I Love You

 

March 15, 2024

 

Good morning beloved,

 

This is one of those mornings where the dam keepers upriver have opened the flood gates and I am overwhelmed with love and thanksgiving for my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is beyond words and description, and yet I so want to communicate my love and thanksgiving for you.

 

In a moment of time I am back in the Food Mart grocery store in Georgetown, Washington City (that is old timer speak for D.C.), and Howard Wall is asking me, a fifteen year old, if I am a Christian, words that would lead me to Jesus Christ; then I am stationed in Germany and meeting Miguel Diaz at a Chapel service; then I’m in Haight Ashbury with the Jesus People; and down through the decades I go, vivid pictures and conversations and experiences and cups of coffee and laugher and excitement and challenges and valleys and dangerous rapids and placid lakes.

 

George Will, who introduced me to Andrew Murray, Bonhoeffer, Tozer and others when I was but a teenager (if George could do it, why can’t we do it?). Bruce Harrison who was a friend’s friend…how I miss hearing him call me “Bobby.” My own dear brother twice over, in the flesh and in the Spirit, Jim – who in the midst of his terminal illness sought to bring others to Jesus. Rod, my friend and brother-in-law, who on his last day on this planet was on the phone telling his friends about Jesus. Harry Hanger, who through ALS, with his dear wife Elaine, continued to share the Gospel with others and to strengthen his brethren.

 

I can see myself entering Dan Smick’s hospital room as he was terminally ill. When he opened his eyes and saw me sitting by his bed he smiled and said to me, “O Bob, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been thinking of new ways to reach Boston for Jesus.”

 

O dear friends, Jesus says that the overcomer will have “the name of the City of My God, the new Jerusalem” written on him. What is the City of God but the People of God? This morning I see through that translucent veil that there are many names written on me, inscribed in my heart and soul…and that these names merge into one great name, the City of God, the New Jerusalem – these names are distinctive and yet they are One in the Trinity.

 

And I hear and see John writing, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

 

Our love for one another and our unity in the Trinity (John 13:34 – 35; 17:20 – 26) are the only hope the world has to see Jesus Christ and His love for them. We are called to live for one another in Jesus Christ – to lay down our lives for one another, as brothers and sisters of our one glorious Father (Heb. 2:9 – 13).

 

I have had experiences of Psalm 133 in my life, and how sweet they are; they are visions of that City descending from the heavens – actually they are living in that City.

 

This, my friends, is worth living for – it is worth everything that we may know Jesus and love one another. (Phil. 3:8 – 14; 2 Tim. 2:10; John 15:12 – 13). It is worth everything that we may bring others to Jesus.

 

We are called, not to live for ourselves, but for Jesus Christ and others. (Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

Is the name of the City of God, the New Jerusalem, being written on us today?

 

I love you!

 

Bob

Resting in God's Rest, Jesus

 

Andrew Murray has been in my life since I was a teenager. His was a remarkable life for Jesus, lived in the midst of political and social turmoil – loving all, caring for all, seeking the welfare of all.

The other day I read this chapter from The Holiest of All, An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews. Murray refreshes my soul in Jesus.

Bob

 

The Holiest of All – by Andrew Murray

Public Domain

 

Chapter XXXI.

 

REST FROM WORKS.

 

Hebrews IV.—9. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. 10. For he that Is entered Into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

 

There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God: taken in connection with what precedes about the seventh day or Sabbath, the rest is here called a sabbatism or sabbath rest. lt is spoken of as remaining, with reference to the rest in Canaan. That was but a shadow and symbol: the real sabbath rest remained, waiting its time, till Christ the true Joshua should come, and open it to us by Himself entering it.

 

In ver. 10 we have here another proof that the rest does not refer to heaven. How needless it would be in that case to say of those who have died, For he that hath entered into his rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

 

The remark would have no point. But what force it has in connection with the rest of faith in this life, pointing us to what is the great secret of this entrance into rest—the ceasing from works, as God did from His.

 

ln God we see, as it were, two distinct stages in His relation to His work. The first was that of creation—until He had finished all His work which He created and made. The second, His rest when creation was finished, and He rejoiced in what He had made, now to begin the higher work of watching the development of the life He had intrusted the creature with, and securing its sanctification and perfection. lt is a rest from work which is now finished, for higher work now to be carried on. Even so there are the two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing God to work in him.

 

lt is this resting from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest. As the Almighty, God is the only source of power. ln nature He works all. ln grace He waits to work all too, if man will but consent and allow. Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He worketh in us to will and to do. As Paul says of himself, " l labour, striving according to His working who worketh in me with might" (lit. "agonising according to His energy who energises in me with might"). Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding up oneself in the full surrender of faith to God's working.

 

How many Christians are there who need nothing so much as rightly to apprehend this word. Their life is one of earnest effort and ceaseless struggling. They do long to do God's will, and to live to His glory. Continued failure and bitter disappointment is their too frequent experience. Very often as the result they give themselves up to a feeling of hopelessness: it never will be otherwise. Theirs is truly the wilderness life— they have not entered into God's rest. Would that God might open their eyes, and show them Jesus as our Joshua, who has entered into God's presence, who sits upon the throne as High Priest, bringing us in living union with Himself into that place of rest and of love, and, by His Spirit within us, making that life of heaven a reality and an experience.

 

He that is entered into rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. And how does one rest and cease from his works? lt is by ceasing from self. lt is the old self life that always insists upon proving its goodness and its strength, and presses forward to do the works of God. lt is only in death that we rest from our works. Jesus entered His rest through death; each one whom He leads into it must pass through death. "Reckon yourself to be indeed dead unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Believe that the death of Christ, as an accomplished fact, with all that it means and has effected, is working in you in all its power. You are dead with Him and in Him. Consent to this, and cease from dead works. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they do rest from their labours." That is as true of spiritual dying with Christ as of the death in the body. To sinful nature there is no rest from work but through death.

 

He that is entered into rest hath rested from his works.

 

The ceasing from our works and the entering the rest of God go together. Read the first chapter of Joshua, and hear God's words of strength and encouragement to everyone who would enter. Exchange the wilderness life with your own works for the rest-life in which God works. Fear not to believe that Jesus came to give it, and that it is for you.

 

1. Not l, but Christ. This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works. With the unconverted man it is, Not Christ, but I. With the feeble and slothful Christian, l and Christ: I first, and Christ to fill up what is wanting. With increasing earnestness it becomes, Christ and l: Christ first, but still l second. With the man who dies with Christ it is, Not l, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all. He has ceased from his work: Christ llveth in him. This is the rest of faith.

 

2. God saith of His dwelling among His people, "This is My rest; here will l dwell." Fear not to say this too. lt is the rest of God in His delight and pleasure in the work of His Son, in His love to Jesus and all who belong to Him. lt is the rest of Jesus in His finished work, sitting on the throne, resting in the Father's love. lt is the rest of our faith and love in Jesus, in God, in His love.