Tag: Furnace of Affliction

  • God’s Creation Work

    God’s Creation Work

    According to the bible, the Six-Day Creation represents the six-thousand years of God’s salvation work, the spiritual creation of God’s people. God is working for the last six thousand years to make us into a new creation who resemble God. About this creation work of God, Jesus Christ said:

    John 5:17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

    God is working all these ages to create us into the image of God. Even though we are unholy and sinful unworthy to receive salvation or eternal life in heaven, since we are created into a holy people of God through the creation work of God, we can be the royal priesthood of God in heaven, reigning with God forever and ever.

    A New Creation

    Apostle Paul teaches us that God is making us into a new creation that we may be holy just as God is holy.

    Colossians 3:10 Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him. (ERV)

    Ephesians 2:10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do. (ERV)

    Through the creation work of God, we are made into a new creation resembling the image of God.

    1 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

    The Process of the New Creation

    However, the process that we are created into the image of God is not easy. To make us into a new creation, God is working as workman. In this process, God puts us in a many different situations to test us and to shape us.

    In the time of Moses, God set the Israel people free from the slavery of Egypt, and led them to the land of Canaan. Before allowing them the land as inheritance, first God tested them and shaped them as people of God by putting them into many different situations. Through this process they were made into a new creation worthy enough to be called the people of God.

    Until they are completely made into the new creation, God was working over and over again, leading them through the desert.

    Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

    The New Creation Through the Words of God

    Spiritually, it is the same. God put us into a spiritual desert. Sometimes, we are put into a plentiful circumstances, and other times a lacking ones. We go through many difficulties and sufferings in wealth, health, relationship, preaching, faith, etc. And God is searching our heart to know if we are depending on the words of God or not.

    When we come to completely rely on the words of Go, obeying the commands of God, we can be the new creation and enter into the kingdom of heaven, our spiritual home Canaan.

    Refined Like Silver or Gold

    Sometimes we are compared to silver or gold refined by God. We are like gold and the words of God is like fire. We are refined through the fire that is words of God (Jeremiah 5:14) that we may become pure like gold or silver.

    Proverbs 17:3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.

    Isaiah 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

    Made Into Pottery

    Also we are compared to a lump of clay made into articles of a house for various purposes. When a potter make a jar with a lump of clay, he uses water to make it easy to shape the lump into various forms. Without water it is almost impossible to shape the lump into a desirable form.

    It is the same with us who are the lump made by God. God is shaping us with the words of God, that is, water. (Ephesians 5:26) We can be made into a creation desirable for the purposes of God when we have the water that is the words of God in us.

    Conclusion

    Ceaselessly, God is creating us into the image of God even now. When the creation work becomes complete and we are made holy just like God, then God will allow us to enter the heaven. Until the process is over, we diligently obey the commands of God, making effort to resemble God in every way.

  • The Furnace of Affliction

    The Furnace of Affliction

    Whether one knows God or not, the life on this earth is pain and sorrow just as the writer of Psalm lamented.

    Psalm 90:9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

    furnace of affliction

    Sometimes we utter in a mumble. If there is God, why does God put in this pain and suffering? Surely God is Almighty, and, if then, he could have put us under more favorable circumstances. Our life is so short like a daydream and everybody lives in sorrow and troubles in this earth.

    Because of this some might complain and deny the existence of God. However, before we make a hasty conclusion, we have to look into the words of God in the bible. Then we can realize the reason for all the adversities we face in our life.

    According to the bible, this earth is a prison spiritually and we are the criminals from heaven who were sent down to this earth because of our lawlessness in heaven. As the criminals are disciplined in the prison, we are going through many disciplines on this earth.

    God disciplines us by putting us in many different situations. Some might be good and some might be adverse. The purposes of these disciplines are many but it can be simply put in this way.

    Isaiah 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

    Through the afflictions, God is refining us, which means we are made pure, clean, and beautiful that we can be called the heavenly citizen. Since we became unclean because of our sins, we are purified and refined through the afflictions on this earth.

    Deuteronomy 8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you….. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

    Through the afflictions when we are refined like pure gold or silver, God wants to give us blessing in the end, the blessings of the forgiveness and eternal life. And we will be restored to heaven as the children of God. Let us overcome the difficulties and sufferings with a thankful mind for the love and grace of God.

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