Dear Pilgrim, what measure are you using?

Dear Pilgrim, what measure are you using? Is it a generous helping, pressed down, shaken together and running over? Is it a full measure in response to the full measure He has poured upon you?

For He has not treated us as our sins deserve, or repaid us according to our iniquities (Ps 103:10). For the Lord our God weighs our deeds, our motives, and our hearts – and in all cases we were weighed on the scales and we were found wanting. But where sin and wickedness increased, the grace of God increased all the more. For it was His Servant who drank the full strength of the cup of wrath as all our sins were laid upon Him. It was He who received the full measure of all that our sins and iniquities deserved. Oh, Pilgrim, let our tears overflow as we take in this glorious gospel truth. For He has not given us just grace and a gift through Jesus Christ – He has given us an abundant provision of grace, an abundant provision of the gift of life that we might reign in life through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17)! As Boaz poured into Ruth’s shawl six measures, six whole measures, of barley when she approached her kinsman-redeemer seeking His favour (Ruth 3:15), so this points to the abundant provision that is poured into us as we approach our Kinsman-Redeemer seeking His favour!

For the grace of our Lord has been poured out on us abundantly! God is rich in mercy, and in Christ we have been given mercy in abundance (Jude 1:2)! Faith, love and peace are also ours in abundance! How abundant are the good things that He has stored up for those who fear Him, that He bestows in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in Him (Ps 31:19)! Let us celebrate His abundant goodness and joyfully sing of His righteousness (Ps 145:7)!

For it is His desire to give a full measure. Jesus wanted His disciples to have the full measure of His joy within them (John 17:13). Paul prays that the Ephesians might not only have the power to grasp the love of God, but that they would know the love of God,  that they might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:18-19). As the fullness of the Deity lives in Christ in bodily form, so too in Christ we have been brought to fullness (Col 2:9-10). Oh, Pilgrim, listen to that again – as the fullness of the Deity lives in Christ in bodily form, so too in Christ we have been brought to fullness. Fullness! Oh, Pilgrim, are we filled with the fullness of Christ?

Just as Jesus filled the jars with water to the brim in Capernaum, so too He longs to fill us to the brim with His Holy Spirit, that rivers of living water may flow from us. Let us ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit, that we may be filled to the brim! And as our love abounds more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, we will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – for all those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled! As we come to Christ, He will fill us with an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 Pe 1:8), He will fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in Him, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13). Oh, Pilgrim, be filled, be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!

For we worship a God who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24). Christ descended to the lower, earthly regions, and He ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe (Eph 4:10). And there is a day coming when Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit (Isa 27:6). There is a day coming when the vineyard will be fruitful, and the world will sing about it as the Lord watches over it, watering it continually. The wedding hall will be filled with guests (Mt 22:10), it will be filled with the fragrance of perfume (John 12:3), it will be filled with His love (Ps 119:64), it will be filled with glorious sounds of praise coming from the mouths of those whose lips are filled with His praise, declaring His splendour all day long (Ps 71:8) – it will be filled with the glory of God!

Pilgrim, as we look for this day to come, let us ensure that we are living as children of the Most High God, using the same measure as the measure we have been given. Let us never be satisfied with anything less than a full measure! Let us make sure we are not those who would skimp on the measure (Amos 8:5). Let us love our enemies, let us show mercy, let us forgive and let us give, not holding anything back. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them (Mt 25:29). So let us abound in every good work, for our comfort abounds in Christ.

Dear Pilgrim, have you received the embrace of your Father?

Prodigal Son by Charlie Mackesy

Dear Pilgrim, have you received the embrace of your Father? Have you received the comfort, the hope, the feeling of safety and the encouragement that only the warmth of His embrace can give you?

O Pilgrim, it is one thing to have been made aware that His embrace is there for you. It is another thing entirely to receive it. It is one thing to know that the love the Father has lavished on us is so great that we should be called children of God (1 John 3:1). It is another thing entirely to know that this is what you are, to have experienced the loving embrace that only a Father can give to His child. It is one thing to know that the Father loves you because you have loved His Son and have believed that He came from God (John 16:27). It is another thing entirely to have rested your head against the breast of your Father as His arms reach around you and hold you close.

Pilgrim, do not allow timidity to hold you back from your Father’s embrace. As you approach your Father, you are coming not in your own righteousness, but clothed in the righteousness of His Son. For this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10). In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)! We have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus! Jacob approached his father to obtain a blessing from him, covered by his brother’s robe. When his father caught the smell of his clothes, he proceeded to pour out his blessing upon his son. Pilgrim, what a picture this is for us of how we approach our heavenly Father!

Pilgrim, maybe it has been so many years since you have ever known what a father’s embrace feels like, maybe you have experienced so much loss, so much heartache and pain, that you dare not come close for fear of being overwhelmed. O precious Pilgrim, will you come with me to Goshen?

Goshen, in Egypt – the place to which God had sent Joseph, to preserve a remnant and to save lives by a great deliverance. A place of separation from his father with whom he had enjoyed a special love, for he was the beloved son of his father. This separation had lasted many years, and had caused much pain for Joseph. But what the enemy had intended for harm, God intended for good. For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). And God arranged for the beloved son to be reunited with his father. As Jacob travelled to Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to meet him. O Pilgrim, how do you think Joseph was feeling, as he went to meet his father after all those years? All those emotions flooding through him…and as he finally set eyes upon his dearly loved father, as he presented himself before his father, his emotions poured out of him and he fell on his father’s neck and wept for a long time (Genesis 46:29). Oh, praise the living God for bringing about such a reconciliation!

Do you see, Pilgrim, how far the father travelled to be reconciled to his son? Jacob travelled all the way from the land of Canaan to Goshen for this reconciliation. It was not Joseph who travelled to Canaan, rather, his father came to him. O Pilgrim, do you see? Just like in the parable of the prodigal son, as soon as the son got up and went to his father, even whilst he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. His father had been waiting, longing, for his return all those years. And as soon as he saw him, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him (Luke 15:20)! Pilgrim, it was the father who ran to the son! Oh, what a God!

Yet, Pilgrim, it can still be possible to know all this and yet still to have not experienced it. For it requires the work of the Holy Spirit deep in our hearts, it requires God to send the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). And when this happens, dear Pilgrim, oh! The assurance He brings! The confidence He brings! The hope He brings! The warmth of His embrace is truly like no other!

May we cry out to Him that the Spirit never ceases to cry out, “Abba, Father!” from within our hearts, so that we may truly understand what it means to be a child of God, and may the Spirit Himself testify with our spirits that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16). May we then be able to declare that “His right arm embraces me” (Song of Songs 2:6), and live in the confidence that this brings!