“For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.” (3 John 1:3 NASB)
“Be it ours today, O gracious Spirit, to be ruled and governed by thy divine authority, so that nothing false or sinful may reign in our hearts, lest it extend its malignant influence to our daily walk among men.”—Charles H. Spurgeon
Walking in the truth. I continue to be fascinated by this topic, returning often.
Spurgeon also wrote, “Truth must enter the soul, penetrate and saturate it, or else it is of no value.”
I’ve also been reading “The Pursuit of Man,” by A.W. Tozer. He speaks of the two “Christians” in our churches. On one side are the common Christians that believe and do nothing more. They believe but are not changed. On the other side is the Christian that believes in his/her heart, responds, and is changed. He/she becomes truly a new creature.
It seems clear from the Scriptures that, after we accept the initial offer of salvation, we are saved from eternal condemnation. However, it is equally clear from the Scriptures that once we are saved we must become a new creation. New wine is put into new wine skins—containers that will expand without bursting. So then, we are saints in Y’shuaJesus now, in the eternal scheme, but still we are becoming saints while we remain on Earth. It’s a process of being transformed, and it continues until we leave Earth to be with Y’shuaJesus or He comes to Earth to reign. For only then will we truly be complete.
The process of being transformed is a bit like an ascent up a spiral stairway. Let me illustrate.
Many years ago, while maintaining communications systems for the U.S. Forest Service, I climbed lookout towers. On many towers the stairway led up one level to a platform, reversed direction, and led upward to the next platform. This continued sometimes over a hundred feet (thirty or so meters). As I would ascend, I’d see tree-covered mountains in the distance. At each level, I’d see farther than I could see at the previous level.
Consider our lives as ascents with many levels where we view the landscape in a different way. Consider those towers upon which I climbed and reversed direction at each level. When looking forward, I’d see the landscape in a particular direction only on every other platform. If I take the tower illustration and apply it to my live, which has often felt as though I’ve changed direction, I begin to understand that it still ascends higher and higher, offering me a better view, a better vantage point.
Thinking about ascents can be applied to all aspects of our lives in Messiah. Take reading the Bible, for instance. We read from the Books of Moses, those of the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the letters of the Apostles. They are not novels we read once and put on the shelf; they are living Words that we read and reread as we ascent the tower of our lives. We read. We walk. We read again. We gain new insight from each reading as we are able to see farther on the landscape of our lives.
Y’shuaJesus is the Truth. May we walk His way.
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25 NASB)
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
JonahzSong 