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.
They YELP AND HOWL all over the place when someone has another point of view!
These religious Terrorist are of little faith! For no other voices are be heard unless at expence for entertainment to this band of Zealots!(drstevej; P-Marlowe; RnMomof7;Frumanchu; Wrigley; xzins;)
Look what they did to Stikywings, and AP!
If the bullies can reek havoc, why not Grant provoking thoughts?
REEK Havoc and let fly the dogs of War!!! (the smell of gunpowder in the air??)
No it is easy to get lost in this maze of FR:>)
My issue with Grant has to do with his unwillingness to defend or even discuss his views as posted in the flood of vanity articles he's posted. I do not know the reasons behind his refusal to do so, but this forum is not his own personal magazine for him to spread his gospel. His views and positions cannot rest merely on his educational background or his publishing history...many other in here who differ with his views hold similar credentials.
If he is willing to spend more time discussing his articles and less time posting his 2000+ works, I will be more than happy to engage him in discussion/debate in a gracious manner. Until and unless that happens, I move to have a warning issued, and if he doesn't heed it to have his posting rights revoked.
I find it almost amusing that you're accusing us of trying to run him out as a dissenting voice when all we've been calling for is to speak and engage us...
So are you sticky? Are you AP??
NO I AM NOT STIKY; Stiky has been vanished!
Here you go Mom! ;o)
Of course out of sight out of mind..I was later replaced by a pretender to the throne
For no other voices are be heard unless at expence for entertainment to this band of Zealots.
Well said.
Ah, another Harvard boy, huh? Interesting useage of the present perfect subjunctive mood.
cruel, pm.
(but correct.)
What do you think of the restornu theory? Could this be a mormon advocate of free will, determined to be a player but wanting to shed the stigma of moroni?
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