~*~ The Heaven of God ~*~

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The Purpose of Trials
http://www.gty.org/AudioPlayer/Podcast/1075


As we begin our study tonight in James chapter 1, you might open your Bible to that wonderful section of Scripture that is filled with so much hope for those of us who go through trouble.

While you're doing that, I want to share a letter with you. A couple of weeks ago, someone called me on the phone in our church and said, "I wonder if you could make a phone call for us to a brother‑in‑law who just had a terrible tragedy in his life."

And I said I would be happy to do that. So I called. And when he picked up the phone, responded, I said, "Hi, this is John MacArthur in California," he was in Colorado. And he was stunned for a moment because he had been listening to the radio and the tapes but had not met me personally, to my knowledge anyway. And he said, "I can't believe this. I can't believe you called me. I'm sitting here at the table writing you a letter."

And the letter came and in the middle of the letter, right in the middle of it it says, "Wow, praise God, this is where you called me." This is on page four of the letter. "I feel like God is telling me something."

Six:fifteen P.M. on the sixteenth of March, 1986, the letter says this:

I would like to tell you a story that begins over a year ago. The story is far too complex for me to write in a letter, at least in all its detail. I would like to share perhaps a paragraph of it with you.

My name is Dan. I met you at Grace Church briefly and I sat four rows back, dead center on December 22, 1985, you remember? My wife was not able to come as she was ill. We have a son, Luke, age 4 and a daughter age 22 months.

In March of 1985, my wife was diagnosed as having a brain tumor in her right cerebellum. On April 3, 1985, Carolyn went into surgery and they removed the tumor along with 80 percent of her right cerebellum.

On Good Friday, April 3, 1985, things were looking good and they moved Carolyn out of the ICU into a regular room. April 5, 1985, I went home to her parents' house around 10:30 P.M. I went in to kiss the kids good night and Sara, then 8 months old, was glassy‑eyed and staring off into space. I thought she was gone. The doctors at Children's Hospital took a spinal tap and said she had Spinal Meningitis. They told me she could die, or have any number of deficiencies. It would take 24 hours to tell if she would survive.


It was then that I really lost control. I could do nothing. As my daughter lay there on an inclined crib, she had splints on her arms and one leg. She had an IV in her left foot, right hand, left hand and scalp. She was tied down with her arms spread and had three monitors on her chest.

I wept. Lord, why her? She's so innocent. I was totally at a loss for answers. There I was trying to keep this from my wife, Carolyn, who was in another hospital. I couldn't. Lord, what would I do? http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/59-5