Rest and delight of plunging in fully to God's blessings

The significance of human life upon the earth must either be very small or very great. Very small from the strictly natural point of view. If we represent earth’s history on a twenty-four-hour clock, from midnight to midnight, then according to the evolutionary story, our remotest human ancestors appeared at 11:59 P.M., and what we call the “civilization” of the last several thousand years is represented as the pop of a flashbulb at midnight. By any account, from the merely scientific point of view, the earth will not support human society for any long period of time (in cosmic terms), and if the future of the earth’s surface resembles its astonishing past, for a few thousand more years at most. God’s purposes for human history, as set forth in the Bible, are of course quite another matter. According to the biblical picture, the function of human history is to bring forth an immense community of people, from “every nation and tribe and tongue and people” (Revelation 14:6), who will be a kingdom of priests under God (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; Exodus 19:6), and who for some period of time in the future will actually govern the earth under him (Revelation 5:10). They will also, beyond that, reign with him in the eternal future of the cosmos, forever and ever (Revelation 22:5).

Feelings: And then perhaps we notice—and small wonder given what has already been observed—that the emotional life of these “children of light” is deeply characterized by love. That is how they invest the emotional side of their being. They love lots of good things and they love people. They love their life and who they are. They are thankful for their life—even though it may contain many difficulties, even persecution and martyrdom (Matthew 5:10-12). They receive all of it as God’s gift, or at least as his allowance, where they will know his goodness and greatness and go on to live with him forever. And so joy and peace are with them even in the hardest of times—even when suffering unjustly. Because of what they have learned about God, they are confident and hopeful and do not indulge thoughts of rejection, failure, and hopelessness, because they know better.

They are attentive to rightness, to kindness, to helpfulness, and they are purposefully knowledgeable about life, about what people need, and about how to do what is right and good in appropriate ways.

These are people who do not think first of themselves and what they want, and they really care very little, if at all, about getting their own way.

The bodies of these people even look different. There is a freshness about them, a kind of quiet strength, and a transparency. They are rested and playful in a bodily strength that is from God. He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead has given life to their bodies through his Spirit that dwells in them. 
pp. 217-220, EXHILARATING SOURCE

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Replacing/transforming our destructive ideas & images

Image
IMAGES: IDEAS PICTURED - Closely associated with governing ideas are images, which are concrete or specific as opposed to the abstractness of ideas. They are laden with feeling. In recent history, hair (long, short, skinhead, green, orange, purple) has provided powerful images of conflicting idea systems.  In many churches today, the services have divided into traditional and contemporary, so that the guitar and pipe organ are no longer just musical instruments but powerful symbols. Such divisions are not unimportant or sinful, but one does have to understand what drives such divisions in order to act responsibly in relation to them. Jesus carefully selected an image that conveys himself and his message: the cross. It presents the lostness of humans as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment to God that brings redemption. No doubt it is the all-time most powerful image and symbol of human history.  Ideas and images can be a stronghold of evil in the human self and
Read more

Distorted images of God

Image
Carefully placed images persuade us to forgo thinking and accept ideas we might normally question. For example, putting the flag of one’s country on a product or event aims to brand it as good and wholesome when it may not be. Images that seem benign in movies may also “teach” an idea that, if we thought about it, would appall us. But we unthinkingly accept the idea because we like the image.  TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Consider your images of God. While Scripture puts forth images such as breath and wind and fire and cloud, be honest with yourself: What really comes to mind when you think of God? For many, God is a benevolent giant who is too busy for them, a clever boss who pulls the rug out from under them just when they thought they knew what was going on, or a hard-nosed teacher who demands much of them. Give some thought to what ideas drive your images of God. What do you routinely think about God (even though you might never tell anyone at church)? Finish this sentence: G
Read more

Retaking our toxic thought life

Image
INFORMATION AND THE ABILITY TO THINK - Two other factors in our thought life can be used by God to break the power of the toxic system of ideas and images that make us dead to God. These are information (or facts) and our ability to think—to connect things in our mind.  After God has implanted new life from above in us by Word and Spirit, we must take the initiative in progressively retaking the whole of our thought life for God’s kingdom. Failure to know what God is really like and what his law requires destroys the soul, ruins society, and leaves people to eternal ruin: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” and “A people without understanding comes to ruin” (Hosea 4:6,14, NRSV).  This is the tragic condition of Western culture today, which has put away the information about God that God himself has made available. Spiritual formation requires thinking. The gospel of Jesus repudiates false information about God and the meaning of human life, and it works to und
Read more