A Week in God’s Presence (No 4)

A Week in God’s Presence (No 4)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!” (2Co_13:14)

Have you ever experienced the Extravagant Love of God?

Webster’s defines extravagant as “exceeding the limits of reason or necessity; lacking in moderation, balance, or restraint; profuse and lavish.” 
Have you ever encountered God’s Presence in such measure that He blew your doors off with just how much He loves you?

Zephaniah the prophet gave us a glimpse at this extraordinary, extravagant God. “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zep_3:17).
you know that God wants to overwhelm you with an outpouring of His extravagant love? He wants you to know that even now, despite what you think about yourself, He rejoices over you with joy? He rests in His love for you? He joys over you with singing?

And did you know that the surest way for you to truly experience this extravagance is to spend quality time with real Christians? Hear me carefully – I’m not talking about “church-goers” as much as I’m talking about “Christ-followers.” The two are not always the same.

When you are in the company of a gathering of mere “church-goers” you will be surrounded with legalism, opinion, criticism, judgment and debate. But when you are in the midst of true “Christ-followers” your life will be flooded with extraordinary  expressions of God’s extravagant love. You will be supported, believed in, upheld, defended, empowered, and unleashed to pursue God’s highest and best purposes for your life.

In other words, you will experience God’s Presence – and never be the same. To sum it up – spend quality time in God’s Word, and a quantity of time with quality people; do this and God will be with you in extraordinary and extravagant ways!

Step Three next…

A Week in God’s Presence (No 3)

A Week in God’s Presence (No 3)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!” (2Co_13:14)

The Message calls it, “Amazing Grace. Extravagant Love. Intimate Friendship.”

Practically speaking, and I know this firsthand from years of personal experience, you can enter into the fullness of this by
1) spending time in the Bible, 
2) spending time hanging around real Christians, and 
3) spending time in a Place called Prayer.

Let me explain each one a bit more fully.

First, start spending quality time reading the Bible and thinking about the things you discover therein. It will not take very long before you are encountered by the undeniable, unmistakable, unforgettable Presence of the Lord. And as you read more and more, you will discover deeper and deeper insights into the Amazing Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God will show you the many ways He has blessed you with extraordinary gifts and abilities provided through Jesus, as well the power to do His will. You will experience His empowering Presence, helping you to be the person He has created you to be and leading you to do the things He has called you to do.

Your confession will be the same as the apostle Paul’s – “I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength!” It is true!

Paul elsewhere said it this way, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1Co_15:10).

The more time you spend delving into the riches of the Word, the more the WORD will come to life in you. You will find yourself living in the “amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Perhaps the better way to say it is. “You will find the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ living in you, and expressing itself through you to others.”

That’s Step One. Step Two Next…

A Week in God’s Presence (No 2)

A Week in God’s Presence (No 2)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!” (2Co_13:14)

I love the way the Message Bible puts this – “The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.”

Amazing Grace. Extravagant Love. Intimate Friendship.

These are the three great gifts already provided to each and every one of us who long to be reconnected in a meaningful and lasting way with the Almighty.

⦁ Amazing Grace. Did you know that God wants to astound you with his empowering presence? He wants to show you that you can trust Him in all things and at all times. His grace is sufficient. The power of Christ at work in and through your life is all you need to be saved, and fully satisfied.
⦁ Extravagant Love. “How great the Father’s love for us; how vast beyond all measure! That He would send His only Son…to make a wretch His treasure!” (Old Irish Hymn) God’s love for you is great and excessive; such that you could never plumb the depths nor reach the heights, nor could you span the width, nor reach the length of it. In one simple and perfect word – His love is extravagant.
⦁ Intimate Friendship. This type of friendship goes far beyond the superficial veneer of social acquaintances, and even bypasses the richer fare of personal relationships. This is intimate friendship – the rarest and deepest of all kinds.  
Grace. Extravagant Love. Intimate Friendship.

These three great gifts are ours in Christ. But perhaps you may not be experiencing these things at all; or to any real measure. Yet God has provided us with a very practical way that will insure our full experience of all He has for us.

Are you ready for this – it’s so simple. In fact, it is so simple you may be inclined to dismiss it. But don’t! If you will trust what I am telling you and start purposefully practicing these three practical things, your heart will expand and God will approach in His fullness.

Here is what I want you to do…
! I just ran out of space; I guess I’ll have to tell you what they are next!

the Spirit of God leads the saints into with the Father

2 Corinthians 13:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.... Meaning either the love of Christ; see 2Co_8:9 
which is the same with that of his Father's, is as early, and of the same nature, being a love of complacency and delight; and which, as it is without beginning, will be without end. This is the ground and foundation of all he has done and underwent for his people; of his becoming their surety; of his incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death in their room and stead; an interest in which, though they always have, yet they have not always an abiding sense of it with them, which is what the apostle here prays for: or else by the grace of Christ is meant the fullness of grace that is in him as Mediator; which is desired to be with the saints as the object of their trust and dependence; to be strong in, draw living water with joy out of, receive and derive daily from; not forsake it, and hew out broken cisterns, but continually apply to, and make use of it, as the fountain of gardens, the well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon; to be with them as a supply to their wants, to furnish them with every thing they stand in need of, and to enable them to do his will and work: or else the redeeming grace of Christ is particularly designed, and the intent of the petition is, that they might see their interest in it, and in all the branches of it; as that they were redeemed by his blood from sin, law, and wrath, had all their sins expiated and forgiven through his sacrifice, and were justified from all things by his righteousness. 

And the love of God; the Father, as the Arabic version adds very justly, as to the sense, though it is not in the text; meaning the love of God to his people, which is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, free and undeserved, special and peculiar, is dispensed in a sovereign way, is unchangeable, abides for ever, is the source and spring of all the blessings both of grace and glory. Now when this is entreated to be with all the saints, it does not suppose that it is ever from them, or that it can be taken away from them, but whereas they may be without a comfortable sense of it, and a view of interest in it, the apostle prays, that in this respect it might be with them; that they might be directed into it, have it shed abroad in their hearts, and they be rooted and grounded in it, and comprehend for themselves the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of it. 

And the communion of the Holy Ghost; either a larger communication of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, called "the supply of the Spirit", Phi_1:19 necessary to carry on the good work of grace, and perform it to the end; or else that communion and fellowship which the Spirit of God leads the saints into with the Father, by shedding abroad his love in their hearts, and with the Son, by taking of the things of Christ, and showing them to them; and also that nearness which the spirits of believers have with the Spirit of God, when he witnesses to their spirits that they are the children of God, becomes the earnest of the inheritance in their hearts, and seals them up unto the day of redemption: all which is requested by the apostle, to 

be, says he, 

with you all; or "with your company", or "congregations", as the Arabic version reads it, with all the saints; for their interest in the love of the Father, in the grace of the Son, and in the favour of the Spirit, is the same, whatever different sense and apprehensions they may have thereof. This passage contains no inconsiderable proof of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, to whom distinct things are here ascribed, and of them asked, equal objects of prayer and worship. "Amen" is by way of assent and confirmation, and as expressive of faith in the petitions, and of earnest desire to have them fulfilled. According to the subscription at the end of this epistle, it was written by the apostle when he was at Philippi, a city of Macedonia, and transcribed by Titus and Lucas, and by them sent or carried to the Corinthians; which seems to be agreeable to what is suggested in the epistle itself, though these subscriptions are not to he depended upon. The Syriac version only mentions Luke; and some copies read, by Titus, Barnabas, and Luke.

A Week in God’s Presence (No 1)

A Week in God’s Presence (No 1)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!” (2Co_13:14)

You and I were made to experience God’s Presence. From the very beginning, when the Voice of God walked with Adam in the Garden in the cool of the day, we have the quintessential witness of why we were created — companionship with God.

And from the instant the First Couple were driven out of the Garden into a world defiled by sin, mankind’s greatest longing has been for a real and lasting encounter with the Creator; a reconnection to the realization of God’s Presence.

Something deep inside us compels us to find a way to “break on through to the other side.” We know that we were meant for something more than we are presently experiencing; something heavenly. But we also know that something is wrong; that we somehow have been blocked from having access to all that we were created to experience.

Well, I am here to tell you that the breech of friendship, which happened on that day in the Garden when a dark choice was made to hide from God, now that breech has been healed! Full access has been granted, and God is available to any and all who will draw near to Him!

In fact, He has lavishly provided three avenues by which He Himself will draw near to us, and flood our lives with the fullness of His presence – and all the blessings therein.

Paul refers to these three avenues as “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.” There is a practical dimension to these three extraordinary offers, and you can actually do something that will open your life up for God to draw near to you.

You can experience God’s Presence! You can live your life in the fullness of His friendship!

 I will tell you how to do so next.

The Loneliness of Sin

The Loneliness of Sin
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night— John_13:30

He Made His Bed in Hell
What first strikes us here is the utter loneliness of Judas. No word-painting, however vivid, could give a deeper impression of that than these few words of John: "He ... went immediately out: and it was night." Within, there was light and gladness, and the richest fellowship this world had ever known. For Christ was there, and John was leaning upon Jesus' bosom, and the talk was on high and holy themes that evening. Outside was fierce hostility. Outside was dark. And no man drove out Judas. No push and curse hurried him to the door. It was the momentum of his own heart and life that impelled him to choose the darkness rather than the light.
Shall we follow Judas into the dark street? He turns and looks, and the light is gleaming from the window of the upper chamber. He hurries on, and the streets are not empty yet. A band of young men, like himself, goes singing by. The sounds of evening worship come stealing from the houses. And everything that tells of love, and breathes of fellowship, and speaks of home, falls like a fiery rain on Judas' heart. The loneliness of Judas was intolerable. He had made his bed in hell. A friend of mine was once preaching on that text in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh. And when he left the hall and was stepping homewards, a young man rushed across the street and grasped him by the arm and cried, "Minister, minister, I have made my bed in hell," and disappeared. And the lonely misery of that cry will ring in my friend's ears till his dying day. There was a loneliness in it like that in Judas. He was estranged, apart. "He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night."
In a Sense Everybody Is Lonely
There is a sense in which every person is lonely. Each has his different road, his different trial, his different joy; and these differences are invisible barriers between us, so that even in fellowship we walk apart. We say we know that woman thoroughly, and we believe we do, till someday there comes a new temptation to her, or a new chance to be heroic, and all our reckoning are falsified, and there are depths our plummet never sounded. I cannot utter forth all that I am. Gesture, speech, even music are but rude interpreters. The dullest has his dream he never tells. The very shallowest has his holy ground. There is an isolation of the soul that brings the note of pathos into history, and makes me very reluctant to judge my friend, and leads me to the very feet of Christ.

In a Sense Christ Was Lonely
For there is a deep sense in which Christ was lonely too. And it is strange that on the night of the betrayal, perhaps the two loneliest figures in the world were the sinful disciple and his sinless Lord. But oh, the world of difference between the two! Christ lonely because He was the Son of God, bearing His cross alone and going out into the glory. And Judas lonely because he was the son of perdition, with every harmony destroyed by sin, and going out into the night. Now towards which figure are you making, friend? For towards one or the other your feet are carrying you. There is a loneliness upon the mountain top.            
There is a loneliness in death and in the grave. And the one is the isolation of the climbing heart, and the other the isolation of the lost. Towards which are you headed? Is it "To the hills will I lift up mine eyes" or "The wages of sin is death"?
Sin Separates
This, then, is one continual effect of sin. In every shape and form, in every age and country, it intensifies the loneliness of life. We talk of social sins. All sin is ultimately anti-social. We hear of comradeship's based upon common vices. All vice in the long run grinds the very thought of comradeship to powder. Sin isolates, estranges, separates; that is its work. It is the task of God ever to lead us to a richer fellowship. It is the work of sin, hidden but sure, to make us lonelier and more lonely till the end. From all that is best, and worthiest, and purest, it is the delight of sin to separate. And I want to touch on the three great separations that sin brings, making life a lonely thing.

Sin Separates Man from His Ideal
First, then, sin separates man from his ideal. When I have an ideal, I can never be quite lonely. When I have the vision beckoning me on, when I have something to live for and to struggle for higher than coin or food, there is a fervor in my common day, and a quiet enthusiasm for tomorrow, that are splendid company for my secret heart. And even if my ideal be a dream, it is so. In the famous battle between the clans on the North Inch of Perth, rendered immortal in the story of Sir Walter Scott, you will remember how the old chieftain Torquil sent out his sons to fight for Hector. And as one son after another fell under the smiting blows of Hal of the Wynd, the old chief thundered out, "Another for Hector," and another of his sons stepped forward to the battle. And they were all slain, every one of them, for Hector—and Hector was a coward. Let the ideal be a dream, yet men will fight for it; and fighting, the heart forgets its loneliness.
And the work of sin has been to separate the world from its ideals—to blot out the vision and to say to men, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Sin lays the emphasis on what I see. Sin holds me back from what I would be, and binds me a prisoner to what I am. Until, at last, through years of weary failure, all that we hoped and longed to be is gone, and the beckoning hands have vanished, and the vision is fled, and we are alone with our own poor selves. Sin separates a man from his ideal. Judas had his ideal once, but the devil entered him, and the ideal died out; and from that hour Judas drew apart.

Sin Separates Man from Man
Not only does sin separate man from his ideal, it separates man from man. When Cain slew Abel, he became an outcast. When David fell, he had to fly. When Peter denied Christ, he went out and wept bitterly. Sin broke life's ties for them, sundered the bonds that bound them to their fellows. Read over every narrative of sin within the Bible, and underneath the outward form of it—it may be passion, envy, treachery, revenge—you will detect, from Genesis to Revelation, the sundering of ties between man and man.
And sin is always doing that. There is not a passion, not a lust or vice, but mars and spoils the brotherhood of life, and tends to the loneliness of individual souls. God meant us to be friends. God has established numberless relationships. And God is righteousness and God is love, and the Spirit of righteousness and love inspires them all. And sin has been unrighteous from the first, and shall be cold and loveless till the end. O sin, thou severing and separating curse! There is no tie so tender but my vice will snap it. There is no bond so strong but sin will shatter it. It separates the father from his child; it sunders hearts; it creates distances within the home, till the full harmonies of life are lost, and the deep fellowships of life impossible. And the world is lonelier because of sin.
And Jesus Christ knew that. Christ saw and felt sin's separating power. And so the Gospel, that rings with the note of brotherhood, centers in Calvary upon the fact of sin. The social gospel is but a shallow gospel, false to the truth and alien from Christ, unless it roots itself in the divine forgiveness and the inspiring power of the Holy Ghost. The poet Whittier tells a story of the Rabbi Nathan, who long lived blamelessly but fell at last, and his temptation clung to him in spite of his prayers and fastings. And he had a friend, Rabbi Ben Isaac, and he felt that his sin had spoiled the friendship. But he would go to him and speak to him and tell him all. And when they met, the two embraced each other; till Rabbi Nathan, remembering his sin, tore himself from his friend's arms and confessed. It was the separating power of sin. But when Rabbi Ben Isaac heard his words, he confessed that he too had sinned, and he asked his friend to pray for him as Rabbi Nathan had asked himself. And there in the sunset, side by side, they knelt and each prayed with his whole heart for the other. "And when at last they rose up to embrace, each saw God's pardon in his brother's face."
Sin, separation—pardon, brotherhood; it is the order of the universe and God.

Sin Separates Man from God
And so sin separates a man from his ideal and a man from men. But the most awful separation of all, the one that reaches the very heart of loneliness, is this: sin separates a man from God.
I can never be lonely in God's fellowship. When I detect His glory in the world, and trace His handiwork in field and sunset; when I recognize His voice in conscience, when I feel the power of His love in Christ; "there is society where none intrudes," there is the sweetest company in solitude; and I may dwell alone, but I can never be a lonely man. "For me to live is Christ," said the apostle; and the friendship of God was so intense for him, that even in the prison at Philippi he had society.
But from the first it has been sin's great triumph to separate the soul from God; and the deepest loneliness of sin is this, that it blinds me to One whom not to see is death, and bars me from the fellowship of Him whose friendship is of infinite value to my heart. If in the sky and sea, if in the call of duty, if in the claims of men, if in the love of Christ, if in all these I see and hear no God. this is a lonely world. And sin has blinded me, and made lonely, as the prodigal was lonely when far from his father and father's home. Shall I arise and go to Him tonight? Shall I return by the way of Calvary to God? I have been separated from holiest and the best. I have been living far from goodness and from God. But - 
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
—Charlotte Elliott

He (CHRIST) is our great Intercessor!

THE CLUE TO LIFE'S MAZE
"There was a man whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil....Satan said, Doth Job fear God for nought?"-- John_1:1-9.

THIS MARVELOUS poem, one of the profoundest studies in the Bible, deals with the great problem of evil. At some time or other in our lives, we come back to study it, as a clue to life's maze, the expression of our heart's out-cry, and the solution of life's mystery in the Will and Love of God.
From first to last, the supreme questions in this wonderful piece of literature are: "Can God make man love Him for Himself alone and apart from His gifts?" and "Why is Evil permitted, and what part does it play in the nurture of the soul of man?"
(i.e. The Soul being the Mind, Willpower, and Emotions) 

These questions are always with us. In fact, the Book of Job may be said to be a compendium of the existence and history of our race.
The first chapter teems with helpful lessons. The anxiety of parents for their children should expend itself in ceaseless intercession on their behalf. The great Adversary of souls is always on the watch, considering our conduct so as to accuse us before God, not only for overt sins, but for unworthy motives. We cannot forget our Lord's words to Peter: "Satan asked to have you, but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke_22:31, R.V.). 
Christ never underestimated the power of Satan, the "prince of this world," but He is our great Intercessor (Heb_4:14-16; Heb_7:25).
In circumstances of prosperity and happiness, we must never forget that it is God who plants a hedge about us, blesses our work and increases our substance. It is good to realize that whatever be the malignity of our foes, there is always the Divine restraint, and we are not tempted beyond what we are able to bear. It is not enough to endure our griefs sullenly or stoically. It should be our aim not only to hold fast to our integrity, but to trust God. 
There is a clue to the mystery of human life, which comes to the man who differentiates between the Real and the Unreal; the Seen and the Unseen.

PRAYER
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. AMEN.