This is the love that must break
What it must take
And in the breaking, bless;
This is the love that will press
Us out of measure
And lay our treasure
In the dust.
This is the love that must.
There is no other way,
We all have gone astray
With hearts hardened and blind;
And we will find
The glory of His grace
In His loving, shining face,
When the fire burns out our dross.
There is no way to God
except through the cross.
Tom Prato
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The Blood of Christ as it operates Manward
The Blood of Christ operates manward also in the cleansing of our conscience...In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find that our 'hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience' [Heb 10.22].
The Blood does not cleanse our hearts. The heart is 'desperately sick' [Jer 17.9] and therefore God does something more fundamental than cleanse it: He must give us a new one...
The 'flesh' is too bad to be cleansed; it must be crucified...So God says, 'A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.' [Ezek 36.26]
The cleansing work of the Blood...is in relation to the conscience. 'Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience'... There is something intervening between myself and God...constantly reminding me of the barrier that stood between myself and Him. But now, through the operation of the precious Blood, something...has removed that barrier. My conscience is cleared and my sense of guilt removed.
Everyone knows what a precious thing it is to have a conscience void of offence in our dealings with God. A heart of faith and a conscience clear of any accusation are both equally essential to us, since both are interdependent. If our conscience is uneasy, our faith leaks away and we find we cannot face God. In order to keep going on with God, we must know the uptodate value of the Blood. God keeps short accounts, and we are made nigh by the Blood every day, every hour and every minute. It never loses its efficacy as our ground of access if we will but lay hold upon it. We enter the Most Holy Place only on the ground of the Blood [Heb 10.19].
By the Blood. I approach God through His merit alone and never on the basis of my attainment...A clear conscience is never based upon our attainment; it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood.
What is the basis of our approach to God? Do we come to Him on the uncertain ground of our 'feeling'? Or is our approach based on something far more secure, viz., the fact that the Blood has been shed, and God looks on that Blood and is satisfied? Our approach to God is always in boldness, because the Blood is ever-efficacious; it has never changed and it never will! Boldness to the throne of grace is ours through the Blood and never through our personal attainment or 'feeling'.
The matter of access to God has two phases, an initial and a progressive one. The initial is presented to us in Ephesians 2, where our standing with God is secured by the Blood, for we are 'made nigh in the blood of Christ' [Eph 2.13]. But thereafter our ground of continual access is still by the Blood, for 'having... boldness to enter into the [Most] Holy Place by the Blood of Jesus...let us draw near [Heb 10.19, 22].
Our prayer should be: 'Lord, I do not know fully what the value of the Blood is, but I know that the Blood has satisfied Thee; so the Blood is enough for me, and it is my only plea. Whether I have really progressed...or attained to something, is not the point. Whenever I come before Thee, it is always on the ground of the precious Blood.' Our conscience is cleansed by the Blood and we have boldness to enter into the presence of God.
[Extracted from the Normal Christian Life by W.N. with some abridgements.]
The Blood does not cleanse our hearts. The heart is 'desperately sick' [Jer 17.9] and therefore God does something more fundamental than cleanse it: He must give us a new one...
The 'flesh' is too bad to be cleansed; it must be crucified...So God says, 'A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.' [Ezek 36.26]
The cleansing work of the Blood...is in relation to the conscience. 'Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience'... There is something intervening between myself and God...constantly reminding me of the barrier that stood between myself and Him. But now, through the operation of the precious Blood, something...has removed that barrier. My conscience is cleared and my sense of guilt removed.
Everyone knows what a precious thing it is to have a conscience void of offence in our dealings with God. A heart of faith and a conscience clear of any accusation are both equally essential to us, since both are interdependent. If our conscience is uneasy, our faith leaks away and we find we cannot face God. In order to keep going on with God, we must know the uptodate value of the Blood. God keeps short accounts, and we are made nigh by the Blood every day, every hour and every minute. It never loses its efficacy as our ground of access if we will but lay hold upon it. We enter the Most Holy Place only on the ground of the Blood [Heb 10.19].
By the Blood. I approach God through His merit alone and never on the basis of my attainment...A clear conscience is never based upon our attainment; it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood.
What is the basis of our approach to God? Do we come to Him on the uncertain ground of our 'feeling'? Or is our approach based on something far more secure, viz., the fact that the Blood has been shed, and God looks on that Blood and is satisfied? Our approach to God is always in boldness, because the Blood is ever-efficacious; it has never changed and it never will! Boldness to the throne of grace is ours through the Blood and never through our personal attainment or 'feeling'.
The matter of access to God has two phases, an initial and a progressive one. The initial is presented to us in Ephesians 2, where our standing with God is secured by the Blood, for we are 'made nigh in the blood of Christ' [Eph 2.13]. But thereafter our ground of continual access is still by the Blood, for 'having... boldness to enter into the [Most] Holy Place by the Blood of Jesus...let us draw near [Heb 10.19, 22].
Our prayer should be: 'Lord, I do not know fully what the value of the Blood is, but I know that the Blood has satisfied Thee; so the Blood is enough for me, and it is my only plea. Whether I have really progressed...or attained to something, is not the point. Whenever I come before Thee, it is always on the ground of the precious Blood.' Our conscience is cleansed by the Blood and we have boldness to enter into the presence of God.
[Extracted from the Normal Christian Life by W.N. with some abridgements.]
Monday, December 26, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Jericho - Sinister Background behind Civilization
We are continuing our series on Jericho, keeping in view the study on 2 Kings 2, the journey of Elisha and Elijah from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally to and across the river Jordan. You may find the earlier studies in other blogs in the htt://procyon6x.blogspot.com and procyon7x sites.
Jericho speaks of the world. In fact, Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. Achan put his hands upon the sinister things of the world. It was not just a beautiful garment; it had the touch of 'Babylon' upon it. See Joshua 7.
Babylon is the great city that rules over all the earth. There is a political Babylon, a religious Babylon and a commercial Babylon. Check out Rev 13, 17 and 18. We know that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, Gen 4.16. He never came back into the Lord's presence. He built a city, Gen 4.17. He was a man of much skill and talent. His progency were the inventors of music and technology. He himself was an expert farmer and his descendant was the father of animal husbandry. Eve appears to have been struck by his external appearance, Gen 4.1.
Cain's descendant, Nimrod, was the author of Babylon. In Gen 11.4, they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to heaven!' That speaks a lot about man's civilization - his pride and his [vain]glory. O what a wonderful piece of work is man! With his skill and talent, he has created the arts, and science and modern civilization. Politics, education, philosophy, religion, science, art, music, law, commerce, culture - all have evolved from man.
What a politician was Pilate, Luke 23.12, but in the end he committed suicide. Today's favorite child of education [coming from the Tree of Knowledge itself] is psychology [the study of the psyche or soul of man, without any understanding of the spirit and spiritual things!]. Colossians 2.8 warns us of hollow and deceptive philosophy, depending on human tradition and the basic principles of a world alienated from Christ. As for religion, it is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth", Rev 17.5. Today's god is Science, which has deified evolution and descended into the horrors of cloning and chemical bombing. Art has been depraved by idolatry; so-called Christian art is mostly idolatry. We have law and jurisprudence, without justice or equity. How can commerce and business flourish without dishonesty? Even music, for all its brilliance, cannot satisfy the spirit; contemporary Christian music is a great snare of the enemy.
We are living in a worldly atmosphere. We have to be careful of the 'earth touch'. [No wonder in the presence of God we have to take our shoes off our feet!] We have worldly conversation [chitchat, gossip], worldly friendships, wordly customs and traditions, worldly fashions, etc. The smallest 'touch' of the world can grieve the Spirit. How many of us spend more time with the newspaper in the morning than with our Bibles!
Jesus warned us of the cares of the world, Matt 13.22, Mark 4.19 and Luke 8.14. The seed was sown among thorns [thorns and thistles produced by a cursed world]; thorns that speak of worries and cares, riches, desires and pleasures; thorns that choke the 'word' and kill the spirit. As Watchman Nee rightly said, the question we should ask is not 'Whether it is good or bad?', but 'Is it of the world or of God?' Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks, Matt 18.7. The cares of the world weigh down upon us; we worry and have no time to rejoice or worship. The world's 'gravity' pulls us down. Jesus warned, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Read the entire section from Luke 12.15-34. What happened to the life of the pilgrim? the tent-life of Abraham?
In the last days, it is going to be like the days of Noah and Lot. People will be caught up in eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. [In the West, nobody believes in the institution of marriage, but they keep changing 'wives'] They will be obsessed by buying and selling [speculation?], and planting and building. Sodom, in Ezekiel 16.49, had abundant food and careless ease and much arrogance [NASB]; [not very different from America or Canada or any of the prosperous West]. But she did not care for the poor and needy [a growing problem in China and India, even as these countries prosper].
Remember Lot's wife, Luke 17.32. Remember Demas, 2 Tim 4.10. More than anything else, remember our Lord's warning that the world will hate the children of God.
We have been warned; but will we listen?
Jericho speaks of the world. In fact, Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. Achan put his hands upon the sinister things of the world. It was not just a beautiful garment; it had the touch of 'Babylon' upon it. See Joshua 7.
Babylon is the great city that rules over all the earth. There is a political Babylon, a religious Babylon and a commercial Babylon. Check out Rev 13, 17 and 18. We know that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, Gen 4.16. He never came back into the Lord's presence. He built a city, Gen 4.17. He was a man of much skill and talent. His progency were the inventors of music and technology. He himself was an expert farmer and his descendant was the father of animal husbandry. Eve appears to have been struck by his external appearance, Gen 4.1.
Cain's descendant, Nimrod, was the author of Babylon. In Gen 11.4, they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to heaven!' That speaks a lot about man's civilization - his pride and his [vain]glory. O what a wonderful piece of work is man! With his skill and talent, he has created the arts, and science and modern civilization. Politics, education, philosophy, religion, science, art, music, law, commerce, culture - all have evolved from man.
What a politician was Pilate, Luke 23.12, but in the end he committed suicide. Today's favorite child of education [coming from the Tree of Knowledge itself] is psychology [the study of the psyche or soul of man, without any understanding of the spirit and spiritual things!]. Colossians 2.8 warns us of hollow and deceptive philosophy, depending on human tradition and the basic principles of a world alienated from Christ. As for religion, it is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth", Rev 17.5. Today's god is Science, which has deified evolution and descended into the horrors of cloning and chemical bombing. Art has been depraved by idolatry; so-called Christian art is mostly idolatry. We have law and jurisprudence, without justice or equity. How can commerce and business flourish without dishonesty? Even music, for all its brilliance, cannot satisfy the spirit; contemporary Christian music is a great snare of the enemy.
We are living in a worldly atmosphere. We have to be careful of the 'earth touch'. [No wonder in the presence of God we have to take our shoes off our feet!] We have worldly conversation [chitchat, gossip], worldly friendships, wordly customs and traditions, worldly fashions, etc. The smallest 'touch' of the world can grieve the Spirit. How many of us spend more time with the newspaper in the morning than with our Bibles!
Jesus warned us of the cares of the world, Matt 13.22, Mark 4.19 and Luke 8.14. The seed was sown among thorns [thorns and thistles produced by a cursed world]; thorns that speak of worries and cares, riches, desires and pleasures; thorns that choke the 'word' and kill the spirit. As Watchman Nee rightly said, the question we should ask is not 'Whether it is good or bad?', but 'Is it of the world or of God?' Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks, Matt 18.7. The cares of the world weigh down upon us; we worry and have no time to rejoice or worship. The world's 'gravity' pulls us down. Jesus warned, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Read the entire section from Luke 12.15-34. What happened to the life of the pilgrim? the tent-life of Abraham?
In the last days, it is going to be like the days of Noah and Lot. People will be caught up in eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. [In the West, nobody believes in the institution of marriage, but they keep changing 'wives'] They will be obsessed by buying and selling [speculation?], and planting and building. Sodom, in Ezekiel 16.49, had abundant food and careless ease and much arrogance [NASB]; [not very different from America or Canada or any of the prosperous West]. But she did not care for the poor and needy [a growing problem in China and India, even as these countries prosper].
Remember Lot's wife, Luke 17.32. Remember Demas, 2 Tim 4.10. More than anything else, remember our Lord's warning that the world will hate the children of God.
We have been warned; but will we listen?
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