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<TITLE> Who is perfecting whom? </TITLE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>" For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ... for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."<BR>
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My son is struggling with the same conflicts I have experienced: the difference between knowledge of the Word and the ability to live it. Why is is it that study of and meditation upon the Word of God does not produce immediate, noticeable fruit and effectiveness in our lives? Why is there such a gap between knowledge of the principles of the Word and our ability to live them? I have found in my own life that the scriptures point me to Christ and point out my own inadequacies and inability to live the life that scripture holds up as a standard. The difference between what Ought to be and what IS forces me to throw up my hands in hopelessness and cast myself upon the mercies of God! "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!"<BR>
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However, like a flash of light in a darkened room, I suddenly caught a glimpse of God's perspective on the matter. I saw his purpose and his agency. You see, we think we are going to do all sorts of good and glorious things for God. We have big dreams and big visions. But often we find ourselves frustrated by circumstances, our dreams shattered, and our vision crushed. In fear of failure and with the sense of shame, we feel as if we have disappointed God as well as ourselves. <BR>
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But the truth is: IT is GOD who works in us to Will and to Do. The Lord showed me something about this passage which speaks of grace and much more. You see, God is interested in adorning his Bride [that's us folks] for his wedding. He wants her to be spotless and unashamed; adorned with the rubies and pearls of good deeds and the diamonds of faithfulness. And he has a plan! He has a plan to deck us out and adorn us with beauty that will satisfy him and make us pleased with us every time he looks at us. In fact, all the good deeds he requires of us and all the ornaments which please him have been ordained for us:<BR>
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</FONT></SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><FONT COLOR="#000080">For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>In Greek the word ‘workmanship’ is poema, from which we get our word Poetry. We are God’s poetry, and because he has created us for good works, we are his poetry in motion. We are not the poet, he is. He is the craftsman, putting together words in rhyme and meter to make it sound pleasing and to reveal his purpose, his beauty and his glory. These lines he strings together are the works he PREPARED for us to do IN ADVANCE!!!! He already has the plan on how we will do the works that will please him and cause us to sparkle in his eyes!!! You see, it isn’t our work or our plans, which fail and fall, and get up-ended. It is the plans He planned that cannot fail because they were ordained for us from the beginning. In other words, God is not going to present to himself a shoddy bride, dressed in rags, ashamed of her appearance. Rather we will be successfully delighted and wondrously glad that God has made our lives such beautiful poetry. Our human problem is that we <B>cannot see</B> how our path of seeking is fulfilling that grand purpose because we are so filled with fear and dismay and confusion. What I’m saying is that our adornment, our good works, our purpose, are hidden from our eyes but not his, and this glory that pleases him will be fulfilled IN SPITE of all our mistakes and missteps and feelings of failure. God does not require much of us: simple confession of our faults, asking for forgiveness, and the desire [not the ability of our strength, but just the desire] to seek him, please him, and obey as best we understand it. If we so have a heart towards God, he will accomplish the most important things in our lives, even if we never see them or understand them. Even if our dreams go unfulfilled, we remain his poetry, which he is crafting towards a glorious conclusion: to reflect his nature and his name! <BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Here are a few scriptures which show God’s unchanging purpose in his desire to present us to himself as a beautiful bride! <BR>
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</FONT></SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><FONT COLOR="#000080">"And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by <B><I>Christ’s physical body through death </I></B></FONT><B><I><FONT COLOR="#800080">to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation</FONT></I></B><FONT COLOR="#800080">-</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000080">- if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." Colossians 1:18-23, NIV.<BR>
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"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--" Ephesians 2:8-11, NIV.<BR>
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"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Philippians 2:12, 13, NIV.<BR>
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2Co 11:2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.<BR>
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Re 21:2 <B>And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.<BR>
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</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><B>If we can see that it is God’s work in us, that it is assured and planned out for us, even our good works he wants us to do are already prepared for us to walk into — maybe we can relax a little bit and be thankful, instead of just striving to earn his praise and please him. <BR>
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</B>Jeff <BR>
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Jefferis Kent Peterson<BR>
<a href="http://www.scholarscorner.com">http://www.scholarscorner.com</a><BR>
jefferis@scholarscorner.com<BR>
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Feeling Guilty? Are you "Pardoned or Paroled?" <a href="http://www.ScholarsCorner.com/pardoned.html"><http://www.ScholarsCorner.com/pardoned.html></a><BR>
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Such is God's economy: "One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers lack." - Proverbs 11:24 <BR>
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