Posted on 09/28/2002 3:04:01 PM PDT by grantswank
JESUS: NEW-MAKER
J. Grant Swank, Jr., POB l984, Windham ME 04062
Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME
Think back ten years. What pressure was on you then? Think back fifteen years.
What were you doing? You cannot recall; it is a blur.
Sometimes, as years pass, it is as if another person lived our situations, places, and events. One of God's gifts is to blur the past in preparation for eternity.
Paul said, "Forgetting those things which are behind. . .I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:l3-l4).
The accent is on the NOW in Jesus; then this now will pass as well. Therefore, it is not so much what is the content of the now, but Jesus, who will never leave us.
Satan would have us focus on our settings: poor, confused, threatening. God would have us focus on our Savior: more than adequate, abiding, loving, leading.
It is Jesus who is all-in-all. It is He who undergirds our mortality. It is He who understand our fragility.
That is why Scripture refers to us as clay: cracked; as dust: blowing in the wind; as wheat strands: at the mercy of the weather. Yet over our humanity is the God-man, Jesus Christ--our very breath derives from Him.
Sometimes God permits dire situations so we will cast off all our attachments to the world. Some of us have difficulty letting go of our manufactured securities: position, academic accomplishments, standing in the corporation, bank accounts, political savvy, talents, connections. Yet none of these can be our security; only Jesus can.
Therefore, trying situations are allowed by the Father to continually reminds "Blessed are the poor in spirit. . ." Poverty in soul is the beginning of spiritual riches.
Right now assess, not what is taking place in your life, but how aware you are of Jesus. As long as your companionship with Him is intact, then you are sound--whole. From alpha to omega, this intactness is all that ultimately counts for anything.
We tend to concentrate on the situation at hand instead of on Jesus. But circumstances will pass; so will you. Only your tie with Jesus will go on and on.
The Father permitted His only Son to endure intense persecution, particularly from so-called religious persons. They poked, jabbed, reviled--publicly--in one circumstance after another. Are they doing that to you?
Why did the Son have to undergo such daily miseries? To make certain that in His humanness He was totally yielded to the Father's plan for the moment.
If that was the procedure for the Sinless One, then why not for His other children--the offspring of grace? As Jesus was crafted daily into the Father's image through agonies about Him, so we are crated daily in the Savior's image through agonies about us.
Take your eyes off the situation and put them on Jesus within the housing of your soul.
He is already there; do not beg Him to come. By faith, you accept this security. That is enough for you.
Itsfreewill LOL&ROTF!
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