When we go through sufferings it is that point of pain were there is a rip and a tear in our soul because of loss. Christ in His discourse with the disciples, said it is as if a seed must fall to the ground and die. If it does not die it remains alone, but if it dies it brings great joy. This Joy cannot be defined in human terms of sight touch or sound. But it is a blessedness. It is by this open wound that we interface with the Living God. He patches in with us there. He is the Band-Aid. He is the covering. It is at this point He connects with us in a new way. Something lossed, something gained. We gain something eternal that will never be taken. We don’t grow in physical stature but in the spirit. This is us as we partake of the sufferings of Christ. We become godly.
Just as we exercise the body and the rips and tares of exercise through the healing becomes stronger.
Hebrews 12 talks of the discipline of the Father is for us “to partake of His holiness”. Suffering does this too. His holiness is other worldly. It is as we interphase with God in this way we are experiencing something “other worldly”. Something eternal in the here and now that our carnal appetites cannot understand.
There are many who side skirt the sufferings and the pains in our lives only to have to repeat them. It is most unfortunate to go through something over and over and not know this lesson. In this way we become angry and short with God because in a way we want to be over God so we don’t have to do it. We want Him to do it, when in truth He is with us every step of the way.
We see in the Old Testament Christ pictured in the figure of Joseph clothed with the coat of many colors.
We see Christ before the cross with the guards who took his garments and cast lots for different pieces.. As Peter the Apostle said that all things shall be Tried by fire for the Eternal to remain. And Paul said if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged.
If you knew your economy was going to collapse, you would do everything that you could to transfer your riches into another currency. And this is the way it is with the things of God. This is why Christ said “the sons of this age are are more shrewd with their riches than the sons of Light”. We know not our proper estate of which we are joint heirs with Christ. However we hold on to things of old. We just don’t understand our full inheritance yet.
Paul had prayed that we would know this great power that is resident in each one of us believers that God showed when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him far above all powers and principalities. That resurrection power is in us too. We need to learn more fully how to use it.
Love is the new attribute
Love is the main attribute of God. He who knows not love knows not God for God is love. It is those who have been trained in love who learned to love and share love who paid the highest price. Those who love much help much and are concerned about others. These are they who experienced the greater grief during the loss of a loved one these are they also that have the greater reward of knowing God more fully.
Yes loving can be painful especially when we loose them. The selfish love is in pain for a loss of self but a Godly love is in pain for loss of another. There is no greater pain than to loose somebody close to you which is why a lot of people would give themselves up for the preservation of another and in this way we can understand why God gave his Only Begotten Son. We would gladly give ourselves as the substitution for another.
God showed his love for us in this way that if Christ did not bare our thorns, being the curse from the Garden of Eden, then we could not bare his crown of Glory, this is the place of substantiation, or substitutes. He was our substitution to relieve us from grief of loss. Because of this, we have a re-unification on the other side, where all things will make perfect sense. All loose ends will be tied, and the puzzle pieces will fit.
“No greater love has a person than to lay down their lives for another” but the grief and sorrow is because we are not really capable to do that and so we could see the suffering take place. My little children let not this anger you and just as Christ told the disciples, it is for your benefit that (that you loose Me and) I go away, for if I do not go away I will not send you (a replacement) the comforter. The comforter will not come. And so too for us as we hold on to the tangible, the intangible remains unknowable or seems to be distant. But He said “I will never leave you or forsake you” so we only need to speak and relate to Him as though He is right here because He is.
Christ tells us that a seed must fall to the ground and die, that It would remain alone unless it did so. And then stated “in that day you will have the joy that no one can take from you. In this was defining something internal and eternal that you’ve experienced in a new way. This is interphazing with God in a new way.
You see if we understand death, death does not belong to us. For it was said of the Son of God “that he by the grace of God would taste death for all of us.
So when we depart from this body to go to the other side and we see loved ones it will be them. The good part that we fell in love with was just a portrayal of God exposed in them because Christ became flesh and dwelled among us, He was familiar with pain, suffering, loss and death for us, for us to participate in His holiness even now. We are made in the image of God.
At the loss of a loved one, Mary was to experience the glory of God. It is hard for us to understand what takes place in the transition and transformation of a soul. There are times we feel a deep tare in our soul and cry out “why God”. With the loss of a loved one we feel devastated. We would rather give ourselves than to think of loosing them.
If I do not go away, the helper will not come
I count all things dung to obtain Christ, where all things are new.
Even as David cried at the loss of his child. He knew he would see him on the other side.
So it is us on this side who feel the pain of losses of the things we treasure who need to understand that the tare in our soul is the place where God grafts himself into us.
These are our treasures of heaven.
I count it all loss here that I may retain it, him, her, or ourselves, for eternity. To let him her ourselves or something we love go, we actually keep them. What profit a man of he gains the world and loose his soul? He should have let it go.
When we are stricken with unbearable pain, it is here we interphase with the living God. We partake of Gods holiness. We are whole in Him. All the things we love are there.These are our treasures in heaven.
Abraham the Father of Faith was confirmed in faith when he let his son die.
Because they are apart of us we feel great loss. But we can know we didn’t loose them because they are there.
The Father said of the prodigal this son of mine was dead but now he is alive. When they depart from here they don’t die. They live in glory.
Each human is made in the image of God. It was said of Mary that she chose the good part that shall not be taken. She was storing treasures in heaven.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.