psalms

  • Grace me! (a plea to the God of all grace)

    I Peter 5:6  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11  To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

    Grace me! (a plea to the God of all grace)

    As the devil roars, this I know:  that God is for me
    On the God of all grace I cast all my anxiety

    Though my enemies press in on every side ––
    Many devourers –– in One Savior I confide

    Truly, I am my Beloved's, and Jesus is mine
    "Have pity! Be gracious! My God, hear my cry!"

    Lifted from the ash heap to the Kingdom of His dear Son
    Covenant purchase, redeemed with the Lamb's precious blood

    My soul, 'tis God's possession –– no need to fear
    He considers my tossings, counts my ev'ry tear

    Though sifted like wheat, His favor has not failed
    My Great High Priest, the Guarantor, wholly prevails

    Whether in the valley of the shadow, Baca, or Achor
    Who can thwart Immanuel's pleasure –– Fount of sovereign favor!

    His turtledove nestling in the bosom of eternal Love
    Satisfied with Christ's favor, feasting on fat things from above!

    ~ See Psalm 56.

    Numbers 6:22  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

    23  “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

    24  The LORD bless you and keep you; 25  the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26  the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

    27  “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

    Hebrews 7:11  Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12  For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13  For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14  For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

    15  This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16  who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17  For it is witnessed of him,

    “You are a priest forever,
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

    18  On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19  (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

    20  And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21  but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:

    “The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
    ‘You are a priest forever.’”

    22  This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

    23  The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24  but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25  Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

    "I wish to mention to you some passages, which have been peculiarly sweet of late.... Another is the account of our Saviour's ascension, in the last chapter of Luke: 'And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And while he blessed them,' &c. Observe 'while he blessed,' &c. The last thing he was ever seen to do on earth, was to bless his disciples. He went up, scattering blessings; and he has done nothing but bless them ever since." ~  Edward Payson writing in a letter to his mother dated April 1, 1806 from "Memoir, select thoughts and sermons of the late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1 by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings,"  366, emphasis mine.


    Romans 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  33  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36  As it is written,

    “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

    37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


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

  • a Calvinist, a Wesley bobblehead, the holy catholic Church & the communion of saints

    For just over a couple weeks now, I've been out of state helping out a relative. Prior to leaving home, one of my friends shared with me Psalm 86:6 in the ESV. I didn't remember reading it before in that translation:

    "Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace."

    How wonderfully the LORD has listened to and heard my plea, and poured out grace upon grace! One of the ways God has poured out His grace while I've been away from home is through my being warmly welcomed into the fold of a local church here.

    Many of you know I love the doctrines of grace, i.e. - Calvinistic doctrine. And I confess I struggle at times with being gracious and humble about the doctrines of grace! Well, this particular church is of the Wesleyan persuasion... (I want to clarify that this congregation is not at all a part of that modern, specious imitation which denies the great doctrines of the Bible, and turns its back on the wonderful heritage of blood, sweat, tears, and the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope which was found in the lives and the ministries of John and Charles Wesley.)

    During one of the weeks I've been here, a visiting preacher presented the local pastor with a John Wesley bobblehead... no kidding. :)

    Gotta share this video I found from the Asbury Seminary Bookstore...



    John Wesley BobbleHead on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB2uqLY9eRw

    I was aware of the doctrinal differences going in, but I still felt strongly that I should visit this particular church  ... and I can't express to you the multiple blessings, the grace upon grace that God has had in store for me through this congregation. And I can't imagine how much poorer I would have been had I not stepped through those church doors. I've been humbled as I experienced anew and afresh what it means to be part of "the communion of saints." In God's inscrutable and mysterious ways, we know that God Himself sets the members in the Body as HE wills –– members who hold to Calvinistic doctrine as well as members who hold to Wesleyan Arminian doctrine:

    I Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

    15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?



    My first Sunday in worship, after already having been blessed through some spiritual conversation and prayer with some of the members, not long into the service, I had to turn in my Bible to David's words from Psalm 31, and I basked in them as I was basking in God's goodness and mercy to me following me all the days of my life, and bringing me to this particular place:

    Psalm 31:21 Blessed be the LORD, For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city.

    I had felt myself to be somewhat a stranger in a strong city. Though I was with family, I was away from my family at home, and away from my Christian brothers and sisters at home, and yet the LORD took me in through this particular assembly of His saints, a group of poor and needy sinners, who along with the Wesleys, along with John Calvin, and along with myself are wholly leaning on Jesus' name and are saved by grace through faith by the New Covenant in the Lamb's precious blood.

    Psalm 50:5 "Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."

    Every week, this congregation reads through the Apostles' Creed. My times of fellowship with them have helped me to know in greater measure what it means when we say that . . .

    "We believe in ... the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints..."

    In Proverbs 8, we read how the Godhead delighted in one another, and yet the Father, Son, and Spirit also delight in the sons of men, particularly in those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. (HT for the reference to Proverbs 8:30-31 from Dafydd Morris' message "Why Should Jesus Send His Spirit? Part 2," available at http://www.reformationandrevival.org/pastconferenceaddresses.html)

    Proverbs 8:30-31
    Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
    And I was daily His delight,
    Rejoicing always before Him,
    Rejoicing in His inhabited world,
    And my delight was with the sons of men
    .

    Here's a portion of Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on this passage:

    His [God's] gracious concern he had for mankind, 31. Wisdom rejoiced, not so much in the rich products of the earth, or the treasures hid in the bowels of it, as in the habitable parts of it, for her delights were with the sons of men; not only in the creation of man is it spoken with a particular air of pleasure (Gen. i. 26), Let us make man, but in the redemption and salvation of man. The Son of God was ordained, before the world, to that great work, 1 Pet. i. 20. A remnant of the sons of men were given him to be brought, through his grace, to his glory, and these were those in whom his delights were. His church was the habitable part of his earth, made habitable for him, that the Lord God might dwell even among those that had been rebellious; and this he rejoiced in, in the prospect of seeing his seed. Though he foresaw all the difficulties he was to meet with in his work, the services and sufferings he was to go through, yet, because it would issue in the glory of his Father and the salvation of those sons of men that were given him, he looked forward upon it with the greatest satisfaction imaginable, in which we have all the encouragement we can desire to come to him and rely upon him for all the benefits designed us by his glorious undertaking.

    Just as the Lord Jesus delights in all the saints, those who belong to Christ must do likewise. How can we do any less since we are united to Christ and have Christ's very nature indwelling us through the gift of His Holy Spirit?

    Psalm 16:1 Preserve me, O God: for in You I put my trust.
    2 O my soul, You have said to the LORD, "You are my Lord,
    My goodness is nothing apart from You" ––
    3 And to the saints that are in the earth,
    They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight."

    Having been born again of incorruptible seed, along with our Savior, we too must delight in, rejoice in, love, and extend goodness to all the saints. How can we not? Are we not all one family? Have we not all been redeemed with the same precious blood of the Lamb of God, made alive from the dead through the operation of the same Spirit, and adopted by the same heavenly Father into the family of God?

    Ephesians 4:4  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

    Once again, here are Matthew Henry's words on those verses in Psalm 16 (boldface mine):

    3. If God be ours, we must, for his sake, extend our goodness to those that are his, to the saints in the earth; for what is done to them he is pleased to take as done to himself, having constituted them his receivers. Note, (1.) There are saints in the earth; and saints on earth we must all be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those that are renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. (2.) The saints in the earth are excellent ones, great, mighty, magnificent ones, and yet some of them so poor in the world that they need to have David's goodness extended to them. God makes them excellent by the grace he gives them. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, and then he accounts them excellent. They are precious in his sight and honourable; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure. Their God is their glory, and a diadem of beauty to them. (3.) All that have taken the Lord for their God delight in his saints as excellent ones, because they bear his image, and because he loves them. David, though a king, was a companion of all that feared God (Ps. cxix. 63), even the meanest, which was a sign that his delight was in them. (4.) It is not enough for us to delight in the saints, but, as there is occasion, our goodness must extend to them; we must be ready to show them the kindness they need, distribute to their necessities, and abound in the labour of love to them. This is applicable to Christ. The salvation he wrought out for us was no gain to God, for our ruin would have been no loss to him; but the goodness and benefit of it extend to us men, in whom he delighteth, Prov. viii. 31. For their sakes, says he, I sanctify myself, John xvii. 19. Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weaknesses and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we should.

    Valentine's Day is coming up in just a few days, and I'd like to close with some of the apostle John's words from chapters 3-5 of his first epistle. These are some of the toughest and most challenging words in all the Scripture when it comes to Christ's commandment that we love one another as He has loved us (John 13:31-35; see also John 17:20-26). John's words serve to demolish any and all lame and feeble excuses we (I) might raise, and they turn all our (my) puny, fleshly, and fluffy conceptions of what love is on their heads. Love all the saints! Rejoice in all the saints! Delight in all the saints! Show goodness to all the saints! How?! Wholly impossible with man! Wholly impossible with Karen! But possible with God! Our God is the God all the saints! And our God is the One who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. And what is God's good pleasure:  that we love and delight in and rejoice in and extend goodness to the saints –– all the saints. May the resurrection power of Christ work in us to keep His commandments. Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

    I John 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

    13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

    16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

    18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment...

    I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another...

    20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also...

    I John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

    * * *

    Thank You and bless You, LORD, for listening to and answering my pleas for grace and showing me grace through Your Body. Thank You for encouraging my heart and knitting me together in love with these dear saints. I continue to find that Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds, Your mercies are new every morning, and Your grace abounds to this chief of sinners, and along with David Brainerd, You never fail to raise up friends in every place You have called me in Your perfect way and in Your appointed time:

    "O how kind has God been to me! how has he raised up friends in every place, where his providence has called me! Friends are a great comfort; and it is God that gives them; it is he makes them friendly to me. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.'"

    God of grace, continue to grant me grace upon grace so I might treasure and hold a catholic Spirit, and delight in, rejoice in, love, and extend goodness to all the saints, just as you treat me... not as my sins deserve!


    Related:

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

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

    Photo credit: Image grabbed from the YouTube video, found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB2uqLY9eRw

  • Silent Night - Not! ~ "Prayer also will be made for Him continually" ... day and night

    In my last post, fall down, worship Him, open our treasures, present gifts to Him, I focused on Psalm 72:14-15, and emphasized how we as Christians must be examining ourselves and growing in our understanding and appreciation of the love, mercy, and grace of God in Jesus Christ which saved poor, needy, and helpless sinners, so we might make a fitting response to such a wondrous, great Savior and the salvation He freely bestowed upon us:

    For He will deliver the needy when he cries,
    The poor also, and him who has no helper.
    He will spare the poor and needy,
    And will save the souls of the needy.
    He will redeem their life from oppression and violence;
    And precious shall be their blood in His sight.
    And He shall live,
    And the gold of Sheba will be given to Him;
    Prayer also will be made for Him continually,
    And daily He shall be praised.

    Tonight, I'd like to pick up on the portion of those verses that emphasizes the gift of prayer, which God directs His people to render unto Him.

    Prayer also will be made for Him continually...

    Here we find two characteristics about the type of prayer God expects of His people, all the saints, those unworthy and undeserving souls He's redeemed by the precious blood of Christ from the power of sin, the flesh, the devil, and death.

    • 1. It's prayer made for Him, for the Lord Jesus Christ.
    • 2. It's prayer that's made continually.

    I'd like to start with the second point. Prayer that's made continually isn't so foreign to us, at least not in our intellectual understanding, though perhaps not in practice.

    Most Christians are familiar with this three word verse:

    "pray without ceasing"
    (I Thessalonians 5:18)

    ... as well as the example of the importunate woman in Luke 18:

    Then He [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.' And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'"

    Then the Lord said, "hear what the unjust judge said, And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

    Some of us may be engaged in prayer fairly regularly; however, very often there's a problem with the content of our prayers, i.e. -  the focus and aim of our prayers doesn't line up with the first point – our prayers are not made for Him. It was only within the last couple years that that little phrase began to strike me:  for Him... for HIM... What does it mean that prayer be made for Him?

    J.A. Alexander explained that praying for Him continually means we ought to be praying "for the progress and extension of Messiah's kingdom."

    Matthew Henry wrote this about what it means to make prayers for Him continually...

    Prayers shall be made for him, and that continually. The people prayed for Solomon, and that helped to make him and his reign so great a blessing to them. It is the duty of subjects to make prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, for kings and all in authority, not in compliment to them, as is too often done, but in concern for the public welfare. But how is this applied to Christ? He needs not our prayers, nor can have any benefit by them. But the Old-Testament saints prayed for his coming, prayed continually for it; for they called him, He that should come. And now that he has come we must pray for the success of his gospel and the advancement of his kingdom, which he calls praying for him (Hosanna to the Son of David, prosperity to his reign), and we must pray for his second coming. It may be read, Prayer shall be made through him, or for his sake; whatsoever we ask of the Father shall be in his name and in dependence upon his intercession.

    How often are my prayers really for Him? How often are your prayers really for Him? How often do we pray for the progress and extension of Messiah's kingdom? How often do you find your heart crying out for the success of his gospel and the advancement of his kingdom? How often do you hear prayers like that requested and prayed in prayer meetings or coming from the pulpit in your church? How often do we put on a show of godliness, much like the Pharisees, we pretend we're spiritual, we may in fact make lots of prayers, but all the while we deceive ourselves into thinking we're praying pious prayers, but very few, if any, of our prayers are truly for Him. Instead, isn't it so often the case that our prayers are really . . .

    • all about our name ... rather than His name
    • all about our glory ... rather than God's glory
    • all about our kingdoms... rather than His Kingdom
    • all about our will ... rather than His will

    Remember how Jesus replied when His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Here's the first part of His response:

    "When you pray, say:
    Our Father in heaven,
    Hallowed be Your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done
    On earth as it is in heaven..."

    Yes, I know the prayer goes on, and it's not like we shouldn't be praying about our own needs, but honestly, don't most of us, if left to ourselves, focus on ourselves in our prayers and give little to no attention to God Himself and the advance of His Gospel on the earth, in effect, leaving little to none of our prayers being made for Him? So long as we're (I'm) caught up and enamored and consumed with me, myself, and I, we are (I am) not going to be able to make for Him prayer continually.

    He took me down ... so I might raise up prayer for Him continually....

    A few years ago, God has began doing an amazing, strange, and wonderful work in my life over the period of last several years.

    I wrote the following on my other blog here a couple years ago (http://deerlife.xanga.com/733786080/updateprayer-requests---october-7-2010/):

    A few years back, the Lord had been trying to get my attention about my need to pray, and, well, I knew that in my head of course, since we all pretty much know we should be praying from the time we become Christians. And, as most of us have done at one time or another, I'd made resolutions to pray, but it took God repeatedly showing me (hammering me) over and over and over again about my total depravity, my total insufficiency and my total inability to do anything apart from Him. That included a lot of failures, frustrations, humiliation and tears. Until we come to the end of ourselves, we don't see the necessity of prayer and of our need to seek Him. So long as we can get by pretty well on our own, we won't get down on our knees in humble dependence and cry out to Him for living water and daily bread and His Holy Spirit. Thank God for His sovereign hand at work in drawing me to Himself through his loving Fatherly discipline.

    So now, after all that time, the Holy Spirit has been softening my hard heart sufficiently so those seeds are finally beginning to sprout a bit, so I might really begin to understand in small measure the utter necessity of prayer and seek out time to spend with God in prayer. This calling to prayer intensified early in 2009 (I wrote about it here, and that was why I started up tent of meeting, my other website devoted to prayer for revival). And it has further intensified and expanded since that time. In short, God has been giving me more of a passion to be praying for and encouraging workers to be sent into the harvest and praying for His Gospel to go to all the nations; I've alluded to that in a few posts on naphtali_deer, my other blog (e.g. - see here and here). I'm not exactly sure where all of that is going in my life, but I am finally seeing that the Gospel going to the nations is for our joy, for the joy of the nations and for God's joy and is part of God's glorious plan to exalt Himself. About a week ago, I stood outside and looked up into heaven and said something like, "God, why did it take me so long to get this?!" I cry now as I consider this. I mean, I've been a Christian for almost 28 years now. Of course, I knew we should be supporting missions, I knew the Biblical teaching that God had a plan to save some from every tribe, every language, every people and every nation (e.g. - Rev. 5), but only when God and the mission of God got a hold of my heart did I really begin to see. (Not that I see all yet today, I know that...) As I've mentioned, I am a slow learner, but thanks be to God, He is persevering and longsuffering with hard-hearted and stubborn sinners like me and His mercies and kindnesses will follow us and pursue us and His Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will lead us in the way we should go. This is one reason I am so passionate about young people not wasting their lives. I wasted much of mine. I was lukewarm for too long. One minute of lukewarmness is too long! Thanks be to God, He has been gracious to me and has been working to restore the years the locusts of my self-absorption and spiritual dullness had eaten up.

    I confess that I continue to fumble and slip and slide as I seek to go up to meet with Him on His holy mountain, but I know there is grace abounding for sinners like me there and He never casts out those who come to Him, He never despises those who are humble and seeking to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. I love to spend time with Him. And I know He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He has also begun to show me that If we are not asking hard things of Him, we are insulting Him and limiting Him. Also, if we are not persevering in prayer, we do not show we consider Him precious enough to spend time with Him and we think we are adequate apart from His resources. These are just a few scattered thoughts here. My heart is full of Him. He is faithful to hear and to save. And He is calling us to watch in prayer with Him so we will not grow faint. To whom else can we go? He has the words of eternal life. He is our life!

    I'd like to expand a little more on that time of "hammering" . . .

    First off, it was at a time over twenty years after I'd been saved, that God took me down, down, down as He demanded I forgive someone. In that process, He humbled me and began to show me as I'd never seen before my total depravity, my unworthiness, and my wretchedness. How little the other person's sin against me was in contrast to my own sin for which Jesus died. At that point, I was privileged to begin to glimpse God's glory, holiness, and goodness is saving me in ways I'd never seen before. (I write a little more about this in my posts here, here, and here.)

    Not long after that time, God allowed me to fail big time. I had many hopes and dreams and ambitions that were all shattered –– and not only that, but *I* was shattered. Without going into detail here, but I will mention that this happened in the context of a local church situation (I don't say much about it since there was plenty of sin and plenty of mistakes to go around, including my own... please see my post Do you love the saints . . . ALL the saints? (reflections on church hurts)). But know this, whenever the sovereign God puts us (yes, puts us!) into such situations, and we get taken down and humbled like that, it is always for our good... As soon as our hearts are broken, our hopes disappointed, and our plans thwarted, that's a blessed mercy of God sent to us so we might become desperate for God, that we wouldn't just sing "I'm desperate for You" in a song on Sunday morning, and then forget all about Him the rest of the week, but that we would really become so desperate for Him, so excruciatingly hungry and thirsty for the living God, that to be in His presence would be the ONE THING we might seek, that we would desire Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength; that to behold His beauty would be our prevailing desire (~ Psalm 27).

    Our God lovingly ordains circumstances and situations so we might begin to question everything and begin to pant and thirst for Him and seek His face in ways we've never done before –– for far too long we've taken Him for granted, and we need to shaken out of our lethargy and complacency and lukewarmness. All of this shaking is not haphazard, but comes out of our Father's deep, abiding, and persevering lovingkindness toward us... "for whom the Lord LOVES, He chastens, and scourges every son He receives" (see Heb. 12:3-11). The hotter fires and the higher waters, the famines and droughts, the blight, mildew and hail –– all of it is purposefully and graciously ordained by our covenant God to cause us to come to our senses, so we might run home to our Father, and delight and gaze upon our Bridegroom in a manner we've never done before. That's what God is continuing to do with us.

    Also, during that time, I began to become dragged down by an increasing sense of my sinfulness and my failures. I became mired in doubt and despair and second-guessing over my past decisions and behaviors, and I had slim-to-no assurance regarding my sanctification. Though I knew I was saved, and though I knew I wasn't going to hell, there was something else I knew: I knew I wasn't really living at all. I was in a very similar to the place where God took Oswald Chambers:

    "I see now that God was taking me by the light of the Holy Spirit and His Word through every ramification of my being. The last three months of those years things had reached a climax, I was getting very desperate. I knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want. But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud."

    ~ from David McCasland's "Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God" (Grand Rapids, Mi: Discovery House Publishers, 1993), 84-85

    Perhaps you're in the midst of hot fires and high waters right now, and you have been for some time, or you're in a famine or drought, or you're being buffeted by winds or pelleted with hail... Know this:  God desire is that HE becomes your first and highest and chief desire, and that His will becomes your will, and that His desire for His name, His glory, His Kingdom and His Gospel might becomes your desire.

    Psalm 27:4
    One thing I have desired of the LORD,
    That will I seek:
    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 inquire in His temple.

    Isaiah 26:8
    Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
    O LORD, we have waited for You;
    The desire of our soul is for Your name
    And for the remembrance of You.
    With my soul I have desired You in the night,
    Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
    For when Your judgments are in the earth,
    The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

    Consider God's purposes for Judah as He sent her into 70 years' exile in Babylon:

    Jeremiah 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

    In the midst of prosperity, we can so easily keep spinning our wheels, staying busy, with things are looking relatively good on the surface, but all the while, our souls are withering and shrinking on the inside: –– we see no need to open up to Jesus, as we've become mired in self-sufficiency and we see no need for fellowship with Him (Rev. 3:14-22), we've lost our first Love (Rev. 2:4), we're waxing fat and forsaking the God who made us and scornfully esteeming the Rock of our salvation (Deut. 33:15); we're missing out on the one thing necessary (Luke 10:38-42):  we don't come to Jesus that we might have life, we don't sit at His feet like Mary and bask there, we don't wash His feet with our tears like the sinful woman, we don't put seeking God's face and dwelling in His courts and supping with Him above all else.

    Up until those times of trial and testing, we've gotten along fairly well without that intimacy with the living God... but when God begins to strip away all we ever held dear, when He sends us into captivity, so to speak, we have no other place to turn but to Him. It is His desire that we might come to know Him as the Chief among 10,000, that our hearts would overflow with rivers of Living Water and good themes, and our tongues would be the pens of ready writers: "You ARE fairer than the sons of men! I had heard of You with the ear, but now my eye sees You, my mouth has tasted You!" O! Blessed discipline that leads us to His courts, so we might sup with our exceeding Joy! To come into His presence to be filled with fullness of joy and to sit at His right hand and know pleasures forevermore! That is life and life more abundantly! His love is better than wine! His love is better than life!

    During that time, I'd begun to write a series of blog posts about Kingdom-obsessed people, and I soon realized there was NO way I could be obsessed with Christ and His Kingdom so long as I kept being burdened and pulled down by guilt over my sinfulness and second guessing my past decisions. I had no choice but to examine the work of Christ for my soul in more depth than I'd done previously, particularly in the book of Hebrews (see my posts on dealing with past sins & guilt here and my posts on looking in the rear view mirror here). I was seeking a firm assurance of forgiveness of sins and God's love for me; I was seeking strong consolation (Hebrews 6:18), though at the time, I couldn't have told you exactly what I was seeking. All I knew is that I was seeking relief and rest from the guilt, the failure, and the lack of hope. They were all so oppressive, all-consuming and overwhelming, and I found myself miserable, depressed and downcast much of the time. I was being weighed down and entangled, unable to press on to know Christ and to take hold of that for which He'd taken hold of me.

    But then, one glorious day, four years ago this month, the morning of December 19, 2008, God broke through the darkness and gloom, much like Malachi describes: the Sun of Righteousness rose with healing in His wings!

    "your soul is clean"

    There was no audible sound, but there was a word spoken by the Holy Spirit of God to lift up my downcast soul, as I knelt down in our dining room to confess that I was a loser and a failure. Those four words were more real to me than any words any other person has ever spoken to me.

    During that year, while studying through The Life of Moses in Bible Study Fellowship, I'd been impressed with Moses' role as intercessor, as well as the function of the high priest in praying for the people, both of whom point to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest.

    And then, during our Sunday School time, a verse from I Samuel 12 was impressed upon my soul, which was the real kicker:

    "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you..."

    At that point I knew there was no getting out of it! The call to prayer was clear and compelling. And since that time I've been burdened to pray for reformation and revival in the Church (please see my post Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer). But prior to that point in time, because I was so obsessed and so overwhelmed with my own stuff:  with me, myself, and I:  with my own sins, my own guilt, my own failures, my own doubts, my own second-guessing, etc., etc., I couldn't even begin to think beyond myself, and I couldn't begin to pray for Christ and His Kingdom as I ought, much less pray continually for Him.

    My point in writing of my experience is that I hope it might lead you to examine yourself to see what is hindering you from making prayer for Christ and His Kingdom continually, as you ought.

    Until I received that felt assurance in my soul, I wasn't free to begin to make prayer for Him continually. I call it a felt assurance because it went beyond the doctrinal, intellectual, mental understanding which I already had through the study of the Scripture. Jonathan Edwards makes the distinction between "having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness" (see Edwards' "A Divine & Supernatural Light" here). Though I previously knew in my head I was forgiven, I had no true sense of the love of God in the heart. God's love was a bare-bones intellectual concept to me, not a living reality. Though I previously knew God loved me, I wasn't able to experience and enjoy and exult in the love Christ had shown me or begin to experience the freedom that Christ had bought for me, to be free from the burden of sin and guilt, and to be assured of His ongoing work of sanctification in me, to really know that God was for me and not against me, to be assured that God was working all things for my good, and so on... But once I had that sense of the sweetness of God's love imparted to my soul that day, I was free, really free in my heart, soul, mind and strength to begin to pray as the Psalmist describes:

    Prayer also will be made for Him continually...

    We all have burdens, and we will continue to have burdens, but whenever those burdens, be they past, present, and/or future concerns, cause us to be inordinately focused on ourselves, we can't ever be free to make prayer for Him continually as God desires, as God demands, and as God deserves. We need to let God continue to examine us. We absolutely cannot at any cost allow any of our "stuff" to stand in the way of our making prayer for Him continually.

    My challenge to you today is for you to open your Bible and to pray to God and to ask the Holy Spirit to examine you and to examine your prayers.

    • Are your prayers being made for Him?
    • Are your prayers being made for Him continually?
    • What is preventing you from praying for Him continually?

    The Church here in the west... NOT bright, NOT burning... "There are sorrows we must pray to feel."

    God's desire and His very own prayer for His Church is that....

    her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
    And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
    The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
    And all kings your glory.

    (Isaiah 62:1)

    Let's be honest: here in the western world, for the most part, we are not bright and we are not burning. We are no shining witness to the unsaved world. The salt has lost its saltiness. The light is under the bushel. We are not to despise the day of small things, but we are in the day of small things, and we need to recognize that fact.

    Do you see these things? Are you burdened for them? Are you praying about them?

    The prophets were. Take Jeremiah, for example:

    Jeremiah 8:21 "For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?"

    9:1  "Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!"

    Earlier this year, John Piper made this comment on Jeremiah 9:1:

    "There are sorrows we must pray to feel."

    Perhaps you first need to pray to feel these sorrows, so you might begin to burdened, and then you might begin to make prayer for Him continually.

    Jeremiah 4
    19 O my soul, my soul!
    I am pained in my very heart!
    My heart makes a noise in me;
    I cannot hold my peace,
    Because you have heard, O my soul,
    The sound of the trumpet,
    The alarm of war.
    20 Destruction upon destruction is cried,
    For the whole land is plundered.
    Suddenly my tents are plundered,
    And my curtains in a moment.
    21 How long will I see the standard,
    And hear the sound of the trumpet?

    Jeremiah was burdened to the depths of his soul for the people of God and for the cause of Christ in the world. The King James Version has verse 19 starting this way: "My bowels! My bowels!" Has your soul ever been so grieved for the state of God's Church and for the name of Christ? Have you every been pained in your very heart that the Church today is a reproach to God and a byword in the world? Are you so constrained with love for Christ and His name and renown in the world that you cannot hold your peace, but have a holy compulsion to pray day and night like the watchmen set on the walls of Jerusalem?

    Isaiah 62
    6  I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
    They shall never hold their peace day or night.
    You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
    7 And give Him no rest till He establishes
    And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

    Isn't that a description of the prayer that we read of in Psalm 72?

    Prayer also will be made for Him continually...

    Prayer made FOR HIM... and prayer made CONTINUALLY...

    In marked contrast, however, it seems today that the walls are filled with watchmen who are silent, rather than making prayer for Him continually. They are self-absorbed, focused on their own needs, and blinded to the current condition; they are slumbering rather than watching in prayer... Loving to slumber! They are silent, they are dumb, dumb dogs, greedy dogs! Strong words, are they not?

    Isaiah 56
    10 His watchmen are blind,
    They are all ignorant;
    They are all dumb dogs,
    They cannot bark;
    Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
    11 Yes, they are greedy dogs
    Which never have enough.
    And they are shepherds
    Who cannot understand;
    They all look to their own way,
    Every one for his own gain,
    From his own territory.

    The picture above is titled "Der eingeschlafene Nachtwächter." I have some German roots in my ancestry, but I don't know German. I put the title into my translation widget, and it gave this English translation:

    "The fallen asleep night watchman"

    We're not to be "fallen asleep night watchman"! What an oxymoron! In contrast, the Scripture exhorts us to be

    praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints... (Ephesians 6:18).

    The Greek word translated "being watchful" or "keep alert" (ESV) is agrupneo (ag-roop-neh'-o):  ultimately from 1 (as negative particle) and 5258; to be sleepless, i.e. keep awake:--watch. see GREEK for 1 see GREEK for 5258.

    The second root word there (5258) is the Greek hupnos (hoop'-nos), which is the root of our English word "hypnosis". hupnos: ... sleep, i.e. (figuratively) spiritual torpor:--sleep.

    Have we fallen into a hypnotic state? Have we become mesmerized and entranced with the world and the things of this world, that we're not praying day and night as we ought for our Lord? Are we loving self more than loving God? Are we loving our kingdoms more than loving His Kingdom? Are we loving our will more than loving His will? No wonder prayer is not being made for Him continually! No wonder the Church remains in the state she is!

    Have we fallen asleep, having lapsed into a state of spiritual torpor and sleep in regard to Christ and His Kingdom –– all the while we are lively and zealous and excited about earthly concerns? Are we working mightily and lustily to store up treasures here, while giving our left-over prayers, time, energy, money and resources to storing up treasures in heaven? Where are our affections: are they set on the earth or on things above? The frequency and the content of our prayers reflect the true heart of our affections... "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45b).

    Spiritual torpor! Sleep! My friends, as children of God, we ought not be languishing or wasting our lives in spiritual torpor or sleep. Our God neither sleeps nor slumbers. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, ever lives to make intercession for us. God forbid we sleep, lie down, or love to slumber like the blind watchmen. Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when He returns? God forbid the Lord Jesus meets us at His second coming and calls us dumb dogs!  May God give us grace that we may not keep silent, but cry out day and night for Him, to make prayer for Him continually like the importunate woman and the alert watchmen. May we give the LORD no peace or rest until He makes His Church a praise in the earth once again. Our Bridegroom longs to hear our prayers made for Him:

    Song of Solomon 2:14
    "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
    In the secret places of the cliff,
    Let me see your countenance,
    Let me hear your voice;
    For your voice is sweet,
    And your countenance is lovely."

    "The intercession of Christians ... is the leaven which is to leaven the whole earth with Christianity."
    (Thomas Chalmers)


    * Please see my follow-up post to this one:  an advent of a different sort for the "glorious progress of the work of God" (includes Jonathan Edwards' account of the latter days of the Great Awakening).

    * Please note:  if God has given you a sight of the ruined state of the Church and a burdened heart to pray for her reformation and revival, please comment below and/or contact me (via my WP site). Also, please see my post here, as well as my blog devoted to prayer for revival: tent_of_meeting.xanga.com.


    Related posts:

    The Watchman's Song – "Day and night, night and day"
    Then Abigail made haste (complacency & devotion)
    postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)

    Postcards from England: Do you care?
    Do we care more for manatees than for His flock?
    Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
    Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

    "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)"
    Do My Prayers Glorify God?
    As the Visible Disappoints
    All things (even bad things) work together for good...
    Our Twisted View of God

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

    Information on the Hebrew and Greek words is taken from Strong's Concordance.

    Photo credits:

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Parable_of_the_Unjust_Judge.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Spitzweg_022.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

     

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and 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

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

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