Tuesday, June 10, 2014

the one on suffering

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Sometimes, I think it's safe to say that I simply don't understand life. Today, dear, wonderful,
precious friends of mine are hurting, and I can't do a blessed thing to stop it. Nothing. Nada. And my heart, the very core of me, is crying out, "God, why? Why? I. Just. Don't. Understand."

And then He whispers to the unsettling.

Must you understand?

Yes. Yes, I must! Why shouldn't I?

My love - could you - could they - bear such a weight of glory, as you are now?

Glory, Lord? What glory? Is this glory? This, this...this stupid crazy insane ridiculous mess that makes me want to kick a hole through the wall and cry away the ache?

For this light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for you (and the ones you love) a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

2 Corinthians 4:17. Right, but...now. What about now?

Hannah. Look up "suffering" in My Word, and you'll see. Suffering precedes glory. In a fallen world, you cannot have one without the other.

Suffering precedes glory. Hmm. You know, it sounds cliché, but I guess it's true. A lot of things have to broken before they are truly beautiful and glorious.

Gold gets melted. Marble gets cut. Stone gets chiseled. The tree gets cut down and run through the mill. The river clatters and splashes and tumbles across the miles before joining the sparkling sea.

Yes, these things can be inherently beautiful because in creation God made all things good (very good), but to a designer patterning the works of his hands after the Master Designer - they are perfect, but not yet.

Yes, Lord? Isn't that so?

Consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in you and these dear ones.

Ah. Romans 8:18. And there's suffering with glory again. One forging the other. The curse foretelling its own demise.

I who sit on the throne say, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Revelation 21:5.

The One Who sits on the throne declares a renewal, a retribution, a transformation. The King reigns. God - that's You.

Behold, I make all things new.

You make all things new.

Glory is building.


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