In my post Mistakes about Religion & What Religion Is, I included an excerpt from Henry Scougal's "The Life of God in the Soul of Man." As an addendum to that post, I shared how Charles Wesley had lent the book to George Whitefield, and it was used of God in Whitefield's conversion. Here's a short account of that incident from "George Whitefield's Journals."

In a short time he let me have another book, entitled, The Life of God in the Soul of Man; [and, though I had fasted, watched and prayed, and received the Sacrament so long, yet I never knew what true religion was, till God sent that excellent treatise by the hands of my never-to-be-forgotten friend.]

At my first reading it, I wondered what the author meant by saying, "That some falsely placed religion in going to church, doing hurt to no one, being constant in the duties of the closet, and now and then reaching out their hands to give alms to their poor neighbors," "Alas!" thought I, "if this be not true religion, what is?" God soon showed me; for in reading a few lines further, that "true religion was union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us," a ray of Divine light was instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and from that moment, but not till then, did I know that I must be a new creature.

Upon this, [like the woman of Samaria, when Christ revealed Himself to her at the well] I had no rest [in my soul] till I wrote letters to my relations, telling them there was such a thing as the new birth. I imagined they would have gladly received it. But, alas! my words seemed to them as idle tales. They thought that I was going beside myself, and by their letters, confirmed me in the resolutions I had taken not to go down into the country, but continue where I was, lest that, by any means the good work which God had begun in my soul might be made of none effect...

In Matthew 5, Jesus repeatedly used the words (or variations thereof):

George Whitefield became immersed in the teachings and traditions of the Church of England. However, because the denomination had lost its moorings in the Scripture, Whitefield and countless others were striving to live a moral life and were engaged in a lot of good works, but they were eternally lost. Until Whitefield read those words of Scougal, he had no inkling as to what true religion was. He had no idea that he had to be born again and be made a new creation in Christ! But then the light began to shine, and a few months later, by the grace of God, Whitefield was born again and became a new creation in Christ.

The devil is a liar, and he is working to deceive, to hide from all mankind what the true way of salvation is: by trusting in Jesus Christ by grace through faith and not to trust in ourselves. In I Peter 5, Peter refers to the devil as our adversary who prowls like a roaring lion...

There is a battle going on for the souls of men and women and boys and girls. The devil has always been very, very happy with people who, like Whitefield, are engaged in many, many religious activities, going to church and doing good deeds and so on. And all the while these souls are caught up in a web of  deception, they really do think they are saved, they think their good deeds are earning them salvation and securing for them a place in heaven, but they remain blinded to the truth of the Gospel:

Our sin has separated us from a holy God. The Bible tells us that all men are wholly unrighteous and all our good works are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:8). In order to be saved from God's wrath, in order for us to stand spotless and unashamed in the presence of a holy God, we must confess our sins and put off our own self-righteousness and admit that all our good works cannot earn us salvation and ask God to forgive and cleanse us from all our sins and credit the perfect righteousness of Christ to us for Jesus' sake alone (see Romans 3-4). Jesus Christ is the one and only Mediator between God and man, and no man can come to God but by faith in Him. That sinful men are justified to God not by our works but by faith alone in Jesus Christ was the great truth that broke open in Martin Luther's mind and fueled the Protestant Reformation ~ see Romans 1:16-17.

Is your religion that which has been given from above, that which is in accord with the Bible – or is your religion that which has come down to you through the traditions of men?

Does your church and your denomination teach that you need to be born again and become a new creation in Christ – or does it teach you that all you need to do is to be a good person and to be engaged in good works and you'll be saved from hell?

I'm asking you these things because I have met people right here in the United States who have never heard that they need to be born again. (I was one of them.) And even those once-rigorous evangelical denominations and churches are no longer lifting up Jesus Christ and Him crucified and keeping the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the center of all they do.

Many, many people have attended churches for years and years – they are upstanding citizens and very kind people – and yet they have never heard these teachings! Why? Because the devil has gotten a foothold into the clergy of churches, many of which were once quite orthodox in their teachings, but now these churches have degenerated, much like the Church of England in the 1700s. Such churches have not been careful to guard the good deposit of the Gospel entrusted to them. The creeds and the confessions that are on the books may still be orthodox, but the current preaching and teaching has little to no resemblance to those creeds and confessions. O! how the gold has grown dim! How the beauty has departed! And, as a result many, many sheep have been led astray, being tossed to and fro and have wandered far, far from these cardinal truths of Christianity. They have begun to remake God and God's plan of salvation in their own image. Very much like the very sad and pathetic account we read of God's people throughout the Old Testament... Judges 21:25b Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. ...  Jeremiah 9:3 (KJV) And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

If you are not sure of the state of your own soul, if you are not familiar with the new birth and becoming a new creation, this union of Christ in the soul of man and Christ being formed in us, I pray you would read and prayerfully reflect on Jesus' words to Nicodemus and Paul's words to the Corinthians and the Galatians and the Romans and ask God's Spirit to lead you into all truth.

Ephesians 2:1  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.


John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Is this the whole of your religion:

If so, then know this:  it is not enough.

We see how Whitefield was engaged in many, many good works...

... and yet, he came to see the necessity of the new birth and becoming a new creation in Christ.

(To clarify here: Christians must and should be engaged in good works (faith without works is dead ~ James 2), but the good works don't save us, they are a proof of that our faith is genuine, they are an outworking of the life of God in us. We are saved to do good works. But at the peril of your eternal soul – don't put the cart before the horse!)

Have you come to the understanding that such good works are not the basis by which you are saved but they spring from the life of God in the soul of man, and that true religion has its source in the union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us?

I John 5:10  Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If you have been born again and you are a new creation in Christ, then render to God all the praise, honor and glory for taking you from the ash heap and lifting you up with Christ and seating you in heavenly places, and ask Him to help you to begin to plumb the depths of the riches of the inheritance in Christ that is now yours as a child of God!

Related posts:

My posts on True & False Religion and Legalism
What is a nominal Christian?
the Holy Spirit and Life
Instead of Legalism . . . CHRIST!
Good Friday: Are you glorying in the cross or in your works?
Labor Day: Do you know the blessedness of not working? (Romans 4:1-8)
Second Sunday of Advent: FAQ about Santa Claus and the Gospel of Christ
My deep concern for the churches (my concern over legalism in the church)
Barabbas we save, Jesus Christ we slay (the mockery of profession ~ decisional regeneration)
the converted Pharisee's song: "All my works, all flesh is as grass"
492 years later: You say you want a reformation? (my theses and a call to prayer)
the most diligent prelate and preacher
Combatting the creepy guys (Sola Scriptura + priesthood of believers)
never underestimate the prowling lion
postcards from England: we're never to give way to false gospels
O, Church, to whom are we listening: the frogs or the nightingale?
the church reformed, always being reformed, lest we become deformed (Reformation Day)
"The just person lives by faith." Luther's assurance received! (letter 87 on assurance & joy)

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated 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.

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

Photo credits:

George Whitefield by John Russell - {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serengeti_Lion_2.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0

 
At the end of this year, many of you have looked back at the previous year and are now asking God to help you to be wise with your time in the coming year, and that's a good thing.

In Psalm 90, the Psalmist tells us how we might be good stewards of our time and what is real wisdom for the Christian: that we might come to see that nothing at all outside of God in Jesus Christ can truly satisfy us. And, in contrast, we're unwise and foolish when we seek satisfaction anywhere else.

First and foremost God wants us to be satisfied with Him and His steadfast love. As Christians, we have been born from above and we are no longer citizens of this world. How can we remain satisfied with the fare of this world? Should not the people of God be satisfied with their God?

Isaac Watts' Hymn # 48 is titled "Love to the Creatures Is Dangerous." And so it is! I think that really summarizes it because love for the creature over the Creator is idolatry. We were made new creations in Christ to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We are to have no other gods but Him and to worship Him alone.

When you sit in the doctor's office and you hear the word "cancer" spoken, you begin to think about your life and what you're living for, particularly if you've had a couple close friends die of cancer in the past few years. This is the place I found myself in recently. Now, I will report there is no cancer, and the chance there would have been cancer was small in my case, but I will say this: I consider it a blessing each and every time God reminds me of the limited time I have here, that my life here is just a vapor. We all need to pray to God that we would have such a heart of wisdom, to see that our lives here on this earth are not all there is, so we might pray in earnest, "Teach me to number my days." And not just to pray those words as we close off one year and begin another, or not just to pray those words in times of crisis or disappointment, in those foxhole times, but to pray those words with a sincere heart all of the days of our lives: "Teach me to number my days!"

Have you ever prayed the Psalmist's prayer for yourself?

That's one purpose of the affliction the Psalmist is talking about in verse 15. We get a picture of that in God's dealings with Israel and Judah in the Old Testament as He sent them into exile so they might no longer run after idols, but turn from their idols and seek Him with all their hearts, and come to be satisfied with Him and His goodness (~ Jeremiah 31).

Our flesh doesn't like any sort of affliction or trials or suffering, not one bit! But for the Christian, God will ordain and use affliction in our lives in a similar way because like the prodigal son, many of us have left "home," and we need to be shaken to the core, so we might see that all we've been chasing after is in vain, all so we might come to our senses and run back to our Father in heaven (~ Luke 15). Most of us can quote Romans 8:28, and we like to say that God works all things for our good, but we begin to doubt that when we see things that don't look so good on the surface! But, my brothers and sisters, know this: for the believer, God uses ALL things for our good, no exceptions! (I'd encourage you to see my post All things (even bad things) work together for good... and examine in more depth some of the ways God uses even bad things for our good.)

God's definition of prosperity is not ours!

Many people latch on to that verse in Jeremiah 29 that tells us God's plans for us are to prosper us (NIV) (or are for our wholeness or peace, the Hebrew word there is shalom) – but as with all the Bible, we must take that verse in context! Stop drinking the prosperity gospel Kool-Aid! God's ultimate aim then – and God's ultimate aim has always been that His people might seek Him alone and learn to be satisfied in Him alone! And God's means to do that in the time of Jeremiah was to take His very own people away from the promised land into seventy years of exile! Hosea 2 gives us a picture of this, as well as much of the book of Amos...yet you did not return to Me. God must allow all of our earthy wells of satisfaction to dry up and fail, and in that process we often will feel miserable and such discipline is grievous to us, but know this: He is doing it for the welfare of our soul - for our true shalom, because He loves us, all so we might turn away from the created and seek Him as we ought, to stop drinking of stagnant water and hewing broken cisterns that hold no water and turn to The Wellspring and begin to drink and to keep drinking of Jesus Christ, the Living Water. Only when we're drinking of Jesus Christ are we prospering!

So as you're praying for God to prosper you, unless you have God's mind about that and have a Biblical understanding of prosperity, you're going to have a very different sense about what that really means – and you will be shocked and nonplussed when things don't go according to your plan!

Perhaps God is taking you into some kind of exile, or you have been in exile for some time. If you are His child, do not despise His chastening. He is doing it for your blessing and for the welfare of your soul. Our Father is doing it because He loves you and He wants you to turn back to Him alone for all your satisfaction and joy because that is for your ultimate good: all that is earthly cannot compare to Him. As Edward Payson said, "Who wants candles, when he has the sun?"

How do your prayers compare with those of the Psalmists?

Have you prayed to God and asked Him to satisfy you – or have you continued to badger Him with prayers asking Him to give you more and more and more worldly stuff to satisfy you? To bring you a spouse? Or a child? Or a friend? Or a job promotion? Or academic, career or ministry success? Or restored health? Or a new gadget? I'm not saying all these things are wrong or sinful, but they become sinful to us when we elevate them above God Himself.

What characterizes your prayers? Have you pleaded for those types of things – or have you pleaded to know more and more of God's love for you in Jesus Christ (see the end of Ephesians 3)?

Look at what the Psalmists were doing. Examine the words and phrases they were using: panting, fainting, thirsting, longing, crying out, following hard, and so on. Do such words describe your relationship with God, your pursuit of the living God – or do they describe your pursuit of the earthly? What are you zealous for? Are you seeking earthly joy – or are you seeking Jesus Christ, the believer's exceeding Joy? The supreme blessedness and the chief ambition in the Christian life is for us to seek the face of the living God:

One thing! Our God commands and demands our whole-hearted worship! But that command and that demand is for our good and our blessing for know this: any other worship and any other seeking will always end up a disappointment to us, but God Himself is NEVER a disappointment!

Have you turned from idols?

Jesus Christ opened the way for us to worship God, to dwell In His house, to gaze upon His beauty and to inquire in His temple through the sacrifice of His body and His blood. Are you wasting His atonement? Are you crushing the Lamb of God underfoot? The Son of God humbled Himself, He came to earth and took the form of a man, He was obedient unto death, even death on the cross. He died so you might live through Him. He died to bing you back to God. Apart from Jesus Christ, we were helpless, vile sinners, dead in our sins and transgressions and eternally estranged from a holy God, with no means to approach Him. How often are you availing yourself of that blood-bought privilege to go to God and to dwell in His temple, to abide with Him and sup with Him? Jesus Christ is our Captain and forerunner, having entered into the veil, in the very Presence of God in the Most Holy Place, all so His brothers and sisters might follow Him there and glorify God by enjoying Him together there. Are you showing contempt for Jesus' ripped flesh and shed blood?

Is the testimony of the Thessalonian church your testimony: have you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God? Or are you continuing to seek after idols and serve idols?

Have you prayed to God and asked Him to satisfy you? Have you asked God to wean you from your idols – all your idols? Do you hate the sin that drives Him from your breast? Have you asked God to help you to know Him and Him alone as your perfect portion and your great reward – to know that wherever He has you, no matter the circumstance, that place is a pleasant place because God is there with you – even in the night seasons, even as the world around you is shaken, even as you walk in the valley of the shadow of death? Have you continued to pray that you might be satisfied with Christ and Him alone, that you might rejoice all your days?

The everlasting covenant begets everlasting joy!

Matthew Henry wrote this about Psalm 90:14:

There's a quality of joy offered to us in Jesus Christ that transcends and supersedes and surpasses any and all earthly joys:

In Isaiah 24, we read of the coming judgment and the day will come when

Any and all joys which are not rooted in Jesus Christ are going to grow dark. Any and all earthly gladness will be banished.

Why should those who are united with Christ continue to seek joy outside Christ?

Why should those who are seated in the heavenly places continue to seek earthly gladness?

In Isaiah 61, we read of the LORD's everlasting covenant with us through Jesus Christ (the first portion of the chapter is read aloud by Jesus Christ in the synagogue in Luke 4 as He begins His public ministry) – and along with that everlasting covenant comes everlasting joy:

Christian, if you are not looking at your life as a gift from God, given to you so you might be satisfied with His steadfast love in Jesus Christ, then you are wasting your life – no, actually – you are wasting Christ's life in you! You are missing out on a joy and gladness that is exceedingly above all you could ask or imagine, exceedingly above any and all joys the world has to offer. You are showing contempt for the God who purchased you with His very own precious blood and you are refusing the gift of joy Christ died to give you!

Everlasting joy is joy to the world!

One more thing. As we come to know this joy, it is not just for our enjoyment but it is also for the enjoyment of all the nations. Many people slam what John Piper calls Christian hedonism ~ "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him" because they consider it self-centered, but let me tell you this: such pure joy in God is truly joy to the world, flowing far as the curse is found!

In Isaiah 61, after we read of the person and work of Christ in ushering in the New Covenant, after we read of those who are part of that everlasting covenant in Jesus Christ and the everlasting joy they experience, we continue to read how such God-glorifying joy is bubbling up and sprouting up and flowing out to all the ends of the earth as the waters cover the sea! THIS is the fulfillment of the great commission!

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
Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
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
Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
Why do I write poetry?
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
Our Twisted View of God
Lenten Reflections: When he broke all supply of bread (My breaking is for your blessing)
If the curly fry doesn't satisfy, what does ("Satisfy")
How's your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
Finding pleasure in Him
Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!

Letter 4 on joy (true joy is based on our relationship with God through Jesus Christ)
Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
Don't Waste Your Singleness | Single one ... be single-eyed
I'm anguished over you (Letter 39 on assurance & fighting for joy)
to My seeking unmarried child (letter 40 on assurance & fighting for joy)
my dear single sister in Christ: Christ & Christ alone for your joy (Letter 62 on joy)
You whine and complain (Letter 70 on assurance & fighting for joy)
a conversation with Jesus about misplaced joy ("do not rejoice in this" - letter 73 on joy)
adopting God's purpose for the nations is for your joy & His glory (Letter 76 on joy)
on our anniversary
wives, your husband is not your Husband | letter 77 on assurance & joy
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
One Friend alone | letter 100 on assurance & fighting for joy
"yet you did not return to ME" ~ (Amos 4:6-11) | letter 126 on assurance & joy

my posts tagged Don't Waste Your Life
my posts tagged Christian hedonism

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To know Your abounding pleasure
Surpassing all earthly measure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ Karen

My other posts on assurance and joy including:

• Letter 1 on assurance and fighting for joy
• Letter 3 on assurance and fighting for joy (Jesus' desire vs. Satan's desire)
• Letter 10 on assurance and fighting for joy (joy is for ALL!)
• Letter 18 on assurance and fighting for joy (my testimony of joy)
• John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
• "give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
• You whine and complain (Letter 70 on assurance & fighting for joy)
• Remembering the pit & bog so I might rejoice in Him & you might also! (Psalm 40:1-3) | letter 74
• Can there be more? | letter 113 on assurance & fighting for joy
• the lover's inquiry | letter 114 on fighting for joy
• don't be afraid | letter 115 on assurance & fighting for joy
• come sinners, make consideration of Israel's Consolation ~letter 132 on assurance & fighting for joy

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



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

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