Just a recommendation -

I'm right at the start of recording my notes from my latest read,  A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge.  Written in 1649 it is still a powerful and valuable read.  sure, the language is a little rough to understand at times but after a while you begin to realize you "get it."

Cogently written and well documented with scripture this work is a "must read" for anyone ministering to th "downcast."  And - who among us isn't downcast at times?

Bold yet tender, Bridge deals with most of the afflictions and struggles we all face.  he even poses arguments concerning specific objections which are clear, kind but solid.

As a big time reader I find the offerings that are on the shelves today - well - offensive.  The doctrine in obscured if dealt with at all and there's just a little too much scripture tweeking for my tasted.  It's the difference between gruel and a good steak (or really good salad.  Today's offerings are shallow, narrow and barely scriptural.  They are indeed meant for, "itching ears."

It's a challenge to read the works of the Puritans and it's a challenge to get past the false view we have been presented concerning them.  They lived with a view of scripture, God and holiness that you will be hard pressed to find today.  And yet the were well aware, understood and were sympathetic to the struggles (large and small) that we all face - and they treat them with compassion and respect.

Here are a couple of examples:

"It is a sure rule, that God's promise of mercy supposes our misery; if He promise health, He supposes our sickness; if He promise grace, He supposes our sin."

"Thus, is the lack of assurance be not the same thing as damning unbelief, then a man has no reason to be quite discouraged."

Writing concerning our Christian duties:
"He (God)proclaims this unto them, that he will require no more than He gives; He will give what He requires and He will accept what He gives."

"Oh, that people would not measure God's eternal affection by some present dispensation; so they would never be much discouraged."

"No, for though the weakness of faith is usually accompanied with doubts and fears, and the strength of faith, with assurance, joy and comfort; yet it is possible, that a man may have a great deal of faith, yet may have no assurance; and a man may have assurance, not doubting God's love, and yet may have but little of His grace."

"No: for the spiritual battle is not always to the strong.  Our victory lies not in ourselves and our own habitual strength, but in Christ's fresh assistance."

These are just nuggets drawn from the main vein, the mother-load one will find in this work.  I have to say that I have discovered many things afresh - things I knew but that had grown dim in my rememberance of them.

There are a great number of works from the Puritans available today - we go amiss if we don't take advantage of them.  They are certainly much deeper, wider and more valuable than what we are offered today.

Betwixt and Between But Blessed

Betwixt and Between But Blessed

Please accept my apology for the length of this blog.  I try hard to limit them to 2 pages but this one just wouldn't allow it.  Thanks

In commenting on the 12 who spied out the land during the Exodus A.W. Tozer paraphrases their comments as follows:

"We're free of Egypt, thank God, and are not slaves anymore. We are in the wilderness, and while it isn't the best, we will settle for it rather than go up against those giants in that wonderful promised homeland."  A.W. Tozer. The Crucified Life: How To Live Out A Deeper Christian Experience (Kindle Locations 582-583). Kindle Edition.

Tozer is making a comparison between Israel and Believers.  I couldn’t help but feel smacked when I read this. 

Now we aren’t with the Lord yet.  His Kingdom isn’t established here physically but it is here within each of us. 

Huh?  OK – the concept of a Kingdom presupposes the concept of a King.  If we are subjects of the King we are citizens of His Kingdom – right?  So if the King of Kings is “in” us, if we are united with Him, then His Kingship/Kingdom exists.

We have been brought, “out of Egypt.”  We have been freed from “slavery to sin.”

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13-14) ESV

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,    (Heb 12:28)

We are “in the wilderness.”  A place where we are utterly dependent upon God.  Crossing into the Promised land, the Kingdom will not make us any less dependent upon Him.  In the wilderness.  We are told:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.   (Heb 3:7-9) ESV

Now before you go all weird on me let me include:

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.   (Heb 3:19) ESV

None of the “unbelieving” could enter God’s rest – His Sabbath – the Promised Land.  But how do we understand their disbelief?

As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?   (Heb 3:15-18)  ESV

Those who did not believe were those who were rebellious, sinful and disobedient.  That is unbelief.  Belief is – well – submission.  Accepting what God says as truth and moving forward based upon that truth. 

Israel, despite all God had done, did not believe He was truthful.  They did not trust His promise. 

We have to remember that though we are saved by grace alone through faith alone those two mighty things have to have an effect.  That effect is obedience.  If there is no effect, was there ever a cause? 

That’s a tough question to have to face.  But it weakness when we realize that in His truth God has told us the truth about us as well.  No one has ever or will ever put it better than Paul did in Romans.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.  (Rom 7:14-25)  ESV

If there is a passage in all of scripture that we need desperately to commit to memory and pray about it is this one.  We have been freed from Egypt but we still have all those Egyptian habits and proclivities.  We must identify them and understand them and resist/oppose them. 

Paul says it is, “another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin.”  Note that well brothers and sisters, “another law.”  This “other law” wages war making Paul a captive to, “the law of sin.”

This “other law” works in Paul’s (and our) “members,” that is, the seat of the desires and passions.

What should we call this, “law?”   I call it the Law of I-dolarty.  The Law of ME. 

Now believer, take it easy.  You were born, raised and grew up surrounded by this “law.”  It is natural for it to have a powerful impact and a residual influence in your life.  It’s what you are used to.  What you have been comfortable with.  What you have been encouraged to.   You have learned to play the game according to those rules and to protect and enhance yourself by them.

How powerful is this Egyptian thinking?  Well it took 40 years and the passing of a generation for it to somewhat weeded out of Israel (at least enough for them to cross the river).  But those 40 years were not idle years.  They were 40 years of utter and complete dependence upon God for everything.  Even then, a seed of Egyptian thinking remained.

Why would you and I suppose god would do in an instant what He took 40 years to do with Israel?  Even more, we are far from being as dependent upon God as Israel was in the wilderness (or at least we think we are).  We do not have the benefit of their isolation and clear daily demonstration of His providence.  Or at least we don’t see/acknowledge His hand in everything as they would have.

Even once across the river there is a sense of, “Thank you God for getting us out or Egypt and bringing us here.  We’ll see you around and if we need you we’ll call.  We can take it from here on.”

Yeah, right --------

But that’s where we tend to go. 

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?   (Gal 3:3)  ESV

The word here, “foolish,” is the Greek word ἀνόητος  anóētos which is basically, “Are you out of your mind?” 

Paul has a point.  There’s certain insanity about acknowledging our redemption as solely God’s provision and then thinking our sanctification isn’t.  There’s a certain insanity in thinking god needs our help to accomplish His goal in, for and through us.

Not only is there a certain insanity in thinking this way – but thinking this way can make us nutz.

I’m not going to get into which side of the river we’re on.  But we need to address the attitude of:

"We're free of Egypt, thank God, and are not slaves anymore. We are in the wilderness, and while it isn't the best, we will settle for it rather than go up against those giants in that wonderful promised homeland."  A.W. Tozer. The Crucified Life: How To Live Out A Deeper Christian Experience (Kindle Locations 582-583). Kindle Edition.

Let me just say that we’re in the wilderness and we’re not.  We’re across the river but not yet.

The issue isn’t whether we’re one place of another.  The issue is trusting God.  Being willing to live constantly reminding ourselves that He is true and His promises are sure and that even the smallest particle in creation is subject to His sovereignty. 

Few (if any) of us “trust” God 100%, 100% of the time.  We are indeed weak and needy creatures.  We struggle.  We worry.  We fear.  We fall.  But all of that is part and parcel of why we needed to be redeemed – utterly redeemed.  That is why we have to have a High Priest who has the right and authority to effectively intercede for us. 

We are learning to trust Him in this wilderness (Oops, did I just pick a side of the river?). 

Unlike Israel of the east side of the Jordan we are (in a very weird way) on both sides.  The Kingdom is but not yet.  The Kingdom we experience is in the midst of the wilderness (changed sides again??).  We might say that His Kingship is established and His Kingdom is coming. 

That’s tough.  But how else can we see it?  The east side of the river is not the west side.  In either place we will always be utterly dependent of God.  The difference, I think, is in what we are dependent upon Him for and what wages war against our trusting Him utterly (much less submitting utterly).

Just as He was with Israel in the wilderness so too His Word and His Spirit are with us here, now.  We need Him no less.  We may be tempted into thinking we do – but we don’t.  Perhaps our need, except in crisis, does not feel as immediate – as pressing.  But it has not lessened on bit.

This verse struck me as I was writing:

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. (Heb 11:9)  ESV

That’s us – we are living in the “land” of promise as though we were in a foreign land.

Take note too of;

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Heb 11:13-16)  ESV

Does this not apply to you and I?  Does it not give hope and peace?  We, if He does not return before, will also “die in faith.”  So let us acknowledge that we are, “seeking a homeland,” and take confidence that He, “has prepared for them (us) a city.”

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.   (Rev 21:1-6)  ESV

We do not want the Jerusalem – or even the Promised Land of Abraham, David, Solomon or Paul.  We look for a New Jerusalem.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.   (2Co 5:1-9)  ESV

Trusting God is something we do very inconsistently.  The good news is that there is nothing inconsistent in His trustworthiness.  He knows our struggles, our weakness, our failings and he has provided well for them all.  Sure, we hesitate to, “cross the river,” but He knew we would.  Actually, He knew He would have to get across Himself.

Are you weak of faith?  That’s normal.  Do you struggle with sin?  That’s normal.  Do you grieve and weep, yearning to be with Him?  For a believer, that’s normal too. 

What part of:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  (2Co 12:9)  ESV

do you not want to have apply to you?  Paul, by stating, “weaknesses,” makes plain the fact that it was not just that thorn he boasted in.  What He boasted in was the fact that he was utterly dependent upon God – and he knew that God was utterly dependable.

God has no unreasonable expectations of you and I.  There is nothing He expects from us that He does not provide the means, opportunity and energy to accomplish.