“Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” How many times have we recited or sung this quote from Jesus? Yet have we ever really thought about where that door leads? Salvation? Heaven? Certainly....Absolutely. But is there something more? Was Jesus talking about walking through Himself as the entrance to Heaven? Certainly. Yet does that Open Door offer even more than eternal life insurance? Certainly His ultimate gift born of agonizing sacrifice is something to be intensely grateful for every day of our existence here. Yet is there even more in His invitation? To what is He inviting us?
As He often does, God keeps giving me images of parenting and grandparenting to help me understand who He is and what He desires. This morning, after continuing my reading in Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, I was struck by his reference to time and space in our relationship with the Trinity of God. We only pursue God in response to His pursuit of us. When we respond to that pursuit, we find Him right there with us, as near as our breath. He has been waiting there all along, hoping we’ll ‘knock’ so He can fling wide the door of His heart to us. Right now, in the present moment, His immanence scoops us into His waiting arms.
When I visit my new granddaughter, I try to wait patiently in the wings, hoping for the opportunity to scoop her into my arms and hold her against my heart. I know there are many wanting time with her, desiring her attention. So I wait, aching to hold her close, to comfort her when she cries, to make her smile, to help her fall asleep when she’s taken in so much ‘input’ that she has trouble finding that place of peace. When she hears her father’s voice, she immediately stills and listens for him. It is sometimes he alone who can comfort her.
I have come to understand, though I know that understanding is only partial, how much God longs for us to turn our face to Him, to realize how near He is, how He waits there longing for us to choose to respond to His overtures of love. How He longs for us to hear His voice whispering our name and fling ourselves into His arms.
I remember one evening Emma fell asleep over my heart as I rocked her. I could have happily held her all night long, my heart nearly bursting its confines, like the Grinch of the Christmas tale. And I remember rocking her mother and her two brothers and feeling the same way. I didn’t love one child more than the others; I loved each one as if he or she was an only child. With each one, it was as if my heart would explode with love (and that love has never diminished). Our tender-hearted Father loves us more than this. There is so much more beyond the door than we can imagine...not just in Heaven, but right now. Don’t leave Him waiting with unrequited love. Pursue Him and you will find that you don’t have to take a single step; you will bump right into Him.
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"You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek..." [Psalm 27:8]
"Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened." [Matthew 7:7-8]
"...always He is trying to get our attention, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us. We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures."
"It is not a sovereign and irresistible force which comes upon us as a seizure from above. It is a gift of God, indeed, but one which must be recognized and cultivated as any other gift..."
[Tozer, The Pursuit of God]
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Friday, December 8, 2017
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
This week my Vipre security software on my phone came up with a malware warning, but it was for Google Play, which operates all the Android apps. What do I do with that, I thought. Vipre proceeded in an endless loop of not being able to clean by uninstalling (of course) and I could not get it out of the loop to do another scan. Vipre has a reputation for trustworthiness. I finally just turned off my phone until I could figure out what to do (to the distress of my family who couldn’t get hold of me). The people at the AT&T store couldn’t really help me except to advise removing Vipre, which I did. My phone then seemed happy again.
Immediately God showed me the analogy to our current culture...and all the way back to Israel’s history with the prophets. When your prophetic watchmen begin to annoy you with their warnings, you find a way to either ignore them or get rid of them. That way you can have a false sense of security that all is well and you don’t have to change anything in your life. All the while, something insidious is eating away at your foundation. You go blithely on your merry way like Scarlet O’Hara, setting aside dealing with any serious issues for ‘another day.’ Isaiah 28:15 says, “...for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood have we taken refuge.”
Sometimes we choose false prophets because we like what they have to say. Your computer sometimes pops up a virus warning, via some unheard of security application, advising you to take instant action to solve the virus problem they say you have. However, what they're really trying to do is download spyware on your computer. The very program that is offering to solve your problem is trying to rob you. So with the false prophets, who are really self-serving wolves in sheep's clothing. Isaiah 28: 16-17, however, leads us back to the Cornerstone and the Plumbline for all truth. We musn't be deceived by gladly receiving something 'our itchy ears want to hear.' [2 Timothy 4:3]
If you find yourself spending less ‘real’ time in quiet with the Father, search your heart to see if
you’re ignoring Him because you’re afraid of what He might have to say to you. If we turn off or delete the prophetic because it makes us uncomfortable, we’re still walking down the same dangerous road, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. Been there, done that. In the end, we always need to come back, knowing every course correction He gives us is out of love. He’s not trying to spoil our fun, He’s trying to keep us from spoiling our lives, the lives of those we love, and, ultimately, our entire nation and world. I guess the phrase, “Don’t shoot the messenger” is applicable here. If the messenger is a trustworthy, untainted one, he’ll always alert us to danger and point us back to the Cornerstone. Our spiritual antennae should start beeping when we realize we have appeased our consciences by removing the source of the warning from our visual screens, instead of addressing its content.
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2 Timothy 4:3
Isaiah 30:10
They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.’
Immediately God showed me the analogy to our current culture...and all the way back to Israel’s history with the prophets. When your prophetic watchmen begin to annoy you with their warnings, you find a way to either ignore them or get rid of them. That way you can have a false sense of security that all is well and you don’t have to change anything in your life. All the while, something insidious is eating away at your foundation. You go blithely on your merry way like Scarlet O’Hara, setting aside dealing with any serious issues for ‘another day.’ Isaiah 28:15 says, “...for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood have we taken refuge.”
Sometimes we choose false prophets because we like what they have to say. Your computer sometimes pops up a virus warning, via some unheard of security application, advising you to take instant action to solve the virus problem they say you have. However, what they're really trying to do is download spyware on your computer. The very program that is offering to solve your problem is trying to rob you. So with the false prophets, who are really self-serving wolves in sheep's clothing. Isaiah 28: 16-17, however, leads us back to the Cornerstone and the Plumbline for all truth. We musn't be deceived by gladly receiving something 'our itchy ears want to hear.' [2 Timothy 4:3]
If you find yourself spending less ‘real’ time in quiet with the Father, search your heart to see if
you’re ignoring Him because you’re afraid of what He might have to say to you. If we turn off or delete the prophetic because it makes us uncomfortable, we’re still walking down the same dangerous road, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. Been there, done that. In the end, we always need to come back, knowing every course correction He gives us is out of love. He’s not trying to spoil our fun, He’s trying to keep us from spoiling our lives, the lives of those we love, and, ultimately, our entire nation and world. I guess the phrase, “Don’t shoot the messenger” is applicable here. If the messenger is a trustworthy, untainted one, he’ll always alert us to danger and point us back to the Cornerstone. Our spiritual antennae should start beeping when we realize we have appeased our consciences by removing the source of the warning from our visual screens, instead of addressing its content.
*********************
2 Timothy 4:3
For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear.
They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.’
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