July 29: What Do You See in Your Clouds?
Did anyone else but me find this lesson to be hard? One thing I have learned from reading Oswald Chambers for the past 15 years is that if something is hard to understand or if I rebel at the teaching for the day, I'm just "not there yet" in spiritual maturity. (The man was only 42-years-old when he died, but was light-years ahead of me in spiritual insight.) Apparently, this is yet another place where I need to grow.
To begin with, I was skeptical about that first sentence. Amazingly, he was right. Out of 156 verses regarding clouds, all but around 40 are directly related to the presence of God. Most of the others are similes or other literary devises to describe God's character or control. Only in Ecclesiastes 11:3-4 does the reference appear to be literal, but the overall theme of chapters 11-12 is "God knows best."
Chambers quoted Nahum 1:3 when he wrote "the clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet," and it is a great comfort to think that God accompanies trouble. Still, I totally resisted his assertion that "God cannot come near without clouds [sorrows]; He does not come in clear shining." Yet it comes to my mind that when I previously did a Word search for scriptures related to happiness and joy, I was completely blown away that over half of those passages were related to sorrow and suffering. And looking back over my life, it is true that my spiritual growth is directly proportional to the amount of sorrow I faced at that time. Hmmmm.
A sense of peaceful familiarity descended as I read "we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God." Whereas I used to become despondent in the midst of trouble, I usually now just feel an excited anticipation of what God is going to do. Some time ago, Andrew Brown was having a hard time selling his house, and I was trying to encourage him in an admittedly non-traditional way. He looked at me quizically and asked, "Mrs. Jane, do you even have troubles anymore?" His question startled me, and I had to think a moment before I answered, "Yes, of course I do. It's just that I don't seem to notice them as much anymore." Praise the Lord, perhaps I have made some progress in finding God!
The last paragraph refers to Luke 9:28-36, what we refer to as "The Transfiguration." Just eight days before, Peter had boldly proclaimed that Jesus was "the Christ of God" and had soaked in Jesus' instructions of how to radically follow Him. Yet when presented the unbelieveable opportunity to witness the transformation of Jesus from His humanity to His divinity, Peter, along with James and John, were afraid to enter the dark cloud with Him.
Dear Jesus, help us not be afraid to look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without fear that we will want to impune Your character. Please help us to know You so well that we completely trust You even in the areas we don't understand, like the suffering of innocents, etc. Remind us repeatedly that the troubles we face are actually a sign that You are in our midst and that you are in control!
To begin with, I was skeptical about that first sentence. Amazingly, he was right. Out of 156 verses regarding clouds, all but around 40 are directly related to the presence of God. Most of the others are similes or other literary devises to describe God's character or control. Only in Ecclesiastes 11:3-4 does the reference appear to be literal, but the overall theme of chapters 11-12 is "God knows best."
Chambers quoted Nahum 1:3 when he wrote "the clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet," and it is a great comfort to think that God accompanies trouble. Still, I totally resisted his assertion that "God cannot come near without clouds [sorrows]; He does not come in clear shining." Yet it comes to my mind that when I previously did a Word search for scriptures related to happiness and joy, I was completely blown away that over half of those passages were related to sorrow and suffering. And looking back over my life, it is true that my spiritual growth is directly proportional to the amount of sorrow I faced at that time. Hmmmm.
A sense of peaceful familiarity descended as I read "we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God." Whereas I used to become despondent in the midst of trouble, I usually now just feel an excited anticipation of what God is going to do. Some time ago, Andrew Brown was having a hard time selling his house, and I was trying to encourage him in an admittedly non-traditional way. He looked at me quizically and asked, "Mrs. Jane, do you even have troubles anymore?" His question startled me, and I had to think a moment before I answered, "Yes, of course I do. It's just that I don't seem to notice them as much anymore." Praise the Lord, perhaps I have made some progress in finding God!
The last paragraph refers to Luke 9:28-36, what we refer to as "The Transfiguration." Just eight days before, Peter had boldly proclaimed that Jesus was "the Christ of God" and had soaked in Jesus' instructions of how to radically follow Him. Yet when presented the unbelieveable opportunity to witness the transformation of Jesus from His humanity to His divinity, Peter, along with James and John, were afraid to enter the dark cloud with Him.
Dear Jesus, help us not be afraid to look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without fear that we will want to impune Your character. Please help us to know You so well that we completely trust You even in the areas we don't understand, like the suffering of innocents, etc. Remind us repeatedly that the troubles we face are actually a sign that You are in our midst and that you are in control!
posted by Jane at 7:21 AM
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