So great a crowd of witnesses

[seekfirst]

Heb 12:1
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth]...

Today, as I was going through some of my stuff, I found a booklet Daily Open Windows by TASparks and recalled how many times during the past 10-13 years of being quite alone I fellowshipped with the saints-- who came after the OT/NT saints -- through their writings and decided to start a thread to share some of the writings that greatly encouraged me in my aloneness...


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Phil 3:10 AMP
My determined purpose is that I may know Him.   


There are few words in his writings which reveal how committed to the Lord Jesus this man was.  The context is one consummate outpouring of his heart to the One whom he said had "apprehended" him, and he focuses all in a brief half sentence:  "That I may know Him."  The impressive thing about this expressed ambition is the time at which it is made.  Here is a man who has had a revelation and knowledge of Jesus Christ greater than any other man up to that time.  That knowledge commenced whence as he said, "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me."  That beginning devastated him, and sent him into the desert to try to grasp its implications.

Later he had been "caught up into the third heaven and shown unspeakable things, which (he said) were not lawful to be uttered."  Between, and around those two experiences, there is evidence of an ever growing knowledge of Christ.  Here, after all that, near the end of his life, he is crying passionately:  "That I may know Him."  The very least that we can say about this is that the Christ in view was a very great Christ indeed, who outstrips the greatest capacity and comprehension of man.  This stands in such tremendous contrast to the limited Christ of our recognition and apprehension!  How very much more there is in Christ than we have ever seen!

[seekfirst]

from Daily Overcoming Devotional   Ray Prinzing (one of my favorite UR writers)

LEARNING TO WAIT

Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Luke 12:35-36  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.

Although we have received a revelation, a vision of the glory of our salvation to come, there is much that we do not yet see -- the fulfillment tarries, it has not yet been brought to us, nor can we generate it in ourselves.  Therefore, since a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above, all we can do is look, wait, and expect to receive at His appointed time.  In the meantime patience will have her perfect work, that we might be fully prepared and ready for when the "reality breaks through."  There is a

Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.   (Rom 8:23)

Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Cor 1:7)

We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness through faith.  (Gal 5:5)

Waiting for the kingdom of God.  (Luke 23:51)

The list can go on and on, but for sure, if we are waiting for the manifestation of HIS KINGDOM, we cannot be constantly building our own little kingdoms for self.  If we are waiting for the consummation of His righteousness in us, we cannot be busy developing our own self-righteousness.  If we are waiting for the revelation and coming of our Lord, we need to remain open for the Spirit's illumination to lead us onward into that hour.  If we are waiting for the redemption of our body, we'll not become entangled in idle tales of longevity for this present body of corruption, but we shall look for that change, that we might be fashioned anew like unto His glorious body.  If we are waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, we'll not try to manifest ourselves.  But walk softly before Him that he might perfect us.  In true waiting there is a girded up alertness to Him, that we might receive all that He has for us, now, and in the fullness to come.

[eaglesway]

123 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

[Lazarus Short]

Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength
they shall rise up with wings as eagles
they shall run and not be weary, they shall run and not faint
teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait

[That's from memory, as I used to sing it in church, and I hope I got it right.]