JAMES WALDEN (U.S.A. Laboured in the Philippines) - 1995-10 - Repentance - Convention - Harare
In Matthew 1 we read of some of the people in the lineage of Jesus. Some of them had terrible, disastrous pasts, but God was able to salvage them from sin and use them in His work. We read about Judah, Rahab, David.
One of the men in the States makes his living from salvaging wrecked cars, and when he resells them they look brand new!
Genesis chapter 38: "Judah went down from his brethren…" He was alone. That's not good. That's why we have companions and spouses... To help us. Anyway, Judah's wife died and he was lonely, and Judah did something that should never have happened. He went in unto his daughter-in-law and because of that sinful union, she conceived twins... Pharez and Zerah. Pharez is mentioned in the lineage of Christ. The important thing is what we read in verse 26, "And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I." He admitted to his sin. "And he knew her again no more." He learned his lesson, and that thing did not happen again.
When we visit people, sometimes they want to show us their photo albums. "Look! there's Aunty so-and-so... there's little Johnny," etc. And we're not very interested.. But wait till we come across a photo of ourselves! Then we get more interested! Well, maybe when we read through some of these names in Matthew 1, we might see our own face.
In Joshua 2 we read about Rahab. She was a harlot and her past life would have brought shame to her family, but later God used her to save their lives! She tied a scarlet thread at her window, and that saved her life.
She became a mother in Israel. Throughout the Bible, we see the scarlet thread of salvation. When Adam and Eve sinned and tried to hide from God (Genesis 3:21) God made coats of skin to clothe them. A lamb's blood was shed to cover their sin and shame. That scarlet thread (Christ's blood) is still what saves us... A salvage process so that God can make something of our lives.
The only reason that we are talking about these sinful events, these people's pasts, is because we can learn something from it. We can take courage to go on because no one is too much of a wreck for God to make something of their lives. No one cannot be salvaged through Christ's blood if they repent of their sin and do it again no more.
Matthew 1:6 "And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias (Uriah)." 2 Samuel 11: while Joab and his men were out fighting the enemy, David was at home napping. He rose up from his bed and saw Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. We know what happened... When God sent Nathan to point out his greedy sin, he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." He wrote Psalm 51 then. "Have mercy upon me, O God.... Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin... Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." etc. That woman, Bathsheba, became Solomon's mother... And part of the lineage of Christ.
One of my young companions once pointed out that every time Jesus spoke about someone from the Old Testament, He spoke in a complimentary way. No condemnation. Wonderful that God is willing to stoop down so low and restore, cleanse, forget. I don't know any of you, your pasts, or your failures... Things may have happened that should never have been... But God will forgive and heal and restore if there is true repentance. Some of these wrecks that we read of in the genealogy of Christ were forgiven so completely and today their names are on God's honour roll.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Obituary For Clarence H. Nelson
Clarence Harvey Nelson was born on March 24, 1922 to Chris and Christina Nelson in Bellevue, WA and passed peacefully into eternity on February 24, 2015 in Wenatchee, WA. Clarence was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Bertha; brother, Oliver. He is survived by his wife, Patty; brother, Philip and his wife, Mary; nieces and nephews, Douglas Nelson, Lori Hall, Beth Thompson, Marilyn Youngren, and Michael Nelson; eight grandnephews, and five grandnieces.
Clarence grew up on his family’s dairy farm near Bellevue, WA. Raised by faithful parents, he expressed his own choice to serve the Lord in 1937 at the age of 15. Clarence graduated from Bellevue High School in 1940 and continued to manage the dairy farm, which moved to Monroe in 1950 with his brother, Oliver. In 1958, Clarence left the farm and entered the ministry, laboring in Washington and Alaska. He suffered a stroke in 1981 which required him to step aside from the ministry to recover, during which time he worked with computers and helped others with their business finances. Clarence re-entered the ministry in 1988, laboring in Montana and Wyoming, until 2012 when he was unable to continue due to failing health. Clarence and Patty Trammell married in April 2013, and Patty cared for him with great kindness until his death.
Clarence enjoyed many hobbies including woodworking, watch repair, building PA systems with his brother, Philip, and making the tents used at church conventions. However, his greatest love was for the Word of God, and he was well known for the enthusiasm with which he preached the gospel message. Clarence truly loved and lived the message of truth and hope that he was so ready to share with others. He will be remembered for his all-consuming love for the Lord and for every soul.
Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 2, 2015 at the Wenatchee Red Lion. 1225 N Wenatchee Ave. Wenatchee, WA. 14951 Bothell Way, Seattle, WA. Please express your thoughts and memories on the online guest book at jonesjonesbetts.com. Arrangements are by Jones & Jones-Betts Funeral Home.
Clarence grew up on his family’s dairy farm near Bellevue, WA. Raised by faithful parents, he expressed his own choice to serve the Lord in 1937 at the age of 15. Clarence graduated from Bellevue High School in 1940 and continued to manage the dairy farm, which moved to Monroe in 1950 with his brother, Oliver. In 1958, Clarence left the farm and entered the ministry, laboring in Washington and Alaska. He suffered a stroke in 1981 which required him to step aside from the ministry to recover, during which time he worked with computers and helped others with their business finances. Clarence re-entered the ministry in 1988, laboring in Montana and Wyoming, until 2012 when he was unable to continue due to failing health. Clarence and Patty Trammell married in April 2013, and Patty cared for him with great kindness until his death.
Clarence enjoyed many hobbies including woodworking, watch repair, building PA systems with his brother, Philip, and making the tents used at church conventions. However, his greatest love was for the Word of God, and he was well known for the enthusiasm with which he preached the gospel message. Clarence truly loved and lived the message of truth and hope that he was so ready to share with others. He will be remembered for his all-consuming love for the Lord and for every soul.
Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 2, 2015 at the Wenatchee Red Lion. 1225 N Wenatchee Ave. Wenatchee, WA. 14951 Bothell Way, Seattle, WA. Please express your thoughts and memories on the online guest book at jonesjonesbetts.com. Arrangements are by Jones & Jones-Betts Funeral Home.
The Potter
DALE SCHULZ - 1989 - Potter / center of the wheel - Oak Lodge
We have had some very wonderful meetings here. I am sure we are grateful to have been in such an atmosphere and been so conscious at the Lord's presence, the Lord speaking and the Spirit of the Lord moving and as I just thought back on what we have enjoyed, there was just a prayer in my heart that what I would bring and share in this meeting would not in any way detract from what has been accomplished and we fear sometimes that – well, we just know that apart from the Lord’s guidance, we could so easily hinder rather than help.
I would like just to turn your attention to Jeremiah 18 this afternoon for a little while, and we might consider Jeremiah's experience at the potter's house and we can just read together a few verses. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying ••• so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. I want to read one more verse, it is a sad, sad verse, I don't think it has any relationship to our convention at all but let us just look at it. V.12 And they said there is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices ••• evil heart. It just rather shocked me when I read that verse a little further on. It was the response to Jeremiah's message to the children of Israel, and just to think with such a wonderful message of hope that there could be this response to it, they would say there is no hope. Everything about that message was hope but we just feel so very confident that hope, in every heart that the Lord's message of hope is stimulating and encouraging and inspiring in every heart.
The message to Jeremiah was: go down to the potter's house, then it just says: he went to the potter’s house and that helps us understand Jeremiah there has a little anxiety in his heart to get God's message, to be where God’s word would be revealed to him. Jeremiah just went and all you folks have come to convention. I am sure you have come for the same reason, because you are anxious about God’s message, you want to be where God’s message can be made clear to you, written upon your heart in a very real way. So he went to the potter's house and saw the work of the potter. Well, I am sure we feel we have been at the potter's house here. I just feel this appreciation as I stand here looking out over you folk. I just feel that I am looking out over the work of the Potter in this part of the country. This is the Potter’s work.
If we went to a pottery we would see vessels in various stages of process, we would see the clay that has just come into the pottery, we would see the vessels that have been completed, we would probably see a vessel on the wheel being shaped; we would see vessels on the shelf drying after they have been formed on the wheel, and we would see some vessels that had been through the kiln, through the fiery experience, and we would see them in different stages of process and our brother Robert was telling us today about this process we are going through. Looking out over you folks too, we see you at various stages of the process but it is so good that we are here in the Potter's house. This is where the work goes on and as Jeremiah found, even when things go wrong as sometimes they do, with one vessel it was marred but the potter made it again another vessel.
Maybe, I can just say something about that just at this point. I visited a pottery over in our country. As we were watching the potter work we asked about this little part of it, when something goes wrong with the vessel on the wheel what do you do? Well, he kind of knew why we were asking, he knew we were ministers. We would know something about Jeremiah 18 and he said: Well? in this pottery we don't, if something goes wrong with the vessel on the wheel we'd just throw the clay away, we don’t bother reworking the clay. In that particular pottery the clay comes into the pottery and all the preliminary work has been done, it is ready for the wheel. He said: we are not really equipped to rework the clay. He said: my time is valuable, clay is cheap, we just don't bother, and we throw it away.
I just felt so grateful that we have a Potter that He doesn't think that way regarding the clay that He works with. He doesn't say the clay is cheap. He doesn't say that the clay is precious to Him, the blood of Jesus purchased it, it is not cheap. These lives of ours they are not cheap, they are precious. He doesn't consider His time too valuable to work on them again and I am sure we feel that if the Potter didn’t have that kind of heart, well, I wouldn't be here. I don't know how many of you would say that but I think that would be the expression of many, maybe all, that we have needed mercy. What if the Potter hadn't remade the clay, what if He hadn't made it again another vessel? We would have missed so much, God’s Kingdom would have missed so much in the life of Peter when he failed. What with David, if the Potter hadn't made it again another vessel when he failed? What with Jonah if the Potter hadn't been willing to rework the clay to make it another vessel as seemed good to the Potter to make it?
I might share a little thought with you regarding Jonah. We studied Jonah not so many weeks ago where I have been and just some little fresh thoughts about Jonah as far as I was concerned. I might just share with you regarding the piece of clay that the Lord did remake, but there is a wonderful thing about that book that I appreciated and that is: the book begins with God speaking and the book ends with God speaking. It is a wonderful thing that the beginning and ending of the book God is speaking, still speaking to Jonah and Jonah at both ends of the book isn't really in such a wonderful spiritual condition. The beginning of the book he is just rebellious, in the end of the book he is angry, that is the last thing you read about him, he is angry but the hope of the book is that God was still speaking and I like to just remember that the book of Jonah just gives a small little segment of a man's experience; there is an afterwards to this book of Jonah that we really don't know very much about.
But there is a little verse back in 2 Kings 14 it may be good to just look at it. v.25 it says there about the Lord restoring the coast of Israel ••. according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah ••• and this is something that happened several years after the book of Jonah took place, this is part of the afterwards to Jonah's life, he referred to as God's servant. There was an afterwards of trueness and if we just had a little part of Peter's life and didn't have the afterwards, we have a wonderful afterwards recorded of Peter's life - we could be left with a part that would leave us with questions, wouldn't it, if we just had a little segment. The book of Jonah is a little segment of his life.
Well, then Jesus speaks always in positive tones of Jonah and I enjoyed this little thought about Jonah's experience that is recorded there in the first part just saying no to the will of God, running away, trying to run away, saying no and then he went through all that storm and experienced being taken to the depths and the Lord just planning experience after experience, the Lord having his welfare in mind and Jonah might have thought at times things were totally out of control but here was God planning his experience; God sent the storm, God prepared the fish. God spoke to the fish and said to deliver up Jonah to the shore and God prepared the gourd, caused it to grow then prepared the worm, then sent an east wind to come along to destroy the gourd and God was just working things out and often in our experience, that is what is happening, we hardly know it at the time, God is working things out.
Now, the first part of the book he is saying No. Then he got willing, then he got to the stage in his experience where he was outwardly in the will of God but inwardly out of tune with God. Sometimes, that is where we are, outwardly in the will of God, inwardly out of tune with God and he couldn't appreciate what God was doing for those people of Nineveh because he was out of tune, but God was still speaking. I enjoyed thinking of Jonah in connection with Jesus' words: except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. We think of two stages of Jonah's life. One stage he said no, he wouldn’t fall into the ground and then he got willing to go into the ground and maybe for a little while to die but then he got to that little stage where he was in the ground but wasn't dying, but God was still speaking, and we can just feel confident that Jonah learned to die, he learned to really die. We have been hearing about that previously in the meeting.
Anyway, let's come back to the potter and the clay. I kind of strayed. It's wonderful to know when things go wrong that the Potter will make us again another vessel. Well, just thinking about going to the potter's house and seeing what happens there, one thing we know is that the clay itself is all brought there to the potter's house. That is what the gospel is about, finding the clay, bringing it to the Potter’s house. There's a lot of clay in the world, not all clay is potter's clay. There are a lot of people in the world, there's just a few that the Lord is able to work with but, as you know, the wonderful thing is that it isn't beyond any of us to be potter’s clay, it is not beyond any of us. Potter's clay feels its need of God, it is not beyond anyone to feel their need of God. Potter’s clay is willing for the process, it is not beyond any of us to be willing for the process. It is not beyond any of us to be brought to the Potter's house. And placed in the Potter's hand because the ability is the Potter's, not our ability. If we counted on our ability that might just cancel us right out, in fact, it would, without question but this is the Potter's skill, we can all come to Him. It is not beyond any of us to be potter's clay.
Then, the Potter has a house, that is where He works, that is the fellowship of God’s people that is His house. We are so glad to be part of this House, just so grateful. Those of us who come from another land, we come here, we just know right away: this is the Potter's House. It is just like the Potter's House where we come from, we look out, we see those vessels they are just like the vessels where we come from, we see the kind of beauty that is being developed in lives, we see a love for Truth and righteousness in this world of sin and corruption, and it is the Potter's house. That is where He brings all this clay.
I heard one of our fellow servants who was over in a foreign land to him preaching the gospel and over in that land he went to a potter's house, and there they weren't quite as mechanized as in some other parts of the world, the equipment was very simple, many people were employed working the clay that was brought in there just right out of the place where it is dug, all the preliminary work was done there; we saw people working, working that clay and some of it was a work of cleansing, some a work of compacting, getting little air bubbles out of the clay; those little air bubbles, maybe they are something like pride, God's work is something that works that out of our lives, doesn't it? I enjoyed what we heard the first night - true unity depends on humility, wherever there is division, there is pride. Do you know there is a little verse, I think it's in Proverbs~ that says: only by pride cometh contention. Isn’t that quite a verse? Where there is contention, for sure there is pride. Part of the process is to get rid of the little air bubbles. What happens later? After the vessel is formed it goes to the kiln, heat is applied; that is the test and then if little air bubbles are still there, it hasn’t been detected and worked out, what can happen in that heat is that the little bit of air expands and forms a pressure and just kind of blows the side out of the vessel; in the test you get a little explosion, that is like pride.
Anyway, this servant of God watching all this work going on, he was talking to the potter what are all these people doing? And in the language of that country the potter used a word that meant this: they are making the clay obedient, getting the clay into the condition that when it gets on the wheel it is going to just respond to my hand; they are making it obedient and a lot of people are working, a lot of work was being done. This servant of God asked: do some of these other people work on the wheel? No, he said, just I do all the work on the wheel. Well, he said there’s a lot of people preparing the clay, can you keep up to what they are doing? Oh, he said, that's easy. I can easily keep up to what they are doing. It takes far more time for them to make the clay obedient than it does for me to shape it when it is on the wheel. I wondered with our lives if a lot of God’s effort, and even at convention here, is just making the clay obedient. That hymn says: Oh soften me and mold me and for Thy will prepare, and in all this work the Potter is making you soft. There needs to be the right amount of water in the clay then when it gets on the wheel and the potter begins to shape it, he is continually using water, he has a pail of water right beside him and dips his hand in; he doesn’t touch that clay without his hands being wet. This water, we know, is like God’s Word. That is what God uses to make us obedient, to soften us, that is what He uses then to shape us, to accomplish this work that He is anxious to do.
One time the potter was working, when he got finished working he said to those who were watching: did you notice with this vessel that the walls of the vessel are not even, but the thickness varies one side to the other in the walls of the vessel? He said, the reason that it happened like that was because I didn't get the clay perfectly centered on the wheel, there was just a little bit of wobble to it on the wheel, it made it so that the end product, the walls are not unified and the very first thing the potter does when he moves the clay over to the wheel is he tries to center it on the wheel. Maybe we can say that it's wonderful we are in the potter’s house but the work gets done when we are in the potter's hands and I hope none of us will be satisfied just to be in the Potter’s house. Some of us have spent all our days attending meetings, going to conventions and we might get familiar with the Potter’s house - wonderful to be here but we need to be in the Potter's hands, that is where the work gets done. That is a very individual thing, to be in the Potter’s hands.
Then getting this clay centered on the wheel, I like to think the wheel is like the will of God and then if the Potter can just get us centered right in the will of God, the will of God for you and the will of God for me, and the Potter knows where that center of the wheel is and the Potter’s hands will be pressuring us toward the center and I hope we will appreciate the center of the wheel. Sometimes I fear the center of the wheel, sometimes we might be afraid of the center of the will of God but that is where we need to be, that is where the work is perfected, in the center of the wheel, and if the clay is a little off center there will be a wobble, the work can't be done so perfectly and if the clay would get far enough off center the wheel would reject it, the centrifugal force of the wheel would just dispel it.
Sometimes we feel or would entertain the thought we would like to live somewhere near the border, we somehow fear the center of the wheel and want off the center and we would like to know how far off center we can be and still stay on the wheel. There is no mark on the wheel that tells where that place is, we have no way of knowing where that would happen. Someone has said: we are so prone to trust what we should fear and so prone to fear what we should trust. We sometimes fear the will of God. That is what we can trust the most and sometimes we are so prone to trust our own thinking and our own will; that is what we should fear.
I knew a young lad that grew up in a very good home, he is the youngest of four, his eldest brother is in the work, his two sisters are hearty professing women and this boy professed for a little while but somehow he feared the center of the wheel and he got off center and eventually the wheel rejected him and he was off the wheel altogether and maybe a good 20 years have passed, maybe 25, since he left the wheel and life has been cruel to him. He went down the road of drug addiction, the road of a broken marriage, illegal trafficking and in trouble with the law. He trusted what he should have feared and wonderful to say just a few months ago he came back, his life is on the wheel again, he is very anxious to find the center, very anxious, but he has come back with scars, some scars will remain the rest of his life, some scars even in his mental capacity, they will never be restored, we can trust the center of the wheel.
My companion and I visited a young lady in our field a few years ago, just a routine little visit that we try to accomplish for the young people away from home, and in the city where we were this young lady was at university. We had some concern about her because she was so talented with music, that is what she was studying at university, music, the distance she could have gone with music was really quite unlimited and we worried about her plans. Anyway, this day we were just having a little visit, we weren’t going to bring up our concern really, we just wanted to be an encouragement to her. She began to tell us, it was just her second year at university, she began to tell us about a relationship she had had that she had broken off. She said she just realized that wasn’t for her; he was a professing boy, but then she began to tell us about the university year, she said: it isn’t meaning as much to me as last year, I am just not getting as enthused about university this year. She went on a little bit about that, she told us her music does not enthrall. She went on and we were just wondering, she just continued on and on talking like this. Finally we thought we knew what she wanted to tell us. Are you wanting to tell us that God is speaking to you about the work? Yes. That is what she wanted to tell us and that was the center of the wheel for her, and now she has been three years in the harvest field; she was among the row that were at the airport when I left and wonderful to see her life in the center of the wheel.
She had quite a test upon her when she had been a year in the work. She had an elder sister in the work and that sister gave up in Linda’s first year in the work, hadn’t been all that easy. Her mother died when she was young, she had quite a bit of growing up years without her mother and then in the music world, that was a big adjustment; her first year had its difficulties, we wondered just what would happen when her sister gave up but, you know, Linda just put her roots down deeper, she is still in the center of the wheel. The center of the wheel for you may not be the work, but there is a center of the wheel for every one of us.
When the Potter works He works with one hand in the vessel the other hand outside; if the work is all on the outside, it would be an ornament but not a vessel. God is interested in vessel. God is interested in lives that have an inward capacity to hold something much more precious than themselves and He works on the inside and on the outside. Sometimes, maybe we could feel that maybe His work should all be on the inside but the Potter can't work like that, there needs to be pressure from both sides. You would end up with some odd looking piece of pottery if the potter just stuck his hand down the middle and there was no support on the outside in shaping on the outside. The Potter works on both sides and He will affect our heart. He will affect our mind, our activities, our standard, how we live, how we do business, how our home life goes, He will affect it all. He will affect how we spend our time.
We were talking to some young folks sometime and they were asking us about a certain place, wondering about going and we just said to them, if you went there, what would you think if you saw some of the workers there? Without any hesitation they said: we would be shocked. We just asked why would you be shocked. Because they have better things to do and you know, if we would go someplace where we would be shocked to see the workers, you think Christ would be there? Would we want to be anywhere, where He would not be with us? Moses prayed: if Thy presence go not with me, carry me not up thence, was his prayer. The time comes for the kiln testing.
One potter told us he said that lime is the clay's worst enemy, you get a little bit of it in the clay and you put it into the kiln and the chemical reaction with the heat, it would explode and affect other vessels, not just the vessel with the little bit of lime. There is a verse in Hebrews 12. v.15 Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up ••• many be defiled. A little root of bitterness could be something in our heart that would be like the clay's worst enemy, that in a certain situation there is a reaction that is wrong and it damages others, the tests bring it out. Somebody said: fill a barrel with anything, as long as you keep the barrel still and quiet, you hardly know what is in it but put it on a wagon or trailer and take it over a rough road, then you know what's in it, and we all prove that in our experience when we are tested over rough roads, what is in us spills out and we need to watch that we have grace.
I would just like to speak about the glazing, the final firing, just in closing. Have you ever watched a potter putting paint on pottery? You wonder why he is using the paint he is using because to us it just looks so drab and dark, we wonder why he is using it, it is not beautiful at all. It is marvelous what happens when the glazing material gets into the kiln, those colors change; the colors that look so drab become radiant; blacks become reds, things like that; it takes the final firing to bring that out and I just thought of the final firing being death. Some day we are going to face the final firing. Maybe some things in life we will never understand about, but the final firing will make the difference and when that time comes our tears will turn into joy. Jesus said: Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. Joyful; that happens in the final firing when all tears are wiped away, our suffering turned into glory - suffering must precede the glory - we may not understand now but in the final firing the color will be brilliant and the cross that we carry here will be exchanged for a crown in the final firing.
I think we will just sing the closing hymn for this meeting because it is a hymn I value. It is a hymn of prayer and it is 370, and we have the wonderful privilege of praying for each other as we go through this process. The 1st verse of 370 is a prayer for God's people, the 2nd is a prayer for His servants, and the last 2 applies to all of us. I wonder if we could sing it this way this afternoon in closing. If just the Lord's servants sing the 1st verse - that is the workers praying for God's people. The 2nd verse the workers are silent, you folk sing? This is your prayer for us, then all sing the last two verses. We do appreciate your prayers for the workers; we long to be faithful in praying for our friends. ~ ~ ~ ~
We have had some very wonderful meetings here. I am sure we are grateful to have been in such an atmosphere and been so conscious at the Lord's presence, the Lord speaking and the Spirit of the Lord moving and as I just thought back on what we have enjoyed, there was just a prayer in my heart that what I would bring and share in this meeting would not in any way detract from what has been accomplished and we fear sometimes that – well, we just know that apart from the Lord’s guidance, we could so easily hinder rather than help.
I would like just to turn your attention to Jeremiah 18 this afternoon for a little while, and we might consider Jeremiah's experience at the potter's house and we can just read together a few verses. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying ••• so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. I want to read one more verse, it is a sad, sad verse, I don't think it has any relationship to our convention at all but let us just look at it. V.12 And they said there is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices ••• evil heart. It just rather shocked me when I read that verse a little further on. It was the response to Jeremiah's message to the children of Israel, and just to think with such a wonderful message of hope that there could be this response to it, they would say there is no hope. Everything about that message was hope but we just feel so very confident that hope, in every heart that the Lord's message of hope is stimulating and encouraging and inspiring in every heart.
The message to Jeremiah was: go down to the potter's house, then it just says: he went to the potter’s house and that helps us understand Jeremiah there has a little anxiety in his heart to get God's message, to be where God’s word would be revealed to him. Jeremiah just went and all you folks have come to convention. I am sure you have come for the same reason, because you are anxious about God’s message, you want to be where God’s message can be made clear to you, written upon your heart in a very real way. So he went to the potter's house and saw the work of the potter. Well, I am sure we feel we have been at the potter's house here. I just feel this appreciation as I stand here looking out over you folk. I just feel that I am looking out over the work of the Potter in this part of the country. This is the Potter’s work.
If we went to a pottery we would see vessels in various stages of process, we would see the clay that has just come into the pottery, we would see the vessels that have been completed, we would probably see a vessel on the wheel being shaped; we would see vessels on the shelf drying after they have been formed on the wheel, and we would see some vessels that had been through the kiln, through the fiery experience, and we would see them in different stages of process and our brother Robert was telling us today about this process we are going through. Looking out over you folks too, we see you at various stages of the process but it is so good that we are here in the Potter's house. This is where the work goes on and as Jeremiah found, even when things go wrong as sometimes they do, with one vessel it was marred but the potter made it again another vessel.
Maybe, I can just say something about that just at this point. I visited a pottery over in our country. As we were watching the potter work we asked about this little part of it, when something goes wrong with the vessel on the wheel what do you do? Well, he kind of knew why we were asking, he knew we were ministers. We would know something about Jeremiah 18 and he said: Well? in this pottery we don't, if something goes wrong with the vessel on the wheel we'd just throw the clay away, we don’t bother reworking the clay. In that particular pottery the clay comes into the pottery and all the preliminary work has been done, it is ready for the wheel. He said: we are not really equipped to rework the clay. He said: my time is valuable, clay is cheap, we just don't bother, and we throw it away.
I just felt so grateful that we have a Potter that He doesn't think that way regarding the clay that He works with. He doesn't say the clay is cheap. He doesn't say that the clay is precious to Him, the blood of Jesus purchased it, it is not cheap. These lives of ours they are not cheap, they are precious. He doesn't consider His time too valuable to work on them again and I am sure we feel that if the Potter didn’t have that kind of heart, well, I wouldn't be here. I don't know how many of you would say that but I think that would be the expression of many, maybe all, that we have needed mercy. What if the Potter hadn't remade the clay, what if He hadn't made it again another vessel? We would have missed so much, God’s Kingdom would have missed so much in the life of Peter when he failed. What with David, if the Potter hadn't made it again another vessel when he failed? What with Jonah if the Potter hadn't been willing to rework the clay to make it another vessel as seemed good to the Potter to make it?
I might share a little thought with you regarding Jonah. We studied Jonah not so many weeks ago where I have been and just some little fresh thoughts about Jonah as far as I was concerned. I might just share with you regarding the piece of clay that the Lord did remake, but there is a wonderful thing about that book that I appreciated and that is: the book begins with God speaking and the book ends with God speaking. It is a wonderful thing that the beginning and ending of the book God is speaking, still speaking to Jonah and Jonah at both ends of the book isn't really in such a wonderful spiritual condition. The beginning of the book he is just rebellious, in the end of the book he is angry, that is the last thing you read about him, he is angry but the hope of the book is that God was still speaking and I like to just remember that the book of Jonah just gives a small little segment of a man's experience; there is an afterwards to this book of Jonah that we really don't know very much about.
But there is a little verse back in 2 Kings 14 it may be good to just look at it. v.25 it says there about the Lord restoring the coast of Israel ••. according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah ••• and this is something that happened several years after the book of Jonah took place, this is part of the afterwards to Jonah's life, he referred to as God's servant. There was an afterwards of trueness and if we just had a little part of Peter's life and didn't have the afterwards, we have a wonderful afterwards recorded of Peter's life - we could be left with a part that would leave us with questions, wouldn't it, if we just had a little segment. The book of Jonah is a little segment of his life.
Well, then Jesus speaks always in positive tones of Jonah and I enjoyed this little thought about Jonah's experience that is recorded there in the first part just saying no to the will of God, running away, trying to run away, saying no and then he went through all that storm and experienced being taken to the depths and the Lord just planning experience after experience, the Lord having his welfare in mind and Jonah might have thought at times things were totally out of control but here was God planning his experience; God sent the storm, God prepared the fish. God spoke to the fish and said to deliver up Jonah to the shore and God prepared the gourd, caused it to grow then prepared the worm, then sent an east wind to come along to destroy the gourd and God was just working things out and often in our experience, that is what is happening, we hardly know it at the time, God is working things out.
Now, the first part of the book he is saying No. Then he got willing, then he got to the stage in his experience where he was outwardly in the will of God but inwardly out of tune with God. Sometimes, that is where we are, outwardly in the will of God, inwardly out of tune with God and he couldn't appreciate what God was doing for those people of Nineveh because he was out of tune, but God was still speaking. I enjoyed thinking of Jonah in connection with Jesus' words: except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. We think of two stages of Jonah's life. One stage he said no, he wouldn’t fall into the ground and then he got willing to go into the ground and maybe for a little while to die but then he got to that little stage where he was in the ground but wasn't dying, but God was still speaking, and we can just feel confident that Jonah learned to die, he learned to really die. We have been hearing about that previously in the meeting.
Anyway, let's come back to the potter and the clay. I kind of strayed. It's wonderful to know when things go wrong that the Potter will make us again another vessel. Well, just thinking about going to the potter's house and seeing what happens there, one thing we know is that the clay itself is all brought there to the potter's house. That is what the gospel is about, finding the clay, bringing it to the Potter’s house. There's a lot of clay in the world, not all clay is potter's clay. There are a lot of people in the world, there's just a few that the Lord is able to work with but, as you know, the wonderful thing is that it isn't beyond any of us to be potter’s clay, it is not beyond any of us. Potter's clay feels its need of God, it is not beyond anyone to feel their need of God. Potter’s clay is willing for the process, it is not beyond any of us to be willing for the process. It is not beyond any of us to be brought to the Potter's house. And placed in the Potter's hand because the ability is the Potter's, not our ability. If we counted on our ability that might just cancel us right out, in fact, it would, without question but this is the Potter's skill, we can all come to Him. It is not beyond any of us to be potter's clay.
Then, the Potter has a house, that is where He works, that is the fellowship of God’s people that is His house. We are so glad to be part of this House, just so grateful. Those of us who come from another land, we come here, we just know right away: this is the Potter's House. It is just like the Potter's House where we come from, we look out, we see those vessels they are just like the vessels where we come from, we see the kind of beauty that is being developed in lives, we see a love for Truth and righteousness in this world of sin and corruption, and it is the Potter's house. That is where He brings all this clay.
I heard one of our fellow servants who was over in a foreign land to him preaching the gospel and over in that land he went to a potter's house, and there they weren't quite as mechanized as in some other parts of the world, the equipment was very simple, many people were employed working the clay that was brought in there just right out of the place where it is dug, all the preliminary work was done there; we saw people working, working that clay and some of it was a work of cleansing, some a work of compacting, getting little air bubbles out of the clay; those little air bubbles, maybe they are something like pride, God's work is something that works that out of our lives, doesn't it? I enjoyed what we heard the first night - true unity depends on humility, wherever there is division, there is pride. Do you know there is a little verse, I think it's in Proverbs~ that says: only by pride cometh contention. Isn’t that quite a verse? Where there is contention, for sure there is pride. Part of the process is to get rid of the little air bubbles. What happens later? After the vessel is formed it goes to the kiln, heat is applied; that is the test and then if little air bubbles are still there, it hasn’t been detected and worked out, what can happen in that heat is that the little bit of air expands and forms a pressure and just kind of blows the side out of the vessel; in the test you get a little explosion, that is like pride.
Anyway, this servant of God watching all this work going on, he was talking to the potter what are all these people doing? And in the language of that country the potter used a word that meant this: they are making the clay obedient, getting the clay into the condition that when it gets on the wheel it is going to just respond to my hand; they are making it obedient and a lot of people are working, a lot of work was being done. This servant of God asked: do some of these other people work on the wheel? No, he said, just I do all the work on the wheel. Well, he said there’s a lot of people preparing the clay, can you keep up to what they are doing? Oh, he said, that's easy. I can easily keep up to what they are doing. It takes far more time for them to make the clay obedient than it does for me to shape it when it is on the wheel. I wondered with our lives if a lot of God’s effort, and even at convention here, is just making the clay obedient. That hymn says: Oh soften me and mold me and for Thy will prepare, and in all this work the Potter is making you soft. There needs to be the right amount of water in the clay then when it gets on the wheel and the potter begins to shape it, he is continually using water, he has a pail of water right beside him and dips his hand in; he doesn’t touch that clay without his hands being wet. This water, we know, is like God’s Word. That is what God uses to make us obedient, to soften us, that is what He uses then to shape us, to accomplish this work that He is anxious to do.
One time the potter was working, when he got finished working he said to those who were watching: did you notice with this vessel that the walls of the vessel are not even, but the thickness varies one side to the other in the walls of the vessel? He said, the reason that it happened like that was because I didn't get the clay perfectly centered on the wheel, there was just a little bit of wobble to it on the wheel, it made it so that the end product, the walls are not unified and the very first thing the potter does when he moves the clay over to the wheel is he tries to center it on the wheel. Maybe we can say that it's wonderful we are in the potter’s house but the work gets done when we are in the potter's hands and I hope none of us will be satisfied just to be in the Potter’s house. Some of us have spent all our days attending meetings, going to conventions and we might get familiar with the Potter’s house - wonderful to be here but we need to be in the Potter's hands, that is where the work gets done. That is a very individual thing, to be in the Potter’s hands.
Then getting this clay centered on the wheel, I like to think the wheel is like the will of God and then if the Potter can just get us centered right in the will of God, the will of God for you and the will of God for me, and the Potter knows where that center of the wheel is and the Potter’s hands will be pressuring us toward the center and I hope we will appreciate the center of the wheel. Sometimes I fear the center of the wheel, sometimes we might be afraid of the center of the will of God but that is where we need to be, that is where the work is perfected, in the center of the wheel, and if the clay is a little off center there will be a wobble, the work can't be done so perfectly and if the clay would get far enough off center the wheel would reject it, the centrifugal force of the wheel would just dispel it.
Sometimes we feel or would entertain the thought we would like to live somewhere near the border, we somehow fear the center of the wheel and want off the center and we would like to know how far off center we can be and still stay on the wheel. There is no mark on the wheel that tells where that place is, we have no way of knowing where that would happen. Someone has said: we are so prone to trust what we should fear and so prone to fear what we should trust. We sometimes fear the will of God. That is what we can trust the most and sometimes we are so prone to trust our own thinking and our own will; that is what we should fear.
I knew a young lad that grew up in a very good home, he is the youngest of four, his eldest brother is in the work, his two sisters are hearty professing women and this boy professed for a little while but somehow he feared the center of the wheel and he got off center and eventually the wheel rejected him and he was off the wheel altogether and maybe a good 20 years have passed, maybe 25, since he left the wheel and life has been cruel to him. He went down the road of drug addiction, the road of a broken marriage, illegal trafficking and in trouble with the law. He trusted what he should have feared and wonderful to say just a few months ago he came back, his life is on the wheel again, he is very anxious to find the center, very anxious, but he has come back with scars, some scars will remain the rest of his life, some scars even in his mental capacity, they will never be restored, we can trust the center of the wheel.
My companion and I visited a young lady in our field a few years ago, just a routine little visit that we try to accomplish for the young people away from home, and in the city where we were this young lady was at university. We had some concern about her because she was so talented with music, that is what she was studying at university, music, the distance she could have gone with music was really quite unlimited and we worried about her plans. Anyway, this day we were just having a little visit, we weren’t going to bring up our concern really, we just wanted to be an encouragement to her. She began to tell us, it was just her second year at university, she began to tell us about a relationship she had had that she had broken off. She said she just realized that wasn’t for her; he was a professing boy, but then she began to tell us about the university year, she said: it isn’t meaning as much to me as last year, I am just not getting as enthused about university this year. She went on a little bit about that, she told us her music does not enthrall. She went on and we were just wondering, she just continued on and on talking like this. Finally we thought we knew what she wanted to tell us. Are you wanting to tell us that God is speaking to you about the work? Yes. That is what she wanted to tell us and that was the center of the wheel for her, and now she has been three years in the harvest field; she was among the row that were at the airport when I left and wonderful to see her life in the center of the wheel.
She had quite a test upon her when she had been a year in the work. She had an elder sister in the work and that sister gave up in Linda’s first year in the work, hadn’t been all that easy. Her mother died when she was young, she had quite a bit of growing up years without her mother and then in the music world, that was a big adjustment; her first year had its difficulties, we wondered just what would happen when her sister gave up but, you know, Linda just put her roots down deeper, she is still in the center of the wheel. The center of the wheel for you may not be the work, but there is a center of the wheel for every one of us.
When the Potter works He works with one hand in the vessel the other hand outside; if the work is all on the outside, it would be an ornament but not a vessel. God is interested in vessel. God is interested in lives that have an inward capacity to hold something much more precious than themselves and He works on the inside and on the outside. Sometimes, maybe we could feel that maybe His work should all be on the inside but the Potter can't work like that, there needs to be pressure from both sides. You would end up with some odd looking piece of pottery if the potter just stuck his hand down the middle and there was no support on the outside in shaping on the outside. The Potter works on both sides and He will affect our heart. He will affect our mind, our activities, our standard, how we live, how we do business, how our home life goes, He will affect it all. He will affect how we spend our time.
We were talking to some young folks sometime and they were asking us about a certain place, wondering about going and we just said to them, if you went there, what would you think if you saw some of the workers there? Without any hesitation they said: we would be shocked. We just asked why would you be shocked. Because they have better things to do and you know, if we would go someplace where we would be shocked to see the workers, you think Christ would be there? Would we want to be anywhere, where He would not be with us? Moses prayed: if Thy presence go not with me, carry me not up thence, was his prayer. The time comes for the kiln testing.
One potter told us he said that lime is the clay's worst enemy, you get a little bit of it in the clay and you put it into the kiln and the chemical reaction with the heat, it would explode and affect other vessels, not just the vessel with the little bit of lime. There is a verse in Hebrews 12. v.15 Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up ••• many be defiled. A little root of bitterness could be something in our heart that would be like the clay's worst enemy, that in a certain situation there is a reaction that is wrong and it damages others, the tests bring it out. Somebody said: fill a barrel with anything, as long as you keep the barrel still and quiet, you hardly know what is in it but put it on a wagon or trailer and take it over a rough road, then you know what's in it, and we all prove that in our experience when we are tested over rough roads, what is in us spills out and we need to watch that we have grace.
I would just like to speak about the glazing, the final firing, just in closing. Have you ever watched a potter putting paint on pottery? You wonder why he is using the paint he is using because to us it just looks so drab and dark, we wonder why he is using it, it is not beautiful at all. It is marvelous what happens when the glazing material gets into the kiln, those colors change; the colors that look so drab become radiant; blacks become reds, things like that; it takes the final firing to bring that out and I just thought of the final firing being death. Some day we are going to face the final firing. Maybe some things in life we will never understand about, but the final firing will make the difference and when that time comes our tears will turn into joy. Jesus said: Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. Joyful; that happens in the final firing when all tears are wiped away, our suffering turned into glory - suffering must precede the glory - we may not understand now but in the final firing the color will be brilliant and the cross that we carry here will be exchanged for a crown in the final firing.
I think we will just sing the closing hymn for this meeting because it is a hymn I value. It is a hymn of prayer and it is 370, and we have the wonderful privilege of praying for each other as we go through this process. The 1st verse of 370 is a prayer for God's people, the 2nd is a prayer for His servants, and the last 2 applies to all of us. I wonder if we could sing it this way this afternoon in closing. If just the Lord's servants sing the 1st verse - that is the workers praying for God's people. The 2nd verse the workers are silent, you folk sing? This is your prayer for us, then all sing the last two verses. We do appreciate your prayers for the workers; we long to be faithful in praying for our friends. ~ ~ ~ ~
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Greatest Opportunity
Greatest Opportunity: It seems that one of the greatest opportunities
we have is just the opportunity to die to self. John 12:24 – “Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it
die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. Uncle Willie Jamieson told about
seeing in the middle of a river in China where a lot of the filth of the
city and sewage flowed, a beautiful lily growing. That seed knew how
to “refuse the evil, and choose the good,” and as it died there it could produce that beauty.
Whenever people are truly dying to self, you see in their lives the product of that death bringing a joy as in the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”. It doesn’t matter the surroundings; there will always be these things produced when there is a willingness to die. It is also beyond the place of death to self where the true fellowship and the presence of God is. In the Old Testament in order for the high priest to enter into the holiest of all places where God’s presence was, there had to be continual burnt offering being made but there were also other sacrifices that had to be slain, and the blood was used to make the way open to that holiest of all places where the ark was. In order for us to enter into fellowship with God, we must be willing to present our bodies as a living offering. There has to be that willingness to die to self and even then, we would be completely unworthy except for the sacrifice that Christ made enabling the way to be opened into the place where the presence of God is.
Christ said in John 17:3 – “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. When we go to a funeral of one of God’s servants or faithful people, we by faith, realize that they are now entered into a closer fellowship with the One above than ever before and by this, God also would be trying to help us to see that it is by dying to self daily that we can enter into the sweetest of all fellowships. It is so easy for us to think it is what we are doing that would be important but it seems, at least to me, that the opportunity we have of just dying daily is one of the greatest opportunities we have, as this is where the miracle of life springing forth can take place and through it, we can enter into a closer fellowship with the One above than ever before. It wasn’t that so many, like the foolish virgins had done a great deal wrong, but the thing that He had to tell them in the end was just “I know you not”. Why ? Probably because they had never just learned the value of dying completely to self, that the miracle of life and fellowship could take place.
John Stancliff
Whenever people are truly dying to self, you see in their lives the product of that death bringing a joy as in the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”. It doesn’t matter the surroundings; there will always be these things produced when there is a willingness to die. It is also beyond the place of death to self where the true fellowship and the presence of God is. In the Old Testament in order for the high priest to enter into the holiest of all places where God’s presence was, there had to be continual burnt offering being made but there were also other sacrifices that had to be slain, and the blood was used to make the way open to that holiest of all places where the ark was. In order for us to enter into fellowship with God, we must be willing to present our bodies as a living offering. There has to be that willingness to die to self and even then, we would be completely unworthy except for the sacrifice that Christ made enabling the way to be opened into the place where the presence of God is.
Christ said in John 17:3 – “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. When we go to a funeral of one of God’s servants or faithful people, we by faith, realize that they are now entered into a closer fellowship with the One above than ever before and by this, God also would be trying to help us to see that it is by dying to self daily that we can enter into the sweetest of all fellowships. It is so easy for us to think it is what we are doing that would be important but it seems, at least to me, that the opportunity we have of just dying daily is one of the greatest opportunities we have, as this is where the miracle of life springing forth can take place and through it, we can enter into a closer fellowship with the One above than ever before. It wasn’t that so many, like the foolish virgins had done a great deal wrong, but the thing that He had to tell them in the end was just “I know you not”. Why ? Probably because they had never just learned the value of dying completely to self, that the miracle of life and fellowship could take place.
John Stancliff
Monday, March 2, 2015
Psalm 122
Fred Quick – Psalm 122 – Dandenong 1944
I will read a
Psalm, the 122nd. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the
house of the LORD. 2, Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O
Jerusalem. 3, Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
4, whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony
of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD. 5, For there are
set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 6, Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. 7, Peace be
within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 8, For my brethren
and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 9, Because
of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good."
This is, I
believe, one of the psalms of David. This psalm has fit in with my
thoughts. David says, "I was glad when they said, Let us into the house
of the Lord." I believe this deals with what took place among the
children of Israel as they assembled on three occasions yearly before
the Lord. It didn't happen the first year they came out of Egypt. There
are certain things we have to be reminded of year by year. We, as they,
are apt to forget the provision that God has made for us and in
consequence fall victims to doubt and unbelief. I believe David said he
was glad, not because of the judgments of God upon his life only, but I
believe that David said this because, that in spite of failures and
shortcomings and sin, there was an adjustment made there. God could
deal with all the wrong there was in his life and was willing and able
to forgive him and enable him to go forward.
In Ezekiel 46:9
it says that when the people of the Lord came before the Lord in the
solemn feasts, he that entered by the north gate to worship shall go out
by way of the south gate, and he that entered by the south gate should
go out by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of
the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it. I
believe that God always intended that in gathering His people to these
solemn feasts they should gather not merely to meet with one another,
but to meet with the Lord. In considering this convention as a solemn
feast, there is need to strike a note of warning. In John 7:37, on the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, "If
any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." He had that living
water. This was speaking of the Spirit. I thought, as I read that verse,
how grieved Jesus must have been as year in and year out His professed
people, Israel, had gathered together without knowing the true purpose
of the feast. On the last day He stood and cried, "If any man thirst let
him come unto Me." Although they went through all the form - they
entered the gates and observed all, went in at one gate and out of the
opposite gate, as God said through Ezekiel, - they failed to discern the
true purpose of God. Jesus was anxious that people might come up with a
true purpose and to know His purpose and come into contact with a
person. It would thus be possible for people to come into the Presence
of God and yet not know that meeting with God, and His being able to
deal with them, to deal with their hearts and with things that should
not be in their lives.
There are
set “thrones of judgment.” David knew this, and said, "let us go into
the house of the Lord." It is possible to feel very self-sufficient or
on the other hand self-accusing. But if God can put His finger on what
is wrong, we would go out at the "opposite gate," or in other words, the
opposite condition. Come in with pride and go forth humbled, come in
hard and go out softened. The Lord can discern and deal with us and
bring us to an end of ourselves. We wouldn't go forth in the same
condition as we came in. It doesn't matter so much what gate we enter;
what does matter is which gate we leave by – whether we come in proud or
self-sufficient etc. – but it would be a calamity if there was no
change wrought of God. There is nothing but what God can deal with if we
will only allow Him. He can make us conscious of things we ourselves
are not conscious of. If God speaks to us in the light of His Presence,
we will be conscious of things we were not hitherto, and it is possible
for us to go in the opposite condition.
I believe it
was because of understanding this that made David glad. I don't believe
that enjoying the good of the feast would depend upon being in a sinless
condition. If that were so, there would be no need of all the things
recorded. A good feast as far as the individual is concerned, would
depend more on allowing God's dealings and to put away those things that
should not be in our lives, and be willing to go out in the opposite
condition.
God was
continually reminding them of the provision He had made for them and
even though there was set thrones of judgment, I feel that David feared
more than anything lest God became silent unto him. He said, "Lord be
not silent unto me," lest he became like one that went down to the pit.
This caused David more concern than the thought that there would be
things in his life that God would put His finger on - the fear that God
would not be able to speak.
There were
three feasts mentioned; there was the feast of the Passover - called
also the feast of unleavened bread. This was one of the solemn feasts. I
thought of it as being like us coming into the Presence of God – into
the house of God, if you like. The first feast was in the month "Abib."
The center of the Passover feast was the Lamb slain. They gathered
around and feasted upon it as the central figure. I believe He should be
the central figure of our gathering - the focal point of our attention -
the person we have come to see. We can gather around Him, having our
eyes anointed and feast upon the living bread. He should be the center.
Associated with that, there is the unleavened bread. Nothing could show
up the things that are wrong, that are working within us, better than to
get this vision of the Lamb of God as the central figure. Nothing else
will help us to make the adjustment that is so necessary more than this.
We read of the
feast of the first fruits and the feast of the seventh month. In all
these things God is reminding us of all His Truth. He reminded them of
the provision He had made. Judgment was there but it was also tempered
with mercy. Such a gathering helps us to know ourselves, our failures
and our sins. No one else knows what I am except God and myself. I don't
believe He brought us here to bring all this to light merely. If we got
what we deserve, I don't think we would enjoy convention. One reason
David was glad in his heart - He felt he couldn't go on without this. It
was necessary that he might not only know himself but also to know
God's love and mercy. There is no excuse for any person if we will stand
in the Presence of God and not allow His dealings. His work is perfect
and complete. The least of all excuses would be sin; it couldn't be an
excuse in the Presence of God. We often excuse ourselves because of
being conscious of what is in us. God is continually reminding us of the
provision He has made for this.
There is the
"Feast of Trumpets" spoken of - the day of atonement. The fifteenth day
of the seventh month there was the Feast of Tabernacles. (Leviticus
23:34) It had become just a religious ceremony in the time of Jesus. The
sacrifices were offered, but there was little understanding of what it
meant. If they had, they would have all been able to use the language
that David used and say, “I am glad…" Sacrifice was associated with it.
We read of the
two goats being taken to the door of the Tabernacle. One was sacrificed
for the sin offering; Aaron laid his hands on its head and confessed the
sins of the people. The other was taken to the wilderness. God was thus
reminding them of the provision He had made for sin. It wasn't only the
first time He reminded them, but year in, year out their sins had to be
confessed and removed by the grace of God, by a gracious loving Father.
Many came, conscious perhaps of a great burden. They were burdened down
with many things, but there was no need to go away like that. They were
conscious of the trumpet, of Jubilee, or that God would not bring that
up again. The past is over and done with.
This can be
coupled with what we read in Revelation 2:17. "He that hath an ear let
him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches –to him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white
stone," etc. This is a promise to the overcomers. That does not mean a
sinless person, but one who has availed himself of the provision God has
made. This symbol is taken from the ancient custom of breaking a stone
and giving half to the person who was charged with an offence and the
other half retained, so that if ever that person was charged again with
the same offence, the stones could be compared and the pieces would fit
in and show that his case had already been dealt with and it was no
longer held against him. I have felt that this was just what the Day of
Atonement speaks of. There is a side of it that belongs to God, and a
side that belongs to us. He has kept His promise as far as He is
concerned – our sins and iniquities will He remember no more.
What about our
side? Will we come into God's presence and allow Him to deal with our
hearts and not go out and do the same thing again? As far as God is
concerned He is faithful in doing His part. We have had to admit
shortcomings and weakness. God does His part and He can keep us in that
condition and help us to be conscious of His help, and He strengthens
us. So there is much suggested to us by the Feast of Tabernacles.
Some gatherings
were outstanding. After a lapse of years, in Nehemiah's day, they kept a
wonderful feast (Nehemiah 8:17). We read how they got branches and made
booths. This part had not been kept since the days of Joshua, and there
was very great gladness, yet every year back to that time, God had been
reminding them. He reminded them in this, that they were strangers and
pilgrims here, the same as Abraham.
We are looking
to that city which has foundations. God seeks to remind us of this
still. We are strangers in this world and not of the world, the same as
Abraham. We too, are looking to that city which has foundations. David's
life was a wandering life, and that part seemed to stand out; although
he was king, God's presence when he was a wanderer meant more to him
than life in a palace and dwelling in the city of David. In the book of
Samuel we read it was in this man's heart to build a house unto the Name
of the Lord. God didn't allow David to actually do this, although He
said that it was well it was in his heart. So much could have been said
of the evidence in his life that he lived for something different to
those around him. He was able to say (I Chronicles 22:14)"Behold in my
trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord." He wasn't destined
to have his name called upon it; that honor went to another man, but it
was the thing that he lived for and that meant more to him than anything
else.
Does the name
of the Lord mean more to us than the things that mean ease, comfort,
etc.? If the Lord could look on our lives and see that in reality if it
had not been for David there would have been no preparation and perhaps
no Temple. Many of those things we read of in connection with the
Temple, because of David living for the things that were to adorn the
house of the Lord, would not have been there otherwise.
Some months ago
a thing impressed me as I read of some of the Minor Prophets,
especially in Haggai and Zechariah. They lived about the same time as
Ezra and Nehemiah. The Temple then wasn't rebuilt. Enemies had succeeded
in weakening their hands. They were in great distress because of the
people of the land. Haggai and Zechariah rose up and they built. I was
impressed by the message that God spoke through Haggai, "Is it time for
you, 0 ye people to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lie
waste?" They were dwelling in comfort in their houses - not doing
anything wrong to speak of, but they hadn't done as David had done. What
caused them to rise and build? The ministry of those two men inspired
them.
In chapter 2,
verse 3, the question was asked, "Who is left among you that saw this
house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not in your
eyes in comparison as nothing?" They had far more to go on to. Jerusalem
had known the time when it was circled by walls around about it. In
spite of what they saw around them, these men with anointed eyes could
see great possibilities ahead. They arose and spoke to the people of
God, and arose and built, and the work was finished.
Returning to
what I was speaking of: I thought of the High Priest appearing before
the Lord, and of them looking upon the Lamb that was slain and partaking
of the feast with their vision renewed, also of the ministry of the
High Priest associated with the gathering there. He had to offer first
an offering for his own sins because he was also a man subject to these
things, and as a figure or type of our Great High Priest.
There were
twelve stones on the high priest's garment, as he went into the presence
of God to bear upon his heart the children of Israel. This has spoken
to me, as I thought of those jewels on the vesture of the High Priest.
We are precious to Him, He who was tempted in every way as we are but
was without sin, who is able also to succor those who are tempted, who
ministers as our Great High Priest in the presence of God and takes upon
Him our cares, and takes up our case as our advocate in the presence of
God. So many things have been recorded in order that we might
understand all that Jesus means to us, not only as shown in the scape
goat, but in bearing in His body our sins upon the tree. He was also the
sin offering. The Old Testament is precious on account of the wealth
of its detail. It requires all this to show the wealth of detail and
thus bring home to us all that He is to us. These things help us to
realize more fully all that He has done. I don't think we would find it
in the heart of any of us to withhold. It is not a rod to chastise us
but an appeal to all the best that is in us.
We are reminded
of all that He has done for us again these days, and our hearts are
softened and our purposes renewed before God. "Thou Art Worthy” is the
song of the redeemed; the song of Moses and the Lamb is a song we will
learn here but sing there. That is the experience of those whose hearts
God could touch: "Thou art worthy of the best that is in me, all that I
have and am."
Could you
imagine Peter holding back after what he had seen in Gethsemane? The
word means "wine-press"- "oil press." We see what it produced in Jesus.
He prayed, and then found the disciples sleeping. The Lord said the
spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. He acknowledged every effort
that was made; we would be more likely to find fault. It is only the
wine press, the oil press that produces the best. When Peter denied
Jesus and the cock crew, Jesus looked at Peter and it broke his heart.
What kind of a look would we give? There was something in that look that
was the result of pressure. It spoke louder than any words. When on the
Cross, before His last breath - when the mob had done their worst and
had caused Him to suffer - He prayed, "Father, forgive them". That is
not in us by nature. God can so work in us as to make us Christ - like.
Everything that He has, has been provided at a time like this. God
desires to do what is necessary so that as we go forth, we will feel
that it is possible for us to do His will. The language we often use
is, "I should do it, I should act like that" and resolve that I will
seek so to act. I believe that the language of Paul could be ours also –
"I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me" – that we
will go forth strengthened as the result of the time spent here in His
presence, like David, conscious of the fact that it doesn't matter which
gate we come in by; what does matter is the way we go out.
I have valued His dealings with me and would long to "do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Cross Of Jesus
When I think of the cross, there are always negative things associated
with it – pain and suffering. But I’d like to think of it in a positive
way - the beauty of the cross. In Matthew 27:39-40, and those who passed
by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy
the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the
Son of God, come down from the cross.” This is
the beauty of giving. Jesus could have saved himself and we know that
the Father could easily send an angel to take him down from the cross,
but Jesus did not save himself – he gave himself. Jesus was not thinking
of himself, he was thinking of others. In verse 42, "He saved others;
he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now
from the cross, and we will believe in him…”He was not selfish but
selfless. This is another beauty of the cross. There is beauty in
selflessness. Jesus was willing to be selfless even unto death. In
Philippians 2:8, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Selflessness is not only thinking less of self but not thinking of self
at all. This is another beauty of the cross – selflessness. In verse 43,
“...He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For
he said, 'I am the Son of God.'” Jesus had the power to deliver himself,
but he did not. He denied himself of that power. This is the beauty of
self-denial. In 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, Paul said, “For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are
saved it is the power of God.” The preaching of the cross is the power
of God. There is beauty in self-denial. Hebrews 12:2, looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. We will see the beauty of the cross
if we look at it in this viewpoint. Jesus looked beyond the cross, He
didn't look on the hardship or pain and suffering associated with it but
looked far beyond it – the joy, the crown…
Enjoyed this thought shared from our Union Sunday meeting:
Enjoyed this thought shared from our Union Sunday meeting:
Romans 8:26-27
Bible Sharing
Romans 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit help us in our weakness. We do not know what ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Thoughts on this verse.. Most of us will face very difficult circumstances in our lives. When we do, we will likely feel that our prayers just bounce off the ceiling. Our words will seem empty and useless. We can't seem verbalize what is in our hearts. We feel like our words are ineffective and insufficient. So what do we do? We trust this promise. We go to God in prayer! Even when we don't have words to say, we offer our hearts to Him trusting that the Holy Spirit takes those thoughts, emotions and in articulate frustrations to God. The Spirit makes our hearts known to God, interceding for us according to God's will. Even when we don't have words,The Spirit makes our needs known.
Romans 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit help us in our weakness. We do not know what ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Thoughts on this verse.. Most of us will face very difficult circumstances in our lives. When we do, we will likely feel that our prayers just bounce off the ceiling. Our words will seem empty and useless. We can't seem verbalize what is in our hearts. We feel like our words are ineffective and insufficient. So what do we do? We trust this promise. We go to God in prayer! Even when we don't have words to say, we offer our hearts to Him trusting that the Holy Spirit takes those thoughts, emotions and in articulate frustrations to God. The Spirit makes our hearts known to God, interceding for us according to God's will. Even when we don't have words,The Spirit makes our needs known.
What a tremendous reassuring grace!
R. Villanueva
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)