"Meditations" by Paul Ravenhill

by Paul RavenhillIsaiah speaks of a people that draw near to God with their lips, but not with their hearts, and whose knowledge of God is through the words of men - a people who have never known God for themselves by divine revelation... In this our 20th century church, to contrast divine revelationwith men’s teaching, seems almost blasphemy...but revelation was the way that Moses, Samuel, andPaul learned of God.Matthew quotes this prophecy, and then gives God’s summing up of this situation in the next verse (Mt. 15:9), "In vain do they worship Me." Ezequiel puts it in a slightly different light, "With their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness:" In other words with their mouths they are GIVING with their hearts they are intent on GETTING.Isn’t so much of our Christianity preoccupied with our getting rather than giving? Even our giving in "praise and worship" is contaminated with the expectation of getting feelings of peace, joy etc. We have set ourselves up for deception. We want for ourselves whatever it is that God is giving out! This is what we have been taught. The important thing seems to be not our relationship with God, but our ability to plunge headlong into the "move," to "surf the wave," and then repeat the process over and over. We have leaned too much on man’s teaching, exhortation and "encouragement" and sought too little for the Presence of God behind the words. Paul exhorts "examine yourselves... prove your own selves..." The faith which is the product of man’s instigation will soon fade when real shaking comes, but the faith built on God alone will endure and bring forth the fruit of life.

"The age in which we live seems to be driven by the force of activities and statistics. Results, numbers, responses, miles traveled, meetings attended, conferences addressed, mailing lists, books, articles, the famous who are known to us, all these things garner the approach and admiration of the silly "Christian" population. The steady faithful labor which is "not in vain in the Lord;" the incorruptibleness of he who is outside the whole futile "rat race;" those who serve as they "watch and wait;" the desert place of preparation and revelation - these seem to have no place in our thinking. The one who has heard a different music, who has heard a Voice speaking to him alone, is sadly missing in our midst. Man is called not to do the facile but the impossible. The facile is to find a method, a system, and to make it work... to wind it up and let it run in a giddy frenzy of "success." We become famous in the proportion of our success, although placed on the scales of eternity this may prove to be as empty as a dream, a mere illusion of our own twisted thinking. The impossible has to do with the spirit of man inhabiting an earthly body and reaching out to possess eternity. It has to do with taking the values of eternity and living on a plane where it is not the earthly with all it’s values which is important. John says, "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." Another translation reads "if" He appear... That is - we shall be like Him if we see Him... if the glaze and glitter of earth’s values have not blinded our eyes. "Looking unto Jesus" and "beholding" Him is still THE thing which God cares about in our lives."