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Angelic Adoration, An Aspiration

Angels Love

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
 One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
 My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
 By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a very simple flute and harp version.

This final stanza calls the Holy Spirit to teach us two more images, equally powerful and compelling, and beyond our grasp.  Today we will consider the holy passion of the angels who ever circle the throne praising God.  Thursday we will think about a very powerful image of God’s love as a fire.  We need the Spirit to understand and practice each of them so let’s ask Him to teach us this week.  Let’s tune our hearts.

As Angels Love

Now there is a tall order.  We will definitely need the Holy Spirit to teach us this one for it is eternal and other-worldly.  To love as angels love requires us to consider who they are and how they love.

Angels are God’s messengers.  They represent Him some times and speak for Him at other times.  Scripture tells us a lot about them and yet there is a great deal of mystery regarding these heavenly beings.

Isaiah 6:2-3

One of the powerful passages illustrating angels and their relationship to God is the beginning of Isaiah 6, particularly 6:1-3.  Their adoration is

  1. relational
  2. continual, and
  3. hallowed

Relational

They are together somehow standing “above” God.  Not sure exactly what that means, but I imagine they are circling the throne.  I love how Isaiah records that they call one to another.   They all know He is holy, but they keep declaring it to each other.  There is some communal dimension to their affection.

Continual

They never stop.  Over and over again.  I have said for years of our worship that we should not grow so easily weary of declaring to one another things that are true of God, particularly because we need to be reminded, unlike the seraphim who are ever in His presence.

Hallowed

I wanted to use an unusual word for this last one to represent just how different the love of angel’s is from ours.  Our love can be relational, expressed in the company of others.   It is not continual, in some measure because we have to stop to sleep, but even still our waking moments are commandiered by other intentions.  These least of these by far is this last one though.  Their worship is hallowed or sacred, regarded as holy because it is an all-consuming passion.

Holiness at its core means integrated, or the opposite of disintegrated or undone, which Isaiah confessed was his state in the presence of the integrated, whole, or holy One.  The love of the seraphim reflects the holiness of the One they adore.  Only the Holy Spirit can give un insight into this reality, and any hope at all of approximating it, even at our best moments.

One Holy Passion

It is this kind of integration that is our aspiration.

One Holy Passion

The seraphim could use all six wings to fly, but they do not.  I have heard different explanations but I like this the best.  Two cover their eyes acknowledging they can not look directly at God.  Two cover their feet acknowledging they are not worthy to be fully seen by God.  Two are used for their assumed purpose, flight, moving them to love.

Might we learn something from them?  We must use all of our capacities to express love to God, but maybe not as we might think.    One-third used to make less of us and more of Him.  One-third used to acknowledge our unworthiness and extol His worth.   One-third used according to their assumed purpose.   These thirds working together in seamless tandem as an integrated, sacred compelling desire.  One holy passion filling all my frame.

The seraphim seem consumed.  Look at the image.  All wings?  All bent to one purpose.

Integrated Tuning!

Spirit of God, teach me to love as the seraphim love.  One holy passion filling all my frame.  When parts of me get out of sync with it, help me to identify it and adjust accordingly so I can maintain that consuming desire.  Thank You for the imagery of the angelic adoration.  Help me reflect it today.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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Subscribers enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Video 6.5 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
 One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
 My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

This stanza uses some beautiful imagery.  Oh, to love God as His heavenly messengers do.  And how is that? Continually. They never stop their “Holy, holy, holy”, constantly offering praise to God.  Consider the example of those who are ever circling His throne.   

A singular, holy and intense desire and enthusiasm for our Lord.  An all-consuming fire that burns within our entire souls. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with such a passion.

In this imagery, the material that burns is the very presence of the Holy Spirit, the heaven-descended Dove.  He is the kindling that gets that fire burning. Welcome Him to come and be that quickening fire-starter in you.

Our hearts are the place where fire burns. God’s love is the flame.  My heart the altar, the Holy Spirit the kindling, the love of God the flame.  Oh Spirit light that fire within me and teach me how to care for it.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Angels love – Image by Karin Henseler from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/illustrations/heart-angel-wing-love-mourning-669552/
Isaiah 6 – https://lindasbiblestudy.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/seraphim/
Seraphim – https://revivenations.org/blog/2015/04/15/worshiping-god-like-the-seraphim/

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Teach Me, Holy Spirit

Rising Doubt

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
  Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
  Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
 By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a lovely piano solo version.

On Tuesday we considered the first two lines of this stanza, which contained two different things we desire for the Holy Spirit to teach us.  In these last two lines we will consider three more lessons we seek to learn from our Teacher, each expressions of different soul struggles with their own unique challenges.  Let’s think about this.

Rising Doubt

Like storm clouds gathering on the horizon, so are the doubts that occasionally cloud our minds.  The difference is that the first can only be checked by God, and the latter can only be checked by us, with check here meaning to stop or slow the advance of something.

Doubts seem as real and as daunting as an actual storm front, but in comparison they are practically illusory.  Oh do not misunderstand me to say they are not significant threats to our journey of faith, but I would merely contend they do not have to be.  Consider what is required to slow the rise of doubt in your mind.  Trust.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Hebrews 3:12 ESV

Doubt and unbelief are so similar they can be mistaken for one another.  One might say doubt could lead to unbelief if left unchecked.  Doubt is a lack of conviction, whereas unbelief is the absence of it altogether.  Belief requires trust. Trust checks doubt and rebellion at the door, for you can exercise faith to submit to one you trust.  It really is a decision.

Rebel Sigh

Rebel Sigh

Left unchecked doubt can lead to rebellion, or a falling away from one in whom you formerly decided to place your trust.  It can rise slowly like doubt as well, creeping up on you while you are unaware until you find yourself not so much in a place of radical  rebellion, but despondent dissent.  Lost in an encroaching darkness.

In this way it is kind of like the darkness of night slowly settling on you.  You do not realize the departure of the light and the arrival of the dark until it is consuming you.  Then you find yourself all alone unmoored by any sense of direction, of right or left, or right from wrong.  This lack of ability to perceive direction leaves you complacent until all that is left is a sigh of resignation.  What started at as careless departure from all that is right and good ends up causing you to fall away from the living God.

It is especially in those moments when we need the last of our lessons to have taken root.

Unanswered Prayer

On first glance this last line seems like a prayer for the patience required to wait until God answers prayer.  That certainly may be a part of the request, but I think there is a very possible alternate or additional interpretation.  I think it may be a request for the same patience God exhibits between our prayer and His eventual answer.

I believe God hears and answers every prayer, just not how and certainly not when we would like.  Where might we might draw such belief?  From words like these.

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14 ESV

This kind of confidence gives us the patience to wait for the answer when we may be inclined to doubt if our prayer was even heard.  It also gives us the ability to refrain from the audible expression of resistance, and even the feeling that prompts it.  Finally, it gives us the opportunity to carefully examine our motives in the event we are asking something outside of God’s will, which may be the very reason the prayer remains unanswered, God is giving us the time to understand and adjust to the reality that the answer will actually be “no.”  After all, “no” is an answer.

Take some time to pray the prayer below and if you are a Subscriber or Free Member walk through the podcast which will guide you through such a journey in just about 5 minutes, as each one does.

Spirit, teach me how to check the rising doubt and the rebel sigh.  Teach me the patience required to endure unanswered prayer.  Teach me.  I open my heart to Your instruction.  In Jesus’ name.   Amen.

Adaptive Thinking!

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Below is content available only to Subscribers and Free Members.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here.  Or check out some samples at our Free Member Content Library.  We have lots of tools and lots of options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today!!

Subscribers AND Free Members enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Podcast 6.4 Transcript

Welcome to Thursday Thoughts at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s think about this.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;

Jeremiah 23:23-24 ESV

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

Rhetorical questions.  Whether close at hand or far away, God is there, seeing us in what we think are secret places.  He fills heaven and earth. Even when we might be inclined to run from Him we can not. Instead, ask Him to help you live with an ever-increasing awareness of His presence.

 Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,

James 1:12 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

The Spirit is waiting to give us the power we need to bear the weight of every struggle our soul will face.  And to what end, in so doing we demonstrate our love for God and receive the crown of life. Ask the Holy Spirit to bless you with the strength to remain steadfast under trial.

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;

Hebrews 3:12 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Doubt and unbelief are so similar they can be mistaken for one another.  Belief requires trust. Trust checks doubt and rebellion at the door, for you can exercise faith to submit to one you trust.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any areas where doubt or rebel may be standing at the door of your heart.

 Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

1 John 5:14 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

This kind of confidence gives us the patience to wait for the answer when we may be inclined to doubt if our prayer was even heard.  It also gives us the opportunity to carefully examine our motives in the event we are asking something outside of God’s will. Ask the Spirit to give you such confidence.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has come to your mind, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then I will read our text once more.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
  Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
  Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Rising Doubt – https://pixabay.com/photos/doubt-mourning-sad-depression-3711259/
Rebel Sigh – https://jesus.net/miracle/god-hears-you/
Unanswered Prayer – https://pixabay.com/photos/prayer-hands-church-light-2544994/

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Dark Night of the Soul

Thou Art Always Nigh

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
  Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
  Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
 By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a nice string quartet version.

This week our stanza calls on the role of the Holy Spirit as our Teacher.  Every line asks for Him to teach us different things, including even the third one which carries over from line 2.  In our Tuning today we will focus on the first two lines, saving the last two for our Thoughts on Thursday.  Let’s tune our hearts.

You Are Near

Some stanzas tell a story, using all four lines to slowly craft a single poetic thought or illustrate a solitary image.  While others build to a climax as they develop, increasing in intensity as the lines build one on another.  Some stanzas are a list of things about a singular topic, like two weeks ago, but not this one.  It is a list of sorts of things we want to be taught but I actually think they are all taught within the context of the first one, an awareness of God’s presence.

While we will take some time to consider each of these requests, overcoming soul struggles, doubt, rebellion, while acquiring patience, when we are confident that God is with us, ever nearer than we can even perceive, we are able to handle all the other ones.  This is one of the most basic doctrinal truths, and a foundational one as well.  God is omnipresent, or present everywhere at the same time.

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:23-24 ESV

I love it when God asks a rhetorical question.  Whether close at hand or far away, God is there, seeing us even in what we think are secret places.  He fills heaven and earth. When we embrace this fundamental reality of God’s presence it alters our ability to deal with everything we face, and even has the effect of keeping us out of behaviors that create problems for us.  So why would we not long for this more?

I dare say it is because there are things we would rather God did not know were true about us.  Why else would the man of the verse above attempt to hide himself in a “secret place”?  What things about your thinking, speaking and doing would you rather hide?  If you are willing to sincerely ask for God to teach you He is always near, you are effectively asking Him to shine His light into even the darkest recesses of you soul.  Which, by the way, is a great idea, and simultaneously a wonderful segue to the next prayer.

Soul Struggles

Dark Night of the Soul

We all have them.  Times when our soul feels a weight that is difficult for words to express.  Sometimes these are of our our doing, and sometimes the doing of others.  Sometimes they pass, and other times they linger for long periods.

In those especially long seasons we experience what Saint John of the Cross termed the “dark night of the soul”.  That feeling that it is 3 o’clock in the morning all the time, inescapable darkness.  We know the darkness will not last, for the sun always rises, but even so they are painful seasons.  As it says in Psalm 30:5b, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  The darkness is always darkest before the dawn.

What weight is your soul struggling with today?  I figure you probably do not have to think very hard about that.  Have you asked the Holy Spirit to help you with that struggle in particular?  Have you named it before the Lord and asked Him to help you bear it?

We often ask first for the struggle to be removed and find ourselves quickly discouraged when it is not.  Maybe God has another purpose for your struggle than just to remind you of your need for Him.  Maybe He wants to use it to develop something in you.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 ESV

The Spirit is waiting to give us the power we need to bear the weight of every struggle our soul will face.  If this test has the purpose of developing your spiritual strength, will you ask the Holy Spirit to help you demonstrate your love for God by remaining resolutely firm and unwavering in the midst of it?

Crown of Life

Crown of Life

Now while I did not counsel you to ask for a crown of life, I am sure you noticed that promise in the midst of that verse.  And what an amazing one!  As if the strength to remain steadfast were not a treasure enough, when we use it to show our faithful love to God in the trial He promises a crown of life.

While rightly viewed as the promise of life after death, there is also another promise here.  It is the promise of life as God intended here and now, an intimate and personal relationship with God in love, a product of the development of fortitude through repeated victory in every test.  Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish this in the life of even the most resolute follower of Jesus, but His teaching is available to all who will ask.  So ask today!

Resolute Tuning!

Spirit of God, be my Teacher.  Teach me to feel God’s presence always near, for it makes the difference in every circumstance.  Flowing from that confidence teach me how to develop the fortitude to bear the struggle of every trial of my soul, that I may gain a more intimate relationship with my Savior, the crown of life.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content available only to Subscribers.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the Subscribers content, click here.

Subscribers enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Video 6.4

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
  Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
  Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Though God is always near, I dare say closer than our breath, we often fail to live with an ongoing awareness of such. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to live with a constant sensitivity to His presence.

Is your soul struggling today?  If not, you can probably recall a season not long ago when it was.  Either way, it is only a matter of time before it does again. Ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to bear those soul struggles.

When we face difficulties, our minds find doubt rising.  When we are reminded of God’s ways, our rebellious flesh balks.  Ask the Holy Spirit to check, to stop or slow the progress of these attitudes.

On first glance this last line seems like a prayer for the patience required to wait until God answers prayer.  With more careful examination, I think it may be a request for the same patience God exhibits between our prayer and His eventual answer. Ask the Holy Spirit for that patience.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
God is Near – https://wilshireave.com/sermons/god-is-near/#
Dark Night of the Soul – https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/09/20/the-dark-night-of-the-soul/
Crown of LIfe – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/watercolour-watercolor-paint-ink-1768925/

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Make Me Like…a Clingstone Peach

See the Cross

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
  All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
  Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
 By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a lovely piano solo version.

On Tuesday we considered the first two lines of this stanza, and with them the rhetorical question of how God invites us to love Him.  We turn our attention today to the clearest reason God gives us to do so, the cross, and conclude with a prayer asking the Spirit to help us seek and find Him.  Let’s think about this.

I See the Cross

It is one thing to be able to identify the two lines which intersect and from the cross, it is another thing altogether to discern the instrument of your salvation.  Everyone with functional eyes can see the cross in the image above, but only those with eyes of faith can will cherish this emblem of suffering and shame because they understand the transaction that took place there.  The Holy God  allowed His Son to become sin for us to redeem our lives from His wrath.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8 ESV

This is a story with which we become casually familiar.  We know it so well, that we can easily become guilty of regarding it with no greater reverence than the ones who hang a gilded, gold version of it around their necks with little care their lives bear no resemblance to the One who changed the course of human history when He gave His life on it.  We must to more than just see the cross.  How will your life evidence the fact  today that you have seen the cross, and understand its significance?

Teach My Heart

Teach My Heart

When the Spirit has done His work of allowing you to see the cross for what it truly is, then you are in a position to have Him do the next very necessary part of His work, teaching you to cling to it.  This is a needful activity to engage in for every believer, holding tightly to the cross.  Why?  Think of it this way.

When we hold tightly to the cross, we are not able to take hold of other things.  Things that actually preoccupy us from clinging to the cross.  Things like hurts from the past, habits that eat into our discretionary time and energy, and hang-ups that paralyze us from pursuing health and happiness.   The cross delivers us from these things by being a place of healing, discipline, and freedom.

Clingstone Peach

This makes me think of Clingstone peaches.  You know, the kind whose flesh clings to the pit of the peach, making it nearly impossible to remove without bruising the peach.  We need to be like these peaches.  Ever clinging to the cross, forcing any attempts to remove us from its presence to leave us bruised.  If we are more like Freestone peaches, the ones where the pit is easily removed from the pit, the smallest things will serve to break us free from the presence and influence of the cross.

Freestone peaches

So which type of disciple will you be?  Clingstone or Freestone.  Cling-to-cross or free-from cross.  Decide today.   That will make it much easier when the hurts, habits and hang-ups come to peel you away from the cross.

But it is not enough to simply cling to the cross either.  In a sense that is our position or our standing.  We must also be mindful we are in process.  Acknowledging I have not arrived, my journey is not complete.  My standing is in the cross, but I must work its reality into my daily living by continually seeking the One who was crucified there.  How do we seek?

Let Me Seek Thee

Rather than focusing on do’s, let me mention a couple don’ts.

The cross teaches us one of the first lessons in seeking when we deny ourselves.  We can not seek God if we are consumed by other  things we are desiring for ourselves.  Lesson, don’t seek after other things.  Are there things that are keeping you from seeking?

Our learning to cling to the cross also promotes seeking in that it helps us to realize that God always has a better plan, even when we have to face pain.  This close proximity to Jesus also helps to foster a longing for even more because it eliminates His competitors.  Truth be told, He has no real competitors, but there are many things that vie for the affection He deserves.  When we  systematically remove those things, what remains is a single-hearted devotion that virtually insures success.  Based on what?  His promise.

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

Let Me Find

If we believe this, then the real issue is removing hindrances to seeking,  Deuteronomy 4:29 says “You will find [God] when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.”  The hymn writer offers a simple prayer. Echo that prayer, “God, let me seek You.”

 

Spirit, help me to not only see the cross, but cling to it.  Help me to seek You and find you by seeking you with all my heart and soul.  Remove any hindrances to such single-hearted seeking.  In Jesus name.   Amen.

Determined Thinking!

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Below is content available only to Subscribers and Free Members.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here.  Or check out some samples at our Free Member Content Library.  We have lots of tools and lots of options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today!!

Subscribers AND Free Members enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Podcast 6.3 Transcript

Welcome to Thursday Thoughts at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s think about this.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?

1 John 4:16 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Rhetorical question.  Of course He bids us to love.  We know this because He loved us first, then invites us to abide or live in that love so He, and His love, may abide in us.  If you know that love, are you living your life responding to it?

 All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.

Mark 12:30 ESV

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The Great Commandment, or at least the first half of it.  Love for God, demonstrated by a love for all the things associated with God, is the command.  This is not as easy as it seems becuase other things compete with our affection for God. What is competing for yours?

I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:

Romans 5:8 ESV

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We cling to the cross because we not only see it, but understand what it represents to us.  God first loved us by paying the penalty our sin required. When we truly see the cross, we learn to cling.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach your heart to cling to the cross.

 Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

How can I cling to someone or something I am still seeking to find?  I purpose to cling to that which I have understood and known with the hope that this close proximity fosters a longing for even more, for there is always more of God’s love than I have apprehended.  Ask the Holy Spirit to call you deeper into that love.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has come to your mind, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then I will read our text once more.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
  All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
  Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Cross – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/art-artistic-painting-digital-2092530/
Heart Cling – https://pixabay.com/photos/heart-metal-heart-rusty-heart-674850/
Clingstone Peaches – http://www.howtohaveitall.net/how-to-pit-clingstone-peaches/
Freestone Peaches – https://bakingbites.com/2013/08/what-are-freestone-peaches/

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There’s a Bid in Abide

Bid

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
  All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
  Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
 By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a lovely piano solo version.

As we endeavor to be more resonant today we will spend some time cultivating our response to God’s love.  On Thursday we will turn our attention to the cross, the greatest expression of God’s love, but for today we are going to consider His love for us and the response it should evoke it us.  We want to be more resonant, allowing His purposes to echo freely in our lives, and considering His love is one of the best ways to nurture that.  Will you come with us on the journey today?

Bid

As we walk along through the ideas created by these hymn texts, often we have to stop and consider what a particular word means so as to ascertain the meaning.  Bid here is a wonderful example of such consideration.  Wonderful and complex.

The image above portrays the most common usage of bid today.  To make an offer in hopes of winning an auction.  eBay has made this an exhilarating addiction for some, but this has nothing to do with what the hymn is saying.

The most accurate usage is one that essentially means to beseech or entreat, but unfortunately those words only clear things up a little for they are pretty uncommon today as well.  This is essentially what God is doing, asking us urgently and fervently to love Him.  But not because He needs it.  One the contrary, because of the effect He knows loving Him has on us.  Loving Him opens the door to living a life of love.  Abiding.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  1 John 4:16 ESV

For this reason, I think two other definitions may even be more emphatic.  One is invite and the other is tell.  I think these are all true.  God certainly invites us to love Him, and He also commands it.

So it begs the question.  Are we learning to abide in His love, in Him?

Abide

Abide

And just what does that mean.  Abide means to continue in a place, so to abide in love, in God, means to continue in love, in God.  Abiding is life-giving, love-nurturing.  Consider this image.

When Jesus taught about abiding He used the image of a vine and it’s branches.  (See John 15:1-17)  This is beautiful concept.  If we remain in Christ, continue in Christ, He will remain in us.  So you see, there is a “bid” in “abide”.  There is an invitation in the continuation.

Jesus also taught in the Greatest Commandment that we should love all of God with everything we have.  Here is the telling part of the bidding.  He said it like this.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’   Mark 12:30 ESV

Questions

So I just want to ask a couple questions to finish today.  Is there anything prohibiting you from staying in that place of love?  Are you harboring any unforgiveness, resentment or jealousy?  No.  Good for you.   But that is not enough.

If we are continuing in a place of love, we must bear the fruit of that continuing.  We must love.  Love is not only an idea and feeling, it is an action.  What have you done today to love others?  Are you being diligent to demonstrate love?  And here’s the tough one.  How have you demonstrated love to someone who is unloving, or unable to return the love?

Not sure how to advance the cause of love today?  Watching the video below will provide you with a few minutes to cultivate a life of love.  Please take advantage of this one which is available to everyone, not only subscribers.  If you can not watch it now, come back later today when you have 5:53.  It will be time well spent.

Honest Tuning!

Spirit of God, thank You for not only inviting me, but also telling me to love God.  And then helping me to do it.  I need you every day to abide in love.  Help me Spirit to do so with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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Everyone, please enjoy this video log!  And the transcript below!

Video 6.3 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
  All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
  Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

We start with a rhetorical question. Yes, God has urgently pleaded with us to love Him, not because He needs our love, but because He knows that affection inclines us to things that are good for us.  Thank Him for bidding you to love Him.

And then the repeated word, ALL.  When a writer repeats something it is important.  How should we love? By giving God all our prayers, passion, energy and intelligence.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you love Him with everything you are.

The cross teaches us to deny ourselves.  If we are to love God with everything, we must learn self-denial.  Ask Jesus to teach you how to hold fast to the cross.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says “You will find [God] when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.”  The hymn writer offers a simple prayer. Echo that prayer, “God, let me seek You.”

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Bid – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/steel/numetal-restructured-to-become-eligible-to-bid-for-essar-steel-coc/articleshow/65958320.cms
Abide – http://handmeanotherbrick.com/2017/03/09/spiritual-service-and-abiding/
Questions – https://giphy.com/gifs/book-library-literacy-l0HlRnAWXxn0MhKLK

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