The Pursuit of Joy - Jonathan Edwards -- John Piper and C S Lewis

Thoughts from Jonathan Edwards:


....the end and goal of creation hangs on knowing God with our minds and enjoying God with our hearts.

The very purpose of the universe -- reflecting and displaying the glory of God -- hangs not only on true knowledge of God, but also on authentic joy in God.

"God is glorified," Edwards says, "not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in."

Here is the great discovery that changes everything. God is glorified by our being satisfied in Him.

The chief end of man is not merely to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, but to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

The great divide that I thought existed between God's passion for His glory and my passion for joy turned out to be no divide at all, if my passion for joy is passion for joy in God.

God's passion for the glory of God and my passion for joy in God are one.


What follows from this, I have found, shocks most Christians; namely, that we should be blood-earnest -- deadly serious -- about being happy in God.


We should pursue our joy with such a passion and a vehemence that, if we must, we would cut off our hand or gouge out our eye to have it.

God being glorified in us hangs on our being satisfied in Him.

We quake at the fearful luke-warmness of our hearts.


We waken to the truth that it is a treacherous sin not to pursue that satisfaction in God with all our heats.

There is one final word for finding delight in the creation more than in the Creator: treason.

Edwards argued for this in a sermon that he preached on Song of Solomon 5:1....


    Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds  to their spiritual and gracious appetites...they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures...

    Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value...endeavor to promote spiritual appetites....there is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting.



--From  A God-Entranced Vision of All Things, The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, by John Piper and Justin Taylor







C S Lewis on the same subject....



If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds that our desires not too strong, but too 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 offers of a holiday at the sea.


We are far too easily pleased.



      -- From The Weight of Glory, by C S Lewis

What Is Prayer? - Derek Prime

From Practical Prayer, by Derek Prime


Seeking God's Face (Psalm 27:8)

When you said to me, "Seek My face," my heart said "Your face I will seek."

This is a delightful Old Testament description of prayer.  Physical sight is not what i meant, but the seeing of God with the inward eye, which is an anticipation of what awaits us in a new and wonderful way in the new life to come.

The verb from which the word 'face' comes means to turn towards someone, to really pay attention to him or her. A person's face identifies him to us, and often reflects his feelings, attitudes and sentiments. To seek God's face, therefore, is to come into God's presence with the deliberate purpose of communicating with Him.

It is not like giving thanks for a meal, or reciting the Lord's Prayer, which sometimes we don't even remember afterward whether or not we prayed. That is the opposite of deliberately and earnestly seeking God's face.

Imagine going into a crowded room in order to establish contact with a friend to enlist his assistance. You know that if you catch his eye--seek his face--he will get your message and come to your aid. As you seek him in the room, you will keep looking his way until he sees you, until you see him turn his face toward you.

And then you will know you have been successful.

To seek God's face is to be occupied with God's Person before we start asking Him for anything, and then not to stop seeking Him until we know that His face is turned towards us, and that our requests are received by Him with pleasure.

It is no surprise that seeking God's face is a key secret of radiance.

Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
(Psalm 34:5)

The Perfect Picture of Grace

 His Word Reminds Us --

"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on them who fear Him, for He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust."

   -- Psalm 103:8-14

   Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all my sin!

Somebody is Listening!

This morning I am reading Acts 16 - an amazing record of the strength and courage of the early Christians. 

Paul and Silas are in Philippi, have made contact with Timothy, and soon Luke will be joining them.

Paul and Silas preach the gospel and meet great hostility from the citizens, who drag them to the magistrates. They are beaten severally, imprisoned, and placed in the painful stocks.

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25).

Lots happening in this chapter. This morning I am intrigued with the phrase, "and the other prisoners were listening."

Paul and Silas, bloody and in great pain, were singing and praising God!

The other prisoners noticed! Probably shocked! Reminds me that people notice how we deal with hardship. Does God shine through us in our difficult times? That's when others see He is truly Lord of our life, not just in the good times -- but all the time!

These prisoners also witnessed the salvation of the jailor who asked, "What must I do to be saved?" Maybe some of them, then, or later, also responded...some of them probably joined that growing group of believers in Philippi and eagerly read Paul's letter to the Philippians later when he wrote to them, encouraging them to always express joy in all circumstances!

They had seen Paul himself, weak from loss of blood, and in great pain, keep praising God, and they could relate everything that happened that night. They were witnesses to what it means to always be joyful -- no matter what!

Let's remember today that, no matter what we are going through, others are watching and listening!

Down The Rabbit Hole!

 

Remember the mysterious rabbit hole in Alice's Wonderland? If you went down that rabbit hole you landed in a strange, puzzling chaotic world where nothing made sense. I feel like that is the world we are living in today! So how are we to live in this "not-so-brave' new world?

Paul tells us how to cope in his letter to Titus --

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say 'no' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope -- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good." 

PS Jesus, the gift of God's grace, has already appeared -- and the blessed hope of His glory is His next coming! Praise the Lord forever!

 [I love the idea that we need to be 'eager to do good'! Refraining from evil is not enough -- we please God when we search out, with eager anticipation, ways we can do good!]

(BTW - it does seem to me that Paul mentions 'self-controlled' a lot of times in his letters - sometimes that makes me uncomfortable!!! What about you?)