Or… while you are in sin.
He is true to His Word and “never leaves us nor forsakes us” but as it describes in James, “we become pregnant with sin” and once conceived it has to be born… and if we persist in it… it leads precisely to death.
But… if we acknowledge the sin, repent of it, and turn to God… truthfully… He brings us through it; teaches us a lesson with it; uses it later as a reminder; and truly blesses us after… in His time and His Way.
Everything God does is ordered.
And has a timeline attached to it.
And we call “supernatural” those things that God affects outside of our perception of those “natural orders”.
For example, in John chapter 9, Jesus heals a blind man who was born blind.
Through the “natural” course of things that man should have died blind.
Jesus intervening is supernatural.
Through my personal sin, by me, “missing the mark,” and by virtue of me being “born to it,” the natural order of things should have me “dying in it” as well.
But… by Christ dying… on the cross… He has opened a way for me to access “the supernatural” and circumvent “the natural order” I was born into.
As long as we are covered in this husk of skin we will always sin/miss the mark.
For example: These past two months my wife and I have been coordinating a full blown kitchen remodel.
It’s been stressful.
Recently as we are finalizing the decorations being put up, I had come to the end of my patience.
She wanted me to “move a few things”.
The kitchen is done; we had all the knick knacks up;
I said, “Sure”
But in my mind I started quoting Marcus Aurelius, because, in a very nerve grating tone she asked, “Are you leaving those holes like that?”
[you know and I know the holes get covered]
And it worked, the Stoic tenet of “a person can only make you react if you let them”.
I was ok.
Until 2 seconds later she asked our adult daughter if it looked ok…
AND SHE ASKED, “Are you leaving those holes like that?”
[you know and I know the holes get covered]
I LOST it… started cussing; and yelled, “Your mom just asked that!”
I didn’t feel like encouraging anybody!!
I didn’t feel like explaining how the holes get spackled and paint.
EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU COVER THE HOLES!!!
Because we are emotional creatures I believe that learning “self control” is a supernatural endeavor.
Powered by the presence of The Holy Spirit.
It has to be.
I get tired.
I get hungry.
I get set on edge having to explain every little thing because those around me lack confidence in me; and in themselves; how am I supposed to help with that when I know everything is in Gods ordered timing?
How am I to meet my goals of…
ENCOURAGING
EQUIPPING
& ENGAGING ???
Especially with those in my own house?
“Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”
~ Mark 6:4
What was my “lesson learned”?
It has been to notice that nothing satisfies the sinful natural nature of man quite like applying the “peace Jesus offers”; not Stoicism; not Eastern meditation; or breathing techniques… they are like a salve you put on a burn you got reaching into the stove… you have a tube of salve or stick of butter handy because you have gotten stove burns before…
The “peace Jesus offers” is like a really good pair of oven mitts or welding gauntlets… you can work in and around the heat KNOWING you can’t get burnt… and so have a different level of confidence and higher manageable stress level.
Now if your gloves catch fire thats a different situation.
The “peace” Jesus offers is a supernatural peace; it is not of the world.
If I would have leaned on that instead of a quote by a naturally dead man… I would have been money ahead… instead of in a screaming match.
The Emerging Man… writing to…
ENCOURAGE EQUIP & ENGAGE!!
theemergingman.com 