Ascend The Mountain

I am currently reading a book titled, “In Christ Alone” by Sinclair Ferguson. It is helping me to “know whom I have believed”. To know more so I can love and trust more. To think deeply so I can feel deeply. In Morning & Evening, Spurgeon uses the example of our relationship with God being like ascending a mountain. The higher we go, the more we can see and delight in Him. Every truth learned, trial passed through and day lived, has the potential to take us further up the mountain. But we still have to make the climb. With His help, it’s possible!

“When we first believe in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we discover of his beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, I know whom I have believed, for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.” – charles hadden spurgeon

Learning The Father's Love

I thought it was so cool and so like God to reaffirm what I wrote about yesterday through Elisabeth Elliot's devotional today. "Whenever I have resisted Him, I have cheated myself. Whenever I have yielded, I have found joy."

-When my brother Dave was very small, we spent a week at the seaside in Belmar, New Jersey. In vain my father tried to persuade the little boy to come into the waves with him and jump, promising to hold him safely and not allow the waves to sweep over his head. He took me (only a year older) into the ocean and showed Dave how much fun it would be. Nothing doing. The ocean was terrifying. Dave was sure it would mean certain disaster, and he could not trust his father. On the last day of our vacation he gave in. He was not swept away, his father held him as promised, and he had far more fun than he could have imagined, whereupon he burst into tears and wailed, "Why didn't you make me go in?"

An early lesson in prayer often comes through an ordeal of fear. We face impending adversity and we doubt the love, wisdom and power of our Father in heaven. We've tried everything else and in our desperation we turn to prayer--of the primitive sort: here's Somebody who's reputed to be able to do anything. The great question is, can I get Him to do what I want? How do I twist His arm, how persuade a remote and reluctant deity to change His mind?

When the people of Israel were encamped in Pi-hahiroth and saw the Egyptians coming after them, they felt they were looking death in the face and it was all Moses' fault--"as if there weren't enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die!"

"Don't be afraid," said Moses. "Stand by. The Lord will fight for you if you'll just be quiet."
You know the story of deliverance--the sea was rolled back, Israel marched through it dry shod, and when the Egyptians pursued them the sea swamped their horses, their chariots, and the whole army. "Not even one of them remained." The song of victory Moses and Israel sang reveals their recognition not only of the strength, majesty and wonder-working of the Lord, but of His loving-kindness, immeasurably beyond anything they had dared to hope.

Poor Dave! His father could have forced him to come into the water, but he could not have forced him to relax and enjoy it. As long as the child insisted on protecting himself, saving the life he was sure he would lose, he could not trust the strong love of his father. He refused to surrender. In this simple story we hear echoes of the most ancient story, of the two who, mistrusting the word of their Father, fearing that obedience to Him would ultimately bar them from happiness, chose to repudiate their dependence on Him. Sin, death, destruction for the whole race were the result.

Learning to pray is learning to trust the wisdom, the power, and the love of our Heavenly Father, always so far beyond our dreams. He knows our need and knows ways to meet it that have never entered our heads. Things we feel sure we need for happiness may often lead to our ruin. Things we think will ruin us (the chariots of Egypt, the waters of the sea, or the little waves in Belmar!), if we believe what the Father tells us and surrender ourselves into His strong arms, bring us deliverance and joy.

The only escape from self-love is self-surrender. "Whoever loses his life for Me will find it" (Matthew 16:25, NIV). "Dwell in my love. If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father's commands and dwell in His love. I have spoken thus to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete" (John 15:9-11, NEB). My father knew far better than his small, fearful, stubborn son what would give him joy. So does our Heavenly Father. Whenever I have resisted Him, I have cheated myself, as my little brother did. Whenever I have yielded, I have found joy.-e.e.

So, I had a new thought this morning...well, maybe not a new thought, but at least a better Formed, better Informed one. Selfishness/self-seeking directly correlates with not trusting God. The result? God will often times let us have our way, but in the end we will be unsatisfied. The opposite of that is unselfishness/surrender which correlates with trusting God. The result? God will take our interests into His hands. He will take care of us. You would think that knowing that truth would make us never want to take things into our own hands again, but no, like foolish children we often grab for control again and again! God is so kind and patient with us though. I am hoping to continue grow in trusting God and giving all to Him...He always knows the best time to give and the best gifts to give.

“If you will devote yourself to God,

as making a sacrifice of all your own interests to him,

you will not throw yourself away.

Though you seem to neglect yourself and to deny yourself,

and to overlook self in imitating the divine benevolence,

GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU;

and He will see to it that your interest is provided for,

and your welfare made sure…

If you are selfish,

and make yourself and your own private interests your idol,

God will leave you to yourself

and let you promote your interests as well as you can.

But if you do not selfishly seek your own,

but do seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s,

and the things of your fellow-beings,

then God will make your interests and happiness his own charge, and

He is infinitely more able to provide for and promote it than you are.”
-jonathan edwards

Responsible to Praise

We cannot always or even often control events, but we can control how we respond to them. When things happen which dismay or appall, we ought to look to God for his meaning, remembering that He is not taken by surprise nor can his purposes be thwarted in the end. What God looks for is those who will worship Him. Our look of inquiring trust glorifies Him.
One of the witnesses to the crucifixion was a military officer to whom the scene was surely not a novelty. He had seen plenty of criminals nailed up. But the response of this Man who hung there was of such an utterly different nature than that of the others that the centurion knew at once that He was innocent. His own response then, rather than one of despair that such a terrible injustice should take place, or of anger at God who might have prevented it, was praise (Lk 23:47 NEB).

This is our first responsibility: to glorify God. In the face of life's worst reversals and tragedies, the response of a faithful Christian is praise--not for the wrong itself certainly, but for who God is and for the ultimate assurance that there is a pattern being worked out for those who love Him. - Elisabeth Elliot

The Master Gardener

I have been thinking a lot about God's work of grace in my life lately. About instant justification upon accepting Christ and progressive sanctification over the course of life. About why some people seem to advance in sanctification more quickly than others? Why some fall away and some stand firm? God obviously knows all those things. I heard someone say once, that to be a Christian means that you better get comfortable with mystery. So true. It's not up to me to understand all the ins and outs of God's work of grace in our lives, but instead to trust and believe that He will complete the good work He began in each one of us like He promises. It may take time, just like cultivating a garden, but we can have confidence knowing we are being taken care of by The Master Gardener.

Often times what I think will help me grow and what the Lord KNOWS will help me grow look very different from each other. The longer I live, the more I see His unerring wisdom and perfect sovereignty. I see how He uses joys, trials, people, His word and so many other things to fashion me more into His likeness. I see how much I need Him to be apart of every aspect of my life and my need to stay near the cross. So, I guess all that is to say, that this morning I am praising God for His work of grace!

"For the most part, God's people are exercised with sharp trials and temptations; for it is necessary they should learn not only what He can do for them—but how little they can do without Him! Therefore He teaches them not all at once—but by degrees, as they are able to bear it." - john newton

What Makes God's Work Shine

Brother Masseo asked St. Francis of Assisi why all the world should go running after him who was neither handsome nor learned nor even of noble birth. At this, Francis was overjoyed, and after kneeling to thank God, said, "Why me? Why me? The all-seeing God, looking down and finding nothing viler on earth, quite naturally fixed His gaze on me. For to make His work shine forth in men's eyes, the Lord takes what is learned, strong, and noble, so that the glory may go to the sole Author of all good." - elisabeth elliot

We are only pots--common ones of clay, so that the splendid power may belong to God and not to us (2 Cor 4:7 NEB)

Therefore We Will Not Be Afraid

The Lord has been teaching me patience and joy through burdens and afflictions. It's hard for me to even call them by those names, because what I go through pales so greatly in comparison to what others endure and most importantly what Christ endured. The reality is that every believer on the face of the earth will at some point in their life encounter hardship. Whether it be a hard fight against sin, bearing burdens, a long term illness or just the trials of life. Sometimes we can think we don't have the strength to walk through another trials or defeat another sin and we would be right. The kind of strength needed for that can only come from God. Like I've said before, I see that sin and trials keep me on my knees and close to the cross. And like a speaker said at a recent conference I attended, "It's better to be tormented by Satan, than to be proud." The following quote encouraged me today...as well as the thought that God is able and willing to make perfect His strength in our weakness.

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble! Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas!" Psalm 46:1-2

November 2, 1761

My dear sister,

Let us not be greatly discouraged at the many tribulations, difficulties and disappointments which lie in the path which leads to glory. Our Lord has plainly told us, that "in this world, you will have many trials and sorrows." Yet He has also made a suitable provision for every case we can meet with; and is Himself always near to those who call upon Him—as a sure refuge, an almighty strength, a never-failing, ever-present help in every time of trouble!

Jesus Himself was a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief for our sakes. He drank the whole cup of unmixed wrath for us! Shall we then refuse to taste a sip of the cup of affliction at His appointment; especially when His wisdom and His love prepare it for us—and He proportions every circumstance to our strength; when He puts it into our hands, not in anger—but in tender mercy—to do us good, to bring us near to Himself; and when He sweetens every bitter sip with those comforts which none but He can give." - john newton