James & Tess Arendt
The main thing to know is that you're supposed to learn something from sicknesses and troubles, and not just take anything as some kind of accident! I think if anything, the question most people ask themselves is, "God, why did You do this to me?", instead of "Lord, why did I deserve this? Why did I need it?" They're almost offended at God for letting it happen, instead of realising that God is dealing with them. I just figure I deserve every bit of it and a lot more and I'm probably getting off easy.
But some of these people are so self-righteous they wonder, "How could God do such a thing to me? How could the Lord treat me this way when I'm so good to Him?" They actually resent it, like Job did at first. Look what the Lord had to put Job through before he finally was humbled, and confessed that he wasn't more righteous than God. He really thought he was pretty righteous till he went through all that--really until he was willing to die trusting the Lord!
The first thing a lot of people do is give up trusting God and try their damnedest to live! I don't know, maybe I'm too much the other way. If I get chastened I'm inclined to be discouraged and give up too easy and say, "OK, Lord, if I'm not pleasing You, why don't You just take me?" I just figure, "Of course I don't deserve to live, who does?" And I even wonder why the Lord wants to spare me sometimes, because I really figure I don't deserve to live anyhow. I just figure if the Lord doesn't want to keep me going, why bother? I might as well quit!
I guess that is what Job was saying, in a way, "Though He slay me, yet will I Trust Him." In other words, "I'm doing my best to trust Him. If He wants to kill me, He might as well go ahead." Maybe that hasn't got quite the saintly connotation as the statement is usually interpreted, but I don't know, it seems to work. When I get down to that point, then the Lord usually takes the heat off. I guess He figures that's all I can take and He'd better hurry up and heal me or I will die and He'll lose some of His help.--Ha!
Of course, I realise he's trying to train me, discipline me and chasten me to make me do better. But sometimes some chastenings, like Paul confesses in Hebrews 12, are inclined to discourage you and make you give up instead, and like a child, I think sometimes we figure, "As hard as I've been trying to be good, but I still get whacked, so I might as well quit!"--And about that time the Lord always comes to my rescue. Thank you Jesus! Praise the Lord! God bless and keep you and help you to get the message so the Lord can stop spanking!--Amen?
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
If you like this website, you can show your appreciation by sending me a gift toward my support. My wife Tess and I moved from the island of Guam USA in June 2023 to the city of Allen in the province of Northern Samar, one of the poorer provinces in the Philippines. My only work is maintaining my websites, Deep Truths, and James Japan which costs me $300 per year now. And Tess is ministering to the local people giving them regular Bible Studies in three groups, children, teenagers and adults.
Since my wife and I moved to the Philippines, we sent up a new PayPal account to be able to link to our local bank. Unfortunately now all gifts to us must be specially marked, "Friends and Family or we will not receive it. My PayPal ID: james.arendt@jamesjpn.netRead my bio
If you'd like more inspirational material,