The Rest Of God
Posted by jerrywhite on Aug 16, 2010
“There is a rest of God. That rest, through the ministry of our High Priest, we are invited to share. Cleansed and empowered within, we can live within the Holiest of all in the Presence of God where there is rest.
Some have lived in the atmosphere of the Divine Serenity. The son of the scholarly and saintly Bishop Wescott said concerning his father, ‘In his later life my Father obviously lived in two worlds at once. While his feet were set in the world, his spirit was in the presence of God. Everything that came to him was met in that presence. Nothing could ever surprise him from that attitude.’
That is what life in the Holiest means—and it is always restful.
The inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of it as a life anchored within the veil, kept steady and secure in times of storm.”
G. H. Morling
The Quest for Serenity, 42
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It is possible to live on two levels at once. It was the way of the Lord Jesus when He walked the earth. Sometimes His inner conversation with His Father broke forth in voiced prayer for others to hear. Saints down through the ages discovered that one is able to live in both the inner sanctuary of the soul while outwardly attending to the necessary responsibilities that come with every day life. Brother Lawrence is an example. He wrote the letters we know as The Practice of the Presence of God. While doing his duties in the kitchen, he enjoyed the Lord’s presence and fellowshipped with Him. This is a practice we must learn to do, but it can be learned. As we learn how to do this, we enter into the Lord’s rest and we are not so distracted by our external demands. Our inner man can rule our outer man rather than our outer man overruling our inner man. As this occurs, His peace reigns.
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So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:9-10 (ESV)
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The Lord’s Guidance
Posted by jerrywhite on Apr 7, 2010
A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?
Proverbs 20:24 (ESV)
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“When your heart is absolutely surrendered, and you are depending on the Lord to guide you, then you can trust Him to put His thoughts into your thinking and infuse His desires into your desires or change them. Philippians 2:13 promises, ‘For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.’ Another translation says it well, ‘For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him’ (NLT). Believers should not wait passively for the Lord to tell them what they should do. He has given us a mind that He expects us to use. He has promised to direct our steps if we trust Him rather than ourselves, and seek Him in all we do (Proverbs 3:5-6). He declares quite clearly that He ordains our steps (Proverbs 20:24). In Acts 16:6-7 Paul had a plan but the Spirit directed his steps a different way than he had planned. In Romans 1:13 Paul said, ‘Often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far).’ As Christians we should plan for what we are responsible to do and faithfully do it with all our heart as to the Lord (Colossians 3:23). Ecclesiastes 9:10 instructs, ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.’ When God wants to redirect your steps in the midst of walking out your plan, He will. When we are wholly His and trust Him, we can rest with assurance that He is guiding us as we fulfill our responsibilities, doing the next thing we know to do.”
Author
The Spirit and Presence of Christ, 122
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More faithful is the Lord to guide than you are to follow. The Lord desires for you to be in His will more than you want to be. When you are wholly available to the Lord Jesus with a trusting heart you will find rest like a lamb in green pastures and beside still waters. The Good Shepherd is shepherding you even when you do not understand what He is doing.
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A Tranquil God
Posted by jerrywhite on Mar 25, 2010
“God is a tranquil Being, and abides in a tranquil eternity. So must thy spirit become a tranquil and clear little pool, wherein the serene light of God can be mirrored. Therefore shun all that is disquieting and distracting, both within and without. Nothing in the whole world is worth the loss of thy peace; even the faults which thou hast committed should only humble, but not disquiet them. God is full of joy, peace, and happiness. Endeavor then to obtain a continually joyful and peaceful spirit. Avoid all anxious care, vexation, murmuring, and melancholy, which darken thy soul and render thee unfit for the friendship of God. If thou dost perceive such feelings arising, turn gently away from them.”
Gerhardt Tersteegen, a German hymnwriter (1697-1769)
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And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. [Emphasis mine] And they went and woke him saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”
Matthew 8:23-26 (ESV)
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Draw me to Thee, till far within Thy rest,
In stillness of Thy peace, Thy voice I hear—
For ever quieted upon Thy breast,
So loved, so near.
Gerhardt Tersteegen
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Margins For Restfulness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 24, 2009
“Margin, the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits, was an early casualty. When you reach the limits of your resources or abilities, you have no margin left. So as history and progress picked up speed, we hit limit after limit. Slowly, margin began to disappear. Then when exponentiality took over the controls, margin vaporized.
Now that we have exceeded so many of our limits—personal, emotional, relational, physical, financial—we have no margin at all. Yet because we don’t even know what margin is, we don’t realize it is gone. We know that something is not right, but we can’t solve the puzzle beyond that. Our pain is palpable, but our assailant remains unnamed.”
Richard A. Swenson, M.D.
Margin, 55
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The Lord Jesus did not have a watch, or a calendar, or a schedule book, and yet, when He came to the end of His life He said to His Father, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do (John 17:4, ESV). He never seemed rushed, or in a hurry, or fretted about not having enough time, and yet, He was always on time according to His Father’s will. He lived without all the electronic gadgetry we have for keeping in touch with others, and yet He talked with, ate with, and was in touch with all those the Father appointed for Him to encounter. We are in danger of being swept along like debris in a flooded river by the swift current of our culture so that we miss the best our loving Father has for us. If we will enjoy His promised rest in this overly busy and distracting society, then we must learn from Him in quietness and aloneness at His feet. This is how the Lord Jesus lived. His lifestyle is our prescription— if we will become like Him. His Life within us is our strength—if we will walk as He walked—in childlike faith, with implicit obedience and by simple abiding. The Lord Jesus tells us it is possible.
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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 (ESV)
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Simple Relationship
Posted by jerrywhite on May 10, 2009
“We have over-complicated our God and His ways of coming to us. We have organized Him, strategized Him and compartmentalized Him. We have reduced His ways of working with us to cute little formulas, and we have stood off in our corners critical of others who seek His face in ways that differ from our own temperaments or styles of perception. But it is clear that God longs to restore a spiritual passion within us.”
Gordon MacDonald
Restoring Your Spiritual Passion, pp.217-218
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For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 5:2-3 (ESV)
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When the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure for heaven He told them how to continue without His physical presence with them. He simply said, “Abide in me”. Abiding in Him would happen as they trusted, obeyed, and loved Him. So uncomplicated and peaceful is this way because it is His ordained way. His commands are not a heavy burden. There is no formula by which we can live the Christian life or else He would have given it. No list of principles exists to which we must adhere for godly living or else the Lord Jesus would have listed them for us. Living the Christian life is the overflow and outflow of a simple loving relationship with the Lord Jesus, one of quiet trust in Him and loving obedience to Him. Seeing Him—knowing Him—adoring Him—loving Him—and enjoying Him is the way to keep our passion burning for Him. Each must find his or her way in this. Finding it is life abundant.
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