Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Living the short (not sweet) life

When you look at life from the divine perspective, it’s what Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:17-18: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; [18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

“But if you don’t have verses 8 and 9, you’ll never get the other,” says Jordan. “Paul says, [8] We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
[9] Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

“If the pot doesn’t get cracked, the light doesn’t come out. As verse 7 says, ‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ What is it that you’re seeing when he says ‘we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen’?

“Well, the answer is back in verse 6: [6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“Whatever the darkness, whatever the difficulty is, He commands the light to shine out of darkness by shining the glory of God in the face of His Son.

“So we sing a song: O soul are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.’

“You know how you see the eternal—‘the things that are not seen’? Hebrews 11 has the answer: ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[2] For by it the elders obtained a good report.
[3] Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' "

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