Taken Away

In Matthew 25.29 we have a man losing all that was given him -
     losing, due to the simple fact that he had not used it,
          losing because fear had tied his hands,
              losing for lack of faith in the possibility of increase.

This passage comes near the end of Jesus' ministry,
    a time of leaving last words of guidance to His followers.
It is the answer to the question:
    "what is wisdom and what is foolishness?"

This whole chapter speaks of the kingdom of heaven.
    Its application is for our lives.
        What is at stake is the kingdom of God within us.

Today, the kingdom of God can be, and is, taken from many.
And we can so easily lose what we have - what has been given us,
not merely by sin but:
    
by trying to hold on to the past -
    holding to a belief that God has withdrawn Himself from active working in our midst ...
    "The Bible is complete and God no longer works in His people as of old".

or by holding on to something future -
        "There is coming a great, earthshaking manifestation of God ... tomorrow".

Faith does not seem to extend to the working of the Spirit of God in His power in our midst today.
    Rather, today seems to be a stagnant period,
        of either looking back and waiting for the end of life here below,
             or waiting for a future which is a fruit of our imagination.

So much of today's "teaching" is only a defence of what needs no defending.

So much of today's prophetic message excuses the reality that God is not in the midst right now.

In our childish reasoning, and ramblings, we lose out on Infinite Life;
     on infinite promises of infinite possibility.
But the weight of spiritual things in our time is more real than all our deliriums.

Can we awake, and cry for a Light that will illuminate all our existence?
     Can we cry until the darkness surrenders, 
          and God shows us that kingdom which is BEYOND it all?

There is all to gain - and there is all to lose.

The Author of our faith will be the Finisher of our faith, if we cease to depend on any other thing and trust the One Who will guide into All Truth. (Jn. 16.13)

               This is God's promise - this is our Certainty.

"GO ... OUT"

In Mathew 25...... we have the story of the ten virgins.
    It is a story of preparedness and unpreparedness
        a story of oil and light,
            a story of a coming bridegroom.

Today there is one little phrase which jumps out in the passage:
    "Go ye out to meet Him."

And in the phrase one word which calls:
    the word "out."

It seems a word sadly forsaken in our times,
    a truth so central to the gospel,
        a truth so uncompromising.

If we would meet God we must go out.
    Out from all the things with which we are surrounded ...
        Out from things external and from things internal.

We must leave behind all our earthly knowledge to find a way in the realm of the Spirit.
    When we go to Him we cannot carry with us the bondage of any human   understanding -
    none of the things which man's ingenuity has "interpreted" of how the things of God,
    and the Word of God, really are.

We can carry no weight of earth's traditions, nor doctrines.
    God is far beyond all of this.
        We can carry none of the besetting sins,
            nor of "besetting ambitions" for ourselves.

It is a going out beyond our doubts and fears and ambitions.

Everything must be laid down if we are to go "out."
    Our eyes must be on God ALONE.
        Our hearts must be set on God ALONE.
            All the hopes and yearnings of our lives must be only for Him.

For those who seek Him thus,
    there is a Meeting,
        there is an Encounter,
            there is a wedding and rejoicing.
           
            If we catch the merest glimpse of the overwhelming glory of God,
            If we would see for an instant His Presence,
            then all other things would seem so tawdry,
            and utterly unworthy of our attention.
            And we would walk all our days in the glory of that revelation.
           
            As Jesus "steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" (Lk. 9.51)
                    Let us turn from all else,
                         let us set our faces, 
                              to go out to meet Him.

QUARANTINED IN DARKNESS - WITHOUT REVELATION

The Bible starts with two opposites:
     God and Nothingness .

We find there a God greater than Emptiness,
     a God Who creates Substance and Light.

There is a parallel here to the work of God in the lives of His own.
     The New Creation has its reflection in the Old Creation.
But while the Old physical creation was gloriously completed, 
     with the sole utterance of God's command.
          the spiritual creation is a joint work, 
               where man's will collaborates with God.
 
Sadly, so many times the New creation does not reach completion.

So where are lives stagnated ...quarantined?
I think I know where...
     it is in the second verse of the Bible.
It is in that period of waiting before God moved again -
     that time when the earth was "without form and void, and darkness was..."
          that time of waiting -
               that place where nothing changes.
                    that place where God's New Creation is not complete.

It is a place where all is 'without form.'
The "shape" of purpose is absent,
The blueprint for the future is as yet unseen.

There is a 'void'.
There are no elements to build upon.

There is 'darkness' which man alone cannot penetrate.
There is no creation to be had - because there is no vision of a creation..

Here we find the Pain of lives stranded in that emptiness, unformed.
     Lives without substance or meaning.          
          lives which add nothing to the kingdom of God.

But God spoke ...and there was Light.
Is there any way of showing the impact of light in darkness?
     God's Light - "like the light of a million mornings."

It is the heart longing of the Children of Light -
     the sons of the God Who is the True Light.
It is the revelation of a realm unknown -
     a place where nothing is covered and hidden.
A freedom which bursts with Life.
     A place which is limitless because Light is limitless.

This is the Purpose of God's creation for His creatures -
formed of the dust but bearing His likeness;
     a world without limits,
          a Life beyond all our measures.

                  It is the place where we are Satisfied,
        because we begin to find the completeness of God's creation,
                  in every tiniest part of our existence.

Quarantine - a Waiting in Mercy, a Time to Repent?

1 Chronicles 12.32  speaks of men who knew, who discerned.

There are things we can only truly know by the Spirit -
truth known in a realm beyond emotion, instinct or thought.

If we are not illuminated by the Spirit of God, 
we are inevitably mistaken in our judgement of the world around us. 

We live amidst a profusion of voices.
     We cannot know the times in which we live, 
          if we only depend on others who profess to hear.
We cannot trust any voice except that which comes to us from God.

I hear so many affirmations of the great work which God is about to do in the not too distant future, and I am disturbed.
     What is the measure of our searching, 
          our surrender and our obedience to God?
Is what we hear about us "revelation" or is it not much more than fanciful thinking?

We always think that there is a tomorrow when things will be again as they are today - or perhaps better.
     Maybe we need to ask the basic question, will there even be a tomorrow as 
          we imagine?

Voices from the past are stilled:
     for years God has had His messengers preaching words of warning -
          I think of David Wilkerson and my father pouring out their heart's     
          in a burning cry.
But that time is past.

After Noah had preached righteousness and built the ark for one hundred and twenty years.,
God brought judgement to the earth.
The ark was finished ... but God waited seven more days before the door was closed.

Heb 3:15 says: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
There had been one hundred and twenty years of Noah's preaching righteousness,
and yet after all these years God gave yet seven more days for mercy, for repentance.

I wonder if we are not in the time of the "seven days";
I wonder if this time of quarantine is not a time in which God still waits
- waits for our response before pouring out destruction.
I wonder if time is more advanced than we think.
I wonder if our way of life is at an end, except for the short days of mercy.

The verse of Hebrews 3.15 comes to mind:
"To day if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation."
Mercy calls us, and God awaits our reaction.

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." (Ps. 25.14)
     Do we fear Him?
          Do we know His secret?

God's ear is ever open to the cries of His own and they will not be forsaken.
     Let us fear God alone,
          and let us seek God alone.