Sunday Meditation

I’ve been meditating on Psalm 84 for the last few days. There’s a lot in that short psalm so I’ve been taking it one verse at a time. It was appropriate that on a Sunday, I should come to verse 4, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.” As I was reading through some sources, I came across this thought. Be a dweller, not a visitor, in God’s house. To dwell is to live there. Most of us don’t live at our church. Some pastors and their families may live on the property, but I believe there is still a principle here. God’s house was ‘home’ for this psalmist. It’s where he longed to be. It made me wonder, is God’s house ‘home’ for me? Is it somewhere I long to be? 

Spurgeon says about this verse, “To come and go is refreshing, but to abide in the place of prayer must be heaven below. To be the guests of God, enjoying the hospitalities of heaven, set apart for holy work, screened from a noisy world, and familiar with sacred things—why this is surely the choicest heritage a son of man can possess.” The phrase that struck a chord with me here is to be screened from a noisy world. We are definitely living in a noisy world!!  For my part, I have been around so much sorrow lately, the sorrow of those I care about and some of my own. I know I need the fellowship of other believers to be refreshed.  We all do. Galatians 6:2 tells us to bear one another’s burdens. Being an active part of a local church is one of the ways we can do this.

The second half of the verse says they will still be praising God. Spurgeon says, “So near to God, their very life must be adoration…Communion is the mother of adoration. They fail to praise the Lord who wander far from him, but those who dwell in him are always magnifying him.” When we dwell in God and in His house, we will be praising Him. We won’t be able to help ourselves!

This verse ends with that little word, Selah. Spurgeon says, “It is worthwhile to pause and meditate upon the prospect of dwelling with God and praising him throughout eternity.”

I will end with that thought. I hope you will join me in pausing and meditating upon the prospect of dwelling with God and praising Him forever! That thought alone should provide a screen from this noisy world!

photo: Lake Murray, SC

Sunday Meditation

“Often we don’t see growth because we’re not very diligent about renewing our minds… Abide in Him. Abide in the Word. Renew your mind. Hide God’s Word in your heart. Fight with spiritual weapons. Carry your thoughts captive to the truth. And walk by the Spirit.”

Raveling, Barb. The Renewing of the Mind Project: Going to God for Help with Your Habits, Goals, and Emotions (Kindle Locations 748-752). Truthway Press. Kindle Edition.

*emphasis mine

Nearer, My God, to Thee

The Secret Place

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
~Psalm 91:1

The True Vine

I finished reading The True Vine by Andrew Murray this week.  It is divided up into daily readings.  It took me twice as long to read as it “should” have because there was so much to meditate on in this little book.  I’m so glad that I picked it up and took the time to read it.  It helped me get off to a great start with my one word of abide this year!

*****

“Let us realize that we can only fulfill our calling to bear much fruit, by praying much. In Christ are hid all the treasures men around us need; in Him all God’s children are blessed with all spiritual blessings; He is full of grace and truth. But it needs prayer, much prayer, strong believing prayer, to bring these blessings down.”

“He tells us that if we ask in His name, in virtue of our union with Him, whatsoever it be, it will be done to us. Souls are perishing because there is too little prayer. God’s children are feeble because there is too little prayer. We bear so little fruit because there is so little prayer. The faith of this promise would make us strong to pray; let us not rest till it has entered into our very heart, and drawn us in the power of Christ to continue and labor and strive in prayer until the blessing comes in power. To be a branch means not only bearing fruit on earth, but power in prayer to bring down blessing from Heaven. Abiding fully means praying much.”

“Be wholly occupied with Jesus. Sink the roots of your being in faith and love and obedience deep down into Him. Come away out of every other place to abide here. Give up everything for the inconceivable privilege of being a branch on earth of the glorified Son of God in Heaven. Let Christ be first. Let Christ be all. Do not be occupied with the abiding–be occupied with Christ! He will hold you, He will keep you abiding in Him. He will abide in you.”

“Gracious Lord, teach me this lesson, that it is only through knowing Thy will one can know Thy heart, and only through doing that will one can abide in Thy love.”

Murray, Andrew (2010-03-27). The True Vine: Meditations for a Month on John 15:1-16. Kindle Edition.

*The photo is of plum blossoms in the spring.  Springtime in Japan is breathtaking!

Sunday Meditation

“I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever:
I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.”
~Psalm 61:4

Abide in Christ

As part of my one word for 2018, I am reading The True Vine: Meditations for a Month on John 15:1-16 by Andrew Murray.  I’m glad it is broken up into short daily readings, because there is a lot to meditate on in those daily readings.  Today, I am sharing a few quotes for you to think on.  I highly recommend this book!

*****

How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him. How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and rest under it from the heat of the day. What countless numbers rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: “I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.”

*****

“Abide in me”: that refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves into Him.

*****

How much weary labor there has been in striving to understand what abiding is, how much fruitless effort in trying to attain it! Why was this? Because the attention was turned to the abiding as a work we have to do, instead of the living Christ, in whom we were to be kept abiding, who Himself was to hold and keep us. we thought of abiding as a continual strain and effort–we forget that it means rest from effort to one who has found the place of his abode.

*****

And so it sometimes comes that souls who have never been specially occupied with the thought of abiding, are abiding all the time, because they are occupied with Christ.

*quotes from Murray, Andrew (2010-03-27). The True Vine: Meditations for a Month on John 15:1-16. Kindle Edition.

For more quotes from this book, click here.

Abide with Me

 

Snow in beautiful Pennsylvania, 2010

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O Lord who changes not, abide with me.

I need your presence every passing hour.
What but your grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like yourself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe with you at hand to bless,
though ills have weight, and tears their bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, your victory?
I triumph still, if you abide with me.

Hold now your Word before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

~Henry Francis Lyte

one word for 2018

abide

“to continue in a place”

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you…As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” 

~from John 15

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue [abide] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 

~John 8:31-32

“The Greek word for abide used in John 8: 31-32 and John 15: 4-5 is the same word that’s used for living in a house. The idea is that we don’t just visit the Word for 10 minutes a day. We live in the Word. Meditate on it. Chew on it as we walk through the day.”

~Taste for Truth, pg. 10