I too am planning on copying and pasting this tidbit. It's not much but was very profound to me. Yesterday, Billie Sue spoke on the last half of chapter two of Touching Godliness through Submission in Sunday school. She touched on her experience of her dry time that she went through last year and the first part of this year, and how the Beth Moore Bible study helped so much, and she spoke about how she always asks for all the "r" words, Restore, Renew, etc. but never thought to ask for Resurrection...
As Christians we are called to die to ourselves, but I never thought if the whole concept in that way before, that even as we are to die (over and over, as new sins and issues arise or are unveiled), that we are to be resurrected into new life in Christ... That was so profound to me, just the new revelation on the subject. Just as in many times past, the simplest of concepts just breaks into my level of understanding in such a new, fresh, and powerful way.
Then Jennifer got up and gave the word that God had given her to share. She talked about us being unified as a body, and also she gave the illustration about a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying, but when it comes back, it bears much fruit. Resurrection
Then Pastor's message was on Yielding to our Heavenly Father. He used the example of Jeremiah and the potter's wheel, the remaking of our "pots" out of "available mud". He contrasted God's will to Our will, and gave scripture to show that it is most presumptuous of us to question the molding, and remaking that the Lord does in our lives. He basically asks, "Who are you to ask these questions, like 'What are you making?' and 'Don't you think a handle should go here?'". I thought it interesting how by asking about a "handle", it could be our desire to make sure that we have some control over our own lives and situations. Basically, we need to step back and try to look at God's perspective and his Larger Purposes, and that everything is intended for the purpose of gathering Israel and the Gentiles to Him, and that Salvation is the end to which we are to attain.
Anyway, the "coincidence". Sunday night, Gabe and I were reading out of the Beth Moore study on John. On Day 20, she is talking about the burial of Jesus, and how John must have felt such an emotional swing at the finality of the death of Jesus. She explains how, in our flesh, we seem to cling to the idea the "where there is life, there is hope." But how opposite that is for God. With him, where there is death, there is hope. But the death is not the end. With the resurrection comes the eternal hope. She gives the verse from John 12:24 "I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop." Then she goes on to say, " As a child bearing the name of Christ, if a part of you had died, in time it was meant to produce many seeds." She says "we stand on the edge of our cliff-like emotions looking into the deep cavern of our grief, and we're sure that the jump will kill us." Then her last paragraph really spoke to my heart. "We hear so much talk about the phases of grief: the shock, the anger, often depression, then, finally, acceptance. We're led to believe that acceptance of death is the final stage of grief. But if we are in Christ, the final stage has not come until we've allowed God to bring forth resurrection life and many seeds from the kernel of wheat that fell to the ground. Yes, we have come to acceptance, but not just acceptance of the death. Acceptance of the resurrection life. Don't stop until you experience it. Though it tarry, it shall come!"
I love how God hits us from all sides when he wants to drive a point home in our lives!
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