Friday, March 25, 2016

A Full Meal


A Full Meal
And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. Ruth 2:14
Whenever we are privileged to eat the bread that Jesus gives, we are, like Ruth, satisfied with a full and sweet provision. When Jesus is the host, no guest goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth that Christ reveals; our heart is content with Jesus as the altogether lovely object of affection; our hope is satisfied, for who do we have in heaven but Jesus? And our desire is fulfilled, for what more can we wish for than to "gain Christ and be found in him"?1 Jesus fills our conscience until it is at perfect peace, our judgment with persuasion of the certainty of His teachings, our memory with recollections of what He has done, and our imagination with the prospects of what He is still to do.
Later in the devotional he writes:
Yes, there are graces to which we have not attained, places of fellowship nearer to Christ that we have not reached, and heights of communion that our feet have not climbed. At every banquet of love there are many baskets left.

From Truth for Life, a Bible-teaching ministry of Alistair Begg

My prayer - May we allow this truth to permeate us today: Only the Lord can satisfy us and may we continue to search the depths, heights, widths and lengths of our Lord's graces and resources.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Step to Yes - Brother Andrew

Reading a book I have seen for years as a bookaholic, but never picked up to read. It has captured me and has provided me some thoughts and quotes.

God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew w/John & Elizabeth Sherrill
Quote from Brother Andrew as he was “praying through” to find the answer if he was to serve his Lord by becoming a missionary.
He wrote, “What is it, Lord?” What am I holding back? What am I using as an excuse for not serving You in whatever You want me to do?”
     And then, there by the canal, I finally had my answer. My “yes” to God had always been a “yes, but,” Yes, but I'm not educated. Yes, but I'm lame.
     With the next breath, I did say “Yes.” I said it in a brand-new way, without qualification. “I'll go, Lord,” I said, “no matter whether it's through the route of ordination, or through the WEC program, or through working on at Ringers'. Whenever, wherever, however You want me, I'll go. And I'll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and as I take my first step forward, will You consider that this is a step toward complete obedience to You? I'll call it the Step of Yes.” Page 57

I have not finished the book so I do not know yet if this was a one time happening for Brother Andrew, but the idea of Step to Yes, I believe, is in line with the phrase I shared at the end of the last post. LET HIM PERMEATE YOUR NOW. I believe as we let Him permeate our now, we will move into a Step of Yes and will be obedient to His leading. 

My prayer is that we may live this moment by moment in our lives.
Grace and Peace

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee, Part 2


I have not heard a more clear understanding of the last Adam and second Man as presented by Nee.  Enjoy!

As the last Adam, Christ is the sum total of humanity; as the second Man He is the
Head of a new race. So we have here two unions, the one relating to His death and the
other to His resurrection. In the first place His union with the race as "the last Adam"
began historically at Bethlehem and ended at the cross and the tomb. In it He gathered up
into Himself all that was in Adam and took it to judgment and death. In the second place
our union with Him as "the second man" begins in resurrection and ends in eternity --
which is to say, it never ends -- for, having in His death done away with the first man in
whom God's purpose was frustrated, He rose again as Head of a new race of men, in
whom that purpose shall be fully realized.

When therefore the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was crucified as the last
Adam. All that was in the first Adam was gathered up and done away in Him. We were
included there. As the last Adam He wiped out the old race; as the second Man He brings
in the new race. It is in His resurrection that He stands forth as the second Man, and there
too we are included. "For if we have become united with him by the likeness of his death,
we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection" (Romans 6:5). We died in Him as the
last Adam; we live in Him as the second Man. The Cross is thus the power of God which
translates us from Adam to Christ. 

Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, p. 32.