Title: Lent Dawn Prayer (13) Fully...
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Morning Prayer for Lent (13) Spirituality that fills you with fullness (John 1:14-16) 2002.03.18.
Spirituality begins with emptying, but does not end there. The next level of spirituality is filling. Emptying is meaningful when there is filling. Throwing away is for gaining, leaving is meaningful when there is a new destination. Emptying the vessel clean is to fill it with something new.
After the Lord emptied it, He filled it to the full. Jesus, who came down to this earth, was full of the glory, grace, and truth as the only begotten Son of God the Father (John 1:14). “The Father has made all fullness dwell in Jesus” (Colossians 1:19). Jesus promised his disciples a hundredfold reward. “Peter said to her, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will receive a hundredfold in this life, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecution. and there is no one who will not receive eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:28-30).
full Christ
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (verse 14).
John saw the glory of Him who became flesh and dwelt with Him. I saw the glory of Jesus Christ, the 'only begotten of the Father'. What kind of glory was that? It was 'full of grace and truth'. The 'grace and truth' spoken of here is an expression of Christ's being God. Also, the word 'fullness' (pleromatos) refers to 'a state of being sufficient and complete in number or quantity'. In other words, it means that Christ is God sufficient and lacks nothing, that in Him all is sufficient and lacks nothing.
I believe in these words. We believe in Jesus Christ, the full God. He is a person who lacks nothing. Everything is in that minute. But I have more joy than joy just because everything is in him because of verse 16. “And from his fullness we all received, grace upon grace.”
It is that I receive grace from the fullness of the Lord, who is not lacking. But that grace is not ordinary grace, but 'grace on grace'. This grace refers to uninterrupted, continuous grace. That we receive uninterrupted and continual grace from the fullness of Christ.
From the image of Jesus, we learn what the ministry of serving people is. The fullness of the Lord flows from top to bottom. They received the truth and grace that Heavenly Father above gave them, and sent them down to the disciples again. The disciples also sent down to their disciples as they had been taught by Jesus.
Ministry is not something we study and make, but something we receive and give back to Jesus. Therefore, the starting point of ministry is to receive, not to give. But our problem lies in giving rather than receiving. The problem arises from trying to distribute before filling. We are not creators of work, we are messengers, not grace itself, but channels of grace. So you have to fill it first before sending it down. Just as water is stored in a reservoir and sent to each household, our ministry must first receive the fullness of grace before it can work. Many people want to give before they receive. I have the impatience to share before I even fill it. Then it causes problems in the church, burns out and falls. Even a large multi-purpose dam can't be let down until it rains from the sky.
Spirituality is a vessel that contains the grace and blessings of God. God's workers are people who fill a lot before giving. The Bible uses the term “fullness” a lot. He tells us to be full of grace, full of truth, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of faith.
“The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know God and open the eyes of your hearts, what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? I ask you to make known what is the exceeding greatness of the power he has bestowed upon us who believe, as he works in the might of his might... The church is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1: 17-19,23).
“And we will all become one in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, until we reach the stature of the stature of the stature of Christ. lest they be driven and tossed by the winds of God, but speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, which is Christ” (Ephesians 4:13-15).
The history of Acts is the history of being filled with the Holy Spirit. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) And there came a sound like a rushing, strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and they saw them splitting like tongues of fire, and they fell on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance began” (2:1-4).
Jesus' life was balanced. Emptying and filling, abandonment and drunkenness were in perfect harmony. Christian spirituality is a balanced harmony. The harmony of emptiness and fullness, the harmony of emptiness and fullness. The harmony of receiving and sharing, the harmony of love of God and love of neighbor, and the harmony of serving and being served must be in balance.
When the balance is disturbed, eating out and hypocrisy. It becomes Pharisaism, it becomes ecclesiasticalism, it becomes mysticism, it becomes ups and downs. Anything that leans to one side becomes a problem. So is faith and works. So is the ministry of receiving grace and serving. Just as a well-rounded body is beautiful, a well-rounded Christian is a good Christian. Christian spirituality overflows with gentlemanly sophistication.
Jesus lived as a lamb and at other times like a terrifying lion. He lived naturally like flowing water, but became a big rock and changed the direction of the flow of water. The truth and justice of God's kingdom flowed down like a river, and he resolutely resisted the compromises of injustice and Satan with a big rock. He was supremely merciful and close to the poor and needy, but he did not become friends with the priests, scribes, and Pharisees. He showed forgiveness and salvation to sinners, but he was angry with the proud.
We need a balanced spirituality of emptying and filling. Balance is the most difficult to achieve, but there is no such thing as perfect faith.
"Only be strong and very courageous, and keep and do all the law that Moses my servant commanded you; do not turn to the right or to the left, and you may prosper wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, and meditate on it day and night, Observe everything and do it, and your way will be smooth, and you will prosper” (Joshua 1:7-8). “Turn not to the left or to the right, but turn your foot from evil” (Proverbs 4:27).