Jumat, 25 November 2011

Blind alley situation (from sermon idea.com)

At various turns in life we enter blind alley situations. Blind alleys are those circumstances in which we are cornered by no action of our own, but the unfair unjust circumstances of life take us on a path in which we cannot see an escape.
Often we are frustrated by life's blind alleys. They are the circumstances that result in bad things happening to good people. That's the essence of a tragedy, when a bad thing happens to a good person. It's what happened to Job. He was a good man who faced a blind alley situation. Bad things were happening to him repeatedly, death, financial disaster, loss of family and many other problems. There was no place to escape and no place to turn. Yet, even in the blind alley of life, Job resolved to remain faithful to the Lord. The poor widow woman faced a similar blind alley. With no money or resources she did all she knew how to do. Finally she gather two sticks and her last cruz of oil and prepared to make a final cake of bread for herself and her children.
Every believer knows what it's like to face a blind alley situation where you are helpless against powers greater than yourself, defenseless with little room for escape or retreat and your every action is falsely interpreted with often terminal results.
What's your blind alley? Is it a sickness that you cannot overcome?
Is it a financial loss that seems colossal?
Is it an unwarranted attack by enemies upon you or your family?
At first glance, we are frustrated by blind alley situations. Why is it that the just suffer injustice?
Why is it that the good suffer at the hand of the bad?
Why is it that those who labor in the vineyard of life seem to have such a difficult time?
Why doesn't God help the helpless avoid blind alleys?
These are questions we all face when we find ourselves in life's alley looking down the barrel of situations that are being used against us, to an undesirable end. What purpose comes from allowing a believer to wander into a blind alley only to fall into the hands of enemies?
That was the question that the disciples asked in John 9:1-7 when they noticed a blind man who stumbled through the alleys all of his life. They wanted to know the purpose of situation. Was it a family sin that brought this upon him? Did he do something wrong? Jesus answered by saying that the man's entire purpose in life was to provide an opportunity for Christ to do a great work through his circumstance and thus bring salvation to many.
Since each of us has a purpose in life, our blind our alley situation could very well be the one circumstance that God uses to correct wrongs that exist for generations to come. He did it so many times. People received a new view of mentally disabled people when Jesus cured the man who ran wild in cemeteries. They began to see the mentally disabled as human beings. The woman at the well came from a blind alley circumstance, but Christ used her social stigma to show the value of every human being, even those once thought dispensable. Even Lazarus was allowed to die to demonstrate the power of the Lord over life and death situations.
The great preacher Robert Schuler, underwent a sickness that incapacitated him for a while. In the interim he wrote a book by the title, "Life is not fair, but God is good."
That should be our resolve, Life may present us with unjust situations, but God is still good!
When we reach blind alley situations and can't see our way out, we only have one resolve, to "lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help, my help cometh from the Lord who made the heaven and earth."

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