December 9, 2011

  • Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor

    Last year, in addition to writing some other posts for Advent, I wrote a series of posts entitled "WHY HAS JESUS COME?":

    I'd like to pick up with that same question once again this year, starting with a poem and concluding with a personal note of testimony and an exhortation.

    Even a Vapor
    (letter 133 on assurance and fighting for joy)

    James 4:14b  For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

    What are our lives? Even a vapor
    All our days, LORD, teach us to number
    All our ways, LORD, help us consider
    Fully blessed and full of favor!
    Have mercy on us sinners, O Savior!
    Help us be satisfied in Christ our Savior!

    A handbreadth – moments turning to years
    Then the trumpet sound comes to our ears

    What are our lives? A vanishing mist
    Every breath heavenly stewardship

    May our lips not brim with complaints
    But spring forth with bountiful praises

    May we not finish our days with sighing
    But learn contentment, know Christ satisfying

    Sink ever deeper into the flowing river
    So our leaves remain green and not wither

    Abiding in the Scripture, seeking living bread
    Importunately crying till the heavens rent

    Ascending to the heavenlies, peering ever higher
    A sanctified expectation: Baptizer's descent with fire!

    What are our lives? Even a vapor
    All our days, LORD, teach us to number
    All our ways, LORD, help us consider
    Fully blessed and full of favor!
    Have mercy on us sinners, O Savior!
    Help us be satisfied in Christ our Savior!

    Christ died, Lamb's life He did tender
    So we might draw near and enter

    To seek Your face, desire no other
    To pant for You, all-satisfying lover

    To behold Your beauty and splendor
    Delighting in Your glory and grandeur

    To know Your abounding pleasure
    Surpassing all earthly measure

    To dance in Your delightful river
    To feel Your embrace, Comforter's whisper

    Single-eyed, Your willing slave forever
    For our affection no other contender

    To drink of the fount of holy pleasure
    To will and to do of Your good pleasure

    In plenty or want, whether rich or poor
    A weaned child, quieted and secure

    Your name and renown our soul's single desire
    Decreasing so You might be lifted higher

    With pure longings and pants, seeking You above all treasure
    Ecstatic joy in You as our portion and center

    To never forget the one thing necessary
    To fall on our knees and sup with Thee

    All our days, LORD, may we ever savor
    The true shewbread, Your excellent flavor

    From grace to grace, be fully sated
    Glory to God for so great a salvation!

    Experiencing Your strong and lively consolation
    Bubbling with the Spirit's lovely intoxication!

    May we run our course with jubilation
    This is the heritage of God's holy nation

    What are our lives? Even a vapor
    All our days, LORD, teach us to number
    All our ways, LORD, help us consider
    Fully blessed and full of favor!
    Have mercy on us sinners, O Savior!
    Help us be satisfied in Christ our Savior!

    Oil of grace, flow down and inflame!
    Perpetual fire, burn and sustain!

    That we might serve You with joyfulness
    Our hearts overflowing with gladness

    Can our God withhold from His infinite ocean of grace
    Plenty supplies for all whose hearts are set on pilgrimage?

    What are our lives? Even a vapor
    All our days, LORD, teach us to number
    All our ways, LORD, help us consider
    Fully blessed and full of favor!
    Have mercy on us sinners, O Savior!
    Help us be satisfied in Christ our Savior!

    What is my life? Even a vapor
    Have mercy on me, a sinner, O Savior!

    What is my life? Even a vapor
    All my days, LORD, teach me to number
    All my ways, LORD, help me consider
    Fully blessed and full of favor!
    Have mercy on this sinner, O Savior!
    Help me be satisfied in Christ my Savior!


    Haggai 1:5: Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

    Psalms 90:12: So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

    Psalm 105:43: And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness.

    Hebrews 3:4  For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.  5  And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;  6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, IF we hold fast the confidence AND the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

    Hebrews 7:19: For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

    Deuteronomy 28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;  48  Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

    Deuteronomy 33:23a
    And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD...

    I recently made a comment on my friend Norm's ( @quest4god@revelife ) post Joy, joy, joy re: my experience in coming to receive assurance of forgiveness of sins and knowing the joy of the Lord as well as my posts on assurance & fighting for joy:

    I am the last person I would have expected to be writing so much about joy & assurance, for not so long ago I had NO sense of joy or assurance. My desire for believers is to read and study the Scripture and understand that the promises there are for them, so they might begin take hold of those promises and ask, and then keep asking the Holy Spirit to make them a LIVING reality. We have not b/c we ask not! Luke 11:13.

    I was not exaggerating that in the least. NO joy. NO assurance.

    Most Christians have a pretty good understanding that Jesus died for their sins, but many are remiss in beginning to explore and plumb to the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of what that really means for us – and as a result, many Christians end up in a perpetually joyless and unassured state.

    Hebrews 10:11  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13  From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21  And having an high priest over the house of God; 22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

    The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ in all ways, far above and beyond all the Old Testament types and symbols. He was the fulfillment of them all. The Son of God came to earth in the form of a man, born as a babe in Bethlehem, yet remaining fully God, all so fallen man might be redeemed and be privileged to draw near to God! How? He was the perfect and all-sufficient High Priest and sacrifice for sinners, and He entered the True Tabernacle in heaven as our Forerunner, our Surety, our Captain!

    Hebrews 7:19  For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

    When you look at that babe in your nativity set, consider it! ~ Consider HIM! ~ If you are Christ's, you who were once fatherless are now adopted in to the family of God! You who were once far, can DRAW NEAR as children of God!

    Consider why Jesus has come!

    Consider it! ~ We can DRAW NEAR to GOD!

    Consider it! ~ Consider Him!

    If that is not a wonder to you, if Jesus Christ and His incarnation and His atonement does not thrill your heart more today than ever, then get down on your knees and ask God to show you afresh and anew the great salvation and privilege He has made available to you through the Lord Jesus Christ! If you are Christ's, you can DRAW NEAR to GOD because your sins were punished in Jesus Christ once and for all and His righteousness was credited to you by faith! You can enter behind the veil with HIM! This is a spiritual reality available to all of us who have trusted in Him. And it will become a physical reality one Day when we are given our glorified bodies, and we see our Savior face to face – but let us not wait until then to begin to make that abundant entrance and begin to taste the firstfruits and Canaan's clusters and to sample the riches of our inheritance with all the saints! ... Don't waste your life on this side of the Jordan!

    Alas, many of you don't really consider these things. You look at your salvation as a way out of hell and a way into heaven, but you don't understand we have the high privilege to enter into the Most Holy Place beginning today! If all it were about were getting us to heaven, why are we here? So let us not waste the blessing we have to draw near to God! The scepter has been extended! The veil has been rent! The King of kings has lifted up dust and ashes to heavenly places!  Ephesians 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints...

    I confess I didn't really consider these things very much at all until a few years ago. The words of Scripture to me were just words; they'd not become a living reality. And they'd not become a living reality because I'd not seen them as real possibilities for me, and so I never began to seek to know the living God in a living way! I was happy with head knowledge. Now, I have to make this disclaimer: we start with and remain rooted in that lovely and wonderful doctrine we find in the Scripture, HOWEVER we can't be content with and stop with a head knowledge. Let us go on and seek to know the living God (not merely to know about Him) and ask that His words be written in our minds and on our hearts, to become burning in the heart through the work of the Holy Spirit!

    John 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

    After all, we are in the New Covenant now, are we not? Should the words of Scripture be only written on external tablets (in our Bibles)?

    Hebrews 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

    Are not Christians a people who were once dead, but now made alive in Jesus Christ, so we might have living fellowship with the living God?

    The devil is happy to have us take the Scriptures and study them to no end, so long as we never end up seeking a living relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. Satan delights to have us quote Scriptures, so long as we continue to go around and around in circles and never truly DRAW NEAR to God and never to come TO JESUS, as our Lord described in John 5:

    Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

    The devil is perfectly fine with us reading, studying and doing any and all things with the Scripture, but he absolutely bristles when we begin to seek to come to Christ Himself, that we might have life and life more abundantly. Satan is incensed when we begin to read the words of Scriptures and by the grace of the Holy Spirit begin to see in the Scriptures, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones called them, "the glorious possibilities of the Christian life," and we begin to see such things as joy and assurance as real and vital possibilities for us – no longer abstract theological constructs and no longer only for others – and then we begin to seek in earnest a true and living experience of the living God based on and informed by the promises of Scripture as taught to us through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.

    Peter tells us Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might BRING US TO GOD (I Peter 3:18a).

    Have you ever really considered the gift of God we have...

    Jesus came that we might DRAW NEAR TO GOD! Jesus came to BRING US TO GOD!

    Wretched, unworthy worms, vile sinners who were separated from a holy God are granted an abundant entrance into the Presence of God TODAY!

    Bankrupt sinners lavished abundantly with the riches of God in Jesus Christ!

    God in Christ did for us what we could not do in our helpless and powerless state!

    Dead sinners have been made alive and are now seated in heavenly places with Christ!

    Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," and "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Jesus' desire is that all those who are purchased with His precious blood might enter into fellowship with the living God beginning today... I am come that they might HAVE life... He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life... HAVE... HATH... LIFE that begins today! And our living out that life is to the glory of God! How despicable it is for us to refuse the fellowship God has for us! How abominable it is for us to disregard and despise our Savior's work and not seek to enter along with Him into the heavenly Sanctuary today!

    Children of God, enter TODAY into the living inheritance Christ died to give you! Don't waste His precious blood, but DRAW NEAR to God through Him, so you might really be a living monument of His gift of grace to you. Don't waste your life living outside the fullness of the life He died to give you! He came to BRING US TO GOD! He came that you might DRAW NEAR TO GOD!

    Take hold of the promises and plead, and keep pleading ... like Jacob, like the importunate woman...

    God forbid you find yourself in the position I was in a few years ago. I was grieving and quenching the Spirit of God by insisting, "Such assurance and such joy is not for me!" When we do that we are calling God a liar!

    But the truth is this: the devil is a liar! He keeps us from understanding and pleading and receiving the abundant life Jesus died to give us. Please, please immerse yourself in the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to make God and His Word become a living reality to you.

    Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again
    with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures.
    (Alan Redpath)

    I was over 50 years old when I received a Spirit-breathed assurance of forgiveness of sins, and only after that time did I begin to experience what Peter refers to as "joy unspeakable and full of glory." You are not too old – nor are you too young!

    A joyless, unassured and doubting Christian is very much in contrast to God's desire for us to serve Him with joyfulness and gladness of heart.

    After I chose my screen name for blogging as naphtali_deer, in my first post, why Naphtali?, I explained:

    So why Naphtali? Some of you may be wondering, "What's that all about?" Others may be familiar with the name. Naphtali was one of the sons of Jacob (Israel). In Bible Study Fellowship last year we studied the blessings Jacob gave his sons at the end of Genesis. The blessing to Naphtali popped out at me: "Naphtali is a deer let loose; he uses beautiful words" (NKJV, Genesis 49:21). In the months prior to that time I could see God beginning to loosen me from many things that were keeping me from worshipping and serving Him as He desired (and that, of course, is His continuing work in me). The phrase "he uses beautiful words" hit me since so often I have used my tongue in ways to harm others rather than to encourage and edify them, and it is God's desire for our words to honor and glorify Him (see James 3:10). My prayer is that this blog glorifies Him and encourages fellow believers in the Body of Christ.

    For His Glory,
    Karen

    I've added a few things to that post since then, but one thing I NEVER in my wildest dreams anticipated receiving, because I didn't understand it was available to me through the cross of Christ, was that blessing of Naphtali in Deuteronomy 33:

    And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD...

    I'm dead serious about your knowing such all-satisfying favor and full blessing of the LORD, or as I've continued to write of it now over the past couple years, knowing full assurance of faith and the joy of the Lord. This experience of the living God is not something available to only a select few believers. These blessings come from knowing the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit in ever increasing measure. And these blessings begin to break your heart and God's desires become your desires! The love of Christ will begin to constrain you, and you will find yourself increasingly offering yourself as a living sacrifice to God, seeking to hallow His name and praying for His Kingdom to come! These blessings will raise you to heavenly places and keep you from wasting your life and bowing to the carnal and earthly.

    I'm dead serious because I know the anguish, misery and lukewarmness and lack of direction that comes from living a life without a deepening sense of being satisfied with Christ and the blessings He has for us. So long as we continue to seek satisfaction, blessing, assurance and joy anywhere else, we are not enjoying God as He intends. And if we aren't enjoying God as He intends, we are not able to glorify God as He intends. God wants us to be satisfied with His favor and His blessing in Jesus Christ. Is He not more than enough to satisfy your every soul's need?


    "April 1, 1816 ...

    "I wish to mention to you some passages, which have been peculiarly sweet of late. . .

    "Another is the account of our Saviour's ascension, in the last chapter of Luke : 'And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And while he blessed them,' &c. Observe 'while he blessed,' &c. The last thing he was ever seen to do on earth, was to bless his disciples. He went up, scattering blessings; and he has done nothing but bless them ever since."

    He comes to make His blessings flow
    Far as the curse is found,
    Far as the curse is found,
    Far as, far as, the curse is found.

    ("Joy to the World" by Isaac Watts)

    I am praying God might grant you grace to seek and enter into that Naphtali blessing, i.e. - an ever-increasing experiential knowledge of our Savior's favor and blessing!

    ~ Karen

    Related:

    My other posts on assurance and joy including:

    why Naphtali?
    postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck? (considering the glorious possibilities)
    update w/ excerpt: Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the role of experience in Christianity
    The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance
    The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)
    Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
    Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
    "I will be like the dew" (Hosea 14:5) ~ Precious Dew, Heavenly Shower
    Is your ambition holy? / What are you living for? (Louis Paul Lehman) / The Christian's Aim
    Christian, don't waste your life whining
    Where are you lifting up your eyes? Psalm 121:1-2
    "Bread of Heav'n on Thee I Feed"
    Psalm 45:1 ~ Sovereign Grace Constraining, My Heart Inditing
    Psalm 131 ~ Lord, calm my soul; Lord, wean my soul in this mephitic air | W.H. Hewitson



    Work found at
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mist_Covering_a_Meadow_under_Forest_Encroachment.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / by Wingchi

    Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Comments (3)

  • Thanks for writing this!  

  • Maybe one day we'll see "Letter # 12,345,678 on Joy!   His joys are without number or limit - infinite in scope and delight.

    I must confess that your advent posts from last year and this really do help me to focus on Christ and the mystery of His love!

    I truly appreciate them - and you!

  • @FearofGodandPerfectLove - You're welcome, David! These are things that have been simmering in my heart for quite some time, and God opened the way for me to write of them ~ Psalm 45.

    @quest4god@revelife - Thanks, Norm. I'm pretty sure we won't see that number of letters here ;) – but certainly in the glory everlasting we will!

    Re: my Advent posts this year. Almost a couple weeks ago, I'd begun working on something, but I sensed the Lord telling me to put it aside. Well, I did for a while, but then I went back to it, and I kept doing so, but I shouldn't have. I ended up spending hours and hours on it, and it really went nowhere. At that point I was brought face to face with the sinfulness and vanity of my ways and confessed that. But it frightened me for I know my writing is a gift and stewardship from God for which I'm accountable to Him, and He can take that away at any time as He chooses. But not long after that, His grace abounded to me, the chief of sinners ~ Psalm 86:15.

Post a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

RSS feed

RSS feed