Suffering?

By Bob Gray, Sr

Dr. Gray Sr. has not only lived with suffering personally with the ill health of his wife, but he has pastored hundreds and hundreds of God’s people who have gone through the valley of suffering. Here are some Scriptural principles to help.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Gray, Sr
• Release date: Jul 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452383286

Bob Gray, Sr

Dr. Bob Gray Sr. pastored for 33 years and has been an ordained Baptist preacher for 40 years. He pastored the Longview Baptist Temple for 29 years. He became their pastor in 1980. Since then the church’s attendance grew from a low of 159 to averaging 2,041 in 2008. Dr. Gray retired March 1, 2009 and LBT called his son Dr. Bob Gray II to be their pastor. The last year Dr. Gray pastored LBT they baptized 4,466 converts. In his 29 years of pastorate at LBT they had 1,116,887 people who trusted Christ for payment of their sins. 253,042 walked the aisles professing faith in Christ and 164,457 of those followed the Lord in baptism. LBT was the number two church in America in professions of faith and baptisms. $ 9, 328,835.69 was given to missions and $ 335, 584.81 to help the less fortunate in those 29 years. Dr. Gray had 506 trust Christ through his personal soul winning with 153 of those following the Lord in baptism in 2009. In his 29 years in Texas he has preached in every state in the union except for North Dakota plus 17 foreign countries. He has personally led 14, 957 to Christ and had 4,399 of those follow the Lord in Baptism in those 29 years. Under Dr. Gray’s leadership the ministries of LBT developed to include the following: TEXAS BAPTIST COLLEGE- a four-year Christian college LONGVIEW BAPTIST ACADEMY- A Christian school for bus kids INDEPENDENT BAPTIST WORLD MISSIONS- A local church mission board NATIONAL TEEN CONVENTION- A nation wide conference for teens NATIONAL SOUL WINNING CLINIC- 29 years of training pastors & workers THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE- 11 years of publishing During Dr. Gray’s ministry at LBT the bus ministry expanded by purchasing a 15,000 square foot building on Cotton street for maintenance of the buses. The church grew to owning 42 buses and operating 30 Sunday school bus routes. He led the church in four major building projects plus the purchasing of numerous properties. The church’s property value grew to over 17 million dollars. Dr. Gray attended the Galesburg-Augusta grade school and high school system of Galesburg, Michigan, and graduated in 1963. He was an All-Conference football player and second team All-State tackle. He attended Michigan State University 1963-67 and was employed in 1967 by Fisher Body Division of General Motors for seven years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He attended Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1976. He was employed by Hyles-Anderson College while working on his Masters Degree. Dr. Gray has received doctorates from Hyles-Anderson College, Tri-State College, and Texas Baptist College. He has authored 10 books as of this writing. Dr. and Mrs. Lee Ann Gray have been married for 45 years and have four children with ten grandchildren. Both of their sons are in the ministry. Dr. Bob Gray II was installed as pastor of LBT on March 1, 2009. Dr. Scott Gray is a faculty member at Hyles-Anderson College. The two daughters, Kim and Karen, are active in the ministry and personal soul winners. Kim is married to Mark Simmons, a deacon and Sunday school teacher at LBT. Karen is married to Tim Forgy, a Texas Baptist College graduate, and is employed as Youth Pastor for LBT.

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Suffering?

By: Dr. Bob Gray, Sr.

Copyright Dr.Bob Gray Sr. 2010.

Published by Bob Gray Sr. at Smashwords

This book is also available in print at http://www.solvechurchproblems.com

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All Scriptures are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

DEDICATION

I know of no one who has been through the valley of sufferings more than my dear wife of 45 years. Lee Ann Gray was the greatest mother and the greatest wife that a man could ever dream of or hope for in life. When we were called to pastor the Longview Baptist Temple, Longview, Texas, in 1980, we accepted the call without reservation. We held nothing back and gave it our all in the 29 ½ years of pastoring LBT.

When we arrived in Longview, my wife’s health seemed excellent. She has always been an active person. She was an athletic person and has always been very witty. So, in body, mind, and spirit she exhibited the kind of grit that it takes to be able to face the challenges of a great ministry. It was a mere six months into our ministry at LBT when she stepped off the back patio and splintered her ankle. It would be years later before the doctors would discover the problem was with her pyre-thyroid. It was 23 surgeries later before they discovered she had a serious problem with her thyroid. She could not assimilate calcium into her body. Her bone density was that of a 90 year old while she was only in her forties.

The road has been a rough one physically and emotionally for a lady who was the greatest mother children could ever hope for. She has been a hard worker all of her life, and when things were tough financially she became the Proverbs 31 lady personified! This book I dedicate to the toughest lady I have ever known!

INTRODUCTION

The real tests of life come before the lessons of life are learned. You experience life before you experiment with life! God has always been able to use humble people. He has never been able to use proud people. As a result, God has to use sufferings to temper the flesh of man. Only when we decrease can God increase! It is imperative that man accepts the experience of the valleys of life in order to be able to cope with the mountaintop experiences of life. When Paul said he learned both how to be abased and to abound, he expressed it correctly. The ability to be able to succeed while on the mountaintop is directly related to the adaptability to the valley. Man cannot succeed until he fails.

Dr. Jack Hyles would often say that a great man has always had a great failure in his life. The ability to bounce back must result in pride being left behind and the cloaking of oneself with humility. If one stays down long enough to lose his or her pride, then when they arrive to the mountaintop they will, with humility, go about their mountaintop work.

The sufferings of life will strip a man of the insufferable ego that plagues mankind. There is little that can be accomplished of a lasting nature in life that is bathed in pride. The ability to endure is the quality that allows one to enjoy. This will always lead to a comradeship and cement a team effort that does not exist among big egos.

I trust that, after reading these chapters, we will realize the loving Heavenly Father’s plan for our lives is best, and we will be able to work with others better by being better!

CONTENTS

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE SUFFER?

DO NOT SUFFER FOR NOTHING

A SICK SOUL

WHY ME?

DO NOT DO IT AGAIN

HOW TO ENDURE YOUR CROSS

HARDSHIPS

WHEN YOU CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE

AT YOUR WITS’ END?

CROSS BEARING

BURDEN BEARERS

THE ANSWER TO MULTIPLE TROUBLES

THE NEED FOR BROKENNESS

WALKING IN DARKNESS

HOW TO KEEP FROM CRACKING UP

HOW TO HANDLE THE UNEXPECTED

HOW TO ENDURE

BEHOLD, WE COUNT THEM HAPPY WHICH ENDURE

OUR LIGHT AFFLICTION IS BUT FOR A MOMENT

GOD DOES NOT EXPEL

THE SON OF GOD AND MAN

WHERE’S JESUS?

YOU CAN TRUST THE ONE WITH THE WOUNDS

GOD WANTS YOUR WEAKNESS

PAY ME NOW OR PAY ME LATER

Why Do Some People Suffer?

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

In verse 8, Job says that he goes forward, but God is not there. Job goes backward, but God is not there. On the left hand, Job cannot behold Him. But he finally says, But he knoweth the way that I take. He did not say, Job knows the way that God takes. He said that God knows the way Job takes. He went forward and could not find God. He went backward and could not find God. He said he could not see God on his left. He could not find God.

Let me remind you what Job went through. He lost ten children. He lost every bit of wealth that he had. In verse 10, the Bible states, he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall, not might, come forth as gold. Job found comfort in this. He knew that he was being tested, and he also knew that he was going to come out as gold.

Job wanted to know what God was doing. All of us would like to pull aside the veil and see the end from the beginning. All of us would like to know the way that He is taking. However, God chose not to let Job know the way that He took, and God has chosen not to let us know. God can do anything. He has chosen not to let us know. Job, in the midst of his deep affliction, found comfort; not in the fact that he knew the reason and the answer for all that God was doing with him, but in the fact that he did not know. He used that to comfort himself. He knew that God was working, but he could not see God. He knew that when the whole mess was over, he would come forth as gold. He found comfort in not knowing.

If you knew what was planned for tomorrow for you, you would not want to go to tomorrow. You could not handle it because it is not here, yet. God prepares you for tomorrow, so it is best that you do not know. The first thing we do is ask why. On the other hand, the first thing Job said was that he did not know why, he could not figure out why, and it was better for him to not know why. Job could go in God’s steps, do what he was supposed to do, and simply let God worry about it.

If you have cancer, you do not want to know more. Whatever it is that you have, you do not want to know any more. You have an illness. You do not want to know any more. It is better to live it up today, love today, and take advantage of today without knowing tomorrow.

Job said that he found comfort in the fact that he did not know. Then he said that he knew the end. He knew the destination, but he did not know the particulars of the trip. He did not know the details of the journey, but he knew that God knew the details. He knew that he would come forth as gold, and that was all he needed to know. He did not need to know more.

You worry too much about things that never happen. You waste your life worrying. When Kimberly was living at home, she was scared to death of tornados. We were up visiting my folks in Arkansas, and we spent the night. A tornado watch came across the television set. It warned of a tornado on the other side of Little Rock that was heading towards Roe, Arkansas. The watch was until two o’clock in the morning. We went to bed about midnight. I was not going to sit up and wait for a tornado to come. Later, we heard somebody out in the living room. Kimberly was sitting in front of the television set with her legs crossed, staring at the clock on the television set. It was one o’clock in the morning. I asked, Kimberly, what are you doing? She said that she was going to sit there until the watch expired at two o’clock, and then she was going to bed. I told her that tornados cannot tell time. I should have never said that. She sat there in front of that clock all night long and would not go to bed.

That is the way some of you are, but you do not need to know. Just take care of now. Enjoy it now. You will ruin your day. You do not need it. It is already ruined. You do not need to ruin it anymore.

Job said he knew the end, he knew the destination, but he did not know the particulars of the trip. Those of you who are saved and on your way to Heaven, you know that you are going to end up in Heaven. Why do you want to be miserable on the trip? I know I am Heaven-bound. I know my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I invited Christ into my heart. I am saved. I know I am a child of God. If something goes awry today or tomorrow, I am not going to fret. It is not a sin to ask why, but it is really better not to know. Job said that he received comfort in the fact that he did not know the way that God took, but he knew that God knew the way that Job took.

It is said that a bar of steel is worth $5.00, but when it is made into an ordinary horseshoe it is worth $10.00. Take the same $5.00 steel and manufacture it into needles and the value will raise it to $350.00. If the same $5.00 bar is used to manufacture the delicate springs for expensive watches, it will be worth $250,000.00. This original bar of steel is more valuable when it is cut down to a certain size, passed through the fires again and again, hammered, beaten, pounded, manipulated, finished and finally polished. When it passes through more cutting, more fire, more hammering, more beating, more pounding, more manipulating, more finishing, and more polishing, it is worth far more. God only expends His energy and efforts on that which gives promise of having the greatest value, of having the greatest finish and the greatest polish. God would not expend His energy on you if He did not see you of much greater value some day.

The farmer does not spend time tilling the sand hill that has no value for crops. The farmer puts most of his work and time into the heavy, dark field that has the greatest promise of an abundant harvest. Certainly, our God is smarter and wiser than a farmer. When God leaves us alone and does not visit us with difficulties, with testing, and with trials, you can rest assured that your life is as barren as the sand hills, and it has no value. You may think that you are the lowest of the low because you have so many troubles. No, you are the richest of the richest, because God is going to pound on you and put you through the fire and make it harder on you. Why? Because, when it is over, you will be of greater value than you were to begin with.

Somebody said that constant sunshine only creates a desert. We need the clouds, we need the dark days, and we need the storms. We need the rain just as much as we need the sunshine. Again, Job did not say that he knew the way that God took, but he did say that God knoweth the way that Job takes.

Like Job, you may be asking why you suffer. Why must I have this burden? Why must I have this heartache? Why must I have this pain? Why must I have this illness? Why must I have this cancer? Why must I have this sickness? You must always remember that you do not know the way that God takes, but God knows the way that you take, and God would not waste His effort and energy. He is God. He has the whole universe to run. Yet, He comes down and works in your life to help you to be better and more valuable than you are now.

If you choose to serve God, He responds by purging you. Then you feel like a second-class citizen. Wait a minute! You walked down that aisle and got saved. You walked down that aisle and surrendered to the ministry. You walked down and said you wanted to do something for God. God knows that you mean business and you have great value. God needs to come into your life and work on you. One of these days, you will be worth a whole lot more than you are now. We do not understand it, but that is God’s plan.

May I say that Job, in the midst of all his deep afflictions, discovered comfort in the following...

He found comfort in not knowing.

He found comfort in knowing that God knows.

In our church, we have a young man in a wheelchair; he is deaf. His name is Paul. When we hear groaning, we know that is his way of saying amen. Paul works a job. He