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JimfromOhio

I am happlily married with 5 kids. I am an accoutant and worked in an accounting field for over 25 years. I like to make a habit of writing down whenever I have deep thoughts about God (so I won't forget). I really into Reformed Theology that is connected to Presbyterian Church in America.

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Location: Columbus, Ohio, United States

I enjoy having deep thoughts about God and put down what I actually think about (so I won't forget).

Friday, January 20, 2006

Temporal and Eternal Blessings

God take care of us in "eternal" sense more than "temporary" sense: Hebrews 11:39-40 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Physical blessings today as temporal at our temporal timing or Physical healing as eternal at God's eternal timing. People want it NOW while God already have established time for each of us at His Will, not our temporal time nor our faith (or works of faith). The Jewish people firmly believed that God was with them. Jesus reminded the disciples of that SAME fact to us. Great Faiths of the Old Testament believed in God even though they had never seen His form nor seen their promises before they died. They trusted in His care without ever seeing a protecting hand. They had full faith in an invisible God!. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 says So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. People are keeping focus on "sow and reap" of our sinful nature more than the Soveriegn of God who sometime allow situations go bad just to Glorify Him. All circumstances are work for heavenly good and called to His purpose. Even though we can not see the purpose for the trials we are going through, we can trust absolutely that the Lord is in control of all things. Every trial in our life is a furrow being plowed by the Lord, that we grow in faith, and learn to trust ever more confidently in the Lord. It takes a great faith for someone to endure the pain, hardship, illness, or whatever is happening in someone's life. The Christian walk is a fight of Faith, we have to understand that living (walking) by faith, we accept purpose and plans of God however He sees fit. How does our Christian grow in Faith? We grow through circumstances. Look at it this way, we would not have grown spiritually in the acceptance and understanding of God's grace and ways if God had removed the trial. Apostle Paul wrote: “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” (2 Cor 4:18). “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2). We need to live our lives from an eternal (biblical) perspective. In Ephesians 1:11, "He works all things according to the purpose of His own will." 'Providence" means God’s faithful, moment-by-moment control over everything He has made to ensure that everything He has created are going according to His will. He is active in every detail of it. He’s active at every moment. He doesn’t stand back and let things happen because He decides to intervene if something or someone is not going according to His will. He governs the world moment-by-moment through providence, so that everything that happens, every detail of our life occurs by God's divine providence or by God’s express permission. He is in control of everything. Even the bad things that happen to us are circumscribed by a loving providence and God promises to use them all for our ultimate good. There is a verse in the Bible that God promises that there won’t be anything so bad happen to us that we’re not able to bear it. God does everything--He governs everything.” God doesn’t just sit back and wait until He wants to act and then do it through a miracle.” God constantly intervenes in our lives through HIS Providence. Knowing God's Will and Accepting God's Will. There is confusion between the determined Will of God and our responsibility as a Christian. We are living in a sinful world that the Bible teaches us to get involved. Do not forget to do good (Hebrews 13:16) to help the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed (Luke 14:13-14). God will be glorified who use their spiritual gift for "help others" and "works of service"(1Corinth. 12:28, Eph. 4:12). Are we helping them with empty words or are we helping them establish their relationship with God and encourage them to live in content in their situation? People are forgetting that faith is not the only issue that God is looking for. God is looking for holiness. The heart is where God meets us because that is where we make our decisions. The measure of faith by some is defined how successful you are spiritually. I truly don't believe that God determine (measure) our faith based on our own works (success). We need to guard our spiritual motives carefully and walk in Spirit. We need to examine my FAITH daily to make sure that our motives are spiritual and not from our sinful nature. All circumstances are work for heavenly good and called to His purpose. Even though we can not see the purpose for the trials we are going through, we can trust absolutely that the Lord is in control of all things. It takes a great faith for someone to endure the pain, hardship, illness, or whatever is happening in someone's life. The Christian walk is a fight of Faith, we have to understand that living (walking) by faith, we accept purpose and plans of God however He sees fit. How does our Christian grow in Faith? We grow through circumstances. Look at it this way, we would not have grown spiritually in the acceptance and understanding of God's grace and ways if God had removed the trial. Accepting faith does not mean you will always recieve temporal blessings. Faith means is accepting the fact we have eternal blessings and TRUST God regardless what we go through in our temporal life. One Christian once said "God uses interuptions in our lives that causes us griefs for whatever reasons that we do not know. For examples, God saw something ahead and prevented us from going there at a specific time that would endangered us or leading us to a mission or leading us to closer to God". Something like that. God's timing is better than our timing. I have learned over the years, the definition of "Bad" can be interpret in many different ways based on someone's upbringing, experiences and faith. Bad things happens is the Will of God, which purifies our faith, to the glory of God (1 Peter, verses 6-9). (Also read 2 Cor. 1:3-7 and James 1:3). In Third John 1:2 says "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." There is confusion between the determined Will of God and our responsibility as a Christian. As a human being, we love the familiar of our life, to have a comfortable life and something that we can control my life. Also, as Christians, we have received the eternal promises of God. We just need to know and understand the Will of God from God's view. The better you get to know the Word of God, the less confusing is the Will of God. Those who struggle the least with the Will of God are those who know the Word of God the best because the object is to claim today is mine and tomorrow is none of my business but God's. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says, ""My thoughts are completely different from yours, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." In 1 John 5:14-15 says "And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for". In Proverbs 16:9 "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps." If we view things as temporal rather than eternal (meaning temporally), we are going to be upset and disappointed. However, if we are a Christian and completely trusts God, then we will view our circumstances of our life as little more than necessary inconveniences to the accomplishment of God's greater purposes. There are Christians who did not, do not, or will not receive the blessings or spiritual gifts have nothing to do with their faith. This has to do with God's Will alone. God's Will does not come with guarantees while we are living in our temporary bodies. We all will receive our promises one day as Hebrews Chapter 11:39-40 reminded us that if we don't get them while we are on earth, we will get them in Heaven simply because God is eternal and His promises are eternal.