The blessedness of the God of the believer

[Israel]

Since there is no greater gift to man than the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the express image of God the Father, there is no greater delight for the believer than the partaking of this gift. It is all and only what is life to the saint regardless of how much may yet seem to remain shrouded in mystery. It is, in merest terms, that what might seem the tiniest bit of knowing (seem is of all import here) has in it the power to vanquish any and all fear of what may yet appear as unknown.

The most awesome of things in experience, regardless of how or where a man may imagine he appears in his relationship to truth, and in truth, is the quickening in consciousness that the God of all creation is speaking to him. Revealing things of Himself to man. Giving Himself, to man. And so it is we read of this:

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Leaving aside where the "wise and prudent" must appear in this (and those who may consider themselves such) it is of far greater significance that Jesus is moved to rejoicing (even as in other account He is found moved to marvel) it is the greater seeing that He may be moved to such. Jesus' being is all of truth and speaks only of it, nevertheless there is found nothing so matter of fact about Him that He is inured to joy.

This in itself is a marvelous thing, no? That our Lord is moved to joy and joyous proclamation in a place where all other knowing leads only to a practical weariness and manifest impatience among what is considered the "less knowing". Revelation of Jesus Christ is all of the saint's bread. And, in that sense of knowing, would it then come as surprise to us that this form of knowing, of all things found in the world would be so strongly opposed? Even derided as the weakest form of knowing...or no knowing at all? Everything to kitchen sink is hurled against it (see, the kitchen sink is hard, real, true and with capability of real hurt in it when thrown!) while the seeming tenuousness of faith whereby revelation is received is accounted as all of nothing. Should we then be surprised at assault? At dismissal with such ease that even those in practice of such ease cannot themselves account for the ease with which they presume to know? The apostle did not write this vainly:

By many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.

Nor this vainly:

And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

Were it not for revelation of Jesus Christ, such a man must be proven liar in this:

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

The perfect consistency of this can only come by sight. For Paul (God forbid!) was not speaking to a forbidding of knowing, but in all encouraging toward it. The knowing as one ought to know, with full allowance made for and to the unknown that is yet to be made known. It seems contradictory and all of paradox to the natural minded, even silly jargon perhaps. But this is where the treasures remain to be found in all joy, being persuaded to that joy that is only found in Jesus Christ. And as Jesus was not inured to its discovery (are there any remaining that doubt Jesus' knowing?) we too are called to wondrous discovery. How free...is free? How full may joy be made? How much without fear may a man be made?

Kitchen sinks may indeed leave bruises of a sort...but how do they compare to even the hearing of "it hurts, doesn't it?" The hearing you are on a path not before untrodden but all of new to one's self! Even to the hearing of the One who trod in all, before! Here, even rebuke is cherished when the speaker becomes clear in hearing.

This making of babes of world weary men is no small feat. All that would propel to "yeah, yeah, I know that already, old news" is to a divesting like a dirty garment. Who is equal to this...to bring what must descend in its knowing to the mere matter of factness and terribly boring rhythm's of he11 to what is all and always new, fresh, and alive? Who alone can do such a thing? Who?

We taste some of the entrance into this death. We begin to see necessity. Not only the seeing of it, but the very knowing of it more convinced than ever that alone to that hearing and seeing (that stirs the very deepest hunger and thirst for it, even to exquisite pangs) is indeed the truest of the true things that may be found even here in the earth.. We are men immersed in direst need of air. And patiently being taught to breathing in a way new to us, always new to us, and eating from a table no man can see except by the faith of the Son of God.

What would dismiss faith, or even find source for its reviling or derision in apparent smallness, does so only to its own hurt. He who alone exercises good faith toward us for a production of eternal fruit we are even now given to enjoy in His presence, to even the seeing of His joy in our partaking, is our inheritance in this God blessed forever.

Who of us would, if we knew we were, deny Jesus this joy of "I see Father, our little ones are "getting it!"? And who became smallest of all in his own sight that this bread be given to life indeed, and not the death in which all, and only, regret is found? Who is given that we might see...and hear?


The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Now the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

 

[gordon 2]

Joy is an emotion. And so emotions have "reasons, reason does not know". So knowing is not only reasonable it is "emotionable" in that especially emotions are the masters of reason in the right ( wholesome meant to be) order of things ( at least in Christianity). The power of a man-Divinity spirituality in Christianity is that God so loved the world that He that loves is the first premise of life regards man's relationships and that this love or reformation of the spirit in man due Christ Jesus, is the change from a cold and cruel spirit to a warm and loving spirit in man.

It may not be evident to us now, but there was a time when sympathies and compassion for friend or foe was a trait of weakness in man's makeup . It was weakness as viewed then in the distemper of nerved wives and even more nerved-up poets and prophets--- who worried over the cruelties of empires and heroes who conjured the Gods to let them spill blood, and shatter the bones of man as if some human beings had no cause to human dignity.

Joy is an emotion. The joy of the Lord is it cut from a Kingdom intact or an empire to be forged? Does God need to conquer so as to build up his brand? Yet, the Lord he will not be pushed around and bullied forever. He that heard the Hebrews under the whip... is no push over, but it is of the joy of the Lord I suspect that the push back is rare, and rather those who follow Christ Jesus and away from the cultures of revenge and booty is indeed a cause for heavenly Joy.

Now it should be evident that the weak and babes should find in Christ the mirror of their aspirations... which is those who are pushed around by evil moralities who know them as evil simply by the effect they have on one's life or one's cultural or social life-- from loss of liberty and loss of free and open expression, to outright slavery, to extreme anxiety due to fears of threats to existence itself. Christ on the other hand offers a freer and less hostile life where even enemies are respected as human and being with dignity. Love of enemy is not a silly edict to saints-- to the worldly it is.

Joy is an emotion. Such men and women, these babes, see what God is mostly made up of, they hear Him even in tribulation, ---especially in tribulation. What is interesting in Christianity is that once the "saints" latched on to their new life, relatively few in the span of over two thousand yrs returned to the old world power structures as had the freed Hebrews of old as an example. They have not returned to the old world principalities and powers in their high places except in rare and devastating cases where man wanted to make empires and names for themselves-- even purposely mixing up ( spinning) the nature of God for their evil purposes.

Joy is an emotion. Such is the joy of our Lord that it is heavenly and not of the world--- I think this is safe to say: that His joy is a heavenly emotion or a perfect joy out of a perfect Love and those of us who crave for more love or have suffered for the loss of love can know of love and God more fully due to our emotional lives... from which we glean our knowledge of what is good and wholesome.

As for me, my bedrock peace is in knowing God, the one who touched me and that from this initial joy... His love might get plainer to me. God did not reason with me, he did not spin on me, He touched me... and that was enough to change me to His camp.

 

[gordon 2]

He Touched Me



Shackled by a heavy burden,
'Neath a load of guilt and shame
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same

He touched me, oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole

Since I met this blessed Savior,
Since He cleansed and made me whole,
I will never cease to praise Him,
I'll shout it while eternity rolls

He touched me, oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole

Songwriter: William J. Gaither

 

[Israel]

He Touched Me



Shackled by a heavy burden,
'Neath a load of guilt and shame
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same

He touched me, oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole

Since I met this blessed Savior,
Since He cleansed and made me whole,
I will never cease to praise Him,
I'll shout it while eternity rolls

He touched me, oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole

Songwriter: William J. Gaither

A dear brother, whose songs I am often found singing, with whom the Lord had knit my soul in such a way as I have found no other in experience in flesh and blood, (and was and am honored of God to call both brother and "father in the faith") was almost to a fault, undeter-able in joy. How many hurled themselves and their reasonings...brothers especially to provoke (what was to them) a right change in soberness to their view of things. Pastors, elders, even prophets could be found summoning a thunder, or seeking to, to move this brother, this apostle of the faith of the son of God of whom I am not ashamed to call apostle.

He too well understood an order of life revealed to him by Jesus Christ. O! the song above is so well known, so often sung by choirs and memberships, recorded and performed as to have such renown among those calling themselves believers that it is almost too hard to find any not familiar. I testify in that day to day living in which I shared with him in many oppositions, labors, ministrations as such (as more witness) trials, meetings of "councils" to which his judgments were summoned for exposure (and to which he always went, gladly) expulsions (which he also endured, gladly) and such vilifications and dismissals in face to face that it would be hard to enumerate.

I believe it was in Fishkill Prison that he was once speaking to our brothers who were finding the salvation in the name of Christ and was there to their comfort and encouragement. How with open arms and hearts he was once received each Friday evening, appointments which he was loathe to even consider being interrupted. I knew he loved them...as he loved me. Yes, there was much rejoicing in the being of the touched of God through Christ. And it was (as I recall) there, in one time speaking of the disciplines and chastenings of the Lord to His own that this matter of touch, even as the song speaks, was made even more plain. For he, in moments of speaking of these chastenings, and even necessary rebukes, acted as a man who had just received a switch to his behind and jumped wincing...singing "He touched me" in his joyous laughter. Yes, all laughed with him in recognition that this relationship of sons and Father is a real thing. So very real a thing.

But, there remained, and would come to be seen, those who would doubt his necessity to themselves as one "sent" for their comfort. For this brother would be recommended to a stronger discipline by those who did not see the discipline he was under. He was made no longer welcome (though he would continue to send me to both learn of their estate and carry whatever comforts "from him" as could be ministered to the few with remaining care of him.)

This came, this expulsion, after his daring speak of matters so close to the hearts of many as was considered off limits, impropriety and downright unacceptable. He sensed, saw, knew and addressed the matter of an inflated joy in release dates. He cautioned his brothers not to be living for the disappointments that must only be found in dissuasion from Christ toward living merely for a day of departure through a chain link fence. If this be their supreme joy, it was not joy at all, but a vanity to be addressed. How easy it is for those who, in their sense of the "reality" of prison to imagine another could know nothing of it, know nothing of the the true hope of release (whose hope was imagined to be of the most pure form) and how very cruel and unseemly it would be for one to speak to its diminishing in sight of those so longing for it and convinced, so very convinced, as the purest from of God's intent and love toward them.

"He touched me" we sing, and so rightly so. And prisoners of the Lord may sing it with a certain inflection others may easily misconstrue, which misconstrual may even work to their salvation. We speak as men both in the presence of the Lord, and also the many witnesses to these (yours and mine Gordon) words. May our conversation be found to remain in Heaven.

There came a time my own endurance was tested in relation to this brother, and I have no place of boast in the matter. But a happier note of ending, even between us...I cannot imagine.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

This brother knew joy, perhaps as emotion, but I am persuaded as truer substance that his emotions might be used as tool for research into the deeper trueness of it. We "experience" to point us to the knowing, we taste...to point us to substance of taste. We live yet perhaps, in part shadow...to direct us to true light. But the substance...is the real.

I could not but help, when finding this sister, my (hoped to be) bride, that she meet this one to whom my very life was directed by God as worthy wooer to the cause of Christ. In all it was nothing less, this meeting, as cause to approval. And as this brother sat across from us, as we sat eating our breakfast, plainly seeing our delight in one another, no doubt sensing all the welling up of hopes and joys to come in such planning to wed, he asked only one question.

"In which is your greater joy... this hope of marrying Israel or in the Lord's appearing?"

This sister did not answer quickly, for even though prisoners are allowed to speak the manifestation of their captor is more often seen in considered silence. Wear an oft tearing may be seen taking place by the discerning. A setting in order...of things.

Into this is all our entrance...the seeing of the Lord's order manifestly made clear...even to us that it may be through us. Thanks be to God this woman continues to seek Christ above all, especially when her man experiences it only as sting across his bottom. A so necessary thing. To be touched.

 

[StriperAddict]

Indwelt-ness and joy are both gifts I cannot take for granted. Both are uniquely aware of me and my weakness, yet play such a "seeing" role. It's Providence that makes hearts aware of the Beauty - even during a kitchen sink bashing!

And as far as the bashing from earthly forms, the persecution, the in our faces utmost hate and unbelief ... are we not given grace for the moment? "The power of His resurrection - and the fellowship of His sufferings." He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Makes sense we may endure being outcasts, as He was on earth.

Mercy, grace, joy and peace - for such a time as this. Coming to a neighborhood near you.

 

[Israel]

Indwelt-ness and joy are both gifts I cannot take for granted. Both are uniquely aware of me and my weakness, yet play such a "seeing" role. It's Providence that makes hearts aware of the Beauty - even during a kitchen sink bashing!

And as far as the bashing from earthly forms, the persecution, the in our faces utmost hate and unbelief ... are we not given grace for the moment? "The power of His resurrection - and the fellowship of His sufferings." He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Makes sense we may endure being outcasts, as He was on earth.

Mercy, grace, joy and peace - for such a time as this. Coming to a neighborhood near you.

LOL...yes brother, yes.

It is no small wonder to me that our Lord carried the cross in torn flesh and dreadful wounding...knowing full well its all and only intended purpose after all his work to carry it. It's very much as if "well if I don't do it, some other poor soul will be required to this labor, and it's better I spare them". The same one speaking "you have me, let the others go".

And so we show up with plumber's wrench as need be, that especial grace found that helps what may need help separating the kitchen sink from wall and plumbing...I am guessing (so that others take this as no more than a consideration) of what happened here:

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Gee Stephen, how much strength will you lend to their throwing arms?

 

[gordon 2]

What will God say to the people in a thousand yrs about our times? It seems two items depending on who thinks it. One group would link our day to Sodom and Gomorrah and only a chosen elect will make it sound. The other would have it as perhaps when David danced that he had captured the Ark and as to say, "We have it all in." They will be of renown.

Yet we are told that there is worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and better than David's naked and joyful dance.

So let our joy in Him be creative and our sufferings redemptive--- but there is still better loving... my hope seems sure... that in a thousand yrs there will be better lovers and to our sufferings much better cures.