Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 NIV
Standing alone, it looks like a magnificent promise.
So how did the Father send Jesus?
-Illegitimate.
-Poor.
-Fleeing the country for political asylum.
-Raised in obscurity, poverty and dishonor.
-Blocked from walking out His passion for ministry for almost two decades.
-Opposed in ministry.
-Rejected in His home town.
-Hated by the religious institutions.
-Misunderstood by His parishioners.
-Embezzled.
-Betrayed.
-Killed.
Umm…where is the peace?
There was only one point of peace throughout all that and it was the knowledge that His life was significant. He was doing what He had been designed to do. He was following Father’s orders. He was sowing a crop Father would be watching over. And in the end, there would be only productive pain.
His life would count for all of mankind for all of eternity.
He sent the Eleven out the same way. To be reviled, abused and eventually killed. And to change the world in the end.
Balmoral, pain and the perception of imaginary pain are two of the devil’s favorite tools. They have derailed endless believers over the years by causing them to lose perspective.
I bless you Balmoral with becoming a place where people in pain retain a right perspective. I bless you with an incomparable anointing to allow God’s people to see God’s purposes and to embrace the right pain in order to produce stupendous transformation as they possess their birthright.
Copyright July 2011 by Arthur Burk
Sapphire Leadership Group, Inc.
Thank you Arthur for the encouragement.
May we not be deceived by what we see, but have our eyes on the things above and not the things below.
My hope is to leave a deposit of life when I leave this land in one year. It has a history of sin and death (internment camp) and a consistent flow of bad-boys and law -breakers (SF county jail).
And yet, in light of Jesus’ playing field, I am reminded…
The opportunity lies in the blessing of His original design for this land.
Onward, Noble Subject!
Arthur thank you for this blessing. I am in awe for the land to be blessed in this way!
It is not an easy matter to retain the right perspective on pain.
“… the knowledge that His life was significant. …”
Yes.
Pain with purpose.
There was a “joy set before him” that was greater than the pain he endured.
May our awareness of that same joy grow increasingly strong that we too, may endure.