July 23rd, 2014. RELATIONSHIPS IN GODS LOVE Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. Psalm 139:7- 8 The nature, or essence, of Gods love includes His choice and His plan. Because He chose us, He set His love upon us. This is beyond our comprehension. We have become the objects of His love and can only say with David, Where can I flee from Your presence? We cannot get away from Gods love. It will find us out. It is the greatest hound that you will ever meet up with. Just as the police dogs sniff out hidden things, Gods love will sniff us out. Regardless of where we are, even if we are buried under sin and condemnation, the love of God will come and find us there, because we are the objects of that love. Brothers and sisters, this is the love of God toward us. And this is the same love we bear toward one another. This is the love in the church. We are not together because we each decided to join a group. We have assembled together with others of His chosen ones. We are with others who have a destiny over their life to be conformed to the image of Gods Son. Who are we to receive or reject a member of the Body of Christ based on our little rules? If a person has been born again, he is loved by the Lord. He is Gods choice, and he is also one over whom Gods plan is being worked out. Thus, our part is only to acknowledge what God has done and receive him whom Christ has received. We are to receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God (Rom. 15:7). The love that chose me, predestined me, and reconciled me is the same love in our relationships with one another. So our relationships with one another have their source in eternity. It is not accidental that we are together. We are related to one another and we know one another as brothers and sisters. Our relatedness is based upon Gods choice and His plan in eternity. Now, in time, we are with one another, regardless of our condition, our background, our race-- whatever. All those things mean nothing. Gods love has been set over all of us; and now that love has been poured out in our heart, so we can simply let it flow toward one another. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there [Psalms 139:7¬8]. Here omnipresence is the theme, -- a truth to which omniscience naturally leads up. WHITHER SHALL I GO FROM THY SPIRIT? Not that the Psalmist wished to go from God, or to avoid the power of the divine life; but he asks this question to set forth the fact that no one can escape from the all pervading being and observation of the Great Invisible Spirit. Observe how the writer makes the matter personal to himself -- Whither shall I go? It were well if we all thus applied truth to our own cases. It were wise for each one to say -- The spirit of the Lord is ever around me: Jehovah is omnipresent to me. OR WHITHER SPIRIT I FLEE FROM THY PRESENCE? If, full of dread, I hastened to escape from that nearness of God which had become my terror, which way could I turn? Whither? Whither? He repeats his cry. No answer comes back to him. The reply to his first Whither? is its echo, -- a second Whither? From the sight of God he cannot be hidden, but that is not all, -- from the immediate, actual, constant presence of God he cannot be withdrawn. We must be, whether we will it or not, as near to God as our soul is to our body. This makes it dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty to his face, and commit acts of treason at the very foot of his throne. Go from him, or flee from him we cannot: neither by patient travel nor by hasty flight can we withdraw from the all surrounding Deity. His mind is in our mind; himself within ourselves. His spirit is over our spirit; our presence is ever in his presence. IF I ASCEND UP INTO HEAVEN, THOU ART THERE. Filling the loftiest region with his yet loftier presence, Jehovah is in the heavenly place, at home, upon his throne. The ascent, if it were possible, would be unavailing for purposes of escape; it would, in fact, be a flying into the centre of the fire to avoid the heat. There would he be immediately confronted by the terrible personality of God. Note the abrupt words -- THOU, THERE. IF I MAKE MY BED IN HELL, BEHOLD, THOU ART THERE. Descending into the lowest imaginable depths among the dead, there should we find the Lord. THOU! says the Psalmist, as if he felt that God was the one great Existence in all places. Whatever Hades may be, or whoever may be there, one thing is certain, Thou, O Jehovah, art there. Two regions, the one of glory and the other of darkness, are set in contrast, and this one fact is asserted of both -- thou art there. Whether we rise up or lie down, take our wing or make our bed, we shall find God near us. A behold is added to the second clause, since it seems more a wonder to meet with God in hell than in heaven, in Hades than in Paradise. Of course the presence of God produces very different effects in these places, but it is unquestionably in each; the bliss of one, the terror of the other. What an awful thought, that some men seem resolved to take up their nights abode in hell, a night which shall know no morning. July 23 MORNING THEN [COMETH] THE END. Of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.-- And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.-- The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.-- The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.... The judge standeth before the door.-- Surely I come quickly. [Seeing]... [that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought ye to be in [all] holy conversation and godliness. The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.-- Let your loins be girded about, and [your] lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 1 COR 15:24. Mar 13:32, 33, 37-- 2 Pe 3:9.-- Jas 5:8, 9.-- Re 22:20. 2 Pe 3:11. 1 Pe 4:7.-- Lu 12:35, 36. July 23 EVENING BRETHREN, PRAY FOR US. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him.... And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.... Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers-- Always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 1 THES 5:25. Jas 5:14- 18. Ep 6:18. Ro 1:9.-- Col 4:12.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 08:12:00 +0000
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