The Winepress of His Love

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God allows things - trials and tribulations - to come into our lives to help along the process of our transformation. As we walk through these testings with Christ, our ways of the independent flesh are replaced with God's ways as we become dependent upon Him through the Spirit.
 
God wants to get down to the real us - the "Spirit" us. And so he allows us, like grapes, to be squeezed until all that is left is the juice, the wine, the Spirit.
 
It's not fun being in the winepress of His love, not in the flesh, anyway. It discomforts....our flesh. It hurts.....our flesh. It destroys....our flesh. It is a place of learning, of chastening, of correction, of spiritual transformation.
 
And, as the winepress of God's love tightens around our fleshly perception of ourselves and our fleshly opinions and our fleshly priorities and our fleshly goals, then - one by one - they are broken and then crushed amidst His love for us.
 
It is a disconcerting, disappointing and humbling experience to watch the skin, and the stem, and the pulp and the seeds of our own personalities spew forth as we are transformed to have the personality of Christ.
 
But, in the end, all that is left......is Wine.
Spirit.
Truth.
And Peace.
 
And this is a precious vision of our Father's love, that when we do not choose the right way, He will choose to bring us back to it.
 
Gently as possible.
Firmly as needed.
This is the Love of our Father.
 
Now no chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievious: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Hebrews 12:11

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In her song Less Like Scars, Sara Groves sings so eloquently of this process of change and growth and transformation in Christ. Please read the lyrics, watch the video, and be blessed as you reflect upon this aspect of the Journey that we are all sharing.





Less Like Scars

It's been a hard year
But I'm climbing out of the rubble
These lessons are hard
Healing changes are subtle
But every day it's

Less like tearing, more like building
Less like captive, more like willing
Less like breakdown, more like surrender
Less like haunting, more like remember

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like
Character

Less like a prison, more like my room
It's less like a casket, more like a womb
Less like dying, more like transcending
Less like fear, less like an ending

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars

Just a little while ago
I couldn't feel the power or the hope
I couldn't cope, I couldn't feel a thing
Just a little while back
I was desperate, broken, laid out, hoping
You would come

And I need you
And I want you here
And I feel you

And I know you're here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad, bad situation
But you are able

And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars (x3)

And more like
Character