Blessings from the Furance

Please read I Peter 4:12-19. Every Christian who lives a godly life experiences a certain amount of persecution. It may happen on the job, in school, in the neighborhood, perhaps in the family. Peter dealt with this kind of "Normal persecution" earlier in his letter. In the above passage he explains a special kind of persecution, a "Fiery trail" that was about to overtake the entire church. Peter gave the believers four instructions to follow in the light of the coming "Fiery trail." First, we can expect suffering. A believers life produces a different lifestyle. Much of what goes on in the world depends on lies, pride, pleasure, and the desire to get more. God declared war on Satan after the fall of man, and Satan has been attacking God through His people ever since. Jesus explained to his disciples that they should expect opposition and persecution from the world. A fiery trial comes because we are faithful to God and stand up for that which is right. The word "Happened" is important, it means "To go together." The trials are part of God's plan, and He is in control. Second, we are to rejoice in suffering. He said were are to "Be constantly rejoicing." Peter named several privileges that we share that encourage us to rejoice in the midst of the fiery trail. Our suffering means fellowship with Christ. Jesus is with us in the furnace of persecution. Our suffering means glory in the future. "Suffering" and "Glory" are twin truths that are woven into the fabric of Peter's letter. God is not going to replace suffering with glory, rather He will transform suffering into glory (see John 16:20-22). Our suffering brings to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. "For the presence of the glory, even the Spirit, rests on you." The reference is to the Shekinah glory of God that dwelt in the tabernacle and in the temple. Our suffering enables us to glorify His name. Third, we are to examine our lives. In the furnace of persecution and suffering, we often have more light by which we can examine our lives and ministries. During this time we must ask several questions. Why am I suffering. Let's be sure we are suffering because we are Christians and not because we are criminals. We must ask, am I ashamed, or am I glorifying God. Not being ashamed is negative, and glorifying God is positive. It takes both for a balanced witness. During this time am I seeking to win the lost? Our present "Fiery trial" is nothing compared with the "Flaming fire" that shall punish the lost when Jesus returns in judgment. Forth, we must commit ourselves to God. We can commit ourselves into the care of God. The word is a banking term, it means "To deposit for safe keeping." This picture reminds us that we are valuable to God. This commitment is not a single action but a constant attitude. "Be constantly committing." Peter referred to God as "A faithful Creator" because God the Creator meets the needs of His people. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Truth Verses Lies

Every sin is the exchange of the truth of God for a lie. Consequently, the more truthful one becomes with himself the more he is delivered from the deceitfulness of sin. Every season of significant spiritual growth in your walk with God will be precipitated by a time of deep repentance. In the Christian walk we must accept the whole inheritance, suffering as well as glory (John 15:19-20). It was necessary for Christ to suffer to enter into His glory. To wear the crown we must share the cross. We do not grow into sanctificaton, we grow in sanctification. We are becoming what God has declared we already are. Jesus did not come to give us a system by which we could live, He came to be our life. Servants obey because they are subject to rules, sons of God obey because they are led by the Spirit unto a clear realization that the Father's will is the best possible way. Like Jesus they delight to do God's will. Thats why life in Christ is filled with mystery, misery and magnificence, often all at the same time. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Forgiveness

“For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31). We should not be surprised that the enemies of God would also become enemies of those who are made in the image and likeness of God. We are commanded "As much as in you lies within you live at peace with all men." This means we must learn to be peacemakers. The balance comes in making peace with others without wounding our conscience or offending God. There are Biblical examples where peace making would not have worked. David and Goliath could not have lived in peace with each other. However David did everything possible to make peace with King Saul. The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend. Jesus said "Blessed are the peacemakers." The command to "Avenge not yourselves would be difficult to understand, were it not coupled with "Give place to God wrath." Should I seek revenge I am the one who is conquered, should I choose to forgive I am the conqueror. This is why the Lord tells us "Be not overcome by evil, but triumph over evil by doing good" (Romans 12:21). We are to "Give place" to God's wrath. Revenge is God's parking place, if we park in His place, we will experience some of His wrath. A tremendous example of forgiveness comes from the life of Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) she was born in Amsterdam and raised in the Dutch Reformed Church. When the Nazis came to power in the late 1930s, Corrie and her family hid Jews in the basement of their home. In 1944, Corrie's family was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, one of the worst concentration camps in Nazi Germany. There, Corrie's entire family died. Corrie herself was scheduled for execution - but she was released shortly before the end of World War II because of a clerical error. Corrie concluded that God had saved her for a purpose. She committed her life to preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, speaking in churches, tent meetings, and open-air rallies. At one meeting in Germany in 1947, she taught on God's forgiveness. Afterward, a man came up to her and introduced himself as a former Ravensbrück guard - but Corrie needed no introduction. She remembered him well. He was notorious for his cruelty. "I've become a Christian since the war," he said. "I know God has forgiven me for the horrible things I did, but I would like to hear it from you. Could you tell me that you've forgiven me, too?" He put out his hand. Corrie stood there for what seemed an eternity, unable to think of anything but the horrors this man had committed. Then she remembered the words of Jesus that required her to forgive ANY sin. She silently prayed, "Jesus, help me!" ...then she took the man's hand and cried out, "I forgive you, brother!" She later recalled, "I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then." That was the defining moment in Corrie's ministry. Over the years that followed, she took the Christian gospel to more than sixty countries around the world and hundreds of thousands of lives were changed through her speaking, writing, and the motion picture The Hiding Place, based on her autobiography. If we want to be used in a great way by God, we must be willing to forgive those who may be a great source a pain in our lives. Is there someone who needs your forgiveness today? Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

True Success

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord you God will set you high above all the nations on earth" (Deut. 28:1-2). Sometimes God allows us to fail before we succeed. How we respond to failure reveals who we are living for. For the believer death precedes success. We really need to die to our old self life and then be resurrected to a new Christ life. This happens as we fully surrender our lives to Him. Remember the "kernel of wheat falling into the ground and dying" before there was any fruit. The theme of obedience runs as a thread through out the Bible. In many cases, as with the above verse, obey and hear are used synonymously. Hearing the Lord implies obedience to what He instructs us to do. There has been an over emphasis on the theme of success in some circles. We have modern day "Pastors" who are little more than motivational speakers. Some are involved in huge TV ministries. Rather than preach repentance of sin and salvation through faith in the finished work of Christ, they preach the "Gospel of success." This kind of "Flesh success" is attractive to some but really leaves a bad taste in the mouth of discerning unbelievers. I do believe God is the God of success All true success is a gift from Him. All that He proposes will be carried out "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". There are Biblical principles when applied to business, they just plain work. The principle "He who is greatest of all will be servant of all" tells us that the business that best serves their customers succeeds. The "Golden rule" always comes up in any sales training I have taken. Even the world has adopted Biblical principles for success in business. However as believers our success is rooted in our relationship with Christ. When our abilities are separated from Him success is short-lived. I know a man who is a multimillionaire, I watched his life fall apart as he fell deeply into sin. He has gone from being a wise business man to a very reckless decision maker. His violent anger has alienated his best employees and his extreme instability has destroyed all credibility. His vast empire is crumbling because disobedience and sin exact a terrible price in a sinners life. True success is living for the Lord in an intimate, obedient, love relationship with Him. As we daily reaffirm our commitment to trust Him with all our hearts and follow His ways in all we do, our lives will come into alignment with His purposes. This will ensure that His purposes are being fulfilled through our lives. This is the meaning of true success. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Do You Glory or Growl

“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4). The Christian life is not made up of pie in the sky platitudes which have little or no meaning in the real world. When we are told to "Rejoice in our sufferings." we can indeed rejoice in our sufferings. The rejoicing is not considered in the sufferings themselves but in their effects. One effect of suffering is patience. Patience is the habit of endurance, and Christian patience implies submission to the will of God (James 1:3). As we grow spiritually we come to realize that sufferings themselves are an honor and blessing. This idea is often expressed in the Scriptures. Our Lord says, "Blessed are those who mourn" (Matt. 5:4). "Blessed are those who are persecuted" (Matt. 5:10). The apostles left the Jewish council "rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Peter calls on believers to rejoice when they participate in Christ's sufferings and pronounces them happy when they are insulted for his sake (I Peter 4:13,14). And Paul says, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses" (that is, my sufferings). "For Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses," he says, "In insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties' (II Cor. 12: 9-10). This is not irrational or fanatical. We do not glory in suffering as such, or for its own sake, but because of what the Bible teaches. We are to consider it an honor to suffer for our Lord. We rejoice in being given the opportunity of showing His power in our support and deliverance. Suffering is one means of our sanctification and preparation for usefulness here and for heaven hereafter. A Biblical attitude toward suffering really sets the Christian apart from the world. The power to rejoice comes from omnipotent grace that we receive by trusting in God's promises. "Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." The "Grace of God" was given to them. That grace produced an indomitable joy in a great test of affliction. And that joy in affliction overflowed in love. Grace doesn't work like magic, it works through truth. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free from complaining and from a critical spirit. Paul never asked us to be stoical about suffering. However the pressures of life have a way of developing endurance in us, and this endurance can be exercised only when we are placed under pressure. The very trails we so dread are used by God to strengthen us. Paul is not saying we should merely pretend to be happy. Christianity is never phony. When it come to suffering do you glory or growl? Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.

Suffering Well

"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have" (Philippians 1:29). Earlier in this chapter Paul made clear that everything is from God. Their salvation is from God and the fact that they have life is from Him. This is a necessary word in light of the Paul's explanation of suffering. People who reflect an attitude that suggests "Oh boy, I get to suffer for Jesus" should cause us to squirm. Our first though should be "That guy must have hit his head really hard when he fell off the turnip truck." Somehow he really missed the truth and he certainly can't appeal to Paul to justify such an attitude. Paul's attitude toward Christian suffering is based on Christ's teaching on discipleship, namely that servants are to be like their master. Paul is saying the same God who granted you (Lit. graced you) to believe on Him, is the same God who has also graced you to suffer for Him. Who needs such "Gracing" you might ask. The answer lies in the Christ centered nature of the Christian life. A crucified Lord produces disciples who themselves take up a cross as they follow Him. We are called on to live in the same way Christ himself lived, and died, on behalf of this fallen, broken world. And for believers, as for our Lord, the path to glorification leads through the suffering of the cross. The Apostle doesn't finish here but goes on to remind them that he and they are in this together. They are going through the same struggle they have seen him go through. They are suffering at the hands of those who oppose the gospel. He tells them that their suffering is identical to that which they saw in him. Among those who would receive this letter would be the jailer and his household and (perhaps) the young slave girl whose having been set free from Satan's tyranny, resulted in the first of Paul's sufferings on behalf of Christ that they had seen. What are we to do with suffering? If we really walk with Christ we will suffer persecution. The Philippians suffering was in kind with Paul's current Roman imprisonment. They were partners in the gospel, going through the same suffering together. All they were experiencing was on Christ's behalf. The way we respond to suffering reflects on our knowledge of Christ. Are we looking at our suffering through His eyes? Are we crying out to Him to teach us about "The fellowship of His suffering?" Are we using this season of suffering for spiritual growth, or are we just hanging on until its over? When we make the statement "I want to be like Jesus" suffering will be part of what makes that happen. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church ministry.

Seaching the Heart

Searching the heart is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit. J. Edwin Orr taught, "It is to the Holy Spirit that the Christian must look if he is to find a measure of revival for his searching soul". Spiritual blessing for believers is dependent on cleansing, which in turn depends upon confession that is dependent on conviction; and conviction comes from a searching of heart by God's own Spirit. Therefore, each of us needs to get alone with God regularly and allow Him to search our hearts, to plumb the deepest crevices of our soul, for anything contrary to His character. In addition to using the Word, a great aid for facilitating this process is the popular prayer-hymn written by Orr in 1936 during the New Zealand revival. He was in line at a local post office, he penned the following lyrics in just eighteen minutes: "Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me: Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin: Fulfill Thy Word and make me pure within. Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame, Grant my desire to magnify Thy name. Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine: Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self and pride; I now surrender, Lord, in me abide. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee; Send a revival--start the work in me. Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need; For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead." This Spirit-inspired hymn give the essentials for getting right with God--searching, convicting, confessing, cleansing and surrendering--all of which precede revival. Notice how he closes by stating his need for personal revival: "Start the work in me." This should be the cry of every Christian. Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferances, and local church meetings.