Saturday, January 30, 2021

"As the World Turns" -2.0

 "We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she be spoken for?" (S.O.S. 8:8)

  "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Peter 2:11-12)

  Just in case we might have overlooked anything, as it might be customary to do when it comes to sin, there is a completely different side to what might be going on here; because, as I said before, you must have a time when you come to terms with what you are, what you are capable of, and who it is that you belong to. If you belong to the Lord, you are His forever; you are now a citizen of Heaven, which is a real and present place; and you can do all things through Christ! 

  Yesterday I was reminded of a story in a book, I believe it was a book by a famous Korean pastor who was sharing something about the power of prayer. Not everything in the book is worth following, as there are some things that I do not believe we should practice, like giving birth to prayers. But there was a little story about the missionary trip to a pagan island, where a new believer in the group challenged the natives on the power of the god they worshipped, saying, "God is going to rain on your parade!" 

  If you are familiar with the story, you might recall how that rest of the group reacted, saying that these natives will kill them all for being false prophets, if the rain declared did not happen on the day of their ceremonial parade. As the story goes, they woke up the morning of, and there was not a cloud in the sky; thinking they were doomed, they starting to pray, "Where is the God of Elijah!" And after some time, praying earnestly for God's help, they began to hear rain drops upon the tin roof. The rest of what happened was something similar to what happen with the Philistines and the Ark; it surely did rain on their parade! 

  In that regard, I am reminded of John Chau, who was at our church getting prayed over before he went to a remote island to minister to that Sentinelese Tribe. Then he was apparently killed and never heard from again, almost instantly upon his arrival. We never really know what God is going to do in anything that He might put upon our hearts, because His ways are not always on the same level as our ways. To be perfectly clear, we just don't see things the same way that He does; mostly because He sees all of the whole picture, we can only see, partially see, the spot we are currently standing on; and then that, is for only a brief moment in time. 

  What is it that we must do to get some sort of consistency in how God works? Is there even a clue that we can know what He is really trying to do? 'If this ride is meant to be fun, I want to get off! But if this is for Your glory to be displayed, then show me a sign!' These are the question and the terms we all seem to struggle with from time to time; nothing is very different from one trial to the next, it is just another issue or problem; all of which are attached to this earth, none of which are going with us when we depart. 

  Obviously there is more to what is happening then what we can see; so there is what breasts look like, or don't look like, because we have none! There is no pattern to what God does, except that He works all things towards the good! What the good might be, is still unseen to all situations; and some of us will never know what and how much good that there was, until we get to heaven. In case you might be wondering, that will be the day in which you are spoken for...

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)  

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