Sunday, October 5, 2014

An Eternal View of Suffering and Joy

We should see God as the Source of all good and our Sustainer through everything bad.  Consider the perspective of one accustomed to suffering who can still say, "They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights.  For with you is the fountain of life" (Psalm 36:8-9)  God alone is the Fountain of Life. Without Him there could be neither life nor joy, neither abundance nor delights

(from Seeing the Unseen- a Daily Dose of Eternal Perspective by Randy Alcorn)

Something good in your path? a need met? a prayer answered? a provision made?  Praise and give thanks to God.

A new catastrophic diagnosis? Excruciating never ending pain?  Poverty where once there was wealth?  Hunger and disease in other lands?  Mass murders going unpunished?  The loss of a beloved pet?

Then comes our understanding of the brokenness of this planet. Then comes the understanding of how desperately we need the Lord. The SAVIOR...who will one day with a flaming sword on a white steed with flames from his nostrils....He will come to rout the maker of disease, poverty, pain, injustice and more....He will throw open the door to hell and oust the one who wreaked such havoc on our planet....down into the kingdom of darkness where the flames never extinguish and the worms don't die.  There he will be bound for a thousand years....then let loose once more to wage war on the righteous and their KIng....and God will come in a blaze of fire and destroy the destroyer  Never again to whisper his lies or suggest sin.

When you see the big picture ...pain - even severe pain takes on a different light..  So does sin.
It creates in me a desperate desire to please Him.  To endure whatever I must so that in the end I will be on the winning side.  I will be in the  resurrection and will rise to receive my new body....which does not tire nor hurt.  Which can go from one place to another in the blink of an eye. And best of all, to hold the hand of Y'shua as he shows me the delights of the Kingdom.

  The Kingdom is gained ONLY by faith.  I urge you, to examine yourself....your life....your words....you behavior.  Confession is an essential need and it is something widely neglected.  Of late I have been asking God to open my heart to understand my failings and he has shown me things that make my heart ache...my heart sick.  

It is not enough to suffer without complaint.  My heart must be blameless.  And that blamelessness does not come from my effort....it is the "gift of God lest any man  should boast"  I confess my failures and he carries them to the deepest ocean depth and buries them never to surface again.  Thank you Jesus that you have holiness to spare.  That you will dress me in white bridal clothes to meet my King, Lord, Love and I will joyously greet you with a pure heart.

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