…a word in due season, how good it is! (Prov. 15:23 KJV)
“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love: he who loveth mean and sordid things doth thereby become base and vile; but a nobleand well placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves”
– Henry Scougal
“O God, you are my God; I will seek you diligently.
My soul thirsts for you…”
Psalm 63:1
The true pursuit of God is a proportional response to our seeing of Him. The diligent seeking of God in the life of David was a consequence of him seeing God in the sanctuary.
“Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary,
beholding your strength and glory”
Psalm 63:2
The land wherein David dwelt became a howling wilderness in comparison to the beauty and the glory he beheld in the Holy Place of God.
“…My soul thirsts for you;
my flesh longs for you
as in a dry and weary land without water”
Psalm 63:1
It is the seeing of the wonder of God that transforms one from being at home in this world into a pilgrim of faith; a sojourner with purpose and a captive of the hope which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In beholding the Pearl of Great Price men and women are freed from the gravity and pull of this world. His beauty mesmerizes the beholder; it causes an abandonment of all other loves and creates its own quest and inertia. There can be no settling for the artificial and trite for the deep of God beckons His own with the simple cords of Love and Desire.
“Deep is calling to deep
at the thunder of your waterfalls…”
Psalm 42:7
The depths of His being calls out to the Christ within. The tendrils of His love grip the soul in the embrace of God Himself. Only the Love of God in Christ Jesus can ignite our hearts into such a pursuit.
“Who, when he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had, and bought it”
Matthew 13:46
Brian Troxel
“Our confidence in Christ does not make us lazy, negligent, or careless, but on the contrary it awakens us, urges us on, and makes us active in living righteous lives and doing good. There is no self-confidence to compare with this”
– Huldrych Zwingli
Christ seen through the eyes of the philosopher,
view Him through the opinions of men.
Christ seen through the eyes of a Christian believer,
view Him as a teacher or teaching.
Christ seen through the eyes of a disciple,
view Him as Lord and Master.
To the philosopher,
a point of curiosity.
To the believer,
a word to believe.
To the disciple,
a word to obey.
Matthew 16:15
Brian Troxel
“He [Jesus] did not say, ‘You will never have a rough passage, you will never be over-strained, you will never feel uncomfortable,’ but he did say, ‘You will never be overcome”
– Julian of Norwich
“Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee:
go up and possess it,
as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee;
fear not, neither be discouraged”
Deuteronomy 1:21
The word of the Lord to Joshua was spoken to offset the fear and the discouragement of God’s people after forty years of seemingly pointless wandering in the wilderness. While a faithless generation passed away, God was speaking faith and encouragement to a new generation. It was a time of change; a New Day. The call of God to possess the promises given had fallen to a New Generation and within those promises lay new responsibilities for them to dispossess their enemies. So it is in our day. There is an exhortation for us to “Go Up” into the things of God.
His Word is spoken for those who will hear to rise up and leave the aimless wandering in the wilderness of powerless words; of a gospel that has been without direction and purpose, and an endless promotion of strategies and self-seeking men.
“Go Up” is spoken to a new generation. “Go Up” is God’s Word to those hearts whom the paltry offerings of empty words can no longer satisfy. There is a generation who find complacency in words, teachings and doctrinal concepts but there is also a generation who cannot find rest apart from the wonder of HIS Life within. The one generation must arise out of the complacency of the other.
Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
are filled with the pulsating power of the Lamb’s Life.
Let us hear His Word afresh. May we feel the drawings of His Spirit to deeper things, higher things and living things. Let the “Go Up” of God bring a new seeking of Him who makes “all things new”!
“Remember ye not the former things,
neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing;
now it shall spring forth…”
Isaiah 43:18-19
Brian Troxel
“Get your texts from God – your thoughts, your words, from God… It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin”
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful”
HEBREWS 10:23
Hope is the ability to see through the darkness and to know that beyond the thin veil of this present world (which is passing away) there is an eternal city shining with the Glory of our God. Its citizens have already passed through great trial and temptation and are watching our progress with great anticipation for us to complete that which God began with them* (Hebrews 11:39-12:1). We read of Abraham who lived in a strange country sustained by hope; “for he LOOKED for a City whose builder and maker is God”. We see Moses who endured great trials for 40 years because he saw Him who is invisible! We read of the lives of those who made a difference in their day not because they were strong but because their God was strong on their behalf. This present day of small things will and must give way to the dawning of His Life within His own who feel the pulse of His Hope and His purposes. It is in such a time as this that those who long for more of God, who thirst for more than just another Sunday sermon, will know within their hearts that God has something greater than what we see today.
“And thou shalt be secure,
because there is hope”
Job 11:18
Brian Troxel
“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace;
to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed”
Romans 4:16
“And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”
Genesis 25:22 – 25
Within the life of every true believer is the struggle between two natures; two ways of living, two sets of desires and two eternal consequences. The conflict is between the first Adam and the Last Adam, the first Adam being that nature which is earthly and sensual and the second Adam being the heavenly man, the Eternal Son of Man. We see the very portrayal of this within the womb of Rebekah as she by faith brought forth the one who would become Israel in the purposes and dealings of our great God.
Esau was the firstborn, a man of passions, wild and undisciplined. He was of the earth, earthly and devoid of any real love of spiritual things. He was born first, bearing the likeness of the first Adam, which in the Hebrew means “red earth”. At his birth the scriptures take great care to describe his appearance (See The Things of Esau).
“And the first came out red*(see note below),
all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau”
Genesis 25:25
Jacob, though a schemer and a conniver, had one thing that set him apart. He had respect for the things of God. The birthright, which was rightfully Esau’s by virtue of being the first born, meant little to Esau and he surrendered it for a mere mess of pottage in a moment of extreme hunger. Jacob, on the other hand, coveted this blessing. Jacob was the son of promise, a man called to become the Israel of God, not by strength, nor by might but by the mercy and strength of our God.
These two distinct “manner of people” struggled within the womb of Rebekah, yet the promise was THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER. Jacob’s journey of faith to become Israel was one of many dealings and breakings in the hands of a determined and merciful God. The promise of God tarries until the man Jacob is broken. It is in our submission to His dealings that we become the people upon whom the promise falls.
“The Lord sent a word into Jacob,
and it hath lighted upon Israel”
Isaiah 9:8
The promise to Jacob was a sure thing but the severity of the dealings of God and the determination of God is what made the promise sure. The man Jacob must become the worm that he might indeed become strong.
“Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff”
Isaiah 41:14 – 15
We must see that the inabilities in our life to do God’s will are the result of our strengths not our weaknesses. When we speak of weakness we are speaking of all that has not been brought into submission to the Son; in whatever measure we have known the fellowship of His sufferings there is a corresponding experience of His resurrection life.
“That I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead”
Philippians 3:10 – 11
Let us realize that the struggle within is a struggle that is to be unto life and glory; HIS LIFE and HIS GLORY. The struggle of Rebekah is prophetic of all that we must know within ourselves. Jacob will remain Jacob until he is broken. We too will remain barren unless we discover the wonder and the power of HIS faith in our lives. A faith like gold submitted to the fire is purified and fit for the master’s use. Teachings will not produce this life; only a broken and surrendered will in the hands of the God of Jacob! This is not a day to tarry but it is a day for us to “press toward the mark, for the PRIZE of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”.
Let our confidence be not in ourselves, our knowledge or our associations. Rather let our confidence be in the God of Jacob who was able to bring forth a PRINCE* (see note below) from the worm and who is able to complete that which He began in us. The beauty of Jacob’s heart was clearly revealed at Peniel as we see Jacob clinging to the ONE who wounded him for in that place we see and hear God’s declaration…
“Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men,
and hast prevailed”
Genesis 32:28
* אַדְמֹנִי ʼaḏmōniy, אַדְמוֹנִי ʼaḏmôniy: An adjective meaning red, ruddy. from the Hebrew Word ADAM
*Israel – Prince with God
A Partial reprint of a former post. A relevant reminder for us to stay the course in Christ
Brian Troxel
“That which of all things unfits man for the reception of Christ as a Saviour, is not gross profligacy and outward, vehement transgression, but it is self-complacency, fatal self-righteousness and self-sufficiency”
– Alexander MacLaren