God's Recording Studio

Dear Saints,

       Paul instructed the Thessalonians to "aspire to be tranquil."   I must admit that I have been a slow learner in this regard but I am discovering that this aspiration is far more than a little quiet homestead out in the country where we don't disturb any of our neighbors.   Tranquility of the inner man is far more crucial to life and peace than any quiet place in an external setting.   Yet few of us have an intimate acquaintance with inner tranquility.

       We have become activity addicts.  We have a spiritual attention deficit disorder.  This is part of the effect of the "evil days" we live in; we are too often slaves of our senses.  Is this true in our life?   How comfortable are we in complete silence?    Does our mind ever completely rest - even in our sleep?   Is our inner man a sanctuary of solitude where we can completely shut out the noise of all man's vain bustling about?   Does the surface of our heart ever look like the glass top of a lake in the early moring light - when you can clearly see heaven on its surface? 

       Sadly, this is why so few of us ever hear the voice of God - for the tranquility of the soul is God's recording studio.   How can the still small voice of God be recorded over the irritating interference of our loud living?   You can rest assured that anything recorded amidst all the background noise will never be worth listening to.   We need to construct a spiritual sound studio where the noise of our flesh, its continual crying to be pampered, can not penetrate the recording studio of solitude.  

        Long before I had any inkling of its true meaning, I learned a song as a youth that somehow stuck in a very cluttered mind.   One of the lines of the song stand out to me now more than ever before:

      There is a quiet place
            Far from the rapid pace
                                         Where God can soothe my troubled mind.
.
                    Sheltered by tree and flower
           There in my quiet hour
                              With him my cares are left behind.
.
             Whether a garden small,
         Or on a mountain tall
                                     New strength and courage there I find.
.
                        And then from that quiet place
        I go prepared to face
                                  A new day with love for all mankind.

            I am beginning to see more of what Paul meant - we all need to aspire to retire!   We should cease from our works and BE STILL and KNOW that I AM GOD!  There in the inner sanctuary of the tranquilized soul - God's voice will be recorded on our hearts - and it will be a song worth playing over and over again.

New Covenant or Old?

     One of the ways that we can tell whether we are living in the New Covenant or the Old Covenant is by our response to our own sins.   If we are living in the Old Covenant, we are never really able to fully cleanse our consciences.  It is not possible for the blood of bulls or goats to do this.  Those sacrifices only served as yearly reminders of sins.  However, those living in the Old Covenant still had a way to continue on with their lives, a way to appease their conscience - they just needed a sacrifice and a scape-goat.  This is one way that we can recognize if we are living under the Old Covenant rather than the New.  How do we act when we become conscious that we have sinned, especially when that sin has hurt someone else?   Do we attempt to make a sacrifice and  look for a scape-goat?   Do we admit our sin while at the same time transferring the blame onto another brother, sister or circumstance?   Transferring the blame onto the scape-goat was never able to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper, it only soothed it for another year.   Many people that are struggling with their consciences over matters of sin are doing so because they do not approach the Father by the New and living way to receive cleansing through the blood of Christ.   Their confession is in accordance with the Law of God; they simply agree with the Law that they were guilty.   However, like the priest of the Old Covenant, their sacrifice is not complete without transferring their sin onto some other brother or sister to carry the blame away from being upon themselves alone.

        Those who live in the New Testament are believers whose consciences have been cleansed through faith in the blood of Jesus.  They have no need of scape-goats any more.  They never transfer the blame for their sin upon anyone else but their own weak faith or un-mortified flesh.  They know by faith that no temptation has ever taken them but what is common to all men, and that the Father has never allowed them to be tempted beyond what they have been able to bear.  Their confession is not simply an admission of guilt that agrees with the Law; they fully say the same as the Holy Spirit and no more; thus they receive both forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness.   With this New and purified conscience they don't need the scape-goat anymore.  

       One more thing about scape-goats.  With the increase of population these scape-goats don't disappear so easily into the wilderness any more.   It has been my own experience that despite my best efforts to isolate them to the remotest parts of my world,  I have often bumped into my own scape-goats over and over again.  

 

Faces in the dust

Grace and peace to those who love our Lord Jesus with an undying love,

    This phrase "keep your face in the dust" has become an oft repeated admonition in our circles.  Have we really taken it to heart?   A picture entered my mind as I was praying this morning of what would result from the repeated practice of keeping our face in the dust. 

    The picture I saw will never occur by sporadic and occasional placing of our faces in the dust.  What I saw was the result of a diligent, daily, continual practice of placing our face in the dust.   Continually throwing ourselves upon the ground and burying our face in the dust would eventually begin to make an impression upon the ground itself.  Our face and body would eventually begin to act like a human shovel moving dirt aside and causing the impression to slowly become deeper and deeper.  The deeper the impression become, the less of our body would be seen.  Over a long period of continued burying our face in the ground (and we can never bury our face without at a minimal of being on our knees or laying prostrate) the impression would eventually become deep enough to be a grave where we could bury ourselves.  We could lay our whole life down just by continually keeping our face in the dust, and our body would return to the dust from which it was formed and release our spirit from its prison.   Then people could walk right over us without even realizing it.  We ourselves would be one with the dust and realize that people always walk upon dirt.  Fully buried in the dust we would finally be able to "REST IN PEACE",  and experience the peace that the righteous find as they lie in death. 

      How can we know that we are really in this spiritual process of humbling ourselves and walking in all lowliness?   It was said of the early church, as recorded in the first few chapters of Acts that "GREAT GRACE WAS UPON THEM ALL."   We know that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.   This is how we are able to tell that the early church was walking in GREAT LOWLINESS.  Their faces had to have been in the dust.  We will never experience GREAT GRACE being upon us until we first experience GREAT LOWLINESS BEING IN US!  

     Another way to tell that we are continually keeping our face in the dust is this - there will always be more dirt upon ourselves than upon others.   Proud ones go about stirring up dissension, flinging dust in the air and covering others with it.  Those who are continually placing their own face in the dust will be dirtier in their own eyes than those around them. 

All Truth is IN JESUS

Greetings to the ones loving Christ Jesus; may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

This morning I noticed something that I had overlooked or failed to see in Paul's instructions to the Ephesians.   I first noticed in Ephesians 4:17 this highlight in the Greek syntax that Paul used "And this I say and testify IN or BY the Lord."  This is very significant, because Paul was usually honest when he was unsure of whether he was relating his own thoughts or what he knew to be the Lord's.   So, he begins this section by indicating - I am testifying in or by the Lord!  These are not just my own ideas. 

What does he go on to testify in/by the Lord about?  This:  That you all are no longer to walk in the same way the rest of the Gentiles walk in or by the vanity of their minds.  Vanity conveys the idea of aimlessness leading to nowhere.  He then uses two perfect participles, both nominatives (the case used for the subject of the sentence) to describe these Gentiles this way-"The ones being darkened in their understanding, estranged from the life of God."  This is how Paul described the Gentiles that we are not to walk in the same way as.

He then goes on to describe WHY they are darkened in their understanding and estranged from the life of God.  Here is the reason they are in this condition: "Because of the ignorance, the one being in them."   Eternal life is KNOWING the Father and His Son, so this ignorance being in them has separated them from the life of God (the eternal life of knowing Him).   

Paul does not stop there, but further describes why this ignorance is in them.   The ignorance, the one being in them is there, "because of the hardness of their hearts."   The apostle then uses another Nominative participle to describe these Gentiles, "Who have become calloused"   Look what these Gentiles with hard hearts, who have become calloused do?  "They have given THEMSELVES over to unrestraint unto a work of all uncleanness by covetousness."   Paul uses unmistakable language to make it clear - they are the ones responsible for giving themselves over to a work of all uncleanness by covetousness (they do this unto themselves - it's their own fault). 

Now on the to part that I had not fully realized before.  He follows this description of the Gentiles' condition and the cause behind their condition with "but all of you did not so learn Christ!"   Get ready -  this next phrase stood out to me like never before - "If indeed you have heard HIM."   Hold on, wait a minute!  These believers were in Ephesus, Jesus never went there; they were Roman Gentiles.   How can Paul say, "If indeed you have heard HIM?   Ponder this for a moment........

Wait!  There's even more, Paul's next statement can be translated one of two ways: "And were taught BY HIM" or "And were taught IN HIM."   The Greek preposition "ev" is often translated BY.   Putting the previous statement and this statement together reads like this, "If indeed you heard HIM and were taught BY HIM."   These two statements are followed by a powerful truth that Paul had great clarity on.  He states this truth this way: "Just as TRUTH   IS   IN  JESUS."   Are you beginning to see how Paul viewed truth? 

It made no difference who the vessel was who spoke the truth - ALL truth is IN JESUS!   When men hear and receive the truth, they have heard JESUS, and have been taught BY JESUS, because ALL TRUTH is IN JESUS.  This is what the Thessalonians were commended for, "You received the word, not as the word of men, but as it actually is the WORD OF GOD  -  the TRUTH IN JESUS!"  

May this understanding give us confidence to do what Peter exhorted all those who speak to do - When we are sure that we are speaking the truth in Jesus - "let them speak as speaking the oracles of God."   Furthermore, let those of us who hear, receive the love of the truth just as if JESUS HIMSELF were teaching us.