I love the essence of this blog.
The main purpose of this blog is to help people understand God's visible hand in their life through His allowed circumstances.
Allowed circumstances is a very hard phrase to accept even among those with the strongest faith.
I think of the widow in 2 Kings 4 who came to the prophet and said, "Thy servant, my husband is dead..." (2 Kings 4:1) The wording in her phrase speaks a great deal about how she was feeling about the circumstance. THY servant, MY husband. Notice the order here? In other words, "My husbands relationship with God and our present situation are not adding up here!"
Have you ever felt that way before? The truth is we all have.
What is incredible to me is the power that is contained in the way that we respond to the situations that "Don't measure up".
The past several post have been primarily about recognizing the allowed circumstances in our lives for what they truly are, simply steps, steps that once climbed will bring us closer to the God who allowed them.
If these are steps on our path, then the next logical question is "How do I climb them?". How do I go from weak to strong?
The answer is through Christ, but let's be more specific as we look at this area of life between heartache and victory. Response time as I call it.
I want to point out a tremendous example of a person who climbed their steps with God well.
"Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia."
~ 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."
~2 Corinthians 2:14
Did you catch it?
Let's read it again!
~ 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. This was not just any church to him. This one was one that God allowed him to plant through much sweat, tears, and love. This was one that he had spent 18 precious months pouring himself into. He loved this church.
This part of his life was sweet and filled with so much energy of this man of God.
After he left to continue his journey with the Lord, wolves came into the church (Vs 17) and began to tear it apart like a young lamb with false doctrine and immorality. Where there are sheep, you will find wolves close at hand.
Paul writes 1 Corinthians as a rebuke to this body for being so easily led astray.
"Open rebuke is better than secret love." ~Proverbs 27:5
Paul was troubled because he had written them a letter and sent it with Titus. He and Titus were to meet up in a place called Troas where Paul would receive the response of the people to the letter Titus had delivered. Paul is waiting, and Titus does not show up.
While Paul is waiting for Titus in Troas, the Lord opens a door. The door is one that Paul steps through and God uses that door to allow him to see great results in the planting of another church (Acts 20)
But while Paul is there and working with the Lord he is troubled in his spirit. His mind and heart is so focused on the church at Corinth that he picks up and leaves Troas and goes to Macedonia.
What we do during the "wounded times" in our lives is very important!
"OUR RESPONSE DETERMINES OUR FUTURE"
I am not sure what you are going through as you read these words but God has allowed you to read these words out of all the words you will read today, so let me say it again!
What you do during the "wounded times" in your life is very important!
I had placed the question mark between the 13th verse of this passage and the 14th verse for a reason.
Let's look at verse 14 again please, because this is the thing that we miss in life just as we missed it when we read it a minute ago.
"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."
~2 Corinthians 2:14
WOW! The entire tone of this passage is starkly different than the passage above it. Just above this verse we see Paul in the middle of a great burden and concern. He was internally burdened over the church and their lack of response to his letter.
Paul goes from troubled and ill in his spirit so much so that he leaves the open door, to thanking God, praising God, and expressing TRIUMPH?
What happened between the verse 13 of his life and the verse 14 of his life?
How was Paul able to say the things he goes on to say after verse 14?
This is absolutely MIND BLOWING, and if we can get a hold of this truth there is no force on earth that can hold us back again!
The simple truth we are going to look at absolutely destroys the "Victim" mentality, and releases healing and freedom into the verse 13's of our life!
We will look at the answer to this question this coming wed because it is one truth that needs a room of it's own. I wanted to lay the groundwork this morning for this truth!
I cannot wait to meet up with you again on Wed!
Climbing with you,
~Dan
When a person hangs out with the world, it shouldn't come as a surprise when wounds come. The sad part is when you are in church trying to do what is right and you get wounded. Those can be some of the deepest wounds and some of the longest healing times if you are not careful. I often heard the saying that churches are hospitals for sinners. Unfortunately, there is a lot of malpractice going on in some of those hospitals. I have gone through some of those wounded times. The first one made me leave church for about four years. I didn't want to go or think about going. I am thankful that God is longsuffering and merciful. The problem is that when you grow up in church you come to expect the leaders to be ....well...LEADERS. That first time that you find out that there are some out there that are in it for self exaltation instead of being there to minister to the hurting, it brings your world crashing down. That first almost mortal wound is hard to heal.If you don't put salve on it by staying in the Word (and in church) then the wound will fester.That is what happened the first time. The second time didn't last as long, just a few months-but still too long (long enough for the root of bitterness to spring up). During that time God spoke to me in the verse that says "Be still and know that I am God." I came to the point that I know that we can't ever put our faith in men. We have to look only to God, the author and finisher of our faith. Men will disappoint us but God will never let us down. This last time,I went in with my eyes wide open, expecting nothing from man.The wound was superficial. It hurt more to see others so adversely affected, their first major wound. I see the hurt, the disappointment and the bitterness they are going through. My prayer is that they will "be still and know that I am God" and allow God to be their focus as they climb the next step.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as if you have had quite a few walls to climb, and that God has shown Himself to you to be who He is... Faithful!
DeleteChurch wounds can set in deep, and I think if I am hearing you right, is that these experiences have helped you see beyond the man and instead focus on the message. The message is expressed in word as well as deed. Thank you for taking the time to read the blog! I am quite sure that you are going to enjoy wed's post!
Climbing with you,
~Dan