November 3, 2009

• Letter 23 on assurance and fighting for joy (the basket of sovereign grace)

  Dear friend in Christ,

  I would have loved you to have you walk with me last night. The sun was just about set and the moon was coming up. It was a full moon and was still near the horizon so it was big and bright and simply gorgeous; there were no clouds blocking it at all. The light shone on the pond. I was praising Him in song and then I walked by a bunch of bulrushes...

  

  ...and thought of baby Moses and how God protected and preserved him.

  1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
  2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
  3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket
  made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch.
  She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
  Exodus 2:1-3

  First, that Moses was even able to live at all after he was born is a miracle given that the Pharaoh then was having the Israelite boy babies killed as they were being born. Finally the day came when Jochebed and Amram could no longer hide Moses at home, so Jochebed made the basket out of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and pitch to make sure it was water tight and then she placed him along the riverbank in the reeds. We know how God continued to care for Moses. Miriam watched him along the river bank. He was a beautiful child, was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter yet continued to remain at home with his own family for a time. Then he grew up well cared for in the palace. We even see how his own impetuousness did not disqualify him from service. Forty years after he killed the Egyptian, Moses unexpectedly encounters the great I AM at the burning bush and receives a commission to lead God's people out of bondage in Egypt. At the end of Deuteronomy we read that Moses' eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. Yes, we know he was not perfect (he hit that rock as we so often do, don't we? – but don't you love that – the Bible is a book for sinners like us, is it not...and God continues to use sinners like us – pray tell, who else is there? ), yet in Hebrews 11 we find that Moses is still commended for his faith. God kept him walking by faith and kept him looking to Him, to the point to pleading with God to show him His glory. Though Moses never made it into the Promised Land before he died, God blessed him and let him see the land – and he also was able to see Joshua named as his successor. And of course, we do know that Moses actually did make it there for he was with Jesus and Elijah at the transfiguration. And we also know we can look forward to being with Moses in the presence of the Lord one Day.

  Isn't God's care for Moses a wonderful picture of God's care for those of us who are in Christ? From even before we are born (for we know He knew us in our mother's womb – Psalm 139), He knew we would be His. He saved us and called us with a holy calling according to His purpose and grace, given in Christ before the world began. He foreknew us and predestined us all before we knew Him. Then His calling came to us and we were justified by grace through faith and became His daughters and sons. It was finally then we knew the One who foreknew us before we were born! Was there not a loud party and great rejoicing in heaven that day? (And of course, each and every time a lost sheep comes home to the Good Shepherd?) We can also be assured that our God will finish the work of glorifying us and we will see Him face to face. In Romans 8 Paul talks of our glorification as if it is already finished and it is true we do continue to struggle with sin here in the flesh yet in God's eyes and in God's time we are already glorified! Plus, God has sealed us with His Spirit and Christ Himself is our surety and our anchor who holds in the veil. The Spirit who breathed life into us will never die. The basket of sovereign grace is more than secure and safe from sinking or from any leaks! Jesus is preparing a place for us where we will be with Him one day. Can you really imagine what it will be like there? Yes, we have known His joy here, He has already blessed us so much already here...How He loved us while we were yet sinners! Yet how much more will we rejoice in His presence! To be forever with the Lord and with one another! We will sing and dance and praise Him all the day, every day forever and ever and ever...and never grow tired or weary. We have a life with Him that will never end! There will be no night there, you know! It fills my soul with such joy to think He wants to spend eternity with us! Why? Because He loves us! O, that we could know Him more and more and the love He has for us. Then we would not be fearful or hesitant in anything He might have for us. We could wash feet, love our enemies, turn the other cheek, seek His Kingdom without any nagging worries about our earthly needs, be cheerful and exorbitant givers, face angry crowds and naysayers and pour ourselves out to death, even give our bodies for Him, if He called us to do that. I know Him, but I so long to know Him and His love for me more and more...so I might no longer fear men but be a son of thunder (as I've written about here and here). I know He has been helping me in this as He has revealed more of His love to me, but I still have so far to go. He has shown me so much more of His Father's heart for me lately and has truly increased my joy beyond what I can imagine, yet I am trusting He will continue to grow my love for Him and cause my joy in Him to abound more and more to His glory. It is an ever-increasing joy to me to see my Father's heart brimming over with love for me, for you, for all His children, and yet I know I do not yet know one zillioneth of the love He has for me (His love is infinite!). Is He not wonderful to us to have loved us while were were yet sinners and loved us so much that He continues not to treat us as our sins deserve because Jesus was the propitiation for all our sins? Our Father is always ready to welcome back all who have broken and contrite hearts. We are saved from His wrath by Jesus' life. Truly, truly more than words can say: we are always safe in His everlasting arms, at rest in the basket of His sovereign grace.

  I recently wrote about the riches we have in Christ and at the time I was going to mention that Ephesians 1 has become of my favorite chapters of Scripture but don't think I did. Romans 8 is another favorite chapter of mine. (Oh, yes, it's hard to pick just one!!!) There are so many assurances in both those chapters for us at times we are tempted to doubt and when we need to be reminded of God's unchanging love for us and our position as children of God – our place in the basket of God's sovereign grace. I hope you will read those words when you begin to doubt or feel your joy in Him is weakening. As soon as we read the glorious work He has done for us, we cannot help but begin to rejoice.The wonderful doctrines of election are right there for us. Not so we might take our place in the Kingdom for granted and float along in the basket and do whatever we want but so we might rejoice in His sovereign grace and then make our calling and election sure, to live like we are children of the King and loved by our heavenly Father...That means we will more and more love the things our Father loves, to love holiness and goodness and more and more despise anything that keeps us from knowing Him and His love for us. His Spirit works in us to conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ. If we would stop and consider and think what our sin does to the Father, Son and Spirit, would we not be stopped in our tracks. O, may His Spirit take hold of our hearts and minds, so we might be well pleasing to Him in our thoughts, words and deeds. O, to be like Him. May we never grieve or quench Him. There are some times now (not all the time, but only some times) when I have a greater sense of conviction when I even begin to entertain sin in my mind; at that moment I feel His joy is beginning to leave me. I think this is a bit of what it means to have His law written on our hearts and minds. As we love our Father more and more, we will have His heart and passion for holiness and even the inkling of sin come into the mind will deeply grieve Him and therefore should also grieve us. O, may we grow in His love so we might grow in His holiness. I know neither of us wants to grieve Him or to give Him reason to grieve over us, yet we know we still do. May He guard and keep us and may we continue to mortify sin and put off sin, and put on Christ and purify ourselves so we might love Him as we ought. If we love Him we will keep His commandments. As the Father's heart of love grows in us, we will increasingly desire to live holy lives. I do not understand it all and am so far from this some days, but I have seen His hand upon me working and I know He will complete the work He has begun in us. He is so good! It is to His glory and for His pleasure that we become more like Him.

  Let's also consider how our Father continued to guard and protect His only begotten Son while He was on earth. As in Moses' day we see there was a threat from the government not long after the Lord Jesus was born, so Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt so our Savior would be safe. Then after His baptism in the Jordan we see Satan coming to tempt Him, to distract and dissuade Him from completing His divine mission to be the sacrifice for our sin, but our Lord knew He lived by every word that came out from the mouth of God and sought the heavenly sustenance His Father made available to Him. Then He was tempted to go along with the crowd and let them make Him a king but He knew His Kingdom was not of this world. He continued to seek to serve and not to be served. He was rejected and threatened by the religious and authorities and they even attempted to take Him and stone Him but His time had not yet come. The Father had all things in control. Even Peter who had confessed He was the Christ, soon turned around and tried to dissuade our Lord from setting His face like a flint to Jerusalem. All forsook Him but He carried on by sovereign grace. All things from beginning to end were in the hands of His Father. Then the time came for our Lord to be arrested, to suffer and be crucified, and once again, that was all in the hands of our Father. No one had any power but that which our sovereign God allowed. And Jesus continued to entrust Himself completely to His Father for He knew He could be trusted, so He willingly went like a lamb to the slaughter and became sin for us and rendered Himself an offering for sin for our salvation. And we know that the cross was not the end but only the beginning!

  Just as the Father continued to guard and protect and equip Moses and His only begotten Son, will He not do the same for us? Are we not His children united by faith into Jesus Christ. We are God's purchased possession. The Father has given us to His Son. Will He not continue to guard and keep us in His basket of sovereign grace?

  

  Is our God only the God of the hills and not the valleys (I Kings 20:28)? No, of course, not. His love endures for us through the deepest valley, for His mercy and kindness are relentless and follow us all the days of our lives. Can anything separate us from God's love for us which is in Christ Jesus? No! Thanks be to God! Again, I tell you to read that last portion of Romans 8. Consider His love for Moses, for His own Son and for all the saints. We are His children. We have been given His spirit of adoption not to fear. Christ was forsaken for us so we might never be forsaken. He will never stand us up! Never! He's not a bad date, He's the Lover of our souls. He has bound us to Himself by the covenant in His blood so we never need be afraid, we are always safe in the basket of His sovereign grace.

  We must continue to be diligent and search out His Word for His promises so us and then hide them in our heart – to use the means of grace He has given us. And then we must do something else: to ask Him to kiss us with His precious promises, to ask His Holy Spirit to bear witness to our spirits, so we might have the inner assurance of His love for us. Yes, remember this is a love relationship like we see in Song of Solomon. It's a sanctified and holy love. The Shulamite woman represents the Church, and in Songs 1:2 she is saying to her Beloved, "O, let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth for His love is better than wine..." She's known that love. She knows it's better than anything else. It far exceeds any other love. Our Father wants us all to know His love for us like that. That was Paul's prayer at the end of Ephesians 3. Please read it. This is part of our inheritance as dearly loved children of God. O, that we might truly understand there is nothing better than Him, that we might desire nothing more than Him. Christ! We must have Him! I remember in Whitefield's Journals the account of aa young girl who said, "she wanted nothing but Christ, and Christ she would have." Whitefield then added Jesus' words after that, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Sat., Oct. 11, 1740) This account was of a girl coming to Christ for the first time, but shouldn't we have that same passion for the Lover of our souls every day so we might have His fullness of joy?

  Once again I have gotten carried away with Him and His love...O, how can I not? Though we are limited in thinking about and expressing these things (they are so high and wonderful), I am trusting the Spirit will continue to teach us and help us reflect on our great God and His love for us and His sovereign care for us. We are there together in the basket together with Christ. We are safe there and we are loved there!

  Let us rest quietly in the basket of His sovereign grace. We need not worry or fear. Let us continue to rejoice in Him without reservation and with great joy! O, may He continue to fill us up to overflowing with His joy unspeakable and full of glory!

  Karen

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  You can read my other letters on assurance and fighting for joy here.

  Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
  

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