Stories from the Cleft-10: The Confession and Confidence of The Beloved: “I AM YOURS!”

Welcome to the tenth course of Stories from the Cleft at The Training Table—set to serve and help sustain all those who are “running the good race” (1 Corinthians 9:26; 2 Timothy 4:7).

Please check out where we’ve been along the journey at The Training Table Archives section of Feast of the Heart. Be sure to recall the Bible passage from Exodus 33:12-23; 34:29-35 where the story of Moses and “the cleft in the rock” can be found.

This Training Table is devoted to introducing a new video, “I Am Yours”… A song that was inspired my book, “The Weeping, the Window, the Way”. In a broken world, suffering is unavoidable. The question is how we will respond to trials. As the book’s subtitle asks, ‘Will suffering make you bitter or better?” My book and the song reminds us that, in the midst of trials of any kind, God wants us to remember and remind others, “I am yours, oh God… I am yours!”

“God’s Glory Passing by”… in God’s Divine Authority
Every book in the Bible is God’s living Word.

“God’s Glory Passing by”… in God’s Plan for History
God has a unified plan for all of history. His ultimate purpose, “a plan for the fullness of time,” is “to unite all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:10), “to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12).

“When the fullness of time had come,” when the exact moment was appropriate in God’s plans, “God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).

“God’s Glory Passing by”… In God’s Christ the Mediator—Our Rescuer and Advocate
Ever since the fall of Adam into sin, sin and its consequences have been the pervasive problem in the entire universe—and in the culmination of God’s creation, the human race. Sin is a rebellion against God and deserves death, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sinful man needs a mediator; we need a rescuer and an advocate. “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

In Christ, we have the unspeakable mercies, unmerited favor, doctrinal, and practical blessing of being able to say to God, in Christ, by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, “I Am Yours”:

The “I Am Yours” that begins at conversion is organic! “I Am Yours” GROWS DEEPER AND DEEPER as we trust God in faith and in all things—but especially in our trials. Sanctified suffering leads to our conformation…more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ… and more and more used of HIS power and purposes in a broken world—and as a comfort to others God places in our life (2 Cor. 1:3-7).

Enjoy. Employ.

Please SHARE with anyone God has providentially placed in your life and is or will experience the suffering caused by living in a broken world.

JohnDoz