Dear Phyllis,
I just finished reading Andrew Murray's, The
Holiest of All, for the third time this morning. (I have been reading that
continuously for four years.) I can't wait to get started reading it again. The
closing doxology just blew me away. I can't imagine anything in any human
language more wonderful, more marvellous, more pregnant with meaning, truth,
instruction, encouragement, and more frustratingly glorious than that doxology
and the final crescendo note:
Now the God of peace, that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the Blood of
the everlasting covenant; make you perfect in every good work, to do His will;
working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to Whom be GLORY for ever and ever; Amen.
Oh my goodness, has there ever been anything
written more glorious than this?! I am just peeking through a key hole into
heaven but if I could see any more my heart would burst. Oh, what volumes could
be, and should be, written about this theme! Oh, the inadequacy of human speech
to express the truth that is alluded to in these few words! O Lord, haste the
day when we can more adequately express our wonder, appreciation, and praise to
God for who You are and what You have done!
This is so wonderful I am reluctant to even
comment on it. Any words that I try to write can only detract from the enormity
of the truth of this … (I don't know what to say. Is it the Gospel? Is it the
work of Christ? Is it salvation? I don't know what it is ; but for whatever it
is, or you call it, PRAISE GOD!)
For several weeks, I have been reluctant to
go to heaven. I said a few weeks ago, I am so ashamed of myself, I can't
imagine entering into heaven through the front door; and hoped God had a back
door or – if possible – I could crawl into heaven through a side window. After
reading about some of the real soldiers for Christ, I have quickly stepped out
of that line, and hope I can fade into the crowd of on-lookers, and those
cheering the heroes of the faith.
But this morning I got a different view.
Andrew Murray blew the top out of it when he wrote the last note – TO WHOM BE
GLORY!
In his opening remarks Andrew Murray writes:
TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. No wonder that
the author bursts out in adoration. In the closing prayer he had summed up all
the glory of what God has done in Christ, and now waiting to work in us. He has
pronounced over his readers the blessing of the God who hath revealed Himself
in His Son, and longs to reveal Himself in us for our complete deliverance: and
his whole soul bows in wonder, joy, and worship. The sight of the God who has
raised Jesus from the dead, drawing nigh to do His mighty work in us too,
brings the song to his lips: TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER! Oh that we may
ever learn to study and admire and appropriate the mysteries of redeeming
grace, that every mention of it leads to the spontaneous outburst; GLORY TO
GOD!
He couldn't have expressed it better. The
very mention of it causes my heart to nearly burst. As I thought about this, my
mind went to the seraphims who stand in the presence of God ceaselessly crying,
“Holy! Holy! Holy!” Maybe this is nitpicking, and maybe I am wrong, but it
seems to me that their cry and ours is different. I have never been comfortable
with that cry. There are several praise songs that go, “We cry, holy, holy,
holy”.I don't like to sing it. I'm not sure that is true. Somehow those words
sound very artificial to me. In communist countries, school children are given
little flags, and told to stand beside the road and cheer when the dictator
rides by. They dutifully wave their flags and cheer. But it is not real. They
are only doing what they are told. Singing some of those praise songs feels the
same way to me. What I am singing is not what is in my heart, but only what I
have been told to sing. Somehow it seems plastic.
I am sure that I have told you this before
but it is well worth repeating. Years ago I wanted to learn how to pray. I was
told that the best prayers were to memorize the prayers in the Bible and repeat
them. I thought there is no way you can get higher than what the seraphims who
stand in the presence of God say – “Holy! Holy! Holy!” They never quit. They do
that 24-7. Try it! I did. I nearly went nuts. You can't do that ten ,minutes
before you get concerned that someone might call for the fellows in the white
jackets with their wagon. I wondered, “How in the world do they do it?”
One
summer we were over on the west coast of Japan Sea of Japan . It missed us, but
the waves of it hit us the next day. I never saw anything like it in my life.
We went down to the beach where we had been swimming in shallow waves every
day, and what we saw looked like Mt. Fuji coming at us. Oh my goodness, those
waves were monstrous! I stood there in awe and watched one of those towering
waves come in and crash on the shore; and I cried, “SUGOI!” (awesome, great,
spectacular – the Japanese superlative adjective). Another wave came in and I
cried,“SUGOI!!” Another wave came in and I cried, “SUGOI!!!” I stood there for
twenty minutes and I couldn’t get another word out of my mouth. I tried to talk
in English, but that just didn't work. I tried to use English adjectives, but
they just didn't fit. What I am trying to say is, I mean to tell you those
waves were SUGOI!!!!
At that moment I knew what was going on in
the hearts of the seraphims. The sight of those waves just blew me away, and
all I could do was cry, SUGOI. The angels stand in the presence of God
observing the character of God, and what they see blows them away. All they can
do is cry, HOLY! Why doesn't that blow us way? Because we don't see what they
are looking at. And holy is not a meaningful word in our vocabulary. Take away
God, and holy is almost a non-existent word in the human lexicon. They talk of
holy men of India
It is impossible to measure anything if you
don't have a standard. What is God's standard? I saw that the measuring stick
of heaven is God's own law. It is the Ten Commandments. But the Law has two
sides –positive and negative. The negative side is – you don’t do it. The
positive side is the reverse of the negative. The opposite of to steal is to
give. The opposite of to kill is to make alive. The opposite of to lie is the
truth. The opposite of adultery is to keep clean. (Basically this is to honour
the sanctity of marriage.) When someone asked Jesus what was the number one
law, He summarized the entire law by expressing it in reverse – to love God and
love the neighbour (Mk. 12:31 ,32). Galatians 5:14 tells us that love is the fulfilment of the law. That
sums up everything on the positive side. The angels see the character of God
and it just blows them away. That is why they can't quit crying holy.
But I believe the thing that will cause our
hearts to burst is Glory. I can't express it, but somehow this is what it looks
like to me. I believe the closest to this here on earth is a congratulatory
scenario. If someone does something congratulatory here, the minimal expression
is a hand shake. When someone does something special, I compulsively want to
shake their hand. If someone does something really sugoi for me, I compulsively
want to hug them. We see the extreme of this in sports. In the NFL, when a wide
end receiver catches a touchdown pass, and scores the winning touchdown, a
common practice is for that player to run to the stands at the end of the goal
line, and jump up in the stands. Of course, he can't get all the way in, but he
jumps up half way, and the fans there grab the players jersey, and pull on him.
Everyone gathers around as much as possible pounding him on his back
congratulating him for that spectacular touchdown. On the soccer field, when a
player makes a winning score, the entire team gathers around him, knocking him
down. Then there is a big pig pile of the entire team jumping on the pile to
congratulate the poor winning player on bottom. If it would be possible, the
entire stadium of fans would pour out on the field to jump on the pile to
celebrate. The stands go wild in celebration of a winning score. Everyone is
frustrated screaming at the top of their lungs celebrating. In 1998 I was
staying in the CMA missionary guest
house, in Bangkok
This
is what is happening at the end of Hebrews. When the writer sums up all God has
done in revealing His Son; what Jesus has done in opening the way to the Father
and inviting us in; and the inexpressible.. (I don't know what the right word
is) salvation offered to us; all we can do is spontaneously cry, “GLORY TO
GOD!!!”
Oh my goodness, that was my experience this
morning! I am so frustrated at my inability to express what the Lord has
revealed to me. For several weeks I have been concerned about how I was going
to get into heaven. When I compare myself with the real soldiers of Christ, I
am too embarrassed to go in through the front gate. But this morning all I
could say was, “Hang it! I don't care how I get in; if only I can stand in the
innumerable throng before the Throne of the Lamb crying Glory to God!”
This is not some staged ceremony like
children standing along side a street waving little flags saying what they are
supposed to. This is real. This is is spontaneous. This is something, if we
can't get it out of our mouths, our hearts will burst. Why? Because what Jesus
has done is so astounding! How is it possible that we could do anything less?
Gomen,
Phyllis, but I can't add to that. May God make it real.
bill
bill
No comments:
Post a Comment