*The special Tuesday release of last Friday’s unreleased post!
— never before, released!
“Blessed is the person who keeps on going when times are hard. After they have come through hard times, this person will receive a crown. The crown is life itself. The Lord has promised it to those who love him.”
James 1:12 (NLrV)
I skipped out on church today. Well, I went — I was assigned the job of door-greeter for the first service — actually; it was a good experience! I really enjoyed my time doing it. I enjoy church a whole bunch but, today — during the worship service — I stood up and quietly walked out.
I just didn’t feel the grace today; and I didn’t really want to play the part.
I know that sounds bad; like, irresponsible or something — and there is a huge benefit to “playing pretend” when it comes to living a successful Christian life; because in order to live like Christ, we reeeelly have to stretch to ever feel that we are capable of conquering; and we — honestly — can’t stretch that far. It won’t happen, so we have to do it through disbelief, and walk as if we believe every, single word that is written in God’s book. That is how true faith works.
But look; the Bible says to run after God as hard and as relentlessly as you can, but Isaiah 55:6 — specifically — points out that there are times when it is easier to do that, than at other times. It says;
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”
I’m sure this relates to the period of time in which we are breathing oxygen and still have a choice to seek God’s kindness and forgiveness while on earth before we approach the throne of God for our final judgement — whatever that looks like. I also believe this verse supports the idea that there are times in our own personal lives where seeking God’s face is covered in His grace to do just that; and in these times, it is an altogether, much simpler thing to do.
So, if you’ve been tracking with me for a while, you’re probably aware of the large amount of biblical consumption I’ve been drinking in, these days. It’s been a lot. In a “real-world” sense, it’s an embarrassingly large amount.
Some people might say, “get a life,” as if too much wisdom is even possible but, for the first time in my existence, I’m actually living. The Word of God is my life.
I’ve, also, been reading and thinking a lot about the way our universe is structured and how all the physical aspects of life wiggle their way into our spiritual lives, and vice versa. It all goes back to the idea of clarity and purity, and how we’re all missing some really, crucial information.
One spot in God’s Word where I believe we can relate some exciting things to, is in the first chapter of James. Verse 2 goes like this;
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…”
We hate to hear it. It sounds like, “just suck it up and smile.” And it is a positive way of thinking, but it’s not just about remaining positive; it’s in actual fact. ‘This’ trial, means ‘that’ glory. Guaranteed.
It’s literally a push and pull kind of thing; there’s actual science behind it!
Think of it like drinking through a straw; for anything to come out of one end of the straw, something must be allowed to pass through, into the other end, and take its place. So, slurping the perfect, Wendy’s chocolate shake through it’s straw is only possible if there is more shake moving in behind it; or — at the very least — empty space to replace it with. And if the other end of the flow is blocked somehow, then absolutely nothing in the straw will come out; even to the destruction of the straw, itself.
And we all agree that life ebs and flows with seasons of good times, offset by difficult seasons of hard times. There are highs and there are lows, and — just like we established before — days where we can see God relatively clearly and find an ease in enjoying His presence, contrasted by days in which we find it all entirely, too challenging and we drop to our knees and cry.
In this case, I feel Paul is saying that; because of the extreme need for balance and justice in life (spoken about in this post), and just like the emptying of one end of the Wendy’s straw means something is guaranteed to enter the other end, we can be sure that if our “straw” is correctly connected with Christ, then when a trial enters at this end of our lives, its exit — upon our eventual success — is sure to be followed by abundant reward. The Bible really says this!
It’s sort of like, spiritual dynamics of the ‘not-physical’ realm. You know; the “realm of light,” the “spiritual realm,” or even, the “heavenly realms” as the Bible explains; where everything else we experience exists.
Going through frustrating, tiring and trying times is the process it takes to be able to live a completely pure existence; and these difficult things are only the bad end of what ‘good’ is to come.
— Paul states that it’s ‘perseverance’ that follows; which eventually will lead to fullness; a wholeness — where we are “mature” he writes, “not lacking anything;” We can become beings with crystal clarity and purity; like God, Himself.
In other words; in the end, we will not be missing any information.
Later in the chapter he mentions that, if any of us is unable to understand this — or “lacks wisdom,” is the way it’s worded — we can simply ask the Lord about it.
Just ask.
Proverbs has a similar verse supporting this idea;
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,” chapter 4 says.
It’s real simple to attain, too; but I said “simple,” not easy.
Did you notice the kind of joy Paul tells us we are being built into?
He uses the term “pure joy,” because God is saying something here more than what we see at face value.
The word is “pure,” and we’re talking trials, stress and pressure. The substance that comes to mind, almost immediately, when discussing purity — or clarity — is; diamond.
I know the typical amount of knowledge about diamonds, so I had to spend a ton of time reading about crystal creation and all the wild facts about diamonds because, I knew enough to understand that there is a biblical connection between the science of a diamond and the Word of God, I just didn’t know enough to explain exactly how it all came together.
Now, I know it more clearly… 😉
You may just get that one later…
But did you know that, though pure diamond does not conduct electricity, it does transfer heat extremely well?
It has to do with vibrations and the structure of the molecules and it’s all really neat, but I’ll move on — even though it’s not all disconnected information…
The way a diamond is built is sort of like, a handful drinking-straws: really straight, unblocked, spacious paths, for information — like light or heat — to pass through easily. That’s why diamonds are clear. These ‘straws’ run both ways so the whole substance is — molecularly speaking — airy and spacious; also, incredibly strong, valuable, and immensely useful.
Pure diamond is very clear because of its complete lack of impurities, which — if were present — would cause blockages in these pathways that would create obvious shadows within the precious stone. So; less imperfection equals less shadow. Jewelers use this orderly, reliable structure to manipulate the direction of the cuts it uses, specifically to funnel the light that flashes through each stone, so that — when placed on a ring-finger or a broach pendant — the light entering the diamond will refract directly — and precisely — right back into your face; making it appear even more sparkly. This is meant to draw you in, so you want to see more.
It’s an extremely, useful structure that increases the value of any decaying or burnt up, dead thing on earth by reordering its physical make-up and turning it into something new.
Yep, anything on earth.
Diamond comes from the end result of death and decay. Everything on earth eventually degrades, breaks down and turns into a lifeless dust called carbon. But God takes what is dead, deep into the earth; puts it through a good long time of pressure and purification; after which He, then, raises back to the surface as a new creation; pure and strong and reliable.
He takes what is burnt, broken and pitiful and turns it into something beautiful; something He can use; something of very high value.
I’ve observed that everything has an undulation to it, an up and down movement. It’s a burying and raising, a lowering and lifting up. Ecclesiastes speaks of this concept in chapter 3 — covered by a popular 1965 radio-hit that I remember as a kid called; “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds. I encourage you to go hear it.– and check out John 12:24; it says to go up, you must first get low; in a way.
Solomon says it in Proverbs 16:18 when he writes the famous phrase “pride comes before a downfall…”
The ‘up’ ushers in the ‘good’ and the ‘downs’ often feel really, bad. But it’s a push and pull. So we can be sure that good times will come, and bad times will end. It’s practically physics, just, invisible.
So, just keep going. More pressure and more heat definitely means there is something really, really cool in store; you can bank on it; literally.
And that’s ‘us’, in a nutshell.
Er, well… a pressure cooker.
Just don’t doubt it, though. James will tell you about that, but I’m snipping this one off right here!
God bless you fam, thanks for reading.
It’s been fun!
– God Exists –
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