Closer Today Than Yesterday: A Dark and Dismal Place

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Dark and Dismal Place

The Word is first...

Ephesians 2:12 (NIV)

¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

There are some things that we forget no matter how hard we try to remember. There are some things we remember no matter how hard we try to forget. There are memories both painful and joyful, elaborate and simple that come an go through our conscious mind with hardly a notice. Often there are lessons that we learned or need to learn that are associated with those memories and there are memories that serve as important milestones along the road of life.

In today's study passage we are called to recall that time in our lives when we walked apart from God. For me those memories are associated with emotions of fear, helplessness, powerlessness, loneliness and despair. Of themselves these memories are of little use to me and hearken me back to time I'd rather forget. But when contrasted with my present day life they provide an important lesson that I need to remember. That lesson is; no God, no peace, know God, know peace.

This passage reminds us that as citizens of the world (and more specifically Gentiles) we were separated from Christ yet not from His love. Being born a Gentile we had no stake in the lineage of Israel yet we are living descendants of Adam and heirs to his legacy. In such a state we had no claim nor could we take hold of the promises that God had declared to his chosen people. What a dark and dismal place that was for me! What a dark and dismal place that is for so many. Lives lived and wasted in the total absence of God.

If the story ended there, overcome by darkness with no hope of redemption, there would be neither hope nor joy in the world. Yet for us, those who have chosen to believe in the atoning blood of Christ, there is both hope and joy. In Christ we have been adopted into the citizenship of Israel. We can lay claim to the promises of God and live lives that reflect the hope that we share in the coming King.

This morning, I will recall no matter how painful the life that I lived without Christ; my life of despair. And I will rejoice for I despair no longer! Those are but memories of what has past and they are no longer real. They hold no power over me, they do not define me and the bitterness is overshadowed by the sweetness of a life in Christ. So remember with me that time in your own life and rejoice in where you are today for God is good, His love endures forever.

Shalom,
Carl

1 comment:

Bill said...: Carl ... Again I'm blown away by what I've just read in your 3/24 blog when compared to what I just wrote in my devotional for this morning (the 26th).

I didn't get a chance to read and/or comment on your 3/24 devotional because of circumstances yesterday. So, I came back to it today, as I usually do, reading it after my devotional entry.

And in your post I read this ...

This morning, I will recall no matter how painful the life that I lived without Christ; my life of despair. And I will rejoice for I despair no longer! Those are but memories of what has past and they are no longer real. They hold no power over me, they do not define me and the bitterness is overshadowed by the sweetness of a life in Christ.

Well, if you go back and check out my 3/26 ElderBerry Blog journal entry, you'll note that I've just written on the trials and tests of life and how they shape us into whom we become in Christ. And that is - in essence - what you have written about (again independently and separately).

This Vulcan mind merge of late is getting a bit conspicuous; but it's all too cool in my estimation. ... <'BB><; March 25, 2009 at 7:09 AM

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So I Stand Near The Gate

I read the below poem at a critical point in my life and it's message resonated with me. My ministry, "Near The Gate" was named in homage to this poem. When reading this poem, feel free to substitute the word 'gate' for the word 'door' and you'll have a little glimpse inside my head.

SO I STAY NEAR THE DOOR

By the Reverend Canon Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., D.D., S.T.D.

I stay near the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world–
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it - - -
So I stay near the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door–the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch–the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter–
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it–because they have found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him - - -
So I stay near the door.
Go in, great saints, go all the way in–
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics–
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, or sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms,
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening - - -
So I stay near the door.
There is another reason why I stay there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia.
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much;
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving–preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stay near the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply, and stay too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door–
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But–more important for me–
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
For those I shall stay by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a door-keeper . . . "
So I stay near the door

Closer Today Than Yesterday

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Dark and Dismal Place

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Dark and Dismal Place

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