Who of us would have liked to remain in elementary school up until our adult years? Doubtless there would be none. This is because in elementary school we learn things that are merely elementary. And so there came the day for all of us when it was time to close the books and move on to higher learning. We called it high school. Now our knowledge and understanding of certain subjects would become broadened. Following high school many would choose to further their education and go on to college. Here we’d grow in the knowledge of the world about us like never before. I repeat “in the world about us.” But how should all of what I have written thus far apply to the world above us? For here too there are plateaus to scale, by which our knowledge and understanding of the Holy One may be ever increased - and not just of Him but of His eternal kingdom and all of His ways.

I’ve heard it expressed by some, that in the church by and large, we’ve become content with an elementary knowledge of God and the things of God. I’m inclined to agree; no desire for high school; college, out of the question. But this is nothing new. I’m reminded of the words penned by the author of Hebrews: “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” I believe all of this could have been written to the church today.

Not wanting to be critical, I think it’s a sad scene when Christians who were born of God three and four decades ago, yet continue to speak to one another of nothing but the base things of their walk in Christ. Have our ears not heard enough - and how long will our words run on from cliché to cliché? We must awake from our slumber. There is a Ladder to climb. I believe we’ve heard it referred to as Jacob’s Ladder, on which the angels of God are ever ascending and descending. And that Ladder is Christ. He is the Great Mediator who stretches from earth to heaven. Upon Him messengers of God, chosen by the Father, would lead us on to higher heights in the Son. For in those heights we will gain a greater knowledge while embarking upon a more firm understanding, concerning the things that are not passing, but eternal. Not this only, but also that we should be granted a knowledge of The Holy.

Still, in all of this we are led down again into the shadow lands. For as long as we walk in the tent of this flesh our work is not done on the earth; neither has our fellowship with friends and family been made complete here. Though while we remain in this world we should never fail to encourage others to scale the only Ladder that abides. Consequently we may shine as the stars in the sight of God forever and ever. Moreover, we have pointed out the way for another, that they may come to possess a fuller knowledge of things above.

 　As we ascend the Ladder between heaven and earth we learn that not all things are as they once appeared. Certain works that we thought of as being good, we’ve now found to be rather dark in the eyes of God. On the contrary, some things that we may have looked at as wrong or harmful, we now learn have been done of God - and in righteousness, since He can work in no other way. While I watched TV one night many years ago, there was money being raised for the cure of a disease. As I continued to watch, a man looked angrily up into heaven and this is what he said. “If this is someone’s idea of a great cosmic joke, I’m afraid I don’t understand.” I was stunned. Believers should know this for certain. No matter how noble the work may appear, whenever a perfectly holy and righteous God is angrily accused and judged by perfectly filthy rags, we can quickly cross out the word good from good works. Sometimes what appears to be light isn’t light at all, even as the scriptures teach. Contrariwise, the apostle Paul once struck a man blind for a season, all because the man stood between Paul and a potential convert. Moreover, it seemed that God’s servant wasn’t worried about being an offense. For he knew the leading of his God. But how could this have been a righteous act? It was a righteous act for one reason only. The scripture states that when Paul carried the act out he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This and this alone made it every bit right and altogether justified. And so, even as what may appear to be light is not always light - likewise what may appear to be dark is not always darkness. It’s never about the manifestation of a thing as much as it’s about the Spirit who is at work. We then must pray for discerning spirits.

  As we ascend the Ladder that Jacob beheld in his dream, we will become surprised at some things that the Spirit of God will unfold. And we can become confident that it is He who unfolds them. For the prudent child of God learns of His voice. Not only this, but when it is the Spirit who speaks, He will not leave us with a single revelation of a matter. He will bring it to us again and again, adding well fitting pieces to the foundation which He had formerly laid.

So much is there to be learned as we walk with the Saviour - our Ladder to the heavenlies. What if perhaps He should show us this? That what pleases the Father more than anything else is simply when a believer’s heart is right before Him. Let’s say that this one had chose the wrong direction to go at times; once or twice there may have even been detrimental consequences. The fact that his heart blessed the Father will override the blunders of the man. But if one’s heart - though he be a son - is not right in the eyes of God, then it matters not how wise his decisions are. His Creator is not pleased with him.

Despite the mistakes of king David, his heart was most pleasing to the Almighty. This is why the Lord referred to him as a man after His own heart. Actually David was a man ahead of his time, understanding certain New Testament concepts in an Old Testament world. For instance, he believed in the Spirit of the law as being over the letter of the law - a thing pretty much unheard of in his day. He knew that the Spirit of the law would always meet human need and save human life, something which the letter often failed to do. Once when David and his men had gone for days without food, he entered the house of God and asked the priest for whatever showbread he had. The priest’s response (the letter) was that it was unlawful for anyone but the priests to eat of it. David pressed him. In the end David and his men ate the bread. Their dire need for food was met - end of story. Or was it the end? I like to think that the final stamp of approval was given to David about a thousand years later - and then by Christ himself. It happened one day as Jesus and His disciples walked through the grain fields. The men were hungry; and so they began to pluck the heads of grain and to eat them. It wasn’t long and they were approached by the Pharisees. These men asked why Jesus’ followers did what was unlawful on the Sabbath. This was the Lord’s response - and here’s one for David. “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?” But how is it, that in the same breath Jesus both commended David, yet stated his actions to be unlawful? There’s no contradiction. David did act unlawfully - according to the letter of the law. However David kept a much higher law that day - the Spirit of the law. In the third chapter of II Corinthians and the sixth verse, we read of the Spirit of the law. It is always what meets human need and saves human life. And it is for this that Jesus commended David. It was His way of stating that man was not made for the law, but the law for man. In fact those were once His very words. The apostle Paul clearly let the Corinthians know that the letter of the old covenant kills, but the Spirit of the new brings life. Good for king David, a man ahead of his time, and one whose heart was truly right before God. And it was that right heart that made him who he was. He was a man after the very heart of God. Now what about us? Do we merely look to be legal in the eyes of our Creator, or do we act from out of a right heart - a heart such as David’s?

 Hear the words that the apostle Paul once wrote to Titus. “Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” These words go far beyond our actions, our decisions, and even all of our good works; and they cut right through to the heart of a man. If the heart should appear polluted before God then nothing from that man can please Him - be he a son or a stranger. On the other hand, if one’s heart mirrors His own, then He is ever glad over him, always showing him the way, should he become turned around.

 I am convinced that in the church of Jesus Christ today we say one thing yet do another. Our intentions may be good but we are not quite accurate in our practice of the truth. Example: We as believers may make a statement like, Our walk is not by works but by faith. But are we saying these words merely because they are religiously correct? Probably more so than not. For the truth of the matter is that in reality we live pretty much the opposite. Our goal for the most part is to make ourselves think right thoughts; to follow that up with right behavior; and then to go on and live overall right lives before God. We’ll put it another way - works. Instead our focus should be on the heart, the spirit man, the new man born from above that Paul now recognized as the new him. We’ve read about it at the end of the seventh chapter of Romans. To walk in that man is our victory, since it is that man who is in Christ and altogether justified.

A righteous life, well lived out, is no doubt very important. However we will only begin to have success in this as our eye is on the new man and not on the one who we see in the mirror. Even then the flesh will have its moments and we will stumble and fall. But it is at this time that we must look again within, to the inner man born from above, to whom is imputed no sin. And that fact does Paul emphasize to the Romans. And so, the more we recognize the man of the heart, the more we will walk pure before our God. We then can believe what is written of us. “To the pure all things are pure.” Contrariwise, the more our eyes are upon the temporal man of this world, the more we become defiled and unbelieving in His sight. About such it is written that nothing is pure. Why? Because we have come to look to our own abilities and to trust in ourselves to do right; meanwhile the entire person grows corrupt. We’ve learned to walk in the first man, who we have been told is of the earth - Adam. However it is the second man from heaven that we must behold - Christ in us.

We need not look to the ways and the wisdom of the world; we need not lean on our flesh or on our own understanding to live right before our Maker. Simply we are called to have faith; to believe. Such things are in league with the spirit man. And it is through that man that we must daily come into communion with the Father. Here as we sit before Him and learn of Him, He directs our way. He unfolds to us in accordance with how heartily we seek. But one thing He will always bring to mind is to never cease scaling the Ladder that rises from earth to heaven; to ever go on gaining new heights in the Son. For the Son is all we need. It is in Him and no other who all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, even as it has been written. And no doubt these treasures will be uncovered to us through ages unending. In this shadowy life upon the earth we only begin to discover them. But, Christ our Living Ladder, ascends into the heavens and beyond since He being of the Godhead is also infinite in nature. Therefore we will continue to discover through eternity the treasures that the Father has set in the Son. May our desire be kindled from heaven even now, that we may know Him who stands between heaven and earth - that we may allow His holy ones who ascend and descend upon Him to always show us of his Greatness, of his Glory, and of his Power - yes, even of the Life that is in Him.

- J. Pecoraro