If you haven't read "The Appointment" from last week, this might be a bit weird. So, if you have a few minutes, I'd suggest taking a look at last week's blog. Thanks!
Why this song? Sometimes when God puts something in me, it doesn't come out the same way it got in. [grin] This may be one of those times, so hang with me.
Hang around me for any length of time and the scripture that will most pour out of my mouth is 2 Peter 1:3. It says that God's "divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." In Christ, I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. He has indeed, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, given me all that I need to live a godly life, an abundant life. He is the fountain of living water that endues us with every blessing... "Come Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace."
As this song washed over me in the car that day, I seemed to understand afresh that my appropriation of His blessings and of the power to do His will... comes by grace through faith. It's a never-ending, ever-flowing stream of grace and mercy. The roar of the fountain calls us to unabashed adoration and praise. "Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above."
And this stream of grace and mercy comes from the mountain of God, "praise the mount - I'm fixed upon it - mount of Thy redeeming love." Straight from the cross, His love and grace flow down to us. I was thinking about when Jon and I are in a public place. When I don't know anyone (at least not well), I fix my eyes on Jon and I am comforted by his love for me. And my adoration for him seems to swell. He becomes a source for my need. So it is with the love of God. When I've fixed my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith, I am assured of my belovedness and comforted in the heat of life by His love and grace.
"Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come." Thus far the Lord has helped me. If you read the "crutches" blog, I need not expound. Each Ebenezer is a reminder to me that I am not alone; that this particular journey is where I'm being led, not aimless wanderings on trails that lead to nowhere. Being a former "people pleaser", and as one who does amazing mental gymnastics to be able to say "former", I've been known to worry more about what other people think about where God is leading me rather than just walking the walk with God for the pleasure of His company. Silly, I know. Those outside the window of my life right now might think I took a path to a dead end. I could see how they might think that. But if there were a roadsign at this place I stand, I believe it would read "yield". And I'm yielding (albeit with some difficulty) because thus far, the Lord has helped me. And thus far He has led me. Truly it is for the pleasure of His company that I follow and it is His good pleasure to lead. "And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home."
"Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand'ring from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood." I love that word: interposed. I double checked the meaning (okay - so I'm a geek). It means "to bring to bear between two parties; to put between or in the way of." Christ, my redeemer, stands between God and me. His precious blood interposed, brought to bear, on my sin to reconcile me with my God.
And what a debt I owe to Jesus, who is grace and truth! "O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!" The word that God put in my spirit in that spiritual brat moment came straight from this line of song. "What does it mean to be constrained as a debtor to His grace daily?" In my heart rang this verse: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." (Galatians 5:4) How easily deceived I can be - thinking that I could be saved by grace yet sanctified by works. It's not something I do consciously. Sort of like sweeping the floor, filling the bucket, pouring in the cleaner, and remembering you don't have a mop. I start out well, but I'm powerless in the middle of it. Without His grace, I'm power poor. In my own self-effort, I cut myself off from Christ and fall far from His grace. Picture yourself trapped on a cliff. There's a rope anchored above. You are tied into the rope. Someone is lifting you to the top of the mountain by the rope. For a moment you're stopped, suspended between the start and the finish. You take out your knife, cut the rope, drop painfully to the ledge and, scraped and bruised, begin the long climb on your own. You have fallen from grace; you haven't trusted in the salvation (which includes sanctification) that lifts you to the heights of Jesus' righteousness. We are debtors, constrained daily by the bonds of grace, compelled to trust in the righteousness of Christ and in the goodness of God to bring us safely to Himself. Every moment of self-trust is a knife that severs the bonds of His grace. "Let Thy goodness, like a fetter (a chain, shackle, rope), bind my wand'ring heart to Thee." [It certainly does wander every now and then.] What truth will keep me chained? God is good. God is good to me. God's plan is good for me.
"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above." And my heart sings, "Amen!"
Amazing what a spiritual brat can receive, even in the midst of a less than holy fit, if she'll just grab hold of the rope.
Copyright 2008 Sharon Denise Dorminy
