Oh, He has answered my prayers, and He has provided, and He has blessed. But He is not a tame lion. Through all that He has inexorably worked toward His own purpose and His own goal in my life. I haven't been able to put Him in a cage. I haven't been able to crack the whip. I haven't been able to make Him jump through hoops.
He is a Savior and a Friend, but He is also a Lord and a King and a Judge, too. He is gentle and He is strong. When Aslan walked towards them in "The Magician's Nephew," the children could not hear him walking because the pads on his feet were so soft, but the ground shook underneath him. That is not a tame lion.
He will not be satisfied with second best, with half way, with good enough, with less than perfect. He is bound and determined to see His image formed in my life - in our lives. He continues to prod and to poke at areas in my life that are not pleasing to Him. He doesn't say "Well, now, I suppose that's alright the way it is." No - only the best will do for Him.
Sometimes I wish I could tell Him that I'm happy with myself the way I am now. I've had more than a few years of being reminded of my weak points and my sins and my shortcomings. A tame lion would accept that. But He is not a tame lion. The devil may be like a roaring lion, but our heavenly Aslan is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He shall see His reward and be satisfied.
The north wind continues to blow, the wind of judgement and reproof. We must be as willing to hear that from Him as we are to hear "I love you," "well done," "come unto me and rest." The Bible says that the judgments of the Lord are in all the earth; let us receive His judgements and accept them and say "Yes, Lord - I know that's the way I am. Change me and make me to be like you." "Purge me with hyssop, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."
Aslan took Edmund off and talked to Him; we're not told what they talked about. We are assured that Aslan was stern but not angry, but we don't know what He said.He will likewise deal with each of us in the depths of our own hearts and say things to us that are just for our ears. May we hear what He is saying to us. May we take it to heart. May we be changed like Edmund was changed.
He gave His life for us. He shed His blood for us. He went to Hell for us. He rose again for us. Let us welcome His words to us and be changed.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
By Him And For Him And For His Pleasure
"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prinicpalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Col. 1:16 and 17)
I have spent all the time I care to spend arguing about creation versus evolution. I find that these discussions focus only on the material realm, since that is all the evolutionists care about, and never take into consideration the whole spectrum of the invisible creation. Of course, "scientists" would dismiss that out of hand since invisible things can't be seen. But invisible things are more real than seen things because they are eternal and will never fade, rot, rust, or decay.
The "creation or evolution" discussions don't get past the question of "Did God create everything" and look into the fact that it was Jesus who did the creating. When God does anything, He does it by His Son. We come up short in God if we leave Jesus out of any equation. Everything is by Him and for Him. Let Christ be magnified in all we say and do.
And Jesus didn't just create everything and leave it free to develop on its own. He didn't just cause the initial creation and then withdraw from His creation to watch it from afar. No, by Him all things consist. He holds all things together. He has been forever involved on an intimate basis with each aspect of His creation. Never for a second has He taken His hand off that which He created. The atom spinning wildly, the neutrons and protons, are all held together by the word of His power. Were He to remove His hand it would all spin out of control and universal chaos, disruption and meltdown would ensue.
That alone probably answers the questions about where did the dinosaurs go and how did the moths change and where's the missing link and all that, although I don't feel like pursuing that now. It's enough for me to know that He is in control.
Moreover, John the Revelator tells us that all things "are and were created for His pleasure." (Rev. 4:11) (I think I'll have to think about the "are" part in that verse a lot more before I even begin to understand it; is He still creating?) Evolution gives no reason for existence; the creation story in its entirety gives the best reason possible - its all for the Lord's pleasure. There is no better reason to live for than that. He must take pleasure in the sunrise and the sunset, in the bird's song and the falling snow. He must take pleasure in the chipmunk with his cheeks stuffed full of treasure and my dog dancing in circles to greet me when I come home every day. He must take pleasure in the grand sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the vast array of stars and planets and nebulae and galaxies.
And He takes pleasure in His people - He sings over us, He rejoices over us, He shouts over us. Shout to the Lord all the earth, let us sing, honor and majesty, praise to our King. Nothing compares to the treasure I have in You.
I have spent all the time I care to spend arguing about creation versus evolution. I find that these discussions focus only on the material realm, since that is all the evolutionists care about, and never take into consideration the whole spectrum of the invisible creation. Of course, "scientists" would dismiss that out of hand since invisible things can't be seen. But invisible things are more real than seen things because they are eternal and will never fade, rot, rust, or decay.
The "creation or evolution" discussions don't get past the question of "Did God create everything" and look into the fact that it was Jesus who did the creating. When God does anything, He does it by His Son. We come up short in God if we leave Jesus out of any equation. Everything is by Him and for Him. Let Christ be magnified in all we say and do.
And Jesus didn't just create everything and leave it free to develop on its own. He didn't just cause the initial creation and then withdraw from His creation to watch it from afar. No, by Him all things consist. He holds all things together. He has been forever involved on an intimate basis with each aspect of His creation. Never for a second has He taken His hand off that which He created. The atom spinning wildly, the neutrons and protons, are all held together by the word of His power. Were He to remove His hand it would all spin out of control and universal chaos, disruption and meltdown would ensue.
That alone probably answers the questions about where did the dinosaurs go and how did the moths change and where's the missing link and all that, although I don't feel like pursuing that now. It's enough for me to know that He is in control.
Moreover, John the Revelator tells us that all things "are and were created for His pleasure." (Rev. 4:11) (I think I'll have to think about the "are" part in that verse a lot more before I even begin to understand it; is He still creating?) Evolution gives no reason for existence; the creation story in its entirety gives the best reason possible - its all for the Lord's pleasure. There is no better reason to live for than that. He must take pleasure in the sunrise and the sunset, in the bird's song and the falling snow. He must take pleasure in the chipmunk with his cheeks stuffed full of treasure and my dog dancing in circles to greet me when I come home every day. He must take pleasure in the grand sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the vast array of stars and planets and nebulae and galaxies.
And He takes pleasure in His people - He sings over us, He rejoices over us, He shouts over us. Shout to the Lord all the earth, let us sing, honor and majesty, praise to our King. Nothing compares to the treasure I have in You.
Monday, January 23, 2006
The light from the low-hanging clouds is gray at best. The ground is sodden from the seemingly continual dripping of rain, and the air is chilly and damp.
A far cry from a few weeks ago when we were in the height of the holiday season. Two months of bright colors, tantalizing food, beautiful music and high expectations came crashing to a close on January 2nd and the new year began in earnest. Now there's no holiday in sight until May and life couldn't be more ordinary. No decorations, no Christmas cookies and candies, no carols - this is indeed the "bleak mid winter."
This is always the hardest time of year for me, perhaps because I enjoy Christmas so much. Every year I'm hit with the reality of reality, right in the face. (If that's not you, I'm sorry to drag you into my misery.)
But just imagine if there were no miraculous birth to celebrate. Then all of life would be like this mid-winter stretch from January to springtime. Life would be nothing but work and bills and ... what? Certainly not the truth we know that there came One in the midst of the drabness and despair of the human condition to raise us above it.
Maybe Christmas is a gift to make us think how all of life should really be - impregnated with the Presence of the Holy One. Oh, it's not the tree or the cards or the lights or the food - it's Jesus. Christmas is a kind of earnest, a light in the darkness, to let us know that He makes all of life to shine.
Shine on me, Light of the World.
He is come, He is here, He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Seasons come and seasons go, but the Faithful One is with us forever.
A far cry from a few weeks ago when we were in the height of the holiday season. Two months of bright colors, tantalizing food, beautiful music and high expectations came crashing to a close on January 2nd and the new year began in earnest. Now there's no holiday in sight until May and life couldn't be more ordinary. No decorations, no Christmas cookies and candies, no carols - this is indeed the "bleak mid winter."
This is always the hardest time of year for me, perhaps because I enjoy Christmas so much. Every year I'm hit with the reality of reality, right in the face. (If that's not you, I'm sorry to drag you into my misery.)
But just imagine if there were no miraculous birth to celebrate. Then all of life would be like this mid-winter stretch from January to springtime. Life would be nothing but work and bills and ... what? Certainly not the truth we know that there came One in the midst of the drabness and despair of the human condition to raise us above it.
Maybe Christmas is a gift to make us think how all of life should really be - impregnated with the Presence of the Holy One. Oh, it's not the tree or the cards or the lights or the food - it's Jesus. Christmas is a kind of earnest, a light in the darkness, to let us know that He makes all of life to shine.
Shine on me, Light of the World.
He is come, He is here, He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Seasons come and seasons go, but the Faithful One is with us forever.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
That Was Then, This Is Now, and Jesus Is Coming
I grew up watching the Lone Ranger, Hoppy, and Roy, secure in my vision that way out west was a land where good guys wore white hats, real men sat tall in the saddle, and evil was always defeated. While I grappled with the intricacies of 5th-grade arithmetic I knew that out there was a place where cowboys beat Indians and bad guys every time.
World War II was over, Korea was coming, and both were fully supported here at home; the Nazi and Communist menaces were soundly defeated and the world was a safe place. Mom was always there when I came home from school and Dad would be along in time for supper.
TV was invented and everything was black and white. Prices went up but the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall came down. Soldiers were good guys.
Oh, there was the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annhilation ... but then, there were Roy and Hoppy.
Of course, things have changed. Now I grapple with the intricacies of working in a company that's going out of business, and knowing that Christopher Columbus was a bad guy, that the Indians should have beat the cowboys and pilgrims, that Viet Nam was a bad thing, that my military service wasn't appreciated.
Oh where, oh where, have the good times gone? Abraham, Martin and John have been killed, and Bobby and Malcolm, too. I had a boy's vision of a world that wasn't broken and didn't need mending, but I lived through the 60's and saw it all begin to fall apart, when college professors took drugs and encouraged their students to do the same, when our best hopes were gunned down in cold blood in front of our eyes on TV and we watched them laid to rest in long processions that tore our hearts out.
I'm not longing for the past to come back because the future is living in my heart. I want to lift Him up and see all men drawn to Him. I want to see that New Jerusalem, the city of God where all men are brothers and weapons are turned into plowshares. I want to see the faint light that is gleaming become a strong and steady beacon for all people to see.
On for Jesus. Seek His face and His strength. Things may seem worse than they ever were, but that's when God is at His best. Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
World War II was over, Korea was coming, and both were fully supported here at home; the Nazi and Communist menaces were soundly defeated and the world was a safe place. Mom was always there when I came home from school and Dad would be along in time for supper.
TV was invented and everything was black and white. Prices went up but the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall came down. Soldiers were good guys.
Oh, there was the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annhilation ... but then, there were Roy and Hoppy.
Of course, things have changed. Now I grapple with the intricacies of working in a company that's going out of business, and knowing that Christopher Columbus was a bad guy, that the Indians should have beat the cowboys and pilgrims, that Viet Nam was a bad thing, that my military service wasn't appreciated.
Oh where, oh where, have the good times gone? Abraham, Martin and John have been killed, and Bobby and Malcolm, too. I had a boy's vision of a world that wasn't broken and didn't need mending, but I lived through the 60's and saw it all begin to fall apart, when college professors took drugs and encouraged their students to do the same, when our best hopes were gunned down in cold blood in front of our eyes on TV and we watched them laid to rest in long processions that tore our hearts out.
I'm not longing for the past to come back because the future is living in my heart. I want to lift Him up and see all men drawn to Him. I want to see that New Jerusalem, the city of God where all men are brothers and weapons are turned into plowshares. I want to see the faint light that is gleaming become a strong and steady beacon for all people to see.
On for Jesus. Seek His face and His strength. Things may seem worse than they ever were, but that's when God is at His best. Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
I'm thinking about the paradox of living in two worlds - one of spiritual reality and the other of material reality. Knowing that Jesus is Lord, that He lives in me, that He rules and reigns, that the Kingdom of God is a present reality, and knowing that I still have to go to work every day and spend the majority of my waking hours worrying about bits and bytes, brings home the dichotomy of this Christian life.
How I'd like to be off somewhere in a monastery or some secluded spot in the woods engaged with my Beloved. Instead, I'm sitting here in my cubicle with a "to-do" list that's getting longer by the hour and a "done" list that's getting shorter.
But I have found that Jesus is present with me here in my cubicle, and that He is able to help and to cheer and to guide. I'm not free from the realities of life but I'm free in Him from the pressure, from the "terror that flieth by noonday," from worry and fear, from "what-if's" and "if only's," from office politics and the uncertainties of working for a company that's shutting down.
If Jesus isn't Lord in my cubicle then He's not Lord anywhere. If He doesn't know the answers to my problems then He couldn't create a universe. But He is here, He does know, and I'm asking for grace to continually turn my heart to Him, to focus my gaze on His wonderful face, and to open my ears to the sound of His voice. "The voice of my Beloved, lo, He comes."
How I'd like to be off somewhere in a monastery or some secluded spot in the woods engaged with my Beloved. Instead, I'm sitting here in my cubicle with a "to-do" list that's getting longer by the hour and a "done" list that's getting shorter.
But I have found that Jesus is present with me here in my cubicle, and that He is able to help and to cheer and to guide. I'm not free from the realities of life but I'm free in Him from the pressure, from the "terror that flieth by noonday," from worry and fear, from "what-if's" and "if only's," from office politics and the uncertainties of working for a company that's shutting down.
If Jesus isn't Lord in my cubicle then He's not Lord anywhere. If He doesn't know the answers to my problems then He couldn't create a universe. But He is here, He does know, and I'm asking for grace to continually turn my heart to Him, to focus my gaze on His wonderful face, and to open my ears to the sound of His voice. "The voice of my Beloved, lo, He comes."
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Golden Goodness
This quote is from "The Magician's Nephew" by C.S. Lewis:
"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered into them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well."
"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered into them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well."
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Passion
It is not always safe or easy to follow our passion, but we should do so at all costs. The alternative is a life of mediocrity. We may fail, but at least we will fail trying. How much better to fail trying than to get to the end and wonder if it could ever have been but not be able to find out. And if that passion is God, then we won't fail, if we seek Him with our whole heart.
Is there a passion burning brightly
Deep with your breast,
A hidden fire no man can see
But to you it's life and death?
Then fan the flame of that desire
And take the higher road;
Walk not the common ways of man
But seek the face of God.
Is there a passion burning brightly
Deep with your breast,
A hidden fire no man can see
But to you it's life and death?
Then fan the flame of that desire
And take the higher road;
Walk not the common ways of man
But seek the face of God.
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