Rest is Best!

Watchman Nee wrote... "Whereas God worked six days and then enjoyed his sabbath rest, Adam began his life with the sabbath; for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God's rest, and then alone can he work.  Moreover it was because God's work of creation was truly complete that  Adam's life could begin with rest.  And here is the Gospel: that God has gone one stage further and has completed also the work of redemption, and that we need do nothing whatever to merit it, but can enter by faith directly into the values of His finished work."

I find that to be an intriguing  thought... that Adam was created on the sixth day means that his actual first day was God's seventh or sabbath... Life for us begins with rest!  I can get so caught up in the anxiety and rush of life that I forget what is most important... entering God's rest, or as the Psalms and book of Hebrews puts it... "today if you hear His voice don't harden your hearts... enter His rest".  God created us for rest, not work.  God created us to be complete in everything He provides.  He provides the righteousness I need to enter heaven.  He provides all the material things I need until I get to heaven. 

That really is the message of the Gospel, isn't it?  "Come you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  is the way Jesus put it.  When he told the fishermen by the sea to "come follow me"... I think that it was a call to rest in Him.

I hope you find rest, today and tomorrow.
Joy in Jesus
Pastor Bill

Are you learning to speak?

I am reading a Dietrich Bonhoeffer book... Psalm: the Prayer Book of the Bible.  For those of you who may not know, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor martyred by Hitler in WWII.  He is a very powerful writer.  Anyway, I came upon the following and it really made me think:
"The child learns to speak because his father speaks to him.  He learns the speech of his father.  So we learn to speak to God because God has spoken to us and speaks to us.  By means of the speech of the Father in heaven his children learn to speak with him.  Repeating God's own words after him, we begin to pray to him.  We ought to speak to God and he wants to hear us, not in the false and confused speech of our heart, but in the clear and pure speech which God has spoken to us in Jesus Christ."

I was really taken by this idea.  We only know how to speak to God because God has first spoken to us.  It is in listening first to God that we begin to understand how to pray.  Prayer is something that we learn.  Sometimes, I feel woefully inadequate in prayer.  I don't know what to say or how to say it.  I think I must know how to pray naturally... but I didn't learn to talk naturally... I had to learn it from my parents and siblings.  Prayer is like that, we learn first from our Father, then from our brothers and sisters, who have learned more than we have. 
Matthew begins the "Lord's Prayer" with the question of the followers of Jesus:  "Lord, teach us to pray".  They were honest about the condition they found themselves in.  Can I be that honest?  Honest enough with myself, God and with you?  To ask, "Lord, teach me to pray.", is to ask to listen to the Father's word, and the patient instruction of Jesus, and my sisters and brothers in Christ.  Those who have made it a habit to listen to God.  Let's all learn to speak the language of prayer... the language of the Father, given to us by Jesus.
Grace and Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Bill