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 THE HOPE OF SPRING

"While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." [Genesis 8:22].

           While it is true that, "we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." [2 Peter 3:13], nevertheless we do find our scripture text concerning this present earth bespeaking a precious promise– that, as long as the present earth remains, regardless of situations and circumstances, or how slow the cycles might seem to move, there shall be a seedtime and harvest, a day that follows the night, a springtime that follows the winter, a warmth that follows the cold. Praise His wonderful name!
          There are many applications which can be drawn from these natural changes about us, as the Spirit quickens truths which lead into deeper understanding and comprehension of spiritual realities. While all creation was made subject to the bondage of vanity, and the tyranny of change and decay, yet it was IN HOPE─ hope for that ultimate deliverance which is to be realized as God's purpose of the ages is brought to fruition. And this INHERENT HOPE is contained in the various cycles and changing of seasons, to bear witness to a message which means far more than just a lovely spring after a hard winter. THERE IS PROMISE THAT IN DUE TIME HIS GLORY SHALL FILL THE EARTH, and the dark night of fear and despair shall have ended. May the Spirit of God unfold before us more and more of that hope which sustains our present walk, and leads to ultimate and complete triumph in every part.
          Consider, briefly, the seasons and the messages tucked into them. When the final days of a long summer begin to merge into the fall season, with the cooler nights and mornings and warm afternoons, and one begins to gather the harvest and contemplate their blessings, we learn to appreciate the bountiful measures of His goodness, and praise Him for the times when "the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places." [Psalm 16:6]. But soon one becomes aware of that "feeling of fall" in the air, and a sense that the present "pleasant moments" are to be followed with more changes, and a coming winter season. Apart from the natural side, meaning there is a coolness to the wind, and a wondering of how severe the winter might be, there is also a "sense of death" in the fall season. The lush green leaves of summer begin to turn red, and colors of yellow and gold, making a beautiful landscape; but far too quickly they change to brown and fall to the earth. Life is fading away, and the cold, dark, dormant time of winter draws closer. To live only for the moment, inspite of the "temporary glory" of the fall season, with its final splash of beauty, there would be a sadness to see it all end. And in many parts of the earth the thought of facing another winter would be too much to bear, were it not for the hope of spring.
          We give this brief account of the natural to form the background for some rich spiritual truths which we would share. It takes the dying out of the old to prepare the way for the bursting forth of the new life in springtime. Cycle follows cycle, each one moving steadily towards the climax of the ages, as the poet Tennyson once expressed it so victoriously:
 
                                                                     "That God, which ever lives and loves,
                                                                     One God, one Law, one element,
                                                                     And one far-off divine event,
                                                                     To which the whole creation moves─"
 
                                                                     "Behold, we know not anything;
                                                                     I can but trust that good shall fall
                                                                     At last─ far off─ at last, to all,
                                                                     And every winter change to spring."
 
                                                                     While in his writing, "THE TASK," Cowper declares:
 
                                                                     "Thus heav'n-ward all things tend. For all were once
                                                                     Perfect, and all must be at length restored. ..
                                                                     Haste then and wheel away a shatter'd world,
                                                                     Ye slow-revolving seasons: We would see
                                                                     (A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)
 
                                                                     A world that does not dread and hate His laws,
                                                                     And suffer for its crimes; would learn how fair
                                                                     The creature is that God pronounces good."
 
          Each cycle, each season performs its task, bringing to the full that which God hath purposed. It is not without rhyme and reason, for God often works beyond our understanding, patiently transforming the nature of man with His redeeming grace. In our haste we sometimes want to take one grand leap into the middle of Divine Fulness, we desire that God shall use one little testing to birth the whole new life of the Spirit. But it doesn't come that way. True, He is doing a quick work in this hour, and shall "cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." [Romans 9:28], and we are thankful that He is hastening now His Word to perform it. But the Spirit spoke to our heart very clearly one day, regarding a certain situation, "Don't expect more out of it than what God put into it." This brought a real sense of peace within, for we knew that we did not have to struggle to attain great things in one short hour, but to learn to rest in the Lord, and see His work progress step by step.
          One short prayer meeting doesn't produce an earth shaking revival. It takes the conditioning of many cycles of seeking God, and growing very hungry, until we reach that point of desperation where we ABANDON OURSELVES TO HIM, and then we find that new life bursts forth, as a root out of a dry ground. All the long weary nights of travail, groaning because of the barrenness within, coupled with those moments of refreshing when for a brief moment we find that the Spirit helps us to glimpse the possibility of victory ahead, all slowly working together to produce what God hath purposed to accomplish in our lives. Summer and winter, cold and heat, night and day, each part being used of Him, for His purpose, working into our good, and for His praise.
          While this earth remains the cycles are repeated year by year, with the coming of each spring producing new life and growth, and then as time moves along the processes of death take over and it becomes old, and must be removed to prepare the way for the new again. And, it is true, there are many little cycles repeated in our walk, but overall we find that "spiritually" it is one process of "BECOMING," and every little repetitious cycle is merging into the accomplishment of the one transition process, as we are changed from the "earthy" to the "heavenly." And praise the Lord, ''as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." [1 Corinthians 15:49].
          THE WAY OF THE CROSS always stands as the key to this transition process. It requires a stripping of our old self-life, bringing to an end all of our own self-will, that we might be raised into the newness of HIS LIFE. "Being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." [Romans 7:6].
          The thorough change is wrought via the operation of His cross― "having made peace by the blood of His cross, He reconcile all things unto Himself." [Colossians 1:20]. The death process― our identification with His sufferings, being made conformable to His death, will produce this change, and without it no change can be made, for "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone," [John 12:24], and not only does it abide alone, but it remains unchanged. "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." [1 Corinthians 15:36].
          The reason the Holy Spirit holds the message of "THE CROSS" as frontlets before our eyes continually, is because we are in the throes of its outworking, that we might be brought to that climax which will manifest an outward reality of our inward change. With the climax of the cross bringing final death to the carnal mind, we will emerge out of the barren tomb as a new creation. We have possessed in part, and we have thrilled to its surgings within us, but we must have the WHOLE, being thoroughly changed into His same image, possessing the fulness of His divine nature.
          How we long for the full orbed ministry of the Spirit, for far too long we have groaned beneath the ministration of condemnation and death. Thank God, there shall be a change even in ministrations, when we come to the place, as it is written, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) TO DO THY WILL, O GOD. ―He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second." [Hebrews 10:7,9]. When we have reached the fulness of the death of the cross, then shall we see the establishment of the NEW. How some folks despise the teachings on the way of the cross, for they desire smooth sayings, messages of joy and life, but they refuse to accept the means to the end. Yet, until every part of our being has been dealt with by the cross, He cannot take away the first, and establish the fulness of the second in us, i.e. the higher realm which far supercedes this present, temporal realm of flesh and selfhood.
          In the meantime, passing through those processes which shall bring us to the ultimate, we do well to profit from each cycle as the Master Husbandman brings these things to bear upon us. It is not meant for LOSS, that He taketh away the first, but it is with the hope of the new springtime, when, "Behold, I make all things new," [Revelation 21:5], and we shall see that God hath truly established the second, HIS SPIRIT LIFE!
          The seasonal changes, with the heat and cold, summer and winter, all form part of that great travail placed upon creation. The constant working of death and corruption is a bondage that rests heavily upon all creation today. "For we know that the whole creation is groaning together, and suffering the pangs of labour, which have not yet brought forth the birth. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have received the Spirit for the first fruits ( of our inheritance), even we ourselves are groaning inwardly, longing for the adoption which shall ransom our body from its bondage." [Romans 8:22-23, Conybeare].
          Concerning this phrase, "suffering the pangs of labour" even until now, we find that Conybeare has a most interesting comment, so we quote― "St. Paul here suggests an argument as original as it is profound. The very struggles which all animated beings make against pain and death, show (he says) that pain and death are not a part of the proper laws of their nature, but rather a bondage imposed upon them from without. Thus every groan and tear is an UNCONSCIOUS PROPHECY OF LIBERATION FROM THE POWER OF EVIL." unquote. O, hallelujah! The hope of spring lies in all of the travail of winter-time. All of our struggle against the pain and death is a prophetic sign that there shall come a liberation.
          Creation was made subject to decay, which in his translation, Phillips declares to be, "the tyranny of change and decay." The flower is brought forth in the bud, unfolds in the beauty of blossom, and then withers and fades away. There is no escape from the process, the tyranny of change and decay continue to take their toll. It is the going round and round of seasonal cycles― yet each fall and winter holds within them the promise of spring and summer when the earth shall be renewed, in fact this is the very purpose of the fall, to prepare the way for spring, for there needs to be a clearing away of the transitory bloom of today for the hope of tomorrow. But, this process shall not continue forever. There is in Christ a realm of stability, for our God is UNCHANGEABLE. "For I am the Lord, I change not." [Malachi 3:6]." Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for the ages." [Hebrews 13:8]. Progressive, yes, but unchangeable in the sense that there is no decay and death in Him, but always that glorious unfolding of life ever increasing in its splendor.
          "As for man, his days are as grass: as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. BUT THE MERCY OF THE LORD IS FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING (or, Hebrew, from age to age) upon them that fear Him; and His righteousness unto children's children." [Psalm 103:15-17].
          The Lord knows our frame, He remembers that we are but dust. He knows that we can tarry here on earth but awhile, and then the tyranny of change and decay will bring our flesh to corruption. Full well He knows that "death reigns" upon His creation, but this is all a part of His plan, and before "death passed upon all men" [Romans 5:12], He already planned the redemption process whereby He would restore His creation to His fulness of life. When HE subjected creation to the bondage of vanity, HE DID SO IN HOPE, with a view to the hour when all creation shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Thus in every part of our travail He gives THE HOPE OF SPRING.
          The seasons bring their changes, kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, and with them go the hopes, plans and ambitions of natural men, but beyond all of this frailty and frustration our GOD REMAINS UNCHANGED, and thus continues to work out the purpose of the ages in accordance with His determined counsel and will.
          Into the midst of this "vale of tears" Christ came, "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." [Galatians 4:4-5]. And "to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." [Romans 14:9].
          "And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." [Revelation 1:17-18].
          The yearly, seasonal rise and decline, cycle after cycle, would be utterly and fearsomely frustrating were it not that there was hope for an ultimate deliverance of creation into the triumph of Christ, and the hope of THAT SPRING wherein the whole of creation shall be fully loosed, never again to be subjected to change and decay. True, when relating to this earth itself, just as the subjection to vanity was accomplished with a catalytic development, resulting in our plunge into darkness and chaos, so also there will be some violent developments in the days to come, when in its final darkness, its death-throes of winter, reactions of heat and cold, (describe in whatever terms you wish), yet, "the day of the Lord [will come as a thief in the night]  in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." [2 Peter 3:10]. But in all this chaotic ending of this earth, and its changing process, THERE IS THE HOPE OF SPRING, there shall come a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
          "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." [1 Corinthians 15:26], and when the last enemy is destroyed, it is self-evident that none remains. Nevermore will the changes come, nevermore will death swallow up that which was once beautiful in its expression of life. But; HE who IS King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, shall "swallow" up death in victory." [Isaiah 25:8].
          The ringing declaration of our Lord abounds with this "hope," when we read, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." [John 11:25]. And again, "Because I live, ye shall live also." [John 14:19]. Therefore, "He that hath the Son hath life." [1 John 5:12]. For "IN HIM all fulness is pleased to dwell." [Colossians 1:19, Interlinear].
          THE UNCHANGEABLE CHRIST, alive for evermore, is our life. In Him is the pure fulfillment of our hope. He is the SPRING which follows the dark night of this earthy winter. "For it is in Him that all the fulness of Deity continues to live embodied, and through union with Him you too are filled with it." [Colossians 2:9-10, Williams].
          Ah, yes, you agree, in Christ all fulness dwells. Now, through UNION with Him we can share that fulness. So the question: how is this union brought about? Through the Divine application of death and resurrection! Surprised? We need not be, for God uses these daily cycles, and each season works more of His purpose into our life, that through "the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death," [Philippians 3:10], –we find that, "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." [Romans 6:4-5].
          It is by UNION WITH HIM alone that we can partake of the fulness of Christ, and now, as many try to teach with their cultish doctrines, not by initiation into some esoteric system of theosophy whereby men might attain a closer connection. It is not the retaining of the bloom of our self-life and trying to merge it into the glory of His Spirit-life, that we find fulness. NEVER! It is in the process of DEATH TO SELF, that we find our life is hid with Christ in God. It takes the seasons of fall, with their fading of the old, their bringing to an end the glory of the natural, to prepare the way for the new spirit-life which is to follow. Even the "sting of winter is used, that barren time when the bitter cold, and bleakness, with its seeming absence of life, yet working to make sure that death has come to all the old, so that there will not be a fragment remaining to revive itself and usurp control again. But, when in the womb of nothing's tomb we find we have our end, it is then that the hope of spiritual springtime becomes the anchor of our soul, to await the dawning of His new day.
          Only HE who is unchangeable can work in us these changes so profound, while we "are transfigured in ever-increasing splendor into His own image, and the transformation comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." [2 Cor. 3:18, Phillips].
          "As long as we are clothed in this temporary dwelling we have a painful longing, not because we want to get rid of these 'clothes' but because we want to know the full cover of the permanent house that will be ours. We want our transitory life to be absorbed into the life that is eternal." [2 Cor. 5:4, Phillips].
          Now we find that our application is two-fold: Day by day, passing through the various symbolic seasons, blessed and encouraged by a spiritual refreshing and then plunged again into another dark night of the soul, while the cross is used to bring death to another fragment of the self-life, nevertheless, we can be undergirded by the knowledge that every pain, every part of the travail is a prophecy of liberation, containing within it the hope of spring. The Lord hath purposed "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." [Isaiah 61:3].
          For "shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring" forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her: –for thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like a flowing stream." [Isaiah 66:9-10, 12].
          Not only can the hope of spring be applied to us as individuals, knowing that the travail shall ultimately bring to birth the desire of our heart, but we also see that this can be applied to all creation, which shall share in the glorious liberty of the children of God. Among the noted writers and poets, we find that Elizabeth Barrett Browning believed in the ultimate triumph of this "spiritual springtime," and bore witness with these words :
 
                                       But knowing what I soothly know,
                                       High-seeming Death, I dare thee! and have hope,
                                       In God's good time, of showing to thy face     
                                       An unsuccumbing spirit, which sublime
                                       May cast away the low anxieties
                                       That wait upon the flesh- the reptile moods;
                                       And enter the eternity to come,
                                       Where live the dead, and only death shall die."
 
          Yes, as long as this present earth remains, there shall be seasonal changes, with their seedtime and harvest, used of God in His processing of men, and all of which are prophetic of that glorious harvest to come, not only of THE FIRST FRUITS, but "every man in his own order" [1 Cor. 15:23], until the hope of spring has reached every man, old things passing away, all things becoming new, and God shall be all in all.
 
 

THE HOPE OF SPRING
 
The hope of spring is harbored in
The death-throes of the fall,
Its promise hidden in the dark
Of winter's bitter gall.
The pain and travail of each test
Are prophecies untold,
A witness of release to come
By grace so manifold.
When out of all our nothingness,
Out of our barren tomb,
God shall release His Spirit-Iife,
Restoring Eden's bloom.
When no more "I", but Christ doth live,
His love and grace our all,
And in the place of barrenness
His glories shall enthrall.
The season cycles that engulf
Us in their present rhyme
Are but the working of His plan,
Preparing for His time.
The old shall pass, the new shall come,
The hope of spring is sure,
For in the Christ, unchangeable,
Our life remains secure.

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(1)  Prinzing, Ray and Doris. THE TRIUMPHANT WAY!. (now out of print), Boise, Idaho 83705}

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