Just listened to another great sermon online. It focused on Hebrews 3:7-19. It also quoted Romans 8:28. Great, well known passages to me, but what I got out of it is very significant.... I know God has a calling on my life. And I know that God lets things happen in His time, not mine. Check, on that one. But that we at times have to be humbled by being led through the desert, where we are in basic training for the real thing, I never thought about that very much. When God has a calling on our lives, He will get us where he wants us, eventually. But he has to build us up to be able to face some of the great adversities that come with great callings. I guess it’s like Rocky, he had to work out and run and box into the punching bag ad nauseam, until he was ready to face his formidable opponents. If he would have just stepped into the ring, being overweight and out of shape, he would not have lasted 30 seconds. But the conditioning made the difference. And it’s the same in spiritual life. We cannot expect to be strong enough to suffer for Christ by being put in jail or tortured in some third world country, if we have not been able to stand up to defamation of character in our own backyard. Isn’t it weird that we say, I’d go to jail for Jesus, and I’d lay down my life for him, but we can’t take it if someone gossips about us or doesn’t invite us to some event…God must shake his head continually when he sees that. It’s just like with little children. They overestimate their abilities all the time. Boy, it’s time to mature. I don’t mind the desert so much anymore…Manna and quail are sufficient, as is his grace ;-)
http://www.online-predigt.de/scripts/stream.php?file=3503
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