Wednesday, October 8, 2014

"The Wellspring"


(Thanks to Char for inspiration on this one)

     God does what He does because He is who He is.  His actions do not constitute His perfection, but rather, His perfection motivates and elicits His actions.

     "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).

    When the Lord identified Himself to Moses, He declared, "I AM" (Exodus 3:14).  He affirmed His being and essence rather than His doing.  In the Psalmist's terms, righteousness originates His ways, and holiness His works.  Such Divine emphasis as revealed in Scripture calls us to a different response to God than we may sometimes consider.  While His works on our behalf supply eternally vital substance and provision to us, our Heavenly Father nevertheless calls us to come further and journey deeper than mere focus upon His doings.  "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).  God calls us to know Him in Christ, as revealed by His Spirit and His Word.

    "Who art Thou, Lord?" asked the Apostle Paul upon meeting the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5).  Paul continued to ask that question for the rest of his earthly life.  "That I may know Him" became the determined purpose of his existence (Philippians 3:10).  It must become ours as well.  As we "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," such emphasis increasingly clarifies and reorients our spiritual focus (II Peter 3:18).  We maintain fascination regarding God's doings - "O Lord, how great are Thy works!" (Psalm 92:5).  However, we more and more find our hearts directed to the wondrous Wellspring from which the streams of Divine goodness flow.  We find ourselves loving God for who He is in the rapture of His "I AM" eliciting our "You are!"  Indeed, our Lord's emphasis becomes our emphasis, and we begin to love even as we are loved.

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, o God."
(Psalm 42:1)

Weekly Memory Verse
   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(Proverbs 22:28)

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