purpose.
October 11, 2010
Week 4 of The Complete Green Letters by Miles J. Stanford… unfortunatley I am unable to attend the bible study every Thursday night with about 15 other singles ladies, but I have been desiring to really study for it on my own- if I am able to make it on Thursdays or not. If you don’t know what the book is, here is a link for you to check it out on Amazon. com:
Like I said before, it is a really excellent, well written, absolutely mind blowing and life challenging. I appreciate the work of Miles J. Stanford.
This week, I have studied on my own the chapter purpose- I am 2 weeks behind… and would like to catch up! But this chapter was amazing. What do you think His purpose is for us? Isn’t this the question that we all go through as believers? All the time? Every day? Curious, anxious, or even worried to know if we are “in His will?” I know that I go through this a lot. I know that I tend to allow my circumstances to be the “factor” of me being in His will- things are going smooth, in His will. Things aren’t as smooth as they were, out of His will. Simple, right? Yeah, if it was really on this easy… but how blessed are we to be in a relationship with God who understands us to the point of knowing that we need a clear answer to this question. He has given us His Word that clearly states what His purpose in our life is.
He began by creating man (the first Adam) in the image of Himself. After the fall, the brought forth a sinful, ungodly, self-centered race, born “dead in trespasses and sins.”God sent Himself, His Son, as His image back to earth, the Last Adam- Christ. BUT because we are “born again,” we have transitioned from our old sinful race or life (sinful, ungodly, self-centered, born dead in trespasses and sins) and have gone through a “new birth”- born into Him and now HE HAS BECOME OUR LIFE. One of my favorite verses of all time: “For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam’s) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Christ) shall many be made righteous (Ro. 5:19).”
God still has the same purpose, to make man in His image- purpose the same, but carrying out differently. All is NOW centered around Christ, as we are born INTO Him… Christ IN me. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15 that as we are born in the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of Christ! What a great promise! God is working, He is alive and working in our lives.
In Romans 8:28 and 29, Paul writes about how we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…but what is the “good?” The good is the purpose- working all things together, making us in His image that is centered and expressed in Christ, who is our life. Resting in this will allow healthy spiritual growth. 
“When we see that all things are working together to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus we will not be frustrated and upset when some of these ‘things’ are hard, difficult to understand… We will be able to rest in our Lord Jesus and say to our Father, ‘Thy will be done.’ And our constant attitude of faith will be, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him [Job 13:15].” (Stanford)
One of God’s most effective means to “change us,” or “conform us,” is thorugh the process of failure. I tend to hate failure, never enjoy falling on my face- I think the only time I like to fall flat on my face is when I am ready to hit the sack 
otherwise, I tend to not enjoy it. I try to run from it, hide it, ignore it, or justify my reason of failing that it’s “ok.” But in all this, I am “resisting the main instrument in the Father’s hand for conforming us [me] to the likeness of His Son!” (Stanford) God allows failure- why do you think He doesn’t “save us” when He sees we are about to fall? I think that this is a hard concept to grasp for many and goes along the many questions of unbelievers of: why did God allow “bad things” to happen to “good people?” or even “if God is a God of love, why doesn’t He save those who believe in Him from hurt, tragedy, failure, ect.? “Failure… is allowes and often engineered by God in order to turn us completely from ourselves to His Source for our life- Christ Jesus, who never fails.” (Stanford) This is why it is so important to be in His Word and studying it out, to understand God’s purpose in our life and how it carries out His purpose. We need to look to the Lord revealed to us IN HIS WORD, “the Holy Spirit will quietly and effortlessly change the center and source of our lives from self to Christ… ‘Not I, but Christ.” (Stanford)
“God has a natural law in force to the effect that we are conformed to that on which we center our interest and love.” (Stanford)
If we are attracted to the world, we will be attracted to the idea to be more like the world. We will draw back from the ‘likeness of God’ and draw near to the destable world- don’t go pampering our self, our emotions, and feelings, and circumstances we don’t like… we become more self-centered. INSTEAD, we need to look to Christ so we can become more and more like Him.
This is my favorite quote from this chapter of the book (and so far out of the 4 chapters I read…):
“If I am to be like Him, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delievered from another form of bondage. Throw down every endeavor and say, I cannot do it, the more I try the farther I get from His likeness. What shall I do? Ah, the Holy Spirit says, You cannot do it; just withdraw; come out of it. You have been in the arena, you have been endeavoring, you are a failure, come out and sit down, and as you sit there behold Him, look at Him. Don’t try to be like Him, just look at Him. Just be occupied with Him. Forget about trying to be like Him. Instead of letting that fill our mind and hear, let Him fill it. Just behold Him, and look upon Him through His Word. Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but come to it to meet the Lord. Make it be a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord.” (Stanford)
Summary? His purpose has nothing to do with that I can do, but what I allow God to do through and in me. I allow God to mold me, shape me, make me, produce in me, change me- into the likenss of His Son. How? By resting in the fact that I am a failure, unable to produce the fruit of the Spirit in me. When I try, I fail… but God will use this failure to conform me. (FAILURE=GOD’S INSTRUMENT) How else? By centering my life around Christ, He should be and needs to be my first love and interest.
Just a thought to chew on. God is working. It’s not the most “feel good moments” but He is working, and is powerful. He can soften the most hard and bitter hearts. I love Him and cannot praise Him enough for what He has taught me, what He is teaching me now, and the ways He teaches me. Praise God for His grace and mercy and for His UNFAILING love and promises.
{ps. if you didn’t know, my sister (older) is ENGAGED! congrats to her- may 28th of 2011! here is a recent and updated picture of she and i and my family…}
