Excerpt-
'We hear much today about how easy it is to be a Christian; just believe and the grace of God will do all that needs to be done.
But the implantation of the true grace of God in the soul - hatred of sin - is the beginning of a life-long struggle marked by tedious battles and severe, bitter contests.
It is written: The evil tendencies of mankind are hard to overcome.
The battles are tedious.
Every soul in the strife knows how severe, how bitter, are these contests.
Everything about growth in grace is difficult, because the standard and maxims of the world are constantly interposed between the soul and God's holy standard.
The Lord would have us elevated, ennobled, purified, by carrying out the principles underlying His great moral standard, which will test every character in the great day of final reckoning.'
*******
LIFE LONG STRUGGLES!
TEDIOUS BATTLES!
SEVERE, BITTER CONTESTS!
And still we believe it should somehow be different for us. We shouldn't feel the heavy weight of sin upon us. We're believers after all, and believers have to BELIEVE. That belief should make us not feel the pain and agony of the sin contests in our lives, right? We're trusting in God, Jesus is our Savior, the Holy Spirit is guiding us, so why should we be anything but confident? And still we KNOW, a part of us knows, that it's not that simple. It's a ROAD seldom traveled. It's a PATH extremely narrow.
When we think of narrow are we thinking sidewalk narrow? Maybe we need to think balance beam narrow, or even tightrope narrow. We give ourselves possibly way too much room on this road we are called to walk upon. Narrow is the way. And to get an idea of narrow maybe we need to truly look at this verse-
Mat_19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Eye of a needle narrow.
Except a MIRACLE is performed in us, none of us could ever fit through an eye of a needle, and most of us could not walk a tightrope. The MIRACLE is CHRIST. But we have to FIND Christ. We have to find the narrow way.
Mat_7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
We have to find it!
And in finding it, don't you imagine that Satan, Jesus' archenemy, will do everything in his power to keep us from walking in that way? He wants to turn us in a different direction and he'll do EVERYTHING He can to do just that.
LIFE LONG STRUGGLES!
TEDIOUS BATTLES!
SEVERE, BITTER CONTESTS!
When was the last time you were involved in a spiritual struggle? A battle on the spiritual war front? A contest of the supernatural, spiritual kind?
A war is being waged, a very real war and there are very real wounds.
So why do we really expect to live our lives as if we are not under siege? Why are we so shocked and disappointed when the awful darts of Satan are thrown at us? How can something be considered a struggle, tedious, a battle, a bitter and severe contest if we are supposed to be enjoying ourselves all the time? We have to feel the PAIN, the AGONY, the awful torturous affliction and in doing so we are EXPECTED to endure by faith. Recognize the horror and still endure. Comprehend our tragic situations and yet endure, believing even when we are feeling the most pain, even when the darkness surrounding us is as dark as it can ever be, believing there is HOPE and that HOPE is CHRIST JESUS our SAVIOR! Clinging to the hope when all our senses tell us the situation is hopeless.
'Everything about growth in grace is difficult, because the standard and maxims of the world are constantly interposed between the soul and God's holy standard.'
DIFFICULT.
Growing in grace isn't the seemingly effortless ballet you watch as it performed. Growing in grace is the extremely pain that brings about the seemingly effortless vision you witness. Our idea of the end product, the goal we are trying to achieve is very clear, and yet we must realize that it will NOT be realized until we are 'changed in a twinkling of an eye when we meet the Lord in the air'. Up until that very point we are in the BATTLE, we are experiencing the agony of practice, the necessary brutality of the fiery furnace we are being refined in. If we foolishly strive to reach our goal expecting at some point to rest on our laurels before our Savior redeems us and changes us, takes our mortality and makes it immortal, then we are setting ourselves up to FAIL miserably, tragically.
Please LORD help us! Let us feel the fires of affliction and know that You are refining us. It's an awful, awful world we live in where so many consider the immoral to be moral and those who know better are deemed to be the vile ones, the strange ones, the ones who are incomprehensible in their beliefs. All around us the world expects us to laugh along with it, and we do because we find ourselves trapped with its mindset. We REPENT LORD! We REPENT OF OUR EVILS! Please LORD help us to live as YOU would have us live, and not as the world expects us to live. You have a HOLY STANDARD LORD, and our flesh natures cling to the world that would destroy those standards calling them archaic, backwards, prejudice, bias, evil, stupid, unintelligent, unenlightened. The world would unite us to their forward enlightened existence into what they call a good thing, a right thing, the best thing, the most moral and humane thing.
Growth in grace- LORD let us grow in YOUR grace, please LORD we beg you. Of our own selves we are NOTHING, we have NOTHING, and the filthy rags covering us seem to be glued to our forms as if they will never be taken from us. You and YOU alone can take the filthy rags off of us LORD, You and YOU alone can clothe us in YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!
ALL BY YOUR GRACE!
*******
NOTE: The above excerpts were taken from the manuscript 'In the Form of a Slave' By William Grotheer. If you are interested in this manuscript you may go to the following website where it is possible for you to order a copy of it. http://www.alfiowa.com/
'We hear much today about how easy it is to be a Christian; just believe and the grace of God will do all that needs to be done.
But the implantation of the true grace of God in the soul - hatred of sin - is the beginning of a life-long struggle marked by tedious battles and severe, bitter contests.
It is written: The evil tendencies of mankind are hard to overcome.
The battles are tedious.
Every soul in the strife knows how severe, how bitter, are these contests.
Everything about growth in grace is difficult, because the standard and maxims of the world are constantly interposed between the soul and God's holy standard.
The Lord would have us elevated, ennobled, purified, by carrying out the principles underlying His great moral standard, which will test every character in the great day of final reckoning.'
*******
LIFE LONG STRUGGLES!
TEDIOUS BATTLES!
SEVERE, BITTER CONTESTS!
And still we believe it should somehow be different for us. We shouldn't feel the heavy weight of sin upon us. We're believers after all, and believers have to BELIEVE. That belief should make us not feel the pain and agony of the sin contests in our lives, right? We're trusting in God, Jesus is our Savior, the Holy Spirit is guiding us, so why should we be anything but confident? And still we KNOW, a part of us knows, that it's not that simple. It's a ROAD seldom traveled. It's a PATH extremely narrow.
When we think of narrow are we thinking sidewalk narrow? Maybe we need to think balance beam narrow, or even tightrope narrow. We give ourselves possibly way too much room on this road we are called to walk upon. Narrow is the way. And to get an idea of narrow maybe we need to truly look at this verse-
Mat_19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Eye of a needle narrow.
Except a MIRACLE is performed in us, none of us could ever fit through an eye of a needle, and most of us could not walk a tightrope. The MIRACLE is CHRIST. But we have to FIND Christ. We have to find the narrow way.
Mat_7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
We have to find it!
And in finding it, don't you imagine that Satan, Jesus' archenemy, will do everything in his power to keep us from walking in that way? He wants to turn us in a different direction and he'll do EVERYTHING He can to do just that.
LIFE LONG STRUGGLES!
TEDIOUS BATTLES!
SEVERE, BITTER CONTESTS!
When was the last time you were involved in a spiritual struggle? A battle on the spiritual war front? A contest of the supernatural, spiritual kind?
A war is being waged, a very real war and there are very real wounds.
So why do we really expect to live our lives as if we are not under siege? Why are we so shocked and disappointed when the awful darts of Satan are thrown at us? How can something be considered a struggle, tedious, a battle, a bitter and severe contest if we are supposed to be enjoying ourselves all the time? We have to feel the PAIN, the AGONY, the awful torturous affliction and in doing so we are EXPECTED to endure by faith. Recognize the horror and still endure. Comprehend our tragic situations and yet endure, believing even when we are feeling the most pain, even when the darkness surrounding us is as dark as it can ever be, believing there is HOPE and that HOPE is CHRIST JESUS our SAVIOR! Clinging to the hope when all our senses tell us the situation is hopeless.
'Everything about growth in grace is difficult, because the standard and maxims of the world are constantly interposed between the soul and God's holy standard.'
DIFFICULT.
Growing in grace isn't the seemingly effortless ballet you watch as it performed. Growing in grace is the extremely pain that brings about the seemingly effortless vision you witness. Our idea of the end product, the goal we are trying to achieve is very clear, and yet we must realize that it will NOT be realized until we are 'changed in a twinkling of an eye when we meet the Lord in the air'. Up until that very point we are in the BATTLE, we are experiencing the agony of practice, the necessary brutality of the fiery furnace we are being refined in. If we foolishly strive to reach our goal expecting at some point to rest on our laurels before our Savior redeems us and changes us, takes our mortality and makes it immortal, then we are setting ourselves up to FAIL miserably, tragically.
Please LORD help us! Let us feel the fires of affliction and know that You are refining us. It's an awful, awful world we live in where so many consider the immoral to be moral and those who know better are deemed to be the vile ones, the strange ones, the ones who are incomprehensible in their beliefs. All around us the world expects us to laugh along with it, and we do because we find ourselves trapped with its mindset. We REPENT LORD! We REPENT OF OUR EVILS! Please LORD help us to live as YOU would have us live, and not as the world expects us to live. You have a HOLY STANDARD LORD, and our flesh natures cling to the world that would destroy those standards calling them archaic, backwards, prejudice, bias, evil, stupid, unintelligent, unenlightened. The world would unite us to their forward enlightened existence into what they call a good thing, a right thing, the best thing, the most moral and humane thing.
Growth in grace- LORD let us grow in YOUR grace, please LORD we beg you. Of our own selves we are NOTHING, we have NOTHING, and the filthy rags covering us seem to be glued to our forms as if they will never be taken from us. You and YOU alone can take the filthy rags off of us LORD, You and YOU alone can clothe us in YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!
ALL BY YOUR GRACE!
*******
NOTE: The above excerpts were taken from the manuscript 'In the Form of a Slave' By William Grotheer. If you are interested in this manuscript you may go to the following website where it is possible for you to order a copy of it. http://www.alfiowa.com/
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