oikonomia
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Her sorrow will be turned to purer joy eventually.You think she wasn't,when the time that she believed that the Bible taught came and went uneventfully?
"He will swallow up death forever'
And the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;
And the reproach of His people He will remove from all the earth; For Jehovah has spoken.
And it will be said in that day.
Here, this is our God,
For whom we have waited that He may save us,
This is Jehovah. for whom we have waited;
Let us beglad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isaiah 25:9)
Yet you and I need more time to gain more Christ if we are wise.
Good job none of us is going to die, else we'd none of us have enough time.
We should emulate Paul's non-cynical attitude that he had not already obtained everything, though he was surely saved.
"Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I PURSUE, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ." (Phil. 3:12)
He wanted to use the available time to pursue more of Christ.
Do you fancy that you have enough merely because you've been forgiven?
The Aposlte Paul said that he wanted to "GAIN Christ."
" . . . that I may gain Christ . . ." (Phiippians 3:8)
Of course Paul had been saved for a long time.
But he wanted more of Christ in more of his being.
"Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing do:
Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward forward to the things which are before.
I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward." (v.13,14)
We may wonder why Paul did not just rest on his laurels.
He had a pursuing ambition to turn over more and more of his whole being to Christ.
Furthermore he said that those who are mature should have the same attitude.
"Let us therefore, as many as are fullgrown, have this mind . . . " (v.15)
The mature realize the preciousness of Christ being pursued life long.
It was not a matter of the assurance of eternal redemption that concerned him.
It was the high calling of one who overcomes - to be through life a more than conqueror, a overcomer ready to reign
with the Lord he loved in the coming age.
Here we see even his sober fear that he would be cast off from that prize because lack of the fruit of self control.
"But I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself may become disapproved." (1 Cor. 9:27)
And he labored to present those he shepherded "full grown" in Christ.
"Christ . . . Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom
that we may present every man full-grown in Christ; For which also I labor,
struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power." (Col.1:28,29)
That is what I mean by we need all the time the Lord has allotted to us, to use it WISELY to pursue and gain Christ.
"Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:15,16)
Part of the degradation of Christianity consists of unwise walking as if it makes no difference.
Only at the end of his journey when he knew he was about to die, THEN Paul rested that he had kept the faith, run the race,
and was expecting a crown of righteusness for righteous living (not just righteous standing), but subjective righteous living.
He pursed the crown of righteousness given by the righteous Judge as recompense. THis is not the crown of mercy given by the merciful Savior THOUGH Christ is surely merciful. This is the reward he pursued for righteous life and service awarded by the RIGHTEOUS Judge, Jesus.
"I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith,
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved his appearing." (2 Tim. 4:7,8)
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