REFLECTING ON REFLECTIONS

Reflecting on yesterday's post, I could see where some might have gotten the mistaken perception that I might have been suggesting that difficulties - like the fire- only come to those 

who choose not to live near the Lord.  

Not at all!   

Trials come to all in this broken world, and some trials are huge and painful beyond describing.

 My point is that events are never out of control.  For those who place themselves under the loving authority and care of their Heavenly Father, He permits trials to mold and shape them in the likeness of His Son.

Proverbs 18:12 teaches that "humility comes before honor."

Like a loving earthly father, our heavenly Father "disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:10b).  In tenderness He promises to be with us in our trials, with the purpose of bringing us through the crucible of humility, that we might come forth refined and purified.  And those who have borne His discipline He will honor, that they may more perfectly serve and glorify Him.

Yet most certainly, "for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant."  But our great confidence is that, "later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11).

So then, those who suffer - and all will suffer sooner or later - are left to choose whether to try to tough it out alone, with those who choose to live apart from God; or with those who put themselves in His care, trusting in His pruposes for them, and His promise to do them good.

REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRE

from Psalm 148

Praise the LORD from the earth,

You great sea creatures and all deeps,

Fire and hail, snow and mist,

Stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Vs. 7,8

All the creatures and elements of the earth have a common call: to praise the LORD.  The animate and the inanimate are commanded to glorify Him: even the fire.   The LORD is sovereign over the fire, and it must obey His command.  As it does so, He is glorified.  As the stormy, raging wind obeys Him, which it must, it glorifies Him.  As He is exalted, man is put in his place, and we are reminded that God is God, and that we are not.  The raging elements, though they appear to be out of control, are not, but serve to remind us of our humanity, our mortality, our limitations, our dependence upon a Higher than ourselves.  They remind us to depend upon Him, to fear Him, to serve Him, and to labor together as His children to overcome the challenges of living in this temporal, fallen world.

He has raised up a horn for his people

Praise for all his saints,

For the people of Israel who are near to him,

Praise the LORD!

Vs.14

The fact is, God has His favorites.  Some people are near Him, some are not.  His hand is on His people.  No surprise there.  It has always been so.  There are some who are close to the LORD in their daily living, in their awareness of Him, in their fear of Him, in their obedience of Him.  They live under His authority, and under His mantel.  He loves them, He cares for them, He disciplines them for their own good, with the loving purpose that they may share His holiness.

There is another, larger group – and always has been – who are not close to the LORD.  Perhaps they give Him lip service, a tip of the cap - or not - but they  have no real interest in being under His care and authority.  They are the independent ones who might attempt a semblance of interdependence or community in order to survive or overcome the challenges of life, but their attempts bear only as much authenticity as does a statue to a living, breathing human.  There is no true life, no hope of discovering true meaning, purpose or fulfillment apart from a proper connection with the Living God.  We were made to live in a dependent relationship with Him.

LORD, I want to be among those who are near you, near you in truth.  I want to behold you, I want to gaze upon you, I want to live in communion with you and your people at all times.  As the fire has revealed only so clearly the very temporal nature of this world, which is passing away, I long for the eternal, the authentic, the true.  I am not saying I desire to die, but there is great hope in the thought of being eternally with you, though my finite self does not comprehend that.  As I observe the rage of nature and the fallibility of human systems, I realize there is no real hope in them.  My only confidence is in you.