Examining the Resistance

Examining the Resistance Holy Ghost Conviction Offered by Doug Blair, Kitchener ON, 2021 The Peace (Philippians 4: 7) Posted on August 8, 2021

I watch this fellow And I don’t get it.

Seldom rattled by Our daily grind.

The cynicism

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And competition We allow to go on.

He misses all that.

Those eyes speaking All settling mystery.

I know he is big On religion.

But what is that, other Than a conscience mender A people pleaser?

A long strained message From some collared man I would not invite for dinner If by choice.

But the Wife insists And she is getting Some of those expressions As well as the Man. Something is closing in On me, for Heavens sakes.

I don’t want it

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Would only be a drawback To all of my plans.

But that peace, her peace Passes all of my understanding.

Don’t think they could Explain it easily either.

They even had me look At one of the Apostles Paul’s Passages (chapter 4) Undeniably he was a changed Man, for sure.

He had hated the Christ followers.

But then a reconciliation.

Knocked off his high horse.

Jesus did it for him.

In him, somehow.

Same thing is moving toward me.

Will I accept it?

Bow low enough?

We’ll see.

Overriding Love 3

(Taken from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers)

Out of the Wreck I Rise "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Romans 8:35 God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says - "I will be with him in trouble." It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are "more than conquerors in all these things." Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.

"Shall tribulation . . . ?" Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may - exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.

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"Shall anguish . . . ?" - can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

"Shall famine . . . ?" - can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it - the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time. at October 11, 2010 Labels: Oswald, Prevailing

The Lord Waits – April 15, 2012 Looking again at Isaiah 30: 18And

therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you,

and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

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19For

the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more:

he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

The people of the Southern Kingdom were in a panic and considering going back to the old “bail-out” remedy of Egypt with its horses, chariots and military strength.

God had other plans wherein He would show Himself strong on their behalf. The terrible judgment about to be reaped by the invading Assyria was going to bring much glory to His name and renewed holy fear in His people.

But God was waiting. Yes God…until circumstances became so bleak that only He could bring about rescue.

And God has often waited. For Adam and Eve to sense their shame. For the wickedness of Pharaoh to reach full measure. For David to learn priceless lessons of covenant care from the flock on the move. For Manasseh to come to the point of mighty repentance in a foreign jail. For the scribes serving Josiah to discover the mislaid Holy Scrolls and to usher in one last interval of revival before exile of Judah. For the maturing and training of John “that voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way.”

For the fulness of time to bring Messiah and Gethsemane, Calvary’s Hill and an Empty Tomb.

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And yes, He has waited for you to realize your sin and need, and His availability, longsuffering and yearning to save, and to make single-minded and holy. Do you sense that it is almost time? Does the Church?

James 5: 7Be

patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the

husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

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ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth

nigh.

Observer

By James Tissot 7

I was mixed up in that crowd

Made to credit Roman law

Made to taste of Pax Romana

But so much more that I saw.

Jeers and taunting cursed that Man

But He did not take offence.

He pressed on to Calvary’s hill

Midst abuse that made no sense.

I had heard Him preach of time

And some sickly ones make whole.

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He saw nothing as sublime

As a straightened thankful Soul.

Even here He blessed some folk

Future suffering they might bear.

And the ones who drove the nails

Saw in Him no lost despair.

And a Thief would call Him King

As they faced a common death

Blaming this King for no ill

Right before the final breath.

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Yes that Day was filled with awe

And the thunder and the rain

Oh how strange, that there I saw

Mighty hope from Jesus’ pain.

Assignment: Conviction

I have a couple of acquaintances who go out of their way to find fault with me. I have made mistakes which have affected them, but I will never be cut the slack which others enjoy at their hand. I took home the facts of the recent onslaught to discuss with my wife. They had been blown way out of proportion. Hilary tried to be of comfort. She also tried to remind me of my Christian duty. You know, "the turn the 10

other cheek" issue, the "God is allowing chastening" issue. But I didn't take the advice. Rather I went to my little pity-party corner and began to devise snappy answers to toss back at my detractors.

Even now, I am up at 2:30 AM fussing about it all. But then I remembered a certain man back at Chatham who lived on my street.

He made my skin crawl for a time because he appeared to me to be one of those squeaky clean evangelicals. All the signs in his family and business were good. He would try to drum up some friendly neighbourhood talk with me, but I proved difficult. Inwardly I was embarrassed about my contempt. In later years Dale became a dear brother in the faith and an encouragement to me. He had drawn upon powers of patience and intercession which this morning I find lacking in myself.

I must let this thing go. I must recognize and renounce the pride, temper and self-pity. I must stop wasting God-given time trying to imagine an effective way to "get back at them". I must deal with where I went wrong. Have you ever felt like this? And have you come to the place of recognizing that your biggest problem is simply your own attitude and lust for self-vindication.

The underlying spiritual fact may be conviction of sin in these individuals. I haven't been going around playing the "preacher man" with them, but I guess that even the little things that I say or do, or refrain from doing, are having an effect. I am just "being" who I am in Christ. Remember that there is a stench to the believer. Yes, Paul

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confirmed it in 2 Corinthians 2: 14Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. 15For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: 16To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

Well, thanks for listening to this little rant. Perhaps it will prove helpful to others of similar experience. My duty is clear from Romans 12: 18-21. Look it up.

https://justhappeneduponthis.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/and-we-are -a-spectacle/

at December 01, 2009 Labels: Mercy, Reproach, Spiritual Currency

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