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.

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.

Here is what I found….

It’s when I read something like the following that I realize I know nothing.  I’ve never understood the OT in this way, in these words, with such a simple and direct point being made.

Much thanks to Rich Lusk the author.

How does Christ fulfill all that went before? Like a prism breaking light up into a beautiful spectrum of colors, the Old Testament presents Christ to us in a wide range of shapes, hues, and tones. Consider a sampling:

• He is the Word through whom the Father spoke the world into existence
• He is the light shined into the darkness
• He is the one who came walking in the breeze of the day to meet Adam and Eve in Eden. He sacrificed that first animal and clothed them with skins.
• He is the victorious seed promised to Adam and Eve at the gates of the Garden.
• He is the New Adam, who now rules over creation and promises to fill it with his images. As the new Adam, he subdues his enemies and protects his bride, the church, from the attacks of the serpent.
• He is the Greater Noah who takes his family onboard the ark of his church in order to save them from the flood of God’s wrath.
• He is true Tower of Babel, bridging heaven and earth.
• He is the Greater Melchizedek, an eternal priest of God Most High, who feeds his people bread and wine and receives their tithes.
• He is the promised seed of Abraham, born of the “barren” womb of the vigin by the Spirit’s power. Like Isaac, he is sacrificed by his father, and received back from the dead.
• He is the Greater Jacob who claims his birthright and limps to victory.
• He is Jacob’s ladder, extending into the heavens, on which we ascend into God’s sanctuary.
• He is the Greater Joseph, who has been humiliated and left for dead by his own brothers, but is then vindicated and exalted. As world ruler, he saves the nations by offering bread and wine from his own table.
• He is the prophet greater than Moses, who leads the exiled people in a greater exodus into a greater promised land.
• He is the New Joshua, who leads his people in a new conquest of the earth with the sword of the Spirit.
• He is the Greater Othniel, conquering the City of Books (Kirjath-Sephir/Debir) occupied by giants, thereby winning the daughter’s hand in marriage.
• He is the Temple incarnate, the presence of God dwelling with men.
• He is the final sacrifice, who takes away the sin of the world.
• He is the Passover Lamb who keeps away the Angel of Death and offers his own flesh as food to his people.
• He is the final Judge, a craftier Ehud, a stronger Samson, a greater Gideon.
• He is Great David’s Greater Son, who defeats giants, remains the secret messiah, and finally takes possession of the kingdom.
• He is the one wiser than Solomon, who builds the Lord’s true house and delights the bride with his love.
• He is the Suffering Servant promised by Isaiah, the one who inaugurates the New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah, and pours out his Spirit as prophesied by Ezekiel.
• Like Jeremiah, he is a weeping prophet, who announces judgment on Israel and the temple.
• Like Ezekiel, he is the Son of Man, who executes judgment on the temple.
• He is the stone cut without hands, seen by Daniel, whose kingdom grows to fill the earth.
• He is the Greater Ezra, building a better temple, and the Greater Nehemiah, building a city with heavenly foundations.
• He is the Greater Nebuchadnezzar, Ahasuerus, and Cyrus, God’s anointed world sovereign.
• He is the one who gives Sabbath rest, he is the Tree of Life, the Rock in the wilderness gushing with living water, the cornerstone on which unbelievers stumble and on which the house of God is erected, etc.

And on and on we could go. All God’s promises are yes and Amen in him. Everything written in Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets is fulfilled in him. He is all in all.

“All God’s promises are yes and Amen in him.” Amen

If you’d like to read the rest of what Rich Lusk has to say on Biblical Theology please follow this link: http://www.hornes.org/theologia/rich-lusk/what-is-biblical-theology

PS the quoted part comes from (Part Two)