God is Longsuffering

07/17/20 • 23 min

Longsuffering means patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation, offense, hardship, suffering, abuse, insult, mistreatment, and in the face of adversity. The word is made up of two Greek words meaning long and temper so long-tempered. God has a long fuse when He is stirred to anger. God is patient with sinners and He uses tremendous self-restraint. He does not fly off the handle and immediately retaliates based solely on emotions and without forethought. We should never think of God as succumbing to or being reckless in His anger. God’s attributes of mercy and love are an intertwining part of God’s longsuffering nature.

[Ex 34:6] The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. NIV says many verses like this with similar wording are the great self-characterization of God which runs like a golden thread through the OT.

[II Peter 3:8-9] “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Because God lives in eternity, He waits patiently. His delay is not because He doesn’t care or is indifferent. Quite the contrary, verse 15 says, “bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.”

James 5:7-8 Be patient, therefore brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Here James is using creation, farming in particular to show how we should patiently wait for the Lord’s return.

Jesus definitely demonstrated longsuffering. He was persecuted, mocked, insulted, scorned, blasphemed, rejected, betrayed, attacked, arrested, falsely accused, beaten, and murdered. Why did it have to be that way? Why did He have to suffer so to bring us salvation. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father if there was another way, he know nothing was impossible with God. But He said not my will but yours. That is a longsuffering statement. Heb 2:9, He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. He endured it all gracefully, without retaliation, for you and for me. And on that cross after all the mistreatment, He said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. I Pt says, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.

Rom 5:3-4 – More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. It is a process and an order. It appears that character is produced after suffering and endurance takes place. We want to just skip to good character and not go through the prior.

Longsuffering and patience are fruits of the Holy Spirit. He wants it so much produced in you. They are His qualities. There is a famous funny saying that goes: God, I want patience and I want it right now! But fruit is not grown over night. To have the fruit of patience you must learn it through experiences and exercise it through situations and circumstances. It is like a muscle you use to become stronger; it takes time.

Previous Episode

Teen Rescue-Interview with Spencer Thury, Singing on the Reservation

Our second interview with Spencer Thury (former band member from the mid-1980s), recorded in Austin, Minnesota at our property in an abandoned house. Wait until you hear the birds singing and the cars driving by.

The discussion starts with Rick and Spencer talking about the kids the RLS band was reaching. Spencer was with the band three straight years and traveled all over the Midwest and even went to Toronto, Canada. At one church in Oregon, people vandalized and wrote vulgar graffiti on the side of the house where the band was staying. It was a protest against the band coming to the town to preach about Jesus.

The public schools that had the most impacting memories were when the band performed in the high schools on the Indian reservations. Not many groups were asked to come to these schools and it was an honor. One specific memory for Spencer was the school in Eagle Bute, South Dakota. He saw a little girl who looked him in the eyes and he wondered what she was thinking about. He wrote a song about her and sings it for us during the interview. A beautiful song of longing to be loved by God and others. Spencer would play this song with the band from the moment he wrote it until the last time he performed with RLS.

At Eagle Bute, the first assembly started out rough and Rick remembers making a stupid reference to “cowboys and Indians.” He thought their time to perform was over but instead, they ended up inviting them back 8 times. One of the kids joined the Teen Rescue team and traveled with them for a time. Also, the Chief gave the band a special license to fish on the Reservation.

The band never turned down an invitation and it led them to perform in many unique settings. One memory was going to Rapid City, South Dakota to a group called Job Corp. Rick and Spencer remember that the crowd was rough and it was like performing in a juvenile detention center.

The band always handed out comment cards after the workshops to see what the kids were thinking about, what they heard from the assembly, and if they had any questions. The band would come together later and read the cards. Personal follow up with the kids was hard so hundreds of letters were sent to the kids over the years.

Spencer shares that when he did a workshop, he would talk about goals and how important it is to follow the innate dreams that God places in your heart. One girl was inspired by his message and was able to be bold enough to not only tell her friends that she wanted to design clothes but she also wore one of her outfits to the evening concert and she was glad to see that her classmates were impressed. Teen Rescue had created an encouraging environment for the kids in the workshops.

After Teen Rescue, Spencer was hired as a youth pastor and created a CD of his music. He knew the band was going more heavy metal and he was more of a blues bass guy. Spencer married his lovely wife and is still married after 28 years. And then went to bible college for four years. After college he returned to Iowa and served as a lead pastor in a Pentecostal church and a Quaker church. Following that he received an opportunity to be the chaplain at William Penn University for 10 years until it changed ownership. Spencer said he would take a group of students to Bourbon street each year. He would hear people say that they usually hate Christians but their message either saved their life or made them rethink everything they thought about Christianity.

Rick reconnected with Spencer and he had Rick speak at William Penn about 20 years later and they have been doing stuff together ever since.

The interview ends with Spencer sharing one more song he wrote about “Seeds Sown in Stories.” Thank you Spencer for coming to speak at on our podcast!

Next Episode

Cleanliness Next to Godliness?

There is a joke going around that the craziest purchase made in 2019 was to buy a 2020 planner because no one was able to plan anything in 2020. The bible says that man can plan his schedule but God directs his steps. Rick tells Robin that he can tell that she is attempting to present the attributes of God in her podcasts in an accurate, correct, and truthful way. The bible talks about rightly handling God’s word (2 Timothy 2:15). Paul warned Timothy about this because it can be very easily to mishandle God’s word, not to appropriately manage it. It is easy to come up with mistruths.

Satan does not want the word of God handled correctly. He wants it warped and twisted. So, he will try to influence and manipulate us. He will slightly twist God’s word as he did with Jesus in the desert and Eve in the garden to get us to take truth and mishandle it. He will put doubts in our mind about God’s word.

Rick finds in his daily travels as he is meeting with folks, that many people turn the conversation to something of a spiritual nature. We live in a very spiritual world. Man is used to natural. God is seen as supernatural. And somewhere the two meet. He often hears people make a bold statement about something and he knows they do not know God’s truth. Take the adage: Cleanliness is next to godliness. Although a nice saying, it is not in the bible and people believe it as a part of their lives. It seems harmless on the surface but you might judge someone who does not have a clean house and think they are ungodly or you might believe that if you don’t have a clean house, then you are not a good person. It can become a harmful thing to live by because it is not God’s truth. It can be so ingrained that if you try to correct them, they will take great offense and the bible says it is easier to become friends with an enemy then to win back a brother who has been offended.

Robin states that the main statement of Radical Life Support's podcasts on the ABC’s of the attributes of God comes from A.W. Tozer which says: How you view God is the most important thing about you. How you view God will affect how you live. If you think God is harsh then it will affect how you communicate with God. You must apply that same principal to biblical truth. You need to study God’s word so you know what is really true and then live your life accordingly. If you get it wrong, then you could live in condemnation and when you could live in peace.

In reverse, a saying like you reap what you sow is a common saying but most people don’t even know that they are speaking words straight out of the bible. Think about what you believe and do some research to see if it is Myth or Fact. Clever sayings can be useful in communicating ideas but check to see if they hold real biblical truth.

In today’s media you have to be doubly careful what you read because everything seems to have a slant. You will read about someone dying and then you find out they aren’t really dead. So, be careful and be on your guard. You have got to know the bible or you can really be taken in by sales people, scammers, and people speaking half-truths.

You need to live what you believe. True belief should produce action. What comes out of your mouth will come from what you believe. Be sure you are speaking truth. If you want people to believe what you say, live it. Our actions need to match our words.

Live positively. If you live negatively, with you head hanging low, you are not living in truth. You can live 30 days without food, you can live 3 days without water, you can live 3 minutes without air, but you can’t live 30 seconds without hope. This is why you need to know the bible, because it is filled with Jesus’ hope, love, and peace for you. If you are a dealer of dope, ask Jesus into your heart and become a dealer of hope!

Radical Life Support - God is Longsuffering

Transcript

Intro to Attribute

Definitions of Longsuffering: Long, patient endurance of an insult, abuse, or mistreatment. Patiently enduring lasting offense or hardship. Forbearance under ill-treatment, with no thought of retaliation. Patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation, under suffering, and in the face of adversity.

The word longsuffering in the Bible is made up of two Greek words meaning long and temper, so it is really long-tempered. Another way to descri