A Cricket Love Song

Every late summer and fall, outside our front door, a male cricket takes up loud residence as his choice of a place from which to woo his fair lady. We found him, once: he is green and less than half an inch long. He scrapes the edges of his carapace (is that the right word for the hard shell coverings to his wings?) For such a mite of a thing, the sound carries for dozens of yards. His constant cricking can be both soothing and irritating by turns, to my human ears. There is a certain calming as a background to other tasks in its constant rhythm and consistent pitch and timbre. It can intrude though, into awareness in a way that interferes with thought and conversation. But in either case, what he is saying is completely lost on me. To his love's heart, it is beautiful music; a guitar serenade at midnight 'neath her boudoir window; a lover's croon in a Venetian gondola. Perhaps, though I cannot understand his language or the appeal of if his sound to a being of if his same species, I may learn a bit from him. The voice of the heavenly bridegroom calls to His many-celled bride each cell and the organ to which the cell responds. Put another way, "His sheep know His voice." "Deep calls to deep." We, along with all those others who have heard that sweet music, dance to the tune and rhythm of His wooing song; His guitar playing under our window; His sweet voice echoing from the walls of grand cathedrals and elegant houses as the gondola of our life glides on. Others, oblivious, being of a different species, perhaps, hear only a monotone; to them it may sound as raspy and repetitious as my friend cricket's love song does to me. But we have heard, we have responded, we rejoice in His courtship; His romancing music. Amid all our doubts, fears, worries, inadequacies, guilts, His love song is clear and sweet in our ears. And, in hearing and responding, perhaps we are singing our own love song to Him-a joy and a delight in His ears; the highest prayer of all. So, if this is true, I can withdraw my question of "What is prayer, anyway?" And relax into His love-song and let myself be carried on its waves into His very presence where my response is all He asks; where communion is not of word or deed but of attending and listening and abiding. God is not only everywhere; He is everywhere. God is not only loving; He is love. God is not only good; He is goodness. He not only gives good gifts; He is very Gift. God is not only... 9.19.09

Surface Tension

No matter the altitude or depth, all things live in one of two realms: water or air. But in reality, both are dependent each on the other. Oxygen and other gasses dissolve into water providing that which is so necessary for the denizens of the deep. Water vaporizes into air providing rain and fog and dew for the survival of land-bound creatures. Both are, in varying degrees, absorbed into the other. Between the two is a barrier, surface tension, so named because the molecules of water cling more tightly to one another than between those surrounded on all sides by other water molecules. Those separated water molecules which have broken through this barrier are separated from one another by molecules and atoms of gasses. Until they condense back into rain, their existence is more akin to the airy skies than their home in incompressible sea and lake and river. This place of tension; this one-molecule-thick layer of water keep water liquid rather than all turning to gas too easily. Yet is permeable by those essential gasses above them; though slowed, vaporized water does escape into the atmosphere above. Perhaps the Church (and we within the Body) are like that barrier: the interface between two realms. Above in the airy world, is the realm of the Spirit. Below, the world of the solid, the "real" the sensate, that which is discernible to our senses. WE live in this tension, trying, for ourselves, to understand and live in the boundary-land between the flesh born body and the Spirit-born spirit of our inmost self. We struggle to know how to live individually and corporately. It is only here in the dividing of flesh and spirit that exchange between the two realms exists, even though the Spirit of the upper reaches is dissolved into the human element, He is, nonetheless, mediated perhaps through this water/vapor barrier. The Man, Christ Jesus has left the ranks of humanity to sit (and we with Him) in the heavenly realms-the vaporized humanity living in the formerly alien-to-human realm of the heavenliest. And, again, it is through this barrier that He ascended on high-the Church, His Body, is the communicating medium between the world. Perhaps, in her love for her Bridegroom and her love for one her individual parts and her love for those others who are not a part of that tension, she fulfills one of her roles: that of transference. To the watery world below, she brings a bit of the heavenly; to the spirit world above, she resides and intercedes in harmony with the Spirit for those who live in the depths. And, always, there is that tension-the pulling downward and the pulling upward. Perhaps this tension is what Paul meant when he moaned over his dilemma: to stay and benefit or to leave and be with His Lord. So, perhaps, we should not be surprised when tension is within us corporately or individually; what shall we do? Perhaps the answer is to remain in tension; to accept that as one true sign of being in relationship with one another, with He who has become spirit and with those who do not live in this tension. WE are the blessed beneficiaries and benefactors of both realms. 2 22 09

On Knowing the Lord

This article, written in 1971 by T. Austin Sparks, states so clearly what I intend to say in this Blog, that I am copying it in its entirety. The copyright o permits this-see below. Ziplip On Knowing the Lord (1971) by T. Austin-Sparks "...That I may know Him..." (Philippians 3:10). "Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known Me?" (John 14:9) "So that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ." (Phil. 1:10). "And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them" (Heb. 8:11). "And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things... And as for you, the anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him" (1 John 2:20, 27). It is of the greatest importance for the Lord's children to recognise fully that, above all other things, His object is that they should know Him. This is the all-governing end of all His dealings with us. This is the greatest of all our needs. It is the secret of strength, steadfastness, and service. It determines the measure of our usefulness to Him. It was the one passion of the life of the apostle Paul for himself. It was the cause of his unceasing striving for the saints. It is the heart and pivot of the whole letter to the Hebrews. The secret of the life, service, endurance, confidence of the Lord Jesus as Son of Man was the knowledge of the Father. All these facts need looking at more closely. We begin always with the Lord Jesus as God's representative of the Man after His own mind. In His life on earth there was no part or aspect which did not have its strength and ability rooted in and drawn from His inward knowledge of His Father, God. We must never forget that His was a life of utter dependence upon God, voluntarily accepted. He attributed everything to the Father: word, wisdom, and works. He was God manifest in the flesh; but He had accepted from the human and manward standpoint the limitations and dependence of man so that God might be God manifested. There was a subjection here because of which He was able to do nothing of Himself (John 5:19, etc.). The principle of His entire life in every phase and detail was His knowledge of God. He knew the Father in the matter of the words He spoke, the works He did, the men and women with whom He had to do; with regard to the times of speak ing, acting, going, staying, surrendering, and silence; with regard to the motives, pretensions, professions, enquiries, and suggestions, of men and of Satan. He knew when He might not, and when He might, give His life. Yes, everything here is governed by that inward knowledge of God. There are numerous evidences in the "Acts" as the practical, and in the Epistles as the doctrinal, revelation of God's mind, that this principle is intended by God to be maintained as the basic law of the life of the Lord's people through this age. This knowledge in the case of the Lord Jesus was the secret of His complete ascendancy and of His absolute authority. Masters in Israel will seek Him out and the issue which will precipitate their seeking will be that of knowing. "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?" (John 3:10). Nicodemus has come to One Who knows, and whose authority is superior to that of the scribes, not merely in degree but in kind. Toward the end of the Gospel of John, which especially brings into view this very matter, the words "to know" occur some fifty-five times. Our Lord makes the statement that "this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." (John 17:3). This does not mean merely that eternal life is given on the basis of this knowledge. There can be life with very limited knowledge. But life in fulness is closely related to that knowledge, and the increasing knowledge of Him manifests itself in increasing life. It works both ways; knowledge unto life and life unto knowledge. Seeing, then, that the Lord Jesus Himself, as Man, represents man according to God, we are well prepared to see that The Dominating Objective Of The Divine Dealings With Us is that we may know the Lord. This explains all our experiences, trials, sufferings, perplexities, weakness, predicaments, tight corners, bafflings, pressures. While the refining of spirit, the development of the graces, the removing of the dross are all purposes of the fires, yet above and through all is the one object - that we may know the Lord. There is only one way of really getting to know the Lord, and that is experimentally. Our minds are so often occupied with service and work; we think that doing things for the Lord is the chief object of life. We are concerned about our lifework, our ministry. We think of equipment for it in terms of study and knowledge of things. Soul-winning or teaching believers or setting people to work are so much in the foreground. Bible study and knowledge of the Scriptures, with efficiency in the matter of leading in Christian service as the end in view, are matters of pressing importance with all. All well and good, for these are important matters; but, at the back of everything, the Lord is more concerned about our knowing Him than about anything else. It is very possible to have a wonderful grasp of the Scriptures and a comprehensive and intimate familiarity with doctrine; to stand for cardinal verities of the faith; to be an unceasing worker in Christian service; to have a great devotion to the salvation of men, and yet, alas, to have a very inadeq uate and limited personal knowledge of God within. So often the Lord has to take away our work that we may discover Him. The ultimate value of everything is not the information which we give, not the soundness of our doctrine, not the amount of work that we do, not the measure of truth that we possess, but just the fact that we know the Lord in a deep and mighty way. This is the one thing that will remain when all else passes. It is this that will make for the permanence of our ministry after we are gone. While we may help others in many ways and by many means so far as their earthly life is concerned, our real service to them is based upon our knowledge of the Lord. The greatest of the problems of the Christian life is The Problem Of Guidance. How much has been said and written upon this subject! The last word for so many is, "Pray about it, commit it to God, do the thing that seems right, and trust God to see that it turns out all right." This to us seems weak and inadequate. We make no claim to ability to lay down the comprehensive and conclusive basis of guidance, but we are strongly of the conviction that it is one thing to get direction for the events, incidents, and contingencies of life, and quite another thing to have an abiding, personal, inward knowledge of the Lord. It is one thing to call upon a friend in emergency or at special times for advice as to a course to be taken; it is another thing to live with that friend so that there is derived a sense of his mind in general that will govern in particular matters. We want instructions and commands, the Lord wants us to have a "mind." "Let this mind be in you," "We have the mind of Christ." Christ has a consciousness, and by the Holy Spirit He would give and develop that consciousness in us. The inspired statement is that "His anointing teacheth you concerning all things." We are not servants; we are sons. Commands - as such - are for servants; a mind is for sons. There is an appalling state of things amongst the Lord's people today. So many of them have their life almost entirely in that which is external to themselves - in their counsel and guidance, their sustenance and support, their knowledge, and their means of grace. Personal, inward spiritual intelligence is a very rare thing. No wonder that the enemy has such a successful line in delusions, counterfeits, and false representations. Our greatest safeguard against such will be a deep knowledge of the Lord through discipline. Immediately it is things that we reach out for: e.g., experiences, sensations, "proofs," manifestations, and so on, and we become exposed in a perilous realm where Satan can give a false conversion, a false "baptism of the Spirit" (?) a false evidence and guidance such as is found in spiritism. Then, with the withdrawing of those, he immediately suggests the unpardonable sin. If this suggestion be accepted, the value of the Scriptures and of the Blood is annulled, and the assurance of those involved is lost; and it may, after all, be all a lie. To know the Lord in a real way means steadfastness when others are being carried away - steadfastness through times of fiery trial. Those who know the Lord do not put forth their own hand and try to bring things about. Such are full of love and patience, and do not lose their poise when everything seems to be going to pieces. Confidence is an essential and inevitable fruit of this knowledge, and in those who know Him there is a quiet restful strength which speaks of a great depth of life. To close, let me point out that in Christ "are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden," and the Lord's will for us is to come to an ever-growing realisation and personal appreciation of Him in Whom "all the fulness dwells." We have only stated facts as to the Lord's will for all His own, and their greatest need. The absence of this real knowledge of the Lord has proved to be the most tragic factor in the Church's history. Every fresh uprising of an abnormal condition has disclosed the appalling weakness amongst Christian people because of this lack. Waves of error; the swing of the pendulum to some fresh popular acceptance; a great war with its horrors and many-sided tests of faith; all these have swept away multitudes and left them in spiritual ruin. These things are ever near at hand, and we have written this message to urge upon the Lord's people to have very definite dealings with Him that He will take every measure with them in order that they might know Him. Published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1971, Vol 49-2 ________________________________________ This email is from the Austin-Sparks.Net message list. We encourage you to forward, print and share this message with others. In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included. 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In the House of My Enemy

Sunset colors splashed the western sky, paint in a cosmic painter’s hand unfettered by conventionality or concern for the color wheel. Blue, orange, red, mauve, indigo all harmonic beauty without jarring contrasts. The fine silt suspended in the air after the sandstorm filtered, diffused and diffracted the slanting rays of the setting sun; a unlikely but effective palette. It painted the sand around me in a warmth which would be welcome in a few moments, but now slipped into unconscious background. I remember the beauty only in retrospect. At the time, I lay face down, unaware of anything but thirst, fatigue and loneliness. Though I didn’t look to confirm, I would not have been surprised to see the patient death watchers circling overhead waiting for their next supper provided by a hapless road-weary corpse. I raised my head, staring into the unnoticed beauty of the western sky; my destination hidden far beyond the horizon and knew I would never see it. Home, family, friends, plenty of water and food. The lifeless body of my camel stretched out in rigid testimony to her valiant last efforts to carry us home. A sharp reflection stabbed against the kaleidoscopic background. I shook my head in disbelief. No one else could possibly be moving in this sand-hazed world. But it came again. I stared. It flickered again; a mirage, a figment of my delusional wishful mind or there was someone moving toward me. I gathered my remaining strength, pulled at the unknown reserves and pulled myself to all fours, then to my knees. I waved feeble arms and cried out in a cracked voice. The point of light shaded into a shape, at first only a suggestion of humanity then into the figure of a man striding directly toward me. Time lengthened distance shrank. The robes of a desert dweller swirled about the long stride of a man. Limbs and head resolved out of the distant blob. Twenty paces from me, the figure stopped and looked directly at me. With the fading light behind him, I could not distinguish features. Then he spoke and my blood chilled. The voice of my enemy; the one I fled from in fear and ran toward in hatred. Hope died and I shriveled back into myself and collapsed to the wind-blown sand. I must have groaned, for he finally spoke. “I’ve found you.” I nodded, despair flapping its bat wings around me. I tried to speak, but couldn’t. He approached and I cringed for the death blow I knew and expected; the one I would have dealt him if I could. He reached within the folds of his robe, searching for his sword. But instead of sharp steel, he produced a wine skin. Was it to be death by poison? I preferred the steel. He pressed the skin to my lips. Despite my fear, I drank. Almost immediately I felt life flowing back from desiccated muscle and organ. He held it there until I drank nearly half the contents. Then he sat next to me on the sand and supported me. I leaned against him in unutterable weariness. “You pursued me for death. I pursue you for life.” His voice dashed against the doors of my hatred, my rebellion. I had no tears. “Why?” I rasped. “Let’s set up camp first” he said, pointing westward into the last glow of sunset. A string of camels plodded toward us, growing, as he had, from shapeless objects into individual animals and people. In the last bit of light, a camp sprang up around me. Tents and tethered beasts, a fire, laughter and jests among those who obviously knew and respected one another. The scent of cooking food filled the star-bright night sky. The sound of distant hyenas, cheated of their share of my flesh, spread across empty land. But here there was light and heat and sustenance. Safety in the house of my enemy shocked me; Mercy at the hands of my mortal enemy. Who could’ve known? I shook my head at the wonder of it. Then I knew something had indeed died within me; I died, that sun-splashed evening and was reborn from hatred into love. The quality of mercy surrounded and infused me and I gave into its welcoming embrace. I died, but left no corpse for vultures and hyenas. But it was just as real, or maybe more real, than that physical death which was not perpetrated on me by wind and san or at the hands of my erstwhile enemy. ***** Definition of mercy: Khawnan (kahw nan) Hebrew for The slanting rays of a setting sun; pitching a tent, abiding with. Strong’s Analytical Concordance 12.12.11

Two Trees

They ate of the other tree-the tree of experiencing good and experiencing evil; in eating they knew, they lived the good and the evil and condemned us all to walk in their footsteps. They ate not of the Life Tree. They chose, they ate and our teeth are set on edge at the sour grape taste that lingers in all their children’s mouths. They chose death, not life. The tree made all the difference in the world; their path, long ages since, is our path; their consequence ours. Then Last Adam came, absorbing into Himself the toll of the path taken. His tree of death became our Tree of Life. Tasting death for all, He ate the fruit of the ultimate knowledge of good and of evil; He drained its cup to the last bitter drop. Eating that fruit, tasting its putrescent flesh, He transformed Adam‘s tree of evil into the Tree of Life for all of us. What happens to the new head of the race happens to all, just as in First Adam, all tasted death, in Last Adam, all will taste life. Two trees; two choices; opposite outcomes: death instead of life; life instead of death. Praise be to the Last Adam whose tree of death returned to humanity the tree of Life evermore! 01.21.13