the Requiest

I decided to see what Wayne at the JollyBlogger had posted recently since I haven’t been over to his blog in some time. Wayne’s most recent article is an excerpt from the book “The Theology of the Cross” by Daniel M. Deutschlander. Even though Wayne in his post is asking what the litmus test for the Christian church should be I couldn’t help but think how amazing God is in his providential timing, and how this monumental question wove into the continuing discussion that my friend and I have been having about the pain of our sin and our desire to “feel” Gods presence in our lives.

From my friends email:

I long for a “feeling” of God.
…the hope that somehow I would “feel” God’s presence or I would experience some existential ecstasy in God that would knock my socks off in a way that (my sin) doesn’t.

Unfortunately I too echo in this desire. But don’t we all? Don’t we all desire to have God as real to us as the tree outside my window. But alas that is not how it is, or how God intended it to be. For this is where we are called to rely on faith. But oh, how it pains me to realize just how little of that I truly have. And what is the barrier to my faith? Is it my heady knowledge of scientific things that makes my mind demand for empirical evidence of Gods existence? Those who know me are now rolling on the floor in fits of laughter for “heady knowledge” is the least of my problems. No I read what my friend wrote and then I read what Wayne wrote in his article and I realize that the largest stumbling block to my faith is my desire for my own personal pleasure.

My friend added in his email:

the goal is to glorify God and my own existential experience of that be damned…it’s time for me to give up the hope of worldly, fleshly, even internal pleasure and pursue Christ for His glory and allow that pursuit to take me where it will.

And here is a part from Wayne’s post that caught my eye and brought me back to thinking of my friends email.

All of that seems so, well, so un-American. We pursue pleasure, and for every pain there should be an instant remedy… We shun any notion that we live in a veil of tears… We think that anyone who is in physical or spiritual pain must be sick and in need of therapy that will make him happy again—and soon!

And there it is, my stumbling block, the boulder that blocks not only my path but my view of what true pleasure can and is in Christ. I want to be happy. I want to feel good. I want what I want and I want it now! I’m no better than that brat Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka

The problem with that is that what I want isn’t what I should want. And if I knew what I could have I’d never be asking for it in the first place.

CS Lewis put it most succinctly when he said,

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too more weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with

drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

I’m a 3 year old who’s been offered an everlasting trip to Disney World but I’m much happier playing in my cardboard box. So what am I to do?

From Wayne’s post:

At the same time, the Bible tells us that in the midst of suffering and under the cross, we should rejoice. Yes, it tells us to rejoice constantly and precisely because we are suffering under the weight of the cross that crushes and threatens to destroy us. It assures us again and again that those who rejoice without the cross and those who suffer without joy understand neither true joy nor the value of the cross that God has sent.

What my friend ended his email with:

To be given the grace to “deny myself and take up my cross daily” is my current request.

And it’s with that last comment that I see between the Jollybloggers post and my friends email God’s providential timing in all things. For it is back to the Cross of Christ that I must go and go I must, with joyful abandon of all earthly pleasures knowing that Heaven awaits me if I’ll just get out of my mud puddle.

For our first assignment we were asked to read Psalm 1 and then write out any questions or comments that we had.  My comments are interjected within the passages.

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.

I did look up some of the inferences of the first verse just to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding anything.  Do I knowingly listen to the advice of a person who I know is wicked?  And when we use the word wicked I don’t think we’re talking about your average sinner, but someone who is consciously and maliciously evil in their intent. And like them is my character of the same ilk? Do I partake in slandering someone and making false accusations?

Honestly, there was a time when I would have had to say yes to all 3 of these condemnations.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

Do I meditate on God’s law day and night? Do I meditate on it at all would be a more appropriate question. But the real kicker is do I delight in it? For me to delight in something, is too find joy in it, too love it and that means there is something intrinsically beautiful about it. What was it that David saw in the law of God that made him delight in it?

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers.

I could easily visualize the image of the tree and what it represents but the stickler for me is with the last sentence. What did David mean by prosper? Are we talking the end result of a righteous mans life, or are we talking about the normal day to day dealings in his life?

⁴ Not so the wicked!
       They are like chaff
       that the wind blows away.

Not only is there is no foundation to hold them in place, there is nothing about them of any real substance.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
       nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Wow, if I read this with Revelation 20:12-15 in mind then the judgement only occurs to those whose names are already in the book of life.  How very different than what Hollywood portrays. There is no judgement for the damned for they have already been judged.  It’s still an intimidating thought to be judged even if you are one of the saved. I’ve always imagined that judgement will be our opportunity to see our lives played out thru Gods lens. What abominations we will see ourselves as when that time comes.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
       but the way of the wicked will perish.

This is my God, a god who watches over me. Not some impersonal god who created me and then stepped out of my life.

It will be interesting to see where the class goes with this Psalm.

This past Wednesday evening I participated in a new class lead by my senior pastor. He explained to us a number of things that he’d like for us to get out of the class and that a large part of what he’s after is for us to learn what may be a new way (for me at least) of interpreting and understanding the Bible. He brought up the term Biblical Theology and discussed in what ways it is different from Systematic Theology. Now I have a laymen’s grasp of Systematic Theology but I’d never heard of Biblical, and so like most new words especially technical ones my brain enshrouded it in a vacuous cloud of uncertainty. As a good do bee and geek I scurried over to Google today and looked up the word in hopes of clearing away the gathering cobwebs.

Here is what I found….

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