Over the years I have come to change my understanding about many things that I have learned along the way. I will sum up as briefly as I can a few of the basics of what I learned. Many of them may be alive in your heart as well.
(1) Our Father is active in His universe and “works all things after the counsel of His Own will” (Ephesians 1:11).
(2) We are but clay in the hand of the divine Potter – “Has not the Potter power over the clay?” (Romans 9:21).
(3) “We are His workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10).
(4) We are therefore “confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
(5) We know that “all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
It is all about Him! God has never lost control of His universe. He is the “All in all.”
We can see this all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Nothing there took Him by surprise. It all worked together for His purpose. God did not start playing “catch-up” with man’s rebellion. God was always in the lead. After all, it was God Himself Who planted a garden with two trees: One tree of life, and the other tree of good and evil. Good and evil come from the same exact tree! They both are of divine origin! – “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). If we focus on good or evil we will miss life. Divine life is apart from good and evil. It is from an entirely different tree!
God created evil as a part of His divine plan. It did not sneak into His creation; rather, He put it there – right “in the midst.” It is the core of His plan to be “All in all” (I Corinthians 15:28). As with Pharaoh, “for this cause have I raised you up.” It is truly all about Him!
The believer’s life has nothing to do with the human performance of good or evil. It is rather about His divine life. It is about a different tree. It is about simply learning to live.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
These are truths that are alive in my heart with greater joy and freedom than I have ever known.
Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Bible Student’s Notebook
© 2005, 2010
The Great Adventure of Faith 