Spiritual Ponderings

God's appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace itself is occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father. . . . He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in our nature . As our Intercessor , Christ's office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters . He intercedes in behalf of those who receive Him . With His own blood He has paid their ransom. By virtue of His merits He gives them power to become members of the royal family , children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends . He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His son. In Christ's name our petitions ascend to the Father. He intercedes in our behalf, and the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, for us to enjoy and impart to others. . . . Christ is the con...

Authority. What is it really? How does it work? What purpose does it serve? How does one receive it? How are we to relate to it properly? I have developed a real interest in challenging the definitions of words. I have found that if I keep my mind open that new insights can be discovered more easily and interconnections suddenly come alive as I read the Bible with new understandings. Something came to my attention a few minutes ago that got me to thinking about this again. I remembered the words of Jesus to Pilate explaining to him that he would have no authority over Jesus if it had not been given to him by the Father in heaven. That statement has rather baffled me for most of my life. But as I begin understanding the true meaning of authority it begins to make much more sense. What if authority is one of God's designated channels by which He sends me provisions for my various needs? What if people are assigned to be responsible for some area of life for those around them by G...

Think of the perspective of an unfallen being or angel in heaven and the suspicions that they rightly could feel whenever they think about the possibility of any one of us entering into the pure, holy, undefiled society of heaven still infected with secret or open faults that still lurk in our hearts. Even our innocent mistakes would reek havoc in the perfect functioning of heaven's society. We have such ignorance of natural law not to speak of the many urges we have inside to live independently that cause malfunction and pain in relationships. We have very little appreciation for the tight but delicate interconnections required to live in harmony with the rest of the perfect universe. These beings may rightly shudder with horror to imagine what would happen if we were ever to attempt to integrate into their family in our present condition. These beings have an intense awareness of the perfection of God that is so great that any sin (anything that is not in perfect synchronization...

The kingdom of heaven is like a... Jesus used illustrations that were practical and familiar to the listeners of His day. But on the same token if He were sitting down to help us become aware of some of the fundamental principles of the system of heaven He would not chose to talk about sheep or even farming if His audience was largely of modern urban dwellers who had never even seen a sheep except in a book. He would draw on things familiar to His listeners, things they had common knowledge about, things that they would encounter on a daily basis. He would do this so that as they saw the things He had used as His illustration they would be reminded of His illustrations and their deeper meanings would begin to form in their minds and sink deeper into their hearts. As I lay in bed this morning looking for more motivation to get up, I asked God to give me something interesting enough to get me going. As I thought about that the words attraction and charms came to my attention. What I ...