've just got done reading a fabulous article in the latest Christianity Today magazine about how God uses and even ordains suffering in order to make us into the image of Jesus.

In it, the author, Mark Galli, writes:

Good news seems to be written all over this beginning. According to Mark's account, the first remarkable event in Jesus' life is awash with affirmation. "You are my Son, the Beloved," says the heavenly voice. "With you I am well pleased" (1:11).

This voice literally "ripped open" the heavens to say this, as if he could hardly wait to visit a blessing on his Son. And then something heavenly settled on that tender frame. It looked like a dove—maybe like the dove that let Noah know that the drowned planet was getting a fresh start. Whatever it looked like, it was like the Spirit who hovered over the original creation, like something new, fresh, and vibrant was about to begin.

On top of that, Mark says that the words spoken to Jesus were very personal, very intimate. The Father speaks directly, perhaps affectionately to his Son: "You are my beloved."

Beloved!

"With you I am well pleased."

Well pleased.

Again we hear echoes of the voice that looked over the splendor of the new creation and, on the bright dawn of the seventh day, pronounced, "It is very good."

Mark seems to be saying that Jesus is the beloved, upon whom heaven is showering blessing upon blessing, before whom the future spreads out in unimaginable possibility...

Most Bible versions put a visual break—an extra space or new heading—after Jesus' baptism. As a result, we don't usually connect the baptism with what comes next. But there is no break in the ancient manuscripts. Immediately after the glorious baptism comes this:

"And immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness."

This is the same Spirit who just a moment earlier is the visible image of the Father's love, sent by the Father to show Jesus he is beloved, pleasing, a splendor to behold, symbolizing the pristine beginning of something wonderfully new.

Now this Spirit drives the beloved Son into the desert. Literally, in the Greek, Jesus was "cast out" from the warmth of home and friends, from comforts of town and village. He was denied even moral and spiritual support—the Torah, the synagogue, the wisdom of the town elders, even, it seems, the comfort of the heavenly Father's presence. He is driven into wilderness, deserted by love, to face a hostile adversary alone.

And not just any adversary, but the most powerful and sinister of enemies. Mark's version of Jesus' temptation doesn't tell us much about the strategy of this Evil One, at least as directly as do those of Matthew and Luke. For Mark it is enough to describe his fearsome incarnation: If the Spirit comes to Jesus in the form of a dove, Satanic temptation comes to him in the form of wild beasts.

And yet, Jesus was well loved. And so are we! God NEVER wastes pain. God absolutely knows what he is doing as my father-in-law breathed his last, as my dog faced death, as the tormented 18 year old boy in Middlebrook Hall jumped to his death the day before Thanksgiving...HE HAS TO KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING! My only hope in times like these is that our God is in complete control and is taking us through these things to make us more like Jesus in the power of His resurrection.

Our only recourse in times like this is to fully trust him like a little child. I do not understand. I do not feel good about it. My flesh cries out, "WHY!" But my heart KNOWS that God is all powerful, God is all-good, and that HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING. He is worthy of our trust in the midst of serious trial.

Challenged to know Christ, and the the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings (Philippians 3:10),

Steve