TWO OPPORTUNITIES AT LIFE

Christians get two opportunities at life. The first opportunity is finite with a pre-established beginning and end. We can call this life a Dot... a heartbeat... Dot-Life, life as aliens in a fallen sin fabricated world. The second opportunity is infinite with no ending... extending into forever. We can call this life a Line... an infinite line... Line-Life, life as the redeemed children of God. Being a fickle stiff-necked people we tend to live in the Dot... live in the now. We would do well to live in the Line… live in the Blessed Hope we have in Christ. God has given us great and precious promises about Line-Life including the promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth, the new home for the righteous. Assuming the Lord tarries in His return, only two things stand between the drudging misery of Dot-Life and the love, joy, peace and sheer beauty of Line-Life, that marvelous world where we will live happily forever: Only two things: Death and Resurrection. It is a simple and obvious fact, that if we never die we will never be resurrected. As the result of sin’s curse death is an enemy of God’s people, a powerful fear provoking tool of the powers of darkness. And the disease of aging, the curse of sin, is the number one cause of death accounting for more deaths than all diseases, fatal accidents, nature’s catastrophes, and wars combined. But Wait! Romans declares “We know that all things work together for good ... according to His (IE., God’s) purposes.” So while death is an enemy, because of the death and resurrection of our Lord, death has been turned into God’s eternal good, the vehicle by which we receive our glorified bodies and enter the glory of never-ending life... Resurrection Life… Line-Life. If we never died we would never be resurrected into the joy of eternity with our Savior and our spiritual family – we would remain a Dot! Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a saint, for it leads to God’s best! Death is simply the door to Line-Life. Father, teach us how to access the essence of Line-Life now, living purposeful lives as Kingdom builders, never fearing death, ever anticipating the full reality of what awaits us when we step through death’s door.

EndNote:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

“DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY”

(Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 15:54-58)

DON’T STUMBLE OVER THE BRICKS

Life has a way of tossing bricks in our pathway... speed bumps on the road to eternity with our Lord. Now we know from God’s word that adversity has a purpose, for every brick... every bad, will, ultimately, be turned into eternal good for those who love God and are called by His name. The bricks of life arrive in many shapes and sizes, may be physical, financial, relational or emotional, and may be gift wrapped as a blessing. For the saint the Bible speaks of specific categories of bricks: 1) Trials and tests of faith. 2) The transforming work of the Holy Spirit. 3) Reaping what one has sown. 4) Chastening, scourging, and rebukes of the Lord. 5) Persecution for godliness. 6) The devouring attacks of the enemy, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. 7) Tests of the heart. Paul called these bricks “light affliction” that produce an eternal weight of glory... the partaking and sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Bricks are the pressures of life we feel and deal with daily, and they are all, in a sense, tests of faith meant to prod our will toward spiritual transformation -- the shaping of our nature into Christlikeness.

Worry is the way the world responds to the pressures of life, conforming to the world’s way of handling bricks. Worry is fear all dressed up, masquerading as something normal and dripping with anxiety: We all worry, right? But, for the blood bought saint, worry vents our fears, giving fear an inner voice denouncing our faith in God. Worry is unmitigated doubt! This makes worry about the worse thing a saint can do. There are only two ways to respond to bricks, Fear or Trust, and we all know what fear gets us... more bricks, for Christlikeness is at the top of our Daddy’s agenda. We must learn to trust our loving Father unequivocally and depend on Him unconditionally: He has proven His insatiable love for us. He has promised to never leave us forsaken. He has promised to turn our bad into His eternal good. We must never ever doubt that He is with us, in total control, and will take care of us. You see, we are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we truly love God how can we not trust Him… is love without trust even possible? Just as worry bears the fruit of fear, doubt and ultimately depression, trust bears the fruit of love, joy, and peace... even in the worse brick storm. “By their fruits you shall know them”...

THE SECRET TO WEATHERING BRICK STORMS:

TRUST IN GOD UNEQUIVOCALLY…

DEPEND ON GOD UNCONDITIONALLY…

(Rom. 8:28; 2 Cor. 4:17; 2 Tim. 1:8; 1 peter 4:13; Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 1:5; Heb. 13:5; Matt. 7:20)

THE LANDING PLACE

“For no temptation, no trial regarded as enticing to sin, no matter how it comes or where it leads, has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man: That is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear. But God is faithful to His Word and to His compassionate nature, and He can be trusted not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will always also provide the way out, the means of escape to a landing place, that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.” (1 Cor. 10:13, Amplified Bible)

Point One: God personally adjusts and adapts temptation to sin, ensuring it is common to the human experience and bearable. Just as in the time of Job He sets both the type and limits of satan’s attacks.

Point Two: God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability and strength to resist or power to endure. In this He is faithful and can be trusted.

Point Three: God will always provide a way out, an escape to a safe landing place, a strong tower of refuge.

Point Four: We will be – all of us – tempted (to enticed to sin), tried (to test), and assayed (to determine the quality of). God brings us through adversity and affliction in order to encourage and prove our faith and confidence in Him, and conform us, through our growing submission and dependence, into “the image (nature) of His Son.” (Rom. 8:29) Temptation and trials are simply sculpturing tools used by God, the Master Potter, to transform us into vessels of honor fit for Kingdom use.

Point Five: God’s purpose is that we become capable and strong and powerful, that our faith increases and grows strong through use as we bear up under the enemy’s attacks patiently. And, our faith – our shield during bad times -- pleases God who rewards us, as we “diligently seek Him”, with more faith (Heb. 11:6). Temptations and trials not only test, approve and grow our faith, changing us from the inside out, but also grow our power to endure… for we “have need of endurance.” (Heb. 10:36)

Note: Endurance is consistency, perseverance, steadfastness, the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists worry, fear, doubt, weariness and defeat.

THE LANDING PLACE

OUR DADDY’S ARMS…

THERE IS NO SAFER PLACE TO BE!

HEALED BY THE GRACE OF GOD

Once, when I was doubting God about a serious life threatening physical need, the Holy Spirit spoke this question very clearly to my heart: "How can you love someone you don't trust" After some deep soul searching I decided to let my love for God be demonstrated in trust... "Though He slay me trust"! From that moment forward I stopped all medical intervention and simply trusted God as a demonstration of my love. It did not matter whether God healed me, kept me alive by divine intervention, or took me home to be with Him, although in all honesty I had my preferences. I simply realized that I am God’s possession, one of His jewels, bought with more than a King’s ransom… the precious blood of Jesus. He knows what is best for me and the plans He has for me, far better then I. After a few months all symptoms disappeared. Healed 18 years and counting...

Endnote: There is no surefire single recipe to access divine healing. God sort of does what He wants, within the confines of bringing His eternal good out of the circumstances of our life, for “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” How God fixes my “thing” may be quite different from how He chooses to fix your “thing.” But all our “things” will produce God’s purposeful good for us… all, not some!  He is God you know… and He has spoken! Love, Trust, Obedience, Dependence… These things are all important, but healings will always be a unique supernatural exchange between God and an individual. Pondering “Why” is a dead-end that wastes time and dilutes our faith for God never answers this question. The question God is eager to answer is Who. It is far better to recognize Who is with us in times of affliction and adversity: “Fear not, for I AM with you.” And the undisputable fact that God will never leave us forsaken: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

HOW CAN YOU LOVE SOMEONE YOU DON'T TRUST?

HOW INDEED…

(Job 13:15; Is. 41:10; Heb. 13:5; Rom. 8:28)