SPIRITUAL REFRESHINGS
FOR THE DIGITAL MILLENIUM
The wonder of the provisions of God is
not only in their profusion,
their adequacy, their power,
but in their reliability, their refreshing,
their entire aptitude for mankind,
and as to that, it is not only in their
prediction and promise,
but in their mode of performance.
To know God is far more important than
your ABC,
and not to know Him is far more illiterate
in life, than this in mind.
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson
Published by
World Wide Web Witness Inc.
January 2000
©
ISBN 0 9577461 9 9
The
fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Ps.
53:1).
At
Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore (Ps.
I
shall be satisfied when I awake, with Thy likeness
( Ps.
Preface
Digital ? It is a theme of accurate recordings and faithful reproductions - an acme past mediocrity. It may also refer however also the KIND of millenial change that we are about to have in December 1999-January 2000.
The thousand digit will change for the first time in 1000 years, and a new structure will come in its place. Absolutely, we have 1 year to wait for the third millenium; but relative to 1000 A.D., it is already the … digital millenium.
Relative, indeed, to Jesus the Christ, whom this dating system is intended to celebrate, there is a virtual certainty that He was born in A.D. 4 (SMR pp. 943-946), so that we are already absolutely past the 2000 duration SINCE HE WAS BORN. The digital change about to come now, therefore, has enhanced significance. What has already happened is now MANIFEST, it is declared. It is now over 2 millenia since Jesus Christ was born, and the figures speak now loudly.
In Acts 3:19ff., Peter tells us of SEASONS of REFRESHING before the Lord, now received and welcomed in heaven, revisits this world which, after all, did not treat Him very handsomely, last time. This time is to be that of "the regeneration of all things" epoch, and it is then (Revelation 19) that He comes, His mere presence the vast inauguration of the millenium, that blessed vindication of His righteousness, and exposure of wickedness which, even then, will not love the Lord.
While our last volume, Wake Up World, Your Creator is Coming… drew some attention to the disorders of thought, action and environment duly fulfilling the total prophetic pattern for the End of the Age, there is another side to it.
The Jews as a nation have yet to make a drastic change towards Christ, as noted in Repent or Perish 3, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13 , The Biblical Workman 1, 3 and elsewhere; and when they do, there will be a great refreshing (cf. Romans 11:15, 25ff.). This is, as also apparent in Isaiah 32:1-4,14-17 - where the waiting till "the Spirit be poured out from on high", reaches its time. For now, they as a nation, are waiting amidst judgments, waiting until …
- "JUSTICE WILL DWELL IN THE WILDERNESS, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS REMAIN IN THE FRUITFUL FIELD. THE WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL BE PEACE, AND THE EFFECT OF RIGHTEOUSNES QUITNESS AND ASSURANCE FOREVER".
They wait. But the opportunity is already
present. That is another side of the pre-millenial
epoch. They wait, but it is not yet. It is near but it is not received. It
is preached, but it is not yet accepted. But when it comes, as to so many
in the inner life of Christ already, when it comes to them, then will be
fulfilled in them as in the Gentile believers, the refreshing seasons of
righteousness.And when is that ? It is when …
- "Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
A man will be as
a hiding place form the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
When ? When -
- "The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge" -
from 32:1-4. And when is that
? It is when this comes to pass:
"Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall
leap like a deer…
A highway shall
be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness…
And the ransomed
of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting
joy on their heads" - from 35:5,10.
It is in other words
when "there
shall be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place
of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain" - Isaiah 4:5. And who is that
? It is He who in just such terms we met in Isaiah 32.
And who is that ? Listen to Isaiah 55:3-4:
- "Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear and your soul
shall live;
And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you -
The sure mercies
of David.
Indeed I have given
Him as witness to the people,
A leader and commander
for the people" - the Messiah (cf. Psalm 2,40,
110).
When the Jewish nation in large measure is alerted to that, which has been available for 2000 years already, then will they share in what has long been postponed, not by opportunity unavailable, but by the option ignored.
Then is the Spirit to be poured from on high, then shall the blindness of Israel be removed, then shall this people come in multitudes to the Lord, to join the church of Jesus Christ the Lord, whom they slew, and then will the Gentiles be but one with those, and those one with these in Christ (Zecharaiah 12:10, Psalm 67:3-7, Isaiah 19:21-25, 65:13-16, Ephesians 2:11-18).
Then is preached to them, and in that day will be preached also through them, as now through the Gentiles who obey, the Gospel, that consummate Gospel already so clear in the prophet Isaiah, that everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55) which he declared in the Messiah then to come, now come and soon to return.
It is of course not an exhaustive consignment
of the Jewish people who will come, and that day
draws rapidly nearer (SMR pp. 502ff.);
but Romans 11 like Isaiah 59 makes it clear it will be massive. It is then
that Gospel as preached (already) by Paul when he wrote to the Galatians
(1) will be a refreshing like life from the dead (Romans
And is it not so now, for us who believe! and when one is brought into the kingdom who was lost, at which the very angels in heaven rejoice (Luke 15:7), that the heart is refreshed in delight at His company and His kindness in action.
Even now, we find the acute blessedness of the presence of that glorious and delicious person, Jesus Christ, Jehovah on earth (John 8:58, Isaiah 45:22ff., Philippians 2:5-11, Revelation 2:8 and Isaiah 44:6). It is shown with such a wonder of perception straight from the mind of God, in Isaiah 32:16-18, where
v
"His place of defence will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will
be given him. His water will be sure. Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.
They will see the land that is very far off" …
is the spiritual enclosure of holiness, in the place of abiding in the Lord.
There have been seasons of refreshing for missions, for individuals, for churches, nationally, on occasions too numerous to mention (though it is focussed in such works as that of J. Edwin Orr - The Light of the Nations, Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening and W.B. Sprague, Lectures on Revivals. Like Summer holidays, but far less predictably, they spill over the weirs of life like torrents, like floods, their pleasant waters further down, forming pleasant stretches in due course, and reaches in the lakes, rivers and waterways of life, the inhabitants of these sites growing rich in contentment, with chaste joy and a resting place - later.
God is good; the Lord is always good
to Israel (Psalm 73:1), the Israel of God (Galatians 6), and how lovely are
His wonders, how pleasant is His countenance, how gentle is His touch, who
made us and yet brings lessons to the meek, to those who seek Him with the
whole heart, whose word is no mere repository for contest, as
so often with the ignorant sallies of such as Time magazine, whom we have
personally never found willing to publish rebuttal, and hence have left;
but His word abides, untouched by all assault, overwhelming in testimony,
assured in evidence, at work in history, in lives and in all things, as the
declaration of truth, impregnable to informed assault, as serene in
directive prediction, always verified as in history, so in heart. As He says,
- "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples"
- John 15:7-8.
CONTENTS
Chapter One - CREATIVITY CALLING ...
CREATIVITY, HOW
COMELY THOU ART!
Chapter Two - CREATION, CONSECRATION AND
REFRESHING REST
Chapter Three - NEW DIGITAL MILLENIUM ?
It may be new, but the curse mounts.
After 2000 years,
even the bees in their sweetness,
are going wild… They are not alone.
Chapter Four - FEROCITY IS NOT FAITH
Chapter Five - THE SHEER
EXUBERANCE OF THE RESURRECTION
Chapter Six -
BEING CHILD-LIKE FOR THE CHILDREN:
Rollicking Joyfully with the Simple Reality of Things
Chapter Seven - CONCENTRIC CIRCLES WITHIN CHRISTIANITY
Growth Rings and
Spiritual Relish.
Chapter Eight
- THE UNITY BEAUTIFUL, NOT MERELY DUTIFUL
Delight without
Deviousness, Sincerity in the Compass
Chapter Nine - GOD'S LOVE IS AS REFRESHING
AS OCEANS,
WATERFALLS AND
AND FAR MORE SO
Chapter Ten -
SEQUEL to GOD'S LOVE
IS AS REFRESHING AS OCEANS,
WATERFALLS AND
SOARING PEAKAND FAR MORE SO
THE MATTERS OF DISCIPLINE, CONSECRATION AND CALLING
Chapter Eleven
HIS COMPASSIONS DO
NOT FAIL,
AND THEY CAN FILL THE CAVITIES
WHICH AWAIT THEM
EVEN IN A DRY AND THIRSTY LAND
"Until the Spirit be poured forth from
on high..." - Isaiah 32
Chapter Twelve
THE LOVE THAT IS STILL,
BUT NEVER STILLED,
REFRESHES IN ITS CONSTANCY
Jeremiah
Chapter Thirteen
THE FITS AND STARTS
THAT CAN NEVER REPLACE
CREATION
A THING MOST WONDERFUL
WE KNOW IN PART
(I Corinthians 13:9)
BUT WHAT WE KNOW IS KNOWLEDGE,
NOT SLANT OR CANT,
WHEN
WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE TRUTH, OF GOD
(Proverbs 8, John
14:6,
Chapter Fourteen
A MATTER OF TIME:
TIME FOR TRUTH AND
TRUTH FOR TIME
Chapter Fifteen
The Explanation of Families,
the Criterion of Love,
the Meaning of Life,
the Key of Destiny,
the Refreshing of
Life, the Avenue of Eternity:
Jesus Christ the
Righteous (Acts
Chapter 16
Swift Witness 6
GOD IS NOT UP FOR CONSIDERATION, BUT MAN!
Presuppositions and Pronouncement
Heaven and Hell