Tag Archives: Life

Pictures Of Eternal Life

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Allan Halton

 

In this increasingly unstable world of ours, and growing darkness, let us be mindful of Jesus’ words that are both a promise and a warning. He warned that “the thief cometh…” He is referring to what one has called the “cosmic thief,” the Devil. This thief is intent on one thing, which he loves to do under cover of darkness. “The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy…” The thing we must get hold of here is that it’s His own flock that Jesus is warning; it’s these that the thief has his malicious eye on. But in the same breath Jesus now adds, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). This is his precious promise, and it becomes the heritage of those who hear the voice of their Shepherd and follow Him as He goes out before them. This is their part; it is His part to lead them into His green pastures of abundant life, and protect them there. No lion or bear or thief can touch them when they do their part, and when He does His part. Let us do our part, then. Let us never for a moment stray from the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls! I’m not saying we should have no interest in what’s going on out there in the world. I’m saying let nothing tempt us to distance ourselves from the protection of our Shepherd’s loving presence. I say presence because it is in Himself that the abundant life is found. “I am come that they might have life…” Let nothing in this world, then, nothing great or small, seduce us to breach even for a moment the life-link with our loving Shepherd in the high pastures of Israel—our spiritual heritage in Christ Jesus. If we do we have set ourselves up not for provision and protection but for robbery and destruction.

With this in mind, I hope to open more fully to our understanding what the abundant life in Christ is like so that this becomes our one desire—and our determination that nothing shall move us from it. Let’s read a verse of Scripture:

And this is the promise that He has promised us—the land of Canaan. (I Jn. 2:25 NKJV)

“Wait a minute,” I hear you protesting, “that’s not what it says.”

I’m glad to see you know your Bible, we’re off to a good start. Actually it reads:

And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

But do you see where I’m coming from? Canaan was the earthly land of promise that God promised Israel of old. He gave the promise initially to Abraham, and faithfully brought the descendants of Abraham into that abundant land after first enjoining upon them the Sinai Covenant. This was all a type of what was to come. It is eternal life that He promises the New Covenant people of God. That is to say, life in Christ. “…God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 Jn. 5:11). This is the New Covenant “land”—the Son of God Himself, a “land” characterized by eternal life.

Eternal life? We have shortchanged ourselves if we think of eternal life solely as life without end. Certainly it is life without end, but it’s far more than that, it’s far more than something we enter into once we have died and gone to Heaven. Eternal life is a heavenly heritage we begin to enter into while yet on earth. But obviously it’s far more than an earthly plot of ground. Yet eternal life is like the earthly land of Canaan inasmuch as reality is portrayed in a picture book. That’s how I like to describe the Old Testament part of our Bible. It’s a picture book given to children prior to the New Covenant reality that has now come. Of course those accounts in the Old Testament are not fairy tales, they are not fiction; they are true accounts of people on terra firma. But they were prophetic of a spiritual reality to come.

What does eternal life look like?

So, what does the Picture Book have to say about the promise of eternal life? What is eternal life like? Here from the Picture Book are some descriptions of eternal life:

And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not,
Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. (Dt. 6:10-12)

In other words, the provision of the land was not the result of their own work. It was wonderfully all there already in the land. Here’s another:

For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. (Dt. 8:7-9)

Again, we see that the land was a prepared land; in it the people of God would lack nothing, there was abundant provision for every need. Joshua confirmed the same at the end of his life:

And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. (Josh 24:13 KJV)

And so the people entered into the land of their inheritance only to find it just as they had been told. The provision of every need was ready at hand. In fact God called this land “the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you” (Dt. 12:9 NKJV). None of this would involve their own works. Even the warfare they accomplished in this land was the result of the Lord—and Joshua (their Jesus)—going before them. “The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said” (Dt. 31:3).

Even so, eternal life is the prepared life, the very life of Christ, the ever-present salvation and provision for our every need. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). It is the kind of life and salvation in which our walk is a prepared walk, our works prepared before us. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We are new creations in Christ and we walk by the rule of new creation life—steps that are prepared before us. “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).

It is all that He Himself might be glorified in our lives.

The Bishop of the land

That heading might throw you; I know what the word bishop brings to mind. But bear with me. Let’s read a longer passage. I love this one:

But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. (Dt. 11:7-15 KJV)

That’s what their earthly inheritance was like. And this is what the heavenly heritage of eternal life is like. It is a land, a life, “which the Lord thy God careth for…” What do you mean, Lord? I mean this: “…The eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year…”

Careth is the Hebrew darash, which more literally would be seeketh after, or searcheth. I’d really like us to get the sense of this, so let’s look at some other versions:

 …A land which Jehovah thy God is searching; continually are the eyes of Jehovah thy God upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the latter end of the year. (DT 11:12 YLT)
…A land about which the LORD your God is continually concerned, because the eyes of the LORD rest continually on it throughout the entire year. (ISV)
…A land the LORD your God looks after. He is constantly attentive to it from the beginning to the end of the year. (NET)

Do we get the picture? Let’s string those together. His eyes are continually upon this land, He is continually concerned about it, He is constantly attentive to it in order to look after and take care of this land moment by moment.

Here’s another—this one from Brenton’s English translation of the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Old Testament:

…A land which the Lord thy God surveys continually, the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The Septuagint Greek for surveys is episkopeo, which the Apostolic Bible Polyglot (a translation that codifies the Greek Septuagint with Strong’s numbers) actually renders oversees. “A land which the Lord  thy God oversees continually.” What a thought! Eternal life is a land, a domain, that God continually oversees. Strong’s defines episkopeo as “to look diligently, take the oversight.” From this we have our English word bishop—overseer, one who sees over, one who watches over the flock with a view to its care and protection. “For ye were as sheep going astray,” says Peter, “but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Pt. 2:25). Or as the New King James Version has it, “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” He cares deeply for the welfare and wellbeing of our souls, our lives, therefore continually watches over us day and night, mindful of the very best for us in the pastures of eternal life, just as He did the land for which He cared, His eyes searching it attentively with a view to giving it His loving care and attention.

“…For the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”

This, beloved, is what eternal life, life in Christ, is like. It is like “…a land of milk and honey… a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” That description from the Picture Book gives us through a glass darkly an insight into eternal life. It is life which is life indeed in the “land” of our inheritance. “Life, and that more abundantly.” Life in Christ. Eternal life. God is overseeing this land, the heavenly Canaan, to do it good that He may do us good. He keeps its care in His own hands. Gone are the days in Egypt when we watered our plots with an irrigation system entirely in our own control. Not so now. Not in this land. This land is the Rest of God; the days of toil to bring forth our bread by the sweat of our brow are over. This our new land is watered with the rain of Heaven, of which God alone is in control.

Did I hear you catch your breath just here? You mean leaving this entirely to Him? Yes, it means absolute and utter dependence upon Him alone. If that seems risky it’s only because we don’t know Him very well. Once we know and believe the love that God has for us, who would have it any other way? For we come to see that it is a God of lovingkindness and faithfulness who promises this kind of life and rest, life eternal, upon our entering into and abiding in His “land” in total dependence upon Him. Only in His “land” is this kind of life, eternal life, to be found. Upon putting our trust entirely in Him we bid goodbye forever to our unrest, to our doubts and fears. We cease from our own works and labours and strivings and the world with all its cares. Our lot is now to rest entirely in Him and simply obey His leadings, His commandments, thereby enjoying the life of abundant fruitfulness and total victory over every enemy.

This is just what 19th century Quaker Hannah Whitall Smith had to say upon what she called her “entrance into this life.”

I have found it to be more and more true, every day of my life, that Christ is a  complete and ever-present Savior, and that if I but commit all my interests to Him, I have, as a dear child once said, nothing to do now but “just to mind.” To say “Thy will be done” seems to me, more and more, the sweetest song of the soul. The deepest longings of my whole being are met and satisfied in God. He is enough! Believing, resting, abiding, obeying—these are my part. He does all the rest. What heights and depths of love, what infinite tenderness of care, what wise lovingkindness of discipline, what grandeur of keeping, what wonders of revealing, what strength in weakness, what comfort in sorrow, what light in darkness, what easing of burdens I have found, what a Savior, no words can tell!
Hannah Whitall Smith, 1887

That is beautiful, is it not? This is a description of eternal life, the prepared life in Christ, wherein our Saviour’s part is to do the saving; our part is simply to mind Him with ready obedience, and even for this He provides the needed grace. Who can but love Him with all the heart and soul and mind and strength?

 

 

 

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Becoming A Well Of Living Water

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Allan Halton

I’ve been thinking about wells the last few days.  And no wonder, I suppose.  When a friend said the other day, “It’s been so dry,” his comment could easily have been a reference to the weather.  But I knew he was speaking of the spiritual drought many of us are enduring.  We know firsthand what the psalmist means by “a dry and thirsty land where no water is.”

So did the ancients our Bible tells us of.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob… they were desert people.  They hadn’t yet entered the land of flowing streams and brooks of waters, and since water was a matter of life and death to them (as it is to all peoples) this meant searching for wells in the desert for themselves and their flocks.

Abraham digged wells.  Later Isaac had to redig them, for the Philistines had plugged them with earth in an effort to force him out what they considered their own territory. Isaac dug other wells also, which became a source of contention when the inhabitants of the land he sojourned in sought to expropriate the wells for their own use.

In the days of Jacob flock-watering had become tightly controlled.  No one was allowed to water their flock till all the flocks were gathered together, at which time “the shepherds” took the stone off the well’s mouth.  Jacob, however– though he was not a member of this organization of shepherds and had no pastor’s official credentials– rolled away the stone and watered the flock that the shepherdess Rachel had led to the well (Gen. 29.1-10).

Moses did much the same thing.  When the daughters of the Reuel came to water their father’s flock at a certain well the shepherds tried to drive them away.  Moses rose up and helped Reuel’s daughters, and watered their flock.  This eventually led to Moses becoming a shepherd himself—first of sheep, and then of the flock of God.  It was when he was shepherding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law that he met God at the burning bush and was commissioned to shepherd His people out of Israel and through a wilderness, where, time and again, the need for water was a serious issue.

On one occasion when they were faced with no water the LORD spoke to Moses:

Gather the people together, and I will give them water (Num. 21.16).

How did He give them water?  He commanded the people to start singing to an unseen well in the sand as the elders began digging with their staves.

Then Israel sang this song, Spring up O well: sing ye unto it:
The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves.

In other words, right there in the sand below their feet there was a secret well.  The people didn’t know it was there, but God did.  Right in the bleakest most desolate of places there was a well.

Is not this a promise for you and me?  I see in my mind’s eye another flock of bleating sheep in a waste and howling wilderness… and a Shepherd leading them.  Leading them where? To a Well.  For, we too are a people of eternal purpose, just as those of old were.  I know it’s very dry these days, but God will not let the sheep of His pasture perish in this present wilderness for lack of water.  The Shepherd of Israel… we are the sheep of His hand.  It is His responsibility to lead us to water.  And He will do so.  We have His promise that He will do so—to “fountains of living waters” (Rev. 7.17).

It is for Him to do the leading.  And for us?  What is our part?  Our part is to cry out to Him for this precious Life Source, and follow His leading.  At times it may mean getting the earth out of a well the Philistines have contaminated.  It may mean moving to another locale.  I don’t necessarily mean geographically, although that might be the Shepherd’s leading at times.  I mean spiritually.  We the flock of His pasture must be nomadic, ready to move on, ready to follow our Shepherd, ready to move out into the desert as He searches out for us another Well.

And when instead of water we find nothing but sand even though we know we are there in the leading of the Lord, it may mean singing to the sand around us—and digging.  It is the Spirit of Christ Himself who is that Well of living water… but at times we might have to engage in some serious digging to find Him… all the while singing as we dig.

And blessed is the person who does so.  Blessed is the person who, through all the wildernesses of life, continues to seek out and find that Well of living water. For, an even greater promise awaits such a one.  God says:

I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water (Isa. 41.18).

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water (Isa. 35.7).

Note this.  The dry land becomes a spring of water.  The thirsty one—the one who needs water—ultimately becomes a spring of water himself.

Just as Jesus promised that thirsty woman at the well of Samaria:

Whoseover drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be (that is, become) in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (Jn. 4.14).

That is to say, we come to Him thirsting for water, and we go away having become a fountain of living water that satisfies the souls all around us thirsty for Life.

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The Gospel Of Eternal Life

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Allan Halton

Three times in his letters the apostle Paul refers to something he calls “my gospel” (Rom. 2.16, 16.25 and 2 Tim. 2.8).  There is of course only one Gospel—the Good News of our salvation.  But Paul was able to call this Gospel his own.  How so?  It’s because the gospel of God was not just hearsay to him; it was operative in his own life.

And what is the Gospel?  I realize many of us are very familiar with this, but I think we do well to look into the nature of the Gospel of Paul, lest the Gospel we’re so familiar with turn out to be a Gospel other than—or maybe less than—the one that lived and burned like fire in Paul.  So let’s look at this.

Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God
Which He had promised afore by His prophets in holy scriptures… (Rom. 1.1,2).

This gospel is laid out in great detail in Paul’s letter to the Romans, but we will go to his second letter to Timothy, where it is encapsuled.  It is a very powerful gospel—very great glad tidings.

Paul is writing to Timothy from a Roman prison where Nero has cast him, intending shortly to execute him.  As we read later in the letter, Paul himself anticipates his end is at hand.  But he doesn’t call it an execution.  He calls it an offering unto God.  He is “ready to be offered,” he tells Timothy.  He has “fought a good fight,” he has “finished his course,” he has “kept the faith.”  He looks forward to the crown of righteousness which is laid up for him, “which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day, and not to me only but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4.6-8).

Paul begins his last letter with these words:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus…

These words remind us of his letter to Titus.

Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ according to (in accordance with) the faith of God’s elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is after (accords with) godliness;
In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the ages of time…

Paul told the Romans that God promised the Gospel “by His prophets in holy scriptures.”  Here he says God promised it “before the ages of time.”  So this Gospel is a very great thing in the eternal purposes of God.  We highlight the words, “in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised…”  They echo the introductory words to Timothy we quoted above: Paul says he is an apostle of Jesus Christ “according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.”  And so what has God promised?  Life.  And what life has God promised?  Eternal life.  Before the ages of time God promised that out from a whole race bound under the law sin and death He would bring a new man into a new dimension of life—eternal life.

But what does this eternal life involve?  Dying and going to Heaven and living forever?  Let’s read Paul’s letter to Timothy a little further.  We’ll discover the astonishing gospel unto which Paul had been separated.

First, he calls Timothy to boldness.  He is not to be ashamed of what he is involved in.

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but suffer evil along with the gospel according to the power of God…

The testimony of our Lord is the witness to the truth to which Christ was faithful in His own life and walk, and which we too are equipped to give by His Spirit.  We note in passing that Paul gives no credit whatsoever to the reprobate Roman ruler Nero for his imprisonment; he is a prisoner not of Nero but of Jesus Christ.  For, Nero may purpose to shut the Gospel down, but Paul knows it is actually for the furtherance of the Gospel that he has been jailed.  His sufferings and imprisonment will result in the Gospel not being shut down but actually growing.  And so he seeks to encourage Timothy with the same realization.  This Gospel is attended with much shame and suffering as far as this world is concerned; many there are who will not bear the shame and afflictions of the Gospel.  But Paul assures Timothy that God has all the power necessary to equip him to bear up under it all, and suffer the evils the gospel suffers in its way of triumph.

Now Paul lays out for Timothy (and for all of us) the staggering dimensions of this awesome gospel of God.  Let’s read it carefully.

…Suffer evil along with the gospel according to the power of God,
Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, nor according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time,
But is now made manifest by the appearing of Jesus Christ, who hath abolished (annulled) death, and hath brought life and immortality (incorruption) to light through the gospel;
Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (2 Tim. 1.8-11).

This is such a powerful passage of Scripture.  Paul says that Jesus Christ has “abolished death.”  That is, He has made death impotent, he has made it “of no effect.”  He has made death so that it “doesn’t work” anymore, as the word literally means.  It has no power.  This is what God accomplished in the cross of Jesus Christ.

But that is not all.  In what Paul is saying here he has his opening words in mind, “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.”  He returns to them now, saying that the God who has made death of no effect has “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”  We too easily miss the import of these powerful words.  Paul is not talking about a gospel that merely informs us that God has brought life and incorruption to light; he is talking about the gospel that is an actual demonstration of the truth that Christ has annulled death.

This is what the Gospel is all about—and nothing less.  The Gospel is a bringing to light, a manifestation, a shining forth… of a life that is dominion over death.

And what is death?  Paul is not talking solely about the death that terminates our mortal existence.  Yes, in due time that too is vanquished.  But primarily Paul is talking about the death that reigns over the whole family of Adam all their days.  Death is not merely an event that ends our life here on earth.  It is a domain in which all men have been bound since the day Adam sinned in the Garden.  All, that is, except those who have been liberated from that bondage by the Gospel.  The Gospel of God is a gospel that brings men into the kind of Life over which sin and death has no dominion.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8.2).  He wrote, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5.17).

Christian, is this the gospel—the glad tidings—unto which you and I too are separated?  Are we walking in a Life that reigns over all—over sin, over the domain of death?  Over the flesh, over the world, over the Devil?  And this not only in our own lives but in the lives of those around us?

This is why He saved us.

But it doesn’t end with our own salvation:  “He saved us, and called us with a holy calling…”  What is the calling?  It is the calling to walk in eternal life and make eternal life manifest in a world bound under the law of sin and death.  What does Paul urge us to, then?

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called and hast confessed a good confession before many witnesses (1 Tim. 6.12).

Let us lay hold on this eternal life, Christian.  This is our calling.  It is unto this that we, like Timothy, have been called on behalf of all men.  It’s the Gospel of God, the Gospel of eternal life.  Let us never settle for a gospel less than this!  It is good news—very good news indeed!

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A Burden of Light

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Allan Halton

I have been feeling very heavy hearted and pained the last couple of days as a result of the multiple murder that took place over our way.  I’m sure many of you have heard about this—it’s been headline news all across Canada—the two young baseball players from Prince Edward Island playing for a team in Lethbridge, Alberta.  I don’t want to go into the details, but apparently they were celebrating a birthday out in a bar with their friends… having a wonderful time, enjoying life to the max the way young people just love to do.  A jealous ex-boyfriend of one of the girls comes along.  There is an ugly incident in the bar… and then later on the horror story on the highway at three in the morning as these young people leave their fun and rush to Calgary to catch a plane to Prince Edward Island for the Christmas break.  The ex-boyfriend has tailed them.  And he has a gun.

And now four young people are dead, this young man included.  He turned his gun on himself after he wreaked his vengeance.  The whole country is horrified.  How could this happen?

…Four young people in their early twenties, in the flower of life, and living life to the max.  Their whole lives were before them.  So much to live for.  Now they are dead.  Their friends are in tears:  they were such fun-loving people…  why could this happen to such wonderful people?

And so… my burden.  How long, Lord, how long?  How long till there shines a Light in the darkness that reveals to a whole generation of lost young people that this is not what life is for!  Sitting down to eat and to drink, and rising up to play… this is not what life is for!  This is not why God gave us a life—to consume upon ourselves!

The darkness “out there” is very thick in this hour.  The only reason people don’t flee from it as from atomic radiation is that… they don’t see how dark it is!  It’s only when you have a measure of light that you become aware of the darkness around you.

And so… the darkness that envelops this whole generation of young people like a burial shroud… who is responsible for that?

Fellow Christian, it is you and I who are to be the Light of the world.  And so, if the world is in darkness, where is the Light?

At times I feel a resentment toward the churches of our day.  I wonder if it isn’t a divine resentment.  For, in spite of the fact that there is so very little light in the churches of our day, we carry on, carry on, carry on… with our many programs and our nice activities… when, out of love for a lost generation we should be calling a halt to it all and crying out to God for mercy!

…But, never mind the churches.  What about me, Lord?  One of the things being carried by the priests through the wilderness was the lampstand.  It was veiled in blue with a covering of badger skins over top.  Lord, I cannot rest till you bring me to the place where this lampstand under the badger skin is set up in Your Tabernacle, and the Light shines in the darkness again… the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ!

Christian, is Jesus the light of your life, and mine?  Is Jesus the light we have in our heart?  Is Jesus Christ our righteousness in our hearts, and our salvation?  Then let this be our cry:

“For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the Righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the Salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth” (Isaiah 62.1).

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Welcome to A Mending Feast

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Allan Halton

Welcome to A Mending Feast! No, this is not an online sewing bee; it’s my contribution to the Table of the Lord. Please come in and sit down and make yourself at home. It’s my hope that all who partake here will taste and see that the Lord is good, and gracious, and will leave with appetites whetted to know Him more and more.

This has been my own experience at His table, which He invited me to sit down at some forty years ago: me, at the time a beggar sitting in a dunghill. He picked me up, and caused me to sit down among princes at His table. And oh, what a Table it is! It fills me, yet leaves me hungering for more of Him; it grows; it gets better all the time.

And that’s the meaning of the title of this blog, which was inspired from a line in an old poem by George Herbert (1593-1633).

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife,
Such a life as killeth death.

Come my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a light as shows a feast,
Such a feast as mends in length,
Such a strength as makes His guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a joy as none can move,
Such a love as none can part,
Such a heart as joys in love.

Isn’t this a wondrous poem? I love poetry that leads me in worship, and this is certainly one of them. Herbert saw that it is Christ Himself who is all things to the Christian — our Way, our Truth, our Life… the Way of the Spirit, of the Wind, that, to walk in is moment-by-moment breath to us; the Truth in Whom mercy and truth are met together, in Whom righteousness and peace have kissed; the Life who, dying in the will of God, vanquished him that had the power of death with his own weapon. He is our Light, our Feast, our Joy… the Light that shows a feast spread for us in the very presence of our enemies…

…A feast that “mends in length.” In the old King’s English Dictionary my friend Reg gave me years ago, one of the definitions for “mend” is, “verb, intransitive: to grow better, to improve.” The perfect word to describe the Feast of the Lord! All the feasts of earth sooner or later come to an end, with the guests departed, the table depleted, the once full dishes now empty and forlorn.

Not so this Table. This feast never ends – and it mends in length: the longer it goes the greater it grows, and just gets better, and better, and better, and fuller, and greater, and richer, and leaves the soul, oh, so satisfied… yet hungering for more, and more, and more.

There’s so much in this beautiful old poem, for there is so much in our wondrous Lord Jesus Christ. His feast is a feast that makes us, imparts strength to us: we sit down famished, weak and feeble, but rise up strengthened for whatever is before us. His joy is a joy that none can move, that no man taketh from us; His love is a love that rejoiceth in the truth, is a love that nothing can separate us from.

…And, whatever it was that our hearts rejoiced in when our hearts were in darkness, now we have a heart like His own – a heart that joys in love.

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