Edification and Encouragement

Dealing with Desires at the Dawn of the Day

2012-02-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

“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

2012-01-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

“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

2012-01-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

'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

2012-01-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

“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

A Meditation To Frame The Heart For Its Day

2011-11-29T03:25:00.000-08:00

“In spiritual trials, one is to consider that they are brought about by God, that Christ our head underwent them as well, that many saints experienced them, and that impatience in such trials will not be held against those who under go them. They are to protect us against spiritual pride and help us to learn patience and hope. Bear sorrow until God takes it away. Do not listen to the judgment of the world and the Devil, but to God’s word. Think how God has helped the saints. If you suffer with Christ you will also share his glory.”

“Those who are undergoing trials should remember that these come from God, that the Devil has no power over us and that they lead not to corruption but to holiness. Such trials help to teach us to learn the power of sin, to value the redemption of Christ, to become like Christ, to learn, to taste the consolation of the divine Word, to learn to practice faith and patience, to be more strongly comforted, to be more joyous in heaven. Be satisfied that temptations are the will of God. They are the marks of the grace of God by which he makes us in body and soul like to his Son. Victory will certainly follow great struggles of soul. The evils that man must suffer against his will are not accounted to him by God. God has never left the soul alone in trial. Great trials are the special graces of God and those who undergo them are spiritual martyrs. Therefore be patient, for a light will shine fourth in the darkness.”

(John Arndt, True Christianity, Book Two)

“Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Joshua 8. 26. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3. 8. A willing subjection to any one sin is not consistent with the grace of God, and true saving faith, Romans 6. 14; for though wicked inhabitants will abide in the heart, and sometimes prevail over the believer, they must not reign there, nor should be suffered to stir without resistance: since we may be utterly ruined by the dominion of a single sin, that is, by a single subjection to it, as by the dominion of a thousand, just as a bird is caught by a single snare; and though you are actually converted, and have gained the dominion over your sins, yet you must not draw back your hand, and lay the spear and sword of the Spirit aside. There is no truce in this war, nor any rest found, but in fighting; for if you beat not your enemies, they beat you. Therefore, the Christian soldier's watch word is, Fight on, looking to Jesus. Satan left Christ only for a time; much more will he renew his assaults upon us again and again; nay, if a man is not watchful, but presumptuous, "he takes to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself." But if the conflict lasteth long, remember that is also the case of others; and even the ancient fathers have gone under it till they were gray; at last the victory will be the more sweet and glorious. Only, above all things, take the shield of faith, for faith alone triumphs; by which we are in covenant with Christ, and he makes one cause with us.”

(Carl H. von Bogatzky, Golden Treasury, November 29)

Lord, I read such things as these to which my mind and heart without delay agree. I thank you that I am in a line of faith to receive such godly insight and counsel. I need these words, and your timing to give them to me is perfect. May I honor you this day by yielding my life to your Spirit and word, and may I move in the direction of godly faith that would manifest the type of commitment in life that looks to you and trusts you, and that looks not to the world or to flesh, thinking that they offer me life; for that they do not do, although it may look and feel like life: they yield death. You, O’Lord, give me true life and you nurture and guide it, at times through the voices of your saints, like these ones above, who I’ve read and I agree with their words. I long for the leading of faith by which I would know the reality of which they describe. Far be it from me, my Lord, that I would see myself exempt from such divine work to conform me to the image of your son, in whom alone truly I have life. I look to you and trust you my God, not only with the end of my salvation but the means. May that never diminish.

Reminders On Faith

2011-11-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

“Against the weakness of faith, the following are useful: Faith is God’s work; Christ’s love for us is perfect even if our faith is imperfect; God looks graciously on weak faith; he is most concerned about those weak in faith; he who eagerly wishes to believe also believes; no desire will be lost; it is better to be weak in faith than to be proud of strong faith; even weak faith grasps Christ and his goodness; faith is not at all times strong; concern about weak faith is true faith; Christ is with us and in us when we think on him; Christ our high priest prays for us; God’s mercy is unspeakably great; God began his work and will bring it to fulfillment; God has given many means to strengthen faith; our faith is grounded in the eternal election of God.”

(John Arndt, True Christianity, Book Two)

Reflections from John Arndt on the Christian Life

2011-11-22T02:08:00.000-08:00

“The following things should help us to be patient: In suffering God comes to us, we deserve far grater punishment, God does not mistreat us, God has great patience with us, Christ and all the saints were patient, God promises great goodness to us, His promises are given in truth, suffering gives honor to God and it helps us, Christ made suffering a sanctifying thing, and eternal glory follows upon suffering.”

“Where there is no love and faithfulness, corruption and death follow. For pious and troubled people, faith and hope look to God’s power and mercy and bring about patience. They know that God hears man’s prayer, that God consoles them in wrong, that God gives his light of grace in darkness, that the suffering of evil men is God’s wrath, that righteousness and truth finally come to light, that shame will come upon all those who mock God.”

“Hope is patient faith that preserves to the end. God himself is its foundation and rest. He who depends upon temporal things must always stand in dread. Hope is tested by trials; by trials, God breaks down false hope. Like faith and love, hope depends upon God alone. It is awakened by considering time and eternity. Souls that live in hope are the most beloved children of God. They learn to trust upon God alone.”

(John Arndt, True Christianity, Book Two)

An Early Morning Meditation That Helps Frame An Understanding For Making It Through The Day In Godly Fashion.

2011-11-17T04:02:00.000-08:00

“If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 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.

Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” (Heb 12:7-17)

My Lord, why have You included this text in Your holy word? Your servant, the one who originally penned it, and from whom I learn by the divinely kept record, he understood something about one’s relationship to You, and about Your relationship to those who are truly Yours. And, You, Lord, have permitted me to have this record, this revelation, this understanding regarding the quality and the character of what one particular part of our relationship is like. Your care, Lord, for me, and Your work in my life, is not defined by what seems best to You, or what another human seems is best for me, but it is defined by what You know is most profitable for me, and that, O Lord, is that I would be separated from what is unholy, so that I may become like You and participate in what is of You: holiness.

You let me know, Lord, that this likeness gives off something of a display that I did not have or give before Your corrective work upon my life. You recreate my life, such that my life presents something called “righteousness,” and this divinely crafted offering to the world (which it apparently won’t have or know apart from Your careful attention in human lives) is a manifestation of the reality of Your existence and Your involvement with humanity. Without You the world is subject to sin, lust, corruption, evil, and ungodly rule. Yet here, in this Hebrew’s passage, You tell me about Your work in my life, the end of that work, and the affect of that work. And while the writer knows Your craft will be discomforting, Your revealing to Your children the purpose and end of Your labor is itself the key which permits Your labor to be comfortable, even desired, by Your children. For You, O God, as God, do not simply show me the end and hold that out as some distant tangible reality to which I aim and hope to some day attain, but You show me Your means to that end, so that I know Your ways with me as I venture along my life path toward that end. Also, I know (informed and convinced) that You are intimately involved with me and close to me each moment of each day, so that we together travel along the way. I am never alone.

Father, You tell me to pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one in this fallen world will have a display of You, Your Son or Your Spirit. You have revealed to me by word and experience that I am Your child. Forgive me for my choices of selfish living where the world and its people who have traveled close to me did not see You but only a reflection of its own corruption as mirrored in my life! I am not of the world! I am from a different line, that of Christ, not Adam, and I have a different birth right, one that I dare not disregard, the loss of which I would sorrow over with tears; unless those tears be of a repentance, which can still occur because of Your love chastening me back to godliness before I fall over the cliff’s edge into the abyss of eternal doom and there realize that I have made that fatal error of choosing to be identified with the father of the sin corrupt world—the devil—over You Who are truly a loving Father over all creation.

You, Lord, in love gave Your Son to reclaim and recreate me into His image, which is a reflection and a revelation of Your interior goodness and Your displayed greatness! I must understand and see Your work in me during my days to the point of clarity whereby I grasp my weakness and at that very moment also see Your hand and I turn away from me toward You, thereby being healed. This experience of seeing what is of me and what is of You, then turning to go with You, is at times very painful—because I love myself—and this struggle can create bitterness leading to defilement, if I at that divine moment love myself so much that I prefer myself over You. Father, I pray and trust that over time, as I become more familiar and accustom to Your work and Your ways, I will await this spot where You open the eyes of my heart to what is of my flesh and what is of You—the way of holiness and godliness—and I will delight to make the turn toward You.

Gracious God, thank You for presenting to me this understanding of our relationship. Knowing that You have preserved this divine record of revelation for so many years up to this very day for my life helps me to live with You and for You as one of Your children journeying through the earth on my way to be with You forever. May I carry these thoughts into all that is my day today, and may I truly know that You are closely and carefully with me. May the world not know me as one who comes from its womb, but one with a heavenly birth. All this, my Father, is good and comforting. I am ready to venture into my day. Amen.

Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness (IVa)

2011-10-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings friend.

“Jesus Christ, [a] the faithful witness, [b] the firstborn from the dead, and [c] the ruler over the kings of the earth.” (Rev 1:5)

“Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” (Eph 6:24)

It was back in May that I wrote part three of the series Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness. My intention was to quickly follow up with part four and conclude the collection of my thoughts on the many relevant themes. Instead, my study and meditation on the lead verse became a lengthy pursuit and an enjoyable journey of something I consider profound, deeply meaningful, and uniquely rewarding after my many years as a Christian. Studies related to the main verse grew my vision and understanding of Jesus Christ, the church, and God’s work. The way I view Christianity and the Christian life has gained a substantial amount of additional breadth and depth, and, perhaps more importantly, my affection for the triune God and God’s people seems to have taken on a different feel with new and more refined interest.

Throughout my Christian journey, I have on occasion taken months to study a particular biblical theme or issue; sometimes a full year. Concentrated studies do certainly have value, and yes, these will require your precious and limited time, but I believe them key for my spiritual growth. Perhaps you should sometime consider such a venture for your edification. My only recommendation is to be sure the topic of such devotion leads you deeper into God’s heart, away from self, sin, false doctrine, and the world. The primary verse for part four of Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness is Revelation 22:17. I will introduce this verse below, but first I have additional related and relevant thoughts to share.

During these past many months, a sense of incompleteness characterized the journey alluded to above, thus making any attempt to begin writing my thoughts all the more difficult. I knew of no end to which my writing would aim; that was a mystery. Resources and understanding continued to come my way, and I followed what, in faith, I believed was the Spirit’s leading for me to grasp specific truths and be grasped—changed—by them. I now view these essential points as foundation items of Christianity and the Christian life, things that we all as Christians at best commonly reference with our lips but, I fear, for many of us are actually very far from governing our lives as individuals.

This disparity between what we present and what we are becomes clearer when one’s words and ways are experienced away from the Christian crowd and only before the few. Here one may find it easier to live only what one is deepest down on the inside and it actually becomes harder to put on a false or external self before the few. When before the few, one may assume that the few are more tolerable and accepting of a little self and corruption being manifest. The combined weight of their observing and discerning is less than the crowds, so, reason concludes, it can be tolerated. Whereas when before the crowd, religious formalism seems to necessitate or require one participate as a good member of the crowd and look the part for all present to see and hear. Activities which define the crowd move them along in such a way that individuals in the crowd may not even consider keen observing or discerning of another who is near them.

But, dear friend, God the Spirit sees one’s true self on the inside, and knows the workings at the inner crossroads where life’s ways are considered before manifestation. In addition, God’s Spirit knows not only an individual this way but also knows the collective spirit of the whole this way. For when individuals unite and become the crowd, there is a collectiveness which produces its own manifestation of the Christian crowd to the world crowd.

When a particular Christian is with a Christian crowd, one can will a persona which seems to easily take on or reflect the experiential manifestations of the Christian community immediately surrounding that individual. A person sort of fits in, but this fitting in is manufactured. Not real. The individual knows this artificiality is the case but isn’t honest about the difference he or she is aware of. Sometimes the individual sensing the difference may not know how to put words to their experience. Or, the issue behind the presented persona may be moral and the individual strives to avoid exposure, deciding instead to just live a false life before others as a cover. But, God’s Spirit is in there watching, seeing, and He knows. When away from the crowd, though, why would one bother to expend the energy required to be a fake? Living before only the very few, only these very few would ever encounter or properly discern one’s true heart and one’s ungodliness. Perhaps one’s immediate few reflect back what the one is him or herself, so there is no basis in the individuals who comprise the few that would even move them to be discerning about the one with godly discernment.

Someone can live content with being one’s unholy self and not fear the repercussions of the many finding out, if he or she avoids the crowd, limits exposure to the crowd, or remains quiet offering only minimal substantive conversation regarding their inner world on rare occasion. “Just enough” quiets most people, then they become distracted and shift away. The persona person is safe. Further, if this analysis is actually the case for any one Christian—all I have to do is look at my own history for evidence that at least one Christian struggles with actual godly living—then, perhaps it is even the wider experience of corporate Christianity; the Body of Christ, the Church at large. We will consider this by thinking about the Body of Christ in relation to the world.

This position above regarding the estate of the individual and corporate Christian experience related to “belief” and “life” is my personal conclusion. It is my own experience. And, I have to believe that I am not alone with this struggle between a recognition of what is godly and what I know to be the “inner me.” If it is common, why don’t we talk freely about our inner worlds where God does His deepest, hidden, and most transformationally profound work, which by divine design produces or yields the choicest and most vital open and available fruit for all to know God by and connect most directly with God’s grace, love, light, forgiveness and true life? Why do we willfully shield the world from direct exposure to the reality and impact of God here, at this most deep and most organic to life level? Likely, it is because the transformational work of God in this way at this level is alien even to us, and it is alien to us because we have been fooled by the evil one that true religion is external and shallow and the inner world is exempt from the eye and rule of God! We are led to believe the world’s mantra that only what is external and of appearance matters! Self hides in the deepest inner recesses of the human heart. The devil will marshal his demonic powers to spread any lie and darkness, and so blind the mind to prevent Christians from grasping the divine fact, that the inside, the heart, is where the most glorious work of God gets done.

Jesus talks about a cup being clean on the outside only, while the inside remains filthy, and apparently out of sight, so out of mind (Mk 7). The world tends to look only on the outside and passes judgment based on wants, needs or values associated with the observer’s wants or values. “Outside to outside” the world and those of the world bounce off one another believing they see and know what is right and good, judging others by what they think is the case, using themselves and how they wish to be judged as the reference point by which value judgments are determined. But God looks, sees and understands opposite to or different from how the world examines. God looks from the inside and through the inside outwardly. Certainly, God may and can witness, as an observer, Carl committing an act, as you or I may look out a window and watch someone help a neighbor. But God sees and understands the act as a result of the inner workings of heart and mind which led to or resulted in the act. More importantly, God sees and knows all those premeditated thoughts that end in imaginations and wants that never manifest to the world but remain hidden in the heart, where only the individual and God know their record. As God, He can only, it seems, go from what He knows intrinsically to Himself outwardly. He is clean, pure, sinless, and His motives and relations with all things are done from, by and toward what is according to His nature. The ungodly have none of that working in them. The Christian, I believe, has a substantial amount of mixed and conflicting passions, interests, and motives at work in their inner world, and manifest to the world is a blended presentation of that which is of God and that which is of self. This internal mix, influenced by both the internal and the external world, is a conflict zone. And, it is here that godly ways are chosen, and this good chosen can be brought forward to the world.

Then again, perhaps many of you have already traveled far down this portion of the road of faith where you not only know by acknowledgement to yourself all of what I described, but you have mastered self and the flesh and only godliness working its way out of you is what the world experiences through you. If true, you are well ahead of me, so to speak (in terms of awareness and life lived out of awareness), and I am only now being illumined to such distinctions or truths concerning one’s condition. I am only now following in your steps, unaware of your own story (because you never put words to it), and what I just described is simply “old turf” to you. If so, then I will see Christ in your life and be drawn to God because of your life. I will hear Christ in your words and be edified in the life of God that comes into the world from the outside, through people moved by God’s Spirit and defined by the Spirit of Christ. Perhaps, my friend, perhaps this is you, and I should learn from your mastery of ungodly passions. Perhaps I can only “experience” what you learned yourself of this reality by my involvement with your life, and I must actually “learn for myself by my own struggle with and before God Himself” the godly life you seem to exhibit. I cannot avoid actually learning what I need by simply adopting something I pluck from you (outside to outside), God must work with me Himself directly and take me through a process, so that I may come to a point like you where you and I live or evidence similar life qualities in our relations because God has instructed us both, and it is genuine from our hearts toward each other versus some artificially manufactured living shell we give to one another. So I look to you as an example of godliness to guide and encourage me. Being encouraged, I will seek God for victory over my inner war (unless I prefer the darkness). He will be my needed savior and teacher. Can you live your part for me and witness the reality of God working in and liberating your life from the world and from self, or do I walk (most often with difficulty) this road alone and you truly don’t have this inner dynamic loose in you? I only assume you do.

The sense of incompleteness I spoke of above kept me moving further and further into studying the Lord Jesus Christ as my end, and studying Him from view points which I had known about but not considered in much depth before or, in some cases, was not even aware of. December 2010, I committed to studying our Lord during all of 2011, and my journey has been nothing short of a blessing. As, perhaps you know, when one says “I am studying the Lord Jesus Christ,” one cannot merely study him as one studies a block of wood on a table. Jesus is a person, so one is drawn into a personal relationship when one learns of him. And, in such a relationship, He in turn studies the learner in His own way. He is a Shepherd. He is judge. He is all in all, and to sanctify one that He’s saved in preparation for being with His Father, Jesus Christ by the word and Spirit works in mysterious fashion to separate out and replace what is ungodly in someone’s life for that which is heavenly and according to godliness. He is Shepherd. He is Judge. He is our life and our sanctification.

Consider the verse Revelation 1:5 above. If you spent some days reflecting on just that verse for your spiritual nourishment from the Bread of Life, would you be filled? Would you recognize the three phases, the progression of Christ’s ministry represented by those parts, and that Jesus is now the ruler over the kings of the earth as he was when John was given this revelation? Would you see that perhaps this three fold outline is actually a structure for the Book of the Revelation itself? Would the bible’s declaring that Jesus Christ rules over all earthly rulers be a truth that you are overwhelmed by and which transforms your thinking and your passions about your relationship to earthly kings and powers, such that your trust and rest in Christ’s rule and not man’s? What would such fact do to you on the inside and what would people then experience from you outwardly? Would they know Christ as ruler because you live with him as ruler yourself? Looking back on the study path I traveled, it appears to me that I have been moving through a very personal stream of study related to the person of Christ Jesus, and the work of God in and through Christ Jesus, and that while the study involved my relation to scriptural truths and interpretations of these truths, the person of God and God in Christ was always the aim. As I studied and knew God more intimately, He made me more aware of His ongoing work in me. This being so, the fruit of my labors was not simply the gaining of more information but that of an increased affection and intimacy with God, greater honor and submission in mind and heart due Him, and greater awe and wonder at the vastness of His work and ways in all creation and history.

At this time, the notion to continue pressing into the subjects identified above has gone. The learning assignment of mind and heart for now has reached its end with respect to content and concerning a reorienting of my heart more toward God and away from self and the world. I seem to stand on a distant shoreline prepared and able to walk forward carrying the newness of what I believe God has shown me through my own life into the lands of my future, always moving ever more toward being fully in God’s presence and understanding that I am always now before Him, and that what I do with the illumination of divine truths is something He continually looks at. Friend, do you have such a vision for your life? Do you see yourself at the start of each day as newly resurrected from the dead, alive with Christ with a new heavenly life making your way through all things with Christ by faith and the Spirit toward the Father? Is this not your hope, your Christian and gospel end? If not, then what is your Christianity? When you arise, does the flesh arise with you and Christ stay in the grave? If you have any doubt, ask others! The fact that I still sin and continually wrestle with sin does not falsify the work of God in my life. I, and likely you, would say that such wrestling validates it. As does my forgiving the sins of others and contending against sin in the world.

I perceive from my studies these last many months a sense of wholeness regarding a very full package of thought, but what I offer in this fourth part of the series is really just an indication of where those thoughts have gone: descriptive sign posts. Trying to produce a full report of what I have learned, and my expanded vision of the Christian life and journey will likely never be written; as I hope your report of your intimate life with God is also so full that you could never detail it all to any person. More importantly, I hope that I actually live more of what I’ve come to understand than what I ever pen for another to read, whether I ever write on it again or not. For while words are too easily spoken, and we can too easily exalt self in what we seem to know (at least I tend to), a life of divine truth lived out leaves a greater impact and imprint on another’s life in a way words alone cannot. Conveying or revealing the life of Christ in and through our lives in relation to another person provides something more tangible than words alone.

The bible is comprised of words, but we do not relate to mere words. God in Christ is always present. This we must remember, as well as that we live as with and before him. Think of how it is with you. Life puts forward the divine reality expressed in acts that can only be explained by a cause from outside the self and the world because the nature of such life acts, or ways, are contrary to self and the world. The world recognizes, as do those of the world, its own. You and I, as Christians, must live and give the contrast, so that the world will encounter the divine reality, know that Jesus Christ “is” and that he “is Lord of all”—NOW!—that the Father sent and loved him, and that love conquers sin, death and evil and brings redemption, life and light!

Beloved, if you live as the world, the world will only see its self reflection in you, which is self-validation for the world that it is ok and may continue on its merry and worldly way (and, I fear, dear Christian, you will experience its reflection in you and you will consider yourself absolutely fine; as if you belong here! Take and consider the opposite of Paul’s position stated in Galatians 6:14). The world needs to encounter the glory of God in and through you and me, and it should receive such from us because that is truly what is, or ought to be, most alive in us—unless you and I are living by, for and to the flesh. Then, what is against God is most alive, or active, in us, and the world likes us, or at least smiles at us yet never hears us when we might happen to speak a godly word or sentence. Certainly the world will never encourage us to pursue godliness! Fleshly rule should not be our witness or testimony. God forbid! Pray for me!

Additionally, as you and I acknowledge without debate, it is God who grants us any and all understanding of His word. Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:9ff establishes this fact. Our own experience, like those of others we know, confirms that any Christian’s understanding of the bible changes over time. Thus, I keep open to further review all that I share below and in subsequent letters. Our understanding of God’s scripture is a work in progress. We are people living a pathway of divine relationship whereby as we go on we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. To the degree that we as individuals continue to behold and love our Lord, so will we continually be transformed into His image. This is God’s work and desire, and it seems natural that at some point it should be or become every Christians too. I wonder, if one does not love the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely (Eph 6:24), does that person love Him at all? Sincere love verses what other type of love? What love would that be? And, if one does not love Him sincerely, or at all, then one will not pursue Him. He is not worth our time and effort. We pursue what we love (what we want or desire or value).

Observation seems to say that many do not love Jesus Christ. Many a Christian appears soiled by what is earthly. Their testimony by word and deed should appear more Christ-like and heavenly, but often the only testimony given is natural and worldly. These wonder why after so many years as a Christian they appear to themselves (and others who may in silence observe them) fleshly, shallow, even dead, not much different in substance of a life hid with Christ in God than shortly after conversion (if even that!). They are not far along that road of Christian maturity and godliness. In short, the reason for their dreadful condition is Self. They remain as god to themselves and they live trying to be lord over others, having missed something specific of the divine message to them along the way; which would have liberated them into God’s relationship with them as their God, and having secured the reality of intimacy with God whereby He would truly rule as God in their lives instead of self’s tormenting rule. What a miserable condition to truly be a Christian and yet not live from, by and for that divine reality. You and I acknowledge all this, and we know that as we pursue Christ and God the Father, and thankfully receive what is revealed to us from His word, it is His delight to increase the fullness and depth of relationship with Him based on His word and involving our prayer, meditation and godly conversations. Through all this the body grows from the divine nourishment one member gives to another by word, life and the Spirit. There is a reason for my commenting on all these parts up till now. This background will connect with how we will look at Revelation 22:17. I trust that the relevance will become clear as we move into the text.

The primary verse for part four is Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” The verse, after positioning our Savior earlier in the chapter, contains four parts, and throughout this discourse I will refer to them in the following way:

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” (4a)

And let him who hears say, “Come!” (4b)

And let him who thirsts come. (4c)

Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (4d)

From this verse, I focus on 4a: “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” I am fascinated by this passage, especially “the desire” it reveals. Yet, after all studies and speculation, we must eventually ask ourselves, dear friend, what is contained therein for me and for you? To begin, we might ask if we acknowledge now the presence of such desire in our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ, or we might need to acknowledge that we seldom or never call out for him. Do our lives give evidence that we desire to be with Jesus Christ or have him be with us? Additionally, if we do now call for Him, or if we will in the not to distant future, what is the nature of this call, a call that is shared with God’s Spirit? This we must learn and understand well, so that our call unites us with the reality the passage reveals. We want to step into this truth and reality. We do not want to simply ask amiss, and we dare not try to mechanically fit a call on to our lives as something false and outwardly manufactured or displayed. We must be certain Who it is we ask for, and we must understand and desire (accepting the full implications of) our call being answered. Do we honestly believe that we are ready to stand in the full presence of God? Is this the implication of this call?

Some may understand that this call does not stem from something we as “the callers” would ask for ourselves, but that the call is solely an invitation for others to hear and come to what is offered to them through us. Reading 4b-d seems to allow for the interpretation of invitation, but, if it is such an invitation, who is the Inviter? (Can we learn from Matthew 11:28?) What condition would you and I, and the bride in total, need to be in so that such a Spirit led call would actually go out from us? What of this? Perhaps there is both (1) the expressed desire for the Caller by the Spirit-bride for themselves, as well as (2) the expressed desire of the Caller as an invitation to be with Him but apparently through the Spirit-bride for others. We will explore this, and much more than just these few thoughts or questions.

As you may have gathered from this brief introduction to the fourth and final part of my series on the Holy Spirit and Godliness, the details which stem from studying Revelation 22:17 are extensive. Future letters will be many, and they will be written over much time. I will try to write again soon. Until then, convince yourself from the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is now Lord of all, pursue the Lord Jesus Christ, and understand what this means for your life (inwardly and outwardly) and others through you.

God’s best.

Carl

Look at the Lamb

2011-07-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings friend.

I do not mean to be judgmental or unkind, but I do not understand how a Christian can be bored with God’s word or be uninterested in it. Yes, I am aware that many Christians have honest struggles and that not all Christians posses the same passion for God. Each of us experiences a range of interest levels for God’s word throughout our Christian lives. Perhaps the “passion issue” is related to one’s “faith object.” If one attempts to be motivated to read or study God’s word from mere duty or from a self-generated faith basis, the likelihood of disinterest or failure seems naturally greater. If one is motivated to study God’s word because of their love for God and God’s love for them (experienced, not just intellectually acknowledged), because in the Bible the mysteries of God, of life and of Jesus Christ are manifest and revealed, the likelihood of a Christian frequenting the Scriptures would appear quite regular and normal. Again, we all ebb and flow in our relation to God’s word. Inconsistency seems to be the only constant at times. My observations are not intended to condemn. I only mention these things as prefatory to setting some aim.

For my own part, I must confess that this day in church I was into my own Scripture study in the New Testament: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Corinthians, and Revelation. I have labored heavily in these areas for more months than I can remember. The theme I pursued with lavish gusto today was that of “the throne” in Revelation: who is present and what is going on. It is a remarkable study!

In Revelation 4, God the Almighty is central. He is on His throne. He is the one in whom life exists (all created things, all else, derives life from Him). He lives forever and ever. He is worshipped by creatures. In Revelation 5, God Almighty possesses a scroll. An angel proclaims “Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals?” Nothing! Not a creature stirs. “No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.” And yet, something else was required. Then, a Lamb appears. And this Lamb does something significantly more than just “open” the scroll and “loose” its seals. This Lamb, in the midst of the throne, “came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” The Lamb approached the Almighty, in complete confidence took the scroll from the Almighty, and then living creatures and elders fell down before the Lamb and sang a new song to the Lamb!

My friend, it may not immediately appear clearly or as significant, but the nature of the Lamb is testified to by this event. Creation was unworthy and unable to approach the Almighty. The Lamb, because he was significantly more than something defined by the created order, hesitated not in both approaching the Almighty and taking from His right hand the scroll. The Lamb, of his own authority, would later open the seals and, as Son of God and Son of Man, mediate the will of God Almighty to the created order.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Jn 1:1) He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Col 1:15-17) God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. (Heb 1:1-3) But I saw no temple in it [the holy city, the New Jerusalem], for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." (Rev 21:22-23)

The Lamb shares something essential, intrinsic, with the Almighty. “Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. (Jn 14:9-10) For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. (Col 2:9) No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (Jn 1:18)

My friend, if you need a reason or some portal, direction, with God’s word to be forever anchored and interested in His word, look at the Lamb!

Christian, How Do You See Yourself And Others? As New In Christ?

2011-06-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

“. . . if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor 5:17)

My friend, if you have been a Christian for any length of time, you are likely familiar with this verse. In my experience, it is used to emphasize a position that through Jesus Christ, God has changed “your” life, and that His work to bring forward the newness of this life in “you” is ongoing. As a result, this truth should encourage you, and you should become more Christ-like over time. I have heard this verse applied as a reason for giving Christians some sense of hope that the condition of their lives will not stay as currently known—short on affection for God; characterized by unholy thoughts, attitudes and actions; hostage to mixed and tumultuous emotions; shallow faith; uncertainty; doubt; unfulfilled expectations—and it is used to direct Christians to believe that at some point they will eventually reach a level of Christian development or a form of discernable Christian maturity matching a notion of godly design and Christ-likeness. But, I ask you, step back from this customary interpretation (whether valid or not) and consider something different. Perhaps the apostle Paul is driving at something apart from the typical explanation, something where “you” or where “self” is not the primary object. To explore an alternate meaning, let us add the preceding verse.

“. . . from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor 5:16-17)

I find it interesting, first off, that when we join verse 16 to 17 the focus immediately comes off “us” or “self.” We are, in turn, actually told to see “others” and to see “Christ,” not ourselves; although, by extension, we could see ourselves, but we would only be permitted to see ourselves as “not according to the flesh.” What does this mean? It means that as Christians our life (its nature) and our relationships have fundamentally changed. It also means our method of knowing, interpreting and understanding life, has fundamentally changed. We now have a foundational and fixed contrast between “according to the flesh” and “in Christ.” We also see a second contrast which is between (a) Knowing according to the Flesh and (b) Knowing thus No Longer (which permits a new or a replacement Knowing, a (c) Knowing according to Christ, or a (d) Knowing according to the New Creation—the New Life).

The essence of the contrasts which we are here designating and discussing are the two categories of Being and of Knowing. We do this and make these divisions within a biblical framework. A person is either in Christ or not. One is either a new creation or not. We are addressing here the nature of one’s existence, one’s being. Similarly, either someone understands and interprets life according to the flesh or not. One knows and understands according to the new creation, according to new things or not. So, if one is in Christ, and is therefore a new creation, this person (we would expect) knows, understands and interprets not according to the flesh but according to Christ, according to the new creation. As Christians, it seems reasonable that someone should have an awareness of their being in Christ. It seems there should also be an understanding of their knowing about life according to Christ. Jesus Christ is both the ground of our existence and the basis for our understanding that existence or life; the life of our existence in Him, and the lives all others who also anchor their existence in Him. Our life is rooted in Christ. The understanding of our life is also rooted in Him.

If we carry the notions implied in verse 16 into verse 17, we may understand Paul as saying: “Now that I am (and, as all Christians are) truly living, and only living, in Christ, I should not regard any Christian I think of or encounter (including myself) through a lens that is primarily defined by or framed according to the characteristics of the flesh (a), just as I do not relate to or accurately understand Jesus Christ according to the flesh; that is, only from the perspective of his earthly existence. Jesus was resurrected. He is the firstborn from the dead. He redeemed. He is of Heaven. He is the God-Man. As Christians, we should relate to ourselves and any other Christian from our foundational identity in Christ Jesus and according to their identity in Christ Jesus; from the characteristics and principles of the new nature, and according to our mutual participation in that new nature (b-d). We should understand, first, that any true Christian is a new creation, and that any individual Christian, or any group of Christians, continually experiences old things passing away and things of the new creation emerging in their heart, mind, and relationships. (Do you, dear Christian, ever wonder if this could really be true and possible?) I should, as a Christian, realize that this new identity for me and others continues its presence and manifestation in every Christian’s life for the remainder of their life. (But, what if at times I am unable to discern this? Would it still be true?) Regardless of what age or stage of life we as Christians encounter, if we are Christians, we are in Christ, we are of the new creation, and we continue not knowing according to the flesh but knowing according to Christ.” Be advised, though, not all have this understanding.

Friend, much more could be said, but I leave further contemplation of seeing and relating to yourself and other Christians from “in Christ” and the “new creation,” and not “according to the flesh,” to your personal initiative. I must make a second point. It concerns Christian liberty in relationships.

“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way . . . for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” (Ro 14:12-13, 17-19)

Do you sense the high road of heavenly relationships described by these verses? If these verses were a map of Christian relationship, where would you spot yourself? If we join the relational frame and understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 to the instruction of these passages, a larger relational picture for the Body of Christ develops. It is one of Christian liberty: the environment and the principle by which Christians relate to one another. It assumes that each Christian stands (knowingly) as an individual before God at all times, and that God alone is our judge. If true, you are not my judge, in the sense that you ultimately define and rule my life. I am not your judge. You are not, foundationally, accountable to me. There is Another. We both live before and unto God. He is our Creator and our Redeemer. This high and divine notion of “living in God’s presence continually” ought to be something we acknowledge and resign ourselves to at this moment and going forward. Instead of an atmosphere of dread, it is a position of comfort. But, not all have this understanding.

What you and I, my friend, are to be toward one another, as those in Christ and according to the new creation, are people who demonstrate godly wisdom accompanied by liberty and the fruitful manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our relationships. We are to live and express the new life in Christ, which we each should have evidence of and know ourselves, toward one another. You may notice that if I relate to you according to what I see you doing or not doing—eating and drinking, etc.—I am judging your life. This would be my lens for understanding you; but, if we are both in Christ, would I not, in fact, be misunderstanding you? If I relate to you according to what God by His Spirit is doing in me—righteousness, peace, Holy Spirit joy, liberty—I am excluding fleshly judgment and bringing His life to your life. By extension, you, as a Christian, would be doing the same toward me. Life into life; liberty and, I say, love. The new life and heavenly realities are the foundation for our lives here and also the basis for our understanding our lives now. This, I believe, is the kingdom way. Not judging according to the flesh. Both living and judging, or interpreting relationships, by the flesh, have been done away with by Jesus Christ. We no longer know, understand or experience, Him that way. Why would we ever persist in relating to those “in Christ” with us that way? Again, I say, not all have this understanding.

Imagine, if you will, what your closest Christian relationships would look like if sketched by the understanding above which stems from being “in Christ” and living according to the “new creation.” Christ: our Ground for life and our Basis for understanding our life. What could your Christian small group relationships look like and those of your church congregation? What would you see, envision, hear? What would people be doing, saying in private conversations before or after church? How would they look at each other? What would people’s goals, desires and passions be toward and what would they be doing with their time? How would you see others, and who would you be to others? What sort of relational dynamics would follow? Would you edify and be edified?

May God by His Spirit and word, by His people, instruct us and lead us.

Carl

Crisis of Faith and Christian Despair—Pathway to Life.

2011-06-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

“This is a faithful saying” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)

“For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”

Greetings friend.

Reading the verses above feels to me like I am descending the ladder of faith, traveling from the heights of assurance and Christian victory into the hellish pits of despair. If this view is permissible, what happens when I arrive there? Go with me, and see.

I wonder how often we truly ponder our relationship with God, with Jesus Christ? Frequently? Rarely? I find value in such questioning, but do you? How about others you know? Is such enterprise a waste of time and the strain on one’s soul unwarranted? Such an effort may lead one to despair! Well, perhaps it should. But, doing so may also lead one to a greater understanding of what those relationships actually mean. We may learn things about our life with God and Jesus Christ that we’ve not understood before; things which strangely strengthen and encourage us, even though the venture costs us dearly. Perfect love casts out fear.

Read again those few verses above and locate the part that best describes your current relationship with Jesus. Circle it, or write it down. Read them again and now identify the part that you least want to have describe your relationship with Him. Note it. For some, perhaps they are the same.

The first line, “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him,” might describe the entry way into life with God through Christ, and so it conveys to us a great hope! Here are found the basics of the gospel, and many a Christian lives secure in themselves and Christ right here and advances no farther in Christian understanding or the fullness and substance of the Christian life. Forgiveness through Christ and everlasting life with God because of Christ are the extent of it. Really? Must there not be more? What if the living with Him actually describes that which is the reminder of our earthly lives after conversion but before Heaven? “Having died with Him, I live with Him.” If this second view is a possibility, then a Christian would by necessity move on to the second line. People defined by the first interpretation will be motivated to stay secure on line one. Their Christianity has no depth. Therefore, they cannot descend.

“If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” If this verse pertains to the Christian life (and this seems the correct view, given how Paul describes his situation in chapter 1), the word “endure” is appropriately chosen. Do you and I have what it takes to successfully and triumphantly live the Christian life all the way to the end? Must we not honestly evaluate our lives with God, with Christ, so that we know? Or, is guessing and assuming sufficient? Friend, how does it go with you? Tell me, by what rule do you gage your life? Life is hard. The Christian life is hard. To live it, one must press into it continually or it will cease and darkness may return as one’s way. If you do not endure, then would you (by default) live as a non-Christian? Or, is failing to endure simply part of the Christian journey? Troubling, is it?

The secret to living the life with endurance stems from what is positioned at the end of the previous line: living with Him. “Having died,” if you do not “live with Him,” you cannot endure. If you do not live with Him, you have no life; for “you died” (or so you claim). Your life now can only be “in Him.” The two states (dead, but alive) are different sides of a single reality. He endured. You can endure. He reigns. You too can reign. But first, you must endure. Do not try this by your own strength. Abandon any thought of it. For you will not succeed. Having died with Him, to live, you can now only live through His life. Because He lives, you live. How often we forget that we have died with Him. Imagine, in those times, how difficult it would be to resurrect that which died, to try and have what we believe and remember was life to us return. This cannot be done. Jesus is also the resurrection. He is the life. We must live with and by Him. Only then will we endure. Only then will we reign.

Dear reader, we have taken some downward steps. Do you see yourself somewhere along the way thus far described? Do you live with Him? Do you endure? Come. We must quickly press on while thoughtfully engaged.

Next, we enter the treacherous waters of Christian hardship where the rocks of denial abound: denial of Jesus Christ. Why would that come now? We just spoke of enduring and the glory of reigning with Him! Far be it from any of us to ever deny our Lord! “I am a Christian!” Perhaps, but, my friend, do we not all in some way deny our Lord? Did He not stand alone at trial? Was it not Jesus, and then set against Him was all the world? Perhaps, when reading on, the more challenging issue is “How does Christ deny us upon our denying Him?”

It would seem at this point torrents of fear wash us away and dash us upon the rocks! The One I trust for my salvation; the One I call my Lord . . . is this truly His way toward me? Could I carry the weight of such awareness, if true!? Questions and insecurities would overwhelm me like high flood waters washing away everything in its path! Is this denial for eternity? Is there any repentance and forgiveness to bring repair!? Even if only affecting temporary fellowship! Could I but have some hints to discern some break in intimacy with God (such as are contained in the warnings to the churches in Revelation 1-3), then I might understand the dangers and repent!

My friend, I have difficulty enough engaging this challenge for myself, and while I may never fully understand the correct meaning of the conditional “IF I deny, THEN He denies,” it provides an excess of opportunity for me to prayerfully examine my life with God and for God to lead me and guide me into truth, repentance and further into life with Him. Perhaps the inquiry itself is what God desires most, because through the inquiry He’ll reveal answers to us individually. But, we are not done yet. The raging torrents have captured us in their swift, rocks we meet, but down we must go. There is an answer, an end, and it is down.

If denial is not the bottom, to where must we descend? The floor which we seek is Faithlessness. Oh, the shunned description for any Christian! Faithlessness! It awaits us further down; down in the darkened dregs and depths of crisis and despair. Can you ever see yourself, dear Christian, as faithless!? Are you above that!? Who would lay the charge? Early on in your Christian venture, bold in faith, triumphing over Satan, sin and the world, could you have ever imagined yourself sometime later identified as “faithless?” Living with joy the glories of the Christian life, and secure in the articulation of transcendent platitudes, unhindered, beyond enduring! “Sure, I’ll reign with Christ! Never could I deny Him!”

Then what happens? Life changes. You change. Things are different. You are not who you thought yourself to be, and you now inescapably know this to be fact. The shell of your Christian life has cracked and it falls away. Your light seems to turn to darkness. Your joy turns to sadness. Your victory turns to defeat and ruin. Have you denied Him? Worse yet, has He denied you!? And is what you are now experiencing the effect of that denial: life separated from God, alone, left to see and to live with yourself? Is that how you would describe what you feel? Is God gone? You stand exposed in fear and humility, unsure of which way to step, for all is darkness. Motionless, truly exposed for what you are: broken and needy for that which only Jesus Christ can provide. What now? You are with yourself, and you begin to think, and you wonder, “Is there some relationship between denial and faithlessness (unbelief) that I must see and must understand that will explain, that will show, that will direct?”

My friend, at this point of examination, self-reflection, and self-exhaustion, you must go the final step. It is required. God has ordained it. You, as a Christian, must know—understand with the mind, but also sense or experience in the fullness of what makes you human; thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.—that you are and will be faithless, but that Jesus Christ will not be faithless! It is at this point when one can see something a bit differently. “Jesus is truly Savior.” He remains faithful, and you and I (from our state of self-exhaustion) must see Him as such to appreciate and value Him as our Savior! If you do not go to and stand at this point of crisis of faith and Christian despair, you will—or, you may very well—secretly rely upon your own strength to save, your own merit, your own glory, and Jesus will not be all to you that He in reality is for you. You have not yet hit bottom. You will not know His life, because you choose to cling to yours.

There one stands, hushed in the horror of a holy silence. Upon confession of such things, the door of life opens and you are greeted by a question: “Why does Jesus remain faithful with regards to me when I am unfaithful toward Him; or, does He actually remain faithful to something other than me?” You must, dear Christian, not merely see this question as something before you, but you must hear yourself ask it to yourself! It will be nourishment to your soul and your faith, as light is essential for your sight. Then, sensing a new type of movement from within, you begin to ascend the ladder from the floor of faithlessness (unbelief) and the depths of darkness and despair. You go upward to where you assume will be the spot from which the descent began; only, you are now enlightened and strengthened. Thus, the world you know and live in is different for you because you are different. Christ is the same. Only you know Him more fully, as He truly is. And, whereas one would normally consider a question’s answer to be something that concludes, satisfies, and quiets the quest, this forthcoming answer works to pull you and me as individual Christians forward, deeper, and further into the mysteries of God and fellowship with Him and Jesus Christ; yet, we are always strengthened, even through further and assured crisis. This is because the answer as to why Jesus remains faithful to you and me when we are faithless toward Him drives us into seeing that He is committed (faithful) to a larger divine work, of which we are a part, and He cannot deny Himself, nor will He fail to keep the commitment He made to His God and Father. We are secure in Him! The glory and honor, and all else, go to Him. He is before His Father and our Father, His God and our God, as the Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus cannot, will not, deny Himself, nor can He be unfaithful with respect to all He has committed to with His God and Father. As a Christian, you are secure in Him. Self-security is an illusion. Do you understand this? He is faithful. He is our Savior. Trust not in yourself. You cannot save yourself. The saving required is that which is only accomplished by Jesus Christ Himself.

You have journeyed back to the top of the ladder. You arrive back at line one. Renewed and resting secure in Christ, you ascend from the floor, the foundation—Christ. Now you understand what living with Him entails. You are more aware that you could deny Him, but why would you ever do that? Given Who He is and what He’s done, what He does, why would you ever deny Him? Instead, you press into the Christian life. You continue. You endure. You want to reign with Him. You live! He defines you. And you know that the old self who died, so Christ could live in and through you, that old self, it remains dead and contributes nothing to what God now calls your life. The descent to despair, although it felt to have pulled your life apart, actually revived you, connected you with the life, and now you can live more secure in Christ, more joyful in Him and in the life lived with and for Him. He remains faithful, dear friend, because He cannot deny Himself. Ponder that often. Go where those thoughts lead you. Then, having thought and questioned, live from what God reveals to you.

To the reader: You may wonder if the preceding is an appropriate interpretation of what the apostle Paul intends from 2 Timothy 2:11-13. I can only encourage you to take the major thoughts from the above description, write them down, then slowly and thoughtfully work through 2 Timothy. I am confident you will be both surprised and encouraged.

God’s best to you.

Carl
6-11-11

Reflections on “In Christ Jesus”

2011-05-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 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, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Eph 1:3-6)

Father, how wonderful and overwhelming are all the many splendid things that you declare from your word! If you did not reveal them, I would never imagine them. You bless me through every single thing you’ve purposed in Jesus Christ, your son! You chose me in him. I participate in your divine work in his life. You adopted me by means of your son. He is the ground from which my son-ship exists. You freely and fully love your son, and you abundantly pour out your grace to me through him whom you love! You, Father, bless me with every spiritual blessing. I am—in truth—holy and blameless in your sight, not because of my worth or merit but because your decision and because of your son. All this, and so much more, to the praise of the glory of your grace! Father, I praise you and thank you for this divine work considered and secured before ever there was a world. In love you predestined my relationship with you through Jesus Christ. On account of the good pleasure of your will, and your love for your son, I experience and understand all these things little by little as the days and years advance. A time will come when I finally leave this earth all tired and worn, and I will then be more infused with life than ever I could on earth conceive. I will finally be with you; the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom I have life, love and all spiritual blessings! May I never think or say I am not sufficiently loved!

“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: ‘I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.’ And again: ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again: ‘Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.’” (Heb 2:10-13)

Lord Jesus, suffering was your way. Why? I do not pretend to adequately understand. But in the wisdom of God, your Father, He knew that through suffering you would be complete, reach your designed purpose and end, and you would be best set apart for the work He intended for you: the God-man; Mediator of the new covenant. As I reflect on the Ephesians passages above, I understand that I am with you. My identity is termed “in Christ.” Hebrews 2 tells me that we are one: sanctified, set apart. I hear your song of praise, trusting, understanding my being given by the Father to you, thinking even of John 10 and how you say that you and the Father are one! Lord Jesus, the Father has done so much in and through you, and I am with you in those works. I seem to be the passive beneficiary of His actions with you. I could never achieve such a position on my own. I would never conceive it. May I never account such blessings as mere earthly trinkets that I squander along life’s road and which leads to eventual loss and ruin. I am glad that you are not ashamed to call me one of your brethren! You must see me as the Father does. That you do is clear. Yet, you understand me as I am, for you know my nature. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your love for the Father and your willingness to suffer and bring many to sons to glory! I rejoice that you have declared His name to me. I am glad we are all of one! Of those given to you by your Father, God, you lose not one. (Jn 6:39, 10:28)

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Gal 4:4-6)

Father, you purposed the adoption. I am one of your adopted children. I have no doubts about this relationship. At the appointed time, you sent forth your son to liberate and clear the way to life; to you. You sent him, and he came down. You sent not an angel, but your son. The work you designed and purposed could not be accomplished by an angel. You desired your son to be glorified and his image to be manifest through eternity as that comes forward in the lives of those you adopted in him. This is that relationship that you predetermined to be. Lord Jesus, in you this work was obtained. I understand that as a result of my actual adoption as a child of the Father, I share your voice of testimony regarding the Father. You are His son. You know him. You came from Him and returned to Him. Then, He sent Your Spirit into the hearts of all those who have been and ever will be adopted through you to Him. While you walked the earth, your spirit directed you to always be moving toward Him and to live in conscious awareness of Him. His testimony was that He was pleased with you. May that be also my experience, as your spirit in my heart overtakes all other spirits (those of self, sin, demonic or worldly passions), so that He from whom my life is now derived would be my chief desire and end. Father, you sent your son and you sent the Spirit of your son. Not only do you see me in Christ, but you hear me in Christ. I share his spirit. I send up his cry, “Abba Father!”

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God . . . For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren . . . nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ro 8:16-19, 29, 39)

My Father, the collection of scriptures assembled above that I have prayed through are like successive waves of the sea rolling ashore. Each one lands its message and truth on the shore of my mind and heart. You gave me the Spirit of your son. The Holy Spirit impress upon me that I am your child. I have that witness. But you have purposed that I understand and experience more. You make it known to me that I am an heir with your son in all that you purposed to accomplish through him. He rules and inherits. I do not understand all this, but I believe it. As your child, adopted in Christ Jesus, you have predetermined that what happens in my life works to shape and bring forth your son’s likeness in my life. That must be a divine work! Sin too wants to master me. Conformity to its image is an effortless decent. Your work to conform me to the image of your son is a mighty work! A glorious work! A heavenly work! I am no longer defined by who I am in Adam. Nor do I bear the image of the devil. I am your child, and I am being transformed to reflect the image of your son! You desire what is glorious in him to be manifest among those many brethren. Father, Lord Jesus, let me always remember that your love is the environment of my existence. You have purposed that I would, in Christ, live before you in love; now and forever. Nothing of earth, or any other created dimension, can alter this fact!

My God, as I close, it is abundantly clear that You love me. This is so, certainly because I am “in Christ,” but also shown to me in other various ways related to experience. It is also clear that I have not been abandoned, and I am not alone, regardless of what my inner thoughts and imaginations want me to believe, or what the voices of the world try to convince me of to the contrary. They lie. And God, you are trustworthy. I am to rest in you and your goodness always. The world cannot know these things, and if the world hears them they scoff in disbelief. But those who are your children in Christ Jesus, Father, these know; for you have given them the Spirit of your son in their hearts. The Holy Spirit witnesses to us also. That testimony is firm. Thank you for your wonderful works in Christ Jesus and for the witness of these things from your word by which my mind, my heart, and my life are strengthened and your name exalted. Amen

Christ Our Mediator and Prayer

2011-05-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:5) “Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” (Lk 11:3-4) “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:14-15)

Father, without Jesus, Your Son, I would have no access to You, no fellowship, no intimacy. I would be left to myself, separated from You, without hope. Because of Him, I see You, and I see myself as before You. He instructs me in Your Word. Even in this, He acts as Mediator for us. It is He who teaches me about prayer: petition, with gratitude, for physical sustenance and forgiveness of my sin. These are my minimal daily needs, as creature and sinner—food and forgiveness. Living in Your presence, I understand dependency, I see my sin, and I pursue forgiveness with You through Your Son. He is our Mediator. He is also Your Son. As I know myself, I know others. You forgive me, so I forgive them. If my heart is closed toward them, then I will feel Your’s as closed toward me. Thank You, Father, for Your Son, prayer, and forgiveness.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (Jn 17:20-21) “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Ro 8:34)

Father, Your Son Jesus prayed for me before He left this earth. He has returned to You and sits at Your side. As Mediator, He opened and secured the way to You. He is the living way. He teaches me to pray by praying Himself. He petitioned You for our unity and for the world to know You sent Him. You dealt with sin. You answered His prayer. From this oneness, may the world hear from me (even if in only a small way) that You sent Him. Might they believe. May they hear more. Jesus has ascended to Your side. You hear His voice and know His heart continually. Your Son never tires. Mediator between You and men while on the earth. I am grateful He continues as that for me day after day. Thank You, Father, for the gift of Your Son. I’m glad You have answered His prayer. You always hear Him.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Lk 11: 9-10) “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (v. 13) “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Ro 8:26)

Father, Your Son, as Mediator, instructs me to pursue the best from You; Your Holy Spirit. I ask. I seek. I knock. I will receive. Thank You for the gift of Your Spirit. Father, what if no one prayed for me? What if each person had to carry that load his or her self? We hardly pray now. How would we endure? What if I never prayed for my true need but only superficial wants? What would be my end? I thank You, Father, that You did not leave these cares to me alone, but the Spirit, Whom You gave me, prays for me according to my true need. I do pray, LORD, but I do not pray enough or as I ought. I count on Your Spirit. I am unable to approach You apart from Your Son. He is the new and living way into Your presence. I am grateful, Father, that You hear Him, Your Spirit, and me. You have infinite capacity to receive our combined and ongoing petitions, and You show infinite delight in the chorus of our voices; each different, yet each toward You. Father, thank You for the gift of Your Spirit. He knows Your mind, Your Heart, my weakness and need, and Your language. You hear Your Son. You hear Your Spirit. Both are Your gift, as is prayer. Christ mediates for us. He instructs me. I believe. Thank You. Amen.

Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness (III)

2011-05-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Friend.

We come now to the third of four parts in the series Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness: The Presence of the Holy Spirit.

Part One, The Person of the Holy Spirit, introduced Relationship with God’s Spirit, and in specific that Christians can and do grieve, sadden, and disappoint Him. (Eph 4:30) We evidence our tragic failure in not knowing God and understanding the gift of His Spirit when we discount or dismiss Him. Obviously, this is to our harm, detriment, and loss. But the consequences go far beyond our lives, for we do not live in isolation. Whatever the causes are for our grieving the Spirit, we must understand and correct them. Nonetheless, God the Spirit remains committed, for He has a divine commission.

Part Two, The Power of the Holy Spirit, emphasized not simply the Spirit’s Power, but that God the Spirit with His power engages our natural dispositions, the flesh, at the critical front where what we desire and do in life is determined. God’s Spirit is positioned and abides with us at that fountain, our life’s core, with our spirit, our soul, at the final seat of our individuality. Here our nature is found and life’s issues come forth. That persistent foe our flesh hides there under the cloak of Self, natural passions and desires churning, influencing mind and heart; ultimately, sin’s source. (Gal 5:17, Rom 7:17-25, Js 1:14-15) Thankfully, God’s Spirit, Who cannot be corrupted by evil or our fallen nature, is focused right there to lift us from slavery to self, bring us out of sin, and, in turn, enlighten and empower us to live God glorifying lives. If we dismiss His person (the Relationship), we forfeit His power (Positioned where we need it most).

And now, Part Three: The Presence of the Holy Spirit.

I find it very difficult to begin this third part for at least two reasons. First, because of the volume of information I desire to share, I struggle to pick the best starting point through which to access everything else. This said, I begin by discussing the Christian’s heart and God’s Spirit, then I work into discussing the collective Christian heart (the Church) and God’s Spirit. By the Holy Spirit’s “presence,” I mean the Spirit’s role and influence, not necessarily location. The Holy Spirit does so much, but what I want to show is the Spirit’s role in bringing and promoting a specific quality of life: Godliness.

The second difficulty concerns the notion of godliness itself. If I confessed that I do not know what godliness means, how would you react? Perhaps I am on the right track, even if I am not completely in agreement with the ideal. It is easy for someone to comprehend the meaning of the word “godliness” as found in 1 and 2 Timothy and 2 Peter, for example, but godliness is really understood when one lives it. Godliness is holy living, and this presents the challenge. Examine your own life and the lives of Christians closest to you. Does godliness describe your life and theirs? If not, why not? I can tell you that while I do struggle with holy living, I also understand that the condition and orientation of my heart, in large measure, determines whether I will live godly or not. So, in conjunction with God’s truth, I look deeply into the heart, and I understand its nature and condition. If I am to live godly, I must pursue God’s word, self-reflection, and prayer. What follows from here are more thoughts on this subject. May we understand our hearts and our lives be changed to live godly in this present age for God’s glory and the good of others.

In Matthew 15, Jesus comments on the heart. From the heart come those things which defile a person. (v. 17-20) Proverbs 4:23 provides a similar view: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” The word “life” means many things to us; physical existence, for instance. In the New Testament, physical life is sometimes described by the term “flesh.” (Jn 1:13-14, Mt 19:6) Flesh also refers to the observable life of a person. (Jn 8:15) It is a way of life. (Rom 8:4-6) But there is more. Interestingly, the flesh is said to have its own lusts and desires. (Rom 13:14, Gal 5:16, 24) It is dynamic. Going even further, there is a link between the flesh and the heart. The flesh, according to its unique nature, works desires into the heart; for example, selfish ambition. (Gal 5:20, Js 3.14) One can conclude, then, that to be “identified with the flesh” is a valid generalization of someone’s life.

But Jesus tells of another life—spiritual. In John 3, he contrasts the physical with the spiritual, speaks of two births, summing it all up with the descriptions “of the flesh” and “of the spirit.” Here, the flesh is natural birth and natural life. In contrast, spiritual birth brings spiritual life. Spiritual birth is from God, heavenly, and given to us as a gift. This life comes through the Spirit Himself. (Jn 3:3-7, Gal 4:29) We find the heart connected to this spiritual life. The heart obeys a form of doctrine which leads to salvation. (Rom 6:17) With the heart one believes to righteousness. (10:10) The heart is where the Spirit brings God’s love. (5:5) And, it is from the heart that rivers of living water, by the Spirit, flow. (Jn 7:37-39) From this, one can conclude that to be “identified with the Spirit” can be a generalization for one’s life. (Gal 5:25)

For our purposes, the heart is that reservoir in each of us from which the issues of life come forth. The heart is influenced by stirrings, desires and ideas according to a nature. Desires working in heart and mind hunger for action by the will. As the proverb implies, from the heart comes that which makes the life. Both the flesh and the Spirit represent distinct origins and natures. One is earthly; one is heavenly. Each engages the heart and fosters a different expression of life. Jesus states the flesh profits nothing, but that the Spirit gives life. His words are life. (6:63) Jesus is pointing us away from the flesh toward the Spirit. God’s Spirit brings this spiritual life to us and also labors to grow it in us. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit—the Trinity—together do the initial redemptive work setting life with God in motion (Titus 3:4-6); and, as I’ll later show, together they sustain it.

God’s Spirit is not only with or for us, but in us. (Jn 14:17, 2 Tim 1:14) His presence is life. (Jn 7:37-39, 6:63) He jealously works to free us from our original fleshly nature and bring us more fully into the new spiritual life. He pursues this by confronting our flesh and presenting to us the realities of God’s grace which correspond to the new nature. (Js 4:5, Gal 5:16f) Thus, I argue, for the Christian, godliness is the expression or outcome of living according to one’s new true nature, new identity, in unison with the Spirit. (Titus 1:1-2, 2 Pet 1:2-8, 3:11, Rom 8:9-14, Gal 5:25)

From the human point of view, the task sounds daunting and efforts futile. You and I readily know that we do not consistently live according to our new nature. Our old nature, the flesh, is too persuasive and we easily acquiesce to the flesh’s ways. The transition from being mindful of God to fulfilling desires of the flesh is to us invisible and seamless. Even if we are aware of all the distinctions between the flesh and the Spirit, we constantly feel the weight of the flesh with our every breath. Escape seems hopeless. Sometimes this is suffocating to our conscience. (Rom 7:24) Yet, such awareness combined with faith in God actually works to our benefit by reducing self-sufficiency and increasing our dependency on Christ. (v. 25) While the life God has called us to is difficult, the underlying principle of living from one’s new identity, not the old, is simple. It is also something the Spirit exercise great care for, and so should we.

Now I must sharpen our focus on the Holy Spirit and the way He works in us this spiritual life. I will highlight connections between what has been discussed regarding the Christian’s heart with another work of the Holy Spirit that also targets the Christian heart. I revisit and expand on the notion of grieving the Holy Spirit. (Eph 4:30) And I will elevate the Trinity. I labor to show that The Person of the Spirit (the Relationship), The Power of the Spirit (the Positioning against the flesh), and The Presence of the Spirit (the Life) find their unity in the Christian’s heart and in Christ Himself.

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” (Jn 15:26)

Read Jesus’ words again and think upon what they are really saying. The message is critical, and we must carry it with us. The verses before and following John 15:26 pitch the disciples against a world that will reject them and their message. Jesus spoke these words to His disciples just before His death and departure to His Father. Once with the Father, He sent the Spirit. Observations: the Spirit is from (given by, and some would say “out of”) the Father; Jesus dispatched the Spirit; the Spirit is concerned with truth; the Spirit testifies of Jesus. The first conclusion is the Holy Spirit’s job is to testify of Jesus. The Spirit does this in various ways. (See also John 16:1-15) A second conclusion is that each member of the Trinity is present and actively engaged in the testimony of Christ. The Spirit gives testimony to the disciples and the world, with the result that people will trust in Jesus and the church will live throughout the ages. The Trinity is committed to this work. That which is revealed in John 15:26 supports what is described in Titus 3:4-6. We will see the Trinity’s joint labor again.

In Part One, I referenced Ephesians 4:30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Blaspheming God’s Spirit, the unforgivable sin recorded in Matthew 12, was also addressed. We understand that blaspheming and grieving God’s Spirit are vastly different. As Christians, we need to keep in mind our capacity to grieve or sorrow God’s Spirit. Thankfully, we do not face the same judgment and condemnation for grieving God’s Spirit as do those who blaspheme Him. The actions are dissimilar, but it is the same Spirit. The comparison, hopefully, works to sober us regarding our own relationship with God’s Spirit. We must realize who He is and His divine work. It is the Spirit who brings us life. (Jn 6:63, Gal 4:29) If we truly believed this, we would passionately pursue the Spirit and all He has for us. As Christians, our lives begin with the Spirit, thus it should follow that we live and walk in the Spirit. (Gal 3.3, 5:25)

Others were not so fortunate. Isaiah 63:10 says regarding Israel’s relation with God, “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.” Dear Christian, under the New Covenant, God does not suddenly become our enemy if we grieve His Spirit. But for all He’s done for us in Christ Jesus, such rejection must pain Him deeply. Grieving God’s Spirit is evidence of a unique and alarming heart condition. We must not equate grieving God’s Spirit to anything else in our lives, especially things which we casually dismiss as irrelevant or may even consider harmful. For many of us, this is another Christian truth we’ve lost track of through business or sin. Yes, our hearts and minds are divided at best (Js 4:8, 1:8), but that does not preclude movement in a helpful direction over time to limit such consequence and loss. If we seek a remedy, and we should, we must understand more clearly what it means to grieve the Spirit. I do not claim to grasp this fully, but I share what I believe helpful.

Each of us must come to grips with the fact that what grieves God’s Spirit is our lives. As individuals, “we” do that. You and me. But Ephesians 4 informs us that we are not alone in grieving the Holy Spirit. The chapter takes us from considering God’s Spirit being grieved by the individual only to God’s Spirit being grieved by a church, a local assembly of believers, or other Christian relationships. It is here that we must make a transition to what I believe is Paul’s greater message regarding Ephesians 4:30. Paul’s counsel in that chapter is addressed to the church at Ephesus. They, as a body of believers (a unified whole) are subject to grieving the Holy Spirit. The local assembly of Christians, comprised of individual believers, creates a unified identity which has the potential as such to grieve God’s Spirit corporately.

Together you and I may live in such a manner that denies the life of the Spirit. To prevent this, we must settle into a way of life where we keep in mind both our heart and conduct, as well as our congregation’s heart and conduct (and, this we must do without legalism; 2 Cor 3:2-6, Rom 7:6). It is our individual lives and the life of our Christian assembly that the Spirit pursues. The life of godliness applies to both. The Spirit’s work includes us, but it goes far beyond us. This is evidenced by the Spirit’s oversight of spiritual gifts to the church. (1 Cor 12-14)

A term frequently used for describing one’s course of life is “walking.” It summarizes or unifies all the major themes and parts of one’s life, and it characterizes one’s behavior or conduct. The term is used by both the apostle Paul and Peter. Paul uses it often in Ephesians 4 through 6, where he describes Christian attitudes and actions. Many read these as a list of Christian “Does” and “Don’ts,” a sort of Christian Law; that is, “prescriptions.” I see them as “descriptions” of the life which should naturally flow from the new and uniquely Christian spiritual nature. Clearly, if one lives from, by and for the flesh (the old nature), one is not living for the things of the Spirit and the new nature. (Rom 8:5) Here one would be described as “walking in the flesh,” not the Spirit. Godliness would not follow. If this condition describes you, consult the apostle Peter’s counsel in 2 Peter 1:9-10.

To the flesh, the things of God are not only difficult to live but they are undesirable. Why would the flesh want to live for the things of the Spirit? These two natures are contrary to one another. (Gal 5:17) For instance, a subject found in the verses closest to Ephesians 4:30 is communication. Emphasis is on speech that builds up and imparts grace, and kindness, tenderness and forgiveness. Evil speaking should disappear or be absent all together among Christians, because it comes from a different motive and has a different effect; it destroys and tears apart. Ask, in contrast, what motive could produce positive edifying speech that flows willingly and freely between Christians that actually does good? We should all know this. These admonitions are descriptive of a life the Ephesians should experience amongst themselves because of who they are in Christ. Their life was to flow from His life, and the life principle was the Spirit. (Rom 8:2, Eph 4:15-20, Rom 6:4, 6, 13, 19) Christ centeredness and the leading of God’s Spirit should characterize our lives as well.

The church is comprised of individuals who must themselves not grieve God’s Spirit. We usually go only so far as to apply this verse, Ephesians 4:30, to ourselves; our individual hearts. But looking again, the more obvious meaning of the grieving passage, I believe, is that of the Body grieving the Spirit; Our collective heart. If Christ is the Head and the church His Body, why would the Body ever grieve the Spirit whom Jesus sent to testify of Himself? This makes no sense unless one understands self and sin. Life would be denied access. When a Christian assembly manifests relational behaviors from hardened hearts or selfish preferences related to the old way of life, the Spirit is grieved on a community-wide scale. The Spirit’s work of testifying of Jesus would find closed hearts. Ephesians 4 reinforces the fact that the presence of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the cohesive fabric of a church body and the community life God designed the church to express. (Eph 4:3-4) God’s Spirit is the basis for expressed corporate unity. Only from this Spirit-based oneness will a specific type of life be present corporately. The Spirit brings spiritual life to individuals, but the Spirit also fosters a unified expression of this life in and through Christian community.

I stated earlier that a walk equates to or describes a life. Ephesians 4:30 is bracketed by two essential “walking” passages. The Ephesians were exhorted “to have a walk worthy of the calling with which” they were called. One characteristic of this calling is love. (4:1-2) Then they were told to “walk in love as Christ also loved” them, giving Himself for them. (5:2) Love is the essential ingredient to define and energize the walk. Love is also the contrary motive that would prevent evil speaking and tearing relationships between Christians apart. Love unifies. It is the Spirit that puts God’s love in hearts. (Rom 5:5) The unity stemming from each member’s walk in love flows from the Spirit. Love, then, would be the hallmark of their community life, one quality which would characterize them having a godly walk or a godly life. (See also 2 Pet 1:3-7) In addition, their loving themselves and others would reflect something essential of God. (Eph 2:4, Jn 3:16, Eph 5:2, Rom 5:5) The Trinity labors after conversion to manifest the love of God in people’s lives. (1 Jn 4:9-10, Jn 17:22, 26, Ro 5:5, Gal 5:22, Eph 1:4)

A contrastive view to love is expressed in Ephesians 4:17, where Paul stresses the Ephesians “should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind,” and whose hearts are hardened past feeling. (v. 18) Sound thinking is essential to godly living, but as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13, one can be most knowledgeable but fail to love. The mind can store data and reason very well, even argue above all others, but unity between godly thoughts and godly actions will not happen when one’s heart is hard and God’s love absent. Self-rule, self-centeredness, and pride are the anchor of the flesh. And, if the flesh dominates the heart, as with the Gentiles, it will only emit hardness. It knows only an ungodly self-love.

The Ephesians were encouraged to speak the truth in love, build themselves up in love (4:15-16), and, as already referenced, walk in love. (4:1-2, 5:2) The conclusion I draw is that grieving God’s Spirit, which denies or destroys the unity of the body, occurs both individually and corporately when what I term “godly love” is neither the means nor the end in Christian relationships. I consider Ephesians 5:22-33 additional support, if one understands what Paul is saying there about the church. There we see a desirable self-love (Eph 5:28-29, 4:16), one that looks beyond itself to others who share the same salvation and relation with God.

Paul stresses to the Ephesians their identity in Christ and what they already understood about that. (4:17-24) As Christians, they were separate from the remainder of the Gentile world. Their understanding could secure their walk, their conduct, their life. But, as you and I know, simply acknowledging certain beliefs does not guarantee a particular life outcome. Where love is the necessary motive, the heart must be engaged and constantly on guard. It was God’s love which moved Him with mercy and to save sinners. (Eph 2:4, 1:4) As we’ve already seen, there is a war in the heart between our flesh and God’s Spirit. One loves itself for itself, according to the corrupt nature. The other loves itself for itself, according to the new nature of the Spirit, but in the end for much more than itself. Godly love must rule.

The unity of the Body is linked to the Spirit, which depends on the individual’s heart that is also linked to the Spirit. God’s Spirit brings new life to the Christian, He labors against the flesh in the Christian, and He is the ground for relational unity among Christians as community. (See also 2 Cor 13:14) There is one body, a unity for the Body, and one Spirit supporting it all. (Eph 4:1-6) This heart work and Christian unity is a chief responsibility of the Spirit throughout the church age. From the heart comes Christian fruit, of which love is a component. (Gal 5:22, Rom 5:5) The Father’s desire is that Jesus’ disciples bear much fruit. (Jn 15:1-11) Only a heart comprised of good ground will actually have any. (Matt 13:1-23) In God’s kingdom, “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” are what matters (Ro 14:17), not a self-constructed legalism.

This work of the Spirit is larger than I pretend to fully grasp, but I will attempt to show you one way the Spirit, and the Trinity, work to keep the hearts of individual Christians on track, so that the Church as community, with its unified heart, will walk in love and not grieve the Spirit. In this way, we reach our end—manifesting a life of godliness as individuals and as community. Matthew 28:19 will transition us into a brief discussion of the Trinity’s work in growing the spiritual life implanted in the Christian’s heart to fuller life.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt 28:19-20)

Here we have the divine signature. Jesus unites the Father, Himself, and the Spirit in name. There is nothing more descriptive of their unity than the singularity of name. A common identity, a common relationship, and a common work: the reconciliation of sinners to God. Each member supports the overall work, and each member supports the other’s work. The Father sent the Son. The Son testified of the Father and introduced the Spirit. The Father and the Son sent the Spirit. The Spirit testifies of Christ. Christ is the way to the Father. Whether one begins with the Father or with the Spirit, the unity is found; and, that is through Jesus.

I have previously referenced Titus 3:4-6 and John 15:26, but I do so again here because I will add another verse then discuss the three.

"But when the kindness and the love of God [the Father] our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:4-7)

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me." (Jn 15:26)

It is clear from these verses that the members of the Trinity are committed to the salvation of souls. The Father is the source. Jesus is the Mediator of the work, and we depend on His merits. The Spirit is the Agent affecting this salvation in people’s lives. Familiar to most people may be John 3:16, where the Father out of love gives His Son for salvation. Jesus testifies of the Spirit. (Jn 3:3-7, 6:63, 15:26) The Spirit bears witness to Jesus. (Acts 2, 7:55-56, Jn 15:26) If one starts with the Spirit (Jn 14:26, 15:26), He bears witness to Jesus. Salvation is found in Christ alone, and Jesus is the way to the Father. (Acts 4:12, 1 Tim 2:5, Jn 14:6) The order in the divine signature makes sense, and what I just described seems clear and simplistic. Yet, our reason for easy agreement with belief in the Trinity working in concert to bring reconciliation between God and mankind may be because it is often detached or only theoretical: belief statements. For most, “the Trinity” is just an idea and will ever remain so. Instead, we should engage what these biblical statements tell us about God and our faith with both the mind and heart and live with God as Trinity.

The apostle Paul had to go beyond theory. He was concerned with people’s lives. No doubt, he knew correct understanding mattered. But Paul takes what is theoretical and moves that into real Christian life. When he does so, we again witness the Trinity. What you see is the same Member responsibility as displayed in Titus 3:4-7 and John 15:26, but what is new in the verses below is the revealed depth of engagement by the Trinity in the lives of individual Christians and the Church community. The end of the work for which Paul prays is godliness. He knows this is a divine work.

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love . . ." (Eph 3:14-17)

I want to clarify something. The comments I’ll make concerning Ephesians 3:14-17 could be understood as applying to Christian sanctification. And, clearly, the Trinity is involved in Christian sanctification: the Father (Jn 17:16-17); the Son (1 Cor 1:2, 30-31, Heb 2:11, 10:8f); the Spirit (1 Pet 1:1, Rom 15:15f). I will not argue against this. Salvation and sanctification are both God’s work. There are other verses showing Christian effort in sanctification. Certainly Paul is concerned about “the walk” of Christians in Ephesus. But, my objective is discussing the Presence of Holy Spirit and how the Spirit’s presence is life for the individual Christian and the church.

As with the divine signature, so to here in Ephesians 3:14-17. Paul prays to the Father. The Spirit’s origin, with respect to salvation, is with the Father. (Jn 14:26, 15:26) It is “His” Spirit. The Spirit has might, or power, which is what the Christians in Ephesus needed. The target for the Spirit’s power is “the inner man,” also understood as the heart. The objective? That, first, Christ would dwell in their hearts, but, second, that they would be established in love. The two go together. Call this divine work sanctification, if you will. It is the glorious Trinity at work in lives after salvation to bring forward the riches of the Fathers glory—love unleashed! The Spirit’s work aims toward life and unity through love.

From this high-point of divine petition and praise, Paul transitions into what we’ve covered in Ephesians 4. They are to walk in love and build each other up in love. Christ must be present in the heart before this will happen. Christ in the heart individually and corporately alters the heart because of our experiencing divine love personally, then being able to love God and others. If Christ be not in the heart, the only person there will be us. Then, the love of our hearts will be self-love. This will not do. The Trinity places Christ there. The Spirit is present in person and power to deal with the corrupt nature and the flesh, and fulfill His commission of pointing to Christ. (Jn 15:26, Rom 8:2)

The Father has not only saved, but sent His Spirit with power to see that Christ rules. The apostle Paul understands all these things and, in love, lays them out for those at Ephesus. He prays effectively for them individually and corporately to “in love” glorify God. Paul ends the letter, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” (5:24) My friend, his words should force us to pause and see that here another love is shown to us: our love for Jesus. Here the circle of love completes. You must answer for yourself the level of your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. If sincerity be lacking, I direct you to 1 Peter 1:1-10 for thoughtful reflection.

So far in this series Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness, we have considered the Person, Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit. In the next and final part, I will show how those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity will join the Spirit in The Petition of the Holy Spirit.

God’s best.

Carl
5-13-11

Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness (II)

2011-04-30T04:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Friend.

My earlier letter on the topic Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness concerned The Person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared in Matthew 12 the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed, sinned against, and stated such an act unforgivable. It is this very same Spirit Christians receive as a seal of our redemption. Remarkably, Christians, who know full well the forgiveness of their sins, maintain the capacity to grieve and reject the Holy Spirit in their lives. Why would we ever do that! Receipt of the Holy Spirit is God’s gift and promise. (Acts 10:45, 2:33) The New Testament refers to the Spirit over 220 times. It is the Flesh, dear Christian! Only the fallen fleshly nature would dare dismiss such a remarkable gift. Yet, in the end, it could do nothing else. It is the flesh.

In this second of four parts, The Power of the Holy Spirit, I show that the Holy Spirit acting with power naturally follows from His person. The Spirit’s nature and desire is to act dramatically for God, to pursue and accomplish God’s plans and empower God’s people. This was clearly seen with Jesus. Look at this record of the Spirit’s power:

Matthew 12:28, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.” Romans 8:11-12 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead.” 1 Peter 3:18 Christ, “being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

Returning to Matthew 12, the passage I used to contemplate the person of the Holy Spirit, the work of God’s Spirit now draws our attention. People brought Jesus a demon-possessed man. (v.22) Jesus healed him. Amazed by the miracle, the crowds questioned if Jesus was the anticipated Son of David; their messiah. The act was public and undeniable, which troubled the observing Pharisees and scribes. They must challenge the event, but how? Their reasoning directed an attack not at the fact of the man’s changed life but at the cause of the change. These religious leaders, prized in their knowledge and wisdom, attacked the miracle’s source. It was Satan’s power that did the miracle! (v. 24, 26) Jesus would be discredited and any notion of him as Israel’s messiah dismissed.

Jesus being Jesus overturned their faulty argument. He advanced his knowledge and wisdom by challenging their claim that the miracle’s source was satanic. The religious leaders heard Jesus’ paralyzing words that would have entered the ears and in fear stopped the heart! To say that God’s work by His Spirit was really the work of Satan, this accusation is sin, and such a sin that would never be forgiven! Stunned, the religious leaders struggled to reason, the crowd also considering both paths: Satan or God’s Spirit? The religious leaders could not be sure. Conviction was weak. Theirs was an argument of convenience. (see also Matthew 21:23-27) Yet, the miracle really happened, and Jesus did it. Jesus was confident! He stood his ground! The argument ended! The power was of God’s Spirit!

But there is more for us here, a second critical characteristic to understand. God’s Spirit “invaded” Satan’s stronghold and freed the demon-possessed man. Heaven and Hell face to face! Power against power! Might against might! Good verses evil! The Holy Spirit demolished the demonic grip! Delivered the man! The Spirit shattered the doors of strong man’s (Satan’s) house, bound that man, and plundered his goods. (v. 29) God’s power was unquestionably stronger than Satan’s. As Jesus argued, the miracle could not be attributed to Satan, for Satan would not free his own! The multitudes upon witnessing the miracle, the argument, the humiliation of the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes were likely now even more amazed, asking anew if Jesus was the Son of David! God was glorified! God’s Spirit is all powerful and delivers from the demonic!

The Spirit of God dominates a second dreadful foe—death. God’s Spirit raised Jesus from the dead! (R0m 8:11, 1 Pet 3:18) The Father decreed it (Acts 2:24), but the Spirit gave the lift. Death could not hold Him! The Spirit’s power was too great! Death, another stronghold, was Spirit raided. God’s Spirit smashed its doors then lifted our Savior to life and glory! God was, and is still, glorified! (Rom 8:11, 1 Co 15:22) As it is with Jesus, so it is with His followers. God’s Spirit is our surety. (Eph 1:13-14)

The Spirit was essential to Jesus’ earthly ministry. Consider the following.

The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, the power of the Highest overshadowing her, for the conception of Jesus, the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)

Jesus being baptized was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. News of Him went out through all the surrounding region, and He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. (Lk 4:1, 14-15)

Jesus proclaimed: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Lk 4:18)

The crowd was amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” (Lk 4:36)

And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. (Lk 6:19) . . . Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” (Lk 8:46)

Nevertheless I [Jesus] tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. (John 16:7-8)

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” . . . But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:4f)

God’s Spirit was the agent (the Person) and Power whereby the second person of the Godhead was conceived in Mary. God’s Spirit set Jesus apart and empowered his ministry. When Jesus drew near the end of His earthly work, He introduced and endorsed the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s ministry to the disciples. From that time (Acts 2:1f) till now, the Spirit has been faithfully pursuing His task of witnessing Jesus Christ to the world.

Demonic powers and death are no match for the person and power of the Holy Spirit! Mighty foes like these lose their grip on mind and heart when He is near. Yet now we turn to a third foe, even a fourth, that God’s Spirit pursues. The eyes of our understanding must be keen. Yes, enemy three is a unique one indeed, holding a privileged status concerning where God’s power goes to liberate and free. The Spirit’s plan of engagement will differ. Deliverance from demons and death were displayed to the world as a physical win, seen with physical eyes. But where we go now, and the battle we observe, take us beyond the natural to the realm of the heart, where what’s spiritual is key and godly living the Spirit’s victory.

Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another.”

The demonic and death witnessed their captives aided and freed. Neither could challenge God’s power. Now we’ve reached the Christian, a special class or breed. Here is one powerful enough to withstand God’s Spirit. Why such a difference? This you will want to know: Deliverance from the flesh, a different type of foe, must be desired and willed by the one needing to be freed. Deliverance here is an ongoing joint effort between the Christian and the Holy Spirit. God’s application of liberating power from the flesh is different from what we’ve previously seen. Remarkably different!

In the remainder of this letter, and in the next, the heart’s interior, and sometimes the mind, will be our focus. We’re looking inside. What I call the “fleshly estate of the heart” is a condition still very present and very strong in the Christian, even though God has saved and broken sin’s dominating power. Our flesh is natural to us distinct from God’s redeeming work and influence. It is our motivating force for life which seeks interests and pleasures according to its nature or build, and principles. The flesh encourages thoughts and actions aimed at satisfying its desires, which feed a gnawing hunger for fulfillment and exaltation. It does not regard God. It wants to rule, and it cannot share its glory with another. Therefore, like the demonic and death, for one to be freed and God glorified, the flesh must be conquered.

Death to the flesh is isolation, being unnoticed and unwanted, crucified—dead. For this to happen, the essence of a soul—the deepest layer of a person’s self-existence, one’s seat of life—would need a replacement for the flesh, require different things to desire; one would need a different nature, a different presence. Now we begin to see how God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, enters the battle. The word used in Galatians 5:17 is “contrary” to the flesh.

Christians should convincingly know their deliverance by God. Forgiveness of sin, love in the heart, and God’s laws on both mind and heart should be real to some degree. Jesus’ description in Acts 26: 18, if literal, does not exempt a person claiming to be a Christian from knowing key changes! Godly elements attended to, watered and warmed by God’s Spirit grow to influence a Christian’s pursuit toward what is of God and away from what is of the flesh. (Col 3:1-5; Rom 8:5; Gal 5:25, 16) Thus, the flesh starves. Eventually its stirrings, its voice and power exhaust. Godly graces and affections now fuller in the heart and soul, where the flesh once ruled unchallenged, taste sweet to the Christian, who wants to see them live and flourish into fruit. Such would be a joyful outcome for the Holy Spirit!

For this battle with our flesh to require God’s Spirit, it simply must be more severe and important than we understand. Wouldn’t we normally race toward such deliverance and never look back? Sadly, and regrettably, for most, the answer is “No.” We Christians can and do grieve and reject the Holy Spirit. We can and do refuse His person. We do reject His power. In Galatians 5:17, God kindly shows us that it is the Spirit’s might that we so desperately need. His is the only force suitable to successfully fight our flesh. This fact alone should tell us something about ourselves. We need God’s power and deliverance within. God assigns His Spirit this task, the very One who conquered the demonic and death. Here is the battle for our hearts! Death to the flesh through life in the Spirit! God be glorified!

Dear Christian, you must know salvation is from God, outside of one’s self, as is that spring from which godly passions and desires flow. God puts His principles in the mind and heart. The Holy Spirit is (relationally) placed so deep in our hearts that He presses the flesh, not only with power but with the love of God, comfort (help), truth and witness to Christ. These can overwhelm and fill the heart upon the fleshes’ retreat, also illumine the mind, so we follow the Spirit’s lead to God’s truth and Jesus. The Spirit witnesses Christ to the world and to our Christian minds and hearts, because both need and depend on Jesus as the way to the Father. More on the Spirit’s engagement of the flesh will follow in part three, The Presence of the Spirit.

There remains but to expose the fourth foe: self-righteous legalism. Recall the Pharisees and scribes, the “so called” gate-keepers of God’s kingdom, attacked the validity of Jesus’ healing the demon-possessed man. How does God’s Spirit deal with such darkened and destructive attitudes and doctrine? He uses people and truth.

The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus. Jesus publically confronted the legalist’s charge, overturned their logic, and warned them of sin’s ramifications. Matthew 23 contains a fiery and staggering list of charges against the Pharisees and scribes. They misunderstood God’s revealed will. This corrupted their minds and hearts. They pursued self-righteousness which created a way of life of severe demand for one’s self and all others. Then they imposed the same framework on others under the cover of God’s will! The New Testament records show this had detrimental effects on the people. Yet the leaders could not help but throw a heavy yoke on people. They were committed to the letter of the law, not its spirit. The letter brings death; the Spirit life. (2 Cor 3:6)

Jesus continually confronted their hypocrisy and twisted doctrine. Yet, at the end, He prayed the Father would forgive them! The flesh and sin were aggressively at work, or else Jesus’ prayer for forgiveness makes no sense. They knew neither him nor the Father. Yes, God’s Spirit uses Persons, like Jesus, in whom His Power resided, to Prosecute judgment against self-righteous legalism. But there were others.

Consider the disciple Stephen, in Acts 6 and 7. He recounts a beautifully detailed history of Israel leading up to his crushing charge against the high priest and others, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and ears!” (Act 7:51) Wow! What an indictment and charge of guilt! The charge was blistering and true, yet it remained incomplete. Stephen, filled with the Spirit (Acts 6:5, 10), releases his final blow . . . “You always resist the Holy Spirit”! So here, as in Matthew 12, that which is credited to God’s Spirit is denied, rejected and dismissed by Israel’s leadership. To Stephen’s pronouncement they lunged with enraged fury to destroy him, but not before Stephen’s final witness. “But, he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God!’” (v. 55-56) God’s Spirit powerfully proclaimed against self-righteous legalism! God was glorified!

A final word: God’s Spirit labors against legalism using Spirit-led people who walk in the Spirit to prosecute judgment against it. If you know the story of Stephen, you know about Saul, who became the apostle Paul. He stood witness at Stephen’s death. I will not review what you already know of his labors against this enemy, except to say that after his conversion, Paul was filled with the Spirit. (Acts 9:17) He is then found “in the synagogues” preaching “that He [Jesus] is the Son of God.” (9:20) The Spirit’s work continues. God was glorified!

Dear friend, as you know from examining your own life, as I by examining mine, the Holy Spirit with His conquering and delivering power does not automatically overtake our flesh, instill in us godly passions and desires that we joyfully act upon. Most of us are more likely identified with the flesh’s passions than those of the Spirit and the new man the Scriptures talk about. (Eph 4:24, Gal 5:25) Yet we have the person and power of God’s Spirit. What restrains us from pursuing God and the godly life?

In the next letter, the third part of Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness, I consider the Presence of the Spirit and our flesh. There is also another layer to the Spirit’s work which I will cover. This goes interestingly beyond the individual.

God’s best to you.

Carl

Life Through Jesus

2011-04-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

John 7:33, Then Jesus said, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.

John 7:37-39, On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Psalm 36:9, For with You [God] is the fountain of life. Revelation 22:17, And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Greetings, My Friend.

Perhaps this Easter weekend will pass you by without notice. Your mind will wander, drift, entertaining at best a token thought of God. Your heart, unaffected by events you attend, stays as it was before joining those celebratory programs that others seem to value. Sunday nears its end, and you discern no appreciable affection for God. Then, maybe, just before the weekend goes, you reflect on one thing memorable which draws you toward God. Do you thirst?

You are not alone regarding disinterest, even if a Christian. Easter, a time of celebration and gratitude, is unfortunately for most just another day. Those with affection for Christ and appreciation for His atoning work typically enjoy praising God with others sharing such conviction. But always? Our hearts at times seem lifeless. Why is it that we feel empty of true and satisfactory praise and gratitude to God? Perhaps from this we recognize our souls’ deep need of replenishment. We thirst.

We as people are thirsty. One’s ultimate thirst is for God. As physical life comes from God, so does spiritual life. Certain people’s thirst seems to grow without solution. Others barely recognize the need. Regardless, the world cannot help. We must pursue Christ, where He is, and life with the Spirit. Jesus bids us “come.” He calls us to drink. He provides what’s satisfying. He gives us Water.

Jesus “goes.” He went to the Father. Intellectually, we confess this. He gave His life for many reasons, and we rightfully praise and thank God. His provision of drink, however, doesn’t come from a mere human cup. The drink He offers is unique. It is the water of life. Once in us it satisfies, changes course and quantity, exceeds the banks of our hearts, then flows marvelously toward some God glorifying work in others. We’ve consumed living water, the Holy Spirit Himself.

There is a place where thirst exists but no water. (Luke 16:19-31) Drink now while water is available, offered, and free.

Yes, we can connect personally to Jesus Christ this Easter, even each day, and draw from Him the freshness of life with God by the word and the Spirit. Thank the Father for the full provision of salvation. Thank the Son for obtaining that provision. Thank the Spirit for bringing fully that provision into our hearts, satisfying our souls, knitting us to God. If you thirst, there is water. There is life. Do you desire to drink?

Carl

Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness

2011-04-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings, My Friend.

The pressures of each day compound over time, do they not, and it is likely that we forget many scriptural truths regarding our salvation and life with God that we should at all times labor to maintain. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of those truths. The Bible describes an intimacy between Christians and the Holy Spirit that is at the core of living a godly life. If you are currently unaware of the Spirit or have forgotten the way of godliness, perhaps it is time to join me in acknowledging this condition and confess that it is we and not God who have altered course. May what follows remind us of the Spirit’s place in our lives and warm our thoughts toward renewing life with God the Spirit.

The natural course of this world is according to trespasses and sins, according to the prince of the power of the air, and according to the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2) For Christians, we also once conducted our lives confined to this environment, guided and driven by the lusts of our flesh and fulfilling their desires. (Eph 2:3) This condition, the apostle Paul tells us, made us objects of God’s wrath. (Eph 2:3) The scripture comforts us, though, affirming that those who are objects of God’s saving love and mercy are no longer under His wrath but are now people created in Christ Jesus who are to know the riches of His grace and walk in good works. (Eph 2:4-10)

Because our original “apart from God” condition is presented as natural (it is the way we entered this world and the spring in our hearts from which desires and passions flow), and the newness of our union with Christ by means of God’s saving and transferring work into His kingdom as supernatural, we as Christians can and do experience the continued presence and pull of that which is of our natural order—the flesh—on our hearts and minds. Both the apostle Paul and Peter encourage us to press on in the calling and work of God in our lives and not to be overcome with the demands of the flesh and the deceitfulness of sin. We do not have to live according to the flesh, but we must desire and choose to live from and toward God. Living from what God provides us toward those desires and ends God intends is godliness.

Central to not living for the flesh but living a godly course is our keeping close to the Holy Spirit, who we as Christians have received (Eph 1:13-14), and our recognizing how the Spirit leads us into the course of godliness. In presenting this to you, I will partner three sets of texts then conclude with a fourth verse. The first three groupings will consider the Holy Spirit’s Person, His Power and His Presence. The forth will remind us of His Passionate Pleading. In this letter, I present The Person of the Holy Spirit. The other parts will follow. My friend, if you profess Christ, consider your relationship with God the Holy Spirit, and examine your understanding and awareness of His work in your life.

The Person of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12:31-32, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Jesus presents the Holy Spirit as one who can be blasphemed, one who can be sinned against in such a way that no forgiveness can be found. This dreadful fact and condition leads one to conclude that the Holy Spirit is God. (If you are wondering what sin is unforgivable, read Mark 3:22-30.) The Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament is referred to in personal terms, and it is clear from Matthew 28:19-20 that the Holy Spirit is grouped with the Father and Jesus, and He is therefore worthy of the same honor, devotion and affection that we would render to the Father and Jesus. The testimony Jesus gives in Matthew 12 is a powerful endorsement to the Holy Spirit that we as believers would do well to heed.

When we turn to the apostle’s words in Ephesians 4, he warns us that a Christian can grieve and sorrow, or disappoint, the Holy Spirit. The text, 4:30, is surrounded by verses addressing the new life a Christian should evidence: a life created by God in righteousness and true holiness (4:24), something the Ephesians apparently learned from Jesus (4:20-21). If the life created by God for us is one of holiness, then the spirit required to desire and live that life need be holy. In our natural condition, we have neither a holy spirit nor holy desires. But, as Christians, we now have the Holy Spirit Himself. Closing off one’s relationship with the Holy Spirit not only removes the holy stream of direct influence, understanding and direction for godly living but it seamlessly returns one to one’s self and, thereby, to a life absent of that divine influence. This disinterest and disregard for the person of God in the Spirit, about whom Jesus delivered such powerful testimony, will naturally lead to dire consequences.

The contrast between an unsaved person’s capacity to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and commit an unforgivable sin, and a Christian’s capacity to grieve and sorrow God’s Spirit is both illuminating and challenging to ponder. As Christians, we have been granted an intimate and abiding relationship with God the Spirit. We can willfully shun and disregard this relationship, essentially saying “No!” to God, thus rejecting the Person of His presence. If we do so, we escape the type of judgment and condemnation received by those who categorize Jesus’ work as satanic when it was truly the work of the Spirit in Him. (Mark 3:22, 29-30) Agreed, the nature of these two situations is different. But, if the consequence of blaspheming the Holy Spirit carries such a weight of punishment, what rational wrangling could ever convince me that dismissing the Holy Spirit in my life is at all acceptable and not an offense to God? Only the flesh dare voice such twisted reasoning and, at the same time, find comfort in approving such a godless outcome. The fallen nature resident in our hearts is godless. Why would the flesh desire the Spirit Himself or the things of the Spirit? Let this be a warning to us.

[As an aside, one may here want to refer to the events involving Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, but I would argue that what occurred there is not the same as what Jesus disclosed in Matthew 12.]

Pause with me now and confirm to yourself the role and the value of the Holy Spirit in your life. Do we conclude that we live in disregard of the Holy Spirit, or that we find ourselves in conscious regular fellowship, or communion, with Him? My friend, we as Christians, only by God’s love and grace, enjoy a supernatural and blessed relationship with God that commands our preference and pursuit of God the Spirit. If we do not grieve the Spirit, then we welcome Him, value His work in our lives, and we keep the relationship open to receive all that He desires for us. If the constant pressures and distractions of life, or your preference for the pursuit of self’s desires and sin, have removed you from intimacy with the God the Holy Spirit, this is the time to change direction and pursue Him. The Father is committed to you and has given you His Spirit. Do not grieve Him but welcome Him as part of your life regularly.

“O Lord, help us, we are slow to learn.”

Carl

Salt, The New Covenant, Your Life

2011-03-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Friend.

Even though the days since we last spoke are many, Jesus is the same today as He was then. Thankfully, the gospel does not change. Salvation is found in no other name but His.

I have read Jacques Ellul’s book The Presence of the Kingdom many times. Last night I was led to read it again. I must say, God prompts me in some fascinating ways. I’m often drawn to a book with a message that corresponds to where I am in the Scriptures without trying to achieve this. The messages of the two sources overlap, and I’m blessed and edified.

I’ve been repeatedly going through the book of Hebrews. Chapter 12:24-29 presents Christ as the mediator of the new covenant and presses the point of the requirement not to refuse Him. In addition, we are told that God is shaking out, or making non-existent, all things in earth and heaven that do not pertain to the new kingdom, a kingdom that itself cannot be shaken; meaning, this new kingdom will remain. Christians, the ones receiving this kingdom, are to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

With this in mind, consider the following from the first chapter of Ellul’s book. The chapter is titled “The Christian in the World” and speaks to Christians as the salt of the earth.

“To be the salt of the earth is a precise reference to Leviticus 2:13, where we are told that salt is the sign of the covenant between God and Israel. Thus, in the sight of men and in the reality of this world, the Christian is a visible sign of the new covenant which God has made with this world in Jesus Christ. But it is essential that the Christian should really be this sign, that is to say, that in his life and his words he should allow this covenant to be manifest in the eyes of men. Apart from that, this earth will feel bereft of any ‘covenant’; it will not know where it is going; it will no longer have any real knowledge of itself, nor any certainty about its preservation. The fact that Christians are, in their lives, the ‘salt of the earth,’ does far more for the preservation of the world than any external action.”

For background on salt as related to the notion of covenant with Israel, see Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5.

I leave it to you, my friend, to process all which Ellul directs our minds to regarding our lives as Christians being salt, being living testimonies of Jesus Christ and the new covenant, as well as what Jesus implies by His statement that if salt loses its flavor it is of no value and is thrown out and trampled under [the world's?] foot. (Matthew 5:13)

I present just this one thought: As a Christian, one “is” salt and one “is” representing not just Christ Jesus but specifically the new covenant. It does not matter whether one is male or female, old or young, wealthy or poor, disabled or fit, talented or struggling. Our being representatives is not dependent upon any quality we possess or lack. Yet, it is somewhat conditioned on our understanding and our faithfulness. Thus, may we faithfully serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, knowing that He is a consuming fire.

I trust we do so gladly, not from external compulsion or raw duty void of love. May we forever avoid the trampling of the world’s feet and faithfully live as salt, as those who testify of God’s reconciling work through Christ Jesus, and of the fullness of the new covenant and the kingdom that will not be shaken and will not end.

God’s best to you.

Out of Bogatzky's Golden Treasury

2011-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

Those who know me well know my enduring affection for the German Pietists, one of whom is Carl H. von Bogatzky (b. 1690). May his heart’s confession and his thoughts (below) resemble what is truest of your own desires. If you find yourself distant from his confession, but it attracts you, follow his heart and mind to your common Savior. Consider spending a year going through the timeless devotional The Golden Treasury and see where God leads you.

God's best to you,

Carl

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Matthew 25. 5.

Oh that I may be roused out of my slumber, and be watchful and ready against the coming of my Bridegroom! How many are there that set out in good earnest in their way to heaven, and run well for some time, but at last are lulled to rest, and entangled again with a false notion of liberty! Even the wise virgins fell asleep. Let this be a warning to me, O Lord. Set a guard before my eyes, ears, and other faculties, lest the world again should enter through these avenues of the heart; if the spark be not speedily extinguished, it will soon break out into a flame: thus sin is of a progressive nature, and its vemon spreads very quickly and very wide, unless it be stopped and opposed in time. Watch, therefore, over this unsteady heart of mine, O thou Keeper of Israel! that as soon, as it begins to wander from thee, I may be alarmed to flee from sin as from a serpent. Give me grace to look upon every hour as my last; so that being ever wisely upon my guard, I may meet thee with joy when my time is run out, whenever it shall please thee to call me hence.

The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks the ways of God no more,
Though number'd once among the saints
Now makes his own destruction sure.

Lord, let not all my hopes be vain,
Create my heart entirely new;
Which hypocrites could ne'er attain,
Which false apostates never knew.

(Hymn author unknown)

The One Thing Needful

2011-01-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

A new year has presented itself to us. Unfortunately, many Christians will live unintentionally regarding their relationship with God throughout this New Year, as seems they determined to do during the year that just expired. Yes, it is extremely difficult to remain consciously engaged with what we know and understand about God and ourselves; consistently living out of a reservoir of revelation and God knowledge, per say. Life gets in the way, and we get distracted or simply forget about the importance of drawing close to God and living out what He’s permitted us to know. Perhaps there is a simpler way, or a different vision, for living with God for this New Year. If so, this different vision may lead to a more fruitful and meaningful experience with God for us going forward. This way concerns “The One Thing Needful.”

The notion of “The One Thing Needful” is something I’ve come across in a few of the writings I routinely access. According to Soren Kierkegaard, The One Thing Needful seems to be the living as an individual first, and then as an individual living consciously aware of being in God’s presence all the time. This core relational disposition and understanding drives all else. Each Christian lives in God’s presence continually, and each of these Christians is conscious of this fact. This being the case, each Christian is able to live from his or her continual and conscious relation with God, always first as an individual, regardless of the abundance of external distractions and demands, or crowds. For living from The One Thing Needful conditions one’s heart and mind, provides immediate and ongoing communion with God, and thus permits each Christian the blessedness of carrying the reality of their God relationship into all events and all other relationships. “Living In” leads to “Living From.”

If the above description is remotely valid, and therefore possible for us, then it really doesn’t matter how much Bible study one does, or how much church one attends (although, the more the better with both). One could be in theory, as many are in reality, a prisoner in the darkest of prisons and—here is the key—if this one has the smallest amount of conscious relationship with God (living faith), then this person can live in light of and from God’s presence, and honor and magnify God, and thus be both joyful and fruitful. Union with God through Jesus Christ provides this. God is that sufficient to His children. If one demands and depends upon some artificially determined quantity of external variables to create a measure of “necessary” faith conditions before honoring and magnifying God, before being joyful and fruitful, then one’s Christian life, in my judgment, is sunk. The One Thing Needful has become The Many Things Required. One knows not life, but death.

Friend, this year, take stock of your relationship with God. Where are you? Where is He? If there is in reality an unholy distance between you and God, one that ought not characterize someone who has been purchased with Christ’s precious blood, be honest about this. Confess this to Him and repent. (See Luke 10:38-42, Rev 3:14-20.)

Ignorance is something that can be overcome, through study. The mind is primarily addressed. One simply does not know. Usually, one can learn.

Apathy is something, too, that can be overcome, but through humility and repentance. The heart is primarily addressed. One simply doesn’t care. The cure for apathy differs from the cure for ignorance. One must begin to genuinely care.

Appeasement is a typical consequence or outcome of being both ignorant and apathetic. Or, knowing but not caring. Both of these are unfortunate states.

It seems that many of us are knowledgeable to a sufficient degree about our relationship with God, but we so easily abide in apathy regarding this gift. Such a state of being knowledgeable but apathetic surely results in appeasement toward our own relation with God and other relationships where we should be for God, or forward with God. As Christians, we do know that God is holy, and we do know about sin. But for many of us, we simply do not care about dealing with sin. We know about the distinction between the world and God’s kingdom, but we do not care about promoting God’s kingdom to the world. We affirm manifest functional appeasement, thus we compromise; yet, we may still believe and convince ourselves that we are godly, holy, and ok.

I gained the following idea from reading Thomas Goodwin recently: The whole of the prophesy (of the Apocalypse, The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ) relates to the coming of Christ’s kingdom and the coming as it occurs through and with the church upon the world. It is the story of Christ’s kingdom, His manifest kingdom opposing worldly authorities and overthrowing them or wearing them out, and rendering the story of His kingdom more glorious then earthly kingdoms or powers could ever dream.

Dear friend, this year consider The One Thing Needful regarding your relationship with God. Understand, then live, the simplicity of living in God’s presence. Dispense with ignorance. Remove apathy. Avoid appeasement. Be a person who relates to God in such a way that you actually participate in Jesus Christ manifesting His kingdom in and through your life, touching other people and ungodly powers, displaying to the world that no rule or reality, no kingdom or power, is more glorious and desirable than that of Jesus Christ. If you do this, you do well. You will not only have known about The One Thing Needful, but you will have experienced and enjoyed its reality to the fullest.

God’s Best To You

On Sin

2010-12-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

Much time has passed since I last wrote. I hope things are well with you. This life is difficult.

Our days are so filled with temporary requirements which occupy us. It is as if we are driven by them. We live as servants to things that pass. So shall our days be. But, for the Christian, remember, life is not to be limited to, nor defined by, these things that pass. Life, instead, is found primarily in one’s relationship with God, Who is eternal and everlasting, and more specifically one’s “conscious” relationship with Him. Contrary to the many things which pass, one’s relationship with God endures beyond this earthly experience.

Yet, for many who profess Christ, and thereby union with Christ, this fact is most difficult both to understand and also live by. Because of union, it should be that elements of our God relationship become manifest in and through our relationships with people and in our life events. If we live this way, God is honored and God is manifest through us to others. We, as God’s creation, and His re-creation in Christ, then live as he created us to be.

Adam initially lived from a God-centered understanding of life. He lived out of his relationship to the Creator as the primary or fundamental interpretation for everything. He was part of the creation, yet he looked not to the creation as his end. Adam depended upon God for everything: his internal guidance and understanding, and the outward manifestation of who, before the Creator, he knew himself to be. Adam, thus, initially honored God and revealed God’s glory by living from the basic Creator—created relationship that marked his existence.

Then things changed. Adam became distracted by that which was ungodly and earthly. He heard and listened to a voice that wasn’t God’s. He beheld the same tree as before but contemplated it and his relation to it in new and different ways. Something new stirred motions and desires in his heart that were not known until he, in that moment, lived as if unconscious of God. The distraction by that which was fallen and ungodly, and that which was created and earthly, opened to him a direction before unknown and attracted his eyes from what was heavenly, the Creator, and locked them onto the created. “Want” became known to him.

Adam made different decisions. These decisions, which originated from within his own heart, were now driven by what was of the creation, excluded God, and replaced Him. Adam’s decisions had results. Adam’s eyes, now lowered from beholding the Creator to beholding the creation, could not see the cloud of divine dishonor descending upon his life, his mind, his heart, his choices, their results, the world and his relations. The creation became his horizon, and he was at the center. Dishonor separated him from God, anchored him to the world, and what manifest from his life became that which lived within his now darkened soul.

Adam’s heart became a reservoir of want. His reaching for the creation to satisfy his “false wants” is called his living “from his own heart.” This heart orientation became normal for him. Sin secured this in him. He lived from his own heart as if from this origin life emerged and was determined. And I am afraid, dear friend that “from our own hearts” is too often our norm even as Christians. It is so close to our every breath and movement that we don’t see it. Like Adam, we hear and live toward and by ungodly voices. We behold the creation as if apart from God. Our horizon is too low. Our eyes have dropped. God is absent. We too live as if defined by the creation, of which we ourselves appear the center, because of want, like Adam—from our own hearts. For how frequent can we say we live from God’s heart and not ours to ourselves, in our relationships, and life events?

Sin entered. I imagine a simplified working definition of sin could be: That which proceeds from one’s own heart, reflecting and manifesting the creation and self as central, instead of that which proceeds from one’s life as reflecting and manifesting God as central. When considering sin, consider the starting point.

Reading recently in Thomas Goodwin’s work on “Christ the Mediator” I better understood basic effects of sin: Dishonor to God as God, and Obscuring God’s Glory. When we sin, we do both. We dishonor God as God. We do not manifest God’s glory. Consider your life, and I will consider mine. What do our lives tell us about ourselves and sin?

Christ, in contrast, both consistently honored God as God, and he never obscured God’s glory. In fact, Christ, as God and man, had to, and wanted to, humble himself, thereby willfully obscuring his own glory, so the Father would be glorified. As a result, you and I can now see the Father clearly, and we can identify with Christ who did what we consistently fail to do: Honor God and Manifest—Reflect—His Glory.

Adam was provided a different view to behold after the fall. He beheld God securing and providing a covering, after he, from hiding, heard a godly voice, toward which he moved, and then began to live with. This was the voice of the reconciling God, God as redeemer and savoir. As with Adam, hearing God’s call from earthly, created, coverings demands we forsake all that “want” has rooted so deeply within our hearts and necessitates we move out from dependence on the created to the Creator’s covering—Christ—and through relationship with we can now both honor God and manifest His glory.

You and I, if we are truly in Christ, have the freedom and capacity to now honor God as God and to manifest, not obscure, His glory. God has revealed to us that He has put His love in a Christian’s heart and the Spirit of His Son into the deepest and closest relationship and recesses with this one’s soul. The question seems to be, what do our lives produce? Does my life honor or dishonor God? Does my life manifest or obscure His glory? It is too simple for us to affirm the negative—“I acknowledge my life doesn’t.” Answering thus should be nothing to boast in but something to repent of. There are three things we can always do: confess sin, seek forgiveness, and repent. Each is essential if we are to live honoring God, instead of dishonoring Him, and manifesting, not obscuring, His glory. We must forsake ungodly voices. We must leave coverings of the creation. We must abandon the hunger of fallen want.

Dear friend, if you expect to live eternity with God, does your life now exhibit any passion for Him? Do you want to be with Him? What in your life serves as evidence to you that you love Him? What in your life shows undeniably that you don’t? Do you live from that which proceeds from your own heart as chief or from the heart of God? Now in Christ, and because of Christ, honor God as God and reveal Him to others. You will reassure yourself in your future with Him and declare Him along the way. You will also come to understand what it means to know Him as you walk through time toward eternality where you will be with Him fully.

May your heart be encouraged as you live each day among that which is temporary and passing, because of Him who is eternal and always with you.

Carl

Living Christ’s Atonement

2010-09-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

Many Christians, throughout Church history and in our age, readily admit they believe Christ atoned for their sin and has reconciled them to the Father. They are forgiven. And, for many, that is the extent of their experience of Christ’s atonement and “the all of” their Christian faith. There is nothing more. No intimate fellowship with God. No participation in Christ’s peace, or His joy. No confidence in God. No manifestation of the fruits of God’s Spirit. Functionally, these people have not the life of Christ present in their daily experience. But they believe! They profess Christ. Yet, they live as if alone.

To ensure you and I both understand and continue in the reality of Christ’s atonement, instead of just stating that we believe in Christ’s atonement, I thought it good to briefly present the following ideas. First, Christ’s atonement involves both his sacrificial death and his resurrection life. The two are joined. In like fashion, our identification with and participation in Christ’s atonement involves our death and newness of life. If we profess union with Christ in His death, then union with His life should also be our confession. But the confession stems not merely, nor primarily, from the mouth, but from the life. For the life is new. The mouth conveys and gives testimony to what the life already exhibits.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, makes three explicit references to Christ’s crucifixion that, to me, address the notion of living Christ’s atonement:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 2:20

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” 5:24

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” 6:14-16

I have not the time or physical ability to write all that is in my mind and heart regarding these passages, so I trust you will pursue their truths with God directly. I do desire to make the following observations to set some framework. The three verses speak to three relational orientations: the individual with God; the individual with self; the individual with the world. Christ’s crucifixion, His death and life, address each relational direction which defines every person’s existence: upward (with God); inward (with self); outward (with the world). As a Christian, one’s identity is established in Christ. Not by sin, not from self, and not through the world. Being in Christ, sin, self, and the world lose their voice—any defining role—to me. Christ is now life.

If one professes Christ, that one belongs to Christ. Jesus Christ defines reality. Self does not define reality any longer. It follows, then, that the inward desires, cravings of the flesh, no longer define me nor do they direct my energy or efforts. I should no longer strive to satisfy the hunger from that which is of my flesh because I’m satisfied with feeding on The Bread of Life. (See all of John 6.)

Similarly, the world, with it unique, consistent and manifold ability to define people based on distinctions, should no longer have any voice to me. In Christ, I live as dead to the world, and in reverse fashion the world would be as dead to me. As Christians, our basis for identity is contrary to the world. One is heavenly. One is earthly. They are mutually exclusive. The apostle emphasizes this when he states what really matters is “the new creation.” Not what the old order tries to define one by. (See also Gal 4:26f.)

The apostle concludes by writing, “as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” The nature of Christ’s atonement, as belief and as life, leads to the experience of peace and mercy. This experience is both for the individual Christian and the body of Christ in general. Mere belief in Christ’s atonement, without understanding its reach into and for your life, leaves you short of the life from Christ’s atonement and, functionally, leaves you only with yourself and the world.

Spend time prayerfully considering your condition, my friend. Move in this direction with me. Let us not come short of the life for which the Father has redeemed us through the atoning work of His Son.

Carl

The Witness From Peace

2010-08-18T04:47:00.000-07:00

“What matters is not the size or numbers claimed by churches, but rather the quality of witness demonstrated by Christians in their particular circumstances.”

“…then I became in his eyes as one who found peace.”

Greetings Friend.

My last letter to you was three months ago. Time continues on, and, as it does, we move closer to that day when we will both enter the grave and God’s presence. How we spend our time till then matters. I hope your heart has been well, and I hope God’s heavenly and temporal blessings have been abundant. If we have Christ, then we are rich beyond all the world’s treasure and our future is secure.

The two quotes above may appear an odd combination. The first comes from a church history book I recently read call The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins (2008). It covers certain historical elements of the Eastern Church, in Africa and Asia, and what lead to its decline and death. Islam was a key component, but not the only component. The author highlights a critical truth that you and I must, I think, always keep in mind: that we ourselves play a central role in the preservation and promotion of our faith during our time in history; our personal faith and that of the unified Christian voice in our society, country and world. If the quality of our faith witness is poor, then the quality of the unified voice is diminished. I’m concerned that we as individuals do not fully appreciate this responsibility or the consequences.

The other quote is from Song of Solomon 8:10. I used just part of the verse. If this verse reveals a truth, then can I, and do I, truly experience it? Can God see me as one who has truly found peace? Can I believe that? What would the nature of such peace have to be? What would my life have to exhibit? Given all I know about myself, how could I ever claim such a thing as this? It seems pure fantasy, yet scripture affirms it. And you my friend, could you now, or in some imagined future, acknowledge such a thing yourself? Perhaps we need different eyes for seeing, perhaps a different object to behold, or maybe a different understanding of God and peace. I have become fully convinced that this position regarding peace is truly obtainable and living it is God’s desire. God longs to see us as those—in His eyes—who have found and know peace. I want to develop this line of thought more fully in another letter.

Also, these two quotes struck me as actually addressing the same thing: the quality of my witness of God and Christ to the world (regardless of the Church’s size and influence) hinges on and stems from my relation to and with God. And, while this statement sounds common place, what lifts it above a common standing is the notion of the witness being grounded in a relation with God where I know He knows that “I truly am” one who has found peace. “I know that He knows that I have found peace.” Witness originating from this place, dear friend, will be what God wants others to hear and will be a preservative for the church throughout time.

I hope to write more on this soon. God’s best to you.

Christ’s Witness To You

2010-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Friend, there are times during the Christian’s journey when God seems to suddenly and without explanation leave us or the grandeur of Christ-centered awareness or revelation suddenly ends. What do you do at such times? Or, what have you done at such times? Why would God present Himself to you in a way that discloses something rich to your mind and heart, something that feels life enriching to you (the way your relation with God should be), and then “that” type of experience end?

Scripture is full of examples of this occurring, but consider the following two.

“The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” And at this point His disciples came . . . “ (Jn 4:25-27)

“Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.” (Lk 24:30-31)

The reason for any particular “break” or “apparent discontinuance” of a time when one is aware of God disclosing Himself can be debated, but in these two examples we can be certain of “a” reason by seeing what occurred after the break. In each case, Christ presented Himself to the parties. As he presented Himself, He revealed Himself to them in a way that was life altering and God-ward. The Samaritan woman and the two disciples conducted themselves, as seen by their behaviors, differently. Yet, there is similarity. Their behavior not only stemmed from their fresh encounter with Christ, but furthered testimony about Christ to others: The Samaritan woman testified of Christ to other Samaritan’s; the disciples testified of Christ to those who where already followers of Christ. Both, if I may categorize it such, “the lost” and “the brethren” were beneficiaries of lives that had been enriched by Christ’s witness.

Examine your life. Do you on occasion have awareness of Christ working at the core of your life or awareness of Christ testifying about Himself to you? If so, what follows? If not, why not?

The Samaritan woman and the two disciples were at different places in their spiritual lives. Both groups were confronted by Christ in respect to their relation to God, Christ, and themselves. The Samaritan woman was honest about a life issue. Christ met her there. Reader, do you have a life issue standing in the way? Hear Christ’s counsel to her that God is seeking those who will worship Him “in spirit and truth.” Is it time for you to be honest with God and yourself on something that defines you? The two disciples did not adequately understand who Christ was and what He was about. Their disappointment was based on worldly interpretations of what is a Heavenly life and purpose. Of course they would be disappointed! Christ’s revelation to them changed their framework for understanding Him and life. Are you living from a Chist-centered or Heavenly framework? Does something fundamental need to change?

Finally, both the Samaritan woman and the two disciples immediately testified about Christ and their lives to others. Once enlightened and changed, they spread Christ’s testimony and that of their lives to others; for the sake of glorifying God and furthering Christ’s witness. And, this sharing was natural.

Friend, examine your life. How would you describe your life with God in Christ Jesus? Dead? Why? Not what you expected? Why? Testifying of Christ and God’s work? The only way the Samaritan woman and the two disciples understood their lives after encountering Christ was from a Christ perspective. He defined life for them. If you and I define life for ourselves, or by worldly standards, our lives with Christ will “feel” as dead. That life may be “so dead” that you don’t see it at all. If this condition describes you, move toward God in simple prayer and confession (in spirit and truth) and talk to others about what you are experiencing. Share your life with Christ. Glorify God and further His witness and work. Your life will become both alive and rich in divine treasure.

“My God, permit me not to be a stranger to myself and thee;
Amid a thousand thoughts I rove, forgetful of my highest love.

Why should my passions mix with earth, and thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below, and let my God, my Saviour, go?

Call me away from flesh and sense; one sovereign word can draw me thence;
I would obey the voice divine, and all inferior joys resign.

Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn; let noise and vanity be gone:
In secret silence of the mind my heaven, and there my God, I find.”

(Isaac Watts)

The Spirit of His Son – cont.

2010-04-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

“. . . because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out ‘Abba Father!’” (Gal 4:6)

Reading this and living the reality it describes remain distinct. Many will read. Few seem to participate in, or experience, the life. The initial and ongoing general manifestation of Christ’s Spirit resident in the soul is an orientation toward the Father. If you are a son, you have Christ’s Spirit. If you have Christ’s Spirit, you (as Christ did) recognize within you the cry “Father, Father!”

This seems to beg the question, “As a Christian, if my heart is not crying out for the Father, then is it crying out for something else?” That is, “Are our hearts fashioned to cry out for something?” Or, “Can one’s heart truly be dead and have no voice, no cry, at all?”

Likewise, “If I have a heart cry, can my own cry escape my notice?” “Might I be blind to myself?” Many could answer yes in theory, but then fail to follow the path of self-awareness and actually find their cry and the reasons for “that” cry, whatever it might in truth actually be.

Ask yourself, “If Christ’s Spirit had to be given to me, then what nature was the spirit I had crying out in me if it was not Christ’s crying “Father, Father!” Is that spirit back in place as the one guiding and motivating your heart now, if you discern not Christ’s Spirit guiding and motivating your heart toward the Father?

Consider the word SIN. S can stand for Satan (and all he is), Sin itself, one’s Self, and Slavery. I can represent Individuality. N can stand for Nature. The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:22 states that “the Scripture has confined all under sin.” Chapters 3 and 4 address grounds for identity that were common if one was not “in Christ.” Chapters 3 and 4 also reveal a possible living as unto nature. [Other supporting verses abound.] Thus, a case can be made that if one is not oriented to the Father, then one is oriented and living as if “not in Christ,” and thus as to sin (or the flesh, as Paul later calls it).

Christ was oriented to His Father. We, as believers, those in Christ, have been given Christ’s Spirit in our hearts by God Himself. Thus, we should now naturally live and give out what we’ve inwardly received: Godly Affection that transcends or bypasses what is earthly.

Christ, if we were to study His Spirit, loved the Father. Christ understood the Father. He submitted to His Father’s will. Christ had as a primary affection His Father. Not Sin, Self or Satan. Not some grand Self-centeredness. Nor did Christ anchor His life to Nature. Christ’s understanding, His will, and His affections (in total, His heart), were oriented by and toward His Father. These were oriented and unified.

Friend, do our hearts resemble Christ’s? We supposedly have His Spirit. Do the things which motivate us and manifest from within our lives to the world, do these things resemble what motivated Christ and came from within the inner world of His heart to the external world of history?

The call for the Father moves outward from deep within. This is a different motivation than, say, the Law, which is an external pressure upon a life. It is also a different influence than, say, nature (either internal to the self or external from the self) that motivates reason, will, and affection. It is not sin. Motivation from Christ’s Spirit is a pure, loving desire to be with and please God, recognizing Him for who He is and being delighted and at home in His presence.

Reflect on and consider what you know of Christ’s life, His understanding, His decisions, His affections. Now consider your life, your understanding, your decisions, and your affections. If you do not see traces of Christ’s Spirit in your heart, and God’s word is true, then either you have not because you are not, or you are (and you have) but you want not, therefore you will not.

You may believe some things, as did the Galatians, but you may not understand as is required. The Galatians believed in some way the gospel, but their lives, their affections, their motives, their actions, led the Apostle Paul to have severe doubts about them. They failed to understand their son-ship, thus their lives were not anchored an animated by Christ’s Spirit within their hearts. This was an error and it opened them up making them susceptible to further error. Let it not be so with us.

The Christian life is driven by a relational affection, not by mere belief acknowledgements that permit someone to hide true fleshly, earthly, motivations behind the wall of ongoing self-rationalizations. This dynamic is not life. It is a false substitute for what some call life, because it seems natural (and, in the flesh, it is natural).

What Christ understood about His Father defined every moment of His life. Because He understood (in truth) the Father, Christ’s chief affection (what stemmed from the core of His heart) was always love for the Father. Because Christ always loved the Father, He both longed to be with and please the Father. His understanding, affections, and will were oriented and unified. May this be so with us.

Let what God has placed in your heart, if you be in Christ, rule you. Sin is not to be your master. You are not your own. Nature is no god. These are all earthly orientations. Christ’s Spirit in you is a heavenly and divine deposit that lives to release you from these former sources of apparent life to the source of true life, the Father Himself. That is where your heart should be aimed! He is to be the object of your deepest affections! “Father, Father!” is to be the cry of your heart! If it is not, then prayerfully seek the truth as to why.

The Spirit of His Son

2010-04-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

“. . . because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out ‘Abba Father!’” (Gal 4:6)

If what the Apostle Paul discloses here is fact, and you are a Christian, then you have received the Spirit of God’s Son into your heart.

If you have received the Spirit of God’s Son into your heart, then your life (from your heart or core) should be animated and/or motivated by that which moved Christ.

Friend, you and I must look at ourselves and ask if we are aware of Christ’s Spirit in our hearts, at the core of our lives. You must ask if what motivates you and what manifests from your heart resembles Christ’s life, His Spirit. These questions are critical. Our answers will direct us further, and that path we need to travel.

Do you believe what God has revealed to us through the Apostle Paul? Do you acknowledge receipt of the Spirit of God’s Son into your heart?

Ask God to keep on your mind and heart the truth that “If a Christian, Then God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into My heart.”

An Easter Thought

2010-04-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

May you find this Easter to contain a time when you can put away all the busy-ness that will distract you from being alone with Christ, and may you desire this to the point of actually securing such a time. Christ gave His life for you to be with Him, His Father and the Spirit. Honor that by giving some of yours to be with Them. Let your faith, whatever measure you have, lead you to spend time with God.

“Even Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is the noble advantage of faith; it can look on the means and end together. This is the great reason of our impatience, and censuring of God, because we gaze on the evil itself, but fix not our thoughts on what is beyond it. They that saw Christ only on the cross, or in the grave, do shake their heads, and think him lost; but God saw him dying, buried, rising, glorified, and all this at one view. Faith will in this imitate God, so far as it hath the glass of a promise to help it. . . Could we but clearly see heaven, as the end of all God’s dealings with us, surely none of his dealings could be grievous.”

Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest.

Carl

Stress And Slippage

2010-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Worldly Stress and the Erosion of Faith from Slippage.

Friend, the growth, or maturity, or manifestation of Christian graces in your life (if you have been reconciled to God through Christ) and the longevity of these graces during your life are not automatic nor a given. What is a given—something which continually presses against and stresses the Christian’s life and the working of God’s graces in your heart—is the presence and influence of the world and those of the world. These worldly influences and their affects most readily and frequently come through people you deal with in all forms of contact. They are constant pressures which can naturally erode faith, if not recognized and counteracted continually.

The Apostle Paul counsels Timothy to be aware of the attitudes and actions of others which, if not understood and counteracted, could lead to the erosion of his faith. Similar to Timothy, you and I (if we have been reconciled to God through Christ) must always pay attention to what and who we relate to, their affects on us, and constantly view our lives as primarily being lived or defined by our relationship with God instead of the world and those of the world. The stress, or pressure, of our worldly interactions pushes against all that is of God in our lives. It is as if darkness is seeking to once again overcome that which is now light. In Christ, we have been transferred from darkness to light, but we live in a world of darkness where we must live preserved from darkness as true light. If we do not remain vigilant against this worldly stress, we are subject to being overcome by it and our lives (practically) could become “faithless.”

Consider the following passages from 2 Timothy:

“BUT UNDERSTAND this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].” (3:1, Amplified Bible)

“For men will be lovers of themselves . . .” (3:2, NKJV)

“. . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (3:4-5)

“. . . these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith” (3:8)

“. . . evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (3:13)

Friend, the way the Apostle Paul counseled Timothy indicates to me that Timothy himself was dealing with these very stresses during his life and ministry. Context supports a view that Timothy’s relational stresses stemmed from those of the world but also within the visible Church. These strains seem to be the same stresses you and I contend with constantly (especially if we are sensitive to the Spirit’s work in our own lives and the workings of evil in the world).

We may differ from Timothy with respect to our vocation and ministry, but we share with him the same onslaught of pressures from the world and the same need to watch over and preserve our faith. To set perspective and direct Timothy, the Apostle Paul contrasts Timothy’s life as a Christian with those stressing him and who are worldly:

“But you [Timothy] have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance . . .” (3:10)

“But you [Timothy] must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. “(3:14-15)

“But you [Timothy] be watchful in all things” (4:5)

Paul’s counsel to Timothy for the preservation of his faith and effectiveness in ministry is, on one level, quite simple: Be Watchful In All Things. Don’t Forget Your Christian Life and Remember The Lives of Other Christians Who Have Struggled Severely For The Same Faith. Do Not Neglect God’s Word. It Gives You The Right Perspective.

Paul seems to guide Timothy with respect to the items above because here is where the pressures or stresses of the world primarily take their aim: Be Distracted With All The Pressures And Stress In The World. Your Christian Experience Is False, Or Else Your Life Would Not Be So Troubled (You Are Alone!). Why Spend Time In God’s Word? What Good Has It Done You? Stare At And Remain Overwhelmed With Me—The World—And All That Is Going On In The World! That Is All There Is And You’re Helpless!

Reader, we too easily submit to the world’s voice, pressures, and we too readily receive the stresses which lead to the erosion of our faith. This eroded condition need not be a description of your or my life though, and there is a remedy if you have experienced erosion of your faith from slippage. Movement from light to darkness often occurs incrementally and without our notice. We suddenly awaken (by God’s grace) and realize how far from a stable and passionate living faith we’ve moved. But the remedy, repentance, unlike the cause, is immediate. Employ Paul’s counsel to Timothy. Rely on God and get in the Word of God! Understand what is going on and remain diligent, watchful and engaged in the life with God in Christ Jesus that you were called to, and every moment of every day be on guard for the stress of the world and the erosion and slippage of your faith!

May the graces of God through Christ Jesus be manifest in your life and be a witness to those in darkness.

Carl

“O Love divine, how sweet thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by thee?
I thirst, I faint, I die to prove
The greatness of redeeming love—
The love of Christ to me.

Stronger his love then death or hell:
No mortal can its riches tell,
Nor first-born sons of light:
In vain they long its depths to see;
They cannot reach the mystery—
The length, the breadth, the height.

God only knows the love of God;
Oh that it now were shed abroad
In this poor, stony heart!
For love I sigh, for love I pine;
This only portion, Lord be mine—
Be mine this better part.

Oh that I could sit
In transport at my Saviour’s feet!
Be this my happy choice;
My only care, delight, and bliss,
My joy, my heaven on earth, be this,
To hear my Saviour’s voice.”

(Charles Wesley, d. 1788)

Forgiveness

2010-03-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Forgiveness:

What do you know about it?
What does it do to you?
What do others know of it through you?

“When this passing world is done—
When has sunk yon glorious sun;
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o’er life’s finished story;
Then, Lord, shall I fully know—
Not till then—how much I owe!”

“When I stand before the throne,
Clothed in beauty not my own;
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinninng heart;
Then, Lord, shall I fully know—
Not till then—how much I owe!”

(Rev. Robert M’Cheyn, d. 1843)

Greetings Friend.

M’Cheyn’s words express his heart’s desire to acknowledge before God that he knows the graces of God that he participates in, and that he cannot, this side of heaven, fully grasp nor fully acknowledge what he owes God concerning them. He knows there is this limit, and his confessions serve the purpose of placing him in a humble position before God. M’Cheyn understands to a degree and confesses that. He knows he’ll understand all later, and he anticipates that! He is grateful to God for what God has bestowed upon him.

How about you? What role does that which you understand now play in your confessions to God and in fueling your anticipations toward being with God? Any? Do you believe you understand what Christianity is, but for some reason your life (to yourself and those who observe you) communicates something essential is apparently lacking?

Grace begets grace. As God’s graces work their way through your heart (not just your head), you live differently because grace through the heart transforms one’s entire life. The bible implies this clearly with the phrase being “born again.” A Christian should be a new person, and at a minimum experience as ongoing life principles and expressions those graces that brought about his or her transformation from sinner to saint. That set of transformational graces should remain and grow, manifesting throughout the person’s life and creating grace fruits for others to experience and benefit from. Grace “in the head only” can cause one to “believe” they are something other than what their life testifies about them. Grace believed but not received can prevent one from participating in the life God’s graces intend.

To summarize: If you know you have been a recipient of God’s graces are you yourself gracious? This is how grace begets grace. It touches you, transforms you, and then touches others through you. This can be seen as manifestation of both God’s will and God’s kingdom. The same holds with love begetting love or mercy begetting mercy. If one has truly experienced God’s love and God’s mercy, then that person is transformed and in turn extends love and mercy to others.

Consider the following passages on God’s forgiveness, how the concepts fit together, how your life has been touched by God’s forgiveness, and how you, having been touched and transformed by God’s forgiveness, forgive others. What do the passages below confirm to you about your heart (not your head), your life, and how does your heart direct confession of such truths to God?

“He [Jesus] said to them, "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’” (Matt 6:8-15)

“…the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants . . .Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed . . .This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matt 18:21-35)

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Col 2:13-14)

“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Col 3:12-14)

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph 4:32)

Friend, observations from the above passages abound. Let me share a few.

God’s forgiveness is transformative.

Forgiveness is a condition that is to be acknowledged regularly by a Christian as a necessary dynamic for living life with and before God. A Christian, as one who has experienced God’s forgiveness personally, should possess a continued awareness of one’s own need for forgiveness from God (and seek it).

Forgiveness, as an ongoing and essential part of life (as is daily bread), is part of the fulfillment of the prayer for God’s will to be done on earth as in Heaven, and is part of the fulfillment of the prayer for God’s kingdom to come. Both of these expressive realities (God’s will and God’s kingdom) are somewhat manifest through the believer’s life when that person lives from and by forgiveness.

The prayer continues and also emphasizes the centrality of temptation and evil in life, which are as real to the Christian’s daily experience as are physical sustenance (bread) and spiritual sustenance (forgiveness). The believer, as a forgiven one, is always aware of these facts and in humility confesses them to God. Daily nourishment is necessary and ongoing. Evil and temptation are ongoing. Forgiveness, because of the continued presence of evil and temptation, is as essential to life as daily bread and should be received, in humility, from God and extended to others.

This sensitivity and discernment with respect to forgiveness is ongoing. As Christians, we are sinners who have been made saints. Christians should confess their sins and seek forgiveness. This ongoing forgiveness does not make us saints, it is because we have been made saints that we want to seek God’s forgiveness and maintain closeness, or intimacy, with God. All people sin. Others need forgiveness. We live in a world of sin. God can be known and experienced as we solicit and receive forgiveness from Him, and as we (when sinned against) forgive as God has us. If forgiveness is absent in life (either the believer with God or the believer with others), then one fails to acknowledge and honor God and one fails to disclose God to others.

Having known God’s forgiveness, but being determined to remain hardened and not forgive others, leads to one’s self-imprisonment and detrimentally affects the lives of others. God will hold accountable those who have benefited from His forgiveness, refuse to be transformed by it, and who alternately live unforgivingly toward others. [See all of Matthew 18:21-35.] It’s as if the forgiven one, by acting unforgivingly, wants to be King, or God. This is clearly evidence of the sinful nature, the flesh, unChristian, and could be seen as evil and demonic.

It seems, though, given the Apostle Paul’s admonitions in Colossians, Ephesians, and elsewhere, that living from the heart God’s forgiveness toward others is severely difficult and almost unnatural. And that’s precisely the point! It is unnatural. It’s supernatural, of God, not of the world or flesh! This is what M’Cheyn acknowledges and confesses to God. This is what the praying person in Matthew 6 confesses, and humbly asks God for the strength to live! You, dear friend, and I cannot live by our own strength the Christian life, life by the principles of God’s graces, nor can we extend forgiveness to another from a closed and hardened heart. You and I must constantly live in humility before God—He is God, not me. Then we can live from humility toward others.

May the graces of God and life of Christ be fully manifest in your heart and given to the world.

Carl

“Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Saviour’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified—
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.”

“When in flowery paths I tread,
Oft by sin I’m captive led;
Oft I fall, but still arise—
Jesus comes—the tempter flies:
Blessed Jesus! bid me show
Weary sinners all I owe.”

(Rev. Robert M’Cheyn, d. 1843)

Remaining Needy

2010-03-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

“Alas, what hourly dangers rise!
What snares beset my way!
To heaven, oh, let me lift mine eyes,
And hourly watch and pray.

How oft my mournful thoughts complain,
And melt in flowing tears!
My weak resistance, ah, how vain!
How strong my foes and fears!

O gracious God! in whom I live,
My feeble efforts aid;
Help me to watch, and pray, and strive,
Though trembling and afraid.

Increase my faith, increase my hope,
When foes and fears prevail;
And bear my fainting spirit up,
Or soon my strength will fail.

Whene’er temptations fright my heart,
Or lure my feet aside,
My God, thy powerful aid impart,
My Guardian and my Guide.

Oh, keep me in thy heavenly way,
And bid the tempter flee!
And let me never, never stray
From happiness and thee.

(Anne Steele, d. 1778)

Friend, do the heart pleadings and petitions in the above hymn, to any degree, describe your own toward God? Do you desire those words to be your words to God? Before such words are able to flow naturally from your heart heavenward, you must possess a heavenward heart. Christ is both in heaven and, if a Christian, in your heart. You have all you need to pursue Christ where He is. If you are not pursuing Christ, it is because you either have Him not in your heart, or you have lost sight of your need and where He is in Heaven.

Consider Hebrews 4 and 12:

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

“…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”

Reader, do you see Christ? Do you have Christ? Are you holding your confession? Do you approach Christ? Do you obtain mercy, grace and help?

What causes you to be and remain weary and discouraged? Your struggles cannot match Christ’s, although they maybe similar in kind. You have needs, this is true, and Christ is always there for you.

Do you know your need? Do you see Christ, see self, or see the world? Only Christ has the provision for your need. Seek Him.

“Our hearts, O Lord, with grief are rent,
O’er vows made all in vain;
In anguish daily we repent,
Each day offend again.

Now we arise from death to life,
Then sink from good to ill;
Here we begin, there leave our strife,
And work but half thy will.

Oh, help us, Lord, amid all pain,
As warriors true, to stand
Faithful and firm, and thus to gain
Thine own, the better land.

Thy land—its gates how bright they shine!
And let no evil in;
Thy boundless land, and all divine,
That hath no room for sin.

Thy holy land, where none shall stop
Our souls upon the road,
And win our weak desires to drop
From glory and from God.

Oh, rich and priceless is the grace
That we shall there receive!
Nor once thine image shall deface,
Nor once thy spirit grieve.

(author unknown)

Baxter On The Saint's Rest

2010-02-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

“Long have I sat beneath the sound
Of thy salvation, Lord;
Yet still how weak my faith is found,
And knowledge of thy word!

How cold and feeble is my love!
How negligent my fear!
How low my hope of joys above!
How few affections there!

Great God! thy sovereign power impart,
To give thy word success;
Write thy salvation in my heart,
And make me learn thy grace.

Show my forgetful feet the way
That leads to joys on high;
Where knowledge grows without decay,
And love shall never die.”

(Isaac Watts, d. 1748)

Greetings Friend.

What follows stems from Richard Baxter’s great work “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest.” After my last bog entry on Jesus and the Christian’s Rest, I began rereading Baxter’s work. The below seemed to further the subject and foster self-evaluation. May God bless your reading as you consider Baxter’s thoughts.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But, God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” (I Cor 2:9-10)

“For the eye of flesh is not capable of seeing them, nor this ear of hearing them, nor this heart of understanding them: but there [in the state of God’s rest] the eye, and ear, and heart are made capable; else how do they enjoy them? The more perfect the sight is, the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody. The more perfect the soul, the more joyous those joys, and the more glorious to us is that glory.” (p. 23)

“When I know so little of God, I cannot much know what it is to enjoy him.” (23)

“. . . grace cannot be clearly known without grace; how much less could he [a worlding] conceive it [spiritual joys], should I tell him of this glory?” (24)

“If grace makes a Christian differ so much from what he was, as to say, I am not the man I was; how much more will glory make us differ!” (26)

“He that in love wept over the old Jerusalem when near its ruin, with what love will he rejoice over the new Jerusalem in her glory? Christian, believe this, and think on it: thou shalt be eternally embraced in the arms of that love, which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting; of that love which brought the Son of God’s love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory: that love, which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced; which did fast, pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, die; that love will eternally embrace thee. When perfect created love, and the most perfect uncreated love, meet together” (31) . . .

. . . Now, you, Reader, complete Baxter’s thought of that uncreated, perfect, Divine love joined to His perfect created love in you. Can you, will you, think on this and comprehend the fact!?

Friend, as Baxter later asks:

Are you aware of that divine mercy that leads to the saint’s joy? Are you experiencing God’s ongoing work in your life that is preparing you for the fullness of His love and joy?

If not, why?

“He prepared the kingdom for us, then prepared us for the kingdom.” (44)

Spend some time and honestly evaluate your life with God. Do you see, hear, and understand with greater clarity day by day those things that God has prepared for you? Do you love Him?

What do you know of God and the Saint’s Rest?

If you’ve received God’s grace, do you experience movement toward those things of grace? Are you being transformed by God’s grace? Or, is God’s grace alien to you?

Can you discern His perfect love and His love in you meeting? If not, and you profess Christ, why?

Everlasting life is intended to rule as the main life principle in the saint’s heart. If it isn’t, then the flesh and the world are the main principles. This later condition ought not be. You will not be prepared for the fullness of His presence if you live not in His presence now.

Describe your life with God to yourself and let your own words reveal the truth about your relationship with God. Then, may you both know the right direction to move and actually move.

"Could my heart so hard remain,
Prayer a task and burden prove,
Every trifle give me pain,
If I knew a Saviour's love?

When I turn my eyes within,
All is dark, and vain, and wild;
Filled with unbelief and sin,
Can I deem myself a child?

Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
Find my sin a grief and thrall;
Should I grieve for what I feel,
If I did not love at all?

Lord, decide the doubtful case;
Thou who art thy people's Sun,
Shine upon thy work of grace,
If it be indeed begun.

Let me love thee more and more,
If I love at all, I pray;
If I have not loved before,
Help me to begin to-day."

(Rev. John Newton, d. 1807)

Jesus . . . Rest

2010-02-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

What follows are some thoughts on Christ and the Christian’s Rest. I’ve compiled a few items on the theme. The main biblical passages are Matthew 11:28-29 and Hebrews 3 and 4. You may be very familiar with Matthew 11:28-29. If you can recite the text, are you as familiar with the reality it describes? Have you responded to Jesus’ call and have you entered that rest? Having entered, do you live from that rest? What about your life confirms this to you?

Or, does your life, at its deepest recesses, evidence the complete opposite of rest—unrest: …”chaos” …”turmoil”…”fear”…and “always scurrying about needing something but never seeming to be satisfied and quieted?” Do you seek something you see as rest from your own resources, from other people, or from the world? What describes you?

Today, some may need to hear a call to rest for the first time. Others of us may need to hear a call to rest as a reminder. Do you need to hear a call to receive rest for your life? Does it seem as if the help you sense you really need cannot be obtained, so you just assume your experience is life and is all you’ll ever possibly know? Have you given up? If there were a peace or rest available that promised you a new view of life, enjoyment, and separation from the world’s woes and your own, what cost would you be willing to pay? Would the offer even interest you?

As you read what follows, consider the rest described, the source, and the cost. Consider what people did who were contemporaries with Jesus. Will you do the same? If Jesus were to call you specifically, would your ears hear?

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.” (Jn 6:44-45)

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11:28-29)

“Since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.” (Heb 4:1)

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.” (Heb 4:9-11)

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Mt 9:12)

“Come unto me, all ye who mourn, with guilt and fear oppressed;
Resign to me the willing heart, and I will give you rest.

Take up my yoke, and learn from me, a meek and lowly mind;
And thus your weary, troubled souls repose and peace shall find.

For light and gentle is my yoke: the burden I impose
Shall ease the heart which groaned before beneath the load of woes.”

(Author Unknown)

“Oh! Wonderful, wonderful! That the one who has help to give is the one who says, Come hither! What love is this! There is love in the act of a man who is able to help and does help him who begs for help. But for one to offer help! and to offer it to all! Yes, and precisely to all such as can do nothing to help in return! To offer it—no, to shout it out, as if the Helper were the one who needed help, as if in fact He who is able and willing to help all was Himself in a sense a needy one, in that He feels an urge, and consequently need to help, need of the suffer in order to help him!” “As for the danger that too many might come, He had no fear of it.” *

“All His willingness to help would perhaps be no help at all if He did not utter this word and thereby take the first step. For in His summons, ‘Come unto me,’ it is He in fact that comes to them … He who utters this saving word, ‘Come hither,’ was not deceived in Himself when He uttered the word, neither will He deceive thee when thou comest to Him to find rest by casting thy burden upon Him. He follows the prompting of His heart in uttering it, and His heart accompanies [follows] the word—follow then thou the word and it will accompany [follow] thee back to His heart.” **

Friend, when considering Matthew 11:28-29, backup and read first chapter 10. Then, after reading into Matthew 11, continue on into chapter 12. Doing so, you will notice the theme of “rest” as it pertains to Christ, captured and conveyed many different ways, all crowned by His call in 11:28.

Matthew 10 reveals Jesus, the Jesus message proclaimed, and reactions to that message. Matthew 11 reveals aspects of John the Baptist’s message (people “came to” him), differing reactions to the Baptist’s message, the Baptist’s own sense of looking to Christ and rest, but then the Spirit has us look beyond the Baptist to see Christ Himself (…as the one to whom all people should come to, and Jesus as “The Caller”). Then, with the Caller, the Call, and the reality of Rest revealed, the first part of Matthew 12 positions Jesus as Lord over the Sabbath (Law, etc.).

As a result of Jesus being proclaimed and believed in, the record shows people experienced physical rest, relational rest, spiritual rest, etc., both immediately and anticipated during future events. These examples of what I (correctly or incorrectly) see as “rest or peace in the life of a person separated to Christ and, thus, in opposition with the world,” extend from a person being yoked to Christ. Once yoked, a person lives in concert with Christ as the fundamental relationship in life, following His lead through life. One who has answered Christ’s call then lives from a position of rest (barring the disruption of that rest due to unbelief or hardness of heart). See John 10:4, 9; Psalm 121:7-8; Psalm 23.

Matthew 11 also connects the concept of rest to final judgment. There were those during Jesus’ life (as now) who rejected Christ, believing they were safe resting in “their” estimation and judgment of Christ and proclamations regarding Him. Yet they were blind as to their true condition and true need, so they could not foresee the time when their apparent rest would vanish and horror become their enduring condition. Thus, there is a sense of rest, or false rest, (actually, it may be termed “being self-reliant”) that exists as a normal attitude associated with people’s view of Christ.

“Come to Me.” The call is Christ’s. It is His own unique pronouncement and narrow invitation to be with Him and forever partake in the Divine relationship of everlasting life. His pronouncement offering rest to all follows, in the text, and flows from His confession to the Father of Divine wisdom doing things just the way His Father purposed. There is no mistake in Christ’s offering of rest. Do not be fooled! You cannot self-generate, nor can the world generate, the type of rest Jesus here emphasizes and offers, and that you and I need.

Following Christ’s call is chapter 12. The first eight verses show Christ as rest from the Law (from self-righteousness and religiosity). In Christ, one is free from the Law, both its demands and judgments. Christ fulfilling the Law means those who came to Christ could rest. The Law could lead to Christ, but only Christ could return rest. Law has this neither by design nor capacity. But, still, many prefer life under and by Law because this way of life seems fashioned for the flesh and fallen human nature. It demands and self-justifies, which, strangely, appears right and safe to some. But it does not provide the needed rest. It does not stem from mercy. It demands.

The entire set of chapters, Matthew 10-12, display for us Christ and reactions to Christ, be those reactions rejection or receipt of His person, message, or rest.

Now, with Jesus’ call from Matthew fresh in mind, proceed to Hebrews chapters 1 through 4. Chapters 3 and 4 emphasis the unique rest related to Christ. The message of the writer is that this rest can be missed. The writer, in similar fashion to Matthew 10 and 11, presents Christ (Hebrews 1-2): His person and position. The writer then provides an example of those who earlier in Divine history rejected, thus missed, God’s offered rest. Interpretations may differ, but I take this example, primarily, as a physical rest conditionally offered to the Israelites. Christ, the substance of Old Testament shadows and history, is the true and promised rest of God that remains for some to enter.

As with Israel then, people today hear Christ presented, but they have not faith. These fail to enter into God’s offered rest (primarily spiritual, relational). Faith moves one toward the reality of what is revealed about Christ as Christ is presented. Faith is a believing response to the call and movement toward Christ. The rest that both Matthew and the writer of Hebrews call people to be sure they participate in is enduring rest: it is being reconciled to God through Christ, then living from that ultimate relationship.

This particular rest bears its own reality and validation to the believer:

“He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” God rested. He enjoyed the new reality He created! He pronounced His work both Good and Very Good. Friend, if a Christian, do you enjoy—as a primary description—your life? Are you resting in God? Frequent admonitions and warnings fill Hebrews 3 and 4 that one can miss out on the life God wants that person to experience. As in Matthew 11, so the Hebrews author encourages us to get and stay close to Christ:

Matthew: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Hebrews: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Reader, “rest” is what you and I need. Jesus offers it. We can not create or find the necessary rest apart from Christ. We are the needy ones. We don’t have the basis or source within ourselves to generate it. Neither does the world. There are numerous varieties of false rest to mislead us from coming to and staying with Christ. Jesus is true rest and He invites us to both live in a condition of rest and from a condition (state) of rest. Both Matthew 11:28-29 and Hebrews 3-4 reveal Christ as true rest and stress the importance of one knowing he or she has entered into that rest. What would our lives look like if we lived from a state of Divine rest? Let that thought or vision take hold in your imagination and instruct you.

May you let your life tell you whether you have entered in and live from this rest. If you doubt, revisit Christ’s call. Then, without further delay, enter into His rest today.

God’s best to you.

“With tearful eyes I look around;
Life seems a dark and stormy sea;
Yet, mid the gloom, I hear a sound,
A heavenly whisper, ‘Come to me.’

It tells me of a place of rest;
It tells me where my soul may flee:
Oh, to the weary, faint, oppressed,
How sweet the bidding, ‘Come to me!’

When the poor heart with anguish learns
That earthly props resigned must be,
And from each broken cistern turns,
It hears the accents, “Come to me.”

When against sin I strive in vain,
And cannot from its yoke get free,
Sinking beneath the heavy chain,
The words arrest me, “Come to me.”

‘Come, for all else must fail and die;
Earth is no resting-place for thee;
To heaven direct they weeping eye,
I am thy portion; come to me.’

O voice of mercy! Voice of love!
In conflict, grief, and agony,
Support me, cheer me from above!
And gently whisper, ‘Come to me.’”

(Charlotte Elliott, d. 1871)

(Soren Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity, *p 6 and 9, **p 16; ISBN 0375725644)

Imagination

2010-01-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

My suggestion is to meditate through the below in an atmosphere of quietness.

Regarding your Imagination: Does your imagination serve your godly passions and desires or do you often (it may seem) awaken to yourself and find that you’ve been on a road of imaginative thoughts which, in and of themselves, could be identified as unholy, earthly, of the flesh, or even demonic? Friend, you and I need not be subject to an ungodly imagination, but we often remain so for long periods of time. Recognize this and change. Force your imagination to serve you, to lift you into God’s presence, to behold the glories and graces of God, to manifest to your mind—by the Spirit—the inheritance of the saints. Do not live as a slave to your corrupt imagination, whereby the bulk of your idle time consists in nurturing unholy contemplations, when you’ve been made a child of the King!

Consider the following hymn and how godly imagination works for you and presents to you the objects described.

“Now let our souls, on wings sublime, rise from the vanities of time,
Draw back the parting vail, and see the glories of eternity.

Born by a new, celestial birth, why should we grovel here on earth?
Why grasp at vain and fleeting toys, so near to heaven’s eternal joys?

Shall aught beguile us on the road while we are walking back to God?
For strangers into life we come, and dying is but going home.

Welcome, sweet hour of full discharge, that sets our longing souls at large,
Unbinds our chains, breaks up our cell, and gives us with our God to dwell.

To dwell with God, to feel his love, is the full heaven enjoyed above;
And the sweet expectation now is the young dawn of heaven below.”

(Rev. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, d. 1785)

Imagination can work for you and present to you. Perhaps while reading the above hymn one verse or another attracted your thoughts above the others. The first? Maybe the second? Perhaps imagination lifted up to you an idea instead, such as the difference between “vanities of time” and “heaven’s eternal joys,” or “walking back to God” or “dying is but going home.” Friend, permit me to ask, do you have times during each day where your mind and heart employ imagination’s craft for a journey into “the expectation of entering” into God’s full presence when your life here is done? Consider the below and let imagination serve you.

“COURAGE IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT”

“Have we not often imagined that redeemed souls must have a strange meeting at the judgment, when the secrets of hearts shall be revealed? Is the prospect of it altogether welcome to us? It has been said that, if in this world every man’s heart could be open to the gaze of every other man, no two could ever again be friends, for no two could look each other in the eye. How, then, will our self-respect bear the last ordeal? The beloved apostle gives us the answer. ‘God dwelleth in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is so are we.’ If we indeed know this, why should we not be bold?

In that day, we shall revere in others the clear image of God, wrought by God’s own hand. They will revere the same in us. We shall meet each other without a blush. Some of our departed kindred have been glorified so long before us, that we are apt to think of them as vastly our superiors. Their distance from us, which years are lengthening, disheartens us. But we shall overtake them, and that will be no crestfallen meeting. We shall receive their welcome without confusion. We shall not fear their secret contempt when they take us by the hand. Their greetings will have no hollow sound. The salutations of angels will not abash us. The morning stars, which exult in a sinless history of thousands of years, will not look chillingly upon us. Gabriel, Michael, the seven spirits before the throne, will not recognize us haughtily. Even the eye of the Infinite One will not close itself in disgust at our appearing. It shall search us,—He that formed the eye, shall not he see?—it shall search us indeed, but as light searches a prism. It shall find only itself reflected at every angle, and in a radiance of beauty which nothing but itself could evoke.

(Austin Phelps, The New Birth: or, The Work of the Holy Spirit, 1867, p. 227-229)

Does what you just read prompt you to consider (Imagine) any possibilities for your first moments in God’s presence after your earthly life ends, when you depart this world and join the heavenly community, when you become fully aware of yourself in the way God knows you, when you cannot escape the realization of all God has been to you? Give room for your imagination to roam above earth’s dusty ways to spheres where all is filled with nothing less than divine praise! Do you ever go there? Would going there even briefly each day make any difference for your life now—the anticipation of joining the heavenly throng?

Imagination can work for you and present to you. But, imagination can also make the godly expressions of saints from times past yours in times present. Imagination can help you see differences for your life now and lift you into the life to come. Imagination can let you see and share in what another has seen. The hymn below can be yours. As you read it, read it from your perspective, not the author’s. Be the subject. Use your imagination to see what another has seen and go where it leads.

Once you experience the cherished benefits of godly imagination, you’ll not again submit yourself (for long) to the wiles and ways of that which can easily enslave you to corruption. Use your imagination to your advantage and God’s honor.

God’s best to you.

“How bright these glorious spirits shine! Whence all their white array?
How came they to the blissful seats of everlasting day?

Lo! These are they from sufferings great who came to realms of light,
And in the blood of Christ have washed those robes which shine so bright.

Now, with triumphal palms, they stand before the throne on high,
And serve the God they love, amid the glories of the sky.

His presence fills each heart with joy, tunes every voice to sing;
By day, by night, the sacred courts with glad hosannas ring.

The Lamb that dwells amid the throne, shall o’er them still preside,
Feed them with nourishment divine, and all their footsteps guide.

In pastures green he’ll lead his flock, where living streams appear;
And God, the Lord, from every eye, shall wipe off every tear.”

(Isaac Watts, d. 1748)

Acknowledging And Mending The Drift

2010-01-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (Heb 2:1) See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Heb 3:12) For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Heb 4:2, 14-15)

Drifting. We can drift. God’s word informs us to be on guard for this. Drifting away from God is a fact. The movement would be hardly noticeable; lost in the confusion and business of our daily lives. It would seem to happen without our choice. We would fault business and distraction, anything but ourselves. But, I fear, it is because we make certain choices and because we have not paid careful attention that we actually drift. What does your life tell you? Have you drifted? Do you and I care for and safe guard that which God has bestowed on us, what we have heard from Him? How could we tell? What would you and I use to know? Are you in any way adrift right now?

Unbelieving. If you have drifted, thus no longer believing and living as you once might have (especially regarding foundational aspects of the Christian faith and their influence on your life), perhaps you’ve drifted to the point where there has even been an unfortunate, yet defining, turn away from God Himself. If honest, I trust you would see and confess this. Reader, do you believe you have drifted from God and now evidence aspects of an unbelieving life? To what degree? Have you drifted so far that the shore of God’s presence is no longer even in sight? What does your life say? Are you in any way unbelieving?

Friend, I, like so many others, waiver in my love for God and my love for people, my relation to God’s word, and actually living God’s word. Living by principles other than God’s love (generally, the alternative is self-interest) my heart is not always toward God or His word. Thus, I’m adrift. My mooring is undone. I move across the sea of my emotions, fears, memories, self-interest, finding in every place the world’s affirmation that “this way” of moving through life is valid and justified. Yet, drifting on the world’s currents leads to compounding confusion created by ungodly thoughts and passions, thereby fostering and strengthening my life of unbelief. It is an ugly and completely ungodly place to expect to find one’s self and try to live life from. My heart grows colder this way. I feel further separated from God and others, and I as a natural course take greater refuge in the citadel of my fleshly soul (alone, yet perversely comforted that I’m with me). I’m left to myself and the world’s spirit (which can also, and only, be cold). God does not redeem people to live adrift, to live in unbelief, to live separated to self. This is not why He gave His Son.

You and I are weak, friend, with respect to our paying attention, safeguarding godly beliefs which become godly lives, and living out godly love. We are not careful. We so commonly do not combine what of God we hear with the faith we’ve been granted as a gift, thus we don’t experience true godly life. Neither do others through us. We need to confess this sad condition when we find it. Then again, perhaps I am alone on this. Perhaps it is only me who experiences these unfortunate states. But, I believe otherwise. I believe both you and I are together subject to unbelief, to drifting, to turning away from God. We are casualties of all these conditions, because of our insufficient care and concern for our hearts, we don’t believe God, and we do not live from the principle of God’s love.

But Jesus knows you are tempted to live in ways that cool your godly affections and ignite fleshly fires. You must be aware that Jesus continually knows your condition. He knows you better than you know yourself. And He cares. If you have been reconciled to the Father through Christ, He is not your enemy. When we are faithless, He remains faithful. Thus, you and I should be easily compelled to live constantly on guard, and know when drifting and unbelief have occurred, then seek Christ, confessing to Him what He already knows about us. Again, there are no grounds for fear at this point, unless one is not being truly honest with God or has never encountered His grace.

Father above, where Christ Your Son is stationed at Your side, You love me and those reconciled to You through Your Son. You gave us Your Son and Your word, so we can know You and sufficiently know ourselves and preserve the wonder of life with You throughout our earthly days. You’ve warned me to watch my heart. You’ve told me I’m subject to doubting You. You’ve clearly told me I can drift, become totally turned away from You through my unbelief and sin, my alternate desire then being to live by self-rule or that of the world. But I have a confidence, Father. My confidence is in Your Son, the very one seated to Your right. You see Him, hear Him, and You love Him. Lord Jesus, as my great high priest, as my confidence, as my advocated before Your Father and my Father, You always know my condition. Turn me back toward You. Take me away from that which I have set as god for myself. Restore the notion and reality of Your love to me and let that reality anchor my soul sufficiently to prevent the drift again. Restore Your word as light for my life. May Your word always find union with faith in my heart and may my life thus bear lasting fruit to Thee and benefit others. Forgive me Father for not believing You. May I pay more careful attention and honor all You have provided me through Your Son. Thanks be to You Father, Lord Jesus, and Spirit of God. Amen.

“Jesus, seek thy wandering sheep;
Bring me back, and lead, and keep;
Take on thee my every care,
Bear me, on thy bosom bear;
Let me know my Shepherd’s voice,
More and more in thee rejoice;
More and more of thee receive;
Ever in thy spirit live,--

Live till all thy life I know,
Foll’wing thee, my Lord, below;
Gladly then from earth remove,
Gathered to thy fold above:
Oh, that I at last my stand
With the sheep at they right hand,
Take the crown so freely given,
Enter in by thee to heaven!”

(author believed to be Charles Wesley)

Your Goodness

2010-01-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

“How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them.” (PS 31.19-20)

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’” (Rev 21.3; see Eph 2:19-22, Jn 14:23)

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (Jn 14.16-17) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (14.27)

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15.11) “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (Jn 16.20, 22) "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (33)

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17.20-21)

Father, Your word and Your Son speak encouragements to me. The world could never fill my ear nor set my heart with such wonderful words! O Lord, I trust in Your goodness. You are my refuge. Your presence is my peace. You are with me. You assure me. As it was with the apostles, so it is with me. You have graciously and freely given me your Spirit of Truth. The world knows him not. You understand me. The world does not. You are my peace. The world is not. The world rejoices to see you gone, but for me you are ever present and your joy I know and keep. These blessings they cannot know. These they do not want to know. Thank You, O God, for permitting me to know You, to experience Your presence, Your joy, Your peace.

I am encouraged and strengthened. Jesus, you prayed for me when you prayed for your disciples. You had me in mind. I rejoice and am grateful for your love and care, and for your faithfulness to the Father. Because of your life with and in me, you say the world, as blind and evil as it is, can know the Father sent you. Thus my prayer. This is my heart’s desire confessed to you. Without you I am nothing and can do nothing worthy of your name. Father, Lord Jesus, Spirit of God, as I rest in You, and You abide with me, may I realize Your presence and goodness more consistently and fully day after day, and may some from the world come to know, Father, that Jesus is your Son and that he was sent by You into the world as Your revelation to humanity. In gratitude for all You are to me, may my life please bear witness to You in this world. Amen

Where is my God?

2009-12-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

“Where is my God?—does he retire beyond the reach of humble sighs? Are these weak breathings of desire too languid to ascend the skies?” “Teach my weak heart, O gracious Lord, with stronger faith to call thee mine; bid me pronounce the blissful word, my Father—God, with joy divine.” (Anne Steele, 1716-1778)

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, (Lk 4:18)

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (Jn 3:17, 19, 20)

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (PS 51:6)

"I have no husband," she replied. (Jn 4:17) Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (Jn 4:28-29) So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. (Jn 4:40)

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:19-20)

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (Jn 14:21, 23)

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "The LORD be exalted!" Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay. (PS 40:16-17)

Dear Reader, the heart of God is to reconcile and relate. God wants you to know Him. The heart of man is to cry out, yet to often remain hidden and shut up in a false sense of security and life; thus crying due to real need, but not understanding, and thereby rejecting, the only real answer. Christ came not to condemn. Do not fear Him. When He approaches you and speaks to you, receive Him. Be honest.

Truth in the inward parts. Keeping the heart’s door shut. Evil hates light because it will be exposed. “I have no husband.” “Come, see.” “They urged him to stay…he stayed.” Friend, have you met Christ in the inward parts of your heart—ever, or recently anew? If not, what do you fear? Loss of yourself? Exposure of what you know yourself to actually be? Christ may initially approach you from the outside, like he did the Samaritan woman, but He desires entrance to the most intimate parts of your life, as when He knocks. Do you sense something within that isn’t set quite right? If you do, don’t let fear (or sin) hold you hostage. Has Christ spoken there? Receive Him there. Agree with Him regarding His view of your life. This will lead to your increased desire to be with Him.

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” What if the light you believe you have is actually darkness? Christ came to free. We need to be freed, freed from self, sin, the world and Satan. Trust not in yourself. Let Christ deliver you. Can you for a moment envision what such freedom would mean to you? If you desire delivery from yourself, behold Christ.

If you have recently met Christ in the inward part of your heart, what have you experienced? Liberty? Petitioning God to spend more time with you? Do you say with the psalmist "The LORD be exalted!" and “You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay!” This is true freedom with and in Christ: Praising and Desiring God. If you have recently met Christ in the inward part of your heart, then you do know the blessed joy of His presence at that place and you do acknowledge the ever growing desire for further union with God. Christ will eat with you, and you with Him. Do you now enjoy this meal? Would you like to? Do not withhold Christ’s access to your heart.

“He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." Friend, here is the best of the Christian experience—living in the presence of God. As you know, the reality revealed to us by these words is not automatic or a guarantee this side of Heaven. Consider Jesus’ emphasis on God’s word and your emphasis on God’s word. Do you believe Christ’s words regarding His words? Your emphasis on God’s word reveals the degree to which you love Him. How great is your love for Him? Pursue Him freely. He has given His word to you. Both Father and Son will love you, manifest Themselves to you, and establish Their home with you now. What more could you and I ever desire?

“Where is my God?” Know and guard your heart, friend. Jesus came to deliver you, to free you, to establish you, and to enable you to know Him and His Father to the greatest degree possible this side of Heaven. You yourself can prevent this deepest and fullest God intimacy from ever being apart of your life. Don’t let a Christ-less condition be your earthly testimony. Jesus reveals the greatest offer ever. Receive Him in the inward parts always.

“He lives,--the great Redeemer lives:
What joy the blest assurance gives!
And now, before his Father, God,
Pleads the full merit of his blood.

Repeated crimes awake our fears,
And justice armed with frowns appears;
But in the Saviour’s lovely face,
Sweet mercy smiles, and all is peace.

Hence, then, ye black, despairing thoughts;
Above our fears, above our faults,
His powerful intercessions rise,
And guild recedes, and terror dies.

In every dark, distressful hour,
When sin and Satan join their power,
Let this dear hope repel the dart,
That Jesus bears us on his heart.

Great Advocate! Almighty Friend!
On thee our humble hopes depend:
Our cause can never, never fail,
For thou dost plead, and must prevail.”

(Anne Steele, 1716-1778)

The World Crushes. The Lord Lifts.

2009-11-30T04:38:00.000-08:00

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;” (2 Cor 4:8) “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died [with Christ], and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 1:1-3)

Dear Reader,

“The World Crushes. The Lord Lifts.” This title says volumes to us, does it not? You understand what I mean. There seems no escape for the godly from all that is against God in the world. We see it and hear it without pause. We are simply overwhelmed by it. (Praise God if you see and hear the difference!) And we tell ourselves “We’ve no sufficient remedy to stem its advance! Ungodliness and evil through men spreads without strain! This condition crushes us!”

Yet, for us who profess to know Christ, who have died with Him and now live with Him, there is remedy for our minds and hearts. Our remedy, yours as an individual and ours collectively, is Christ Himself. We must never forget this. We must never lose sight of Him during our days else the world will certainly achieve its goal and crush us. The reality is that many of us have already lost sight of Christ, and we are now crushed in mind, heart, and perhaps even body. You know who you are, if you are crushed. You feel the world’s weight too much. But the “worldly crush” need not be the end. You can be, and should be, “Lifted.”

Jesus himself, on His cross, was suspended (lifted) between the earth and Heaven. He came from Heaven to earth, was rejected by those He came to, and was cast up away from the earth as a plague, an evil doer, and undesirable. Many tried to “crush” Him with stones, threats and death. Those of the world wanted nothing of Him, yet He was the world’s Saviour. He would bear the world’s weight. Evil hearts cast Him from “their” earth. Always remember that Jesus, more than we ever will, understands the evil and weighty pressures of the world. We can, and should, take great comfort that Jesus knows our daily plight and that He is for us. The world does not know this, but God is in charge and all is His. He is King. This fact alone can lift us.

Jesus returned to His Father (and our Father). His Father lifted Him to a place the world would never imagine and in a way the world could never do. And we, as Christians, are now “in Him” in the presence of His Father; though we do not fully apprehend this reality. Yet, as those professing Christ, we should realize the truth regarding our Divine position throughout our days (have experience of the earthly-Heavenly difference and be linked more to the Heavenly), knowing that one day our experiential “suspension” between earth and Heaven will change. We will be fully free from all that is earthly and worldly (all it’s crushing weight), and we will be fully lifted by the Father into the fullness of God’s presence. But, for now, as Christians, we feel torn between two worlds. Sometimes we are simply crushed.

Friend, do not let the world win over you! The Lord Lifts! He is your true(er) identity and He is your true(er) reality. Jesus is the Head of His body. Where the Head is the body will also be. The world is passing away. Let it pass! You and God, and everything you have through Christ in God, are forever fixed and will never pass away. You can and will be Lifted!

Below, I have provided three hymns from the Rev. Ottiwell Heginbotham (1744-1768) to assist you in godly reflections and meditations on being Crushed or Lifted. Distinctions that we experience as Christians, with heart-felt sensitivities and Christ centered confessions, abound in these hymns. Very little is known of this man. I do not even know the titles to these works. What I find truly amazing about them, though, is not just that they so wonderfully capture and express Christian truths and heart confessions, but that their author died at age 24! How young! Yet, what depth and maturity of heart with God! How many years, friend, have you and I professed Christ? See if your heart sings in agreement with the words below that originate from such a young author. If not, perhaps too much of the world’s weight has crushed you for too long. Recognize your relation to your Lord and let the Lord Lift you today. Let Him be your life, and let Him Lift you every day. God’s best to you.

Carl

HYMN 1

“Yes, I will bless thee, O my God!
Through all my earthly days;
And to eternity prolong
Thy vast, thy boundless praise.

In every smiling, happy hour,
Be this my sweet employ:
Thy praise refines my earthly bliss,
And doubles all my joy.

When gloomy care, and keen distress
Afflict my throbbing breast,
Thy praise shall mingle with my tears,
And lull each pain to rest.

Nor shall my tongue alone proclaim
The honors of my God:
My life, with all its active powers,
Shall spread thy praise abroad.

Nor death itself shall stop my song,
Though it will close my eyes;
My thoughts shall then to nobler heights,
And sweeter raptures rise.

There shall my lips in endless praise
Their grateful tribute pay;
The theme demands an angel’s tongue,
And an eternal day.”

HYMN 2

“Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
Which before the cross I spend;
Life, and health, and peace possessing,
From the sinner’s dying Friend.

Truly blessed is this station,
Low before his cross to lie;
While I see divine compassion
Beaming in his gracious eye.

Here it is I find my heaven,
While upon the cross I gaze;
Love I much? I’ve much forgiven;
I’m a miracle of grace.

Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears his feet I’ll bathe;
Constant still, in faith abiding,
Life deriving from his death.

Here in tender, grateful sorrow
With my Saviour will I stay;
Here new hope and strength will borrow;
Here will love my fears away.”

HYMN 3

“Sweet peace of conscience, heavenly guest,
Come, fix thy mansion in my breast;
Dispel my doubts, my fears control,
And heal the anguish of my soul.

Come, smiling hope, and joy sincere,
Come, make your constant dwelling here;
Still let your presence cheer my heart,
Nor sin compel you to depart.

O God of hope and peace divine,
Make thou these secret pleasures mine;
Forgive my sins, my fears remove,
And fill my heart with joy and love.”

The Whole of My Day is Heavenward

2009-11-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Friend, is The Whole of Your Day Heavenward?

Is it?

Just what type of question is this? It is a question intended to produce reflection.

Let us reflect.

Even if you profess to be a Christian, most likely, as with me, your days would be described as anything but Heavenward in thoughts, in desires, in words, or in actions. Pressing and urgent matters and concerns seem to demand our all, do they not? Distractions abound. We live on the surface level of the Worldly, and we usually only engage what is temporary and passing. This all seems normal to us. These are our days.

Yet, beyond our notice, we are truly moving Heavenward. We will one day stand fully in God’s presence and we will know ourselves as He knows us. (Are you comfortable with that?) Our memory will present each of us with inescapable reminders of our days and of times when we were Heavenward, when we were Worldly, and when we were Heavenward though in the World; when we consciously discerned the difference and chose the Heavenward. In the end, in an ultimate sense, one can say that even without our conscious participation or direct notice “The Whole of Our Days is Heavenward.”

I can probably assume that we more often than not pass the moments of our days so caught up with every temporal care that we close most days without any sincere acknowledgement of our relation with God and even more without any sincere communion or fellowship with Him. Most of you reading this may even have a history of closing your days without a review of those days, without expressing gratitude to God, without confessing sin to God, without experiencing forgiveness from God, or even without having spent minimal time pursuing God through His Word. Is this you?

If this description is remotely true of us, what does it reveal about how we value God and about whether or not we truly know Him? Whether we even relate to God as our Father? Is God truly my God and your God, or do our lives reveal that something else is? What could ever be god to us if it is not God? If, in the end, after our earthly lives, we believe we will spend eternity with God—if this our hope—why is He not more part of our lives now? Is eternal life with God some existence to begin after I leave this earthly journey, or am I immersed in eternal life now? If we are not experiencing what we believe should be a level of fellowship with God during our days “now,” why not? Do you ask yourself such questions, or do I alone consider such matters?

“The Whole of My Day is Heavenward.”

“The Whole of Your Day is Heavenward.”

These are descriptive statements. But why “Whole”? What is meant by this word? Do we imply the “entirety of” or the “tone of”? Perhaps we can find some room for self-comfort, some ground of safety for our conscience, if we decrease the strength of the phrase “The Whole of My Day is Heavenward” to “The Tone of My Day is Heavenward.” For we tell ourselves such complaints, don’t we? “It is simply impossible that every breathing second I’d be Heavenward in all my faculties and all my function! What weight of expectation as this is demanded of me!” All right. Let us then, for preservation sake, define “The Whole of” as “The Tone of.” Very good. Here we are. Now we feel safer before ourselves (and God). Let us continue.

Reader, if you would confess that most of your days are not Heavenward, can you honestly say that some are? Do you see parts that are? Further, and perhaps more important, do you recognize any trace of desire within you that more of your day would be so?

Are you aware of God’s personal work in your life, His drawing? Is God’s drawing you to Himself noticeable? That is, is He revealing or disclosing more spiritual understanding to you? Do you see? Do you hear? Does something remain, something direct, does something grow? Can you answer “yes”?

Is your desire for more consistency through your day for times of pursuing God and the things of God, for more communion and fellowship with God, for times of ongoing reflection and prayer, and if so, do you understand what would need to occur so that those times of Divine communion would then be experienced? Regarding your desires, do they remain, do they direct, do they grow? Can you answer “yes”?

Or, is this entire line of questioning and the idea of self-reflection foreign to you? What, then, if you lost some or all of what to this point God has granted you? Would you be aware of such loss? What if God’s drawing and your desires for God began to diminish, withdraw and not remain? No longer direct? Die? Would it even matter? It happens to some.

Friend, the above line of questioning and the items for self-reflection and self-awareness in regard to your and my individual relations with God are of the upmost importance. Consider Jesus’ own words to us from Matthew 13:12:

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

The thirteenth chapter of Matthew is both remarkable and essential for Christian life. What Jesus says here and how the Spirit of God has divinely ordained the chapter’s structure are fascinating and beyond the scope of this writing. But two points are immediately relevant: what verse 13:12 describes, and what those who have been given can learn from those who seemed to have but didn’t.

First, what verse 13:12 describes. Dear reader, it describes you. It describes me. If we have ever read or heard God’s Word it describes us. This is not a verse calling us to action. It is a verse telling us something about ourselves. It is disclosure. It is revelation. It makes something known that without God’s action would otherwise never be apprehended much less naturally figured out. The nature of this verse, initially spoke from our Savior’s lips, is descriptive. Meaning, you and I are somewhere in this verse. We are either (1) of the group “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance” or (2) of the group “Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Now, I have two questions for you, questions I have both asked and answered for myself. Question one: Which group do you want to be in, group (1) or group (2)? Question two: Which group are you in, group (1) or group (2)? Your answers to both questions matter. Jesus is here, as the Living Word of God, recorded (now to us in the Written Word of God) telling us as hearers and readers of God’s Word something essential. Jesus is saying, “I am disclosing something to you about your relation to God’s Word [the “seed” in the Matthew 13, Parable of the Soils], thus I am disclosing something to you about your relation to God.”

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Again, Jesus here describes you. Where are you? What does the “Tone” the “Whole” of your life say? How does your life place you? What do you see?

Second, what can those who have been given, who will be given more, whose lives will see the fruit from what they’ve been given (the seed), what can these learn from the others who truly do not have, those that lose what they seemed to have? Answer: discernment and self-awareness. Jesus describes for us enemies of God’s Word, and we are given the divine understanding of these enemies to both discern them, be self-aware of their presence, influence and affects on our lives with and before God.

Jesus states in Matthew 13:20, 22 and 23 that “the seed” is “the Word.” In verse 13:19 Jesus calls it “the Message about the Kingdom.” This Message and these Words are the seed which are sown by God (the Son of Man? Matthew 13:37) in your life and mine. From this seed, according to the seed’s nature, growth should follow, and fruit should be the natural outcome, the natural end. And while it is of interest to discuss the presence of fruit from the Word in our lives, this is not the current task at hand. What we want to learn is something that those who do not have or those who seem to have actually don’t have. These are truly "Have-Nots." By examining them, we want understanding of what causes God’s Word to die in our lives so that we can prevent that end.

Visit with me Jesus’ description of this group from Matthew 13:18-22:

"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

Reader, the three descriptions above apply to individuals who at some time or times, perhaps regularly, engage God’s Word or are engaged by God’s Word. But in no way does God’s Word (the seed) take root in the person’s heart (the person’s life), grow, and bear fruit. But it may, and likely does, according to 13:12, seem that certain individuals appear to themselves and others as godly. Jesus says they truly are not. They have a false and unfruitful relationship to God and His Word, but for us their undoing is educational. If you have placed yourself in Group 1 of Matthew 13:12, and you truly are a member of that group, here is the instruction that will increase your discernment and increase your self-awareness.

God’s Word, His Message about His Kingdom, and me, through observing those who seemed to have had but truly did not:

“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.”

Here, God’s Word is sown quickly and dies quickly. How does it die? It is discarded and removed. The attention and effort you and I give to God’s Word is critical. How we value God’s Word is central. The evil one, the Devil, has a vested interest in damaging and destroying my relation to God’s Word, both my view of it and my desire for it. He wants that relationship to die. He wants the Word of God in my heart to die. He wants no root to take, no growth to occur, and no fruit to show. He devours the Word.

Remember the Devil’s temptation to Eve and Adam? “Did God truly say?” The Devil wants you to doubt and disbelieve God’s Word (to doubt and disbelieve God), be disinterested in God’s Word, to deny and dismiss God’s Word, to devalue doctrine. The Devil wants to be our god by default, by helping us believe we are like God (determining wrong and right), disassociating ourselves from God through a quick yet significant dismissal of His Word. The Devil is a liar, a deceiver and a destroyer. Friend, discern and be self-aware of your relation to God and His Word continually. Ask yourself about your relation to God and His Word. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this first group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.“

This description is difficult for us all. God’s Word is here contrasted with the reality of external Worldly pressures as expressed through the lives of others (certainly the ungodly). They produce fear and lead to quick decisions and actions. Two realities locked in battle: God’s Kingdom and the World. Let us not think too highly of ourselves, though. Perhaps we, like many others, would cave to the threats of death or torture because of the Word. I pray to God not, and we must ever live with the impression of our Savior in our minds and on our hearts to strengthen us if we ever face such threats. If you have read Foxes Book of Martyrs, you know the degree of evil the ungodly are capable of and many a saint has submitted to.

But let us understand the phrase “at once receives it with joy.” Here perhaps is the key. God’s message is in some degree appealing to the lost. But not every lost heart undergoes the necessary brokenness whereby the seed can be properly planted. This example reveals shallowness towards God. God’s Word was not truly nor completely understood in the example of this life. Something of God’s message was valued, but the value of temporal life was actually above that of God and what God revealed about Himself and life with Him. If your relation to God and His Word is shallow, then you will likely deny Him more easily when fearful of Worldly threats. His Word in you will die.

The World and those of the World are natural enemies to God and His Word. These are continual external pressures on the life of one who has a relation to God and His Word. This example reveals a misplaced worth. The seed in this life died. Friend, discern and be self-aware of your relation to God and His Word continually. Ask yourself about your relation to God and His Word and how external pressures of the World affect you. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this second group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

Fist it was the Devil. Then external Worldly pressures. Here we face ourselves and our fallen, natural, fleshly and ungodly natures. Here we face internal Worldly pressures. Does the term “thorns” describe your heart? Does the phrase “the worries of this life” express your inner world? Do you have a false view of true wealth? Friend, the Devil and the external World can both have their affect on you and influence you to deny God and abandon His Word. But we can do that to ourselves without their assistance. Your fallen-ness (that self-centered independence) does not want God. Desiring God is unnatural. Your fallen-ness would rather exist as god and judge, condemn, fear, and be focused so much on the here-and-now that you forget God and His foreverness. If you are thus focused on yourself, you’ll never see, hear, or know God. His Word, which is everlasting, will never be valued when you are so set on knowing only that which passes.

You, dear Reader, have the capability to cause any seed of God’s Word to not take root, to not grow, to not bear fruit, to essentially die. Congratulations. When you finally stand in God’s presence unable to escape your memory will you blame the Devil, the apple (the external World), or yourself? Ask yourself regarding your relation to God and His Word and how the internal pressures of your sinfulness affect you. Converse with God about it. Confess and repent. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this third group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The Whole (tone) of My Day is Heavenward.”

“The Whole (tone) of Your Day is Heavenward.”

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Reader, if you have made it this far, I trust something has become apparent to you regarding your life with God and your relation to God’s Word. Jesus gave us Matthew 13:12 to reveal something to us about both. There are valuable lessons for us to learn from the lives of those who seemed to have but truly didn’t that they themselves are unable to know and understand. What can you learn from those who cannot learn? God gives you such understanding.

If I were to continue with this discourse, I would examine the remainder of Matthew 13 to see what we can understand about God’s Kingdom and our relation to those items, as well as each reference in Matthew regarding God’s Kingdom. For, remember, this seed, God’s Word, which is planted in our lives to grow (mature and open up—disclose), and bear fruit, is the message about the Kingdom. Perhaps as you read Matthew again, you’ll associate these truths to Jesus’ Matthew 13 statements.

God’s best to you. May you sense God’s drawing and respond. May you desire more of Him, pursue Him and be on guard to what will cause His Word in your life to either grow or die. May you not fear your memory on that day you stand before Him. He is all knowing and ever present. In actuality, you live before Him now. There is no hiding.

Carl

Manifest In You Hereafter

2009-10-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

Much time has passed since I last wrote. My days have been filled with trials from without and struggles within. Perhaps your days have been the same. It will be this way till our pilgrimage on earth is done and we fully enter eternity and God’s presence. Yet, during our brief earthly pilgrimage eternity, having entered us, wants its perfect and complete work, wants to manifest itself over our temporal and fleshly nature. The occurrences of this work are most often found in the recesses of our hearts.

I’m rereading John Arndt’s book True Christianity and found the following section healthy for thoughtful reflection on my heart’s condition as related to things that pass away and things which remain. Perhaps God will use it in some similar fashion in your life. Enjoy.

God’s mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.

Carl

The apostle Paul “calls the Christian, ‘a man of God,’ because he is born of God, and lives in God, and therefore is the son and heir of God; as, on the other hand, a man of the world, is one who lives in conformity to the world, who ‘has his portion in this life, and whose belly is filled with the hid treasure’ of the earth.”

Honestly, which do you see as more descriptive of your life?

Dear reader, even though one professes to be a Christian, we must at times be honest and confess that we are perhaps “more careful of a weak and perishing body, than we are of an imperishable, immortal soul.”

Given this, let us at this present time, wanting to be truly careful of our imperishable and immortal souls more than our weak and perishing bodies, let us consider: (1) the source of our affections, (2) the object(s) of our affections, and (3) the implications of our affections.

“The love and joy, the wealth and honors of the true Christian, are circumscribed only by eternity itself; for, ‘where his treasure is, there will his heart be also’ (Luke 12:34). From the lust and love of the world, on the contrary, nothing can result but eternal damnation. ‘The world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever’ (I John 2:17): and hence, St. John calls upon the faithful entirely to withdraw their affections from the world; saying, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world’ (I John 2:15). These and similar considerations powerfully convince us, that God will not permit us to fix our affections on any creature whatsoever.

But this will more fully appear from the following reflections:

Love is the very heart of a man, and the noblest of all his affections; hence, it is due to God only as the supreme object and sovereign Good.

It is absolute folly to love temporal things, which cannot love us; whereas the infinitely blessed God deserves to be loved alone, since from a pure principle of love, he created us unto eternal life, and has, to the same purpose, redeemed and sanctified us.

Like things are naturally loved by their like. Hence, God made us after his own image, in order that we might love Him; and that, next to himself, we might love our neighbor, created after the same image.

The human soul resembles a mirror, representing every object indifferently that is placed before it, whether it be of heaven or of earth. Therefore turn your soul wholly and only to God, that this image may be fully expressed in it.

The patriarch Jacob, when dwelling in Mesopotamia, far removed from his native soil, never abandoned his purpose to return and, at length, after twenty years’ service, demanded his wives and wages; and, cheered by the recollection of the place of his nativity, returned thither. So should your soul, amidst the various engagements of this life, and the hurry of outward employments, long without ceasing after your heavenly fatherland.

Man is made either better or worse by that which he loves. He that loves God partakes freely of the divine virtue and goodness that resides in Him; but he that loves the world is defiled with all those sins and evils which attend it.

When King Nebuchadnezzar was too much controlled by the love of the world, he lost the very form of a man, and degenerated into that of a beast (Dan. 4:33). So all men, blotting from their hearts the image and love of God, are transformed as it respects their inward man into the nature of brutes. For surely those who wholly surrender themselves to the love of this world are no better.

Lastly, that which a man has loved here, and carried about in his heart, shall be manifested in him hereafter; and with this he shall associate himself forever, whether it be God or the world. If the world has been the object of his love in this life, it will never leave him hereafter, but will prove his death and his torment to all eternity.”

(The above taken from True Christianity, John Arndt, Book 1, Chapter 18, Pietan Publications)

Your days, like a tale that is told, pass away;
The lusts of the earth that beset you are vain;
Too precious your time for such trifling and play:
Then employ it that glory at last you may gain.

From the stream of your life, so fleeting and strange,
Draw forth every day something good that may last;
From the trifles of earth turn away: they shall change,
And no blessing shall leave when the vision is past.

Awake! Seek thy constant refreshment in God;
Sow the seed that will yield stores of joy to thy soul,
Redeeming the time both at home and abroad,
And thy peace shall endure, like a river shall roll.

(Author unknown)

Daily Principles from Ecclasistes

2009-08-24T04:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

The book of Ecclesiastes encourages us and instructs us on many life topics, all of which are important to own from the heart. A good practice is to meditate through the book at least once each year. If you have not done so for a while, consider doing so soon.

The below are take-away nuggets to hide in your heart and reflect on as you move through each day. The simple concept of "doing good" has, for example, played a valuable role in my life recently, as I've reminded myself of the principle throughout my days and shared it with others. These principles if lived will be declared. People need to know these life truths, which are from God, and they need to see people living them. If we are not living the light, then darkness remains.

Keep it simple. Live always with and before God.

God's Grace and Mercy to you.

Carl

- God determines your days.

- Regardless as to the number of your days, do good during each day.

- Regardless as to the content of your days, be content with each day.

- Your life should contain a vast array of experiences.

- Many experiences we judge as undesirable, but God gives them to us for our benefit, for the benefit others, and for His glory.

- Live your days from His view and your view will change.

- Each moment of each day is given by God. Live in the present moment.

- Do good in the present moment. Be content with the present moment.

- The addition of each moment produces the daily and the life sum: days and a life of good and contentment.

- God knows your life situation, heart and thoughts.

- Keep honest with God each moment, each day.

- God encourages you to live a life of good with contentment, and to do so before Him. But, a time of facing your days and seeing them with His honesty and clarity will come. He has instructed humanity how to enjoy life as a gift, but understanding is given of a future judgment.

Christian, Here Is Something No One Can Take From You

2009-08-02T15:44:00.001-07:00

Saying to God "I Love You."

How long has it been?

Friend, if you are a Christian, how long has it been since you told God that you love Him?

How long has it been since He heard that love expression from your heart with sincerity?

Why has it been so long?

No one can restrain you from telling God you love Him.

No one needs to.

You restrain yourself.

Thinking About Your Day

2009-07-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

You have a choice regarding each day, whether to live it:

- in Friendship with God, in Fellowship with God, and in Love with God, or

- in Friendship with the World, in Fellowship with the World, and in Love with the World.

Experiencing eternal life is related to living each day with God.

Experiencing natural life is related to living each day with the World.

God desires you to know Him and live in communion with Him.

The World wants you for itself.

Prayerfully consider and examine your days, your desires, your time, your pursuits, your mind, your heart, and your voice.

Where do you find your Friendship, your Fellowship, and your Love?

Jude 2

Eternal Life

2009-07-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

Eternal Life:

.....Do you have it?

.....Does it have you?

Eternal Life:

.....If you say you have it, how do you see (experience) it in your life?

.....If you say it has you, how does it see (experience) you?

Eternal Life:

.....If you say you have it and it has you, how are others experiencing it through you?

Is This Your Christian Experience?

2009-07-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friend.

Perhaps such inquiry is unique to me, but I wonder, have you ever seriously asked yourself if you are in the stream of true Christianity and whether or not you are experiencing now, to some degree, the essence (or the chief end) of Christianity? What does experiencing the essence of Christianity look like to you?

Some may consider such questioning unnecessary. Others may realize the value. How are you reacting thus far? Do such questions seem a waste of time or of value? And, I am not questioning your experience of any particular church or denomination. These questions apply to you and God directly.

What is the essence of Christianity? I understand that different people will answer differently. Well, let’s assume for now the essence of Christianity is relating primarily to, with and from God, with respect to all things all the time. That may sound simplistic (even impossible) and seem to be an immediate response any self-identified Christian would produce on the surface. But, let’s drill down beneath that popular and public reply to an individual’s personal and private confession; the more difficult yet more honest area of the heart. Let’s make it more personal and ask what answer comes from the hidden area of your heart?

Consider with me the hidden area of your heart and Jesus’ words from John 14:21 – 23. While being spoken initially to the disciples in the upper room setting, these words go out to all professing believers in Christ and followers of God throughout time in all places. If you profess to be a Christian, do these words describe “your” experience with God?

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.

And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,

and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus answered and said to him,

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Friend, I leave to you, in your own time, the proper meditation on the above passage. Your love to Christ and the Father, your relation to God’s Word, God’s love to you are all obvious subjects to ponder and pray through. What is your relation to them in your heart?

I will conclude, though, by asking a pointed and central question regarding the text and the essence of your Christian experience. Can you honestly say that Jesus and the Father make their home with you?

How are you reacting to this question? It seems an honest and proper question, does it not? Do you accept Jesus’ words? If not, why? Do you find yourself being drawn into the substance of this subject (Jesus and the Father makeing their home with you) or being repelled?

This degree of intimacy with God, as stated by Jesus, is possible, and I’d add is the critical core of one’s Christian experience: Living with God in the most intimate fashion “now.” If you cannot testify that Jesus and the Father have their home with you, prayerfully consider the passage above for the reason as to why. Only after having done so, consult John 14:24 for confirmation.

A lingering question: What would our lives be like if we knew and could honestly testify that Jesus and the Father did have their home with us?

God’s mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.

Carl

Considering Your Christian Experience

2009-05-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings friend.

The reading below from Bogatzky seemed to capture the essence of some things I’ve been pondering recently: the nature of Christianity, and the nature of one’s Christian experience. Actually, I consider these subjects continually both generally (as would apply to all Christians) and as they pertain to my own life (as an individual Christian). I question what Christianity is, as I now understand it, and what my Christian experience is, as I now live it.

It follows that I also consider what my life could be (before God, unto myself, and before others), as I by imagination extend these reflective thoughts and beliefs as truths to trust in, and I envision my life given over to those beliefs as I live them out. With assistance of imagination, the task is easy. Real life, though, contains actual struggle. May we not think of ourselves more highly than we should.

May I ask, dear friend, do you also ponder such things yourself? Do you wonder about your understanding of Christianity? Do you wonder about your Christian experience? Do you consider how you live Christian truths? Do you also see yourself living differently? Do you struggle? Does your Christian experience confirm to you that you are truly Christian and that God does actually exist and love you? If so, you are not alone. This struggle is normal and critical to the Christian life.

The text below is Bogatzky’s May 31st reading from The Golden Treasury. I’ve altered the structure a bit to separate thoughts and, hopefully, to allow for greater clarity in your mind and heart as you not only read but consider and reflect on his message. The author of the hymn is unknown.

“In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94. 19. See also 2 Corinthians 1. 3-5.

A contented man, without afflictions, is ready to place his trust, and seek his comforts, in temporal things.

Earthly desires crowd upon him, filling his soul with vanity, and he cannot well taste the sweet comforts of God's word, but under the burden of the cross.

Here we often enjoy more solid rest than if we were without a cross, and then that word is fulfilled which Christ says, Matthew 11. 30: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Thus our hearts are set against the world, reconciled to heavenly things, and easily separated from many idols which we could not resist or forsake before.

Well, then, may we bear these salutary burdens, which, when sanctified, will produce present comfort, and soon issue in eternal rest and glory.

And since the Lord has promised to give strength sufficient for the day, that we may not be tempted above measure, there is abundant reason again to say that his burden is light indeed.

'Tis good for me to wear the yoke,

For pride is apt to rise and swell; '

Tis good to bear my Father's stroke,

That I might learn his statutes well.

Father, I bless thy gentle hand;

How kind is thy chastising rod,

That force my conscience to a stand,

And brought my wand'ring soul to God.

Friend, allow me to select a few lines from Bogatzky’s piece and restate them here:

“A contented man, without afflictions, is ready to place his trust, and seek his comforts, in temporal things. Earthly desires crowd upon him, filling his soul with vanity, and he cannot well taste the sweet comforts of God's word, but under the burden of the cross. Here we often enjoy more solid rest than if we were without a cross.”

Let me select again: “A contented man, without afflictions, is ready to place his trust, and seek his comforts, in temporal things.”

Dear reader, whatever place you are at with your understanding of Christianity, beliefs or truths to be lived, remember at all cost that Christianity is not simply (or even fundamentally) a set of beliefs or truth statements to be trusted and to be lived. Christianity’s central point is that you, if you are in Christ, are in a relationship to the living God; an ongoing, moment-by-moment, continuous and never ending, living, loving, and dynamic God relationship. It is above all a living, most personal, experience with God.

When Bogatzaky states “A contented man, without afflictions, is ready to place his trust, and seek his comforts, in temporal things,” he describes our natural (sinful) condition and the propensity of our fallen flesh to seek and trust the wrong things in life, and he tells us afflictions are one of God’s blessed tools to bring us to see our misplaced trusts and to see as false comforts rooted in the temporal.

If you find yourself aware that you are in such a position (misplaced trust), your doctrine, your beliefs, your church experience won’t ultimately liberate you, satisfy your soul or assist you as if they were the end-all behind the required correction. If you must reject trust in what is temporal (false objects of hope), you must shift that trust properly to what is eternal and the true object of hope: God. If you hear yourself readily reply “But…” then you truly trust not God as God.

That shift from trust in the temporal to trust in the Eternal is accompanied by and rooted in humility, confession and repentance. Focus on the temporal as helps and comforts must be rejected as idolatry, because those objects have been given by you the place of God. God is trustworthy. Relate and rest primarily in Him for all pieces of your life experience, not your circumstances nor false comforts, nor temporal objects.

Dear reader, as I close this letter, permit me the freedom to restructure and restate the hymn above. I found the reordering strangely agreeable and the message beneficial. I trust God will show you that the essence and heartbeat of your life is your relation with Him and His relation with you. Keep Him as God. Rest.

May God’s peace, mercy and love be multiplied to you.

'Tis good for me to wear the yoke;
Father, I bless thy gentle hand.

For pride is apt to rise and swell;
How kind is thy chastising rod.

'Tis good to bear my Father's stroke;
That force my conscience to a stand.

That I might learn his statutes well;
And brought my wand'ring soul to God.

“In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

Christ’s Peace. Your Peace.

2009-05-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Greetings Reader.

Do you both understand rationally and know experientially this peace that the Lord Jesus references in John 14:27? This verse is one many a Christian readily recites, but is its reality actually lived or just referenced? Dear reader, do you know Jesus’ peace yourself? Can you name one Christian you’ve met who lives Christ’s peace? If not, why?

The context for this verse was Jesus’ last supper with his closest disciples. He was about to depart from them. Knowing His departure would usher in feelings and thoughts of doubt, concerns and fears, that it would seemingly leave them alone in subjection to the world, He graciously informs them of this special gift. He was going to provide to them something that was His, something He Himself both knew and lived. The relationship would continue and do so in new fashion (they would all share something that was His with Him). What He would give them and leave them was His own personal peace. Consider that? How does anybody give away his or her peace to another? You and I, if honest, could never give away peace. Left to ourselves, would we even ever truly know peace? We seem to be in constant search of it, and most will face their grave never having truly known it. Can you imagine the depth of such loss?

At the moment, the disciples did not understand His words, nor did they immediately experience the reality He knew and understood would be theirs because of His loving and lasting relationship with them. But His words “Let not” should have carried enough effect to immediately impress upon them that Jesus, the One who calmed the raging sea, made right the demon possessed man, and faced the cross, cared for them both to provide them something (which the world had no resource nor interest in providing) and to tell them of this provision in advance of its need. His love for them did this.

If you are Christ’s, this provision is yours. If you are not Christ’s, you may read Jesus’ words but not receive nor experience His peace. If you are Christ’s, and you can state these words, do you experience His peace? If not, why? If you are not Christ’s, how do you seek peace? Where do you seek it? Will it comfort you at the grave? Does it comfort you sufficiently now and will it give you confidence at the grave? Jesus faced and overcame the grave. Is your peace of the same quality as His? Can you give your peace to another? Do you desire His peace? Do you desire Him?

Below I share with you a quote from an old book I’m rereading which spurred the thoughts above. The book was published in 1892, the pages are hand cut at the edges (it has much character), and it’s a gem. The book is titled The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, by Thomas Bernard (p. 185-186 quoted). It expounds the nature of Jesus’ relationship to the disciples (and all Christians) as given in John 13-17. Enjoy the insights into Jesus’ peace. God’s mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.

Carl

“’Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you’ (...—peace that is mine), that which I possess, which is realized in Me, and which is proper to the life that is in Me. We see at once that the peace intended is peace within; for outward peace was not the portion of Him who was ‘a man of sorrows,’ and bore ‘the contradiction of sinners against Himself,’ and for Whom at that moment the terrible crisis was at hand. Yet all the more, as He moves through trial and conflict, do we feel the serene majesty of a deep-seated peace. The enemy cannot trouble it; the world cannot disturb it; for it consists in the composure of holy affections, the calmness of a settled purpose, and the sunshine of unclouded union with God. The peace which He imparts He calls ‘my peace,’ because it is to be an effluence from his own, and therefore will share its nature and bear its likeness.

Again, as the peace is thus distinguished, so also is the giving. ‘My peace I give unto you.’ The world is free with its conventional wishes, and those not always sincere. Certainly its own spirit is not the spirit of true peace; and it cannot give what it does not possess. At its best, its well-meant words are ineffectual, either to confer a right to peace, or to communicate peace itself. But Jesus does both. The right to peace, which did not belong to men as sinners, He purchases for them by his atoning blood, and now by this deed of gift leaves it to them as a bequest for ever. The peace itself, as profession and experience, He imparts to his people by continuous gift, carried on to the end of time.”

Joined To

2009-05-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings Reader.

Much time has passed since I last wrote to you. My heart has been troubled. My head has been distracted. My hands have hindered my ability to write. I have a physical condition, yet undiagnosed by physicians, that prevents me from typing much.

I trust your heart and head have been well, seeking God and finding rest, peace and comfort in Him. We must continually and daily seek and live our peace and comforts in God. There is no earthly source for these. The source is God Himself. Consider the meaning of the Greek word commonly translated in English in the New Testament as “peace.” It means “joined to,” or “unity with.” We must frequently examine ourselves and ask ourselves are we living as joined to, or in unity with, God in Christ or with the world?

Jesus tells us in the world we will have troubles. He also tells us that He alone has overcome the world. If you are a Christian, your identity and life are found in him. Thus, you can truly live as one who experiences now the life which overcomes the world. We are united to and in Christ. It is the life of Christ in you and me that we need live by, and it is He Himself living through us, dear Christian. It is not you and me living according to our own resources (united or joined to the world), what is natural to us, what is according to our flesh.

If, dear reader, you are not one who is in Christ, then you are limited completely to your own natural resources. You are united or joined to the world; what is natural. You share not Christ’s life. You are depending on something that has not the provisions for rest and peace to provide these for you.

Do you, whether believer or not, desire Christ and life in Him this day? Tell Him so.

Then again, there are those famous last words, “I’m not ready yet.”

The below is from Bogatzky’s Golden Treasury. The author of the hymn is not identified. May our Lord encourage you by it.

God’s mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. (Jude 2)

Carl

How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Psalm 13. 1. Divine Answer: Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands: thy walls are continually before me. Isaiah 49. 15, 16. I will not leave you comfortless. John 14. 18.

Were all our sins and afflictions so soon to be prayed away with a few words, whence these sad and repeated complaints of David? Why should God advise us to wait for him, and persevere in hope? And how could faith and patience be exercised? In our closets we may be lifted up with high speculations; seem to be strong, and able to leap over all the walls; but in great distress we see how dejected and distrusting our hearts often are (Psalm 30. 7, 8); but the Lord preserves us.

Can a woman's tender care Cease toward the child she bare
Yes, she may forgetful be; Yet will I remember thee.
Mine is an unchanging love, Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath, Free and faithful, strong as death.
Thou shalt see my glory soon, When the work of grace is done;
Partner of my throne shalt be: Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou me?
Lord, it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint;
Yet I love thee, and adore; Oh for grace to love thee more.

Iniquity Or Love

2009-03-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Reader, may I ask, how has God’s grace been manifest in your life this day? This past week? This moment? Is the presence of God’s grace merely an idea you ascent to, part of a doctrine you believe in, or is the presence of God’s grace a reality you live, you experience? [Do these questions seem strange and foreign to you?]

How about love? How has God’s love been manifest in your life this day? This past week? This moment? Is the presence of God’s love merely an idea you ascent to, part of a doctrine you believe in, or is the presence of God’s love a reality you live, you experience? [Do these questions seem strange and foreign to you?]

Finally, iniquity. Here I must alter the questions, for I cannot say “How has God’s iniquity…” Iniquity, in some Bibles rendered “wickedness” or “lawlessness,” originates in the human heart. So, I must ask, how has iniquity been manifest in your life this day, this week, and this moment? Have you experienced the iniquity of others? Do you see your own? [Do these questions seem less strange and foreign to you?]

The migration from God’s grace and His love to human iniquity emphasizes the following: Why is it that we, perhaps the majority of us, live as if God’s grace and love are distant at best, mere ideas or beliefs that we may ascent to, and which don’t seem to be foremost in our daily experiences, but iniquity (that of others or our own) we immediately say “I see that!” and readily confirm comprises a significant portion of our experience? Are not God’s grace and love as real, or more real, than human iniquity? Are they not of more worth for seeing and experiencing? Dear friend, does your life bear witness that you know God’s grace and His love to be of greater worth and value, thus deserving more affection and pursuit, than iniquity? How is it with you regarding this?

If you are a Christian, is your Christianity that of belief and doctrine alone, “I am a Christian because I believe…” or are you a Christian rooted in the experiences of those items you profess, experiencing God Himself? Do you have fellowship with God or fellowship with ideas? Have you, as suggested in the last writing, have you consulted your desires and affections? What did they say? Consult them again, perhaps.

With the above in mind, I want to draw upon three passages. First, Matthew 24:12, “And because iniquity shall be increased, the love of many shall be cold.” Now, many a reader will say, “This chapter fits squarely in the great tribulation, end of times, or the end of the age! What it says does not apply now; not to me! It gives me no cause for concern!” Perhaps, if you are such a one, you are correct. Entertain, though, that it could be other-wise than you think. Could it be, dear reader, that if you seek escape from God’s word in such a way, are you not one committed to Christianity as doctrine instead of Christianity as life? Are you guarding the heart with the head, and thus not experiencing Christianity? Is the ring of “cold love” already in your ears and the root cause “iniquity” to be hidden at all cost! No friend. This text is for you and for me every time we read it, and seeing it we should allow God to have His way with us regarding it.

May I humbly ask you, friend, is your love not cold at this present time? Would you readily testify to God and all humanity that your life exhibits that which is worthy of being known as Christian love? What says your heart? Does not this passage challenge us all today? Are you cold? Are you loveless? Do you know too much iniquity and not enough, experientially, God’s grace and love? Be concerned reader, iniquity and love enjoy not the others company. Know love and pursue it. Know your heart and walk away from iniquity.

Second, I Corinthians 14:1, “Follow after love…” If you have never, or have not for sometime, memorized, meditated upon, and yielded to Scripture, this is such a verse for you! Much could be said, and I trust God will reveal it to you. Friend, you will follow something. Let it be love. For by “knowing” and “seeing” and “pursuing” love, you will become loving. God will take you through events and changes and you will become what you behold. If you see yourself only, and not God, you will become the manifestation of what you are in your fallen-ness: Iniquity. If you follow after love you will know and see and pursue God and His image you will bear, thus being god-like, or His child, and thus loving. You must first know His love, before you can see it in your day and follow its lead experientially. Knowing and seeing God’s love will draw you into following, thus living, His love. You will not be cold. You could not be cold.

Third, I Corinthians 16:14, “Let all your things be done in love.” Ah, this my friend, this is Christianity known and lived! Here is something, if ever you achieve it, here is something the world can never know (although it can see it), the world can never want, and the world can never rid you of! Iniquity, oh yes, iniquity and coldness, the world will pursue and support these till the end of time, but “doing all things in love!” (or “lovingly”) this dear friend will seal your fate in the world but cause your life to beam with the radiance of God! Do you now do some things in love? Do I?

Yet, I must ask, are you as I am, and do you at this moment while recognizing the worth of a godly and loving life, experientially, acknowledging Scriptures voice and call to you, do you sense an impossibility to your ever living such a way? Friend, there is no formula for your and my perfecting our Christian lives. Christianity is a relationship with God “as individuals” primarily. Do you know God through and because of the work and merits of His Son? If so, you have a new heart, a new set of affections and desires. These are God-oriented (from God, because of God, and for God). These affections stand in contrast to your original heart affections, which are set on iniquity (from self, because of self, and for self). If you prefer the later, your love will be cold. If you prefer the former, you will know love (experientially), see and follow love, and live lovingly. Know God. Know your heart. Live what you believe.

Much has been written. May God permit us to live much of it for His glory and other’s benefit.

Iniquity or love?

Follow after love.

Carl

What To Ask Of Your Desires And Affections

2009-03-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings Reader.

I trust you have known the love of God and the joy of the Lord, since I last wrote. The world changes. His love and His joy change not.

Friend, have you considered asking someone else if they see evidence in your life that you are a disciple or follower of Jesus Christ? Should you ask someone else such a question?

Perhaps this question should not be addressed to anyone other than God, or one's self.

In preparation of asking God, please, ask your self.

Do your desires and your affections bear you witness that you are a disciple or a follower of Jesus Christ?

Where these two go, so goes your life.

Reader, in your own time, and in your own way, ask your desires and affections to reveal the truth of this matter to you. Do not hurry through this inquiry and do not require an immediate answer, but carry it with you always. Live with it.

When you see your self-answer, ask God for His.

Do not hurry God for a reply. Seek Him. Receive His answer over time. Live with it.

May your own answer and God's give you direction.

His grace and peace to you.

Carl

Discern The Road You Travel

2009-03-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings Reader.

Bogatzky's writing below address the practicalness of your daily life, as in what you see, what you hear, where your affections go, how your time gets spent, which emotions stir most in you, and the true source of your joy (if you even truly have joy).

Friend, there is no denying that our days are hard for us as a nation and our individual lives full of difficulties, heaviness and challenge. But, as the load weighs upon you and your family, your body and your spirit (your heart and soul), do not become blind to the narrowness of the way to which, if you are in Christ, you have been called. Realize when slippage is occurring and repent in humility and honesty that you have entertained the tyranny of the world as more pressing and worthy of your life than life with God through His beloved Son.

There is no true life on the broad road (it takes life), yet it feels the most life giving. True life, that which ultimately is yours and possesses the power to sustain you, requires you to constantly see differences and yield your self to the narrowness of God's ways (essentially, always being most passionate and desirous of God and all that pertains to the Christian life) over submitting to voices and demands that do not have their origin in God and His purposes. This dynamic is the movement, the life, of faith in the careful Christian heart and mind.

The world has the full capability of crushing and extinguishing (or rendering useless) any measure of faith in you, and you are the one required to prevent that from happening. Take courage in Christ, dear friend. God's Spirit, His Word, and His people are yours to draw strength from. No trial that you experience is yours alone to carry. We are all human. We are all fallen. We all live in a fallen world. The nature of our experiences are more common than we allow ourselves to believe. Christ too experienced the fullness of human trial in the world, yet He both overcame the world and invites us to live in His victory, rest and peace. We generally refuse to yield and accept His invitation and instead remain on the broad road. You alone know your heart. You alone, before God Himself, need to honestly confess to Him your weakness, concerns, fears and need of His mercy and goodness in your life. Do this frequently. The Father delights in being your source of life and your Satisfaction. He gave His Son for this reason.

After reading Bogatzky, ask yourself in all honesty, which road you're really on: One that takes life or One that gives life?

God's Best,

Carl

"Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; but narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7. 13, 14.

This sounds to harsh in the ears of the old man, who would not have the law made use of in these gospel times, either to the converted or unconverted; and yet to the old man, the law, and not the gospel, properly belongs. St. Paul, the great preacher of the gospel, made use of the law to rouse unconverted Felix from his security, Acts 24. 25.; and warn the unconverted Romans from falling into it again. Romans 8. 13. Which way dost thou walk? Examine thyself. Is it the narrow way? - Art thou quite sure of it? - Venture not to go on any further at random. It is a matter of great consequence; if thou wilt be safe, try better for it; thou mayest be easily deceived. Alas! thou art surely in the broad road to destruction, if thou still lovest and art conformed to the world. Art thou but indifferent with regard to the things of God, relishing more the vanities, pleasure, companies, treasures, and honours of this world? - thou art in the good narrow way that leads unto life. Oh, consider this well, and stop short before it is too late, and thou drop into the bottomless pit of perdition!"

"Strait is the way, the door is strait, That leads to joys on high; 'Tis but a few that find the gate, While crowds mistake and die."

A Simple Word

2009-02-23T05:15:00.000-08:00

"Always esteem it best to arrive at your journey's end by that way which divine Wisdom has chosen for you, however different it may be from your own choice, or from the devices of your own heart."

(John Arndt, TC, 40.6)

Reader, may the following be a description of your life with God, be read as thoughtful reflections, and be your prayer to Him.

Thou hidden source of calm repose,
Thou all-sufficient love divine;
My help and refuge from my foes,
Secure I am if Thou art mine;
And lo! From sin, and grief, and shame,
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.

Thy mighty name salvation is,
And keeps my happy soul above;
Comfort it brings, and power, and peace,
And joy, and everlasting love;
To me, with Thy dear name, are given
Pardon, and holiness, and Heaven.

Jesus, my All-in-all Thou art –
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The medicine of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain;
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown;
In shame, my glory and my crown;

In want, my plentiful supply;
In weakness, my almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect liberty;
My light in Satan’s darkest hour;
My help and stay whene’er I call;
My life in death, my heaven, my all.

(Charles Wesley)

Seeing Mercy

2009-01-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

Much time has passed since I last wrote you. I know you have challenges, but I trust your heart is well. Be encouraged. Life is more than the things which pass.

The World continues its activities in seeking out followers. The Flesh and its ways are equally as busy. The Enemy of souls never rests. Yet, even with these ever-present foes, I am convinced that each day provides us opportunity to understand the presence of these influences in our lives and the lives of others, and that "seeing" their presence and influences we may act accordingly.

This discernment lends itself to knowing our hearts and must continue. Through this understanding and discernment, we realize our separateness to God and can further position ourselves in spirit from all that is unclean. We can thereby see sufficiently to pray for others to be awakened to God and His redemptive works through His Son and for His mercy to be applied to their lives. The World, the Flesh, and the Enemy of souls do not desire such movement by you friend, nor can they ever desire it. They do not foster mercy. You, if you be of Christ, you alone in this world can live this desire and foster mercy. It is your heart. Do you know yourself this way? Is this at all descriptive of your Christian day?

What of the admonition to "freely give what we've been freely given"? What meaning does it have when considering the gift of illumination, which we as believers have received, as we move through the moments comprising our days and our relationships? Do the things God has shown you matter in your relations? After having been awakened to your separateness to God in Christ and from all that is worldly, how does your life transact? That which is of the World, the Flesh and the Enemy of souls strives to keep you in darkness (as if un-illumined) and transact your relations as if from darkness. May God grant you insight regarding this. Treasure the gift of illumination to the things of God and live from it.

Reader, it is, unfortunately, much more natural for us, even if we have some familiarity with our separateness in Christ, to see and respond from what is fleshly and in relation to what is of the world rather than what is of God and eternal. Consider Jesus' statement denoting a difference between mercy and sacrifice in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7, for example. I pondered this recently and had the following thoughts. They are presented without concern as to their being right or wrong. They are simply a record of where my mind went.

- Jesus Himself seems to be the primary interpretative focal point to understanding the use of this statement in the context each is given.

- Jesus was more moved to render mercy than requiring others to sacrifice.

- He knew He was God's sacrifice, thereby rendering Him free to extend mercy to those needing it and eliminating the view (demand) requiring others live lives of "supposed" merit or sacrifice, including what I call the imposed burden of merit.

- As followers of Christ, we are freed from any life driven by "supposed" merit and the imposed burden of merit, thus we are free, as was Christ, to live from mercy and to extend mercy to those in need.

- Doing such removes from others the requirement of meeting any demands we in the flesh would impose on them.

- This results in their experiencing what is of God in us, thus their experiencing God in the world, all a contrast to their experiencing only the World, the Flesh, and the Enemy of souls.

- The "imposed burden of merit" is what I call the transference and perpetuation of a merit-based, flesh driven, life dynamic that exists and gets passed along if we ourselves don't live from an illumined sense of God's mercy.

- If we impose the burden of merit on others in our relations, we prevent others from knowing and possibly living by mercy, thus reinforcing an ungodly basis for relationships and keeping what is of God from people's lives.

- Mercy is freely given. Sacrifice is demanded.

Reader, if you have been freed from all merit-based sacrifice requirement by God’s mercy, meaning you know mercy, do you require others to live sacrificial lives to you, or do you free them of that because you operate from extended mercy toward them?

Experientially knowing mercy begets mercy. Not knowing mercy, or having only an intellectual comprehension of mercy, leaves sacrifice operative, thereby it begets the demand of sacrifice. One is God's way. Jesus knew both in ways we never will, and he elected mercy. He sacrificed Himself to give others mercy. Contextually, Jesus offered this desiring mercy over sacrifice in contrast to the Pharisees. How do you read you soul at this point? Where is your heart?

May God grant you understanding friend. Know your separateness. Freely give what you freely received. Give mercy and abandon requiring sacrifice. Live a life of separateness to God and permit others to experience Him through your life. Ponder and pray regarding the condition of your heart.

While I continue to consider Matthew 13 and the idea of separateness, the thoughts stated in this letter seemed good to share with you. May you daily be built up not just in the knowledge which pertains to your faith but the life itself. Trials will persist. But knowing one’s heart and the promotion of mercy need also persist.

God's best.

Carl

Do You See What Is Coming Up From Behind You?

2009-01-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friend.

I know life has been hard on you. We live in a fallen world. We are fallen individuals, and we live among fallen people. In addition, I know that since the last time I wrote, your fleshly passions have been at war with what is of God in you. This ongoing conflict is truly the severest struggle any human will experience, although we at times, or regularly, give greater attention to less important concerns and demands.

Many nights, before the evening’s rest, I read the prayers of a certain saint. I have found this habit both quieting to my mind and soul, as well as informative concerning how another Christian prayed. Last night’s reading contained a reference to Revelation 14:13:

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

I ask you, friend, as I asked myself last night, first to consider or imagine your passage out of this life into the Lord’s presence. What do you envision when you consider this event? Has God brought you to the place where you view this as “blessed”? If you are in the Lord, then this experiential quality awaits you. If the day were today, would it be real for you?

Second, note that “rest” is provided from some type of labor. Rest is truly something we naturally desire. We can all rejoice and delight regarding this rest. The sting, though, comes from the works which follow. Reader, once you are fully in Christ’s presence your life works will join you. What testimony will your works give regarding your earthly life? Have you concerns as you envision this event unfolding in the presence of God?

Even though we live in a fallen world as fallen people, as a Christian (or as a non-Christian, for all must face death and should consider this event) what are the works which will most comfort you in Christ’s presence? Which life works will create the most dread and regret? May I encourage you, dear reader, that you begin by recognizing the deeper conflict you face daily is often more subtle than you may naturally perceive, and that the works associated with this reality of blessedness and rest originate from faith and love. Works which you will be glad to see join you in Christ’s presence are those which can be traced back to the work of God in your life: from God, by God, and for His glory. Works which you will dread the approach of are works of your flesh that can be traced back to what is ungodly in you, for self-glory, or corruptible intent, or worldly purposes.

I find it all too easy, my friend, to read the verse above, enjoy thoughts of blessing, and not allow opportunity for God’s Spirit (who is referenced as showing us this truth) the freedom and time to search me concerning the character and effects of my life as if present before the Lord. And yourself, dear reader, do you see what is coming up from behind you to stand with you before the Lord?

It is my strong desire to continue the series “Do You Sense Your Separateness,” and I trust our God will guide me in doing that soon. What I have just written you pertains to that theme. Do you sense that?

I close this writing to you with a hymn that can easily be a description of my life journey and yours, if you are in Christ, and can become a description of your life if you are now only of the world and do not yet know Christ. Either way, the hymn is rich and can be personalized as prayer or used for contemplation.

May God’s presence be known to you more every moment of each day that He gives you on this earth, and may you rest in His love, goodness and wisdom.

Carl

“O the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be
When I let the Savior’s pit
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
‘All of self, and none of Thee.’

Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree,
Heard Him pray, ‘Forgive them, Father!’
And my wistful heart said faintly,
‘Some of self, and some of Thee.’

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and O! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
‘Less of self, and more of Thee.’

Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered;
Grant me now my soul’s desire,
‘None of self, and all of Thee!’”

(Theodore Monad, 1836 – 1931)

Do You Sense Your Separateness? (Part I)

2008-12-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Greetings Reader.

In this world, we have been told, we will not merely "have" but we will "know" affliction, suffering, and the affects of our sins and the sins of others. Yet, we've also been told, Christ overcame the world, and it is our faith which gives us the victory we long for. How goes it with your soul today with respect to this struggle? Are your longings being satisfied through Christ?

I have for some weeks desired to venture into Matthew 13, yet I have not known how to introduce the chapter and the, perhaps uncommon, view on this chapter that I have come to realize. Thus, this entry serves as an introduction to the topic of one's separateness and one's awareness of being separated. Do you, reader, if you are in Christ, do you know your separateness? Do you feel or sense your separateness? Do you live in light of this sense of separateness daily? If you do not, and you profess Christ, then you must ask yourself why you do not know your separateness? If you do not profess Christ, then not knowing your separateness is the most natural position for you to experience.

What follows, in this post, is a section from a classic, but rarely discovered, book by a man named John Arndt. His work "True Christianity" was the most likely book to be found on the table of early American settlers along with their Bible. In fact, True Christianity's first "published in American" edition was done by Ben Franklin, at the request of these early American Christian colonists. This edition was needed because these believers had so used the copies brought from Europe and beyond that they were worn out. If you have never read True Christianity (book one) by John Arndt, you owe it to yourself before the end of your earthly life to do so. You will learn, at a minimum, what a rich heritage of belief many who settled this country held, and you will see also how far we have moved from that heritage.

Subsequent posts will explore the concept of separateness as known through Jesus' words recorded in Matthew 13.

May you know, live, God's riches in Christ this day.

Carl

“He Who Does Not Live in Christ, but Gives His Heart to the World, Has Only the Outward Letter of the Scriptures, but He Does Not Experience Their Power, or Eat the Hidden Manna”

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” (Rev 2:17)

“By this Scripture we are taught that no man can taste the inward sweetness of heavenly joy and comfort in the hidden Word, who does not first vanquish his own flesh and the world, with all its pomp and lust, and the devil himself. But those that crucify their flesh daily, with all its desires and lusts, by serious contrition and repentance, who die daily to themselves and to the world, and to whom this life is a cross and affliction; these are divinely fed with the heavenly manna, and drink the wine of the joy of paradise. Those, on the other hand, that love the pleasures of this world rather than those of heaven, render themselves altogether unfit to taste the hidden manna, preserved for him alone that overcomes. The reason is because like things (according to the proverb) rejoice in their like; and things of a contrary nature to not unite with one another. Since, therefore, the Word of God is spiritual, it is no wonder that worldly minds take no pleasure in it. For as the body receives no strength from the food which the stomach does not digest; so the soul receives no strength from the divine Word, unless it is entirely converted into itself, that is, into its own life and nature.”

John Arndt, True Christianity, Book I, Chapter 36.

The One Thing Needful

2008-11-30T06:16:00.000-08:00

Beloved of God in Christ Jesus,

How goes it with your soul this day?

Christian, does this question sound strange to your ears? When your eyes read such a question, does your mind immediately bear you witness that the question speaks of an alien or distant reality too far away from your heart to have any familiarity of spirit? If so, then, "How goes it with your soul just now?" Why is there such distance in this instant? What road have you been traveling? Where does your heart venture? Does it not seem for the Christian that a question on “how your soul is” should be most natural? Perhaps we choose to avoid what is most real to us. Perhaps we simply do not know.

Each of us, if truly in Christ, must feel the inward tearing of our hearts, deep inward sadness, yet at times inexpressible joys. Our Lord did. Do you find it odd that you, as one in Him, should share similarity to Him in this regard? Are you familiar with the deep sorrows and joys that you find are yours with God alone? No human can carry the weight of these sorrows for you. They are God's, and He delights to hear you concerning them. He delights to receive them from you and give you His rest and peace in return. In like fashion, no human can truly receive your God-ward glorious praises and thanks! These, also, are God's, and He delights to hear you concerning them. By offering such to God, you are drawn more into His presence.

Why do we think it strange if we find no comfort in or from the world when we are not of the world? And, as sad as it is to say (yet I must acknowledge it), why do we think it strange to find no comfort in or from those in Christ with us, given that we share the same Lord? Is it because they have not the nature, capacity, nor interest for what is most alive within us? Can it be that “That” alone is God's, thus it is only for God and me to share and know? I must exist as an individual with God in this way. Do I? Do you?

Can you begin to comprehend the weight of Jesus' hidden relation to His Father? Jesus knew what was in man, and He committed Himself to the Father only. He lived at His deepest level separate with His Father. Do you yet see that you too, Christian, like Christ, in this way, are to walk in His steps? Beloved, do you know God as your life in your solitude, in your hidden-ness, that region of your interior where your deepest sorrows and greatest joys abide?

Whether or not the above description is my experience alone or one shared with you, I want to encourage you this day (and hopefully often) to ask yourself the question "What is the one thing needful?" For by allowing God to move in your life to reveal to and in you the answer, you will, I wager, see where life is found. God must show you the answer Himself. It is a work He delights in doing. Yours is to ask, to seek.

Christian, How goes it with your soul this day? What is the one thing needful?

“Divinity’s indwelling power sustained Him till nature was dead.”

(Joseph Swain, 1761-96)

A Reading By Carl Bogatzky

2008-11-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Carl Bogatzky lived in the 1500s. Below is the reading for November 19, which is taken from his devotional The Golden Treasury. Numerous editions of the devotional exist. Lines from an unidentified hymn conclude the reading. Enjoy.

The Lord is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17. 27,28. Even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Luke 7. 7.

Oh the close and tender love of the Lord over his people. Nothing is so mean, but it is under the providence of God, since even the least can either hurt or profit the soul. And how sweet is it to observe his footsteps, even in the minutest things, and to be satisfied that we may trust our greater and lesser concerns to his care! O Lord, grant that I may never swerve from, nor do anything without thee; but that my goings in and goings out may be always done in thy presence, as if I had to do with none but thee; nay, as if we both lived together alone in the world. Oh that I could transact all my affairs with thee alone, and in all places look upon thee as if thou only a God for me. Let me carefully mark the inward workings of thy grace, and the outward tokens of thy providence, so as daily to have a true sense of thy gracious presence in everything, more or less important, and thereby to be ever strengthened in faith, and kept in a composed state of mind; considering that nothing happens by mere chance, but all is wisely ordered by thy providential care to our good; firmly believing, if anything goes contrary to expectation, that something better will follow in its stead, if we can only can be quiet and wait the time.

God that must stoop to view the skies,
And bow to see what angels do,
Down to our earth he cast his eyes,
And bends his footsteps downwards too.

He overrules all mortal things,
And manages our mean affairs,
On humble souls the King of kings
Bestows his counsels and his cares.

A Hymn of Paul Gerhardt

2008-11-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

Many of you may have only become aware of Paul Gerhardt through the mention of his name, and that of his wife Mary, by reading the previous blog post. I wanted to share with you a hymn of his that he read Mary, at her request, during the last moments of her earthly life. I trust your reading of it will not only convey Gerhardt's excellence with hymn writing, but also encourage you to consider if these word would so strengthen you at your final moments of earthly life. May the truths reflected in this hymn find home in your heart.

"Thou blessed Shepherd hail!
Whose hands all pierced and riven,
Are with the holy roses filled,
Whose sweetness gladdens heaven.
The bleeding prints of nails,
Which tore them on the tree,
These are the roses which Thy hands
Bear, blooming still for me.

Wide open are Thy hands,
Paying with more than gold
The awful debt of guilty men,
Forever and of old--
Ah, let me grasp those hands,
That we may never part,
And let the power of their blood,
Sustain my fainting heart.

Wide open are Thine arms,
A fallen world to embrace,
To take to love and endless rest,
Our whole forsaken race.
Lord, I am sad and poor,
But boundless is Thy grace;
Give me the soul-transforming joy,
For which I seek Thy face.

Draw all my mind and heart,
Up to Thy throne on high,
And let Thy sacred cross exalt
My spirit to the sky.
O, let me die with Thee,
Thy bleeding heart beside;
Let sin which lives and reigns in me,
With Thee be crucified.

To these Thy loving hands,
Whose pangs were wrought by me,
My trembling lips I fain would press,
To all eternity;
To these Thy mighty hands
My spirit I resign,
Living, I live alone to Thee,
Dying, alone am Thine."

(from Pictures from the Life of Paul Gerhardt)

A Moment of Reflection

2008-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ,

May you this day enjoy true communion with the triune God.

I have pondered what to write of late. My heart and mind have been centered on God's love toward me, in me, and through me back to Him and to others, His love resident in others, His love active throughout the world throughout all time, and what God’s active love in a particular individual looks like as it sifts and separates the old earth-bound self from all that is of grace from God (the new self, Christ in me/in you). This manner of thought and reflection has been part of my life daily for many years, especially as it pertains to the difference between lust (hidden or open) and love, and still I stand amazed at God's love, confess I fall short of acknowledging and giving His love through my life to others, and I continually struggle to get my mind and heart around His love towards fallen and sinful humanity. The more I see and think I comprehend, the greater the wonder of it all.

I have comforted myself recently by recognizing that if I could one day say “I comprehend (in fullness or in complacency) God's love,” then I've the wrong view of it and take it in too human a form. It is by distinguishing God's love from any expression humanly that I begin to actually see and understand Him more. I am thus drawn deeper into communion with God as Trinity. For, as the scriptures say, the love of God is beyond understanding. His love is known experientially, not merely by the understanding. One must, as an individual, learn and know God's love personally.

Do we, you and I Christian, have some things wrong in our understanding about God, His love, and our relations with Him, our Christian lives lived before and with others, that at death we'll suddenly see (if given the grace and time for reflection at death), and seeing will we have such clarity of our lives that we'll spend our final moments in sadness and regret, wishing we had been different people than we know ourselves to be? Who will you inescapably acknowledge yourself to be when you transition into His presence? Who would you, today, like to see yourself as instead?

May I share with you the following account (the degree of fact or fiction I do not know) of a lady married to a pious man named Paul Gerhardt, who himself is (in fact) one of Germany's noblest hymn writers of all time, was a faithful preacher of God's word and shepherd of God's people, the life of which has inspired me to think and desire "living by conscience" as a rule, and whose story with his dear wife, even if represented with some fiction, is a life to which any Christian should feel deep kinship. From her death bed, Mary speaks:

"The picture of my life has never stood before me as it does now; it seems as if I had received clearer eyes, and could penetrate the darkness of my earthly pilgrimage, and see down into the very bottom of my heart and conscience. Ah! dear husband, this is not a cheering sight for me. I behold nothing but imperfections; I see that my sins are more than the sands on the seashore. Alas! how often have I comforted myself with false hopes! How often imagined that I had done well! How often have I reminded the Lord of my labors and toils, that he might reward me for them! But now all at once I see that I rested in a false peace."

Dearly beloved of God, consider these words from Mary, a pious woman with actual life struggles beyond what you and I will likely ever experience. May you this day quiet yourself before your God to whom you will stand, a moment when you will know as you are known by Him, and at least ponder where in your heart you possess the foundations of false peace. Casting those idols away, those grounds of false peace, you will have more of Christ and His peace, and you will spare yourself at death sorrowful reflections and regret.

Move toward God, dear Christian. Flee that which is of earth, that which perishes, that which cannot satisfy the soul.

Living from Conscience (Part III)

2008-10-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Dearly Beloved of the Lord,

If you are truly His, then the fullness of God is toward you every moment of all your earthly days. God delights in working good into your life continually. Why do we judge God as if this were not so? If God gave His son and secured your redemption and your eternal future with Him, will He not also ensure what you truly require during the remainder of this earthly journey is given? How go the issues of your heart toward God this day? Do you receive the items defining your day with a worldly eye, an earthly heart, a godless spirit, or do you see the items of your day with heavenly eyes, a heavenly heart, and a holy, thankful, spirit? One will lead to an increase of your flesh, thus distancing you from God and others. One will fuel your intimacy with God and interest in others.

Dear reader, reflect on this statement: "It is unchristian to doubt the omnipotence and mercy of God, and still more unchristian to say, 'I cannot bear it.'" (*) May what is of God in you allow this statement to sit on your mind and heart and show you what pertains to your peace. What remains of the flesh in you has already rejected such an invite and soon you will forget the offer. Remind yourself, dear Christian, to contemplate this statement often.

In concluding the topic "Living from Conscience" I can only state that the subject is extensive and beyond the scope of a few writings. The subject must be lived out during the remainder of your days. For conscience is itself a living thing. The more one engages God's word on the subject of living from conscience, the more one becomes connected to God's view on the nature of it—what it is in truth. This path facilitates a continual awakening of the mind and heart before God and others. The outcome is a continued "refreshing" of the understanding which the self gains, each time lifting the self to a new vista from which to see relationships of life not earlier seen nor understood.

God engages you in this process by drawing what is of Him in you back to Himself, thus separating you from the world. The process is one of becoming more like Him. If your heart prefers what is earthly, temporal and godless, you will experience severe tension and unrest at your core and you will follow the desire to self-protect and flee from the presence of God. The prophet Jonah demonstrates this for you. Yet God continually and in wisdom and love works for your good to separate from you what seeks to damn you. He continually works out His redemption in your life. Dear Christian, you have neither the wisdom nor power, nor concern for your own soul, as God does for you. Release yourself to His care for you this very moment, and live christianly by resting in His omnipotence and mercy always.

Dearly Loved of God,

Our beloved brother James in the third chapter of his letter writes, "...no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh."

Our beloved brother Paul in the first chapter of his first letter to Timothy writes, "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm."

Christian reader, it may seem strange to employ the above passages in a discourse on living by conscience, yet allow me the following points. First, you know, dear reader, from which stream you live. Unto your self, before God, as testified to by others, what fruit does your mouth bear? What water pours forth? What spring, what source, is most true of you? Both James and Paul highlight the centrality of one’s thoughts, words and actions. You must possess, as Paul states, a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith or you will not edify. And if you are not edifying by your thoughts, words and deeds, you are straying and perhaps even feeding disputes.

Secondly, whatever the commandment is which Paul references, it results in love. True love, (Do you believe you have ever actually demonstrated this love to another human being? Is your idea of love too earthly and shy of heaven?), true love stems only from living with your heart pure, living with your conscience good, and can only be grounded in sincere faith. If you have not a clean conscience unto your self, before God, and before others, what love do you seek to give? All of us are inconsistent, sinning, creatures. We all have access to our Advocate. Yet, what is the beat of your heart on these things? Let your conscience speak to you on this matter.

Beloved of God, I leave you with the following. Examine, frequently, your mind, heart, words, deeds, passions, affections, directions and idle times. Invite God to examine you. Hear from Christ’s Body about your self. What water, what fruit, characterize your life? Do you edify? A pure (undivided) heart is necessary. Sincere faith is your ground. And a good conscience will serve you well. You must listen and follow.

With you in Christ

“Your days, like a tale that is told, pass away;
The lusts of earth that beset you are vain;
Too precious your time for such trifling and play:
Then employ it that glory at last you may gain.

From the stream of your life, so fleeting and strange,
Draw forth every day something good that may last;
From the trifles of earth turn away: they shall change,
And no blessing shall leave when the vision is past.

Awake! Seek they constant refreshment in God;
Sow the seed that will yield stores of joy to thy soul,
Redeeming the time both at home and abroad,
And thy peace shall endure, like a river shall roll.” **

* Credited to John Arndt, in Pictures from The Life of John Arndt.
** Golden Treasury, October 17, hymn writer not identified.

Living from Conscience (Part II)

2008-10-12T06:11:00.001-07:00

Friend,

How goes it with you and God this day? Is He your undisputed source of life? Do you live this day as From Him, Though Him and Unto Him? He is your bread of life. He is your fount of living water. Honor Him as such. Feed on Him. Live from Him and with Him. Flee all other objects and desires that seek to be as God to your soul.

Beloved,

If you have not yet read Living from Conscience (Part I), visit and consider that post before venturing further. May it prompt you to imagine what your life, and that of Christ's Body as a community, could be like, if living from conscience were understood and faithfully pursued.

Dear Reader,

Your conscience is that final back-drop of self-witness in your life. So it is with all others, as well. Often hidden, though, the voice of conscience seems dead, chained, or faintly heard. The natural self hates conscience, seeks to remove it. What is fallen in you fears you living from your conscience. The fallen self passionately works to turn you away from your conscience. Conscience because of fallen-ness and sin is not free to most of us, not able to live joined to who we are in Christ and all we do, whether in private or public. It is as if one must first be thoughtful of having a conscience, then momentarily examine one’s life, instead of living continually from a platform of conscience. Living from Conscience, therefore, seems unlivable.

In respect to edification, the desire is to lift you, dear Christian, to see the path of life with God which He has given for you to travel. The natural disposition which you retain, that related to your fallen-ness, cannot see this without divine illumination effecting what is of God in you, nor does the natural disposition want this path. What remains "fallen" in you wants with all its natural strength to retain is own life of self-love and godlessness. What is of God in you craves the journey with and toward God, away from all that is natural, godless and temporal. God has given us His word to speak to us of such distinctions and to enlighten us to where we can see His life for us and see our way with Him. You must, dear Christian, feed on God’s word.

Having been built up to see and understand the way, we remain in need of being encouraged to move in concert with God's life and His ways for us, which is a movement internally in mind and heart "and" a movement externally in our relations with others because of our renewed mind and heart. We must "see" and we must "move." [Christian, you will see and you will move. The questions pertain to what you are seeing and how you are moving.] This seeing and moving is how God relates and the Christian life works. Godly movement, though, stems from humility and a yielded life, not duty void of love. Such movement is a grace-based consequence of those with eyes to see and hearts that truly desire God above all else.

Conscience serves as the personal witness of one's life to one's self: self testimony. The New Testament speaks of one's conscience regarding one's self, with respect to others, and with respect to God. It may be pure, good, weak, wounded, evil, defiled, seared or cleansed. It may testify of another person’s life. One may be convicted by it, yet may also corrupt it. One can subject one's self to it and subject one's self to the conscience of another. One can live for one's own conscience and live for the sake of another's conscience. In summary, one can live for the sake of a conscience without offence toward one's self, others and God. I submit, we as Christians should desire this life, that of living without offence toward God, self and others. It is presented in the New Testament as part of the structure for the Christian life. Sadly, it remains absent.

You see, beloved, the deep worth of understanding the centrality of conscience and living by conscience, letting conscience fulfill its role? Conscience is like a glass cube which one can remove from the heart and hold up to the rays of God's omniscient love and honestly examine before and with God and understand its cleanness. The presence of God's Spirit and His Word enable us to examine our conscience unto ourselves and with Him. Yet, we can also petition others to address our lives in good conscience. This speaks not only to how we live in relation to others, but it shows us and others our trust in God's work in their lives as they speak to us. We submit one to another in love. (See 2 Corinthians 4:2)

Christian, is the dynamic of Living from Conscience excluded from your life? Do you perceive it in the life of any you know? Do you ever hear of its reality in the life of those in your Christian fellowship? If so, God be praised! If not, and if you recognize its absence in your own life, begin to petition God to show you His way regarding Living from Conscience. Introduce this dynamic to others on the pilgrims way with you. Perhaps God would be pleased to ignite a holy passion for Him in your life, and those you meet, which would transform the life of Christ's Body on earth.

There remains yet more to uncover on Living from Conscience, and at least one future entry will speak to that. Yet, lest you be discouraged and turn away from considering before God how you are living in relation to your conscience, be aware that it is a moment for you recorded in time and eternity. God has given us His Son as the means of cleansing our conscience (Hebrews 9:14, 13:18). Relationally, we need this continually, for none of us will live from consciences as we should.

To the Honor of His Name,
A struggling Christian

Living from Conscience (Part I)

2008-10-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

Beloved, how goes your conversations with God? Not your external and public displays of God talk, but your private and never to be made public acknowledgments and confessions with God as the only audience. If you were to be questioned by the world on “these” conversations, would you be found empty? If you were to be questioned by God regarding “these” conversations, would you also be found empty? If you were to question yourself, would you agree that you “should” be found empty? Christian reader, there will come a moment where the reality of your relation to God will be manifest to you for your agreement as to what your life before the God who loves you and redeemed you has been.

What say you to this? Why delay the day, the moment? The world need not question you with proper intent, for it cannot understand grace nor a godly passion. But you, dear reader, if you be of Christ, you can question your self continually and thus erase the delay whereby you will acknowledge before God who He has been to you, and your doing so will move you deeper into His presence and love. How does your conscience witness to you regarding this? What is your inner witness saying to you today about this issue just now?

Living from conscience seems remote to the Christian’s manner of life in our age, at least in my experience, yet (primarily) the apostle Paul, and Peter in addition, speak as if living from one’s conscience is an anticipated dynamic for your Christian life. How goes this with you? Can you identify one godly example in your life of someone you know who lives from a clear conscience before God, self and others? If not, why not? And you, dear reader, are you such a one?

Spend time with God and His word and you will see the range of relations associated with living from your conscience as this pertains to your self, others, and God. Subsequent blog writings will present these to you for your edification and encouragement. Until such time, petition God to move your heart and mind in such a way that you become curious before Him about who you are to Him, about your method of living, and about what He would desire that to become. You may begin with a simple faith prayer of “Lord, grant me a desire to live with a clear conscience before You and all others this day. Where my conscience is not clear, not clean, where it informs me that I have sinned against You or any other [or even my self], lead me to awareness, confession and reconciliation.”

Beloved of God, what thoughts and images come to you as you consider the whole of Christ’s Body, His Bride, the Church, living from a godly conscience? Do you see a different Body, a difference that inflames godly desires and passions? What stands as the chief hindrance to this for Christ’s Body, for you? That, we must all in honesty discern unto ourselves. Yet, the root most likely abides with self-love.

What follows is a hymn recorded in Carl H. von Bogatzky’s unique and prized devotional A Golden Treasury (12th ed.) from the October 4th reading. Bogatzky chose to not cite authors of the poems and hymns used in his devotional, thus we know not whom to credit. Still, the work is worth reflecting through. I can only imagine singing such a work aloud with others during a meeting of the Saints.

May you pursue God wholeheartedly. He has pursued you wholeheartedly. May you realize His goodness and presence.

Thy progress is so slow! Dost thou inquire
Where lies the fault? In thine own lofty mind.
At what is great and grand thou dost aspire;
To meekness’ tis too hard to be resign’d.

On towering heights too oft art speculating,
In thine own reason’s ways too prone to go,
On fruitless plans and schemes still calculating,
No wonder that thy progress is so slow.

It yet remains for God to send confusion
On plans by which thou hast deluded been:
Then shalt thou rise, when saved from thy delusion,
When meekness in thy heart, and love, are seen.

Eyes That See, And A Heart That Knows

2008-09-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings Reader. If you have not fed directly from the Bread from Heaven, He who came down from Heaven to give life to the world, true life (which is knowing [relating foundationally from and with] God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ), then may you put yourself directly at His table before day's end. For even Heavenly crumbs gathered with true desire nourish the soul in ways earthly and natural feasts can never comprehend nor supply. Nature can only supply what perishes. Grace feeds that which is everlasting. What is truest of you, Christian, is that which is of God in you. Cherish, nurture, prize, and feed what is of God in your life.

Meditate on the following Psalms. As you read, discern in your heart and conscience who you are. Take note of God's gift of revealing you to your self. He is there to meet you.

Ps 106:1 Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Ps 107:1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Ps 106:13 They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. 15 And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His word, 25 But complained in their tents, and did not heed the voice of the LORD.

Ps 107:8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

39 When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow, 40 He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way; 41 Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock. 42 The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth. 43 Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the loving kindness of the LORD.

Beloved in Christ, I have no counsel for you from the above passages. It is there if you have eyes to see and a knowing heart. God Himself is sufficient to guide your heart by His Spirit and Word. You may truly desire Him above all. Yet, perhaps you know in your heart that you do not desire Him above all but desire what is beneath Him and desire what He has created over that which is uncreated. God Himself will reveal that to an honest heart that is broken of its misplaced wants. When you leave this earth for Heaven and God Himself, you will carry no earthly prize with you.

Do not end this earthly day malnourished in soul because you chose to feed from earthly tables to the exclusion of Heavenly feasts. Your soul knows the difference.

God has given us all things . . .

2008-09-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings reader,

My heart is torn with the following fact: that even though Peter in chapter one of his second letter states that God has given us (me) all things pertaining to life and godliness [piety and devoutness--a response to God characterized by a particular life disposition], and that because of God's redemptive work I have escaped the corruption in the world resulting from lust, I still find my life more characterized by corruptions stemming from the power of lust and less from a life hid with Christ in God. What is your own experience? Do you discern and lament what is of your flesh and yet see what God's desire is for you at the same moment? Do you discern His drawing you away from your self to Him? Has He opened your eyes of faith this way and do you see?

Looking at the outer display of your life reveals to some degree, but looking at your inner world (that of your heart and conscience) reveals much more. For the outward is merely a result of the inner. Look inward. Go to your core. God does. He knows, in truth, your mind and your heart. Join Him in His correct and loving evaluation of who and what you are at your core, not what you believe yourself to be. Fear not. For the journey into the center of one's heart is destine to lead to despair, unless one realizes that God is both already there drawing you to see and meet Him there and that God walks with you throughout the pilgrimage. Focus not on your own decay and ugliness, which you will surely see, but focus on His goodness and purity. For you have none of your own. His is yours. Thus, flee what is natural to your self by resting in what He's provided. This is the pilgrim’s journey from what is earthly and of self to what is heavenly and of God. The end is entering into God’s presence and the soul receiving the end of its salvation by means of purification. For what is earthly and fleshly will not enter into God’s kingdom.

As outlined in blog post two, do you see a natural and unwavering movement through the sequence outlined by Peter toward the fruit of love, or do you see yourself as (for all practical purposes) still in your sin? Who would not want nor choose true love? Only what is earthly and of the flesh. What does your life reveal about your relation to God? Again, look not merely at the outward manifestations of your moments, for from these we falsely claim self-righteousness, but look at the seat of your self-existence (your heart and conscience) and speak of that. Do you commune with God at that point? His home is there. That is your heart. Know God from that place continually, and even though you may see and know your fallenness and know that you are a contributor to the world’s corruption by means of lust, you will know more certainly that those things are not what truly define you. That which is from your Father, and He Himself, will be known to you as your true identity and refuge. From such a place can the pursuit of love and its fruits occur.

God's best for you this day,

Carl

Life, Godliness and Love

2008-09-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

2 Peter 1 (v 2-7)“2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”

Dear reader, perhaps as you read the above text you noticed that your extension of love comes at the end of the chain. Your love is the final link. Your love is a fruit. It is neither expected to exist prior to transformation, nor is your “being loving” an automatic guarantee.

Here's the series of linked items: God has given (once and for ever) all things that pertain to a Christian's life and devoutness or piety [godliness]; He did this by placing you [Believer] into a relationship with Himself; that "placement" is tied to His own glory and virtue; from this relationship and God's goodness you as a Christian partake in God’s work as described by His promises and you share through your relationship with Him the characteristics or qualities [or fruits] of His nature [in contrast with having access to only your nature]; this divine placement has moved you, Christian, from a position of worldly corruption stemming from lust to the position of participation in divine relations and actions. You have, so to speak, a new nature to live from.

Thus far, the chain links can be summarized as God has given you, Believer, a new life. This life is yours for the keeping. You should recognize this change and be aware of the differences. Life for you has been divinely redefined. A devote and pious life are the natural disposition of a proper awareness of this divine repositioning and the nature of having a new life. So far, we have been describing what Peter calls the basics of faith.

The chain continues. Once the platform above is in place and seen for what it is, the life consequence and passionate desires that should be natural to the new nature are described. Your movement in these directions are responses to what you, hopefully, find emerging in your mind and heart as God relates to you, and you relate to God, on the interior level of your life—your heart and conscience. Peter says in verse 5, because of these things comprising the foundations of your Christian faith (vs. 2-4), “add.” Believer, our post-conversion life needs to reveal movement in adding to, or growing in, our justified by God life: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, brotherly kindness and, finally, love. The fruit is love.

This type of love stems from understanding one’s faith and growing in that faith. Sure, you can, as we identified in the first blog post, squelch, retard or scorn such new life growth, but why? Why do I desire to reject my God given life for the alternative life of corruption by means of lust? If you have no desire for the goal of being loving, then likely it would do you well to revisit the faith elements that Peter states in verses 2-4. You must both understand these essentials and participate in them, for they are the soil or ground for all else. If the seeds of grace desire not to grow from your heart, then perhaps they are not truly there. If you find them, join God in their growth. Move toward love.

"All Things That Pertain To Life And Godliness"

2008-08-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

“ 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:2-8)

Peter’s words above contain the phrase “His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Such a statement about what God has done for us should certainly excite us, and it should lead to our edification and encouragement. God Himself has supplied the substance for true life and proper living. Given that God has graciously provided, I’m thus free from the weight of having to figure out what life should be and free from the burden of trying to actualize it. I’m to simply live it. My passions and energies (my being built up and delighting in life) are tied to living out God’s provisions.

Yet, why does it seem that we live our lives as if that statement had to be false or some remote fantasy that might possibly pertain to others but could never describe my very life? Well, the answers are many but here’s a few we can probably all relate to: (1) I don’t believe it. It can’t be true. (2) I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want it to be true. (3) I obviously don’t know God. (4) I don’t know God’s word. (5) I like “my” life. I want to keep “my” life. The list could go on.

If the statement God “has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness” is true, then one of the most tragic ways we can short-change ourselves in this life (and the next) is to disbelieve what God has said and to not participate in God’s provision. So, how does one make use of, experience, or live out, the “all things” referenced above? I’ll close with two points then return in more detail later.

First, one must have the desire. If grace is present in the heart, then God’s desire for your growth in His provision is there. God works in you on the heart level. You cannot manufacture this needed desire from the old self. Such a desire is contrary to the old nature. Artificially trying to want and live the Christian life is mission impossible and you’ll recognize this. It is imperative that one have the new life of Christ in them before any proper godly (God oriented) desire and movement can happen. Just as one cannot birth one’s self into God’s Kingdom, so one’s progress and enjoyment in a relation to God must stem from Him. Peter suggests examining one’s relationship to God in the same chapter, verse 10.

Second, one must have direction. Note the text. There are “two” directions. One is toward God. One is away from the corruptions of the world through lust. On the surface, these may seem like two ways of saying the same thing. Perhaps they are. Yet, one likely pertains to my object (God or the world/lust objects) and the other pertains to the consequences of relating to that object (my living). Thus, we have two directions: one an object of devotion; one a way of living. The first is “Here is where I’m going.” The second is “Here is how I’m going.”

Be sure you are living from the right foundation, the right source. Be encouraged in the fact that God has not only redeemed you to Himself through the atonement of His son (for His glory), but that God has provided all that is needed to experience true life that is pleasing to Him and beneficial to you while on your journey to be with Him eternally. While this life will be filled with trials and struggles that wear down and challenge the best of the saints, the promise that God has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness remains unquestionably true and available. May you know both God’s omnipotence and mercy. May you know Him.