For Such a Time as This

Long ago in the days of the Persian Empire a young Jewish girl named Hadassah, whose parents had died, was being raised by her relative, Mordecai.

It came about that the King was displeased with his Queen when she refused the king's command to parade before his drunken banquet guests. So she was banished forever from the king's presence and stripped of her position as Queen.

A search was made and lots of young women were taken from their homes to be groomed as the new prospective Queen. Hadassah, whom we know as Esther, was taken and sent to the royal court. Here she was taught and dressed and made-up so that she might appeal to the King. Eventually, Esther was the one chosen as the new Queen.

Then jealousy and arrogance and hatred overtook the life of one man, who was an official in the King's court, so much so that he got a law passed to exterminate all the Jews. Mordecai sent word to Esther that she needed to do something to help her people. Even though no one knew she was a Jew and even though she was Queen, Mordecai told her she would not escape death.

Then he said to her, "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this." Esther 4:14. Mordecai was telling Queen Esther that maybe the reason you are Queen is to save your people.

Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ have also "come to the kingdom". Not a political kingdom but the kingdom of God. We are where we are on purpose, with a purpose. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10. (my emphasis)

It's not just the people we read about in the Bible that are used to fulfill God's purposes. As long as we are still breathing on this earth, and until Jesus returns for His bride, and until God declares an end of all time, God's purpose for this world and for us as individuals is not over. He has placed us where we are in our families and our jobs and our schools and with the resources we have so that we might do the good works He has for us to do. Rather than looking for more or different as we often do, we need to be looking right here, right now for God's work to do. And when our purpose here and now is completed, He will move us on to more and different. WE are here for such a time as this.

He Believed the Lord

Sometimes people think asking questions is a lack of faith. There are times when we may not be sure what God is asking of us. Or perhaps we don't know what to do next. It is at those times God welcomes our questions so He can show us His truth. We see that with Abram. He had been to war to rescue his nephew, Lot, and the people of Sodom. He had met Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, and been blessed by him. He has refused to take any spoils of war from the king of Sodom. The Bible tells us Abram was a rich man with lots of possessions, but he didn't have a child.

At the very beginning of Abram's journey, God had told Abram, "I will make of you a great nation...and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 12:2-3 A good bit of time has passed and Abram still does not have a child of his own. So he asks God about it, "O Lord God, what will You give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"  Genesis 15:2

God didn't rebuke him for asking a legitimate question. Instead God reestablished the promise by telling Abram his offspring would be as numerous as the stars. "And [Abram] believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6  God even went on to make it "official" by making a covenant with Abram. Genesis 15:7-21

The key here is Abram believed the Lord. Sometimes we ask questions that seem to indicate we don't believe what God already has said to us through His word to us, the Bible. We want to know is it okay to go out with this cute guy from work who is definitely not a believer? We say we can't afford to give financially to God's work but ask will You help me win the lottery? We say our marriage has turned boring so we ask should we get a divorce? This expense was more personal than business so should I add it to my expense report?

Reading the Bible answers a lot, even most, of the life questions we have. We just need to believe what God says to us, about us, and for us and live accordingly. Then we can ask questions like how can I best share the gospel with my friend? How can I use more of the resources you give me to help people know Jesus? How should our family use our time together so our children grow up to love Jesus? What are some things we might need to cut out of our money budget or time budget to be better stewards?

God is our loving Father who wants to guide us throughout our lives. Sometimes we live as rebellious children seeing how much we can get away with rather than obedient children who accept His wisdom as best for our lives.

Go!

"Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go...'  So Abram went, as the Lord had told him..."  Genesis 12:1-4

The biggest hindrance to our receiving the blessings of God is the lack of obedience to what He asks us to do.

God told Abram, when he was 75 years old, to leave his father's household and go to a new country. Abram didn't argue or ask how long it would take or where, exactly, was he going. He didn't say let me think it over or even let me pray about it. He KNEW God had spoken to him so he obeyed.

God stills speaks to us today. Maybe he is not asking us to move to a new country but he might be asking us to walk next door and invite the family to church. He might be asking us to buy some groceries for the single mom that works in the next cubicle. He might be asking us to volunteer in our church or community. He is definitely asking us to get out of our comfort zone so we have to live by faith and not our abilities.

But sometimes He does ask us to do something really radical, like move to a new city or a new country. One of the staff members at NewSpring, my church, heard the voice of God calling him to foreign missions so he, his wife, and their 3 year old son have left for training to serve as missionaries  overseas.

Whatever it may be, when we know God is speaking to us, we need to - we MUST - obey. It is only then that God really begins to pour out His blessing on us by revealing more and more of Himself to us through the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Genealogy

The wife of a distant relative of my father on his mother's side of the family decided a decade or so ago to trace this part of her husband's family tree. She was able, with the help of people all over the country, to trace this part of my family back in America to a land grant in the mid 1600's. It is interesting to see how the original patriarchal family branched and the number of known descendants has grown so huge over 350+ years. We have spread far and wide from that original landholding in Virginia.

As I read about the descendants of Noah after the flood, I get that same since of wonder at how families grow and change. Genesis 10 lists four or five generations of Noah. A few of the names we easily recognize today from biblical or political history are Egypt, Canaan, Nimrod, Babel, Ninevah, Amorites, and Havilah. We usually associate those names with places rather than people but the places in ancient times were usually named for the person or family that first settled there.

When Noah and his sons came off the ark after the flood, the first thing Noah did was build an altar and offer sacrifices to God. (Genesis 8:20) But by the names above we know that a few generations and the people were no longer worshiping God. Later as God gave the Law to Moses, God commanded His people to teach their children about Him. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 6:4-7

We, who are followers of Jesus Christ, have our own genealogy, a spiritual genealogy. Because of that we have an obligation to the next generation to teach them the truth of Scripture. We need to tell them about God and His salvation through Jesus Christ but we also need to tell them the stories of Jesus in our own lives. How He changed us. How He provides for us. How He guides us. Jesus is not just history. Jesus is alive and active in our lives today and that needs to be told so the next generation can carry the gospel to the generations after them and keep building the family tree.

Perseverence

When I read the story of Noah in Genesis 6-8, I marvel at Noah's perseverence. I don't think we know how long it actually took Noah to build the ark. We do know he was 500+ years old when his sons were born and he was 600 when the flood came. So we know he was old and and we know he built a boat.

Josephus tells us Noah was actually the ruler of the people and was distressed at their wickedness. So it is very doubtful any of his people helped him unless, perhaps, his sons helped with the building. We know they and their wives were rescued by God in the ark.

But think about it. Here is Noah, and maybe his three sons, building a boat about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high with a roof and three decks and then covering the inside all over with a tar like substance to make it waterproof. 

This is probably the early bronze age of our existence. Not too much sophistication in tools and transportation I imagine. The work he had to do before he could even start building would be daunting and enough reason for most people to give up. The logistics for getting the wood, making the proper tools, getting the tar seem to me to be overwhelming. No local Home Depot where a quick trip can supply all you need. You need it, you probably have to make it yourself. No big super duty truck to haul things. So this project took years, and more years.

The Bible says, "Noah...did all that God commanded him." Genesis 6:22 There is nothing recorded in the Bible to indicate God kept coming back saying, "Good job, Noah." or "Proud of you, Noah." or "You're my main man, Noah." The Bible just tells us God gave Noah instructions, Noah did what God asked of him - no matter how long it took to complete, and God sent the flood.

How un-like us that is. We want it today. Answer my prayer today, God. I need to know where You're leading me, God. I can't give you so much time, God. I'm tired of doing the same thing day after day, God. We often don't have the perseverance to keep at something year after year after year even when God asks us to do it and especially when there seems to be no end in sight.

I'm so glad Jesus persevered all the way to the cross. I'm so glad He was willing to obey God even though there was pain and suffering and death in His earthly future. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:4 that perseverance produces character. Character is who we are and what we do when nobody sees us but God. Perseverance...we all probably need a little more of that in our lives.

Old as Methuselah

Old as Methuselah was an expression I heard and used as a child. The people I relegated to that ancient age were probably in their 30's. Methuselah was Noah's grandfather. Back in the days before the flood people lived a long, long time. In the list of Adam's descendants in Genesis 5, Enoch was around for the least years, at a young 365. And he didn't die, God just took him away. Most of the men listed were past 900 when they died with Methuselah being the oldest at 969. Noah didn't even have his sons until he was 500.

I wonder what it would be like to live almost 1000 years. I don't know that much changed in their days. Now changes are so rapid it's hard to keep up. And to think where we might be in 1000 years - well just over 930 for me - is more than I can imagine. Would it be a Jetson's type world of space cars and robots or more of an I Am Legend world of destruction and fear? Only God knows!

Before the flood, when God saw the wickedness of men on the earth, He decreed that man would live 120 years. (Genesis 6:3) By the time Moses comes along, Moses says, "The years of our life are seventy or even by strength eighty..." (Psalm 90:10) But God saw fit to give Moses the full 120 years of life and "his eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated" when he died. (Deuteronomy 34:7)

And now I'm getting to be the "old as Methuselah" person among the people I know. God has been so good to me over the years of my life but, my goodness, it goes by in a hurry. And that's OK but I would like to hang around to be 100 or 120. That would be so cool but, again, only God knows when I will draw my last breath. Until that time I'll be busy doing the work God has assigned me to do. Old or young, God has a plan and a purpose for His children to glorify Him all the days of our lives.

God Is Love

Adam and Eve had it made. They had a beautiful garden for their home. All the food they could eat. The work was not hard. They had a relationship with the Creator of the universe. "Wild" animals were all around. God, Himself, said it was very good. Genesis 1:31

But still they were not satisfied. Eve was seduced by the temptation to "be like God, knowing good and evil." Her husband was right there with her and did not "man up" and say NO but went along for the ride. So they ate the forbidden fruit and learned quickly that they did the wrong thing; they sinned against God. I'm sure they had a longing for a do over.

In Genesis 2:25 we read, "The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." Sin changed that in an instant. "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Genesis 3:7-8

Sin, shame and guilt shattered their desire to be in God's presence. It broke the wonderful relationship they had with God. God, however, was not giving up on them. He pursued them, calling out to them. When they finally came out to talk, God asked them what happened. Instead of admitting their sin and seeking forgiveness, they each sought to justify themselves by blaming someone else. Genesis 3:9-13

Sin always, always, always has consequences and theirs were huge! Even though they suffered consequences, they deserved death. And yet God loved them and "the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." Genesis 3:21. God didn't abandon them to their flimsy leaves and their nakedness, but sacrificed an animal (a lamb??), shedding its blood, so their sin, shame and guilt could be covered.

And He has done the same for us. Our sin separates us from God and deserves death. But "God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:8b-10,19

Creation

When some people read - or maybe just hear about because they've never actually read the Bible - the story of creation in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, they begin to question it based on what we've been taught by science over the years.

Was it really six 24 hour days? Why is the order of creation different? Why are things aged at milllions of years rather than thousands? What about the dinosaurs? What about the ice age? What about the skeletons of early man? What about evolution? Those questions and others may make for interesting discussions with people much more scholarly than me but they miss the whole point.

The point is..."In the beginning, God..." Genesis 1:1. The focus is not a scientific treatise on creation but the foundation for history, HIS story, God's story of His work and purposes for this world and for people who are created in His image, not descended from animals but uniquely created to know Him. Genesis 1:26-31

Man has made all sorts of scientific discoveries over the years and has made much of himself and his ability to create. Often we have taken the questions of life and death into our own hands and taken God out of it. We are actually striving at times to be God and fancy ourselves to be pretty smart.

Our biggest mistake is not that we use the resources and the curiosity and the brains God has given us to seek out answers to life's questions but that we have pushed God away as if the resources and curiosity and brains were not given to us by God in the first place. I like the story that's been around for years about the scientist who goes to God to say we don't need You anymore. God challenges the scientist to make a man from dirt. The scientist says no problem and grabs a handful from the ground. Then God stops him and says you have to get your own dirt.

Thank You, Lord God, for the gifts, talents and abilities You have given me. Thank You for creating me in Your image. Help me always to remember that without You I am nothing so that I will give You glory and praise and honor for all You do through me. Amen

Surrender

I've been thinking a lot lately about surrender. The usual connotation of surrender is negative. It means defeat or giving up. Crying "uncle" was what it took to make the local bully leave you alone when I was a kid. That was definitely surrender by giving up to his might.

I had a uncle, my mother's brother, who would not surrender his money to a robber and was gunned down and died back in the 60's in the store he ran here in my hometown. His lack of surrender came at a great price.

Sometimes those childhood memories or thoughts of wartime surrender make it difficult to surrender to God. I don't want to give up my freedom or be disappointed if God doesn't do what I think He should do. I don't want to feel bullied or pressured to give up something I want to hold on to.

I know that God says He wants only the best for me. I know He loves me. I know He's WAY smarter than me and even knows what next year will look like for me when I don't know what the next hour will look like. So why don't I trust Him?

For a long time I didn't. I was His child but kept Him out of the loop (it's funny I would even think that because that's an impossibility since God knows EVERYTHING!) as I blundered through life going to church and reading my Bible but making my decisions my way.

I knew so much ABOUT God but didn't really know Him. Until I came up against something I couldn't fix. I had to make a decision then if I would believe Him and the promises He made to care for me, to guide me, to give me wisdom. It was not an easy surrender but once I told God from the depths of my heart, I do trust You and believe what You say, I understood what surrender to God is.

It boils down to trust. If I really trust Him, really believe Him, really know Him, I will strive to surrender all of me - past, present and future - to Him. New opportunities, new challenges are always surfacing where I have to decide again to surrender and to trust God.

God is not a bully who wants me to cry uncle. He certainly doesn't want me to live in defeat. Surrender to God is the most satisfying experience a person can ever have. Does that mean life is all roses and blue skies and happy days? Absolutely not. But it does mean that I have learned that He means what He says and says what He means. God can be trusted completely!

FUSE

FUSE is the student ministry of NewSpring Church and it is starting in Spartanburg next week. I am so excited because my grandson is so excited.

Part of my excitement is not driving the 100+ mile round trip every Wednesday to take him to Greenville for the evening. However, I will miss the time we have spent together on the ride as we talk about life and God and family and all the things a 13 year old talks about. But he has encouraged me to volunteer with FUSE in Spartanburg. That was not an easy decision for many reasons but I do believe God has shown me my place with these students.

Aside from that, Nate is so ready to have FUSE at "home". He told me just a couple of weeks ago that it's just not the same anymore I Greenville. He no longer serves along side the guys in his small group. He doesn't go to school with them. He can't go to Sunday lunch with them. And he wasn't with them at The Gauntlet this summer. He's excited about doing life at FUSE with the guys and gals he serves with on Sunday. And loving the opportunity of inviting his friends from school.

The kids love FUSE. They get sound biblical teaching and have great music from the band. In addition they have a great time hanging out and playing video games and just being kids. The kids know they can invite their friends and most of them will want to come back again and some of them will eventually meet Jesus head on and have their lives changed forever.

Believe it or not

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

It is so hard sometimes to believe EVERY word of Scripture. Some of it I really don't understand because there are some hard things in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. My pastor, Perry Noble, tells us that if I find something that doesn't make sense or seems to be a contradiction the problem is not with God or with the Bible. The problem is with me and my understanding of who God is or what His purpose is.

Another thing my pastor says regularly is, "Read the Bible; do what it says." As followers of Jesus Christ that should be a no brainer. But we don't always live like that. We allow the cares and passions of the world to overtake our lives and we give in to worldly pursuits.

We want to bask in the love and salvation of God but don't want to go and make disciples. We want to love our friends at church but can't seem to love our "enemies" and those who are far from God. We want to sing holy, holy, holy on Sunday and then profane the names of God and Jesus through out the week by using them as exclamations of surprise or disdain.

The problem is we like the parts that make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside but don't care much for the parts that should be shaping our attitudes toward those all around us. We don't much like the parts that require sacrifice or danger or being uncomfortable. We don't like being in situations where we have to trust God and not ourselves.

There is great cost in being a disciple of Jesus Christ. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Luke 9:23-24 (ESV)

But God tells us in the passage from 2 Timothy that if we read and study the Scripture we will be fully equipped for every task God sets before us. Do you believe it? Yes or no? There is no room for maybe or sort of or some of it. Either you do or you don't.

Weird

I've just finished reading the book "Weird" by Craig Groeschel. It came out about a year ago and I'm sorry I just now got around to reading it.

The message of the book is that those who are followers of Jesus Christ are called to live differently than the rest of the world which should make us weird.

Unfortunately too often our lives are NOT different. We just happen to go to church. We tend to watch the same TV and movies, go into serious debt for stuff, climb the ladder of worldly success, get caught up in the "rat race" of activity for ourselves and our children, and get divorced just like the rest of the world.

This is the normal existence for most Americans, including those who are Christian, and it just isn't working. We're not happier or more fulfilled or more content because of all our stuff or all the activity we participate  in.

As I was reading in First Timothy this morning I was reminded, "Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content." 1 Timothy 6:6-7 (ESV)

How weird would it be if those who profess Christ really lived like they believed that and didn't feel they have to have the newest iPhone every time it comes out? What if we saved our money to pay for things before we bought them? Do any of us have that delayed gratification discipline any more?

When I stand before Jesus Christ one day and He looks at my life, what will He say? Well done! You used the resources and time I gave you to further my kingdom. Or will He say you squandered everything I gave you on you. I kept prompting you to give some of it away but you wouldn't.

I want to be weird in a good way; a way that acknowledges that this world is not my home and that all I am and all I have is because of Jesus Christ. I want to trust HIM so completely I will never doubt His ability and His desire to care for me as HE thinks best.

With Gentleness and Respect

I am so tired of all the hateful rheteroric bantered about during this presidential campaign and not just from the politicians. There are people I know who call themselves Christians who post on Facebook every hateful, negative thing they can find about President Obama. If a student posted as many hateful things about another student, they would be called a bully and would be in a lot of trouble. But somehow with politics we think it's OK. Well, it's not!

I don't care whether you like him or not or agree with his policies or not, the man is the President of the United States of America and deserves respect, if for nothing else, for the office he holds. Romans 13:7

Maybe you think the President is your enemy. Fine. Love him and pray for him as Jesus commanded. Matthew 5:43-48

Rather than wasting so much energy on denigrating the President, perhaps you should engage your unsaved neighbor in conversation so you might eventually share the gospel with him.

Too many "Christians" are so full of hatred toward those who don't know Jesus Christ that they can't go and make disciples. They forget that once we were all enemies of God yet He loved us - and still loves those far from Him.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15-16 to "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect..." Don't make a defense for Mitt Romney...he is NOT our hope. No president is our hope. Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead is our hope. That is the hope we should share but always with gentleness and respect.

True Beauty

I know it's nothing new but I fear for many of the girls growing up with the images of Victoria's Secret "angels" and other false ideas of what true beauty is. 

My thirteen year old grandson has a female classmate who is obsessed with body image and always trying to lose weight and calling herself fat when she weighs just what she should for her age and height. And she is not alone in this obsession with body image.

No one wants to see models who look like me...old and wrinkly and saggy baggy...but a lot of girls, and even grown women, believe that looking like these super models will bring them happiness, or at least the boyfriend/husband they desire. Most don't see the stress these women are under to keep their weight "perfect", the hours of working out, the surgical enhancements and reductions to make them into someone they are not.

Men are not immune to this. We see all the exercise ads so men can have those 6 pack abs. And the hormone replacement ads, for men and women, so you can be "young again" are filling the TV. I don't know if we have lost the art of aging gracefully or we are afraid of old age and dying. Don't get me wrong, I want to live to be 100 - but do not fear standing before Jesus when my numbered days end. Job 14:5

Peter spoke to the women of the first century when he said, "Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of your hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." 1 Peter 3:3-4

Peter is not telling women it is wrong to look nice but rather that all the finery does not give us true beauty. True beauty comes from a heart surrender to God. True beauty can change the course of marriages and draw unbelieving husbands to Jesus (vs1-2). 

We can photoshop our pictures, get plastic surgeons to change our shape, work out in the gym for hours each day, and replace the hormones age is taking away but will we ever be satisfied? Nope! Only a personal relationship with Jesus can satisfy our deepest longings. Only through Jesus can we find peace and contentment for this life and the next.

Proclaim

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

Why does God bother to save anyone? Is it because we are so deserving or have great potential or so God can give us lots of stuff? I think anyone who really knows Jesus would answer that with a resounding NO!

But we often live like we think the answer is yes. We get angry with God when our grandma gets cancer or our marriage falls apart or our company goes belly-up and our income goes down the tube or our teenager gets pregnant or arrested for drugs. We cry out asking where are you God; make this go away God; why did You let this happen God? On and on we cry like we deserve better from God.

Romans 5:10 says that before we knew Jesus we were enemies of God. In Genesis 6:5 God says the heart and thoughts of people are evil all the time. So there is certainly nothing deserving about us that would cause God to sacrifice His Son on our behalf. The truth, though, is that having been rescued and redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, God does lavish His love on us as sons and daughters. Galatians 4:4-7, 1 John 3:1

That doesn't mean we are immune to suffering or hardship. It may mean just the opposite. It is only through the failures, the tough times, the hardships that we understand that we are not in control and we learn to lean on God. Then we "proclaim the excellencies of Him of called you out of darkness..." We proclaim His salvation, His faithfulness, His comfort, His love - all the excellencies of God - as those around us watch how we live out our faith when hardships come. We are chosen, royal, holy, His possession so that we may tell others about this awesome God.

As Was Necessary

Americans, including Christians, are spoiled. We have a tendency to complain about everything when we have more than most of the world. As Christians we also complain when we face trials of various sorts, whether it is an illness or job loss or wayward children or ridicule from non-believers. We have a tendancy to want to lay blame at someone's feet or have God make it all right, right now. And we don't even say please.

When the apostle Peter was writing to those scattered from Jerusalem across the Middle East because of severe persecution - kill you in horrible ways persecution - he told them, "...[God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:3, 6-7

Their persecution was necessary. It was not necessary because they were not living up to God's expectations and they were being punished. It was not necessary because God didn't really love them and adopt them as His children. It was not necessary because God took some perverse pleasure in making people suffer. It was necessary to test the genuineness of their faith. 

Jesus told a parable about a sower (Matthew 13:1-9) whose seed was scattered across various soils. When asked for an explanation of this parable Jesus said of the seed scattered on rocky soil, "As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately falls away." Matthew 13:20-21

Genuineness of faith. No one wants to go through really hard experiences but maybe it's God's way of telling us and the world, "You are mine!" Because we are His we can give praise and glory and honor to Jesus for His faithfulness even in our most difficult circumstances.