Category Archives: Our Walk

Not Knowledge But Thyself My Joy

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Allan Halton

As I said last time, the knowledge at our fingertips in our day — good Christian knowledge — is huge.  There are available on the Internet of our day the finest resources for Bible study the church has ever seen, with countless messages and teachings.  Yet I wonder if, in spite of all this knowledge, God isn’t mourning – as He was in Hosea’s day, when He said, “My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4.6).

I notice in a study Bible I have that the article is there in the Hebrew: “My people is destroyed for lack of the knowledge…”

God says His people are being destroyed for lack of the knowledge?  What is He referring to?  What does God have in mind here?  We discover the answer in what Hosea has said just a few verses earlier:

“For the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” (4.1).

This is what God means when he says, “My people is destroyed for lack of the knowledge…”  The knowledge of God.

This is what it is all about, family of God.  This is God’s great objective in our lives – that we come to know Him.  It is possible to listen to countless sermons and have much knowledge of the Bible and spiritual things… and yet be lacking in the knowledge of God Himself.  I believe this has happened in our generation.  Are we not all aware of the gross darkness in our world around us these days – and in many of our churches as well?  In spite of all our knowledge, in spite of all the Internet resources and Bible knowledge available to us, in spite of the proliferation of sermons and good messages available to us… we are still very short of the knowledge of God in our land.

I am talking about the kind of knowledge that means a shining forth of Christ Himself in our lives, a shining forth of Light in the darkness – the kind of light and knowledge of God that the Son of God Himself walked in.  Over and over again He said concerning the Father, “I know Him…”  “I know Him…” “I know Him…” (Jn. 7.29, 8.55, 10.15, 17.25).  How did Jesus do the things He did?  What enabled the powerful Testimony He had?  He just knew God!

That’s the kind of knowledge I am hungry for in this hour… and need! And the Lord helping me, I will not settle for less!  I know how important sound doctrine is.  I know how important good teaching is. I know how important knowing the Bible is… and I am thankful for all the resources that are available to us in our day.

But oh, family of God, how I wish there were more unrest in our midst – more discontent with all that – not unthankfulness, but discontent – and in this late hour a cry going up… “Lord Jesus… oh, to know You!  Thank you for all You have given us, we are grateful… but oh, to know You!  To know You in such a way that the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines forth in the darkness around us!”

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Come And See

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Allan Halton

“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?” John’s two disciples had asked.

Jesus did not respond by giving them His house address and directions on how to get there.

His invitation was, “Come and see” (John 1.39).

We are living in days when the amount of Christian knowledge available to us—very good Christian knowledge—is absolutely immense.  The Internet has Bible study resources like nothing the world has ever seen before.  There are also countless messages by a host of good ministries, and books and audios and videos without number.  Most of this is in the English language, I know, but I think there are translation tools available for a lot of it.

Add to that the multitude of messages over our pulpits on any given Sunday, and the weekly home Bible studies…

This is all very wonderful, is it not?  Yes… but at the same time it is, to me, somewhat frightening that we have all this available to us.

For, I remind you that alongside all this Bible knowledge, the darkness of our world has also grown to immense proportion.

How can this be?  So much light, but so much darkness, also?  Why, with all our Internet resources and Sunday sermons and Bible studies are we not making the impact on this world that we need to be making—and which the beloved Bible we are studying so much says we should be making?

Could it be possible that we are being led astray by the very abundance of the knowledge we have at our fingertips?  Is it possible that the light we have is actually blinding us?  I think that it might be.  At least the potential for that is there.  I think it is, at least, a very great test we are being subjected to.

If the abundance of the Bible knowledge available to us in this day is not creating in us a cry… “Lord Jesus Christ… it is YOU YOURSELF we want… and need; we want YOU in our midst, we want to see and need to see YOU…”  then we have miserably failed a very important test… with dangerous implications.

We have all this available to us… the sermons, the Bible studies, the Internet resources… yet our need in this hour for the Presence of the Lord Himself in our midst is beyond words to describe.

This is what I meant when I said last time that John the Baptist gave his disciples a very good spiritual education—something beyond the things I’ve mentioned.  The diploma these disciples had received in the School of John the Baptist certified—and their own hearts bore witness to it—that it was Something more than knowledge their eye was searching for.

“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”

“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”

Is that the cry on our hearts as well?

And if not…  why not?  In spite of all we are learning, are we in the right school?

That is the question we need to face up to.  Where is our hunger for God—for God Himself?  I wonder if hunger for God Himself is not the greatest spiritual blessing a person can have.

Notice.  John’s two disciples address Jesus as Rabbi—Master, Teacher… Rabbi—the very title by which they had previously addressed John.

“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”

In other words, they were expectantly looking to Jesus now to be their new teacher.

Their new Rabbi inducted them into the School of Christ immediately.

“Come and see.”

Lesson Number One in the School of Jesus Christ:  It was not information He gave them, but an invitation to participate in a walk with Him.

It is only by walking with this Teacher and dwelling with Him, and taking His yoke upon us, and in this way learning of Him, that we become true disciples in the school of Christ.

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Are You Receiving A Spiritual Education?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Allan Halton

Let me ask a probing question.  Are you and I receiving a spiritual education?  Are you and I, spiritually speaking, becoming educated persons?  Here’s how we can tell.

When John the Baptist came on the scene, many came to him to be baptized in Jordan.   Some of these became his close disciples.  For we read that John had disciples.  Now, what is the single-most thing John taught his disciples?  I should rather say, what was it about himself that John the Baptist passed along to those who were his disciples?

It is this.  John the Baptist lived, breathed, ate, slept, walked, talked… One Thing alone—to see the Christ of God, and join others to Him.

And there came a day when John looked up from his baptizing in Jordan, and saw Him coming to him.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me, for He was before me (John 1.29,30).

John sums up his whole ministry now.

And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing in water.

This was the whole purpose of his baptism—to prepare the hearts of the people for a Manifestation that was at the door, a shining forth of this One who was to come.  It was a manifestation so radical, so “outside the box,” that, apart from John’s baptism, they would miss it!

John, as we read the passages of Scripture that speak of him… we touch a man with a deep, deep love in his heart.  It is this, really, that he passed on to his disciples–his love for the Bridegroom.  His one great desire was to see all those he was baptizing joined to the Bridegroom.  In fact he called himself “the friend of the Bridegroom,” that is, one of the Bridegroom’s attendants.

But the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom’s Voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3.29-30).

What self-effacing humility in this great man—whom Jesus later proclaimed to be the greatest “among them that are born of women” (Mt. 11.11).  John had no interest in joining the people to himself.  Yes, he was a rabbi in Israel—a guide, a leader, a teacher—his disciples called him, “Rabbi” (John 3.26).  But his one concern was to see the people joined to the One who was coming after him.

And so, what a day it was for John when this One came to him to baptized in Jordan by him!  He had accomplished his ministry.

This my joy is therefore fulfilled.

Again the next day as John was standing by the Jordan with two of his disciples, he lifted up his eyes and again saw Jesus walking along.  As John watched Jesus, his eyes riveted on Him as he walked along, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

The two disciples, whatever they were doing, heard their teacher speaking.

And they followed Jesus.

They left their beloved teacher, and began to follow this One.  For this is what their beloved teacher had taught them—and he rejoiced when it began to happen.

Now comes the verse by which you and I can gauge the state of our spiritual education.

Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? (Jn. 1.37).

Notice that—and I wonder if it wasn’t a test question.  Jesus was asking, more or less, “What do you want?  What is it you are after?  What do you want from me?”

No doubt there were many things they could have asked for.  But it was not some thing they wanted from this One… and I love this verse:

They said unto Him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest Thou?

What an answer.  It shows us the kind of education these men had received from John.  It shows us just how well educated, spiritually speaking, these men were.

Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?

What a letdown for John, right? His disciples are moving on to a new rabbi. But no, this is the very thing he had taught his disciples to anticipate.

Master is an old English word meaning Teacher.

Teacher… where dwellest Thou?

…You are our Rabbi, our Teacher now… and we just want to be with You… wherever that happens to be. How precious to discover that it is this very thing the new Teacher Himself wanted.

He saith unto them, Come and see.

It is His gracious invitation to those who are asking this question.  “Come and see!  Come and see where I dwell, come and dwell with Me.  Do you want to be with Me?  I want you to be with Me!”

Do you and I have this same passion burning in us?  Is it, at least, being kindled in us, and growing?  I know… the needs in this hour are many, oh, so many, and very great… and some of our longings so deep.  But we come to a certain place, and… all we want, all we really are interested in is…

Teacher, where dwellest Thou?

For, dwelling with Him, is not this The Answer to all our need and all our longings?

Teacher, where dwellest Thou?

In my estimation, those with this question growing in their hearts—this pursuit—are receiving a top-notch spiritual education.

Oh, for teachers like John the Baptist in our day!

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