In Earth ... In Heaven

I wonder how we see the relationship between earth and heaven?

I wonder how God sees the relationship between earth and heaven?

What did Jesus mean when He taught His disciples to pray,

 "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"? (Mat. 6.10)

Was it principally about the restoring of the right relation between earth and heaven?

I think it was - 

whatever it means for us as individuals and our own particular circumstances,

     and whatever it means for a church, or a nation,

         these are only parts of a greater whole.

Creation groans, the universe groans, for something which has been broken.

And this will never be restored until the Kingdom of God comes in earth as in heaven.

The prayer is for the manifestation of the glory of God; that once again the earth be "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. 2.14)

Someone once said that he would wish, even just once before he died, to pray  the Lord's prayer as it really is.

I see what he meant ... to be able to understand and add his voice to that prayer.

 For beyond the wrong and the hurt, 

     is the yearning for the rightness,

          the completion, the restoration.

               It is the bringing again of all which has been lost.

                    it is the glory of a creation - where all is made new, 

                         and imperfections never enter more.

This is what God sets before us also: 

     to feel within ourselves the weight of the hurt of the wrong of this 

     world which surrounds us,

          and to bear this weight, with Him,
               until the glory comes and fills this empty hurting space.

How Much Can You Lose?

 I am remembering now a phrase:

"How much can you lose without losing your faith in God?"

The reference is to the story of Micah. (Judges 18.24)

"And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest

... and what have I more?"

We live surrounded by an infinite world of things trivial:

What is left when all that surrounds us is taken away?

     How much of what we are is external?

          How much of who we are, is external?

There is a beautiful verse in Isaiah 26.3.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."

     Perfect peace is beyond the reach of the world around,

          it can never be found in any of the things about us.

               It is not built upon anything visible.

                    It doesn't depend upon things which are tangible.

                         It is beyond all earthly things.

     

 "There is a place of quiet rest, 

           near to the heart of God."

                It is to this place that God invites us.

                This is the place which He has prepared for us.

All the work of the enemy is to get us to believe to the contrary,

     to separate us from the Source of Life.

          to separate us from the rest and the security of that place prepared.

  

The apostle Paul lived, "as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

       Our God is the same God, 

          His promises are certain to us also.

               Let us find, and let us live this Life.

Vision

In heaven we will see with a clarity which we have never known on earth.

Here on our physical earth, the dust and the reflection of earthly lights impede our ability to see the stars.
And yet, in places far from civilization, we sometimes get a glimpse of different  skies.
We see a realm of more transparent clarity,
     a place where the empty places are filled with points of light -
          a place where what we knew before is seen as pitifully limited. 

So it is with that heaven where God dwells.
     Our earthly eyes are blind to the fullness of that spiritual dimension.
          We see so many empty spaces -
               places where our lack is more evident than God's fullness.

And yet, even as we live in the earthly sphere, we are surrounded by the dimensions of a Heavenly Kingdom.

Creation cries to be delivered from the bondage of its fallen state -
     and the cry of the heart of a child of God is for open eyes, 
          to see the fullness which exists in Him.

Man is never complete until the work of God's salvation is complete in him.
     It is so until we turn from earth, and walk in the illumination of heaven's Light.
          There shadows grow thin and disappear,

               there the earthly dimness which surrounds us,
                    is replaced with the Light which is not born of earth.

As the Christian looks Godward,
    He sees a New Creation -
          "all things have become New." (2Cor.5.17)
         

Looking

"Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." (Heb. 12.2)

It is a very simple statement; easy to be understood, 
but hard to put into practice.

Life offers us so many other places to look,
     proffers us so many pathways to walk,
          offers so many "solutions" for our needs,
               dizzies us with so many choices.

David declared, "My heart is fixed." (Ps. 57.7)
Wonderful place to be - a heart fixed "looking unto Jesus." 
Again, Spurgeon's testimony, "I could have almost looked my eyes away."
     What a decision, what a determination,
          what a conviction that in Christ was the answer. 

Fallen mankind has a fixation with trying to understand in order to experience.
     Looking is a far simpler process.
     In looking that which is seen enters the life  far more directly.
     To see, is to absorb what is seen in all its essence,
     without any need of "interpretation."
We say 'now I see,' when the import of a thing becomes clear,
and doubts and misunderstanding fade away.

So how do we find faith, and all the life which God offers us?
The answer is simply by Looking,
     simply letting all our longings find their focus in Jesus,
          simply lifting our eyes to look beyond all our fears, 
               simply gazing beyond whatever tries to stamp itself on our vision.
It is a returning again and again, to the One Who brought us to spiritual birth.
It is a determination not to allow one single thing to claim any place beside Him.

The looking is far from merely seeking that we might comprehend.
In our look, we gaze upon the Source of Life.
We see the fountain flowing out toward us.
We feel the quickening in all our being, of ever-increasing, all-overcoming, 
eternal Life.

                             There is no other Author of Life, 
                     no other sustenance of Life than Jesus.

What is Lost

Comes to mind the song "The Lost Chord," whose music was written a hundred and fifty years ago by Arthur Sullivan.
The song speaks of the joy of finding a chord of unknown heavenly music,
and the frustration at losing it again.

The music is merely the symbol, illustrating something greater and more essential.
The song speaks of the human condition.
It speaks of the frustration of vainly trying to find that which has been lost
- a something deep within, inexplicable in words, and incomprehensible to the mind.

What mankind cannot find is Life;
     and there is a yearning, 
         an unsatisfied longing which never passes, 
              but rather takes ever deeper root throughout the passing years. 

As worship, which must be in spirit (Jn. 4.24), so with our seeking and finding any part of the spiritual realm.
          The mind merely follows on where the heart has gone.
"Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name." (Ps. 142.7)
As the Jews to whom Jesus spoke, we may think we are free and yet be bound by so many things. (Jn. 8.33,34)

Freedom and Life is ours, as we lift our eyes and our hearts above all that surrounds,
and leave all our being - our hopes, longings, and fears - at the feet of the Master.

God's Coming

The Bible starts with God coming,
     God speaking,
          God creating.

The Bible ends with  "Come."
His coming, and His working, is the source of all things, natural and spiritual.
God alone, is the Author and Sustainer of all things.

"Seek ye me, and ye shall live," says God. (Amos 5.4)
     This is an unchanging truth for all time.
          This is a promise for every moment of every day.
               On this all our life depends.

Here is the Light for every day,
the strength for every trial,
the quickening for our souls in every moment of human insufficiency.

David declares,  "I have set the Lord always before me:
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." (Ps. 16.8)
This is the way of seeking:
there is an "Always" - an undeviating longing for that which is not yet known,
     There is a "setting before" - a concentrated focus of energies,
          God's Presence "at my right hand" is the ground of certainty,
               and "unmovableness" is the result of this commitment.

"We see through a glass darkly" (1Cor. 13.12),
     if we could only find an ever clearer vision,
          how our lives would be lifted above the uncertainties 
          that shadow human existence.

May we not have to wait until arrive in heaven to know 
the certainty of His nearness,  
and the sureness of His ever-flowing Life.
     In the midst of life let this be our unalterable commitment,
                  "I have set the Lord always before me."

Clarity

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yea, and in Him Amen.” 
(2Cor.1.20)

Today definitions have changed.

Words have become toxic.

And the enemy is using language to destroy the significance relied upon 
for generations.

Political correctness has twisted meanings 
until they have become unrecognizable.

Look for instance at the word, "freedom:"
When the Puritans spoke of “freedom” they meant the freedom to  
follow God while obeying His laws;

somewhat like the safety we have to travel in our cars, 
while we circulate according to the laws of the road.

“Freedom,” as it is interpreted today, means the casting off of all restraint

in order to follow whatever whims we feel, without regard to time,
or place, or any fellow being.

God has been written out of the picture, and unfettered human 
degeneration has been permitted in His place.

Look at man's "rights:"
We live in a time when if a sector of society likes a thing it is enough to 
provide vindication and confer legitimacy upon it.

A destruction, from a boundless stupidity of chaos, seems to cover all:

A “Christian” celebrity feels a surge of happiness when she hears 
someone speak of the Almighty as “she.”
Other Christians see the need to adapt the unchanging laws of God to 
modern thinking.

In the Bible God created mankind “male and female.” (Gen. 1.29)
- now gender has become whatever one chooses it to be.
And the list goes on, in every area, without constraint.

When the Roman empire was beginning to fall apart,
Augustine wrote his famous book on The City of God, 
and spoke of a Kingdom, not of earth,
a Kingdom which knows no decay.
So today, in the midst of the decay of earthly systems, 
the Kingdom of God stands unchanged and unchangeable.

Heb. 12.28 says, "we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

We receiving 
     - that which is beyond the reach of change,
          beyond the reach of decay,
               beyond the reach of sin's destruction.

We receiving - 
     the changeless things which are the gift of a unchanging God.

We receiving -
Life which, in its length, and breadth, and height, and depth, is Eternal.

We need not change with the shifting tides of man's opinions because our 
God changes not.

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yea, and in Him Amen.” 

(2Cor.1.20)