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Never more safe.....
"We are never more safe,
never have more reason to expect the Lord's help, than when we are sensible
that we can do nothing without His help."
"He has a sovereign right to
do with us as He pleases; and if we consider what we are, surely we will
confess we have no reason to complain; and to those who seek Him, His
sovereignty is exercised in the way of grace.
All shall work together for good; everything is needful that he sends;
nothing can be needful that He withholds."
John Newton
Do you ever find yourself feeling and perhaps thinking that Jesus
is only concerned about you occasionally?
Do you ever feel as though the Holy Spirit is more a visitor than a
resident? Do you sometimes feel estranged
from God?
Some of us do - some not so much.
But perhaps, for many of us, it is we who are strangers, we who are
occasional.
They say there are no atheists in foxholes - and there are
probably fewer in the oncologist's office.
But we cannot offer such people anything more than the gospel - which -
if they are called, is sufficient and more so.
It is the Child of God with which I am concerned. That one whom from all eternity is God's
however lately they have discovered it - or it has discovered them.
It is a easy thing to be redeemed and no harder to remains so yet
that assurance is constantly attacked by the desire for it all now.
"Satan wispers in our ears, "Why does God
delay?" Satan hint that,
"Perhaps you have so displeased Him that He has left you." The evil air carried all the wisperings of
Satan and never more so that when our flesh is pinched or crushed by our
circumstances.
There is a point where even the mighty oak is neither nut nor tree
but both. As God works His wonderousnand
observable will upon the acorn to grow His mighty Oak there is indeed a time of
vulnerability. We as we grow from nut to
tree may have a sense of vulnerability but since God's intent is that we be
oaks we must trust that indeed we will.
But let us not I imagine all oaks are or all nuts will be
identical trees. Certainly the nature
and the attributes of every oak are alike or similar and so it is with each of
us. Yet God does not create or call His
from an assembly line. We are all, in
Him, the same - but different. It is to
the "likeness" of Christ He mofes and mold us. That is likeness not sameness. We will never be and we were never intended
to be Christ - rather to be like Him.
Tall, short, thin, stout, fast slow -- oh what variety God has
among His people and how wonderfully does He fit that likeness of Christ upon
each individual unique child. You - are
to You in Him. I am to be I. We are to have I common His righteousness. Whether we have else in common is
irrelevant.
You may like purple I may like orange yet we both are His. I may prefer quiet reflexion you may prefer
joyous and lud praise yet we are both His.
In all of this we share the circunstance of living in a world who
prince is set upon our injury. He cannot
destroy us but he can do us grevous injury.
As any prince he has his subjects and whether they know or acknowledge
it they serve him and him alone. It is
the enhancement of the damnation of the u redeemed and the confusion and frustration
of the redeemed that is their only goal.
This danger we, the sales of the Lord of Lords, also share in common.
Whether directly or indirectly all the Redeemed are always under
attack. If the prince of this world
hates us and aims at our destruction, it is not possible even though unaware,
that his servants do not aim at the same end.
IN ALL THIS - regardless of its intensity or duration we need only
hold to one thought:
Phi 1:6 And I am sure of
this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the
day of Jesus Christ.�
ESV
In this we see all. Beginning
- bringing and completion.
Forget not who HE is.
Forget not who we are, HIS.
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Jam 4:1-6
Chapter 4
Warning Against Worldliness
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not
this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have,
so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do
not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask
wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know
that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to
be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it
is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit
that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
�
ESV
Tit 2:11-13
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all
people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to
live self- controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting
for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior
Jesus Christ,
�
ESV
Heb 12:7-14
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating
you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If
you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are
illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers
who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to
the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as
it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share
his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,
but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been
trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your
drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for
your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be
healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which
no one will see the Lord.
�
ESV
Phi 4:11-14
11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in
whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I
know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of
facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through
him who strengthens me.�
ESV
