Draw Me Closer

Draw Me Nearer

2/18/19

How drawn are you to the cross where Jesus died for our sins?  I mean, do you long to know everything you can about that dark yet necessary day that freed all of us if we choose to live under God’s final Covenant sacrifice?  It is this sacrifice that we have our redemption through and I cannot for the life of me figure out why we are not shouting this from the rooftops.  It is because we have turned our hearts toward the world and through this action have lost our desire to kneel at the cross that Jesus died on and deemed our daily lives to be more important instead.  No wonder our societies are collapsing at breakneck speed.  The only way we have a chance of survival and restoration is to have our hearts return back to God and until we do expect everything to continue to harden, blacken, and embrace the death march that only the world can offer.

The other day I had another one of the old hymns drop into my heart and recite its message over and over again, just like the others that ring through my heart on a daily basis.  This song I remember singing so many times when I was younger for it was a wonderful song with an eternal message that once again I did not fully understand even though my lips resounded those words many times over.  The song is “I Am Thine, O Lord” and is a call to understanding just how important it is for us to understand what it means to be drawn to the cross where Jesus died.  While not all of the words will be used in this article a few phrases will be so that we can know what it means to be drawn closer to the cross.  The song was written back in 1875 by a lady named Fanny Crosby and was based upon Hebrews 10:22, the music to those lyrics were penned by William Howard Doane.  It is a song that has touched my heart over the years and now that God is showing us more about this song’s words it should become clear about how we should be separating ourselves from the world and how when we do draw close to the cross we have no option but to drop the world and cling to God on all levels.

A while back God showed us that when we sing songs to Him we must understand, know and believe in what we are singing for if we do not then we are lying directly to Him because what we are saying we do not hold to be true.  I know that not many of us are considered to be musicologists and studying music is not a common practice by most.  But when we like specific music we should know what that song or songs refer to and why they were written.  One of my friend’s sons likes to listen to popular music, which teenage kid didn’t.  But when his father challenged him to look up the lyrics of the songs he liked he could not believe what he was actually saying and proclaiming when his ears heard these songs.  It took a while for him to fully comprehend what was going on but when God showed him what his spirit was projecting when he allowed those words into his heart, he allowed God to begin the process of weeding out what was not from Him that he had allowed to live inside his heart.  It is this type of misguidance that so many people fall into when it comes to various issues that the world deems “popular and right” that truly end up changing our lives to world-like conditions and drawing us away from our Creator and toward Him.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord

                        To the cross where Thou hast died

                        Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord

                        To Thy precious, bleeding side

Would it be common knowledge to admit that the world and all of its standards are based upon a selfish and maligned standard?  So, how is it that Christians are drawn to such abnormalities and call them banners of representations all the while proclaiming that the Bible is their standard of living?  The deceptive powers of our enemy almost seem endless but that is because we allow these obstructions to become reality in our minds which then infiltrate to our hearts and when this occurs our beliefs are altered to what is in front of us and the true faith that God has given us becomes less than a mustard seed.  This song also demonstrates that there are two kingdoms in our lives and that when we draw near to one, we leave the other and such insightful lines cannot be meshed together.  Every child of God should understand and live by the fact that the cross and everything it stands for is utterly and 100% repulsive to the world, there are NO exceptions to this eternal law.  The cross is the ultimate symbol of Grace being demonstrated by God over a long period of time that our enemy has deceived us with.  Satan has done his best to focus our eyes and hearts on the lie that the cross is not that important and that we do not need to lift our hearts or look upon its presence on a daily basis.

The world will present its selfish attire with every step you take and it will not stop until you make the choice to either accept its ways of not to live by its standards.  It is impossible for one to hold onto the cross of Calvary but turn your heart back to the ways of the world.  I am not saying that your eyes cannot see the world but we cannot hold onto the world and the cross at the same time.  When our eyes and hearts are on the world we will automatically let go of the cross and run to the thing that we desire the most.  This is a normal human reaction and one that none of us can deny no matter what type of situation or setting we may prove.  The difference in this setting from all others is that the cross represents the eternal markings of your life and if we turn away from its presence our hearts shall continue its blackening state and will eventually turn our other layers of our lives black as well.  Our hearts will be drawn to the world and want to be closer to its presence and not God’s, this law goes both ways and if believed as such will cost us dearly in the end.

It is another common fact that people follow what they believe is true but what that “something” maybe can be a variety of issues which are influenced by many choices.  It is this concept that most follow when defining truth and seeking after this most precious commodity.  Smoke and mirrors play a significant example in the choices that face us each other and it is easy to get caught up in such lies and illusions and completely miss what is the truth about all of our questions.  How many people do you know that would live life for one purpose and that is to die for you?  Honestly, besides family members and a few very close friends, that thought would not have any measure at all and that is a truth that not many could deny.  With this example put into practice, it is easy to understand that people become passionate about the issues they deem important but when the world becomes first in our lives nothing but separation from life can be noticed thus accepted as the truth as a witness as well.  Why would the entire Bible (God’s definition) contain examples that call us to be separated from the world, yet have at the same time examples of why we need to be separated from the world?  This means that the two entities that are vying for your life represent opposites and that only one can contain the longing of your heart.

The Bible serves as a measure of God in such a manner that provides an undisputed champion of eternal life that the world has no answer for.  Take a controlled study of the world and it will become clear that it has no forward direction but only one that grows sideways in that no real truthful answers are given.  See, logic tells us that we really and completely cannot move forward unless we have a definitive answer for the issue or issues at hand.  We are stuck and cannot proceed until the problem has been solved but the world tells us to move forward by skirting the real deep roots of an issue which means that we just bypass it and try to gain steam by leaving it to fester.  This is not progress, this is an active destructive mechanism that brings along further baggage to future problems instead of clean and pure hearts.  God never intended for us to move around any issue, or have any issues for that fact, but to deal with it as He does through truth and holiness.

God’s Truth began when He created the world and then in such a holy and defined manner Created us.  Only truth can pull a person closer to their destination and when you talk about the life of a person that means finding the answers to all of the issues that the world provides.  If our hearts are truly wanting answers to what and why things go wrong or are presented in the manner in which they do, God and His definition is the ONLY Way possible that these answers can be made aware in our lives.  When we allow God to invade our lives with the Truth, we shall automatically be drawn to the ideas and truths about our lives because of His returned presence in our lives.  Our spirits that He placed in our lives, in the beginning, shall once again thrive with life and provide the dressing and upkeep that we were originally designed to complete.  It shall also beckon us to live under His Covenant of protection which means drawing us more to the cross so we can learn about His purpose for our lives.  Also, when the importance of the cross becomes apparent in our hearts, it shall send out a message to our enemy that we understand what is going on and that we are coming to eternally help those who are struggling with the lies it has injected into them. 

When we figure this truth about the cross out, not only will our lives be changed but we shall not be satisfied until we share the Gospel with others as well.  There are times that I am tired and do not feel like writing but when this feeling comes over me I automatically remember exactly what I am supposed to be doing with what God gives me and I pick up the pencil or get on the computer and begin to complete what God has commissioned me to do.  The problem today is that the ones who have been commissioned to seek the Truth and then tell it to others has turned on the physical television or took to their hands a phone instead.  There can be no doubt that there are countless reasons for us not to tell the Truth to others for that is the purpose of the kingdom of Satan.  When the Puritans came across the Atlantic Ocean and arrived on these shores their motives were pure and clean, but after a while they allow Satan to manipulate their ideas and procedures enough that they began to commit horrible atrocities on their own kind.  Today, the Church is not doing anything different for we are now incorporating the sin of our forefathers and that of Adam and Eve to rule our existence thus invalidating our mission that Jesus so vividly gave.  Once again, I refer back to the same question God asks of us today as He did back in biblical times, did you represent Me today?

Church, our actions do not demonstrate any measure what-so-ever of the words of this beautiful song, nor do they reflect the command that Jesus gave us to do in His name.  Our hearts have been blackened as the world’s heart and if we look at each side by side there would be no way to tell them apart.  Church, we have drawn ourselves closer to the world and not the cross for our ambitions and satisfactions now are sought on worldly standards and not on God’s.  We are lost just as the world is and until we figure out that we need God and not the world our problems and issues that we will face shall become more and larger in number and with all of the other baggage that we are carrying, we have no leg to stand on and fight.  Repent, Church for we are the only messenger that a dying people have but if we are shooting them as well then we have failed and there is no help left for those who seek it.  My prayer to God is that He draws me nearer to His Son’s cross so that my life may be an eternal witness for His Covenant and Salvation.  This should be the prayer from your heart as well Church, let us now come back to God before time runs out.

DLB