"LIVELY STONES" MEDITATIONS

‘Whom Are You Seeking?’

6/7/2022

John 18:1-11

When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. And Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples. Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?"
They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth."
Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.
Then He asked them again, "Whom are you seeking?"
And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."
Jesus answered, "I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way," that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, "Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none."
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?"

‘Whom are you seeking?’ asks Jesus, and the answer comes back from the troops and officers of the chief priests and Pharisees, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Seek,and you will find, report Matthew and Luke, and we must be aware that we are not seeking a thing, but a person — and a very specific person. Not a Jesus, or one like Jesus, but Jesus of Nazareth in particular.

For a number of days now, I have been puzzling over why we can so often disagree amongst ourselves about Jesus. After all, that differing viewpoint seems to be at the root of the denominational church system. It seems to me that each church clings to their own view (or their founding fathers' view) of who Jesus was, and each one of us has a personal view of our personal Saviour. We all worship the same Jesus, but with our own image of Him in mind. In reality, we should be looking to the Jesus that Jesus Himself said He was — Jesus of Nazareth.

The troops and officers were careful to ensure that they apprehended the right man, and we should do the same. Only if we apprehend Jesus of Nazareth can He lead us ‘through The Cross of Calvary’ into Resurrection Life, for He is so much more than a personal saviour — He is Jesus of Nazareth, ‘Jehovah is salvation’ and ‘one separated.’ There is no other, so He is not the Jesus I create or imagine Him to be, or that another might favour, He is one and the same for all who believe.

He is not ‘my Jesus’, rather I am His brother, and Him I must seek and know.

Meditate On These Things

MATTHEW 13:45-46
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
DEUTERONOMY 4:27-30
And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD — CRC Worship

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

THERE IS ONLY one kind of person who can really pray, and that is the childlike saint, the simple, stupid, supernatural child of God; I do mean "stupid." Immediately you try to explain why God answers prayer on the ground of reason, it is nonsense; God answers prayer on the ground of redemption and no other ground.
[from ‘If Ye Shall Ask’]

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Children Of The Free

27/6/2022

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Galatians 4:27-31

For it is written:
"Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labour!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

In Isaiah 54, we read the words Sing, Oh Barren, sometimes written as ‘Sing, O barren woman’. Looking at the concordance we can see that it could equally well be translated as ‘Rejoice, unfruitful one!’ This seems such an odd way to be — especially as we are called to bear fruit. Isaiah’s verses have been coming to me in song regularly over the last few days and so I feel that The Lord is speaking to something, and I need to hear and pay attention.

Paul explains the matter in Galatians 4 — something which I confess that I have utterly failed to see, despite having read the letter to The Galatians on many occasions. This in itself is worthy of comment (why The Lord reveals a thing only after we ask Him for that revelation), but that is not the main point now.

Cast out the bondwoman and her son was a word that Milady and I heard many years ago, and it’s significance reverberates still. At the root of the matter is our ancestry — the family line that goes back to Abraham. But which line? Paul reveals a natural line through the slave woman’s son, who was named Ishmael (‘God will hear’) — the progenitor of Islam — and a spiritual line through the free woman’s son Sarah, who was Isaac (‘he laughs’). In Genesis 26:2-5, we are shown …

Then the LORD appeared to him and said: "Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.
Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws"

Paul was telling us that we are the children of the free; the children of the promise; of the line of Isaac and not Ishmael; that our hope, our life is not in the natural realm, but in the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ, because we are reborn out of bondage and into new life. And once there we need to stand firmly in that freedom…

Meditate On These Things

GALATIANS 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

STAND FAST IN THE LIBERTY — Dan Ricciardelli

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

“I AM THERE in the midst of them.”
A wonderful picture — a group of our Lord's children around the knees of the heavenly Father, making their requests known in familiarity, in awe and reverence, in simplicity and confidence in Him, and in humble certainty that He is there.
[from ‘Christian Discipline’]

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“Why Do You Cry To Me?”

17/6/2022

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Exodus 14:15-16

And the LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.
And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

I can do no better here than quote from David Wilkerson who says of this passage ...

You have heard of the prayer of faith. I believe there is a mirror image of this prayer, a prayer that is based on flesh. I call this the prayer of unbelief. Let me pose a question to you: Have you ever heard the Lord say, “Quit praying—get up off your knees”? The Lord spoke these very words to Moses: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me?’” (Exodus 14:15). The literal Hebrew meaning of the verse is, “Why are you shrieking at Me? Why all the loud pleading in My ears?” Why would God say this to Moses? Here was a godly, praying man, in the crisis of his life. The Israelites were being chased by Pharaoh, with no escape. Most Christians would probably react as Moses did. He got alone with the Lord and poured out his heart in prayer.
Yet when God heard Moses shrieking, He told him, “Enough!” Scripture is not explicit about what follows, but at that point God might have said, “You have no right to agonize before Me, Moses. Your cries are an affront to My faithfulness. I have already given you My solemn promise of deliverance, and I have instructed you specifically on what to do. Your tears are not the cry of a broken heart now—they are tears of self-pity. It is time to stop crying.” As we face our own crises, we may convince ourselves, “Prayer is the most important thing I can do right now” — but a time comes when God calls us to act, to obey His Word in faith. At such a time, He will not allow us to retreat to a wilderness to pray. That would be disobedience—and any prayers would be offered in unbelief. The prayer of unbelief takes into account only God’s goodness; it ignores the severity of His holy judgments. Paul writes, “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God” (Romans 11:22). There is a reason the apostle purposely mentions God’s goodness and severity in the same breath here. It is to turn our eyes away from the prayer of unbelief—and toward true belief!
DAVID WILKERSON

I have to say that I have heard this sort of thing said before, but not fully understood it until I read this a few days ago. Praying the same thing over and over can show a lack of trust in The Lord. It speaks of impatience. “Lord, I don’t want this in Your time; I want it now!”

But there are times when He speaks to us, saying “the work is done, and now you must act to realise it.” If we are His, then we must accept that we are required to be His hands, His feet, His purpose. Listen for His Voice, which says — whatever we may think to the contrary — we are loved by Him. Sometimes, however, He will say, “why do you cry to me?”

Meditate On These Things

PSALM 10:1
Why do You stand afar off, O LORD?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
PSALM 10:14-18
But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief,
To repay it by Your hand.
The helpless commits himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
The LORD is King forever and ever;
The nations have perished out of His land.
LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear,
To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may oppress no more.

LOVED — Alisa Turner

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

THE GREATEST BARRIER to intercession is that we take ourselves so seriously and come to the conclusion that God is reserved with us; He is not. God has to ignore things we take so seriously until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child.
[from ‘The Moral Foundations Of Life’]

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Solomon’s Prayer Of Dedication

13/6/2022

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1 Kings 8:56-61

"Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.
May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us,
that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers.
And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require,
that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.
Let your heart therefore be loyal to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day."

The Feast of Dedication is the closest thing we see in Scripture to our feast of Christmas. It is, yet it isn’t. There is more to look at in that — but for another time. In 1 Kings 8 (repeated in 2 Chronicles 6), Solomon prays for the Dedication of the Temple. What is that exactly — for us today, I mean?

In 1 Kings we see Solomon spreading out his hands toward heaven — Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: "LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. He is dedicating the temple and we — each of us a temple for The Holy Spirit — must be dedicated to Him also.

Matthew Henry in his commentary says In this excellent prayer, Solomon does as we should do in every prayer; he gives glory to God. Fresh experiences of the truth of God’s promises call for larger praises. He sues for grace and favour from God. The experiences we have of God’s performing his promises, should encourage us to depend upon them, and to plead them with him; and those who expect further mercies, must be thankful for former mercies.

Dedication is synonymous with commitment — so that when we pray, we are praying with dedication; believing that His promises will be fulfilled and that assurance and reassurance is at hand. Do we believe Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? As His temple — His people in whom He wishes to dwell — we are to have Him as the focus and inspiration of all that we are. Thus it is an aspect of our prayer life that we dedicate the Temple — set our God in His rightful place.

In John 10:22-25 we read this:
Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.

We can see here that Jesus’ presence in the temple is a New Testament revelation — a revealing — of Solomon’s Old Testament prayer of dedication. Jesus is walking in the temple at the time of the Feast of Dedication. In other words, He is ‘at home’ in the temple, in the porch or doorway named after Solomon (whose name means ‘peace’). Jesus — Jehovah is salvation — who has ‘The Door’ as one of the many names given to The Son of The Father in Scripture, is physically in the doorway named ‘peace’, and this is important because wherever Jesus is present, He brings ‘peace’.

Blessed be The Lord, who has given rest to His people…’

Meditate On These Things

EPHESIANS 2:19-22
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

THY MERCY MY GOD — Sandra McCracken

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS --

THE NEARER ABRAHAM came to God in his intercession the more he recognised his entire unworthiness: "Indeed now. I who am but dust and ashes have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord." Genuine unworthiness is never shy before God any more than a child is shy before his mother. A child of God is conscious only of his entire dependence upon God.
[from ‘Not Knowing Whither’]

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Hannah’s Prayer

9/6/2022

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1 Samuel 2:1-10

And Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
My horn is exalted in the LORD.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

“No one is holy like the LORD,
For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.

“Talk no more so very proudly;
Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
For the LORD is the God of knowledge;
And by Him actions are weighed.

“The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
And she who has many children has become feeble.

“The LORD kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.

The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.

He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them inherit the throne of glory.

“For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
And He has set the world upon them.

He will guard the feet of His saints,
But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
“For by strength no man shall prevail.

The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth.

“He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed.”

Hannah’s Prayer is one of thanksgiving and joy for the blessing of Samuel; the son she desired but could not have because the Lord had closed her womb. But although she was sorrowful, she pleaded with The Lord and made a vow.

"O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head." [1 Samuel 1:11]

The remaining nine verses, extol the goodness and mercy of God in lifting up the weak and bringing down the arrogant and strong, but also tells of His forgiveness and His saving strength and power. It is also fundamentally a story and prayer of how The Lord’s answer to prayer will always bring life — literally and spiritually — while the plans and motivations of men result in spiritual dryness and death.

This prayer speaks not only of external circumstances, but of what happens within us. It is about the birth of His life, the life of Jesus in each of us, that we may bring forth a son.

Hannah, (her name means ‘grace’), is true to her vow, by committing her son back to God. In verses 27 and 28 of 1 Samuel 1, we read: “For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD." So they worshiped the LORD there.

It is important for us to remember that all we have of value — our own lives and livelihood, our families; all that we love and cherish — our faith — belongs to Him, and is His gift to us. It is a gift that will spoil if we try to hoard it and bury it away. We must give it back into His care, for only He has the true breath of life and love.

Meditate On These Things

JOB 9:2-6
"Truly I know it is so,
But how can a man be righteous before God?
If one wished to contend with Him,
He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?
He removes the mountains, and they do not know
When He overturns them in His anger;
He shakes the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble;

THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION — Esther Mui

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS --

WHEN WE LIVE in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of Him than of anything else. Your Father, Jesus says, is in secret and nowhere else. Enter the secret place, and right in the center of the common round you find God there all the time.
[from ‘My Utmost For His Highest’]

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Commit Every Prayer To Jesus

7/6/2022

Philippians 1:3-6

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Thinking of prayer in recent days made me consider the right way to pray. Over the years there has been advice aplenty as to the how, when and what we should pray. The ‘when’ is easy … Paul says that we should pray without ceasing. ‘How’ is ‘on our knees’ — not necessarily literally, but with humility before our saviour; but when the ‘what’ is linked with the ‘how’ then we are often confused, or at least given a variety of approaches.

As if to answer my prayer, the various devotionals that I follow all offered their own answers this morning to my quest …

DEREK PRINCE said that each night ‘he [David] committed himself to The Lord’ …

I lie down and sleep. I wake again. I will not fear. Why? Because the Lord sustains me. Each night he committed himself to the Lord. He lay down in confidence in the Lord. He knew that his soul was safe in the Lord’s keeping. He could sleep and he could awake without anxiety, without fear, without the torment of sleeplessness.

OSWALD CHAMBERS in ‘My Utmost For His Highest’ shows us …

“Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do….” The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and what appears to be his free choices are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Is this mysterious? Does it appear to contradict sound logic or seem totally absurd? Yes, but what a glorious truth it is to a saint of God.

Ellel Ministries’ SUE GRIFFITHS says that it is simply a matter of asking …

I wonder whether we know that peace of God, the stillness of His presence, His authority, His personal care over our lives, in every detail, now and for every event that befalls us in our future? We can ask Him!

The UCB ‘Word For Today’ revealed that we should let The Lord decide …

D.L. Moody put it this way: ‘Spread out your petition before God, and then say, “Thy will, not mine, be done.” The sweetest lesson I have learned in God’s school is to let the Lord choose for me.’

CARTER CONLON at Times Square Church says simply talk to God …

Agree with God today. Simply call out to Him and allow the breath of God through the Holy Spirit to come into you and into your situation. It’s easy to do. It starts with talking to God. It’s now time to pray.

GARY WILKERSON of ‘World Challenge’ focussed on ‘contending for our faith’ …

Scripture warns us … “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:3-4, ESV)

And finally, Gary’s father, DAVID WILKERSON says …

What is the message for us today? It is this: Do not worry about whether God is saying “yes” or “no” to your request—and stop concentrating on faith formulas and methods. Instead, commit every prayer to Jesus and go about your business with confidence. He will answer in His time. If He does not fulfill the request, He must have a perfect reason for not doing so. No matter what happens, we are always to have faith in His faithfulness. Will you rest in His love while patiently waiting for the promise?

So here are seven words of guidance and wisdom, from seven men and women of God, all on the same day. There will undoubtedly be more. All helpful, scriptural and truthful. But as David Wilkerson points out — we should stop, or try to avoid, concentrating on prescribed methods. Speak from your heart and ‘commit every prayer to Jesus.’ He knows each of us intimately and best.

Meditate on these things

1 JOHN 5:14-15
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

MY PRAYER FOR YOU — Alisa Turner
No apologies for repeating this favourite song today — remembering of course that it is not always about us, but about Him.

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

WHAT A PERSON wants is somewhere to rest his mind and heart, and the only place to rest is in God, and the only way to come to God is by prayer. Much of our prayer has nothing in it; it is not the talk of a child to his Father when he has come up against things or is hurt.
[from ‘Baffled To Fight Better]

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As If Nothing Had Happened

1/6/2022

Isaiah 55:7

Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.

While reading ‘The Oldie’ magazine the other day I came across this from Gyles Brandreth from his Diary column. He was writing at this point about writers he admired…

Roy Strong, incidentally, is now among my all-time favourite diarists, up there with Pepys and Virginia Woolf. My other current bedside favourite is the great Arnold Bennett (1861-1937), whose woefully underrated The Old Wives' Tale is my favourite novel and whose journals are full of mellow wit and wisdom.
Bennett understood marriage: 'Being a husband is a whole-time job. That is why so many husbands fail. They cannot give their entire attention to it.’
He understood life: 'The moment you're born, you're done for.'
He is full of good advice: 'Always behave as if nothing had happened, no matter what has happened.’
GYLES BRANDRETH

When reading this to Gill, she pointed out that Arnold Bennett’s line, ‘Always behave as if nothing had happened, no matter what has happened.’, could be considered as a definition for forgiveness. Our Lord abundantly pardons, and treats our transgressions as if they never happened.

Bennett did not get it entirely right. He suggests that we ‘behave as if…’, whereas The Lord says ‘remember not’. "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” [Isaiah 43:25] So if God will not remember our sins and transgressions, should we not behave likewise to those who have hurt us? So it is not ‘as if’, but ‘because’. Ah, if only we could react that way so easily. The truth is that the difficulties are often immense, and insuperable to us. Happily, Father God is not daunted so easily.

Our word ‘forgive’, comes from Old English ‘forgiefan’, loosely translated as grant, give or pardon; the ‘for’ part most likely meaning ‘completely’, thus to give completely. In a sense, any grievance, upset or hurt is being completely and utterly given away; but to whom? Well, Psalm 55:22 says ‘Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.’

Meditate On These Things

COLOSSIANS 1:12-14
giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

FORGIVENESS — Jason Upton

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

WE GROUSE BEFORE God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a splendid audacity a child has! Our Lord says — "Unless you become as little children..."
Ask, and God will do,
[from ‘My Utmost For His Highest’]

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Outside The Camp

25/5/2022

Exodus 33:7-11

Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.
So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

Outside the camp is where — in reality — we meet Jesus face-to-face. The first mention of the phrase is in Exodus 29:14 But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering. This sin offering was an ‘atonement’; in essence a purification of the nation or individual, but after the offering was made, the remains had to be disposed away from the meeting place. In a sense, it was spiritually ‘putting the rubbish out’; keeping the house clean.

But here in Exodus, we read of Moses turning this idea on its head by taking ‘the tabernacle of meeting’ — the place of worship — out into the desert to meet with The Lord, where He appeared to Moses in the pillar of cloud (‘pillar’ representing ‘upright, righteous’, and ‘cloud’ showing ‘His presence’). Now the LORD appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle. [Deuteronomy 31:15]

The principle established here is be ye separate, as expressed by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. This is from the Amplified Bible …

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers [do not make mismated alliances with them or come under a different yoke with them, inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership have right living and right standing with God with iniquity and lawlessness? Or how can light have fellowship with darkness?
What harmony can there be between Christ and Belial [the devil]? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
So, come out from among [unbelievers], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favour,
And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

But Paul does not tell here of the whole story. The Book of Hebrews tells us that we are to go forth to Him [Jesus], outside the camp, bearing His reproach, which is to say ‘carrying, or enduring sufferings with Him’. And we can bear it, because He already has and is with us. Our atonement for sin is only accomplished through His.

Meditate On These Things

HEBREWS 13:10-14 [AMPC]
We have an altar from which those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat.
For when the blood of animals is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, the victims’ bodies are burned outside the limits of the camp.
Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city’s] gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through [the shedding of] His own blood and set them apart as holy [for God].
Let us then go forth [from all that would prevent us] to Him outside the camp [at Calvary], bearing the contempt and abuse and shame with Him.
For here we have no permanent city, but we are looking for the one which is to come.

OUTSIDE THE CAMP — Colin Buchanan

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS--

IT IS QUITE true God does not answer some prayers because they are wrong, but that is so obvious that it does not need a revelation from God to understand it. God wants us to stop understanding in the way we have understood and get into the place He wants us to get into, that is, He wants us to know how to rely on Him.
(from ‘If Ye Shall Ask’)

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“I In Them, And You In Me”

22/5/2022

John 17:20-26

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

The expression ‘may be one’ occurs five times in John 17, a number usually considered to show the grace of God, and ‘one’ — the number denoting Father God — appears seven times, as you might expect. So we can see that the arithmetic of Jesus’ prayer underlines what He speaks.

As mentioned beforehand, the prayer is in three parts, and leads us to understand the Holy Trinity working.

When Jesus prays for Himself He is, in a sense, receiving ministry from Father God.
When Jesus prays for His disciples, He is speaking of His own ministry to His followers, who will carry on His work.
And when Jesus prays for all believers, He is acknowledging the work of The Holy Spirit, who will minister to the many generations to come after Him.

The link between these three aspects is encapsulated in verse 23; “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” This for me is perhaps the most beautiful and reassuring verse in The Bible, particularly when Jesus tells us that each believer has been chosen from “before the foundation of the world”.

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” [John 15:16]

This verse from John 15, reiterates that when we ask of The Father in prayer, we should do so “in Jesus’ Name”, because we then ask as Him; in Jesus’ nature, Jesus having declared to us His Person and that of Father God.

Thus, it is vital, that when we meet, we are one together — without division — united in His Presence.

Meditate On These Things

HEBREWS 10:15-16
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"

HIGHLY EXALTED — Robin Mark with the New Irish Choir and Orchestra.

A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— Requires CHILDLIKENESS--

THERE IS A subtle thing that goes by the name of unworthiness which is petulant pride with God. When we are shy with other people it is because we believe we are superior to the average person and we won't talk until they realize our importance. Prayerlessness with God is the same thing; we are shy with God not because we are unworthy, but because we think God has not given enough consideration to our case, we have some peculiar elements He must be pleased to consider.
[from “If You Will Ask”]

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