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The Suddenlies of God - part 1 of 3 Amplified Bible (unless otherwise specified) Against the curtain of eternity, every event in time appears as a "suddenly." In the beginning God spoke over the dark and formless void, and suddenly there was light. Over man's dark and empty existence He still speaks and suddenly life emerges. Across man's blinded eyes He stretches His Hand and man suddenly sees beyond the horizon of the familiar. We who were once darkness suddenly become light, bearers of the light, children of the light, sons and daughters of the Most High God. "…God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all [no, not in any way]" {I John 1:5}. Gathering the accumulated suddenlies of our individually transformed lives, the Holy Spirit works in cooperation with the Father and the Son to build us into a holy temple, members who will together manifest the completion of the one New Man, Christ and His Body, joined and ruling with Him in His Kingdom. Once the full stature of Christ is revealed, the long process will seem but a moment in time. "For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is even more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!] Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting." {2 Cor 4:17-18}. Even before Adam's disobedience, the Triune Godhead had purposed, planned and prepared for each suddenly of the Incarnation, as indicated by God's promise to the serpent through whom the temptation came: "… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel" {Gen 3:15}. And in fulfillment of that promise, "…when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman…" {Gal; 4:4}. Thus appeared the Virgin-born Son, suddenly and humbly appearing among those He had created. We are not told how long Adam spent in the Garden of Delight before the Fall, but to Adam the God-executed exile was surely sudden and shattering: "…the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So [God] drove out the man…"{Gen 3:23-24}. Suddenly man found himself not simply "tending" but "tilling," no longer just caring for, but working laboriously to effect production. How significant that one meaning of "drove" is "to drive out from a possession." For man to be restored to the Father's original intent and purpose required that the Incarnate Son be born through an earthen vessel, crucified, buried and resurrected to live His life through those who willingly accept His sacrifice and die to their own self-life, allowing Him to live His resurrected life through them. Before his eviction, Adam was assigned to "tend and guard and keep" the garden {Gen 2:15}, but afterwards, the ground was cursed, bringing forth thorns and thistles; and man's sustenance was supplied from the sweat of his brow {3:19}. Before the Fall, man knew nothing of death, but afterwards, his spirit suddenly became lifeless and his lifespan terminated in eventual physical death. "So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died" {Gen 5:5}. Ruled by the inherited carnality of his father's nature, Cain killed his brother over an act of worship. Suddenly he, too, received a curse: "When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and vagabond on the earth [in perpetual exile, a degraded outcast]" {Gen 4:12}. As we read the contrast between who we were as those naturally born with Adamic nature and the suddenlies of who we are as those reborn with Christ's nature, let us give thanks: "[Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed…And you were in the world without God" but now "…you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens)…but you now share citizenship with the saints…and you belong to God's [own household]" {Eph 2:12, 19}. -Ruth French April Newsletter 2005 | Revival We Need | Revering the Truth | Pastor's Journal April 2004 Growing Up Is Hard to Do part 2 of 3 | The Suddenlies of God part 1 of 3 |
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