Let us seek Him often by faith: He is within us; seek Him not elsewhere. Are we not rude and deserve blame, if we leave Him alone, to busy ourselves about trifles, which do not please Him and perhaps offend Him? ‘Tis to be feared these trifles will one day cost us dear.
— From The Practice of the Presence of God,
Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691)
Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691)
Beloved, sometimes some things have just got to be said. Read if you will.
Throughout serious Christian literature from the 13th through 19th century, there is a beautiful mysticism that calls believers to come and abide with our Beautiful Savior; To bask in His Glorious Presence, and actually experience the gob-smacking wonder of being a friend to The One Who Made the worlds. This enigmatic writing weaves a stunningly beautiful call to the earnest believer: Abandon yourself to G_d. Let it all go, and trust Him to be the One who actually Lives His Life in you and through you. It is gorgeous reading… and, oh by the way… eminently Scriptural.
There is another theme among the same writers: a serious commitment to the Subject. St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas à Kempis, Brother Lawrence, Fenelon, Guyon, Molinos, Bunyan, Spurgeon, Chambers, Murray and many others write in deadly earnest about their quest to know Christ in the most very real way possible. They want to KNOW Jesus, and they are willing to live in such a way that proves their passion true. They are surely replete with the Holy Spirit and in this their lives copiously pour out for the very One who does the filling.
And as with most Christian writers whose work has survived the test of time, their work is absolutely drenched with G_d’s Word and His themes of Love, Mercy, Grace, Truth, Righteousness and Peace in the Holy Spirit. There is also one more vital theme: In G_d’s kingdom, there is a zero-tolerance policy against frivolity masquerading as virtue.
Said bluntly: Christianity is a “No-BS” lifestyle.
- Repentant transgressor? No problem!
- Honest seeker? Keep looking. You will find Him!
- Weak faith? Wait. G_d is coming to the rescue!
- Tripped-up believer? His Grace Abounds!
- Feeling unloved? Oh yeah, He is THE Answer for that!
But.
Hypocrite? … Might as well put some jelly in our pockets. Because, we are toast.
Beloved, how many of us?
- give our extra pennies to some charity and call it taking care of the poor?
- sermonize simplicity, but stuff our homes full of useless stuff?
- call for healthy lifestyles, and eat our meals from fast-food junk vendors?
- rail against idolatry. That just before jetting off to a giant retail store to fill our new cars with trinkets?
- talk about Grace, yet starve while sitting at its very banquet table?
- nod our heads to being filled by the Holy Spirit, and drink or drug or eat ourselves to sleep?
- bemoan modern culture while allowing our TVs to pour filth into our homes?
- call for purity, but purposefully harbor or allow for some secret sin?
- chat about the importance of prayer, yet have no time or place set aside for it in our homes?
- deliver homilies on absolute surrender, but keep our god firmly in a box of our own making?
Who are we kidding? No wonder most of our Christianity is simply laughed off as irrelevant and just plain goofy by the world.
It doesn’t work. Does it? Surely, we are ALL hot, juicy messes. Believers are only saved by His Grace through faith. But, let’s stay honest while we travel down that narrow road. There is that part of us that sometimes stinks.
Got stink? OK! That problem has been well and truly solved. Get washed in the blood. Go and sin no more! Let’s just NOT EVER call our stink a pleasing aroma to the One who has a very good sense of smell.
Make no mistake reader, it will all come down. All will be laid bare.
Will we stand one day, by Grace in the very near presence of our precious Savior and King? Or will we, like the adversary, fall and be forgotten without so much as a shallow-grave burial?
Oh yeah, just one last thing. Never forget. Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of a Divine Romance of Infinite proportion. It is a ravishing Love story that will be consumated with us as His glorious bride on that day.
And the devil? He just wants to make you his whore.
“ How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
‘ I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
“ Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘ Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
“ All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
But you are cast out of your grave
Like an abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
~ G_d, through the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 14
