"Unto me, who am the least of all saints, is this grace given

that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable

riches of Christ."

                                                                                Ephesians 3:8

     A dear precious saint, Adelaide Leaper Newton (1824-1854), once said, "When you draw near, or feel drawing near to the end, it is nothing but the great foundation realities of the gospel that will do: you seem not to care for anything else. It is just Christ's finished work and nothing else that will satisfy you then." In speaking of her life, A.J. Gordon referred to her as, "One of the excellent of the earth, in whom we may believe the Lord delighted. Her expositions of Hebrews and of the Song of Solomon are among the best specimens of devotional study which we are acquainted."

     All throughout the history of the Church we find such deep and devoted saints who lived extraordinary lives, many of which had a strange and compelling attachment to the great realities of the finished work of Christ, some of which were so connected to heaven that they lived but a short time on this earth. Jonathan Edwards said of David Brainerd (1718-1747), "His life shows the right way to success...he sought it as the soldier seeks victory...he was animated with the love of Christ for souls." In David's own words he wrote, "I have nothing to do with the earth, but only labor in it honestly for God. I do not desire to live one minute for anything that earth can afford."

     Paul, in writing to the church of Ephesus called these realities "the unsearchable riches of Christ."   One translation says, "The unfathomable riches of Christ." The Greek defines it as "past finding out!" But to the heart that seeks a deeper experience, one of unbroken communion, these riches, which are beyond our full capacity to comprehend and apprehend, still maintains a magnetic appeal that empowers us to care for nothing so much as the finished work of Christ. It is so compelling that nothing else will satisfy.

     I for one, continually find myself yearning to explore the depths of it. There seems to be a call that reverberates more now in the halls of my heart than ever before. It is a call that carries me by virtue of a divine union into a life of divine unbroken communion. It pulls on me like a hungry beggar recklessly seeking to be satisfied with something to eat.   There are times the waves of departure just to be with Christ sweep over me, and in those moments I realize all that matters is living for him.

     We often come to that strange and wonderful feeling of knowing, "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phil. 1:21). The one thing that brings such revelation is that the more we serve Christ, the more we realize how vain life is without him at the center of everything. All is empty, everything is meaningless, without the precious life of God enfolding and enveloping everything we do. From raising children to caring for the people we love, even working as a provider in life, we find ourselves possessed consumed with a single purpose...desiring to sit at the feet of Jesus.

Mary knew that sacred position, which Jesus said "would shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:42). I can't think of anything more valuable than the influence of living a life of unbroken communion with Christ. How consciously aware we become to God's life in us when we tie our hearts to the sacred bond of unerring thoughts, unremitting passion, and unswerving loyalty to the lover of our soul. May you begin a new journey of pressing on to know the Lord in unbroken communion. May something deep within you be drawn to Christ with a undivided heart, evoking and invoking the embrace of his holy affection. *