THE
UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST
BREAD
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the
Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I
have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I
pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may
know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, 19 and
his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians
1:15-19 (NIV)
7 I
became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the
working of his power. 8 Although I
am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach
to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ephesians
3:7-8 (NIV)
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you
with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the
saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within
us, 21 to him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV)
13 Blessed
is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold. 15 She
is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her
left hand are riches and honor. Proverbs 3:13-16 (NIV)
4 Or
do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience,
not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? Romans
2:4 (NIV)
33 Oh,
the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his
counselor?” 35 “Who has ever given
to God, that God should repay him?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Romans
11:33-36 (NIV)
24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in
my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake
of his body, which is the church. 25 I
have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the
word of God in its fullness-- 26 the
mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now
disclosed to the saints. 27 To them
God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:24-27 (NIV)
2 My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that
they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may
know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in
whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3 (NIV)
6 “This
is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In
a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and
the dry land. 7 I will shake all
nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house
with glory,’ says the LORD
Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold
is mine,’ declares the LORD
Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of
this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says
the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place
I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD
Almighty.” Haggai 2:6-9 (NIV)
BUTTER
“He
is all I need! In life He is my life, and in death He will be the death of
death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness He is my great physician; in
darkness He is my star, and in brightness He is my sun; He is the manna of the
camp in the wilderness, and it is He who makes the feast in the promised land.
Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: And of truth
and grace He is full,
infinitely full.” C. H. Spurgeon revised
by Alistair Begg
“Why must we decide
between happiness and sorrow, denial and despair, the joy and the aching? It
is a wrong idea that exaggerates both the bright side and the dark: the bright
side full of sunshine and the dark side grim as death. The premise requires
that we pledge allegiance between two extreme views of the world, two straw men
that can offer nothing more than safe, intellectual predictability. But
the sighs of safety and predictability are such small prizes. What if there was a third way forward
that offered more than mere predictability?
The way is out there.
And it does, indeed, offer much more.
In fact, there are treasures waiting to be found. God promised this through His prophet
Isaiah: ‘And I
will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches. I will do this so
you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you
by name’ (Isaiah 45:3, NLT).
Jason Hague
“Christ’s riches are
unsearchable, and this doctrine of the gospel is the field this treasure is
hidden in.” Thomas Goodwin
“God alone knows the depth and riches of His Godhead,
and divine wisdom alone can declare His secrets.” Thomas Aquinas
“Believer, though all things are apparently against
you, rest assured that God has made a reservation on your behalf; in the roll
of your griefs there is a saving clause. Somehow He will deliver you, and
somewhere He will provide for you. Your rescue may come from a very unexpected
source, but help will definitely come in your extremity, and you will magnify
the name of the Lord. If men do not feed you, ravens will; and if the earth
does not yield wheat, heaven will drop manna.
Therefore be of good courage, and rest quietly in the Lord. God can make
the sun rise in the west if He pleases and can make the source of distress a
channel of delight. The riches of
providence are all in the absolute power of our Lord Jesus, who will dispense
them generously to His people.” C. H.
Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“The Lord taught me
how to sigh in pain, how to weep in gladness, and how to trust during days of
hope deferred. It was not an easy road
to walk. It still isn’t easy, and it isn’t safe. Rather,
it is a confounding country full of myths and mirages. Here, faith resembles
denial, settledness looks like surrender, and hope is the scariest creature of
all. If you are with me here in this land, you know all about discouragement. But look up, friend. The path before us is paved
with secret riches. To embrace it is to
embrace the terrifying tension of God’s inaugurated but unfinished Kingdom: the already and the not
yet, the treasure in the field, costing us everything but giving us
even more. It is the place where I thank God for my son, who is enough, and in the
next breath, I beg God for more. The road ahead is dangerous but not barren. There is sustenance here, because
Christ Himself is here, and He goes before us.
He walked this path already, this Man of Sorrows, and endured all that
we must endure and more. But He did it all for the
joy set before Him. In the land of unanswered prayer, we follow His lead. He does not hover above us on the winds
of false expectations. Rather, He stands
next to us with His
own humble scars, beckoning us forward.”
Jason Hague
“To understand and
embrace God's vision, we must first ask Him for it. The Bible tells us we have
not because we ask not--and sometimes when we do ask, we ask with selfish
rather than God-honoring motives. But God promises us, "Call to me and I
will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not
know" (Jeremiah 33:3). God wishes to reveal Himself to us, but we must
first ask with pure motives and persistence.
The word for ‘call’ in this verse means to do so continuously. We are
commanded to ask continuously until God reveals His vision to us. Persistence
teaches us to rely on God while He is shaping our hearts to delight in
Him. God does a wonderful work in us
when we seek His will. As we seek Him for His will, we learn who He is and
begin to delight in Him and His will rather than our own. As He becomes the
desire of our hearts, we are aligned and ready to receive His will and vision
for our lives.”
Michael
Youssef
“If the decision about the lot is the Lord's, whose is
the arrangement of our whole life? If the simple casting of a lot is guided by
Him, how much more the events of our entire life--especially when we are told
by our blessed Savior, ‘Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not,
therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.’ It would bring a holy
calm over your mind, dear friend, if you were to constantly remember this. It
would relieve your mind from anxiety and enable you to walk in patience,
quietness, and cheerfulness as a Christian should. When a man is anxious he
cannot pray with faith; when he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve
his Master, for his thoughts are serving himself. If you would ‘seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness,’ all things would then be added to you. You are meddling
with Christ's business and neglecting your own when you fret about your lot and
circumstances. You have been trying to do the providing and forgetting to do
the obeying. Be
wise and pay attention to the obeying, and let Christ manage the providing.
Come and survey your Father's storehouse, and ask whether He will allow you to
starve while He has so great an abundance in store. Look at His heart of mercy; see if that can
ever prove unkind! Look at His unsearchable wisdom; see if that will ever be at
fault. Above all, look to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask yourself,
while He pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously with you? If He remembers
even sparrows, will He forget one of the least of His poor children? ‘Cast your
burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous
to be moved.’” C. H. Spurgeon
revised by Alistair Begg
HEART SAVOR
·
God provides, we
obey.
- · 9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”-- 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
- · God’s riches are unsearchable – His paths beyond tracing out - a faithful God Who does no wrong upright and just is He. Who can understand the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things – to Him be glory for ever and ever.
