The Things Revealed

I've been thinking a lot lately on Deut. 29:29: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law". For the new year I want to focus on the things that God has revealed, and give myself whole heartedly to following after them.

Here are some comments by D.A. Carson on this verse:

"...we cannot know many hidden things. But what has been revealed to us...is what must capture our interest and devoted obedience.

"...we must frankly admit that some things are hidden from our eyes. We really do not understand, for instance, the relationships between time and eternity, nor do we have much of an idea how the God who inhabits eternity discloses himself to us in our finite, space/time history. It is revealed that he does...but we do not know how. We do not know how God can be both personal and sovereign/transcendent; we do not know how the one God can be triune.

"Yet in none of these cases is this a subtle appeal to ignorance, or an irresponsible hiding behind the irrational or the mystical. When we admit - indeed, insist - that there are mysteries about these matters, we do not admit they are nonsensical or self-contradictory. Rather, we are saying that we do not know enough, and we admit our ignorance.

"Indeed...the implication is that it would be presumptuous to claim we do know, or even to spend too much time trying to find out--lest we should be presuming on God's exclusive terrain. Some things may be temporarily hidden to induce us to search...But that is not a universal rule: the very first sin involved trying to know some hidden things and thus be like God. In such cases, the path of wisdom is reverent worship of him who knows all things, and careful adherence to what he has graciously disclosed." (emphasis added)

May the new year ahead find us worshipping and adhering.

That I may know Him

In my desire to know God, I often get tangled up in trying to "figure Him out" in the process. In my continued reading through Charnock (working on "omnipresence" still) I found some great excerpts that help keep me pursuing HIM rather than merely a cerebral understanding of Him (which is impossible anyway!).

"God sits above the cherubims (Ezek. 10:1), above the fulness, above the brightness, not only of a human, but a created understanding. Nothing is more present than God, yet nothing more hid; he is light, and yet obscurity; his perfections are visible, yet unsearchable; we know there is an infinite God, but it surpasseth the compass of our minds;...How can we then comprehend God, who exceeds all, and is exceeded by none; contains all, and is contained by none; is above our understanding, as well as above our sense? as considered in himself infinite; as considered in comparison with our understandings, incomprehensible...God is greater, and we cannot know him...He is known by faith, enjoyed by love, but comprehended by no mind...

"How should we never think of God without a holy admiration of his greatness, and a deep sense of our own littleness! and as the angels cover their faces before him, with what awe should creeping worms come into his sight! and since God fills heaven and earth with his presence, we should fill heaven and earth with his glory; for this end he created angels to praise him in heaven, and men to worship him on earth, that the places he fills with his presence may be filled with his praise: we should be swallowed up in admiration of the immensity of God, as men are at the first sight of the sea, when they behold a mass of waters, without beholding the bounds and immense depth of it."

Col. 1:11

"Col. 1:11 - 'Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.' Sometimes nothing helps us more than to read and re-read some great word of our God's. We can renew our strength by reading it not just in one version, but in many. Each yields some new emphasis, some fresh light. Col. 1:11 is a fathomless word. Ponder these different translations.

"Moffatt: 'May His glorious might nerve you with full power to endure and to be patient cheerfully, whatever comes.'

"Weymouth: 'Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and longsuffering.'

"Way: 'I ask Him that with all His strength you may be strengthened, even to the measure of the might of His divine majesty, till you attain to all-enduring patience and forbearance, which exults under suffering.'

"The devil will see to it that there is something to try the spirit today. He always sharpens his fiery darts. But he can do nothing against this shield." Whispers of His Power by Amy Carmichael, pp. 155, 156.

Quote for the day

"A close and fretful inquiry into how spiritual things 'work' is an exercise in futility. Even wondering how 'natural' things are going to work if you bring God into them is sometimes an awful waste of energy. God knows how. Why should I bother my head about it if I've turned it over to Him?" Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot, p. 70.

"Be exalted, O God"

The more I read and study God's Word, the more impressed I am with its relevance to my life today. D.A. Carson, in commenting on Psalm 108, points out the great richness of Scripture and how we should respond in exalting Him.

"...although all of Scripture is true and important, deserving study, reflection, and carefully applied thought, the Lord God in his wisdom did not give us a Bible of abstract principles, but highly diverse texts woven into highly diverse situations. Despite the diversity, of course, there is still only one sweeping storyline, and only one Mind ultimately behind it. But the rich tapestry of varied human experience reflected in the different biblical books and passages - not least in the different psalms - enables the Bible to speak to us with peculiar force and power when the 'fit' between the experience of the human author and our experience is especially intimate.

"For this astonishing wealth, God deserves reverent praise. What mind but his, what compass of understanding but his, what providential oversight over the production of Scripture but his, could produce a work so unified yet so profoundly diverse? Here, too, is reason to join our 'Amen' to the words of [Psalm] 108:5: 'Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.'"

Excerpts from Spurgeon

I am reading D.A. Carson's book Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. In chapter three he gives excerpts of prayer from The Pastor in Prayer by Spurgeon. Although it is rather long, I would like to share it with you here.

"Our hearts rejoice to hear the gladsome tiding that the Lord reigneth. Let His kingdom be established over the sons of men, for His kingdom must come, and of it there will be no end. Behold, we come to Thy throne this morning bearing about with us a body of sin and death, and consequently much of sin, and much of care, and it may be much of sorrow; but we would be unburdened at Thy mercy-seat now. As for our cares we are ashamed that we have them, seeing Thou carest for us. We have trusted Thee now for many years, and Thy faithfulness has never been under suspicion, nor Thy love a matter of question.

"We there leave every concern about our families or about ourselves, about our business, or about our souls, entirely with our God. And as for our sin, we bless Thee for a sight of the precious blood of Jesus: when Thou seest it Thou dost pass over us. No angel of justice smites where once the blood is sprinkled. Oh, let us have a sight of the blood of Jesus, too, and rest because Thou hast for ever put away our sin, because we believe in Jesus.

"Oh, let the masses of the people yet come to seek after Christ: by some means, by all means, by every means, may the ears of men be reached and then their hearts be touched. May they hear, that their souls may live; and may the Lord who in everlasting covenant sets forth His Son, glorify Him in the midst of the nations. Let all the nations know the Christ of God.

"But, Lord, we have yet another burden - it is that we ourselves do not love Thee as we should, that oftentimes we grow lukewarm and chill, and doubt creeps over us, and unbelief mars our confidence, and we sin and forget our God. O Lord help us! Pardon is not enough, we want sanctification. We beseech Thee let the weeds that grow in the seed plot of our soul be cut up by the roots. We do want to serve Thee. We long that every thought we think, and word we say or write, should be all for Thee.

"Most glorious Lord God, it is marvelous in our eyes that Thou shouldst become incarnate, that Thy Son should take our flesh upon Him. It surprises us greatly that the Lord of Life should condescend to die, and that the incorruptible One should be laid in the grave. We are full of loving gratitude, we are also full of adoring wonder. When we have stood at the sepulchre and looked into it and thought of Jesus having lain there, when we have seen it open and knew that it was empty, we bless Thy name that even He died and was buried, and magnify Thee that He is risen again from the dead.

"These great facts concerning our divine Lord are the foundation of our confidence in Him. We bless Thee that they have been attested by such four-fold witness, and yet further that afterwards He appeared alive to so large a number of those who knew Him, that the fact of His rising from the dead might never be questioned again. We do not question it, our hearts devoutly believe the fact, but Lord, we want by Thy Holy Spirit to know the facts in their living power. We wish that we might have fellowship with our Lord, who is our Head, in all this. Oh, that we might know how to die with Him, and to live with Him in newness of life.

"We lament that in the body of this death there is much that we abhor. We are tempted to indolence at times, and though busy in the world we become spiritually idle. Also, we are tempted to envy others because they excel us, and we mourn to confess the meanness of our spirit in this matter; and also we have to lament our pride. We have nothing to be proud of; the lowest place is ours; but Lord, we often conceive ourselves to be something when we are nothing. We pray Thee forgive all these vices of our nature; but at the same time kill them, for we hate ourselves to think we should fall into such evils. Especially have mercy upon us for our unbelief. Thou hast given us proof of Thine existence, and of Thy love to us, and of Thy care over us: especially hast Thou given us Thine only begotten Son, best pledge of love. And yet we acknowledge that we do doubt. Unbelief comes into the soul. We are quite ashamed of this. We could lie in the very dust to think it should be so. Lord, have mercy upon us; but also help us to be strong in faith in the future, giving glory to God.

"We now commit ourselves again to Thy keeping, O faithful Creator; to Thy keeping, O Saviour of the pierced hand; to Thy keeping, O eternal Spirit, Thou who art able to keep us from falling and sanctify us fully that we may be made to stand among the saints in light. O God, we can trust Thee, and we do. Our faith has gathered strength by the lapse of years. Each following birthday, we trust, confirms us in the fact that to rely upon God is our happiness and our strength, and we will do so, though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. We will not fear since God abideth fast for ever, and His covenant cannot fail."