Surrender

I recently began re-reading a very old copy I have of a biography of Francois Fenelon and came across something that really spoke to me. The quote is in the introduction of the book.

"Consider your life as a perpetual perishing and lift up your mind to God above all whenever the clock strikes, saying, 'God, I adore your eternal being. I am happy that my being should perish every moment so that every moment it may render homage to your eternity.'"
.........Jean-Jacques Olier.




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The Scattered

I was listening to an audio sermon by T. Austin Sparks and he mentioned how 1 Peter is written to the "scattered". I was thinking how much that speaks of the way it is now.
He was also going into the concept of the church being "one new man" (Eph. 2:15) in the earth, and though we are scattered, we always recognize those of a like spirit, and that is what proves we are only one man (i.e, The Body of Christ is one).
I keep hearing "one Lord, one faith, one baptism". This verse keeps resonating in me.

A Favorite Photo

One of my favorite photos (taken by a friend).

Pilgrimage

Song of Solomon, first chapter, verse 14 ---

"My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi."
Engedi - This is the place where David was sheltered in the caves. Spurgeon says that all locations in Song of Solomon are out of the way places.
None of these places are "Jerusalem". In other words they are all temporary sojourning places. Perfect picture of the pilgrim state.
From my journals, Aug. 2, 1991.
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The Wilderness

I have been thinking about Revelation chapter twelve, and the woman (Church) fleeing into the wilderness where she is sustained. I often think about the part that says that the earth helps the woman and swallows up the flood that is after her.
Sometimes you just have to go out and be in the wilderness, so yesterday I took a drive in the countryside. I have been resting in the spiritual help I received from this drive all day today.

Link to a Great Article

After a long absence due to serious writer's blockage, I just wanted to share a really good piece from one of my favorite blogs, The Pen of the Wayfarer. The subject is true worship and it really spoke to my heart.
Go here to see this piece.
I had to make the link the hard way, by typing it in. If anyone could tell me how to link a post directly, I would really appreciate it.
Would also appreciate your prayers regarding this blog, I really hope to get back to writing.
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."
....Psalm 19:14.

What to Remember

From Psalm 137, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."

Take "Jerusalem" to mean the heavenlies, or the things that are above. Watchfulness (attention or focus) is the key to the spiritual life. Being watchful can be taken to mean not forgetting about something. Another familiar verse to go along with this is from Isaiah 62, "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, (margin "the Lord's remembrancers"), keep not silence, And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

In other words, there are those called to hold the Lord in their memory constantly. Therefore, watching is tied to the memory, and spiritually speaking, I believe you have to make a choice to retain the Lord in your memory or thoughts, and not to be in a state of forgetfulness of Him.

I believe Scripture is admonishing us to not be forgetful of the higher life or our Lord.

Another thing to remember:

I believe "remembrance" of our mortality is one of the key things in the spiritual life. I always go back to the verses, "Lord teach us to number our days, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom", Psalm 90:12; and also, "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:13,14.

I believe it is a foundation of wisdom to keep our mortality always before us. It keeps us directly in the present moment, and also saves us from many projections of "big ideas" or visions for the future, that may not be led of the Spirit.

In 1989 I had a suspicious test result, that proved to be benign, but I was unable to find that out for about three weeks. For some reason there were complications with tests results and the doctors were uncertain about it. I really came face to face with my mortality during that time. The Lord really used it to shake me profoundly, and I came out of it in a new place. I count it as a great blessing looking back on it.

On another note, there is another side to this. There can be a really good forgetfulness. From Isaiah 43:18, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old, Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth..." And where would we be without the divine forgetfulness of our sins? For He has said in His covenant promise, ".... their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 10:17.
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~Desert Pilgrim

Fifth Century Prophecy

A Prophecy from the Fifth Century Church

After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable.
When the time for the advent of the Antichrist approaches, people’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People’s appearances will change, and it will become impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair.
These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptation of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders; love will disappear, and Christian Shepherds, Bishops and Priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. (Didache)
At that time the morals and traditions of the Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, secret deeds and murder will rule in society.
At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and equally of remorse.
The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious shepherds, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all.
Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints.
And all of this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs.
He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other.
At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist. And, the impious one! - he will so complete science with vanity that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God in these hypostases.
Then the all good God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible. Then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear and kill the perverter and his servants.
......St. Nilus
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From the Early Church

A Prayer from the Early Church in Syria, ....worthy of memorizing.

"Hold me worthy, O Lord, to behold your mercy in my soul before I depart from this world, may I be aware in myself at that hour of your comfort, along with those who have gone forth from the world in good hope.
Open my heart, O my God, by your grace and purify me from any association with sin.
Tread out in my heart the path of repentance, my God and my Lord, my hope and my boast, my strong refuge, by whom may my eyes be illumined, and may I have understanding of your truth, Lord.
Hold me worthy, Lord, to taste the joy of the gift of repentance, by which the soul is separated from co-operating with sin and the will of flesh and blood. Hold me worthy, O Lord, to taste this state, wherein lies the gift of pure prayer.
O my Saviour, may I attain to this wondrous transition at which the soul abandons this visible world, and in which new stirrings arise on our entering into the spiritual world and the experience of new perceptions."
Isaac of Syria, lived in the ancient church times.

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The transcendaecy of the spiritual life is brought out very profoundly in this prayer, so opposite of the hustle and bustle I experienced today while out and about. I pondered if anyone thought on things such as these.
My prayer......Lord, may I connect with this prayer in such a way to be a point in this world that this may reach others. Maybe I will never know if I have or not, but may your servants enter in and remain in this place.

Desert Pilgrim.

Life Together Under the Word

I have taken the title from a phrase in "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here are a few excerpts from his very profound description of true Christian community, p.18 and following:

"I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries", Zech. 10:9. According to God's will, Christendom is a scattered people, scattered like seed "into all the kingdoms of the earth", Dt. 18:25. That is its curse and its promise. God's people must dwell in far countries among the unbelievers, but it will be the seed of the Kingdom of God in all the world.
" I will......gather them, for I have redeemed them...and they shall return", Zech. 10:8, 9. When will that happen? It has happened in Jesus Christ, who died "that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad", John 11:52, --and it will finally occur visibly at the end of time when the angels of God "shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other", Mt. 24:31. Until then, God's people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries.
......So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and Sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands, stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went "with the multitude....to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday", Ps 41:4. But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God's will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience, they seize upon more fervently in faith. Thus the exiled disciple of the Lord, John the Apocalyptist, celebrates in the loneliness of Patmos the heavenly worship with his congregations "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day", Rev. 1:10.......This is the heavenly fellowship, shared by the exiles on the day of his Lord's resurrection.
.....The resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God's spiritual-physical creatures.
.....It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us.....It is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.
......No Christian community is more or less than this. Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ....
What does this mean?.......that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ.
.....When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of men. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. .......He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ.
And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community.....as such, God permits them to meet together and gives them community. Their fellowship is founded solely upon Jesus Christ and this "alien righteousness". All we can see, therefore, is the community of Christians springs solely from......justification of man through grace alone.....this alone is the basis of the longing of Christians for one another.
....A Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. Among men there is strife. "He is our peace". .......The way is blocked by our own ego.......Only in Jesus Christ are we one, only through Him are we bound together....." (end of the quote from Bonhoeffer.)
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As we contemplate what Bonhoeffer wrote, let us pray that the Lord will grant us vision from these Scripture passages, and that we will "seize upon" these fervently in faith~

"But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling...." Heb. 12:22 - 24.
and Hebrews 13:14, "For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come."

From 2 Peter 3: 12, 13~ "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat....
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
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"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22:20

~Desert Pilgrim