It was in fact this specific item, that she continued to trust God and give him glory, despite His apparently failing her, that won the hearts of many of her families to Christ.
It was beyond anything they had ever experienced.
God knew what it would take...
Verne
Verne, thanks for your posts. The latter one especially illustrates something that we all must learn after becoming Christ's, and that is that God knows what He is doing whether or not we have any clue. Just the other day I heard a radio minister remarking that whenever we hear someone comment about how good the Lord is, it is most likely to be in reference to something that has happened of which they approve-- that we tend to associate the blessing of God in our lives with "pleasant" occurrences, but not with the unpleasant. In view of our
knowledge that God works
all things together for our good, we need to pray for grace to learn to say that
although He slay me, yet will I trust Him, and that whether or not we can be sure that God will deliver us from our present calamity, still we will not bow to His enemies.
As to your former post, Verne, it has long been my surmise that we have so very much to learn about the person and nature of our Lord, that if we were to become aware of it all at once we could not bear it. So, throughout our lives He presents us with various perspectives of His Truth and, as we are able, we grasp them. It behooves us greatly to not become impatient with each other, for we all suffer the same maladies of tunnel vision and stubbornness-- just in many different ways. I may tell you the same thing dozens of times without your ever "getting" it, then someone else may tell you once and WHAMMO-- it hits home, changing your life. You may never realize that I had any part in your "discovery" (and indeed I may not have). The one thing that should matter to me in such cases is that my brother or sister is following Christ (NOT whether
my input is appreciated). Neither must I be picky about what vessels He uses in educating me-- it is the Message, and not the messenger, that is of prime importance.
Marcia, thank you for making an important distinction, particularly in view of our assembly past. The assembly world-view was that we should see every new enlightenment as a personal obligation. It is no wonder that so many became overburdened, considering the weight of responsibility that accompanied knowledge. This phenomenon might be thought of as "Assemblythink." Like "assemblyspeak" (the misuse and abuse of good language and scriptural wording), "assemblythink" abuses the soul by casting a heavy load upon the back of every believer with each new discovery of truth. The Truth is the Truth, but we must learn all over again how to receive it, seeing and welcoming it as blessing, the weight of which is borne upon Christ's yoke, rather than as another brick added to our own load.
The example of which we were speaking is the inter-relatedness of the entire body of believers which makes up the church, the bride of Christ. "Assemblythink" would place upon us the weight of having to "make this work" in a practical way, just as we had to labor fiercely to make the local assembly "work" by our efforts. We were completely absorbed in the mechanics of keeping up appearances, to the point that any and all spiritual reality was lost to us. In actual fact, our discoveries of spiritual truth should bring us tremendous encouragement in the revelation that our God lives and works in our lives, fulfilling His own purposes to His own glory, both when we comprehend it and when we do not!
We are instructed to rejoice
because we are entitled to rejoice, NOT because we'll get in trouble if we don't!
In Christ,
al
