Jesus, it is you. Since it is you, I accept.
Generation after after generation has seen and experienced deep hurts, witness terrible terrors, and battled with the strong self-gratifying choices. Some have borne witness while others have been subjects of experience. How can a fragile and hurting world continue to grapple with a hard and relentless assault on their souls? Maybe I underestimate the number of people who have never truly been through fire. Maybe, just maybe, the determination of whether someone has gone through fire is not subject to the fire itself, but the person in relation to the fire through which they pass.
To one, my fire might be like a warm summer afternoon - not desirable but not detestable. What may be a spark to one may be an explosion to all their comforts. I readily admit my dislike in this reality. Most find it hard to see past their own perspective, capacity, and endurance. What is bearable to me should be bearable to another. This is simply a lack of empathy.
The Master created us with the biological ability to empathize - we were literally designed to do so. Ah yes, but I must admit I am quick to neglect it. We must understand that the fire through which someone passes, no matter how it looks to us or how we think it looks to others, is intended to serve a purpose. God wants to break the outermost person so the inner-spirit of the person may seep forth in beautiful fragrance and vulnerability. What a time would that be when we could have our soul poured out to others in action, word, and thought knowing there is nothing of which to be ashamed.
We all know there are deep thoughts in the recesses of our mind that ascend to the light of our thoughts when we are faced with solitude. There is much in our hearts and our minds we wouldn’t want the world to see.
If our thoughts were a movie it would be of the kind you can’t even bear to sit through it’s so bad and embarrassing. We would be ashamed. It is the outermost person pulling toward the direction of right things misplaced and wrongly valued. Oh Jesus, free us from this pull. We may never be free from the pull of the outermost man till we lay eyes on the full glory of King Jesus and He takes away all sin.
However, until then, Jesus’ promise reigns true - whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Either the blood is all-sufficient or it is insufficient. Is this a hard truth to swallow? Absolutely. How can we proclaim such a liberating truth yet not bear witness to it in our own lives? And even then, how when we believe our lives reflect this truth can we dare claim that we have been set free indeed?
It is a reality I admit is either not true this side of eternity or is true and therefore very much hated by the world and many professing Christians. All I know is this: a person is interesting and beautiful in as much as he or she is the walking reflection of the person of Jesus. The person can only reflect and emit the fragrance of Jesus in proportion to how broken the outermost shell of the person is so the inner person (spirit) can be exposed and known.
In returning to the subject of fire, herein is its purpose - to break the outer man so the inner man may be free and emit the beauty of the person of Jesus. If this is God’s desire for me and it is likely he will use fire in my life to do it, I accept. I hope we accept and say, “Jesus, it is you. Since it is you, I accept.”
To one, my fire might be like a warm summer afternoon - not desirable but not detestable. What may be a spark to one may be an explosion to all their comforts. I readily admit my dislike in this reality. Most find it hard to see past their own perspective, capacity, and endurance. What is bearable to me should be bearable to another. This is simply a lack of empathy.
The Master created us with the biological ability to empathize - we were literally designed to do so. Ah yes, but I must admit I am quick to neglect it. We must understand that the fire through which someone passes, no matter how it looks to us or how we think it looks to others, is intended to serve a purpose. God wants to break the outermost person so the inner-spirit of the person may seep forth in beautiful fragrance and vulnerability. What a time would that be when we could have our soul poured out to others in action, word, and thought knowing there is nothing of which to be ashamed.
We all know there are deep thoughts in the recesses of our mind that ascend to the light of our thoughts when we are faced with solitude. There is much in our hearts and our minds we wouldn’t want the world to see.
If our thoughts were a movie it would be of the kind you can’t even bear to sit through it’s so bad and embarrassing. We would be ashamed. It is the outermost person pulling toward the direction of right things misplaced and wrongly valued. Oh Jesus, free us from this pull. We may never be free from the pull of the outermost man till we lay eyes on the full glory of King Jesus and He takes away all sin.
However, until then, Jesus’ promise reigns true - whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Either the blood is all-sufficient or it is insufficient. Is this a hard truth to swallow? Absolutely. How can we proclaim such a liberating truth yet not bear witness to it in our own lives? And even then, how when we believe our lives reflect this truth can we dare claim that we have been set free indeed?
It is a reality I admit is either not true this side of eternity or is true and therefore very much hated by the world and many professing Christians. All I know is this: a person is interesting and beautiful in as much as he or she is the walking reflection of the person of Jesus. The person can only reflect and emit the fragrance of Jesus in proportion to how broken the outermost shell of the person is so the inner person (spirit) can be exposed and known.
In returning to the subject of fire, herein is its purpose - to break the outer man so the inner man may be free and emit the beauty of the person of Jesus. If this is God’s desire for me and it is likely he will use fire in my life to do it, I accept. I hope we accept and say, “Jesus, it is you. Since it is you, I accept.”
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