Michael continues: Therefore, let God have his way with us. Chambers said, without Him, we're clogs.... We're weights and hinderances to the gospel of Christ. God's design is that there be no divisions among us but that we all speak thing, that you're all with one mind and one accord. The goal is for the furtherance of the gospel. Divisions and persecution are often painful, but as Paul said: “whether I live or die, God's purpose for my life is the furtherance of the gospel of Christ.”
Irreconcilable differences, divisions, factions, strife and contentions are sometimes the result of giving in to the doctrines of this naturalistic secular world. According to 2 Corinthians 4:4, the devil is the god of this lawless world. His tactic is to divide and conquer. However, our Lord God will bring us to the knowledge that He is all that really matters in this life. We'll never know that He's all we need until we get to the place that He's all we've got.
James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Through suffering God is teaching us the meaning of hope. For tribulation works patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope makes us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us. A man or woman of God reveals their true identity by how they respond to adversity. Tribulation reveals the heart of the child of God. The Lord will come to us with the grip of His Son's nail-pierced hands to rescue us. If by breaking our hearts, He will use us to reveal His promises and purposes to the world, then thank Him for breaking our hearts. Like King David, we must approach God's throne of grace and mercy with a broken and a contrite heart. This is “deep water” Christianity. Corrie Ten Boom said, "there is no pit so deep, but that (the mercy, love, and grace of) God is not deeper still."
The theme of Psalm 139 the is "you can run but you can't hide." Our Lord is the hound of heaven who will pursue us through the valley of the shadow of death. Psalm 139 is a Psalm of repentance. Our tendency is to run and hide from God when we sin. This is what Adam did when as a result of sin, his eyes were opened to guilt, shame, selfishness, and death. The antidote to sin is to run to God with a broken and a contrite heart. According to Hebrews 10:25, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." The question is, "Who are your three closest “inner-circle” confidants and who are your twelve second-layer trusted people?" You're most like those with whom you affiliate. We're here to choke in the dust of our brothers who are chasing after our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're useful when we're sitting on the bench watching. Certain things we can only learn on the bench as a spectator. On the bench we learn humility, to bear others' burdens, and to listen. Our Lord is preparing us to be vessels fit for His purpose. Through the crucible of trials and tribulation, He's melting us, forging us, heat treating, and quenching us as jars of clay type vessels fit for the Master's use. May our prayer be "mold me and make me after thy will; while I am waiting, yielded and still", so that we would be fit for His use and His purpose. For what dos the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
May we live to be fit for the Master's use ... to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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