The Quickened Man
A man's troubled journey, as he kicks this earth's dust, is to spiritual formation. The alert know this.
His trip under beating suns or over impossible mountains is the re-forming of God's image within; an image first spoiled and misshapen from his dalliance with sin.
Those that will be perfect, the Father reshapes.
This refashioning of a man into God's image is forged in hardship. It is from the storms that howl, the lightning that strikes, and the deserts that blast.
As iron sharpens iron the Father shapes His own.
The best forge is the hottest.
It is when things are falling apart that new things are falling into place.
Hardship is such that it won't permit itself to be resisted or taken lighty. Its persistence wears its recipients down. The suffering becomes harder to flee and fight, and so the sufferer resigns the battle and simply becomes accustomed to it. This is the adoption of a strangled life.
"All that makes even one that has been converted live unto oneself for his or her own comfort, advantage or advancement - even for his own circle of friends - has to go the cross". ~ Rees Howells
But, should the sufferer continue in the battle, there remains, when it has completed its cleansing work - a man quickened in God's image, no longer able to reflect the world or his ways. The new has pushed out the old.
Every piece of fallen nature he has dropped at the foot of the Cross. It is out of the ashes as the Phoenix flies, so too that the new man will arise.
The things of this world may still light his eyes, but they will no longer light his heart.
Today's Soul Snippet:
Righteousness is never placing your personal advantage before the good of a brother.
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