Fearlessly Courageous
11/9/2022
Desk of Dennis Piller
Your Pain can be your Platform or your Prison.
I have been laboring over life-changing events that affect us and our families. The truth is it doesn’t matter what that issue is, it is either about you and the pain or discomfort or the loss, and it is our choice whether it becomes a prison. it can be a platform that broadcasts a higher order, a bigger message of hope and faith for those who are looking on. Your platform is one that raises up the glory of God or the prison of our circumstances.
I have been drilling down on the cancer that has physically invaded our family of Christ. But there are many types of cancer. I have seen people eaten up with the cancer of unforgiveness, which breeds bitterness, resentment, and anger and destroys the foundation of their relationships.
How about the cancer of wealth? Always driven to achieve more, until it becomes an idol separating you from God and destroying your family. There is the cancer of selfishness, pride, negativity, worry, impatience, harshness, immorality, and excess of any kind are types of cancer that eat the soul of a man and the heart out of their families and relationships.
No one purposely sets up a platform for these types of things. Most normal people are ashamed of them. In fact, we defend ourselves in being that way. Nicodemus asked, “How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. (John 3: 4)
What did Jesus mean when he said to be born again? We are born again when we respond to God's offer of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ, confess our sins, and invite Jesus Christ into our lives to be our leader and lord. And when Jesus truly comes in, his Holy Spirit fills us and changes us. We are changed…typically not in an instant, but over time the Holy Spirit changes our attitudes and our character to be more like his. That happens as we study God's word. “As we lean not on our own understanding.” It takes away the types of cancers I listed above because we take on the fruit of the spirit and walk away from the fruit of the world. We are truly born again.
Our life becomes a platform of good works…Of praise and worship…
It becomes a testimony of faith and hope in the midst of the battles that once derailed us. We lean on God and his power and grace and point to him as our source of strength. As your hope in a time of trouble. We point to his word as THE eternal truth. We become images of God himself over time.
Our platform is the truth of our lives. The visible fruit of our daily existence. We are either living for ourselves or we are instruments of God…for God…for His Glory. The opposite is the prison that so many people do not even realize they are in. They live for their vacation…their retirement…their one-day goals of owning a home… that special toy or car. Yet when they arrive it is never what they thought. It never is the moment they envisioned. So, they go out and strive for another prison of the world. Until they reach their death bed realizing they cannot take it with them. They squandered the life God wanted for them for the idols and false promises of the world.
None of which can fit in that casket.
And yes we will encounter the storms of life: Health – divorce – death – finances – and we can either make them a testimony to God or a prison that daily saps the strength and life from our existence.
Pastor Dale Brooks and our London pastor are both in a battle for the life of their bodies. But they have long ago, won the battle of their souls…their faith and commitment to Jesus Christ … the Lord of their lives. And regardless of how their personal journey plays out. Regardless of whether God chooses to give them another year or ten or twenty it has not and will not change their faith and their testimony. Their cancer has become their platform of encouragement and hope for everyone who knows their story and sees their fruit. Many people are being changed and have grown closer to God in praying for them, and their healing… For their families and for Grace to be with them. Even in the battle that leads them to the cusp of the valley of the shadow of death, their trumpet blast is one of faith and hope…always pointing to the father. Always loving and setting the example of what that image of God looks like in an earthen vessel.
Their cancer has ceased to be a prison because they purposely, intentionally, and obediently chose to offer up the sacrifice of praise to God. The sacrifice of their health…their life…their time on this earth. How? By keeping their eyes on the Master. Keeping their eyes on Jesus who has walked on the water to them in the midst of their stormy sea, and said. Fear not, for I am with you. Fear not, for nothing can separate you from me. Fear not because your name is written in the lamb's book of life. Look up my child and see the salvation of the Lord.
Praise You In This Storm – Casting Crowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoqbKyeKOBI
