tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27391906.post7404832651849080893..comments2023-10-25T02:18:43.690-07:00Comments on Contend Earnestly: Risk is Right: Part IISeth McBeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08765679934165890595noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27391906.post-59779127713076756982008-10-06T11:23:00.000-07:002008-10-06T11:23:00.000-07:00Seth,I want to cut and paste a paragraph from a bo...Seth,<BR/><BR/>I want to cut and paste a paragraph from a book I am reading and rereading and rereading and and and by a Swedish Theologian of the first of the 20th Century titled "Our Calling" that underscores what you are saying. Einar Billing is the author.<BR/><BR/>Here's the quote: "...How important it is seriously to consider this 'day to day' first becomes evident when we consider that faithfulness to the call which daily comes to us has a twofold demand-it requires at one and the same time a rigorous restriction and an infinite expansion of our work. On the one hand we must turn away from every work, no matter how appealing and useful it may seem, if we cannot see it as a God-given task. On the other hand, we must be prepared for each new assignment he may have for us."<BR/><BR/>The Apostle Paul wrote it this way:::><BR/><BR/>2Co 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. <BR/>2Co 1:9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. <BR/>2Co 1:10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. <BR/><BR/><BR/>Well, knowing recorded history some, that quote has a yes and no touch to it seeing History records the first time he was let go after being arrested for preaching Christ and the second time he was martyred.<BR/><BR/>I would say there is no risk when any assignment we accomplish for God and it 'truly' is a God assigned "meant" to be outcome!<BR/><BR/>Paul also went on to assert His Faith, not his, this way:::><BR/><BR/>2Co 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. <BR/>2Co 5:2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, <BR/>2Co 5:3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. <BR/>2Co 5:4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. <BR/>2Co 5:5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. <BR/>2Co 5:6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, <BR/>2Co 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. <BR/>2Co 5:8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. <BR/>2Co 5:9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. <BR/><BR/><BR/>When I put up my "spiritual" finger in the wind seeking directions for today, it does seem His Faith that works in us is flushed out when it is His Faith working in us because we believe we are obliged to come into obedience to it as Paul wrote here and here:::><BR/><BR/>Rom 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, <BR/><BR/>and<BR/><BR/>Rom 16:26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- <BR/><BR/>We can say we have alive in us "His" Faith working. We certainly will know day to day it is when we are assigned to the task that ends up with our natural end unnaturally by martyrdom.<BR/><BR/>I want to die of old age with my wife and children and grand children gathered around my death bed, don't you? :)<BR/><BR/>What is the risk then to die to self and live with Christ "now" in God?<BR/><BR/>Rom 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com