Teachings – A Spring Shut Up, a Fountain Sealed

A SPRING SHUT UP, A FOUNTAIN SEALED

UNFOLDING TWENTY-ONE

WHERE WE ARE

When Jesus spoke of the Lilies of the field and asked his disciples to consider how God provides for them, we know that he was speaking in parable to God’s care for us. Yet, I wonder just how much he saw the disciples – you and I – as those flowers when He looks at us. Solomon spoke ‘The flowers appear on the earth.‘ Did he see us as those flowers through the eyes of God? How do we see ourselves? Each other? 

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse. We were seen one in purpose before the world was. Christ gave Himself for His church. He has taken us up into Himself by the absorption of love. Is that true? Are our lives changed by such a wondrous notion? Is it a notion only, or a future reality? If it is future, why not now? A lot to consider. A lot to meditate upon dear brothers and sisters. 

SCRIPTURE

Song of Songs 4: 12

A garden enclosed
Is my sister, my spouse,
A spring shut up,
A fountain sealed.

A SPRING SHUT UP, A FOUNTAIN SEALED
UNFOLDING TWENTY-ONE

We are not only a garden, but a garden enclosed – protected by God’s own hand and power. 

“This is a cheering thought for all believers, that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself.”

Are you cheered by that thought? When? To be a cheering thought one must be less than thrilled with life. 

“It is very precious to see how the Lord lays Himself out to preserve His own beloved. We are too dear to Him to let us perish. Yet, O tender plant, thou art often fearful!”

How do you see yourself in Christ? Do you feel secure in Jesus?

“I look upon this sense of security in a Christian as being the mainspring of unselfish virtue. What is the perpetual anxiety to save yourself?”

“A garden  enclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”

The church is not of the world. It is a thing shut up. 

“A garden is a plot of ground separated from the common waste for a special purpose: such is the church. The church is a separate and distinct thing from the world.”

Is it? 

“I suppose there is such a thing as a Christian world; but I do not know what it is, or where it can be found. I know what is meant by a worldly Christian; and I suppose the Christian world must be an aggregate of worldly Christians.”

Of Jesus, Pastor asks –

“Did he ever say – ‘Try to make an alliance with the world, and in all things be conformed to its ways?'”

Nothing could be further from the truth. However,

“Let us, however, take heed that our separateness from the world is of the same kind as our Lord’s. We are not to adopt a peculiar dress, or a singular mode of speech, or shut ourselves out of society. He did not do so.”

Pastor longed to see the Christian people become more distinct from the world than ever, but how so, if not by peculiar attire, speech or withdrawal from society?

“The church is to be a garden, walled, taken out of the common, and made a separate and select plot of ground. She is to be a spring shut up, and a fountain sealed, no longer open to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field.”

How is all of this so? Pastor concludes –

“The spring must be sealed at the very source, that every drop may be for Jesus throughout the whole of its course. Our first thoughts, desires, and wishes must be His, and then all our words and deeds.”

THOUGHT GOING FORWARD

A garden enclosed – a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. We are set apart, and protected by Christ. There is no Christian world on earth. Buildings, yes, but as Jesus told Pilate that He was not king of this world, neither is His church here. This knowledge should give us great confidence in doing those things that we are called to do. Indeed.  

IN TRIBUTE TO SPURGEON’S LOVE OF SHORT RYHMES

Wholly, truly given… 
heart, and mind – soul and might
bears a life, holy striven
to serve a Savior glorified.