Sunday, March 4, 2012

Quiet Devotion

"...rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place and there prayed."
(Mark 1:35)

We live in an age of religious activity in the church and yet the call for all of us as children of God is to "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place...Be still and know that I am God." It is the empty heart devoid of an abiding sense of the all-present Jehovah which craves activity and fellowship like a drug. Still the loneliness that grips our souls can never be completely thwarted by our hectic pace and the myriads of people we surround ourselves with. Only a lasting encounter with God will fill our hearts with the sense that we are not alone. Our great King and Creator has designed us that way and nothing can replace our need for fellowship with Him.
 
Such truth is seen in those hungry souls that sought God above all else. They that understood this reality manifested the truth that in one sense all God-hungry souls walk alone in this world. It is in this solitary place that God does His greatest works. Here God walked with Enoch, here God met with Jacob, spoke with Moses, fellowshiped with the prophets and communed with Christ in prayer.

Tozer speaks of such a truth when he says that "There are some things that you and I will never learn when others are present. I believe in church and I love the fellowship of the assembly. There is much we can learn when we come together on Sundays and sit among the saints. But there are certain things that you and I will never learn in the presence of other people. Unquestionably, part of our failure today is religious activity that is not preceded by aloneness, by inactivity. I mean getting alone with God and waiting in silence and quietness until we are charged with God's Spirit. Then, when we act, our activity really amounts to something because we have been prepared by God for it.... "

While it is true that we are called into the fellowship of Gods true called out assembly, it is also equally true that even the fellowship of believers can never replace that solitary walk with the King of glory. Feverious activity that hides that still small voice and fellowship with others that crowds out our fellowship with God has led to a shallowness in our inner experience with God. This in turn has led to the shallowness in our corporate worship that in turn has led to the great weakening of our churches today.

We need to get back to the stillness of God and the contemplation that begats true fire. Only when we are filled to overflowing with that great glory that comes from those solitary times with God will we have anything worthwhile to bring to the fellowships that we are also called to by God.

The greatest need of the human soul is God Himself and only in that consistent quiet time spent alone with Him can a soul be washed with the sweet savor of His presence. It is this savor and this savor alone that will be of any use to those around us and will once again make our fellowships God-centered instead of man-centered.

Friday, March 2, 2012

To Make All Men See!

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery…To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
(Ephesians 3:9-10)

The Church of Jesus Christ is the most important and most powerful institution in the world. In times past she has turned the course of hundreds of thousands if not millions of human hearts. Through prayer and suffering and savoring the glory of God evidenced in the lives of saints, the church has manifested the majesty and holiness and will of God to a world racked with the rebellion and dysfunction of sin.
In America past this manifestation of salt and light has been a spiritual preservative and moral compass even among those who have not bowed the knee to Jehovah. Governmental leaders were once raised in a culture that was saturated by a remnant that vividly displayed the truth of a holy God and His will for man through their daily living. Sadly this is not the case today and the church in America has become a mere shadow of the substance she was created to be.
Instead of being salt and light the church has become like those it was intended to reach and the culture that was once restrained by the manifestation of a God saturated church has been swallowed up in the pride of humanism and an unrelenting passion for sin. If indeed there is to be any hope for the millions in America who are plummeting off into hell there must first be a revival within the church in America. We who call ourselves by His name must examine ourselves and call upon God in humility and sincerity to rescue us from the clutches of this culture. Only then will we be able to get back to that pure reason for our existence...seeing and savoring and showing the glory of God to a lost and dark world.
Paul knew this call and lived his whole life under its weight. It drove his every decision, prayer, letter, fellowship and suffering. Paul's great passion was to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery…To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” (Ephesians 3:9-10). To know God and to make Him known was the great end for which Paul lived his life.
Most of us live our lives with far too little awareness of the stupendous realities around us. Most of us go through day after day and seldom feel the impact of the magnitude of what we are caught up in by belonging to Jesus Christ, the ruler of the universe. We no longer take enough time to meditate on how our jobs, our home life, our leisure, our church involvement, or our daily lives fit into the cosmic significance of the church. Consequently our lives often lack the flavor of eternity and the aroma of something ultimate.
Yet this is why we exist...why we, as children of the Most High King, draw breath every moment...to see (putting ourselves in the way of such spiritual sight and meditating on), savor (enjoying and being satisfied in above all things) and show (manifesting before the world with excitement and grace) the glory of God in all things.
In order to get back to this we must return to the simplicity which is in Christ. We must cast aside our favorite toys, pride and worldy pleasure for the all satisfying wonder and weight of the glory of God. It is time for the church in America to wake up from its long slumber and selfish pursuits to realize its call as a bond slave of Jesus Christ and to manifest Him before a world racked with sin and self.
Only then can we make known in sincerity and truth the mystery that God wrought in redemptive history. The mystery that by the spilt blood of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary a people was purchased who can know the glory of their Creator, the wonder of His will and the beauty of His manifest presence and power.
So why do we exist? To make all men see! To be a preservative, to restrain evil, to show the solution for the myriads of evils confronting the world...we exist to manifest and magnify God!