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I’d like to think on these thoughts for a while here.
Why is it when we are set upon by various hellish and painful situations do we seemingly gravitate toward looking for an easier way??
“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!”
“Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.”
I thought we wanted to KNOW Him, then why are we trying to avoid the Way He has opened up for this miracle to unfold in us?
I am seeing that it is only through experientially becoming identified with Christ in the circumstances and situations we each face that we are being delivered over to death, that Life might be more than just a groovy concept!
Why is it that we all seem to know so much about suffering, and yet when we are lovingly subjected to it, we begin to move totally away from what he has made clear to us.
“Trust in Me with ALL of your heart, lean NOT unto your understanding, acknowledge Me in ALL of your ways, and I WILL direct your path-goings!”
True, living, meaningful relationship will only come about through dying. “If a seed falls into the ground and it doesn’t die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”
I am discovering that the stuff I am being exposed to on a daily basis is more than sufficient to bring to the surface in my life the head trip I’m on, knowing a lot of stuff, or "knowing/experiencing" the reality of His life in me as me that is more than adequate to address anything that comes my way.
How about you?
Rich
4 comments:
You said: Why is it that we all seem to know so much about suffering, and yet when we are lovingly subjected to it, we begin to move totally away from what he has made clear to us.
Wish I didn't do this but I do. Still learning to embrace and accept the cup He gives. Still need to really trust that He has my best interests at heart.
Good post. Need to think on this some today.
firstcomeslove,
I appreciate your stopping by and commenting, thanks.
I would like to say that this wasn't an indictment on, Oh look how badly we are doing things.
In fact what I am learning as I daily choose Him over myself, is that when it comes to anything, e.g. faith, IT is NO longer I that lives, none the less I do live, but I live by His Faith!!
I see that is is one of the prime reasons for all that we are facing/ging through, to discover, I am alive only because of the Life of Another in me as me!
As I am fond of saying, 'It's a revelation, not a seminar.'
The father of lies is good at what he does, and he can oly do what we let him do, meaning, as long as our focus is on us-self, he has us.
I don't pretend to fully understand this, but we were NOT repaired, but repalced in the re-birthing. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ lives in me as me.
In the nasty-now-in-now of what we are going through, we are being led into situations whereby we are going to be identified with Him in His death experientally, and out of that we will have a much greater understanding that it is Him in me as me!!
That I might know Him, in the power of His resurrection, being MADE comformable to His death, being intimately enveloped in the Fellowship of His sufferings....this is the door we must all pass through, there are NO short cuts!!
All I can say is that I now embrace this (physical) struggle. Yes, it throws my theology for a major loop, but, SO WHAT?
It's not about proving a theology (theory), it's about knowing Him in whatever predicament I find myself.
I'm Ok with that now. And, I know this won't be my last battle.
Disease or none, I will choose to walk with Him, because He's already shown me that He's worth it!
Free Spirit,
I liked what you said here.."It's not about proving a theology (theory), it's about knowing Him in whatever predicament I find myself."
Here is what I want to offer on that.
"Here we are called to live God-Centered in that true dimension of the Spirit. In explaining the place of the will and how "a thological" fact may be held in the mind for a lifetime without its having any positive effect upon the moral character, the late Dr. Tozer pointedly asks the question: "At what point then, does a theological fact become for the one who holds it a life-giving truth? At the point where obedience begins. When faith gains the consent of the will to make an irrevocable committal to Christ as Lord, truth begins its saving, illuminating work; and not one moment before."
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