It’s a psychologically true that many tests of our discipleship can come after a Resounding Victory. Two of God’s men experienced such testing.
Consider Elijah. His came after successfully contesting and eliminating Jezebel’s 450 prophets of Baal I Kings 18:16-40. The exhilarating emotional surge empowered his run ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel from Mt. Carmel, some 15 miles. Only to find himself facing the same fate as the Queen’s prophets within 24 hours. His high-powered hosanna collapsed into cringing lamentations. Suddenly unnerved, he fled. To find himself increasingly demoralized in his flight to Mt. Horeb, some 300 miles away. Where God saw him in a cave, called him out, and asked, “What are you doing here,” a question that scared him far more than Jezebel’s threats. Condensing the powerful text of I Kings 19:7-18 into a paragraph, God’s merciful nature understood his prophet’s emotional condition. He first corrected his mistaken assumption of solitary faithfulness to God. Then granted Elijah’s wish for retirement from active ministry by ordering him to recruit a successor to his prophetic office. Thus, re-charged by the Holy Spirit, off he returned to duty. End Part III
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Negative experiences can make committed Christians wonder: while we want to patiently endure difficult times, can we know when God merely PRUNES, not DECAPITATES, us? Since both hurt, can we know the difference?
While no hard and fast rules define the difference, consider five possible assurances that we’re being pruned for future fruitfulness. One, if we continually rivet our eyes on Jesus while being tested, Hebrews 12:2, not on the condition that afflicts us. For that fixation will keep us functioning as a Christian, whatever we face. Two, if we say, “Why not me” instead of “Why me” or “Why me now”, we prove that we know we’ll face trouble in this world, but can trust Christ’s overcoming life to empower ours John 16:33. Three, if we ask Jesus to remove from us what we’d like to keep, since it makes us what we are. FOR, if what makes us what we are limits Christ’s Lordship of our life, we want it LOST, not PROTECTED! Four, if we can say, “This trial has made me more alive in Christ than ever I’ve been,” instead of “This experience has nearly killed me.” For the very pruning of our life eliminates habits and attitudes that prevented HIS Greater Life in our SMALL Minds and Hearts. Five, if we can say, “This has made me a more Christ-like person,” not, “This experience has proved that I’m not physically the person I used to be.” Then we can understand Paul’s great declaration in II Corinthians 4:16-18. For no diminution in our physical body, and its eventual demise, can ever defeat Christ’s powers over life, death and the after-life II Timothy 4:6-8. You get the drift of this blog. End Part II. John 15:1-8 reveals Christ’s doctrine of Pruning, the process by which God makes better disciples out of good ones and overcoming-disciples out of better ones. In the same context he introduced Judgment, CUTTING OFF—A.K.A. decapitation—of branches—i.e., members who have allowed themselves to become mere hearing, not producing, believers.
History has multiple examples of bad people suffering for doing bad things. One example suffices. Germany’s infrastructure remained entirely intact after WWI: and suffered almost total collapse after WWII. Because: while Kaiser Wilhelm sought only geographical conquest in WWI, Adolph Hitler targeted the Jewish people for destruction in WWII. However, scripture in both Testaments offers examples of, and Jesus in John 15 the definitive purpose of, both. For this short series, consider this One: fruitful disciples experience PAIN akin to decapitation, but with a positive purpose. In short, obedience to God inevitably brings God’s discipline of his people. I Thessalonians 3:2-4 and I Peter 4:12-13 offer one way that discipline applies to us. In John 15, Jesus saw God as the Gardner/Farmer/Horticulturist/Husbandman periodically lopping off certain religious people and pruning others. All we need to know about pruning for now is that it doesn’t mean eating prunes. End Part I Every mortal has this assurance, and every Christian believer this promise: God never turns a Test into a Temptation. That’s Satan’s endeavor every time God tests us. And he succeeds only with our co-operation, as James 1:13-15 makes clear.
A test, then, becomes a temptation when the experience has a negative influence on our spiritual life. WHICH is why Satan’s every test of Jesus in the Wilderness, and throughout Christ’s ministry, failed to become temptations to Jesus. He had no weakness Satan could exploit. AND Jesus, unlike Eve, always countered the Test with GOD’S WORD. Which thrashes Satan silly every time quoted since he has no answer to GOD’s WORD! In summary, then: God appeals to our strengths in every test, while
Every sports team begins the year equally perfect:
Only competition determines:
The Upper Class dandies in Boston played at war after the Revolution, but only in comfort, performing ceremonies. Like them, Christians make good spiritual warriors:
But how strong is our Faith when the church Gathered breaks into the church Scattered?
Understand that antinomy exists when two statements, each contradictory to the other, agree perfectly when united. Such as: God’s sovereignty rules; and humans have freedom of choice. Or, Jesus is called the Lamb of God, but also the Lion of Judah.
One of the best examples of antinomy exists in Matthew 3:13-4:1. God in one statement declared Jesus his beloved, trustworthy Son, followed immediately by sending the Holy Spirit to drive/force the same Jesus into the wilderness to be tested/tempted by Satan. A strange destiny for the self-same Jesus of Nazareth: Only Begotten Son in one breathe, Prove Yourself as My Son in the next. But do not think that the Spirit DROVE Jesus into the wilderness—very forceful word—because Jesus didn’t want to go and wouldn’t have otherwise GONE! It instead means that God demanded the terrible ordeal Jesus experienced so he wouldn’t be spared the problems, temptations, difficulties, hardships that all mortals face in life. For as Hebrews 4:15 declares, Jesus as our eternal High Priest:
`From the Master’s experience we can learn that: since God tested Christ’s Perfection, he will certainly test our discipleship:
In Summary:
The question isn’t: will we face adversity? We shall. “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” Job 5:7. Israel lived in safety, prosperity and pleasure under Moses by obeying God. Christ’s people live in spiritual transport, however wickedly life afflicts them; in routine symmetry, however confusing and disorderly society becomes; in perfect peace, however nerve-wracking circumstances become. The question isn’t, can mortals without faith in God heroically rise above negative experiences? They can,
The question isn’t: can we have a successful life without God? We can, for the same reason as above. The question isn’t: can we by refusing to accept failure as final, find a way past bad times to good? We can, for the same reason as above. The question IS: will our success in rising above adversity without God prepare us to face God; to be so honorable that God makes a place for us based on our effort to morally win back all that our humanity loses by sin: to survive death to live again? In short, The question IS: can any effort we make to survive in this world
Absolute NOT in either case! For it’s only by Christ’s Grace that his forgiven people inherit God’s favor, whatever their sins. Read Romans 8:28-39 and Revelation 3:21-22 for God’s promise how we can overcome the world…and we’ll find it has nothing to do with our effort but ALL with the Christ, his suffering and his victory over death! Fini Of the five accounts of adversity experienced in I Survived, only two considered GOD as their STRENGTH and HELPER. They answered the question: where was God when the tragedies occurred?
Where God has always, eternally, been:
Now, from His Throne, beside the Father’s, Revelation 3:21, Jesus governs history and its events, intercedes to protect those he chooses, such as the young man who survived a shot to his spinal column that should have killed him, but didn’t; such as the time a young woman, bowed low by the burden of regret and fear, remembered again John 3:16. As she read it, off her mind and out of her heart fell all the weight, and she stood tall, shoulders back, face alight, as God’s love and empowerment filled her. End Part II Judy handed me a story from her AARP magazine. Titled I Survived, it detailed the story of five people who endured but survived five tragedies,
It included a summary, The Power of Survival. The stories emphasize the human heroism possible in adversity. What didn’t surprise me was the omission of God’s help in three of the five cases, with none mentioned in the summary. One lady remembered begging God to give her a second chance—but no mention of a follow-up gratitude when he did. One survivor remembered going into depression that nearly caused his suicide and found that talking about the tragedy with another mortal lightened his burden and gave new meaning to life. One lady learned from her German dad’s tough talk to “get over it,” because bad things happen to good people. End Part I To become a more Christ-like disciple in 2024, consider making the following resolutions; a few of more that could be made. In no particular order.
Rather than say, “there are more things we can’t do than we can,” resolve to do what we can as well as we can. Rather than seek excuses not to be the Christian Jesus envisions for us, resolve to seize every reason why we SHOULD BE I Thessalonians 1:2-3. Rather than living close enough to Jesus so we don’t lose our relationship, resolve to establish forbidden zones as far out from our faith as possible, so we can stall, then eliminate, temptation’s approach. Rather than thinking, “we’re nearer our end every day,” resolve repeating “we’re nearer our new beginning that never ends.” Rather than admit, “we’re not the physical specimen we used to be,” resolve to triumphantly become “better Christ-like servants than we’ve ever been.” In summary, remember: it’s better to have goals to reach, knowing we improve if we come close to them, than have no goals, easily reached, which leave us nowhere in life. |
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