Grosey's Messages

Jeremiah 18:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

2 "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words."

3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.

4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me:

6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,

8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,

10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 'Thus says the LORD, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.'

12 "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'

Jeremiah 19:1 Thus says the LORD, "Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests,

2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.

3 You shall say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.

4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind--

6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds.

9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.'

10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,

11 and shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.

12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth.

Do you ever feel hopeless? Totally sinful and absolutely useless to God?

Do you ever struggle with a besetting sin? Perhaps its anger, or some thing that trips you up and keeps you from being all that you would be for the Lord?

Do you struggle with deep sin?

Do you want to break with this sin? Do you want to have done with it?

Then Jeremiah has a message for you.

1. Jeremiah saw a Picture of The Divine Potter. Have you Considered the Potter?

Psa 135:6 The Lord does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths He made us and He ahs the right to order our lives as He chooses.

Say “YES!” to the Potter’s Authority

And why should it be easy to say “YES” to the Potter?

The Potter knows the origin of the clay.

We are in God’s universe.

Psalm 100: 3Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are His

The Potter knows the nature of the clay Psalm 139:1 Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. 3 You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways.

13 For it was You who created my inward parts;You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.Your works are wonderful, and I know [this]very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Psa 139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all [my]days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

The Potter knows what is the best use for the clay

Isa 29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

The Potter knows how to properly handle the clay

Isa 45:9 "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?

Say “YES!” to the Potter’s Ability

His ability is creative- Divine Potter has ability to make something out of nothing.

Isa 46:9 I am God, and there is no other; [I am] God, and no one is like Me. 10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will.

His ability is reconstructive- There is no vessel so damaged or marred but what it can be redeemed

We pride ourselves on our independence as an individual.

All thoughts of rights is about individualism

I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul.

We see people try and usurp power.

Joseph Stalin… denounced as a man who exercised power and killed a whole cadre (his officers) because he feared their ambitions.

We need to retune the way our minds think of who we are and where we are going.

We all like to think we are in control of our lives. We dream of what we would like to be like.

We are like the clay not willing to go in the direction that the Potter is shaping the clay.

His plan is to draw us from our self will to Him.

It only feels like we are in control of our lives when things are going well.

And when things go wrong we get upset because we suddenly realize its all out of our control.

Tripp says one of the features of midlife is that things have not worked out according to our plan for our lives. Hence mid life crises. Things are not in the script we wrote for ourselves. We never planned to get sick. Depression was never part of the script. Failure professionally was not there either. Midlife crisis happens when we are not happy with the story we are writing.

We want to write the script, but it isn’t the way we want. Like the author watching a film of the book altered by the Director.

It applies to any stage of life we are in.

Although we may plan our ways God is sovereign and we need to submit to Him.

A man may plan his course but God directs it however he wishes.

That God has both an incontestable authority and an irresistible ability to form and fashion kingdoms and nations as he pleases, so as to serve his own purposes: “Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Matthew Henry

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the potter, I am the clay!

Make me and mould me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.

I recently rode in Bethany’s car as it was being towed by our neighbour to be repaired. When we arrived at the repair shop, Warren said, "I didn't think we were going to get started out on the street… it didn’t seem to want to move! " I replied, "I forgot to take it out of gear.”

2. He Saw A Picture Of A Divine Purpose. Have you considered the Wheel?

Five facts we should remember concerning God’s purposes:

His purposes can be fulfilled only as we stay on the wheel.

How does God carry out His process? The WHEEL. I'm the CLAY. God's the POTTER doing the work on the wheel, which is how the process is going to be carried out. And I'm on this wheel. How many of you, in the last seven days thought, "This is my circumstance, what I'm going through, my troubles, my tribulations, my everything." How many of you thought, "This is part of my wheel. Thank God." This is how God's shaping me. Everything that's going on in my life--God enters into all things to work His good.

You who are revolving on the wheel and you look like a woman that's fighting, "Get me off of here! Mine is supposed to be the genteel wheel!" You know, the smooth kind. Right?

How many times have I dropped my guard in the flesh and thought, "My life is spinning out of control"? He's got it under control. He's got this whole picture, just like He's got the whole world in His hands. "

God is the greatest artist. He can make something that is a throw-away reject into something as beautiful as anything you've ever seen.

Keep totally surrendered to the Potter

His purposes may not always be suddenly known. The potter doesn’t make instant vessels.

(Psa. 25:4-5;) 4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. 5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

His purposes may not be the same for every individual. In every house there are various kinds of vessels- not all are the same.

(II Tim. 2:20) 20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver bowls, but also those of wood and earthenware, some for special use, some for ordinary. 21 So if anyone purifies himself from these things, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

His purposes always support our best interests. We can trust the Potter with our lives.

His purpose is to make vessels that are useful.

21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

3. He Saw A Picture Of A Divine Persistence Have You Considered The Pot?

6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

There is a disappointed Potter He is considering the vessel Genesis 16: Thou God seest me:

This is a determined Potter. He is Close to the vessel

Here is a dynamic Potter. His hands are on the vessel

The Potter fashioned the cup With whirling wheel and hand;

Hour by hour he built it up To the form that his thought had planned.

‘Twas broken and broken again, Marred by a flaw, a crack, a stain,

Marred, so he made it again and again; Shaped it with joy and labor and pain. Annie Johnson Flint

4. He Saw A Picture Of A Divine Punishment. Have You Considered Your Part?

“Then you are to shatter the jug in the presence of the people traveling with you,

Thus said the Lord, "Go, buy a potter's earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you." {Jer 19:1-2 RSV}

Back to the potter's house he went, this time not to watch the formation of a vessel in the hands of the potter, but to buy a potter's flask, a vessel already fired in the kiln, hardened, brittle. He was to take it outside the gates of the southern part of Jerusalem to the valley of Hinnom, which is called, in the New Testament, the valley of Gehenna. This was the garbage dump of Jerusalem, the place they threw all the refuse from the streets of the city. All the bodies of dogs and cats and other animals that died in the streets were left there to rot. It was the place where bodies of criminals were thrown after execution, to rot in the sun and be food for vultures -- an evil, stinking place. There Jeremiah was to take the elders of the people and some of the senior priests and say these words to them. He was to tell them that D-Day is coming! (verses 3-9)

“Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.” (verse 3)

He must take of the elders and chief men, both in church and state, to be his auditors and witnesses to what he said - He must give general notice of a general ruin now shortly coming upon Judah and Jerusalem He must plainly tell them what their sins were for which God had this controversy with them He must endeavour to affect them with the greatness of the desolation that was coming upon them He must assure them that all their attempts to prevent and avoid this ruin, so long as they continued impenitent, would be fruitless and vain

the cause – terrible sin (verses 4-6) the consequence – terrible suffering (verses 7-9)

“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching,” (verse 10) devastating destruction “and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired.” (verse 11)

There are two parables from the potter’s house:

1. The shaped pot – the possibility of change 2. The smashed pot –the certainty of judgement

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts …See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:7, 12-14; Psalm 95: 7-8)

I take God the Father to be my God; I take God the Son to be my Savior;

I take the Holy Ghost to be my Sanctifier; I take the Word of God to be my rule;

I take the people of God to be my people; And I do hereby dedicate and yield my whole self to the Lord; And I do this deliberately, freely, and for ever. Amen. (Act of commitment taught to Matthew Henry by his father.)

# posted by Groseys messages @ 2:40 PM

Entertainer P.T. Barnum’s last words were, “How were the receipts at Madison Square Garden?” “I should have never switched from Scotch to Martinis” were uttered on January 14, 1957 by actor Humphrey Bogart moments before he passed. The writer Oscar Wilde looked blankly at the wall in his bedroom and said, “Either the wallpaper goes or I do.” He went the wallpaper stayed. Winston Churchill slipped into a coma and died nine days later with these words, “I am bored by it all.” And, William Saroyan the Pulitzer Prize winner telephoned these words to the Associated Press just before his death in 1981, “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.”

A preacher and a song leader were both avid cricket fans. These guys didn't just like cricket, they lived, breathed and ate cricket. What time they weren't about church duties, they were attending a game, watching a game on the tube, or coaching a cricket game in the park. One day, one of them mused about whether there would be cricket in heaven and quite a conversation ensued. Every thing is perfect in heaven, isn't it? We will want for nothing in heaven, will we? Surely there will be cricket in heaven! They finally made a pact that whichever one got to heaven first would somehow try to contact the other and let him know for a fact whether they had cricket. As it turned out, the preacher died first. A week later he appeared to the song leader in a dream and said, "Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, there is indeed cricket in heaven. The bad news is, you're scheduled to bowl this Saturday."

You and I have an appointment with death. It might not be as early as Saturday, but it will come. Whenever it does, it will not be one we can skip. C.S. Lewis once remarked that the statistics on death are very impressive -so far it's one out of one

"Three centuries ago a story went round about a student visit to Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan president of Magdalen College, Oxford. In the dark study Goodwin opened the conversation by asking if his visitor were ready to die. The lad fled. The story was told for laughs then, as it would be now; but it ought to be said that if it really happened, Goodwin was asking a proper pastoral question that should not be made fun of, whatever we might think of his technique. For however old or young you are, one secret of inner peace and living to the full is to be realistically prepared for death - packed up, we might say, and ready to go. It is not absurd for us to remind each other of that fact" (J.I.Packer, "God's Words," InterVarsity Press, 1981, p.213).

How does the Christian look at death? That is the theme of our text. You see its context? Paul has been saying things like this, that "outwardly we are wasting away" (4:16), and that all that our eyes look upon is a temporary phenomenon. These mortal bodies are temporary. Our marriages and friendships are temporary, and even this vast universe itself in its present form. Yet there is something permanent. Paul says, "inwardly we are being renewed day by day" (4:16), and our "troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory" (4:17). The sky not the grave is our goal. Not putrefaction but the heavenly realm is what we fix our eyes upon. That is the context of this particular teaching. He is talking about that which can transcend death. What is the nature and destiny of our mortal bodies? That is the theme of these verses.

If there's anything that should cause you to become ultimately discouraged or to lose heart, it would be to face death every day; to realize that even though you may have been healthy, that this could be your last day; even though you had great plans and you felt like there were things to do and there was some measure of necessity for you being around, and there was the possibility of some pain and some suffering and the infliction of some severe wounds, et cetera, that could cause your death -- to be able to look death in the face and say, "We do not lose heart," is to have ultimately conquered the greatest enemy. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 2 that Satan holds men bondage to the "fear of death" all their life long. It is the greatest fear. It is the ultimate fear. And when you come to the place where you have conquered that fear, you have conquered the ultimate enemy. And the apostle Paul could say that: "We do not lose heart." 1 Peter 1:13 and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

"We look not at the things which are seen; but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Now, the way you ultimately conquer death, the way you ultimately triumph in the face of death, the way you ultimately do not lose heart in facing death is to see it not from a physical perspective, but from a spiritual one. Right? It's to see beyond what is visible to the eye and perceive the great spiritual reality.

1. We do not lose heart because we see an Eternal Body

We also "do not lose heart" because we see an eternal body. He says in the next verses beginning in Chapter 5: "We know that If the earthly tent which is our house," this body, "...is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands," that is, not in the normal human way, "...eternal in the heavens." "In this house," this body, "... we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven." And, folks, I can look across and see a lot of gray hair here. And the longer we live, the more we groan. It's the many burdens that you carry. You know, you thought when you got married all your problems had ended, and then you found they didn't. And you -- you just married somebody else with a whole pile of problems, and now you got two sets.

And there's a groaning in this life, and a longing to be delivered from sin and the debilitating power of temptation and fallenness. And so, Paul says: "We groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven." But we -- as long as we're in this tent, "groaned" being burdened. And there are all kinds of burdens; the physical burdens, the burdens of age, the burdens of illness, the burdens of disappointment and unfulfillment and unconverted children and grandchildren, and all the issues of life. There are all those burdens. And it's not that we want to be unclothed, Paul says, but we want to be "clothed" in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. We want that immortality. We want that glorified body, that glorified environment.

Because what we see is not the end of life, but the beginning of life as we would really like to live it, right? And what awaits us at the great resurrection awaits all of us who know Christ. And that is a glorious body like unto the body of Christ, the same as his resurrection body; a body free from sin, a body that can eternally live and traverse the glories of the eternal heavens and earth as they will be recreated in the future. So we -- we see the decay of one body. Body goes into the ground; dust to dust, as scripture says. But at the same time, we see a glorious new body; without illness, without sorrow, without sadness, without tears, without crying, without sin, without temptation; a body suited to praise and honour God forever and ever. And that has been prepared for all those who love Christ.

Have you noticed how people try desperately to put off the effects of aging as long as possible? Diets, exercise programs, tummy tucks and face-lifts are the rage. Why do we fear getting older? Why do we cling so desperately to youth? Why? I think the answer lies in man's pride. As a person grows older, he grows weaker. He relinquishes his control. Eventually he relinquishes everything in death. Aging smacks at our pride.

A Country farmer and his boy ventured to the big city for the first time. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy asked his father, "What is this father?" The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is." While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady limping slightly with a cane slowly walks up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady walks between them and into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched, small circles of light with numbers above the wall light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, "Boy, Go get your Mama.”

We are not going to spend eternity as floating spirits, God is going to clothe us with new clothes. Vs 3 says we will not be found naked. God is going to clothe us with new bodies, glorified bodies, but tat will not happen until Jesus Christ returns and our bodies are resurrected. Just as Jesus received a resurrected body so shall we. Remember how for 3 days His body laid in the tomb. His spirit wasn’t there, we are told it went to Hell to preach to those who never heard, but on the third day He rose from the dead. His spirit was reunited with His body and He was given a new glorified body. When we die, our spirits go immediately to be with God. We’re alert, we retain our personalities, and we’ll be joyful, but our eternal existence is not complete until the resurrection of our bodies. On that day our bodies shall be reunited with our souls.

I don't mind growing older. With age comes wisdom. With age comes insight and patience. As I grow older, I find the struggles I used to have with my flesh easier to win. The other day I read something J. Vernon McGee said shortly before his death,

"It is a wonderful thing to know that every passing year brings me closer to Him. I am going to see Him someday; I am going to see the face of the Lord Jesus, the One who loved me and gave Himself for me. I rejoice in that prospect. I don't have as much conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil as I used to have. I think they've given up on me."1

President John Quincy Adams was once asked late in his life how he was doing. His response reveals he had a biblical perspective of life on earth. He said: "John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well. The house in which he has been living is dilapidated and old, and he has received word from its maker that he must vacate soon. But John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well."

Look at verse 2, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven." I like that verse. My wife doesn't think so, but I know it is biblical to "groan." I don't have to explain this verse. We "groan" with pain because our bodies are wearing away. We "groan" with grief as we face the devastating result of sin in this world. We "groan" with all the worries, trials and sufferings that plague this fallen world. Romans 8 parallels this thought: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God..." (Romans 8:18-19).

"For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:22-23).

In place of the metaphor of a tent, Paul speaks of being "clothed." Verse 3 says, "having been clothed, we shall not be found naked." Verse 4 says "For we who are in this tent [these physical bodies] groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed."

The Bible describes two resurrections. Paul said in Acts 24:15, "...that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust." Jesus spoke of this in John 5:29 when He said the dead will "come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

When unbelievers are resurrected and stand before God they will be naked and ashamed. Jesus had some hard words for some in the church of Laodocia in Revelation 3:17, "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'; and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." Yet those of us who are genuine believers will not be naked or ashamed. We will be clothed with His righteousness. Isaiah 61:10 says, "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness."

So as our bodies decay, we are reminded that one day we will be housed or clothed in heavenly bodies and then "mortality may be swallowed up by life" (v.4).

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Phils. 3:20&21).

2. We do not lose heart because we see an Eternal Purpose

Verse 5 of 2nd Corinthians 5. He says: "Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge." Sometimes people -- and I think typically in the world -- they think that when you die, that's the end of any meaning in your life; that you've got to cram this temporal life with everything 'cause this is all there is, right? That is the typical humanistic perspective. Well, we know better than that. Frankly, the human part of our life, life in this world for a believer, is incidental. It really is incidental. It isn't the purpose of God. And that's what Paul is saying. "He who prepared us" for this immortality, for this new body, for this eternal glory, "...is God." He prepared us for this very purpose.

So that we can say that when a believer dies, they have achieved the end for which they were originally created. We can even go back further than that. We can say that they have reached the goal for which they were originally chosen by God before time began, and had their names written in the Lamb's book of life. When God wrote our names in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world, he wrote that we would live how ever many years on earth, and he wrote that we would live eternally in the presence of Christ, didn't he? So when we look at the death of a believer, we don’t see the end of His purpose. That's the eternal perspective. From the vantage point of the world, it looks like the end. But from our vantage point, it's just the beginning; eternal glory and eternal body and eternal purpose.

3. We do not lose heart because we see an Eternal Fellowship

6: "Therefore, being always of good courage, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord." And further, he kinds of turns it around and says he prefers, rather "to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." Now, there is the perspective of a Christian.

We're not at home here. We're really absent from home here. We make a home here. We have a family; we have marriage; we have children and grandchildren, and friends and associates, and we enjoy a certain measure, particularly Christian people, a certain measure of what heavenly fellowship will be like. But we are absent from the Lord. We are absent from His presence, and from our eternal home whichis being prepared for us even now. John 14. So this is not where our home is. We are just passing through. Our home is there; our Father is there; our Saviour is there. Our name is there; our inheritance is there. Everything that is ours eternally in the purposes of God is there. The presence of the Lord, "at home with the Lord." Often, I have been asked: When we get to heaven, are we going to know our spouse? Are we going to know our family? Are we going to know our friends? Of course. You're going to know everybody. And people sometimes get focused on reunions in heaven. But the greatest fellowship of heaven isn't going to be with believers. The greatest fellowship in heaven is going to be with the Saviour.

“Forever with the Lord!” Amen, so let it be!
Life from His death is in that word ’Tis immortality. Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day’s march nearer home

My Father’s house on high, Home of my soul, how near At times to faith’s foreseeing eye Thy golden gates appear! “Forever with the Lord!” Forever in His will, The promise of that faithful word, Lord, here in me fulfill.

So when my latest breath Breaks through the veil of pain, By death I shall escape from death, And life eternal gain.
That resurrection word, That shout of victory: Once more, “Forever with the Lord!” Amen, so let it be!

4. We do not lose heart because we see an Eternal Fulfillment

9 Paul says: "We have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." My ambition as a Christian is to please the Lord. The real struggle comes when you recognize that you can't do that. I am the greatest disappointment in my own life, because I had much higher hopes for myself than I am able to deliver. If you asked me what's my purpose in life, I will tell you: To glorify God is my purpose. If you ask me what is your objective, what do you want to do, I could say with the apostle Paul, my "ambition, whether at home or absent, is to be pleasing to Him." My ambition is not to be successful in the world, or to build a reputation, or whatever. My goal in life is to be pleasing to Him. That is a goal that is always out there and never is achieved, because you always fall short. And one, of course, of the great realities of death and entrance into heaven is now you can achieve that goal. You have achieved that goal. So we can say that there is eternal fulfillment. That which was in the heart of any true believer is a desire to please the Lord.

5. We do not lose heart because we see an Eternal Reward

10: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether it is good" or worthless. There are things we've done in this life that are worthless. There are things that don't have any eternal value. But there are some things that have eternal value. We will receive an eternal reward. And I dare say that only God knows the reality of that. Because praise is part of that; faithful prayer is part of that; a pure heart in terms of motivation is part of that. And who knows that but God?

So we come to an occasion like this and we don’t lose heart, because we see what is eternal. We see what can't be seen with the eye, but it can only be perceived through an understanding of the word of God. We see eternal glory, an eternal body, eternal purpose, eternal fellowship, eternal fulfillment and an eternal reward. And we do not lose heart. In fact, just the opposite. We rejoice and we thank God for this wonderful life, and for God bringing this life to its great coronation, because that is what has happened in heaven.

1 Corinthians 15: 54 Now when this corruptible is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.
55 O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Paul looked forward to a crown of glory 2 Tim 4:  For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 In the future, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved His appearing.

Revelation 5:8  When He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed [people] for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.10 You made them a kingdom and priests to our God,and they will reign on the earth. 11 Then I looked, and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures, and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. 12 They said with a loud voice: The Lamb who was slaughtered is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing! 13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say: Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

Rev 4:10 the 24 elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, worship the One who lives forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne, and say: 11 Our Lord and God,You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created.

John Wesley and George Whitefield had a falling out over the issue of election and predestination. One of Whitefield’s supporters asked him:” Do you think we shall see john Wesley in heaven?”

“Alas no.” Whitefield replied. John shall be so close to the throne that we shall not see him, for he will be overshadowed by the glory that surrounds the throne.”

# posted by Groseys messages @ 2:36 PM

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Have you ever seen an athlete lose heart? When you watch the last few minutes of a blowout football game, you can see the dejection and defeat in the body language of the players on the losing team. The same is often true in the last few minutes of a basketball game in which the losing team knows there not enough time on the board to mount a comeback.

Paul was much afflicted. He stood on the brink of death so often. He didn’t lose heart. He preserved onwards. How? Paul looks at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks ahead to the future of believers. He looks past death. His perspective takes in God’s perspective.

1 John 3:3 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.

Col 3:4 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Titus 2:13 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Another reason it is good for us to contemplate heaven is because we need to be about the business of investing our time, energy and money in things that won't burn.

No one would spend time redecorating a room in a house that is on fire. Why waste the effort on something so temporary? Yet look around you. Everything you see will one day burn up, including many of those things we spend much time, money, and effort on. We need to be reminded to send some of our investments on ahead of us where they will have permanent value and reward.

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, get your minds ready for action,  being self-disciplined, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1. You Must Value Spiritual Strength Above Physical Strength.

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

This is so basic, but some people still miss it, so let me explain it. There is an outer you and an inner you. We can see the outer you. We can hear the outer you. We can touch the outer you. But the outer you is not all there is of you. The real you, the eternal you is on the inside. The outer you is "perishing;" it is falling apart slowly. The inner you, the real you, should be growing stronger as you "day by day" walk with the Lord.

Isaiah 40: 27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

The older Spurgeon once described his feelings about this in these words, "For my own part, I would have remained a young man if I could, for I fear I am by no means improved by keeping. Oh, that I could again possess the elasticity of spirit, the dash, the courage, the hopefulness of days gone by! My days of flying are changed to those of running, and my running is toning down to a yet steadier pace. It is somewhat cheering that the Scriptures seem to indicate that this is progress, for such is the order which it prescribes for saints: 'They shall mount up with wings as eagles;' away they go, out of sight. In your first sermons, - how you mounted up! Your first evangelistic efforts, - what flights they were! After that, you slackened and yet improved your pace; but it grew more steady, and perhaps more slow, as it is written: 'They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.' God grant that we may not faint; and if our running days are over, may we walk with God as Enoch did, till the Lord shall take us home!" Spurgeon was conscious of the outward-inward dynamics of the Christian life.

When a person dies, the inner man leaves the outer man behind. In death we recognize that the physical body is but a "house" or "tent" that the inner man lives in. I like the story of the preacher who was trying to illustrate this point in a funeral sermon. He pointed to the lifeless form in the casket before him and with great enthusiasm declared, "Before us lies only the shell, the nut is gone!"

Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning 1954 says that the most ghastly moment in a concentration camp of camp life, was the awakening… The most depressing moment of the prisoners life was the moment that he awoke from sleep. The depth and vigour of the religious belief often moved a new arrival. In spite of all the enforced mental and physical primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen. Sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life may have suffered much pain, but the damage to their inner selves was less. They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom” 55 this intensification of inner life helped the prisoner find a refuge from the emptiness desolation and spiritual poverty of his existence. As the inner life of the prisoner tended to become more intense, he also experienced the beauty of art and nature as never before. One evening when we were already resting on the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, a fellow prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out th=o the assembly grounds and see the wonderful sunset. Standing outside we saw sinister clouds glowing in the west and the whole sky alive with clouds of ever changing shapes and colors from steel blue to blood red. The desolate grey mud huts provided a sharp contrast while the puddles on the nuddy ground reflected the glowing sky. Then after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another” How beautiful the world could be.” Another time we were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying.. In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “YES!” in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose.. At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable grey of a dawning morning in Bavaria. “Et lux in tenebris lucet :and the light shineth in the darkness” p. 60 John 1: 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The consciousness of one’s inner value is anchored in higher more spiritual things and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men., let alone prisoners possess it? Of the prisoners only7 a full kept their full inner liberty and obtained those values which their suffering afforded. .. a man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

2. You Must Value The Future Over The Present.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Viktor Frankl.It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.

The prisoner who had lost faith in the future – his future- was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.

One prisoner became convinced that the war would end on march 30^th that year.

As they day arrived without any sort of culmination to things he became delirious, and on march 31^st to all outward appearances he died of typhus. But the loss of faith in the future weakened his immune system.

His faith i9n the future and his will to live had become paralysed and his body fell victim to illness.

Any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing his some future goal. Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

The troubles wean us from the world,

Tennessee Ernie Ford used to sing these words:

This ol’ house is getting shaky This ol’ house is getting old

This ol’ house lets in the rain This ol’ house lets in the cold

O my knees are getting achy But I feel no fear o’ pain

For I see an angel peaking Through a broken winder-pane!

The troubles work the glory of God deep into our lives as our chief end and goal.

The troubles actually served to achieve the eternal glory. Now let's be very careful here. Our sole entitlement to the glories of heaven is through the finished work of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The dying thief went to the glory of paradise the day he died only because of the redeeming love and substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God. He paid the full price for the thief's sin, and bought his place at the great marriage feast above. Nothing the thief could do needed to be added to Christ's redemption payment. So our sufferings make no contribution at all to the entry price to glory because they have been mixed with such sins as our frustration and our self-pity. Our very troubles need to be redeemed. They have no purgatorial power. But there is this - hear these words of the Lord: "Where I am, there shall also my servant be; if any man serve me, him will the Father honour" (John 12:26). The glory before us is in part the Father honouring us who have been his faithful servants. Who suffered as the apostle did for his Saviour? And Jesus says to him and to all who have endured troubles bravely and meekly for the Lord, "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven" (Matt. 5:12).

Helen Roseveare Dr. Helen Roseveare was an English Christian missionary to the Congo from 1953 to 1973. Helen Roseveare went to the Congo through WEC International and practised medicine and also trained others in medical work. She stayed through the hostile and dangerous political instability in the early 1960s. In 1964 she was taken prisoner of rebel forces and she remained a prisoner for five months, enduring beatings and being raped. She left the Congo and headed back to England after her release but quickly returned to the Congo in 1966 to assist in the rebuilding of the nation. She helped establish a new medical school and hospital (the other hospitals that she built were destroyed) and served there until she left in 1973.

On August 7, 1964 Congo rebels captured Stanleyville (now known as Kisangani). In the four years since Congo's independence from Belgium, most white people had fled from the nation or been captured or killed. Because Helen Roseveare was a doctor, her life was spared, although not without many serious incidents. For example, someone tried to poison her, but her dog ate the food intended for her and died instead.

Helen was well aware of her danger. Many mission women had been raped by the marauding rebel armies. She stayed on, believing that "If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." That was her mission's motto. She reasoned that if an earlier generation of missionaries to Africa had died of malaria and other jungle diseases for the sake of God and his glory, then God might well demand a different kind of sacrifice of her as he already had of other women missionaries.

On this day, Saturday, August 15, 1964, a truck-load of soldiers took over the hospital compound at Nobobongo. They occupied it for five months. "They were brutal and coarse, rough and domineering. Their language was threatening and obscene. All of us were cowed. We did exactly what they demanded, mostly without argument." Tension was terrific.

"We heard that the local chief had been caught, bound and beaten; then he was taken to the people's tribunal at Wamba, found guilty, flayed alive and eaten. No wonder we did not sleep well. No wonder we were not hungry."

Then Helen and others were taken away. "...We were put off at a house in the jungle--nineteen defenceless women and children surrounded by some seventy-five men, soldiers and others, all filled with hatred and evil intentions toward us...And in my heart was an amazing peace, a realization that I was being highly privileged to be identified with [Christ] in a new way, in the way of Calvary."

Although raped and humiliated by the rebels, Helen found that God gave her an even deeper love for the Congo people. In 1965 she returned to pick up her medical mission work. She had learned through her painful experience that participation in Christ's suffering is necessary to each of us if we are to fulfill his will in this world.

But when she spoke of her experiences in the Congo, a provocative question repeatedly surfaced: "Why did God let you suffer?"

The reality of a missionary, who laid out her life to serve God only to be rewarded with cruelty and suffering, seemed incongruous. Routinely people in search of answers unburdened their hearts to Roseveare: a young mother whose baby drowned, a girl who was raped --- people who lived in angst, unable to connect the dissonance of life's experiences to the God of the Bible. Her answer became simply to share with them how God had given her faith and strength to overcome her own heart-wrenching trials.

"I don't think I was praying; I was numb with horror, dread, fear. If I had prayed, I think I would have prayed, "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?" I felt He'd left me. I didn't doubt God. I never doubted God. But I felt, for that moment, that He'd left me to handle the situation by myself.

As these thoughts poured into her mind, Roseveare became aware of a holy presence near her. "I knew with every fiber in my being that God, the almighty Creator, was there," she pronounces with quiet certainty, insisting that God never gives us evil, but takes what is intended for evil and makes it good.

During the pinnacle of her suffering, God spoke to Roseveare in a way that He knew she would understand and accept. "I believe the words that God spoke to me, although I didn't hear them as words, were, "Can you thank Me for trusting you with this, even if I never tell you why?" You know, that's shattering. You and I think of us trusting Him. But the thought that He wants to trust us, that was something very new to my thinking."

He gave her the strength to say yes and she prayed, "Yes, God. If somehow, somewhere this fits for purposes, I don't know how, but yes, thank You, God, for trusting me with this." God did not take away the wickedness, the cruelty, or the pain. It was still there. But He turned her fear into peace.

She was taken away by herself in the middle of the night. As dawn broke, they came to a village. The rebel soldiers had gathered nearly 800 local men into the village square. They had been told they would attend a people's court in which Roseveare would be tried for the things that had occurred the previous week. At the given signal they were instructed to shout, "She's a liar! She's a liar!" They would then be asked, "What will we do with her?" The mandated response was, "Modecco! Modecco!" which meant "Crucify her! Crucify her!" The defendant knew she would die, although she did not know how.

The trial scene began. "They wanted me to go through in detail in front of these 800 men what had happened the previous Thursday," Roseveare says, an audible quiver in her voice. "I wasn't going to speak up in front of all those men. They struck me over the face with the butt end of a gun; I couldn't stand the pain so I spoke up."

The moment of judgement came. Roseveare couldn't see her jury; her eyes had nearly closed with the swellings of the beatings. But she could hear. "I heard a sound I had never heard before and will probably never hear again. I heard 800 strong farming men break down and cry. They were weeping."

Now, instead of seeing her as the hated white foreigner, they saw her as their doctor.

"They have a word in Kibudu, which means "blood of our blood, bone of our bone," she says. "They rushed forward and said, "She's ours. She's ours."

They took me into their arms and pushed the rebel soldiers out of the way.

"In that moment the black/white division disappeared," she professes triumphantly.

"I can honestly say, right through till today, in that area there has never been a black/white division again. We're all one in Christ Jesus."

When she fervently sought the Lord so many years before, she had no idea that God would make her an instrument in bringing about racial harmony.

Why does a God of love allow suffering? For Roseveare that question is, in itself, a contradiction. Love and suffering are inextricably linked. "If you didn't love, you wouldn't hurt," she explains, pointing to her exemplar as evidence. God loves us so much that He gave His own son to the Cross. Because He loves, He suffered, giving us an example to follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:21)"

The glory far outweighs the troubles. There are these scales, and on one side has been tipped the entire weight of all Paul's troubles, but on the other is set eternal glory. There is simply no comparison between the two. When you pour onto these scales all the glory then that side falls like a lead weight, and the troubles vanish up up and away out of sight, as if that side of the scale were empty. All the tortures and dangers vanish! All the persecutions vanish! All the pain and loss vanish up and up as the eternal weight of glory is poured onto the scales.

Play write Edward Sheldon said it best, "God will look you over not for medals or degrees, but scars."

NO SCAR?  BY AMY CARMICHAEL,

Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land; I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.

Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent, Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned. Hast thou no wound? No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be, And pierced are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far Who hast no wound or scar?

3. You Must Value Eternal Things Above Temporary Things.

18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfil the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Why focus on the coming kingdom while many believers today in the present age are overwhelmed by the millions of people who are killed by civil warfare, AIDS, malaria, and famine? Why be concerned about the coming kingdom when 250,000 lives were lost in a single day in the tsunami of December 2004, when the world faces the threat of the pandemic Asian bird flu, when the lives of many people are lost in hurricanes, and people are dying in wars and terrorist attacks? True, the world has been beset by sin, wars, and disease ever since Adam‘s sin. This is man‘s day and Satan is the god of this age. The conclusion is obvious—this is not God‘s promised kingdom. Jesus is not now exercising absolute regal authority. However, someday the world will be blessed by the fulfillment of His Davidic inheritance. May that day come soon!

Nathan Brown Missionary to Burma, He had been a very successful man who sacrificed all to go to the mission field. People were critic al of him, so he wrote this apology in the form of a Poem

And when I come to stretch me for the last,

In unattended agony beneath coco shade

Or lift my dieing eyes from Africa’s burning sands

It will be sweet that I have toiled for other worlds than this

I know that I shall feel happier than to have died on a softer bed

And when I reach heaven If that one who has so deeply darkly sinned

If One for whom ruin and revolt have held with such fearful grasp

If One for whom Satan has struggled as he ahs for meme

If one should ever reach that shore

Oh how this heart will glow with gratitude and love

And through the ages of eternal years thus say

My spirit shall never repent that toil and suffering once were mine below.

# posted by Groseys messages @ 7:50 PM

The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus.With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their heartsand on the horns of their altars,
2 while their children remember their altars and their • Asherah poles, by the green trees on the high hills—
3 My mountains in the countryside. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give up as plunder because of the sin of your • high placeswithin all your borders.
4 You will, of yourself, relinquish your inheritance that I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know,for you have set My anger on fire;it will burn forever.

5 This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.
6 He will be like a juniper in the • Arabah;he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord.
8 He will be like a tree planted by water:it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick—who can understand it?
10 I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heartto give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.
11 He who makes a fortune unjustly is [like]a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay. In the middle of his days [his riches]will abandon him, so in the end he will be a fool.
12 A throne of gloryon high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary,
13 Lord, the hope of Israel,all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the fountain of living water, the Lord.

14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.

Heart troubles, the biggest killer. 1 out of 1 will die of heart failure.

The heart is the most vital organ of the human body. People can live even if they are missing certain valuable members of their bodies — things like hands, legs, feet, eyes or ears, but no one can live without a heart. Not only is the heart the most vital organ of the body, it is considered to be the center or source of our emotions — our personality, thoughts and feelings. The heart is closely connected with our moods, energies, convictions, indeed our very nature. Daily we use words like heartache, heartbroken, heartfelt, heartless, heartsick, after one’s own heart, change of heart, from the bottom of one’s heart, have a heart, in one’s heart of hearts, take heart, with all one’s heart, with half a heart, lose heart, and near one’s heart.

The heart then is the most vital element of physical life. We take great care to maintain its health so that we will not suffer heart attack or heart failure. We are careful to exercise, eat properly, and check our cholesterol.

1. The Diagnosis Of The Horror Of Our Hearts

Our hearts are our biggest problem. 1, 9

Deep seated problem, fundamentally flawed. Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus. With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars, Only 1 tool referred to here an iron stylus with a diamond point to engrave upon stones.

Our hearts are Deceptive

And deceitful, similar to name of Jacob deceived brother and father.

Our hearts play tricks, we play games with each other.

Our hearts are bad although the externals may look ok. We cover up what we are really like. We deceive ourselves. Our hearts are unreliable guides. Suppressing normal guilt. Trampling over our consciences. Rationalising behaviour giving ourselves excuses. Ego defence mechanisms. Denial rationalisation. Blame shifting scape-goating, spreading the responsibility around.

Every one thinks of changing humanity nobody thinks of changing themselves –Tolstoy.

Our Hearts are Unfathomable. “who can understand it?”

Each of us is driven by deep seated desires and we have these mechanisms and defenses. We are a mystery to others and a mystery to ourselves.

Highly intelligent people trying to understand themselves. They may be Masters of the Ottoman empire, but not of themselves.

A recent article in Newsweek had this to say about the roots of evil:

In their search for the nature and roots of evil, scholars from fields as diverse as sociology, psychology, philosophy and theology are reaching a far more chilling conclusion. Most people do have the capacity for horrific evil, they say: the traits of temperament and character from which evil springs are as common as flies on carrion. “The capacity for evil is a human universal,” says psychiatrist Robert I. Simon, director of the program in Psychiatry and Law at Georgetown University School of Medicine. “There is a continuum of evil, of course, ranging from ‘trivial evils’ like cutting someone off in traffic, to greater evils like acts of prejudice, to massive evils like those perpetrated by serial sexual killers. But within us all are the roots of evil.

These experts agree with Jeremiah: the problem lies within us, in our deceitful hearts. Jesus said, “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile a man” (Matt 15:18).

Our Hearts Are Incurable

They are desperately ill. We have a very desperate spiritual sickness in our hearts.

Our hearts have a terminal illness heading in a terrible direction

Robby Williams I’ve got a ton of selfish genes and lazy bones beneath this skin.

Our Hearts Are Known By God. Vs 10  I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.

X-ray at airport. Someone now knows the inside of your shoes better than you do!

The ethical and emotional responses deep within a spiritual x ray. We are constantly under an MRI, God’s ultrasound leaves no secret uncovered.

We think we can conceal our deceptive hearts. Well, we may be able to fool most of the people most of the time, but we cannot fool God. God sees everything, because he searches the heart. He said to Samuel when the prophet anointed David as king, that He “sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Adam tried to hide in the garden and failed. We can’t hide, either, even in church. The source of our problem is a deceitful heart. We would be wise to accept this diagnosis, because God knows all about it.

There is one symptom that stands out most clearly in the diagnosis of our heart problems. Upon what does our heart hope? Upon what do we trust most deeply?

Jeremiah 17: 5 This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord.

The results of this symptom? Well that leads to our prognosis. What is the ongoing effect of this heart problem? problem?

2. The Prognosis of An Unhealthy Heart

Now what is the prognosis for our chronic heart condition? If we do not attend to

our heart and keep trusting in human things, we are headed for disaster. God says that the man who trusts in mankind and whose heart turns away from him will

be cursed. He will lead a dry, lonely, isolated, withered life. This is what we discover in the three metaphors in verse 6: a bush in the desert, stony wastes in the wilderness, and a land of salt without inhabitants. The bush is perhaps a juniper, a shrub with a stunted root system that does not penetrate to the water level beneath the surface.

The other night I laid awake a fair while. I had a severe pain in my chest. I was wondering if I could feel the pain running down my arm. Was it a shooting pain, or was it merely indigestion. I figured after a few hours that it was in fact that last glass of water before bed. And wow it hurt. Wouldn’t you like to be able to monitor your heart and check if that little spasm is the real thing or a fake? Wouldn’t you like to have that information available to you immediately. Yet how about your heart? Is it right with God? The heart we are talking about is the central core of our being. Well the Lord gives Jeremiah some tests to see what is going on there, and some help to hearken to the need to get our hearts right with Him.

‘He shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.’ — Jeremiah 17:6, 8.

The prophet Jeremiah here puts before us two interesting pictures. In the one, the hot desert stretches on all sides. Every green thing is gone, because the heat of the sun kills it. The salt particles in the soil glitter in the light. No living creature breaks the solitude. It is a waste land. Here and there is a stunted, grey, prickly shrub struggling to live, and just manages not to die. But it hasn’t got any beautiful leaf, there is no profitable fruit; and it only serves to make the desolation more desolate.

The other carries us to some brimming river, where everything lives because water has come. The presence or absence of running water makes the difference between barrenness and fertility.

I can’t help but think of beautiful weeping willows, but in Jeremiah’s mind there is the fruit tree, bearing its fruit. Maclaren “Dipping their boughs in the sparkling current, and driving their roots through the moist soil, the bordering trees lift aloft their pride of foliage and bear fruits in their season.”

The two pictures represent two sorts of men; one who still lives with a corrupting heart, and the other, who through trusting the Lord, has had his heart changed. One person diverts his heart-capacities of love and trust away from God, and instead clings to other things, other ideas, other people; ‘making flesh his arm and departing from the living God’; the other, he who leans the whole weight of his needs and cares and sins and sorrows upon God. He seeks to have his deceitful heart changed.

We can choose whether to have the horrible heart healed or we can choose to have the horrible heart remain uncured. And the way to have it cured is to trust, to cast these hearts upon the Lord. We can choose which shall be the object of our trust, and whichever way we choose, we can see ourselves in Jeremiah’s picture. The experience of these vivid pictures will be ours. There are comparisons for us to see here.

I. Are you in the desert, or by the river?

Jeremiah 17: 5 This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.
6 He will be like a juniper in the • Arabah; he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord.

8 He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

Underneath the pictures there lies this thought, that the direction of a man’s trust determines the whole direction of his life, because it determines, as it were, the soil in which he grows. You can choose where you will grow. Plants don’t get that choice. They are fixed. But we can walk, and we can choose where we shall be planted. We can choose the soil we shall be planted in. We can choose where we shall draw our inspiration, our confidence, our security. The man that chooses to trust in any creature thereby wills, though he does not know it, that he shall dwell in a ‘salt land and not inhabited.’ The man that chooses to cast his whole self into the arms of God, and in a paroxysm of self-distrust to realise the divine helpfulness and presence, that man will soon know that he is ‘planted by the river.’

If a man makes that fatal choice which so many of us are making, of shutting out God from his confidence and his love, and squandering these upon earth and upon creatures, he is as fatally out of harmony with his Creator.

Where is the soil in which I can grow best? There is only one answer to that question. You were made for God, and in God alone is the natural place for you to be planted and grow. You or I will never be right, never feel that we are in our native soil, and in the appropriate surroundings, until we have laid our hearts at rest in the Lord.

The way your spirit is made testifies that God, and nothing less, is your portion. We are built for God, and unless we recognise and act upon that conviction, we are like the prickly shrub in the desert, unable to find soil moist enough for us to draw refreshment and vitality from it.

It is insane then to try to draw what we need from creatures, from ourselves, from visible and material things, when we are made to draw our security and our sufficiency from God.

Where else will you find love that will never fail, nor change, nor die? Where else will you find an object for the intellect that will yield inexhaustible material of contemplation and delight? Where else infallible direction for the will? Where else shall weakness find unfailing strength, or sorrow, adequate consolation, or hope, certain fulfilment, or fear, a safe hiding-place?

None other Lamb, none other Name, None other hope in heav'n or earth or sea,
None other hiding-place from guilt and shame,  None beside Thee.
My faith burns low, my hope burns low; Only my heart's desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,  Cries out to Thee.
Lord, Thou art Life, though I be dead; Love's fire Thou art, however cold I be;
Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,  Nor home but Thee.

Oh! then, turn away your heart’s confidence and love from earth and creatures; for until the roots of your life go down into God, and you draw your life from Him, you are not in your right soil.

II. Are you heading for trouble or heading for heaven?

This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

2 Cor 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Romans 1:18  For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

When you set your trust upon the things of this life, you blind yourself to your greatest good. Your judgment becomes perverted. This why people are content with the superficial and partial joys that may be drawn from human loves and companionship and material things. It is because they have gone blind. They have foolishly trusted in the wrong things, and this has blinded their hearts. If you are content with things of this life, then you just do not know real good when you see it, and you have lost the power of discerning what is really for your benefit and your real joy.

“There is nothing sadder in this world than the conspiracy into which men seem to have entered -to ignore the highest good, and to profess themselves contented with the lowest.” Maclaren. Martin Luther tells how a company of swine were offered all manner of dainty and refined foods, and how, with a unanimous swinish grunt, they answered that they preferred the warm, reeking ‘grains’ from the mash-tub.

‘He cannot see when good cometh.’ God comes, and I would rather have some more money. God comes, and I prefer some woman’s love. God comes, and I would rather have a prosperous business. God comes, and I prefer beer. This man cannot see the real good when it is right there in front of his face, because the false direction of his confidence has blinded his eyes, and he cannot open his heart to it.

It comes, but it does not come in. It surrounds him, but it does not enter into him. You are plunged, as it were, in a sea of real joy, which will be yours if your heart’s direction is towards God, and, like some sealed flask, dropped into the middle of the ocean, the good just cannot get in. ‘He cannot see when good cometh.’ He is blind, blind, blind!

But look at how it could be: ‘He shall not fear when heat cometh,and shall not be careful in the year of drought.’ The tree, that sends its roots towards a river that never fails, does not suffer when all the land is parched. The man who has driven his roots into God, and is drawing from that deep resource all that is needful for his life and fertility, has no reason to fear any evil, nor to gnaw his heart with anxiety should parched days come. Troubles may come, but they don’t go any deeper than the surface. It may be all cracked and caked and dry, ‘a thirsty land where no water is,’ and yet deep down there may be moisture and coolness.

Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposites. If a man has faith, he can’t have much fear. If a man has fear, he can’t have much faith. He that has his trust set upon God does not need to fear anything except the weakening or the paralysing of that trust; for so long as it lasts it changes evil into good, the true philosopher’s stone which transmutes the baser metals into gold; and, so long as it lasts, God’s shield is round him and no evil can befall him.

If our trust is in God, it is unworthy of it and of us to fear, for all things are His. Therefore, he that fears let him trust; he that trusts let him not be afraid. He that sets his heart and anchors his hopes of safety on any except God, let him be afraid, for he is in a very stern world, and if he is not fearful he is a fool. So the direction of our trust, if it is right, shuts all real evil out from us, and if it is wrong, shuts us out from all real good.

III. Are you barren, or beautiful?

Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a juniper in the  Arabah; he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.

8 He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

The word which is translated ‘heat’ has a close connection with, if it does not literally mean, ‘naked’ or ‘bare.’ Probably it indicates some desert shrub, a cactus. Are you cactus or are you cultivating character?

I am sure that if we Christian people had a deeper faith, we should have fairer lives.

Have you heard as I have that most people would rather NOT deal with a Christian in business, because they are more likely to be ripped off by a professing Christian and be mistreated by a professing Christian than by one who is not?

Please don’t supply the other side with arguments against Christianity, by showing that it is possible for a man to say that he sets his heart on God, and yet to bear but little leafage of beauty or grace of character. Goodness is beauty; beauty is goodness. Both are to be secured by communion and union with Him who is fairer than the children of men. Dip your roots into the fountain of life — it is the fountain of beauty as well as of life, and your lives will be green.

IV. Are you sterile, or fruitful?

Jeremiah 17: 5 This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord. 6 He will be like a juniper in the Arabah; he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord.8 He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

Real fruitfulness in the final analysis of things only comes about by real trust in the Lord. Many non-christian people live very moral and fruitful lives, particularly if we looked at morality and self sacrifice. BUT the problem is, what is real fruitfulness. Real fruitfulness is defined only in relationship with God.

It reminds me of the productive life a man lived as a cook on a sailing ship. Everyone on that ship loved the cook. He cared for the men. He took an interest in each one. He tried his absolute best to please the men with his cooking. When the government caught up with him they hanged him. You se, he was the cook on a pirate ship. The ship was in rebellion against the British crown. For all the good he did, his goodness was travelling in the wrong direction. So often our hearts, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, can clothe themselves in some very good living. They can look so good. But they are still in rebellion against a holy God. And because we are travelling the wrong direction, we are cursed by God. Our fruitfulness can look very fine, but in fact it is barren and bare.

Thus we come back to this — the prime thing about a man is the direction which his trust takes. Is it to God? Then the tree is good; and its fruit will be good too.

The symptom of the deep problem in our lives is trusting in the wrong thing. The diagnosis is a deceitful heart. The prognosis is a withered and hardened life.

3. The Hope For Our Hearts

Jer 17: 13 Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the fountain of living water, the Lord.

14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.

Is there a cure for the deceitful heart? In verse 14, Jeremiah begins to reflect on the condition of his own heart and make his petition to God.

Jeremiah realizes that he needs outside help to cure his heart. So do we. We can’t heal our heart by moving to a new city, changing our spouse, changing careers or relocating to a more affluent neighborhood. The problem lies within us, so no rearrangement of life will be effective. We will take the same heart with us wherever we go.

Jeremiah points us in the right direction. The only cure available comes from God. Our heart is horribly diseased and sick. It is incurable. Bypass surgery will not work. What we need is a transplant: a new heart. And that is what God is capable of doing. That is his specialty.

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jer. 31:33)

God heals and saves. By his Spirit he regenerates and renews our heart. By his Spirit he wipes clean the tablet of our heart that has been engraved with a record of our sin, and writes his law on it.

The Lord Jesus said the very same thing to a leading Rabbi, Nicodemus. He said “You must be born again.” The solution, is a new heart! Ezek 36: 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances.

How does it happen..transferring our trust to Him.

Consider Acts 16 Lydia.. the Lord opened her heart. 14 A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was spoken by Paul.

Will you trust yourself to the Lord and let Him do this radical heart surgery upon your life?

# posted by Groseys messages @ 7:45 PM

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Cor 4:7-18 The Out Pouring of Glory.

Have you considered over these last few weeks the recurrence throughout 1 Corinthians 3 and 4 of one word in these scriptures. The word is “Glory”

Throughout the Old Testament there are Glimpses of Glory.

Exodus 12: 13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. 15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah pilgrim through this barren land I am weak but Thou art mighty hold me with Thy powerful hand.

There was the glory in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.

There was the reflected glory of Moses’ face as He stood there in the Holy of Holies and met with God.

Ezekiel pictures the glory of God departing from His people.

Ezek 11: 22 Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. 23 And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

2Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,

The treasure is the glory of God 2 Cor 4:6 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

1. The Out pouring Of Glory Commenced With Illumination 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness”—He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

It happened for the apostle Paul; Acts 9:3  As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. 4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 “Who are You, Lord?” he said. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” He replied. 6 “But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.
While you may never have been struck blind on a Damascus Road, truly, each who has understood the gospel and believed in the Lord Jesus has had this same illuminating experience.

2 Cor 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness”—He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

We have see the light of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ!

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

2. The Out pouring Of Glory Continues With Transformation

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

Romans 8:30 And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.

Col 1:27 God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this • mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

You’re not going to become like Jesus by elimination. You can’t simply take things out of your life. Some folks want to be like Jesus, so they make a list of sins and try to eliminate them from their lives. They become proud of what they don’t do, but they’re not one bit more like Jesus. A telephone pole doesn’t smoke, drink, or tell lies; but it’s not like Jesus. Elimination doesn’t deal with the root just like pruning a tree doesn’t change its nature.

Also, you won’t become like Jesus by imitation. You can’t just try to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there’s a certain sense in which Jesus is our Leader; but if all you do is imitate the Him, you have become a cheap little imitation. Have you ever seen artificial, plastic flowers? Well, there are a lot of plastic Christians around trying to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ, but they will never, ever make it.

Finally, you’re not going to be more like Jesus by determination. You might say, ‘I’m going to be like Jesus if it kills me.” But you don’t have in you what it takes. If you were drowning, you couldn’t reach up and take the top of your hair and lift yourself up out of the water to save yourself. You just can’t do it. And I don’t care how determined you are; you will never be more like the Lord Jesus Christ by sheer determination.

Receiving, Retaining, and Reflecting

Now, having said how not to try to make changes, let me tell you how you do become more like Jesus. You must become a spiritual mirror. When you understand that you are a mirror, you are going to understand how to be transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ — by beholding or reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you three laws of transformation that deal with a mirror.

First, as a mirror you must receive the image of Jesus Christ. A mirror does not create an image; it only receives one. Jesus Christ is the image; you are the mirror. And you must receive the Lord Jesus Christ. You must receive His image.

In order to receive, a mirror must be …- clean and uncovered — A draped or soiled mirror cannot receive an image. There are a lot of people with a blinded mind, which just puts a shroud over their hearts. You must be open and willing to receive Jesus.
- pointed in the right direction — The mirror is going to receive whatever it is pointed at. The secret of becoming like Jesus is to receive the image of Jesus by constantly beholding Jesus.
- in the light — In the darkness, a mirror can’t reflect anything. You must stay in His light and keep focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only must you receive the image of Jesus;

you must retain the image of Jesus. If you keep your heart fixed on Jesus, the image will not disappear. If you’re saved, your inner nature is Jesus Christ. And when you are transformed, that inner nature comes to the surface and you’re changed. You will continue to become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ because you are a mirror that receives His image. And then, by continuing to behold the Lord Jesus, you will retain His image.

And finally, you must reflect the image of Jesus Christ. As I have already said, being like Jesus is not accomplished by imitation but by reflection. Imitation is mechanical and occasional. But a mirror doesn’t have to work to reflect. Many times, you’ll not even be aware that you’re reflecting Jesus because it just becomes second nature. So, you see it’s easier than you thought to become like Jesus. He’ll do it. Just rely on Him.

3. The Out pouring Of Glory Increases With Communication

2 Cor 4:7 Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.

The earthen vessels that Paul uses as an analogy are the small pottery lamps, cheap and fragile, that could be bought in the shops at Corinth. The followers of Christ could be likened to such fragile lamps since they bear about in their frail mortal bodies a light derived from the central source of light in the face of Jesus Christ” -TW Manson

The conception of God as the Potter and man as the clay occurs throughout Scripture.

Jeremiah 18 carries this idea. Basic to this idea is that of Man as created from the dust of the ground. Gen 2:7. Paul has used the idea in 1 Corinthians 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Jacob the example Genesis 32:24-29
Broken By God

Hard pressed ... not crushed. Afflictions: These are the normal trials which everybody faces, Christian and non-Christian alike. Your washing machine breaks down on Monday morning, your mother-in-law arrives just when you didn't want her, sickness strikes in your family, heartbreaks come --

These buffetings of life come to everyone. Afflictions come, but they can't crush us.

A vampire bat came flapping in from the night covered in fresh blood and parked himself on the roof of the cave to get some sleep. Pretty soon all the other bats smelt the blood and began hassling him about where he got it. He told them to go away and let him get some sleep but they persisted until finally he gave in. "OK, follow me," he said and flew out of the cave with hundreds of bats behind him. Down through a valley they went, across a river and into a forest full of trees. Finally he slowed down and all the other bats excitedly milled around him. "Now, do you see that tree over there?" he asked. "Yes, yes, yes!" the bats all cried in an excited frenzy. "Good," said the first bat, "Because I sure didn't! "Sometimes you’re the windshield/Sometimes you’re the bug!" Country and Western song.

2) Perplexed ... not in despair. Perplexities: This refers to all the pressing calls for decisions, when we don't know what to decide. We are at a loss, we can't see the end, we don't know how it is going to turn out. We are afflicted with fears, anxieties, worries, and uncertainties, all gathered up in this word "perplexities." We don't have all the answers, but Christians don't have to cave in to depression and depression.

3) Persecuted ... not abandoned. Persecutions: These are the misunderstandings we all run up against, the malicious actions and attitudes, deliberate slights, attacks on our character and our reputation.

Often it is the bigoted, prejudiced, unfair practices of members of society against one another.

We may feel all alone, but God never leaves us.

4) Struck down ... not destroyed. Catastrophes: Stunning, shattering blows which drop out of the blue into our lives. Accidents, fatal illnesses, war, earthquake, famine, riot, insanity -- these terrible episodes which shatter a family or an individual.

Blessed By God

Famed British physicist Lord Kelvin once said, "when you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery."

2 Cor 4:7 Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.

10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who live are always given over to death because of Jesus, so that Jesus’ life may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

14 knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and present us with you. 15 For all this is because of you, so that grace, extended through more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to overflow to God’s glory.

You Communicate the Life of Jesus to others as you go through great difficulties.

The great difficulties break the clay pots to let the light of Christ out.

The Outpouring of the glory happens in the press of afflictions.

May the Lord give you a ministry that sees the glory of God in he face of Jesus Christ. Then the Lord will enable you to communicate that life as you yourself face the price of it in death.

And all through life I see a cross Where sons of God yield up their breath;

There is no gain except by loss; There is no life except by death;

There is no vision but by faith, No glory but in bearing shame,

No justice but in taking blame. And that Eternal Saviour saith,

Be emptied now of right and name.

The extent of God’s power is that it transcends and overcomes all human weaknesses.

Ambrose wrote “By speaking of earthen vessels he signifies the infirmity of human nature which can do nothing unless it ahs received strength from God..”

It was God’s power that allowed Gideon with his tiny band of men to overcome the Mideanites when they broke the earthen pots that concealed their torches and sent the enemy scurrying in wild confusion.

Judges 7: 19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. 21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. 22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

So with the believer today, the breaking up of the outward man in many and various ways, causes the breaking forth of the light of the glory of God through the man, driving back the powers of darkness to the glory and praise of God.

At various points in time there has been the Outpouring of God’s glory through fragile human vessels.

In an art gallery there is a portrait of the great General Booth, with radiant, glowing face, bent in prayer over an open Bible. Once, as the janitor was closing that room for the day, and all the crowd had gone, he found an old man gazing at the picture with tears streaming down his face and saying over and over again, “Lord, do it again, do it again."

At other times it has been through vessels like John and Charles Wesley, CH Spurgeon, DL Moody, all frail broken vessels.

John Wesley had many many failures before his conversion, and after his conversion endured a terrible terrible marriage.

Ch Spurgeon was afflicted with a terrible problem early in his ministry. Someone yelled “fire!” at a service he conducted as a young man of 21.. and 7 people were killed in the crush to get out.

On 19 Oct. 1856 a malicious alarm of fire raised while Spurgeon was preaching at the Surrey Gardens music-hall led to a panic which caused the death of seven persons and the injury of many others.

This caused him to suffer from deep depressions throughout his ongoing life.

He said later that God makes the sweetest perfume by crushing the flowers.

DL Moody was largely uneducated, and treated like a country hick. Yet God used these men mightily to bring an outflow of His glory into millions of lives.

2 Cor 4: 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

4. The Out pouring Of Glory Concludes With Revelation

14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

1 John 3:3 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.

Col 3:4 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Titus 2:13 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Play write Edward Sheldon said it best, "God will look you over not for medals or degrees, but scars."

NO SCAR?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

BY AMY CARMICHAEL,

IRISH MISSIONARY TO INDIA FOR 55 YEARS

# posted by Groseys messages @ 2:14 PM