"The Withdraw!"

"I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave no answer." (S.O.S. 5:6)

  "Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)  

  Yes, it is sometimes ironic, but we must know something about how God works: Sometimes we are in need of a little distress in our lives, to cause us to see where our real strength comes from! Crazy is as crazy does! You might have heard that before and thought it was in reference to acting crazy; but in reality, it is asking the meaning of crazy, and who might define it: "Crazy is in the eye of the beholder," if you will. 

  Interesting enough, the word distress is kind of interesting, because it can be used as a noun, adjective, or a verb, without even changing the properties of the word. For example: It is a noun when used as, "After the stock market crash, he found himself in great financial distress," or is a adjective when we say, "The distress of the livestock has caused distress in the meat prices," or to be a verb, it is formed as, "She used an old bicycle chain to distress the surface of the table before applying a deep stain." 

  Anywho: unfortunately, ashamed is only used in one form, as an adjective! Not that this is some sort of a lesson in grammar; but to totally understand what happens and why, we sometimes need to completely know from which direction it comes and goes! ADECTIVE: Typically serving as a modifier of a noun; which typically means that it does not stand by itself, because it is relation to, or functioning as: you name it! Clear enough? 

  You cannot even imagine all this stuff going through my mind! But, in the long-short of it all, this is by far the greatest piece of work I think I have ever seen in my life: I think I need to step back and get a little better look at it...

"What shall we say then? (Distress!) That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? (Distress!) Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at the stumblingstone; (Distress!) As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion and stumblingstone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." (Romans 9:30-33)