Digging for Truth

A few months ago a dear older sister in Christ wrote this to me in an email when I was having a hard time.  It was just the encouragement I needed, and I thought I would share it with you all.  It begins with her discussing a study...and just gets better from there.  May you be just as encouraged as I was.

"It [this study] is about the early and Latter Rains of scripture and Digging Ditches in the Desert. The Old Testament talks about Streams in the Desert....places that were once parched and had not enjoyed the early or latter rains for quite some time. They are not wastelands, but places of deep, buried and abandoned value. The whole picture thread throughout this study is the purpose of those discouraging dry times of life as we are digging truth out of the word without that truth seeming to be a blessing to us or anyone else at the time. The times when things don't make sense and we feel alone in the things we learn and cannot share them with like-minded Believers without reaction or argument against the truth. It is like they could be saying....'don't dig there, there is no current value there.'

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 "You will encounter this throughout your entire life. One of the beauties of our Lord is that He perfectly possesses grace and truth at the same time. But His grace never graces-the-truth out of truth. I have to keep that motto in my mind....."Grace never graces-truth-out-of-Truth". But I do need to exercise the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ while speaking truth in love. If I am going to genuinely love people, I must speak the truth. Over-graced truth is selfish and self seeking. It merely seeks a good standing for myself and never really communicates truth for fear of self-loss or loss of esteem. On the other hand...... ungraced truth is equally self seeking in that it leaves the love and character of Christ out of the truth being communicated,  while seeking esteem for my intellect or respect and a hearing for my opinions. And believe me....it has taken decades for me to learn the differences and finer points of these things. Speaking the truth in love, grace and tact, will not always win friends.....but it allows us to be an accurate and trustworthy beacon of truth to those God has called me to be a witness to. He will entrust more truth to those who esteem and keep it, but even remove truth from those who do not esteem and keep it. SCARY!  I don't want anyone making shipwreck on my shores because my light has gone out!!!  

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  "Think of the lighthouses you have taken your friends around to see and enjoy. Look at how strategically they are placed. Look at their foundations....not just on the rock, but anchored firmly onto rock that has to withstand huge gale force winds and pounding briney water assaults on a daily basis. Yet each one of those lighthouses has its own unique beauty and grace of structure. Lighthouses are one of those worldwide icons of solidarity, trust and beauty. And yet no one thinks about the reality of the lighthouse.....set alone on a constantly threatened shore. Weathered beyond description. One of the most longstanding structures before having to be replaced. And yet the light continues to come from within no matter what the weather may assault it with.

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 "The world needs beacons of truth. The world needs hearts that can receive the refreshing rains of truth by having dug deep into the dry-er truths of the Word of God and not tossing it over your shoulder as though nothing of value is there. Christians are capitulating by the hundreds of thousands. I am mentioning this topic of study in scripture to give you a bedrock of encouragement for the dry times ahead. It is often a turning point for my mind when I begin to feel discouragement at the disdain for truth that so many Christians display when you don't bend with them. I look back at the verses and principles the Lord has taught me about digging ditches in a dry parched land....often parched myself while digging where there doesn't seem to be any water to refresh me as I dig into the word of truth.....and then come the rains. Wonderful drenching truths of revelation from His Word. Rains that I can enjoy where others cannot because they didn't care to dig there. Places capable of reception that are gaping open and wide to receive the wonderful rains of truth that would simply not be there had I not been digging in those dry places where others scorned to dig."

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