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 a blog post far, far, far away... I asked @llamalima (self-confessed "movie junkie") the following question:

Why do you watch the same movie over and over?

Here was his response:

Only certain movies, because they are beautiful? Like American Beauty, 5 Centimetres I have watched a multiple times in the past, Matchstick Men is popular too...so yeah, i watch it because it's interesting and usually there is a lot of layering that takes at least a few watches to unravel the mystery.

I loved that answer. It was more than I'd hoped for. I was actually setting him up.

Do you see it?

Because they are beautiful.
Because they are interesting.
Because there is a lot of layering that takes at least a few watches to unravel the mystery.

All right. Many of us know the enjoyment from watching a favorite movie (or reading a book or listening to a piece of music or a sermon) over and over again... How much more ought that to be the case when we come to the Bible, which is breathed out by God, and when we come to Jesus Christ Himself, who IS the Word of God?

Because the Word of God is beautiful.
Because the Word of God is interesting.
Because the Word of God has a lot of layering that takes at least a few reads to unravel the mystery.

Using some of JN's words, one purpose of my blogging here has been to help you to enter a greater and greater appreciation of the beauty, interest, layering and mystery which we find exists in God Himself... that you might begin to enter into an experiential (or experimental) knowledge of Him... not to rest with an intellectual knowledge of Him (though we certainly should and must be growing in our knowledge of Him by rooting ourselves in right doctrine!)... that you might avoid the fatal mistake of the Pharisees, who had diligently searched the Scriptures –– but had stopped short of coming to sup with Jesus Christ Himself and have life and life more abundantly. I was in that very same position for well over 20 years.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be engaged in that discipline of going over and over to the Word of God, just as we do with our favorite movies, books, and songs [and even sermons!]. How sad to say how very few Christians relish time in the Word of God in anticipation of His descending upon the mercy seat! Consider that we have access into the Most Holy Place through our Savior's precious blood –– are too many of us making light of His sacrifice and trampling on the blood of the Lamb? ~ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

How few professing Christians consider time with God in His Word to be a privilege and a delight –- and how contrary that attitude is to the pattern we find in the Psalms, where we read of the children of God panting, longing, and thirsting for the living God! –– or those in Jesus' day went all out for a touch from the Master or to grab hold of His garment! In contrast, for many today Bible reading is seen as one of many items on our daily to-do list. We take our few minutes with God, we check off our list, and we go our way. Well, we claim we have met with God, but I wonder what He would He say to that claim?

And then, to think how many hours we squander day after day watching movies, t.v., reading other books, and listening to music... to think how many hours we squander online... to think how many hours we squander on exercise and obsessing over our earthly appearance... I could go on...

Colossians 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

In his "Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians," John Davenant writes this of Colossians 3:1-2: 

Mind the things above, think upon or savour them. The word phroneo, in our translation set your affections, embraces two acts; the act of the mind or of the understanding reflecting about any thing; and the act of the will and affections approving and loving any thing: Therefore, the Apostle would have us raise our minds to heaven, and perpetually have those things above at heart, neither that alone, but that we should ardently love those things, and fix our affection upon them. Unless we join these two, no one will prepare to seek heavenly things; for there is no desire of a thing unknown: it is, therefore, necessary to know, and frequently to revolve in mind, these heavenly things; for no one seeks that about which he thinks not: But neither is it sufficient to think, unless it is done with love and affection; for nothing is sought by except that which is desired and loved. Bernard truly observed, The understanding the affections in men are sometimes opposed to each other, so that the one knows and approves the things on the earth. When that happens, the mind is distracted and turn away, not excited to seek. Hence it is that Paul exhorts us not only to know, but to savour the things which are above.¹

Did you read that? ... for there is no desire of a thing unknown: it is, therefore, necessary to know, and frequently to revolve in mind, these heavenly things; for no one seeks that about which he thinks not: But neither is it sufficient to think, unless it is done with love and affection; for nothing is sought by except that which is desired and loved.

To desire Christ as we ought, we must know Him, and how can we know Him except as the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our understanding to and inflame our hearts with the truths that are found in the Bible.

In 1785, Andrew Fuller wrote his circular letter "CAUSES OF DECLENSION IN RELIGION, AND MEANS OF REVIVAL" in an attempt to "pointing out some of those evils which we apprehend to be causes of that declension of which so many complain," as well as "the means of their removal."

The first thing that we shall request you to make inquiry about is, whether there is not a great degree of contentedness with a mere superficial acquaintance with the gospel, without entering into its SPIRIT and END; and whether this be not one great cause of the declension complained of. In the apostles' time, and in all times, grace and peace have ever been multiplied by the knowledge of God; and, in proportion as this has been neglected, those have always declined. If we are sanctified by the word of truth, then, as this word is received or disrelished, the work of sanctification must be supposed to rise or fall. We may give a sort of idle assent to the truths of God, which amounts to little more than taking it for granted that they are true, and thinking no more about them, unless somebody opposes us; but this will not influence the heart and life, and yet it seems to be nearly the whole of what many attain to, or seek after.

We maintain the doctrine of one infinitely glorious God; but do we realize the amiableness of his character? If we did, we could not avoid loving him with our heart. and soul, and mind, and strength. We hold the doctrine of the universal depravity of mankind; but do we enter into its evil nature and awful tendency? If we did the one, how much lower should we lie before God, and how much more should we be filled with a self-loathing spirit! If the other, how should we feel for our fellow sinners! how earnest should we be to use all means, and have all means used, if it might please God thereby to pluck them as brands out of the burning! We hold the doctrine of a trinity of Persons in the Godhead; but do we cordially enter into the glorious economy of redemption, wherein the conduct of the sacred Three is most gloriously displayed? Surely if we did, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost would be with us more than it is. We avow the doctrines of free, sovereign, and efficacious grace; but do we generally feel the grace therein discovered? If we did, how low should we lie! how grateful should we be! We should seldom think of their sovereign and discriminating nature, without considering how justly God might have left us all to have had our own will, and followed our own ways; to have continued to increase our malady, and despise the only remedy! Did we properly enter into these subjects, we could not think of a great Saviour, and a great salvation, without loathing ourselves for being such great sinners; nor of what God had done for and given to us without longing to give him our little all, and feeling an habitual desire to do something for him. If we realized our redemption by the blood of Christ, it would be natural for us to consider ourselves as bought with a price, and therefore not our own; "a price, all price beyond!" O, could we enter into this, we should readily discern the force and propriety of our body and spirit being his; his indeed! dearly bought, and justly due!  Finally, we all profess to believe the vanity of this life and its enjoyments, and ifhe infinitely superior value of that above; but do we indeed enter into these things? If we did, surely we should have more of heavenly-mindedness, and less of criminal attachment to the world.

It is owing in a great degree to this contentment with a superficial knowledge of things, without entering into the spirit of them, that we so often hear the truths of the gospel spoken of with a tone of disgust, calling them dry doctrines!" Whereas gospel truths, if preached in their native simplicity, and received with  understanding and cordiality, are the grand source of all well-grounded consolation. We know of no consolation worth receiving but what arises from the influence of truth upon the mind. Christ's words are spirit and life to them who hunger and thirst after them, or have a heart to live upon them; and could we but more thoroughly enter into this way of living, we should find the doctrines of the gospel, instead of being dry, to be what they were in the days of Moses, who declared, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass," Deut. xxxii. 2. O brethren, may it be our and your concern not to float upon the surface of Christianity, but to enter into the spirit of it! "For this cause" an apostle bowed his knees "to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," that we might "comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of things; and for this cause we also wish to bow our knees, knowing that it is by this, if at all, that we are "filled [with] all the fulness of God," Eph. iii. 14-19.²

First off, that word "disrelish" really struck me. There are only two positions when it comes to Christ and the things of Christ: we are either disrelishing or relishing Him.

Then, as I reread Fuller's words on the printed page, I began to make note and circled (highlighted above):the repeated contrast Fuller kept making between:

"we maintain the doctrine," "We hold the doctrine," "we avow the doctrine"

and

our entering into the spirit of these things!

Let us not be content with a mere superficial acquaintance with the Gospel and with Jesus Christ! Let us not be satisfied with floating upon the surface of Christianity, without entering into the spirit of it! Let us not settle for the fireplace without the fire!

 http://youtu.be/R6CRcT-O8UM - Video Fireplace

In "The Christian World Unmasked," John Berridge exhorts us similarly:

Oh, Sir, the lifeless manner in which people pray, or hear the word of God at church, sheweth plainly that they have no property in the blessings of the gospel. Glorious things are spoken of in the Scripture, but they make a mighty small impression on a Christian congregation. The heavenly tidings fall into their heavy ears, like money dropped into a dead man's hand. No comfort is received from the money or the tidings, because they both are dead, and have no interest in them. If you, Sir, was an heir to a fine estate, your bosom would be often warmed with the joyful prospect; but your father's servant could not feel your joy. His bosom would not glow, when the fields are viewed, or when the rents are paid. And wherefore? Because he is not the heir. A Bible is the precious store-house and the Magna Charta of a Christian. There he reads of his heavenly Father's love, and of his dying Saviour's legacies; there he sees a map of his travels through the wilderness, and a landscape, too, of Canaan. And when he climbs on Pisgah's top, and views the promised land, his heart begins to burn, delighted with the blessed prospect, and amazed at the rich and free salvation. But a mere professor, though a decent one, looks on the Bible as a dull book; arid peruseth it with such indifference, as you would read the title-deeds belonging to another man's estate.³

How are you reading the Bible... as a mere professor or as an heir? ... as a servant or as a son?

Father of Mercies, in Thy Word
by Anne Steele (1760)

4 Here, the Redeemer's welcome voice
Spreads heavenly peace around;
And life, and everlasting joys
Attend the blissful sound.

5 O may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight;
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light!

6 Divine instructor, gracious Lord,
Be Thou for ever near;
Teach me to love thy sacred word,
And view my Savior there.

Gazing into his eyes I see the depths of his love, but I cannot see the bottom.”
(Augustine)

My friends, I feel like I'm still very much wading on the edge of God's love, but by grace alone, in my midlife, God has made this barren woman sing and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures.
(Alan Redpath)

It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly, been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a converted man.
(Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon "The Former and Latter Rain")

In His sovereign goodness, my heavenly Father has been pleased to give this lowly, wretched sinner increasing glimpses of Jesus' beauty and His layers, so I find no other beloved of comparable interest... And so, when you ask me:

"What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?"

I cannot help but answer along with the Shulamite woman:

Song of Solomon 5:10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. 11  His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. 12  His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 13  His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. 14  His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. 15  His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 16  His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

And beyond that, I plead for the Spirit to grant me increasing freedom and favor to gaze into His face to unravel more and more of the mystery!

Psalm 27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Songs 8:14  "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices."

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may the Holy Spirit put this excruciatingly lovely appetite for our God into your heart, so my cry might become your cry!

Revelation 22:17  The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Psalm 65:4  Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

Rejoicing with trembling,
Karen

Scripture quotations from the KJV.

References: 

¹ "Colossians (Geneva Series of Commentaries)," (Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 2005, 2009; reprinted from the English translation by Josiah Allport, 1831), Vol. II, 7. (Note:  I used the English rendering and not the actual Greek here.)

² http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/1785.cl.british.fuller.html, highlighting & boldface mine.

³ HT for the text (I edited it for typos): http://www.archive.org/stream/wholeworksofrevj00berruoft/wholeworksofrevj00berruoft_djvu.txt

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

In my last two posts Calvinism & missions? Indeed! Ekballo # 1: TULIP & prayer to the Lord of the harvest and "We're not on Christian cruise ships. We are on battleships." David Sitton @ Ekballo # 2," I blogged on the first two plenary talks given at the Ekballo Midwest Conference, held April 19-20, 2013:

Scott Anderson's talk The Essential Nature of Prayer in the Gospel Mission found here:  http://youtu.be/fuA3p5X32sE

David Sitton's talk Propel the Church, Harvest the Nations found here:  http://youtu.be/6JBqc29qmkA

Today, I'd like to present the third and final plenary talk, "Martyrdom and the Eternal Purpose of the Church" given by Dalton Thomas.

First off, in case you might be tempted to skip over Dalton Thomas' opening prayer, please don't! As you listen, you'll hear the humble and fiery heart and soul of a young man who loves Jesus and is sober-minded and vigilant, single-eyed for Christ, zealous for God's name, and seeking to bring glory to God. Thomas is 27 years old, and given that I'm over 50, I am supremely blessed and encouraged whenever I see God raising up such men and women in the next generation in this era when so many are at ease and complacent in Zion, a day of cheap grace, lukewarmness, and small things here in the West.

Thomas' main text was Ephesians 3:7-13, but before he gets to the text, he prefaces it with the following words (boldface mine, throughout):

The call to martyrdom is not the exaltation of death over life. It is the exaltation of Christ over all things... It's not the call to seek death, it's the call to seek Jesus. And the more that we find Him, the more that we find He is more valuable than life, and more valuable than what we lose in death. And so, the more we love Him, the more we love our lives less, and the more the task of global missions becomes very easy to lay hold of. I don't think we have a missions problem in America. I don't think we have an evangelism problem in America. I think we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in America.

I can't express my delight at hearing these words; they are so very relevant. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you've heard the steady drumbeat of our need to be rooted in right doctrine.

As Thomas introduces the main Scripture text, he says:

This is the text we're gonna look at tonight -- Ephesians chapter 3, which you're probably thinking, "This is not a martyrdom passage." It is.

. . . I do believe this is the most important statement in the Bible about the nature of the Church. Paul uses a phrase that we're gonna to look at tonight, that I think just needs to be contemplated for a couple decades, which is this phrase:  "the eternal purpose of God."

Now tonight, before we look at this, you know, it would be interesting, if we passed around a piece of paper to everybody, and a pen, and said, "Write down your definition of the eternal purpose of God. Fold the paper up and send it up here, and we're gonna go through them." Everyone would give good, Biblical answers, Bible verses that stuck. But I found a number of years ago, when the Lord laid hold of me with this passage, I realized is that what I would have written is not even close to what Paul defined as the eternal purpose of God. I think in order for us to rightly reckon and apprehend the call to frontier missions, I think we need to have a perspective on the eternal purpose of God, lest we be disconnected from the center of it all.

As you listen, see how your definition of the eternal purpose of God lines up with the Biblical definition, which the apostle Paul unfolds in Ephesians 3.

WARNING:  Be prepared to have your head blown up –– but by that I mean blown up in a good way –– more particularly, to have your theology blown up, to have your understanding of God refined and purified and renewed and expanded –– I only say that because I felt like my own head was blowing up (in a good sense) as I first heard Dalton Thomas in person, and once again as I reviewed my notes on his talk a couple months ago, and then once more as I've relistened to the whole talk again over the past few days...

Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth. We confess we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in the Church in America, as well as in our own souls. How can we know God as we ought, how can we love God as we ought, how can we serve God as we ought, how can we live to God as we ought, how can we die for God as we ought, how can we glorify God as we ought –– unless we know the truth about God? Our adversary, the devil, is a deceiver. He is a liar and the father of lies. He transforms himself into an angel of light. He wants to keep us from knowing the truth and loving the truth. Holy God, be merciful and gracious to us, and pour out Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Apart from Your opening our eyes, we have no genuine spiritual sight of You and of Your truth. Your Word is right and pure and true. As we read, listen to, meditate upon, and study Your Word, sanctify and cleanse us. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological understandings we might be clinging to. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological underpinnings we may be building upon. Lead us into all truth for the sake of Your blessed name, so we might be a delight and a joy to You, and bring praise, honor and glory to You throughout all the earth. Amen.

ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

[the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God]

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_Müller_Tagebucheintrag.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V56_D0465_Hollow_dynamite_cartridge_elevation_view.png / PD