I have been re-reading a book that began to open my eyes to the beauty of Jesus Christ's Glory, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper. It is riddled with paragraphs that will cause one to stop and ponder the glorious beauty and vastness of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Creator of the universe. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Jesus Christ, the Person, never had a beginning. He is absolute Reality. He has the unparalleled honor and unique glory of being the first and always. He never came into being. He was eternally begotten. The Father has eternally enjoyed "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3) in the Person of his Son.
Seeing and savoring this glory is the goal of our salvation. "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with where I am, to see my glory that you have given me" (John 17:24). To feast on this forever is the aim of our being created and our being redeemed.
Okay here is a bit of window into what God has been doing with me this past week....one word, VISION!!! You see, something had happened over the past years, well for several years actually. You get married, you have kids, you get a job, you have a house, you get comfortable, and begin to think okay this is what God has for my life. This past Monday morning as I was stocking shoes, well let me back up a few days. Saturday and Sunday I felt like my soul was in a battle. I felt like the hounds of Hell were on my heals, and I truly believe they were. I was comfortable in my job and had the mindset, well I am now 30 or so, and this is going to be my life till I die. Yet all weekend I was in a spiritual battle that I did not realize was about to bring me in the middle of a war. I didn't know what to do, and Sunday I even stayed home from church that evening to read and pray, and well, I really didn't get any answers just some vagueness. Now back to Monday morning, there I was at work, stocking shoes, and then something hit me, a thought, a sense, I don't really know, all I know is God began to speak to me. I looked around the area I was in, and began to think, "Is this where my life is going to stay?" Then the next thing was I found myself almost in tears, because I realized I was in the middle of a war. God was saying it was time for me to step up and out, and I terrified. You see I have been prone to be like a kid who is at the pool and there father is in the pool saying "Just jump, I will catch you." Yet all I would ever do is run up to the edge of the pool and stick my foot in and then run away. BUT, something inside me began to say not this time, this time all the fear and doubt that I was feeling I took it straight to the cross, and began to nail it there and I turned and as if I and God were talking, I said, "Okay God, what is it you want me to do?" "Teach, preach, and write were the three words that immediately came into my mind. Also another factor began to evolve in my faulty thinking, almost as if God was correcting something that had been in me for years. I began to realize, yeah I am 30, so what?!?!? I still have my whole life a head of me...this is not the end, but simply a stepping stone to where and what God has for my life and my families life. Needless to say the enemy did not want me to stay focused on this, so he began to attack like never before. Some things at work began to transpire that I will deal with in this post, but suffice it to say I began to realize it was the enemy trying to get me off focus, because he realized I was about to focus on something bigger than me, God and His vision for my life.
Suffice it to say that this song could possibly sum up my thoughts on this part of my change in heart and re-focus:
Okay so skip ahead to Sunday, yeah, Sunday, another one of those Sunday's when you don't realize it but God is about to rock your world. Suffice it to say that every word from the message sunk into my heart like God was painting a huge picture for my life all right there in front of me. Every word and every thought began to be another brush stroke onto the canvas of my life. At one point I found myself in tears during the message then again at the end of the service while everyone was walking out of the sanctuary, I could do nothing but drop back down into my seat and cry...I knew what I had to do, and for once in my life I could not settle I had to fight, I had to make war and I had to run towards the vision God had placed in my life. No more excuses, no more worrying, no more focus on the world, instead focus on God and focus on what He wanted...then if that was not enough our Bible Fellowship class talked about making war on sin...again not just sins that most people think are bad, but in my life a sin of not obeying and a sin of shuffling my feet and not fully wanting to follow God's calling. I knew at that point, I had to make war!
Well, suffice it to say, this is not going to be a simple adventure, it is going to require some big steps and some steps where I don't know what I am stepping on until God reveals the stone. It will require going against what some people think is "normal", to be the odd man out, so what?!?!? I am tired of following the world's vision of a successful life. I don't want to be one of the members of the status quo, no I don't want to settle for second best, but I want to fight for what God has for my life. Yeah it will be a war, yeah I will wear thin, but God's Spirit is far greater than any of these things, and will give me the strength to press on and fight sin and to follow His calling!
Most know the story surrounding Saul's (Paul) conversion. If not I would highly recommend taking a look at Acts 9:1-31. Within that encounter with Jesus, something interesting takes place aside from his miraculous conversion of course, and Jesus bringing him to his knees. In verse 9, it gives an interesting detail into something(s) that took place that seem to be crucial.
And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Paul was without sight because of the radiance of Jesus' glory he had witnessed on the road to Damascus. Some would see this period of blindness as a time of punishment for what Paul was doing to the Church of his day. This doesn't seem to be the case because if you think about it, what better way to be able to reflect upon the glories of Jesus Christ, and to be in the perfect spot for listening than when your sight is gone, and you deny your sense of smell and taste the opportunity to interact with anything. The only sense that was really left aside from touch was hearing which amounts to listening. Paul had ideal opportunity to do nothing but listen as God began to work in his life.
I wonder in our crazy visual, social media, frantic, time consuming culture, if we as Christians were to just take a "time-out" and get somewhere alone and close our eyes and maybe even deny our other senses the opportunity to interact with anything, and simply allow the sense of hearing to do its work, as God speaks to us through His Word and through our prayers. Would this have change in our behavior as much as it did in Paul's life? Oh it is not meant to deny the sovereign hand of God that called Paul to himself (v. 15), but upon God's calling and God setting us apart for His Glory, we still need to simply stop and listen. Sometimes God speaks with obvious answers but other times God whispers and we must be ready to listen and allow our sense of hearing to be tuned to His Word and His voice.
One thing the Lord has been dealing with me about in the past week or so is setting goals. With that comes the objectives needed to achieve those goals. Some will be much easier than others and will simply take a moment of fixing a situation while others will take time to achieve because they may require a change of habits or a change in focus and vision. Yet J. I. Packer in Knowing God, puts into words what the greatest goal should be and may it be the central goal that we strive and battle for:
What makes life worthwhile is having a bit enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?
What is so beautiful about this reality is that as Jeremiah says, "Le him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me (God)", this should bring joy and excitement to our hearts and lives like nothing else. But it gets better, because once we realize that God knew us before we knew Him it brings a whole new dynamic to our life. Yet there is another element that makes it even more humbling, that in God knowing us, He knew us when we were enslaved to sin, and still by His Sovereign Grace came and brought us into a relationship to Him. Here are just a few of the verses which point to this reality that God knew us long before we even realized we loved Him:
Now that you know God-or rather are known by God - Galatians 4:9
And the LORD said to Moses, 'I am pleased with you and I know you by name - Exodus 33:17
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart - Jeremiah 1:5
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me...and I lay down my life for the sheep...My sheep listen to my voice,I know them...They shall never perish - John 10:14-15, 27-28
J. I. Packer again gives a wonderful definition of this know:
The word 'know', when used of God in this way is a sovereign-grace word, pointing to God's initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving.
So what higher goal could we seek to achieve than knowing God intimately? The answer to that is obvious, none, because once we realize God's sovereign Grace drives us closer to Him, then we can do nothing but realize that the greatest goal in this life is enjoy God and know Him more intimately than anything else. Yes, the enemy and our minds will try to bring doubt and fear, but God's grace is far more efficacious than anything the enemy, this world, or even our minds can throw at Him. May we all strive to this goal...to truly know God, or better yet be known by God.
Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. - Knowing God, J. I. Packer (Kindle version)
Meditation as Packer stated prior to this quote is a lost art within the Christian life. It is rightly linked with prayer, because if our minds are not filled with the loftiness of God and with riches of His Word about Himself, then what are our prayers anchored in? We first must fill our minds with the loftiness of God, and not just a head knowledge. We also need to allow the Truth to penetrate the heart. For the effects of this endeavor will be a hundred fold. It will bare before us our little finite state compared to the grandeur of such a great God. Also much like Isaiah when when we meditate upon the God of Scripture, we will cry, "Woe, I am completely sinful in all that I do compared to this glorious and great God." Yet, in turn this brings about encouragement and comfort, because though we alone standing before God are nothing but sin, when we begin to "contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ" our entire world will be turned upside down. Could it be that we do not want to be confronted by such a state in which there is no way of escape unless we fix our eyes upon the Cross of Christ and rest in His arms alone. Meditation will naturally lead to prayer which will in turn lead to praise to God for His Glory and unmatched grace and mercy.
