The Glorious Pursuit

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one" (1 John 5:7)

You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him.  In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition.  That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awe and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?
Thine own eternity is round Thee,
Majesty divine!

Jehovah - Father, Spirit, Son -
Mysterious Godhead, Three-in-One,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend;
Grace, pardon, life to us extend. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Paradox of Love

"...my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee ... to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary" (Psalm 63:1-2)

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshiping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Each of the fruits of the Spirit is but a phase of love. Joy 
is love exulting; peace is love reposing;
patience is love enduring; goodness is the good manners of love; kindness is love in action; faithfulness is love confiding; gentleness is love yielding; and self-control is true self-love.

~A. W. Tozer~