“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” Psalm 119:9
“A child delights in what he has.
A youth delights in what he does.
An adult delights in what he is.
The more mature you are, the more you will desire to be something, not just to have something or to do something, but to be something.
What do you desire to be today? Someone who is known for the way they dress? The deals they close? The house they live in? Or do you want others to know that you have a pure heart-a heart that is utterly devoted and surrendered to God.
Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” They will know the unknowable, they will do the impossible, and they will see the invisible. I want to have a heart like that. What about you?”
– Love Worth Finding devotional
Feb 12, 2015
Adrian Rogers spoke the originating verse, the Source verse, Psalm 119:9, that all who grow in the Lord learn…. that the way to growing righteously as ordained by God is through attending to God’s Word. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:8 what the result is of following The Way of the Lord, a pure heart.
Rogers alludes further to the words of the Apostle John who draws us a fuller, more complete picture of how that happens…..
1 John 2:12-14
12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through His name
(What do babes in Christ HAVE? Forgiveness. How? It is given to children, chronological or spiritual children, through confession of sin by faith in Jesus Christ.)
13 a & b…I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. (Who do the mature fathers and mothers KNOW? The Living Holy Spirit of God in Christ known intimately dwelling in one’s spirit, soul, and body.)
I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. ( What do youth in Christ DO? Discern between good and evil and practice walking as overcomers in the way of truth and learn to bear their lamps and the Light of Christ in the world for all to see.) ………
John then repeats his words in this same disordered way from what we would normally expect to hear… children, adults, and youth… He does so for emphasis. Recall how Jesus used the phrase, “Verily, Verily”. Jesus Christ himself would have said this with intention, purpose, and with the people knowing how to interpret it. To use it in repetition mean that I know only have it on authority of someone else, but I myself KNOW this truth from my own experience. John is in essence affirming truth doubly: “I KNOW personally not only by what was WRITTEN BEFORE but by what has been and IS BEING LIVED in the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, as I myself have lived, am living, and shall continue to live in the Truth of Jesus Christ!!”
But the second time John iterates this to his three audience members, he uses the same order but changes it slightly….
13 c I have written to you, children, because you KNOW the Father. (The father-image of God, first related to by a child through having a good parental type relationship. It is through this early experience with a good father that we learn discipline, repentance, and forgiveness. That knowledge can later be transferred to the TRUE Father through example and teaching of Jesus. Jesus is the example for the next stage of development, whether it is spiritual youthfulness or chronological youthfulness, who look to a peer, outside their family. They may NOT have known the True Father or, like the prodigal son, may have walked away from the TRUE Father, seeking something of more value, interest, adventure or relevance in the world….. When youthful adventure runs its course, it is the ONE in the world that BRINGS us back to the TRUE Father…. It is the Spirit of the Father that journeyed beyond our home with us, our knowledge of His Goodness, His image in us that re-minds us…. brings us to our senses…. humbles us and sets us on the path home, desiring nothing more than to be a servant in His house.
14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. (Who do the mature in Christ KNOW? The timeless and omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Co-Eternal Triune God existing across and beyond all time, space, and even matter….revealed in the Word and Spirit, Our Living Immanuel, by whom we come to know and worship the TRUE Father.)
I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
(They are growing into spiritual and physical maturity and in wisdom from God that brings the Holy Spirit upon them more and more, from glory to glory…)
John changes up the order on us. “Children, adults, youth” in his instruction. Twice.. He addresses each group, individually, so that no one group is singled out. Each person can determine for herself which group applies to her in this maturing process.
He reassures the children of their gift of forgiveness and the promise of future knowledge of and promise of salvation that comes THROUGH FORGIVENESS from the Father.
He completes the instruction to, what I believe, is his primary audience… the youth ….by pointing out that the adults already KNOW the Father and what we know is also true of the children to whom forgiveness will most assuredly be given.
The youth have yet to learn truth. They are beginning to discern truth and will eventually claim the promise given to them as children. The youth will, after their youthful wandering, come back to the TRUE Father as they grow in knowledge and wisdom of the Word. The Word, both WRITTEN as it was before and LIVING in us as it does now, will guide them to the Father. When they embrace the truth of Christ’s atoning work on the cross as being for them personally and intimately, by the working in of it through the imparting work of the Holy Spirit, they will return. That Spirit may lie quiescent, hidden in us, from our Childhood with the Father until such time as we remember the goodness of the TRUE Father and return to Him.
A parent who takes seriously the biblical principles of the prodigal’s life and prodigal’s return and lives in Christ before his children can rest knowing that when his youthful prodigal has run out of resources, he will come home. Only when all the resources given by parental blessing or by enablers have been exhausted, will he come to his senses and be re-minded that he has a Good and Plentiful TRUE Father. It may have been in the example of living In Christ by an earthly father, or through the goodness of God in Christ that he discovers along the way, that draws him back. Either way, it is Christ at work in the world that does the work to draw a prodigal back to God or protects a child before he is mature enough to accept the gift of the salvation for himself. A mature adult in Christ knows this is true. All are drawn to the True Father through Christ Incarnate or by the Holy Spirit of Christ.
The Blood of Christ is the Red Thread that marks truth, salvation, and redemption through the WHOLE of God’s Word, for the WHOLE of God’s World. It flows into our lives, every jot and tittle of ink of His Word, flowing like blood from Christ’s own veins. The red thread winds and twists and secured in strands of 2 or 3 or more together. The rope isn’t thrown out the opened window like a signal, or thrown from a ship to save or tow another or to secure one’s own docked position. It bears its Maker’s Mark. When the truth is known and spoken and one’s life is surrendered to doing God’s Word in the world, God’s will is accomplished. Everything else pales and fades away into nothing by comparison, leaving only Christ to behold!
Its truth is found in living out the Scripture within our apostolic tradition, with the unity of reasoning together that Christ’s mind brings, and through the way in which God raises us up into knowledge of His Word and Spirit by the experiences of our shared lives in Christ.
Viva la Wesleyan theology, born in Christ, at work in the world today! Once you have it in your heart, mind, and hands you want the world to know. But far too many are simply asleep. Some are, like children, asleep In Christ, but asleep nevertheless. Some will actually be dead in spirit having never known or having rejected the TRUE Father. The rest of us “youths” have to slog through the muck and mud to discover His TRUE nature of goodness and be restored to fellowship in humility and repentance. That’s always the way back to the Father. Jesus lives it, teaches it and seals it in us still, generation after generation…. because He, being One with the Father, doing what the Father does, knows how to direct us back to Himself.
P.S. I was and still am a laboratory scientist…. I see the world through the lens of observation, testing and finding patterns. constants, solutions or violent reactions against going into solution, and rules….. (and exceptions…. that often lead to new observations, testing, and discoveries of new patterns, constants, solutions, reactions, and rules. The”stuff” of it all is found in the processes that bring the working out of it to be observable! And all processes that can be observed have a beginning point, even if the process itself should appear to be cyclical in nature…. that beginning point for me is always God….”in the beginning God”