The Wine cellar of his Grace!
Thank God it’s Friday
by Parris Bailey
“He brought me into the cellar of wine, he set in order charity in me.”
(Song of Solomon 2:4 DRA)
The riches of salvation are His wisdom and knowledge. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterspouts! Sometimes it’s just time to take a dive deeper into the vast ocean of God’s wisdom and knowledge. We can call it going down into the wine cellar. Not everyone is ready to participate in this vast pursuit, it comes by hard work and simplicity of heart. This wine cellar becomes a hiding place where we find refuge and refreshing. Obviously you will find a lot of wine down there which is the joy in the Holy Ghost. What ever is brought into that cellar is wine or becomes wine for the fire of divine love takes it over, every bit of it, and consumes it and like ordinary fire, changes it into its own nature. Where darkness meets the sweet we are nourished in His Love. “In that place by the abundance of wine and the plenty of God’s house, the torrent of love is brought to a boil, it overflows in its elation. In this wine cellar one becomes far removed from the things that normally invade the mind which are empty and pointless merriment, idle amusements, vain delights and strife of man. It is sustained and held together steadily and securely in its uninterrupted course. The only thing that is alive is the mind that has tasted the sweetness of the highest good.” Yes our love begins to be “set in order”. (Augustine) In Jer. 48:11 it says “Moab has been at ease from his youth; He has settled on his dregs, And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, Nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him, And his scent has not changed.” Yes, it is when we go down into this wine cellar and allow the Holy Spirit to empty us that we are changed. Some vessels are not so fun to be inside at the moment but if we just allow ourselves to “be still” and let him perfect that which concerns us, we will come out with our scent changed!
Near our new home is a fountain dedicated to the children of New Orleans. The fountain pours into a ankle deep pool where statues of children are playing and frolicking. If you walk up closer you see a bronze statue of a little boy getting ready to tip toe into the pool, and his toe has been changed into a different color from the rest of his body over the years because of the water level of the pool. He wants all of us to dip into this luscious fountain this overflowing wine cellar! This fountain was purposely built to overflow its banks into ditches that overflow again. It is a perfect picture of God’s overflowing supply in our lives.