The Few

Searching for reality ... 
     for an all-sufficient reality ...
          a Life giving reality ...
               an earth shaking reality.

As in Mt. 7.14 "Few there be that find it,"  - a happy few.

Aren't these words still true; and perhaps never more true than in our day of multiplied distractions?

We speak of the increase in knowledge and in science, but we account little of the multiplied means of distraction in our connected world.

What a trap is there for the child of God.
How easily time, and with it life, is stolen from us by these things. 

The reality of God is neither visible, nor fully understandable to the mind alone.

God is the Only Reality... to be sought and found - the Invisible ruling over the  visible - far beyond our religious exercises, and our fickle, baseless dreams.
'We grovel amongst trifles, and our spirits fret and toss'
And we tend to pursue all the unnecessary things, and none of the essential.

What a blessing, when we lose the trivialities of life, and are led to the well which springs up unceasingly to life eternal.

What a blessing, when beyond the processes of the mind, we are changed from glory to glory.

"There is a Place"

There are times when truth lies beyond what words are able to explain.
There are things which must be known not by the mind but by the heart.

"The things of the Spirit of God ... are spiritually discerned" says the apostle 
(1 Cor 2.14)
Words cannot explain - they can only point the way.

When Moses saw God's glory he stood in a "place" where God appointed.

It is a very hard and yet a very simple thing that God sets before us.

It is a Choice ... 
     simple because the decision is simple,
          and hard because the decision is costly.

We cannot possess two worlds, and if we are to see and possess the realm where God dwells, we must leave behind the values and accoutrements that this world finds dear.

Again, beyond the processes of thought we must come to a place  where we believe God and rest ourselves in Him - a place where He Himself gives meaning to life.
In that place all is quickened with Life because He quickens all.

Faith and understanding and Life will not have to be sought because they flow from Him as water flows from a  spring.

How do we See?

Shall ye not know it? (Is. 43.19)

So many things God desires for us to know.
So many things are hid from earthly eyes.
So many things which can only be perceived and understood through spiritual vision.

It seems paradoxical but containing a large measure of truth, that the more we try to understand and interpret God through our minds, the farther we find ourselves from the truth as it is in Him.

We butt our heads against the wall of unknowing, and the less result we find the more we insist!

The old saying, "Let go and let God" is perhaps never more applicable than in our seeking of Him.
     He alone is the Light.
          He alone bestows sight.
Without Him frustration piles upon frustration,
and without Him despair piles upon despair.

"Pour out you heart before Him." (Ps. 62.8)

If we can only find this utter simplicity,
and forget all else,
we will soon find Him leading us, 
to those realms where the heart is satisfied.

Reality or Fantasy?

That which is of God is Reality, and all else is Fantasy.

Looking back I am surprised at how little is taught in all our Christian
venues of the essential meeting with Reality.

We sing hymns and don’t see beyond the words set to music.

We go to classes and don’t hear an imperative voice directing us to our

true Destination.

We read magazines about outreaches, programs and words of
encouragement.

We study apologetics and theology and the “how to” of evangelistic
outreach and yet we are not shocked with the impartation of Life.

We talk about Life, we sing about Life, we testify about Life and yet...

Somehow in it all, with all our looking we fail to see, and with all our
hearing we never hear the one essential thing.

Like the people in Jeremiah (2.13) we have forsaken the Fountain and
dug cisterns which are broken.

What we have, and practice, has lost all semblance of that thing which
God intended.

Our churches and our lives were meant to pulse with the very life of God

and yet this has been changed to talking about Him, perhaps on a level,

as Tozer said, of explaining the obvious.

As a church worldwide it would seem that we declare as Lord Byron,

“My days are in the yellow leaf,

the flowers and fruits of love are gone,

The worm, the canker and the grief,

Are mine….”

Two sins says Jeremiah...a forsaking and a digging.

By how far a distance have we left…

And to what places of stupidity has our superficiality or the man centered  “gospel” of our man engendered “interpretations” led us.

Mega-churches with multi million dollar "entertainment centers"

“Christian” cruises complete with “Christian” entertainment.

Trips to the “Holy Land” - for what?

It won't do us any good unless we can see that He is crucified day by day in every habitation of man,

every street and every city in this vast world of ours.

"His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, His cross is every tree."

In a poor and bleeding world, to what better use could our millions of

dollars have been put.

How many things to rise up in judgement against us!

Heaven weeps and God says,
“How many times would I have gathered you.”

There is yet, a Place where He meets His own,

a Place beyond time and circumstances,

a Place in the Spirit realm where all of earth is left behind -

a Place where it is just Himself and His own.

This is the Reality beyond all we see and know through earthly eyes.

“To day if ye will hear His voice” (Ps 95.7)- He calls us to know Him Who

is the Eternal Fountain of Life beyond measure.

And He promises us, “ye shall seek Me … and I will be found of you”
(Jer. 29.13,14)

"There in Heaven"

Many years ago, at the end of a journey, I stood in a small room, in a small home, in a small town.
On a table lay a tiny coffin with the earthly remains of the baby daughter of the couple who lived in the house.

In the lamp-lit darkness, and the weeping rain, we sang - a little group of people and an accordion.
The song was known and simple, "There in Heaven will be no Sadness, nor Sorrow, nor more Pain."
In Spanish the first phrase was repeated three times, somewhat like the Hebrew repetitions in the Bible which enlarge the thought.

"There in heaven, there in heaven, there in heaven"...

The pathos of the moment lingers, and will linger while life lasts.

We think of heaven.
We think of all that awaits us there - and for sure this is heaven's greatest Reality.
But I think that perhaps here on earth we do well to spare a thought for all that will not be there.

We can look to a world without Sin ...
A world without Pain and the Wounds of Wrong ...
A world without Violence, Suffering and Death - death not just of the body but the death of Hopes, and Unfulfilled Dreams.

We can look to a world where the infinite Discord of our place of existence gives place to Endless  and Infinite Harmony.
We look to a place where the Bible phrase, "It came to pass" refers only to the Good and never to the Bad.

Jesus said, "I go" but the phrase did not end there, but continued ...

"I go to prepare a Place for You."   Blessed Assurance!