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PROMISES, PROMISES! (A shameless jaunt into plagiarism)

   This is just too good to bypass.  I am a fan of Spurgeon and I am bringing Charlie into blogdom.  This a not a theft of Spurgeon’s style--no one alive or dead could do that--but it is a commentary on the world’s greatest wordsmith's thoughts on a needed message for us today.  I am talking about what to do about promises.  Most of us are up to our eyeballs in promises and troubled about inadequacies and deficiencies, the answers to which are named in those promises.
    Let me speak with Spurgeon: God's promises are meant to be used, not just memorized and celebrated. God is not made poorer because of His gifts to you and me.  He’s no less holy for making us holy.  He is no less powerful by granting us His power, no less pure by giving us His purity.  Still rich after enriching us!  He promises salvation but we must seize it and after receiving forgiveness, purity, justification and favors aplenty there are limitless blessings to be had, promises waiting for the taking right now.  You have received the words of the promise, what are you waiting for.
 

Come, ye sinners poor and needy,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If we wait until we are better,
We will never come at all.

 
   Here we are, standing in limitless grace with promises surrounding us, above and below, to the right and to the left, behind us and before us.  This is where David was when he sounded these astounding words:
 

“Lord, God, you’ve said it, Now do it! (1 Samuel 7:25 Paraphrased)”

 
   Is God offended at such seeming audacity?  Not at all! He loves to be confronted by such boldness.  Your heavenly Banker delights to cash in His own notes.  He loves being reminded of his promises with boldness, more ready to hear than you are to ask.  His sun is not weary of shining, nor his fountains of flowing.  It is His splendid nature to produce what He has promised and awaits your insistent claim.  So come to Him saying to Him, “Do as you have said!”
   Now just do it! I am . . .right now.
 
(Taken from Spurgeon’s Daily devotional, January 15 AM, with a few words exactly as he wrote them)

PRESENCE OR PRESENTS?

One has to try to make the two words sound differently. The only difference I’ve noted is that in the first (Presence) my tongue touches the roof of my mouth ever so softly while in the latter (presents) the tongue strikes rather sternly, sounding the "t".  Parenthetically, note that I always in this little treatise capitalize Presence, leaving presents in lower case.   Fact is, they are a world apart.  It began this morning as I addressed myself to meet God, either being questioned by Him or questioning myself about Him.  Am I coming to God for His Presence or his presents? Am I coming to Him to get what He has to give or am I coming to find Him? I immediately confessed that I was enamored with things that are mine because I love God and try to live a decent lifestyle.  Almost simultaneous with this thought was that these “presents” apart from His Presence are really not totally satisfying.  It takes His Presence to make the presents meaningful.   

Come to think of it, every time I go to Him for help whether in the form of healing, or relief from inner pain, or clarity amid mystery, my answer comes as I experience Him!  In the process of prayer what I was asking for primarily was resolved but what resolved it was the coming of God into conscious awareness in His Presence.   

God is funny in this way:  He seems to want to come personally into our experiences along with any blessing we ask for.  I get the feeling that He really adores us and likes hanging out with us and doesn’t mind being asked silly questions to which he has eternally known the answers.  Example: “Why did the Israelis have to gather the manna daily when You could have supplied a month’s measure?”  If God was to speak audibly I think He might have said, “You just don’t get it do you?  I want you to be mindful of Me all the time and if I blessed you with all these presents you desire, you would soon be thinking more of the presents (what I give) than My Presence (Who I am).  

We get a hint at the difference in the two words when we read that God made His acts known to Israel while he made known to Moses His ways (Psalm 103:7).  They sought God’s presents while Moses went all the way and got the Presence of God.   

Most of us started out all wrong in the first place. It was the nature of the invitation.  "Come get what God has, receive His gifts, His salvation, His presents." This is only one side of the gigantic relationship that heaven desires for us.  It is not the present of salvation that equips us for time and eternity; it is His eternal Presence that is the singular dynamic of salvation now and forever!   

Let’s go for His Presence in 2010!

Happy New Year!

I generally am led at the beginning of the year to a verse or passage of Scripture that satisfies and summarizes inner longings and desires and for the past two years, 2008-2009 have centered on 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:

 

“Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men

The things that God has prepared for those who love Him,

But God has revealed tem to us by the S, for the Spirit searches all things,

 Even the deep things of God.”

 

I was not disappointed when, at the end of the old year, I had received no impression that 2010 was to introduce any new passage from the Bible. But this morning as Friede and I had an ocean view breakfast followed by a time of devotion, God gave us this passage that summed up our desires and passions for 2010:

 “My eager expectation and hope is that

I will not be ashamed about anything,

But, that now as always, with all boldness,

Christ will be highly honored in my body,

Whether by life or by death,

For me living is Christ and dying is gain.

Philippians 1:20-21

 

Well, that covers it for me.   This “eager expectation and hope” has been decreed. It involves from here to eternity and beyond.  I hesitantly included the words “whether by life or by death”. I say hesitantly because I discovered many years ago that I didn’t like to think of his world without me in it.  In my opinion and for the time being, “alive” beats all alternatives, hands down. But if by some strange eventuality my address suddenly changes from earth to heaven, my body will have made its ultimate offering and my spirit will be free.  So my body in death will simply be an ascending means of high honor to Him whose body sets the pattern for our future: Absent from the body, present with the Lord. 

 

As a profitable P.S. hang this one around your neck or put it on your doorpost of between yours eyes as of old:                                

“Living for me is Christ and

Dying is gain!’

Philippians 1:21

 

So one way or the other, HAPPY 2010!