Blessed in Misery

Our little community has recently gone through some spiritual upheaval... seems to be a common curse.  Be warned!  The enemy is hard at work to weaken the hearts and minds of those who claim to follow Christ.  Being a follower is not easy; the world is a destitute place, filled with deceit, anger, malice, and betrayal.   The enemy is clever and conniving, using God's word in a twisted and perverted manner to advance his own evil schemes - anything to distort truth and place a wedge between the saved and their beloved Savior. 

Remember!  This blog is my outlet to voice my thoughts, opinions, beliefs, etc.  You do not have to agree, or even read them.  You may not like what I am about to post. 

I believe the church is soft - soft to the truth of God's convicting scripture.  A 16-year-old believer myself, I still consider myself a child when it comes to knowing all of who and what God is.  And yet, even I can see the desire of believers to live by a biblical buffet, choosing only those precepts that are comfortable and non-confrontational.  God did not send His precious Son to earth to coddle us, but rather to open our eyes to the convicting reality of truth.  There is only one way to salvation, and that is through faith and acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If He is not your lord, just remember, you can run but you will not be able to hide on the day of judgment.

A year ago, Big Creek lost  their pastor to cancer.  Pastor John had been here for some 30+ years and many were accustomed to his teaching, which, although straight from the Bible, in my opinion, kept to the surface, rarely digging into the crevices where we tend to hide our unpleasantries.  We all have them, you know, we just don't like to talk about them, expose them, deal with them.  It wasn't that Pastor John didn't preach the truth - he did - he just didn't go very deep.

Then, this Spring... ah! the representational season of new life! our little community church welcomed with open arms a new pastor, Joe.  Open arms, that is, until he preached a message that was like a splash of icy cold water in the face!   This was not a message to be taken lightly and he made no apologies.   From his first message, I believed with all my heart and mind this is a man I could learn from.  Thank you, Pastor Joe!   Sadly, however, like the forceful admonishment from Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men, "You can't handle the truth!" and Pastor Joe has resigned and his family is on the verge of leaving our community. 

The book of James tells us "whenever you face trials of many kinds" (emphasis mine)... do you get that?  Not if, but whenever.  Trials are inevitable.  I consider the loss of Pastor Joe a trial.  I consider the loss of my husband and marriage a trial.  But truth remains and the truth of God's word is something I can count on.  For eternity.  Truth, even truth that hurts, can be a challenge to grow beyond sedentary thinking, to mature and glorify God.  That is, after all, our purpose.  Not to pursue success by the world's standards but to aspire to the perfection of Christ, to be attained only on the day of redemption.

I am seeing my relationship with my Savior in a whole new way.  I am understanding what it means for Him to be the lover of my soul.  I am understanding His sufficiency, His provision, His instruction.  I have much to be thankful for, despite my circumstances.  This morning, I listened to a past sermon by John MacArthur titled "Happiness Is...", based on Matthew 5:1-2.  Very briefly, this is what I gleaned from MacArthur's message:

Makarios: the basic NT meaning of "blessed" is an inner peace... bliss... happiness... an inward joy that is not produced by circumstance nor is it affected by circumstance.... a state of well-being in which God desires His children to live... all the way down, connected to happiness, is misery...misery is the key to happiness....

What this tells me is that happiness is not based on my circumstances and it is the downtrodden mentioned in the Beatitudes who are most likely to be happy!  So, today I will rejoice in my miserable circumstance and praise my sovereign God who is still on the throne.   Praise the God who saves!