I do not set aside, disesteem, neutralize, violate, cast off, despise, disannul, frustrate, bring to nought, or reject the Grace of God.
I do not, and I must not.
” frustration must be properly understood. A word from JA Pike helps us here.
“What we do within the given limitations, brought about by our own fault, the fault of others, or otherwise, does have to do very definitely with the will of God. And the reason we have gotten the impression that God wills the evil is that the Saints have generally made such a good show of turning sow’s ears into silk purses, have produced such amazing goodness out of evil situations , that we have turned around and credited God with the evil that made possible so much good. But this is to bring God in at the wrong point. He is to be credited with the grace and power which redeemed the evil, and produce the greater good in the lives of his Saints, but this is in terms of what they did within the limitations following his leading.”
Indeed it is God’s will that we be hemmed in. ” it is not the broad river that turns the turbine, it is the water rushing through the narrowed gorge. The latter does not create the power, either , there must be a turbine there. In personal life, what is that turbine? The clearest image of what it is is Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Life was certainly hemmed in for him.
And hemmed in for us!
“A man named Schereschewsky felt strongly that the most important thing to be done in the missionary enterprise was the translation of the scriptures into the Chinese tongue. Then one day, he suffered a sunstroke and became almost totally paralyzed save for the middle finger on the right hand. Forced to return to America, he immediately set to work to complete his work of translation. Since no Chinese scholar was available to serve as scribe, and he was unable to write himself, this man poked out on a typewriter with his one finger the English equivalence of the Chinese characters. And so eager was he to push on with the work that when his one active finger would grow tired he would stamp out the letters with a small stick clutched in his fist. He produced 2 translations,” From J.A. Pike
In Galatians chapter 2 verse 21, Paul sees frustration as a neutralization of the grace of God. He speaks of gaining righteousness through the law. He is also aware of the impossibility of such a thing. Grace (which makes impossibility possible) must prevail in a person’s frustrated life just as Schereschewsky found possibility even with his disability.
Friends, in the trials of our lives, God may allow us to have a paralysis of the many things that would distract us from His one main thing. We may be stopped in our tracks — Frustrated and totally hindered, without an inkling Of what to do. This happened to the Galatian Christians.
“Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? “Galatians 5:7-9
But, James tells us of a perfect gift from God:
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. “
What is this perfect gift — an ever present help in time of need?
“It is (God’s) subjective love, given to one who is unworthy…” Dr. Carl H. Stevens
J.H. Jowett writes: ” let us go into the school of Calvary …We shall get into the secret places of the most high, and we shall behold the marvelous unveilings of infinite love. We shall hear that wondrous evangel that Pascal heard, and which melted his heart, and hallowed all his years.
” I love thee more ardently than thou has loved thy sin.”
” I know how I have loved my sin, I know how I have clung to it. I know how I have yearned after it. I know what illicit pleasure I have found in it. I know how I have pursued it at any cost. And now, “I love thee more than thou hast loved thy sin.” O my! love ya
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