Daily Archives: November 22, 2011

Names of God Series

Names of God – El Roi

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One of theses days I might learn how to do tabs and divisions on my blog so that I can have nice categories for all my randomness, but until then I am so sorry, but all you have is the nice right side list on the side of my blog that has to be searched through…

I am sharing another name of God in the Names of God post series. So far I have shared with you two names of God: Elohim and El Elyon.

Today we will learn about our God who sees, El Roi

We first learn about this name of God in Genesis 16. We have to go back and remember our context. At this point in history Abram and Sarai have been waiting on God’s promise of a seed, of an heir. In their waiting they decide that maybe God wanted them to “help” him out a little bit. There was no IVF in this day and age so Sarai decided that what God meant was for Abram to go into her maid and have a child with her and it would be Sarai’s according to the custom of the day.

(Isn’t it just like us women to decide that we must be the problem and therefore we must fix it; oh me, yep, nothing new under the sun)

Well, Abram just looks at his honey and says “Okay, what ever you think dear”
Hello!?! Man of the promise?
Head of the family?

“Oh, Adam, here eat you won’t die…” 
(See, nothing new under the sun)

Anyway back to Abram and Sarai.

So Abram goes into Hagar, Sarai’s maid, and guess what. She gets pregnant. Can you imagine the self-condemnation that fell upon Sarai at that moment. How she had to say, “Oh it is me! I am the problem. I am the failure. God is not pleased with me. It is my fault that we have never had children…”

I believe Hagar the maid picks right up on Sarai’s sense of failure and lowered state of self-worth and decides that she now is head of this home and usurps the position of Sarai and begins to mock and disregard the word of Sarai.

Sarai goes to her husband, and can you just image this conversation as she looks at him and basically says “This is all your fault! Do Something!”

I can see Abram throwing his hands up in the air at this point as he tells Sarai to go and deal with Hagar. Therefore Sarai steps in with her husband’s backing and reminds Hagar that she is the hand-maid. Sarai then disciplines her for the way she has been acting like she was all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips-on-the-side.

Now Hagar does like a lot of us do when we get checked for our behavior… she pouts and runs away from the situation.

Granted Hagar had a side to defend in all this… she didn’t ask to get thrown into Abram’s bed. In her attempt to run away and flee the presence of Sarai, Hagar finds out that she might be able to hide from Abram and Sarai, but she cannot hide from the God of Abram and Sarai.

  Now the angel of the LORD found her
by a spring of water in the wilderness,
by the spring on the way to Shur. 
He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid,
where have you come from
and where are you going?” 
Genesis 16:7-8

I absolutely love how God addresses Hagar. He calls her Hagar, Sarai’s maid. God immediately reminds her that she is indeed Sarai’s maid. God reminds her that Sarai is her authority figure. Then He asks her where she has come from and where is she going.

Yeh, like God didn’t already know, but just as God always does and has done since the beginning, He opens the door for Hagar to confess to Him, to share her heart with Him. He still does the same for us.

After Hagar speaks with God, she is instructed by Him to return to Sarai and submit to her authority. He tells her that He has a plan for her and the child she carries. Then in Genesis 16:13 God reveals to us through this story, this time in history with a woman named Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, that He is El Roi, a God who sees.

  Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her,
“You are a God who sees”;
Genesis 16:13

How far does God see?

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,” 
 Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
Psalm 139:7-12

There is no where that you can run and hide that God cannot see. Hagar could not hide and if you remember Jonah, he couldn’t hide either. He tried to run from God and hide in the bottom of a ship on the way to Tarshish which was the opposite direction he was supposed to be heading in. So God threw him in the belly of a fish and possibly sent him to the bottom of the ocean just to say, “guess what boy, I can still see you”

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He watches all his paths.
Proverbs 5:21

Oh precious one, God sees it all.

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”
Isaiah 29:15

There is nothing that we do that He does not see. We cannot sneak one by on Him. His eyes are always before us.

 And there is no creature hidden from His sight,
but all things are open and laid bare
to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 4:13

Does this not bring you great peace? I know it does me. It brings me peace for two very distinct reasons:

1) If I sin God sees it. There is no point in trying to hide it. Just go ahead and honestly confess it because He was there watching when I did it, thought it, saw it, felt it, heard it. Remember the woman at the well? Jesus told her ALL that she had done. Nothing is hidden from Him. He sees directly into our very heart, mind, and soul, and He reaches out to us anyway. He loves us anyway.

2) If someone sins against me God sees it. I do not have to seek revenge, hang on to bitterness, or prove myself right, because God saw it all. He will take care of it. You see when you have to keep your mouth shut, and go back and submit, when what you want to do is run away and tell everyone “your side” you can know that God knows. He is fully aware of your side. When you see someone go unpunished by our laws, you can know that they can not slip by on God’s law. A slick tongued attorney, a corrupt judge, a blinded arbitrator can not get one over on God. The truth will come to light. God will vindicate. We don’t have to. We can find peace and rest in the fact that one day all will be made known.

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You,
For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
Psalm 9:10
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Brotherly Hate

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So it came about,
when Joseph reached his brothers,
that they stripped Joseph of his tunic,
the varicolored tunic that was on him;
and they took him
and threw him into the pit.
Genesis 37:23–24
 
How cruel can brothers be to brothers? How cruel can man be to man? These ten grown men grab their seventeen-year-old little brother and strip him of his tunic and hurl him into a pit. They did so and then sat down to eat, as though they had done nothing wrong.
 
I am reminded of the cross when Jesus was also stripped of His garment: “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments” (John 19:23). Just as the brothers sat down to eat as though they had done nothing wrong, so these soldiers sat at the foot of the cross of Christ and gambled for His garment as though they had done nothing wrong.
 
We read this part of Joseph’s life, and this part of the life of Christ on this earth, and it is so evident how desperately we need a Savior. We read in Ecclesiastes 7:20 that “indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”
 
We all need a Savior.
 
I finally understood the full depravity of man when I was in Poland. I walked through the gates of Auschwitzand Majdonek and stood in the court of the Warsaw Ghetto while hearing from the lips of Holocaust survivors what they had experienced in these places. What shocked me the most was not just what they experienced by the hands of the Nazis, but what they experienced from those whom they had once called friends.
 
As a child, my friend Irving Roth, a survivor of Auschwitz, watched his father’s best friend betray his father. As a child, Irving experienced his own friends’ betrayal, as they turned their backs on him simply because he was a Jew. He experienced people who had been in his life always—those he had cared for, laughed with, played with—not just disassociate with him, but turn to hate toward him and his family.
 
Have you experienced this, my precious one?
The betrayal of a friend, of a family member?
Oh, my friend, know that you have One who understands,
 
“for consider Him
who has endured such hostility
by sinners against Himself,
so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart”
(Hebrews 12:3).
 
Oh Father,
 
Help me to never forget that I am my brother’s keeper. That I am to regard others as more important than myself (Philippians 2:3). Help me, Father, to remember that I am not to hold my faith in Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism (James 2:1). Oh Father, you tell us in 1 John 4:20, “If someone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Oh Father, forgive me when I hold bitterness in my heart and spite toward another, even if they are not my brother or sister by flesh or through Christ. Open my eyes that I might see when my attitude is not what it should be that I might seek Your face and go before Your throne of grace and receive forgiveness and an attitude adjustment. Oh Father, guard my heart from hate and help me to love others with the love with which You have loved me.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>I Am My Beloved’s

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I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine
I am covered and protected
I am special in His eyes
I am lovely
I am beautiful
I am chosen by His hand
He holds me
He knows me
And still by my side He stands
He leads me through the waters
He guides me through the lands
He carries me through the wilderness
He never lets me down
I can trust in my Beloved
For His promises He keeps
He is faithful to me always
In Him my heart finds peace

I call to my Beloved
He answers with a voice both strong and sweet

He says, “I hear you My beloved
I have all that you’ll ever need.
I’ll never leave you nor forsake you
I’ll never degrade you when I speak
I’ll never hurt you or curse you
I’ll never bring you grief
I am here to love you
I am here to make you Mine
I am here to lift you up
And beloved the pleasure is all Mine
I see all of your potential
I see all that you can be
You were created to be special
Oh beloved, you were created just for Me
You were created because I loved you even before the world began
Oh My beloved, you are because I AM.”

– me
(inspired and written in Sept 2004 when studying the Song of Solomon while teaching Sex According To God, by Kay Arthur -> O how He loves us! Will we love Him in return?)

Proven Path Ministries

One Master

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There is no thrill like the thrill of studying God’s Word as His Holy Spirit filled child. To be taught by the Creator of the Universe and all it contains, to be so close to Him that you are able to hear the still small voice of the God that when He speaks the mountains tremble and the heavens roar. Well if you can even grasp that slightly it is overwhelmingly humbling!

Currently I am in the study of Isaiah and Colossians. Oh what a joy it is to learn more of the awesomeness of my God. There is absolutely nothing boring about the Word of my God. It is a book that I have not been able to put down in almost 10 years. Pouring over it and in it, and the more I learn the more I want to learn because the more I learn the more I realize how much I do not know. Each word, each verse, could be poured over for a lifetime and still one would be left with their eyes searching  and their mouth gaped wide open as they attempted to take in all that God could share with them concerning this one single word, this one single verse.

As I have been studying in Isaiah this verse is one of many that spoke volumes to me. Isaiah 26:13 “O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we confess Your name.” I read this and I had to ask God, what other masters have ruled me. What exactly did the death that I died with my Jesus accomplish in me.

I received an email from a precious woman who shared with me that she had sat under a preacher as a christian for over 50 years listening to sermon after sermon, but now she was beginning to reject what she had heard. She said she knew the facts of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ but she still did not know what the death of Christ had to do with her life. I have no clue who this woman is, she wrote as from another nationality, another country, but my heart broke as I read her words, but I praise God that she was seeking truth! As I read her words my mind was pulled back to Isaiah 26:13.

So precious ones, what does Christ’s death and resurrection means to us for our life? Because He died and because when we trust in Him, when we identify with Him, when we put our faith in Him and in His work on the cross, we die with Him and if we die with Him it also means we are raised with Him into a new life (Romans 6:3-5) we are a new creation (2 Corin 5:17).

In this new life we have freedom. We have freedom from all the masters that once ruled over us. So we have to ask ourselves what masters rule us?  These are the masters that I believe God showed me as I opened His Word. He took me back to what I had learned through my study in the book of Romans.

(1) The lie, was once my master. The lie that the serpent whispered to Eve once captivated me. The lie that I did not need God. The lie that I could make my own choices and decisions in this world. The lie that I was my own god, I ruled my own life, I made my own way, I lived by my own rules, my own idea of right. I praise God that the Truth has set me free (John 8:32). The lie (Romans 1:25) is no longer my master. I am completely aware that my every breath only comes to me because my Creator God has allowed it to. I am not my own god, I make horrible decisions and choices when left to myself, and I have no basis on which to determine right from wrong apart from God. Why is that? Well basically because there is no freedom apart from God, apart from Christ, because the truth of the lie is that I am slave to other masters. We are never masterless. So what other masters rule us if Christ does not?

(2) The next master I saw was religion. Yes we can be enslaved to the traditions of man, their idea of holiness, their list of do’s and don’ts. Lists and lists of steps to holiness. A 12 step program to getting it right. You are not saved, you are not worthy of godliness or holiness or righteousness unless you look and act like us and follow all our rules and traditions and our interpretations of the Law. In Christ man’s made religion (Romans 2, Galatians 1:3-12, Colossians 2:8) is no longer our master. God tells us in Isaiah 2:22 to stop regarding man whose breathe of life is in his nostrils for why should he be so esteemed. My life is not to seek the approval of man, but only the approval of my new Master, my Jesus, for He bought me with precious blood.

(3) Death is no longer our master (Romans 6:9). Death is swallowed up in victory in Christ! I know that because He lives, I will live. I have no longer a fear of death, because death is only now a transition into an even greater life. I am not controlled by fear of death. I will not be threatened by it through man, disease, disaster, or demon. Death simply means that I will be absent from the body and present with my Lord. He holds my life in His hands. He bought and paid for it. It belongs to Him and I trust Him completely with it. It is His to take when and how He pleases in order to bring Him glory.

(4) Sin is no longer our master (Romans 6:14). Before I died in Christ I was a slave to sin. Sin had me bound. It was inherent in me, passed down through the seed of my great great, plus more greats grandfather Adam. The fact that I commit sins does not make me sinner, I committed sins because I was already a sinner. As we look at Romans 6 we see that in Christ we died to sin, the sin, not sins plural. The sin is what I was enslaved to. The sin that was inherent in me, the sin that was imputed against me because I committed sins in my enslavement to it, the sin that entered the world because of the lie. This sin is no longer my master. In Christ I am enslaved to righteousness (Romans 6:18)

(5) The Law is no longer our master (Romans 7:4). Apart from Christ I was/am bound to the Law of God. If not in Christ I will be judged according to the standard of the Law of God. Why? Well it’s His universe, His rules, if you can’t keep them you can’t stay. Now in my death to the Law and my marriage to Christ I do not become lawless. I simply am filled with an overwhelming desire to please my Master not by keeping a list of rules but out of sheer love and adoration. His Laws, His love, His life, His righteousness is now the desire of my heart. I want to keep His Law and do what pleases Him not out of fear, but out of love for Him.

(6) The flesh is no longer our master (Romans 8:12-13). Yes, that is right. The flesh is no longer my master. In Christ I now have the power through His Holy Spirit in me to put to death the deeds of the flesh. All those desires that sin brought in my life and awakened in my flesh, all those lusts that my flesh screamed for, all those things that I felt completely powerless to say “NO!” to, now in Christ I have power over. I have power to say “NO!” No matter how strong the desire is or how loud my flesh screams. The still small voice of the Spirit of my new Master is louder and more powerful than my flesh any day and everyday. He gave us this authority in His name and through His Spirit and by His Word. It is our responsibility to use it.

(7) Satan is no longer our master (Romans 16:20). The devil no longer can make you do anything! With the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him. He holds the keys to life and death. He is the LORD of hosts. All things in heaven and on earth and under the earth must bow at His name. He is King of kings, Lord of lords, God of gods. He is all in all! Satan might run rampant in the earth and stomp about in his tirade, deceiving those who would be deceived, but God is soon going to crush him under His feet. Until this day, in Christ he has no authority over me.

These seven masters are no longer master over anyone who is in Christ. Those in Christ now have a new master His name is Jesus. We are slaves to no one or no thing, because Jesus calls us friend (John 15:15). Whom the Son has set free is free indeed! (John 8:36)

Oh, but precious one, if we know Jesus we know what He did for us. When we know what His grace means, when we grasp it fully, when we understand the extent of His mercy, we cannot be content in our freedom alone. In our freedom we turn to Him and then willingly become His slave.

Our desire is for Him.

We desire to obey Him and honor Him in our freedom by doing His will. And then in this freedom, in this desire for His will, in this great love for Him, we begin to love what He loves and He loves the world. He desires that all would have this freedom, that all would serve Him as their One Master. So in this we are compelled to go out and share this truth with others that they too might be free indeed!

These other masters, these old masters, will rise up and try to take us back. We will battle them until the day that death releases us or Christ returns, but that is just it… we battle! We battle as free men and women of God. We are to turn to them and tell them to get behind us because they do not control or rule us any longer our lives belong to Christ not them.

This is only a small picture, a small breakdown, of what the death of Christ means for our life. May you be blessed by the study of the glorious Word of our Creator God!

To Him be all the glory.

Amen

Proven Path Ministries

>For You Have Died And Your Life Is Hidden In Christ

>This is a past Facebook “note” from May 19th 2011:

What does it mean to be hidden with Christ in God? God has given us a beautiful picture in His creations as to what this means to us as His children. Jimmy Giers gave us some sweet insight as He taught to us from Romans 12:1-3 Wed night. Let us never forget “that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20)  

The insight that Jimmy added to this was the sharing of what happens inside the cocoon during the metamorphosis. This is what brought my mind to the verse I have been studying this week, Col 3:3, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” So what happens in this cocoon stage? To see the beauty of this and the complete picture let us begin at the beginning.

It all starts with a mother butterfly finding a young soft healthy milkweed and carefully depositing an egg. 
(“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” Luke 8:15)

Fresh milkweed is a must as this is the only food the caterpillar will eat.
(“like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,” 1 Peter 2:2)

A time for growth has arrived. The larva is driven by one commandment in life.” to eat and grow”. In just two weeks the caterpillar will shed its skin five times. In other words, the insect must wear and outgrow five skins.
(“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'” Matt 4:4.
“How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103. 
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:51.
“So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” 1 Corin 3:7.)

Notice how the old skin has been pushed back into a crumpled bit of debris which will soon be discarded.
(“if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” Eph 4:21-23.
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Rom 8:12-14)

At this stage the caterpillar is eating its fill. It must get enough nutrition from a sole diet of milkweed leaves to fuel the complex processes of the metamorphosis to come.
(“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”  Rev 12:11.
“Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”  Rev 20:4)

Signals from the chrysalis forming within compel the caterpillar to slowly begin releasing the claspers one at a time. Soon the caterpillar will completely let go. Its life is now completely dependent on the silk button and how well it has attached to it.
(“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.
“I in them and You in Me,” John 17:23.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory” Col 1:27. 
“who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”  Phil 3:21)

A caterpillar to chrysalis transformation. The larva sheds its skin to reveal a wet gyrating chrysalis. The pupa must transfer its hold to its cremaster and drop the old larval skin. The chrysalis gradually assumes its predestined shape and hardens into an imobile waxy pupa.
(“…you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him–” Col 3:9-10.
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;” Rom 8:29.
“by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Deut 30:20)

The soft helpless “prepupal” insect lets go and hangs in a “J” shap. At this point life is dependent on the grip of the two hind claspers into the silk anchor. The first of many challenges has been overcome. Now a time of waiting has arrived yet the internal workings of the larva are very active.
(“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corin 4:16-18)

Now the change to a final form of the chrysalis continues. I say “continues” for this changing of shape began even while the caterpillar was shedding its skin. It can be seen from the pictures that the basic template of the chrysalis is evolving from the “caterpillar that once was” to the “butterfly that will be”.
(“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2.
“Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,” 1 Corin 15:50-51)

The chrysalis is a perfect example of form and function.
(“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,” 1 Peter 2:21.
“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1 Corin 15:49.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corin 3:18.)

(*Things in bold print above come from :  http://lifecycle.onenessbecomesus.com/larvae.html)

“The first thing that happens is that a lot of the caterpillar’s old body dies. It is attacked by the same sort of juices the caterpillar used in its earlier life to digest its food and it would not be far wrong to say the caterpillar digests itself from the inside out. This process is called ‘histolysis’.

Not all the tissue is destroyed however some of the insect’s old tissue passes on to its new self.
There is one particular sort of tissue left after histolysis. In a number of places in the insect’s body are collections of special formative cells, which have played no part in the insects larval life and have stayed hidden or protected during this partial death. Each of these groups of cells is called an ‘imaginal disk’ or a ‘histoblast’.

The imaginal disks begin to reproduce rapidly and develop into wings or legs or antennae, from the largest structure to the most tiny detail of a single hair or scale, building of a new body out of the soup that the insect’s digestive juices have made of the old larval body. This they do using the same biochemical processes that all insects use to turn their food into part of their bodies.

This rebuilding process is called ‘histogenesis’ which is the formation of different tissues from undifferentiated cells. During this time the insect is very vulnerable because it cannot run away, and this is why insects try to choose somewhere safe to hide away when they are going through this incredible change.”
( http://lepcurious.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-happens-in-metamorphosis-exactly.html)

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom 8:18-25)

Read again, “because that which is known about God is evident within them”, I believe this verse compared with the metamorphosis of a butterfly is key to a lot. God is not willing for any man to perish, but desires all to come to repentance. He gave His Son for the whole world, not a select few. He desires for every man to be complete in Christ.

I believe that just as this caterpillar “In a number of places in the insect’s body are collections of special formative cells, which have played no part in the insects larval life and have stayed hidden or protected during this partial death.” so do we.

In the fall man experienced a death, but I believe that God left within us truth, truth that will lead us to the Light so that we may have life again. The question is will we seek that truth, that light, or will we suppress it in unrighteousness? “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:20-21)

When we receive Christ, when we come to the Light, and by faith receive Him as our Savior, He becomes our chrysalis. In Him we die, our old bodies are crucified with and in Him (Rom 6:4-6) and in Him we are transformed and conformed into a new creature (Col 2:11). We are hidden in Him (Col 3:3) as God does this amazing work within us. God gives us a new heart and new life. Our old self decays and is being put to death while our inner man is being strengthened and being conformed to fit into the new glorious body that will be our when we are revealed with Christ (Rom 8:23). Just as in the caterpillar we take some of our old self with us, the part that that was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139), the part that makes us each individual and unique.

“During this time the insect is very vulnerable because it cannot run away.”
I love this. It reminds me of “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29).

Oh precious one, when we belong to God we cannot escape this metamorphosis. We will be conformed to the image of His Son. He will accomplish His purpose, and He will bring whatever trials into your life that He has to in order for His will to be done in you. It may be painful at the time, but oh when we emerge as the butterfly it will all be worth it.

As I studied through the book of Romans in depth last year this is an excerpt of some of what God showed me then from Romans 12:1-3:

“Paul goes on to say that we are not to be conformed to this world. We are not to take on the mold of the age in which we live. My Pastor has said that we have gone from smoking in public and having sex in private, to having sex in public and smoking in private. How true this is! The world and society changes its moral and ethical character with the wind, but God’s Word does not change. He does not change. We are not to be conformed to this world, to whatever age we live in, but to God. For we have been “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29)

We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The word transformed is “metamorphoo”, it is to be completely transfigured. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

As we look at nature, and we can, because God has made it clear that “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made,” (Romans 1:20), we can gain understanding to this transforming through the metamorphosis, the metamorphoo, of the butterfly. This butterfly began as a caterpillar, stuck to the ground, the earth, he is of the earth. Then one day a transformation begins.

Oh precious one, we are born in sin, of the earth, in and of Adam (Romans 5: 12-14), but by the grace and mercies of God and through the power of His Holy Spirit a transformation can begin in our life. The caterpillar does not seek to become the butterfly, divine intervention, the purpose and work of God, takes over the life of this caterpillar. Precious one, we do not seek God on our own (Romans 3:9-18). It is only by the divine intervention and purpose and will of God that you even acknowledge the possibility of His existence. Then it is the power of God in and through the gospel of God that you are saved, by grace through faith not of yourselves.

Now as we look back to this caterpillar and his transformation into this butterfly, he goes into a cocoon. The word cocoon comes from the Latin word “pupa” and the time in the cocoon is called the “pupal stage”. My friend if you are a Christian you are in the pupal stage. “Go therefore and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), disciples are learners, pupils. Oh precious one, your cocoon should be the church, not A church, but THE church. It is vital that you do more than just pew sit on Sunday morning. You must get involved in a small group. You must get involved with the body of Christ. There are many who come to a church to be a part of a faith, but the body of Christ is THE church and they are in THE faith. It is here that you are able to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It is here in these small groups, in the cocoon, that the “pupal stage” can take place. It is here that you first present your body as a living and holy sacrifice to God and you learn how to continually present your body to Him. It is here that you dig into His Word and the transformation begins. Here in the cocoon, the body of Christ.

My friends do not write off the body of Christ, the church, because of a church. Oh precious one, are you one who says you believe, yet you struggle to walk in obedience to the faith? Are you struggling to find out what God’s purpose is for your life, what His will is in circumstances and situations of your life. Then, my friend, you must get back in that pupal stage. The caterpillar doesn’t choose when it leaves the cocoon, and neither do we. We are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3). If a caterpillar was to leave its cocoon before God finished his transformation, it would die, and my friend so will we (1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 1 Corinthians 11: 30, Romans 11:17-22).

Now do you see, my friend, why Paul writes with such passion. Oh precious one, I urge you by the mercies of God to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice to God. Be consecrated unto Him. Come out of the world and be separate. Do not be deceived by the traditions and philosophies of man. Do not be conformed into the mold of society, but only into the mold of Christ. Knowing that one day your transformation will be complete and you will leave this “pupal stage” in glory! From a lowly stuck to the earth caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly soaring in the highest heavens! “To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)” 

(Excerpt from Metamorphoo written 9/27/10)

I could keep digging and digging into this beautiful picture of rebirth that God has given us. One of the things that Jimmy shared from what he studied on metamorphosis was from a guy who spoke of how the caterpillar in the chrysalis is completely broke down and then made into a completely new creature. The heart, inner parts of the caterpillar is turned into a goop and then is re-crafted into this beautiful butterfly. The man stated that in a sense this caterpillar is completely born again. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

Oh Father,

May I become goop in Your masterful hands and may You continue to transform me into the perfect form and function of Your Son, while I am hidden in the safety of Your Son as Noah was hidden in the safety of the ark. You are the potter and I am the clay, mold me into a beautiful representation of You. To You be all the glory forever and ever.

In Jesus name,
Amen