Caveat: These are preliminary thoughts. Interaction is appreciated.
God works in mysterious ways. I have found it astonishing over the past few months the ways in which the Lord takes the most difficult and trying circumstances to shape us into the image of the Son. At one level this should come as no surprise. The nature of being a disciple of Christ is to take on a cruciform identity. One can only be made like Christ by being held up to scorn and mockery. Yet what I have begun to see is that if we will not deliver ourselves up to such ignominy, God will place us on the cross himself. My tendency is to have idealistic visions of self-sacrifice wherein I meekly lay my life down for the sake of the Kingdom. Continue Reading…