Read part 1 here.
Today, all human beings on the earth are searching for peace—for satisfaction. But where do we find peace? As human beings, we are designed with a very special function: we are vessels for containing the divine life of God. When we are filled with this life and express this life, we find our satisfaction. No matter how good or successful we are, nothing can satisfy us other than fulfilling the purpose of our existence.
Philippians 4:6-9 says:
In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God
And the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus
Finally, brothers, what things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things.
The things which you have also learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace will be with you.
While many people read these verses and enjoy the encouragement not to be anxious, or appreciate the true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well-spoken-of things with virtue and praise, most miss the secret. How do we live a life without anxiety and full of truth, dignity, righteousness, and purity? A life that is well spoken of, with virtue and praise? We find the answer in the word “peace,” which is repeated twice here in relation to God. The peace, in another way to understand it, also means fulfillment. Human life needs peace—needs the Sabbath. Peace is the reconciliation in full between us as the creature and God as the Creator. This peace is an anchor in us from God as the Source—it is a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
So what prevents us from entering into that satisfaction? Many people live on the earth today, searching for satisfaction in entertainment, career, marriage, and even religious morality. What a poor and empty life! What efforts in vain! What makes us any different? The answer is quite simple: we are saved, and having come back to our original purpose, we are satisfied—fulfilled. We are simple, and we have no desire to look to other sources to fill us. When we encounter the cross, we obtain that true peace and satisfaction from the reconciliation between us and the Lord; our fallen humanity can never be at peace until it is terminated and goes through the process of death and resurrection afforded to us by Christ. For those who are not saved, to where will they turn? No matter how good we are, no matter how successful we are, nothing else will satisfy us as human beings.
Faith is very simple. If we recall our own salvation, the moment we were saved, we were very simple. To be saved—to be satisfied—is actually not hard at all. It is dependent upon whether we are in this simplicity. It is the same principle in our life today: all we have to do is just turn and be saved again. When we come back to this simplicity, we realize we are existing the way we were meant to be. Human living was created for the Lord Himself; human beings are made as vessels to catch and contain life. If we live a life without the Life, then our human living will be empty and hollow. It’s okay that sometimes we get discouraged, lonely, or disappointed—that’s human life. But it’s not okay that we don’t have the Life. Because we have this Life, we can turn, be saved, and live well. We have hope!
A vessel exists entirely to hold something. If the vessel is already full of something else or isn’t in a condition to “catch” that content, how can it fulfill its purpose? In the same way, in order to know and interpret the purpose of our own existence, we as vessels need to be filled by something. In all aspects of our lives, we human beings are vessels receiving, carrying, and interpreting in time and space. Having the proper vessel is very important. In a marriage, to love someone requires us to be able to receive that person. Even to live a single day fruitfully requires a condition of receiving and of being filled! Two people can sing a hymn, but perhaps only one has the proper vessel to be filled by it. Two people can share in a meeting, but perhaps one gives life and one gives death. What is the difference? The difference is in the condition of our vessels and what we are being filled with in our daily life. In our relationship to everything surrounding us—our space and our time—our human vessel is a kind of interpreter. In fact, we are the only creatures God created to interpret life in time and space. What a privilege! The only creature that can fulfill God is us. Only the human being—the corporate man, the church—can be an incarnated expression and interpretation of the divine life today. From the day that Adam came into existence, in God’s eyes, there is only one vessel on the earth to contain His eternity.
So what does it look like for us to interpret in time and space? Think about an hourglass. In one way to speak, it is a vessel of time—a time vessel. When you turn it upside down, the sand flows from the top to the bottom. Time is made visible in the sand steadily streaming through, and the vessel measures and holds it. In the same way, each morning when we wake up, it is as if our hourglass has been flipped over and restarted—a new beginning, and a new opportunity to catch life as it flows through time and space. When we are engaged with the source of life, then our function as a time vessel will be calibrated and flowing. We are able to live according to the purpose we were designed for: to simply reconcile ourselves to Him and let our being function according to that life, expressing and “catching” the divine and eternal moments and experiences in time.
But, unfortunately, human beings are fallen; when it comes to eternity, we often only see a little glimpse and it fades away no matter how hard we try to catch it. Days slip by us because time is the judgment of life. When we realize we are aging, time becomes our enemy; we are busy fighting time, trying to live longer. But we never think about how to live well in the time we have. The answer to living well—living as proper vessels to contain that Life—is in how we live our daily life, how we use our time and space. When we awake in the morning, what are we thinking? Those thoughts determine the condition of the entire day—the condition of our vessel. When we get up in the morning, we should let the Lord come in little by little, just like the sand dropping into an hourglass. We don’t have to do anything; just let Him come in. We don’t need to be smart or ambitious before Him; we just need to be quiet—to be a proper vessel to receive. In those moments of peace, there are no anxieties or worries; it is just our being made known to God, and God made known to us. We simply say, “Lord, my day is open. My being is open. Come into me, into this little vessel, and fill me!” Right away we are satisfied. Right away all of our ambition, uneasiness, calculations, and sinful things are crucified, and we can receive Him. In this condition, we can live in a way that eternity is caught and contained in our vessels—so that the steady stream of time can be caught and our being constantly being filled without a single grain of sand missed. In doing so, we become interpreters of that eternity. Then our human life is wonderful, joyful, and fruitful!
The purpose of our existence is to interpret God, to express God, to write about God, to announce God, to testify God, to witness God. David models this expressing and interpreting God in time in Psalm 139:
1 O Jehovah, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; / You understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You thoroughly search my path and my lying down, / And You are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For a word is not yet on my tongue, / And already You, O Jehovah, know it completely.
5 You have closed in on me behind and before / And have laid Your hand on me.
6 Oh, knowledge too wonderful for me! / It is so high; I cannot attain to it.
7 Where shall I go, away from Your Spirit, / And where shall I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; / If I make my bed in Sheol, there You are.
9 If I take the wings of the dawn / And settle at the limits of the sea,
10 There also Your hand will lead me, / And Your right hand will take hold of me.
11 And if I say, Surely darkness will cover me, / And the light around me will be night;
12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, / And night shines like day; / The darkness is like the light.
13 For it was You who formed my inward parts; / You wove me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; / Your works are wonderful, / And my soul knows it well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You / When I was made in secret, / Skillfully fashioned in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; / And in Your book all of them were written: / The days that were ordained for me, / When not one of them was yet.
17 And how precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! / How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more than the sand. / When I awake, I am still with You.
19 Oh that You, O God, would slay the wicked — / Depart from me therefore, you men of bloodshed —
20 Those who speak of You with evil intent, / Who as Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O Jehovah? / And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with a perfect hatred; / They have become my own enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; / Try me, and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there is some harmful way in me, / And lead me on the eternal way.
All the secrets of being led “on the eternal way” are hiding behind human living. If you read this section, it is mostly about how David interacted with space and time—his experience of human life. Sure, there is a recounting of histories and even life-threatening situations, but even more important is how, when those moments happened, David understood himself and God at those moments. These are the moments when David’s life was used as an interpretation of this invisible God, even in the ancient times. David could be the best king or most beloved person on the earth, but all of it would have been meaningless without God. David’s life was meaningful, even when he was a nobody. David was someone precious to God’s heart, even through his failures. David was not perfect, but his experiences satisfied him—brought him to peace. What about us? We are not David, but we do have the same secret. The principle has never changed. It is moments when we are simple that we are able to walk on the eternal path; it is not much different from David’s experience. We are able to encounter and interact with time and space with a true and tangible humanity. To those people who really know God, this is very precious. That is why, at the end of the chapter, David says, “…lead me on the eternal way.” How wonderful it is.
For us, this is an encouraging word. “I will praise you for I am awesomely and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful and my soul knows it well.” Our physical life and how we use it is very important; our vessels need to be tangible, just like David’s, and catch and interpret time to reveal the Lord’s moving. When we are finally brought back to our origin and purpose of existence—when our vessels are made clean and new through crucifixion and resurrection—we have that peace and understanding to say, “I am awesomely and wonderfully made!” Like David, we can say, “My frame was not hidden from You / When I was made in secret, / Skillfully fashioned in the depths of the earth.” The Lord has redeemed our vessels and thus we can redeem the time. In those real and truthful moments in which we meet the Lord and come back to our purpose, we can spontaneously say, “Lord I praise you! I am a vessel in time and space made to contain You, to interpet You. Lead me on the eternal way!” That eternal way is the secret of redeeming the time in our life experiences. Indeed, we are wonderfully made! We are purposely made.
(Above is part 2 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/31/2021, not reviewed by the speaker.)