The mysteries of praise: all our strength

The numinous mysteries of God

Ecclesiasticus 43 selections

By His plan He stilled the deep
and planted islands in it.
Those who sail the sea tell of its dangers,
and we marvel at what we hear.
In it are strange and marvellous creatures,
all kinds of living things, and huge sea-monsters.
Because of Him each of His messengers succeeds,
and by His word all things hold together.

We could say more but could never say enough;
let the final word be: 'He is the all!'
Where can we find the strength to praise Him?
For He is greater than all His works.
Awesome is the Lord and very great,
and marvellous is His power.
Glorify the Lord and exalt Him as much as you can,
for He surpasses even that.
When you exalt Him, summon all your strength,
and do not grow weary, for you cannot praise Him enough.
Who has seen Him and can describe him?
Or who can extol Him as He is?
Many things greater than these lie hidden,
for I have seen but few of His works.
For the Lord has made all things,
and to the godly He has given wisdom.

Selah.

The darkness, the stairway, the stone

Nearer, my God, to thee!

Words: Sarah Adams, 1841
Tune: Bethany

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone.
yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God to thee.

Nearer, my God, to thee,
nearer to thee!

There let the way appear, steps unto heav'n;
all that thou sendest me, in mercy given;
angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to thee.

Nearer, my God, to thee,
nearer to thee!

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;
so by my woes to be nearer, my God, to thee.

Nearer, my God, to thee,
nearer to thee!

Selah.

What do I owe to Christ, my Lord, my King?

What do I owe? Nay, Lord, what do I not?

Words: John Oxenham, 1924
Tune: Ellers

What do I owe? Nay, Lord, what do I not?
All that I am and all that I have got.
All that I am and that how small a thing
compared with all thy goodly fostering.

What do I owe to all the world around?
To set thee first, that grace may more abound.
To set thee first, to hold thee all in all,
and, come what may, to follow thy high call.

What do I owe to this dear land of ours?
All of my best, my time, my thought, my powers.
All of my best is yet to small to give,
that this our land may to thine increase live.

What do I owe to those who follow on?
To build more sure the freedom we have won.
To build more sure the Kingdoms of thy grace,
Kingdoms secure in truth and righteousness.

What do I owe to Christ, my Lord, my King?
That all my life be one sweet offering.
That all my life to noblest heights aspire,
that all I do be touched with holy fire!

Selah.

That my whole being may proclaim

Fill thou my life, O Lord my God

Words: Horatius Bonar, 1866
Tune: Richmond

Fill thou my life, O Lord my God,
in every part with praise,
that my whole being may proclaim
thy being and thy ways.

Not for the lip of praise alone,
nor e'en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
of praise in every part!

Praise in the common things of life,
its goings out and in;
praise in each duty and deed,
however small and mean.

Fill every part of me with praise;
let all my being speak
of thee and of thy love, O Lord,
poor though I be, and weak.

So shalt thou, Lord, from me, e'en me,
receive the glory due;
and so shall I begin on earth
the song forever new.

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
be turned into a song,
and every winding of the way
the echo shall prolong;

So shall no part of day or night
from sacredness be free;
but all my life, in every step
be fellowship with thee!

Selah.

O hope of every contrite heart

Jesus, the very thought of thee

Words: Bernard of Clairvaux, twelfth century;
trans. Edward Caswall, 1849
Tune: Windsor (Rhythmic)

Jesus, the very thought of thee
with sweetness fills the breast;
but sweeter far thy face to see,
and in thy presence rest.

No voice can sing, no heart can frame,
nor can the memory find,
a sweeter sound than Jesus' Name,
the Savior of mankind.

O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
to those who fall, how kind thou art:
how good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
nor tongue nor pen can show;
the love of Jesus, what it is,
none but who love Him know.

Jesus, our only joy be thou,
as thou our prize wilt be;
in thee be all our glory now,
and through eternity.

Selah.

Thoughts between daughter and Father VII

He allows me to hunger

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water…

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you!

Psalm 63:1, 5

The daughter found herself in a barren place.

Her Father said,

“In this place I will give you the peace you are longing for. Here I will give you spiritual food that will nourish you. You are always with Me – no matter what the circumstances – and all that I have is yours.”

Then the Father, with great gentleness, drew the daughter to himself. Quietly, He said,

“I am the One who allowed you to come into these humbling circumstances, and allowed you to hunger. I did this so that I might feed you with manna – My bread from heaven! Only in this way could I help you to know that you cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from My mouth.”

The daughter said, “Give me this bread always!”

And when she grew thirsty, she learned to cry, “The light of Your face is my life!”

Later still, the daughter wondered why one like herself, who is so richly fed and cared for at times, should at other times feel so poor and needy and thirsty.

Her Father replied by asking four questions:

“Can someone who has never thirsted know how precious is My living water?

“Can someone who has never discovered rivers of these living waters flowing on barren heights – can she ever lead a thirsty friend to those rivers?

“Can someone who has never walked the valleys of the spirit help a friend who is fainting – or lead this friend to the well-springs that will save the life of the soul?

“Can someone who has never seen burning sands in the wilderness turn into a refreshing pool – can she speak in praise of My marvels, or My power?”

Selah.


Prayer

My Father, please help me to trust you in the barren place. Help me to be faithful to you in the valleys of my spirit, so that I might learn well how to bring others through this barren path. Above all, help me to see you, always with me, no matter what the test...

Today, Father, I claim the promise that my soul will be satisfied in your presence, as with the richest of foods. Today I will sing to you, in faith, as if the promise has already arrived!

Thank you for this day, this trial, this prayer... in Jesus' name I pray.

Selah.

Note: More thoughts from the private conversation of Amy Carmichael, as she talked to her Father about the issues of life and personal challenges around her. God used her to rescue many young girls from ritual Hindu temple prostitution, and wrought miracles through her prayer life. Here is glimpse into that prayer life. May it bless you today!

She of whom God thinks, lives

He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him. Luke 20:38

In Luke chapter 20, some Sadducees confront Jesus on the doctrine of resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they tried to trap Jesus with a trick scenario. They presented Jesus with a far-out story about seven brothers: the first brother married a good wife, then died; so the second brother married her in turn, then he died. This happened until each of the brothers married the same woman after the preceding brother died [one supposes they were good guys, but not too smart! brother six or seven should have questioned the math, at least, lol!]. Anyway, humor aside, the Sadducees told this story and then asked Jesus a question [drum roll]: “Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

One can imagine Jesus easily shrugging, by the way He answered. He simply hinted that they didn’t understand the category of resurrection at all, then He preceded to crush their underlying issue of non-belief with these words:

In the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive."

Take a moment and get your mind around these words. They are the words of Christ Jesus. Let them echo in your consciousness. Here is the meaning of the universe in two sentences: unity, relation, destiny, eternity in a moment…

If you don’t love Jesus after listening to words like these, your heart is different from mine! :-) But the point is taken: Jesus taught the resurrection unequivocally, as a self-evident fact of divine relation.

Tonight I was deeply moved by a sermon from George MacDonald on this text. MacDonald presents the doctrine of resurrection inherent in the words of Christ, and ascends to the pinnacle of human thought – following into divine thought – on this subject. One senses the very mind of Christ in these words:

What Godlike relation can the ever-living, life-giving, changeless God hold to creatures who partake not of His life, who have death at the very core of their being, are not worth their Maker's keeping alive? To let His creatures die would be to change, to abjure His Godhood, to cease to be that which He had made himself… But our Lord says, “All live unto Him.” With Him death is not…

Thy life sees our life, O Lord. All of whom all can be said, are present to thee. Thou thinkest about us, eternally more than we think about thee. The little life that burns within the body of this death, glows unquenchable in thy true-seeing eyes. If thou didst forget us for a moment then indeed death would be. But unto thee we live…

S/he of whom God thinks, lives. S/he takes to him or herself the name of Their God. The Living One cannot name himself after the dead; when the very Godhead lies in the giving of life. Therefore they must be alive.

Are you thrilled yet? :-) Either way, here is an excerpt of MacDonald’s sermon. Oh for more preaching like this! Read and be blessed!

:-)

The God of the living

George MacDonald

It is a recurring cause of perplexity in our Lord's teaching, that He is too simple for us; that while we are questioning with ourselves about the design of Solomon's carving upon some gold-plated door of the temple, He is speaking about the foundations of Mount Zion, yea, of the earth itself, upon which it stands. If the reader of the Gospel supposes that our Lord was here using a verbal argument with the Sadducees, namely, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; therefore they are,” he will be astonished that no Sadducee was found with courage enough to reply: “All that God meant was to introduce himself to Moses as the same God who had aided and protected his fathers while they were alive, saying, I am he that was the God of thy fathers. They found me faithful. Thou, therefore, listen to me, and thou too shalt find me faithful unto the death.”

But no such reply suggested itself even to the Sadducees of that day, for their eastern nature could see argument beyond logic. Shall God call himself the God of the dead, of those who were alive once, but whom He either could not or would not keep alive? Is that the Godhood, and its relation to those who worship it? The changeless God of an ever-born and ever-perishing torrent of life; of which each atom cries with burning heart, My God! and straightway passes into the Godless cold! “Trust in me, for I took care of your fathers once upon a time, though they are gone now. Worship and obey me, for I will be good to you for threescore years and ten, or thereabouts; and after that, when you are not, and the world goes on all the same without you, I will call myself your God still.” God changes not. Once God He is always God! If He has once said to a man, “I am thy God, and that man has died the death of the Sadducee's creed,” then we have a right to say that God is the God of the dead.

“And wherefore should He not be so far the God of the dead, if during the time allotted to them here, He was the faithful God of the living?” What Godlike relation can the ever-living, life-giving, changeless God hold to creatures who partake not of His life, who have death at the very core of their being, are not worth their Maker's keeping alive? To let His creatures die would be to change, to abjure His Godhood, to cease to be that which He had made himself. If they are not worth keeping alive, then His creating is a poor thing, and He is not so great, nor so divine as even the poor thoughts of those His dying creatures have been able to imagine Him. But our Lord says, “All live unto Him.” With Him death is not.

Thy life sees our life, O Lord. All of whom all can be said, are present to thee. Thou thinkest about us, eternally more than we think about thee. The little life that burns within the body of this death, glows unquenchable in thy true-seeing eyes. If thou didst forget us for a moment then indeed death would be. But unto thee we live. The beloved pass from our sight, but they pass not from thine. This that we call death is but a form in the eyes of men. It looks something final, an awful cessation, an utter change. It seems not probable that there is anything beyond. But if God could see us before we were, and make us after His ideal, that we shall have passed from the eyes of our friends can be no argument that He beholds us no longer. “All live unto Him.”

Let the change be ever so great, ever so imposing; let the unseen life be ever so vague to our conception, it is not against reason to hope that God could see Abraham, after his Isaac had ceased to see him; saw Isaac after Jacob ceased to see him; saw Jacob after some of the Sadducees had begun to doubt whether there ever had been a Jacob at all. He remembers them; that is, He carries them in His mind: s/he of whom God thinks, lives. S/he takes to him or herself the name of Their God. The Living One cannot name himself after the dead; when the very Godhead lies in the giving of life.

Therefore they must be alive.

Selah.

The glorious difficulty of walking with God

Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:20-21

One step at a time

Amy Carmichael

I believe that, in guiding us, God deals with us as He dealt with the Israelites as He led them out of the Egypt.

The first crossing of the sea was made very easy. The guidance could not have been simpler. The east wind blew and divided the sea before the people had to cross. Not so much as a foot was wet, except perhaps by a wind-driven spray. Moreover, it was impossible, as it were, to disobey, since they were pursued by Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen [Exodus 14].

But how different it was on second occasion!

The priests had to walk into the strong current of a flooded river and stand still there. What an order to scoff at, and what it sight it would pose to other men! But it was not until they obeyed – without a particle of visible proof that they were doing right – and carried the ark right into the river, that the water rolled back before them [Joshua 3].

So it may be for us, as we go on with God.

You and I may be called again and again to walk right into our own ‘rivers,’ whatever they may be – to wet our feet in them. We may be called to do what nobody understands except those to whom the word of guidance is given – and with it, His promise too.

But understand this: The word must come first, and also His promise. You and I must be sure of what we are called to do, and with an inward conviction that absolutely nothing can shake. In my own case, again and again, I have had to wet my feet in the water… Only God and those who have to walk in that path know how hard this kind of faith-life can be. But He does know. And when the people around us don’t hear the words and voice we have heard, and only say, “It thunders…,” then He comes near and we know Him as we never knew Him before…

If only the next step is clear, then the one thing to do is take it! Don’t pledge your Lord or yourself to any steps beyond what you know. You don’t see them yet.

Once when I was climbing at night, in a forest before there was a made path, I learned what was meant by the words of Psalm 119:105:

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.

I had only a lantern, and I had to hold it very low or I would certainly have slipped on those rough rocks.

We don’t walk spiritually by electric light, but by a hand-held lantern. And a lantern shows only the next step – not several steps ahead.

Prayer

My Father, there are so many paths I could walk – so many ways to choose. And there are certain decisions I must make that lead me around and around, until my heart is in confusion.

Today, I will fix my heart on this truth:

When I feel confused, there will always come a light, held low so that my feet won’t stumble – a sure light that will shine on each step of my path.

Thank you, Father, that you will speak the counsels of your word to me.

Selah.

Amy Carmichael, Candles in the Dark, pp. 41-43.

He is sovereign over even this!

Who is this? He commands even the winds and water and they obey Him?

Luke 8:25

Even this…

Amy Carmichael

Is there something you are facing – whether in your outer circumstances or in your inner character – that seems impossible to command? Something that has baffled you and outwitted you a thousand times, and appears that it will win over you in the end? Some as deaf to your command as the wind, or wild waters?

Don’t despair. Don’t shrug and give up.

Our Lord – your Lord and mine – can command even the most difficult, unruly thing that seems as if it will never be commanded.

Let His word “even” be a comfort to you. He who commands even the winds and water [and they must obey Him] – He can say to that “even” of yours, “Peace, be still…”

And there will come for you “a great calm” [Mark 4:39].

Remember… there is nothing you are asked to do in your own strength. Not the least thing, nor the greatest.

God, who is all the while supplying the impulse [to obey and overcome], giving you the power of inner resolve [to see it through to victory], is also giving you the strength to perform [under pressure] and to carry out his good pleasure. [Philippians 2:13, Way’s translation]

All the tremendous forces of nature – weather and politics and human nature too – are at the beck and call of our God. Each has only a faint shadow of the spiritual power that is His, and that He is ready to send forth for us.

Isn’t that amazing?

How utterly foolish it is to plead weakness when we – even you and I – may move into the stream of that power. If only we will…

Prayer

My Father, I choose your strength over my weakness!

For today, I will step out of the role of Lord and Judge… and I’ll strike the word ‘impossible’ from my thoughts!

Selah.

Amy Carmichael, Thou Givest – They Gather, pp. 19-20.

God the child: He has not two thoughts about us...

And He came to Capernaum: and, being in the house, He asked them, ‘What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?’ But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And He sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, ‘If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.’ And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, ‘Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but Him that sent me.’ Mark 9:33-37

In one of his boldest and most challenging assertions, George MacDonald takes Jesus’ words on children and declares: God is a child. The essence of childlikeness is God-likeness, and to love a child in Jesus’ name is to love God himself.

MacDonald makes several very provocative points in this regard, claims which are still obscure to me, and yet which thrill me. He claims that not every child is childlike, for some have loved the world, and the love of the Father is not in them [think of Susan in Chronicles of Narnia, who comes back from Narnia, falls in love with ‘society’ and worldly things, and loses her belief in Narnia]. These children are the ones who lose their inner beauty, their destined birthright; whereas, other children, even handicapped or physically marred, still childlike, represent the very beauty of Jesus.

Here MacDonald asserts that to love this childlike child, one of the 'least of these,' is to love Jesus, to love God himself. The implication is that we encounter God in this childlike love, not just in ethereal or illustrative form, but in actuality, touching and entering the love of God.

Here my mind went to those who love orphans and outcasts, like Hopegivers and Logos Global, those who give their self and substance in a direction of childlike love – whether that child be seen as unlovable, outcaste or deformed: in this is the love of the Father known.

All this MacDonald asserts, yet he goes higher still, claiming that we actually ‘receive of God in the child,’ and that in our own childlikeness is God revealed. The hint is of the true self, that true self declared by creation of God before the world began, this true self is the inner boy or girl, lost in wonder and love with the childlike in God – the God who has not two thoughts for us, but one, in simplicity of love, our perfection!

There are some tough, bracing assertions in this theology: one must be a true man or woman to even think about them deeply; and yet, along the way, MacDonald soars into some of the highest claims of divine beauty and sovereignty that I have ever heard. He sings the truth that “Life is no series of chances with a few providences sprinkled between, but one providence of God…” and that God is

Grand and strong beyond all that human imagination can conceive of poet-thinking and kingly action, He is delicate beyond all that human tenderness can conceive of husband or wife, homely beyond all that human heart can conceive of father or mother. He has not two thoughts about us. With Him all is simplicity of purpose and meaning and effort and goal…

And this is the childlike God!

Can your mind conceive of these words? Those who love children, hear these words! Those who struggle with the love of Abba, hear these words! “For it is His childlikeness that makes Him our God and Father.”

The words are stirring and almost beyond comprehension, but here, for you, to encourage your heart today, are some words of God the child!

His childlikeness makes Him our God and Father

George MacDonald

But [let us] advance now to the highest point of this teaching of our Lord: “He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” To receive a child in the name of God is to receive God himself. How to receive him? As alone He can be received,—by knowing Him as He is. To know Him is to have Him in us. And that we may know Him, let us now receive this revelation of Him, in the words of our Lord himself. Here is the argument of highest import founded upon the teaching of our Master in the utterance before us.

God is represented in Jesus, for that God is like Jesus: Jesus is represented in the child, for that Jesus is like the child. Therefore God is represented in the child, for that He is like the child. God is child-like. In the true vision of this fact lies the receiving of God in the child.

Having reached this point, I have nothing more to do with the argument; for if the Lord meant this—that is, if this be a truth, he that is able to receive it will receive it: he that hath ears to hear it will hear it. For our Lord’s arguments are for the presentation of the truth, and the truth carries its own conviction to him who is able to receive it.

But the word of one who has seen this truth may help the dawn of a like perception in those who keep their faces turned towards the east and its aurora; for men may have eyes, and, seeing dimly, want to see more. Therefore let us brood a little over the idea itself, and see whether it will not come forth so as to commend itself to that spirit, which, one with the human spirit where it dwells, searches the deep things of God. For, although the true heart may at first be shocked at the truth, as Peter was shocked when he said, “That be far from thee, Lord,” yet will it, after a season, receive it and rejoice in it.

Let me then ask, do you believe in the Incarnation? And if you do, let me ask further, Was Jesus ever less divine than God? I answer for you, Never. He was lower, but never less divine. Was He not a child then? You answer, “Yes, but not like other children.” I ask, “Did He not look like other children?” If He looked like them and was not like them, the whole was a deception, a masquerade at best. I say He was a child, whatever more He might be. God is man, and infinitely more. Our Lord became flesh, but did not become man. He took on him the form of man: He was man already. And He was, is, and ever shall be divinely childlike. He could never have been a child if He would ever have ceased to be a child, for in Him the transient found nothing. Childhood belongs to the divine nature. Obedience, then, is as divine as Will, Service as divine as Rule. How? Because they are one in their nature; they are both a doing of the truth. The love in them is the same. The Fatherhood and the Sonship are one, save that the Fatherhood looks down lovingly, and the Sonship looks up lovingly. Love is all. And God is all in all. He is ever seeking to get down to us—to be the divine man to us. And we are ever saying, “That be far from thee, Lord!” We are careful, in our unbelief, over the divine dignity, of which He is too grand to think. Better pleasing to God, it needs little daring to say, is the audacity of Job, who, rushing into His presence, and flinging the door of his presence—chamber to the wall, like a troubled, it may be angry, but yet faithful child, calls aloud in the ear of him whose perfect Fatherhood he has yet to learn: “Am I a sea or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?”

Let us dare, then, to climb the height of divine truth to which this utterance of our Lord would lead us.

Does it not lead us up hither: that the devotion of God to His creatures is perfect? that He does not think about himself but about them? that He wants nothing for himself, but finds His blessedness in the outgoing of blessedness.

Ah! it is a terrible—shall it be a lonely glory this? We will draw near with our human response, our abandonment of self in the faith of Jesus. He gives himself to us—shall not we give ourselves to him? Shall we not give ourselves to each other whom he loves?

For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and to our hearts? Is it not when with gentle hand he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father’s face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss? when even the lovely selfishness of love-seeking has vanished, and the heart is absorbed in loving?

In this, then, is God like the child: that He is simply and altogether our friend, our father—our more than friend, father, and mother—our infinite love-perfect God. Grand and strong beyond all that human imagination can conceive of poet-thinking and kingly action, He is delicate beyond all that human tenderness can conceive of husband or wife, homely beyond all that human heart can conceive of father or mother. He has not two thoughts about us. With Him all is simplicity of purpose and meaning and effort and end—namely, that we should be as He is, think the same thoughts, mean the same things, possess the same blessedness. It is so plain that any one may see it, every one ought to see it, every one shall see it. It must be so. He is utterly true and good to us, nor shall anything withstand His will.

How terribly, then, have the theologians misrepresented God in the measures of the low and showy, not the lofty and simple humanities! Nearly all of them represent Him as a great King on a grand throne, thinking how grand He is, and making it the business of His being and the end of His universe to keep up His glory, wielding the bolts of a Jupiter against them that take His name in vain. They would not allow this, but follow out what they say, and it comes much to this. Brothers, have you found our king? There He is, kissing little children and saying they are like God. There He is at table with the head of a fisherman lying on his bosom, and somewhat heavy at heart that even He, the beloved disciple, cannot yet understand Him well. The simplest peasant who loves his children and his sheep were—no, not a truer, for the other is false, but—a true type of our God beside that monstrosity of a monarch.

The God who is ever uttering himself in the changeful profusions of nature; who takes millions of years to form a soul that shall understand Him and be blessed; who never needs to be, and never is, in haste; who welcomes the simplest thought of truth or beauty as the return for seed He has sown upon the old fallows of eternity; who rejoices in the response of a faltering moment to the age-long cry of His wisdom in the streets; the God of music, of painting, of building, the Lord of Hosts, the God of mountains and oceans; whose laws go forth from one unseen point of wisdom, and thither return without an atom of loss; the God of history working in time unto Christianity; this God is the God of little children, and He alone can be perfectly, abandonedly simple and devoted. The deepest, purest love of a woman has its well-spring in him. Our longing desires can no more exhaust the fullness of the treasures of the Godhead, than our imagination can touch their measure. Of Him not a thought, not a joy, not a hope of one of His creatures can pass unseen; and while one of them remains unsatisfied, He is not Lord over all.

Therefore, with angels and with archangels, with the spirits of the just made perfect, with the little children of the kingdom, yea, with the Lord himself, and for all them that know Him not, we praise and magnify and laud His name in itself, saying Our Father. We do not draw back for that we are unworthy, nor even for that we are hard-hearted and care not for the good. For it is His childlikeness that makes Him our God and Father. The perfection of His relation to us swallows up all our imperfections, all our defects, all our evils; for our childhood is born of His fatherhood. That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and his desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to him, “Thou art my refuge, because thou art my home.”

Such a faith will not lead to presumption. The man who can pray such a prayer will know better than another, that God is not mocked; that He is not a man that He should repent; that tears and entreaties will not work on Him to the breach of one of his laws; that for God to give a man because he asked for it that which was not in harmony with His laws of truth and right, would be to damn him—to cast him into the outer darkness. And he knows that out of that prison the childlike, imperturbable God will let no man come till he has paid the uttermost farthing.

And if he should forget this, the God to whom he belongs does not forget it, does not forget him. Life is no series of chances with a few providences sprinkled between to keep up a justly failing belief, but one providence of God; and the man shall not live long before life itself shall remind him, it may be in agony of soul, of that which he has forgotten. When he prays for comfort, the answer may come in dismay and terror and the turning aside of the Father’s countenance; for love itself will, for love’s sake, turn the countenance away from that which is not lovely; and he will have to read, written upon the dark wall of his imprisoned conscience, the words, awful and glorious, Our God is a consuming fire.

Selah.

George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons Series One: The Child in the Midst.

Gold: that which God doth touch and own

Teach me, my God and King

Words: George Herbert, 1633
Tune: Sandys, Carlisle

Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see,
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee.

A man that looks on glass,
on it may stay his eye;
or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
and then the heaven espy.

All may of thee partake;
nothing can be so mean,
which with this tincture, "for thy sake,"
will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
makes drudgery divine:
who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone
that turneth all to gold;
for that which God doth touch and own
cannot for less be told.

A pause

Selah

Many there be which say of my soul, ‘There is no help for him in God.’ Selah. But Thou, O Lord, art my helper, my Glory and the lifter of my head!
Psalm 3:2

Amy Carmichael

Pause is the word the Greek translation of the Bible uses for selah. I like to meditate upon the way it occurs for the first time in the Psalms:

Many there be which say of my soul, ‘There is no help for him in God.’

Selah.

But Thou, O Lord, art my helper, my Glory and the lifter of my head!

Psalm 3:2 [Septuagint]

We have all been subjected to the wearying voices which flood the very atmosphere around us, complaining, “There is no help…”

These voices murmur and mutter the same words, no matter what the challenge or difficulty may be. “There is no help…”

But because you and I are in God, we need not listen: “There is no help…” they repeat.

Pause.

“But you, O Lord, are my helper!”

No matter to us what the voices say. Their words bring only weariness – but with His word comes peace and strength and courage to go on.

This is true, not only of the difficult outward circumstances of our lives, but with inward temptations too. We are tempted. And at once we recall past failures in the same area. This causes us to feel weak and start to fall. The voices within us are saying, “There is no help…”

Even these inner struggles may be turned to peace. How? Instead of trying to answer the many voices of the enemy, or arguing with them [we can never win this kind of argument], we must do something else.

We pause.

We look away from self, away from the enemy. We look up!

“There is no help…”

“But you, O Lord…!”

Some believe that selah signifies also a sudden pealing-forth of musical instruments. The pause then, was for praise.

Then let us fill all of our pauses with praise! Let us give all that lies within us, not to the voices of the enemy, but to pure praise, to pure loving adoration, and to worship from a grateful heart – a heart that is trained to look up.

Prayer

My Father, train my soul, today, to pause. When the enemy attacks, hurling words that cause me to take my eyes off of you… When I feel weak, and helpless to do anything but fail again,

I will stop.

I will look up.

No matter what comes, I will say, “But you, O Lord, are my helper!”

Selah.

Amy Carmichael, Thou Givest – They Gather, p. 18.

The splendor of your love

Restore in us, O God

Words: Carl P. Daw, Jr.
Tune: Southwell

Restore in us, O God,
the splendor of your love;
renew your image in our hearts,
and all our sins remove.

O Spirit, wake in us
the wonder of your power;
from fruitless fear unfurl our lives
like springtime bud and flower.

Bring us, O Christ, to share
the fullness of your joy;
baptize us in the risen life
that death cannot destroy.

Three-personed God, fulfill
the promise of your grace,
that we, when our searching ends,
may see you face to face!

Selah.

A hidden fire that trembles in the breast

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire

Words: James Montgomery, 1818

Tune: Mendip

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
unuttered or expressed;
the motion of a hidden fire
that trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
the falling of a tear
the upward glancing of an eye,
when none but God is near.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice,
returning from his ways,
while angels in their songs rejoice
and cry, "Behold, he prays!"

The saints in prayer appear as one
in word, in deed, and mind,
while with the Father and the Son
sweet fellowship they find.

No prayer is made by man alone
the Holy Spirit pleads,
and Jesus, on th'eternal throne,
for sinners intercedes.

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
the Christian's native air,
his watchword at the gates of death;
he enters heaven with prayer.

O thou, by whom we come to God,
the Life, the Truth, the Way;
the path of prayer thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray!

Selah.

Valentine thoughts on true love & true self

Inexorable Love

Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy... For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected – not in itself, but in the object.... Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed.

And our God is a consuming fire.

Love consumes the false self and releases the true

When we say that God is Love, do we teach people that their fear of Him is groundless? No. As much as they fear will come upon them, possibly far more.... The wrath will consume what they call themselves; so that the selves God made shall appear.

[And this is Love.]

Love that compels us in dryness

That person is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, “Thou art my refuge.”

Selah.

George MacDonald: An Anthology, by C.S. Lewis.

A life that proves truth, love, hope and redemption

A deeper look at faith and light

George MacDonald

But, friends, what we have to do is let our light shine. Do you get any light? Let it shine. I do not mean be an example to other people. You have no business to set yourselves up for an example; you have to be and to do, and that is letting the light shine. It ought not to be possible to mistake a Christian for a man of the world. His very dealings with every man that comes near him have something to show, something that Christ would have done that a man of the world would not do. Tell me how you would like Christ to come in upon you at any moment in the midst of your business talk. Would you be ready to turn to Him and say, “Master, this is how I am saying the thing to my friend; this is how I see it in the light of Thy love!”?

Would you be ready for that, or do you think that a great part of your being and your life can be conducted upon other laws than Christian? If a man does that, he is altogether wrong – altogether wrong. Christ is God, the all-in-all, or nothing at all. If we were as the bush – if every Christian were as the bush that burned with fire – that would be the shining our light before men. Atheism would soon vanish; unbelief would draw in its horns; reproved, judged, condemned by the very presence of faith.

I would have you, then, friends, remember that faith is the trying of the thing that you do not see, and that you cannot be sure about, a thing that you do not see and which, not seeing, you have doubt about, you can yet try – that is faith; and if you are honest, that will be a great opportunity and a great help to you; it will start a fresh faith which you have not thought of before, and give your life a new start. Faith is intended to put to the test the unseen world of truth, love, law, hope, redemption. God grant us all faith enough to carry on from point to point till the faith shall vanish into light…

Selah.

The Lord rises with healing in His wings

Sometimes a light surprises

Words: William Cowper, 1779
Tune: Light

Sometimes a light surprises
the Christian while he sings;
it is the Lord who rises
with healing in His wings:
when comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
a season of clear shining,
to cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation
we sweetly then pursue
the theme of God's salvation,
and find it ever new;
set free from present sorrow,
we cheerfully can say,
let the unknown tomorrow
bring with it what it may,

It can bring with it nothing
but He will bear us through:
who gives the lilies clothing
will clothe His people, too:
beneath the spreading heavens
no creature but is fed;
and He who feeds the ravens
will give His children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither
their wonted fruit should bear,
though all the fields should wither,
nor flocks nor herds be there;
yet, God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
for, while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice!

Selah.

The light beyond the clouds

Teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom… satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing love, that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days.

Psalm 90:1-2

If only there were mountains!

Amy Carmichael

If you would live in victory over the circumstances, great and small, that come to you each day… and if you want God’s life and power to well up from the depths of your being… then you must refuse to be dominated by the seen and felt.

You say, “I could climb mountains if God asked me to. That would be a joy!

“But, here I stand, on this dreary seashore of my life, looking over this dreary backwash bay and a drearier shoreline – and beyond that, inland, no mountains. Nothing invigorating or inspiring. Nothing hard enough to inspire anyone…

“The whole of my life is like that these days – not hard, just dull. I would have chosen challenging over dull. A challenge that would make me want to achieve at any cost. It’s this useless feeling that is so devastating…

God says, “Have you looked up?”

“Up? I see nothing but a mass of clouds overhead. That’s all.”

“And nothing beyond those clouds? Look again. Don’t you see the hint of light beyond them? Aren’t the clouds themselves a marvel of controlled power – reminders of the pillars of cloud and fire?

“I must confess, my spiritual vision has failed, what with waiting so long upon my God.”

“So long…? You need to grow in patience. For after you have done the will of God, you must learn to wait to receive the full extent of His promise.

“It is written: ‘As for me, when I am poor and feeling heavy, your help, O God, will lift me up. I wait patiently, trusting that you will lift me up.’

“And it is also written: ‘I will abide in patience, and will praise you more and more.’

"So I ask: Have you tried to face your life – those dull, dreary days – with the lifting power of praise?

“You must look steadfastly through the visible, until the invisible opens to you.”

Prayer

My Father, so often I get weighed down under the demands of my own life. Sometimes I see little purpose in the endless repetition of little duties. Jobs done today, that need doing again tomorrow…

What is it, in the daily work you have given me to do, that is of eternal value to you? Lift my sights, Lord.

Let me see today, and each duty in this day, as you see it.

Selah.

Amy Carmichael, Figures of the True, 5.

God is light, so I can trust Him with my darkness

This then is the message, which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

The Abba of Light

George MacDonald

Come to God, then, my brother, my sister, with all thy desires and instincts, all thy lofty ideals, all thy longing for purity and unselfishness, all thy yearning to love and be true, all thy aspiration after self-forgetfulness and child-life in the breath of the Father; come to Him with all thy weaknesses, all thy shames, all thy futilities; with all thy helplessness over thy own thoughts; with all thy failure, yea, with the sick sense of having missed the tide of true affairs; come to Him with all thy doubts, fears, dishonesties, meannesses, paltrinesses, misjudgments, wearinesses, disappointments, and stalenesses: be sure He will take thee and all thy miserable brood, whether of draggle-winged angels, or covert-seeking snakes, into His care, the angels for life, the snakes for death, and thee for liberty in His limitless heart!

For He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

If He were a king, a governor; if the name that described Him were “The Almighty,” thou mightst well doubt whether there could be light enough in Him for thee and thy darkness; but He is thy Father, and more thy Father than the word can mean in any lips but His who said, ‘my Father and your Father, my God and your God;’ and such a Father is light, an infinite, perfect light.

If He were any less or any other than He is, and thou couldst yet go on growing, thou must at length come to the point where thou wouldst be dissatisfied with Him; but He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all!

So, come to God, my brother, my sister, with all thy desires and instincts, all thy lofty ideals, all thy longing for purity and unselfishness, all thy yearning to love and be true...

Selah.

A holy dawn and angels near

Looking out over a new horizon, holding promise in my hand...

Lord, thank you for this miracle: a new day, a dawning hope, a promised land.

Your mercies are new every morning -- how much greater standing here,

Washed clean with your ocean sand -- a holy dawn, and angels near!