Knocked Out Of Your Comfort Zone

"Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction"  (Isaiah 48:10, HCSB).
"The LORD says, 'I will give you back what you lost ["I will repay you for the years..." or make it up to you (HCSB)] to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.  It was I who sent this great destroying army against you'"  (Joel 2:25, HCSB).

"... God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart," (cf. 2 Chron. 32:31, HCSB).

"... It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God," (cf. Acts 14:22, HCSB). 

We all must endure the fires of the testing of our faith to ensure its reality and genuineness. It's more precious than gold and silver which are refined by fire.  It's not for God's sake that we get tested--He knows all and doesn't learn from the experience--it's we who learn and must realize for ourselves how strong we are in the Lord and whether our faith is strong enough to endure hardship, or whether it's just fair-weather faith. When the chips are down we must find out where our heart is and what we're made of!  We should be proud to be able to say in sympathy:  Been there, done that!  And put ourselves in their shoes and be on the same page.

Job, the patron saint and poster child of suffering par excellence, was tested, but not beyond his ability!  He may have questioned God and defended his own record but he was self-righteous, and his faith hung in there and he never gave up the ship!  He left the bosom of the home and thought outside the box to wonder what was happening and to answer his miserable comforters who really were his critics.  We can all relate to his depression and can find ourselves in a melancholy mood too sometimes, but this was severe and he was experiencing the doldrums and was in the pits, in a real funk! The Bible says that when we are being tested at least our friends shouldn't dessert us and we should find comfort and solace with them as we seek empathy. Job had the additional discomfort of being condemned by his "comforters" and "friends."

Second Corinthians 1:4 says that God is a God of comfort and allows us to experience hardship and trial so we can comfort others with the comfort that we have received.  We should be able to relate to others and put ourselves in their shoes.  Paul said in Phil. 3:10 that he wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of His suffering-to suffer with Him!  There is a union and fellowship in suffering and God not only calls us to faith, but to suffering on behalf of Christ to fulfill His passion and to glorify God through them.  For we are participating in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).

When we get saved and surrender our wills to His and give up the ownership of our lives to be directed by God's will to His glory, we enroll in the school of suffering and decide to take up our cross daily and be willing to suffer for His name's sake--no cross--no crown!  We must learn to endure hardship to be good soldiers in Christ because this comes with the territory and we sign up for it!  It's only to be expected to suffer and should consider it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name!

The trials we have endured are like stripes on our shoulders or feathers in our cap and could be seen as the red badge of courage or our Purple Heart to show that we have been tried in the course of battle in the angelic conflict.  The purpose of our suffering may never be answered, for God owes us no explanation and isn't accountable to us (He's too deep to explain Himself to us too kind to be cruel and to wise to make a mistake), but we must learn to endure not only during the good times but through thick and thin when faith isn't so easy when push comes to shove and faith isn't an automatic given! 

The uniqueness of our faith is that we believe in a suffering God who bore our sorrows and griefs and didn't exempt Himself from hardship and suffering, so we can know He feels us in our pain and knows where we are in our time of need.  Adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials are inevitable but that's how we gain Christlikeness.   Soli Deo Gloria!

If God Could Speak

"Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.  In these last days,  He has spoken to us by Hi Son...." (Heb. 11:1, HCSB). 

There is a story in India of six men touching an elephant and each having different experiences which is supposed to explain how we all see God in a different light, thus explaining worldviews or religions.  The men are blind and each touches a different part:  one touches the trunk and thinks its a tree trunk; another the tusk and thinks it's a spear; another a tail and so forth.  But the men don't know they're touching an elephant!  They don't know they're just touching part of the elephant.  But if the elephant could speak there would be divine revelation and they wouldn't be confused but know the truth.

But in the analogy, God is supposed to be the elephant and the fact is that He did speak to us in the Bible and through His final revelation of Jesus.  We need someone who is not blind to know the true nature and we are assuming all the men are blind and have limited knowledge.  What if they touch different elephants?  The analogy may have cute comparisons but it's not valid when you break it down and analyze it.  God entered our world and became one in the nature of the elephant and that person is Jesus, the icon of God, and all we need to know.

God spoke the world into existence and He is here and He is not silent.  God speaks every day through the Word of God and our voices--He uses us to be His spokespersons.  God first spoke, then created, then acted on our behalf.  He's listening to us if we listen and don't turn a deaf ear, but be attentive to His signals.  As C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers in our joys, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it's God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." The problem is not God trying to make contact but our refusal to listen and hear what He has to say.  He speaks, we just don't listen up! As in the analogy, if the elephant spoke the confusion, conjecture, and speculation would cease and man would know the truth to set him free.  To know Jesus is to know that truth and to be free in spirit.

It seems to me that if archaeologists found the love letters of Cleopatra that the world would seek out to read them wholeheartedly with gusto; however, we have the love letter of God and men ignore that.  God has sent His Word to the world and we must heed and hearken to what He has to say, for He knows our needs and what we need to know. So we need not ponder whether God could speak but realize that He has spoken and all we need to know is in the Bible; there is no need for more revelation or doctrines.

"In the beginning was the Word...."  The Greek word used is Logos or "thought expressed." Jesus is the express image of God (cf. Col. 2:9).  The elephant is supposedly the expressed thought of God to the blind men.  However, the difference is that Jesus opens the eyes of the blind and makes them see:  "I was blind but now I see!"  It was the devil who blinded the eyes of the unbeliever, but upon salvation, they are opened to the truth and he sees the big picture or the whole elephant.
       Soli Deo Gloria!

The Manifold Facets Of Our Salvation

Note that salvation isn't a simple adjustment in the Divine Ledger above.  There are four aspects of our salvation that make it so wondrous.   Firstly, we are redeemed from the slave market of sin, for Jesus paid the price to set us free from the power of sin; secondly, we are justified in the heavenly court above and declared righteous in God's eyes because we are imputed with it; thirdly, we are reconciled to God's family and restored to fellowship with the Father and the Son, while this invites fellowship with our brethren in Christ; fourthly, we are propitiated or expiated in the temple of God whereby the blood of Christ was shed on our behalf to satisfy the Father.

Christianity is a religion of salvation, which doesn't sound so equitable or democratic, implying some are condemned or lost. Salvation, technically, is to be rescued from some threat; however, in our case, we are our own worst enemy!   Salvation is more than forgiveness!  Our whole-person needs salvation:  our hearts are depraved,  our minds are feeble, and our wills stubborn.  Our salvation is through God's grace as the source, with Christ as the means, and faith as the channel.  And Christianity is the only one proclaiming that there is only one Savior and depicts the "saviorhood" of Christ.  What are we saved from?  Ourselves, the devil, hell, the power of sin, the effect of sin, and from God, i.e., from the wrath of God.  Salvation is totally a work of God without our input and reflects our secure position in Christ, our growing condition in Christ, and our future expectation in glory--we achieve no pre-salvation work.

Our common salvation is as good as it gets and we cannot improve on it. We are saved from the penalty of sin, are being saved from its power, and shall be saved from its presence!  Jesus saved us--He did; He keeps us--He does; He's coming for us--He will!  Concerning the tenses, His salvation is our experience, hope, and expectation. Our past was forgiven, our present given meaning, and our future secured.  We are saved; we are being saved, and we shall be saved!  It began in eternity past, is realized in time, and looks forward to heaven. That's why it is written in Heb. 2:9, NIV, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?"  We have faith in Christ, we believe in Him and believe Him, we have our hope secured and anchored in Him, our expectation is in Him, and our security is in Him. If we had to trust in ourselves, we'd fail and could never know for sure of our status.

Our salvation was wrought by God and planned and purposed by God the Father as its Author, accomplished and secured as a finished work by God the Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit. The Father purposed it, the Son executed it, and the Spirit made it known!  The three work as a group effort in a team and union as one Being having no conflict of interest or will.

Christ is fully at work in our salvation through His three offices: we're saved from the penalty of sin by the crucified Christ, from the power of sin by the risen and living Christ, and from the presence of sin by the coming Christ. We are saved from the ignorance of sin by the prophet Jesus, from the power of sin by the king Jesus, and the guilt of sin by the priest Jesus.   

Finally, let me add the perks of our salvation with come with the whole package:  we are given peace with God and ourselves, we are given purpose and meaning in life following His will, and we're given the power to overcome sin, Satan, and the world as our threefold enemy, and don't forget:  God is now our Father and we can confidently look forward to our reward in glory!   Soli Deo Gloria!

A Brief History Of Man

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  --George Santayana

The Bible begins in eternity past and continues in real time and concludes in eternity future.  We are not in some episode between two oblivions but are here for a purpose--to glorify God, for all things were created for that purpose.  The story of man (i.e., His Story) is simply:  creation, fall, redemption, judgment.   We all fell in Adam and can be redeemed in Christ, and will all be judged by Christ (either the Bema of Christ or the Great White Throne of condemnation for the lost).  Where we end up for eternity depends upon our relation to Christ in this life with no second chances to redeem ourselves.  We Christians are just passing through as pilgrims to a heavenly city and our eternal reward, for our compensation is not in this life.  We believe that in the end the God of justice will make all things right and answer all our questions.

So we live in the hope of redemption from the slave market of sin and weakness of the flesh until we receive glorified bodies that don't have vulnerabilities, like Christ's.  We are here for a purpose: to complete the Great Commission and do God's will.  Happy are those who find their calling and purpose in life.  Someday this calling will be the Great Completion.  In the meantime, we are stewards of the time allotted us and must redeem it for the Lord's work.  We are here for a purpose--to please God and know Him personally, but not second hand. We long for Jesus to announce: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"

Jesus, who created time (the corollary of space and matter), and entered it for our sakes and lived life in the flesh in all its weaknesses except without sin, living the perfect law-abiding life to fulfill the Law of Moses and thus qualify as our righteousness. He became the perfect sacrifice by dying in our stead while being innocent of any transgression and the Father imputed our sin unto His account in the Divine Ledger.  And so Jesus made Himself known in real-time, for He existed prior to creation and is the Creator, but stepped into time so we would know God.  All we need to know of God is expressed in Jesus as His icon or image.

Jesus didn't become the Son of God by being born of the virgin Mary but is the eternal Son of God and that means there never was a time when He became the Son or wasn't the Son and the Father is the eternal Father and always was the Father of Jesus, not becoming the Father--He was begotten, not made, born, or adopted of God. God didn't create Him, give birth to Him nor adopt Him like He did us. And so, it was high time Jesus entered history in the fullness of time and complete our redemption that was planned by the Father.

In the meantime, we are on borrowed time as it were, and must be good stewards with time management.  The earth will end someday and we want to be on the right side that endures to the end.  Man is ever-learning in technology, but not in wisdom--the right usage of that knowledge: right ends, right motives, and in the right way.  Man will not evolve into perfection or have some mutation that puts us at a higher sphere of awareness wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence.  The problem isn't intelligence, but wisdom and only God grants that.  We need to know God, not the wisdom of man, for man cannot know nor find God through the wisdom of man.

As  Santayana said that if we don't remember the past, we will be condemned to repeat it!  And Hegel said, that one thing we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history.  History is not cyclical in that it repeats itself (as Mark Twain said, "it only rhymes!"), but it's linear going in a direction and having a beginning, climax, and end, conclusion, consummation, and culmination.  It is going somewhere and has a purpose and story to tell from the Storyteller. History is merely God's redemptive plan and narrative for man unfolding in real-time as God orchestrates it.

History has meaning and we are to interpret it and study it to find out what God is saying.  NB:  The Bible is based in history too and is the only religion that is--dehistoricize it and you discredit the faith. We need to learn its lessons or be doomed to repeat its mistakes.  And the unfolding of history in the making is about God's ultimate purpose for mankind, it's not bunk but worth the study, while the key to understanding a story is to know the Storyteller--God!  We know the Author of the Bible as well and that's why we see Jesus at work in it.  Soli Deo Gloria!