"Still"

     God created a universe characterized by immeasurable motion.  From the atomic and sub-atomic particles that race in their infinitessimal world to the frenetic pace of revolving planets and galaxies scurrying through the vastness of space, physical things exist because they move.  Stillness is illusion in the physical realm, but in spiritual reality, our Creator calls us to rest.

    "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

    Relationship with our Lord begins when we cease our attempts to move toward Him, realizing that salvation involves His movement toward us.  "I will come to you" declared the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples, alluding to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that would redeem their hearts after the Savior's atoning work on the cross and His triumphant resurrection from the dead (John 14:18).  "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).  Ongoing fellowship with God also continues as we realize and affirm that our Heavenly Father motivates and empowers all true communion with Himself.  We play an active role in the relationship, but ours is a response from rest, that is, the stillness of heart that exalts the grace of God even as we receive His beneficience by faith.  "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (II Corinthians 10:17).

    Much spiritual movement characterizes the Christian life.  A resting heart in Christ leads to active minds, working hands, walking feet, and self sacrificial actions for the glory of God and the benefit of others.  Stillness of spirit fosters and perpetuates much motion of soul and body.  We rest within by knowing God as the originator and power of beneficial movement, and then walk in the ensuing motion of His leading and enabling.  Or, as the Lord Jesus declared of His life of rest and response, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17)

"Be still," He said.

"I will," I said.

And there was peace.

But then He moved.

And then I moved.

There was peace.

"Be still again," He said.

"I will again," I said.

We move,

and peace remains.

"Be still… I will."

"He that is entered into His rest hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His."

(Hebrews 4:10)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety. 

(Psalm 4:8)

    

 

"The Path of Love"

    

    Trouble tempts us to self-centeredness.  "Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity weighed in the balances together!" (Job 6:1-2).  

    Contrast this with the Lord Jesus Christ, who upon the cross of His sorrow and forsakeness prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).  Or consider the Apostle Paul's response to difficult challenge - "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation" (II Corinthians 1:5-6) . Clearly the Lord and His servant saw an opportunity in trouble, namely, the means of ministry whereby God redeems our pains into the power to venture forth from ourselves unto blessing others.

    When born again believers face pain and difficulty, of whatever mode and measure, our initial response will involve the normal human tendencies - "I hurt!"  "I'm sad!"  "I'm scared!"  "I'm confused!"  "I've been treated unjustly!"  "I'm angry!"  What if, however, we do not have to remain in the grips of our reaction?  What if we might open the eyes of our hearts to see a path of love lying before us?  It does.  Our faith began with the sufferings of One becoming the redemption of many.  It continues as we realize this same One now dwells in us by His Spirit, purposing to live the same quality of character and life in us.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal body… for all things are for your sakes" (II Corinthians 4:10; 15). 

    No measure exists whereby the power of this truth can be calculated.  Recognizing trouble as the opportunity to trust God and to remember the difficulties of others empowers us to a transcendant Life far beyond the human.  When the initial question, "Why is this happening to me?" becomes "Who is this for?", the Lord Jesus walks the troubled paths of this world again.  In us.  Moreover, He walks them in the triumph of love whereby self-centerness dissolves in the glory of God's sublime character of devotion to others.  Our particular path begins with prayers for others experiencing trouble - "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends" (Job 42:10).  It continues by innumerable possibilities of ministry to others, based upon our own difficulties and challenges.  "I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel" (Philippians 1:12).  Only eternity will reveal the wonders of Christ's goodness known thereby, but this moment offers a path to the troubled and hurting, the path of our Lord's love that leads us upward, outward, and away from ourselves unto His glory and the benefit of others…

"So then death worketh in us, but life in you."

(II Corinthians 4:12)

Weekly Memory Verse

    I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:38-39)

“This Moment”

    

    As opposed to mere ritual, Biblical Christianity involves the reality of the present and living God.

    "God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:9).

    The New Testament teaches that the rituals of the Old Testament served as shadows pointing to the advent, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Such outward forms passed away in His light and life as the Object that cast the shadow provides anywhere, all the time, 24/7 presence and availability of God (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1-22).  Indeed, the glory of authentic, Christ-infused spiritual reality involves seeing the possibility for worship at all times.

    "He giveth to all life and breath and all things… Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (Acts 17:25; I Corinthians 10:31).

    Note the Apostle's suggestion of Divine involvement (provision) "in all things", leading to the opportunity of an ongoing response to God.  Indeed, if our Heavenly Father grants to us every breath, we could if we so desired find 12-16 opportunities per minute to give thanks.  The Lord's gifts of "life" and "all things" provide altars of gratitude for gifts received everywhere, at all times.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).  Moreover, the born again believer possesses the potential to "do all to the glory of God" (emphasis added)  All.  We need not consider places, postures, or overtly spiritual practices as our only opportunities for active devotion to God.  The first mention of worship in the Bible involved a man escorting his son into a mountain of bloody sacrifice, and then binding his beloved to an altar before raising a knife to pierce the precious heart (Genesis 22).  The Lord stayed Abraham's hand, whose actions constituted worship for the man declared by Paul to be "the father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:11).  Thus, anywhere and anything wherein we trust and obey God transforms into an altar for the sons and daughters of God in Christ.  Indeed, in real spiritual terms, believers don't merely"go to church."   We live in church!  And we take the church wherever we go in the determination to trust and obey God.

    This is reality, the only reality.  Any other notion of life, whether of rejecting the fact of God, or of seeking Him by ritual rather than the reality known by faith, leaves us in either abject darkness or the gloom of shadowed spiritual twilight.  The Lord Jesus suffered and died to deliver us from both options that fail to glorify our Heavenly Father and do not fulfill our hearts.  Indeed, worship that cannot be known and experienced anywhere and everywhere, in any and all circumstances, cannot be considered "the faith once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).  Where you are and where I am affords such opportunity, so allow me to make a quick exit so that we may avail ourselves of the great gift of salvation in the Lord Jesus, namely, the gift of God Himself as known in the reality of this moment…

"The Lord is at hand."

(Philippians 4:5)

"Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy."

(Psalm 43:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

    I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:38-39)