{"id":21082,"date":"2022-04-06T17:47:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T00:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-goodglue-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T17:58:36","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T00:58:36","slug":"2022-goodwork","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-goodwork\/","title":{"rendered":"A Good Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">By\u00a0kenneth petersen<\/p>\n<p><strong>He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (<\/strong><strong>Philippians 1:6)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21083 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/wrestle-1-e1649292838418.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"343\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As a teenager, Charles Spurgeon wrestled with God. He\u2019d grown up going to church, but what was preached seemed bland and meaningless. It was a struggle for him to believe in God, and Charles, in his own words, \u201crebelled and revolted.\u201d One night a fierce snowstorm forced the sixteen-year-old Spurgeon to seek shelter in a tiny Methodist church. The pastor\u2019s sermon seemed directed at him personally. In that moment, God won the wrestling match, and Charles gave his heart to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Spurgeon later wrote, \u201cLong before I began with Christ, He began with me.\u201d In fact, our life with God doesn\u2019t begin with the moment of salvation. The psalmist notes that God \u201ccreated [our] inmost being,\u201d\u00a0knitting us together in our mother\u2019s womb (Psalm 139:13). The apostle Paul writes, \u201cEven before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace\u201d (Galatians 1:15\u00a0nlt). And God doesn\u2019t stop working with us when we\u2019re saved: \u201cHe who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion\u201d (Philippians 1:6).<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re all works-in-progress in the hands of a loving God. He leads us through our rebellious wrestling and into His warm embrace. But His purpose with us then is only beginning. \u201cFor God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him\u201d (Philippians 2:13\u00a0nlt). Rest assured, we\u2019re His good work regardless of how old we are or what stage of life we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n<p><em>How\u2019s God working in your life at this very moment? What\u2019s He doing with you for His purposes?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21084 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/wrestle-2-e1649292964110.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>INSIGHT<\/h4>\n<p>Psalm 139\u00a0is a lyrical composition of undisputed beauty. The psalmist celebrates God\u2019s omniscience (His knowledge of everything; vv. 1\u20136), His omnipresence (His presence everywhere; vv. 7\u201312), and David\u2019s intimacy with such an omnipotent (all-powerful) God (vv. 13\u201318). The way the psalm ends (vv. 23\u201324) mirrors the way it begins (vv. 1\u20132). Notice the repetition of the words\u00a0<em>search<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>know.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>At first glance, verses 19\u201322 seem out of place. They differ from the rest of the psalm in tone and content. While David writes as an intimate friend of God, there were those who lived and functioned in opposition to Him. They\u2019re described as \u201cwicked\u201d (v. 19), \u201cadversaries\u201d (v. 20), and \u201c[those] who are in rebellion\u201d (v. 21). The God-conscious psalmist, however, wasn\u2019t among them and distinguished himself as such. The similarity of verses 19\u201322 to what follows in Psalm 140\u00a0may suggest that the two psalms should be read together.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21085 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/wrestle-3-e1649293086352.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":21083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-21082","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21086,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21082\/revisions\/21086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21082"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=21082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}