Lately I've been reading a bunch of novels: sci-fi by Lewis and a few fantasy novels by Andrew Peterson. What I've realized is how much I've come to love the story of the gospel. If you had seen me four years ago, you would have seen a passionate, zealous guy who wanted to know as much theology as possible, preferably systematic. I wanted to know the propositions and know them well. I was propelled toward further knowledge as I discovered more and more new propositions to add to my newly formed reformed theological framework. Everything was systematized, organized and zealously pursued.
What I've found lately is that at some level propositions don't breed perseverance. Yes, they are absolutely fundamental to the faith (I'm not going way out emergent on you all with my proposition hating) but they are not sufficient in and of themselves to generate the type of faith that lives and moves and breaths for a lifetime. We must know the truths of the Scriptures: our sinful condition, God's free grace, justification by faith, spirit-empowered sanctification; as well as how to practice them: church order, sacraments, worship, etc. However, we also must know the Truth of Scripture--and here I mean the one transcendent Truth that is the story of Scripture. Jesus calls himself the Truth not merely because he speaks truth but because he is the sum, the climax of the entire true story of scripture. We must know the True Story if we want our faith to survive the perils, threats, and difficult trials of life on a fallen, screwed up and terribly seductive world.
What does this mean? We need a biblical theology that understands the story of Scripture--that understands why Genesis and Judges and Zechariah matter, that understands how Jesus fulfills the promises and types of the Old Testament, and ultimately, that shows us that the whole story, from alpha to omega is really centered on the Alpha and Omega. Jesus is at the center of the story. And until we see the unlikely rescue of Jesus for his people planned out in eternity past and fulfilled in the most unexpected of ways for the most undeserving of people, only when we see that story, will our hearts love the gospel for a lifetime. In one of his songs Jason Gray remarks, "It's gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in, more like losing my heart, than giving my allegiance..." When we get caught up in the Story that we are called to be a part of, it is then that we are truly equipped to endure and persevere through all the challenges of a lifetime of faithful walking in our role of the grand Story of Existence.
Check out these related resources that I've been spending time as the Story has been challenging me and changing my heart:
Andrew Peterson: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, North! or Be Eaten
and his CD Behold the Lamb of God on itunes.
Sally Lloyd-Jones: The Jesus Storybook Bible
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Update
Hey guys.
It's been a while but despite my negligence I haven't forgotten about the blog. In fact I wrote a lot of things this summer while I was in India but for one reason or another (mostly laziness) they never found their way to the actual blog. To be honest, I think I am a bit intimidated - not quite sure what is "worthy" of this forum so I hesitated a lot because I believed my thoughts to be unpolished and not "Christian" enough. Regardless, I think I'm over that now.
Anyways, I'm in India again (after a brief stint in the US to get things packed). I'm doing full time ministry with EMI (engineering ministries international), "designing a new world of hope" as they would say. It's a place I would have never imagined myself a couple of years ago. That is not beacuse I would be against going on an adventure over seas, but because I never imagined myself doing full time ministry. It's still really weird. There is lots of praying and reading the Bible and depending upon God for things - all foreign concepts really.
I'll be giving periodic updates on another blog I started (firstbreathafter.blogspot.com). I know I can't even keep up with this one. For general information and a couple of quirky metaphors that is probably a good place to go.
But you must know that God is doing a lot in me right now. He has literally come to get me out of the darkness. I was doing pretty bad the past couple of years, stuck in a pretty extensive depression, thinking about the end of my life like it was much too near. It really got to the point where I told God - you need to come and get me because I can't go on anymore. And look at what has happened now. I'm in India, serving Him. I'm not out of the woods. My melancholy lean won't allow that just yet - but I'm on my way. God is moving me and I've never been more thankful.
Pray for me guys. I think I need it. Also if you wouldn't mind, pray for my dad. He's going to be visiting in a couple of weeks and I hope that God will be able to show him everything this organization is about allowing him to better understand the transforming effect that Christ can have.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
ps. Ricky Rubio?
It's been a while but despite my negligence I haven't forgotten about the blog. In fact I wrote a lot of things this summer while I was in India but for one reason or another (mostly laziness) they never found their way to the actual blog. To be honest, I think I am a bit intimidated - not quite sure what is "worthy" of this forum so I hesitated a lot because I believed my thoughts to be unpolished and not "Christian" enough. Regardless, I think I'm over that now.
Anyways, I'm in India again (after a brief stint in the US to get things packed). I'm doing full time ministry with EMI (engineering ministries international), "designing a new world of hope" as they would say. It's a place I would have never imagined myself a couple of years ago. That is not beacuse I would be against going on an adventure over seas, but because I never imagined myself doing full time ministry. It's still really weird. There is lots of praying and reading the Bible and depending upon God for things - all foreign concepts really.
I'll be giving periodic updates on another blog I started (firstbreathafter.blogspot.com). I know I can't even keep up with this one. For general information and a couple of quirky metaphors that is probably a good place to go.
But you must know that God is doing a lot in me right now. He has literally come to get me out of the darkness. I was doing pretty bad the past couple of years, stuck in a pretty extensive depression, thinking about the end of my life like it was much too near. It really got to the point where I told God - you need to come and get me because I can't go on anymore. And look at what has happened now. I'm in India, serving Him. I'm not out of the woods. My melancholy lean won't allow that just yet - but I'm on my way. God is moving me and I've never been more thankful.
Pray for me guys. I think I need it. Also if you wouldn't mind, pray for my dad. He's going to be visiting in a couple of weeks and I hope that God will be able to show him everything this organization is about allowing him to better understand the transforming effect that Christ can have.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
ps. Ricky Rubio?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Joy of Being a Child
I think one of the sweetest joys of being a child is that you cannot have everything you want. I was talking to Christy the other day, and a story she told prompted me on this particular tangent of thought. She mentioned to me how when she was a kid, her family would only go out to eat once every six months, and even then they would always order water as their drink. She recalled how one time at one of these rare occasions her parents told Christy and her siblings that they were allowed to order whatever they wanted to drink. To Christy, that glass of chocolate milk was the best thing she'd ever tasted.
I think this example is such a reflection of the way that our hearts and our desires work. It's not really the object of the desire itself that brings pleasure. That chocolate milk was probably no different from the chocolate milk she drinks today. But there is something about how constraints in our pursuit of what we desire will actually create greater joy in the long run. A specific example for me as a kid was my intense desire for ice cream every time I heard the jingle of the ice cream truck. There was something magical about that jingle that it had every kid on the block sprinting full on to catch the truck as it was turning the corner. These days I can buy all those cheap ice creams any time I stop to fill up gas. On occasion I do. But the pleasure is never the same. Sure the ice cream tastes pretty good. But there isn't that sense of wonder, of curiosity satisfied, of a pleasure that doesn't come often.
This would usually be the part of the post where I'd explain how I've seen this as a metaphor for something bigger in life, something spiritual even. But actually I haven't made that connection yet. Perhaps I will soon. In the meantime I'll mourn the loss of wonder in the ice cream bar and chocolate milk and perhaps try and recapture it.
I think this example is such a reflection of the way that our hearts and our desires work. It's not really the object of the desire itself that brings pleasure. That chocolate milk was probably no different from the chocolate milk she drinks today. But there is something about how constraints in our pursuit of what we desire will actually create greater joy in the long run. A specific example for me as a kid was my intense desire for ice cream every time I heard the jingle of the ice cream truck. There was something magical about that jingle that it had every kid on the block sprinting full on to catch the truck as it was turning the corner. These days I can buy all those cheap ice creams any time I stop to fill up gas. On occasion I do. But the pleasure is never the same. Sure the ice cream tastes pretty good. But there isn't that sense of wonder, of curiosity satisfied, of a pleasure that doesn't come often.
This would usually be the part of the post where I'd explain how I've seen this as a metaphor for something bigger in life, something spiritual even. But actually I haven't made that connection yet. Perhaps I will soon. In the meantime I'll mourn the loss of wonder in the ice cream bar and chocolate milk and perhaps try and recapture it.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Too Much of a Good Thing
It has been a dry season for me lately. Between raising support and being in a lot of transition, it has been difficult to spend a lot of time in the Word or in the study of it. Instead I've found myself reading several genres I haven't read for awhile: biography and science fiction. It is interesting to see how truth is spoken (often with greater meaning) through the means of story instead of proposition. Narrative instead of argument. One particular area where these stories have spoken to me is in the question of satisfaction. That is, what does it mean to be satisfied and where is that found?
A quote from a biography of Catholic priest Henri Nouwen:
"We ignore what we already know with a deep-seated intuitive knowledge--that no love or friendship, no intimate embrace or tender kiss, no community, commune or collective, no man or woman, will ever be able to satisfy our desire to be released from our lonely condition. This truth is so disconcerting and painful that we are more prone to play games with our fantasies than to face the truth of our existence. Thus we keep hoping that one day we will find the man who really understands our experiences, the woman who will bring peace to our restless life, the job where we can fulfil our potentials, the book which will explain everything, and the place where we can feel at home. Such false hope leads us to make exhausting demands and prepares us for bitterness and dangerous hostility when we start discovering that nobody, and nothing, can live up to our absolutistic expectations."
I think Nouwen says it so well when he remarks that we would prefer to "play games with our fantasies" instead of facing the truth of our dissatisfaction head on. We fear the fact that nothing will truly satisfy us, and so we simply pretend that it is not true, and then immerse ourselves in all manner of sexual, success and relational fantasy to numb the pain.
Now from C.S. Lewis, in his science fiction book Perelandra:
"Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which has restrained him over-night from tasting a second gourd. He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in the opera--"That just spoils it" has been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards...was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself--perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defence against chance, a security for being able to have things over gain, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film... Money, in fact, would provide the means of saying encore in a voice that could not be disobeyed."
Lewis points out that when we find something we believe does satisfy us, we feel the need to make an idol out of it (though he doesn't use those words). He describes the way that we take the hint of satisfaction that this world offers and try and suspend it, or maintain it for as long as possible. In our world there is no sense of the reality that certain pleasures or satisfaction might have their time and place and then be finished. Or, even more, that the hints of pleasure and satisfaction that this world offers are mere signposts pointing us to the true source of satisfaction. It is as if we were traveling to Chicago and saw a sign saying "Chicago 30 Miles" and decided to stop there and bask in the joy of how close we were; setting up camp and seeking to cling to that satisfaction as long as possible, all while missing the point of the sign in the first place.
We won't be truly satisfied by anything this world has to offer, nor will we be able to turn its hints of satisfaction into something lasting. Whether it's biography or science fiction, the truth is the same: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:25-26).
A quote from a biography of Catholic priest Henri Nouwen:
"We ignore what we already know with a deep-seated intuitive knowledge--that no love or friendship, no intimate embrace or tender kiss, no community, commune or collective, no man or woman, will ever be able to satisfy our desire to be released from our lonely condition. This truth is so disconcerting and painful that we are more prone to play games with our fantasies than to face the truth of our existence. Thus we keep hoping that one day we will find the man who really understands our experiences, the woman who will bring peace to our restless life, the job where we can fulfil our potentials, the book which will explain everything, and the place where we can feel at home. Such false hope leads us to make exhausting demands and prepares us for bitterness and dangerous hostility when we start discovering that nobody, and nothing, can live up to our absolutistic expectations."
I think Nouwen says it so well when he remarks that we would prefer to "play games with our fantasies" instead of facing the truth of our dissatisfaction head on. We fear the fact that nothing will truly satisfy us, and so we simply pretend that it is not true, and then immerse ourselves in all manner of sexual, success and relational fantasy to numb the pain.
Now from C.S. Lewis, in his science fiction book Perelandra:
"Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which has restrained him over-night from tasting a second gourd. He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in the opera--"That just spoils it" has been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards...was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself--perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defence against chance, a security for being able to have things over gain, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film... Money, in fact, would provide the means of saying encore in a voice that could not be disobeyed."
Lewis points out that when we find something we believe does satisfy us, we feel the need to make an idol out of it (though he doesn't use those words). He describes the way that we take the hint of satisfaction that this world offers and try and suspend it, or maintain it for as long as possible. In our world there is no sense of the reality that certain pleasures or satisfaction might have their time and place and then be finished. Or, even more, that the hints of pleasure and satisfaction that this world offers are mere signposts pointing us to the true source of satisfaction. It is as if we were traveling to Chicago and saw a sign saying "Chicago 30 Miles" and decided to stop there and bask in the joy of how close we were; setting up camp and seeking to cling to that satisfaction as long as possible, all while missing the point of the sign in the first place.
We won't be truly satisfied by anything this world has to offer, nor will we be able to turn its hints of satisfaction into something lasting. Whether it's biography or science fiction, the truth is the same: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:25-26).
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Unique Grace
The church that I have been going to here in Raleigh has been doing a sermon series on Doctrine and the topic of grace keeps coming up. The fact that God sent his only son to die for my sins so that I could live with him forever should continually astound me, but the sad truth is that I seem to grow jaded to this miracle.
I am going to go out on a limb here and talk about things that might be theologically inaccurate, so forgive me if anything I say is wrong, these are just some musings on a thought I recently had that really made me appreciate God’s grace even more. I’ve been reading “Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained” by John Milton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_lost. I am on book 6 of 12 right now. So I’ll have to give a complete opinion of it once I am finished. It has been interesting to read about a subject (the fall of Satan) in which the Bible does not go into much detail. I admit this book is hard to understand, and I realize that I am not interpreting this line correctly, but it gave me an interesting thought. I think what is happening here is Satan (after rejecting God) has just been confronted by another angel.
“So spake the Cherub, and his grave rebuke
Severe in youthful beauty, added grace
Invincible: abasht the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pin’d
His loss;….”
Mainly the words pin’d His loss got me to thinking. These words almost hint at a touch of remorse. I don’t think satan feels any remorse for rejecting God, but it got me to thinking. God did not send his son to save the fallen angels. The fallen angels will not be redeemed. God sent his son to save the fallen humans. God could have very well left us in that fallen state and he would have been completely justified to do so. But he didn’t. How amazing!! I Peter 1:10-12
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
The grace that God has shown us is so incredible, so unique that angels long to look, they long to look on something completely incomprehensible and unprecedented; God’s free gift of grace.
I am going to go out on a limb here and talk about things that might be theologically inaccurate, so forgive me if anything I say is wrong, these are just some musings on a thought I recently had that really made me appreciate God’s grace even more. I’ve been reading “Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained” by John Milton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_lost. I am on book 6 of 12 right now. So I’ll have to give a complete opinion of it once I am finished. It has been interesting to read about a subject (the fall of Satan) in which the Bible does not go into much detail. I admit this book is hard to understand, and I realize that I am not interpreting this line correctly, but it gave me an interesting thought. I think what is happening here is Satan (after rejecting God) has just been confronted by another angel.
“So spake the Cherub, and his grave rebuke
Severe in youthful beauty, added grace
Invincible: abasht the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pin’d
His loss;….”
Mainly the words pin’d His loss got me to thinking. These words almost hint at a touch of remorse. I don’t think satan feels any remorse for rejecting God, but it got me to thinking. God did not send his son to save the fallen angels. The fallen angels will not be redeemed. God sent his son to save the fallen humans. God could have very well left us in that fallen state and he would have been completely justified to do so. But he didn’t. How amazing!! I Peter 1:10-12
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
The grace that God has shown us is so incredible, so unique that angels long to look, they long to look on something completely incomprehensible and unprecedented; God’s free gift of grace.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Memory
I’d like to share some thoughts on a passage from one of my favorite books. I’ve read this book a couple of times and each time I would read it this passage would fill me with great wonder and a deep stirring in my heart, but these feelings did not lead me to an understanding. I’m still only 22 (almost 23), so I can’t claim to have much of an understanding of these things, but I do think graduating college and moving to North Carolina has shed some light on what can be a beautiful way to look at life! I will attempt to explain….
The book is “Out of the Silent Planet” by C.S. Lewis (read it, it is amazing!). To set the stage (without giving away too much), Ransom, the main character, travels to another planet inhabited by creatures called hrossa. These hrossa are kind of like giant beavers, but more importantly they are instinctively morally pure. The following is part of a conversation between Ransom and one of the hrossa, named Hyoi.
We will enter the conversation at the point in which Hyoi is speaking:
“A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hman [the hrossa word for man], as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. The seroni [another creature famous for its intellect and wisdom] could say it better than I say it now. Not better than I could say it in a poem [the hrossa are famous for their poems]. What you call remember is the last part of pleasure, as the crah is the last part of a poem. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then – that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it. You say you have poets in your world. Do they not teach you this?”
“Perhaps some of them do,” said Ransom. “But even in a poem does a hross never long to hear one splendid line over again?”
[skip a paragraph]
And indeed,” he continued, “the poem is a good example. For the most splendid line becomes fully splendid only by means of all the lines after it; if you went back to it you would find it less splendid than you thought. You would kill it. I mean in a good poem.”
[two paragraphs cut out]
“And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back – if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”
Memory is an interesting thing. It amazes me how my memory is not static over time. Newsweek published an article a few months ago about therapy for people that have undergone sever trauma, in which their memory of the event is actually changed over time… but this is not my point, just a tangent.
I find it so interesting to see what memories are brought back to my mind and which ones I dwell on. Sometimes it’s a day, a song, an event, a person, a moment, or even a look, but the recollection of it can greatly change me. I feel that even in just remembering someone I am drawn closer to them, and even though they are not physically involved in the encounter, it truly seems that the memory of someone impacts the relationship that I have with them today.
Basically I just want to say that I miss you guys and that throughout the day different things happen that throw memories of you to the front of my mind.
“When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it.” I love you guys and the memory of our meeting is growing, growing into something beautiful, something that affects me every day, something that I cherish dearly, and may we truly rejoice in this!!
The book is “Out of the Silent Planet” by C.S. Lewis (read it, it is amazing!). To set the stage (without giving away too much), Ransom, the main character, travels to another planet inhabited by creatures called hrossa. These hrossa are kind of like giant beavers, but more importantly they are instinctively morally pure. The following is part of a conversation between Ransom and one of the hrossa, named Hyoi.
We will enter the conversation at the point in which Hyoi is speaking:
“A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hman [the hrossa word for man], as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. The seroni [another creature famous for its intellect and wisdom] could say it better than I say it now. Not better than I could say it in a poem [the hrossa are famous for their poems]. What you call remember is the last part of pleasure, as the crah is the last part of a poem. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then – that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it. You say you have poets in your world. Do they not teach you this?”
“Perhaps some of them do,” said Ransom. “But even in a poem does a hross never long to hear one splendid line over again?”
[skip a paragraph]
And indeed,” he continued, “the poem is a good example. For the most splendid line becomes fully splendid only by means of all the lines after it; if you went back to it you would find it less splendid than you thought. You would kill it. I mean in a good poem.”
[two paragraphs cut out]
“And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back – if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”
Memory is an interesting thing. It amazes me how my memory is not static over time. Newsweek published an article a few months ago about therapy for people that have undergone sever trauma, in which their memory of the event is actually changed over time… but this is not my point, just a tangent.
I find it so interesting to see what memories are brought back to my mind and which ones I dwell on. Sometimes it’s a day, a song, an event, a person, a moment, or even a look, but the recollection of it can greatly change me. I feel that even in just remembering someone I am drawn closer to them, and even though they are not physically involved in the encounter, it truly seems that the memory of someone impacts the relationship that I have with them today.
Basically I just want to say that I miss you guys and that throughout the day different things happen that throw memories of you to the front of my mind.
“When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it.” I love you guys and the memory of our meeting is growing, growing into something beautiful, something that affects me every day, something that I cherish dearly, and may we truly rejoice in this!!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Untitled
This is my first real attempt at poetry ever, but I was feeling inspired at Panera today after studying law all day. I hope you enjoy it.
God, your chief goal is your own glory
So I exist to bring you glory
Only in you will I ever glory
To you alone be all the glory
The LORD of hosts is the king of glory!
By this it is that I know love--
That Jesus came here out of love
And therefore I can too show love,
Rejoicing in his radiant love,
And living, telling of his love.
Your Spirit came to earth in fire
And so I pray my heart catch fire;
Then you set my heart on fire
But test me too, with trials by fire
Yet purify me, like gold in fire.
Lord, as your child it's me you treasure
And knowing you is like a field with a treasure,
So for you I'll sell all my earthly treasure
And my heart will remain with what I treasure
As you lay up in heaven for me treasure.
Though grace is given me as a gift,
I don't accept that it's a gift,
But then it ceases to be a gift--
It becomes works and not a gift--
Why don't I just accept God's gift?
I know God's will is I obey his will,
But sometimes that is not my will
Yet even that God may well will
For my growth too, is in God's will--
I will still walk within God's will.
So I give glory to He who loves.
So I love Him who sent his fire.
And no fire will burn my eternal treasure.
I'll treasure all You give me as a gift;
This gift that before time was Your will.
Fulfillment of this will brings You glory.
Basically I was just reflecting on God, and wanted to talk about my response to characteristics of Him. And I often do slip into legalism, and I do still sin, but I know that in it all, God is working for me. His grace saves me, and my response should be joy and love.
God, your chief goal is your own glory
So I exist to bring you glory
Only in you will I ever glory
To you alone be all the glory
The LORD of hosts is the king of glory!
By this it is that I know love--
That Jesus came here out of love
And therefore I can too show love,
Rejoicing in his radiant love,
And living, telling of his love.
Your Spirit came to earth in fire
And so I pray my heart catch fire;
Then you set my heart on fire
But test me too, with trials by fire
Yet purify me, like gold in fire.
Lord, as your child it's me you treasure
And knowing you is like a field with a treasure,
So for you I'll sell all my earthly treasure
And my heart will remain with what I treasure
As you lay up in heaven for me treasure.
Though grace is given me as a gift,
I don't accept that it's a gift,
But then it ceases to be a gift--
It becomes works and not a gift--
Why don't I just accept God's gift?
I know God's will is I obey his will,
But sometimes that is not my will
Yet even that God may well will
For my growth too, is in God's will--
I will still walk within God's will.
So I give glory to He who loves.
So I love Him who sent his fire.
And no fire will burn my eternal treasure.
I'll treasure all You give me as a gift;
This gift that before time was Your will.
Fulfillment of this will brings You glory.
Basically I was just reflecting on God, and wanted to talk about my response to characteristics of Him. And I often do slip into legalism, and I do still sin, but I know that in it all, God is working for me. His grace saves me, and my response should be joy and love.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)