The Sureness of Prophetic Theology

“But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.” -Mic. 7.7

True prophets are neither pessimists nor optimists. They do not view men, nations, or situations through the lens of negative hopelessness, nor do live in the land of naive presumptions. They are gripped with burden over issues of reality, but they are distinct because of their acute God-centeredness.

The prophets of Israel, in the last analysis, never assessed their national dilemmas with anxiety or dejection. On the flip side, they never ignored the gravity and high-seriousness of the sin of their people, and never shirked the revelation that God Himself would come to judge and purge all that was out of harmony with Himself.

It is no wonder that Heschel called the prophets “tragic figures,” for they were required, by their own revelation of God’s majesty, to stay outside of the boxes we normal folk tend to live in. As a pattern, we humans are normally pessimistic and negative, or naive and unrealistic, but an encounter with the Living God presses us out of those categories and into a heavenly view. At once we realize that we have sinned, that our people have sinned, and that the Ancient of Days is seated on a throne that will one day reveal all that our lives have been. The Lord means to move us into the seeing of the prophets, which is available to all who would receive the Holy Spirit.

Prophetic theology (meaning the understanding of God that Israel’s prophets carried), was marked with a transcendent kind of certitude and sureness. The confidence of the prophets was not some naive statement, that the earth is improving, all things are getting better, and we should all just be positive because life is good. Nor were they dragging their knuckles on the ground, moping and whining like defeated fatalists. Their revelation of God would not permit them to do either of the two.

Snippets of Micah introduce us to the sureness of prophetic theology:

“…. the Lord is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.”

“…. in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established….”

“…. I will watch expectantly for the Lord…. my God will hear me….”

“…. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.”

“…. I will see His righteousness….”

“…. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

The sureness of prophetic theology is in the revelation that God will reign in the hearts of His people. The prophet may weep over the condition of His nation, but it is not unto emptiness. It is a weeping unto the fulfillment of all that God has promised to accomplish for His glory. There is light and joy, even in the burden of prophetic theology. Thus, the prophet declares, “My God will hear me.”

Dear saint, do not sweep your sin, or the sin of your nation under the rug. Do not deny reality. But do not diminish under the weight of reality, either. Look upon the One who is enthroned, and who is the King of history and the Head of the Church. He intercedes in the heavens, with the aim of making all things new through His judgment and mercy, and He invites you to join in that intercession along with Him. He will wash you thoroughly, cleanse your mind and heart, and graft you into His glorious heart. There is a sureness in prophetic theology, and He is the Prophet, Priest, and King that we must necessarily follow in the pursuit. What a joy to be so joined!

Neglecting the “Culture of Myself”

“…. go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” -Matt. 6.6

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” -1 Tim. 4.16

I have heard it said from mentors and friends over the years, “The greatest challenge of ministry is maintaining a secret devotional life with God.” This holds true in every context, for ministers of the Gospel are pressed on every side with the needs of men, and most of them are legitimate needs.

The radical nature of Jesus’ secret prayer life needs desperately to be considered and followed. There are few men alive, if any, who would be able to walk away from the multitudes to find a secret place to meet with the Father- while bearing that measure of power for the deliverance of captives. Yet Jesus, who had 100% healing power flowing from His Person, still broke away from the crowds to engage in prayer and communion.

Who among us would’ve left the remaining sick ones to go and replenish in secret? Who among us would leave the buzz of the crowds to find a “lonely place” to engage God? Yet it must be said that this was the great secret to Jesus’ power: His total dependence upon the Father, which manifested itself in fervent and frequent secret prayer.

Jesus knew that if we neglect our own souls, the quality of ministry is totally depleted and we end up employing powerless words and lifeless efforts. So He demonstrated what it means to be a true man by showing that a total reliance upon the Father will produce the greatest revelation of His power in the earth. Our inward lives must be tended to, or else the powers of darkness will bring chaos to our souls, no matter how engaged in ministry we may be. Hear Spurgeon on this:

If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; therefore I must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties. I can only weep and agonize for souls in my own renewed nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tenderness which was in Christ Jesus. It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies [or ministries], or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself….

(Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students; Zondervan, 1954; p. 7)

Let us not be those who are overly active in external ministry, while neglecting “the culture” of ourselves. Let us not be found building broad and wide ministries that have no real depth or power. Let us be like the Son of Man Himself, going deep in the place of prayer, deep into the Scriptures, deep into the heart of the Father. Let us come out from the holy place with a real word and real power for those to whom we’ve been sent.

Casting Down Unreality

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ….” -2 Cor. 10.5

The great scheme of the devil is to elevate all that is unreal, and to remove mankind from the consideration of reality. When he has convinced men to chase after fantasies, to entertain themselves with fabrications, and to amuse themselves with things that are fading away or that are untrue, he has won the battle in their lives.

His chief desire is muddy the waters of the knowledge of God, especially among those who have already sought to pursue that knowledge. He would have us give our religious minds to speculations, imaginations, and unfounded musings, as long as it keeps us from seeing the Lord as He is, and growing in the life-giving knowledge of His majestic Person.

Paul does not play games with the devil’s ideas in the least bit. He uses militaristic language to declare that the saints are called to bring “destruction” to the enemy’s fortresses, to “cast down imaginations,” and to “bring every thought captive” to the reality of the Man, Christ Jesus. This is more than the obvious idea of thinking sinfully. If a man is looking at pornography, making plans for a murder, or worshiping an idol he is obviously giving himself to a “high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” This is clear and obvious.

But the most common version of bad thinking in the believer’s life is that of dwelling on thoughts that do not come from the mind of Christ Himself; thoughts that are not grounded in love and truth. If we are riddled with anxiety, wondering how to make ends meet, and failing to trust in the Great Shepherd, our thoughts are not captive to Christ. If we are striving for recognition, being moved by the fear of man, or if we’re consumed by what men think of us, our thoughts are not captive to Christ. If we are groping and complaining, calling ourselves failures, and putting ourselves down in some kind of false humility, our thoughts are not captive to Christ.

The devil aims to snuff out the knowledge of God, to keep us from the experience of His kindness and love, to remove us from the fear of the Lord, and to rob us of His good counsel. He doesn’t want us to know what God desires, or how God is, and he contends vehemently to keep us in a box wherein we fail to grow in the knowledge of Christ.

Paul declares that the only way to grow in the knowledge of God is to wake up, receive courage and aggression from heaven, and cast down thoughts that keep us from an actual union with Him.

For God So Loved the Kosmos

“For God so loved the world (kosmos), that He gave His only begotten Son….” -Jn. 3.16

There is a high and glorious note in the Gospel that we don’t often hear sounded in modern preaching, and in many ways, it has lessened the majesty of our understanding of salvation. In the minds of many, Christianity is summed up in this way-

I prayed and prayer and got saved, now I’m going to heaven, and God is going to make my life more and more successful, while I do my best to follow His will.

There is a much grander picture in view when we see the Gospel for what it truly is, and it has everything to do with the glory of God, and virtually nothing to do with my personal success- at least not in the sense that is declared these days.

The Greek word for “world” in John 3.16 is kosmos, which refers to the entire created order, the heavens and the earth, the universe, and all that it contains. For years, when I heard “world” I thought only of humanity, for we often refer to the human race as “the world.” The Scriptures themselves refer to the human race as “the world” on many occasions, perhaps even in this text. Yet and still, the Biblical picture of restoration refers to the whole created order, and all of creation groans for its fulfillment.

Of course, His desire is for a nation of priests, and they will not be made up of trees and mountains, birds and fish, or even angels and apocalyptic creatures. The rest of John 3.16 shows us that the most crucial aspect of God’s salvific work is the redemption of human beings, the holy adoption of sons and daughters. But our lack of a vision of the glory of God, our meager understanding of the Scriptures, and our individualistic society all combine to reduce the Gospel to something that is all about us.

The Scriptures testify to something much more than “Your Best Life Now.” They tell of the glory of the eternal God, His activity in history, His dealings with Israel, the sending and glorification of His Son, and His remarkable intentions to renovate the entire created order by the word of His power.

The apostolic understanding of salvation is so much more profound than my personal justification, though that itself will be enough to strike wonder in our hearts for all eternity. The apostolic understanding of salvation is of the entire universe being wrenched loose from the grip of the “prince of this world,” relieved of the terrible weight of sin, the whole earth refined with fire and made new, and the triune God fully present, fully revealed, and fully reigning over all things. The issue is not first about our personal redemption, but about the glorification of God in and through the true knowledge of His Son. Paul uses language that we might consider less appealing than what is commonly preached these days, but in reality, it’s glory is greater than the humanistic mixtures we often hear.

He stated that we Gentiles, who were like wild olives, “were grafted in among them [Israel] and became partaker[s] with them of the rich root of the olive tree.” (Rom. 11.17) Personally, I’ve never heard a call to the lost which invited them to be “grafted in.” Grafted in? To the human ear it sounds inglorious, and if our Christianity is a humanistic mixture, we will have no part of this kind of Gospel. But if we hear the Gospel of God, which is a magnificent invitation into something so much bigger and so charged with largesse, we come humbly and thankfully in repentance and faith, and God works salvation in our innermost parts.

When a person is truly born from above by the power of God’s grace, there is this abiding sense that they have received mercy, and an overwhelming awareness that they have been brought into something so much more significant than their individual dreams and ambitions. If we haven’t got this Kingdom view, our Christianity becomes something self-focused, and fruitless cycles ensue. We end up performing religiously, living self-consciously, and falling into the most despicable kind of self-absorption, even while we employ spiritual terms and ideas.

We need this “world/kosmos” view to be ever held before our hearts, that we would not be as distracted with pursuing our “best life now,” but rather the glorification of Jesus Christ. Hear Chambers on this:

It is a travesty to say that Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to redeem the whole world, and place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God. The fact that Redemption can be experienced by us is an illustration of the power of the reality of Redemption, but that is not the end of Redemption. If God were human, how sick to the heart and weary He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation, for our sanctification. We tax His energies from morning till night for things for ourselves….When we touch the bedrock of the reality of the Gospel of God, we shall never bother God any further with little personal plaints.

The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.

(Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest; Feb. 1 entry, The Call of God)

When we have an individualistic Gospel, we remove the foundation and bedrock of the faith. We actually take away the wonder of our own personal redemption when that personal redemption becomes our primary focus. If the Gospel is all about me, it must be a quite shallow thing. But if it has to do with the glory of the Ancient of Days, His eternal purposes for Israel and the Church, and His remarkable and sweeping vision for the whole created order, then I am being caught in the wind of the wonder of it all. Then it becomes so much more significant: This majestic God, who is so high and lifted up, has condescended so low into the earth, to “create in me a clean heart.”

Now then, being grafted in carries a whole new weight and beauty. Now my personal redemption evokes a remarkable kind of worshipful gratitude, and awe-full trembling. This is not about me finding success in religion, it is about me finding God Himself, and being wholly satisfied in Him, no matter what comes in blessing or suffering.

I have become a recipient of heavenly mercy, and the God who has created and sustained the entire universe, and who will one day renovate it all and abide in Jerusalem, is also the One who listens when I cry out to Him. He is also the One who cleanses and forgives me when I confess my sin. He is also the One who has promised to send His Spirit to me, to lead and guide me into all truth. He is also the One who gives all good gifts. Now John 3.16 becomes something more than a verse I memorized as a child. It is a staggering word that rocks my categories and catapults me into the worship of the only One who is worthy to open the heavenly scroll! May we never reduce it to something less or other.

“For God so loved the kosmos, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

“Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His was past finding out. For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. 11.33, 36)

Children Are a Reward from the Lord

“In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.” -Ps. 127.2-3

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” -Eph. 5.15-16

It is frequently noted that this is the most “fatherless” generation in history, and that is likely the case. The commonness of divorce, the phenomenon of technologically distracted parents, and the low value for life that hovers over our nation as a result of abortion; all of these things, and many others, contribute to the “fatherless” and “motherless” condition of so many children.

Tragic also is the fact that within the Church, there is a desperate need for fatherly love and wisdom in the realm of natural parenting, as well as the realm of spiritual leadership.

Psalm 127 and Ephesians 5 are enjoined in the good work of waking us up to the glory of fatherhood. I am stricken today by the remarkable stewardship that God gives us in our children. They are little souls, made of the same dust as ourselves, and just as much in need of the revelation of God’s love and reality as we are. The awesome thing is that we as parents are the chief “apostles” is bringing that revelation to them.

If we’ve been sent to anyone, it’s to our children. They are our “heritage” and “reward” from God Himself. What tenderness we should employ in our dealings with them! What patience is required is rearing them! What persistence, faithfulness, and constant care must we give ourselves to, if we would set forth the nature and kingdom of God to them!

They are ever watching, ever listening, ever learning, and we are the examples set before them. Are we neglecting them relationally? Are we caring for them, disciplining them, listening to them? Are we engaged with too much work, too much entertainment, too much hobby and distraction to really give ourselves to them?

Oh, how tender are their little souls! How moldable! How impressionable! How quickly do they imbibe our attitudes and dispositions, whether Godly or un-Christlike! We need to move much more slowly in life, and give much more place to the face to face reality of fathering and mothering our children. Do you pray with them? Go through the Scriptures with them? Relax and enjoy them? Discipline and teach them? Lend your ear and heart and life to them?

18 or 20 years we have them, and before you know it they are gone! What will we have deposited in them before that time comes? What will we have learned from them? Will they have grown in the knowledge of God? Will they be secure and rooted in His love? Will they be responsible and honoring of others? Everything depends on the manner of our living before them, namely, whether or not we abide in the kindness and truth of God. Each day is crucial and precious in their lives, and the wise father or mother will set aside every distraction to realize this, and live accordingly.

The Consciousness of Redemption

“…. the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” -Col. 1.12b-14

The language Paul uses with regard to the reality of redemption is both rich and glorious. The Father Himself has lifted us from the deepest pits of depravity, washed away the profoundest stains of iniquity, and “qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” It is far too easy to lose sight of the glory of redemption, and the powers of darkness are skilled in the art of distracting us from this truth. Most believers live and think as if Moses, Isaiah, Peter and Paul, and all the great historic figures of the faith must have received a better brand of mercy than we receive nowadays.

There is something lodged in our minds that the principalities and powers delight in taking advantage of. It is that terrible issue of self-consciousness, which convinces us to see ourselves after the flesh, rather than through the lens of the Holy Spirit. It is quite possible to remove your soul from the awareness of redemptive grace, and to bind yourself in the chains of demonically inspired opinion.

You may have committed no willful sin on a particular day, and you may be abiding in the word of the Lord. But as soon as an accusation comes against you, or a negative opinion is spoken about you, your consciousness of “inheritance” and “redemption” will leave unless you have been rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.

We have not received something less than what Moses received. Indeed, Paul has declared that the glory of Christ “surpasses” the glory that rested on Moses (2 Cor. 3). It is a great mission of hell to convince believers that this is not so. But the apostle labors to remind us that we are now “sharing” in the same “Light” that rested on Moses, Isaiah, and the apostle himself. It is the Light of the Father, permeating our souls unto redemption, through the High Priest and Apostle of our confession, the Son of God. In actuality, Christ Himself is the Light. (Jn. 1)

Look up then, beloved soul! You have been “transferred” from the grips of darkness, into the glory and Light of Jesus Christ. No accusation or twisted opinion can stand against you. Let no hollow hellish indictment alter your seeing. The Lamb of God has made you new, and He has accomplished it through the shedding of blood. It is too costly and precious to forget. Arise, and walk in that newness of life.

Joyful Trembling in the Presence of God’s Greatness

“The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble;
He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!
The LORD is great in Zion,
And He is exalted above all the peoples.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name;
Holy is He.” -Ps. 99.1-3

How delightful and awe-striking that we should be invited to commune with the God who shook Sinai, and whose presence causes the heavens and the earth to tremble!

Psalm 99 sounds the note of a most happy contradiction, that God is utterly holy, that creation itself cannot bear His presence, but that He calls us to press in, not only to a slight experience of His presence, but into a living communion with Him. He wants us to be “among His priests,” and to “call on His name.” He will purge and purify the sin from our lives, and enable us to walk on the heights of worship and true praise. All of this catapults the Psalmist (and those who hear him rightly) into an outburst of joyous declaration, “The LORD reigns!” Are we being gripped and thrilled along with the Psalmist?

Hear Spurgeon:

Let the chosen people feel a solemn yet joyful awe, which shall thrill their whole manhood. Saints quiver with devout emotion, and sinners quiver with terror when the rule of Jehovah is fully perceived and felt. It is not a light or trifling matter, it is a truth which, above all others, should stir the depths of our nature.

(The Treasury of David: Vol. 4, Charles Spurgeon: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1881, p. 385)

The Psalmist uses language that resurrects thoughts of the Sinai theophany (when the Lord actually appeared on the mount), but gloriously engages all the saints with a call to the same kind of worship that Moses himself experienced.

The portrayal of the divine epiphany exhibits the features of the Sinai theophany. When God appears in his majestic power a tremor runs through the whole world; the nations tremble and the earth quakes- an involuntary indication of the terrible and sublime power of the God of Mount Zion over the whole world. The poet discerns the holiness of his God in this pre-eminent and comprehensive power which causes everything that is created to tremble. And the involuntary witness which the trembling nations and the quaking earth bear in the presence of the holy God constrains the poet, too, to call upon all men to praise the holy name of God, the revelation of which had taken place in the course of the theophany and which is therefore present in the poet’s mind in all its greatness and terrifying power. Fear and trembling and respectful joy here jointly represent the spiritual atmostphere which is created in the congregation by the advent of God.

(The Psalms: The OT Library, by Artur Weiser; Westminster Press, 1962; pp. 641-642)

Whatever induced this burst of joyous praise and reverent worship in the psalmist, it brought to him the same sense of awe that he imagined to have been the experience of Moses and the ancient Israelites at Sinai. He was gripped with the fear of the Lord, gasping over the glory of God’s goodness, and he called out for the saints to tremble, praise, and worship. He was seized by a “fear and trembling and respectful joy” as his heart was jolted by the holiness and mercy of the Lord.

I think it’s fair to say that the common boredom, dullness of heart, moral compromises, addictions to entertainment, paralyzing depressions, and other ailments in the Body of Christ can all be attributed to the fact that we are not setting aside ample time to behold the God of Sinai, the God of the Psalmists, the God of the prophets and the apostles, the God of creation.

Oh, friends! He reigns! Clear the debris and clutter from your schedules. Plow through the blockades that keep you from the secret place. Shut off the computer if need be. Unplug the T.V. Take the phone off of the hook. Nothing else is more crucial than this: That we, as the people of God, would come into the vital revelation of the greatness of God in His holiness and love. Broken cisterns are easy to come by, but the fountain of Life can only be experienced when we forsake all the other diluted waters. God will meet you in the secret place, the reward will be beyond description, and your joy will be full. He waits for you, even now.

“Exalt the LORD our God
And worship at His holy hill,
For holy is the LORD our God.” (v. 9)

Beyond Verbal Forms

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. Any they were calling to one another:

‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.’

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’” -Is. 6.1-5

I am gripped today by these thoughts from OT scholar, Walter C. Kaiser:

Instead of merely communicating in verbal forms the transcendent aspects of his person, God called the emotive, the numinous, the imaginative, and the nonrational aspects of the prophet’s being into play. This was done in order to suggest something more of the grandeur and magnificence of his being. Isaiah is to catch a glimpse of the distinctiveness and separateness of God.

(The Majesty of God in the Old Testament by Walter Kaiser; Baker Academic, 2007; p. 150)

I am concerned for the current idea of Christian faith, which mostly rests on cerebral exercise and credal confessions. While the “apostle’s creed” is wonderful, and should not be deviated from, what can be said of a Church who knows how to trot out information about God, but has yet to be encountered by Him as the prophets of old were encountered by Him?

I’m not suggesting that every believer will have an experience identical to Isaiah’s, but there must come a point at which the soul breaks past a mere confession, and is brought into a life-altering confrontation by the power of His Spirit. It is impossible to serve God without receiving “power from on high.”

We need to be shocked out of our systems, whether secular or religious, and made to behold the God of holiness, high and lifted up. If we haven’t cried out over the uncleanness of our lips, it is because we have not beheld the God of Isaiah in His holy temple.

He is the God of distinctive holiness, and transcendent separateness. He is unlike any other. The nations are as a drop in the bucket before His majesty. We are casual and frivolous, making a game of life and religion, only because we have not seen Him in His holiness. When He arises, even the heavenly temple itself shakes, and its foundations almost give way. Heaven itself cannot contain Him. The doorposts of the great eternal House are rocked, the threshold is jostled, and all the heavenly ones cry, “Holy, holy, holy!”

We may boast about the accuracy of our creeds and our denominational “Statements of Faith,” but are we seeing Him as He is? O, to be continually gripped and shocked and thrilled by the majesty of God! His piercing purity, His incomparable power, His transcendent perfections, His boundless mercy!

Lord, in Your great compassion, take us beyond mere “verbal forms,” and into the reality of encounter and communion.

Cumbered About Much Serving

“Martha was cumbered about much serving.” -Lk. 10.40

The Son of Man Himself came not to be served, but to serve. Firstly, He served His heavenly Father in prayerful communion and obedience. In that vein, He served the truth, honoring the Scriptures in life and teaching. Secondly, He served those to whom He had been sent; namely, His family, His neighbors, and ultimately a great host of souls in first century Judea. It could also be said that He served the past prophets and patriarchs of Israel, esteeming their lives and messages and bringing Israel back into a remembrance of their legacies.

We have been called to servanthood. It is the nature of true Kingdom living. The government of God will ever and always be a government of humility and meekness. But it is possible to fall into a carnal labor of service, and this is what Jesus addressed in Martha. Hear Spurgeon:

Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. “I serve,” should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had “much serving.” We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master’s service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew “cumbered with much serving,” so that she forgot him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace.

Indeed, we are called to plumb the deep well of communion with God, and to extend the greatness of His name and heart to those souls who we rub shoulders with in this life. It is impossible to accomplish this without a deluge of grace, for we are destined to neglect one, the other, or both of them altogether unless the new life of Christ is bursting within. Today, enter into the waters of communion with God, and surrender to Him until “rivers of living water” flow from your person to touch this dying world.

To Live a Holy Life

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.” -1 Thess. 4.3-8

Isn’t it remarkable that Paul described those who “know God” as those who learn to control their bodies in a way that is “holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen?” He actually declares that God will “punish men for all such sins,” and he exhorts the saints to “avoid sexual immorality,” to receive the Holy Spirit, and to “live a holy life.”

I’m afraid that we have blurred the lines of sin and righteousness in modern Christendom, and it has robbed us of a corporate consciousness of the sinfulness of sin, the holiness of God, and the freeing power of God’s true mercy.

You rarely hear a man address sexual immorality and lust as sin for which “the Lord will punish men.” We hear of “struggles,” “battles,” “attacks,” almost as if we are victims of the enemy, the devil is the only instigator, and there is no guilt on the part of men. We have lost sight of the power of the flesh, the need for crucifixion, and we have thereby robbed men of the gift of repentance and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which would enable them to actually break free from bondage and experience new life in Christ.

If we reject the clear cut call to holiness and purity, we are not rejecting a “holiness movement,” a “legalistic teacher,” or an “old-hat doctrine.” Paul stated that we are rejecting God Himself, “who gives you His Holy Spirit.”

Let us leave behind the victim mentality, the blurring of lines, and the diluting of the waters of truth. Let sin be called sin, that repentance may break in, and that mercy may be experienced as the mercy of God. So long as sin is tolerated or masked in the house of God, we will not know the full-orbed joy that He has longed to give to His people.