The Shelter

Ps.61:3 - For thou has been a shelter for me…

There are many types of shelters in this present life. There are physical shelters of wood or brick that can keep people safe from the elements. There are friendship shelters that help to support people in times of need and trouble. There are family shelters that rally together as they grow and provide comfort and love. And many other shelters both small and great that people use to provide safety and sometimes escape. People use alcohol and drugs for shelter from the pressures of this present life. Some use work, some use entertainment, some use immorality, some read books, some use sports, and again an array of other things that provide some temporary relief and shelter from this world and the uncertainty of their own minds. Many shelters, all temporary, all incomplete.

Many times I need a shelter and the Psalmist makes that same claim. What do I need a shelter from and also to? Sometimes I see the long sad line of earth walkers, hurt and bruised, sinful and cursed, living unfulfilled and empty lives that will eventually culminate in a Christless eternity. It is sometimes overwhelming to me while other times I am blind and indifferent to it, right? But in those times where my spiritual eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit to catch just a glimpse into the real picture, the one that the Lord sees, that is the time that I need a shelter. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

There are times where I feel I could have done so much more for the One I love and follow. I begin a self destructive inventory of the last 32 years and I begin to condemn myself for countless opportunities that were missed. I see my fleshly desires as sidetracking the desire for a complete and utter surrender to the Father’s will. Realizing that I belong to Him, completely and wholly, I wonder at myself. Why do I not always dwell on Him and His precious Word and why is my soul sometimes downhearted? How could anything in this world have any attraction for someone like me who has seen the Savior and experienced the power of His life giving and life changing conversion? And the all or nothing mindset sets in and I am tempted to give up. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

I see the utter fragmentation of the body of Christ and the doctrinal morass that runs rampant through even the so called evangelical community. Teachers who question the spiritual absolute of the Scriptures while others claim it but exhibit something much different in their teachings. Whole movements bringing in spiritual thoughts that completely move away from the core tenants of the historical church and many now teach that in order to move forward we must jettison all that we thought we knew or what the church in the past has taught. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

Christian lifestyles continue to change in acceptability and practice. So many Christians now drink alcohol and even preachers openly admit that they enjoy a cocktail now and then. Years ago people like me who never believed it was an outright sin would all agree that it was best to avoid the appearance of evil in this over indulged culture, but now those archaic ideas of self sacrifice are unsophisticated. Preachers attending R rated movies, Christians regularly cursing, millions of professing believers secretly viewing pornography, women dressing provocatively even in church, and preachers involved in immorality both heterosexual and homosexual and still preaching. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

The entire country going after the hedonistic pleasures that God hates, and while the entire politic system is one open cesspool Christians still believe there is some redeeming factor in a man made system of carnal promises and power. I have watched the church become more and more politically involved and less and less spiritually involved in the last 32 years. We have seen the sickening sight of so called evangelical leaders reveling in their political power and actually joining hands with infidels just because they may or may not espouse some moral issue. And the church tries to obey the governments observance of a national prayer day while the president allows Muslim clerics, Roman Catholic priests, Mormon leaders, Buddhist monks, Universalist women, and any other spiritual mongrel pray together and even lead in prayer in the White House while the president bows his head in reverence as they pray to demons. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

I’ve seen believers treat doctrine not as a teaching tool based upon the written Word of God but as an idol. And on the other side some believers recoil at doctrine preferring rather to come up with their own thoughts based upon earthly observations and post modern thought. Written creeds would restrict future revisionism. Doctrine is explained truth, but Jesus is not just doctrine. Jesus is a Person, the August Risen Christ and the Son of Almighty God, and doctrine is important to understand Who He is, but doctrine is not Jesus. I listened as some talked about Jesus in a non personal and doctrinal sense and many times they have all their doctrinal i’s dotted and their t’s crossed but speak of Him always as if He remains encased in Luther’s ninety five thesis’s still posted in the sixteenth century. Some seem so much more able to express written doctrinal battles than any passionate and intimate written expression of their own walk with the Savior. Others are always picking apart people like Luther or Edwards because their writings seem to inhibit the modern journey of doctrinal metamorphosis. And in those times there is only one shelter, Jesus Himself.

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So let me close with Him, the Shelter. What does it mean to receive shelter from the Shelter Himself? The Scriptures are replete in their reference to finding safety and comfort if Christ. Under His wings, in His presence, and other phrases give us the revelation that we can not only be “in Christ” doctrinally, but we can find Him as a dwelling place personally. As I outlined my own need to escape in Him and find a shelter I am guessing some things were familiar to your own experience. The path is simple but must be serious and with a thirsty desire.

We must be absolutely in earnest and not only will our desire be to escape other things, it must be equally to seek Him. As you begin to run to the Shelter you may well discover you have cluttered the pathway with the things of this world. Your earthly schedule will demand you punch a time clock and if indeed you do the shelter will only be partially available to you. Is that what you desire, only part of Him? Now if you are given wisdom by His Spirit on how to clean your daytimer, then you have reached the shelter’s door. The Spirit will now insist you allow Him to carry your baggage to another location. What baggage you might ask. The baggage of your own sin. Sorry, this may sting. So as the Spirit opens the door to the precious Shelter that is in the Lord Jesus, you are filled with repentance, cleansing, and a flood of forgiveness through the blood of the Shelter Himself. Do not look back, but allow the Spirit to capture all your thoughts as He begins to slowly turn up the light that will reveal more and more of Christ Himself.

Now something wonderful will happen. In the past you have heard God speak to you through His precious written Word, and you have felt the voice of direction in your spirit. But once inside the Shelter you will begin to hear the Lord Jesus, your Savior and Friend, speak to you. Not an audible voice, no, it will be much more real than that. There is nothing more meaningful and soul refreshing than being in an intimate time of communing with the Lord Jesus. In those times the Spirit will build your faith and give you more understanding about the One with whom you pray than you ever dreamed possible. Later, as you read His Word, you will see confirmation of those things in the deepest possible way. It will seem as if you were dreaming but the Word will substantiate every intimate moment. Wings of eagles will lift you up, and these times of refreshing will be your very life which is of course the life of Christ Jesus.

Finally, as you leave that incredible place called shelter, you will realize it was actuality in Him, Jesus. Do not attempt to explain the experience, just learn of Him. Some things you can share, with other things there will be no words. But if indeed you met with Him in Him, and if God’s grace granted you an intimate and personal experience within the Great Shelter of God’s Son, then you will always desire to return. This place of a looking glass into the heart of God is unique, and is not just passed around to any believer like so many forks and knives, no, this place will always remain bordered by sacrifice, protected by surrender, on the other side of thirst, and through the portal of the closet of prayer.

You must desire to meet Him there with all your heart. You will be challenged and distracted at every turn. Excitement and discouragement will interchange and you will think you arrived sometimes only to find it was just an oasis of grace along the way. But no one who has every spent one moment in that Shelter has every thought themselves shortchanged, and no one has every believed the sacrifice was too weighty. One real and intimate moment with Jesus Himself is worth all the lives of all the people who have every lived.

Ps.27:4-5 - One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion, in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me, He shall set me upon a Rock.

Seek Him with all your heart, and when you find the place of shelter in His very being, take off your shoes and enter on your knees, it will change your life.