Read, Study and Obey
God will speak to us if we read and study and obey the Word of God. But when He does speak, we should speak back to Him in prayer and devotion. That which we speak to Him is important, as we can see in the book of Psalms. Here is a man—an inspired man—speaking back to God!
In a similar way, that is why the great devotional literature is so helpful to us. God has spoken to His saints and they have spoken back to Him, and in His wisdom He has preserved many of these examples for us.
We are taking some suggestions from a 600-year-old volume, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous saint of God. It was his premise that many among us are common Christians, while others press on into “special” and “singular” and “perfect” stages of Christian life and experience.
“The first three of these may be begun and ended in this life,” he wrote. “You can enter into perfection but you cannot enter in fully because the fourth may by grace be begun here but it shall last without end in the bliss of heaven.”
I believe that is a perfect response to Paul’s expression that “I count not myself to have apprehended hended, neither were already perfect; but let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded” (paraphrase from Philippians 3:12-15). Here is the blessed contradiction—we have entered into perfection, but we have not yet gone all the way!
The Apostle Paul was stretching forth in that light and radiance which shines more and more unto the perfect day. He said that all will be raised from the dead, but he pressed forward because of God’s promise of a better resurrection out from among the dead.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after … forgetting those things which are behind” (Philippians 3:12-13), the apostle said.
In the light of Paul’s commitment and desire, what shall we say about the shameful mediocrity of the average or common Christian in daily life and experience? What are his reasons for not moving forward in the plan and will of God for his life?
God will speak to us if we read and study and obey the Word of God. But when He does speak, we should speak back to Him in prayer and devotion. That which we speak to Him is important, as we can see in the book of Psalms. Here is a man—an inspired man—speaking back to God!
In a similar way, that is why the great devotional literature is so helpful to us. God has spoken to His saints and they have spoken back to Him, and in His wisdom He has preserved many of these examples for us.
We are taking some suggestions from a 600-year-old volume, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous saint of God. It was his premise that many among us are common Christians, while others press on into “special” and “singular” and “perfect” stages of Christian life and experience.
“The first three of these may be begun and ended in this life,” he wrote. “You can enter into perfection but you cannot enter in fully because the fourth may by grace be begun here but it shall last without end in the bliss of heaven.”
I believe that is a perfect response to Paul’s expression that “I count not myself to have apprehended hended, neither were already perfect; but let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded” (paraphrase from Philippians 3:12-15). Here is the blessed contradiction—we have entered into perfection, but we have not yet gone all the way!
The Apostle Paul was stretching forth in that light and radiance which shines more and more unto the perfect day. He said that all will be raised from the dead, but he pressed forward because of God’s promise of a better resurrection out from among the dead.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after … forgetting those things which are behind” (Philippians 3:12-13), the apostle said.
In the light of Paul’s commitment and desire, what shall we say about the shameful mediocrity of the average or common Christian in daily life and experience? What are his reasons for not moving forward in the plan and will of God for his life?
Read, Study and Obey
God will speak to us if we read and study and obey the Word of God. But when He does speak, we should speak back to Him in prayer and devotion. That which we speak to Him is important, as we can see in the book of Psalms. Here is a man—an inspired man—speaking back to God!
In a similar way, that is why the great devotional literature is so helpful to us. God has spoken to His saints and they have spoken back to Him, and in His wisdom He has preserved many of these examples for us.
We are taking some suggestions from a 600-year-old volume, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous saint of God. It was his premise that many among us are common Christians, while others press on into “special” and “singular” and “perfect” stages of Christian life and experience.
“The first three of these may be begun and ended in this life,” he wrote. “You can enter into perfection but you cannot enter in fully because the fourth may by grace be begun here but it shall last without end in the bliss of heaven.”
I believe that is a perfect response to Paul’s expression that “I count not myself to have apprehended hended, neither were already perfect; but let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded” (paraphrase from Philippians 3:12-15). Here is the blessed contradiction—we have entered into perfection, but we have not yet gone all the way!
The Apostle Paul was stretching forth in that light and radiance which shines more and more unto the perfect day. He said that all will be raised from the dead, but he pressed forward because of God’s promise of a better resurrection out from among the dead.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after … forgetting those things which are behind” (Philippians 3:12-13), the apostle said.
In the light of Paul’s commitment and desire, what shall we say about the shameful mediocrity of the average or common Christian in daily life and experience? What are his reasons for not moving forward in the plan and will of God for his life?
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