Integrity of truth

What comfort floods the mind by the way of the mystery of the indwelling Spirit when holy truth overcomes our doubt. We the elect, redeemed and adopted, by the blessed revelation of the scripture, find ‘perfect peace” as our minds are stayed on Him, the only authentic source of truth since he has “made all things”. Called to come into his courts with praise, the advice is not unreasonable nor without explanation for the psalmist continues For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. The durability of this truth is the basis for our confidence and then our comfort. The seed then the fruit, the grave then the resurrection, the promise then the inheritance; this is how the great Author of all blesses us. Since He decrees all that comes to pass, He is the only legitimate source of truth so that His revelation is the only authentic and genuine explanation of what is and the only dependable promise of what will be. His documented plan has integrity as a properly constructed building; it holds together and is dependable, reflects His mercy and gives us a hope that is the seed for the rejoicing and testimony of those …that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Honor thy father and mother

“Honor thy father and mother”, from the great and eternal tablets, as with all that is sacred is likely to be trivialized by fallen egocentrics, even among the elect. Beneath the obvious, lies a rich God-glorifying reality “the greater and the lesser”, a fact surely built into creation. All the conceived will have the relationship of ancestry, the ones who bring life; lifegivers. Some will be lifegivers. This provides us with model of “greater and lesser” as God has evidenced by using the experience of “father” to show us his relationship to his beloved remnant. Meditating on this blessed command allows us to consider our individual roles, sometimes the greater, at times the lesser and often equals. How blessed being made in His image to have a chance to see things from God’s perspective as the greater while enjoying the commonness with equals and caring for the lesser, loving all, finding indelible etchings of the great Creator uniquely in each arrangement. Blessed we will be when we submit to these decreed arrangements, submitting to magistrates, cooperating with others and being responsible and longsuffering with those in our charge; acknowledging the providential attention and intention of the true Greater, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”.

Are we there yet?

“Are we there yet”? Even the childish instinct to arrive testifies to some subtle awareness of something yet to follow. As with many human experiences, it reminds us of our commonness with one another and perhaps provides a clue to our created nature. How wonderful to realize we were made with certain natural feelings, such as rejoicing in arriving, which makes us alike and helps us understand and appreciate one another, even to love one another. To anticipate the goodness and mercy following the redeemed allows us to be sustained by the witness that deliverance will come. We will arrive; in the meantime what relief to hear “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. Grace does carry us pilgrims forward; we should hope in that which is to come. In the meantime we can be discouraged with the journey, impatient to get there, complaining all the way or “rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer”. How is it with you fellow strangers?

Law of grace

In the sacred and holy construction of the Levitical legal system, the gentle and loving Father planted great truths for comfort, conformity to creation ordinances and a foundation for the decreed plan of redemption by grace, benefiting all creation. From Leviticus 25, “The Lord spake unto Moses” to instruct the people to observe “a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord”. During the seventh year of each seven year cycle, no pruning, no sowing, no reaping “for it is the year of rest unto the land”. Man then may ask “what shall we eat the seventh year?” The good Lord in his great power and sovereign majesty declares “then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years”. Food for the sixth year following the harvest, the Sabbath year and the year of sowing to follow; keep his law, hope in his grace and rest and enjoy his timely and perfect provision. Think of and marvel at a God who would demand of us in his law, not to get from us anything, only to display his grace in his commands, “neither is (God) worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things”. The same One provides daily needs and stirs the regenerate soul with his power and love, so we will not as Paul told the men at Athens “ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you”. Imagine, a law, that even in the command declares grace and displays glory.

Acceptable sacrifice

Man, the created, as his Creator, can conceive of and make sacrifice. The creature however can not sacrifice for, only to, his creator and the creator would never sacrifice to, but only for, the creature. Our human behavior patterns are often this way, holy in that they are similar to our Creator’s ways but from the inferior position of the created being. If we error on this point, failing to submit to the reality of creation, God as creator, man as created, we insult Him and offer the sacrifice of fools. God defines the acceptable sacrifice to him; we should comply. He then provides for us an acceptable sacrifice, Christ, which we have no right to demand nor could we even imagine left to ourselves. Christ then becomes the sacrifice to God as the perfect atoner and for man as savior. This could be a subtle argument for Christ being totally God and totally man; One who could sacrifice to God and for man.

The rest that remains

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

What can we learn from the command to rest?

There is something to rest from,
the good Lord recognizes our labor both in the past and yet to come,
the God of grace provides us with rest,
to reject the rest given by Him is to insult his gift and to defy his wisdom,
to resist rest is to risk the fruit of the ideas of patience, waiting and providence.

Though made in His image, encouraged to tend and to build, we are creatures of grace for “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."

Let us rest and in so doing glorify and enjoy our God and Father.

Conversations that bless

Being among those who have “my law in their inward parts” we redeemed have a very lovely and blessed opportunity so see this law of love working in our every-day lives. Though it reveals itself in a variety of ways, for sure we can see it in conversation, verbal intercourse. Conversation is sacred, “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name”, “and God said”. The law now in our hearts expresses itself as love, God love, Corinthian 13 love, “agape”, in our conversations. They are soft, sensitive, not brittle and abrasive, responsive, and always ready to minister and bring comfort. Conversation laced with genuine, God-sourced, love; watch for it, enjoy it, bask in it, it is your duty but more, it is your blessed right and privilege. It will bring joy to speaker and hearer and Glory to the love Originator.

Hope or endurance

Being made in God’s image, man is most gifted and competent both to conceive and achieve wonderful things even so to the point of delusion where he allows to develop in him a “haughty heart” and “lofty eyes”. Humanism results and what started as delightful fragrance of God-centered obedience ferments in the heart and actually rots, generating a stench of godless arrogance. Fragrance to stench is the inherent risk to all seeking to duplicate or mimic the Creator. Idolatry is the temptation we must attend to, especially any who with even good intentions strive to accomplish.

Here is the “smell test” we all may use to examine ourselves: are we pushed on by our ability to endure or are pulled on by hope?

Offering up our minds unto joy

Scripture tells us that there was an instant when God decided to “make man in our image”. In terms of time it followed the “beginning”. Scripture, being infallible, gives us an accurate account of our glorious beginning. Perhaps the description does not satisfy our curiosity so that our science challenges the account, but the simple beauty of “in the beginning” and “let us make man in our image” can if we humble ourselves, not only provide us with all that is needed, in matters of faith and life, but trigger in our mind and even our souls euphoria which overcomes all, even the best efforts of the “great deluder”. Each of us have the opportunity each moment of our time here to access this garden of thought, to walk its paths all perfectly designed by the Great One from whom we are imaged, and enjoy the truth that grows there. The garden has odors which are so pleasant to the mind that a simple giddy euphoria overcomes us and we find joy. But it is found not in getting as it seems but “Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD:” To God be the glory.