Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
John 17:24-26 24
Jesus’ peculiar love is manifest by praying for us to experience the fulfillment of what we were really made for – seeing and cherishing His glory. Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Oh that we would bask in this amazing love!
This is the most loving thing, the highest good, that Jesus could do for us and ask the Father to give us sight. The love of Jesus drives Him to pray for us and then die for us, not that our value may be central, but that His glory may be central, and we may see it and savor it for all eternity.
"That they may see My glory!" For this sight is the very healing of our souls and the strengthening of our lives and the meaning of our creation and the fulfilling of our salvation! Jesus is praying that we would see His glory like the Father sees His glory. The Father sees the Son as He really is in all His worth and value. The Father who is the God of glory has given Jesus glory and sees the glory of His Son. How does the Father see His Son’s glory?
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3)
“He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
So the first part of God’s peculiar love is that He loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made for seeing and cherishing His glory. What he wants is that we not only see His glory, we cherish it, savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, and love it. In short that we would delight in Him; that we treasure Him; and that we would love Him.
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!
How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19)
You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we’ve never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”.
In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.
Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.
This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.
Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers.
Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-'rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.
Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.” All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.
Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his. My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The “PECULIAR LOVE” of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.
A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
ON BEING LOVED BY GOD Part 1
“God is love.”
1 John 4:8
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.”
Ephesians 2:3-4
“May the God of love and peace will be with you.”
2 Corinthians 13:11
“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you...But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 86:5, 15
1 John 4:8
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.”
Ephesians 2:3-4
“May the God of love and peace will be with you.”
2 Corinthians 13:11
“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you...But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 86:5, 15
“Heaven is a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore, the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that “God is love, and therefore, seeing He is an infinite being, it follows that He is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing that He is an all-sufficient being, it follows that He is a full and overflowing and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that He is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love”
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards
Is there anything written or sung about more than love? There are more song titles using the word “love” than any other word. “All you need is love”. “What the world needs now is love sweet love…It’s the only thing, there is just too little of.” “My love does it good to me.” “Love is a many splendid thing.” “Love the one you’re with.” “Give me your unconditional love, the kind of love I deserve.” “Want a whole lotta love.”
Think about the numerous ways we include the word “love” in our daily conversations. We say that we “love” the Lakers. We “love” yogurt”. We “love” movies. We “love” our dog. I “love” surfing. What is love? On a human level, love has thousands of definitions. As a result, it is hard to find out what it really is. A word that means so many things loses its ability to mean a single thing.
The problem gets even more complicated in our attempt to understand God’s love. Even if we believe that God is love, our understanding of it will only be as accurate as our understanding of the love that we attribute to Him. Understanding God’s love is so important that if we fail to understand it, we fail to understand God.
For example, when we consider the love of God, its meaning can in one sense be loaded with idolatry. Is there any other attribute of God more selectively spoken of? How often have I heard someone say to me “My God is a God of love”? I have found that usually when people make this statement about God they say it at the expense of several of His attributes such as His justice, His holiness, His judgment, or His wrath. Thus we create a god who is less than God and a love that is less than God’s love.
If we are going to avoid a God who is an idol, then it is imperative that we listen to what God says in His word about his love and allow God to define for us what that love means on his own terms. This can either be the point of liberation or deeper idolatry. If we are going to accurately understand God’s love, then we must listen carefully to how He defines love.
To speak of God as love is to speak of a love that is absolutely unique. It is peculiar. There is no love like God’s love. It is one of a kind, in a class by itself. Since God is absolutely unique, everything else belongs to another class. There are humans, there are animals, there are trees, there are rocks, there are planets, there are galaxies, there are angels, and there are demons. But only God is God. And therefore His love is a unique love, a Holy love (Exodus 15:11; 1Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 40:25). God’s love is utterly and completely unique, different, and peculiar. There is nothing on this earth we can compare it to. Therefore any attempt to do so is to project human love upon God.
As I have already pointed out, our human understandings of love is colored by a wide variety of human feelings, passions, and concerns, none of which may have anything to do with how God describes His love. Though the world may use the same word “love” as the Bible does, this by no means indicates that the human understanding of love is the same as God’s own understanding of love. On the contrary, the two meanings are not only often different, but they are often antithetical and incomparable.
Let’s look at the world's definition of love. It says: You are loved when you are made much of. In other words, love for someone or something means mainly making him or her or it central or important. The main problem with this definition of love is that when you try to apply it to God's love for us, it distorts reality. God's love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but his giving us the ability to enjoy making much of him forever. In other words, God's love for us keeps God at the center. God's love for us exalts His value and our happiness in it. If God's love made us central and focused on our worth and value, it would demean God’s glory and would distract us from what is most precious, namely, God Himself. God’s love works and suffers to captivate us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God Himself. Therefore God's “peculiar love” labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.
We see this in the prayer of Jesus on the night before He was betrayed. His longest recorded prayer is in John 17. Here we have before us one of the most intimate glimpses anywhere in Scripture of the mind and heart of the Lord as He prayed this prayer while on His way to Gethsemane. On that night we are revealed Jesus Christ’s ultimate concerns. His words are dominated, even in His darkest hour, by a spirit of high reverence for His Father and a loving concern for His then-present and future followers.
An overview of His prayer is that first, He prayed for Himself that night (Verses 1-5). He spoke of unimaginable glory and of perfect union with the Father in that glory. As He prayed He revealed as never before the single purpose of why He had ever left the glory of heaven. The hearts of the disciples were stirred as they realized the Presence of Deity. And then Jesus prayed for them! (Verses 6-19)They listened as He asked the Father to make them a part of the fellowship and life which Jesus Himself shared with the Father. But then, wonder of wonders, Jesus prayed for you and for me! (Verses 20-26) Jesus reveals His deepest desires and wants to His Father for you and me! Here is the climax of his desire:
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am (v. 24).
Here is Jesus praying for us. He loves us in this prayer. Oh how He loves us in this prayer! Jesus is praying for all of His future disciples, these are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians, people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?
“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
This expresses Jesus’ concern not for our companionship with Him but instead for the fulfillment of our deepest longing. If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what he finally asks for you? That you may see him. The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them my glory, Father. Show them my glory, and they will have arrived at ultimate purpose."
As Augustine said, “Oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and hearts find no rest except we find it in thee.” The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: THE GLORY OF GOD. Nothing less will do. Jesus is not lonely and is not needy for our companionship. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not He, are starving for something: THE GLORY OF GOD! Jesus knew this. That is why He prays this way!
“To see my glory”. This is the very purpose of God creating us (Isaiah 43:6-7; Rom. 9:23). This is the heart of all that the apostles preached (2 Cor.4:6). This is the goal of every Christian act (1 Cor.10:31). This is the focus of all Christian hope (Rom.5:2). This is what will someday replace the sun and the moon as the light of life (Rev. 21:23) and even now what the heavens are proclaiming (Ps.19:1). When people see it and discover its worth they cry out like Moses, “Show me your glory” (Ex.33:18) and David “One thing I ask and what I seek after is to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).
Are you experiencing God's love the way Jesus prayed? Are you seeing and savoring His glory? Oh to be loved by God in order to truly live and see and fulfill His purpose and have maximum joy and pleasure!
To be continued...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
THOGHTS ON GRATITUDE FOR THANKSGIVING WEEK Part 2
4. Thank God by remembering the things he has done for you and the grace that he has shown you that has led to this moment “Gratitude is the echo of one who has received grace.” We glorify what God has done for us by intense and joyful gratitude. God has not and does not make mistakes (Genesis 50:20) Everything he has done in the past is part of a good plan and is remembered with gratitude.
Psalm 103:1-14, "Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with
lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The LORD is
merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. “
5. Thank God for what He is doing through the hard things in your life today
Once you thank God for the easy things, it is possible to progress and begin thanking Him for what He is doing through the difficult circumstances in the present. Remember, there's a difference between thanking God
for the difficult things and thanking God in the difficult things. What exactly is the difference? The answer for me came when I combined "giving thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), with
Romans 8:28-29: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son."
If we miss this, we miss everything. It is God's will that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Virtually any circumstance however painful or pleasant- can be used by God to shape the character of Christ in me, and it is for that shaping we can be thankful. The rub is that my purpose for me might be different from God's purpose. This is where the virtues
of humility and surrender become coworkers with thankfulness to help us stay on course and maintain the right spirit. This requires more than a glib, "Oh thank You, God," which does not require the soul-searching effort it takes to understand what motive He is working to replace in us.
God knows best. It's impossible for me to dwell on such things and not become very thankful for a God who eventually defeats the worst diseases and even death itself.
6. Practice giving thanks
Sometimes the regular grace of God dulls our sense our sense of gratitude. But in reality grace, mercy, and love are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." So much in this world eclipses God from my life and as a result pushes us to be disgruntled. I sometimes lag in the practice of thankfulness and have to remind myself that giving thanks is a discipline. As an act of my will, I must choose to dwell on good things, on the high qualities of my invisible but ever-present Father. I consciously bend my
thoughts away from resentment and remind myself I must wait for God to work out His best plans in due time. Sometimes it helps me to pray prayers of thanksgiving out loud so I can hear the words of thankfulness.
Once thankfulness becomes a habit, it takes on a life of its own and
becomes a source of tremendous strength. Thankfulness is one of the surest paths to God and to a peace-filled spirit. God uses it to give us our life back and in fact, to give us a higher experience of our human life in a very fallen world. Many are those who waste their lives worrying, mourning, or crying out in complaint -and nothing good will come of it. For many of us, thankfulness starts out sounding shallow and trite. But the truth is, it leads us into a deeper journey with God than we imagined, taking us down to the core reason why we are here: to fulfill our own purpose for living- or His.
Psalm 100:4, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving' " the psalmist wrote, "and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."' If I want to enter God's gates and I do, with all my heart - it will only happen as God's spirit of thanksgiving enters me. Thankfulness isn't an obligation;
it's my privilege as a child of God. It is our key, and your privilege, too.
Longing for an attitude of gratitude as a lifestyle,
Pastor Bill
Psalm 103:1-14, "Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with
lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The LORD is
merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. “
5. Thank God for what He is doing through the hard things in your life today
Once you thank God for the easy things, it is possible to progress and begin thanking Him for what He is doing through the difficult circumstances in the present. Remember, there's a difference between thanking God
for the difficult things and thanking God in the difficult things. What exactly is the difference? The answer for me came when I combined "giving thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), with
Romans 8:28-29: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son."
If we miss this, we miss everything. It is God's will that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Virtually any circumstance however painful or pleasant- can be used by God to shape the character of Christ in me, and it is for that shaping we can be thankful. The rub is that my purpose for me might be different from God's purpose. This is where the virtues
of humility and surrender become coworkers with thankfulness to help us stay on course and maintain the right spirit. This requires more than a glib, "Oh thank You, God," which does not require the soul-searching effort it takes to understand what motive He is working to replace in us.
God knows best. It's impossible for me to dwell on such things and not become very thankful for a God who eventually defeats the worst diseases and even death itself.
6. Practice giving thanks
Sometimes the regular grace of God dulls our sense our sense of gratitude. But in reality grace, mercy, and love are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." So much in this world eclipses God from my life and as a result pushes us to be disgruntled. I sometimes lag in the practice of thankfulness and have to remind myself that giving thanks is a discipline. As an act of my will, I must choose to dwell on good things, on the high qualities of my invisible but ever-present Father. I consciously bend my
thoughts away from resentment and remind myself I must wait for God to work out His best plans in due time. Sometimes it helps me to pray prayers of thanksgiving out loud so I can hear the words of thankfulness.
Once thankfulness becomes a habit, it takes on a life of its own and
becomes a source of tremendous strength. Thankfulness is one of the surest paths to God and to a peace-filled spirit. God uses it to give us our life back and in fact, to give us a higher experience of our human life in a very fallen world. Many are those who waste their lives worrying, mourning, or crying out in complaint -and nothing good will come of it. For many of us, thankfulness starts out sounding shallow and trite. But the truth is, it leads us into a deeper journey with God than we imagined, taking us down to the core reason why we are here: to fulfill our own purpose for living- or His.
Psalm 100:4, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving' " the psalmist wrote, "and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."' If I want to enter God's gates and I do, with all my heart - it will only happen as God's spirit of thanksgiving enters me. Thankfulness isn't an obligation;
it's my privilege as a child of God. It is our key, and your privilege, too.
Longing for an attitude of gratitude as a lifestyle,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
THOUGHTS ON GRATITUDE FOR THANKSGIVING WEEK Part 1
A PSALM FOR GIVING THANKS.
Psalm 100:1-5
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
There is a cartoon of Snoopy getting dog food for his thanksgiving dinner and he is aware that everyone inside is having turkey. He meditates and talks to himself “How about that? Everybody else is eating turkey today, but just because I’m a dog I get dog food.” He trots away and positions himself on top of his doghouse and begins to think and ponder his poor dilemma. He concludes: “Of course it could have been worse. I could have been born a turkey.”
William Law once asked a question: "Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?" His answer is fascinating: "It is not he who prays most or fasts most. It is not he who gives the most money ... but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, and who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it." Henry Ward Beecher said about gratitude, “Gratitude is the fairest blossom that springs from the soul.”
Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to give thanks. First Chronicles 16:8 urges us to "Give thanks to the LORD." Ephesians 5:20 emphasizes this, saying we should "always [give] thanks to God the Father." First Thessalonians 5:18 is even more direct: "Give thanks in all circumstances."
Thankfulness is one of the most beautiful, and spiritually strengthening, attitudes of a Christian. It is true that God deserves our thankfulness, but duty and obligation are hardly good motivators. Thankfulness, as an attitude of the heart; is like a fuel that powers the Christian life and keeps us moving on the pathway of spiritual growth, even when the climb is steep and the trail rough. Unless we learn how to cultivate a thankful heart, we become stuck in bitterness. An attitude of gratitude is power to the soul. God offers it to us to drive out the spiritually degenerative illness of bitter, negative thinking.
I like to think of thankfulness as God's "spiritual air freshener." It replaces the stale odor of resentment with clean, fresh smelling air for the soul to breathe. It is precious smelling to God and to all those who live with us. Gratitude comes from the word “gratis” that without price or payment. Gratis is from the same root word of grace. Thanksgiving comes from the same root as “think”, so that to think is to thank. Thinking is the key to a thankful heart. The Psalmist does exactly that in Psalm 100. Notice that the Psalm has even been given a title: “A Psalm of thanksgiving”. He addresses everybody in verses 1, 5. Everybody is encouraged to participate in giving God thanks.
There are three ways to give thanks according to Psalm 100
1. Shout (gladness, joyful) Why? Because they are so happy in Him and with Him. “Our happy god should be worshipped by a happy people.” Charles Spurgeon
2. Serve with a happy heart
3. Come (this refers to formal worship)
The reasons we should be thankful according to the Psalmist are emphasized by the word know. We are to know that God made us and is in control (3b); we are His people (3c). (Trouble, sickness, loss, death: WE ARE HIS. We will always be His. ( Read Hebrews 13:8; Matthew 28:20; Romans 8:37-39); God cares for us (3d); God is exceedingly good to us (5a); God’s mercy never ends (5b); God is wonderfully faithful (5c)
How can we learn to cultivate a thankful heart like the Psalmist?
1. Recognize the danger of not giving thanks
Ingratitude is one of the signs of the end times(2 Timothy 3:1-5). Paul warns in Romans 1:21 of a people who knew God but who failed to develop the discipline of thankfulness. The results were disastrous. "Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” When we're not thankful, we rob God of His glory, lose sight of His beauty, our hearts become darkened, and we lose perspective. In other words if your heart does not respond to God with gratitude, your mind with be darkened. You surrender yourself to the blinding work of Satan. Gratitude is the guardian of the lamp of the soul. If the guardian dies the lamp goes out. Guard yourselves with gratitude!
It is spiritually dangerous to stop cultivating a heart of thankfulness. In Colossians 4:2, notice the connection between watchfulness and gratitude. "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Or, more literally, "Being watchful in it BY thanksgiving." The idea of watchfulness is vigilance and alertness. You recall in the garden of Gethsemane how Jesus admonished the sleepy disciples (Matthew 26:41), "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." In other words guard your self from temptation by watching in your prayer, by being alert and vigilant. But now Colossians 4:2 says that the way we watch is "with thanksgiving." Guard yourselves with gratitude!
When Satan deploys his forces against the church he instructs them not to focus their energies on the prayer less believer but on the saint who perseveres in prayer. Whenever you go onto your face before God in prayer it is as though you put your knee into a bee's nest of evil. They swarm out around your head and do all they can to divert your attention, and dampen your zeal, and discourage your heart and diminish your faith. And so Paul tells us to watch out -- not to give in, but to cover ourselves with a net that the bees can't get through. And he calls the net thanksgiving: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Guard yourselves with gratitude! "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will GUARD your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
2. Arm yourself with verses that call us to give thanks like Psalm 100.
The Word of God is what we need to renew our minds and to redirect it into a positive thought-flow. (Romans 12:2) The Bible is full of verses that call us to give thanks. In the Old Testament, we find beautiful truths about God, on which to fix our minds: 1 Chronicles 16:34: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."; Psalm 69:30: "I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving."
From the New Testament, I particularly like these soul-directing truths: Ephesians 5:18-20: "Be filled with the Spirit ... [give] thanks to God the Father for everything." Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.... And be thankful." These verses, and many others, remind us of an important spiritual truth: While we cannot control our circumstances, we can control the lens through which we view them.
3. Thank God for the easy things
To begin seasoning my soul with thankfulness, I start with things that are easy to give thanks for: the beauty of the natural world, God's goodness in sending His Son to be my Savior, and the blessing of my family. When life feels flat, and I don't feel thankful, I return to truth of Scripture, which directs me to invisible realities I can so quickly forget, such as Psalm 7:17, which says, "I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness." I may be having a bad day, but does that mean God isn't righteous? I may lack the spiritual strength to thank God for the difficult day itself, but I can always thank Him for His righteousness and keep my soul from angling onto the wrong path. Thanking God for the easy things helps me to redirect my focus. There comes a time when thinking about a problem loses its constructive nature and becomes fretting. When this happens, there is no better medicine for me than to take a break from my relatively small world and set my mind on higher things. For me, that can mean a walk on the beach, in natures calming solitude. In prayer, I thank God for the beauty that's all around me. This is freeing, relaxing, and it returns me to the path of thankfulness toward God.
To be continued...
Psalm 100:1-5
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
There is a cartoon of Snoopy getting dog food for his thanksgiving dinner and he is aware that everyone inside is having turkey. He meditates and talks to himself “How about that? Everybody else is eating turkey today, but just because I’m a dog I get dog food.” He trots away and positions himself on top of his doghouse and begins to think and ponder his poor dilemma. He concludes: “Of course it could have been worse. I could have been born a turkey.”
William Law once asked a question: "Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?" His answer is fascinating: "It is not he who prays most or fasts most. It is not he who gives the most money ... but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, and who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it." Henry Ward Beecher said about gratitude, “Gratitude is the fairest blossom that springs from the soul.”
Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to give thanks. First Chronicles 16:8 urges us to "Give thanks to the LORD." Ephesians 5:20 emphasizes this, saying we should "always [give] thanks to God the Father." First Thessalonians 5:18 is even more direct: "Give thanks in all circumstances."
Thankfulness is one of the most beautiful, and spiritually strengthening, attitudes of a Christian. It is true that God deserves our thankfulness, but duty and obligation are hardly good motivators. Thankfulness, as an attitude of the heart; is like a fuel that powers the Christian life and keeps us moving on the pathway of spiritual growth, even when the climb is steep and the trail rough. Unless we learn how to cultivate a thankful heart, we become stuck in bitterness. An attitude of gratitude is power to the soul. God offers it to us to drive out the spiritually degenerative illness of bitter, negative thinking.
I like to think of thankfulness as God's "spiritual air freshener." It replaces the stale odor of resentment with clean, fresh smelling air for the soul to breathe. It is precious smelling to God and to all those who live with us. Gratitude comes from the word “gratis” that without price or payment. Gratis is from the same root word of grace. Thanksgiving comes from the same root as “think”, so that to think is to thank. Thinking is the key to a thankful heart. The Psalmist does exactly that in Psalm 100. Notice that the Psalm has even been given a title: “A Psalm of thanksgiving”. He addresses everybody in verses 1, 5. Everybody is encouraged to participate in giving God thanks.
There are three ways to give thanks according to Psalm 100
1. Shout (gladness, joyful) Why? Because they are so happy in Him and with Him. “Our happy god should be worshipped by a happy people.” Charles Spurgeon
2. Serve with a happy heart
3. Come (this refers to formal worship)
The reasons we should be thankful according to the Psalmist are emphasized by the word know. We are to know that God made us and is in control (3b); we are His people (3c). (Trouble, sickness, loss, death: WE ARE HIS. We will always be His. ( Read Hebrews 13:8; Matthew 28:20; Romans 8:37-39); God cares for us (3d); God is exceedingly good to us (5a); God’s mercy never ends (5b); God is wonderfully faithful (5c)
How can we learn to cultivate a thankful heart like the Psalmist?
1. Recognize the danger of not giving thanks
Ingratitude is one of the signs of the end times(2 Timothy 3:1-5). Paul warns in Romans 1:21 of a people who knew God but who failed to develop the discipline of thankfulness. The results were disastrous. "Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” When we're not thankful, we rob God of His glory, lose sight of His beauty, our hearts become darkened, and we lose perspective. In other words if your heart does not respond to God with gratitude, your mind with be darkened. You surrender yourself to the blinding work of Satan. Gratitude is the guardian of the lamp of the soul. If the guardian dies the lamp goes out. Guard yourselves with gratitude!
It is spiritually dangerous to stop cultivating a heart of thankfulness. In Colossians 4:2, notice the connection between watchfulness and gratitude. "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Or, more literally, "Being watchful in it BY thanksgiving." The idea of watchfulness is vigilance and alertness. You recall in the garden of Gethsemane how Jesus admonished the sleepy disciples (Matthew 26:41), "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." In other words guard your self from temptation by watching in your prayer, by being alert and vigilant. But now Colossians 4:2 says that the way we watch is "with thanksgiving." Guard yourselves with gratitude!
When Satan deploys his forces against the church he instructs them not to focus their energies on the prayer less believer but on the saint who perseveres in prayer. Whenever you go onto your face before God in prayer it is as though you put your knee into a bee's nest of evil. They swarm out around your head and do all they can to divert your attention, and dampen your zeal, and discourage your heart and diminish your faith. And so Paul tells us to watch out -- not to give in, but to cover ourselves with a net that the bees can't get through. And he calls the net thanksgiving: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Guard yourselves with gratitude! "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will GUARD your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
2. Arm yourself with verses that call us to give thanks like Psalm 100.
The Word of God is what we need to renew our minds and to redirect it into a positive thought-flow. (Romans 12:2) The Bible is full of verses that call us to give thanks. In the Old Testament, we find beautiful truths about God, on which to fix our minds: 1 Chronicles 16:34: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."; Psalm 69:30: "I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving."
From the New Testament, I particularly like these soul-directing truths: Ephesians 5:18-20: "Be filled with the Spirit ... [give] thanks to God the Father for everything." Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.... And be thankful." These verses, and many others, remind us of an important spiritual truth: While we cannot control our circumstances, we can control the lens through which we view them.
3. Thank God for the easy things
To begin seasoning my soul with thankfulness, I start with things that are easy to give thanks for: the beauty of the natural world, God's goodness in sending His Son to be my Savior, and the blessing of my family. When life feels flat, and I don't feel thankful, I return to truth of Scripture, which directs me to invisible realities I can so quickly forget, such as Psalm 7:17, which says, "I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness." I may be having a bad day, but does that mean God isn't righteous? I may lack the spiritual strength to thank God for the difficult day itself, but I can always thank Him for His righteousness and keep my soul from angling onto the wrong path. Thanking God for the easy things helps me to redirect my focus. There comes a time when thinking about a problem loses its constructive nature and becomes fretting. When this happens, there is no better medicine for me than to take a break from my relatively small world and set my mind on higher things. For me, that can mean a walk on the beach, in natures calming solitude. In prayer, I thank God for the beauty that's all around me. This is freeing, relaxing, and it returns me to the path of thankfulness toward God.
To be continued...
Thursday, November 15, 2007
THOUGHTS ON THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD
Psalm 107:1,43 "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!..."Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD."
I have been overwhelmed this week in obeying the command of the Psalmist to consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Paul commends us in 2 Timothy 2:7 to "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." Have you considered God's love for you lately?
John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The death of Christ is not only the demonstration of God's love, it is also the supreme expression of Christ's own love for all who receive His love. The apostle Paul was captured by this fact: Christ "loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Paul took the love of self-giving act of Christ's sacrifice very personally. He said, "He loved me. He gave himself for me."
The way we should understand the sufferings and death of Christ is that they have to do with me. They are about Christ's love for me personally. It is my own sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. It is my own hard-heartedness and spiritual numbness that demean the worth of Christ. I am utterly lost and perishing. When it comes to salvation, I have forfeited all claim on justice. All I can do is plead for mercy.
The Bible says that in love Christ suffered and died on the cross. For whom did He suffer and die? It says,
"Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25). "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). "Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
I have been overwhelmed this week in obeying the command of the Psalmist to consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Paul commends us in 2 Timothy 2:7 to "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." Have you considered God's love for you lately?
John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The death of Christ is not only the demonstration of God's love, it is also the supreme expression of Christ's own love for all who receive His love. The apostle Paul was captured by this fact: Christ "loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Paul took the love of self-giving act of Christ's sacrifice very personally. He said, "He loved me. He gave himself for me."
The way we should understand the sufferings and death of Christ is that they have to do with me. They are about Christ's love for me personally. It is my own sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. It is my own hard-heartedness and spiritual numbness that demean the worth of Christ. I am utterly lost and perishing. When it comes to salvation, I have forfeited all claim on justice. All I can do is plead for mercy.
The Bible says that in love Christ suffered and died on the cross. For whom did He suffer and die? It says,
"Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25). "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). "Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Do you hear this? Consider the recipients of the benefits of Christ's death? For the church, for His friends, for many, and for me. How can I know if this is really personal? How can I apply this most precious act of love and promise of love? How can I know that I am I among the "many"? How can I be one of his "friends"? How can I belong to the "church"?
Listen and consider the Bible's answer: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). "Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43). "To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). "Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Do you believe? Are you calling on His name? Do you receive Him? Than all the benefits of the death of Jesus: Justification, forgiveness, peace with God, union with Christ, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, faith, the new birth, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, and most of all, the gift of Jesus Himself.
Jesus paid the highest price possible to give me the greatest gift possible. And what is that? It is the gift he prayed for at the end of his life: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory" (John 17:24). In his suffering and death "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). We have seen enough to capture us for his cause. But the best is yet to come. He died to secure this for us. That is the love of Christ.
Oh would you reflecting on the many passages that speak of God's personal love for you and me? Let it cause you this next Thanksgiving week to joyfully obey Psalm 107:1,"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
Oh how easily we can forget that Jesus loves us, really loves us. Isn't it amazing? I have come to realize how I had forgotten His cross lately. When we go back to cross we go back to a wonderful world of love. We are liberated to "love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19). We are enabled to be free to "live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:2). Jonathan Edward's wrote: "If heaven is a world of love, than the way towards heaven is a way of love."
I wonder how many of us deep inside are not feeling and experiencing His unconditional love. I pray for more and more outpourings and experiences of that love for you that Paul says literally "God's love has been (and is constantly) poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). God's love for you is being given to free you to love. Will you believe it? Will you receive it? JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!
Savoring Jesus' love for me,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, November 8, 2007
THOUGHTS ON ETERNITY WITH CHRIST Part 1
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed…Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world… I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:1-5 ,24,26 )
The greatest one sentence description of heaven I have ever heard is by Jonathan Edwards who said that “heaven is a world of love.”Heaven is a world of love, remarks Edwards, because God Who is love is its sun. "The glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light." (Rev. 21:23) Edwards further reflects that by the very nature of God, the fountain of love that fills heaven must be infinite, all-sufficient, unchangeable, and eternal:"There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!"
Eternity is A Life Filled with the Infinite God
Jesus prayed for this for us Jesus prays a most wonderful prayer for us in John 17 that God would glorify him, and that we would see His glory. Seeing the glory of God in Christ is the highest gift and the greatest pleasure we are capable of.
In 17:24 Jesus makes it clear that he prays for his own glory so that we would be able to see his glory. "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory." The love of Jesus drives him to pray for us, and then die for us, that his glory may be central, and so that we may see it and savor it for all eternity. This is the greatest good in the good news of the gospel. "Father, I desire that they . . . be with me . . . to see my glory."
In Eternity We Will See Glory, and We Will Be Glorious
We will see the beauty of God, and we will reflect the beauty of God. We will see glory, and we will be glorious. Jonathan Edwards put it like this:
How happy is that love in which there is an eternal progress in all these things, wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves. When we shall be made capable of finding out, and giving, and shall receive more and more endearing expressions of love forever, our union will become more close and communion more intimate.
Both seeing and being will increase forever: "New beauties are continually discovered" in God, and "we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves." A finite mind cannot fully know an infinite mind. Our finite capacities for pleasure cannot fully know all the joy there is to be had in an infinite fountain. Therefore, the age to come will be an eternal increase of learning and loving.' This means that the truth of 2 Corinthians 3:18 never ceases. "Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." The better we see him, the better we will reflect him—to all eternity.
Jonathan Edwards considers the fact that there are only perfectly lovely objects in heaven. Seriously imagine now a world where there was no sickness, pain, unhappiness, or disappointment. Instead "wherever the inhabitants of that blessed world shall turn their eyes, they shall see nothing but dignity, and beauty, and glory." Further, Edwards observes that every fleeting moment of happiness, peace, and kindness enjoyed on earth are experienced as mere trickles of goodness flowing on their way into heaven:
"As the streams tend to the ocean, so all these are tending to the great ocean of infinite purity and bliss. The progress of time does but bear them on to its blessedness; and us, if we are holy, to be united to them there. Every gem which death rudely tears away from us here is a glorious jewel forever shining there; every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above; there the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have company with the patriarchs and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy, with whom on earth we were only conversant by faith. And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Ghost, our Sanctifier, and Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever!"
To be continued...
The greatest one sentence description of heaven I have ever heard is by Jonathan Edwards who said that “heaven is a world of love.”Heaven is a world of love, remarks Edwards, because God Who is love is its sun. "The glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light." (Rev. 21:23) Edwards further reflects that by the very nature of God, the fountain of love that fills heaven must be infinite, all-sufficient, unchangeable, and eternal:"There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!"
Eternity is A Life Filled with the Infinite God
Jesus prayed for this for us Jesus prays a most wonderful prayer for us in John 17 that God would glorify him, and that we would see His glory. Seeing the glory of God in Christ is the highest gift and the greatest pleasure we are capable of.
In 17:24 Jesus makes it clear that he prays for his own glory so that we would be able to see his glory. "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory." The love of Jesus drives him to pray for us, and then die for us, that his glory may be central, and so that we may see it and savor it for all eternity. This is the greatest good in the good news of the gospel. "Father, I desire that they . . . be with me . . . to see my glory."
In Eternity We Will See Glory, and We Will Be Glorious
We will see the beauty of God, and we will reflect the beauty of God. We will see glory, and we will be glorious. Jonathan Edwards put it like this:
How happy is that love in which there is an eternal progress in all these things, wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves. When we shall be made capable of finding out, and giving, and shall receive more and more endearing expressions of love forever, our union will become more close and communion more intimate.
Both seeing and being will increase forever: "New beauties are continually discovered" in God, and "we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves." A finite mind cannot fully know an infinite mind. Our finite capacities for pleasure cannot fully know all the joy there is to be had in an infinite fountain. Therefore, the age to come will be an eternal increase of learning and loving.' This means that the truth of 2 Corinthians 3:18 never ceases. "Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." The better we see him, the better we will reflect him—to all eternity.
Jonathan Edwards considers the fact that there are only perfectly lovely objects in heaven. Seriously imagine now a world where there was no sickness, pain, unhappiness, or disappointment. Instead "wherever the inhabitants of that blessed world shall turn their eyes, they shall see nothing but dignity, and beauty, and glory." Further, Edwards observes that every fleeting moment of happiness, peace, and kindness enjoyed on earth are experienced as mere trickles of goodness flowing on their way into heaven:
"As the streams tend to the ocean, so all these are tending to the great ocean of infinite purity and bliss. The progress of time does but bear them on to its blessedness; and us, if we are holy, to be united to them there. Every gem which death rudely tears away from us here is a glorious jewel forever shining there; every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above; there the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have company with the patriarchs and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy, with whom on earth we were only conversant by faith. And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Ghost, our Sanctifier, and Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever!"
To be continued...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
JONATHAN EDWARDS ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF HAPPINESS AND BLESSEDNESS IN HEAVEN
This week I wanted to share with you thoughts from a dear man, Jonathan Edwards, who wrote and thought about heaven as much as anyone I have ever read. Listen to his insights on the degrees of happiness in heaven taken from his sermon on Romans 2;10.
There are different degrees of happiness and glory in heaven. As there are degrees among the angels, viz. thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; so there are degrees among the saints. In heaven are many mansions, and of different degrees of dignity. The glory of the saints above will be in some proportion to their eminency in holiness and good works here. Christ will reward all according to their works. He that gained ten pounds was made ruler over ten cities, and he that gained five pounds over five cities. Luke19: 17. 2 Corinthians 9: 6. " He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly ; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." And the apostle Paul tells us that, as one star differs from another star in glory, so also it shall be in the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:41.
Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water unto a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his reward. But this could not be true, if' a person should have no greater reward for doing many good works than if he did but few. It will be no damp to the happiness of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory, that there are others advanced in glory above them: for all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others; and there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but perfect love shall reign through the whole society.
Those who are not so high in glory as others, will not envy those that are higher, but they will have so great, and strong, and pure love to them, that they will rejoice in their superior happiness; their love to them will be such that they will rejoice that they are happier than themselves; so that instead of having a damp to their own happiness, it will add to it. They will see it to be fit that they that have been most eminent in works of righteousness should be most highly exalted in glory ; and they will rejoice in having that done, that is fittest to be done.
There will be a perfect harmony in that society; those that are most happy will also be most holy, and all will be both perfectly holy and perfectly happy. But yet there will be different degrees of both holiness and happiness according to the measure of each one's capacity, and therefore those that are lowest in glory will have the greatest love to those that are highest in happiness, because they will see most of the image of God in them; and having the greatest love to them, they will rejoice to see them the most happy and the highest in glory.
And so, on the other hand, those that are highest in glory, as they will be the most lovely, so they will be fullest of love : as they will excel in happiness, they will proportionally excel in divine benevolence and love to others, and will have more love to God and to the saints than those that are lower in holiness and happiness. And besides, those that will excel in glory will also excel in humility. Here in this world, those that are above others are the objects of envy, because that others conceive of them as being lifted up with it; but in heaven it will not be so, but those saints in heaven who excel in happiness will also in holiness, and consequently in humility. The saints in heaven are more humble than the saints on earth, and still the higher we go among them the greater humility there is ; the highest orders of saints, who know most of God, see most of the distinction between God and them, and consequently are comparatively least in their own eyes, and so are most humble. The exaltation of some in heaven above the rest will be so far from diminishing the perfect happiness and joy of the rest who are inferior, that they will be the happier for it ; such will be the union in their society that they will be partakers of each other's happiness. Then will be fulfilled in its perfection that which is declared in 1 Corinthians 12: 22. " If one of the members be honoured all the members rejoice with it."
This happiness of the saints shall never have any interruption. There will never be any alloy to it ; there never will come any cloud to obscure their light ; there never will be anything to cool their love. The rivers of pleasure will not fail, the glory and love of God and of Christ will forever be the same, and the manifestation of it will have no interruption. No sin or corruption shall ever enter there, no temptation to disturb their blessedness; the divine love in the saints shall never cool, there shall be no inconsistency in any of them, the faculties of the saints shall never flag from exercise; and they will never be cloyed, their relish for those delights will forever be kept up to its height, that glorious society shall not grow weary of their hallelujahs. Their exercises, though they are so active and vigorous, will be performed with perfect ease; the saints shall not be weary of loving, and praising, and fearing, as the sun is never weary of shining.
And to sum up this whole description, there shall never be any end to their glory and blessedness. There-fore is it so often called eternal life, and everlasting life. We are told that at the day of judgment, when the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, the righteous shall enter into life eternal (Matthew 25:46). The pleasures which there are at God's right hand are said to be for evermore; (Psalm 16:11).
And that this is not merely a long duration, but an absolute eternity, is evident from that which Christ has said that those who believe on him shall not die. (John 6: 50). Revelation 22: 5 says in the description of the new Jerusalem, " And they shall reign forever and ever." The eternity of this blessedness shall crown all. If the saints knew that there would be an end to their happiness, though at never so great a distance, yet it would be a great damp to their joy. The greater the happiness is, so much the more uncomfortable would the thoughts of an end be, and so much the more joyful will it be to think that there will be no end. The saints will surely know that there will be no more danger of their happiness coming to an end, than there will be that the being of God will come to an end. As God is eternal, so their happiness is eternal; as long as the fountain lasts, they need not fear but they shall be supplied.
There are different degrees of happiness and glory in heaven. As there are degrees among the angels, viz. thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; so there are degrees among the saints. In heaven are many mansions, and of different degrees of dignity. The glory of the saints above will be in some proportion to their eminency in holiness and good works here. Christ will reward all according to their works. He that gained ten pounds was made ruler over ten cities, and he that gained five pounds over five cities. Luke19: 17. 2 Corinthians 9: 6. " He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly ; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." And the apostle Paul tells us that, as one star differs from another star in glory, so also it shall be in the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:41.
Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water unto a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his reward. But this could not be true, if' a person should have no greater reward for doing many good works than if he did but few. It will be no damp to the happiness of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory, that there are others advanced in glory above them: for all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others; and there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but perfect love shall reign through the whole society.
Those who are not so high in glory as others, will not envy those that are higher, but they will have so great, and strong, and pure love to them, that they will rejoice in their superior happiness; their love to them will be such that they will rejoice that they are happier than themselves; so that instead of having a damp to their own happiness, it will add to it. They will see it to be fit that they that have been most eminent in works of righteousness should be most highly exalted in glory ; and they will rejoice in having that done, that is fittest to be done.
There will be a perfect harmony in that society; those that are most happy will also be most holy, and all will be both perfectly holy and perfectly happy. But yet there will be different degrees of both holiness and happiness according to the measure of each one's capacity, and therefore those that are lowest in glory will have the greatest love to those that are highest in happiness, because they will see most of the image of God in them; and having the greatest love to them, they will rejoice to see them the most happy and the highest in glory.
And so, on the other hand, those that are highest in glory, as they will be the most lovely, so they will be fullest of love : as they will excel in happiness, they will proportionally excel in divine benevolence and love to others, and will have more love to God and to the saints than those that are lower in holiness and happiness. And besides, those that will excel in glory will also excel in humility. Here in this world, those that are above others are the objects of envy, because that others conceive of them as being lifted up with it; but in heaven it will not be so, but those saints in heaven who excel in happiness will also in holiness, and consequently in humility. The saints in heaven are more humble than the saints on earth, and still the higher we go among them the greater humility there is ; the highest orders of saints, who know most of God, see most of the distinction between God and them, and consequently are comparatively least in their own eyes, and so are most humble. The exaltation of some in heaven above the rest will be so far from diminishing the perfect happiness and joy of the rest who are inferior, that they will be the happier for it ; such will be the union in their society that they will be partakers of each other's happiness. Then will be fulfilled in its perfection that which is declared in 1 Corinthians 12: 22. " If one of the members be honoured all the members rejoice with it."
This happiness of the saints shall never have any interruption. There will never be any alloy to it ; there never will come any cloud to obscure their light ; there never will be anything to cool their love. The rivers of pleasure will not fail, the glory and love of God and of Christ will forever be the same, and the manifestation of it will have no interruption. No sin or corruption shall ever enter there, no temptation to disturb their blessedness; the divine love in the saints shall never cool, there shall be no inconsistency in any of them, the faculties of the saints shall never flag from exercise; and they will never be cloyed, their relish for those delights will forever be kept up to its height, that glorious society shall not grow weary of their hallelujahs. Their exercises, though they are so active and vigorous, will be performed with perfect ease; the saints shall not be weary of loving, and praising, and fearing, as the sun is never weary of shining.
And to sum up this whole description, there shall never be any end to their glory and blessedness. There-fore is it so often called eternal life, and everlasting life. We are told that at the day of judgment, when the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, the righteous shall enter into life eternal (Matthew 25:46). The pleasures which there are at God's right hand are said to be for evermore; (Psalm 16:11).
And that this is not merely a long duration, but an absolute eternity, is evident from that which Christ has said that those who believe on him shall not die. (John 6: 50). Revelation 22: 5 says in the description of the new Jerusalem, " And they shall reign forever and ever." The eternity of this blessedness shall crown all. If the saints knew that there would be an end to their happiness, though at never so great a distance, yet it would be a great damp to their joy. The greater the happiness is, so much the more uncomfortable would the thoughts of an end be, and so much the more joyful will it be to think that there will be no end. The saints will surely know that there will be no more danger of their happiness coming to an end, than there will be that the being of God will come to an end. As God is eternal, so their happiness is eternal; as long as the fountain lasts, they need not fear but they shall be supplied.
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