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Trials Turned To Gold
The late Keith Green is still known in CCM
(Contemporary Christian Music)
circles for a song called Trials Turn to Gold from his album, For Him Who
Has Ears to Hear. The collection also contains the well known song, The
Easter Song. 'Trials' is a heartfelt reminder to each of us that Jesus
will
take the pain of our defiance, disobedience, ignorance, mistakes and
hurts,
and use them to His glory as well as He will use anything. The first three
are the most common, in that they represent our sins. The last two
represent
the wrongs (sins) that are committed against us. You might be thinking,
"But
I have learned to live without sin in my life. I am maturing in my faith!"
Jesus tells us just the opposite about ourselves.
I John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves,
and
the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is
not in us. (NAS)
1 Sam. 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and
insubordination
is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the
LORD,
He has also rejected you from being king. (NAS)
Let's be brutally honest. Most days we probably sin before our feet hit
the
floor. As I grow in Christ, I see more and more how I fall short of that
mark of perfection that is required to enter Heaven on my own. I see the
life Jesus expects of me and I know how far I am from it. In 1 Sam 15,
defiance is equated with divination, and disobedience with idolatry. God
takes a very dim view of sin indeed! And I know that I am powerless to
defeat these forces at work in my flesh means that I must rely on Him in
all
things.
Romans 7:18-25 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my
flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil
that
I do not wish. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no
longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the
principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. 22
For
I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a
different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my
mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I
myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my
flesh the law of sin. (NAS)
It takes God, acting on my behalf, to fight the battle against sin
everyday
"renewing my mind", as Paul says. I know people from all over, who have
lived their own defiant lives or, suffered terrible abuse of all kinds, or
struggle with wrenching sin daily, or have made one mistake, deliberate or
not, and have a legacy to live with. The physical reminders vary from
scars
and memories, to perhaps a child conceived in a single, unguarded moment
of
passion. It is very easy to point fingers and shake our self-righteous
heads. How could they let that happen? I have met people who have lived in
homosexual relationships. I know at least one who still does. God does
abhor
this lifestyle, but not the person in it! Do I beat them with my Bible and
warn them they are on their way to Hell? What a warm, compassionate
response
that is. They know where I stand. People ask, "How can you separate the
person from the action?" How did Jesus do it with the woman caught in
adultery? How did He do it with you and me? He saw the need and filled it
with His endless compassion. John 3:17 tells us that Jesus came to redeem,
not condemn, the world. This excludes not one soul, regardless. He made
the
way for each of us. All we have to do is follow it. Remember this:
1 Cor. 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you
were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (NAS)
"And such were some of you..." Ouch! We don't always like to be reminded
that we were not always the alleged spiritual giants that we are today.
Then
the magic word appears, "but"... God stepped in and loved you and me, and
did for you what you or I could not do yourself or myself. He cleaned us
up,
and paid the unimaginable debt that we owed, and set us free. He cared for
us when we were unlovable.
I John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us. (NAS)
Romans 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ
died
for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though
perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. (NAS)
We were helpless. We don't like to think of ourselves like that, but we
were! But God invested His life and time in us, when no one else would
have
given us the time of day. He reached out to us, while we were still
struggling to still take the battered, ruined life we had and make it
work.
Show that person, that unwed mother, that person who turns your stomach,
then [ pick one of the above listed and insert here] and show them what
you
were shown. It was the love of Jesus that drew us, not a Bible thumping
oration. Our hearts were already being worked on by Jesus long before
that.
If you don't see it, look again, hard.
But the unexpected child is loved and the scars of abuse become treasured
reminders as the shattered pieces of their lives are rebuilt and reformed
into something entirely new by the Master. They are not reminders of the
sin
that was done to us, or by us. But of the love that changed them and us.
In
time, if we grow in the agape love that Jesus waits to lavish on us, we
can
take those trials and share them, quietly. The trials that have turned to
gold, become nuggets of hope for the young teen girl who finds herself
pregnant and pouring out her heart to you. And you can say, "I've been
right
where you are.", and they are no longer alone. What a gift, and what an
honor to give it in the name of our Savior. She knows you really
understand.
To the man who finds himself caught in an affair, or struggling with
anger,
or a past of sexual abuse, he knows you cared enough to share the hope
that
you know with him. This will reach people far faster than beating them
with
Bible verses. There will be a time when the verses will help as they take
their first fledgling steps. But, when someone can take that old pain or
sin
and hand it back to God, He will use it and you to reach out to the broken
hearts that litter this world from the shacks to the penthouse suites. Are
their consequences for those sins? Yes. But, let God take them and spin
them
into something magnificent for you and for someone else. This is just one
more quiet way to shake the world for Jesus Christ.
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Lord Jesus, it is in those times when you take our proud hearts and crush
them to powder that we grow the most. Help us to see these times of sin or
hurt in our lives as chances for You to teach us and to prepare us for a
time when that ill can become a source of hope and an anchor for someone
else who is struggling. Give us the insight to see, and the courage to
open
our lives to help others. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
Mike
mhoskins@cfdevotionals.org
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