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| Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. |
...many are called, but few are chosen.
Bits of paraphrase, for you. In regard to present considerations.
Pray for discernment, dear friend. Seek the Lord steadfastly, with all your heart--by whatsoever means are available to you, seek Him. And pray for discernment.
In these days, even the elect would be deceived...if it were possible. Except for His hand of mercy, ever extended to those who are His. Except for the grace lavished upon those who love Him.
Except for the love of Truth which breathes so deeply from each such spirit touched and wholly transformed by His wondrous, abiding presence...the Holy Spirit, indwelling..
The love of Truth must spur us ever onward to deeper reaches of understanding His being, His majesty, unto deeper tremblings, more sincere humility, and greater contrition...ever kneeling more deeply in abject love before the throne of grace, the mercy seat, upon which our blessed eternal Savior sits, sovereign.
Everything finds its origin and subsistence in Him, knowingly so or not. Refusing to acknowledge that fact doesn't change it, one iota. Period. Just, as He is so good, so loving, so very merciful...those who seek Him, bowing ever more fully before Him, in love and adoration..are blessedly kept in a peace which somehow even abides through storms rife with what otherwise is abject terror. The calm within any storm, then reigning within, in Him.
There is no lack of joy, therefore, in knowing Him. Seeking His face, seeking His glory, seeking loving obedience. No matter what presents itself as a seeming obstacle, in the physical realm. He does use these things to mold us more fully into His image, under pressure of tribulation and clarifying influence of fiery trials, His light shines through all the more brightly. Ever more fully evinced as more wholly sought and relied upon is His loving kindness, goodness, and mercy.
Some...present-tense consideration pursued unto clarification and direction were glossed over, last night (/this morning). There perhaps isn't need to further expound, at the moment, as to refrain from overdoing the emphasis on that particular. Even as ardent seeking of understanding of the Lord's will and ways does tend toward an obsession, as each new facet of consideration comes to light of open perusal.
Still, the Way is straightforward.
As it must be.
It need be narrow. And impossible to walk by sight, alone. For a way seems right to a man which leads to destruction.
In order to abide in Christ, walking forward in faith, being further conformed to His will, transformed into His image...
...we must trust Him explicitly and implicitly. Ever more fully.
Being led by Him, along that narrow course.
That course which before had been compared to a tightrope, but which perhaps is moreso razor-wire. Such that even to remain upon it, we must necessary be continually suspended by the Holy Spirit which both guides and supports all progress. For Christ began the work, He leads into all Truth, and He is both the author and the finisher of our faith. We must rely upon Him, so as to remain true to Him.
This, even as there is some mysterious aspect of progress which is contingent upon devotion, upon commitment to pursuit of Him into further and further degrees of loving awareness and obedience. I don't understand that, except to note that it's somehow a factor.
Just as with the fellows who the Lord walked with, as they were on the road to Emmaus...wherein, they were fellowshipping in His name (even if bemoaning what they perceived, at that point, as total loss), and He joined them...and then, He would have departed from them except that they entreated His continued fellowship. He required that entreaty, that desire for continued experience of His person, His presence, His companionship. Rather than it were to be continually taken for granted, assumed to continue without involvement, unto action to such effect, on their own part.
He met them where they were, as they considered Him. And yet if they had not acted upon the desire for continuation of His companionship, He would have just as soon departed from them. Had they been so disaffected by His presence as to have remained wholly unaware of the goodness His fellowship meant...if they had remained so self-consumed in their own sense of shock and dismay and disappointment, as to refrain from being touched by His words, sufficient as to actively seek continued dialogue... ...He would have departed from them, and perhaps they would have never been any the wiser, as to He with whom they'd been talking and walking.
There really is much of that, in the walk.
When we become distracted by our own thoughts, interests, fixations, occupations, professions, obsessions, and perceived successes, as to reach a point of mentally and emotionally elevating those such things even to a point of unconscious co-equality with Christ, in one's heart and mind...
...He allows us to have what we want. We express desire for those things, as superceding our love for Him and for truth, by having allowed those other things a position of even relative precedence or priority, beside or akin to Him. And He allows us that choice.
He is sovereign, and He permits our rebellion. Not without grief. Not without righteous anger. Not without eventual recompense for such grievous error as rebellion.
Yet He doesn't prevent our turning away from Him, except that we desire Him foremost. The only way as to do so is to realize one's own abject insufficiency, abject inability, and incapacity for goodness on any level as He exists. Realizing the stain of sin, then. Realizing His sovereignty--even in having allowed such rebellion--in terms of our otherwise completely subordination. And, further, realizing Christ's divinity and position as the one in whom we may receive mercy as to be reconciled.
Begging mercy. Throwing oneself upon His mercy. Continually, then.
For He does give new mercies every day. And we need them. Even as we are so desperately in need of such grace as allows us to walk ever more closely to Him, as to've ever been forgiven, regenerated to a right spirit, then continually transformed into a more accurate translation of His image.
Continual growth.
Along the walk.
The struggles of life before coming to Christ were...in ways kind of akin to the same sort, regarding finding "stability," "security," and "hope." There was very much a sense of need for having direction, forward momentum, personal fulfillment...growth. Only, prior to coming to Christ, self-effort to those ends was the only means of "progress"--a billion different "plans for success and personal fulfillment," but they all required some sort of balancing act, still. Balancing desire for indulgence in every random whim against desire to maintain some semblance of financial, emotional, social, etc. stability. This, even to such an extent that the desire for one of those two ends over the other would continually influence series of decisions. Discipline would wax and wane, depending upon desires. And, when desires extended too far to one end of the spectrum...in my case at least...a breakdown of some sort would occur: financial, social, mental/emotional, or howsoever else, depending upon the specific circumstances of indulgence.
Point being, some force which ultimately found its source and satisfaction in external circumstance and effect ultimately ruled my actions, sense of fulfillment, desire for continuation, and decisions. Merely, I perceived myself as the "sovereign unit" in terms of deciding which of my desires most controlled me at a given moment...whether desire for love, desire for companionship, greed, lust, desire for influence, desire for sense of "freedom," desire for sense of intellectual/financial/etc. "accomplishment," or howsoever else, whatsoever else, to whatsoever then-prevalent end.
Perceiving those all as somehow inherently fulfilling, despite being ultimately externally sourced. Even regarding such pursuits as "enlightenment," given ongoing requirement for conscious pursuit, conscious effort, concerted desire. In other words, even "internal development" required external effort.
Considering myself "sovereign" of my own life, I was nonetheless continually subject to a whole host of even-finely-tuned desires and whims and fixations and instabilities which weren't wholly subject to my will. No matter how forcefully effort was concertedly given, there would come a point of...surrender to circumstance. Even of seeking success through development of increasing sense of self-sufficiency and social wellness. Even when security and progress weren't hinged upon blatantly external processes and circumstances (think Walden Pond-style developments)...even then, there would come a point of finding finite the ability to uncover deeper meaning, deeper revelation, unshakeable security.
There was always a balancing act, in other words. Between self and circumstance, at the very least.
And now, with Christ...
...there is still a balacing act.
In remaining focused upon Him, as to refrain from giving into temptations which assault from all sides. As to refrain from giving in to blatant assaults on all sides.
The balance is still, in ways, constituted by concern for "how much of pursuing such-and-such topic will result in a deviation from reliance upon the simplicity of Christ" vs. "how much of refraining from considering such-and-such a topic will constitute resistance to rely upon the simplicity of Christ."
As with the Sadducee vs. Pharisee model of consideration of living. Where, on one hand, there's completely legalistic thinking, in terms of denying the existence and prevalence and persistence of supernatural effects in day-to-day living. While, on the other hand, there's an openness to supernatural effects, but otherwise a complete refusal to openly contemplate God's sovereign truth. And, further, (per sermon listened to by Brother Poonen, other day...about types of leaven)...there's apparently also continual consideration of Herodian hypocrisy, which self-indulges in observance of truth yet rejects any application of such truth, upon self.
Legalism vs. Spiritualism vs. Flesh vs. Worldliness
As opposed to being led by the Holy Spirit, on all fronts.
That's the line we walk, in whatsoever ways else it might be defined per a given moment.
And because the distinctions between those all...tend to overlap in entirely insidious ways which are often difficult to discern, per mere reason/logic...it is absolutely required that we must walk in faith, not by sight, led by the Holy Spirit...as to be able to successfully navigate the course we run, in and unto Christ.
Buffeted on all sides, but ever unto a shape which more nearly resembles our Savior, as such pressure only results in further, more abject reliance upon His being, His love, His person, His guidance, His Word, His Will, His Truth, His Way...just as to survive the course.
Turning to Him is as unto that course, even as the course is run by each of us, distinct per our purpose to the Lord's glory. We each are a different, distinct member of the body of Christ, even being under the leadership of the Head...even as being parts of even distinct members of that such Body, as local Churches. But there is nothing else.
There need not be.
Except to submit to Him, in love.
Trusting that He will lead.
He does.
One of my friends cited...I think it was Brother Washer cited...talking about aspects of the Christian life as being like a pendulum swinging. But wherein one wants the pendulum to refrain from wide arcs, but to remain steady at the center, to remain as nearly so as possible. As in Christ. Constrained by His love.
Bringing even all thoughts subject to His authority.
One step at a time. Yes, crawling if necessary. Just continuing to move forward.
Trusting He will keep us aloft, even as we must not slack in pursuing Him wholeheartedly, lest He allow us freedom to wander into idolatry. Examining ourselves daily, then, to see whether we're in the faith.
Diligently seeking. Diligently striving.
Ever onward.
Excelsior!
^_^
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