November 6, 2013

• Having tasted of Christ's preciousness, having drunk of the living waters ~ the 31 year journey continues...

  (Letter 166 in my series of letters on assurance and fighting for joy)...

  "Those to whom Christ is precious, will long that others should taste of that preciousness. Those who have buried all their anxieties and all their terrors in the sufficiency of the atonement, will long that the knowledge of a remedy so effectual should be carried around the globe."

  ~ Thomas Chalmers, quoted by Stuart Piggin and John Roxborogh in "The St. Andrews' Seven" by  (Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 1985), 44.

  * * *

  I praise You, O my God, for not letting me stop satisfied with the initial sip of grace You offered me thirty-one years ago, on November 5, 1982. O, Holy Father, I confess how I wandered about for over twenty years content with a cursory, superficial, distant, and clinical knowledge of You... Though Your light had shone in my heart, and though Your Gospel was no longer veiled – yet, like the blind man at Bethsaida, I was seeing men, as trees walking – I was still greatly oblivious to the glorious reality – the Summum Bonum:  that the Lord Jesus Christ died to bring me back to You – that I might sup with God ~ to experientially know and to taste Your preciousness! John 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 

  John Newton's words reflect my own experience:

  I cannot consider myself to have been a believer, (in the full sense of the word,) till a considerable time afterwards.

  I confess though I knew You, yet my faith was weak and faint – and I knew it not! Like Martha, though I was occupied with many religious activities, my appetite for You was severely stunted. Like so many in the day of Your incarnation, though I had studied Your Word, I had not truly begun to learn what it meant to come to You to have life.

  Thank You and praise You for demonstrating Your Fatherly love for me by chastening me:  bringing me to the end of myself and bringing me to my senses. Bless You, Abba, for graciously shaking up my soul in mid-life, for leading me through higher and higher waters, and through hotter and hotter fires – so I might not rest content until I found in Christ's atonement strong consolation for all my soul's anxieties and terrors, and until You worked "to break [my] schemes of worldly joy, that [I] might seek [my] all in Thee."¹ Thank You for bringing me teachers like Jonathan Edwards and Martyn Lloyd-Jones to help me begin to see my lukewarmness and to see "the great and glorious possibilities of the Christian life," so I might not stop satisfied with an abstract and detached knowledge of You, a so-called "life" devoid of the inner witness and blessed communion of the Holy Spirit. Bless You for showing me mercy, for choosing me and lifting me from the ash heap to bring me near to You so I might begin to taste of Your preciousness – to drink experientially the living waters and begin to know sensibly the happiness of communion with You, the only true God through the Lord Jesus Christ!  And now, having tasted and having received of Your fullness, keep me thirsting for even more of You, so I might receive of Your fullness grace upon grace upon grace upon grace ... !

  

  "But the communications of divine favour and grace will satisfy, but never surfeit. A gracious soul, though still desiring more of God, never desires more than God. The gifts of Providence so far satisfy them that they are content with such things as they have. I have all, and abound, Phil. iv. 18." ~ Matthew Henry on Psalm 36:8.

  

  

  

  

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

  

  Psalm 65
  1  Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
  and to you shall vows be performed.
  2  O you who hears prayer,
  to you shall all flesh come.
  3  When iniquities prevail against me,
  you atone for our transgressions.
  4  Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
  to dwell in your courts!
  We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
  the holiness of your temple!
  5  By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
  O God of our salvation,
  the hope of all the ends of the earth
  and of the farthest seas;

  Ah, but my Redeemer, though I have been privileged to dwell in Your courts and to taste of Your supreme blessedness and all-surpassing satisfaction – hear now Your Word and Your exceeding great and precious promises – have You not written them? – "to You ALL flesh shall come" – and "WE shall be satisfied"? Can I be content with the blessedness of dwelling in Your courts and the satisfaction of Your goodness, for it is written that You are not just the hope of Karen, but You are the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest seas? Woe to me if lapse into ease here in Zion (Amos 6:1)! God forbid I be numbered among the complacent daughters (Isaiah 32:9-11)!

  As I press on to finish the race set before me in the strength You provide, may I be used by You to help other souls to taste Your preciousness. Continue to pour out upon me the Spirit of grace and supplications, that I might be a faithful and alert watchman on the wall, pleading day and night for You to shine Your face again upon Your people, to pour down Your Spirit upon Your Church for her reviving, that we may comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height of Your love that passes all understanding – for it is only as we begin to count You as precious will we long for other souls in all the nations, other sheep all around the globe  – including those in the olive tree (ethnic Israel ~ Romans 9-11), to come and taste of Your preciousness along with us. Surely, still there is room in Your courts for all who are thirsty!

  Psalm 67
  1  May God be gracious to us and bless us
  and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
  2  that your way may be known on earth,
  your saving power among all nations.
  3  Let the peoples praise you, O God;
  let all the peoples praise you!
  4  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
  for you judge the peoples with equity
  and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
  5  Let the peoples praise you, O God;
  let all the peoples praise you!
  6  The earth has yielded its increase;
  God, our God, shall bless us.
  7  God shall bless us;
  let all the ends of the earth fear him!

  "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of hattle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:  but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night:  but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea:  in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one." (Zechariah 14:3-9, KJV)

  How delightful to piety and to benevolence to have the divine assurance of a period of light awaiting the Church and the world! — the light of knowledge, and purity, and felicity, triumphing over, and chasing fully away the darkness of ignorance, unholiness, and misery! The glory of God is dear to piety; the happiness of men is dear to benevolence. Amidst all that may be strange and perplexing in the present position and aspects of the Church, amidst the partially cheering and the partially disheartening and alarming, let us still be looking onwards to the coming day, — when, amid the gathering shadows of the evening, "the Sun Of Righteousness" shall shine forth in unclouded splendour; — when "the light of that Sun shall be as the light of seven days." And, having drunk of the "living waters" ourselves, and experienced their life-giving virtue, let us seek, by every means in our power, to send them forth in all directions, for the revival of the Church at large, and for the healing and life of the nations. When blessed ourselves, it is that we may be a blessing. And while we open channels for these "waters of life" in heathen lands to water "the desolate heritages of the Gentiles," let us not overlook the sacred duty, of seeking a channel by which we may cause them to return to the land from which they originally flowed; that the people to whom we owe them may share with us in the joy! Meanwhile TO YOU "the Spirit and the bride say. Come. And let him that heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

  ~ Ralph Wardlaw in Ralph Wardlaw’s “Lectures on the Prophecies of Zechariah” (Second Edition 1869, ed. by The Rev. J. S. Wardlaw; (Stoke-on-Trent: Tentmaker Publications, reprinted 2002 & 2007), 387, 403-404, boldface mine.

   

  ---

  ¹ From verse 7 of John Newton's "Prayer Answered by Crosses"  (I Asked The LORD That I Might Grow)

  These inward trials I employ
  From self and pride to set thee free,
  To break thy schemes of worldly joy,
  That thou mayst seek thy all in me.

   

   

  Related:

  God works through bad economies for good: A retrospective - my testimony
  “I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)”
  birthday reflection: “the great & glorious possibilities” ~ “Now therefore, give me this mountain”
  Once More I Entreat (the Former AND the Latter Rain) ~ a birthday exultation
  Remembering the pit & bog so I might rejoice in Him & you might also! (Psalm 40:1-3)
  An humble attempt for my rejoicing ~ O! for thousands upon thousands! ~ Edwards, Sutcliff, myself
  the unexpected transport of joy ~ seeing the travail of His soul
  Reformation Day reflections ~ A.W. Tozer “the doctrine of justification by faith has … fallen into evil company…”
  Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
  Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? “so that [we] might be WITH HIM” ~ Mark 3:14
  Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
  Why do you watch the same movie over and over?

  • 2:24 PM
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