BEAUTY FOR ASHES!
A number of years back I found this quote. I’m not sure where it came from or who wrote
it.
“The tragedy of life is what dies
inside of a man while he still lives.”
We all have
hopes and dreams. We all have
expectations. We all have had desires
and things that we look forward to, things we anticipate.
Even from
the time we were very young children. We
would picture ourselves in future professions.
Some kids want to be a doctor, a fireman, a movie star, a musician, a
famous person, a President or Governor and so forth.
Maybe you
wanted to be a teacher, a nurse, a policeman, a race car driver. I was growing up in the age of the Vietnam war and the first trips to the moon, so many young boys my
age wanted to be army men or astronauts.
Some wanted to be cowboys or Indians or world explorers or
scientists. Why some of us thought that
we were going to be superheroes!
It is not
so surprising though that most of us didn’t fulfill our childhood dreams and
aspirations of what we pictured we would one day become. We may have pursued those things as a
child. Playing like we were army men or
nurses or super heroes. As a child our
imagination ran wild, didn’t it?
Very few
people ever live out their childhood dreams and become the people that they
thought that they would one day be. Some
have. Don’t get me wrong. Some have actually become the persons they
admired or acted out as a child. But very few.
But why is
that? I suppose that we could come up
with all kinds of answers. Maybe we
didn’t have the resources at hand to accomplish our dreams. Maybe money was a problem. We couldn’t afford schooling. Maybe situations in a person’s lives
disallowed them to follow after their dreams.
Maybe something else caught our mind’s eye and we began pursuing after a
different profession than what we originally intended.
With the
exception of wanting to be an army man or an Astronaut, I originally wanted to
be a scientist. I had hopes and dreams
from being a Naturalist to an Archeologist.
From a Biologist to an Oceanographer. From a Geologist to an
Astronomer. From
a Herpetologist to an Anthropologist.
It didn’t matter. I was
interested in practically every field of scientific studies.
But as an
adult, we find so often individuals who get to looking at what they thought
they would be as a child and then compare it with who or what they are
today. They get to second guessing their
entire life. If I had only did this, or
if I had only done that just where would I have been in life today? Unfortunately, when people
do that it usually leads to divorce and family split ups. This usually occurs among men, but women as
well get to thinking about how their life would have been different if they had
married someone else.
As easy as
it is do just that, one tends to overlook some very important factors in their
present lives. I think of my children
for instance. If I were to question my
decision to marry my wife Patty, then I need to realize that if I hadn’t
married her, my three sons would not have come into existence. Their very lives depended upon Patty and I
having a relationship. So when one
questions their lives and wish they had made other decisions at a time earlier,
they don’t realize that if they had made different decisions, those choices
affect more people than just themselves.
It becomes a selfish question, and I personally believe there is
probably sin involved when we wish that we had made other choices in life.
Now it is
true, we reap what we have sown. There
is a cause and effect law that rules behind the scene.
Therefore
there are certain choices that we could righteously desire to have the chance
to do over. But for the most part, our
lives are filled with twists and turns.
The path to God is straight, but we don’t walk straight and need
direction. It’s as though we are
continuously veering off the path, and God is continually nudging us back on
the path.
So all
through our lives, we find instances wherein we just have to admit, that God
was directing our paths to ensure that we would arrive at a certain place and
time in life that He would desire for us.
Now we don’t recognize that God is doing so at the time. It is usually well after the fact and at a
point wherein we can look back and then we come to the realization that God had
a hand in what was going on.
So if that
is so, why is it that we lack faith in the here and now to believe that God is
orchestrating and directing our paths? If
we can look back and see that where we are now, is a result of God having a
part in our lives, why cannot we just believe that He is doing so right
now? I would think that God would say to
us, “why do you doubt, you of little faith.”
But you
know, I think that what we lost as a child is something that we must
regain. Not to give up our lives and
family and go back and pursue our childhood dreams. Why I wouldn’t want to be an army man
now. I’d feel a little stupid to put on
a cowboy hat, a fake sheriffs badge, cowboy boots with spurs and hop on my
stick horse and ride off into the sunset.
No what I
mean is that we must regain the hopes and dreams and the vision and the faith
of a child. Our minds don’t want us to
go there though. Our minds are so fixed
upon the cares of this life, our jobs, our finances, our troubles of life and
so forth. But did you care about those
things when you were a child? No your
minds were fixed upon enjoying life, having fun. You were filled with desires and faith.
A young
child is so believing.
We may call them gullible, but it is that they have not yet developed
the aptitude to doubt. All they have is
faith. All they have are their
dreams. All they have is trust. We as adults lack faith, but as a child we
lacked doubt. So who is better off
then? As an adult we lack faith and are
full of doubts. As a child we lacked
doubt and were full of faith. So again I
ask, who is better off? Makes you desire to be a child again.
Jesus had
something to say about this condition.
His disciples were arguing over who would be the greatest in the
Kingdom. But Christ wanted them to
understand that they had to make it into the Kingdom even before such a
question or desire could be had.
But just
what is the criteria for getting into the
Kingdom? Let’s see what our Lord had to
say about this.
Matthew 18:2,3 “And Jesus called a
little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say
unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
So
what is it about becoming as a little child that gives you and I the ability to enter into the
If we as
adults or even as young people lose hope, we can become very miserable. When we lose hope, it is the greatest cause
for a broken heart. When we become
hopeless, we are doomed to fail. It is
kind of like someone on their death bed.
We have all
heard of situations where someone just gives up. Once they give up, all the doctoring in the
world cannot bring back to them good health.
They essentially think themselves dead and they become dead. They loose faith. Faith not only in God if
they had that faith at all, but faith in themselves.
So it can
become so for you and I while still living, walking
and breathing. We can become the walking
dead. We can just give up on life if our
hope is somehow cut off.
Proverbs
13:12 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick: but
when the desire comes, it is a tree of life."
When our
hope is deferred our hearts become sick. When we have waited and what we have
waited for does not come to pass we lose hope.
When our hope is redirected or changed or is disrupted it is as though
we can lose the desire to live. We may
not be on our death bed, but we as might as well be there, for it can cause us
to give up. We tend to begin focusing on
the troubles of life rather than the promises of life. We tend to fall short of the eternal
expectations that we once had and begin to look at the temporary things that
surround us.
Just like a
child, we must return. Just like a child
we had great expectations and hopes and dreams.
Spiritually we must regain the expectations that we once had when first
coming into the knowledge of our Lord and understanding His mercy and love and
greatness.
Not to
return to sin and ignorance of the Truth as we were when we were first being
introduced to our Lord. But to once
again have the child like faith in our God. Just to trust Him at His Word, without doubt,
without questions, without skepticism at what the Word of God plainly says to
us. Just believe it.
But instead
we so often find ourselves glancing off the Word and onto the circumstances of
life. When we begin focusing on the
circumstances of life, we more and more lose our prime focus which should be
upon the Word.
Back about
1980, I was given the opportunity to take a college course in Speleology, the study of Caves, with
Even
getting to that area of the cave for our studies was quite a test of endurance
and once we were finished we all realized that we had the excruciating task of
the long journey to get out and back to the surface of the earth. Well anyhow several hours into the trip back out, I suddenly realized that I was by myself. The group that had been just behind me must
have stopped back in one of the small passages and I had not noticed that they
had done so.
I stopped
up top of a great underground mountain of collapsed rock that had caved in from
the ceiling hundreds and perhaps thousands of years before, to find out whether
or not I could hear or see anyone else.
Let me tell you, silence can be deafening. I was straining so hard to hear someone's voice, that my ears were literally aching with pain from the
sound of silence.
I shut my
light out to conserve & sat there in the total darkness for several minutes
in hopes that others on their way out would catch up. After a short while I began to wonder if
instead of the others stopping while I went on ahead, if maybe I had taken a
wrong turn and was off in a part of the cave where no one at all would ever be
coming along.
There I was,
sitting in the longest cave in the world with literally hundreds and hundreds
of miles of passages, most of which have yet to be fully explored and I was all
alone. Now I was a very experienced
caver, but those thoughts were just about to get the best of me. I was really concerned about my
situation. My mind was caving in to fear
and uncertainty. Well to make a long
story short, I really felt that I was in the correct passage and after waiting
for quite awhile I felt that I should go ahead out on my own.
That is
what I did. It took me about an hour,
but I made it out of the cave on my own, and I was sure happy to see the
sunlight shining down through the Kentucky forest into the cave entrance.
It is not a
good thing to be all alone. There are some
within the Church, that even though they are
surrounded by like-minded people, feel like they are all alone. Satan desires to isolate each of us from one
another, or at the least create a situation wherein we start thinking that we
are. Isolated and all
alone. There may be some who are
actually without anyone to fellowship with.
Proverbs
I perceive
that there are brethren within the Church of God scattered here and there
throughout the world who are hurting.
There are
brothers and sisters in the Church who have suffered great &
sorrowful hurts. There are wounded
spirits. There are so few of us that it
is easy to lose faith. It is easy to
lose the vision. It would be so easy to
perish.
God’s
little flocks of peoples here and there seem so small in finances and resources
and clout when compared to the many who congregate on
the Sunday. We may seem so
insignificant. It would be so easy to
just give up. Many have, many will. Brethren if we don’t keep hope alive, if we
don’t retain specific goals and expectations, we are as the walking dead.
Our spirit
is wounded and our hearts are broken if we don’t regain the vision. Not the same hopes we had as a child, but
childlike hopes. Hopes that keep one
alive in spirit and in heart. Hopes that bring continual excitement and expectations in one’s
life.
Hopes that
build faith and trust. But those same hopes cannot be had without faith. We must learn to look beyond the here and the
now, because trusting in the things we see with our eyes are earthly
desires. Our treasures are to be in the
kingdom of heaven. So we must look
toward things that one day shall be, not upon the things that now are.
Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish:
but he that keeps the law, happy is he.”
If we don’t
have a vision, we perish. If our hopes
are deferred we are dying in our spirits.
This is true of an individual or a group or even a nation. But without a vision, without specific goals
and hopes and aspirations in life, we will perish. It takes a vision to keep a person on
track.
Do you have
a vision? Did you at one time have a
vision and it has been put aside for whatever the reasons may be? Has your vision been put on hold? Has your vision been deferred?
Now we are
taught from the scriptures to be content in our lives. But contentment is also what you and I make
of it. If it is within our means to do
something or set an attainable goal, we shouldn’t be content with anything more
than attaining that goal. Let us not
though create an idol out of the goal.
We must put our God first in all things and if we do so, all the other
stuff of life will be added unto us.
But let’s
don’t get down when we see the many members of other Churches. Just let them do their thing, God will be the
judge. They serve their purpose in
life. Even if that
purpose is to simply provide a comparison, or to test our faith.
But they
are involved in many wonderful works of charity and so forth. The Apostle Paul in one place actually said
something to the affect that although they don’t preach the complete Truth, at
least Christ is preached among them and for that he gave thanks. Of course we know that it is a two edged
sword in that we must have the faith of Christ and keep His commandments as the
scriptures plainly tell us so.
We just
have to keep pressing into the Kingdom. The scriptures plainly teach us that
many will try to enter in and will not be able.
It is only the few. When it says that many will try and
enter in, this is not speaking of the world or those who do not confess a faith
in Christ. It is speaking of people who
believe they are Christians and are trying to get into the Kingdom, yet Christ
says that they will not be able.
The world as a whole are not trying to get into the
Luke 13:23,24 “Then said one unto him,
Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to
enter in, and shall not be able.”
So
in Christ’s own words, we see that it is the many, not the few who will be
trying to get into the Kingdom but will not be allowed. If it is the many who
will not get in, we are only left with the conclusion that very few would be
let in. So Christ answered the question
posed to Him. Are there few that will be
saved? Yes, only a few will be saved to
enter into the Kingdom of God initially.
So
we must take the Lord’s Words to heart and understand that even though we may
seem small in number, and not just us, but the
But
Christ said to strive to enter into the Kingdom. To strive means to struggle to get in. Our life will always be a struggle. In fact there is one verse that actually says
we must become violent in entering into the Kingdom.
Now
we are not to take up arms and go out and kill all the infidels of the world as
some have and are presently doing among themselves. They think that by so doing they are going to
bring the Kingdom on themselves. No we
are to be violent as in being aggressive.
To make every effort, to pull out all the stops and
make it into the Kingdom. But
because we are small, let’s don’t let that be a cause to retreat even further
and give up the cause, for being small means that we are among the few who will
be saved if we will only keep the faith and endure unto the very end.
But
I’m convinced that Satan and the demonic world are also pulling out all the
stops to endeavor to destroy you and I and to thwart
our opportunity to gaining entrance into the great coming
He
will cause situations and circumstances to occur in our lives that will defer
our hope and wound our spirit. Because
of our hope being deferred and our Spirit wounded, our hearts do break. A broken heart brings on depression and
uncertainty in life.
I know that
not all of our anguish comes from a demonic attack, but you can be sure that
demons may take every advantage at taking our hurts, our troubles and our
trials to the very breaking limits of our minds. I believe the invisible enemies of our faith
are even right now attempting to oppress some of God’s people to the point of
turning their hurts, their wounds, their sorrows and their troubles into great
despair and depression. It seems to me
that the current agenda of wicked spirits is to get you and I so burdened down
with perplexing circumstances that we will not be able to remain focused on the
objective of enduring unto the end.
Satan and
other fallen angels are continually planning and plotting as they come up with
different schemes to try and destroy each of us individually and ultimately
their desire is the destruction of the Church.
Let's not
be bitter and offended when people will not receive our attempts at fulfilling
the law of Christ through the fruit of the Spirit. The problem is not with you then, but with
them. Just forgive & let God be the
judge. Let's never allow an evil spirit
to take advantage of a hurt between you and another one of your brethren. I’ve seen or heard of this happening so many
times in the past history of the Church.
Do not
allow such a wound to fester into a bitter anguish that will give entrance to a
demonic force that could remove you from the Church.
We are so
close to the great climax of the ages to set our crowns aside for even one
moment and for any reason & no matter how great that reason may be. The fallen angels are just waiting to find
you beginning to cave in, for at that precise moment they will attempt to
pounce upon you. They want you to feel
like your all alone. They don't care
about your feelings. They don't care if
your hurting or in the midst of an anguishing experience. They only use those difficult times in our
lives as their possible chance to gain entrance into our minds.
There is a
battle over our thoughts and our minds.
We must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ. We must guard our minds from
such an oppression that could very well overcome you rather than you overcoming
it.
You're not
all alone, even though that may be what a demon is trying to speak to your
mind. Wicked spirits do their best at
making a mountain out of a mole hill.
And yet some have suffered such a great hurt that the demonic forces
have turned their mountain into a spewing volcano. Some may sometimes wonder if anything will ever
be the same again.
Matthew
21:21 "Jesus answered and said unto them,
Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do
this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this
mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; it shall be done."
So what are
we going to do with our mountains? If
you have faith and doubt not, Jesus tells you to speak to that mountain in the
Name of Jesus that it would be removed from you. It shall be done! You speak to your hurts. Speak to your pains, your anguishing
experiences, those mind twisting hurts that seem to be
so overwhelming. Speak to those hurts
that have stymied your relationship with the Lord our God and sometimes with
fellow brethren. Speak to those offenses
that you just don't seem to be able to let go of. Speak to that demonic mountain in the Name of
Jesus to be removed from you.
Even though
we can have that kind of faith power made available to each of us that can pull
us through those tough times, it must be blended together with love or it means
nothing. No matter how much we understand the great mysteries
of God even with the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit we are nothing
without the main ingredient of love.
1st
Corinthians 13:2 "Though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."
We must
love one another. We must forgive one
another. We must be patient with one
another. Let's be longsuffering and
gentle and kind to each other as fellow heirs together with the Christ of a
mighty Kingdom that shall never have an ending.
But if we
cannot detect the enemies tactics we will not know how
to counteract his present strategy against us. Our adversary knows the awesome and tremendous potential
that the
We are to
be one body, and what causes a hurt to one member of the body should hurt all
the members of the body. I was walking
through the house one day and I stubbed my little toe on a door frame. You would have thought that I had broken it
off it hurt so much. It amazes me that
even when one of the smallest members of our body is hurt, how that pain seems
to hurt throughout our entire body.
1st
Corinthians 12:25,26 "..... there
should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care
one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be
honored, all the members rejoice with it."
If you
discover that one of our Church members is going through a difficult time,
through an anguishing, hurting experience, doesn't that seem to hurt within you
as well? It should, for we each are to
be indwelt by the same Holy Spirit.
There should be no schisms or divisions within the body. We are to have the same care one for another
recognizing that what affects one of us, affects all of us.
So if your
in the midst of a trying experience, if you have been hurt and offended, if you
are grieving and mourning and lamenting over an anguishing occurrence, if your
hope has been deferred and your heart is sick and broken, if your spirit has
been wounded, if your life seems upside down.
I exhort you as must I exhort myself it seems even right now, hang on! Just hang on, we're almost there.
Isaiah
61:1-3 "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he
has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort
all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the
planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."
Jesus
brings good tidings to the meek among us.
He came to strengthen the brokenhearted, to set us free from the bondage
of sin and all that holds our minds captive.
He is there for you to comfort you in your troubles. He will trade Beauty for ashes. He we take away our mourning and give us
joy. He will remove the spirit of
heaviness and give us a garment of praise, and we will glorify the Lord.
Isn't that
enough to make you hang on and keep overcoming and keep enduring? Isn't that enough to say, I'm going to esteem
my brethren better than myself? I'm
going to put a stop to Satan from laying that mountain of burdens upon me. I'm going to take the Lord's advice and speak
to those mountains in my life that they would be removed, and then start
believing His Words that it will be done.
I have an
old bible that belonged to brother Bob Rogers.
Brother Rogers was a great man of God that I sorely miss. He is asleep in his grave awaiting the
sounding of the 7th and last trumpet. He will come forth in the 1st
Resurrection as a powerful immortal being.
In the front few pages of his bible, he wrote these words concerning Isaiah
61. I felt as though he wrote
these words before his death to be given to me.
“When
your life is in ruins, like the ashes of a burned out shanty, Jesus can rebuild
it for you into a beautiful mansion: A
palace for a King, because He will make you a King in His kingdom.”
It is a
tragedy of life when our hopes and desires die within us and yet we are still
living. We had just as well be dead, for we become good to nobody, no, not even unto
ourselves. But the Lord promises us that
He can take us and bring back hope. We may
have to get to the bottom of the barrel, even up to our chin in dung as
Jeremiah the prophet once was or in the belly of the whale as Jonah was, to the
point of being essentially dead, before we can be spiritually risen from the pit despair.
We may be
nothing but ashes and yet the Lord will trade those ashes for hope. He can give us great hope. Even when our lives may be in ruins, our Lord
promises us great things. He will one
day trade your ashes for beauty. That is
the hope and the desire that each of us are to have and continually remind one
another of.
Beauty for ashes. Lord quicken that day!
The Old Paths Restoration Ministry
Marengo, IN 47140
www.theoldpaths.net