- Jan 26, 2017
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[SIZE=medium]Friday was a tough day. I ended the day enslaved to that same old routine that dominates my life so frequently…the fear of what is outside of my control. I went to sleep Friday night under a blanket of defeat and with a strong desire to manipulate things around me. At 7:30 Saturday morning, I awoke to the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I have observed my husband when he has passed a Kidney stone, but I have never been the one going through it. If I had to imagine hell; excruciating relentless torture that never lets up… a kidney stone gives a taste of hell. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. That tiny kidney stone took this usually semi-pleasant woman and turned her into a loud-mouth, scary beast that would have rushed naked into the emergency room if it meant Morphine would be involved. There was a moment when, bent over and vomiting, I cried, “God, from this moment on…You have all[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] my reverence! Thirty minutes after that cry I was discharged from the hospital, told that the X-ray showed no stone and the only trace that there ever was a stone was blood in my urine. I argued to keep the IV since it was the source of the Morphine. My husband said, “it was the first time I ever saw you fight to stay [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]in[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] the hospital.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]But the doctor said, “Go home. It’s over[/SIZE][SIZE=medium].” [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]What has been gained by Saturday’s experience of pain was this: God prodded me from a place of mourning and constant guilt over the past … into a day[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] of celebration. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium](Philippians 3:3) “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthy things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium][/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]If we are not careful, we can make a habit out of glorying in our own shame. Shame and our suffering (the suffering that is a byproduct of our old sin, sin we have repented of countless times) can become our idol and there we choose to remain, rolling around in self-pity. While (John 8:36) says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]We are told that our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith in the work of Christ sacrifice on the cross, we are set free. "It is finished." We are instructed to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” But there comes a time when we are also called to rest in what Christ has finished. We rest and wait in God for that which is perfect to be revealed, while God works in and through us. (Romans 4: 5-6) “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium](Hebrews 11) “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]There must come a day when a pig no longer enjoys rolling around in her filth. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]There must come a day when a pig realizes she has indeed[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] been taken from the pen, set apart and washed clean. [/SIZE]
"There's nothing too dirty that You can't make worthy
You wash me in mercy I am clean
Washed in the blood of Your sacrifice
Your blood flowed red and made me white
My dirty rags are purified... I am clean" -Natalie Grant
[SIZE=12pt](Hebrews 4: 4-10) “ For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Unbelief forfeits rest. Unbelief convinces us we must do more. Unbelief convinces us there is something we can add to salvation; a salvation that was prepared from the foundation of the earth. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We are called to rest in faith and rejoice in what God has already done. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]What is the glory of God? Christ! So lets celebrate Jesus, instead of refusing to turn loose of the shame! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Psalms 24: 8-10) “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Isaiah 6:3) “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Jeremiah
24) “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](John 17:22” “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:”[/SIZE]
(2 Corinthians 4:16-17) "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;"
[SIZE=12pt](Galatians 5: 26) “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Proverbs 28: 12) “When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]But the doctor said, “Go home. It’s over[/SIZE][SIZE=medium].” [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]What has been gained by Saturday’s experience of pain was this: God prodded me from a place of mourning and constant guilt over the past … into a day[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] of celebration. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium](Philippians 3:3) “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthy things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium][/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]If we are not careful, we can make a habit out of glorying in our own shame. Shame and our suffering (the suffering that is a byproduct of our old sin, sin we have repented of countless times) can become our idol and there we choose to remain, rolling around in self-pity. While (John 8:36) says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]We are told that our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith in the work of Christ sacrifice on the cross, we are set free. "It is finished." We are instructed to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” But there comes a time when we are also called to rest in what Christ has finished. We rest and wait in God for that which is perfect to be revealed, while God works in and through us. (Romans 4: 5-6) “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium](Hebrews 11) “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]There must come a day when a pig no longer enjoys rolling around in her filth. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]There must come a day when a pig realizes she has indeed[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] been taken from the pen, set apart and washed clean. [/SIZE]
"There's nothing too dirty that You can't make worthy
You wash me in mercy I am clean
Washed in the blood of Your sacrifice
Your blood flowed red and made me white
My dirty rags are purified... I am clean" -Natalie Grant
[SIZE=12pt](Hebrews 4: 4-10) “ For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Unbelief forfeits rest. Unbelief convinces us we must do more. Unbelief convinces us there is something we can add to salvation; a salvation that was prepared from the foundation of the earth. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We are called to rest in faith and rejoice in what God has already done. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]What is the glory of God? Christ! So lets celebrate Jesus, instead of refusing to turn loose of the shame! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Psalms 24: 8-10) “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Isaiah 6:3) “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Jeremiah
24) “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt](John 17:22” “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:”[/SIZE]
(2 Corinthians 4:16-17) "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;"
[SIZE=12pt](Galatians 5: 26) “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt](Proverbs 28: 12) “When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.”[/SIZE]
