"The Beautiful Paradox"

2Cor. 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like FRAGILE CLAY JARS containing this GREAT TREASURE. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 

This picture of our lives as Fragile Jars of Clay containing the Perfect Eternal Light of Jesus is what’s known as a PARADOX.

A simple definition for Paradox would be: A great truth expressed in contradictory terms. 

Think about it…

• We see the unseen
• We have Freedom in His Yoke
• We reign when we serve
• We’re lifted up when we humble ourselves
• We win by yielding
• Giving is getting
• Dying is living
• And the boundless Kingdom of Heaven lies within our finite souls

Divine Paradoxes are the Atomic Particles of Theology.  They’re created where the Vastness of GOD intersects the Weakness of Humans.  Without paradoxes there is no Christianity.  FOR when Heaven touches Earth in a Believer’s soul, a Living Paradox is birthed, causing GOD to speak concerning us as, Those things that be not as though they were.   Paul testifies about himself as a Living Paradox…

2Cor. 12:9-10 (GOD told me), “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

When life becomes hard Remember You Are a Living Paradox, and pray to the TREASURE of GOD’s Love inside of you.  For LIVING IN His Love is living in His Presence.

Rom. 5:3-5 We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When GOD installed the Holy Spirit, along with His Love, into your soul He created a Sacred Space inside of you.  This is where His Grace & Your Weakness fellowship together to create a Vast & Wonderful Home where you are always accepted in Christ.

Psa. 118:5 In my distress I cried out to the LORD.  And the LORD answered me and put me in a LARGE PLACE.

It’s that LARGE PLACE, in you, where GOD has made all the room you’ll ever need to Learn, Correct Mistakes, Grow, and Be Happy.  Sometimes life becomes a Claustrophobic Experience. You become franticly cramped by you’re own mistakes.  And the inability to explain yourself is like a gag over your soul.  But when you get on your knees and step through into Your Large Place—the Secret Place of the Most High—you're under the Shade of the Almighty, and you know YOU’RE understood.  THERE, on the inside of you, as you commune with the LORD, is the Paradox of Strength-In-Fragility, where your fears and anxieties fade, as you trade with your Heavenly Father…

• Ashes for Beauty
• Mourning for the Oil of Joy
• And exchange the Spirit of Heaviness for the Garment of Praise.  

Even in life’s best relationships we can come to the end of people’s tolerance, where we’re censored, misunderstood, and no explanation we can offer for ourselves is accepted.   There is no Beautiful Paradox in the fallen world, just consequences.  Surviving those relationships is like surviving an amputation: You come through it alive but leave a part of yourself behind.  And a piece of the love dies.  But no matter how much of your natural life the world takes, INSIDE the praying Christian, there’s a place where the Beautiful Paradox waits with Mercies that are renewed every morning.   GOD’s Love working inside you is the Beautiful Paradox of life.  And it’s what makes you a Living Testimony of GOD’s Love & Power, to those who haven’t yet received Jesus Christ.   While the world around you probes your natural limitations, the Love, Joy, and Peace, GOD gives you, keeps flowing out from your life within.  You carry your Vast Inner Home within a compact earthen vessel.  It’s your Freedom in Captivity, your Large Place in a Claustrophobic world.  It’s THE PLACE where GOD Loves you, and waits to trade with you: the Excellency of His Power for the troubles of your Earthen Life!   The Beautiful Paradox you carry through life is carrying you.  You live and move within that which lives and moves within you.

2Cor. 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like FRAGILE CLAY JARS containing this GREAT TREASURE. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.