Meekness for the Preakness; The Heat is ON!

Our time as students and then staff at Christ For the Nations 

taught us valuable life lessons. 

The dean of married students- Dean Holland, often said

 "The fire is hot here". 

 He was right. We went through a time that

cemented our family and taught us servanthood and accountability.

Growing in the Lord takes you through many seasons,
 each which is progressive and builds upon the previous ones. 

 Jeremiah was told he would be like fortified walls of copper against those that opposed him. 
(Jer 1:18, 19; 15:20)
Copper disperses heat evenly, not allowing the food being prepared to get scorched. 
So for Jehovah to assure Jeremiah that he is fortifying him with a copper wall 
meant that the Lord would sustain Jeremiah
  as long as the " heat " was being applied. 
So if we are faithful now, 
Father will sustain us then, helping us to maintain our integrity,
 no matter what we face.

   Those areas in your life that seem to be trigger points 
need to be fortified by the heat of God's word as you learn His ways.

Humility before Honor;   

 Meek, Yet Stern as Steel.

Humility does not mean the meek will take everything "lying down."
A meek person will feel the wrong done against him and feel it bitterly. But because he is not thinking of himself, his meekness does not allow his spirit to give vent to a hateful, savage and vindictive anger that seeks to "get even." He will instead be full of pity for the damaged character, attitudes and blindness of the perpetrator. From the stake Jesus uttered, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34).

We hear so much about "going to a new level",
with connotations of being exalted;

yet God really wants
us to learn how to go deeper
 into the depths of Him!

Those who desire to serve the Lord in fullness, 
in broad anointing and
great authority must  learn how to bow lower. 

DESPITE popular "theology"

you will NOT

 be able to bypass 

the Eye of the Needle. 

Baggages of self justification, pride, 

laurels of past accomplishments
will not fit through this gate.
 This gate requires that you be 
stripped of all the above and more.
This gate requires more than faith-
it demands TRUST. 

This gate in Jerusalem was uncommonly used.

Most did not pass through here.

The coat of humility must be put on 

to get to the other side.

   It isn't the experience of being misunderstood, suffering,
 or poverty itself that will undo us
, but rather the sense that we are not accomplishing anything,
 and enduring hardship to no good end.
That's why the apostle Paul emphasized that we do not labor in vain (1 Cor. 15:58).
 We discover there is no wasted effort or pain, 
because there is nothing that God cannot redeem.

A person of meekness no longer verbally recites nor mentally
 rehearses the wrongs done to him.
 Instead the focus is on the great grace and destiny
which is given through Jesus.

  Meekness is strength that is submitted to an appropriate authority.

The stubborn, unrepentant attitude of an apostate people is compared with the impetuous manner of a horse dashing into battle without regard for the consequences
.—Jer 8:6. Hmmm....

 If you have run with the footmen - if the smallest evils to which you are exposed cause you to make so many bitter complaints, how will you feel when, in the course of  prophetic ministry, you're  exposed to much greater, from enemies much more powerful?

Up till this time, in spite of the onsets you have endured, those could be compared to a sojourn in a peaceful land; but a yet greater battle may come 

 where you may never for a moment be sure of your life.

         The starting gate is not a comfortable place,

but it is a vital training framework. It may seem like you are there forever. It does for Dan and I today. 

Weariness can get the best of you if you 

let it.  

This is a time to mentally rehearse the lessons already learned 

that have prepared you to run the race, 

Bridle your tongue from complaining

and keep your eyes forward.

"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

² Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

Hebrews 12:1-2

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