On My Way To Heaven

Chapter 6. Marks of the Smoking Flax

“Life in the winter is hid in the root”, says Sibbes, as he encourages us not to be disappointed with our present situation, where sometimes we only see “nothing but smoke or distrustful thoughts”

And this is where I was today.

As I see my children growing and changing, sometimes I judge myself to severely on how I am doing my job as a Mom. I  just see smoke; and suddenly I forget what I learned last week: He delights to lit fires from tiny sparks.

Sibbes writes again, with words that reach my soul and he reminds me what I believe so dearly and so easily forget when the rushing of a busy morning comes and I cannot find the words to say and just spit words that I know well may hurt those whom I love so dearly; he says: “God knows we have nothing of ourselves therefore in the Covenant of Grace he requires no more than He gives, but gives what He requires, and accepts what He gives”

When did I forget that by grace I was called, and that I am “brought to Heaven under the Covenant of Grace by a way of love and mercy”?

When did I forget that I am truly journeying daily on my way to heaven?

Sibbes’ words again like a warm shawl bring comfort, “we must therefore, walk by his light, not the blaze of our own fire”, and I remember the words in the book my little one loves to hear, some people are scared of light. And so this morning, when my flesh arouse, I was afraid of the Light, because I had loved the blaze of my own fire.

But He calls me, and I come, and again, I found Grace.

Chapter 7. Help for the Weak

In this chapter Sibbes, reminds us that we are indeed vulnerable to fall into temptations when we allow our thoughts to run wild and away from the word of God,on Sibbes’s own words,  “all scandalous actions are only thoughts at first. Thoughts are as little thieves, which creeping in at the window, open the door to greater”.

But, the Word of God gives us hope. We are not slaves to sin, and “our chief Comfort  is that our blessed  Saviour, as he bade Satan depart from Him…so He will command him [Satan] to be gone from us, when it shall be good to us”

I like the simile that Sibbes uses when he says that “dust particles are in the room before the sun shines, but they only appear then”; and I saw this clearly when in my not-so-beautiful morning, I saw His light shining over me and pointing out things that I did not were there still; and as the day passed by, I saw it in nature as well, and captured it with my camera; a spider web, which can be seen only when the light was shining on it.

Sibbes ends this chapter by encouraging us, to work on our sanctification. Even if we are weak, we must keep on going. Prayer is the meeting place where we can find Grace, or should I say be found by Grace?

“Let us not be cruel to ourselves when Christ is thus gracious”, this I had never thought, and this now I keep in my heart.

Tim Challies, invited us to read this great classic together
and I am truly enjoying it as I also read what others are sharing about it.
May our walk be full of sparks from Heaven.

Tomorrow, come and read the last post by Sister on 
How to Teach the Word to our Children.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:00 AM and is filed under My Thoughts, Read This with tags Books, Devotions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.