FEELING GOOD ABOUT FALLING DOWN

      I was at a loss this week as to what to write about. But the other day the spirit moved me to think of my travels along the way, and most of all the adventures that contributed to my current attitude of identification with Christ. Oh what a bumpy road it has been . I wont get into the details of my testimony , many who have been reading from the beginning are familiar with it. I now so clearly can see in the rear view mirror, that pain and suffering was by far the biggest contributor to my growth and understanding in Christ!

      I have recently been reading a book by William J. Havlicek, Van Gogh's Untold Journey, a very impressive book indeed. I have always been fascinated by Van Gogh, [ who was a Christian] not realizing exactly why. I remember vividly as a young man, standing for what seemed like hours, gazing at his paintings in the museum gallery, on my first trip to Holland. I now after reading of his life know that what I so related to was the suffering and compassion carried in Vincent's every brush stroke. Of course we all know pain and suffering is often even sought out by great painters, and this was what attracted me to his work ,as so many others. Vincent was a man acquainted grief and suffering, and like our Lord, embraced it as his lot in life,and used that very pain of suffering to send a message and example. The question for us, in light of the potential for growth through suffering is; how then can we paint a masterpiece on the canvas of our life ,by the example of our Lord, embracing our weakness and pain?

      " For it became Him,[ The Father] for whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation[Christ] perfect through sufferings, for both he that sanctified   [Christ] and they that are sanctified [us] all are one" Heb. 2:10,11. This verse tell us that the Suffering we encounter along the way is allowed in our life by the Grace of God for a purpose, and brings us into the very presence of God as one, in Christ.

      Jesus Christ in order to bring us to Glory emptied Himself from the Glories of eternity, which by His being humbled in this way brought us into that very glory . He became one with us as to guilt and sin. It is obvious that us coming to the place we now dwell in Christ, identified before the Father in Heaven, involved suffering. The most horrific of all; He was made sin for us, a curse, taking our place even unto death. Thus it became God to make the leader of our salvation perfect through sufferings. So it also would seem only natural that if we see our sufferings as being with Him, and that redemption is shown by His sufferings, it is also found in our suffering. The evil of the world systems spirit uses these very things to attack Christians, in temptation to doubt these truths, are at least in not apply them to growth in our walk, which would call to our attention a weak faith and inconsistent Christian life. Let us be reminded that these very sufferings to the death of the old nature by His Son, were, in His sight, accepted by the Father, and shown  as such  by His Son being raised from death. Growing in understanding of this truth will serve to strengthen a weak walk.

      It was the Fathers choice to make His Son perfect through sufferings. Acts, 17:1 says," It behooved Christ to suffer, and rise again from the dead". The very foundation of the Word is found in suffering, as the suffering imposed upon the Son of God was necessary in the perfect economy of God in the judgement of sin unto the natural man, "in the flesh".And the Son by His obedience to this, found  the will of His faith, even to death, was rewarded with a resurrected life in glory.All this taken on by Jesus Christ, should show us as an example, that for His Son suffering was the path to Glory; should it not also be considered ours? And by the example of Jesus, see that our own dealing with suffering, can be used to purge the very thing Christ died to and for, the all important necessity to a Holy God; death to the Adamic man,our human sin nature, that we all carry about in our body.

      It goes without saying few indeed would ask to suffer, but we see in the Word, that a relationship with the very thing we strive to avoid, is the most important tool, to a life found identified in Christ. "Therefore since Christ suffered for us in the flesh,arm yourselves ALSO with the same mind [suffering] for he[us] who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh[natural man] for the lusts of men , but for the will of God" 1st Pet. 4:1-2. How do we apply this most obvious Biblical truth to growth in our Christian walk?

      Little did I know what a large can I was opening here by this subject. I will attempt to wind down this blog and continue on in the next as the depth of this is quite overwhelming. But first let me comment on a few words in the above verse " he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin". Very interesting is it not? What do we make of it? Should we go out and jump off a wall do induce suffering in order to cease sin? No of course not! Perhaps by reflecting on the suffering of Christ, which was to fulfill a judicial requirement to a Holy God, in His Sons punishment and death for our sin in our Adam nature dying unto that very nature, might be a start. And we can see this more clearly by applying our own various weakness sin, and resultant suffering to the fact that we still live out our lives on this earth in that same sin place as Adam. The contrast being the Bibles clear mandate that we are to use that very weakness and insufficiency to more clearly see ourselves in a new nature adopted into Jesus Christ positioned and identified in heaven in Him.

      In order to find what we are in the spirit in an eternal way we must understand what we are. Information, by itself, even correct, Biblical and orthodox, held in firm conviction, will not give us the indispensable quality and value needed to reach the depth of understanding found in the grace given to a suffering servant. It is Gods formula we are in, and His choice, is the lessons learned in suffering. A Christian must not only be in that message but he also must have that message in him; not only in mind and feeling, but in experience and being. The simple truth for the Christian is everything outside of Christ must be proven insufficient, and our time of suffering will show that.