Thoughts on Sin: Perspectives

Greetings my friend.


This is a follow up piece to what I recently wrote on Hebrews 12. Mulling over the subject of sin, I have concluded the following: Most Christians and churches exist as if either there is no such thing as sin, or, sin exists, but we needn’t concern ourselves with it. Seem shocking and completely false? Perhaps, but these conclusions are not simply my own. I have discussed this subject with many others who also recognize the same. Still, such a determination may come as a shock. Why do I have this perception? What causes would create such a condition in the church? Immediate replies might be “Because Christians don’t really believe the bible as they claim,” and “Because Christians are focused on other things.” Both statements deserve to be explored and unpacked some time, but for now let us just consider the following perspectives that a Christian may have about sin:


Sin doesn’t exist.


Sin exists, but I don’t have a sin issue.


Sin exists, I have a sin issue, but I’m not interested in dealing with it.


Sin exists, I have a sin issue, I’m not interested in dealing with it, and my eternal relationship with God through Christ has me secure from needing to deal with sin.


Sin exists, I have a sin issue (like all Christians), but none of my Christian relationships, including my pastoral leadership, ever talk about or put any emphasis on actually dealing with sin. They may make some passing comment regarding sin in general in a sermon or as touched on during a corporate congregational prayer Sunday mornings, but that’s it. Apparently sin isn’t important to others, so it’s not important to me. Everyone spends so little time actually dealing with the issue. No one ever talks about it. I’m just like the others. For us, it simply doesn’t exist.


Sin exists, I believe that, but I’m so busy with life in general and church activities that I just don’t have time to think about and deal with sin. I do all I can to just make it through my day. If I focus on Jesus and behold him, won’t that eventually somehow move sin out of my life: focus on the good?


Sin exists, and I believe I should understand it better, and believe God wants me to be someone less sinful, but I don’t know what to do. I know I’m saved. I go to church. Sometimes I read my bible. That’s about all I can realistically do. God is love, and I believe He understands how busy my life is. I guess I’d have to say that dealing with sin just isn’t important to me, but many other things I and my church spend a lot of time on are important to us. That’s why we do them.


A Contrary View:

 
“O Father, sanctify them in thy truth, because thy word is truth.” (Jn 17:17)


“For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and he disciplines the son with whom he is pleased.” (Heb 12:6)


“Now, therefore, endure discipline, because God acts toward you as toward sons; for where is the son whom the father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, that very discipline by which every man is trained, then you are strangers and not sons.” (Heb 12:7-8)


“Furthermore if our fathers of the flesh corrected us and we respected them, how much more then should we willingly be under subjection to our Spiritual Father, and live? For they only for a short while disciplined us as seemed good to them; but God corrects us for our advantage, that we might become partakers of his holiness.” (Heb 12:9-10)


“No discipline, at the time, is expected to be a thing of joy, but of sorrow; but in the end it produces the fruits of peace and righteousness to those who are trained by it.” (Heb 12:11)


“I rebuke and chastise all those whom I love; be zealous, therefore, and repent.” (Rev 3:19) *


We are told that God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ are actively engaged with each Christian in particular and the body of Christ universal, motivated by love, to lead Christians from sin into the presence of God; that is, God is redeeming a people for Himself; a people who will be with the Father and with the Son. God is holy, separate, distinct, unique when compared to anything. Christians, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, have been saved and brought into that inner-most seat of relational fellowship which the triune God experiences Himself. Christians have been grafted into the life of the Son of God. THAT relational positioning, the reality of it, is the holiness the author of Hebrews 12:10 is discussing. God is uniquely other than this world and all created things. His holiness, which Christians now participate in at a most foundational level to their lives, should express itself in and through their lives above any competing structure that originates from the created order.


These Hebrews 12 verses are set in the context of Christians being directed to deal with sin. Jesus’ declaration in Revelation 3 is made in the context of his actively governing his church, which entails judgment: dealing with their false notions of themselves, their not understanding his concurrent rule over them and consequences for disobedience and living a lie, and that their lives were not reflecting outwardly his rule over them inwardly. In both chapters, Hebrews 12 and Revelation 3, love is the revealed motive from which God engages those who are his, so that the truth of Jesus Christ’s atonement and lordship is lived and manifest to the world. It is from love that Jesus confronts. It is from love that the Father disciplines. The consequences for not hearing Jesus’ rebuke and instruction, and repenting, of not understanding the Father’s work in one’s life, should themselves cause us to fear and humble ourselves before God Almighty and move us quickly to ask for more of that divine instruction!


Much is made of God’s love in our contemporary Christian culture, and rightfully so. But the absence of any seriousness toward dealing with sin by individual Christians and by the church at large produces an erroneous view of that very love. Thankfully, John 17 tells us our Lord’s concern for those who trust him. Jesus Christ made a specific request to his Father concerning the purifying, or separating out, of those who are the Lord’s. He petitioned his very own Father to care for those He had given him. The Father loves the Son and fulfills his petition. The record of Hebrews 12 is a testimony or a glimpse of the Father’s answer to His Son’s prayer. It is revealed to us that the Father’s sanctifying work is directed toward each Christian. This is fact. Thus, discernment of the Father’s chastening and discipline should be pursued and sought by each Christian to the point that they know without any hesitation their sonship. The absence of this Fatherly work is disallowed for true children.


How then do I explain my observations and conclusions concerning the absence of Christians mindfully dealing with sin? How do I explain so many Christians having no clue of the Father’s or our Lord Jesus Christ’s disciplining work in their lives? Many of these people bank on the love of God to the apparent exclusion of His other qualities and ways. Lord, may we all who call on your name daily ask for the loving hand of discipline in our lives to prepare us here and now to be with you then and forever.


The writer of Hebrews knew very well there were Christians who did not understand God’s love and discipline, His work of shaking described later in Hebrews 12, or that the love of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ moves them to care about the holiness of each Christian. That is why the author ended chapter 12 with a reminder of Who it is we are actually positioning ourselves before. Who it is that has actually done the saving, and the implications of that glorious salvation. He admonishes his readers to live reverent and godly lives because God is a consuming fire! It matters very much to God that you and I, and each Christian, participate in His holiness (v. 10). We do not manufacture a life condition referred to as “our own holiness.” We are called to participate in His holiness. The two are very different and this difference must be clear when daily dealing with sin.


Participating in God’s holiness is a condition or requirement for what we find Jesus petitioning the Father about in the later part of John 17: that we would be with him, that we would be one with Jesus and the Father, that we would see Christ’s glory that he had before the world was, and that the love that is shared between the Father and His Son would be our experience. Jesus’ passion was that all that the Father gave him would be with him. That is why we must undergo the Father’s discipline which leads to holiness: so we can be with him! As the Hebrews writer says elsewhere, without holiness, no one will see the Lord: see Him themselves in the end and along the way; and others seeing Him as those who set apart their lives by following Jesus Christ testify of Him to the world.


So why does dealing with sin not matter to us; matter to the point where we read God’s word, think, pray and talk with other Christians about it and deal with our lives? Matter such that my having been separated unto a life with God through Jesus Christ continually frames what I think, say and do? This is a totally different outlook than mindlessly venturing through the week that perhaps culminates in a momentary petition for forgiveness on Sunday morning for that week’s sins. Faithful pastors shepherd their flocks with a degree of intimacy and care to where they help parse out godliness from corruption for those they have charge for. They understand the responsibility to lead people along that pathway that ends in what Ephesians 1:4 and John 17 tell us is our divine destination. They warn of temptation and expose the tempter! These things are openly and frequently discussed, and people are guided along their ways.


Given the truth about our relationship with the God Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, should we Christians not have a different understanding of sin, what it is and what is to be done about it? It seems very important to both the Father and His Son. We know too the Holy Spirit shares the very same concern and passion for purifying the individual Christian heart and that of the bride. Holiness and sanctification are truths and realities which exist as the base fabric of the Christian life and experience. When I write again, I will labor to detail three key divisions which knowing about and understanding may help Christians have discernment for making it through their days following the Lord Jesus Christ and actually engaging all that would wage war against them to forsake him.


Additionally, the world lost and without Christ needs the witness available from Christians living lives separated from sin. Living from that degree of division produces a discernment and a voice different from one who is self-deceived by sin.


God’s best.


Carl


* Verses are from the bible translated by George M. Lamsa from the Aramaic of the Peshitta.

Sibbes on God's Grace

Greetings, friend.

The following comes from The Bruised Reed, by Richard Sibbes. The chapter is Grace Shall Reign. The subsection is titled “Why the Enemy Seems Victorious.” (pages 95 – 96, Puritan Paperbacks)

“Third, God often works by contraries: when he means to give victory, he will allow us to be foiled at first; when he means to comfort, he will terrify first; when he means to justify, he will condemn us first; when he means to make us glorious, he will abase us first. A Christian conquers, even when he is conquered. When he is conquered by some sins, he gets victory over others more dangerous, such as spiritual pride and security.


Fourthly, Christ’s work, both in the church and in the hearts of Christians, often goes backward so that it may go forward better. As seed rots in the ground in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the wind the more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by weakness discovered . . . (weakness is the keeper of virtue). We take deeper root by shaking. And, as torches flame brighter by moving, thus it pleases Christ, out of his freedom, in this manner to maintain his government in us. Let us herein labor to exercise our faith, so that it may answer Christ’s way of dealing with us. When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob, after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling (Gen 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but, in our thoughts, knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies. Let us assure ourselves that God’s grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man’s free will in the state of original perfection. It is founded now in Christ, who, as he is the author, so will he be the finisher, of our faith (Heb 12:2). We are under a more gracious covenant.”


We would do well to spend time talking through all that Sibbes puts before us. Reasoning together, our understanding would be developed, corrected, shaped, deepened, and what would emerge is a vision of life for us to follow. We would see how we are to be. As Christians, we must move beyond mere belief of these things to participation in the realities we confess. Living shows what we believe.

Meekness

Interpreting and comprehending Jesus’ identifying ‘the righteous’ with ‘the meek’ in Matthew 5:5 is the subject. Consider the following:


“The second word [meek] belongs with his own characterization in Matthew 11:29: ‘I am meek and lowly in heart . . . ‘ The word (praus in Greek) means one who makes no claim, but –having rights – nonetheless waives them. It denotes absorption of evil, rather than its requital in retaliation. ‘Do not resist evil’ (Matt 5:39) does not imply that wrong is never to be opposed, but rather that evil is not allowed to involve us in its resentments. Instead, for example, of the lex talionis (the right to exact one’s rights) by which the evil comes round full circle and persists in retaliatory being, ‘the meek’ stay (arrest) it in themselves and thereby purge the situation of its enmity. In so doing, they take the context into creative renewal and cause the goodness of the earth to be repossessed, whereas the contrary stance confirms its evil, serves its cynicism, sides with its contentiousness and justifies its despair. Only in the redemptiveness of which meekness is the nerve and fiber is the earth held in righteous trust.” (Kenneth Cragg, Jesus and the Muslim, 133)

It is important for those of us who claim to be Christians to grasp what Cragg is identifying here. Once understood, the imagery of relationships that begins to form in our minds should then grasp us and carry over into our actions. Read the paragraph again, then consider his points in light of the following verses. Think well on Matthew 11:27-30 and try to put words to how Cragg’s views above can facilitate soul rest. Christ’s yoke is his government. The rest he offers had previously not been available. Now it is. Enjoy thinking through this.

God’s best.

Carl


“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5)

“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle [meek] and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt 11:27-30)

“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” (1 Pet 2:21)

See Romans 12:15-21

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 Jn 2:6)

Hugh Binning on Humility Concerning the Individual and the Body of Christ

“Humility makes a man compare himself with the best, that he may find how bad he himself is, but pride measures by the worst, that it may hide from a man his own imperfections. The one takes a perfect rule, and finds itself nothing; the other takes a crooked rule, and imagines itself something.

But this is the way that unity may be kept in the body, if all the members keep this method and order, the lowest to measure by him that is higher, and the higher to judge himself by him that is yet above him; and he that is above all the rest to compare with the rule of perfection, and find himself further short of the rule than the lowest is below him.

 If our comparisons did thus ascend, we would descend in humility, and all the different degrees of persons would meet in one center of lowliness of mind. But while our rule descends, our pride ascends. The Scripture holds out pride and self-estimation as the root of many evils, and humility as the root of many good fruits among men. Only through pride comes contention (Prov. 13:10).

There is pride at least in one of the parties, and often in both; it makes one man careless of another and, out of contempt, not to study equity and righteousness towards him; and it makes another man impatient of receiving and bearing an injury or disrespect. While every man seeks to please himself, the contention arises. Pride in both parties makes both stiff and inflexible to peace and equity; and in this there is a great deal of folly; for by this means, both procure more real displeasure and dissatisfaction to their own spirits.

But ‘with the well-advised is wisdom.’ They who have discretion and judgment will not be so wedded to their own conceits but that in humility they can forbear and forgive for the sake of peace. And though this may seem harsh and bitter at first, to a passionate and distempered mind, yet, oh how sweet it is after! There is a greater sweetness and refreshment in the peaceable condescension of a man’s spirit and the quiet passing by of an injury than the highest satisfaction that ever revenge or contention gave to any man. ‘When pride cometh, the cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom.’ (Prov. 11:2).”

Hugh Binning, Christian Love.

Thoughts on God’s Chastening: Hebrews 12:11

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb 12:11)

My friend,

Surely this verse gives us encouragement that God our Father works for our good; and, also that He is working for the good of all His children across the world, for those who are born from above. If one’s view of God is wrong and He is not trusted, His wisdom not yielded to, His Fatherly care not wanted, then the divine discipline that He intends for good may certainly go unrecognized. It could even be disregarded. And, if His chastening comes upon someone possessing unbelief and a partially hardened heart, the training and potential benefit may be wasted or even scorned. Those who do not understand that God works through chastening position themselves to miss out on an education that God wisely manages and which He declares is for our good.

We might say that if a Christian has not already experienced training by God’s chastening, then that person will not have the discerning eyes to know additional lessons which come in this same way. We, as individual Christians, participate in this divine action. This may seem obvious—Of course we as Christians participate in God’s chastening!—but, I assure you, I rarely encounter any Christian going through God’s chastening, so why should I think it actually goes on? Personal knowledge of this divine work requires going beyond only possessing informational understanding of it. One must render a personal interpretation of one’s life as having actually been through one or more episodes of it. To truly know the goodness of God through chastening, one must experience His discipline directly, come through it and be able to see the process and the good fruit it yields. I assume one can talk about what God did in their life and what came as a result. The difference we are pinpointing is between one knowing about something without having experienced it and one knowing it having experienced it. The way Hebrews 12 presents God’s chastening, it should be something each Christian both knows about and knows personally.

Some Christians who access the scriptures regularly will come across this text and they will be able, with the Spirit’s aide, to interpret their experiences as this divine training. They will recognize God’ role and the blessing of God’s direct involvement in their lives, and they yield willingly to all God desires of them.  But others there are who need to be instructed that this is a foundational way in which God at times works to teach His children many lessons about their lives of faith. It is needful and helpful for Christians to understand how and why God works this way, so they can know Him better and understand their lives in light of His works.

This training from chastening, like “the shaking” of God mentioned later in the same chapter, comes to us in the context of dealing with sin. The record of these two divine actions declares how God works in people’s lives with the result that their lives conform to Gods, and that their lives are being prepared to be with God through eternity. Working through these topics in chapter 12 we enter chapter 13 where we are encouraged to love others. My view on this theme development is that if we do not follow scriptures call to forsake sin, then we will not love others. To help us forsake sin, God our Father lovingly and wisely disciplines us. As we grow through discipline, He also gives us understanding of our end with Him. Knowing our end, and having His careful work in our lives now, we become more like Him. This likeness is manifest in how we relate to others, and love is the chief quality.

It is imperative that we as Christians view our lives through what scripture declares. Christians with trained eyes see and understand what comprises their lives moment to moment, event to event, and they understand where it all leads. Others cannot see because they do not believe what God has said. Some have no or very little knowledge of His word. They neither see nor know their end, thus they cannot understand their present. Then, there are others who tend to believe strongly in themselves, in their wisdom, in their judgments, in their self-righteousness, in their power, and in their rights. They may not see this about themselves. Living this way is natural to them, and they do not discern their true condition. They live as gods, desiring self-rule. Categorically, there are others who having direct access to God’s word will learn on their own with the aide of the Spirit. And I know we will meet people who need much prodding and guidance. If a person does not have direct access to God’s word or demonstrates a lack of understanding, we need to inform them and lead them in the way. We, ourselves, also need to be led by those God provides to counsel us.

One conclusion from these many points is that because of the universal work of God the Father in the lives of His children, each child of God should be aware of this work unfolding in their lives. Some Christians are. Some Christians aren’t. All should be. One reason as to why any particular Christian may not be aware of God’s disciplining work in their life is because, in general, the church does not teach this or it fails to assign proper value and importance to God’s direct involvement in the process of personal holiness and sanctification. The subject of discipline itself has suffered by being redefined and marginalized into something that, at best, may happen only when church leadership address a gross sin in a member’s life. But discipline as a virtue of the Christian life, as it pertains to self and sin, is hard to find. This absence creates the needed environment for self to live secure. It is not looked at or talked about, and it takes cover and concealment from shallow and external religion. People do not know what to look for and they do not know how to deal with self and sin if they catch a glimpse of them in their lives.

The passage above makes very clear God’s discipline produces a pain. This pain is associated with God’s discipline and with the process of forsaking sin. The presence of pain lets a Christian know that God is working in their life. It is a specific type of pain, and it is a pain only experienced by Christians and only discernable by Christians. All true Christians are supposed to experience God’s chastening and this pain, but perhaps in different ways. Hebrews 12:8 provides the statement declaring the universality of Christians experiencing this divine work. The pain, I believe, is the sensation we Christians acknowledge within as we are transitioned degree by degree from being of the world to being of God, in Christ Jesus, by means of God’s pruning and chastening. God is separating out to Himself what is of Him in us, fashioning what will be fully in His presence and what will remain with Him everlastingly. This pain stems from a tearing of the heart, which alone is sufficient enough for us to endure. But, because this work is God’s work there is the issue of sin to deal with as well. Pain from sin comes by our seeing and acknowledging our commitment to self and sin, and the ramifications of this commitment as it affects other relationships. But this pain from sin also comes when we understand how it reveals what we think of God, and the offence He bears in relating to us. The pain from God’s chastening is unique. It is multifaceted. It reveals and redirects. 

Do you remember from previous letters my reference to Ephesians 1:4, and that I consider this passage one that reveals the end God has set for us?  And, do you recall how I believe that if God has set that as the end, then I argue that He also sets the means of shaping us along the way to that end? If we believe God has redeemed us, and we believe we will be with Him for eternity, then we had better see something of His work in our lives as we near that time when we will transition to being fully with Him. Holiness, blamelessness, and love are qualities of God and His environment. He fashions us here to be fit for there. Consider these verses:

“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” (Eph 1:4-5)

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. “ (Col 1:21-22)

“that He might present her [the Church] to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:27)

God’s righteousness by and through Jesus Christ is the all-in-all for our standing outlined above. God does this marvelous work and He is praised and glorified through age upon age! The divine work of preparation for eternity is a wonderful, good, and necessary task. Knowing this, we should thank God for this work and that He has not left it up to us to design and carry out our sanctification. What human could know the requirements to fashion a life to be fit for the presence of God? I dare not pretend I do. God does, and I trust Him. The apostle Paul does admonish us to work out our salvation, and he says for it is God who works in us. Thus, even here, our response to the divine initiative is declared. The way Paul presents this implies we can discern what God’s work is so that we know what to work out and how.

Now, permit me to circle back to the notion of that pain that accompanies God’s chastening or discipline. This passage is discussing Christians. There are Christians who have hardened hearts and who do not believe in what God declares. (I assume this view does not come as a shock to you.) To Christians in this category, the pain is also very real. It is magnified many times over because of their response. These Christians, committed to self, are not moved to confession and repentance. They are committed to life in themselves instead of life in God. Therefore, when the pain comes they move away from God. They do not understand what is going on. This movement seems to bring strength and security, because every thing resonates with self, but it actually increases frustrations that plague the mind and life. That peace which quiets the person and sets the person in a more God-ward fashion is not theirs to know.

Rejecting God carries an unpleasant edge into the person’s life that defines movement away from God and this edge cuts into life in a way that brings about additional hardness of heart. One is naturally fortifying self. As a person truly rejects God’s work in their life (even though they may not understand this is what is taking place), they cannot discern God’s work. Darkness increases. They lose ability to see and discern. They are functionally moving away from the Tree of Life toward the outer boundaries of the garden or out of the garden and functionally into the cursed and godless world. They live as without God. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is death.” (Pv14:12) I am convinced that God will retrieve such a one, but when and how we don’t know. What I do understand is that I myself, due to sin and hardness of heart, I could find myself relationally moving away from God and back to self, sin and the empty crumbs of the world, and life could appear fine because “I” and not God am defining life. This potential I know about myself. And, my friend, perhaps you also share this possibility with me. Therefore, our need to talk and encourage one another becomes obvious.

Self-rule and self-justification not only lead one to reject and repel the divine advance intended for good, but the ungodly one manifests the opposite of a peaceful end. There would be increased tension, unsettledness, confusion and anger, because life in this condition gets harder and harder to manage and control. It seems that someone in this condition is destine for being totally out of control! Instead of the peaceable fruit of righteousness manifesting in relationships, warring and destructive powers of self-interest deliver to the person severe blows that must plague one’s life if God is not acknowledged as God. The very same work of God experienced by to two different types of people can bring life from the pain of correction for one and increased pain leading to further distancing from God (i.e., death) to the other. It is by God’s mercy and goodness that He tells us chastening or disciplining is to be expected and that it is for our good. He tells us the goal of manifest peace is something He works in our lives. God wants us to manifest that which is of Him as we pass through this world on our way to Him. We must believe that the end is real or we will not be able to rest in God concerning the means He uses to achieve that end. We must realize that God does this work on an individual level and on a corporate level collectively as the church. I will address below.

I find it remarkable that as you and I read and meditate on this passage, that we understand each Christian across the globe, at various times, and all under the Master’s crafting care, all are constantly undergoing the detailed work of God. Maybe the degrees and depths of the work vary over different periods, but God seems intimately connected to us in this way. Do you have any doubt that God is bringing many to Himself and He uses those things in our lives (illumined by His Spirit and His Word) to cause us to think and pray and pursue holiness?  We must interpret life this way, and we must help others see and know that God is always working in their lives. We must help others desire the good work of God, have discernment to see it, and to talk about it with us and others. Sanctification, separation, is a major element of the Christian life, and I fear that it is not addressed as a central Christian element with direction, conviction and passion! With its absence comes a lack of transformational activity in Christian lives. The tendency is to focus on gaining information, and lots of it, but the inside never undergoes change. Internal transformation comes through godly discernment, confession of sin, repentance, faith, and living in God’s presence. The danger the church faces is that people will not fully understand this divine work from chastening and shaking and, therefore, do not deal with sin in their lives by God’s provisions and power. They do not and will not yield to God. People naturally tend to still view themselves as better than God says they are, and they by default trust in themselves. (And I include myself!) I have one additional element pertaining to this topic to mention.

My comments regarding God’s intimate involvement through discipline thus far have been with reference to God our Father. He is the one behind the chastening and the shaking in Hebrews 12. I am passing over addressing the shaking now for the sake of brevity, but what it is and how it benefits us must be understood. Consider its placement in connection to the topic of sin at the beginning of Hebrews 12, followed by chastening, then comes the shaking, and once prepared we move into chapter 13 which begins with loving. There is a life process outlined here. I trust you recognize it.

Jesus Christ is Lord over all. He is priest. He is king. He is head of the church. He exercises his right of rule over all creation. Earlier, I referenced Ephesians 5:27: “that He might present her [the Church] to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:27)

Consider this passage:

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.’” (Rev 3:1)

We find here, in the context of a specific church being addressed, the notion of being dead if not submitting to divine command and instruction, and with a deficiency related to godly works. The church spoken of was not living out a faith relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord by the Spirit. But, it seemed to them, and perhaps others around them, that they were. Jesus being head over the church owns the church. He knew the truth about this church, and he knows the truth about us. The Father has given him all authority to rule. (Jn 5:27) Because he has this authority, Jesus Christ chastens or disciplines this church. I see no reason to assign the addresses to the churches in Revelation 1-3 as pertaining to the primitive church only and somehow the church today escapes the ministry of its Head.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” (Rev 3:19)

We have seen that the Father chastens. The Father has given all authority to His Son. Jesus Christ also chastens. He does this because of his love for the church; his bride. As priest, Jesus Christ intercedes for the church. As King, he exercises his right to rule his kingdom and bring all under submission. If the Father chastens from love and the Son chastens from love, and the Spirit works for our holiness, (thus, the Trinity is unified in this marvelous work!) where is the open and active proclamation of the fact of these realities in the church today? Where is the confession of these most intimate and all ruling realities? Where is the open discussion of these things being fact, taking place, and unfolding in my and your life? Where are the private self-reflective pursuits of these things on bended knee before God our Father and His Son? Why are we, as a church, so caught up in things that do not really matter and do not address and deal with the sanctifying work of God in dealing with sin and moving the body along to be renewed in the image of Him who created new creatures in Christ Jesus?

I have much more to say and many questions regarding this, my friend. Perhaps we can find time to talk about them later. I have more on the mind, but I need to close this letter and send it to you. Pray with me about these things, what they mean and for what God would have us also do.

God’s best.

Carl

Sibbs on The Bruising

“We love to wander from ourselves and to be strangers at home, till God bruises us by one cross or other, and then we ‘begin to think’, and come home to ourselves with the prodigal (Luke 15:17). It is a very hard thing to bring a dull and an evasive heart to cry with feeling for mercy. Our hearts, like criminals, until they be beaten from all evasions, never cry for the mercy of the Judge.


Again, this bruising makes us set a high price upon Christ. Then the gospel becomes the gospel indeed; then the fig-leaves of morality will do us no good. And it makes us more thankful, and, from thankfulness, more fruitful in our lives; for what makes many so cold and barren, but that bruising for sin never endeared God’s grace to them?” (Richard Sibbs, The Bruised Reed)


Lord, if I know not which description above applies to me, then as I read through those words again, and perhaps even again, show me who I am. And Lord, if the words “unthankful” or “unfruitful” emerge in my mind and conscience, then most surely may I cry to You for mercy, and may I know Your graces such that my prideful and devilish self-will would exhaust itself in confessing Christ as my true and only satisfaction, and as my all in all! My Lord, if I do not understand and manifest the truth of the relationship between Your mercy, my gratitude and bearing fruit, then would You have mercy on me and lead me in the way where my life would overflow with kindness to others as a testimony of Your kindness and mercy to me. Amen.

Meditation

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. 

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!" (Psalm 32)

Hugh Binning on Peace

“I think that, since we obtained the mercy to get a peace-maker between us and God, we should henceforth count ourselves bound to be peace-makers among men. And truly, such have a blessing pronounced upon them (Matt. 5:9), ‘Blessed are the peace-makers.’ The Prince of Peace pronounced it, and this is the blessedness, ‘They shall be called the children of God’; because he is the God of peace, and to resemble him in these, first  in purity, then in peace, is a character of his image. It is true, peace will sometimes flee so fast, and so far away, that a Christian cannot follow it without sin, and that is a breach of a higher peace. But charity, when it cannot live in peace without, it does then live in peace within, because it has that sweet testimony of conscience that, as far as did lie in it, peace was followed without. Divine wisdom (James 3:17), ‘is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’” (Hugh Binning, Christian Love, 53-54)

From Carl H von Bogatzky

"Have mercy upon me, O lord, for I am weak.Psalm 6. 2. Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Psalm 119. 28.  Divine Answer: My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12. 9. The Lord delighteth not in the strength of a horse; he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Psalm 147. 10, 11. The Lord our Strength, mighty God and Immanuel, will give strength unto his people. Psalm 29. 11.

In whatever part we are weak, and most beset by corrupt nature, we may yet be strong enough, through grace, to come off conquerors; therefor, hope against hope; hope, and despair not of overcoming by the power of God, be thy corruptions within, and thy enemies without, ever so strong and obstinate. I am weak indeed, but Christ is strong; I am poor, he is rich; I am sick, he the Physician of the sick, I am a sinner, he is the Saviour of sinners; consequently, he suits me, and I suit him, extremely well. But let me look to him daily, seek his face earnestly, and grace to help in every time of need." (Carl H. von Bogatzky, The Golden Treasury)

Let me but hear my Saviour say, "Strength shall be equal to thy day;" Then I rejoice in deep distress Leaning on all-sufficient grace. I glory in infirmity, That Christ's own power may rest on me; When I am weak, the I am strong; Grace is my shield, and Christ my song. I can do all things, or can bear All sufferings, if my Lord be there; Sweet pleasures mingle with the pains While his left hand my head sustains.

Reflections on the Christian Life

Greetings my friend.

Much time has passed since the last letter we shared. Days continue to come one after another. Often I describe them as “a grind,” since at their end my exhaustion level is quite high. Yet, also at their end, and, perhaps more importantly ‘at their beginning,’ my thoughts turn to Christ. In the morning he is my life. In the evening he is my rest. He has told me that because he lives, I will live. Because I come to him, I will never hunger. Because I believe in him, I will never thirst. Temporary and created things cannot give me that necessary and particular ingredient which makes possible the satisfaction declared in John 6:35. Jesus told the tempter that physical bread has its place but God’s word also—and perhaps more importantly—serves as a source for life. We see this when our Lord answered the tempter but also when he himself obtained nourishment from doing his Father’s will. (see John 4) The spiritual feeds the physical The eternal sustains the temporal. That with life in itself—God—gives life to all that is contingent. The Father (eternally) begat His Son. When the Word became flesh, He brought into the world his life with His Father. This, my friend, I believe is the key to understanding John 1:4: “In him [Jesus Christ] was life, and this life is the light of men.”

Jesus is our bread of life. Yes, you hear it practiced that many only call on him for temporal needs. But Jesus desires to be much more to all of us than just this. Our Lord and Savior desires that we pursue him from hearts of worship and love. These motives evidence honor and affection. Jesus reassures me, that if I value and pursue his words, he and the Father will be with me now, through the dawn to the dusk or darkness of each day. (Jn 14:21-23) My friend, these truths you too know and experience, and this gives me great comfort and joy. Encourage those near you who claim Christ but do not know him as their satisfaction. May we press on in following our Lord, and may the grace of God, the love and kindness of our God, be known to us and through us daily. We can encourage each other in these things. We must.

The Christian life characteristics just described the world cannot verify. The world has no framework intrinsic to its operations by which to authenticate or validate the godly life of a Christian. It has no defining grid or basis to bring experiences back to and judge “this one’s life is truly godly because we see, understand, thus know as fact, that what this person does is of God!” The world is the world! It knows not God. But it thinks it knows all and from this it assumes authority and renders itself suitable to judge. It maintains that its judgments are legitimate. The world believes itself right in judging and condemning behavior that it thinks a godly person should display but doesn’t. Perhaps the world knows what is not godly because it references itself and at times sees itself in a Christian’s life, and then by definition assumes that godliness would be the opposite of that. Perhaps the world has learned enough from the Christian community throughout time to apprehend what we say about ourselves, and thus armed with this understanding serves as a witness against us: lives of hypocrisy and contradiction stand out. We should consider this phenomenon personally and as congregations. An open discussion between us on this topic would be helpful.

Christian lives manifest fruits of faith which come as the result of that life beyond the world resident in their hearts. These fruits flow from the inside outward as a result of divine transformation linked to God. Christians live as conduits of Gods existence, and of His grace, His love and His kindness; from the truth of Him experienced in their lives outward. Unleashed in and through human lives, God uses people as His means of disclosure and display. So much of what God does is revelatory or declarative. People are transformed as God’s revelation opens up in their lives by the Spirit giving them understanding of God’s word and of God Himself. Because of this heavenly reality manifesting to and then through a Christian’s life, the world can and should encounter and experience the divine reality as Christian lives declare their godly origin. Christ in our lives can be tasted. We who have tasted and know Christ are transformed as the Bread of Life unleashes divine realities in and through us. Ought not that life seed planted by God open up and display to the Gardner? Of all who pass by, some may not understand the flower’s life, yet they still observe the life and beauty.

There are many places in Scripture where this contrast is recorded for us to learn by, and there seems sufficient testimony by our Lord in John 17 that those who live in the faith line can live so that the world acknowledges, in some way, God’s love toward the Son and his followers, and that the world could affirm that God sent His Son to it. This strikes me as a simple yet profound truth.

There are various ways to understand what is meant here concerning what God has done through Jesus Christ. Some conclude this is a singular world event of eventual unified confession by the world of what God has done in Christ. Some see it as the outworking of Christ’s Lordship, salvation and rule spreading beyond the nationality and locality of Christ’s initial redemptive work and ministry. I go with the second interpretation. So where do I see myself in the John 17 passage? While I comfort myself with the tangibility of God’s work in my life, I cannot always find such comfort that those who meet me during my days experience me in such a way that realities of Christ and the Father, and God’s love for His Son and followers, comes forward first and foremost. How that particular experience and testimony recorded in John 17 actually manifests I leave to God. Jesus prayed to the Father that these testimonies would be, and they seem to come as the consequent of people believing the testimony and words of the apostles, the unity of these faith follower’s lives with God in Christ. Unity. Unity with God in Christ, God’s word, God’s people, and God’s love received and manifest: for, if God’s love is received, it will be manifest. If God’s love is not manifest, then one should question why it’s not there.

Let us not forget our Lord’s comments earlier in that chapter about our need to sanctify ourselves, as he sanctified himself. I wonder where this notion has fallen away to? If I live not as a committed and cleaned conduit of God, His graces, His truths, the realities He has united me with—all through union with His Son—I shutter to think what those who experience me actually receive. Perhaps James gets at this when he frequently refers to those with divided hearts. Have you considered yourself, my friend, as a divided one? We would benefit from examining ourselves daily to see. The world sees. God sees. Let us not be blind to this. Perhaps we should talk more about this and on sanctifying ourselves another time.

Sufficient, then, for me is the task of living Christianly by following our Lord Jesus Christ, loving God and loving people. (If I truly follow Christ, would not the other items happen?) Pray for me my friend, for I am not always inclined to the things of God or the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor to love the unlovely (or so I render them at times). Recently, I have found it helpful to meditate on the apostle Paul’s use of the word “appeared” in Titus 2:11 and 3:4. Grace appeared (in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ), then love and kindness appeared. God manifest brightly to humanity in the person and work of His Son, grace, kindness and love. And if these have shown in my heart, then they should shine through my heart into all I am and do; thus would the world have a better witness of the reality that God sent His Son into the world, and that He loves His Son and those who follow him. A living witness of God loving: what more could the world need? What more would we offer? But self-love worms in and plays its hand to confuse and occupy the believer’s mind and heart. If it holds the mind, the heart is enslaved. There would be fewer godly choices made promoting God and Christ, because the Christian in this state lacks devotion, passion and gratitude.

Recall Jesus said he is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life. These statements I have understood of him in relation to the Father. Yet, it seems deficient to only say “I mentally agree with what our Lord says.” I think we must step into or live the reality of what he is revealing through what he says. Perhaps Jesus’ encounter with the woman in John 4 serves as an example of Christ Jesus being the way and the truth in regards to the Father. He must be these to us also, and likely as we grow in Christ over our years we will be shown more fully just how Jesus is the way to the Father and just how he is the truth about the Father for us and those sharing Christ with us. It seems a necessary biblical imperative that Jesus not be these only at a Christian’s death, some blessed and assured distant hope, but that Jesus be these for each individual Christian throughout the course of each day lived and then also more completely at the time of one’s death.

This leads me to discus the third element from John 14.6: Jesus as life with the Father. Here I find a Christ-o-centric epistemology. I find a living means of knowing: an experiential epistemology; a relational means. This view differs in kind and structure from those static rationalistic grids that some argue each of us should examine and conclude meet our personal criteria for determining what we think we individually are capable of knowing, or someone else could ever know, then evaluating and judging truth claims and lives from this window as we look out on to things. Many in Jesus’ day experienced him, but few knew him as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father through him. Our Lord clearly says that “No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those he wills to reveal Him to.” (Mt 11:27) See also Luke 10:22 and John 5:21. These three passages would make a great sermon. Thy unite with respect to the role Christ is given but they differ with respect to what Jesus praises the Father for. We should come back to this important topic, so we can discuss it without being rushed. But for now, I want to return to Christ as life with the Father and explore what this means for us. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and he is all these, I say, in relation to his and our Father. Notice how he reveals he is “the way” before he is “the truth?” Once Jesus is believed in as the way and the truth, and he is experienced as the way and the truth, only then can he be known and experienced by Christians as “the life” with the Father.

Unfortunately, my friend, I need to send this letter to you. My time for writing you this day has passed. I will continue writing on this last topic of Christ as life with the Father and write again soon.

God’s best.

Carl

Dealing with Desires at the Dawn of the Day

“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” (2 Cor 6:12)

“and the desires for other things entering in choke the word.” (Mk 4:19)

My God, I am humbled to start my day by coming to You, confessing You are God, that I am not, and considering before You these verses. I am Your child. You care for me. You work for my good, and You love me as no other ever can or will. This knowledge strengthens me for my day. You are not against me. This I know. You are my Father.

Today begins early with my meditating on these verses from You. I acknowledge the warning they give—things within me, and things outside me—that I need be always careful of. My own affections work against me. My own desires for things other than You and Your word end up choking the life You have granted me, and thereby that very life You intend Your word to accomplish in and through me. Dear God, forgive me. Do I still not understand the place and the power of Your word in this fallen world? In my own life? That Your word brings life and light to me, and to others?

Jesus tells me his words are life. He spoke of You. Peter writes Your word not only brings life but nurtures this life into a mature state. Yet, You tell me “I” stand in the way of this life achieving full design and fruitful benefit. You grant me life, Father. What have I done with it? I recall Your son warning about the light within, that if that light is actually darkness, then, indeed, how dark is that darkness that comes across as light but isn’t; that self-deception would so twist things and present its own darkened state as light. Further, that someone would view darkness as light such. God, have mercy on me. Lead me away from myself and every false light-bearer. May I always and only behold Your son as the light of the world and the light of my life. The morning star has arisen in my heart. May I walk in the light of Christ who has come.

It is written of Your Son that in Him was life, and that this unique life was, and is, the light of men (Jn 1:4). Jesus is the living word. I look at, examine and understand His life, as I would read a book. As I do this, I learn from You things hidden from before the creation of the world. He was with You. He knew You best of any other source. He created all, so he knows all things best. He knows me. He knows You. Jesus is the mediator between us, and he ever lives making intercession for me before You. He reveals You to me, thus he is light. I have him as the light of my life, spiritual light. He is light in my soul similar to how the sun is light to the world. Father, thank You for the gift of Your son. He is life from You to me. He is light from You to me. Forgive me of the sin, the darkness, I put against that light. Change my affections and desires to be more heavenly, so that Your word would grow and create fruit for the world to see and consume, thus others may draw life from You. These things I pray.

You permit me to understand, as I come to You through him. He is still the way, still the truth, and he is still the life in relation to You. He is the living word who manifests to us eternal life; that which he shared with You always, and which You have granted me to participate in with You, Your Son, and Spirit. Knowing You, through the participation of this relationship, is eternal life. Thank You, Father.

Also, Father, I have the written word. Through it I too understand who You are, what You are about, and by this record I relate to people; some transformed by Your renewing love and grace; some still in darkness. I learn of and participate in the thread of The Redeemed. Your Spirit’s labor preserving the written record stands to this very day. Thus, Father, when I seem to myself suspended between time and eternity—that position of self-reflection where I labor to see life and all things that I can from the lens of divine revelation and life with You through Christ by the Spirit—I best know the assurance of our relationship, and I best know the reality and presence of what most works against all You have ordained for my good—the presence of self (that remnant and stain of my unholy being, the flesh, stained into all that I am, and ready to live and grow through all I do, unless subdued and denied life; which only comes through my pursuit of life with You through Your Son by the Spirit, and the pursuit of godliness). Thank You, Father.

So, I come to these verses, my God. Your faithful servant the apostle Paul instructs me that my own affections can restrict, narrow my way, or crush me. Why would I ever want that! Rationally, I wouldn’t. But we are not dealing with illumined reason here. Paul speaks as an apostle to the Corinthians, as one who has opened his heart to them with Your revelation and his transformed life, pouring out both to them for their good. And they shut out both! His redeemed and renewed life is a gateway of divine grace and favor displayed for their edification and benefit, yet when he presents this to them their hearts are shut. I picture the image in Revelation 3:20: a hardened heart, shut and locked from the inside, presented with divine grace and favor, yet so committed to self that it shuts out God! And both of these passages are in the context of the church and Your ministry to those classified as saints, or separated ones. Dear God! You have illumined me to see and know that my own affections can shut out Your ministry of life to me, and the consequence, while it may appear as life because “I” retain control, is really narrowing my way and crushing my very soul, because is welds me further and further into myself where Your light grows dimmer and the darkness deeper. Dear God, bring to me Your light and favor. Renew my heart with Your grace, love and truth. Change my life denying passions and affections for heavenly appetites that pursue and honor You. May I hear only the voice of my Shepherd and not follow the voice of any other; especially that of my sinful self. For that voice, above all my God, seems to be the loudest, most clear, most influencing, of all. Forgive me, Father, and please lead me away from living from, by and for my own affections to living from, by and for what is according to Your heart. Thank You.

Also, You warn me from Your word about things outside of me that I might give too much attention to, and that these will end up taking away that life You give me through Your word. My God, I am not Your Son. My heart longs for so much that I either have or don’t have. In and of myself I am not content or satisfied. I am a creature, and I have not life in myself. You and Your Son have life in Yourselves, and this life You have brought me into. Thus, why the torment? It is because I give preference to other things, and these they are which kill-off the life I share with You. Both cannot grow together. How do I ever expect that gift of Your life to flourish and grow in my heart, so that I bear fruit to Your glory, when it is Your word working in and through me that is the source of fruit, and I choose to desire anything but Your word! As Your Son reveals in John 15, there is a danger of thinking I am drawing life from Him when in reality I am not. Father, may there be sufficient fruit in my life—even if that be confession of sin, which is itself of faith—for You to prune me and carefully craft my days, such that the end would be more honor, praise, and glory to You, Your Son, and Spirit, and that I would find rest from desires for other things and know the greater and truer pathway of life from the Living and written word. Father, I am so weak in and of myself. Please grant me the grace and strength to make it through my day. Lord Jesus, may I know your presence and the ministry of the Spirit in all things. May the Living and the written word be as lights to me this and each day. As I draw light and life from these, other unholy desires will disappear. Be with me and guide me through each step of my day. Amen

A Meditation on Prayer

“O that we might only cleave more too God and our Saviour in inward and heartfelt prayer, and devote this opportunity for the purpose of heartily entreating God, that in order to this, he would grant us his grace and Spirit! It is by omitting prayer that we go astray from our hearts and at the same time from God; and the further we go from God, the further do we depart from our peace. O soul, consider therefore what belongs to thy peace! If we loved prayer more and practiced it more, my dear friends, we should become capable of experiencing the peace of the precious love of Jesus in our interior, in our center, and become more closely united to him. Jesus is so near us, the precious Saviour, ought we not therefore to draw near unto him and withdraw our hearts from all created things, from all distraction, from all multiplicity of thoughts concerning outwardly and earthly things, and with all the devotion of our hearts and our affections retire into Jesus in our inmost souls? By the continual drawing near to Jesus in our hearts, by a believing adherence to him, in which consists the true prayer of the heart, we attain too an ever closer union with him and peace becomes great in our souls; yea, it becomes at length an invincible peace which nothing can take away. O what Peace! How every burden and difficulty then falls away! And although we may not attain to so high a degree of union as that which many souls by divine grace attain in this life, yet still, the soul that loves prayer and inward retirement, that abides much with God in the heart, will be conscious of such a secret well-being and such a tranquility as it never can find or possess in the world or created things.

Let us consider what belongs to our peace, in order that we may have peace when we must pass over into an endless eternity.”

(Gerhard Tersteegen, Spiritual Crumbs from the Masters Table, p.18, 1837)

The Spirit and The Bride

'And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”’

Lord, work in me that my voice would be found in this chorus!

Revelation 22:17 shows us the Spirit and the bride together as one seeking the Person, the presence, and involvement of the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse placed at the Revelation’s end and at the end of our bibles summarizes the condition of those swept up in God’s redemptive work and history which opens itself to us in Genesis. Lord, if I claim participation in Your salvation, but my heart and lips fail to cry for You, lead me by Your Spirit back into these pages that I might hear You, see You, know You, and come to cherish You beyond all else that I could ever know or desire. Something is in the way. May nothing stand that causes me to not hear the Spirit’s voice and that keeps me from voicing my own cry for You.

The Spirit and the bride know and agree on who Jesus is and what He is about. The Spirit has known this from eternity. The bride knows all this now. The bride understands and is fully convinced of all the Spirit has revealed and brought to life in her. She is complete. She is prepared. She lives the truth that Jesus Christ loves, purifies, and cleanses her in preparation of bringing her to their wedding day and to Himself. The Spirit has brought to earth that heavenly life and nurtured it along the way by evidencing Christ, Who in turn reveals the Father. The church’s relationship to Christ Jesus is her primary thought while in this world, and from it she looks to Him and sees beyond mere human history into life as His story. Additionally, the Spirit and the bride understand, welcome, and work with the means whereby Jesus Christ is set upon to prepare her for that day. Such an understanding would have governed the primitive church that received John’s writing and would have fortified their thinking and faith against pressures from the earthly powers that were against them and sought their destruction, and it would have anchored the early church’s mind and heart on the sovereign Lord of all Who rules over all. Finally, the verse reveals to us the place and role of “desire,” the oft overlooked but foundational and essential element to the inner essence of the Christian life. The Spirit and the bride passionately want to be with the Bridegroom, the Husband, the Head, and they desire all such union entails and where it leads.

Oh Holy Spirit of God, you come before any life or utterance the bride sounds! The Spirit is positioned first. The Spirit’s primary task as revealed in the New Testament is to bring to life and completion the redemptive work of Christ and God the Father, where what has been eternally ordained through and for the Son reaches completion in the Father’s presence. The Spirit’s action is a bringing together the two—One from Heaven to earth and back to Heaven; One from earth to Heaven—and it summarizes the Spirit’s entire ministry. The Spirit, being the life and breath of the bride, moves her collective (and thus every member’s) mind, affections, and will to passionately single out, see, hear, know, long and cry out for, then pursue her Head and Husband above all else. The Spirit brought to her the heavenly life in the beginning, enlightens, empowers and drives the bride toward her Husband, labors to purify her from false lovers, and the Spirit does all this in a way that the bride’s will is not discounted, dismissed, disengaged or overridden, but it is instead influenced in a manner where the brides’ wants and affections so latch on to Christ as the choicest of any object of desire that her will follows hard after those desires and moves passionately steadily toward Christ above all else.

God does not crush and bypass the human will, certainly not that of His Son’s bride. She is no forced marriage! As the Shulamite so longed for her beloved, whose banner over her was love, so does the bride of Christ only long for Him, and only through this experience of longing for Him does she know both herself and Him. To glorify Himself, thus triumphing over all sin and evil, God works through the will by means of His love relation to her. Courting her she gains true understanding of Him: experiencing His goodness and power, His light dispelling darkness; that transformation being undeniably real, His goodness and purity capturing her gaze, as if stealing it from seeing (thus knowing) nothing but darkness and sin to seeing all things, thereby breaking through her as if newly born or created and seeing for the very first time her Creator, Who loving her she loves, Who seeing her she sees, Who wanting her she solely wants. Their eyes meet, and forever she has affections for no other. Dawn has broken to her, and it occurred within her. His look is for Her. He isolates it and gives it to her only. He is faithful to her, and He looks not this way at any other.

This divine gaze changes the one looked upon. Certainly, such a bride will not cry and shout for a return to that darkened womb of the world from which she came! She dare not, or her Husband to be—the Great Shepherd of the sheep—will alter her path toward Him and allow her to feel again that pointed and trying way she only knew before He set His love on her. This He may do, as God, to glorify Himself and purify her affections and desires, through repentance, in preparation of being with Him upon their marriage forever. She is to dwell in the Father’s house, in His presence, and the Son—above all others—knows those preparations required to fit the church for the eternity of that experience.

Recall, my friend, the virgins as they waited for their day. (Matt 25:1-10) Must we not go through our wait and maintain our own want, if He delays a bit longer? Should we not also know the fruit found in delay? Must we not realize the divine work that attends a humble trust and quite patience? Furthermore, would it not be essential and foundational to our Christian maturity to recognize the Lord Jesus’ actual presence during the time of “apparent “delay? What does this notion of delay do with you? Have your affections for the One with whom you will spend eternity grown dim with the world’s dirt and ungodliness? Are we stained? Or, have our desires to be with Christ only grown with fervor and intensity, as we have with increased passion pursued our Head and Husband, the one Whose’ love was set upon us and redeemed us from sin and destruction? Where are you my friend?

God’s love and grace experienced by an individual Christian, and the totality of Christ’s body, enlightened with knowledge and infused with ultimate desire, anchors on the God from which these come, so that the Christian, and the body as one, longs above all else to be with the Source of Life from which these flow. If we have truly tasted of that river of life from above, what fount of apparent and false life could tempt and appear to satisfy us from here below? All we need do is examine our own lives to see the collection of things we have more affection and desire for than the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you see? Could you today participate in the chorus, “Come Lord Jesus! Come!” If not, examine your desires. Recall the role of the Spirit in bringing you that heavenly life, testifying of Christ, and cleansing you of ungodliness. Pursue through faith and repentance what God offers you to prepare you for life with Him.

For 2012

“Everybody wants to be a Christ-worshipper; no one wants to follow Him. However, real worshippers and Christ-lovers also follow. He who loves Christ also loves His holy life’s pattern: His humility, meekness, and patience; His cross, shame, and contempt. And even though in our present weakness we cannot perfectly imitate Christ’s holy, exalted life, we are still to love it and to yearn to imitate it more fully. Then do we dwell in Christ and He in us. But the world now holds it better to gain knowledge about all things than to get understanding about His love, which is better than all knowledge. No one loves Christ who does not follow His holy life. There are many—a majority—who are ashamed of His holy example, of His meekness and lowliness. Now Christians demand an imposing Christ—magnificent, rich, conformed to the world! No one wants to imitate a poor, meek, despised, lowly Christ.”

“O my heavenly Physician! I bring Thee a dead soul; revive it! I bring Thee a sick soul; cure it! I bring Thee a heart empty of all basic virtue; fill it with Thy Spirit, with Thy love, with Thy humility, and with Thy wonderful patience! Amen”

“Ordinarily the soul rises to perfection [completion, or that end to which it was designed or made] by passing through three states. First of all, it gets free from sin by penance and mortification; then it forms inner virtues by prayer and imitation of Christ; and lastly, it advances in the love of God until it reaches habitual union with him. It is for us to enter that path of perfection and to traverse its stages more or less quickly.”

(John Arndt, 1555 – 1621)

My friend, these words and ideas or concepts, even truths, expressed by John Arndt require me to evaluate my own heart and my very life to see and acknowledge who Jesus Christ is to me and ask what of my love for Him? Has it been some time since you asked God to show you what it means to be a Christian? If you ask, also petition Him and trust Him to lead you in the way. Rely on the Author of that life, not on self.

An “ordinary” Christian you and I dare not be. This world loves ordinary Christians. They lack devotion to the Lord of the universe, therefore, they lack power. These are blind to sin in their lives and to the world’s sin; thus, one could conclude, they are truly blind to God. They do not see His holiness and love seeing them, so they do not themselves see with holiness and love. They manifest nothing of the life God’s Spirit, but only manifest godlessness. Godlessness need not be just those gross sins or unrighteous displays. It can be understood as a framework of life which stems from self, serves self, instead of that which originates from a hearty trust and confidence in God; one sourced by that which is tied to heaven and feeds the new life Christians know is most true, and which lives in and through them, and that can only be attributed to as divine.

The Christian does not lay claim to this treasure, but humbly permits its dictates and impressions to fashion one’s life in place of the self’s natural and earthly inclinations, thereby preferring what is holy over that which is not of God. Ongoing self-reflection in God’s presence, confession, faith and repentance grounded in true forgiveness are living necessities for such a Christian.

And what of loves work in my heart? Does not Christ make much to do about the love of God, his love for the Father, and his desire that those who have been reconciled to the Father through him would be remade and transformed by the unfolding and experiential ministry of divine love poured out into the heart of people? Dear God, where am I to be found in this prayer of Your Son recorded for my benefit and Your glory in John 17? Can I testify that I do see the fruit of His prayer and Your answer to his request manifest in my life? Dear God, if I cannot attest to this reality of love, do not let me rest till we have met in that ministry of Your Word, Your Spirit and my soul and the darkness of my mind and heart are burned away by the brightness of Your glorious love and truth! The brand of my fallen heart runs deep! Would you my Father run the brand of Your love even deeper! In the pain from that pressing into my flesh I’ll feel, Your Son will be revealed, and I will understand and then live more for the pleasure of Your holy will as did he commit even more so to You as the pain pressed deeper into His holy flesh. God, to pray such things and know the true condition of my own heart! Faith moves me to pray such, because I know all is guided by Your love.

As I enter the year 2012, my framework for this year’s meditations and reflections is the reality described by John 1:4: “In Him was life, and this life was the light of men.” Do you know, my friend, what this verse reveals? I pray that over the next twelve months, I will understand and live these truths. I pray your soul will be watered. We are all imperfect. This we know, thus we forgive freely and we encourage along the way. We anchor in Him, not in ourselves.

God’s Best,

Carl