Monday, 23 June 2008

• The Grief and Sorrow of Life

  Today's reading in Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest":

  "Acquainted With Grief"

  He is... a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

  ISAIAH 53:3

  If sin rules in me, God's life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed.  The final culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in you history and in mine--that is, sin will kill the life of God in us.  It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.

  Sometimes, sorrow runs so deep in us that it take over our very conscience, seeming to block out the existence of God as we ask the countless questions … Those times when yesterday’s soul is lacerated in light of today’s events, when we are shocked with loss or humiliation, when grief makes us intermittently numb and acutely aware of our own incapacity to function the same, maybe ever again.  Maybe in time we can acknowledge His purpose for stripping this away, but today we can't even breathe through the tears.  This world is a fallen world, and we travelers on the byways of life cannot pass through unmarred or uncrippled by sin’s destruction. 

   

  Sin makes us dead. We are dead until we are awakened alive in Christ.  His gift is the new life, the –  conquered sin’s bondage, my chains are free – life, where sorrow is replaced with peace and joy as sin’s dominion is broken, and as we grow to fulfillment in the knowledge of our complete rescue.  The work is done.  I cannot earn it nor can I shake it ~ I can, however, fall short in my understanding of its totality and hamper my own delightful freedom in it, unknowingly turning back and allowing my heart to be plunged into the ravaging pain of sin.  He saved us from sin, from its power of destruction to our souls.  We are free to let the life of God reign in us.

   

  Sorrows may come for a time, but the anguishing heart can find release in the knowledge, though sometimes unseemingly, that the time of sorrow will come to an end.  Eternal joy will come without end, without measure, to the heart given over to His astonishing, complete fulfillment of His love, His promise of salvation, His exchange of His life for ours – the life of God in us.

   

  Oswald’s abstract brings to reflection these scriptures today ~

   

  Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles--when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.  ~ 1 Peter 4

   

  NOW I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
  But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
  ~ 2 Corinthians 10

   

  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law…
  ~ Galatians 5:16-18
  

  Quote of the day: "I'm going to spend the first thousand years at the Slap-Adam booth."

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