[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way-surround":78},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":11,"columnName":61,"date":62,"description":17,"extension":63,"image":64,"meta":65,"minRead":66,"navigation":67,"path":68,"postType":69,"publication":70,"publicationUrl":64,"seo":71,"stem":72,"topics":73,"__hash__":77},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way.md","Doing Things the Hard Way",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10],"Romans","1 John",{"type":12,"value":13,"toc":57},"minimark",[14,18,21,24,27,30,33,36,39,42,45,48,51,54],[15,16,17],"p",{},"A preacher friend teased me when he found out that I sometimes type my sermon notes on an old electric typewriter instead of using a computer.",[15,19,20],{},"\"I've been doing it that way for 25 years,\" I explained.",[15,22,23],{},"\"But you're doing it the hard way,\" he insisted.",[15,25,26],{},"\"Maybe so,\" I replied, \"but it still works for me.\" (Hey, I'm relatively up-to-date. For hundreds of years preachers penned their sermon notes by hand!)",[15,28,29],{},"In the house where my family lived for 11 years, the kitchen table partially blocked our back door. It was a small nuisance, but the table made it difficult to open and close the door every time I went out to the backyard. Finally I asked my wife, \"Candy, isn't there some way we can move this table so it won't block the door?\"",[15,31,32],{},"She surveyed the situation for a moment, then said, \"You know, I think all we'd have to do is remove a leaf and make the table smaller!\"",[15,34,35],{},"That's what we did, and she was right. The door opened fine, and I mentally kicked myself for walking around that table for 11 years instead of finding a simple solution! I had made things harder than they needed to be.",[15,37,38],{},"Sometimes God asks people to do things the hard way. For example, the tabernacle wasn't an air-conditioned building complete with padded pews. It included tents, poles, and sacred items that had to be packed up and carried from place to place, then set up according to a meticulous pattern. At times that must have been hard, tedious work.",[15,40,41],{},"And think how some of God's other commands must have seemed to the people involved. \"Abraham, offer your son Isaac on the altar.\" \"Moses, lead my people out of Egypt.\" \"Farmers, offer your best lambs as sacrifices—and don't work on the Sabbath (even when the weather is good).\"",[15,43,44],{},"\"Jonah, go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent.\" \"James and John, leave your fishing business and become itinerant preachers.\" \"Saul of Tarsus, trade your life as a successful rabbi for the life of a persecuted apostle.\" These were hard tasks! God's apostles and prophets didn't conduct business from ivory towers, but in hostile kings' palaces and lions' dens, \"in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground\" (Hebrews 11:38).",[15,46,47],{},"So how can we say that God's commands \"are not burdensome\" (1 John 5:3)? If Jesus' \"yoke is easy\" and his \"burden is light,\" why does it seem so hard sometimes to live the Christian life? We are saved by grace. Do we also know how to live by it?",[15,49,50],{},"Sin is the ultimate life-complicater. It made things harder for Adam and Eve. It made the rebellious people of Israel wind their way through the wilderness for 40 years instead of making a beeline for the promised land. It makes our lives harder when we overwork and overspend, overreact and underachieve. God's ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), but sin can make our ways harder than his ways!",[15,52,53],{},"Only God's grace can untangle the complicated knots woven by sin. Jesus did things the hard way. Refusing to take the easy way out, he carried our sins with him to the cross. Thanks to him, our salvation is free and God's grace abounds.",[15,55,56],{},"\"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us\" (Romans 5:8). There is a hard side to discipleship, but Jesus has already done the really hard part. And that's what's amazing about grace.",{"title":58,"searchDepth":59,"depth":59,"links":60},"",2,[],"From the Editor's Desk","2000-08-06","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":17},"articles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way",[74,75,76],"Biblical Theology","Discipleship","Spiritual Formation","qVDFVMhN9_Bvyt8-_l0eVt2AltuHDRsbNycpYJ2VyX8",[79,84],{"title":80,"path":81,"stem":82,"description":83,"children":-1},"Do You See This Woman?","\u002Farticles\u002Fdo-you-see-this-woman","articles\u002Fdo-you-see-this-woman","During a trip to Haiti, I rode in the back of a Jeep driven by some missionary friends. As we lurched through the dusty streets, I noticed a man pushing a heavy cartload of wood. Perspiring in the afternoon heat, grunting as he lifted the heavy cart, the fellow wore nothing but a tattered pair of shorts and a pained expression on his face.",{"title":85,"path":86,"stem":87,"description":88,"children":-1},"Don't Faint","\u002Farticles\u002Fdon-t-faint","articles\u002Fdon-t-faint","From a medical perspective, fainting is a temporary loss of consciousness caused by a lessening of blood flow to the brain. It's never happened to me, but I've seen others faint at weddings, sports events, crowded concerts—even in church services."]