“Come with me” Revelation 17:1
“There is a place where Jesus sheds
The oil of gladness on our heads;
A place than all besides more sweet,
It is the blood-bought mercy seat.”
From the hymn, “From Every Stormy Wind that Blows” by Hugh Stowell
It was a year ago I heard God’s call to “come with Me”.
Come with Me, through the pages of My Word. Take a journey from Paradise Lost to Paradise Found. Beyond the people, events and history, meet Me afresh. Go deeper into My heart. Discover Me anew.
As the year closes the Lord is repeating His call. A call to come deeper still. Another invitation is being extended. His desire that He might refill me with His Spirit, renew me with His love, refresh me with His presence, refocus my priorities, revive my heart, restore my vision, and remove sinful thoughts and ways.
We all need regular, repeated times of rest, refreshment and renewal. Life can rob us of life and we need to retreat into Christ. To the extent that we live in His presence, we are filled with His joy.
Just as God told Noah to build, Daniel to pray, Jonah to go, Joshua to march, Rahab to hide, Moses to leave, His call to me is come.
Answering the call to a daily, momentary rapture.
Risking my heart to rediscover You.
3 comments:
I need a momentary rapture with God today; I'm so buried in my everyday life right now, I'm having trouble breathing in my Father and hearing his voice. There's nothing more I'd like to do today than spend isolated time alone with Christ.
Thanks for your e-mail this morning;you are my good friend, Joy. Thanks for always "reading between my lines" and listening to my heart.
Lots of love and peace to you this day~elaine
How fascinating...to think about all the varied calls on people's lives. To go, give, help, comfort, preach, etc. How beautiful that you know your call. May we all hear His voice clearly, with our own calling...
Lovely piece of writing. And I connected with it in a couple of ways.
At this time of year (and for many years now), I start thinking about my personal devotions for the coming year. Will I again read the Bible through? Or will I focus on the New Testament? Or on some other plan? Is there a particular devotional book or commentary I might use as a resource? It's exciting! Because each year I know I'm going to make new discoveries and find new blessings.
The other point of contact with your comments was Hugh Stowell's beautiful prayer hymn--and today is actually the 145th anniversary of his death. If you'd like to learn more about him, and the particular significance of the mercy seat, I invite you to check out my daily hymn blog, Wordwise Hymns, for today.
And if you’ll excuse a brief “commercial:” With the arrival of fall, we begin to think of the Christmas season up ahead. If you do not have a good book on the subject of our Christmas carols, I encourage you to take a look at mine, Discovering the Songs of Christmas. In it, I discuss the history and meaning of 63 carols and Christmas hymns. The book is available through Amazon, or directly from Jebaire Publishing. (Might make a great gift too!)
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