Allow The Lord To Alchemize Your Life Job 23:8-10 1 Peter 1:3-9 James 1:2-4 Isaiah 53:7-11 Philippians 1:27-30 Lamentations 3:19-24 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 11.13.20

 

  ALLOW THE LORD TO ALCHEMIZE YOUR LIFE

BREAD

⁸ “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. ⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
¹⁰ But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”  Job 23:8-10 (NIV)

 

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  1 Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  James 1:2-4 (NIV)

 

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  ⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.  And who can speak of his descendants?  For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.  ⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.  ¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.  ¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  Isaiah 53:7-11 (NIV)

 

²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel ²⁸ without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved--and that by God. ²⁹ For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, ³⁰ since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.  Philippians 1:27-30 (NIV)

 

¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.  ²⁰ I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.  ²¹ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  ²² Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  Lamentations 3:19-24 (NIV)

 

⁷ To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.   2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

 

“The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, except when we see them in the wrong light.”  Brother Lawrence

“To added affliction He addeth His mercy, to multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.”  Annie Johnson Flint

 

“The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

 

“That one’s sorrows are actually working for the faithful believer is predicated upon the faith that the unseen is the ultimate and supreme reality and that the present and visible are only relative and ephemeral…..‘Our   affliction,’ properly accepted, is actually creating or producing for us an ‘eternal weight of glory’ far beyond all proportion to the pain of the affliction.  Therefore it should be cherished and not wasted by resistance and rebellion.”    Paul E. Billheimer

 

“God’s promises and God’s providences do not lift us out of the plane of common sense and commonplace trial, but it is through these very things that faith is perfected, and that God loves to interweave the golden threads of His love along the warp and woof of our everyday experience.”   Hard Places in the Way of Faith

“To obey God is not so much our duty as our privilege.  His commands carry blessings in their mouth.   There is love in every command, as if a king bid one of his subjects to dig in a gold mine, and then keep the gold for himself.”  Thomas Watson

“See God in everything, and God will calm and color all that thou dost see!  It may be that the circumstances of our sorrows will not be removed, their condition will remain unchanged; but if Christ, as Lord and Master of our life, is brought into our grief and gloom, ‘He will compass us about with songs of deliverance’.  To see Him, and to be sure that His wisdom cannot err, His power cannot fail, His love can never change; to know that even His direst dealings with us are for our deepest spiritual gain, is to be able to say, in the midst of bereavement, sorrow, pain, and loss, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’.  Nothing else but seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us.  They will be to us then only instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes toward us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessing they bring us.  Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.”   Hannah W. Smith

“We should have faith enough to believe that the present trouble, about which we are praying, is sent to us in love by God.  We should pray concerning our trials in this way:  ‘Lord, I have this thorn in the flesh.  I beseech You, deliver me from it, but meanwhile I bless you for it; for though I do not understand the why or the wherefore of it, I am persuaded there is love within it.  Therefore, while I ask You to remove it, so far as it seems evil to me, yet wherein it may to Your better knowledge work for my good, I bless You for it, and I am content to endure it so long as You see fit.’  Is not that a sweet way of praying?  This is a royal way of praying.  Such an amalgam of prayer and thanksgiving is more precious than the gold of Ophir.”    Charles H. Spurgeon    

“My life is but a weaving between my God and me.  I cannot choose the colors He weaveth steadily.  Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow; and I in foolish pride forget He sees the upper and I the underside.  Not ‘til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why.  The dark threads are as needful in the weaver’s skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.  He knows, He loves, He cares; Nothing this truth can dim.  He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him.”    Corrie ten Boom

“Out from the mine and the darkness, Out from the damp and the mold, Out from the fiery furnace, Cometh each grain of gold.  Crushed into atoms and leveled Down to the humblest dust With never a heart to pity, With never a hand to trust.  Molten and hammered and beaten Seemeth it ne’er to be done.  Oh, for such fiery trial, What hath the poor gold done?  Oh, ‘twere a mercy to leave it Down in the damp and the mold.  If this is the glory of living, Then better to be dross than gold.  Under the press and the roller, Into the jaws of the mint, Stamped with the emblem of freedom, With never a flaw or a dint.  Oh, what a joy, the refining, Out of the damp and the mold.  And stamped with the glorious image, Oh, beautiful coin of gold!”  “In The Crucible” - Author Unknown

“Follow the right at every hazard. When you see no obvious advantage, then walk by faith and not by sight. Honor God by trusting Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if He does not even in this life prove His word that ‘there is great gain in godliness with contentment,’ and that for those who ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . all these things will be added to you.’   Should it happen that in the providence of God you are a loser for conscience’s sake, you will find that if the Lord does not pay you back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses.”   C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

“What is ‘good’?  Just as Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is Truth?’ while all the while looking straight at Truth Incarnate, we as humans often misconstrue ‘What is good?’ and end up missing out on God’s best by ‘kicking against the goads’ and not walking in His ways.  We so often buy into what the world believes as good.  Do we believe it’s all about more – More clothes in the closet?  More comforts in the den?  More money in the bank?  More health in the body?  More buildings, marquees, publications or whatever’s  bearing our names?  More children in the home?  And on and on and on it goes.  ‘Good’ is not merely ‘wants.’  ‘Good’ can be as varied as the people who populate this dusty earth.  Simply put, ‘good’ is always God’s best for a life.  The Maker of all humankind has a plan for each life and our best is always to walk in it – be it ever so hard.  His will is revealed in a myriad of ways from His Word, from the Holy Spirit’s promptings Who indwells every true believer in Christ, from prayer and petition with thanksgiving, from fellow sojourners – why God can even use a donkey or a great big fish!  And believe me, you always want to be in the center of His will as it is good and pleasing and perfect.  Don’t fight against God’s best because it is hard.  Allow Him to conform you to the image of Christ.  We are the ultimate losers if we don’t.  It is the life of true blessedness.”  BHY

“It is in the quiet crucible of our personal private sufferings that our noblest dreams are born and God’s greatest gifts are given.”  Wintley Phipps

“They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”   Charles Spurgeon

HEART SAVOR

·         God desires for His children to be conformed into the image of Christ.

·         Oftentimes, His choice tool in the goal of making us into the likeness of His Son is affliction or trouble or wanting what you don’t have or having what you don’t want.

·         God is good and all that He allows flows from love.  You can trust Him with your life.