I’ve been reading a book called Heaven Taken By Storm by Thomas Watson. Actually, I’ve been listening to it since I am more of an audiobook fan lately then I am reading fan. I still like reading, but it’s been difficult to find the time to read all the books I would like to read in a year. My TBR pile is stacking up on my dresser again. I’ve read this one book twice in the past 2 months and I am getting ready to read it again. It’s that good.
I like to take notes when I read and this is one of those books I find myself copying down chapters word for word because each sentence is weighty and worth remembering. There is one chapter on self examination that I have bookmarked and replayed over and over again and shared with others in my bible study group. We have been studying 2 Timothy and this particular portion really went well along with 2 Timothy Chapter 2 as we were studying how we are to pursue the Kingdom of God with much effort and exertion like a soldier pursues a battle, an athlete pursues a trophy through sacrifice and self discipline and as a farmer sweats and pursues a harvest at the end of the season by hard work and rising early. So if we want to pursue Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, we cannot pursue Him as a hobby we pick up and put down as we have time and will. The Christian life is not a hobby but a lifestyle. It is hard, bloody battle at times and quite difficult. We too must pursue it with much force if we are to obtain godliness.
Thomas Watson emphasizes in this book Heaven Taken By Storm that if we want Heaven, it must be seized with much violence, it does not come easily to us but we must discipline ourselves to seize it. It is based on Matthew 11:12, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." The book is a practical handbook on Christian living, on showing the holy violence a Christian is to put forth in the pursuit after glory.
This is going to be a book I am going to read and reread every year in curb my own laziness that creeps in. But the self examination questions below I have placed in my prayer journal to call myself to account and to pray over continually that I might not grow dull and passive in my own pursuit of godliness.
Let us then examine whether we put forth this holy violence for Heaven? What is an empty profession without this? Like a lamp without oil. Let us all ask ourselves, what violence do we use for Heaven?
1. Do we strive with our hearts to get them into an holy frame? How did David awaken all the powers of his soul to serve God, (Psalm 57:8) ‘I myself will awake early.’ The heart is like a bell that is a long while rising.
2. Do we set time apart to call ourselves to account, and to try our evidences for Heaven? (Psalm 77:6) ‘My spirit made diligent search.’ Do we take our hearts as a watch all in pieces, to see what is amiss and to mend it? Are we curiously inquisitive into the state of our souls? Are we afraid of artificial grace, as of artificial happiness?
3. Do we use violence in prayer? Is there fire in our sacrifice? Doth the wind of the Spirit, filling our sails, cause ‘groans unutterable?’ (Rom. 8:25) Do we pray in the morning as if we were to die at night?
4. Do we thirst for the living God? Are our souls big with holy desires? (Psalm 73:25) ‘There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.’ Do were desire holiness as well as Heaven? Do we desire as much to look like Christ, as to live with Christ? Is our desire constant? Is this spiritual pulse ever beating?
5. Are we skilled in self-denial? Can we deny our ease, our aims, our interest? Can we cross our own will to fulfill God’s? Can we behead our beloved sin? To pluck out the right eye requires violence.
6. Are we lovers of God? It is not how much we do, but how much we love. Does love command the castle of our hearts? Does Christ’s beauty and sweetness constrain us? (2 Cor. 5:14) Do we love God more than we fear hell?
7. Do we keep our spiritual watch? Do we set spies in every place, watching our thoughts, our eyes, our tongues? When we have prayed against sin, do we watch against temptation? The Jews, having sealed the stone of Christ’s sepulcher, ‘set a watch,’ (Matt. 27:66 ) After we have been at the word, or sacrament, (that sealing ordinance) do we set a watch?
8. Do we press after further degrees of sanctity? (Phil3:13) ‘Reaching forth unto those things which are before.’ A good Christian is a wonder; he is the most contented yet the least satisfied: he is contented with a little of the world, but not satisfied with a little grace; he would have still more faith and be anointed with fresh oil. Paul desired to ‘attain unto the resurrection of the dead,’ (Phil. 3:11) that is, he endeavored (if possible) to arrive at such a measure of grace as the saints shall have at the resurrection.
9. Is there an holy emulation in us? Do we labor to out-shine others in religion? — To be more eminent for love and good works? Do we something which is singular? (Matt. 5:47) ‘What do ye more than others?’
10. Are we got above the world? Though we walk on earth, do we trade in Heaven? Can we say as David? (Psalm 139:18) ‘I am still with thee.’ This requires violence; for motions upward are usually violent.
11. Do we set ourselves always under God’s eye? (Psalm 16:8) ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Do we live soberly and godly, remembering that whatever we are doing our Judge looks on?
If it be thus with us, we are happy persons. This is the holy violence the text speaks of, and is the right way of taking the kingdom of God. And surely never did Noah so willingly put forth his hand to receive the dove into the ark, as Jesus Christ will put forth is hand to receive us into Heaven.
I am not doing much of this, but my desire is to and my aim is to learn and to train myself into seeing through this lens! we can be so passive and when we’re not passive we can be crazy for the sake of it but really not achieving anything lol… oh to balance in the middle!