We at no time can fully comprehend the character of God. The depths of His perfection simply go beyond our finite comprehension. And even still, God, throughout the course of history, has shown a longing for the heart of man. He referred to Moses as a friend, Abraham as a covenant partner, and David as a man after His heart. He came as the Bridegroom and fashioned His bride, the church, in the same way that He fashioned Eve from Adam at the dawn of time. And at the passover celebration, the last meal with His disciples, the one whom He loved laid upon His bosom. Commending Mary for pouring precious perfume at His feet, He later turned to clean the feet of those who would deny Him. And though He knew the failures of all of these clouds of witnesses, He continues to ravish the heart of man with His love.
This never-ending aspect of God's character plunges the heart of a child of God into a true love of the Beloved. In the omniscience of God, the child of God sees the love and grace of God. For what greater love can be shown but that someone would die for another while they yet were in filth? And go so far as to trade that garment of iniquity for ones whiter than wool? That He Himself would strip us of the old and wash them in crimson so that they come out white. The crazy part of all of this? He knew it all from the dawn of creation! He knew of my own failures of yesterday, tomorrow, and the ones I fail in by any false teachings that my finite mind presents in writing about the immaculateness of who He is in this present moment. He knew them all, yet He still chose to go through with the washing away to make us new!
And to plunge us deeper still into knowing Him and truly failing in love with Him, He beckons us to cultivate the relationship with Him. Tend and keep...Adam and Eve lived in perfect conditions, yet God still instructed them to tend and keep (cultivate and guard) the land. Why else would these perfect conditions need cultivation and guarding unless they too were susceptible to deterioration?
The process of cultivation includes putting something through a finishing process. Eden, in its splendor and beauty, still needed the cultivation of the finishing process. Cultivation includes every aspect of this finishing process, from plowing to reaping. This includes preparing and plowing the land, fertilizing the ground, planting the seeds, all of the processes towards promoting growth, such as weeding, watering, and pruning, and finally, reaping the harvest. Adam did not have to toil through this work, since the curse brought on the sweat of the face, but God still instructed Adam and Eve to tend and keep the land of Eden.
This same process of cultivating and guarding the land applies in the spiritual realm of things. Intercessory prayer over the land prepares and plows the ground. Living out Christ's love in the market place of our world fertilizes the ground. Walking in a lifestyle of fasting, love, and acts of justice, along with the proclamation and living out of the Word of God, plants the seeds. Discipleship, accountability, adherence to the truth, communion of the saints, and continued love promotes growth. And the fruits that even more come to the knowledge of God by seeing and the souls brought into the family represent the reaping of the harvest. All along the way, however, only God, through His triune nature, causes anything to grow; therefore, only God, above all else, receives every bit of the glory. All for the glory of God!
And within this depth of the omniscience of God, one can find that, although He knows every aspect of who we are and when we will fail, He continues to cultivate the lives of His children because He knows that only when we abide in Him can we produce fruit. Apart from God, we can do nothing; In God, we bear much fruit. Therefore, through the tender love of the Vinedresser, who is the Father, God cultivates us into abiding in the Vine, who is the Son, so that we bear much fruit for the glory of God.
But not only does God cultivate us as branches of the True Vine, but He also beckons for us to tend and keep with the same fervor, if not more intense, as Adam and Eve received in the perfect conditions of the garden of Eden. Without the cultivation of our relationship with God and the plunging into of the knowledge of who He is, we too have the natural tendency to deteriorate. Hear these words out: "not of works, lest anyone should boast," but a certain zeal must go into the devotion of our lives for the sake of the Kingdom and glory of God.
After all, Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow Him, and later gives us the instruction that we will overcome by not loving our lives unto the death. And as His bride, the Bridegroom expects us to have oil in our lamps at the time of His return for the marriage feast. In order to muster up enough oil for the delayed return of the Bridegroom for His virgin bride, we must cultivate enough oil for not only today, but in abundance for the times to come.
We cry out to go deeper, but the Spirit and the bride say "Come!" The question remains, will we wait for passion to push us into seeking the face of God, or will we passionately cultivate love for God, no matter what the circumstance, by seeking His face? God explains clearly to His chosen people in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that the way to revival only comes by calling on His name, humbling ourselves, praying and seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways. All of this in a nutshell? Cultivation of the romance and love of the Beloved.
So, plunging deeper into the knowledge of God and the character of who He is, the wellspring of His omniscience, that in no way hinders Him from loving us, should ravish our hearts and romance our depths in a way that no lover could ever come close to. He is the Bridegroom and we, as the church and people of God, are His bride. Oh what a glorious day when the holy city descends as a bride adorned for her husband! May we cultivate a deeper love for the Beloved in the secret place so that a cultivation of the land for revival happens in a natural response to living for and loving the Bridegroom!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
The Depths of God's Glory and Goodness
Something peculiar yet intriguing resides in the character of God. To one He is Light, to another, a Father to the Fatherless, and so on and so forth. God presents Himself to individuals as Beloved, Friend, Counselor, Teacher, and Guide. The wellspring of the knowledge of God never ends! But it seems that, in the noise of life, this wellspring often gets passed by when, in reality, it should shape the very essence of who we are.
On one hand, God carries goodness. A goodness that goes far beyond our comprehension. Apart from God, nothing is good; with God, all things are glorious. The things void of the presence of God--vanity. The things saturated in the essence of God--vital. Nothing in this world has the capacity to hold goodness. It may appear good, pleasant, or desirable, but true goodness resides only in the Father.
Because of this inclination to the Father, a driving passion to seek resides within every individual. It's who, what, and where the worshiper seeks that determines their course. But a passion to seek this goodness--the true abundant life--resides in the depths of all. In turn, many rebel because of a belief that goodness dwells apart from God. When one seeks the depths of goodness where the enemy dwells, a false goodness takes its place. Thus veiling the eyes to the depths of God's true goodness--His love.
Love embodies God's goodness. It resides in all places at all times, but many still remain blinded to it. It's in this love that many find the depths of the wellspring of the knowledge of God. God's abundant love drives the sinner to his knees in repentance and raises him up as a saint. It compels the saints to live passionately for the sake of the Kingdom of God. To find God's goodness is to become saturated in His love.
And the only natural response to a love such as His? Love. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Passionate affection and a glorious love remain the only logical response to a goodness such as God's unfailing love. And it's in that love that many find true abundance of life, and many fail to realize it. The fact that God's glory shines all around makes the latter of that last statement ironic.
In God's other hand resides His overflow of glory. In the same as His goodness, only He holds glory. It's in this glory that many discover God's goodness, yet even still, many miss out on the true depths of the riches of God's glory. In His never-ending glory we find the seraphim dancing and singing from alpha to omega, literally on fire for God. With eyes all around and within, the beauty and glory that they behold before the throne has never left them bored or empty. They constantly, for undoubtedly too many years to count, are blown away by the abundant revelations of God's glory that emanate from Him.
Within these chambers of the heavenly throne room, John sat and attempted to record the glorious sights before him. This looked like this...and that seemed like that. John could not completely describe exactly what he beheld due to the overwhelming glory before him.
It's in this beautiful glory that Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me!", and Moses sought more and more. And within this glory, David beheld the heavens that God simply spread out like a curtain and pleaded, "Who is man that You are mindful of Him?" This glory, the glory of God, we often miss.
Painted in every sunrise and sunset, spread out like a tent to dwell in, created with beauty and grace, nature declares the goodness and glory of God. Our very beings declare His glory and goodness. He becomes our lifesong in the discovery of the never-ending wellspring of the knowledge of God.
In light of the characteristics of God's glory and goodness, pride has no place. For since nothing has goodness apart from God, and only God contains and deserves all of the glory, everything apart from God is vanity. We are clay leading clay to the knowledge of the Potter. Only when He dwells within us do we contain any good, and the work He then therefore does within us brings exceedingly more glory unto Himself. So pride has no place in the presence of God.
One can claim that another or himself lives closer to God, but what does this even mean? If God's glory and goodness never ends, how can one understand more and be closer? All of anybody has only merely scratched the surface of who God is. We all are closer to the beginning of the knowledge of God than the end! Beloved, rejoice in that statement!
Don't hear these words wrongly, God indeed transforms us from glory to glory. But even the reknown scholars, teachers, and pastors of our day do not have glory within themselves. It's the fact that from glory to glory God transforms us into a closer resemblance of Jesus--God Himself. Within this, the more we look like the Potter, the more glory the Potter recieves. Apart from Him, nothing is good; without Him, not one thing is glorious. He transforms the clay.
Sure, our love for Him grows deeper and deeper still, and, like Moses, we should cry out to be closer to Him still, but we all are closer to the beginning of the knowledge of God than the end. This looks like this...and that looks like that shall be our only response until we no longer look into a mirror dimly lit, but see face to face the glory of God. And until then, we have a lifetime, as short as it is, to fall deeper and deeper still into the wellspring of the knowlede of God, constantly blown away, like the seraphim, by the everlasting depths of who God is; His goodness and His glory ever driving us into a greater passion and love for the furthering of the Kingdom of God and His glory.
On one hand, God carries goodness. A goodness that goes far beyond our comprehension. Apart from God, nothing is good; with God, all things are glorious. The things void of the presence of God--vanity. The things saturated in the essence of God--vital. Nothing in this world has the capacity to hold goodness. It may appear good, pleasant, or desirable, but true goodness resides only in the Father.
Because of this inclination to the Father, a driving passion to seek resides within every individual. It's who, what, and where the worshiper seeks that determines their course. But a passion to seek this goodness--the true abundant life--resides in the depths of all. In turn, many rebel because of a belief that goodness dwells apart from God. When one seeks the depths of goodness where the enemy dwells, a false goodness takes its place. Thus veiling the eyes to the depths of God's true goodness--His love.
Love embodies God's goodness. It resides in all places at all times, but many still remain blinded to it. It's in this love that many find the depths of the wellspring of the knowledge of God. God's abundant love drives the sinner to his knees in repentance and raises him up as a saint. It compels the saints to live passionately for the sake of the Kingdom of God. To find God's goodness is to become saturated in His love.
And the only natural response to a love such as His? Love. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Passionate affection and a glorious love remain the only logical response to a goodness such as God's unfailing love. And it's in that love that many find true abundance of life, and many fail to realize it. The fact that God's glory shines all around makes the latter of that last statement ironic.
In God's other hand resides His overflow of glory. In the same as His goodness, only He holds glory. It's in this glory that many discover God's goodness, yet even still, many miss out on the true depths of the riches of God's glory. In His never-ending glory we find the seraphim dancing and singing from alpha to omega, literally on fire for God. With eyes all around and within, the beauty and glory that they behold before the throne has never left them bored or empty. They constantly, for undoubtedly too many years to count, are blown away by the abundant revelations of God's glory that emanate from Him.
Within these chambers of the heavenly throne room, John sat and attempted to record the glorious sights before him. This looked like this...and that seemed like that. John could not completely describe exactly what he beheld due to the overwhelming glory before him.
It's in this beautiful glory that Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me!", and Moses sought more and more. And within this glory, David beheld the heavens that God simply spread out like a curtain and pleaded, "Who is man that You are mindful of Him?" This glory, the glory of God, we often miss.
Painted in every sunrise and sunset, spread out like a tent to dwell in, created with beauty and grace, nature declares the goodness and glory of God. Our very beings declare His glory and goodness. He becomes our lifesong in the discovery of the never-ending wellspring of the knowledge of God.
In light of the characteristics of God's glory and goodness, pride has no place. For since nothing has goodness apart from God, and only God contains and deserves all of the glory, everything apart from God is vanity. We are clay leading clay to the knowledge of the Potter. Only when He dwells within us do we contain any good, and the work He then therefore does within us brings exceedingly more glory unto Himself. So pride has no place in the presence of God.
One can claim that another or himself lives closer to God, but what does this even mean? If God's glory and goodness never ends, how can one understand more and be closer? All of anybody has only merely scratched the surface of who God is. We all are closer to the beginning of the knowledge of God than the end! Beloved, rejoice in that statement!
Don't hear these words wrongly, God indeed transforms us from glory to glory. But even the reknown scholars, teachers, and pastors of our day do not have glory within themselves. It's the fact that from glory to glory God transforms us into a closer resemblance of Jesus--God Himself. Within this, the more we look like the Potter, the more glory the Potter recieves. Apart from Him, nothing is good; without Him, not one thing is glorious. He transforms the clay.
Sure, our love for Him grows deeper and deeper still, and, like Moses, we should cry out to be closer to Him still, but we all are closer to the beginning of the knowledge of God than the end. This looks like this...and that looks like that shall be our only response until we no longer look into a mirror dimly lit, but see face to face the glory of God. And until then, we have a lifetime, as short as it is, to fall deeper and deeper still into the wellspring of the knowlede of God, constantly blown away, like the seraphim, by the everlasting depths of who God is; His goodness and His glory ever driving us into a greater passion and love for the furthering of the Kingdom of God and His glory.
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