We have much to be thankful for. Friends, family, freedom, things yet these things are nothings. It is easy to say “nothing compares to knowing Christ” but in practicality this beast of a statement is hard to believe. We would rather lean on things than God; we like to hold the hand of a lover not trust the hand of a Savior. To be sure we’ve exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped creation rather than Creator.
The lie we believe is God is not sufficient, or God is not sovereign. The matters of earth he does not control. We are Deist at our best. God has created all things and now takes no part in them. “WOAH! No, no, no, that’s not what I believe!” many will say, you’re right, in your head you believe in the absolute sovereignty of God and in your life you believe in the absolute sovereignty of self. We do not see him as good, we do not see him as in control, and we do not see him as God. The clock has been wound and the maker has taken his leave.
The lie has become our truth. For so long we’ve been taught the Deist line of thought and we’ve been told it’s ‘Christian’ when in centuries past this thought would have stayed under the umbrella of Deism never to be confused with Christian. Not any more. Now the lines are muddied, now the lines are braided together. The enemy has woven and intricate tapestry for us to hang ourselves with.
We are told our things to do and things not to do, we are told we are ‘naturally good people’ and we are told ‘God love us’ then we go home and live unchanged lives. Indeed the wool is pulled over our eyes and we are ‘Christians’ headed strait to hell. We are morally good pagans.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the name of thousands of our churches. They are Gospel-less, they are Godless, and they are damnably sick with the sin of self.
The Gospel must be preached. Sin must be called ‘sin’. Romans 3 must be taught (No one is good, ‘no one’ means no one.). Conviction must come. And God must be worshiped for who he is as shown in Scripture, not who I want him to be
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Time Has Come
The time has come,
One more car-ride;
One more song;
One more laying down to rest,
And one more throng
The time has come.
The time has come,
One more glance;
For many more fears,
And many more tears
The time has come.
The time has come,
Listen as the clock strikes time;
Listen as we move inside;
Listen to that horrid silence;
Listen to our somber weeping.
The time has come.
The time has come,
For one to go and some to stay
For hearts to break and lives to change
For wonder and for worship both
The time has come.
For: Doug
One more car-ride;
One more song;
One more laying down to rest,
And one more throng
The time has come.
The time has come,
One more glance;
For many more fears,
And many more tears
The time has come.
The time has come,
Listen as the clock strikes time;
Listen as we move inside;
Listen to that horrid silence;
Listen to our somber weeping.
The time has come.
The time has come,
For one to go and some to stay
For hearts to break and lives to change
For wonder and for worship both
The time has come.
For: Doug
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Beautifully Hideous
Here’s a thought that originated with C.S. Lewis:
What if all the beauty around us (sunrises, sunsets and the stars) is really just ugly? Think about it. If beauty were truly beauty would we move on from it? Wouldn’t we sit and stare for undeterminable amounts of time simply because we are beholding beauty? There would be no need to run from grandeur to grandeur in search of resplendence because resplendence would be found at the first grandeur.
But as it is we grow weary of one spectacle and thus move to the second and third each time the scene growing more ‘beautiful’ and us growing harder to please. So now the Grand Canyon must be replaced for the Alps and the snow covered Rockies for warm beaches.
The reasoning behind this thought is simple: these good things are not the thing itself. The beautiful beauties are hideous comparisons and dull replacements for what one truly longs for. If one were to behold all splendors and marvels this world contains one would be left wanting, this is sure.
Beauty will forever captivate us but will never capture us. We are not simply flesh and blood; we are not simply animal. Half of one may be held in awe of the Alps but the whole of one will never be. For how can the immaterial be captured by the material?
The soul is what I speak of, why should it fall in love with a mortal thing? Indeed the soul will last forever but the mountains will cease to be along with the beaches. And is not the soul the ‘seat of a man’? So it would be reasonable to conclude that whatever one’s soul falls in love with then the whole of one will fall in love with.
If this were true, then this thing that captures the soul must needs be radiant. It must sparkle and shine more than any soul. It must indeed be more resplendent than the sun. It must be truly beautiful. For only then will the immaterial soul be captured by that immaterial beauty, and only then will the dull replacements be seen as gorgeous representations of how much more beautiful the thing itself is.
“He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb. 1:3)”
What if all the beauty around us (sunrises, sunsets and the stars) is really just ugly? Think about it. If beauty were truly beauty would we move on from it? Wouldn’t we sit and stare for undeterminable amounts of time simply because we are beholding beauty? There would be no need to run from grandeur to grandeur in search of resplendence because resplendence would be found at the first grandeur.
But as it is we grow weary of one spectacle and thus move to the second and third each time the scene growing more ‘beautiful’ and us growing harder to please. So now the Grand Canyon must be replaced for the Alps and the snow covered Rockies for warm beaches.
The reasoning behind this thought is simple: these good things are not the thing itself. The beautiful beauties are hideous comparisons and dull replacements for what one truly longs for. If one were to behold all splendors and marvels this world contains one would be left wanting, this is sure.
Beauty will forever captivate us but will never capture us. We are not simply flesh and blood; we are not simply animal. Half of one may be held in awe of the Alps but the whole of one will never be. For how can the immaterial be captured by the material?
The soul is what I speak of, why should it fall in love with a mortal thing? Indeed the soul will last forever but the mountains will cease to be along with the beaches. And is not the soul the ‘seat of a man’? So it would be reasonable to conclude that whatever one’s soul falls in love with then the whole of one will fall in love with.
If this were true, then this thing that captures the soul must needs be radiant. It must sparkle and shine more than any soul. It must indeed be more resplendent than the sun. It must be truly beautiful. For only then will the immaterial soul be captured by that immaterial beauty, and only then will the dull replacements be seen as gorgeous representations of how much more beautiful the thing itself is.
“He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb. 1:3)”
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