You might remember at the start of my recent ‘trial by fire’ (where I tried to quench my burning skin rash several times a day with cold showers : – ) I was directed to C.S. Lewis’, “That Hideous Strength.”
Our friends Dave and Cindy Watson from Duluth then told me they too had just been lead to read that book together for a third time!….Our prayers continue for you brother Dave, for a full recovery from your recent serious health ordeal!
The name of the central character in The Space Trilogy was Ransom.….. Hence the name of this series.
At the same time I was lead to read or rather re-read another book, the book of Job in the bible.
My first significant personal encounter with Job, the book and the experience, was just after we moved to the USA 28 years ago. As with the bible character I realize now that was a ‘first round’ of testing where Satan was given permission to touch two areas of his life – his family and his wealth. We too were sorely tested in these two areas just after we moved from Ireland to the US. Those days left my old bible full of underlines and margin notes as Father walked me through Job’s story, that became my story : – )
This recent trial I realized was ‘the second round’ when permission was given to ‘strike his flesh’, and I too found myself with ‘painful sores’ on the top of my head…. but thankfully not as extensive as to ‘the soles of his feet.” !
The teaching that came out of that initial trial, I entitled, “The Making of an Intercessor’ because although Job began as ‘a good man’, a righteous and religious ‘pray-er’, he also had an ‘ego’ that God wanted to deal a death blow to if he were to become an effective intercessor in unity with Christ.
The early and final chapters of the book were the most worn pages in my bible, however another section that had caught my attention once again was in chapter 33. where that ‘ego’ monster of PRIDE is identified.
The passage continues…………….
Turning the page I found the answer………….
There IS – a RANSOM!
…………………that can restore my flesh to that of a child’s
………………….that can enable me to see “God’s (smiling) face” and to shout for JOY!
A few verses later it confirms this is not just a ‘one off’ but even as the coming of the Spirit first at Sinai, then in the Upper Room at Pentecost and finally at Tabernacles represents three ascending levels of faith, so we may need to go on this Job journey of humbling, again and again, that ‘the light of life’ may shine on us, and in us, in it’s full measure!
So in this last round I sought to surrender to an even deeper level of dying to pride and letting ‘ego’ go!
I just listened to an excellently informative lecture by the courageous Dr Aseem Malhotra*** entitled “Has Big Pharma Hijacked Evidence-Based Medicine?” linked below.
He talks about how our ‘fragile ego’ can lead to “Willful Blindness”
This helped explain to me why a number of ‘Good people’ have been unable to acknowledge the growing body of truth coming to light about the ‘psychopathic corporate tyranny’ surrounding ‘Covid’
Only God knows when our individual ‘ego’s have been thoroughly dealt with, and the ‘Job job’ has been completed : – )
Thankfully there is indeed ‘a mediator’……. ‘an angel‘ one sent as the messenger who embodies the message of God’s amazing grace in bringing about this ‘sanctification’!
One of the songs that rose up again repeatedly during my trial, sang the praises of the one who became a Ransom.……
“Does sleep her balm deny?
My silent spirit sighs,
“May Jesus Christ be praised.!”
Or fades my earthly bliss
My comfort still is this,
“May Jesus Christ be praised.”
The wonderful hymn continues……..
Let earth’s wide circle round
In JOYFUL notes resound
“May Jesus Christ be praised!“
Let air and sea and sky
From depth to height reply,
“May Jesus Christ be praised.”
and concludes…….
“Be this while life is mine
My canticle divine,
“May Jesus Christ be praised!”
Be this the eternal song
Through all the ages long
“May Jesus Christ be praised.”
And so after this ‘dark night’ it is with clearer sight and a more whole heart that I am able to enter each new day…..
“When morning guilds the skies
My heart awaking cries,
“May Jesus Christ be praised!”