Tag Archives: Truth

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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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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