Hello fellow sojourners. We are back this week with The Saturday Newsletter! This is where you can find prayers, promises, and treasures on the narrow way. Written for the one in need of a drink of living water.
Make sure to check out last week’s article if you haven’t already. We unpack one of my favorite quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.”
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I am on my own journey with you to deepen my life in God’s word. Unfortunately, this is not a topic I find taught very often. I have heard so many sermons on fear or identity, but what about building a deep life of prayer? What about the lifelong pursuit of knowing God?
Maybe this teaching is so scarce because it can’t be taught. It has to be sought after.
I read the Bible and marvel at what the prophets and apostles touched in God. I often ask: “HOW DO I GET THIS? How do I get this understanding and revelation? I have the same Holy Spirit inside of me!”
It is an all-consuming life of consecration to count everything as rubbish “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus” (Phil. 3:8). I want to be like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 who has beheld so many facets of God’s word it’s uncontainable. I want to see the treasure that is better than thousands of gold and silver pieces (Ps. 119:72).
I pray this newsletter is an invitation to leave the shores of our religious understanding and into the ocean of God’s limitless beauty. I think God has more for us than a quick “quiet time” but a lifestyle of swimming and weeping in His glory. It’s like a small taste of eternity that we get to enjoy now.
Why wait?
Enjoy this week’s newsletter. — Ava
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JOHN 1:1-13
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jesus was the Word at the beginning of creation. He was the light God spoke into the empty world. The Scriptures we read, study, and meditate on are not only words. They are Christ Himself. There is a feast that awaits us in the word of God. Its eternal contents are the greatest nutrients we can eat.
John the Baptist prepared the way by spending a lifetime in the wilderness studying the scrolls of God’s word. John recognized Jesus as He walked towards him and saw prophecy fulfilled before his eyes. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29) The Word John meditated on his whole life was walking towards Him.
The Lamb was the light at the beginning and He will be the light at the very end. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Rev. 21:23)
The Messiah was revealed to John through the Scriptures. The prophets of old searched and inquired at what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories (1 Peter 1:11). Our lives in God’s word are awakened when we see Christ as the Word of God. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
MARK 10:17-27
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
Our lives in God are not upheld by ourselves.
As humans, it is natural for us to look at a camel and look at the eye of a needle and try to calculate how to fit it through. This is how foolish we look when we try to follow Jesus in our own strength. The point of following Jesus and being a disciple is Him. He is the one who upholds us and enables us to follow Him. It is not about figuring out how to do impossible things.
With man it is impossible, but not with God.
This passage has always moved my heart because it shows that we can’t even sell our possessions without the Spirit of God moving us to surrender. Obeying all the commandments and checking boxes does not equal “success” before God. We can only enter the kingdom by His mercy. Any other way we are “hopping the fence” instead of walking through the gate of Christ.
The only way to go deeper in Jesus is to receive more of His grace. We won’t go further by gritting our teeth and trying harder not to sin. As we steady our gaze on Him, He will free our hearts from checking off boxes of obedience and into love. The love of Jesus escorts us into greater obedience. It is what we need to maintain a lifestyle of following Him. Anyone can obey God in one moment, but can we endure for a lifetime?
The first commandment is the blood supply that enables us to obey all the other commandments. Let your heart be free today from trying and into abiding. We can only bear fruit if we are connected to the vine (Jn. 15:1). It is the vine that frees us from the law to serve in the new way of the Spirit. Let us walk not as servants, but sons.
PSALM 5
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.
“We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running; for this is the water to drive the mill of prayer.” — Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
Every Psalm flows from Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
The meditation of Scripture fuels our prayer lives. It is like downloading the language of God inside of us to pray the words of His heart. We aren’t able to pray with Jesus if we don’t know what He is praying.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. Every morning we can come before the Lord in expectation to receive from His word. The priests were instructed to offer a sacrifice of a lamb every morning and evening (Ex. 29:38). It is the most glorious gift to no longer have to sacrifice a lamb, but feast on the Lamb who was already slain. However, the principle of a morning and evening sacrifice bears true today.
Jesus taught His disciples that the greatest way to prepare for the Day of the Lord is to watch and pray (Luke 21:36). It is how we stay awake and live sober in a drunken world. Jesus gave the same instructions to Peter, James, and John in the garden of Gethsemane. Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41).
A life with God includes a sacrifice of devotion to watch and pray daily. In other words, to sit before Jesus and come to the feast. Let’s eat this upcoming week.
Check out this sermon by Eric Gilmour about feasting on the word of God. This is a great message to accompany this week’s newsletter.
Send us any of your “Jesus” recommendations at intheupcoming@gmail.com. We would love to hear them!
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)