#good #love #God #purpose #beauty #ashes
Tuesday, 21st November 2023
Blog link: https://www.otakada.org/beauty-for-and-from-the-ashes-of-our-lives-in-14-scriptures/
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Beauty for and from the Ashes of our lives in 14 Scriptures
For Reading, Meditation, Contemplation in Application to real life Scenarios
Key words for reflection
ALL THINGS (GOOD, BAD and UGLY) work together for GOOD (To Further God’s plans and Purposes) to them that love God, to them that are Called according to God’s purpose
Hello Friends, many of us are familiar with the phrase “beauty from ashes.” It evokes a sense of comeback, of a phoenix rising from destruction, of finding something good in the midst of so much evil.
Throughout history ashes have represented loss and mourning. So the idea of finding beauty rising out of the ashes strikes a chord of hopefulness within all of us.
Many people believe this phrase comes from the Bible. But they’re mistaken. However, there’s actually a very similar phrase found in the book of Isaiah. Looking forward to the coming Messiah, Isaiah wrote that the Redeemer would “appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” (Is 61:3 KJV)
Did you catch it? The prophet did not say that God’s promise was to bring beauty from ashes, but rather He would give beauty for ashes! There’s a big difference between the two!
We like the idea of God making something beautiful from something ugly. And He can certainly do that. But His promise in Scriptures is to actually replace our ashes with something else!
I believe this points to the salvation that God provided through Jesus Christ. When God saves us, He doesn’t simply improve us, He creates something new! Consider what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor 5:17 KJV)
When you repent of your sins and confess Jesus as Lord, having believed that God raised Him from the dead, God doesn’t just “improve” you. He re-creates you! Salvation doesn’t make you a better version of your old self. It creates a whole new you!
This is why Jesus spoke of the “new birth” as being necessary to be part of the Kingdom of God. When He spoke with Nicodemus, a learned religious leader, Jesus said, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NASB).
It’s not the amount of religious education you have, or even how often you go to church. The question is, have you experienced the new birth that Peter described when he said, “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Pet 1:23 NASB)
While we may not understand all the nuances of this “born again” language, there is something within our hearts that cries out for a new beginning. We long for “old things” to pass way and for all things to become new! There’s something within us that cries out in our broken condition for a new beginning. Not for beauty to come out of our ashes, but to be given beauty in place of our ashes.
I’ve got good news for you! This is the hope of the Christian faith! And it’s something we cannot earn – it’s the free gift of God! There is hope for a new beginning!
So, today, let’s dive into the 14 scriptural references for our reading, meditation, Contemplation for life application today and beyond:
1) Romans 8:28-32
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
2) 2 Corinthians 4:16-17
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
3) 1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
4) 1 Peter 4:12-16
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
5) Genesis 45:5-7
But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
6) Genesis 50:20
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
7) Philippians 1:6
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
8) Romans 8:17
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
9) Proverbs 3:6
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
10) Romans 5:3-4
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
11) Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12) 2 Corinthians 1:5
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
13) 2 Corinthians 4:8-11
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
14) Isaiah 61:3
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”
Think about this for a moment in your life’s journey thus far: think hard When last hasn’t beauty not come of the moments of the painful ashes of your past or present life? As Christians, the road is usually not ALWAYS smooth but in the roughness of your life, God is working out His purposes beyond your wildest imagination. The ashes could be the health situation that defies prayer and medical intervention; it could be the business that has gone into bankruptcy or about to; it could be the relationship that is dead, plain DEAD and buried alive: it could be the DREAMS, the PROPHECIES spoken, declared over your life, like Joseph that could not connect the hatred and rejection of his sibling to the divine plans of God for his life except after ALL is said and done. You are not over yet until God says, “It is FINISHED. ” So, stay and keep your focus in the realm of beauty for or from ASHES. He, Jesus, accomplished this deed of Beauty for ashes through the sacrificial death to safe the entire human race who believe, confess and accept Him (Jesus) as their personal Lord and Savior. If you have not confessed Christ before now, I urge you to do this today as a define shift in your eternal destiny happens effective immediately! The ashes in your life might not disappear but you are assured that all things work together for GOOD to us who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Shalom
Ambassador Monday Ogwu OGBE
God’s Eagle Ministries
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