Mercy ... in the Pampas ...

No man can look on God, (Ex 33.20)
And I think the character of God,
and the attributes of God,
are, likewise, only dimly perceived in the time of our earthly existence.

Where is the beginning, and what are the dimensions of mercy?

I remember an older lady, in one of the towns in the pampas of Argentina,
telling us about her son:
He had a painful condition and decided to pray.
Going out behind his house he got down beneath a lemon tree 
and told God that he would not get up until he was healed.
He prayed until about one o'clock in the morning, 
when suddenly he was conscious of a Light, 
and at that moment he was touched with an instantaneous healing.

So many times, and in so many places, the mercy of God surprises us.
I don't know much about mercy - except that it has no limit.
     Mercy has no limit - because God has no limit.
God sees man's limitations, and in mercy comes to give that which man could never attain on his own.
"The river of God ...  is full of water" says the psalmist. (65.9)
 God is a God of fullness and there is no lack to any of His resources.

It is for us to awaken and to reach forth, until to each one of us as an individual,
there is given to know "the unsearchable riches" (Eph. 3.8) of God's abundant Life - for all our earthly journey.


  

The Transformation of Light

Salvation is not just about Forgiveness,
nor is it just about Heaven.
Salvation is supremely about Life and Light.

Today I was thinking of the Transformative power of Light.
Salvation is a going from Darkness to Light.
We come "out of" Darkness, and "into" Light.

What is Darkness?
It is the place where everything disappears;
     a place without horizons,
          a place where there is no form, nor color, nor proportion,
               no distance - no near nor far.
It is a place where all is an unknown, and unknowable, oneness.

Spiritual darkness in the Bible is a place of fears and uncertainties,  
     a place of every kind of undefined dread,
          a place of the presence of evil,
               a place inhabited with every negative and destructive thing of the kingdom of the enemy.

Jesus said, "Believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of Light."
(Jn.12.36)
Salvation is a coming into a place of Clarity,
a Place where all is clearly seen, and the hidden things of darkness can no more oppress.

Paul, the apostle, says, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." (Eph. 5.8)

The Old Testament speaks of the path of the just being as a shining light,
that shines more and more unto the perfect day. (Prov. 4.18)
This is God's gift - a Place where the "more and more" is unveiled in ever greater measure. 
God's gift is a path which knows no shadows,
     a place where we are forever delivered from the pursuing darkness,
          a place of Life, of Victory and of Rest.

                     Here - "my cup runneth over." (Ps. 23.5)
  

Show Me

We are all conscious of things which we need to know,
     yet we all tend to confuse knowing a little bit, 
          with knowing in depth.
We learn a little about a subject, and right away we place ourselves beyond the reach of further instruction.

The one who would know God must always come to Him conscious of the fact that all he knows is infinitesimally small, compared to the limitless realm of revelation which awaits the seeking soul.

The Realm of God is the realm of the Spirit, and all other "knowledge" merely points the way.
God is known through our experiencing Him,
     not by hearing about Him,
          not by singing about Him, 
               not by reading about Him.
These things are pointers which may show us the pathway but not the Destination.

The prayers which our minds may generate only become real as they touch the realm of the Spirit; 
when our words are absorbed into the words which God is speaking.

"Show me" cried Moses (Ex. 33.18)
Seeing is always first hand - we see for ourselves, by ourselves.
     There is no second hand seeing,
          There may be second hand descriptions,
               but sight is ours alone.
Seeing is a knowing of the substance.
Time after time, after time the bible speaks of seeing.

Abraham at the place of sacrifice:

"And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." (Gen. 22.14)

"We beheld His glory" says John (1.14) - there was nothing second hand about it.

May we say as Matheson in his blindness, 

     "Oh Light that followest all my way,

          I yield my flickering torch to Thee."

                    "Open Thou mine eyes..." (Ps. 119.18)

Yet somehow when

Destination ...

They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. (Ps.125.1)

There is a "forever" with God,
     a place eternally unchangeable, unmovable,
     a place beyond all of earth's power, all of earth's dominions,
     a place where the darkness of earth's night is forever gone.

"A large room" says the psalmist. (38.8) 
     - a room ... a place to dwell in,
          a place of safety and of rest. 

In a world which has lost its way ...
In a church which has lost its Guide ...
In the aimlessness of human "progress" ...
God speaks: "Ye are come to mount Sion." (Heb 12.2)
Can we, have we, come to the places which God has prepared for us?

Two dangers we see in the church:
a denial of the essential element of Christianity,
and a kind of Christianity which is an imitation, but which lacks the quickening of the Holy Spirit.
     There can be no real praise without the Holy Spirit.
     nor can there be adoration,
     nor real prayer.
          Without the Holy Spirit we are only going through the motions,
          only satisfying our self-engendered formulas.

Jesus said to the pharisees, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."
It is not only possible not to see the things of the Kingdom of God,
but it is impossible to see them unless the Spirit of God open our eyes.

Studdert Kennedy - that man who carried his own vision and burned through life's candle in just forty five passionate years - as he looks at man's unawareness, said in one of his poems, "How can we be so blind, and how can we be so blind?" 
Somehow this is the unspoken cry of all our poor world, 
and of the majority of churches.

"Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." (Heb. 3.15)
     Rather let us Rush, Run, and Strive, to find the One Who awaits us on Mount Zion,
          and Whose Spirit will be our guide every step of the way.

Coming and Finding

There could not be a wider invitation, nor a greater promise ...
"Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11.28)

Our world knows so much of heavy burdens, of inescapable weight to be borne.
The lack of escape from the things that wear us down is the unavoidable destiny of all humanity.
But here is a a different world.
Here is a place where everything earthly comes under a new dominion.
Here all the negative loses its absolute authority.
Here God rules and works His work.
Here there is rest - something which earthbound man can only dream about.

"There is a place of quiet rest" says the old hymn.
"A Place where sin cannot molest... of comfort sweet ... of full release ... of joy and peace." 

This is the place to which we are invited.
This is the place where all things are made new.


What must have been the impact of the revelation, when some of the old writers saw with their spiritual eyes the things they were writing about?
How were their senses overwhelmed when they were touched by spiritual reality?
How was the world around them forever changed by their glimpse of God's greater world?

Infinity is offered in the little word, "come."
The "come" connects us to the "Me" -
and the door is opened to the dimensions of God,
the dimensions of eternity,
the rest, the joy, the certainty which is beyond all earthly measure or human comprehension.

God's invitation to us is not first to our minds but to our hearts,
not to the external but to very center of our being,
His gift is "a well...springing up into everlasting life."
 
May our hearts hear and embrace God's invitation to Come.
May our minds not lead our hearts, 
but rather may our hearts lead our minds in a fullness of rest.

Stepping into our Destiny

We hear (and used to hear more) about stepping out, although maybe we say it in a different way.
We know that we have to leave the  world our lives have formed if we want to enter the world of the Kingdom of God.
I wonder how much we really know of the world we step into, the world where all is of God.
As I look around me I fear that what we call "Christianity" is just a dried shell of the real thing.
Having lost the real some have retreated to a glum faced defense of our interpretations of God's truth.
Others seem to feel the need of a "feel good" nonsensical understanding of the purpose of the gospel.

But what awaits us in the Kingdom of God?
What dimensions are to be explored in His broad domains? 

Well, we have to start with the fact that He has to show us.
The books written, the sermons preached,
and even the scriptures themselves, 
are but signposts pointing the way to an experience of God.

The letter without the Spirit is not only dead, but it is an instrument of death. (2Cor. 3.6)
People try to get around this by saying that the word of God is not dead, because God spoke it,
but Paul is referring to the Spirit quickened word of God, 
as opposed to man quoting things that God spoke, without the quickening.

God will be with His own for all eternity,
God is preparing a bride for the Son from among men.
  Can it be that this same God leave His own to stumble through life on earth without the quickening power of the Holy Spirit?
  Eternity will be a place of everlasting Light,
and are we to walk in darkness until we reach that realm?
  Eternity will be everlasting life, 
and is our earthly lot to participate of death day by day, until our heavenly deliverance?

Israel in the desert  "spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" (Ps. 78.19)
They denied God's ability - His operation as God.

"Our God is able" declared the three Hebrews confronting the fiery furnace.
     He was able then,
          He was able there,
               how about today?

If we could catch a glimpse of the yearning of God for His own, and the extent of His loving care, 
we would see our doubts, and our subtle denials of His ability to work,
as wounds inflicted again upon the One Who died for us.

"How shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8.32)

 As the days of our lives go by, let us pray as Moses, 
     "show me Thy glory." (Ex. 33.18)