I'm Weary

Bear with me today ...
We speak of heaven and of earth,
of things Eternal, and of things of man's dwelling place.

As I look heavenward, the surpassing Beauty and Wonder of The Holy One 
and His realm overwhelms me.
But as I look at earth, I see God's Name being dragged through the dust, 
both in the world and also in the church.

I am weary of the same old errors being perpetrated upon the children of God.

Weary of the "teachers" who have never known the realm of the Spirit of God
dogmatically laying down their interpretations of things they know nothing about.
Weary of them telling what is, and what is not, in realms they have never experienced.

Weary of "prophetic" ministries holding conferences to gull the gullible with generic "words" - 
     words of an imminent tsunami of blessing which at the point of release.
Weary of those who come with a "radical" message which is just radical enough to produce a knee-jerk reaction - such as a doctor produces by a tiny tap on the nerve.
Weary of those words which are not strong enough to produce any lasting difference in the lives of those who hear.

Weary of those who profess to have been given a ministry to the church, 
and then charge for access to their meetings, selling their CDs, and flash drives,
selling "partnerships" in their ministries.
Weary of the shameless promotions which seem copies of the hucksters who sell their wares on TV and the internet. 
Weary of all that smells so much like a money grabbing scheme. 

Weary of "worship leaders" who can work the crowd but have no idea of what it is to minister in the Spirit ...
     who have never found the way to God in music,
          and can therefore never transmit it.

"The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up" (Ps. 69.9 and Jn. 2.17)
     These ministers seem to be the eaters rather than the eaten.
          These are the ones who eat the people of God for their own benefit.

 It is an awful thing that the people be deceived and used.

      It is an awful thing when the people "love to have it so." (Jer. 5:31) 

I am weary of the band playing on while the Titanic which is our civilization settles beneath the waves.
A wise observer told me years ago, "a nation is sunk when it believes its own propaganda,"
- how much more true is this when speaking of a church.
   
We are all responsible for our own spiritual lives.
After speaking of prophesying Paul says,
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thess. 5.21)

If we would but look, the Spirit of God would quicken us
     to know the difference between the precious and the vile, 
          His Word alone would become our necessary food, 
               and we would not be deceived with facile words and empty phrases.

We would seek, and we would find the God on Whom we can deposit all our weaknesses and all our needs.

           As we depend on God we will be "taught of God," 
                and not be led astray 
                     but find fullness of Life in Him.

Relentless Passion

There have been lives whose singleness of purpose,
     whose intensity of relentless passion, 
          can be summed up in a single phrase.

The life of Elijah can be summed up in two words: "he prayed." (Jas. 5.17)

Of Abraham, we need say no more than "he looked for a city." (Heb. 11.10)

When Abraham heard a Voice calling him he left his city,
     a city which had been by far the most populous in the world,
          a place which invented wheeled vehicles, 
               writing, irrigation, the potter's wheel.
A civilization with houses built to confront the intense heat,
     homes with indoor bathrooms.
People who, unlike others, had a wealthy middle class.
We could perhaps call it the the New York City of its day.

Around the time of the fall of this, the world's first great civilization,
    God called, ... and Abraham left,

There have been about twenty such self sufficient,
     and self assured, civilizations which have fallen since Abraham's time.
And today our world heads down the same road
     of man's inability to find the order lost in Eden.
          Again we step off the cliff, 
               and collapse into Chaos.

Abraham left all the order and prosperity of the city to live in a tent -
     not because he loved austerity, 
          but because he sought Another City.
He sought not the people and things which characterized the earthly cities,
     but the abundance of a city made by God.
He sought a place whose reason of being was not to advance the human,
     but a city whose existence was to show the One Who dwelt there -
          The God of Order, Purpose and Fulfillment.

Abraham is among those heroes of Hebrews chapter eleven,
     who could have returned to that which was known and established -
          but didn't.

The passion of the Call,
     and the passion of his seeking,
          knew no relenting.

Abraham was the father of those who believe.
     All God's children must leave the earthly when they catch a Heavenly Vision.
          All God's children are Abraham.

Last and First

In Luke 24 we have: 
     the last incident of Jesus earthly ministry,
          the last meeting of human need -
 A man who typified all mankind's response to God -
     a thief!
Here is a man fastened to a cross,
     next to another thief, and next to the Savior,
          a man whose freedom is at an end,
               whose days are at an end.

Here is a man awaiting the falling of the final curtain on his life.
     His only possession now is a cross,
          his only tomorrow is the time it takes for life to abandon his body.

The here and now was all he possessed,
and yet, somehow in the midst of his anguish,
he caught a Glimpse of a dimension he had never known.

His eyes were opened, 
     and he saw himself.
          He saw his Lord,
               and he saw a Kingdom.

Somehow this condemned man, rejected by society for his sin,
     and disqualified from a place among the living,
            Saw ...

He saw what the studiously religious Jews around the cross could not see,
     He saw what the disciples who had traveled with Jesus for three years could not see.
          What he saw at that moment,
          not another single person on earth could see.

He alone on that day saw with open eyes a Realm beyond the Visible.
     He alone Understood.

He comes with the simplest of words -
     a confession and a recognition, "Lord."
Other lords had exercised dominion over his life but now he sees only one Lord.
     and to this Lord he surrenders what is left to him - his own free will.
He sees the Lord of a Kingdom,
and he turns from the earthly to that Kingdom.
There is a recognition, and there is a faith.
He no longer seeks anything on earth below;
nothing except that wondrous Kingdom which somehow is made real to him.

The fig tree failed to recognize Jesus - and died.
This man recognized Him and entered into Life beyond all the power of death.

This man was the forerunner of all through the ages have said ... 
                     
                           "Lord ..... remember me."
    

 

Knowing ... Certainty

"That I may know," said the apostle. (Phil. 3.10)

What an infinite world is in these words.
True knowledge is always absolute.
     In as far as we know,
          in as far as we have seen,
                we are beyond the realm of doubt.
"That which we have seen," declares John. (1Jn. 1.7)

Like a man exploring a new continent -
     there may be much territory unseen, unexplored, and unknown,
          but as far as that which has been seen, there can be no doubt.

Paul says also, "we know in part." (1Cor. 13.9)

Paul knew absolutely what he knew,

and yet he also knew that there was much more to be known 
in the realm of God.

The Unknown in God is forever calling

     for us to know,

          for us to experience.

The call of God is to the Infinite,

"To comprehend ... the breadth, and length, and depth, and height." (Eph. 3.18)

The call of God is to the world of the Spirit,
           and only God is seen.

We leave behind the good and the bad of our own lives,
and exchange it all for a total dependency on God.

How much has been said about the safety/covering of the church
as if this were a mechanical thing.
How many have looked to the covering of the church for safety,
     and for the formation of their children -
          only to find out, too late, 
               that the safety of the child of God cannot be in any place outside of God Himself.
If the Everlasting Arms are not what carry us nothing else will avail.

Again: the call is to know ...
     to know the God Who is the Fountain and the Fullness of all.

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD." says Hosea (6.3)

Have I Tasted?

Psalm 34.8 says:

     "O taste and see that the LORD is good:

          blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."

Have we really tasted?

     As Shakespeare would say:
          "That is the question."

It is possible to come to the things of God,
and to study the things of God and yet not taste those things.
There are famous "defenders of the gospel" who affirm that the only thing we should do as the days of our lives pass by is to study the scriptures.

But there is the Word of God - and there is the God of the Word.
There have been leaders with huge followings,
     who have built a ministry around forming Christians lives 
          through the practical applications of the teachings of the Bible,
               only to find that the Word without the Spirit is dead.
 And to find themselves in their moment of need,
      utterly defeated by the temptations of life.

We can learn of God through the Word, 
but beyond this - we can only know him by the Spirit.

If we were to spend as much time and effort seeking to know God, 
     as we spend studying the Bible, 
          and what men have interpreted of what is written, 
               we would be far, far more spiritual than we are today,
                    and far more useful to the Kingdom of God.

David's word to Solomon was, "my son know thou the God of thy father." 
(1Chron. 28.9)

Listen to the words of Jesus:

"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee." (Jn. 17.3)

Knowledge of God is Life.

     And the increase of our life in God,

          relates to our knowledge of Him.

This is the simplicity of the gospel - hidden from the wise but revealed to babes.
(Mat. 11.25)