Dust...to Diamonds.

Given the presence of carbon and vast amounts of time, temperature (ranging between 1800 and 2400*F), and extreme pressure (650,000-850,000psi), the Earth will produce diamonds. This unique process makes diamonds a relatively rare and always valuable commodity.

It should surprise no one that God uses a similar process in bringing people with effective faith into a beautiful reflection of the image of our Saviour, The Lord Jesus Messiah.

Dust to Diamonds.

Paul describes this process for us in his second letter to the church at Corinth...

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, so I spoke." 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

--2 Corinthians 4.7-18 NLT

Pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted, knocked-down, NOT crushed, NOT despairing, NOT abandoned, NOT destroyed. BUT suffering, sharing in the death of Jesus--for one glorious purpose: that the life of The Savior might be clearly seen in our bodies, IN us.

Dust to Diamonds.

God uses hard places to fashion us into a new version of ourselves, still us, but transformed in ways that manifest His presence, His grace, His mercy. This is not what we will be, but we are sufficiently different in ways that produce confident expectation--hope. Look at how Paul describes it to the church in Rome, where he compares our struggle with the cataclysmic impact sin has had on the Earth; thus, all creation waits...

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

--Romans 8.18-25 NLT

Dust to diamonds.

What is responsible for this transformation and the hope it delivers? Paul clarifies this at the beginning of the eighth chapter of his letter to the Roman church...

There is, therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

--Romans 8.1-4

Don't miss it...for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (humankind) and for sin (He absorbed the penalty for sin on His own body in our place), He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Sin broke the planet.

God is in the process of restoring what He created. The tipping point of the restoration is the passion, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus Messiah. We have been redeemed and restored positionally; now we are waiting--suffering still, but knowing that "it is finished." 

In that suffering, as we lean into our weakness, our fragility, there, at that moment, the Manifest Presence of God shines brightly through us and our suffering; for us, for a watching world to behold in wonder. His strength made manifest through our weakness. Indeed, "the wound is where the light shines through."

Dust to Diamonds.

Suffering is NOT payback.
Suffering is NOT God's plan spinning out of control.
Suffering IS the last dying gasp of sin--Check, NOT Check-Mate.
Suffering IS the process God has sovereignly allowed to transform our lives on this side of the veil, from...dust to diamonds.

We don't get to be here long.

Liveitwell!

Towers come...and go.

I glance out the window from my study as I write these words.
It looks like, Spring. 
  
I hear the rustling bows of the trees bending in the wind.
It sounds like Spring.

The sky is a canvas of blue being overtaken by gray as a weather front moves through, bringing a promise of rain later today.
It acts like Spring.

It's St. Patrick's Day...three days until the planet rotates my part of the world in such a way that the days get warmer and longer.  Spring.

The normal cycle of the Earth around the Sun is in full swing.  The ways we mark the essential relationships in our lives, celebrate them, remain, in place.

Yet...
Life has changed.  
The Pandemic of 2020 has ravaged the planet;
...our 401k's

...our dreams
...our security

...our economy
...our prospects
...our social mores
...our confident expectations.
Two years.  

Towers go up.
Towers come down.  
We are in control?  
We are not. 
Two years.

I can't shake this feeling.

I am reminded about the first notable tower in history.  The Tower of Babel [Genesis 11].  That tower was imagined as the penultimate expression of independence on the part of humankind; our effort to shake a collective fist at God and say, "See, you aren't so transcendent after all." Foolish pride led to an inflated opinion of who we were; God breathed, language changed, and chaos ensued. 

We discovered we were no match for the transcendent God; we are not in control.

Fast forward to Century 21.  

God, in His grace, has allowed humankind to apply our intellect and ingenuity, these also graciously granted by God, to "discover" thousands of widgets that insulate us from the ill-effects of the fall: pharmaceuticals, asphalt, steel, plastic, roads, air conditioning, engines, automation, computers, artificial intelligence--the list is endless.

We, in turn, tainted by sin and swelled with pride, believing ourselves to be wise "shake our fists" at God and say, "You see, the Scriptures are a myth; there was a big-bang , and then there was 'protoplasm' and look at how we have evolved, we have the power to give and take life. We don't need myths to prop us up anymore. We ARE gods." 

In reality, everything we touch we corrupt.
...Look at what we call our "system of Justice." 

...We condition the air at the same time we poison it with hydro-carbons. 

...We pollute the planet, poison our bodies, can't beat legions of disease, and when/if we do, something else always emerges. 

Regardless of how effective we are at blunting the effect of sin on life and the planet, sin always trumps our best efforts...and God allows it to point us to our need for a Savior and His gracious provision for our redemption.

The farther evolved civilization becomes the further it devolves into moral and spiritual chaos--abortion, failed economies, addiction, violence, corrupt governments, greed, broken relationships, idolatry, shamanism, injustice, politics.

We run from God; we can't hide.
Civilization, as we have fashioned it, has become humankind's most recent Tower of Babel, the work of "our hands" which demonstrates our independence, our ability to "get it done without God." 

We set out to be like God, and in a final irony, we create the very modality that could be the end of life as we know it. We can destroy it, but we can't fix it..."all the king's horses, and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty-dumpty back together again." 

Two years.  The pandemic is the Waypoint.

The lie that deceived Eve continues to vex us, but we aren't beaten. This Truth has set us free...

"When we were utterly helpless...God showed his 

great love for us by sending Christ to die for us 

while we were still sinners." Romans 5.6a,8

Two years.

We don't get to be here long.
What will you do with Jesus?

Message me; I'd love to help you on your way.

Liveitwell! 

Today

Today...
Our nest is empty.
I cannot do things as before.
My face is lined, hair is gone.
Self-confidence gives way to doubt,
Strength gives way to weakness.

Today...
Independence is community.
Knowledge is wisdom.
Love is tenderness.
Time is a gift.

Today help stopped being a four-letter word.

Liveitwell!