July 9, 2012
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WHEN GOD EXPLODES YOUR WORLD...
Do You Sweep Up the Pieces and Toss Them Out?
OR
Do You Try to Assemble the Pieces Again?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
John 13:34
I have this disgusting physical condition called, Cystic Acne. I get these terrible blood, serum, and puss filled areas beneath my skin. They have been as small as a quarter, and as large as my fist. Some bleed out and never come back. others stick around for years and years. The ones which sit there for years are the worst. Eventually they become infected and grow to the size of a baseball...YUCK!!!
. I've needed surgery to go in and tear out the cyst's structures, so they don't come back. Well at least one has come back....YUCK!! YUCK!! YUCK!!! 
.The way I view my cysts is the way I've come to view my world; lifestyle; way of being; way of thinking, and etc. There is a reason God blows up my world... so he can give me a new one. Just like I need surgery to get the cyst's walls out of my body so it won't return later and become a baseball sized nightmare again, so I need God to blow up the sick diseased way of thinking and doing which is my world. I need God to come in and tear my world away from me, and break it up, so it can be thrown out. And I just hope I get every little poison piece of my blown up world thrown out. Because if one little piece of that sick little world of mine is still around, just like the walls of my cyst, my sick little world grows back.
I'm not saying I don't still fight God sometimes, I certainly do, and that simply makes the "infection" worse. I have to learn I can't keep any part of my own little world, or it will poison the new world God desires to give me. I used to look at Christ's teachings as something I "had" to do, and grudgingly, at that. Now I look at Christ's teachings and think, "Gee, I want to have that in my own life..." It costs me a lot of pain, suffering and money to be rid of one of those terrible cysts, but I am so happy when everything heals up. I don't have to worry so much about a baseball sized infection invading my body. When God finally gets me to release the pieces of my own little world I feel better, and what's more...I am better. When my own little world is gone then I get God's bigger better world.
Do you know the worst part of it? I don't look at my own little world the way I look at my cysts. I like my own little world; I LOVE my own little world, truth be told. My own little world is, in its own way, just as nasty and bloody as any cyst I've had cut out of me. The true difference is I created my own little world. I didn't choose my cystic acne, but I did choose my own little world. And not everything is necessarily wrong with my own little world. Hey I can put some good things into my own creation. There are lots of very good things in my own little world, but the problem is only God can create an eternal world. No matter how good my own little world is, it is and will always be a broken sinful world. Anything good in my own little world will become infected by/with my sick sinful human nature. No matter how good my little world is or seems to be it is still shot through with sin and brokenness. You know even Adolf Hitler did good for the German people, during his terrible reign. Nothing good Hitler did can come close to standing up against all of the horrible evil he did.
My own little world needs to be blown to little flaming bits. It's painful when God blows up my own little world, but I am learning gratitude! I am most thankful for the understanding and wisdom to see the problem and allow God to keep destroying it.
You may be assured God is faithful, and may be trusted to keep blowing up your own little world. You know what I mean, don't you? The ways you and I think and live which look good, but are, in fact, infected with sin and brokenness. God is faithful, and will faithfully keep blowing up our "own little worlds". I always like the way God says things...
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil."See, we aren't trustworthy...AT ALL!! But God is, and he will keep destroying what we think is best. Now let us get on board with God's efforts to destroy our own little worlds. Don't keep any of the pieces, throw them out of your life, so God can give you an eternal world of his own creation.
Bless You...
Comments (5)
God was exploding some dreams of mine in the past year or so, and though I knew it was for my good, apart from God's grace, it was impossible for me to put aside where *I thought* He'd been leading – but I didn't have any peace until I did so. One day last fall, I finally had to take a folder of some things I'd been working on, and I stuffed it in the back of the closet. The next morning came the assurance/confirmation: I awakened with two phrases from Acts 16 in mind... "forbidden by the Holy Spirit" and "the Spirit did not permit them." In other words, even though what I'd wanted to do seemed good to me, and even though there was nothing sinful about it per se, it was NOT good in the eyes of God because it wasn't God's will for me at that time. And now, months later, as things are beginning to unfold, I can only stand in awe of His wonderful working... exceedingly above all I could have asked or imagined: not by my fleshly schemes or maneuvering, but by His Spirit alone, all to the glory to God alone!
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.
Psalm 37
3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
A powerful post, thanks for being so honest and open.
peace
Mark
@markdohle - Thank you, brother!
Bless you!
@naphtali_deer - Jesus promised that he is the vine, and Father is the vine keeper. In order for a grape vine to produce fruit, and much fruit, it must be pruned; cut nearly to the ground is more the truth of the matter. There is a lot of "good" vine and leaves which must be cut away or there will not be "much" fruit. Good is not the standard Father uses. God's standard of measurement is Jesus, and as the vine keeper Father will cut away even what is good that we may be the very best, which is the likeness of Jesus!
@Such_are_you - As soon as we begin to get smug, and to think we've arrived, God's got to do that necessary pruning once again, to cut us down to size. The pruning is painful, but always profitable! If we considered it this way, "Do you want to look like Jesus?" we couldn't ever refuse or even balk one peep about the pruning... "... be it unto me according to Thy word."