Whose Designer and Builder Is God {Meditation

Adam was put in a garden, where he walked with God among the other creatures. Christ’s brothers and sisters will at the end enter the eternal city, where we will walk again with God. In the meantime Adam’s kind has been striving, without an articulate aim, to find that future city, which is hidden until the revelation of all things. We desire the city inherently, because God designed us as social creatures (cf. Ge. 2:18). Since they were expelled from the garden, humans have come together to build cities, great societies where the human name could be magnified and exalted, where peoples trade the fruits of their knowledge, where those inside it take from those outside to eat and drink and be satisfied. It began with Cain, who wandered east of Eden (cf. Ge. 4:16f.). He was expelled from the fellowship of his family and of God, and to fill the void he, with all his art, built up a city in his son’s name. God also wants to build up a city bearing his Son’s name.

In a city, humans become powerful. Their efforts are concentrated and their strength is magnified. This is by God’s design, too:

Behold how good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity! Ps. 133:1 ESV

But in a city, humankind is yet subject to desires for illicit things, like that first one that brought corruption into the world. This desire is also magnified. In Eden, there was one tree forbidden, and there was one sin committed. In a city, the artificial grove of illicit fruit is manifold, and society is riddled with pitfalls like the one in the garden. Knowing this, against those who are violent like Cain, the prophet shouts,

Prepare slaughter for his sons

because of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities. Isa. 14:21

The Lord did not send the father of his people out to build a city, but Abraham lived in a tent and looked forward to “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). Likewise he does not send out his chosen servants to exalt their own name and power, but to seek out the name of the Lord and take it upon us. We are designed to desire a city, but God has not set to us the task of building it ourselves. Instead he means to build it with his great art. He has always planned to build it for us, but Adam and Eve were not ready for it, and their descendants cannot enter in until their individual sin-wounds are healed. We must be sundered from the glorious human city, over which the peoples will cry,

Alas, alas, for the great city

that was clothed in fine linen,

in purple and scarlet,

adorned with gold,

with jewels, and with pearls!

For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.

…

So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,

and will be found no more;

and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,

will be heard in you no more,

and a craftsman of any craft

will be found in you no more,

and the sound of the mill

will be heard in you no more,

and the light of a lamp

will shine in you no more,

and the voice of bridegroom and bride

will be heard in you no more,

for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,

and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,

and of all who have been slain on earth. Re. 18:16f.,21-24

God will overthrow the greatest works and make empires desolations. Nothing of Adam’s kingdom will remain. We will be left like nomads and wanderers, having nothing to claim as our own, until the New Jerusalem descends from heaven and opens its gates to the kings of the earth. Then the sons and daughters of the living God will have the great society they desired, where the name of their Lord is exalted and they rejoice in his glory, where peoples trade the fruits of God’s revelation, where those inside the city take from bounty of the Creator among them to eat and drink and be satisfied.

Until then, let us follow after the Lord like nomads, like people in the desert, like sojourners and strangers in a foreign land, waiting for our Maker to give us all we ever need.

Remembering a Commandment {Confession, Exhortation

I’d forgotten something that my Lord commanded me. I read over it many times and failed to take it as a command. It wasn’t a deliberate denial. It wasn’t an ignorant innocence. It was laziness. A branding iron will leave its mark on flesh, but not on tough stone; likewise the commandment, which had lost none of its potency, did not impress my ensnared mind.
Before sending out his twelve, Jesus “saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Mat. 9:36-38 ESV).
When this commandment was brought to my attention recently, suddenly I remembered what I was so excited for in July of 2006, when I prayed as he told me before going to college. To obey the command is to bless countless multitudes, and should the Lord send you, to take up the best adventure.
Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.

Loaded Gun {Prophecy, Meditation

Imagine yourself, O Christian, as a bullet. You’re immobile. You’ve been formed and polished for the purpose of flying forward.
Imagine, now, your place of comfort as a gun. You’re put into the barrel of the gun. You fit snugly. You’ve been made to fit it. But you’ve not been made to stay there, and yet there’s nothing you can do to move yourself from that position. You cannot actuate your own purpose. You cannot push yourself, and even if you could, you cannot aim the gun at the proper target. You’re stuck there, purposeful and powerless, waiting for something to move you.
Imagine the Spirit, then, as a fire. He explodes behind you. He moves you. He’s been moving since the beginning, and he can move faster than light. He expands and fills the gap behind you, and you burst forth from the barrel of the gun. And now you’re really doing, by his power, what you were made to do.
Imagine how fast you can fly when you let the Lord compel you. Wait for him.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away. Is. 49:2 ESV