"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."
What a precious text of Scripture! Certainly this reveals the intimate & loving communion between a believer abiding in fellowship with the Lord & the Lord Himself. This entire Psalm, as so many in the Psalter, reveals this beautiful closeness that the Lord so desires from us.
You know, I was looking over the Book of Acts this week, & a great Bible teacher now with the Lord, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, made a tremendous point in connection with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, & the Lord's faithful disciple, Ananias (not Sapphira's infamous husband!). As the Lord directed Ananias to go & lay hands on the freshly converted Saul, Ananias understandably balked at first! His response is almost funny! "Lord! Don't You know all the bad things this fellow has done, & that he came here to keep on doing those awful things..." Certainly this is a very rough paraphrase, but the point is clear! Ananias felt comfortable being very open & candid with the Lord, obviously something he was in the habit of doing. Dr. Morgan pointed out that the supernatural simply seemed natural to these early believers! The point is, that they were completely at home with the Lord! The reverse was also true...He was at home in their hearts & lives as well! Isn't that what Paul meant when he said what he did in Ephesians 3:17? Listen to the Amplified version of that text: "May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love..." Now we know that once we trust in Christ for eternal life, that positionally we are in Him forever, but in our everyday lives, the Lord wants to do what Paul said in Ephesians 3:17, & what He was doing in Ananias' heart in Acts 9! The Lord desires much more than we do, even at our best moments, to be in intimate, close fellowship with us! This is encouraging, yet also sobering, to think how many times I have left my wonderful Savior desiring much closer fellowship with me while I went off to do some pointless thing in light of eternity...
Anyway, I'm not really sure what my reaon for posting this was, but I do know that we as believers can be as close to the Lord as we want to be, since He has made every effort & put everything in place for it to be so! Let's be like David when he said, "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." May the Lord bless you all!
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8 comments:
I want to thank bro. Brian ("Only Look") for the encouragement he often gives, & the specific encouragement he gave me to post another great text from the Psalms. I trust the Lord will use this single precious verse to bless your hearts as much as He has mine. May the Lord bless you all!
Bro. David,
Great Biblical thoughts to ponder, especially these times when we are tempted (and succumb) to useless things -- in light of eternity.
God bless you, Brother.
In Christ eternally,
ExP(Jack)
Bro. Jack,
You are certainly one of those brothers I want to sit down with in Heaven & enjoy some great fellowship at the wonderful Feet of our Blessed Savior. Thank you for the good words, & how true it is. I will definitely be saddened when I see just how much great fellowship I denied myself & my wonderful Savior due to my ridiculous ideas of good tines down here. God Bless you brother Jack.
It did bless my heart brother. What a delightful surprise; and such a fruitful thought...so true. We have such an intimate friend in Jesus. He loves us as no other does and because of that we can take courage and go where He calls us knowing that he doesn't mind us asking about what is going on if we don't understand. He sometimes explains and sometimes leaves us silence to grow in as well. I just read that in the Oswald Chambers devotional recently.
Thanks for another good word from the Psalms. I am so thankful for the Psalms.
Grace upon grace,
Brian
"Silence to grow in...." Great thought! I appreciate your encouraging me to post again on the Psalms. I am sure that you've noticed that we see Christ in the Psalms as clearly as anywhere in the whole of Scripture! God Bless you brother.
If it is difficult to imagine ignoring the woman we took as our bride, or disregarding our children’s needs. How much more difficult is it to imagine turning away our Lord who simply wants to commune with us?
I suspect we are all guilty of this because social training leads us in the pursuit of superficial pleasure, rather than the calmness of spirit that comes from the presence of our Lord. Worldly pleasures may dissipate, but our Lord is never far away.
While many of us would love to hear His voice again, as it was in Old Testament days, liberals want us to believe He is dead. It has been so long since we last heard Him. We think, maybe the liberals are right. But I have a different theory and it begins with, “There is no such thing as a guilty conscience.” It is rather the voice of God speaking directly to our hearts. So it isn’t a matter of God not talking to us anymore; we simply aren’t listening.
Of course, I’m the last person you should want to consult about such matters . . .
Mustang,
I so appreciate you coming by my blog again. It is truly an honor having you come in & speak from your heart.
I'd like to speak to a statement you made, concerning not hearing from God as in OT days. The beauty of God's Word, the Bible is that it is just that: God's Word to us! It is His love letter to you & me, personally! I'd just love to share with you how the precious Lord Jesus spoke to my heart through His wonderful Word one night when I had no hope becuase of my own "guilty conscience" as you stated. Mustang, I was without hope & without God in the world (see Ephesians 2:12) becuase I had sinned against a holy God who loved me so much that He sent His only pure, holy & totally loving Son to die for the likes of me on a cruel Roman cross where He was absolutely abandoned by God & man becuase of my sins, so that I would never have to be alone if I would simply trust in Him as my own Savior. Mustang, how could I reject an offer like that!! He spoke to me through the amaziong promise of this wonderful Savior Jesus Christ found in Matthew 11:28. I will let you look it up in your own Bible, Mustang & see the Lord Jesus' wonderful promise to YOU too! If you have not accepted that promise as your very own, I trust you will think about it. If you have, let's talk further about how wonderful He is. Either way, I'd like to talk further with you. I have been so very impressed with your social sense (pun intended!) at your blog. You have great grace under pressure & that is a gift. I trust I have not said too much. Thank you again for coming by, it is a privilege. God Bless!
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