If you have been following along in our journey through “the
Valley of Freedom”,[1]
you will know that we have been focusing our attention on the necessity of
experiencing God’s work in our inner selves.
I hope by now we all understand that the “inner self” is a biblical reality, not
some worldly psychological concept.[2] Once
we recognize the difference between relating to God and life from our inner
selves, rather than any of the outer layers, we are able to understand why all
our attempts to keep things focused on externals never lead to true freedom in
Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is our third look at what we call step two of the
Valley of Freedom. Jesus promised, “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”[3] First,
we considered the necessity of letting ourselves mourn in our inner selves, and
then we took another study to explore how God comforts us in our inner selves.
This third study aims to show the necessity of fellowship in the church through
which God can administer his comfort from one part of the body of Christ to
another.
I hope you will join us in the video version of this message
to gain the encouragement you (or others) may need to receive God’s comfort
through the fellowship of the church. Whether this comes in the form of one
person especially gifted to help, or a prayer group that can walk through
whatever comes up, or any variation of fellowship our heavenly Father brings
together, God has some way to fulfill his own will that we “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”[4]
The bottom line is that, if we seek to be a congregation
where we experience God comforting those who mourn, we need to present
ourselves to God so we are eager and willing participants in however he wants
to accomplish this in the Spirit-filled life of his church. Looking at these
things together will certainly help us along our way to both know and express
the greatest comforts that are possible this side of heaven.
© 2018 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment