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Imagery to help us remember that earthly suffering is temporary: a scale and a timeline; 1 Corinthians 4:17-18
I’m going to write today about some imagery we can use in our meditation time to remind us that any suffering we experience on earth is temporary. Yesterday I was writing about the imagery of carrying your cross and following Jesus. It is comforting to remember that we only carry our cross through this life – temporarily – and then we will be at perfect peace and rest in heaven forever.
1 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” The imagery we can use with this verse is that of a scale or balance.
On one side of the scale, envision the troubles you have experienced in this life. You don’t have to minimize your sufferings at all. Think of them as painful as they are…with as much pain as you feel about them. This is important because if you minimize or dismiss your pain, it can prevent you from releasing it and might even make you hold onto it. It is difficult to release a pain that you feel has not been understood or acknowledged yet. So go ahead and envision your pain in the scale without minimizing anything….or enlarging it either…just envision it exactly as it is. And then remember that no matter how great your pain is that you have experienced in this life, you can know for certain that when you look over on the other side of the scale, the blessings we receive in Christ will far outweigh any of our sufferings. While you are looking at the side of the scale that represents the future glory in heaven, spend time thinking about what it will be like to be in heaven…remembering also that one day when you are actually there in heaven, you will no longer feel any pain related to the sufferings you are enduring now. One of my hymns that I haven’t posted on here yet ends with the words, “Earthly sorrow turns into joy divine!” The pain you are feeling now will all be taken away when you get to heaven. Sorrow turns to joy. Psalm 126:5-6 says, “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” There is a hymn I have posted on here called “Crown After Cross” by Frances Havergal – Learning to Live by Faith that talks about this and is helpful to listen to.
So as you are meditating, spend time noticing the pain that is on one side of the balance…then notice the future glory that awaits you in heaven…and then spend time wondering what it will feel like when you stand before God, have all your pain taken away, and get to enter into your great reward…a life in heaven with Jesus…forever!
Another image we can use to think about how our suffering on earth is temporary is a timeline. I drew this one in Paint 3D. I think it works well enough for you to envision the concept.
Each mark on the timeline represents 100 years. The first 100 years represents our life on earth, which at most will be 100 years. The rest of the marks on the timeline represent life in heaven. In heaven, we will be in eternity, which is a different state of being where we will not be bound by time. There are hymns that talk about going from time into eternity. Here on earth we have days and nights that pass in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. There are not literal years in heaven…we will not be bound by time there…but we cannot yet comprehend what that will be like. So it helps to think of heaven as passing in endless years…hundreds of thousands of millions of endless years. The timeline that I drew shows about 1,000 years on it. The last verse of “Amazing Grace” says, “When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, then when we first begun.” What this means is that because there is no end to our life in heaven, it will go on forever and ever. So even after we have been there 10,000 years, we will be nowhere close to reaching the end of our life in heaven because it never ends. We will never run out of time there. Our life there will go on forever and ever. Spending time meditating on that concept is very helpful. It helps us remember that we suffer in this life, which can last at most 100 years. And even if you endure very painful suffering for those 100 years, you have an eternity of endless years awaiting you where you will be living forever at perfect peace getting to see Jesus face to face. Remembering the eternal, never-ending glory that awaits us in heaven, can help us through our days on earth while we are still carrying our cross.
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“Bring Your Vessels Not a Few” by Mrs. C. H. Morris
Hymnal Page Scan: Bring Your Vessels
Keyboard Recording:
Voice Note with words to 1st verse:
1 Are you looking for the fullness
of the blessing of the Lord
In your heart and life today?
Claim the promise of your Father,
come according to His word,
in the blessed old time way.Chorus:
He will fill your heart today to overflowing,
As the Lord commandeth you,
“Bring your vessels, not a few;”
He will fill your heart today to overflowing
With the Holy Ghost and pow’r.2 Bring your empty earthen vessels,
clean thro’ Jesus’ precious blood,
Come, ye needy, one and all;
And in human consecration
wait before the throne of God,
‘Till the Holy Ghost shall fall. (Chorus)3 Like the cruse of oil unfailing
is His grace forevermore,
And His love unchanging still;
And according to His promise
with the Holy Ghost and pow’r,
He will ev’ry vessel fill. (Chorus) -
“Footprints of Jesus” by Lucie E. Campbell
Hymnal Page Scan: The New National Baptist Hymnal (21st Century Edition) 230. They led to Bethany, there’s where He stayed | Hymnary.org
Keyboard Recording:
Voice Note with words to 4th verse:
Refrain:
Footprints of Jesus, leading the way,
Footprints of Jesus, by night and by day;
Sure if I follow, life will be sweet!
Saved by the prints of His wounded feet.1 They led to Bethany, there’s where He stayed;
They led to Gethsemane there’s where He prayed;
They led to Calvary, salvation complete,
Saved by the prints of His wounded feet. [Refrain]2 Once I was lost and He heard my cry;
He left His Father’s mansion on high;
He took my burden, and now I can sing
“Glory to God, I’m a child of the King.” [Refrain]3 Daniel saw in Him a great rolling stone;
Isaiah saw Him tread the winepress alone;
If we some day our dear Savior would meet,
Follow the prints of His wounded feet. [Refrain]4 That’s how I know Him, that’s why I say,
Jesus is leading me, all the way;
I shall reach Heaven’s portals so sweet,
Led by the prints of His wounded feet. [Refrain] -
“Take Up Thy Cross” by William Everest
Hymnal Page Scan: Take Up Thy Cross, the Savior Said | Hymnary.org
Keyboard Recording:
1 “Take up thy cross,” the Savior said,
“if thou wouldst my disciple be;
deny thyself, the world forsake,
and humbly follow after Me.”2 Take up thy cross, let not its weight
fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
and brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm.3 Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame,
nor let thy foolish pride rebel;
thy Lord for thee the cross endured,
to save thy soul from death and hell.4 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ,
nor think till death to lay it down;
for only they who bear the cross
may hope to wear the glorious crown.5 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ,
nor think till death to lay it down,
for only they who bear the cross
may hope to wear the glorious crown.6 To Thee, great Lord, the One in Three,
all praise forevermore ascend:
O grant us in our home to see
the heavenly life that knows no end. -
Learning how to conform to God’s will: journaling exercise and imagery of walking hand in hand with God on His pathway
In my previous voice note I talked about some imagery you can use in your meditation time to help with learning to submit to God’s will. Well, it’s imagery and a journaling exercise. Journaling the events of the day can help you process your day. And then in this exercise, if you write out 2 columns…in 1 column you write out what you were hoping would happen that day, and in the 2nd column you write out what did happen. When you do that you will find in the events of the day that both painful things happened that you didn’t want to have happen and pleasant things happened that you didn’t expect to have happen…and some things will go the way you were hoping they would. When you see that 2nd column as being God’s will for the events of the day, and start conforming to that…it can help get your mind working differently. The point of the exercise is to see that we are supposed to conform to God’s will for the day instead of trying to make God conform to our desires for the day…trusting in God’s sovereignty, His providence, and His plan for our lives. You could think of it this way: envision God walking with you hand in hand as He guides you on the pathway He has laid out for your life…your journey through this world. And then when something happens that is painful…or didn’t go the way we were hoping…we start pulling on God’s hand and trying to pull Him off the pathway with us as we try to go in a different direction. Instead, we should let God lovingly pull us back onto His pathway…and trust in Him to guide us through any dark valleys or times of pain.
While God does expect us to let Him guide us…to stay on that pathway He has laid out for us…He doesn’t expect us to not have any feelings or emotions about it. Instead, He knows when we are feeling pain and distress and He wants us to tell Him everything we are thinking and feeling…to pour out our hearts to Him. As I’ve been talking about on here, I did not know how to process my emotions until after I got sick. I would just stuff everything down or set it aside. But during those years after I got sick, I learned to cry out to God…I learned more about how to pray. When you read books about trauma healing, they emphasize releasing energy and transforming energy and reshaping the way you see an experience in order to resolve it. Prayer is a very powerful way you can do that. When you lay out everything you are feeling before God, it helps to clear your mind…and then God will answer you. He will speak a word of comfort to you. He acknowledges your pain…and then shows you a way to process it that you hadn’t been able to think of before. If you’ve had a chance to listen to one of my hymns that I’ve posted on here called, “His Ways Are Higher,” that’s what the words are talking about in the first verse when it says, “He knows your pain and He sees your wounds. If you will seek Him, then you will find Him, He’ll hold you close and He’ll comfort you.” Sometimes just having your pain acknowledged can really help towards being able to feel it and release it. I had been used to stuffing it down, but to have it acknowledged really helped me to start healing. To know that God cares about what you are feeling…that “He knows exactly how you feel” makes you feel comforted, loved, and supported…it makes you feel safe. And feeling safe is necessary to be able to go through a healing process.
So when you are doing this exercise, after you have written out both columns…remember to practice with that energy of letting God’s hand hold your hand and keep pulling you closer to Him…and envision any resistance to Him dissolving as you get in the habit of turning to Him and looking to Him for help when something happens instead of feeling as much distress or pulling away from Him. Then pour out your heart to Him about how the day went. Ask Him, “Why did this happen?” if something is confusing to you. Or tell Him, “I feel sad because…..” And remember also to praise Him and thank Him for walking through that day with you. That’s important to remember to do that because it will get a different energy flowing. If you had a difficult day, it can help so much just to say to Him, “Thank You for walking with me today. I don’t understand what happened today, but I know You were there with me. I know You love me. I know You have all the answers. Can You please help me process what happened today?” And then wait to get a sense of His response. When I get an answer from God, I do not hear His voice talking to me outside of my head. I get a sense of an answer in my heart…or maybe I will start seeing an image in my mind…or I will start having new thoughts in my mind…a new way of seeing things through His eyes.
I think it was John Owen, a pastor from the 1600s, who was talking about how God guides us through this life on a pathway He has laid out for us. And then at the end of that pathway… when we get to heaven…Jesus will sit down with us, and we will look again at the pathway we traveled to get there…and He will tell us all about why that was our pathway through this life…what all of His hidden purposes were for us…and how He has worked everything together for our ultimate good and for His glory.
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Voice Note: Influx and Reflux, Imagery of conforming to God’s will, Imagery of our moments as gemstones, Imagery of the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters at creation
Voice Note:
Transcript: [00:00] Okay, so I’m still having this flare-up of E-O-E and I still don’t have my voice, so…I’m still trying to get breakthroughs. The other day when I was talking about, I think I was talking about how my brain takes in information. I used the word influx. And, it made me think of the word reflux. So, the way that my mind takes in information If you’re a highly sensitive person, if you’re a neurodivergent, then you’re just taking in all of the information. Other people have a filter. Or they’re filtering out a lot. In my mind, it doesn’t filter it out. It just takes in everything. And that’s how your system can get overwhelmed with too much information. as I’m trying to get my thoughts together and work through this imagery to see if there can be a breakthrough and what you’re supposed to have is influx It’s like the intake of something and then processing.
So it’s like influx and efflux. E-F-F-L-U-X But if you influx and reflux, then the information is not processing through. And I guess I should have started by saying that I’m having a lot of trouble with acid reflux. Um during this flare up. And You’re trying to learn the language of your body and work through any of these underlying causes like that. So…If you think of that and influxing and then refluxing…reflux itself can be caused by even if you don’t have an autoimmune condition if you fill your stomach up too much the food will reflux out of it. So that’s…
It goes with how my brain works. If it’s just too much information gets taken in and it’s too much to process, so you’re refluxing or What it made me think of is It was partially with how my mind worked. I was taking in too much information and then also I didn’t have the tools to process events as they were happening over life, so I didn’t know how to meditate. I didn’t really know how to process the day. What um I would do is I would you would separate off from things. So, anything…What it made me think of was if there’s anything that’s going to change your life in a direction that’s painful or just isn’t something that you were wanting to have happen, kind of just block it out. Okay, that didn’t happen. And try and keep going.
That’s that. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can energy that just kept going. Kept going. Kept going. Until you reached the end of the road with that and I got sick and then that was when I started learning about how to meditate.
So, let me try and get my thoughts together. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, up until I was 16, you were in that go-go-go mentality where you were taught…Not to listen to your body or not to get those messages, but just to make yourself go out on stage. Just keep going. But my body was breaking down over the years until it crossed that threshold into where I had chronic illnesses, and what I would do after that was to start, you know, trying to find out what was wrong and why I had gotten sick and then the answers were learning about meditation and Learning the language of your body and how to listen to those warning signals. So. I’m trying to get past, well I guess what would happen with the influxing and refluxing is you kind of just wouldn’t let something affect you. You would have to push it to the side and say, I’ll have to deal with that later. Get through the day right now. And you’re kind of putting all of that energy into this tank, like an energy tank. It’s that…unprocessed energy there.
[05:00] And. I made it through life like that until I was 16, and again, I’ve done well for 12 or 13 years…until something has connected with that energy tank of all of that unprocessed stuff that just, you know, okay, can’t deal with that right now. I’m going to dissociate and just have to pretend like that didn’t happen and keep going. I think in a lot of ways the only way that I knew how to make it through the day was just by pretending that it had gone differently than it did. when you get to the point where you can’t um… you have to process the fact of how things actually went. So again, I hope I’m making sense here because this is the energy that I’m trying to work with that just kind of stops my brain and it’s really hard for me to put words with it. What I learned after I got sick, I learned more about prayer and meditation and those are actually the ways we’re supposed to spend time processing the day. The way that I would pray before I got sick, it would be like, What I knew of prayer was to make prayer requests and pray for people
that were sick, or pray for healing, pray about specific things going on like that. I didn’t know as much that you’re supposed to pour your heart out before God and be talking to Him about all of these things. And that supposed to spend probably like 30 minutes to an hour a day, at the end of the day just really trying to process through how things actually happened.
There’s some imagery we can work with with that. There’s several different ones. Again, it’s that energy tank for everything that just had all of your feelings about something. Or Just blocking things out and putting it into that tank. And again, that works until something happens that opens that or connects with that energy.
So, that’s making it where I’ve got to try and work through that energy. some of the imagery about learning how to acquiesce to God’s will, how to submit to God’s will. First of all, it helps in learning about his sovereignty and all that he’s doing, all that he’s working out for us. The plan of salvation. That’s what I was talking about in my last post about this process that’s going on as he’s…bringing people into the church, all the living stones, all of these processes going on, you really Get that sense that God’s in control of everything. There’s a purpose with everything that happens. It helps to know that. And it really just helps to know that God can help you. He wants to sit down with you and process through these things for you. So maybe you had something happen that you didn’t want to process. Or didn’t want it to affect you. That could be like, you know, my parents had gotten divorced or something like that. I didn’t process that at all at the time. Just kind of trying to say that didn’t happen. I’m going to have to just keep going. Things like that. But God wants to sit down with you and help you process through them. One way you can kind of get that process going is There’s a pastor named William Gurnall, and he had a sermon series that’s extremely powerful about the…Christian in complete armor, the armor of God. I think he was a preacher in the 1600s. He was talking about something else but I got this imagery from it. He was talking about something where everything used to be written out or typed out. And they would be trying to make a copy of a manuscript. And they would have to write another copy by hand.
[10:00] And when they were proofreading it, If there was an error in the copy, you would change that to conform it to the original rather than changing the original to match the error in the copy. I’m not sure what he was talking about at that part of it, but you can see how it goes that we’re supposed to conform to the image of Christ. He’s not conforming to us, we’re conforming to him. And then… It just made me think…of…Sometimes he’ll say something and then I think of a different imagery that works. It gets your mind going where you can think of other imagery also. It made me think of journaling. One thing they recommend to process your day, which can be really helpful, is journaling. You write out the events of the day. It can just kind of help you process it just to write it down. Then it got me thinking about what if you did an exercise where you had the two columns, and you wrote out what you had hoped was going to happen that day, and then wrote out what actually did happen that day. If you try it, you’re going to have things…you’re going to see what you were hoping to have happen that day. You write out what happened. You’ll find both things that happen that maybe were painful that you didn’t want to have happen. Then you also have unexpected things that happen that were good that you wouldn’t have thought of. And, oh, this happened. I didn’t know that was going to happen, but that was not painful. You can just get your mind working towards being able to take in new information again. If you can see…Just trying to get it open to seeing what happens.
As you start to feel that confidence in that God knew the day was going to happen this way. And again, you’re just working with the events. And then you just list out the events. You can start to contemplate what his purposes were in that. Not all of that’s going to be revealed to us. Okay, I see. You just start.
Trying to see what God’s process was. And learning about it reminds you what you’ll learn in the Bible is that God works…He can work everything together for your good…Which doesn’t mean that only pleasant things are going to happen to you. He works through the painful things also. The things that you’re trying to keep from affecting you because you’re concerned that they might overwhelm you or shut you down. Maybe they’re too painful to process. If you give him that energy tank and let him start sorting through it with you. That’s what I’m trying to get going with that process of giving that energy to him and trusting that he’ll lovingly work through it with you.
There was one imagery from a book by Francis Havergal.
I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing her last name correctly, but she wrote, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
She’s written many very beautiful, very powerful hymns. She wrote this book going through that hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be. and somewhere in there she was talking about how what we have to do is Hold our moments like the moments of our life. Hold them in our hands. You hold them out like you would hold a prism. P-R-I-S-M, like a prism up to the light and let light shine through it. See it at different angles. See if you can see something different in that moment. She might have said they hold them out like they’re diamonds. It was some kind of gemstone that you hold out and let light shine through it.
So you can start to see light sparkling on it differently, and maybe it’ll reveal something there that you couldn’t see before. Just get a little bit of expansion in the view of it. So, hold those moments out before God. Hold that energy tank out before him. As again, it’s all this unprocessed stuff that you may not be able to remember even what it was. If you’ve blocked it out, it may be too much to try and remember. Just work with the energy itself. See if you can get it flowing in a different way.
[15:00] So there’s the imagery of that, of the writing out the two different columns and We need to match to God’s will. So we’re conforming to His will. Conforming to His image.
trusting in his sovereignty and trusting in his providence.
Then you can take your moments and hold them out to let him shine the light on them to help you see it differently.
It also made me think of the hymn, Have Thy Own Way, Lord.
Have thy own way, Lord. Have thy own way. You are the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. I hope I said those words right. You can see that God’s shaping you. He’s conforming you to the image of Christ and he works through things that are painful and he works through things that are pleasant. He can work through anything and he can work it all together for your good and for his glory. So again, oh wait, there was one other image that I got. that it was like…It’s really interesting how they talk about, in these older commentaries, they compare the work of the Holy Spirit at regeneration, when a person is saved, um to the work of creation when the Spirit hovered over the waters, hovered over the deep and brought…you know, created everything out of that. The new man is a new creation, so it’s saying that the Spirit hovers over in your soul and forms a new creation out of that. And I saw an image just today when I was trying to work with that energy of a dove over that energy tank. And. I think what it means is remembering that God’s the creator. He’s going to make all things new. He can bring something out of that. He’s the Potter. He can shape it. He can rework it for you. and help it process up so that you can get out of that influx-reflux cycle. I think it was John Ball. He has a book about meditation. I can’t remember what.
century, he was preaching in. But I’m He was, uh… he was saying that in meditation. Meditation is digestion. We’re supposed to meditate on the Word of God, so you read through it, and then…You meditate on it. You’re digesting it. You’re processing what you’ve heard. And. Again, that energy tank is just unprocessed energy. And we’re I’m asking God to help me process that, try and digest it, instead of influxing and refluxing. You’re trying to go through that process of digesting the information, processing it, sorting through it. So that you’re not having to live separated off from what happened. Because when, like the problem that I’m finding with that is you’ve blocked out these painful things so you’re not in the present moment you’re separated off um and you get to that point where you can’t take in any new information…because you’re living frozen in time. So if you update to the present moment, it’s jarring because of what’s going on. You haven’t processed what happened with your parents…or illness or not being able to finish school and anything that brings that into your awareness is jarring to you. So you have to stay in this frozen state. So, again, I appreciate you listening. I hope it helps anybody that has the same thing going on. I’m really hoping for a breakthrough here. Where you can just have that flowing energy because there’s so much imagery there in the Bible in the verse that I was quoting in the previous voice note from 1 Peter 2 was talking about they’re supposed to yearn for the pure milk of the Word. And so, you know, I’ve got that burning going on in my esophagus. That’s your food tube and you see that um just trying to get that healing like if you drink that healing milk that milk of the word um If you meditate on that, it really can help in soothing and healing. I’ve had a flare-up in the past. When I have flare-ups, I can get a breakthrough, and then I heal really quickly. So I’m really hoping that’s what’s going to take place here. And again, I appreciate you listening, and I hope you found it helpful.
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Voice Note: Imagery of riding with Jesus in a royal carriage and imagery from 1 Peter 2:4-5 of living stones
Voice Note:
Transcript: [00:00] Hi. Okay, thank you for listening today I was going to talk about some imagery that we can use in our meditation time.
It helps us to learn about, in terms of processing our environment, it helps us to have this imagery of where we are and what’s going on. And in the timeline of history, we’re living in between Jesus’ ascension and his return. And again, we can’t know when his return is going to happen. But this is the environment that we’re in, or this is imagery that can help us to know um So, there was one that was from a Spurgeon sermon I would have to find um which sermon it was it’s from it uses imagery from Song of Solomon where Jesus is riding in a royal carriage. um again, I think it was in the Spurgeon sermon where he was emphasizing that this world Remember, we’re living in nighttime, so it’s a world that’s still in darkness. We go through this life, it’s nighttime, and then heaven is the dawning of eternal day. He also uses the imagery from the Bible of this world being a wilderness. So when you become a Christian, it’s like getting into that royal carriage with Jesus and then he’s guiding you through or driving you through this world. It’s um Actually, the carriage I think is one that does not have wheels like that…it would have just those posts that people are carrying someone in a carriage. But when I was working with the imagery, I saw one, like a carriage with wheels on it. I think it’s okay to think of it that way. Just for the purpose of imagery. It would, uh…It’s important to be accurate, but I think also that like for this, just for some reason, if it has wheels on it, you feel that motion with that. And these are things that can help you.
Like for me, you can feel that motion, like movement, you’re going through life. Right now I’m having trouble with circulation, and I’m also physically limited, so…This imagery can help you get that energy flowing that you’re moving even if you can’t physically be moving around as much. So there’s that image that’s really helpful.
Um also remembering that we’re going through a wilderness.
The world is still largely in darkness. Jesus is that light shining into the darkness. So we’re in that carriage with him, that royal carriage. And He’s driving us through this world.
Another image is from John Gill’s book called Doctrinal Divinity.
I can’t remember exactly which section that’s in in that book He does a lot of chapters talking about the end times. It might be in there. As again, I’ve done other voice notes talking about feeling the stress of concern about the end of the world. Again, we can’t know when it will be. But the imagery that we’re working with now applies to all Christians that have lived since
Jesus ascension, this is how we’re supposed to be living this is imagery to work with, as we cannot know when those things will happen, when the end of the world will happen.
But this is how we’re supposed to be living. Seeing ourselves going through that wilderness with Jesus and proclaiming the gospel. And there’s this other process going on that John Gill was talking about of people being brought into the church. [05:00] He’s…um…There’s a Bible verse that talks about living stones. It’s 1 Peter 2:4 and 5, “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
So the imagery from that verse is that we are living stones.
being built up as a spiritual house of God. And I think it’s in John Gill’s book that he explains that you start out as a just a stone, then you’re made alive in Christ when you’re regenerated. you’re made into this living stone, and you’re put into this temple. So he’s using this imagery of God’s building a spiritual house or temple…It’s metaphorical or symbolic, not literal. So this is something where we’re envisioning a concept, it’s still not figments of our imagination. And I’m just clarifying that this one is symbolic in heaven so like when we’re on earth going through the world With Jesus in that carriage, if someone responds to the gospel…They’re saved. They’re turned into that. They go from being a stone to be a living stone and they’re put into that temple. and the imagery is there you can see that being built in the sky. What John Gill was saying is that… That temple’s being built, and then after the last stone is put in it,
The last person that’s going to believe in Jesus believes in Him, Then that temple’s complete, and Jesus returns sometime after that.
I’m talking from memory here from what I had read, so I hope I’m saying correctly what he had said. But there’s this imagery.
There. So what we’re doing, we’re in that carriage with Jesus going through the wilderness and the darkness of this world.
You’re shining the light. when people respond to it… They believe in Jesus. They’re transformed into the living stone, They’re regenerated, and they’re put into that temple. So it just helps give your mind A concept to think on. What am I doing today? Where are we? What are we? What are we here for? Well, you’re shining that light. When people believe, then they’re made into a living stone, put into that symbolic, you know, Temple. And when that’s completed…we can’t know when that will be or who the last person is that’s going to believe. But sometime after that, Jesus returns.
You’ve probably heard the hymn Blessed Assurance. In there, Fanny Crosby talks about, we’re watching and waiting, looking above. So that’s what we’re doing in the Christian life now with where we are on the timeline. We’re watching and waiting, looking above…waiting for His return. So it really helps to spend time meditating on that. Of just… Again, you’re seeing that temple being built. You think about how many stones are already there…everyone who’s ever believed in Jesus would be a part of that and that includes all of us that are still alive we’re living stones metaphorically in that temple. So it’s just powerful imagery to use. And again, it can help get that energy flowing that I’m having trouble with circulation, but it can help feel
motion, movement, what we’re working on, that process is taking place. and it can help us be comforted by it. Remembering that we know the verse saying that , “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” So remembering what that means as he’s saving us out of this world of darkness, this fallen world…That’s corrupted by that influence of sin. Where… Uh…people grow old and pass away or have illnesses and um that happens with animals and it happens in the creation, you know, that decaying influence where Plants die. Trees die. There’s death. Sin brought in death.
And so God’s saving us out of this world. We’re living stones in that spiritual house. And our reward is that we get to go to heaven to live with Jesus forever.
So, again, thank you for listening. I hope you find that imagery helpful, and I’ll post again sometime soon.
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Voice Note: What is faith? Ellicott and Matthew Poole Commentaries on Hebrews 11:1; Imagery of light shining into our understanding
Voice Note:
Links: Hebrews 11 Matthew Poole’s Commentary
Hebrews 11 Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
The imagery from today’s voice note is that of a light shining into our understandings, illuminating them and giving us an awareness of that spiritual world that we cannot see with our eyes. So when you are meditating, think about God’s light shining on you, feel the warmth of it, and feel your awareness of the unseen world and spend time wondering what it will look like when our faith becomes sight. Here is the transcript of the voice note:
Transcript: Thank you for listening. I’ve been reading the commentaries on Hebrews 11:1, which is a verse I talked about in another voice note that says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So I’ve been doing posts about what faith is and my throat is still hurting so I cannot whisper much so I was going to use this I was going to go through some of these commentaries with you to show you how I study and how we can go over that information. normally if I had my voice I would just read the quotes to you. Since I can’t whisper much, I’m going to use that read-aloud voice that’s there in the Microsoft Edge browser. I use that to help me read through the commentaries because I can, it turns it into like an audiobook so you can listen to it. I can listen to more than I can read, and I really like using audiobooks, so…um…This again this will be Matthew Poole’s Commentary on Hebrews 11:1. We’ll listen to it and then They’ve got some really good information here about what faith is. So this is again Hebrews 11:1 in Matthew Poole’s Commentary. It’s taking me a second here.
The nature of faith, and its acceptableness with God, set forth in the examples of many excellent persons of old time.
Now faith: the Holy Spirit proceeds in this chapter to strengthen the counsel he had given these Hebrews to continue stedfast in the faith of Christ, to the end that they may receive their reward, the salvation of their souls, Hebrews 10:39 1 Peter 1:9; and so beginneth with a description of that faith, and proves it to be effectual to this end, by instances out of all ages of the world before them, wherein the Old Testament believers had found it to be so. The description of it is laid down, Hebrews 11:1; the proof of it in both parts, Hebrews 1:2,3; and the illustration of its power by examples, Hebrews 11:4-40. The particle de shows this is inferred as a discovery of that faith, which is saving or purchasing the soul; which that none of these Hebrews may be mistaken in, he describeth from its effect, and not from its form and essence. Faith is here a Divine fruit of the Spirit, given and wrought by it in his elect, and is justifying and purchasing the soul to glory, John 12:38 Romans 5:1 2 Corinthians 12:9 Ephesians 1:19,20 2:8.
That was reading out some Bible references there. So, what he’s saying here is that he’s telling them to stay steadfast in the faith of Christ that they would that they may receive their reward, the salvation of their souls. And he’s emphasizing that this is saving faith, and he’s talking about that it’s the saving and purchasing of the soul. You’ve heard the Bible verses that you are bought with a price your life is not your own you are bought with a price and So what they’ll do in the commentaries is they’ll break the verse down. They go over the verse so that was going over the phrase, “now faith.” And then this will be about the next phrase in the verse. “is the substance of things hoped for.” So this talks about what faith is.
Here it is a real, present, confident assent of the soul of a believer to the promise of God, (which is the basis or foundation of it), by which the spiritual good things to come, and which fall not under sense, yet with a most vehement and intense desire urged for, are made to have a mental, intellectual existence and subsistence in the soul which exerciseth it, Romans 8:18,26 John 3:36.
okay so that’s really important there. I think it’s a confident assent or confident agreement of the soul of the Christian to the promises of God. So remember, faith has three elements. knowledge, belief, and trust. So when we hear the gospel, that revelation of knowledge about God, as Christians we believe it. So some hear and they do not believe. Christians hear and we believe it and then we put our trust in it. And he’s saying it’s through that, he’s saying, by which spiritual good things to come and which fall not under sense. So he’s talking about our five senses. Sight. Sound. smell, taste, and touch, so the spiritual world is not perceptible with those senses And he’s saying that by faith, the things which we cannot perceive with our senses are made to have a mental, intellectual existence and subsistence in the soul, which exerciseth faith. So that’s what it’s talking about in this verse. These…This is how these commentaries are so helpful. They’ll help you get a deeper understanding of the verse.So it’s saying, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So he is saying that by faith the things that you cannot perceive with your senses are made to have an intellectual existence and subsistence in the soul which exercises faith.
This will be the next part of the verse.
The evidence of things not seen: elegkoi is a demonstrative discovery of that which falleth not under sense, such as is scientifical, and puts matters out of question to a man; and therefore is styled by logicians a demonstration: here it notes faith to be that spiritual space which by God’s revelation demonstrates or makes evident all things not seen by sense, or natural reason, without it, as matters of spiritual truth, good and evil in their several kinds, both past, present, and to come, John 17:6,8 Eph 1:17,18.
So again, it’s the evidence of things not seen. So he’s saying it’s a demonstrative well demonstrative discovery. Sometimes in these older commentaries, discovery means revelation. So as a demonstrative, I think it probably means that here. demonstrative revelation…I’m having trouble saying demonstrative. It’s like demonstration demonstrative revelation of things which fall not under sense. And therefore is styled by logicians a demonstration. So it’s a demonstration.
So again, faith is a spiritual space which by God’s revelation demonstrates or makes evident all things not seen by sense.
So that goes along with what we’ve been talking about, seeing things through an eye of faith. It’s not with your physical eyes that you see them. It’s through this revelation of God by faith where I think it might have been in the verse like in Hebrews 10:39 in this commentary 38 or 39 where he says it makes an impression on you. Let me see if I can find that real quick. Well, right here in the next verse it says that Faith made the invisible things of God to subsist with them. Ok I found it. It takes it a second to start playing…the read-aloud voice.
It is the same Divine faith as described before, but as evidencing invisible truths, it communicates a marvellous light to the understanding, and leaves real impressions of it from the word of God, whereby it arriveth unto a most certain knowledge of what is above the power of natural reason to convey, and gives a divine assent to it, such its as is real, clear, sure, and fruitful, different from that of the Gentiles, Romans 1:19-23.
Okay, so he’s saying that faith communicates a marvelous light to the understanding and leaves real impressions of it from the Word of God whereby it arriveth unto a most certain knowledge of what is above the power of natural reason to convey, and gives a divine assent to it.So, you get that light to your understanding and there are impressions made there of the unseen world where those things have an existence or are subsisting there with you, even though you can’t see them. As I hope I’m saying this right. And then there were some quotes from Ellicott’s commentary on this verse that I thought would be helpful to hear. Okay, these are some quotes from Ellicott’s commentary.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11, verse 4. If we keep this in mind, It skipped ahead. Let me start over here.
(1) We have seen how the writer approached the subject which is the chief theme of this last division of this Epistle. The coming of the Lord, for judgment upon His adversaries, for salvation to His people, draws nigh. In the midst of dangers and judgments God’s righteous servant shall live, and the ground, of his life is his steadfast faith—if he shrink back, destruction will overtake him. “Our principle of action” (the writer says to his Hebrew readers) “is not shrinking back, but faith. And faith is this. . . .” It has been debated whether that which follows is a definition of what faith is, or in reality a description of what faith does. It is not a complete definition, in the sense of including all the moments of thought which are present in the word as used in the last chapter (Hebrews 11:38) or in this. The “things hoped for” are not mere figments of the imagination; their basis is the word of God.
Then there’s another quote here. Let me find it. Okay. It takes it a second to start reading it.
To adopt Dr. Vaughan’s clear explanation, “Faith is that principle, that exercise of mind and soul, which has for its object things not seen but hoped for, and which, instead of sinking under them as too ponderous, whether from their difficulty or from their uncertainty, stands firm under them—supports and sustains their pressure—in other words, is assured of, confides in and relies on them.” This interpretation yields
So I thought that was a really important quote. Let me look and see. I think there’s another one here. Okay, there’s two more quotes that I’ll play for you here.
Faith, holding to God’s word, gives substance to what that word promises, investing the future blessings with a present existence, treating them as if already objects of sight rather than of hope.
And thus faith becomes “the faculty in man through which the spiritual world exercises its sway over him, and thereby enables him to overcome the world of sin and death.” (Hare, Victory of Faith.).
Okay, so…I hope it helped to hear the quotes read out with that voice. So, again, this is trying to see what faith is. There’s that unseen spiritual world that we can’t see with our eyes, we can’t perceive it with our five senses. So, God shines the light of the gospel. He shines this light into our understanding when we hear the word of God and the things in the invisible world make an impression on us where they have an existence, where they subsist with us, now by faith. They’re real. They’re there. They exist with us here in that way until we’re in heaven and faith becomes sight.
So, um, let me look over this. So, I’m gonna…This is how I study. I look through the commentaries and then you look for definitions in there and then work with the imagery.
Again, really, you’re connecting to that unseen world. It’s real. We’re wondering what it looks like. They’re not, as Ellicott was saying, they’re not as it was he might have been quoting somebody, but it was right there when he was saying it. there are They’re not figments of our imagination, so we’re supposed to be spending time meditating, wondering what heaven looks like, wondering what it’ll be like to be there. So, again, I hope that this worked to use the read-aloud voice and thank you for listening. And I’ll post again sometime soon.
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“A Debtor to Mercy Alone” by Augustus Toplady
Hymnal Page Scan: Faith Triumphing | Hymnary.org
Piano Recording:
Voice Note with Explanation of A Debtor to Mercy Alone:
Voice Note with Words to hymn:
(The words to the hymn are posted after the transcript of the voice note)
Transcript of Voice Note: Okay, so this hymn is called A Debtor to Mercy Alone. It can also be called Faith Triumphing or…Assurance of Faith. It’s a very powerful hymn, and it talks about things that we’ve been talking about on here. about how we’re relying on the righteousness of Christ to save us.
So it’s not by our own good works that we’re saved, but it’s through that righteousness of Christ that he worked out for us
when he obeyed the law perfectly in our place.
So the first verse, a Christian is standing before God, acknowledging that he’s a debtor to mercy alone.
that it’s not by his own works that he’s saved, he’s indebted to God’s grace and the free pardon of his sins.
So he’s singing of covenant mercy. He’s praising God for saving him by grace. he’s saying now that he’s wearing that robe of Christ’s righteousness, he no longer fears to stand before God and bring his offering of prayer and praise.
When it’s talking about the terrors of law and of God, with me it can have nothing to do. Uh my Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. So it’s talking about the law given in the Old Testament and think about that picture of how it was when they were at Mount Sinai and God was giving them the law and the terror and the energy that was there when the law was being given. where if anyone had touched the mountain, they would die so everybody had to stay back. The voice of God was there. There was trembling and terror, because the law made them aware of sin. And they were aware that they were not going to be able to meet the demands of the law. They needed a Savior.
So this Christian is …in this rejoicing in Christ’s sacrifice for him because he’s acknowledging here that Jesus’ obedience, his perfect life, how he obeyed the law of perfect here and his blood, his sacrifice on the cross, hide all my transgressions from view.
So he’s saying the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do, my Savior’s obedience and blood. hide all my transgressions from view. so he’s been reconciled to God through Christ. So the guilt of his sins has been taken away,
that sin stained garment, and he’s been given the righteousness of Christ, and he’s accepted in God’s sight.
So it’s just a really important verse that you can use during your meditation time to meditate on that. We’re um casting our all on Christ. We’re totally relying on his righteousness and we’re rejoicing in him that he worked out that righteousness for us.
Something we could not do for ourselves. And now we’re accepted in God’s sight. And another And when you’re listening to the third verse, remember that image of…Jesus there in heaven. And he knows you by name. Your names are written on the palms of his hands. And it’s impressed on his heart. And so, this is the assurance of your salvation.
And, just that image right there. My throat is still hurting, so I can only whisper for a few minutes here. But that image of a Christian standing there, looking up to heaven, and saying, my name from the palms of his hands, eternity will not erase.
Impressed on his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. You can use that when you’re meditating on the glory of God, his majesty, and then remembering he knows you by name, and your name is written on the palm of his hands.
So I’m going to try to whisper the words over the piano recording so you can hear how the words go with the music. And I recorded this hymn when I was playing on the piano, I played it kind of slow. I do that on purpose when I’m learning a hymn. The way that I play through the hymnal is I’ll record me playing through it. I play it through slower. Really try and learn the words slowly, and then you can speed it up as you go. But it is…It is really powerful when you slow the hymn down and use it for your meditation time. And play it slower like that because you can really think through the words. So that’s why I do it that way. it’s a little bit slow for like singing along with it, for holding the notes for that long. It just would be So this is like a meditative speed, playing it, and then you can…take time to really meditate on the words and then you could speed it up to play through it if you’re going to be singing with it. But Again, it really helps to slow it down when you’re first learning it so you can really think through the words and the imagery that goes with them. So I’ll post another recording with the words on it so you can hear how it sounds.
Here are the words to the hymn:
1 A debtor to mercy alone,
of covenant mercy I sing;
nor fear, with Your righteousness on,
my person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do;
my Savior’s obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from view.2 The work which His goodness began,
the arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is yea and amen,
and never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
nor all things below or above,
can make Him His purpose forgo,
or sever my soul from His love.3 My name from the palms of His hands
eternity will not erase;
impressed on His heart it remains,
in marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
as sure as the earnest is giv’n;
more happy, but not more secure,
are the glorified spirits in heav’n.
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Learning to Live by Faith 