A few weeks ago I did one of my spontaneous bail-outs. I went fishing down the coast but then drove further to surf at another spot followed by fishing again in the evening at another spot. I caught nothing. I got pummelled pretty good in the surf until I was exhausted. My leaking heart valve could not take much more. I stood on the beach breathing heavy and decided not to go back out. So I began to drive the 180km home.
On the way home spontaneous me turned down Mandalay Beach road to have a peek. Twenty minutes later I am walking down a pathway into a stiff salty ocean breeze wondering what I will see.
What caught my attention about this beach is the massive rocky island just off the coast.
The pictures do not show at all how awesome the place felt.
The Rock seemed to be huge, even higher than the high vantage point the pathway finishes at.
Once down on the beach, at sea level that Rock is massive!! The waves were 4-5 metres that day towards evening, with so much spray in the air as the sun’s rays made it look like mist and fog.
The swell was pounding the edges of the rocky island and the beach and headlands which all comes back to me today as I ponder life.
There are days when I feel very weak from this silly heart of mine. At night I wonder whether I am going to live much longer in this body. The fact that everyone tells me that heaps of people have had their heart valve replaced does not comfort me much. I need God to comfort me! Of course I know that God is comforting me through the very people He sends my way…but still…
Psa_61:2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Maybe you are in the same place today? Maybe for whatever reason your heart is troubled by bad news or threats of danger and death. So many people have cancer or have had it. Many have lost loved ones to that horrible disease and the fear that it will come our way lurks in the background.
We always have a choice what to believe about our future. Believing is a choice, a proactive thing that we are involved in fully. David said “I will live and not die”…thus he made his choice what to believe. Of course he did die, but he lives on in God.
When our heart is overwhelmed we cry to God who hears our cry and saves the poor man.
When you and I believed on Jesus we believed INTO HIM. God put you in Christ…just as put Moses into the cleft of the rock. In Christ Jesus our life is hidden. And Jesus is in the Father. So you are in Jesus in Father.
Jesus is not the Rock –it is the Father Who is Jesus Rock. Jesus Himself has NO STRENGTH WHATSOEVER OF HIMSELF. Like you and me He needs another to be His strength. Not just His strength but everything. The Father is Jesus LIFE. He has no other life than the Father’s life and it is the Father’s Life that we have all received of and drink of by being in Jesus.
Why am I saying all that?
God our Father is the Rock like One Who dwells in us..never moved by circumstances or feelings. Our Father is steadfast in His determination to form you into the same image as Jesus, nothing can ever weaken His desire to do that.
The Father knows exactly what you and I are going through because He shares it all with us –inside us. He is that rock that is higher who has stooped down to live in us so that He can carry us all the way to the finish line…and beyond that! He will never stop carrying you.
Psalm 65 goes onto say..
Psa 61:3 For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy.
Psa 61:4 I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah
Psa 61:5 For You, O God, have heard my vows; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
Psa 61:6 You will prolong the king’s life, His years as many generations.
Psa 61:7 He shall abide before God forever. Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!
Psa 61:8 So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I may daily perform my vows.
That old testament type of the Tabernacle is not what we new covenant people get to abide in is it? The Tabernacle that God dwells in is you and me! And we are His chosen place to dwell in forever(olam olam, Literally: For an Age)
Father dwells in these perishing bodies..selah! Pause and think upon that! The mighty God dwells in your body…Try saying that out loud..God dwells in my body. God the Rock who is higher than I dwells in His tabernacle–ME!
It is His purpose to dwell in you and transform that lowly body into the same glory as His body, ie immortal, incorruptible.
He is the Rock within that we are being changed from glory to glory into. So that one day what is hidden shall be revealed….
Then what Isaiah said will be manifested….
Isa 32:2 A man will be as a hiding place from 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.
God in you shall be all those things….God with you shall cause you to be all those things in Jesus.
You shall be a hiding place from the wind
You shall be a cover from the tempest
You shall be as rivers of water in a dry place
You shall be as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
This is the our God and we have waited for Him!
