254 lines
13 KiB
HTML
Executable File
254 lines
13 KiB
HTML
Executable File
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<title>Resting in the Lord</title>
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<o:Author>Warren D. Carter</o:Author>
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<o:LastAuthor>Warren D. Carter</o:LastAuthor>
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<o:Revision>3</o:Revision>
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<div class=Section1>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:111.15pt;margin-bottom:
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0cm;margin-left:108.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><b><span
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style='font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>The L<span style='text-transform:
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uppercase'>ord</span>’s Rest<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
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mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>Hebrews 3:14 - 4:11a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style="mso-spacerun:
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yes"> </span>For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly
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as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But never forget the warning:</p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><i><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Today you must listen to His voice.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><i><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>Don't harden your hearts against Him as Israel did
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when they rebelled."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><i><span style='font-size:
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12.0pt'><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And who were those people
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who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice? Weren't they the
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ones Moses led out of Egypt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And who
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made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose bodies
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fell in the wilderness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And to whom was
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God speaking when He vowed that they would never enter His place of rest? He
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was speaking to those who disobeyed Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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</span>So we see that they were not allowed to enter His rest because of their
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unbelief.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><i><span style='font-size:
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12.0pt'><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God's promise of entering
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His place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of
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you might fail to get there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For this
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Good News—that God has prepared a place of rest—has been announced to us just
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as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn't believe what God
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told them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For only we who believe can
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enter His place of rest. As for those who didn't believe, God said,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><i><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>"In My anger I made a vow:<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>'They will never enter My place of rest,'
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"<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><i><span style='font-size:
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12.0pt'>even though His place of rest has been ready since He made the
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world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We know it is ready because the
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Scriptures mention the seventh day, saying,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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</span>"On the seventh day God rested from all His work."<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But in the other passage God said,
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"They will never enter My place of rest."<span style="mso-spacerun:
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yes"> </span>So God's rest is there for people to enter. But those who
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formerly heard the Good News failed to enter because they disobeyed God.<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So God set another time for entering His
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place of rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David a long
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time later in the words already quoted:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><i><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Today you must listen to His voice.<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Don't harden your hearts against Him."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><i><span style='font-size:
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12.0pt'><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This new place of rest was
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not the land of Canaan, where Joshua led them. If it had been, God would not
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have spoken later about another day of rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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</span>So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For all who enter into God's rest will find
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rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world.<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Let us do our best to enter that place of
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rest. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>No teaching flowing out of the Sabbath principle is
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more important than the centrality of our resting in God. Instead of striving
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to make this or that happen, we learn trust in a heavenly Father who loves to
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give. This does not promote inactivity, rather it promotes independent
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activity. We no longer take things into our own hands, but now we place
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everything into His divine hands and then act out of the inner promptings of
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the Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>Today we are invited into God's rest, which the people
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of the Exodus failed to enter. " It remains open for some to enter
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it," declares the writer to the Hebrews. The literal translation for<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"pray always"<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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</span>"come to rest."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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</span>Through the Prayer of Rest we enter this intense stillness, this quiet
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alertness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>But how? How do we enter the Prayer of Rest? It is
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here that we face a serious dilemma. Our tendency is, on the one hand, to take
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firm control, or, on the other hand, to do absolutely nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>We most often begin by tackling prayer in the same way
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we have been taught to tackle every other problem - by hard work. We grit our
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teeth, intensify our will power, and try, try, try. In reality this is a pagan
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concept of prayer in which we rouse the gods to action by our many incantations
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and vain repetitions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>Anthony Bloom tells the story of an elderly woman who
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had been working at prayer with all her might but without ever sensing God's
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presence. Wisely, the archbishop encouraged the old woman to go to her room
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each day and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“for fifteen minutes knit
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before the face of God, but I forbid you to say one word of prayer. You just
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knit and try to enjoy the peace of your room.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt;text-indent:36.0pt'><span
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style='font-size:12.0pt'>The woman received this counsel, and at first her only
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thought was,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"Oh, how nice. I have
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fifteen minutes during which I can do nothing without feeling
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guilty!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In time, however, she
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began to enter the silence created by her knitting. Soon, she said,<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"I perceived that this silence was not
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simply an absence of noise, but that the silence had substance. It was not
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absence of something but presence of something."<span style="mso-spacerun:
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yes"> </span>As she continued her daily knitting, she discovered that<span
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style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"at the heart of the silence there was
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He who is stillness, all peace, all poise."<span style="mso-spacerun:
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yes"> </span>She had let go of her tight-fisted efforts to enter God's
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presence and, by doing so, discovered God's presence already there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;
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mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Warren D. Carter<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:111.15pt'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;
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mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>26.9.97<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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