We Beheld His Glory # 10

Understanding May Come After Experience (continued)

Now this is not so much technical matter. It is of very great importance; it is leading up, of course, to concrete examples. I want you to see the order of things. Truth, not by any means understood in its fullness, seen as truth, apprehended by faith in purity of spirit and honesty of heart, producing history; but the Lord, never satisfied that it should stay there, afterward giving a great revelation, which became the teaching, or the doctrine of that history. The Church, in the Book of Acts, did not move, and act, and go, and stay, on the ground of a systematized doctrine of Church order. It moved spontaneously, but afterward you have the explanation of that, and you get a spiritual system of Church doctrine, born out of history, which history was occasioned by truths accepted in purity of spirit by faith. If that order had always been maintained, we should have a very different situation today from what exists. We begin with an ecclesiastical system of Church policy and try to apply it and then get life afterward. The New Testament order is just the opposite; life, history, and then explanation. It is not enough to say: Well, we have the experience and it does not matter about the doctrine. Many say that. This is to preach an experience rather than the truth, something without a foundation in the Word of God for the hearer. "Come to our experience." That may be a tremendous peril. When Peter said, as it is written by him in his first letter: "... ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you," he used there for the word "reason" the word "logos," and what Peter actually said was: Be ready to give n intelligent account, or narrative, or logical setting forth of the hope that is in you. It is ability to give a logical narrative, setting forth, presentation, account of what is in you.

I think that is enough by way of approaching this matter of great truths and their laws. Now we can pass to the consideration of the first of these great truths, and its law, in the gospel by John.

The First Great Truth: The Kingdom of God

Chapter three. The truth is referred to in verses 3 and 5. "Except a man be born anew [from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God."  "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." You must remember that this is a great doctrine, the Kingdom of God. It was something that had to be preached. It was an object to be presented. It was something that had to take possession of the interests and concerns of men. Here, strangely enough, and perhaps you might be startled to hear it said, being born anew is not the first thing. The Kingdom of God is the first thing. You will have no interest in being born anew if you have no interest in the Kingdom of God. To bring you to the place where you are concerned about being born anew, you must first of all be brought face to face with the Kingdom of God; you must become interested in it. And so the disciples and the apostles preached the Kingdom of God - in the main sense a synonymous term with the Kingdom of Heaven"; an interchangeable phrase often used for exactly the same thing. They were to preach the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul himself preached that right up to the end of his imprisonment in Rome, so it is stated in Acts 28.

Briefly then, what is the Kingdom of God? It is not merely a realm, but a state. It is not merely an order of outward things, but an inward state of life. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink"; "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." It is not a system which is first imposed from the outside, but it is a kind of nature which is heavenly and of God. If it is a realm, and it is, it is a realm in which a state obtains, and before you can enter the realm you have to enter the state. The Kingdom of God is that which in nature appretains unto God; is, in a word, God-nature, God-likeness, the abbreviation of which is Godliness; that is the Kingdom of God. In that Kingdom nothing which is not God obtains. That is a very far-reaching and utter statement. We shall come back to that in a moment. Just that brief word as to what it is, and what it is not.

The Law of the Kingdom of God

Secondly, then, what is its law? Its law is birth from above. "Except a man be born ..."  "Gennethei" means generated from above. It is something more utter than our meaning of birth. Birth with us is the consummation of a process. This is no consummation of a process, it is the original act. The same word is sometimes translated "begotten." Generated from above. Now we have three things in that connection. Firstly, the fundamental difference; secondly, the essence; and thirdly, the basis.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 11 - "New Birth - A Fundamental Difference")

Blessed Assurance

And having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:21-22 

The book of Hebrews instructs us to live by faith in God alone. The originator of our Christianity is Abraham, the father of faith. Because Abraham believed God, it was counted unto him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). His faith made him “right” before God. As a result of this righteousness, God protected his family as they grew into a nation, the Israelites. Moses was raised up as their first official leader to establish their worship, culture and Laws of the land. God spoke to Moses as he wrote down God's ways for the people, including the Ten Commandments. These rules were given to instruct the Israelites in how to live. These rules were enforced to protect them from walking away from God and to protect them from destroying themselves (through transmission of diseases) and each other. These ways were not given to replace "faith."

However, by the time Jesus came to earth, the rules were valued more than faith, mercy and kindness. The rules became more important than the people. For God so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus, to restore what was lost. Because of the love of God, our High Priest died on the cross and rose from the dead to allow us to live by faith, not by works.

Faith is not established by obeying the rules or the Laws of the land. Galatians2:16 says, "a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus." Jesus did not abolish the law; He fulfilled it so that we can be accredited as righteous (“right” before God) through faith in Him alone. Christianity started through Abraham's acts of faith, and through our High Priest, we overcome the world through our faith. Jesus alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Today, let us draw near to the Lord with a true heart in full assurance of faith, knowing that we have a High Priest who understands our sufferings, forgives us of our sins and cleanses our conscience. 

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Your Life Is Your Time

Ephesians 5:14-17

 

Our lives are governed by time. That's why we're surrounded by clocks and calendars that dictate our activities. As the minutes tick by, we wonder where the day went. When responsibilities and pressures mount, we complain, "I just don't have time to get it all done!" But the reality is that God has given us enough time to do exactly what He's planned for our lives. Perhaps the bigger issue is whether we are using our time to do our will or the Lord's.

 

Time is a gift from God, and He has allotted each of us a measure in which to live and accomplish His purposes. We have only two options—to spend it temporally on our own interests or invest it eternally. Since time can never be retrieved or reversed, it's critical that we make the most of every opportunity the Lord provides.

 

The key to investing in eternity is following God's plan for your life, not just filling your days with activities. Jesus was allocated just thirty-three years of life on earth, but only the last three were spent in fulfilling His Messianic ministry. To us that seems like a waste of time. Yet Christ accomplished everything His Father gave Him to do. That's why on the cross He could say, "It is finished" (John19:30).

 

Scripture compares earthly life to "a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14), but eternal life never ends. It's foolish to spend your life on a vapor when you can reap everlasting benefits by following God's will for your time here. Each day is an opportunity to choose.

~Charles Stanley~

We Beheld His Glory # 9

Great Truths and Their Laws

John 3:1-9

In resuming our meditation in this gospel, the matter which comes immediately before us for our consideration is GREAT TRUTHS AND THEIR LAWS.

Every Divine Truth Is Governed by a Law

It is very important that we should always bear in mind that every Divine truth has its related laws, and is entered into only by way of obedience to those laws. I would have you pause, and give due consideration to the tremendous importance of that fact.

Three Things About These Laws

1. God Maintains Them

There are three things to be said as parts of that general statement. The first is that God maintains those laws, and He Himself sees that they are implicit in every movement into new truth; although they may not be always understood at the time. In other words, we never do enter livingly into any truth, except by the way of the laws which govern that truth, or are basic to that truth. God sees to that. The experiences through which we pass on our way into any truth are God's ways of establishing His laws relative to that truth. We do not always understand what God is doing, or why He is so leading us or handling us, but He is dealing with us, not only to bring us into the truth, but to bring us into the truth according to the laws which govern that truth. We do not always understand those laws when they are being made effective, but God never sets them aside, overlooks them, or allows us to come livingly into the truth apart from them.

2. The Peril of Truth Being Taken Up Without Its Laws

Secondly, the truth taken up without the law operating (a thing quite possible), leads to an unbalanced state, a false position, and the truth operates against the people concerned rather than for them. The issue will be either a breaking of those concerned unto a reconciling adjustment and agreement with the truth spiritually, or else they will abandon the truth. (I want to make sure that you are grasping what I am saying, so please allow me to repeat.) What I have been saying is this in other words. It is possible to take up truth, but not in correspondence with the Divine laws which govern that truth, and apprehending, or taking up, or holding the truth out of correspondence with its essential laws would put us in a false position. We have climbed up some other way, we have not come in by the door. We think we are in, because we have got the truth, but our being in is on an entirely false basis. We have not got the truth by the door, which is the life; we have got the truth along some other line, by some other way, and without the life. We are in a false position. We have got truth without life; we are, therefore, unbalanced: the truth, therefore, will work to our undoing. We shall not find it supporting us but rather breaking us down, and the issue will be one of two things, either by our being broken down we shall be adjusted to the truth, by reason of coming into that truth, or we shall abandon it as a thing which for us does not work. We shall give it up, declaring that it does not "hold water."

3. Understanding May Come After Experience

The third thing. A true and pure experience of the truth may be had without a full understanding of its laws at the time; that is, because of the purity of spirit and honesty of heart. There are many who are living in the enjoyment of truth which they do not understand; living in the experience of truth which they could never define. The laws governing their enjoyment and their experience could never, by them, be set forth, and yet they are enjoying a true and pure experience of the truth. But the Lord does not leave it there, and His will is to bring all into an intelligent understanding of the truth. There is something added by understanding, something added to the enjoyment, appreciation and power in the individual concerned; and something added to the Lord in the way of having a more useful instrument for the purpose of the truth. On the one side it is a great day when we have our experience explained for us, and we are able to say: I have enjoyed that, but I have never understood it, but now I see the meaning of that. There has been something added. And to the Lord it is also a great day to have His children not only enjoying an experience, but in possession of the understanding which makes it possible for them to minister in an intelligent way. In the New Testament, doctrine mainly followed history, a history produced by certain truths. Certain truths were proclaimed; those truths were apprehended, accepted by faith, and history commenced. If you like to change the word "history" into "experience" you may, but experience is a personal word, and history a more general word. I am thinking in the realm of the Book of the Acts; the movements, developments, goings and stayings. The whole history was the result of certain facts apprehended by faith. A history was occasioned by those truths. But the history was not the end; later the doctrine came to explain the history. Acts comes before the Epistles. The Epistles were written to explain experience, history. What is the meaning of this, of that, and, that? The answer is given in the doctrine.

~T. Austin-Sparks

(continued with # 10)

God's Ways Can Be Hard To Understand

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” -Isaiah 55:8-9

I learned these verses in my early years as a Christian. I have heard them quoted often, and I have spoken them many times, either to others or to myself. I am not always sure if they are comforting words or if they are confounding words. Intellectually, I know that God's thoughts and ways are not like mine. Of course my ways are not like God's, God is God and I am not. But when I go down a path that seems to make so much sense to me, then out of nowhere, the course dramatically changes: I must admit that I am more confounded than comforted. There are times when we pray for things or people and our prayers are answered just as we prayed them. Then, there are times when we pray and our prayers seem to go unheard, with no answer at all. We can usually handle both extremes because God is God and He can act as He pleases

But what about those times when we pray about something specifically, and we clearly see God's hand in it? We pray, God leads and we are getting it. We can even see what is coming as God reveals things to us. Our faith is being increased and we are finally gaining some spiritual strength and understanding. Even though the course is tough, we are making steady progress. But… then… out of the blue, something happens that changes our course so drastically that we feel the air has been knocked out of us. All of sudden, we find ourselves in a place of desolation and despair. What happened? It seemed like everything was moving along so well.

It is in these moments that we all must glean a deeper understanding that God's thoughts and ways are not ours. God does not play by our rules and God is never in a rush. Keep one thing in mind today as you meditate on these verses. Our Lord loves us more than we can ever comprehend and everything He does is in our best interest. His main desire for us is that we are His, totally and completely. Do you feel as though God has abandoned you or maybe has just forgotten about your needs? Ask Him to help you understand more of His ways. Ask Him to open your mind to comprehend the Scriptures. Go to Him, repent if you have un-confessed sin and trust that His higher ways will always be what is best.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

We Beheld His Glory # 8

The Link of Faith

When you realize that, you get these eternal elements, the light, life, joy, fullness, you see that spirituality is one of John's main features all the way through; that is, that  believers, those linked with Christ, are brought into a realm of spiritual fellowship with Him, spiritual understanding, spiritual intelligence. And then faith has its place, "Filled with water." True! but it had not become wine yet. It did not become wine until it was on its way to the master of the feast. Think of those men taking to the master of the feast water for wine. But Mary had said: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it," and their hesitancy had been forestalled, faith had come into operation to draw out wine that was yet water, and on the way it changed, and when it reached the master of the feast it was best wine. There is a challenge of faith. I only wish we could get into the fullness of this; faith's relationship to the fullness of God in Christ for us, apprehended by faith; faith's relationship to what Christ is in fullness, life, joy, glory. You and I are in the state of this feast when it broke down; by nature we are in that state. There is a cloud over us, there is a sense of need, emptiness, spiritual death, despair. We are conscious that we are in something but we are not getting anywhere; this thing has broken down, it is in a state of suspense. The whole thing wants changing. There needs to be life in the place of death, fullness in the place of emptiness, joy in the place of despair, glory in the place of shame. Are we not there by nature? Is that not our place? Yes, this broken down marriage feast is just a good picture of our state; those waterpots, before the word of the Lord Jesus came to them, represent our condition. The general atmosphere of this kind of dilemma is the state of our lives until the Lord comes in in relation to His Christ. "Mine hour"; and when we see what He is, God's fullness for our emptiness, God's joy for our joylessness, God's life for our death, God's hope for our despair; it is all what Christ is. Not something He is going to give us, it is Himself. "(... We beheld His glory ...) full of grace and truth."  "... of his fullness we all received, and grace upon grace." And then the link between all is the obedience of faith. It is the faith rising up and acting in apprehending Christ, taking Christ, appropriating Christ, subjecting our whole life to Christ. "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it"; making Christ the Master of the feast. That is why I said this man was not the master of ceremonies. The Lord Jesus was the Master of Ceremonies; the other man was only tasting things. When the Lord Jesus is the Master all things are subject to Him. This is the issue. The trouble which holds things up very often is that we still have a way of our own, and thoughts of our own. Those men might have stopped and said: You are going to get us into a fine mess telling us to take water to the ruler of the feast. We might argue and say: What is the good? I do not see the good of this, I do not see how this is going to work out. We are not subject to Christ. We have to come down to the place where our wills, our likes, our preferences, our sympathies and antipathies, all of ourselves must go and He has to be LORD, and when He is Lord and we have come under the impact of His Cross the issue will be this fullness, joy, glory, life.

I do trust that we shall grasp one thing, whether we are able to grasp the hidden significance or not - Christ everything. He is everything, He can be everything to us, changing things as He changed things here from what they were not to what they ought to have been. He can make that change for us.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 9 - Great Truths and their Laws")

You Are Irresistible!

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. - Acts 6:8, 10

Have you ever been with someone or just watched a person who was irresistible? Some people have a charisma that attracts others to them and the reasons for the attraction are not always obvious. I remember taking a Bowling class in college to fulfill one of my elective course requirements. On the first day I thought the instructor was a bit over-zealous as he enthusiastically explained the course curriculum. What is there to get excited about in a Bowling class? But to my surprise it was not long before I found this class to be a refreshing break and actually looked forward to going to it. Why? Not because I love bowling, but because the instructor shared his joy in such a way that I found myself attracted to his energy and enthusiasm.

We need to realize how often we affect those around us just by our expressions and attitude. It is amazing to think about how contagious our attitudes and behaviors can be to others. As Christians, we are to be lights in this dark world. We are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to proclaim His love, joy and peace to everyone. If we truly have His Spirit, as Stephen did, then we will be irresistible to those listening to us.

Think about your behavior and attitude today as you go about your activities, especially how you express yourself. A smile goes a long way, and there is something contagious about laughter. Before you start your day, stop and ask the Lord to fill you with His wisdom and Spirit. Ask for His joy to be your strength and for His peace to prevail over all of your circumstances. And, if you keep smiling long enough, eventually people will want to know your secret. Then you get to tell them all about Jesus because He is truly the only reason any of us can smile and have real joy.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~