(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)

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?

“After Job had almost lost himself in the labyrinth of the divine counsels, how contentedly does he sit down, at length, with this thought: 'Though I know not the way that he takes (for his way is in the sea and his path in the great waters, his thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours and it would be presumption in us to pretend to judge of them), yet he knows the way that I take,' . . . ”

~ from Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Job 23

Priest Forever, Do Not Delay!

Serpentine labyrinth to mine eyes
Abba's loving counsels in disguise
The LORD's chastening do not despise

In this season of the dark night,
In ev'ry command, let me delight,
Living by faith, not by sight

Supply me with strength as my days,
Priest forever, do not delay!
Light my candle, turn night to day

Here I watch upon my tower
Holy dew, sprinkle and shower
Strengthen in the day of Your power

As You drink, lift up my head,
Rescue me from slavish dread
Feed me, fill me, O Living Bread!

No vain comfort, but full consolation,
Fresh oil for happy consecration,
Free, unreserved dedication

My soul, fear Jehovah and be blessed,
Hear His Word, joyfully acquiesce,
Bearing fruit with a heart of gladness

* * *

Psalm 110
3  Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day of your power,
in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.
4  The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.” . . .
7  He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.

Psalm 112
1  Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commandments! . . .
4  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright . . .

* * *

"Happy the man fearing Jehovah, in his commandments delighting greatly. There is here not only an obvious connection with the close of the preceding psalm, but an obvious advance upon it or progression of ideas. As the fear of the Lord is there declared to be the principle of all true wisdom, so here it is declared to be the source of all true happiness. The second clause defines the meaning of the first by showing, that the fear there mentioned is a fear consistent with, or rather necessarily involving, a complacent acquiescence in God's will, thus entirely excluding a mere slavish dread, which is incompatible with such a disposition."

~ J.A. Alexander on Psalm 112:1, The Psalms Translated and Explained, Vol. III, 114-115.

* * *

Philippians 2:12-16.
Colossians 1:9-12.

My other letters on assurance and fighting for joy can be found here.

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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