Out of Bogatzky's Golden Treasury

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

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

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

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

“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

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.

“. . . 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.