Month: January 2009

The Power Of Being Enraptured

Something I have been thinking on lately is the power of being enraptured. That is, the power of delight, joy, pleasure, wonder, and awe… all tied up together.

Growing up in church and hearing and seeing so many people struggling with so many things it makes you think about how people battle those things. Many people are determined and disciplined. Both of which are good things. Others continually pray and quote or memorize scripture… both of which are most excellent things. Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man cleanse His way? By taking heed according to Your word.”

What I have noticed though is that there is so much more power in delighting in the Lord and being enraptured in the Lord. Surely this also is a mercy from the Lord, just as prayer is and just as His word is. Also, I think they coincide… that is, knowing His word, communing with Him, and delighting in Him… and in that harmony there is incredible power against the flesh.

So now it leaves me asking, how? How do I, how do we get swept up in God such that our delighting, our pleasure, and our duty make light and easy work of defeating sin and the flesh? It is a gift from God. I do believe that discipline puts one in line to receive it. Discipline in reading God’s Word, discipline in prayer, discipline in edification of reading, writing, listening, and learning (that is the discipline of our environment – what do we watch, read, and listen to). Garbage in, garbage out, God within, God without. God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, he will also reap.

So I think the discipline comes first. I know that I have by no means “attained”, but I am on a journey and undergoing a process. I can see that as God is changing me, as He is setting me apart, as He is sanctifying me, that, the power of me being, not only in awe of who He is, but also delighting in Him and being swept up in Him (I would want to be as much as I can at all times) is so great in defeating the allure of anything that is not right. The allure of temptations is continually there and even though it trips us up many times, it is far easier to see sin for the destruction that it truly is, or as I like to think of it, the “fake food” that it is, especially when you are savoring the “gourmet delights” of God.

God was a truth-teller from the beginning

Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know. Well, I don’t know why this thought struck me so. I was thinking about how Jesus, in John 8:44, says that Satan is a murderer and liar. Satan is the father of lies.

Another verse came to mind: Romans 3:4 which says “… let God be true but every man a liar. …” and Titus 1:2 which says… “God, who cannot lie”. So of course we know that God tells the truth. He was a truth teller from our beginning. He has no beginning or end and has always been and will always be a truth-teller… and the Father of truth-tellers.

Remember when Pilate asked Jesus “What is truth?”. Jesus had answered that in two ways earlier. He prayed to His Father in John 17 to set apart His disciples by truth… then He clarified it by saying to the Father “Your word is truth”. Also in John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, the life…”. So the Word of God is truth and Jesus is truth. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God“.

Let God be true but every man, including myself, a liar, if ever His truth is questioned…. for He and His word are it.

“…Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?” Job 40:8

I think I know that… no, I don’t know

I get annoyed by our culture’s observing of forces that lead to change and of reviewing the psychological explanations that contribute to a person’s or society’s development. What else should I expect though? Apart from an understanding that all things consist in and from God who has created all things these observations are empty. They (the observations) seek to explain things without any answers. If answers are given then they are empty as well.

Truth is reality whether we like it to be or not… regardless of my or anyone else’s opinion, or knowledge, or study. If I wish, or believe, or think with all my might that you, who are reading this text, ¬†never existed, it will not change the truth that you exist. If we try with all of our might to use the study of the physical world as our system of knowing things and remove God from it, it does not change the truth that God is and that God created. If I am emotionally engaged by the God of the universe and someone else is not and they say “that’s good for you, but I don’t get anything from God” that doesn’t mean the truth of God is not there.¬†

So how can all of the cultural observations and psychoanalysis be relevant apart from a correct understanding of truth as reality and the foundations of that truth originating in the God who creates the beings who are trying to study the physical (or spiritual) world. All study is empty without it. Therefore everyone who says otherwise must strive to prove God does not exist or not in the manner in which we suppose (as He has revealed).

On understanding the Bible

Hmm… some thoughts. Let me first say that I think it most profitable to learn and study the original languages of the Bible. I also think it most profitable and important for people to be guided by those who labor in the Word of God and prayer and who have been trained to expound the Word of God.

Having said those things I will say this:

The Holy Spirit of God is the best teacher. The Holy Spirit is a counselor who guides the child of God into all truth. It is important to ask God for His Spirit so that we may understand truth. Everyday. Many times God will use someone who has understood the Bible by the Holy Spirit to speak to us and the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth through the speaking of someone whom He has done the same with.

Secondly, to say that the ancient writings of the Bible, and the ancient understanding of the world, and the original languages of the Bible make it difficult to judge the true weight of expressions and language in the Bible is nonsense. As I mentioned at the first, having skill in such things will doubtless aid in understanding; however, never fail to consider that God who is behind His Word gave His Word for us especially. It is for everyone who would believe of all types and classes and peoples. Not many noble and not many wise (according to the world’s standards). God is able to perfectly communicate across any and all time and language barriers, so that His Word, which will endure forever, can be understood by the mind that is enlightened by His Holy Spirit, who is the most excellent of teachers.

The inclination can be in natural man to use all sorts of systems and methods of interpretations in order to avoid the weight of scripture as well as to achieve ideas that suit one’s own thought and devices.

As in Martin Luther’s day, scripture is not for scholars only. It is for all people. To those who would understand it however; it must be understood by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit alone. Those who understand otherwise do not truly understand for the words are spirit and life and must be understood by the spirit. God is spirit and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).