In his blog post titled, "Happiness Is," my friend Daniel ( @daniel626 ) cited Psalm 16:11 (NKJV):

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

In response, I made the following comment:

I LOVE the title! Many Christians make an incorrect distinction between happiness and joy, but the distinction that should be made is between earthly happiness/joy and heavenly happiness/joy. The latter is rooted in and flows from God and God alone, and there is NO true, durable, and genuine happiness or joy found apart from our relationship to God in Christ. God is not a vile curmudgeon, but rather a loving, exuberant heavenly Father who makes available fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore to all who will come to Him!

Related to that... my recent post "you would begin by blowing out all his lamps..."  included Edward Payson's testimony of God's increasing his happiness in God. Payson wrote that God made him "as happy as he could be in this world ... by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment." Payson also reminds us, "Christians might avoid much trouble and inconvenience, if they would only believe what they profess,— that God is able to make them happy without any thing else." (pp. 410-411)

On that post, my friend Elizabeth ( @stephensmustang ) commented: "It is such a difference in joy and happiness."

I commented back to her:

Yes, when [you] define happiness as fleeting, fleshly, worldly happiness (which I know you do).

I really would love for the Church to reclaim the rightful use of words "happy" and "happiness"! The devil has so many souls hoodwinked. He wants us to believe the lie that God does not want us to be happy (e.g. - see Genesis 3 and the fall), but that's so very far from the truth. God is not at all against our happiness, so long as that happiness is rooted in and flows from Him. Any happiness we may find apart from Him will diminish and exclude God, and that is no true happiness.

Psalm 146:5 you'll often find translated, "Blessed..." but the Hebrew word there is "esher," meaning "happy."  "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God" (KJV).

Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

From Strong's Concordance:

be glad = probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome:--cheer up, be (make) glad, (have, make) joy(-ful), be (make) merry, (cause to, make to) rejoice, X very.

rejoice = to spin round (under the influence of any violent emotion), i.e. usually rejoice, or (as cringing) fear:--be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice

shout for joy = to creak (or emit a stridulous sound), i.e. to shout (usually for joy):--aloud for joy, cry out, be joyful (greatly, make to) rejoice, (cause to) shout (for joy), (cause to) sing (aloud, for joy, out), triumph.

Thanks for bearing with me here, dear sister, this is one of my pet peeves.   (((hugs)))

Once again, I bring you more of Payson's words on the source of true happiness:

   "Suppose a son is walking with his father, in whose wisdom he places the most entire confidence. He follows wherever his father leads, though it may be through thorns and briars, cheerfully and contentedly.

Another son, we will suppose, distrusts his father's wisdom and love, and, when the path is rough or uneven, begins to murmur and repine, wishing that he might be allowed to choose his own path; and though he is obliged to follow, it is with great reluctance and discontent.

Now, the reason that Christians in general do not enjoy more of God's presence, is, that they are not willing to walk in his path, when it crosses their own inclinations. But we shall never be happy, until we acquiesce with perfect cheerfulness in all his decisions, and follow wherever he leads without a murmur."

Sept. 26 [1821].   "While lying awake last night, enjoyed most delightful views of God as a Father. Felt that my happiness is as dear to him as to myself; that he would not willingly hurt one hair of my head, nor let me suffer a moment's unnecessary pain. Felt that he was literally as willing to give as I could be to ask. Seemed, indeed, to have nothing to ask for."

I John 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

More from Payson:

• "Who wants candles when he has the sun?" ~ Edward Payson | letter 124 on assurance & joy
• "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
• "My situation was so dangerous, so hopeless, that nothing less than the incarnation..." (Payson)
• "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)
• Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"
• "you would begin by blowing out all his lamps..." ~ Edward Payson

Other related posts:

my other letters on assurance and fighting for joy
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
Finding pleasure in Him
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
Our Twisted View of God
All things (even BAD things) work together for good... (from the archives)
Christian, don't waste your life whining
Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
"The duties of religion are delightful" ~ the fruit of "The Life of God in the Soul of Man"
Martin Luther: "The Spirit ... renders the heart glad & free, as the law demands"
Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
"the treasure you can never find in a mall" ~ Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!
"Too long, alas! I vainly sought for happiness below ... " | letter 150 on fighting for joy
The Thorny Hedge for your joy (Hosea 2) | Letter 144 on assurance & fighting for joy
Her Eyes Were Still Restrained ~ "When it looks like he is buried for good..."
Naphtali News: Happy Anniversary

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Emphasis mine.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo credits:

I edited the original work found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goalposts_and_thorny_hedge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1086796.jpg / CC BY-SA/3.0

"bottle_2618" - own photo / CC BY-SA/3.0

"you would begin by blowing out by blowing out all his lamps..." ~ Edward Payson| Letter 154 on assurance & fighting for joy...

In my last post, the 6th sola: "The Price of salvation is the Prize of salvation" I blogged about John Piper's most recent sermon "God in Christ: the Price and the Prize of the Gospel."

Edward Payson (1783-1827), pastor of the Congregational Church in Portland, Maine for twenty years, had learned experientially that the Price of salvation is the Prize of salvation. Almost two hundred years later we have the privilege to witness the rivers of living water flowing out of his heart (John 7:37-39) through the testimony he gave with his mouth in the month prior to his passing into the glory everlasting on October 23, 1827.

   Sept. 26. "Christians might avoid much trouble and inconvenience, if they would only believe what they profess,— that God is able to make them happy without any thing else. They imagine that if such a dear friend were to die, or such and such blessings to be removed, they should be miserable; whereas God can make them a thousand times happier without them. To mention my own case,—God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, he has come in and filled up its place; and now, when I am a cripple, and not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be, and, if I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety."

   "If God had told me some time ago, that he was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that he should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment; I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing his purpose. And yet, how is his wisdom manifest even in this ! for if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps, and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters, to let in the light of heaven."

~ John Piper in his October 13, 2012 sermon on Philippians 1:12-16,
God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him

What lamps have you been idolizing and rejoicing in that prevent you from basking in the True Light?

basking:
1. to lie in or be exposed to a pleasant warmth: to bask in the sunshine.
2. to enjoy a pleasant situation: He basked in royal favor.

In this Thanksgiving season, will you strive and labor diligently to rest in Christ, to be a weaned child, to hope in the LORD, to trust His inscrutable ways (Hebrews 3:7-4:16; Psalm 131), and ask God to strengthen you by His grace to walk by faith and not by sight, to thank and bless Him each and every time He blows out one of those lamps?

Let us not despise what appear to us very strange modes, as our heavenly Father wisely and lovingly works to accomplish His good pleasure and His good purposes in our lives.

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Job 5:17-18
Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal.

Psalms 65:4
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!

Source: "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 410-411, (boldface, mine). HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=nAZMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. The Memoir is also included in Volume 1 of "The Complete Works of Edward Payson," published by Sprinkle Publications (1987); page numbers the same.

Photo credit: Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hammershoi_sunlight.jpg /{{PD-Art|PD-old-75}}

basking. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/basking (accessed: November 16, 2012).

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

More from Payson:

• "Who wants candles when he has the sun?" ~ Edward Payson | letter 124 on assurance & joy
• "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
• "My situation was so dangerous, so hopeless, that nothing less than the incarnation..." (Payson)
• "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)
• Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"

A couple more saints from the great cloud of witnesses who experienced happiness in Christ through their sufferings:

• "Happy are they who can say..." ~ J.C. Philpot | Letter 139 on assurance & fighting for joy
• To take whatever thy Father's pleasure | "May adversities uninterrupted be my lot" ~ Edward Griffin

My other letters on assurance & fighting for joy including...

• Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
• Rejoicing here on the Potter's Wheel (Psalm 66) | Letter 96 on assurance & joy
• year end reflections, # 1: "end of the year ... in the midst of heartache" | Letter 97 on joy
• year end reflections, # 2: rejoicing in "The Often Unwanted but Necessary Gift" | Letter 98 on joy
• disappointment ~ appointment | letter 119 on assurance & fighting for joy
• The Thorny Hedge for your joy (Hosea 2) | Letter 144 on assurance & fighting for joy

Other related posts on enjoying the Prize of our salvation:

• Finding pleasure in Him
• Our Twisted View of God
• All things (even BAD things) work together for good... (from the archives)
• don't waste your new year ~ teach us, satisfy us, make us glad (Psalm 90:12-15)
• Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
• Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
• The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)
• Hast thou not yet seen ... Ev'ry billow tenderly ordained by Me!
• As the Visible Disappoints
• Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
• this earthly manna ~ the Christian hedonist's plea
• Lenten Reflections: When he broke all supply of bread (My breaking is for your blessing)
• Why read Christian biography? To help us examine our love for God.

This past weekend I had the privilege to travel to the Twin Cities' area to attend the Desiring God seminar, "A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer." (Many thanks to my husband! ) The first section of the seminar addressed the Christian's communion with God. As way of introduction, Dr. Piper read excerpts from the lives of John G. Paton and John Newton, and these words of John Newton especially grabbed me:

"But though I cannot doubt that this change, so far as it prevailed, was wrought by the Spirit and power of God, yet still I was greatly deficient in many respects. I was in some degree affected with a sense of my enormous sins; but I was little aware of the innate evils of my heart. I had no apprehension of the spirituality and extent of the law of God; the hidden life of a Christian, as it consists in communion with God by Jesus Christ; a continual dependence on him for hourly supplies of wisdom, strength, and comfort, was a mystery of which I had as yet no knowledge. I acknowledged the Lord's mercy in pardoning what was past, but depended chiefly upon my own resolution to do better for the time to come... I cannot consider myself to have been a believer, (in the full sense of the word,) till a considerable time afterwards."

Today is the 30th anniversary of my being born again (please see my post here), but I confess to you that I had a similar testimony to that of John Newton for many, many years:

little aware of the innate evils of my heart

no apprehension of the spirituality and extent of the law of God

no apprehension of the hidden life of a Christian, as it consists in communion with God by Jesus Christ

a continual dependence on him for hourly supplies of wisdom, strength, and comfort, was a mystery of which I had as yet no knowledge

Though I do consider myself to have been a believer from November 5, 1982 –– for I did see changes in my life and my outlook and my attitudes that went far beyond mere fleshly resolutions which I could have mustered up in my own sheer human willpower –– like Newton, I cannot consider myself to have been a believer, (in the full sense of the word,) till a considerable time afterwards.

I would say that considerable time afterwards first began in 2005 as I was faced with a situation in which I had to forgive someone, and I bluntly and rebelliously replied, "I don't think I can forgive you."¹ Thanks be to God, the Hound of Heaven did not leave me in that despicable state ~ but His mercy and grace pursued me ~ even there! And it was the very next day through a message from a family member, God's Holy Spirit took the Word of God and struck my heart like a hammer and brought conviction to my soul through the command to forgive one another as the Lord has forgiven you, and Jesus' words if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you. At that point, I was broken-hearted over my sin and my inherent sinfulness in a way I'd never been before – at long last I began to see my total depravity, and with that, for the very first time, I got a glimpse of how glorious and bright and wonderful the salvation that God had wrought in Christ on my behalf. Though prior to that time, I could have shown you Bible verses about God's manifold mercies and His great love, suddenly those concepts became more than notion, they jumped from being printed on the page of the Bible to being written upon my heart. God Almighty opened the eyes of my heart so I might begin to see how amazing His grace really was. Like John Newton, I finally saw myself as a wretch, but I regret to say that it took nearly 23 years of my being a Christian –– 22 plus years of singing "Amazing Grace" but not really knowing amazing grace in the heart! Deficient? Yes! I should say so! And then in 2007, as I was reading some of Jonathan Edwards' "Religious Affections" (see my post here), I quickly saw my own religious affections to be seriously lacking, or as Newton put it, yet still I was greatly deficient in many respects.

After the seminar, I did a little hunting around on the internet, and found this fuller context and background of the Newton quote given by Rev. John Cecil, who wrote a memoir of Newton's life:

  Mr. N.'s history is now brought down to the time of his arrival in Ireland, in the year 1748; and the progress he had hitherto made in religion will be best related in his own words. I shall, therefore, make a longer extract than usual, because it is important to trace the operation of real religion in the heart. Speaking of the ship in which he lately sailed, he says, "There, were no persons on board to whom I could open myself with freedom, concerning the state of my soul; none from whom I could ask advice. As to books, I had a New Testament, Stanhope [translation of Thomas à Kempis] already mentioned, and a volume of Bishop Beveridge's Sermons, one of which, upon our Lord's passion, affected me much. In perusing the New Testament, I was struck with several passages, particularly that of the fig-tree, Luke xiii. the case of St. Paul, 1 Tim. i. but particularly that of the prodigal, Luke xv. I thought that had never been so nearly exemplified as by myself. And then the goodness of the father in receiving, nay, in running to meet such a son, and this intended only to illustrate the Lord's goodness to returning sinners! Such reflections gaining upon me, I continued much in prayer; I saw that the Lord had interposed so far to save me, and I hoped he would do more. Outward circumstances helped in this place to make me still more serious and earnest in crying to him, who alone could relieve me; and sometimes I thought I could be content to die even for want of food, so I might but die a believer.

"Thus far I was answered, that before we arrived in Ireland I had a satisfactory evidence, in my own mind, of the truth of the Gospel, as considered in itself, and of its exact suitableness to answer all my needs. 1 saw, that, by the way they were pointed out, God might declare, not his mercy only, but his justice also, in the pardon of sin, on account of the obedience and sufferings of Jesus Christ. My judgment, at that time, embraced the sublime doctrine of ' God manifest in the flesh, reconciling the world unto himself.' I had no idea of those systems, which allow the Saviour no higher honour than that of an upper servant, or at the most a demi-god. I stood in need of an Almighty Saviour, and such a one I found described in the New Testament. Thus far the Lord had wrought a marvellous thing; I was no longer an infidel; I heartily renounced my former profaneness, and had taken up some right notions; was seriously disposed, and sincerely touched with a sense of the undeserved mercy I had received, in being brought safe through so many dangers. I was sorry for my past misspent life, and proposed an immediate reformation. I was quite freed from the habit of swearing, which seemed to have been deeply rooted in me, as a second nature. Thus, to all appearance, I was a new man.

"But though I cannot doubt that this change, so far as it prevailed, was wrought by the Spirit and power of God, yet still I was greatly deficient in many respects. I was in some degree affected with a sense of my enormous sins; but I was little aware of the innate evils of my heart. I had no apprehension of the spirituality and extent of the law of God; the hidden life of a Christian, as it consists in communion with God by Jesus Christ; a continual dependence on him for hourly supplies of wisdom, strength, and comfort, was a mystery of which I had as yet no knowledge. I acknowledged the Lord's mercy in pardoning what was past, but depended chiefly upon my own resolution to do better for the time to come. I had no Christian friend or faithful minister to advise me, that my strength was no more than my righteousness; and though I soon began to inquire for serious books, yet, not having spiritual discernment, I frequently made a wrong choice; and I was not brought in the way of evangelical preaching or conversation, (except the few times when I heard but understood not,) for six years after this period. Those things the Lord was pleased to discover to me gradually. I learnt them here a little, and there a little, by my own painful experience, at a distance from the common means and ordinances, and in the midst of the same course of evil company, and bad examples, I had been conversant with for some time.

"From this period I could no more make a mock of sin, or jest with holy things; I no more questioned the truth of Scripture, or lost a sense of the rebukes of conscience. Therefore I consider this as the beginning of my return to God, or rather of his return to me; but I cannot consider myself to have been a believer, (in the full sense of the word,) till a considerable time afterwards."

~ Source: "The Works of John Newton to which are Prefixed Memoirs on His life by the Rev. John Cecil, Complete in Two Volumes (Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt, 1839)," 23-24.

And in Newton's "Works, Volume I," I found this wonderful letter Newton had written in which he conveys his experience of growth in communion with God and expresses his passionate desire and hunger and thirst for deeper and fuller and richer communion with God:

LETTER X.

April 29,1776.

My Dear Miss M ,—, –– I thank you for your last; and I rejoice in the Lord's goodness to you. To be drawn by love, exempted from those distressing terrors and temptations which some are beset with; to be favoured with the ordinances and means of grace, and connected with those, and with those only, who are disposed and qualified to assist and encourage you in seeking the Saviour; these are peculiar privileges, which all concur in your case; he loves you, he deals gently with you, he provides well for you, and accompanies every outward privilege with his special blessing; and I trust he will lead you on from strength to strength, and show you still greater things than you have yet seen. They whom he teaches are always increasing in knowledge, both of themselves and of him. The heart is deep, and like Ezekiel's vision, presents so many chambers of imagery, one within another, that it requires time to get a considerable acquaintance with it, and we shall never know it thoroughly. It is now more than twenty-eight years since the Lord began to open mine to my own view; and from that time to this, almost every day has discovered to me, something which till then was unobserved; and the farther I go, the more I seem convinced that I have entered but a little way. A person that travels in some parts of Derbyshire may easily be satisfied that the country is cavernous; but how large, how deep, how numerous, the caverns may be, which are hidden from us by the surface of the ground, and what is contained in them, are questions which our nicest inquiries cannot fully answer.

Thus I judge of my heart, that it is very deep and dark, and full of evil; but as to particulars, I know not one of a thousand. And if our own hearts are beyond our comprehension, how much more incomprehensible is the heart of Jesus! If sin abounds in us, grace and love superabound in him; his ways and thoughts are higher than ours, as the heavens are higher than the earth; his love has a height, and depth, and length, and breadth, that passeth all knowledge; and his riches of grace are unsearchable riches, Eph. iii. 8. 18, 19. All that we have received or can receive from him, or know of him in this life, compared with what he is in himself, or what he has done for us, is but as the drop of a bucket compared with the ocean, or a single ray of light in respect of the sun. The waters of the sanctuary flow to us at first almost upon a level, ankle deep, so graciously does the Lord condescend to our weakness:  but they rise as we advance, and constrain us to cry out with the apostle, O the depth! We find before us, as Dr. Watts beautifully expresses it,

A sea of love and grace unknown
Without a bottom or a shore.

O the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. It will be growing upon us through time, yea, I believe through eternity. What an astonishing and what a cheering thought that this high and lofty One should unite himself to our nature, that so, in a way worthy of his adorable perfections, he might by his Spirit, unite us to himself! Could such a thought have arisen in our hearts, without the warrant of his word (but it is a thought which no created mind was capable of conceiving till he revealed it,) it would have been presumption and blasphemy; but now he has made it known, it is the foundation of our hope, and an exhaustible spring of life and joy. Well may we say, Lord, what is man that thou shouldst thus visit him!—I am, &c.

~ Source:  "The Works of John Newton to which are Prefixed Memoirs on His life by the Rev. John Cecil, Complete in Two Volumes (Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt, 1839)," 269.

 

O the depth!
Chamber to chamber!
Glimpse to glimpse!
Drop upon drop!
Drink upon drink!

Grace upon grace!
Glory to glory!
Strength to strength!
O the depth!

"They whom he teaches are always increasing in knowledge, both of themselves and of him. The heart is deep, and like Ezekiel's vision, presents so many chambers of imagery, one within another, that it requires time to get a considerable acquaintance with it, and we shall never know it thoroughly.

"It is now [thirty] years since the Lord began to open mine to my own view; and from that time to this, almost every day has discovered to me, something which till then was unobserved; and the farther I go, the more I seem convinced that I have entered but a little way."

Psalm 65
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!

Ezekiel 47
1  Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2  Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.

3  Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4  Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 5  Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 6  And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7  As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8  And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9  And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 10  Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11  But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12  And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

* * *

CHRISTIAN, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?

* * *

Ephesians 1
15  For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16  I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18  having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19  and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3
14  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

¹ Please see these posts on past hurts, bitterness & forgiving others:

Kingdom-Obsessed People don't keep looking in the rear view mirror at past hurts, # 5
Do you love the saints . . . ALL the saints? (reflections on church hurts)
resting in the love of God & pressing on in friendships (letter 46 on assurance & joy)

For PDF slides of the seminar (and soon to be posted audio & video), please visit: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/seminar-notes-on-a-hunger-for-god--2.

Related posts:

God works through bad economies for good: A retrospective (includes my testimony)
keeping the passover (celebrating my second birth)
All of Your grace, All to Your glory (this day in 1982)
no glory to me, o my Savior ~ only because You chose to favor | a spiritual birthday celebration
The Glory of God in Sovereign Electing Grace
Mistakes about Religion & What Religion Is ~ Henry Scougal
Herein is love ... Vast as the ocean ~ And let him that is athirst come!
The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)
birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
Naphtali Revisited ~ Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
Barabbas we save, Jesus Christ we slay (the mockery of profession ~ decisional regeneration)
Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for . . . (Letter 30 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Links to my posts on true and false religion and legalism

Reference: The Works of John Newton to which are Prefixed Memoirs on His life by the Rev. John Cecil, Complete in Two Volumes (1839) found at <http://books.google.com/books?id=uHZWgFhIC9YC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false>

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Newton.jpg  / {{PD-1923}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant%27s_Cave_-_geograph.org.uk_-_188076.jpg  / CC BY-SA 2.0. Attribution: Dave Dunford. The caption to the photo reads as follows: "I believe this is Giant's Cave... it lies just east of the cavers' parking area at Peakshill, just north of the wall. A small stream issues from the cave entrance (which was being used by sheep to shelter from the hot sun the day I visited)."

"Elizabeth, wading, Bay St. Louis" by Alexander Allison, Summer 1921 found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BayStLouisWading1921.jpg / {{PD-1923}}

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