2 Timothy 3:14 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,”
Inner discipline of the soul is a pattern of solitude that requires silence. Catherine de Hueck Doherty writes, “All in me is silent and ……I am immersed in the silence of God.”
The poetic refrains of spiritual contemplation revive the mystery and majesty of entering into a union with God—one of which the world has never known. Take a look at the cross from a perspective that begins with Jesus and let the view remind you that a life in Christ carries a poetic beauty that is worth living.
St. John the Cross
There exists a 16th century poem of St. John of the Cross. In 8 stanzas of 5 lines each, the poem narrates the journey of the soul toward a mystical union with God. The journey is called “The Dark Night” in part because darkness represents how the destination to God at times seems unknowable.
For those who live for the world, who look down every path for meaning and continually find emptiness, enlightenment seems like an illusion.
The Buddhist walks without a clear point of focus, the idolator worships all that is created, and the weary soul loses heart from the endless searching without fulfillment.
The poem takes on a transcendence of hope…
“In an obscure night
Fevered with love’s anxiety
(O hapless, happy plight!)
I went, none seeing me
Forth from my house, where all things quiet be.“
The seeker goes out and leaves all else behind.
“In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised–oh, happy chance!–
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.“
Knowing they can’t stay where they have always been, there is peace in moving forward in search of something true.
The call of the Lord draws the person out of isolation from God, into vulnerability, exposing their soul to God’s redeeming grace. David realized the importance of being left vulnerable to the God who created him.
Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
*Internal reflection exposes the void that only God can fill, shedding the image of who we thought we were and into the light of God’s truth.
Stripping away the old
The more we expose the darkness of our soul, the more we learn the true nature of who we are, and the more we gain a right perspective of God’s majesty.
“In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.“
The desire of a soul is ultimately towards their redeemer, but many are kept in darkness to who He is. Faith begins in the heart, a calling to the deep as mysterious as the night.
Psalm 42:7 “Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me.”
The call comes by way of God’s Spirit, a revelation of His mercy and grace. There is no construct of man or establishment formed by human intervention that supplants the fullness of gaining a knowledge of God. The yearning heart is never fulfilled by this world and so it seeks something deeper.
The depth of God’s grace calls into the depth of our souls to come to Him.
“This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me–
A place where none appeared.“
The depth of God’s love is revealed in His call, for those who respond, they find the hope of their searching.
John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
When the hungry soul finds the source of it’s calling, it is faced with a dilemma–all preconceived notions must be stripped away for the Truth makes evident all that is separate from God.
“Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!“
Once the one who walked in darkness has been exposed to the light, they either embrace all they see or they run.
It’s not easy to see ourselves in light of God’s Truth. The prideful heart doesn’t like what it sees. The draw to be made new conflicts with the desire to hold onto what was common. Self-justification collides with God’s moral law and the proud in heart are demoralized by the weight of sin.
The light reveals every crevice of the heart and each offense must be reconciled with the purity and holiness of God.
How does the sinner progress from a position of darkness into purity and holiness?—-Beginning with prayer, the process of understanding the position of the condemned is to recognize their position before God.
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
Knowing who God is, gives direction as to which way to go.
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
The promise of the redeemer is to make a way for all who desire to know Him.
Isaiah 43:10-11 “You are My witnesses,” says the Lord,
“And My servant whom I have chosen,
That you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.
I, even I, am the Lord,
And besides Me there is no savior.”
What is the sinner to do?
*Pray–Submitting to God’s transforming power is to place oneself within the light of God’s righteousness, exposing the darkness of sin.
Gaining a right understanding of God’s Holiness is necessary for those who want to see themselves as God sees them. Prayer is a position of humility and God reveals truth to the one who submits to Him. With humility comes a contrite spirit. (Isaiah 57:15)
*Position–To leave the darkness for the light is to deny all you were that He might make you into all He desires.
The darkness is illumined by the light. When experiencing the Lord for the first time the broken hearted become whole. Worship pours from the heart while true meaning of life is found in Christ alone.
Revelation 21:5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
“Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.”
*Promise–Walking in the knowledge of Christ brings restoration and healing to life. The Lord promised to never leave or forsake His people. He promised to comfort them as they walk through the valley of death, and it is by the knowledge of Him they are restored. The sinner cannot change the past but their future is changed by the miraculous discovery of God’s redeeming grace. The life in Christ changes and creates a paradigm shift in respect to the world. When the sinner accepts the Truth that God revealed in Christ and walks in it, they find the joy and peace they have always longed for.
“The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.”
Godly perspective is to see life from a vantage point known only to the redeemed.
Psalm 139:4-6 “For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.”
Do you want to have new life?
A.W. Tozer once said, “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God”. He adds: “The man who has a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems”. He notes how the greatest sin we can commit is idolatry, that is, creating a false image of who God is. He warns; “An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand”.
The more we recognize how God has revealed Himself, the more we gain a right perspective of life itself.
Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.”
Being made New
The process of self realization is not to diminish a person’s value before God, people were valuable enough for God to die upon the cross for salvation. If a person realizes who they were apart from Christ, they can move toward all He has for them now. Self-denial is to remove all that inhibits and then the Spirit of God works out His salvation in proper order.
The world is full of false promises, it will always let you down. The redeemed no longer hold onto the image formed from the lies of the world but how God sees them.
Right perspective is gained through Christ and then lived out by faith.
Psalm 119:144 “Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.”
The believer is given God’s nature and with it an understanding of what is good.
Deuteronomy 5:33 “You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.”
The final refrain of St. John the cross delivers the hope of all who walk in Christ. On earth there is no greater bliss than knowing and walking with Jesus—in Heaven there will be no greater joy than to fall at His feet and worship Him.
“I remained, lost in oblivion;
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.”
Meditating on the attributes of God allows the Lord to change perspective on everything–moving from darkness into light. As God reveals new insights from His Word, He transforms the inner man—then it is up to His people to walk in the truth He imparts.
U.T. 