Assurance of Salvation: Soul Rest

Exodus 33:14 My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.Hebrews 4:9-11 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people ofGod; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work,just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort toenter that rest . . . ENTERING GOD'S 'REST'
My grandson, Ben, is 'going down the tubes.' He is a Bruins fan!Last week, through the kindness of one of his uncles, he saw his veryfirst B's game at the (Boston) Garden.
Now Boston at night is no place for a little boy of five-going-on-six. And if you have ever attended a sporting event inBoston Garden you know it is not the place for the timid or thedelicate. Ben began his night by spontaneously praying for a parkingspace. His dad was foolish enough to drive into Boston. They foundone immediately! It cost $9.00!
Once inside and seated, Ben introduced himself, more or less, toall the people in his section. He felt right at home. He shared hispopcorn. He made a number of new friends.
About the middle of the second period Ben had had enough hockeyso he lay down in his seat and put his head in his dad's lap and hisfeet in the lap of the lady on the other side. She was not at alloffended, according to the report I got. But for some reason daddecided it was time to go home, and Ben never woke up when he was putinto bed that night.
It is wonderful to have such a simple trust, and not have thattrust violated! I admit that Ben and hockey are a far cry from Mosesand the text. But there is a parallel here: see if you can see it.I'll give you a hint: It has to do with trust!

Moses is a BIG (important) man! Moses is SMART, too! Moseshas accomplished the impossible as he has obeyed God.
But now Moses is daunted! He has begun a great task. Hedoesn't see how in the world he can complete it!
So Moses prays! He says, "Lord, please show me HOW!"(Doesn't that make sense?) But God answers, "First I need to show you WHO!!" And thenGod spoke about a place "near to Me," - a place near God!
God's reply to Moses' prayer for guidance says two things thatWE can take as our own. It says first, "My PRESENCE shall go withyou!" When you are seeking to do my will, you are NOT simply 'on yourown.'
And then God said "I- my Presence with you- will give you REST!"
When we are conscious that God is near, and all is right between "us"there comes an inner assurance! Again and again we need to go intothat assurance! Again and again we need to find the "place near toMe!"
Then God instructed Moses, and there was a special time whenMoses beheld something of the power and wonder and glory of God in amarvelous way, in the cleft of a rock.
One question we ask when we read of great mountain-peakexperiences of assurance such as Moses had is, was this a one- timesort of thing, or did he then have/ can I have this assurance and restall the time?
It WAS a time of great reassurance! Certainly the uniqueexperience of God's Presence passed, but Moses could never doubt thatGod had given him assurance. Maybe that is one of the purposes whatthe holiness people have always called the "second work of grace." ItIS important that we have those times of consecration and glory inresponse to our cry to God for His Presence!
General Superintendent Lee M. Haines of the Wesleyan Church in atheology conference in February, 1992, Kansas City said that he callsthat special time "an intensifying moment of sanctifica tion."
Instead of being just a one-time "blessing," for Moses, thisone-on-one walk with God became a way of life: in times of crisis,Moses went to God in private. God gave record in Holy Writ that evenin those Old Testament times He spoke with Moses face-to-face!
But you and I are tempted to say, that was Moses-- and none ofus is Moses! Is there such a place near to God for EVERYONE? Is THATwhat Hebrews 4 is saying? Can we live "by the Presence?"
Robert Coles is a Harvard teacher. Robert Coles is also anauthor. He is a psychiatrist specializing in what makes children tick.
Robert Coles came to faith-- or was profoundly changed-- byseeing the reality of the "rest of God's PRESENCE" in children offaith, particularly in one six-year-old girl named Ruby.
Ruby had tremendous occasion for stress. She was the only blackchild in an elementary school in 1960 in New Orleans at the time whenfederal law said there must be integration. All the white childrenthen were removed from the school by angry parents, so Ruby was theonly child in the school. And twice every day hundreds of angrypeople met Ruby at the door of the school to taunt and swear at her--six years old! In Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck described Ruby,although he did not at that time know who she was or anything aboutwhat was going on in her insides. His description of the terribleanger expressed and poured out on the delicate little black child ispowerful and almost nauseating.
Robert Coles was also in New Orleans in 1960, on personalbusiness. He was fascinated with the stressful situation; he hadstudied children in stress here in Boston. He asked for and received permission to interview Ruby and her family during the most stressful time in their lives. To his amazement he found that Ruby and her family were sustained and upheld by a very real and profound peace. He came, almost grudgingly, to realize that the peace was genuine!
Here is some verbatim dialogue Robert Coles recorded in1960. Ruby's teacher had told Robert Coles that morning that Ruby hadspoken to the people who were shouting at her. He was very interested:
I asked her, "Ruby, how was your day today?"
She said, "It was okay."
"I was talking to your teacher today and she told me that she asked you about something when you came into school early thismorning."
"I don't remember," Ruby said.
"Your teacher told me she saw you talking to people in thestreet."
"Oh, yes. I told her I wasn't talking to them. I was just sayinga prayer for them." "Ruby, you pray for the people there?"
"Oh, yes."
"Really?"
"Yes."
I said, "Why do you do that?"
"Because they need praying for," she answered.
"Do they?"
"Oh, yes."
"Ruby, why do you think they need you to pray for them?"
"Because I should."
"Why?"
"Because I should."

Then [Coles continues] Ruby's mother came into the room. She had heard this line of inquiry and she said, "We tell Ruby that it'simportant that she pray for the people." She said that Ruby had thepeople on a list and prayed for them at night.
I said, "Ruby, you pray for them at night, too?"
"Oh, yes."
"Why do you do that?"
"Well, because they need praying for."
Mrs. Bridges told me Ruby had been told, in Sunday School, to pray for the people. I later found that the minister in their Baptist church also prayed for the people.
Publicly.
Every Sunday.
I said to Mrs. Bridges, and then to her husband later, "You knowit strikes me that that is a lot to ask of Ruby. I mean, given what she's going through."
And they looked at me, very confused.
"We're not asking her to pray for them because we want to hurt her or anything," said Mrs. Bridges, "but we think that we all have to pray for people like that, and we think Ruby should, too."
And then she looked at me and said, "Don't you think they need praying for?"
"Yes, I agree with you there, " I said. "But I still think it'sa little much to ask Ruby to pray for them."
But Robert Coles marvelled that he, a trained child Psychiatrist, could not pick up any devastating symptoms of tension int he Bridges home. And he went on to say how Ruby Bridges and her'inexplicable prayers' had caused him to think of how he had neglected the connection between the study of justice and ethics and fairness and the humble practice of living by the words of Jesus.1

To be honest, I don't know if I could have the simple, profound faith of the Bridges family. But the promise of our text is very direct and clear. Let's look at it again:
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from
his own work, just as God did from His.
Let us,
therefore, make every effort to enter that rest .

Hebrews 4:9-11 It is NOT a "rest from work" or a promise of an easy lifewithout trials and even, finally, physical death. But it is the sameanswer that Moses got when he asked God for a crash course in"migration management principles."

Remember? God's reply to Moses'prayer for guidance said two things that WE can take as our own:

MyPRESENCE shall go with you! When you are seeking to do my will, you are NOT simply 'on your own.'
And God also promised (My PRESENCE)

- I - WILL GIVE YOU REST!When we are conscious that God is near, and all is right between "us"there comes an inner assurance! Again and again we need to go intothat assurance! Again and again we need to find the "place near toMe!"

Like Ben at the hockey game, we know that if we go to sleepbefore the game is over, we will wake up in the morning where webelong!

1 Christianity Today, August 9, 1985