Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 5

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

Note:  What follows are excerpts of the first sermon I preached, June 7, 1978

If you’ve worked with gold, or know something about gold, you know it begins as ore, dug right out of the earth – then it has to be washed.  When gold is in ore form, combined with all that dirt and other elements, it’s not useable.  When the gold is washed, separated from the other impurities, it’s still not fit for use; a gold nugget is no good; it’s only mostly pure, but still needing preparation for useability.  The final process is the fire; gold is melted-down to remove any other elements that might hamper its most productive state. 

That’s the way a lot of Christians are, we make a decision for Christ, and we’re only a raw possibility at that point.  We’re washed by the blood of Christ, much like the ore that’s been washed…quite pure, we are washed by the blood, and forgiven, but still not ready for His best use; not unless we yield to the fire.  The prophet Isaiah said:  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.Isaiah 48:10 (KJV) 

Of course Isaiah wasn’t talking about the gold or silver you dig out of the ground.  He was talking about the gold of your life’s possibilities that have been yielded to the fire, refined, and molded into something ready to be used.  

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.  Job 23:10(KJV).

Elizabeth and I have been praying for her mother and father.  This morning (1978) my mother-in-law is in a hospital room in Port Richey.  She had two heart attacks this week, not just one.  She had one that put her in the hospital; she wouldn’t give up – she had another; that’s two strikes.  I will tell you something; we have been praying for her for a long time, for her salvation, and her husband’s.

Update to 1983.  Elizabeth’s Mom died this year.  After she was gone, we were going through her belongings and found the answer to our prayers.  It was her Bible, given to her by a visiting pastor.  On the flyleaf was written in her hand, and dated shortly before she died, this inscription:  “Sofie saved”! 

The Holy Spirit tugs at a heart…gently, ever so gently.  The Holy Spirit deals gently with us until we come to a point.  How hard the Holy Spirit tugs at your heart is up to you.  Repentance, turning from sin, is the only thing that interrupts the consequences of our sin from something drastic being done to get our attention.  When you have people praying for you, that you’ll turn to the LORD, but you keep turning away, you’re going to benefit from God’s chastisement.

We know what chastisement is, and we know why…it’s a purging, a cleansing.  Now, how do we benefit from it?  Paul’s letter to the Roman believers tells us:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28(KJV)

Our life is like the gold, dug out of the ground, raw possibility, but still needing the discipline of shaping for God’s good uses.  It needs to be yielded to the fire of God’s’ purifying character, making us fit for His purposes. 

For You Today

Chastisement, the move of God to discipline, teach, correct, and mature his children, comes in many forms:  experiencing problems, sickness, financial difficulties, and a myriad of other roads we walk.  One thing always common to chastisement is the experience gets our attention.  This is God’s blessed way of training his loved ones into a peaceful harvest of right living.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:                                                            

                                 Seeing and Following the Light… Part 1 and Part 2  and  Part 3        

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

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