I found this drawing of Job and it reminded me of the time some years ago when God was just beginning to prepare me as a priest. As you know in order to be a priest, one must suffer infirmities that he might be touched by those that he ministers to and for (Heb 4:15). One night, during a period of time, when it seemed everything in my life was going south I began to itch all over my body. I scratched all night long and hardly slept a wink. In the morning while taking a shower I looked at my body and noticed a weeping bright red rash every where. I began to laugh as I looked up and said, "Oh this is just great God! Now I have Job's skin condition too." Those of you that have been there, I am sure will understand such a moment. LOLIn a more serious vein, a few posts back I spoke of how I wanted to later illustrate how Florian's message I read on a forum came as a confirming word for my life concerning a long standing situation. Below, I have excerpted part of our brother's forum post from the whole found on the May 6th blog. I pray that the following shared message might illustrate for you the fine line we walk in Christ and how, only a surrendered life in Him can provide us direction and safety. I believe we are entering the day when one must find rest in God's direction which then translates into safety for ourselves along with the safety of "the handful of precious souls" He given us to care for.
With that said, as some of you know, almost seven years ago I suffered a terrific loss when a friend stole all of my life savings. I can only say WOW!, has God used that painful event to sow Himself and His grace into my life. Without this experience, I truly could never have imagined how God can use the evil that comes to us to bring forth great good in our lives.
Now I will admit the hardest part after this debilitating theft has been to find "the love toward my enemy." Today I can truly say I have learned such and can report that, "God will bring us to the place where we can kiss the hands of those that nail us to the cross." All is surely for good when we abide in Him. Today, I know this thief that came to my life was used by God's hand to bring me to a place in Christ I could never have found without such a Divinely appointed enemy.
Below, I have the pertinent parts of Florian's message in blue and my responses in red. Hopefully you will understand why my friend's few words ministered to me so strongly. I am going to start by quoting the "coat and cloke scripture" which is the main subject of my revelation.
"And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also." Matthew 5:40
I also believe that the law of Moses was rather a law of permission, a description of how life looks like when we choose to live by the tree of knowledge .....
Yes, and may I say I was using Matthew 5:40, speaking of the giving up of one's cloke when another has taken your coat, as such a "permission." The "coat" would be representative of "my stolen savings and because I believed that the following "giving up of my cloke" emphasized that I had no recourse but "passivity." I saw even the possibility of having to give up more to this thief sometime in the future, which by the way I believe still might be true. For over six years I tried to walk in this mindset and I truly did, more so with each succeeding day, as I found a deeper submission to God. It was actually necessary and good in the way I was interpreting this particular scripture during this time
In our modern culture we have sadly bought into the belief that we have only two choices when it comes to violence- passively taking it or striking back. This mindset is based on a misunderstanding of what Father is actually saying concerning violence in the scriptures. And one can use the Bible to defend both point of views ........
Well said my friend, as I have oft proclaimed that man can make the Written Word say what ever he wants and 30,000 denominations prove it. It takes the Spirit to make this Bible, a wondrously inspired instrument, breath His life into us. The scriptures are "His and our language that we may communicate with." And when we learn to let Him recite the verses to us and then also allow Him to hear those same verses from within us, we are on the right path. This type of Divine communication might be a mystery to most however I know for some, they understand and experience such a glorious pattern of fellowship with our Lord. This is part of the wonderful circuit of God that He brings us into, when we have learned to let our soul rest in Him.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have [thy] cloke also. Matthew 5:40
.....back in these day's it was far more humiliating to see nakedness than to be naked yourself. So by giving away one's under garment (under wear), was to say: "Look in what degrading situation you bring yourself by your behaviour!" The creditor experienced the humiliation he tried to bring about a poor person, that had nothing left, but the clothes on their body.
Wow, I had no idea but, knowing a little of the culture. this registered as being true. When I saw this explanation I knew I was hearing from God. It seems this winter when I was so very sick and I had my son at my side caring for me, Tyler encouraged me to do something that I might alleviate my long standing dire straights. My son was thinking of my lack of finances, which so often had kept me from getting medical help when I suffered a physical malady. Tyler didn't quite understand that although I didn't have the care of the medical doctors I did have the care of the great Physician and He had healed me many times over, since the loss of my savings and subsequent health insurance. Anyway Tyler did know well the other costs this theft had brought to me and encouraged me to see if we couldn't do something to solve this crime. Without getting into any details, I came up with a plan and my son liked it. It seemed I was now moving in a new direction where I was doing something "overt" with regard to this enemy and the more I prayed about it, the more it seemed right. This was quite different from the "passive" stance I had practiced for more than six years. Soon after the conception of this plan, I received a number of other confirming signs that I was moving on a right path. Still, over and over, I kept thinking of this all too familiar "coat and cloke scripture" and wondered if I might be going against the passive position it seemed to encourage.
Then one day I stumbled upon this, Florian's post, where he gave another view of this troublesome verse. Amazingly, this interpretation fit perfectly around the plan I had shared with Tyler. Even more astounding, the "humiliation factor" Florian mentioned was the very crux of this plan. The humiliation, I had suffered for six and half years, because of this crime was to be turned around that this thief might share it.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you Mat 5:43,44
Amen! And without love for this thief, what ever I should do, I would be missing the mark. It seemed God had me read the "coat and cloak scripture" one way until He had developed a love in me for this man that had hurt me so deeply. With that accomplished, He then showed me another way of seeing this same verse that possibly this offensive man might share my humiliation which was wrought in God's supreme purpose shrouded in love. With the sharing of such, my hope is that my enemy might soon be saved. That would certainly be pretty cool.
My prayer is that with this short personal message you might see how God is always moving, and only through our complete surrender to Him can we be assured we are walking that fine line known as the "Way, the Truth and the Life." In closing I might ask you to pray for this thief and future brother in the Christ. His name is Jon.
Thanks so much,
Jack and Joian
PS. I hope you, our readers will check in every so often during the next few weeks as we hope to share a few messages that we believe are so pertinent for His fast approaching day. Our next massage we know will be an encouragement to you and hopefully help you understand the things you might be going through at the end of this age. It is entitled, "THE DAY OF OUR IMPOTENCE; "The Last Emptyings" and when God revealed this message to me it gave me great hope and encouraged me to press on. I believe it will do the same for those of you that desire above all, His Kingdom come.
Following that we hope to share a couple messages on "prayer" that we hope will open up new vistas to be experienced through this most important of all our ministries.
