In his sermon "The Importance of Spiritual Growth," Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ML-J) cited these words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

On August 21, 2012, as part of a reflective/retrospective post on my birthday, I wrote the following about those words of Spurgeon:

The following spring [of 2008], while away on a private retreat, I listened to a portion of Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermon on Ephesians 3:16:

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man... (KJV)

There are many ways we can keep track of the Ebenezers in our lives. And included in those for me are my own personal journals and my blogging.

In my post dated May 29, 2008, I'd referenced a quotation which ML-J gave from Spurgeon in that sermon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

This morning, I looked through my journals (my spiral notebooks which are "filed" in a cardboard box in the corner of the bedroom), and I found the notebook from that time with the quotation written down along with some notes I'd taken from the sermon. No, there was no lightning bolt at the time, but a seed was planted: a deeper desire and hunger and thirst for Christ had been imparted into my soul through the Holy Spirit. I vividly remember the day when I sat on the bed in that retreat center and listened to that sermon and then knelt down by the bed. I had heard something that day that did further shaking to my complacent, safe, self-sufficient, works-oriented, lukewarm Americanized Christianity. Even though I knew my present reality at that point in time was so very far from that point in grace, and even though I knew I was approaching holy ground to even consider such a possibility, yet all the same, that possibility began to captivate me and my hunger and thirst grew. I knew there was more to Christianity than I'd imagined... I was slowly coming to the realization, much like Oswald Chambers wrote:  "But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud." (Please see my post here for more on that.)

* * *

I was only recently able to locate the Spurgeon sermon in which that quotation was found. I've included a few excerpts from that sermon below. (One note on the sermon: regarding the paragraph beginning with "The great policy of Satan..." – it's clear that the threats to the 21st century Church have multiplied beyond those at the time this sermon was first preached in 1869.) Before those excerpts, I've included Scripture, some other quotations, as well as a poem I've written. In presenting all these things to you, my prayer is that God might strengthen you to entreat Him for grace upon grace, that you would not be complacent with having received the former rain – that your Christianity would not be fraudulent – but you would seek God's face in earnest for the latter rain, so you might come to that point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling... Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

~ That we might increase our joy in the LORD, Karen

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

"See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand, and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God's promises are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and doing are not two things."

~ Matthew Henry on Joel 2:18-27

Psalm 119:58
I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
be merciful unto me according to thy word.

Once More I Entreat
(the Former AND the Latter Rain)
~ a birthday exultation (August 23, 2013) ~

(based in part upon Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon
"The Former and the Latter Rain" No. 880)

In vain I'd sought shadows and earthly gold,
Then Truest Treasure which waxes not old

Through the Spirit, given second birth,
Sight imparted to see my great dearth

With my whole heart did I entreat
Saving favor from the mercy seat

The former rain dropped at Thy Word
Before I spoke, my plea was heard

By Lamb's blood, the veil was rent
With full acceptance I made the ascent

But this be my greatest and chiefest regret:
Though two decades seated with Mephibosheth,

'Twas but a nominal supping, devoid of flavor,
Had nary a true taste or a sensible savor

Seeing but not perceiving – was this Life!?
Nay, only a pretense, counterfeit in disguise

"Ah! If this is Christianity, 'tis but a fraud!"
In Your kindness came chastening rod

Variegated trials, the whirlwind, Your billows
With Jacob, I struggled, and wetted my pillow

To behold Your Beauty – my one desire
O! To taste the Fount of baptismal fire!

For the latter rain I was importunately intent
I would not let Thee go, till the heavens rent

Achsah's cry ~ "the sure mark of grace":
Having found grace, I seek Thy grace!

With whole heart, once more I entreat
Latter rain from Thy mercy seat

My Rock, burst forth! O! Wellspring of favor!
Blessed are all who seek higher savor!

For my Bridegroom, I pant with mouth open wide:
To know Him - Ah! this is religion bona fide! 

My Beloved, be like a gazelle! O! Make haste!
Fill this thirsty pilgrim with grace upon grace!

Above the ordinary, for all the saints who dare
Welcome cross and brokenness – breathe rarefied air!

Ask, seek, and knock at His celestial door
Alarm you should feel if you desire no more

To prepare the corn for the time of harvest
Beg the latter rain to revive and refresh

Bountiful effusion of Christ, remarkable visitation,
'Tis nothing short of a second conversion!

Wrestling cry of God's elect: sweet incense arising
How can He spurn the groanings of His needy offspring?

For such a point in grace, bow down and earnestly entreat,
Our heavenly Father meets all who diligently seek

With favors in abundance ~ our Lord's delights ~
Succoring His children to leap on the heights!

"It is a sure mark of grace to desire more."
~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne ~

"In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from his throne;
Whoever says, 'I want no more,'
Confesses he has none.
~ William Cowper ~

Hosea 12:4 Yes, he [Jacob] struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, And there He spoke to us – 5 That is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is His memorial. (NKJV)

Isaiah 29:17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. 19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Excerpts from Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon "The Former and the Latter Rain" (HT: http://www.ccel.org/print/spurgeon/sermons15/xxxiii, emphasis mine)

"Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." - Jeremiah 5:24

It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly, been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a converted man.

My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low country, a vast flat. There are mountains and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss of the Valais, who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But there are other Believers, who, by God's Grace, have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft.

They are like the strong mountaineer who has trod the virgin snow, who has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions and therefore his sinews are braced and limbs are vigorous. These are they who do great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown. The saints who dwell on high in the clear atmosphere of faith are rejoicing Christians, holy and devout men, doing service for the Master all over the world and everywhere conquerors through Him that loved them. And I desire—oh, how earnestly I desire you to be such men and women! My craving is that all of you, my Beloved, who have been watered by the former rain, may also be refreshed by a more than ordinary latter rain which shall make you more than ordinary Christians—bringing you beyond the blade period and the ear period—into the full corn in the ear!

The great policy of Satan of late with the Church has been this—not so much to attack her with open infidelity—for really all the infidelity there is in England does not materially affect Churches worthy of the name except to an almost infinitesimal extent. There is a deal more made of skepticism in certain quarters than there is any need for. Skeptics seldom get among our Christian people. At least I do not meet with them in my enquiries, nor do I see them associating with Christians of my association. The plan Satan seems to have adopted is not that of attacking our doctrine, but that of
preventing, as far as he can, our raising in our midst a race of eminent and advanced Christians. Pharaoh said, "Destroy the male children." Satan seems to say, "Stop the male children from fulfilling their growth."

We are well enough in our way after the common run of manhood. We believe in Christ. We love Him and contribute something to His cause, We preach and we pray. We are a respectable sort of people, but we do not grow to maturity or attain "unto the first three." We have in this age but few giants in Divine Grace who rise head and shoulders above the common height—men to lead us on in deeds of heroism and efforts of unstaggering faith. After all, the work of the Christian Church, though it must be done by all, often owes its being done to single individuals of remarkable Grace. In this degenerate time we are very much in need of what Israel had in the days of the Judges—there were raised up among them leaders who judged Israel and were the terror of her foes.

Oh, if the Church, today, had in her midst a race of heroes! If only our missionary operations could be attended with the holy chivalry which marked the Church in the early days! If only we could have back Apostles and martyrs, or even such as Carey and Judson, what wonders would be worked! We have fallen upon a race of dwarfs and are content, to a great extent, to have it so. There was once in London a club of small men whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding five feet in height. These dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the opinion that they were nearer the perfection of manhood than others, for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the present race and consequently the way of progress was to grow less and less, and that the human race, as it perfected itself, would become as diminutive as themselves.

Such a club of Christians might be established in London and without any difficulty might attain to an enormously numerous membership—for the notion is common that our dwarfish Christianity is, after all, the standard! And many even imagine that nobler Christians are enthusiasts, fanatical and hot-blooded—while we are cool because we are wise and indifferent—because we are intelligent. We must get rid of all this nonsense! The fact is, the most of us are vastly inferior to the early Christians, who, as I take it, were persecuted because they were thoroughly Christians and we are not persecuted because we hardly are Christians at all! They were so earnest in the propagation of the Redeemer's kingdom, that they became the nuisance of the age in which they lived.

. . .

Brothers [and sisters], be encouraged! A latter rain is yet possible. Seek it! That you need it so much is a cause for sorrow, but if you really feel your need of it, be glad that the Lord works in you such sacred desires. If you did not feel a need for more Divine Grace it would be a reason for alarm. But to be conscious that all that God did by you in the past has not qualified you to do anything without Him now—to feel that you lean entirely upon His strength now, as much as ever— is to be in a condition in which it shall be right and proper for God to bless you abundantly.

Please note: In addition to the ML-J sermon cited above, you can access for free over 1600 other audio sermons of The Doctor courtesy of the MLJ Trust here. You can also sign up for the weekly podcast through Living Grace Ministries at oneplace.com: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-grace/listen/. They're currently broadcasting sermons from ML-J's Ephesians series.

Related:

• my posts on nominal Christianity
• my posts on true and false religion

Starting in the fall of 2009, I began seeking the LORD's face, so I might begin to know Habakkuk 3 joy (see here). The result of that pursuit has been a series of blog posts chronicling some of my journey. I ended up titling that series of posts "Letters on Assurance and Fighting for Joy." As I was getting ready to write this post, I realized I missed a number in the series (162) #aging!.  My last post in the series was Letter 163, so instead of re-numbering, I'm moving on here with Letter 164... (It may be helpful for you to read my posts birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain" and "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)" as background to today's post.)

Some of what I'm writing here today, I've written other places, but I want to try to recount some of the story again, so you might see the mysterious, wonderful, and continuing movements of the grace of God upon my soul. My prayer is that the Lord might use my words to whet your spiritual appetite to press on to know Him and to experience more and more of His holy joy, so His glory might be seen upon you for the sake of His name and the joy of the nations! ~ Isaiah 60:1-3ff ~ Soli Deo Gloria!

the unexpected transport of joy ~ seeing the travail of His soul | letter 164 on assurance and fighting for joy

the Valley of Achor: the door of hope & the pursuit of Habakkuk 3 joy

As way of introduction and background, prior to beginning that pursuit of Habakkuk 3 joy I referred to above, I'd been depressed and doubting. To clarify, I wasn't doubting my final salvation, but I was doubting my sanctification, and I was greatly distressed and disillusioned over my sinfulness and my failures and I was plagued, burdened, and paralyzed by guilt and second-guessing. In May 2008 I'd begun writing a series of posts on reflecting on "Things to Look for in a Church."). During that process, one of those things I wrote about was "Pearl Freaks, a.k.a. Kingdom-Obsessed people." I soon came to realize how my being overwhelmed and burdened by my past sins, my sinfulness, my guilt, and my failures was hindering me from pressing on with a holy violence to press on to take hold of Christ and His Kingdom as I ought. In other words, I was failing miserably at being a "Pearl Freak." The phrase "Pearl Freak" is taken from John White's book "Magnificent Obsession." In it, he wrote:

There is a magnificent insanity about the parable in Matthew 13:45. It has to do with a pearl freak–a merchant whose hobby was pearls. Evidently, one day he came across a pearl to end all pearls. Imagine him with staring eyes, quickly taking in his breath, licking his dry lips, then anxiously inquiring about price, haggling and pondering the tremendous cost of the pearl. You can also imagine him returning home and looking over the rest of his pearl collection. With shaking hands he would pick them up one by one and drop them into a soft leather pouch. Not only pearls, but house, slaves and everything would go so that the one pearl might become his... (See p. 31-32; you can read more here.)

I never finished writing that series of posts. In short, without going into all the gory details, in the good and wise providence of God, a lot of my life as I knew it had to be blown-up... The Hound of Heaven had been working all along to bring me to a clearer and overwhelming view of my sinfulness and my sin, He led me into failure, and He ordained every billow, all so I might begin to enter into that magnificent insanity regarding the Kingdom of God. Most of my dreams were shattered. Most of my hopes were crumbled. I felt swarm of locust after swarm of locust had flown in to eat away much of what I relied upon and much of what I rejoiced in, but God's design was for my good and the profit of my soul. He kindly and lovingly ordained each and every "locust" so I might begin to seek first His face and His Kingdom, and to learn to rely on and rejoice in Him alone. During that time, my fleshly confidence was shaken, my façade of goodness was shattered – and because of that, my lukewarm complacency began to be transformed to a fervent, boiling spirit! O! Bless God for His manifold mercies to the chief of sinners! To clarify, because of all of that, I was drawn and compelled to seek the face of God like I had never done before... Yes, I was taken to the Valley of Achor (trouble), BUT GOD had been lovingly hedging me in all that time, and then He set before me a door of hope, so I might begin to sing praise TO my God and sing praise OF my God like I had never done before! Psalm 65:4! Through my heavenly Father's loving discipline, John Piper's words began to be proved true in my life:

"The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of scattered grace."

After languishing in darkness and depression, one day, in the blink of an eye, God imparted to me a felt assurance of forgiveness of sins (O! tidings of comfort and joy!). I can't explain this to you. I'd been saved for twenty-four years. I knew the Scriptures. I knew the promises. But I guess I have to put it this way: I didn't really know the reality... John 5:39-40. Though I was a Christian, I didn't have the Holy Spirit bearing witness with my spirit that I was a child of God; I didn't enjoy that Spirit of adoption; I didn't have what William Williams spoke of as the doubling of the Spirit.

It was one December morning in 2008 – and I dreaded yet another day ahead of me – I knelt down in our dining room, and I was planning to confess to God what a loser I was... just as I had done numerous times prior ... but on THAT day, the Holy Spirit blew and spoke (inaudibly) firm assurance and sweet comfort to my soul:  "Your soul is clean."

It wasn't long afterwards that God began to burden my heart to pray for revival, and that burden has only intensified since. (For more about that, you can read more here (see Part II. Prayer), as well as here.)

Several months later, in the fall of 2009, even though I had received that felt communication of assurance of forgiveness and cleansing of sins through Jesus Christ, I could see my joy was still so dependent on my circumstances, and I hated that. I could see how I was so very far from Paul's exhortation to rejoice in the Lord always. The Israelites were rebuked for not serving the LORD their God with joyfulness and gladness of heart. I was so desperate to be lifted above my own circumstances, so I might go from strength to strength, and to live more and more of the time as a radiant and rejoicing Christian, rather than biding my time here as a dull and whining Christian.  That's the time I began my pursuit of Habakkuk 3 joy, which I wrote about in my post "The Laborer's Lamentation & Affirmation."

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)

God was very gracious to me at the sound of my cries, and it wasn't long afterwards that God began to pour out grace upon grace, and He has continued to bless me with times of communion with Him far above what I could have asked or imagined. By the Spirit, I fight constantly to enter into the joy of the Lord, and by the grace of God, I will keep up that fight.

As I began to experience more and more assurance and joy and delight and happiness in knowing God, I not only found myself increasingly stirred up to seek to know Him more and to pray more for revival, but I also found my heart's desire enlarging for Christ's Gospel to go out to all the nations (people groups), so they might enjoy Him and He might receive their praise.

Christian hedonism:  not only for your joy but for the joy of all the nations

Last fall I attended John Piper's seminar, "A Hunger for God."  During the seminar, he said something that helped to clarify the place to which the Lord has been leading me over the past few years...

"The yearning we feel for revival or awakening or deliverance from corruption or the presence of the bridegroom is not merely longing and aching. The first fruits of what we long for have already come. The down payment of what we yearn for is already paid. The fullness that we are longing for and fasting for has appeared in history and we have beheld his glory. It is not merely future. We have tasted the manifestation of Christ's glory, and our fasting is now because the new wine of Christ's presence is so real and so satisfying."

Many well-meaning Christians consider the pursuit of joy in God as self-indulgent. And many want to have nothing at all to do with John Piper and what he calls Christian hedonism. (If you're not familiar with Christian hedonism... Christian hedonism = God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him; or the chief aim of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever -- please read the article "What is Christian Hedonism" at Desiring God.)

I want to clarify this:  a discovery of true joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ will only awaken in us a desire and yearning for others to know and to share in that same joy in God... (No wonder then that the devil wants to keep us from entering into and experiencing more and more of the joy of the Lord.) Freely we have received, freely we give! But if we have never really tasted and seen God's goodness, how can we begin to exhort others to do likewise? If we have not ever drunk of the living water ourselves, how will His Spirit bubble up from within us and overflow to a parched and dry world? ~ John 4:1-42; John 7:37-39.

As we pursue joy in God, God will not allow His children to settle for and be satisfied with cheap, incomplete, shoddy, self-indulgent, self-absorbed counterfeit and carnal joy – but rather He will lead us by His light and His truth to His holy hill, so we might experience a holy joy in Jesus Christ, the true Tabernacle... a joy which is . . .

God-entranced
Christ-saturated
Spirit-breathed
Gospel-centered
Cross-exalting
Extravagantly worshiping
Pride-shattering
Humility-producing
Mind-renewing
Flesh-crucifying
God-glorifying
Self-effacing
Holiness-loving
Freely rendering
Knee-bending
Sin-mortifying
Kingdom-oriented
Love-effusing
Life-giving
Gladly serving
Nations-embracing
(Not an all-inclusive list by any means! ... Ok... like Piper, I do like to use hyphenated words...)

I recently listened to a sermon on missions by John Piper (sorry, I can't remember which one it was), but he said something like this:

For many of you, missions wasn't even on the back burner.
It wasn't on the stove.
It wasn't even in the refrigerator!

The same is true for me in regard to being burdened to pray for revival and in particular in my having a heart for missions.

A couple years ago, I remember standing on the top of a hill at one of my favorite parks. I looked around and about, and then as I looked up, I cried out to heaven with regret, "Why did it take me so long to begin to get God's heart for missions?" I had no answer, but I could only bless God for the work He has been doing to restore the years the locusts had eaten, in breaking my self-absorbed heart and shaping me and giving me a more compassionate heart, a heart like that of the Lord Jesus Christ: –– increasing in love for God and God's glory and God's Gospel and the peoples of all the nations, and a desire to see all the nations praise Him for the sake of His Name! And now I am seeking that you might enter into a similar joy, because when you do so, Christ's love will constrain you to become joyfully engaged in God's plan to save souls from all the nations to the praise of His glorious grace!

Isaiah 60:8 ~ All the flocks of Kedar:  the unexpected transport of joy

In August of last year, I was reading through the latter chapters in Isaiah. As I was reading Isaiah 60, the name Kedar piqued my interest.

8  All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

I don't know how many times I'd read the book of Isaiah or how many times I'd read that particular passage – but on that day, it was like the bush was burning... It was almost as if I'd found myself saying, "Who is Kedar? I need to turn aside to see this thing!" I was reading on my iPod touch at the time, so I did a word search using the Strong's Concordance, and found that Kedar was the second son of Ishmael. I can't explain to the joy, wonder, and delight that sprang up within my upon finding this out – for the descendants of Ishmael are the Arabs, who, for the most part, are still enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Gospel, and Christians. Next, I looked up the name Nebaioth. Turns out Nebaioth is his Kedar's older brother! Then I pulled up Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, and I found these words describing the next verse (v. 9):

"What a pleasant sight it is to see poor souls hastening to Christ...!"

This wholly delighted me, and based on what I'd found out about Kedar and Nabaioth, I couldn't help but think of it this way (which I later wrote in the margin of my Bible as an Ebenezer):

"What a pleasant sight it is to see poor ARAB souls hastening to Christ!"

I can't explain to you the joy I had at that moment when I was given a spiritual sight of the prospect of Christ's Kingdom coming to all the nations, and in particular to those souls who are part of the Arab nations!

In this post 9-11 era in which we live, for we Christians who are Americans, it's so easy for us to view Arabs from a worldly perspective rather than a heavenly one. Matthew Henry was using the Authorised Version (yep, no ESV then ), and he wrote the words below based on v. 5 as including the phrase "thou shalt fear." From my understanding, "fear" is probably not a really good translation of the Hebrew there (at least not "fear" as we normally consider it) –– but regarding the tension that existed in the New Testament Church culture (and the tension which will exist throughout all ages, until we are in the Glory everlasting), I think his words serve as a good reminder and warning to each of us today:

There shall be a mixture of fear with this joy: "Thy heart shall fear, doubting whether it be lawful to go in to the uncircumcised and eat with them." Peter was so impressed with this fear that he needed a vision and voice from heaven to help him over it, Acts x. 28. But, "When this fear is conquered thy heart shall be enlarged in holy love, so enlarged that thou shalt have room in it for all the Gentile converts; thou shalt not have such a narrow soul as thou hast had nor affections so confined within the Jewish pale." When God intends the beauty and prosperity of his church he gives this largeness of heart and an extensive charity.

O! For the gift of largeness of heart and extensive charity to all peoples, so prayers might be made and feet might be beautiful as they bring good tidings of great joy to ALL the peoples! Regarding Zechariah 8:21-23 ("And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."), Matthew Henry wrote:

"True grace hates monopolies."

What a litmus test, my brothers and sisters! Can we say we have drunk the true grace of God if our hearts are not enlarged, and extensive charity does not overflow to all peoples? The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nationS ~ Revelation 22:1-5.

I recently read a newspaper article about babies who had been born on the same day as Prince George in England. One of those accounts was of a daughter born to an Arab couple who were in a refugee camp in Jordan. Because they were now refugees, instead of naming their child as Shymaa (Arab word for "good traits") as they'd intended, they decided to name her Taymaa ("desert, huge and arid"). Her father feared for their daughter. He dreamed of seeing her as a bride, but not in that camp. Do we long to see poor Arab souls lavished with the unsearchable riches of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so they might receive God's free gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins and be clothed with Christ's robe of righteousness, that they might stand before the throne of God holy and unblemished as the bride of Christ? Are we pleading to see these other sheep (John 10:16) gathered in, and, by grace alone through faith alone in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, ascending along with us with acceptance on God's altar to the glorifying of the house of His glory! The Hebrew word for "altar" means slaughter... Keep in mind that there is no ascent to God, and there is no acceptance before God apart from faith in the blood of the spotless Lamb of God slaughtered / slain for sinners. How shall they hear without a preacher...? (Romans 10:14-17)

In Isaiah 60:5, we read of the glad effect the great influx of Gentile souls would have on the saints:

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

Matthew Henry described it like this (emphasis mine):

How the church shall herself be affected with this increase of her numbers, She shall be in a transport of joy upon this account: "Thou shalt see and flow together" (or flow to and fro), "as in a pleasing agitation about it, surprised at it, but extremely glad of it."

That's where I got the first part of my title for this blog post... I added in the adjective "unexpected" because I must confess that my initial pursuit of God and joy in Him was mostly for myself... I was desperately seeking some sort of ease from the burden of my sin and guilt and past failures taunting me – and some sort of relief from my often less-than-joyful life. But then came the unexpected:  God began to surprise me by giving me joy upon joy... not only a holy joy in knowing Him more and more, and knowing more and more of His love for me in Jesus Christ, but now an added joy was being imparted to me, as I found myself exulting in the certain and glorious prospect of the expansion of Christ's Kingdom throughout all nations and the new song of praise rising up from all nations to the glory of God!

(I want to add in here the account of an incident that serves an example of the expansion and outgrowth of that "unexpected transport of joy" I just described. This happened about a month after that time when that text from Isaiah 60:8 shone for me... On 9-11 of last year, we were traveling out of state, and I was in a laundromat when I first heard the news of the attack at the U.S. embassy in Libya. Sometime after that, I found myself taken up with mourning and weeping for unsaved Muslim souls. I confess to you that before that time, I don't think I'd ever really wept over lost Muslim souls like that. And I say "taken up" because there is such prayer that God gives to His people on occasion ~ the Spirit of grace and supplications (Zechariah 12), i.e. - that manifestation of His Holy Spirit Who works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure... Psalm 72:15, 17 ... prayer also shall be made for him continually... [that] His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.)

the Son crushed... seeing the travail of His soul for Egypt, Assyria, & Israel

In the past few months, as tensions were rising in Egypt, the Sunday after the week in which Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi had been ousted, prior to our worship service, I sat in the pew and opened my Bible (as I usually do), and found I had opened to Isaiah 19. If you're not familiar it, the chapter ends with a prophesy that EGYPT, Assyria and the Jews will all be a part of Christ's Kingdom: a picture of the Gospel being the power of salvation to ALL who believe, to be a light to the Gentiles as well as those still-veiled Jews in some of the darkest regions in all the earth! Here's a portion:

And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the LORD, and He will be entreated by them and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance." (NKJV)

Now, as to the specifics and the timing of that prophecy, I'm not going there... But we do know this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. Has history yet witnessed this promised great inflowing of Arab and Hebrew souls into the Kingdom of God? (See also Isaiah 2.) Therefore, we do know that there are still souls for whom Christ died from all the people groups whose roots are in Biblical Egypt and Biblical Assyria (today those areas include Northern Iraq, Southeast Turkey, Northeast Syria) as well as from the Jewish nation, which He must bring out of darkness into the Kingdom of light through the preaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:14-21; John 17:20-26). Our Gospel is a Gospel for ALL the nations. In Romans 3, Paul tells us that ALL have sinned, ALL are guilty, and ALL fall short of the glory of God –– BUT GOD has set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation through His blood, that God might pass over sin and be just and justifier to ALL who have faith in Jesus, that ALL who believe are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that ALL who believe are credited with the righteousness of God in Him...

22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto ALL and upon ALL them that believe: for there is NO difference: 23  For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. 24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God...

 Paul concludes the chapter with these words

26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29  Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30  Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

(If those words do not scream missions to us, then what are they saying?! May our God open our ears to hear!)

As I sat in the pew that morning, I exulted in God's plan to save souls from all these nations, and I was enabled to intercede in particular for Egypt in light of current events, and to see the certainty of God's promises for His Gospel to go far as the curse is found, just as His Gospel came to me to quicken me from the dead and translate me from darkness into the Kingdom of His dear son in November of 1982 in Madison, Wisconsin! ~ Ephesians 2! The spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, became a curse for me so I might become the righteousness of God in Him...  But He didn't become a curse just for *me*! And He didn't become a curse just for *Americans*. He became a curse to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found... He came so His Gospel and His Name might be made known to all the people groups in the Middle East, and beyond that, to all the nations to all the ends of the earth! Psalm 113:1  Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. 2  Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. 3  From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised.

* * *

I thank God for His restoring to me the years the locusts have eaten. It's a privilege and blessing to know this God, and to press on to know this God more, to love Him more, to adore Him more, to rejoice in Him more, and to serve Him more. Moreover, as I have been graced over and over again to sit at His table, to eat in plenty and be satisfied with His goodness, I count it a privilege and blessing for me to be a helper for your joy in our Bridegroom, Christ Jesus the Lord. If there's any way I can be of assistance, please comment below, or if you're in the Xanga network, you can message me, or else you can use the contact form on my WordPress site by clicking here. (Soon enough, we should have a similar contact form here on Xanga.)

II Timothy 2:10  Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory...

and eternal joy!

~ Karen

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. / Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Photo credit: Church Pews (FAL )

In my last post, "Why do you watch the same movie over and over?" I wrote:

Many of us know the enjoyment from watching a favorite movie (or reading a book or listening to a piece of music or a sermon) over and over again... How much more ought that to be the case when we come to the Bible, which is breathed out by God, and when we come to Jesus Christ Himself, who IS the Word of God?

Because the Word of God is beautiful.
Because the Word of God is interesting.
Because the Word of God has a lot of layering that takes at least a few reads to unravel the mystery. . .

How sad to say how very few Christians relish time in the Word of God in anticipation of His descending upon the mercy seat! Consider that we have access into the Most Holy Place through our Savior's precious blood –– are too many of us making light of His sacrifice and trampling on the blood of the Lamb? ~ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

How few professing Christians consider time with God in His Word to be a privilege and a delight –- and how contrary that attitude is to the pattern we find in the Psalms, where we read of the children of God panting, longing, and thirsting for the living God! –– or those in Jesus' day went all out for a touch from the Master or to grab hold of His garment! In contrast, for many today Bible reading is seen as one of many items on our daily to-do list. We take our few minutes with God, we check off our list, and we go our way. Well, we claim we have met with God, but I wonder what He would He say to that claim?

Prior to beginning his exposition on the book of Hosea, Jeremiah Burroughs gave this introduction, which I found to be a very fitting follow-up to that post.

We might preface our work by labouring to raise your hearts to the consideration of the excellency of the Scriptures in general. Luther uses a high expression about them; he calls them the highest genus, that contains in it all good whatever. Take away the Scripture, and you even take away the sun from the world. What is the world without the Scriptures, but hell itself? We have had indeed the word of God as the sun in the world, but oh how many mists have been before this sun! Seldom the sun shines clearly to us. Seeing there is such a glorious sun risen, it is distressing that there should be a misty day. Now the work to which we are called is, to dispel the mists and fogs from before this sun, that it may shine more brightly before your eyes and into your hearts...

Chrysostom in his twenty-ninth sermon upon Genesis, exhorting his auditors to get the Scriptures into their houses, and diligently to exercise themselves in them, tells them that by them the soul is raised, elevated, and brightened, as with the beam of the Sun of righteousness, and delivered from the snares of unclean thoughts. In the Scripture the great God of heaven has sent his mind to the children of men; he has made known the counsel of his will, and opened his very heart unto mankind. The Bible is the epistle that God has sent into the world. Did we but hear of a book dictated immediately by God himself, to show the children of men what the eternal counsels of his will were for conducting them to eternal happiness, and thoughts and intentions concerning their everlasting condition; did we, I say, but hear that there was such a book in the farthest part of the Indies, should we not rejoice that the world was blest with such a mercy? What strong and vehement desires should we have to enjoy but one sight of it before we died! We should be willing to venture upon any hazard, to pass through any difficulty, to be at any expense, that we might have but a glance at such a book as this. My brethren, you need not say, Who shall go to the farthest part of the Indies to fetch us this book? who shall descend into the depth, or go to the uttermost part of the earth, to gain us a sight of this book of Scripture? for, behold, the word is nigh unto you, it is in your houses, and we hope in your hearts, and in this exercise it is to be in our mouths, not only to tell you what it saith, but to explain to you the mind of God in it.

To exercise ourselves in this book is sweet indeed. Luther professes himself out of love with his own books, and wished them burn, lest men, spending time in them, should be hindered from reading the Scriptures, which are the only foundation of all wisdom:  I tremble, said he, at the former age, which was so much busied in reading Aristotle and Averroes.

* * *

May our God forgive us for our weak and indifferent desires toward Him and His Word. May He impart to us strong and vehement desires for Himself and His Word. May God's Holy Spirit breathe into us a holy appetite for God and His Word, that we might taste, experience, and savor the sweetness of entering into, abiding in, and enjoying eternal happiness through the Lord Jesus Christ!

Reference: Jeremiah Burroughs, "An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea" (completed by Thomas Hall & Edward Reynolds, revised and corrected by James Sherman); (reprinted by Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006; orig. published Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1863), 1-2.

Photo credit: Work found at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honey_comb.jpg> / CC BY-SA 3.0.