Friday, April 8, 2011

Is praising God through the fire a masquerade or a metamorphosis?

So sorry!  Wanted to get this written sooner but things got a little hectic and so here I am, finally!  Last blog I talked a little bit about Job.  That Old Testament man who lost it all, but never lost his praise!  Was he a fake?  Was it all a masquerade?  Or did the praise that he spoke come from his heart?  That is what I want to talk about.

I believe there are two ways to live our lives.  We are either saved, or we aren't.  If we are saved, we are either conformed to the world, which is the "masquerade" or we are living transformed, which is the "metamorphosis".

What do I mean?  Let's dig in....

Go to Romans 12:2  "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

The word "conformed" in the Greek is the word "suschematizo"   It is used only 2 times in the Bible, (Romans 12:2 and I Peter 1:14)- It is used of masquerading or putting on an act.  It also conveys the thought of following a manner of life that is unstable and changing rather than enduring,    An outward form that varies from year to year and day to day.

When we conform ourselves to the ways of this world then we will be a spiritual roller coaster.  As our lives change, so will our walk with the Lord.  We will praise Him when things are great, and walk away when things are bad.  This certainly did not reflect the life of Job.  He had it all!  He was a wealthy man in both money and possessions and he had a large family that he dearly loved.  Satan told God that the reason Job walked such a blameless life was that God had blessed Him greatly and never allowed him to face such suffering.  He was sure that if heartache was to come upon Job, then Job would curse God.  Satan was wrong!  (Which proves that Satan cannot see into the future, he is not Omniscient as is our God!)

Job did not conform, but rather he was transformed- Let's look at the word "transformed" . In the Greek, this word is  "Metamorphoo"  which is where we get the word metamorphosis.  It is used in Mt 17:12, Mk 9:2, Rm 12:2, II Cor 3:18.  An example would be a cocoon.  The outward appearance is not changing, the change is coming from within....and in time a beautiful butterfly will appear.  When God is doing the changing in our lives, it will always come from the inside out.  And it always produces beauty.  When we try to change ourselves, we find ourselves trying to change from the outside in and that doesn't work.

Job praised God in the good times and in the bad times because he was a man that allowed God to work on the inside.  And what is on the inside will always be revealed when we are squeezed by the trials of life.  If you squeeze a lemon hard enough, the juice that will come forth is lemon juice!  That's what was on the inside.  When Christ is living in us and we get squeezed then Christ-like character will still be what comes forth for we have Him living and reigning in us.

Job was not a man without questions, he was human. But one thing that I noticed about Job.  His confusion and ramblings came when he tried to "figure God out".  He tried to "make sense" of his suffering.  We will never figure God out and we will not always make sense of our suffering.  But God is in the business of refining and transforming.  And today we may only see our lives as the unattractive cocoon, something that is not that great to look at.  But God is working on the inside, and if we let Him, He will, in His time, reveal that beautiful butterfly.  He knows the way that we take, and when He has tried us, we shall come forth as gold. Read it!!  It does not say we might, it does not say "if it all works out"....it says we "SHALL" come forth as gold.

Refining.....refining gold and silver requires intense heat, refining furniture requires sanding it down til it is bare, stripped of all former paint or stain....lots of work, lots of pain, but the final result is beauty.

God is in the business of beauty!  I love you!   I pray for those of you who read. I ask u to pray for me!

Heavenly Father....

We don't want to live life like a masquerade party.....wearing a mask, a roller coaster of emotions based on circumstances.  We want to be transformed, which we know Word says comes through the renewing of our minds.  This, we know is done through allowing Your Word to enter our lives and penetrate into our hearts.  Father, as we ask You to change us, we know that You are a God of excellence and You strip away all that needs to be stripped away that we might come forth as gold.  Thank you that You never leave us nor forsake us in this process.  We may lose a lot that we hold dear in the refining process, but we commit to never losing our praise!  For we stand with Job and say, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Dear brother and sister:  Do not be conformed to this world- do not take on the things of this world!  Be transformed through renewing of your mind- which means STAY IN THE WORD OF GOD!


compromise leads to conformity which leads to defeat!