GUIDANCE BY GLORY

R.Taylor

Matthew 2: 2,9; Luke 24: 31-34; 2 Corinthians 3: 18

It was our first hymn, dear brethren, that led me to refer to these passages as to having a view of Christ in His glory and being led by it. It is striking that at the beginning of the wilderness journey God should have appeared with His glory, as if at the outset He would lift our view. The wilderness journey was before them, but in that journey there was to be guidance by His glory. I believe that God would normally meet things by His glory. The references in Hebrews to what was in the ark would substantiate that; the golden pot with the manna, Aaron's rod and the tables of the covenant: these things were like the intervention of the glory in answer to murmurings. May we be helped to have our eyes lifted from murmurings and confusion and despair, to be led by the glory, to be led normally we may say. Few of us may have trodden that way, and yet may we be helped to speak of it, so that we may be encouraged to move that way. It is the basis of speaking, I believe, the basis of ministry. It says that Esaias "saw his glory and spoke of him", John 12: 41. How much speaking there may have been without our eye on the glory! maybe our eyes on the brethren, maybe our eyes on difficulties, but the basis of ministry would be that it is with our eyes on the glory, so that God is rightly spoken of, so that He is rightly represented.

I just thought that in Matthew the star may be an allusion to His glory, guiding these men, simple souls maybe but guided through a maze of confusion and the great weight of the enemy's power against Christ. It says His star: "we have seen his star in the east". There was a great area of speculation, Herod was troubled, his wise men were troubled; they all knew more than these men but they did not have their eye on the glory. Many other stars there must have been in the firmament that night, but it says "we have seen his star", His star. And that star guided them through all that confusion and brought them to an area where they were able to open their treasures and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh. So may we be helped, dear brethren, to seek in simplicity to be directed by the glory. His star: it will surely come, it is always there. These men for a moment were deflected from it. That may be in accord with most of our histories. But the star appeared to them again and it "went before them until it came and stood over the place where the little child was". May we be conscious that we are being led like this; may we be helped to get free of other influences, however oppressing, and be led like these men to the area where there is liberty to unfold our treasures and bestow them on Christ.

The ones in Luke were despairing a bit, maybe. It says that the Lord drew near to them on that journey. They were disappointed persons - something else that may ring a chord within us - and yet the glory was so near at hand, so close by them. It says "their eyes were opened, and they recognised him". Would that we were helped, by prayer it may be, to recognise Him more quickly. How many things crowd in on us! - the breakdown, the sorrows of the testimony; there is not a heart here today but what carries these; but may they not overcome us dear brethren; may we be guided by His glory. As I said, it is always there. And as they see it they said "Was not our heart burning in us". None of these other things that they spoke of so much caused a burning heart; and things which we so often revert to do not cause a burning heart save as He comes in with a touch of His glory. The Lord is ever ready to do it. He was more ready to show His glory than they were to behold it, and that is so often with us. How ready He is to come near to us in our difficulties! He came near them as they were oppressed, but how quickly He would cause our hearts and our feet to move in relation to a presentation of Himself.

In Corinthians it is possibly more normal. It says "We all, looking... are transformed". It is meant to affect us, that we are not the same as we were before. The word would be that it leaves us different. We could refer to many that that happened with. Paul himself speaks of "the glory of that light" at the outset of his life, Acts 22: 11. That light, the glory of it, the impact that it made on him, changed him, transformed him into a new man. That was a drastic change we may say, but may it in measure cause a change with us as we behold His glory. This very dispensation we are in has not only been inaugurated in glory but it subsists in glory, a glory that will never be annulled. This whole page in Corinthians is full of these references to the surpassing glory that marks our time. How Paul would encourage us! Abraham too, the God of glory had appeared to him, causing him to move in relation to the glory, not in relation to the breakdown. So it says "having this ministry... we faint not", 2 Cor 4: 1. May we be encouraged that we are not among those that faint. What a time of fainting it is! What a time of going back it is! And yet all the time, dear brethren, so near at hand, there is the glory to lead us, the glory to guide us. However we may magnify the peculiar nature of our circumstances the glory of the Lord is there to le ad us through. May it be that we are among those of whom Paul can say "we faint not".

 

LONDON

15 October 1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHILDREN'S PROGRESS

Every child is familiar with growth in the body, but with it there should be also progress in the soul. As a boy I used to be taken from time to time to visit a blind Christian in a Home for aged sisters in Christ. It happens that this believer's name was Miss Day although it must always have seemed like night to her unseeing eyes! Each visit she used to touch the top of my head to 'see' how much I had grown. She then asked if I had grown in my soul! No doubt she was thinking of Peter’s last words to us: "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ". The grace would be outward and the knowledge inward.

The life here of Jesus is a model for believers, while Timothy, though quite young, was to be a model of the believers. In the first instance the word 'model' in the language in which the New Testament was written means a 'writing-copy' as used in schools. In the case of Timothy, he was to be a 'type' or example of what a Christian should be. His progress - as that of us all - should be easily seen and comes by keeping the mind's eye on the Master. Luke tells us that, as a young child, Jesus "grew and waxed strong in spirit", while in the 'teen years after the visit to the temple He "advanced in wisdom and stature". This kind of progress is possible for us where the power of God's Spirit is known. Only one Child has been wholly pleasing to God the Father, but every other child should seek to be so.

We know that as we grow we can first reach up to something and then in time grasp it and touch something higher still. Thus Timothy was to "lay hold of eternal life". This meant that in his own spirit he could see and seize the blessings from God which far outweigh and outlast any advantage in this world. Growth too depends very much on feeding and the appetite for it which comes from tasting that the Lord is good. He feeds us for heavenly life as a shepherd feeds his sheep for earthly life. Such was His love that He laid down His life for us and was glorified so that, for one thing, we might feed on Him known to us as in heaven. It may sound at first as a hard thing to understand but Jesus said that "he that eats me shall live also on account of me". If we always just say that we do not understand we shall never progress. Of Daniel we are told that he first set his heart to know difficult things and then someone was sent to make him understand. Do you pray for help?

 

J.C.Evershed