I'll Trust Him Whatever Befall/Some Notes from "Heaven" by Joni Earakson Tada

Trying to add thoughts on this to other post with "Pinnacle of Pain." If it doesn't work, I will be back.

I've been away for a few days and now think this is ok as a separate post. That title comes from a hymn that came to my mind that one and only (horrible) day that I visited the cemetery. I started singing it before I even realized what the hymn was: "I sing through the shade and the sunshine, I'll trust Him whatever befall, I sing for I cannot be silent, My Father planned it all." I also used the title "My Father Planned It All" on another post which is the title of the hymn. I am going to take a break and edit the "Pinnacle of Pain" post.

All set-I guess my point of this, is that we don't really know what is good or bad in the grand scheme of things. We have general ideas, but God is the one in control and it's all about Him. This reminds me of an excellent section I read in this book called "Heaven" by Joni Erickson Tada that I want to record here. It was life-changing.

Anyway, God had a very good reason for taking you. He wouldn't have allowed this much pain in vain. "I Surrender All" is playing on Pandora right now. "All to Thee, my Blessed Savior, I surrender all." Take whatever you want, Lord-it's yours to begin with anyway. What do I have that didn't come from your loving hand? It makes me think of Pastor's example of how we are in the Father and in the Son, like in his hand covered by one hand of the Father and one hand of the Son. Nothing can come to us but through those two hands. What a comfort-I wouldn't want to think that something could get to us that He didn't allow. That's frightening. Like in that other article that I mentioned about the parents who lost their newborn daughter-I might have to look that up, but they quoted something about the bitter cup being measured by your own hand. I'm going to look that up really quick.
  Here is the quote by Charles Spurgeon about suffering: "It would be a very sharp and trying experience for me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity." It makes me think of another verse about God not giving us more than we can bear, but that's about temptation when I looked it up.

I'll try to bring that book back after lunch. This seems to be straying from what I originally wanted it to be. Well, I addressed some of it in the other post, "Pinnacle of Pain." To wrap up this thought, what have I to fear now? I am already experiencing the worst pain ever. As God is seeing me through this, anything else seems miniscule. I will update this later with the passage from that book. Love you so much!

I have the book, let's see if I can track down what I read: "Christ's Coronation Day"
is the section heading.

"We should have known it all along. But it never sunk in. Oh, we understand it on paper, but how often did we live--really live--with the focus off ourselves and fixed on Christ as King of Kings? It takes heaven to force us to fully comprehend what should have been plain on earth all along. If only we had stopped and read--really read--that "the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth."(Acts 17:24)
  Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth.
  We said it in our prayers, we sang it in our songs, and we would have sworn we believed it with a capital B. But it never really clicked for us. That's because "us" kept getting in the way. All those years when earthly trials hit hard, we burnt rubber in our brains trying to figure out what it meant to us. How problems fit into God's plan for us. How Jesus could be conformed in us. Everything was always "for us." Even Sunday worship service focused on how we felt, what we learned, and if the hymns were to our liking.
  Why, oh why, didn't we take the hint from Acts 17:24 and switch our attention off us and onto Him? Why didn't we appreciate that God gave our every trial, heartache, and happiness to show us something about Himself?
  That we might appreciate His grace?
  That we were being polished for the praise of His glory?
  That we might see that everything fit together in order that we might know Him?
  We always marvel that God shows an interest in us, but in heaven it will be clear that every earthly thing happened so we'd show an interest in Him. In every trial, happiness, and heartache, God wanted us to think about Him. We will finally be convinced that the One whom we lauded with our lips as King truly did have supremacy in all things.
  His kingdom came.
  His will was done on earth as it is in heaven.
  His word went forth and accomplished His purposes.
  He was sovereign Lord over all.
  While on earth, you never could have convinced us. We acted more like His kingdom sort of came, but not really. We behaved like His will was done on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven mainly to benefit our jobs and relationships. And whenever we talked about heaven, it was more along the lines of an eternal playground where we would receive lots of new toys while God, like a granddaddy, would nod to see us enjoying ourselves.
  What a shame that on earth we acted as though we did God a big favor by accepting Jesus as Savior. We pitied Jesus because His reputation could never quite be vindicated. We felt sorry for God because it seemed like His justice was never quite served; in fact, at times we were embarrassed for our "King" as we scrambled to defend Him over earthly holocausts and horrors. Jesus never appeared to flex His kingly muscles, and thus never got much credit, much less glory.
  We weren't the only shortsighted ones. Even the disciples had a small-minded view of God. They too failed to recognize the King in their midst. Occasionally the fog lifted from their thinking, and once, toward the end of Jesus' ministry, they rose to a heavenly perspective of their King and said, "Now we can see that you know all things." For a brief moment, their focus was off the kingdom on earth and fixed on the kingdom of heaven. It was a rare flash of revelation, and Jesus was moved enough to exclaim, "You believe at last!" (John 16:30-31).
  Those words of Christ's rip at my heart. All Jesus wanted from us was, at last, to believe. So why were our times of drastic obedience and absolute trust only flashes, brief moments of illumination? Why did we always have a hard time acting like Jesus was King?"

(By the way, I love how the above is written in past tense, as if we are already in heaven)

This continues with the heading "The King Who Won Against All Odds"
  "Perhaps because on earth, He never acted like a king.
  Or at least not like one would think a king should act. Jesus, however, had a good reason for cloaking His majesty under the robe of weakness, shame, and humility. It has to do with His glory in heaven. When the Father designed the plan of salvation, He initiated a scheme that would ultimately bring the highest and brightest glory to His Son, the King of the Cosmos. It was a plot that almost reads like an adventure story.
  The plan was put into effect when the evil villain, Lucifer, enslaved the citizens of the kingdom of earth through treachery and deceit. He usurped the authority of the rightful Ruler and set up his own rival government. The good Ruler sent His most skilled servants to try to recapture the occupied territory, but with few exceptions, the villain seduced and defeated them. Finally, the Ruler sent His only Son, the rightful Prince, to invade Lucifer's territory, free from the captive subjects, and retake the kingdom under the family banner.
  But the battle tactics of the Son were odd, to say the least. In fact, the manner in which He fought seemed to insure defeat. At one point, when Lucifer had the Prince pinned, the Son merely yielded to the deathblow. All appeared lost and the people's hearts fainted in despair. Little did they realize the best and final part of the plan was just about to go into play. It was called the Resurrection, and it was only the battle tactic that could deliver the killing blow to the enemy and his hordes of evil rulers.
  Now any struggle between a hero and the bad guys is interesting enough, but when the hero is disadvantaged, a new element is introduced. Now the hero is in far more danger and he appears to have less chance of winning. But if in his weakness he overcomes against all odds, he ends up twice as much the hero. When weak heroes outmaneuver strong villains, the victory is awe-inspiring.
  And so, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb who let Himself be slain, will be glorified, not because He employed brute force against Satan, but because He didn't."

There's more! This part is called "The King Who Won Through Weakness"
  "There's another aspect of the Father's plan which positions His Son as less than kingly, yet guarantees Him greater glory. It involves defeating the strong villain by using his own dark power against him.
  It's kind of like judo.
  My husband Ken could tell you all about it.  Every once in a while he gets into his martial arts mode and starts jumping around the living room like a cat on catnip, pouncing helter-skelter, punching the air with his fists, and kicking toward the ceiling with the side of his foot. I always watch with distracted feminine interest.
  Ken tells me that judo has its uses. It's the art of using the power of your enemy to defeat him; and although Ken may appear passive and even weak in a judo match, the secret is simply to wait for that moment when the opponent's full strength can be used to defeat him. When my husband is attacked, he simply judos his assailant and sends the guy flying over his shoulder.
  Jesus appeared passive and weak. People kept looking for his diadem. We kept hoping He would behave as a monarch should and make the lives of His subjects happy, healthy, and free from trouble. But Jesus had other plans for earth--plans that involved greater praise for the believer and glory for Himself.
  He kept doing judo. Especially against the devil. And most specifically at the Cross. At the exact moment the devil thought he had Christ cornered and pinned down in defeat, he unleashed his full satanic fury to finish Him off. But it was Christ's weakness and vulnerability that enabled Him to judo Satan into slitting his own throat.
  James Stewart, the Scottish theologian, put it this way:
      The very triumphs of His foes He used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve His ends, not theirs. They nailed Him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to His feet. They gave Him a cross, not guessing that He would make it a throne.
  They flung Him outside the gates to die, not knowing that at that very moment they were lifting up all the gates of the universe to let the King of Glory come in. They thought to root out His doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy.
  They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated. They did not know it was God Himself who had dragged them down to that point. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil, He conquered through it.

  Something glorious happened when the world's worst murder became the world's only salvation. When the cross, a symbol of torture, became a symbol of life and hope, it meant triple the glory.
  Jesus ends up triple the hero in heaven because He won using weapons of warfare that were spiritual, and not carnal. His triumph was assured using divine judo. He won using perfect timing and patience. "At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). He won through waiting, yielding, and submission. Philippians 2:7-9 reads like "The Basic Principles in Martial Arts" because the weaker Christ became, the greater was His victory, and the greater the victory, the more glorious the honors: "(He) made himself nothing,...he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name."
  If we pitied Christ on earth or felt badly that His justice seemed aborted, we wasted our time. If we were embarrassed for His sake over so much senseless suffering, we would have done better to take a few lessons in the martial arts. Jesus did flex His muscles as King on earth; our unskilled eyes, hearts, and minds just weren't trained to see it. He wore a crown; it just wasn't the crown we expected. Not one of gold, but of thorns.
  Up in heaven, we may be tempted to smack our foreheads and exclaim, "Oh bother! How did we miss it?" But there will be no room for remorse. We won't berate ourselves for not having seen it. No, our King of Kings will be too gracious to permit us such regrets. It will be obvious why His medals of monarchy were hidden. It was all engineered to help us exercise faith, develop trust, and demonstrate obedience, as well as to teach us timing and patience, waiting and yielding. The King overcame the Cross so that we might have power to parlay a bullying devil and thus accept our thorns, share our burdens, and carry our own crosses, while all the time turning tragedy into triumph and heartache into victories.
  With good grace, Jesus will not scold us for being so us-centered. He will assure us He knew our frame and remembered that we were but dust. We will realize that on earth we were worse than we thought, but the Lord's grace went deeper than we thought, and so in heaven we will do better than we thought.
  The Lord Jesus will be sloppy with His kindness, letting it spill and splash over everything. Even our regrets. And that, dear friends, will compel us to love, praise and rejoice in Him all the more. At that point, God's glory in heaven will open up exponentially to the hundredth power.
  I get so happy when I picture this moment. For He will show Himself as He is, no longer the weak and suffering servant, but the mighty Sovereign of time and space. His reputation will be vindicated. He will receive all the credit due Him, plus triple the glory. Most of all, His justice will be served.
  And it won't look very nice. At least to some."

Thank you Lord for Who You Are and taking care of everything! Thank you for Hayden too!