I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tested you in the furnace of suffering. (Isaiah 48:10 GW)
The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are in Christ. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it that is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are refined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I refined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphatically NO!! If we say, "Yes!" well, let us look at the furnace of affliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are you doing with that metal? Well, you say, you heat the fire intensely and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface; this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried through to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say that is you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of total depravity, and you will have to come back to the place where you say there is good in us, after all! You will have to say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of affliction is to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true doctrine? No!
The furnace of affliction is not for the removal of the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and secure it! Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in us? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What is it for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give full place to the other! The furnace of affliction is the application of the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave the whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God is after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but to cut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. That is what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and in order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It is all the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not going to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patching up of self. It is going to be none of self, and all of Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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| How a Single Passage of Scripture Changed Everything About My Life HEATHER HOLLEMAN |
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus …” Ephesians 2:6 (NIV)
For most of my life, I fought to earn a seat at the “table” I thought would finally bring me happiness: the table with the beautiful people, the table with the wealthy and the table of professional success. As a result, I lived in a constant state of comparison and jealousy. Once, I even cried from envy in the church bathroom because another woman told me about her upcoming tropical vacation. She stood there with her well-dressed children in contrast to our thrift-store wardrobe and budget that would keep us home in snowy Pennsylvania.
Jealous questions paraded through my mind: Were we living the wrong life? Was a better life happening somewhere else? Why was I so unhappy? When would I have a seat at the table that would bring me all the life and joy I longed for?
On a summer day as I sat with my Bible and journal, a single passage of Scripture ushered in the most profound transformation of my life and healed the ache in my soul to belong at that table of beauty, wealth or success. In Ephesians 2:6, we read that “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” As a writing instructor and lover of vivid verbs, I couldn’t stop staring at the little word seated.
God says we’re already seated with Christ. In other words, we’re already at the table.
A lightning bolt of realization hit me that I did not live like someone who already had a seat at the table. We are seated women. How would a seated woman truly live?
And what about those other “tables” so many of us still long for in life (what I call the three A’s: appearance, affluence and achievement)?
Instead of obsessing over their appearance to gain a seat with the beautiful people, seated women adore Jesus and radiate the beauty of the Lord (found in Psalm 34:5). Instead of chasing affluence, seated women access the riches of God’s kingdom where God promises to meet all our needs (as seen in Philippians 4:19). And instead of exhausting themselves with achievement, seated women abide in Christ and complete the good works God has planned for their lives (which is explained in Ephesians 2:10).
Seated women adore, access and abide.
As I moved deeper into my seated life, I found a quote from a Hayden Planetarium museum guide. Because all the children race into the planetarium to find the best seats in an arena where there are no best seats, the guide must call out, “All seats provide equal viewing of the universe! No matter where you sit, you won’t miss any part of the show!”
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Trained to Discern
In today's world, impatience is all too common a trait. We want food, help, and information fast. Just waiting for the computer to boot up or the "next avail-able agent" to answer our call can cause frustration. But the Lord specializes in slow, steady work. He's more interested in a quality outcome than a speedy process.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of spiritual discernment. When we become Christians, we aren't instantly wise and knowledgeable. It takes a lifetime to grow to maturity. Some believers, however, don't seem to grow up at all. They get older, but their understanding of God's Word never goes very deep.
This lack of godly wisdom is caused by ignorance of the Scriptures, apathy and complacency about spiritual things, and a failure to apply biblical truths. Discernment requires time and effort. You can't simply move through life, thoughtlessly reacting to situations yet never learning from them. Take time to reflect on your responses and observe the consequences of your actions and choices. If you feel convicted by what you notice, let that motivate you to begin a lifelong pursuit of the Lord and His ways. Start reading the Bible regularly. And as you do, ask the Lord to open your heart and mind to understand what He's saying.
But just reading God's Word isn't enough. Without applying what you've read, all you'll have is head knowledge. Obedience trains us to discern good and evil. Through practice, we learn wisdom and develop spiritual maturity. If you'll begin today and patiently persevere, in time discernment will come.
~Charles F. Stanley~
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We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him. (1 John 5:20 ESV)
It is of the greatest importance for the Lord's children to recognize fully that, above all other things, His object is that they should know Him. This is the all-governing end of all His dealings with us. This is the greatest of all our needs....
Our minds are so often occupied with service and work; we think that doing things for the Lord is the chief object of life. We are concerned about our lifework, our ministry. We think of equipment for it in terms of study and knowledge of things. Soul-winning, or teaching believers, or setting people to work, are so much in the foreground. Bible study and knowledge of the Scriptures, with efficiency in the matter of leading in Christian service as the end in view, are matters of pressing importance with all. All well and good, for these are important matters; but, back of everything the Lord is more concerned about our knowing Him than about anything else. It is very possible to have a wonderful grasp of the Scriptures, a comprehensive and intimate familiarity with doctrine; to stand for cardinal verities of the faith; to be an unceasing worker in Christian service; to have a great devotion to the salvation of men, and yet, alas, to have a very inadequate and limited personal knowledge of God within. So often the Lord has to take away our work that we may discover Him. The ultimate value of everything is not the information which we give, not the soundness of our doctrine, not the amount of work that we do, not the measure of truth that we possess, but just the fact that we know the Lord in a deep and mighty way.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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