The Fullness in Christ

Another devotional thought.  It seems everywhere I read and study the Word, the fullness of God in Christ and through Him in us keeps coming up.

30 August
by Daily Open Windows<https://www.facebook.com/DailyOpenWindows> on Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 5:09am ·
God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ. (Colossians 1:19 NLT)
Do not take these as just words. Do understand that in every fragment there is this truth: In the dispensation in which you and I are now living God has come to us in all His fullness. There is no more to be added. In His Son we have the absolute fullness of God, and it is out of that fullness that He speaks to us in His Son. God has only one Son in that sense - His only-begotten Son, which means that there is no one to come after Him. Therefore, God's last word is in His Son. The Son brings both the fullness and the finality of God. It is that which gives the solemnity to this whole Letter. It says: "If you fail to hear the voice of the Son there will never be another voice for you. God is never going to speak by another voice. God hath spoken in His Son, and He is never going to speak by any other means." Hence this Letter contains this word of warning and of exhortation: "Because this is the fullness and this is the end, be sure that you give heed...." To come into touch with the Lord Jesus is more than coming into touch with a teaching: it is coming into touch with a living, active Person. "It is God with whom we have to do." It is a glorious thing to come into touch with God in Christ - but it says here that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). No, it is not a book, a teaching, a philosophy: it is a living, positive, powerful Person....
 Perhaps this is just like a window opened into heaven. If you get the right window you can see quite a lot. You can see great things and you can see far things. But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The On-High Calling - Chapter 10
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000975.html

The Ground of Resurrection

I am enjoying periodically a daily reading from T.Austin Sparks.  I do not get to it every day, but whenever I do, the 'deep things' of the Lord are revealed to me.  Today's reading touched me and here is a portion.

"Resurrection is not to be only something that happened with Jesus, but it is something that has happened in us and taken place inside of us. There is a counterpart of that by His risen Life imparted, that we have been raised together with Him. And that is not just doctrine either. That is real, that is vital truth and something to happen in us as well as in Jerusalem so many years ago. It is not just history and tradition, it is experience.... We have not only to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but we have got to be alive ourselves with Him in that resurrection and on that ground."
(the author's italized and my bold)
If you get a chance, read the beginning of this and see why the author makes the statements above.
Grace and Peace

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/openwindows/003344.html

The "Much More" of your salvation

One of my father's (Lewis) favorite verses was Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through His life." I remember Dad getting real excited about the words 'much more' and the life we receive from the Father through the Son by the Spirit. I thought of him as I read this quote from Ian Thomas in the book I have been reading, The Indwelling Life of Christ.
     "Are you being saved by Christ's life? . . . this is the 'much more' of your salvation.
     Reconciled to God by Christ's death . . . and saved by His life - the one is a crisis of the moment; and the other is the process of a lifetime and on into eternity.
     . . . the crisis involves an initial act of faith that accepts Christ for what He did; the process involves an attitude of faith that continues to enjoy all that Christ is! For He not only died for what you have done; He rose again from the dead to take the place of what you are, which He does by His Holy Spirit indwelling you.
     This is the gospel, the whole of it. Anything less than this falls short of the gospel as revealed in the Word of God."
Amen and Amen.

Any Old Bush Will Do

A few months ago I stated that I would share a passage from a book by Thomas about how God can use any old bush. Let this truth permeate your being and bring you closer to Christ in you step by step.  Amen
Here is a possible monologue from the Father to Moses.

Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ  p.68-69

 “Do you see that bush over there? That scruffy, scaggy looking thing – that bush would have done! Do you see this beautiful bush, so shapely and fine – this bush would have done! For you see, Moses, any old bush will do – any bush – if only God is in the bush!

   . . . it is not the bush that sustains the flame, it is God in the bush; any old bush will do!
(end of monologue)

   Did you ever make this discovery? Have you ever come to the place where you realized that all you can produce, at your best, is ashes? Did you ever come to the place where you presented yourself for what you are – nothing – to be filled with what He is – everything – and to step out into every new day, conscience that the eternal I AM is all you need, for all His will!

   This is the forgotten tense of the church of Jesus Christ today. We live either in the past tense or in the future tense. . . .  But we forget that He is the eternal I AM, the eternal present tense, adequate right now for every need!

   If you are born again, all you need is what you have and what you have is what He is! He does not give you strength – He is your strength! He does not give you victory – He is your victory!

   Do you understand the principle? Christ is in you – nothing less than that! You cannot have more, and you do not need to have less. Every day can be the glorious fulfillment of the divine end – “proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” as you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom. 12:1-2)

   Only remember this – any old bush will do!”

Indwelling Life of Christ, Ian Thomas

From his book, The Indwelling Life of Christ, All of Him In All of Me, Major Ian Thomas states,
     "The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions, and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
     "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galations 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit; to take one step at a time, and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face in faith and say. "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."   Page 22
     The Lord is the strength of my life.  Psalm 27:1

Tozer - In Him we have All

A.W. Tozer – The Pursuit Of God, Following Hard After God

You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead.   . . . mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel, Levi received no share of the land. God said to him simply, “I am thy part and thine inheritance,” and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God.

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.

Root before Fruit - Milt Rodriguez

The Lord has been showing me interesting writings on His presence and His love in our lives for the last few weeks. I read a blog post from Milt Rodriguez who has become a favorite blogger for me. 

He wrote on “Root Must Come Before Fruit.”  See link
In his post he states, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4, 5

The Tree of Life

What the Lord is talking about here is not missions, evangelism, or social action. He is talking about Life! God’s life. Divine life. Where there is life, there will be fruit (at least eventually). We love to focus on the fruit, but it seems to me that God focuses on the life. That is, the life of His dear Son. He knows that if life is flowing in the tree, fruit will be produced naturally, organically.
There is a very important reason why the Lord used the metaphor of a tree (or vine). He wanted to convey the idea of internal life being expressed. There is life flowing inside of the tree! Please don’t get the idea that there is nothing happening inside of that tree. Where there is life, there is motion. The sap is flowing; the bark and the branches are growing. Leaves and flowers are developing. But the fruit comes last.”  End of Milt's quote http://miltrodriguez.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/root-before-fruit-2/

Prayer from A.W. Tozer from The Pursuit of God.
“O God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O, God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my sould, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from the misty lowland when I have wondered so long.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

More on focusing on Christ and His life in the next few blogs. 
Grace and Peace