seeking

  • "There are many in the church that never had a kid" ~ John Elias

    Commemorating the 239th anniversary of the birth of the Welsh Calvinistic minister, John Elias (May 6, 1774- June 8, 1841)... Here's an excerpt from "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan:

    Most feelingly did Elias expostulate in letters ... with sleepy, starving professors. One of those is the following; may it be blessed still!

    From 28 June 1831

    Is there not reason to fear that the prayers of many of us are merely customary and formal, asking many things without feeling the need of them? We seldom inquire whether our prayers are answered; and if not, what hinders them? Do we avoid indulging in those thoughts or practices that hinder and mar our prayers? Are we in a state of reconciliation with God? Do we live in the exercise of faith in Christ? Are we indifferent as to the aid of the Spirit in prayer? O seek his face - his face; seek him with all your heart! There are many in the church, I believe, who have seen better days, and have felt something greater and stronger; but they sleep so heavily now, that they scarcely recollect the days they once saw and the divine impressions they once experienced! Alas, what a state! Love is growing cold, because, perhaps, some iniquity has abounded. O that I could lift up my voice, and cry to those that sleep - ‘Alas, it is a great pity that you live so poor, and that your sustenance is so wretched! You, children of the King. You, the spouse of Christ! You, that saw better days, how is it that your support is so poor, and your appearance so miserable now, while the riches of your Father are so great, his house so full, and his table so loaded, and the love of God not changed, and the great salvation as full as ever? Oh! why will you live in poor prisons, and on empty husks? Homeward, homeward, prodigal sons! Our day in the world is nearly coming to a close! Believers, you draw near the heavenly world. Should you not then be more holy and heavenly, as you approach that world? Oh! children of God, be not satisfied to live in such a lethargy, and at such a distance from your God.

    Hypocrites are not aware of the spiritual food that some have tasted. They draw their joys out of other wells, lusting after forbidden things, desiring the enjoyments of the world, delighting in the company of worldlings, and following their customs! There are many in the church that never had a kid - that never had a small portion of spiritual food to make merry - that know nothing of the spiritual feasts that are enjoyed on the return of prodigals! These have but a poor religion to meet death and judgment with! O my dear friends, let each of us examine, and see what he has. Let us not sleep, and let us not be indifferent about knowing whether our religion is sound; and if not, let us strive to obtain that which is so. The most worthless of all things is false religion. Oh! the truth, the truth! O! brethren, let us not be discouraged; but, like the watchmen, look for the morning. Say, in faith, ‘I shall see it yet again.’ I know that some souls are like the thirsty land, longing for God, and crying out, ‘When shall I come to thee?’ Believers, if we must live in some degree of darkness till we arrive at Jordan, it is a consolation that it is day light, without any clouds, on the other side. You shall be there soon. I long in these days to fly higher than the tumultuous atmosphere of this world. If we fly high enough, we shall not meet with clouds, thunders, and the stormy wind and tempest, but with a bright, delightful day! I am obliged to finish - I am very poorly. Oh, brethren, pray for me!

    Source: "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973, revised edition published in one volume), 138-140.

    Luke 15:11  And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12  And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

    17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20  And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21  And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22  But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

    25  Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26  And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27  And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28  And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29  And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30  But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31  And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32  It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.


    Are you sleeping, and sleeping heavily? Are you a starving professor? Has your love grown cold? Is your religion a poor religion? From where are you drawing your joys? Do you delight in the company of worldlings and follow their customs? Are you settling for worldly, wretched sustenance –– empty husks –– instead of seeking and savoring the spiritual food that is yours as a child of the King and the spouse of Christ?     Are you satisfied to live in a lethargy, at such a distance from God? Have you ever had a kid? Have you understood that all that the Father has is yours?

     

    May our God stir us up so we might rightly examine ourselves and zealously strive to make our religion sound and true. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:  the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of His calling and the unsearchable riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, to be fully assured that all that He has is ours, so we might feed on Him – for it is meet that we should make merry and be glad! (~ See Ephesians 1:17-18)

    Psalms 81:10
    I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt:
    open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
    "O my dear friends, let each of us examine, and see what he has. Let us not sleep, and let us not be indifferent about knowing whether our religion is sound; and if not, let us strive to obtain that which is so. The most worthless of all things is false religion."

    Related:

    my other posts on John Elias:

    the fitness HE requireth: in distress, in debt, discontented ~ I Samuel 22:2
    "It is a dark night on the church, the depth of winter ..." ~ John Elias
    "as if ... God was dead" | letter 160 on assurance & fighting for joy
    ... while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended...
    "The dawn is to be seen... you may by prayers" (John Elias)

    my posts on nominal Christianity - click here
    my posts on true and false religion and legalism - click here

    other related posts:

    Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
    Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
    Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
    Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? "so that [we] might be WITH HIM" ~ Mark 3:14
    Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer

    The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
    update w/ excerpt: Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the role of experience in Christianity
    five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
    birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"

    postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
    "Brother, we are only half awake" ~ Legh Richmond
    "Saving faith is wanting Jesus" ~ Are you loving His appearing or this present world?
    Jesus said to her, "... Whom are you seeking?" - John 20:15
    Why read Christian biography? To help us examine our love for God.

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

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A.Cortina_El_sue%C3%B1o.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}.

  • Jesus said to her, "... Whom are you seeking?" - John 20:15

    John 20:15
    Jesus said to her, “... Whom are you seeking?”

    Jesus is asking you...

    "Whom [or what] are you seeking?"

    From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on John 20...

    ... we may observe, The constancy and fervency of Mary Magdalene's affection to the Lord Jesus... Where there is a true love to Christ there will be a constant adherence to him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to him...

    Those that will be content with nothing short of a sight of Christ shall be put off with nothing less. He never said to the soul that sought him, Seek in vain. “Is it Christ that thou wouldest have? Christ thou shalt have.” ...

    See how her heart was set upon finding Christ. She puts the question to every one she meets, like the careful spouse, Saw you him whom my soul loveth?

    Song of Solomon 3
    1  On my bed by night
    I sought him whom my soul loves;
    I sought him, but found him not.
    2  I will rise now and go about the city,
    in the streets and in the squares;
    I will seek him whom my soul loves.
    I sought him, but found him not.
    3  The watchmen found me
    as they went about in the city.
    “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
    4  Scarcely had I passed them
    when I found him whom my soul loves.
    I held him, and would not let him go...

    Is your love for Christ true ––
    or is it like the dew?

    Hosea 6
    4  What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
    Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes early away.

    Exodus 34:12  Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13  You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14  (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15  lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16  and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.


    From Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Psalm 24...

    We ourselves are not our own; our bodies, our souls, are not. Even those of the children of men are God's, who know him not, nor own their relation to him. A soul that knows and considers its own nature, and that it must live for ever, when it has viewed the earth and the fulness thereof, will sit down unsatisfied. It will think of ascending toward God, and will ask, What shall I do, that I may abide in that happy, holy place, where he makes his people holy and happy? We make nothing of religion, if we do not make heart-work of it. We can only be cleansed from our sins, and renewed unto holiness, by the blood of Christ and the washing of the Holy Ghost. Thus we become his people; thus we receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of our salvation. God's peculiar people shall be made truly and for ever happy. Where God gives righteousness, he designs salvation. Those that are made meet for heaven, shall be brought safe to heaven, and will find what they have been seeking.

    Psalm 24
    1  The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof,
    the world and those who dwell therein,
    2  for he has founded it upon the seas
    and established it upon the rivers.
    3  Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
    And who shall stand in his holy place?
    4  He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not lift up his soul to what is false
    and does not swear deceitfully.
    5  He will receive blessing from the LORD
    and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
    6  Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
    7  Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
    8  Who is this King of glory?
    The LORD, strong and mighty,
    the LORD, mighty in battle!
    9  Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And lift them up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
    10  Who is this King of glory?
    The LORD of hosts,
    he is the King of glory! Selah

    Are you of the generation of those who seek Him,
    that seek the face of the God of Jacob?

    In "An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People, in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth," Jonathan Edwards wrote of the good (the blessing) we find as we seek God Himself...

    Zechariah 8:20-21 (KJV) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: 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.

    The good, that shall be sought by prayer; which is God himself. It is said once and again, “They shall go to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.” This is the good they ask for, and seek by prayer, The Lord of hosts himself. To seek God, as the expression may perhaps be sometimes used in Scripture, may signify no more than seeking the favour or mercy of God. And if it be taken so here, praying before the Lord, and seeking the Lord of hosts, must be synonymous expressions. And it must be confessed to be a common thing in Scripture, to signify the same thing repeatedly, by various expressions of the same import, for the greater emphasis. But certainly that expression of seeking the Lord, is very commonly used to signify something more; it implies that God himself is the great good desired and sought after; that the blessings pursued are God’s gracious presence, the blessed manifestations of him, union and intercourse with him; or, in short, God’s manifestations and communications of himself by his Holy Spirit. Thus the psalmist desired God, thirsted after him, and sought him. (Psal. xiii. 1, 2, 8.) “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee. My flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. My soul followeth hard after thee. ” (Psal. lxxiii. 25.) “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” The psalmist earnestly pursued after GOD, his soul thirsted after him, he stretched forth his hands unto him, &c. (Psal. cxliii. 6.) And therefore it is in Scripture the peculiar character of the saints, that they are those who seek God. (Psal. xxiv. 6.) “This is the generation of them that seek him.” (Psal. lxix. 32.) “Your heart shall live that seek God.”

    Jeremiah 2
    31  And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD.
    Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
    or a land of thick darkness?
    Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
    we will come no more to you’?
    32  Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
    Yet my people have forgotten me
    days without number.
    33  “How well you direct your course
    to seek love!
    So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
    34  Also on your skirts is found
    the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
    you did not find them breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things
    35  you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
    Behold, I will bring you to judgment
    for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
    36  How much you go about,
    changing your way!
    You shall be put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
    37  From it too you will come away
    with your hands on your head,
    for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper by them.

    Related posts... Please see my posts on Christian hedonism here, and seeking here.

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. / Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MaryEmptyTomb.jpg by Cadetgray / CC BY-SA 3.0

  • "new foldings of love in Him... the many pound-weights of His love" ~ Rutherford

    The following is an excerpt from one of the many letters the Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford wrote while he was banished from his flock at Anwoth and confined in Aberdeen for a period of almost two years "for non-Conformity to the acts of Episcopacy... and his work against the Arminians" (Sketch of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew A. Bonar in "Letters of Samuel Rutherford," p. 12) ~ hence Rutherford's reference to himself as an "His exiled prisoner."

    Even during this time, Rutherford spoke often of trysting with Christ. For example, in LETTER LXIX., he wrote:  "I cannot but write to my friends, that Christ hath trysted me in Aberdeen..." Rutherford was full proof of Jesus' promise found in John 7:

    37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...

    Have you known such a thirst, and have you come to Christ and drunk – or are you continuing to drink elsewhere and, as a result, remaining dry, thirsty, unfilled and unsatisfied?

    Are there rivers of living water bubbling up and overflowing out of your heart? Have you ever drunk of Jesus? Has anyone ever accused you of being drunk with wine –– Spirit-filled and Spirit-intoxicated like the believers in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit descended?

    Like Peter and John, Samuel Rutherford could not help but speak what he had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). His tongue was indeed the pen of a ready writer (Psalm 45) because he had drunk of Christ, and drunk deeply, and he continued to drink of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Rutherford had come to know Christ by experience as altogether lovely and the fairest of 10,000. His heart was filled to overflowing with the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21), and having been filled, he returned again and again to the Most Holy Place, and with boldness and confidence he sought grace upon grace, so he might be filled again and again and again. Rutherford knew what it was to sup with Christ –– to  experience and enjoy more and more of the everlasting, never-ending fount of the love of God in Christ for him!

    On this Valentine's Day, many of you who profess to be Christians may be sitting in the quiet at home all alone tonight, and feeling empty and unfilled and disappointed and unloved. –– I urge you to read Rutherford's words and prayerfully examine your own relationship to Christ in light of the Scripture.

    Are you aware that there are, as Rutherford put it –– "curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him" to all who seek Him?

    Have you ever prayed God might grant you an entrance into and experience of the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge?

    Have you ever experienced the love of God shed abroad into your heart and known Christ's divine love (in contrast to all earthly loves) never to disappoint (Romans 5:1-5)?

    Along with Rutherford, I pray those of you who belong to Christ might seek "a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion," for that is your privilege and your inheritance as a child of God. Labor to know Him, and having known Him, never cease such happy labor to know Him! He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! O! what an enchanted pleasure it is to be "sweetly pressed" by "the many pound-weights of His love"!
    Luke 11:13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

    John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things... John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you...

    LETTER CIV.––To the Right Honourable and Christian Lady, my LADY VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE (1637)

         I urge upon you, Madam, a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him.


    I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it.  Therefore, dig deep; and sweat, and labour, and take pains for Him; and set by as much time in the day for Him as you can.  He will be won with labour.

         I, His exiled prisoner, sought Him, and He hath rued upon me, and hath made a moan for me, as He doth for His own,¹ and I know not what to do with Christ.  His love surroundeth and surchargeth me.  I am burdened with it; but oh, how sweet and lovely is that burden!  I dow not keep it with in me.  I am so in love with His love, that if His love were not in heaven, I should be unwilling to go thither.  Oh, what weighing, and what telling is in Christ's love!  I fear nothing now so much as the losing² of Christ's cross, and of the love-showers that accompany it.  I wonder what He meaneth, to put such a slave at the board-head, at His own elbow.  O that I should lay my black mouth to such a fair, fair, fair face as Christ's!  But I dare not refuse to be loved.  The cause is not in me, why He hath looked upon me, and loved me for He got neither bud nor hire of me.  It cost me nothing, it is good-cheap love.  Oh, the many pound-weights of His love under which I am sweetly pressed!

    ____________

    ¹ Jer. xxxi.20. [ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.] /  Hos. xi.8. [How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.]

    ²The fear to be deprived of it.  Early editions give "laughing," which seems a misprint.

    Reference:  "Letters of Samuel Rutherford, With a Sketch of his Life and Biographical Notices of His Correspondents by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar" (The Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 1984 & 2006; first published 1664, reprinted from the 1891 edition), 215-216.

    Related:

    ♥ Valentine's Day Posts ♥ (Series Links)
    postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
    Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy
    "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)"
    Herein is love ... Vast as the ocean ~ And let him that is athirst come!
    Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
    Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
    the lover's inquiry | letter 114 on fighting for joy
    The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
    five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
    Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
    the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"

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

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_Rutherford.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konzerthaus_Ravensburg_Prospekt_Motiv_Vorhang.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}
    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julia_Margaret_Cameron_(British,_born_India_-_Sadness_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

naphtali_deer

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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