Much higher, far nearer

Six months ago we left when He said, "Go." We're still waiting to know where.

Six months ago, we packed up all of our belongings and loaded the boxes into our two vehicles, one of which was an empty Sprinter van. We’ve been living month to month in temporary housing since then. Two months in Boise, three in Central Oregon, and now a month in Spokane, Washington. When asked why, all we can say is, “Because God told us to go without knowing where we were going.”

We know He who brought us out will also bring us in, just as He who delivered us will also settle us. We just don’t know when, or where. He has put it on our heart to find a large acreage rural property in order to farm for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. To date, we’ve put in offers on four places, but in the process, it’s been made clear none of those were the right ones. So we wait.

I can’t quite explain just how much the Lord has been teaching us through this process. But today I wanted to try to tell one aspect.

Going through boxes the other day (because of course she needed something buried deep in the Sprinter van), my wife came across a box of books. Opening it, a title caught her eye, “The Ulster Awakening.” She started reading, feeling that the Lord had led her her to it.

Two days later we drove an hour and a half north, up to a small town called Colville, to see what the area is like if we were going to live so close to it. (A man has recently offered to sell us his home just south of Colville) That night, she turned on some revival documentaries, finding one on the Ulster Awakenings. It turns out the origins of the revival can be traced to a traveling woman named Mrs. Colville, who moved temporarily to Ulster because she had time and money to spend for God. Her purpose — going door to door to save souls. She specifically spoke on the importance of the new birth.

Looking back through old writings the next day, I found I had written about this Mrs. Colville a year and a half ago in the newsletter (Issue 10). Although back then I did not know her name, only calling her by the name the book used, “a lady from England, said to be a Baptist.”

Similarly, earlier in the week, my wife sent me a link to a hymn story she thought I would like, from a podcast she’s been listening to recently. The story of “Jesus, Cast a Look on Me” recounts the conversion of a minister named John Berridge, who thought himself saved until age 42, when he found himself in agony of soul. God miraculously intervened, and Berridge was finally and truly born again.

I did not immediately remember, until I heard the podcast recount Berridge’s gravestone inscription…

Reader art thou born again?
No salvation without new birth.
I was born in sin February 1716.
Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730.
Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1754.
Admitted to Everton Vicarage 1755.
Fled to Jesus alone for refuge 1756.
Fell asleep in Christ 22 January 1793.

…but I had written of this same story three and a half years ago.

Much higher, far nearer

This series of events recounts only a small sampling of the ways God has been pointing us back to the themes of true conversion, personal revival, and His sovereignty and providence in and over all things.

We are seeing the vision and hearing the call to be a worship at all times people. Who rejoice in tribulation, glory in weakness, and never doubt the goodness of God. Rather magnify it all the more in their great hardships.

A people who discipline themselves to delight in the Lord, through faith finding Him more desirable than the things of the world, imperfectly, yet all the more as we see the day approaching.

A people who see that yes, He who spoke the world into existence, also declares the end from the beginning. He ordains, permits, causes, and allows everything. All is planned. All is designed for a sure and certain, unmovable, glorious purpose. And all of this without removing personal responsibility from the sinner, condemning a person unjustly, or sinning Himself.

Therefore, we can take hope in the promises of God. And we stir onto good works by memorizing, meditating on, and reminding ourselves and each other of these promises — all yes and amen in Christ. We cannot be snatched from His hand nor separated from His love. Neither the terror by night or the arrow by day can make us fear. Every hardship we endure for Jesus’ sake produces for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

He who did not spare His own Son withholds nothing, grants all things pertaining to life and godliness, and has also said, “All things are yours…things present or things to come.” (1 Cor. 3:21-22)

In Christ we are blessed by God with every spiritual blessing as “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) A verse which made theologian C. E. B. Cranfield exclaim, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God.”

When we hold God high and His promises close, then we can begin to pray in confidence, worship in reverence, and praise in all seasons. We become those who see heaven as a marriage and Jesus as the reward, and thus give up all willingly. We lay aside earthly cares and the weight which so easily bogs us down, rising up on eagle’s wings as we wait upon Him. Seeing as He sees and looking not to what is seen but to what is unseen.

Repentance becomes a gift, not a chore. Sin is readily confessed as sin whenever it is found, because faith has given us new appetites. With joy we bow our knee to the Father, cling to the cross, and love not our own lives unto death, knowing this is how we overcome.

In summary, God is much higher and far closer than we realize. Let us therefore press in and fall down upon our faces. Boldly approach and dare not tread carelessly or speak idly. Love Him with our entirety, holding nothing back, and fear Him as we keep His commands, for this is the whole duty of man.

In closing, a fitting stanza from Berridge’s hymn:

Jesus cast a look on me,
Give me sweet simplicity.
Make me poor and keep me low,
Seeking only Thee to know.

In love,

Derek

P.S. For those of you on the mailing list, I’m nearly finished with the next issue, however we don’t have a good mailing address right now. I hope to be able to send it out soon.