"Not Without Witness"

"Not Without Witness"   

   

    

   From the moment of our conception, the greatest influence on our hearts and lives has been the working of God to reveal Himself and lead us to His Truth.

   "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

    Our circumstances, situations, conditions, heritage, religious influence, geography, experience - whatever their nature - all speak first and foremost of our Lord's reality and His moving within our hearts to reveal Himself and His truth.  "Clearly seen" declares the Apostle Paul of God's "eternal power and godhead."  Thus, we are all rendered "without excuse" because we have all been so graced with "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).  Of course, excuses for rejecting God's light comprise the default position of our flesh, beginning with Adam and Eve's blame shifting long ago in Eden (Genesis 3:11-13).  The devil would offer a thousand different questions about God's revelation of Himself, all seeking to foment unrest about the Lord's justice, and our responsibility.  "Well, what about this?  And what about that?  Or what about this and that?!"  Again, the Biblical answer is "clearly seen" regarding the reality of God regardless of appearance, because "the things that are made" all bear witness to "the invisible things."  

   We are always preaching to the choir, as it were, when we bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  Of course, some may have more awareness of the conceptual realities regarding God's truth.  Those reared in Christian environments will certainly possess more immediate knowledge about the propositions of Scripture.  However, as missionaries to remote lands have often discovered, God never leaves Himself without a witness.  "The Light shineth in darkness" declared the Apostle John (John 1:5).  Consider that the Lord Jesus Himself made and sustains the existence of those to whom we bear witness of His saving grace.  They also "live and move and have their being" in Him.  He gives to them "life and breath and all things" (John 1:1-2; Colossians 1:17; Acts 17:25-28).  The fact of the matter is that everybody has immediate experience of God.  Thus, everybody knows.  The most ardent atheist knows.  He may sneer, bluster, and mock the notion of God.  But deeply within, he knows.  This is why the atheist often feels so much passion about his rejection of God.  He fights against the primary truth of his existence, thus creating the most frustrating and miserable conflict within himself.  He shouts his unbelief, crying against the Voice that so plainly speaks to his heart.  Indeed, the issue never really involves intellect, but rather heart.  "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).

    Let us then go forth to the choir.  Every human being whose paths cross ours today has heard the Voice and seen the Reality from the moment of conception until this present hour.  When we speak of the Lord Jesus, our words resonate in familiar halls wherein God's Truth has long sounded and resounded.  Those who reject the Lord and the Gospel act not from inability to respond, but from unwillingness.  Everybody knows.  Remembering that our witness simply provides a corresponding voice to the Spirit of God's moving to shine light in human hearts encourages us to speak the Word to those who have continually seen God in His world.

"He left not Himself without witness."

(Acts 14:17)

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.  And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning."

(John 15:26-27)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and He did hear my voice out of His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears.

(II Samuel 22:7)

"Loving... Listening" Part 2

"Loving… Listening"  

Part 2

    

   As referenced in yesterday's message, God listens to us because He loves us, and He loves us by listening to us.  

   "But verily God hath heard me, He hath attended to the voice of my prayer" (Psalm 66:19).

    Through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father made a way of relationship and fellowship with us whereby we can be confident in His hearing our prayers.  Apart from our Savior's redeeming work on our behalf, God would violate His spiritual and moral integrity if He determined to have fellowship with fallen human beings.  In Christ, however, He remains both "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).  We never merit answers to our prayers, or the listening Heart that provides them.  We rather gain and maintain access to the Throne of grace by the person and work of the Lord Jesus.  Such truth encourages us to pray, and then leads to a far more faithful walk with our Father in trust and obedience.  The faithful walk then leads to more consistent prayer, which then results in more faithfulness, which then, well, you see the blessed cycle of grace as effected by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of born again believers.

    Regarding this holy process, our spiritual enemies seek to short circuit our response by clouding our knowledge and remembrance of the God-originated and maintained bond of fellowship made possible through Christ.  If we do not adequately know, or if we forget that in His love for us, God paved a clear path to Himself by His Son, we will likely find the life of prayer far too daunting to consistently experience.  Thus, we must steep our hearts and minds in the foundational truths of grace and truth whereby we increasingly understand the atoning work of Christ on our behalf.  As the dying Lamb, He offered the perfect sacrifice for our sins whereby our path to relationship with God was prepared.  As our risen Advocate, "He ever liveth to make intercession for us" in order to maintain our hope for fellowship with our Heavenly Father (Hebrews 7:25).  Certainly what we do matters regarding our walk with the Lord.  However, what the Lord Jesus has done, and what His is doing, remains far more the hope of our hearts concerning our fellowship with God.  "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" leads to walking with Him in faithful communion with our Father, and its subsequent fruit of faith and faithfulness (Hebrews 12:2).

   Again, such blessedness all begins with the love of God.  He beckons us to walk with Him in consistent and growing fellowship because He so dearly loves our hearts and voices.  No truth more motivates born again believers to pray as we rightly order the matter of fellowship with God in our understanding.  True prayer always begins with our Lord, in terms of Christ's work on our behalf, and the moving of the Holy Spirit within our hearts as He beckons us to our Father's throne of grace.  Such love is beyond our comprehension, and always will be.  However, we can better understand the actions of God on our behalf whereby His desire for fellowship with us motivates within us the reciprocal desire for fellowship with Him.  The Lord Jesus made such a way for us, and indeed, He is the way (John 14:6).  May such grace lead us to gaze into our Father's face, and to rejoice that He listens to us because He loves us, and He loves us by listening to us.

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."

(Psalm 27:8)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and He did hear my voice out of His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears.

(II Samuel 22:7)

“Loving… Listening”

"Loving… Listening"      

    

   Two words in the English language that begin with the same letter are often nearly synonymous - "Love" and "Listen."  This is especially true regarding the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    "The Lord will hear when I call unto Him" (Psalm 4:3).

    "I the Lord will hear them" (Psalm 41:17).

    Consider that God exists as an all knowing Being who seeks relationship and fellowship not merely with finite creatures such as ourselves, but also with those who "like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6).  What can we possibly offer Him in heart to heart, mind to mind discourse?  Why does He listen to us?  The Biblical answer, of course, rings with grace in the hearts of those who have discovered the answer.  "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).  God listens to us because He loves us, and He loves by listening to us.

   We must allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by this blessed truth of prayer, namely, that the cost of our fellowship with God involved the highest price ever paid for the freest gift ever given.

    "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God… For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:1-2; 10).

    God's listening to us required that He not hear when the Lord Jesus cried out on the cross of Calvary, "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?!" (Matthew 27:46).  Every word we ever humbly and faithfully utter in prayer flows to our Father's throne along the currents of His Son's blood.  This is the Love that listens, and that loves as it listens.  Moreover, Solomon declared, "the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).  Yes, with God, loving and listening are nearly synonymous.  The same is true with us in our human relationships, but that is a subject for another day.  For now, let us be overwhelmed by the wonder of prayer as we remember its cost, and the love that led our Lord to pay it so that He might hear us without compromising His holy integrity.  Overwhelming indeed, but greatly empowering in the encouragement to approach the Throne where a Father awaits us with the greatest interest in what we have to say…

"Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice."

(Song of Solomon 2:14)

"He shall hear my voice."

(Psalm 55:17)

If my voice is sweet to You, as Your Word declares, 

 if somehow You find delight in my prayers,

and if Your face You call me to seek, 

then Your face I will seek…

And my voice You will hear,

my voice You will hear.

Weekly Memory Verse 

    In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and He did hear my voice out of His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears.

(II Samuel 22:7)