"The Ocean"
As we frequently suggest in these messages, human beings are as fish the swim in the ocean that is God.
"In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
Note that the Apostle Paul declared this truth not only regarding believers, but rather to the unbelieving Athenian philosophers of his day. They lived, moved, and had their being in God no less than Paul. Of course, they did not know it, or rather Him, in a saving, relational way. The Athenians, however, could not escape the source and sustenance of their existence, nor were they exempt from their utter dependence on the Lord who "giveth to all life and breath and all things." Or, as Job and the Psalmist proclaimed of the Creator and His creation: "The Lord… in whose hand is the soul of every living thing… Thou openest Thine hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" (Acts 17:25; Job 12:10; Psalm 145:16).
No sadder fact exists than the truth that most people live by and because of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they do not know it. Moreover, deep in the heart, they reject what should be the most obvious reality of their existence. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not" (II Corinthians 4:4). The willful escape from the actuality of things began in Eden, and passed down through all generations into every child born of Adam's race. It dominates the human heart unless it realizes and repents in the redemption of God's grace as received by faith in the Lord Jesus. Indeed, salvation involves a fish discovering the Ocean in which it swims, and receiving the Maker of the Ocean into its very being. "I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness unto light" (Acts 26:18). Little wonder that joy fills the hearts of all who trust the Lord Jesus as the Holy Spirit saves us unto the realization of the Great Giver of "life and breath and all things," and the truth that we exist as His blessed recipients.
To one degree or another, born again believers live in realization of the Ocean in which we "live and move and have our being." Consistent and growing joy depends on consistent and growing knowledge of how God-saturated we are. Moreover, all the other fish with whom we live swim in the same Environment. This does not mean they know it, of course, nor that they will escape "the wrath to come" if they never repent and believe in the Lord Jesus (I Thessalonians 1:10). But it does mean that for believer and unbeliever alike, "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). This changes our perspective of ourselves, and of every person on the planet. Human beings are fish that swim in the ocean that is God. This is truth. This is reality. And this is the God-saturated perspective proceeding from the God-saturated existence that illuminates our hearts, and prepares us to see the the hearts of others in the light of truth, reality, and the Ocean.
"He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."
(Colossians 1:17)
Weekly Memory Verse
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)
Frances's Blog: http://www.cafepowderroom.com
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