...And He Walks with Me, and Talks with Me

A clearer vision of Christ, we need. To meet with Him, again and again and again, probing the mysteries of His person and being. So to walk with Him, more closely conformed, more fully transformed, displaying His grace at work in us, ongoing.

There continually lingers this odd bit of tendency toward a dichotomy of thought, in regard to Christ--His reality and immanence, living and consciously interacting, vs. a clinging to fleshly understanding of what seems most generally accepted as present, effective means and measures of God's being (unseen, thus largely avoidable, aside of reading and something of a sort of "blind" prayer).

Perhaps, at heart, this is still largely a matter of self-idolatry--having succumbed so vastly to the nature of this age, we prefer to extrapolate understanding based upon tangible means of measure, maintaining "established understanding" (societal or personal, either) as the foundation, the touch-stone by which all things are measured.

"How do things add up, in terms of what others think and do?...in terms of what makes sense to me?...in terms of a survey of long-standing traditions of thought and practice?...in terms of concepts accepted by all the varied fields of scientific understanding?"

And, then, after all that...or, even, as some strange simultaneous part of process...there might be a bit of hopeful thought, prayer in a sense, that God would guide understanding. But according to man's work. According to striving in the flesh, to know spiritual matters.

Which isn't to say vast arenas of terrain can't still be traversed, that way, by God's gracious mercies in so giving and permitting such passage...

...but if the focus is, in effect, primarily upon one's own ability to discern and come to know truth--if only giving even a side-nod to recognition that God is good enough to manifest His will and way, to even the blindest fools (such as self, truly)...then, still, considering His keeping as a safety net, past the point of human effort, human seeking, human understanding, human striving unto godliness.

Judaism didn't perish at Galatia, in other words, but has yet interspersed and widely, insidiously intermingled in terms of the "best of efforts" and the "highest of intentions," in terms of seeking God.

Part of it is this:

What does it mean, in practice and perpetual effect...to wait upon the Lord?

...although there's a slight reluctance to bring such fellow into this discussion, the quote has proven far too apt, again and again, in knowing Christ...

Because the essence is as this, again and again, thoughout all life's motions and doings...bereavements and trials and tribulations and victories and rejoicings, and all else, besides:

If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.

(Oscar Wilde)

Even as a waiting, in acting and stepping forward, then. That each motion is given to God, seeking His guidance and longing desperately for His glory. Knowing self is wholly incapable of any else but faltering, haltering, staggering, blundering steps which would only misdirect, at best, and utterly demolish, except for grace.

Consider that David made a general practice of first asking the Lord for direction before going into battle, as to whether he had ought even go or refrain. And, he listened, is the point. He didn't merely assume that because he'd offered a momentary nod in God's direction, as a blessing upon what he otherwise might have considered well-founded and appropriate action, that such sidelong consideration would be sufficient. Not at all. He asked, was answered, and then proceeded in whatever manner the Lord directed. Even found himself told to wait, as with the instance of listening for a "going in the mulberry trees" before he was given leave to lead Israel into battle...as the Lord went before David, into battle. 

The tendency, rather, more often seems to just jump into action, even studying, without first asking for guidance and also waiting upon direction. Not just assuming that because a precursory nod to God was given, prior to embarking upon some general course or practice or rote system of theology, that then indeed because any such individual pursuit is most generally considered right and proper for others, then it must be acceptable individual pursuit, in general.

Just running from one place to the next, in this fashion. 

From one idea to the next. 

Even (as I once did and was eventually sorely chastised for, having at the end ignored a direction to cease) from one church to the next, merely so to be constantly receiving teaching. 

The thing is...just in general...the Christian walk is absolutely impossible, from beginning to end. Period. The flesh is incapable of inciting regeneration, latching upon the Holy Spirit, and proceeding with sanctification, regardless how fine the mind, disciplined the intellect, and ardent the desire. 

God, alone, is the one who works salvation, ultimately. We are, individually and collectively (as His people), given to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world...
...as it is the power of God unto salvation, that Christ came, the Son of God, sacrificed Himself to atone for all our sins, dying a death on the cross, despised by all...but resurrected in victory on the third day, thereafter, taking captivity captive and ascending to reign, now seated at the Father's right hand, even interceding for us...
...and, yet, the hearing of the word of Christ produces faith...
...as He opens deaf ears to hear, blind eyes to see, and the dead live at the hearing of His voice...

...and, yet, none of that is merely function following form.

Regardless what we, with our fine-tuned intellects and rigorous studies might attest...

...having a form of godliness avails nothing, except that Christ, Himself, is heard to speak.

His voice is that at which the dead live, as He makes the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and heals the infirm. Reconciling them to Himself.

He does move, He does transform, He does save...

...even perhaps sometimes despite our best efforts, which much amount to works of fleshly understanding applied to a methodological practice of giving voice to doctrine, as perhaps esteemed in tandem with Christ, Himself. 

it is Christ, Himself, we need, though. We can have the knowledge of all the ages at our fingertips, rushing through our minds even so to solve what amount to the highest mysteries of the world...finitely grasping even the deepest of philosophies, wound and dressed, dredged and recreated through all the ages...

...so even to intellectually argue, without fault, the nature and sure existence of absolute truth, unto God, Himself, as though He were merely an idea to note along any other, intellectually deduced...

...but these things are absolutely pointless, empty, and self-referential, as in any way exalted even alongside (which, moreover, is against) even a true knowledge of Jesus, Himself.

Again, and again, and again...these past few months...

...again and again...

...the distinction must be made: do we know Jesus, personally and intimately fellowshipping with Him, daily, continually, and then eternally? 

...or do we know about Him?

One is life.
The other, death.

He said to know Him is eternal life. 
...so, not to know Him, but to only know of Him?

That's same as knowing nothing, at all.
No matter what else might be known.

Which is wherein this weird, persistent dichotomy which desires to accommodate the world's proclivity for absolute reduction of the spiritual to a point of negation...as even to refrain from making mention of anything beyond the realm of visible scientific inquiry is akin to anathema...

...such that even the Church constantly steps and sidesteps and backpaces in terms of boldly proclaiming an absolute knowledge of Christ, living and vital, in truth and spirit, as a daily part of life.

How many times have I heard many who do, in truth, know Christ...say something to the effect of being guided directly by Him, being given words from Him, or of even walking with Him (in a sense which extends beyond mere metaphorical mention, implicitly and notably remarking that there is a very real and absolutely true sense in which He is one's very best friend, which is not a possible thing for a wholly passive, continually silent bystander, as would otherwise be claimed He always remains)...

...but say such a thing, and then an anxiety jumps to the fore and, if not total retraction, then to utter mitigations to the point of utterly undermining and wholly quashing the vital, necessary truth of the matter...

...with most often a nervous, generally slightly mocking...a chiding...of the "idea of mysticism" and/or some (incomprehensible, as utterly vacuous expression given to something which isn't at all what's generally termed by so inappropriate a term...) "super-spirituality" which is at-once an unconscious self-reprimand and group normative, perpetually given nervous voice, reinforced fearfully...

...so anxious a matter as to incite mockery, even by those who do know Christ...

...and bitterness is so, so oft the root of mockery...

...which is a dire matter to note.

Prayerfully.

In doing that, though, we deny Him. Even if in a "small" way, then still. We do undermine His work in our lives, in our churches, in our societies.

This reeks of much of the world's open mockery of spiritual reality, moreover--God, and all He is, is now openly, vastly denied, mocked, derived, and utterly despised by the "finest minds of our times" (those few who think they constitute such group, at least, being self-defined as exclusive according to personal preferences against the idea of anything existent being "unknowable"--a given thing is deplorably unconscionable...mindless and ignorant as a belief...unless it adequately submits to human ability and efforts at prodding unto understanding, in all the universe and creation). He isn't subject to our whims, is the thing. He's not dependent upon us. He doesn't have to do more than He's already done, even though He continually does...His mercies are new every day. And His grace is fathomless. "Miracles" are still commonplace, even.

Which...if you take into account that regeneration is nothing short of an absolute miracle...

...that is all the more apparent as His continued interaction with us, on our behalf as to His glory.

So, why do we hesitate to speak openly about the truth of who He is?

That He does live, that He does speak to His people, still.
Through Scripture, and also individually.

Which, if you want to argue that point, then even consider it in terms of Scripture.
Because, apparently there are a lot of Christians who currently deny His power, His interaction, His intervention individual, personal, private, ongoing.

Fearfully, as mockery and bitterness are so often a part of the argument against such things.
Fear isn't of love, y'all, in terms of worldly things.

Fear God, alone. He's the only who had ought be feared, and we all seem even to largely be very minimal in efforts along that line, too, as it's been increasingly preached within the past couple months. Thus, we need this. Reverential worship of the Maker. Even utter trepidation, in consideration of the wholly unlimited power which is His, alone.

Our time is in His hands, completely.
Our every breath.

Or we would never have been born, conceived, or known.

But by His will.

We are wholly incapable of stopping anything. He is capable of all things.
From Him comes calamity and blessing. He is God of all, so that nothing happens except either directly according to His will or as permitted by Him, explicit.

And yet He restrains wickedness to such a large degree, even now.
The deepest darkness is as light to Him. Nothing can contain Him nor restrain Him nor prevent His knowing and even mitigate the doing of His will.

Ultimately, He is all. In all.
And if He chooses to speak, then if we deny to listen, what less than idolatry is practiced?

This, just as much that such a fear of Him means that, in a world so given to sin and with spiritual predators lurking for our destruction and distraction and demise...we have absolute and utter need to be wholly reliant upon Him for discernment of the spirits, to know what is from Him. No "willy-nilly" going about and expecting any and everything that comes, for having come at all, is from Him.

Quite the opposite.

All the more need for absolute diligence in seeking His voice through the words of Scripture, as to recognize the Spirit by Whom it was given, and Who, alone, can rightly impress the intended meaning upon our hearts ("hermeneutics" all you want, but unless He condescends to allow even those most tireless such efforts to prosper, they'll only amount to dry learning, rote comprehension and memorization, and endless comparison--without a flicker of broader light come to bear).

Either He does the work, or it won't be done.

Which, again, doesn't mean we just collapse in despair of doing anything at all, fruitless.
Rather, it means waiting upon Him, seeking Him first in all things, and praying for guidance and instruction (continued instruction, moreover).

He does prosper the efforts of many, though, who even neglect to seek His guidance (self being one, time and again, lamentably...but, still, just so as to be able to attest)...many, many, even if perhaps just as means of continuing to exalt the truth of His word, His being.

We need Him, though. Not just words. Not just memorization.
Not just study. Not just good works.

These things come, in drawing nearer to Christ, in seeking to know Him more intimately. To dwell more deeply, resolute, in His peace and love, unwavering.

But it's Him, the center of it all. Jesus...

And for me, at least, as much as there's so general mockery of these things now...I don't care...
...I just talk to Him.

Prayer, too, which is a different course. As one preacher who periodically is perused has put it, that's like "praying with work-boots on," in terms of the intent and practice.

But most of the time, there's just talking. Sharing all things.
And He is not always silent.

But, then, I very rarely am.

Regardless, that doesn't matter so much just to say...

...I hear so many who talk about how there needs to be a method, an absolute pattern, a manner of approaching Him which is "right" or "more right" or something of that nature...

...as though we're somehow capable of attaining to rightly approaching Him, in our own efforts.

Personally, He's lined me out a number of times.
He didn't despise me where I was, though, when I first started talking to Him about all manner of nonsense. He didn't despise me, despite how wretched I am. He didn't leave me the way I was, though. He's changed me. His love changes me.

He changes me.

Same for everyone who comes to Him.

So, whatever, if everyone rejects you.
Who cares if the world considers you idiotic.
What does it even matter, ultimately, if various parts of the church turn their nose up, mocking and deriding.

Seriously, whatever.

Jesus won't turn away from those who come to Him.
Knock and keep knocking. Never stop.
Ask and keep asking. Don't relent.

He doesn't turn away.
And we need Him.

All of us do, honestly.
Despite that many absolutely despise Him, even openly enough to deny His existence.
But yet His name won't fade away, though it may be attempted for use as a curse--still it remains on the lips of much of the world.

And there's this one song...

...merely to speak His name is praise.

Then, let us praise Him.

Jesus...Yeshua...the Messiah
He lives to intercede for us.

Why, then, are we so reluctant even just to speak to Him?

Self, Exalted

We continue to "qualify" His work, you know? As though, somehow, if we have a keen enough grasp on Scripture, then we have attained to insight into precisely how and when He will move.

That's just not so.

We are His instruments, or we are deluded. There is nothing else.

Either we surrender to His will, or we continue in exalting what otherwise persists of our own.

We're either walking in step with His guidance, moment by moment, or we're living in some varied stage of rebellion.

Really.

If we think we understand, think we can prognosticate His will and motions, according to some device within our own intellect or being...

...we're fooling ourselves, and only striving according to the flesh.

This is not to say He doesn't give insight and foreknowledge to some. He said He would do so, without regard to age or gender, in these last days...such as are since Christ's resurrection and ascension.

But it's not a forced process.

It's not something which requires straining.

He gives.

When He gives, there is nothing but to receive. This, even having the Holy Spirit bearing witness within as to the source and truth of a thing, even as the Scriptures will also concur (if largely by presenting witness also as the same essential spirit in which was given, for also having not overtly contraindicated anything therein writ large, uncontested and uncontestable).

But there seems no...methodology adequate, except to retrospectively describe. Each unto each is so wholly solitarily comprised, of circumstance and form and substance...

...even as wholly unwavering in consistence.

Just, though...

...point is, we can't "work up" a "move of the Spirit." That mentality, in itself, evidences fleshly designs being implemented. Unto delusion.

He does allow us what we would choose to have, as it goes. So, if we want to work up a supernatural encounter? ...yeah.

Which isn't to say, even in such circumstances, He won't still work according to His will.

He does, it's seemed. In varying ways. To each, individually...according to the heart.

As, again--what is sought? Christ, Himself, or a supernatural experience?

Truth, in power and effect, or any glimpse of something which seems more vast than self?

Deliverance or distraction?

Surrender or self-exalting recreation?

Repentance or a temporary hiatus from doubts and fears?

Reconciliation with God or self-affirmation and absolution?

Worship isn't a form of recreation, is all. It's life, or nothing.
And only He can bring that to truth, for any of us.

As a solitary worship, exclusive of all else but Christ. Only to worship God. Period. Nothing else.
All things brought to subjection to a knowledge of Him.

These things are beyond human ability, given our so-limited perspective and so-dire tendency to cling more to suffering than to our safe-harbor in Christ.

He is all, or He is nothing, is the thing.

And as He is all, in all...

...if that's not the place He holds in our hearts, minds, and ways...

...we're somewhat adrift, needing desperately to cry out to Him for guidance and recovery, repentance and deliverance.

We have so highly esteemed ourselves, over course of the last couple of generations, though...that we consider ourselves somehow capable of predicting all His ways and moves, and in so doing, we also consider ourselves at times as "blocking" or "inhibiting" His movements and will.

Which is just patently false.

Even as a far-short analogy, that would be as nonsensical as a gnat expecting its flight had somehow caused or delayed the sun to light the day or the moon to rise by night...likening delays or "unusual phenomena" like eclipses to somehow be a reflection of movements undertaken or bypassed, rather than as being part of the course of those particular orbs.

Would be as like for me to say that "God will save people tomorrow," in such a way as would imply that my observation is in any way given to anything other than His will. I could even go so far as to qualify it by extending to "God will save people tomorrow even through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus," which is again just a statement of possibility, likely expectancy which could be foreseen, as it's His will to do so as Christ will have His portion...

...but, my remarking such a thing would reflect more upon me, upon my stance as regards God and my understanding of Him...than it would, in any other way, have to do with all of creation.

Remarking such a thing is a strange place to be. Because...is there desire for others to hear and then pray on that account, that God will do so, and continue to do so? He did tell us to pray for one another, and we are to pray that workers will be sent to harvest...

Or is it a remark upon self?

Are we ever free of making remarks upon ourselves, in this so utterly narcissistic age?
If at all, then only by grace.

Nothing in us would want anything other than to exalt self, simply as par for the course of being at odds with God, Himself, in an international society which is increasingly driven to become more and more introspective, reflective, and pensive...much at the cost of love of others, love of God, and knowledge of the Holy. To be self-consumed in that such way, in other words, is to be all the more driven away from God.

Which...He has allowed.

Per His divine will.

Yet, ofttimes there's a sense that the desire to intellectualize everything to the utmost degree wholly does so at the expense of a right knowledge of God. We spend such time and will attempting to fully grasp every passing idea, as though vital, without even considering His sovereignty of those such processes. We exalt ourselves even by thinking so highly of ourselves, then, as to consider ourselves worthy of endless introspection.

Rather than contemplating Christ, moreover, is the point.

To know Him is what's necessary.

Not to understand self.

Self is wretched, self is lost and impotent, apart from Christ.

And even having come to Christ, the only good in self is Christ.

Yet are we not wholly self-consumed? Even as presenting the argument for "political correctness," is that not a front for esteeming ourselves in the eyes of others, for having been so "sensitive to sensitivities" and "aware of others," when in fact the effort more generally derives from a desire to exalt self, as each individual self strives to then become known as worthy of such trepidation and concern so to have each personal preference heeded?

This is not love. It calls itself loving.
But it does such things out of pride, desire for self-exaltation.

Love seeks not to offend.
Love is patient, too, though...rather than easily offended.
It forgets wrongs.
It does not anger.
It does not seek self, not even in the guise of "accommodating others."
And it's not jealous, when others receive acclaim or consideration.
It doesn't seek for it's own likewise accommodation.
It gives, without asking...without requirement...without thought to self.
And it does not become arrogant, boastful, prideful of perceived "accomplishments."
But is kind.
Gentle.
Patient.

Humble.

Not expectant.

We seem most, though, to have become a world of attempted self-deliverers...who strive to deliver ourselves through complex extrapolations as philosophies of self and life--ever referencing self and other as the points of interest, as though our understanding and ability were sufficient to deliver us from what truly ails.

Our understanding profits us nothing.

Apart from that we know Christ, we know nothing.
We might think to know a universe full of wonders and complexities, comprehending in finite detail the mechanics of the workings of all of life and nature...
...but without a knowledge of He who created and maintains all these things, that knowledge amounts to a choked breath, hasty and insufficient.

We are incapable of being freed from self, except that Christ works deliverance in us. Gifting repentance, a further turning to Him.

Away from self.

Self would rule in Christ's stead, if it had its will.
Gladly, in the end, it won't.

No Alternatives

Christ is truly all. All of creation exists for sake of His pleasure, His good will.

Yes, sin has worked corruption even in creation, even unto death, disease, suffering, and all manner of ill amongst men. Wretchedness, ever mounting in defiance against the God who reigns, alone...wreaking havoc, for ever having turned against Him.

And He has allowed it. He has allowed us to turn, many times and ways against knowledge and worship of Him. For now. Which, even millennia are as nothing, in context of the eternal.

We have, as a species, largely ever turned whole against Him by turning ever away from Him. Despite His entreaties. Despite the goodness surely lavished without measure, in the far-gone garden. Still, we wanted to be esteemed, apart from Him.

He, however, chose for Himself a people. A nation. In Abraham, Isaac. The nation of Israel. A people set apart to be holy, before Him.

And we, all who are and ever have existed...have turned even against God, no less than His own chosen people oft have. To such end that, even now, there are many who consider themselves followers of Christ yet denouncing the nation of Israel, from whom our Savior arose. And, who, also...God has not renounced.

He opened the gate to all the nations, to come to Him. Drawing a people which did not seek Him, nor desire to know Him. But Israel was not cast off.

Look at all He has done in delivering the nation, these past 60-some years. Impossible odds, and yet they gained ground rather than being snuffed out, in skirmishes expected to wholly destroy.

And many are coming to know Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Even as certain prophecies involved in His coming could only have been fulfilled, for having come to pass before the destruction of the second temple. Even as it perhaps goes so much further than a mere corroboration of facts, in retrospect. Same as for any of us all.

He leads. He draws. He is sovereign.
We are not.

No matter the thoughts to the contrary. He is nothing less than absolutely sovereign.

Everything which is only exists as He has permitted and willed to be. Knowing from time eternal how all would and will be, He yet lavishes grace to many who still refuse to acknowledge His name.

But we cannot be that.
We must freely proclaim Him.

The world may mock, jeer, taunt, and attack...
...but He is our Rock, our Light, our Salvation, and the Strength in which we stand.

If we know Christ, we must not falter by returning to an attempt to stand in our own strength. We must not return to attempts to rationalize the incomprehensible, so as to make way for what otherwise would make sense to the world.

They will not understand because they do not know Him and choose not to know Him. His glories are displayed for all to see, and each of us had turned from worshipping Him. Each one of us. We are all guilty. His blood is on all our hands.

But yet some...some, He draws, even through their seeking unto truth...

...to come to see what wretchedness wrought, in that He perished under the weight of our sin, so that we would be free...we who come to Him, seeing the truth of His sacrifice and seeking forgiveness for our absolute wretchedness even unto Him, the only One who ever could or would not deserve such destruction. He bore it, though, that we might have life. He died, He bore our sins. He drank the cup of wrath, poured without measure from eternal unto eternal, that we who are finite and sin-sick who come lamenting our wickedness in light of His love...seeking deliverance, forgiveness, and atonement...

...would be saved.

He overcame, after all. Death could not hold Him. He threw off captivity, making mockery of the powers of the world even by His death on the cross. Death could not hold Him. He resurrected. He took captivity captive. And is esteemed, the exalted One, who now and forever reigns over all of creation.

Our feebleness is nothing, compared to His might. We are weak, but He is strong. We are flighty and inconstant, but He is eternal and faithful. We are forever batted about by changing circumstance, within and without, but He is unchanging, immovable, transcendent. We may strive unto perfection, but only ever know what slight a bit might be comprised of that within any the lines of a finite life, whereas He alone can change the heart of men, turning even a soul from darkness and despair unto light and love. Freedom is His. We are captives even to our own nature, only able to respond according to patterns known, recognized, perceived, desired, or ingrained...except that He change us, bring life into deadened souls, turn death to life within us who ever so despise Him, then to love and worship Him, alone.

Above all. As all else then is seen merely to be subject to His will.

We are His creation. He is our God.

Christ, the living Son of God, is our only means of salvation from the wrath we are due, for having hardened hearts which cherish sin and despise the Maker. Even to be in His presence, unchanged, undesirous of righteousness, would drive a man bent on sin quite mad, enraged and utterly consumed with loathing beyond comprehension. Such a mind would be utterly consumed by such inflamed rage as would utterly demolish any of what erstwhile vestiges of grace had otherwise seemed present.

Christ offered Himself as the only means of restoration from that fallen state of despondent self-consumption, exalted contemptuously against the Maker. He lived without sin, fully overcoming all the wiles of the world in abject devotion to the Father, guided wholly by the Spirit of Truth into all good works prepared by the Father, wholly devoted in humility to unwavering love to God and fellow man. He loved as none other had nor has. He loves, still, as none other could.

And He loves us.

He said that he has loved us even as the Father has loved Him. How consuming a love, then? How absolute? Unwavering. Eclipsing. Wholly true and absolute. And we are to remain in His love, even as loving all others.

These are products of His work of redemption, in us.

We cannot love as He loved, as He loves, except that He change us...except that we came to know His love, in truth, through coming to know Him, in spirit and truth. At which point, all else really does fall pale, in comparison.

As it must.

He is truth, so as Paul said, then let every man be a liar, if they would exalt themselves against knowledge of God. Because He is truth, so any which exalts itself against Him is a lie.

If we walk the line of attempting to reason with lies, except that the Lord lead, we could just as easily fall prey. The case for Christ is one which is a statement of truth, even as it can be pleaded admirably and with or without eloquence and appeal to any of all the higher and baser functions of man. But, point of it all, regardless the phrasing or the elocution...He is and He lives.

Lives even to plead for us, who are His. Without ceasing. Even as He did, before the final showing of His might. He did not succumb to pain. He did not succumb to bitterness. He did not succumb to resentment. He did not succumb to reluctance. He did not succumb to regret. As it was given knowledge that the Father's will would be done, He walked humbly, steadfast in acceptance, even to death, death on the cross. He did not succumb to fear. He walked humbly, pure. Solely giving.
Walking according to what was given.

Knowing.

Loving.

Given.

Steadfast in His acceptance of the Father's will.
Even having become sin, though He committed none...but that we who have sinned might have His righteousness.

And reverberations of His story permeate all of history, in varied perversions. Even as the stars which once fully proclaimed His coming have also become a different tale, given over to the teaching of demons which otherwise would purport to good will and prosperity, who otherwise are rather only seeking to destroy.

But Christ...

Jesus is our only hope. He is the only hope. Period.
All else is false. All else is paltry, falling short of fulfillment--leaving room for rage, greed, lust, fear, anxiety, despair, and all manner of that which else disposes man listless and powerless, apart from God.

And yet, He prays for us. He intercedes on our behalf.
His portion has been secured. He will see us through. Nothing can nor will it take us from His hand.
He is God and cannot be countermanded.

It's not as with us, who reserve prerogative to change our minds as circumstances shift. No, not as that, at all.

He does not change. Will not alter.
He is who He is, and will do as He has said.

No one else is trustworthy.
Except that He is the foundation upon which we build our being and from which we strive to maintain composure and growth...we labor in vain.

Seek to know Him.
Seek to know Jesus.
Cry out to Him daily.
Seek time to delve into Scripture, striving to grasp His will.
Seek Him in prayer.
Seek Him.

He is all, in all.
Yet our hearts have so long been turned to self and away, against Him...it's as though we would nearer recognize a foreign tongue than recognize the truth of Christ.
So the cry must be continual, for Him to come, to change us, to make us as He is.

Strive to walk with Him.

Being the end and beginning of all of creation, in whom all things subsist and from whom all things originate...

...what else is there, truly, but to seek Him?

All else is a passing dream.
Not to be despised or forsaken, in terms of walking uprightly before God, no...

...but just to be ever so much so submitted unto Him, as done to His glory, whether of physical necessity or familial good.

He knows our needs, yet we are to seek Him for them, no less.
Even as we do what must be, so as to maintain what would be done, so not to fall away from diligent pursuit of His righteousness. In all ways, walking blameless before God and man.

So that even despised for Christ, yet no fault may else be found.
Walking in love.

And of Surrender to Holiness?

A blessing, really. The bi-fold reality of coming to know reality in Christ.

Turning to Him, as turning away from selfish designs.
Cleaving to Him, having forsaken as impotent one's own strength.
Relying whole upon Him, for seeing one's own inconsistency revealed in light of Christ's faithfulness.

Always a turning away, while turning unto.
Always a forsaking, while more fully embracing.
Always a surrender, being more fully captivated.
Even as, in ways...a deeper lamentation...as coming more fully to know love.

Such a poignant ache, in being broken so to heal. Even as, moreover, it's only a revelation of brokenness, in so many was as much as being broken. Being molded.

Refined.

Just, there is that point always...coming to realize more fully one's own incapacity. In the face of infinite wisdom. In the presence of omnipotence.

All else is impotence and foolishness, except what might accord with Him...and, even then only reverberation and not such as like His immanence and majesty.

And words fail, so utterly, considering Him. They climb so high and reach so far, seeking to touch upon the breadth of His Holiness, even in some limned, while finite measure...

...and ever having sought to ascend and plunge and translate, still, they must fall before Him, prostrate in heartfelt longing just to have drawn even near, while never having made so neat a climb as to meet any of His measure.

But, still! Even to reach!

We cannot, and yet we must extend all which we are ever more toward grasping Him, toward even a glimpse of Him...

...because He is all.

So, these moments...where understanding is far, and when sometimes the very world itself seems nothing more than a shroud of darkness which strives to envelop and would glibly suffocate were it able...

...perhaps there's nothing higher than to rest in knowing Him.

Knowing of Him, truly, too. The revelations given through Scripture are incalculably vital, as given and accessible means by which to approach His holiness. Yet knowing of Him, alone...falls so short of having actually cried out to Him, in desperation and surrender.

He has said that He will be and is found by those who seek and require Him as utmost necessity. Even as it has been recorded that none seeks. That none, but those who are drawn, can come to know Him.

There's a mystery there that's far higher than merely claiming "election" and "irresistible grace." Something which far exceeds terminology and the doctrine of men. Philosophies which can just as easy bind as loose, and which seem often to snare pride unto a sense of self-exaltation, rather than abasement unto abject service of all. In the Spirit of Christ, the latter.

That former fruit seems very prevalent if not often so highly pronounced as to necessarily detract from the Lord's otherwise work in those who do ardently desire Him.

But the temptation to err in favor of self and group exaltation is real, nonetheless. Rather abashedly admitted as one which is yet being stricken, in myself.

If love is the sum of the law and the prophets, then from whence arises divisiveness?

Something to just continually pray over, seeking clarity, direction, and deliverance. Humbled.

It's not a "yes" or "no," though, but another case of the Lord doing as He wills, through what He wills, when and as He will. In each, unto each, for each. As He wills.

Can we not just strive to know Him, then? Rather than delineating each and all what we perceive as His ways?

There are vast oceans of darkness which even now perhaps have only begun to flow. Unto division. Unto distraction. Unto speculation, seeming means of discernment which rather relies upon self other than God.

Seeking experience for sake of what it would seem to comprise, as proof. ...as though experience were an authority, in its own right, rather than not so unless as given by God, consistent with His revelation in Scripture.

A major tripping point still and vastly seems expanding, in terms of spiritual reality. We are spiritual creatures, but flesh. We cannot be but what we are, and to deny any of what we are is to deny self and in part to express doubt relating to He who made us.

The "supernatural" is as much a part of reality as is the "natural," is all. Lacking understanding doesn't mean there's all the more need to trek blindly in and absently accept any and all which presents itself as experience, seeming supernatural, as though it were God-given. Just as relying wholly on sight and fearfully clinging to one's ability to understand does constitute a partial neglect of reality.

To walk fully in both, though? Without neglecting one nor the other, not given to preponderance on one, nor the other? But to see an undivided whole, in terms of simple acceptance and desire to know Truth, in Christ?

Just as for many it may not be necessary to know one or the other more than is necessary for a particular one's life in Christ entails...then, still, to what extent would we seek to know Him, pursue Him, and be subject to Him, now?

Only to what end He would have, moreover. To each of their own, by God's grace.

But there seems in so many a predominance of fear, evidenced as mockery most often.

If we fear, we are not trusting God. If we do not know Him, how will we trust Him? And yet, if we do know Him, won't we trust Him entire?

He is the Only who is worthy of unwavering and absolute trust. Seriously.
He's unchanging. Who He has been, who He is...is who He will always be. What He has said He would do, He has done. And what He has said He will do, it will be done.

He's faithful. He does not and will not forsake His own. Those who hear His voice are His. Those who recognize His voice, moreover.

The implications there are far deeper than a mere intellectual comprehension begins to touch upon. "Hearing" is not a mere matter of physically observing, but one which...as in a sheep herd heeding the shepherd...requires absolute familiarity, deep familiarity as one known explicitly, individually. A deep familiarity which is personal, individual, specific.

As they flee from those whose voice is not familiar.

Think about that, though.

What does it mean to truly recognize so as to know someone's voice?

Instant recognition. Absolute certainty. Unwavering devotion. ...are all implicit those verses recorded by John. They know His voice and follow Him.

It's good to fear God.

Really.

He's terrifying, if you ever take the time to ponder on His absolute "otherness"--totally unlike us...
...and all powerful.

Completely sovereign.

Nothing happens except that He allows or directly decrees. And His restraining grace is evident in all of creation, even as the earth is His handiwork. He created and sustains all of this, constantly and always. It all is held together by Him, according to His will.

We could, any one of us...at any moment...have been utterly demolished from existence, except that He restrains what would seek to destroy.

And He does. So very often, unbeknownst.
Even as it is appointed for man to die, in this life.

But what, then? Do we stop there?

No..

No, we don't.

Eternity stretches out before us. Eternal life with Christ, or eternal shame and contempt (Daniel 12:2).

So, we live here for 80 years--maybe much more, maybe much less...

...and then, eternity spans before us, unending.

Yet, somehow this life seems more real, as present and tangible. As conceivable in terms we can perceive as "understood." When, in so many ways, we wander yet blindly to and fro, somewhat haphazardly constructing trials according to sets of "established" principles, yet striving to poke at the edges of reality, further and to what is perceived as there-being a deeper "understanding" of the principles in operation.

Which, as Tozer considered it...all we're doing is basically coming to understand ways in which God generally maintains His creation. The principles by which He most generally operates in our world. Yet labeling and claiming them as discoveries, for having built nations and technologies prior inconceivable upon broadening understandings of those ways by which He operates.

It's not a separate realm, in other words. Even as quantum physics theorists have been toying perhaps increasingly with the idea of the universe as a "superimposed reality," a "digital simulation which exists solely within context of a much larger reality."

Which...yeah.

He has done these things. It's not a separate theory of reality, to know He has done them. Merely, there are so many things we don't know about Him nor understand about how He has created...let alone why (truly, let it alone)...

...that every bit of insight into any sense of principle according to which His creation operates...

...is as though it were a true revelation into the "ways of things," when only in fact a minute glimpse into the way in which He's ordered our physical reality. A minor, finite reflection of His majesty expressed per the very act of creation.

And we glory at each and every slightest bit of "major advance," without a second thought at He who designed these wonders. Most often.

When, really, there's so much of what's done "in the name of science" that's really not fully well understood, in terms of impact. Like medicines, for instance. So many administered for apparent effects in treating particular symptoms, which...while there's a bit of molecular biological comprehension of the manner in which chemicals bond, as the nature of the receptors to which they bond, so as to comprehend the reasons for impact...there are still so many unknowns. That just kind of surface over time.

Like, say...just consider for a moment that cocaine and heroin both used to be compounded as medicine.

And all day, you could argue that "we've progressed so much, though!...we have seriously strict regulations now, to prevent that sort of case, in terms of research and development requirements necessary even prior to testing for adequacy and effectiveness and controls against harm..."

...but we still don't understand why...perhaps all?...but at least many of the medicines administered for psychiatric care function the way they do. Or, not fully, at the very least. Or, otherwise, even, why would there be such a list of side effects possible for each and every? If we knew precisely the compound necessary, would it not be possible to likely restrict in such a way as to adapt better medicines which aren't also simultaneously potential to such harm?

The striving unto knowledge is as that, though. One step at a time. Blundering onward, in ways.
Perhaps generations from now, many of the medicines used today will be looked upon as the heroin cough syrups of yester-year are today. Or as Rome's lead pipes.

If there had been widespread realization of the ill-effects at the time, perhaps those things wouldn't have been. Perhaps. But they were. And likely a product of the best understanding of matters at the time. Same as any which is now.

There's no cause to be exultant in a sense of "knowing," in other words. Nor in a sense of "understanding," when given to realize that there is One who is utterly beyond comprehension. That even as some of His ways may be prodded with absolute fascination by those who utterly refute His existence, and just as some of His nature might be bound in volumes according to the finest minds of any given time...

...then, still, He so far transcends all of this, all of these, all of us...

That any bit of knowing is nearer to knowing absolutely nothing than to knowing Him, in full. Always.

And mind-bending to even contemplate, truly; infinite thoughts can only be gazed at longingly from afar, but without even being truly grasped. Reverberations, nonetheless, are given upon which to gaze in wonder, and from which to learn and prosper in His ways.

Just so as not to rule Him out, is the thing. A sense of fully having understood...has vast tendency to exalt itself against a true knowledge of and reverence for God. There is ever the looking unto while being incapable of seeing.

Which is where trust perhaps comes in, in faith. Knowing enough of Him, as given glimpses through His word...impressed truly upon one's heart by the Holy Spirit, Himself, so as even to be grasped in any measure of meaningful truth...otherwise only words...even unto a change of heart, wrought per His power, turning a heart from self unto Him. Away from reliance upon one's own understanding, unto trust in God. Moment by moment.

A duality, of sorts, still. Or perhaps more than simply that, but so given for simplicity's sake.

To just keep walking. He makes the path straight, He makes it plain. He goes before and is our rear guard. And the voice behind, saying turn to the right, or the lift...that this is the way, walk in it.

But step by step.

Step...by...step.

But Love Covers: And, Then, Would You Love?...As You Have Been, You Are: Loved.

The tendency to fall into shades of error persists, yet only restrained by grace. This, something that is a constant in all, even as if it were possible, then the elect would be deceived.

It's not that we're not also assaulted and tempted and momentarily even leaning in directions which see Jesus through lenses which distort...

...Paul even said that, ultimately, now it is just as though we see through a glass darkly...that even the truths we do know are even only somewhat partially clear, as though somewhat obscured by all which surrounds and is entailed of individual and broad circumstance.

If even Paul, then, claimed that truth wouldn't be utmost clearly known until these times pass away and (perhaps just the prior ways of flesh, still coming into subjection to Christ) nothing any longer whatsoever impinges upon or obscures our view--even as our minds are being transformed...and our hearts are being made pure...

...yet, still, we don't presently...as Paul more or less put it...know as we are known.

Our perspective is too limited.

Even considering things as they are, in light of the truth of Christ, as a vast measure of the workings of God...

...still, we don't see the ways in which every single instance cumulatively has compounded up to the present. We don't understand how each and every momentary glance at Christ has cumulatively and comprehensively impacted us, even. We can reason within ourselves and propose what seem to be wholly sound observations, in terms of the reasons for events and in terms of particular evidences of God's intervention. But, yet, we don't clearly see how every single instance comprehensively, expansively has resolved and yet continues to work unto His glory...

...same as we don't clearly see how our positions today are working His will within us, unto who and how He would have us to be in five years, or even in ways...tomorrow.

An unseen work. Unremarked, largely, as generally unrecognized.

Just as with we can know that it's grace, an unmerited, unearnable...expression of His unwarranted favor...which has preserved what sense of hope and peace and love--and even desire for these things--yet persisting in general society, as we haven't wholly decimated all of civilization despite having somewhat the means, just as a matter of unchecked greed, pride, and/or divisiveness.

Except that He does in some very real way...restrain, individually and societally, from that extent of general depravity...

...we could and according to evidence of what yet exists, as resources are available and yet people still starve...people still murder, still hate, still work lust as though without consequence...

...such remarkable, prevalent self-exaltation as permeates and persists in such wickedness, justifying restriction of resources and indulgence of self on grounds of being "natural" for self-preservation and "success"...

...gives just a glimpse into how far gone we would be, except that He does still restrain.

The sun still shines. Seasons turn.

Even as the workings of sin, unto death, disease, suffering, and hatred...and all which come of these...

...yet persist. Increasingly, even, as we turn further and further away from Him, globally.

Turning toward destruction, really. Turning away from love is a turning to hate, in so many ways. Even if largely unremarked, unacknowledged. Turning to self turns away from others, just as much.

Just as turning to individual groups, exalted as wholly right and well established...constitutes a turning away from others.

So, is that turning defined by a turning to love--to Jesus Christ, who is love--or even any ways tainted by an even unconscious turning for sake of self-preservation with any-ways a mind to self-righteous justification, as thus is inherently divisive along unloving lines?

None of us are good, after all. We've all fallen short in some way. Whether as unapparent as unloving thoughts, complaintive internal dialogue, or even sharp tones used when speaking with others. Only God is good, truly good. Never wavering. And yet we turn against Him. Against Christ Jesus, God incarnate.

He's patient, though. And merciful. And delights to forgive those who come to Him, in spirit and truth seeking Him and continuing to seek Him, knocking and continuing to knock...asking and continuing to ask. He gives gifts even to all men, though. Whether asked or not, even life is a gift. Despite that some despise it. Nonetheless, a gift. Precious. Miraculous, in so many ways.

Our tendencies, though, apart from Him...are unto seeking self-gratification or group-solidarity and preservation--in any case, self-preservation no less. Whether a collective or individualistic drive, then still, the matter is a point of quite what is seen as worthy of preservation, according to one's own drives, desires, and sense of right. Without regard for God, moreover.

Which, in itself, is blatant rebellion.

So, how often do even those who are His act without any but a side-note to perhaps hoping it's according to His will. Because this, that, or the other would seem to ascribe rightness, even without having sought Him in prayer and Scripture to reveal what He would have of a particular instance of decision. Or even, moment by moment, if we truly are to bring even every thought into subjection to Christ, and not merely only actions.

Appending what seems right, just because superficial survey of details appears to accord with particular preliminary thoughts on a matter...

...doesn't necessarily indicate obedience is being maintained.

...doesn't necessarily mean implicitly that His will is being pursued, in a matter.

Again, look to Job's friends. By all they knew, they were speaking truth in apt circumstance, in seeking to obtain Job's confession and repentance. Completely oblivious to the need for rightly dividing and handling and teaching truth; Not arguing nor mincing words, but speaking patiently, kindly, and with God's own love...rightly applying truth: Not haphazardly, according to preliminary, precursory assessment.

There's a point of coming to realize that...as we don't see fully, now, then this means we cannot fully know precisely as would moreover be required, so as to be able to always rightly apply truth, then, if we are left with only our own understanding of even Scripture by which to proceed--and, this, no matter how extensive or exhaustive may it seem, still is ever limited even as Job's friends found themselves, to making superficial judgments according to what we see.

Which they did. Really.

And, again, think about it. Given who and how Job was, even to be noted by God, Himself...then, wouldn't you expect that his nearest and dearest friends--whom these men were--would in some capacity have attained unto some bit of wisdom and knowledge of God, for being so near to Job, as to have warranted their close, continued association as closest friends? These were not ignorant men, in other words, but were most likely (I mean, even the younger guy was hanging out with them as a contemporary in some capacity, if only as a means of learning from them)...they were most likely similarly esteemed as Job had been, in their community, as particularly wise and godly men. Who knew and walked right, even if not to such an extent as to have been noted by God as so doing.

Still, and nonetheless, they were learned men. To even have such gall as to attempt to instruct Job evidences they had well and long believed themselves wise, according to the ways of truth, the ways of God. Otherwise, they likely would have done as all the rest of society had done him, and just completely walked away.

They did not rightly speak of God, though. Even with whatsoever how-many decades of lifelong devotion to seeking to know truth and establish wisdom...no matter how blatantly their lives had been devoted to this, they still didn't rightly speak of God. Because the wisdom they possessed was still applied only according to looking to their own understanding, according to the "evidence" before them.

Haven't we all done this, though?

Just...if Job's best friends were even as that, how much more are any of us prone to that same error, except that the Lord would guide us and keep us?

Job, on the other hand...suffered greatly...even despising his own life, really..

...but expressing all the more his lack of understanding of God's ways, even going so far as to direly call God to explain, and moreover to either condemn or justify him...but just not to remain silent.

And his friends, who came speaking truths...even came as Job's accusers, all the more to his pain and woe of life.

But what happened, ultimately? God sorely humbled Job. Yet did reveal Himself.

And justified Job, for speaking rightly, at the end. Even chastising his friends, though, for falsely accusing, falsely applying truth...maligning God.

It's a cautionary tale in so many ways. His ways are far beyond us. We cannot know them, except for what He, Himself, would reveal...and not merely according to our own understanding, which is still so far beneath His own that it merely fashions images of itself in attempting to comprehend God according to mere words, no matter how diligently studied, if not accompanied by diligent seeking of the Holy One, Himself, in truth...alongside.

One not apart from the other, most notably as given.

Those lines are there in each of us, though--to seek to attempt to understand and apply God's revealed truths according to our own understanding, having made vast studies, systematically, so as to attempt to decipher pattern, mode, intent...as to methodically then apply such an understanding, as it "matches up" with events, as perceived.

But that's utterly short-sighted, apart from a simultaneous subjugation to God, Himself, in ever continually seeking He would make the way plain.

We cannot know Him, except He reveal Himself. So we must seek Him, that He would do so. Evermore.

So, the tendency to error is constantly pronounced, to any extent understanding apart from a conscious subjection to God, Himself, is prevalent--whether blatant or so subtle as nearly unnotable.
We can't save ourselves, as it goes, so how could we understand Him, even, except that He make Himself and His will and ways plain?

He's not like us. We have no point of reference, ultimately, except for shadows of His goodness and grace and love and mercy...and all things...pointing to Him.

Even as that we are made in His image, but as creatures who are inherently limited by the nature of our being.

He is not likewise limited, though. And yet would be "so much easier to understand" if He were like us...and acted according to the same ways we do, which yet...again...are offshoots from His ways, but according to our creature fashion and, furthermore, corrupted by our tendency to sin.

The only thing to do, then, is trust Him.
If we are not capable of even knowing Him, apart that He reveals Himself, drawing us to Himself...

...how could we rightly divide and apply truth, even?...as He is truth.

We just can't, is the thing that's so utterly debasing and humbling and even would work despair, except that it only means we have no recourse except to seek Him, as He would then lead us in the ways of truth.

Direct our every step, He said, if we acknowledge Him in all our ways. Trusting Him, forsaking attempts at and reliance upon our own understanding.

Because He does lead us in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. Because He's who and how He is.

That He would even give us the words to speak, when we ought do so.

Thing is, though, these things don't mean we can just sit back, kick our heels up, and not even try to do anything...because we have these promises in Him, not apart from Him...and abiding in Him is an arduous task, with all the world, spiritual powers, and the very flesh which has a nature once having rebelled against Him...continually assaulting and seeking to derail.

The only way to know truth is to seek it, and never cease so doing, otherwise forsaking for attempted imitations and paltry substitutions. Because those imitations and substitutions aren't idle--they are continuous propositions which ever attempt to sway even slightly unto themselves, so as from a minute, incremental, and cumulative deviation away from truth, Himself. Continual assault, from within and without.

One's very own physical nature would even seek to arouse anxiety over matters, in claiming self-preservation as a necessary, continual effort which must be undertaken some ways, any ways independent of God. As though He didn't know our needs. Or, as though He would fail to ensure we were able and providing as they exist. Even as given the ability to work, He thus gives provision. To that end, of provision for needs of self and others. But by grace, none the less.

And working as unto Him.

Even as all this isn't an anxious endeavor, but one which is intended unto peaceful resting in His continual Presence, abiding in His love. Seeking Him first, in all things. Seeking first His kingdom. And He will not let the rest fall into disarray, but give strength, ability, and even inclination to do all which need be done. Not slacking, but not immured in busyness merely as an attempt at expressing or maintaining some internally, independently decided course of pursuit unto "accomplishing" what ends are otherwise perceived as being according to His will.

Look at Jesus, after all. He presumably worked, up till the time He began His ministry. And, even then, it's not as though He wasn't working. He was up before the sun, to have time alone to fellowship with the Father...and seems to have constantly been doing many things during all the day, called upon even into late hours of the night. Constantly. Yet always going to solitary fellowship, with the Father. Slipping away continually, as constantly. While otherwise wholly enmeshed in what was likely continual activity--whether teaching, fellowshipping as interaction, traveling, and discipling. And all else which He must have done, given John's closing words in his gospel.

He was love, is love, incarnate. Peace incarnate. Remaining always in the Father's love. Abiding always in the Father. Living with the will of the Father as so much more vital to His life than even bread and water. Continually serving and praying and seeking solitary time for fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Resting always, though, in the Father's love.

Not in busyness for the sake of attempting to haphazardly "hit on" whatever the Father's will was...but seeking His will always, and proceeding accordingly. Even to spend an entire night in prayer before calling the disciples.

He is our model for behavior, you know.

And He knew Scripture. He was the living Word, no less.
And yet He continually sought the Father's will, in private and public action.

So that He even said that, as recorded by John 5

5:30"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

God, incarnate, and He said He not only would not but could not do anything of His own initiative. He utterly would have refused to do so, then, because it was not God's will for Him to do otherwise, except only to ever do and act and proceed and even speak only what God, the Father, gave.

So, are we better than Christ, then, that we don't need to seek God to direct our every thought and act? Or, would the argument attempt to garb itself as false humility, in saying that it's because we are not as good as Christ...that we aren't able to be obedient as He was obedient? 

Problem with that argument is that it calls God's word into question by saying that He won't do what He's said He will do. It, moreover, implies that we are somehow beyond His ability to impact, according to His good intent and sovereign will and omnipotent grace. 

Which--I don't know about you, but...personally...

...the more I come to know God, the more I come to realize that my "inabilities" to conform to His will are only all the more opportunity for Him to be glorified in working the miraculous in and through me. 

We were never intended to be able to do these things, in our own strength and according to our own understanding. And there is where the problems in a lot of ways really resolve and find source:

Somehow, there's this weird sort of...largely unstated or unconscious...idea that, if we can't understand how something would or could work--if it's impossible for us to even conceive of being capable of doing a thing, like...say...as John say: walking as Jesus walked, being pure as He is pure...

...then, somehow we just pass that off, as obviously being something we must not be intended to be on the earth, in this life...

...because it's impossible.

It's just not possible.

Like...

And?

So is salvation.

So would it be for the elect to refrain from being deceived, except for grace.

But just to say "it's impossible" is only half of what need be considered, remember.

Because, while...yes, it is impossible for all these things to be...

...it's for man that these things are impossible. But for God...with God...all things are possible.

Doesn't mean I have to understand. Just means I can accept Him at His word, and stop exalting myself as though my own understanding of a thing as "patently impossible" means that impossibility and the corruption of my own fleshly nature (yet being sanctified) are somehow not still subject to the omnipotence of our sovereign God. Jesus Christ ransomed me, so I am His, and that means His will has been and will be done in and through me.

Nothing I can take any credit for--any of us, this--because even "my" good deeds...He decided and set those up to be completed by me, in ages past. 

So, it doesn't have to be about me and "my" abilities or even lack thereof. It's never been, and never will be. It's about who He is and what is His ability...and the exceeding riches of His grace unto those who believe.

None of which has anything whatsoever to do with who I am, except in and of that I am His, and He loves...and blesses...and gives grace abundant.

So, where understanding lacks, then trust is all the more pronounced.

Because any understanding can only be limited on this side of infinity. We are incapable of fully qualifying every single observation and statement and glimpse of truth as to be able to describe and proscribe and predict and anticipate and comprehend every single aspect of application, as varied according to His will around depths of circumstance which have conspired from eternity past, as according to His will...and yet as continuing even to culminate unto the very end of time. 

Name every star, according to the names He has and knows for them...

...regenerate your own spirit, without His divine intervention...regenerate the spirits of others, without His divine intervention, singly and individually blessing...

...then tell me about how precisely and adequately you are well capable of all-wise identifying, avoiding, and fully understanding "error" in yourself and others, in all instances, at all times, and for all time.

Do those things, and then explain to me precisely what manner by which He saves those whom He has redeemed, those whom He draws...

...then, I'll listen with utmost rapt attention, questioning nothing except to just trust your understanding, explicitly. 

But we are not as this. We don't have His perspective. We cannot, because we are finite.

So, then, we have nothing left to us except to trust Him to guide and lead and preserve us, even guiding us into all truth.

Into Himself. Knowing Christ.

Not merely by rote, but in truth. 

As Precious above all.

Forsaking all, for sake of having Him. 

For love of Him.

Devotion.

To His will.

Seeking, striving to obey.

Knowing only He can even make these things so, make them fruitful and consistent efforts.

Not by strength or might, moreover--but only by His Spirit.

Then, His temple, built.

Oh, just not to despise the day of small things!
He does delight to take the foolish things of this world, confounding the wise!

None of us are below His notice. 

Every single one of us--regardless whether "elect" or rebellious...He knows every single hair on our head, so deep is His regard. That even as He would love every single sparrow, who were not created in His image...then how much more does He love every single one of us?

That He gave His only begotten Son.

He sacrificed Himself. In love.

Let us not mock Him who so loves us.

Not even as mocking one another, whom He loves.

Love, though.

It covers...

...a multitude...

...of sins.

The Lord bless you and keep you. 

Don't Despise the Day of Small Things: Continue Seeking, Knowing Truth Exists

Something which has been passingly pondered on for months has regarded the way of being able to freely interact with those who don't know Christ.

That was a serious stumbling block, for a long while last year, given particulars of the way He led through conversion and initial sanctification. The clear, strong knowledge of the fate for those who don't ever come to know Christ in this life was (and still is) a heart-wrenching prospect.

Especially having come to know Christ in such a way as to have been shown that years of believed salvation were yet with only a mental nod to Him, while my heart yet despised Him. Having come to Him, at first, out of desperation to save my life...without regard for who He is or what it means to acknowledge Him as Lord.

I don't understand the process, and far finer minds than mine have long studied the Way of Christ, regarding salvation at regeneration...

...but the stopping point, now, has been in recognition of His sovereignty in these matters.

Not to make an argument either for or against "election," as it's commonly regarded, but such a cut-and-dry expression which seems oft moreso to serve as the basis for a persistent sense of superiority rather than unto that much further a debasement of self, into an utter humility for receiving so incomprehensible a gift...

...I can't help but wonder at such proper logic's tendency to reinforce separations, rather than instilling a greater compassion for those who are yet unconverted. For such a thing to exalt self rather than Christ and Godly love...

...or is it only that we improperly view, in such way as to exalt self?

Regardless, the result is what speaks. And to desire salvation for all, in so much as the Father would give...doesn't generally seem to allow for simultaneous contemplation of how only certain ones will come through.

He didn't call us to make those distinctions, though, even as He does and will sometimes show confirmation or make clear that a one is not yet converted. Still, we aren't the one who has called or predestined. Whosoever He has known would be His prize...well--He knows. We don't. We were only given the Commission to go to all the peoples of the earth. The highways and the byways. All nations.

He draws people from all walks and ways of life, as it goes. Whereas, we moreso (oft) prefer to gravitate to those we feel an affinity for or a kinship with, from appearances or superficial similarities or particular circumstances which arouse compassion. Even if these things only in effect, and not consciously done--still, those prejudices we're yet unaware of do play out in our tone, cadence, syntax, and body language. And may as oft be just as unconsciously interpreted, impactful.

So, if there's any part of us, then, which has a belief in "election" as something we can have prescience in regard to...whether acknowledged or not, whether conceived only in the darkest reaches of the heart yet being sanctified...then, still, but for grace that will impact our interactions. Even unto an ever-pressing urge to "discern" whether someone truly has been converted or not, for sake of satisfying our own curiosities, unto a desire for certainty...the tainting of a desire for His love to be known, having come under bearing of a(n if not stronger, then still persisting) desire to exert understanding unto ability to classify His work, classify people...according to our own understanding.

Rather than solely of love for Christ and love for others.

Why else would we be so admonished, throughout what comprises the New Testament, to test ourselves? We are to judge fruit, but if there's any bit of convolution thereabouts and therein, in terms of a worldly understanding, according to desire to classify rather than edify in Christ...there's some weirdness there which begs severe inquiry in light of Scripture and prayer.

And counsel, perhaps. Sound counsel, though.

Which...itself...is a whole other jar of potatoes (to totally obfuscate an idiom, as means of attempting to relay the nature of the thing).

So...where I have been, in other words...for these past many months, in part...is in the land of discrimination, according to these lines. Differentiating for the sake of classifying into "wrong" and "right" boxes, cum "sound" and "false."

When the truth apparently is moreso that while there are blatant points of falsehood, the truth itself being utterly narrow...it also still have such precise application to such an interminable array of wholly distinct circumstances (which many times oft are distinguishable only by minutiae, in practice and effect, rather than in appearance)...that Christ has to be sought in each and every single one, for His truth, His direction, His guidance, and foremost perhaps...His love come to bear on the situation.

Like as with Job, in a very broad and extreme case of example. Again, for recent mention.

His friends did speak truth, in part. But the truth they spoke had no bearing on the situation they were attempting to so-label and classify. Only, because of what seemed to them as utmost apparent indications that the truths they spoke were in fact and deed applicable to Job's situation...as a matter of reason and logic...

...without having sought God, first, they did effectively misspeak, missclassify, and malign God.

By speaking truth, in error.

I mean, seriously, how dire a warning should that peal for us all? I can't help but be humbled to note that folks who were apparently bosom buddies of Job, who was counted blameless by God, Himself...thus, who themselves much have in some measure walking (in general) in ways akin to Job's, as even to be so counted as utmost friends by him...

...that they would have knowledge of truth and yet so easily and readily misapply it, for having only seen what, by all accounts apparent, seemed to indicate those truths did apply...while yet completely erroneously spoken?

God had Job intercede for them, so they might be restored to His good graces. And even Job was set down by God, for so directly calling Him to account...even as He was ultimately, simultaneously given such grace as to be...basically, in way...justified by so doing. Justified, but not without being utterly humbled by the truth of He Whom he had called to account.

That is a weighty idea. Terrible and tremendous and terrifying. And yet, the Lord, Himself, calls us to reason with Him, through Isaiah. Resounding through the ages, this call stands. Come, let us reason together.

Nothing we say or do can diminish who He is and how He is, is all. Whether we rail against Him or abjectly worship in light of the truth of who He is.

So, neither is truth seriously and irreconcilably diminished by a wrong application. Merely those who so do are called to answer for so doing, as according to understanding rather than God-led and directed application, as apt.

He is the line, though.

Just as goes these things, regarding consideration of others...

...He is the One who can and would make the change, when any comes. Not us, never us. Even our obedience, to any extent it exists in spirit and truth...is only a product of His will. Ultimately.

Which, yet, isn't to say that we aren't called and directed and chastised and expected to walk in obedience, even as Christ walks. Just, we can only do so in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not according to the flesh.

There's something which gets lost in translation, though, in terms of the seeming implication that free will doesn't come to bear, at all. He gave us free will. He does not revoke it, when we come to Him. Merely, someone who has been turned to truly know Him then does desire to do His will, to worship Him, to honor Him, to glorify Him, to obey His will...as knowing He is good, and loving, and that His will IS good, regardless whether we are any-moment capable of knowing the impact or effect or reason of particular calls to act or wait to act.

We can still choose not to seek His will, is the thing. We can still choose to lean upon the arm of the flesh, in seeking to understand for the sake of understanding--for the sake of seeking to console a "seeming uncertainty" which arises from the conflict between spirit and flesh, in ways.

He yet works in and through. Nonetheless, in some way incomprehensible.

Same as the working of grace in the lives of all of humanity is incomprehensible...even as to be born is a miracle, no matter how it seems commonplace. Same as to experience any peace is grace...any love...and clarity...and even momentary silence. Grace, still.

That we haven't all demolished one another...is grace.

There's just something there, which I don't understand, and I'm not sure it is comprehensible in finite terms. Not without in ways...unnecessary and "limiting"...somewhat obscuring the scope of effect and process.

Because words make distinctions along lines which sometimes aren't precisely fitted, as comprehensively, expansively apt to all circumstance.

seeming so, at least

I just don't understand how we would expect to understand God? I mean, we can definitely remark, after the fact. We can definitely make commentary on what patterns seem to prevail. And yet, given that He has, over time, done "new things," and perhaps even some of those "new things" He said He was going to do...are yet being unfolded (seriously)...then how can we expect to conceive of, comprehensively with finite understanding, those things which have yet to come into being?

Prophecy wasn't as much proscriptive as descriptive in terms of being able to understand that judgment was coming, salvation was coming, and that we would know it was Him after the fact, because we would then be able to see how His recorded Word so precisely described what would unfold. In ways which wouldn't have necessarily even been capable of being grasped from the outset, for an absolute lack of point-of-reference from which to comprehend those things which had yet to come into being--effectively incapable of making concrete sense, prior to coming to pass as even a part of reality.

Like with most of what He revealed. It seems, from preliminary consideration, superficial appearance...to be prescriptive. But if you consider it in the sense in which it was given, you realize that's not so...that understanding can only come after experience, as experience makes it clear that those Words given as self-revelation by God were to, after experience, stand as proof that He is the One who brought the incomprehensible into being. If it had been capable of being fully comprehended prior to effectively coming to pass, in other words, then that alone would have stood as evidence somewhat to the contrary. But since it the prophetic revelation didn't even really make sense until after the fact of coming to pass, then being revealed as having occurred, all points align unto understanding.

As a very rough example, think in terms of...say...parenthood (which still isn't the best example, given I'm not a parent, and have only gathered this from talking with others)...

...from what I hear, it's one of those things...the love for one's child, especially...which, no matter how much you "know" about it, in advance, is still so utterly eclipsed by the actual experience that foreknowledge just seems to have had no relation to reality, whatsoever. It gave a very loose, general idea of what would be experienced, but when experience became reality, what seemed knowledge before becomes something which barely even could hold a candle to the truth of impact and effect and circumstance. In all ways. You hear the words, you think you know what they mean, but until you actually experience the reality loosely described...you really have absolutely no idea.

Every bit of revelation of Christ has been like that. I heard the words, I thought I knew. I thought so many things about what those words seemed to mean, having had what I considered sufficient breadth of knowledge, understanding, and experience to truly begin to shed light on "truth." But I had no idea whatsoever.

None.

It's just like described, in ways. But at the same time, it would be like comparing the love for pumpkin spice lattes to the love experienced by a mother upon first holding her newborn (from what I hear). The words have a superficial appearance of conveying a similar meaning, but are so completely different in effect and practice that there's really basically no inherent relation.

Which just really goes, in ways, to say that everything I thought I knew, before coming to know Christ...was pretty much just entirely shallow, hollow, empty, and vain.

And even then, I cannot undermine what was then, really. Merely, the statement is made as a matter of drawing attention to how much different all things seem, in light of coming to know truth in Christ. 

We only know what we know, at any given moment. So, there isn't a call for despising the day of "small beginnings," and such, as with Zechariah. Quite the opposite.

Humbly regard with appreciation whatever light there is. Because there's blessing in knowing grace, whatsoever, as to have any understanding.

Just...there is a depth to be sought. And it can't be known until traversed, for the wealth of what experience unveils. Just, still not despising the day of small beginnings. 

Ever.

When, if, how, where, and in which ways He leads...are His domain. And except that He give particular, individual revelation upon any such a one as goes unto Him...then, how can we know the precise and individual processes which are actually being worked, internal? Except as to perhaps observe changes. Or to remark upon the effective process as a whole. But still without observing or comprehending every single thought brought into subjection to Christ, as every enemy power (even of the flesh) is brought under His Lordship, replete. 

So, to interact with just anyone, then? What would be the rule, except love and truth spoken in love, even as however given of a moment.

Not forsaking Christ and the Gospel, of course, to the end of attempting not to "rock the boat," but spoken with words and in ways that witness to and testify of His power and love and holiness and glory. Shedding light, even thereby, upon our own depravity and insufficiencies apart from Him.

He, alone, can make that make sense. He, alone, can change a heart. Mental assent is insufficient. Even as required.

He wins the whole person, though. Not just the mind. Not just the heart. Not just the soul. But all.

Bit by precious bit. To His love, to His glory.

The strongest rebukes I've recently heard upon the state of things have come through someone who speaks with such love that it's heart-rending to hear. For being truth. And a pleading. An admonishment. And a drawing. An unveiling of a wound. While also a salve.

Do we speak in this way?

Lovingly, of Christ.
And as He wills.

Sometimes, just to listen.