Excel Still More

     Living in an age where with greater and greater frequency there is so much pursuit of more and more things for self, I find it quite interesting that in regard to godliness, the pursuit of more and more of righteousness seems to be waning.  At times it appears that we are content to get to a certain level of godliness and then we stop the pursuit of more.  I fear we don't get the real reality of Biblical faith as we embrace our own version of faith's definition and limits.  If our culture wants to get lost in worldliness, then why don't Christ-followers want to get lost in righteousness?  It is a question that I am asking myself in these days.  One would think that if we really believe He is the treasure, then we would desire to spend our life pursuing the enjoyment of "His pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11)  Again, we seem to just not get it.
     I am reading an epistle a day and today I found myself in 1 Thessalonians and 2x in 1 Thessalonians Paul deals with this idea of wanting more, or excelling more in our faith.  Here are the two verses in their context:
1 Thessalonians 4:1
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.

1 Thessalonians 4

⁹ Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; ¹⁰ for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, ¹¹ and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,

In 2 areas he says that we should excel more, that we should not arrive at a place of contentment.  Here are a couple brief thoughts with each:

1. Excel more in walking to please God - There should never be a stopping place in our desire to live in such a way that God is pleased.  The limits of what is pleasing to Him cannot and must not be established by us.  The limit has been established and it is the life of the Lord Jesus, so until we are totally like Him, then we are to be striving to excel more and more.
2. Excel still more in loving others - The message is clear again that we don't decide how much love we give to others, but that we just love.

These two things are a great reminder for you and I today, that our desire is to excel more and more in two very important areas.

 

God-Hungry Men

One of the great blessings in my life has been some of the old books my grandfather gave me.  Several of them were by the great Revivalist preacher named Leonard Ravenhill.  In reading this morning in Ravenhill's book - Meat for Men, I found myself greatly challenged by the opening of Chapter 2.  Here is what Ravenhill writes.  Enjoy the challenge...

"God hungry men find God.  As the deer pants after the water brooks, so the souls of the Upper-Room crowd panted for the living God.  Spiritually naked, they fled to Him that they might be clothed upon with the blessed Spirit.  Empty, they craved to be filled.  Powerless, they tarried until they were endued.  Bankrupt and beggar-like, they pled the riches of His grace.  Then this fear-filled crowd became fire-filled messengers.  Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won.  Though without eccelesiastical prestige, they opposed the frozen orthodoxy of sterile Judaism and pierced it to the heart.  Unlettered, they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks.

Without question, the greatest need of this hour is that the church shall meet her ascended Lord again, and get an enduement that would usher in the revival of revivals just before the night of nights settles over this age of incomparable corruption.

My guess is that the waiting host in the Upper Room never anticipated the rushing, mighty wind, were staggered by the tongues of fire, and were all amazed that they had utterance they could not define.  To say that these folk were all backsliders awaiting another touch from God is to twist truth.  Backsliders are the most joyless fold in the world, but these disciples, having seen the Master recently ascend to heaven in a cloud, had returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  They had fled to the Upper Room to await the promise of the Father.  That meant they were obedient; backsliders are disobedient.  After Christ's ascension they worshipped Him; backsliders forsake Him.  No, let's get this straight: these were a happy people, an obedient people, a worshipping people, a praying people."

Leonard Ravenhill - Meat for Men, pp. 19-20.  Bethany Fellowship, Inc.  1961.

Where We Stand

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1