Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. This may cause raising of eyebrows, for justification is the gift of God on which since Luther evangelicals have laid the greatest stress, and we are accustomed to say, almost without thinking, that free justification is God’s supreme blessing to us sinners. Nonetheless, careful thought will show the truth of the statement we have just made...

That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else...

In Romans, Paul’s fullest exposition of his gospel—“the clearest gospel of all,” to Luther’s mind—justification through the cross of Christ is expounded first (chaps. 1—5), and made basic to everything else. Regularly Paul speaks of righteousness, remission of sins, and justification as the first and immediate consequence for us of Jesus’ death (Rom 3:22-26; 2 Cor 5:18-21; Gal 3:13-14; Eph 1:7; and so on). And as justification is the primary blessing, so it is the fundamental blessing, in the sense that everything else in our salvation assumes it, and rests on it—adoption included.

But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. Some textbooks on Christian doctrine—Berkhof’s, for instance—treat adoption as a mere subsection of justification, but this is inadequate. The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. In justification, God declares of penitent believers that they are not, and never will be, liable to the death that their sins deserve, because Jesus Christ, their substitute and sacrifice, tasted death in their place on the cross.

This free gift of acquittal and peace, won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting. But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.

The point has never been better put than in the following extract from The Doctrine of Justification, by James Buchanan:

According to the Scriptures, pardon, acceptance, and adoption, are distinct privileges, the one rising above the other in the order in which they have been stated . . . while the first two properly belong to (the sinner’s) justification, as being both founded on the same relation––that of a Ruler and Subject––the third is radically distinct from them, as being founded on a nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation––that between a Father and his Son. . . . . There is a manifest difference between the position of a servant and a friend–– and also between that of a servant and a son. . . . A closer and dearer intimacy than that of a master and servant is said to subsist between Christ and His people. “Henceforth I call you not servants:  for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:  but I have called you friends” (John 15:15); and a still closer and dearer relation is said to exist in consequence of adoption; for “Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). The privilege of adoption presupposes pardon and acceptance, but is higher than either; for, “To as many as received Him, to them gave he power”––not inward strength, but authority, right, or privilege––”to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). This is a higher privilege than of Justification, as being founded on a closer and more endearing relation––“Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.” (I John 3:1) (pp. 276-77)

~  Excerpt taken from  J.I. Packer’s “Knowing God” (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press), Sons of God (Chapter 19), 206-208. (You can read Packer's words in their fuller context in my post here.)

Photo credit: Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaspalast_M%C3%BCnchen_1891_110b.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"True grace hates monopolies."

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

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

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

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

Matthew Henry described it like this (emphasis mine):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Paul concludes the chapter with these words

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

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

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

* * *

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

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

and eternal joy!

~ Karen

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

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Photo credit: Church Pews (FAL )

In my previous post, Calvinism, TULIP, missions and prayer to the Lord of the harvest, I shared the first plenary talk from the Ekballo Midwest Conference held April 19-20, 2013, given by Scott Anderson. The second talk at Ekballo Midwest was given by David Sitton, President of To Every Tribe (http:/www.toeverytribe.com). (You can read more about Sitton and his wife here and here.)

http://youtu.be/6JBqc29qmkA

Here's an excerpt from Sitton's talk. . .

In other words, some of us will be called to go, while others will be called to stay –– but as Christians, no matter where we are and no matter what our calling, each and every one of us must remember that we're not civilians, that we are not Christian cruise ships, but rather we are on battleships.

Or, as John Piper put it, all Christians must be engaged:

Know this: God's purpose for your life is that you engage in His being known and praised and enjoyed and feared among peoples where He is scarcely, if at all, known at all. He wants you to be engaged.

You've got three options:

Go

Send

or

Disobey.

That's all.

~ Source:  John Piper's message based on Psalm 67, "Pursuing the Glory of God in the Gladness in the Nations in God"

May our God strengthen us to comprehend the width and length and depth and height –– to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge, that His love might constrain and compel us, so we might no longer live for ourselves, but live for Him who died for us and rose again (to live for Him really is true life, is it not?!), and joyfully respond to our Master's call to be His ambassadors, and to count it a privilege to be engaged in His mission that He be might be known and praised and enjoyed and feared among all the nations. God forbid we bow down to the American dream and gain the whole world, but find our souls languishing and withering as we waste our lives lounging on Christian cruise ships. God be merciful to us sinners, for the sake of Your name! Amen.

Here's the video which David Sitton mentioned in his talk...

http://youtu.be/FzIkh6qfbRY

Photo credit: Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gastineau_Channel_with_anchored_cruise_ship_23.JPG / CC BY-SA 3.0.