The full versions of her speech can be found here: Part 1 http://budurl.com/FullVersion1 Part 2 http://budurl.com/FullVersion2

God Bless ~
Pastor Tyler

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . —Colossians 1:24

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

Now, the decision that you have is to determine if you are in a place that God has complete control.  Have you surrendered Lordship today?   Today?, you ask, sure today.  This is something that we as humans struggle with everyday.  In every decision that you make are you/we going to surrender to what God’s will/thoughts/decisions/purpose would be for us?  You may have done a great job of surrendering yesterday but what about today?  Are you serving yourself or are you serving Christ?  Are you glorifying yourself or Christ?  Are you a hard unripe grape that is not allowing yourself to be used or are you a grape that is ready to be made into wine to be poured out into peoples lives so that they can see Christ through you.

And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.

We as a society put way to much faith in ourselves and other people.  We need to take the time to get to know God and allow Him to live our life through us.  This is the only way that in our spirit and in our hearts we will truly be satisfied and content with ourselves, our life, and our circumstances. 

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler