I’ve been in that season where stuff just keeps happening... last Thursday I got stuck in the mud while I was suppose to go to bible study (that I was going to lead) I didn't make it. Monday again, stuck in the mud and I missed the first half of school. And today... well let’s just say the mud was not an issue, but I now am using my mom's car. But to be honest, the first couple of times I was pretty mad. Asking God why He was allowing these things to happen and wondering whether He even cared. I later apologized to God for losing my cool. I remembered He is the God who fashioned me in my mother’s womb, who had me in mind before the formation of the world, who numbers the hair on my head, and who made us in fear and wonder (read all of Psalm 139). How can I, the creation He designed in love- for the purpose of love, fuss at an awesome God.
Finally, I realized the Lord is doing something in me to take out any aggression and allow me to see it so I can be cleared of it... to be a better witness. So today, I wasn't really mad. I am waiting to see the good that'll come out of it, but I can honestly say I am acquiring perfect peace in Him. I know examples like this will benefit me in the future when I’m across oceans and the degree of testing and refining will be several times intensified, so I can share the love of God with the same peace Jesus had during the storm out in the sea.
Most people do not want a bandied for a wound that goes deep, they need a lot more. They do not need “the God shaped whole in their heart to be filled.” They need an encounter with a living God. They need their lives radically changed by the Creator of the cosmos. What I’m trying to say is, when we look at our lives compared to others, of course God cares, but our problems are nothing compared to the children in Africa dying of AIDS, villages in Sudan being raided and pillaged and women and children being taken as slaves after all the men are killed, or the Christians in China and Iran who are being tortured and killed because they cannot have Jesus on their radios, television sets, or on every other street and bookstore like we do. We can’t afford to look at ourselves, unless it is to see what needs to be refined and purged in fire, while there are a hundred thousand people dying and going to hell everyday out there! So, when we allow our emotions to completely take over ourselves, “children of God,” and we begin to throw a temper-tantrum in front of a lost and dying world, they are not going to want anything to do with a faith we do not even hold to ourselves. If we did, we would live like it:
2 Corinthians 6
4but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
5in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,
6in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
(please go back and read the whole chapter)
2 Peter 1
5Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble
When we reach that, people will truly see we believe in everything we preach because we find perfect peace in a living God, and then they will be willing to hear the Gospel of our Savior.
Please watch these videos, as they will truly bless and stir you up:
Go by Jackie Pullinger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0wKdLq-QKc
Obsession by Stephen Manley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8vFGp8QpJk
Truth by Al Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gub5uaiT3fo
Salvation in 2mins by Paul Washer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMlv21zGARM
Love you and please feel free to ask any questions that you might have acquired while reading or watching anything I post.
Grace and Peace
In Jesus name
Your servant
Richard
