Saturday, October 30, 2010
Go Green
There is a lot of talk about going green and loving the environment. But the Bible says the Lord himself will “make the land a desolation” (Isaiah 13:9). He will do it not because our carbon footprint is too big but because our world is wicked and needs destroying (see Noah’s story). While it is true that God Himself is the one who told us to take good care of the trees and seas He made (Genesis 1:28-30), He is prepared to wreck his own garden because of our filthiness.
We should not imagine that He would do this gleefully. It makes the Lord grieve. We get a peek into His emotions in a little exchange between Him and Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch. Baruch thinks he has troubles, just because his personal ambitions are about to amount to nothing when Israel gets overrun by enemies to the north. The Lord tells him to try this on for size:
“Behold, what I have built, I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up — that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself?” (Jeremiah 45)... I have a glimpse of how God must have felt...God has a heart that grieves when He has to execute judgment:
“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender . . .” (Hosea 11:8)....
But God has sometimes in history delayed His judgment when people have repented. Consider the Ninevites in Jonah’s time, or Israel’s brief reprieve after the revival under King Josiah...So my modest suggestion for global warming is repentance and revival.
Andree Seu
We should not imagine that He would do this gleefully. It makes the Lord grieve. We get a peek into His emotions in a little exchange between Him and Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch. Baruch thinks he has troubles, just because his personal ambitions are about to amount to nothing when Israel gets overrun by enemies to the north. The Lord tells him to try this on for size:
“Behold, what I have built, I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up — that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself?” (Jeremiah 45)... I have a glimpse of how God must have felt...God has a heart that grieves when He has to execute judgment:
“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender . . .” (Hosea 11:8)....
But God has sometimes in history delayed His judgment when people have repented. Consider the Ninevites in Jonah’s time, or Israel’s brief reprieve after the revival under King Josiah...So my modest suggestion for global warming is repentance and revival.
Andree Seu
Accepting The Beauty of Mortality: A Prayer
When the signs of age begin to mark my body
(and still more when they touch my mind);
when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off
strikes from without or is born within me;
when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly
awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old;
and above all at that last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive within the hands
of the great unknown forces that have formed me;
in all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is You
(provided my faith is strong enough)
who are painfully parting the fibres of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow
of my substance and bear me away within yourself.
Teilhard De Chardin
(and still more when they touch my mind);
when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off
strikes from without or is born within me;
when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly
awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old;
and above all at that last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive within the hands
of the great unknown forces that have formed me;
in all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is You
(provided my faith is strong enough)
who are painfully parting the fibres of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow
of my substance and bear me away within yourself.
Teilhard De Chardin
We Become What We Press Into
“All mortals tend to turn into the things they are pretending to be” (C.S. Lewis).
I would like to tweak that statement a bit and share my experience with you. I started rejoicing and praising the Lord some time ago, at first by force of will. But it has dawned on me lately that I am a joyful person nowadays. I do not think this is behaviorism or fakery. I suspect that what happens is that God meets you when you take steps to meet Him.
We know that we are commanded to rejoice in Him. By cajoling, by exhorting, by attracting, by precept, and by example, the Lord everywhere bids us to rejoice:
“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble for me and it is safe for you” (Philippians 3:1).
When we set ourselves to do what He commands, the Lord blesses the effort by swapping our spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3).
Likewise, when we deliberately walk in holiness, we find ourselves becoming more holy. The unholy things lose their appeal, just naturally. Or rather, supernaturally. We become what we press into. That is why Scripture says:
“Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:26).
There is a mysterious dynamic here. In order to become what we are, we have to try it on and walk around in it, even if it feels unreal at first. No wonder God talks in terms of “putting on” righteousness and faith and love, etc. (Job 29:14; Isaiah 59:17; Ephesians 6:11). We do not wait for the Spirit to put it on us; He has already given it to us to put on! God can give you faith, but he can’t have faith for you!
Teenaged David put on Saul’s armor and it didn’t fit. But the spiritual things that you and I must try to put on will fit us in short order if we keep them on and walk around in them and get acclimated. This is degree-by-degree transformation of the Saints spoken of in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
When I was putting on joy at the beginning, I was “beholding the glory of the Lord,” for Jesus also put on joy. And as I was beholding the glory of the Lord, I was being transformed into His image unawares. In the course of time, I realized that I was no longer the same person that I had been at the start of the journey. But it took me by surprise. It is like sitting at my computer and feeling cold, and turning up the thermostat and going back to the keyboard, and then noticing about a half hour later that I am warm. The warming was going on for a while before I started to be aware of it.
Andree Seu
I would like to tweak that statement a bit and share my experience with you. I started rejoicing and praising the Lord some time ago, at first by force of will. But it has dawned on me lately that I am a joyful person nowadays. I do not think this is behaviorism or fakery. I suspect that what happens is that God meets you when you take steps to meet Him.
We know that we are commanded to rejoice in Him. By cajoling, by exhorting, by attracting, by precept, and by example, the Lord everywhere bids us to rejoice:
“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble for me and it is safe for you” (Philippians 3:1).
When we set ourselves to do what He commands, the Lord blesses the effort by swapping our spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3).
Likewise, when we deliberately walk in holiness, we find ourselves becoming more holy. The unholy things lose their appeal, just naturally. Or rather, supernaturally. We become what we press into. That is why Scripture says:
“Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:26).
There is a mysterious dynamic here. In order to become what we are, we have to try it on and walk around in it, even if it feels unreal at first. No wonder God talks in terms of “putting on” righteousness and faith and love, etc. (Job 29:14; Isaiah 59:17; Ephesians 6:11). We do not wait for the Spirit to put it on us; He has already given it to us to put on! God can give you faith, but he can’t have faith for you!
Teenaged David put on Saul’s armor and it didn’t fit. But the spiritual things that you and I must try to put on will fit us in short order if we keep them on and walk around in them and get acclimated. This is degree-by-degree transformation of the Saints spoken of in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
When I was putting on joy at the beginning, I was “beholding the glory of the Lord,” for Jesus also put on joy. And as I was beholding the glory of the Lord, I was being transformed into His image unawares. In the course of time, I realized that I was no longer the same person that I had been at the start of the journey. But it took me by surprise. It is like sitting at my computer and feeling cold, and turning up the thermostat and going back to the keyboard, and then noticing about a half hour later that I am warm. The warming was going on for a while before I started to be aware of it.
Andree Seu
Remember Where You are. Give Thanks. Pray For the Persecuted
Every day that I am making my bed, a persecuted Christian in the North Korean gulag is getting up off his rat-infested floor. Every morning that I am eating my savory yogurt with fresh fruit, he is headed out to the logging site or mine or quarry or factory on an empty stomach. Every morning that I sing to the Lord in the beautiful sycamore-tree lined cemetery, she is working her 13- to 15-hour day and forced to sing patriotic songs while doing it or incur a beating. Every noon when I stop for a sandwich, he gets his only food allotment of the day, a few ounces of corn. When I feel a chill and reach for my sweater, she is put outside for the freeze treatment.
I don’t know if most Christians pray for the martyrs, but I’ll bet they pray for us. Why wouldn’t they? They see things more clearly, their vision undulled by entertainment and comfort.
Andree Seu
I don’t know if most Christians pray for the martyrs, but I’ll bet they pray for us. Why wouldn’t they? They see things more clearly, their vision undulled by entertainment and comfort.
Andree Seu
Training Wheels
They taught us a little trick when I was a child in the choir, and I have used it ever since. In order to hit the note you want to hit, you need to aim slightly above it. It really works. If you do not consciously do this, you tend to fall in the crack between high E and D sharp, just short of that sweet spot that divides the Maria Callases from the high school opera divas.
I am noticing a similar phenomenon in the spiritual life. Unless I keep straining upward all the time to greater faith, I do not keep even the level of faith I am at. Even as I think I am fine, the high water mark is imperceptibly inching down.
I was feeling blah today. I could think of many reasons to feel that way, but in truth I wasn’t really thinking, just moving on autopilot. I was going to just give myself over to it, like a hundred thousand times before. It is a well worn rut; everybody does it. It would not have been sin exactly. I was not complaining, nor saying anything either good or bad.
But I went for the higher note. I said to the Lord, out loud, that I believe He loves me and I will see His goodness in the land of the living. The “out loud” part is very important, for some reason. Call it training wheels, if you will, until I get the hang of pushing back all the voices of mediocrity and low expectations. But I notice that the psalmists don’t drop the habit of praising God with audible voice. There seems to be a supernatural kick to it; perhaps it releases extra grace from the throne. You might want to try it yourself when you’re blah.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).
Andree Seu
I am noticing a similar phenomenon in the spiritual life. Unless I keep straining upward all the time to greater faith, I do not keep even the level of faith I am at. Even as I think I am fine, the high water mark is imperceptibly inching down.
I was feeling blah today. I could think of many reasons to feel that way, but in truth I wasn’t really thinking, just moving on autopilot. I was going to just give myself over to it, like a hundred thousand times before. It is a well worn rut; everybody does it. It would not have been sin exactly. I was not complaining, nor saying anything either good or bad.
But I went for the higher note. I said to the Lord, out loud, that I believe He loves me and I will see His goodness in the land of the living. The “out loud” part is very important, for some reason. Call it training wheels, if you will, until I get the hang of pushing back all the voices of mediocrity and low expectations. But I notice that the psalmists don’t drop the habit of praising God with audible voice. There seems to be a supernatural kick to it; perhaps it releases extra grace from the throne. You might want to try it yourself when you’re blah.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).
Andree Seu
This I know
“Jesus loves me, this I know.” It is the doctrine that just keeps giving. It puts a spring in our step when we believe it—the same way it makes you feel good to know, when you and your husband have parted in the morning, that somewhere out there is a man who is thinking about you.
The doctrine of “God is love” means I don’t have to be forever watching my own back. It means I don’t have to worry about treachery or lies or gossip or scheming or unfairness. God has got that—just stand back and watch Him work. King David knew that too, and so he didn’t kill his pursuer Saul when he had the chance. Jesus knew that as well, so he kept silent when falsely charged. He “entrusted himself to the one who judges justly".
Andree Seu
The doctrine of “God is love” means I don’t have to be forever watching my own back. It means I don’t have to worry about treachery or lies or gossip or scheming or unfairness. God has got that—just stand back and watch Him work. King David knew that too, and so he didn’t kill his pursuer Saul when he had the chance. Jesus knew that as well, so he kept silent when falsely charged. He “entrusted himself to the one who judges justly".
Andree Seu
Run With Horses. With God All Is Possible
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?” (Jeremiah 12:5)
...The immediate residue...was a great soberness that came over me, a sudden shame and distaste for all the worthless kinds of joking I do, the petty things that seem so hard to forgive. The Lord’s words in Jeremiah are a heads-up to get more serious about life, to prepare myself for the days ahead. We prepare by living up to what we already know—the simple, garden-variety obediences of forgiving and generosity and being patient and saying no to ungodly passions.
I commented to a mature Christian friend of mine that he was brave for Christ. He told me that he looks at it this way: If we truly believe and embrace the fact that we are called to even die for Christ, then the little acts that fall short of dying are not such a big deal.
And like Jesus said, if we cannot be trusted with small things, who will trust us with the real riches (Luke 16:11)—such as the privilege of persecution for His name? And if we do not stand firm in our faith in a day of relative ease, how will we stand at all when the fiery testing comes (Isaiah 7:9)?
The signs all around us are worrisome. I wonder what kind of world my grandson will grow up in. I hope he will be ready to run with horses.
Andree Seu
...The immediate residue...was a great soberness that came over me, a sudden shame and distaste for all the worthless kinds of joking I do, the petty things that seem so hard to forgive. The Lord’s words in Jeremiah are a heads-up to get more serious about life, to prepare myself for the days ahead. We prepare by living up to what we already know—the simple, garden-variety obediences of forgiving and generosity and being patient and saying no to ungodly passions.
I commented to a mature Christian friend of mine that he was brave for Christ. He told me that he looks at it this way: If we truly believe and embrace the fact that we are called to even die for Christ, then the little acts that fall short of dying are not such a big deal.
And like Jesus said, if we cannot be trusted with small things, who will trust us with the real riches (Luke 16:11)—such as the privilege of persecution for His name? And if we do not stand firm in our faith in a day of relative ease, how will we stand at all when the fiery testing comes (Isaiah 7:9)?
The signs all around us are worrisome. I wonder what kind of world my grandson will grow up in. I hope he will be ready to run with horses.
Andree Seu
Work With Him
The Bible really seems to clinch the matter when it puts the two things together into one amazing sentence. The first half is, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"-which looks as if everything depended on us and our good actions: but the second half goes on, "For it is God who worketh in you"- which looks as if God did everything and we nothing...God and man are working together.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
Get The Big Picture: From It Flows Health
The nature of reality is that there are different levels of it. This is patent and does not need to be argued for. Consider the yawning spectrum of reality that at one end is the boundless universe of stars (10 billion galaxies each with 10 billion stars) and at the other end is the atomic (10 to the 28th atoms in the human body). Consider the factory of activity in a domain that our naked eyes will never see—the single cell:
“Molecular highways haul cargo from one place to another along ‘highways’ made of other molecules, while still others act as cables, ropes, and pulleys to hold the cell in shape. Machines turn cellular switches on and off, sometimes killing the cell or causing it to grow. Solar-powered machines capture the energy of photons and store it in chemicals. Electrical machines allow current to flow through nerves . . .” (Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box).
Within this ponderous layering, you and I and our daily trips to the supermarket would seem to be found somewhere in the middle. Immensity stretches above us and below us. We go about our business for the most part unmindful of these parallel universes in the macro and the micro of life.
All of which is to set up the subject that is really on my mind this morning. It has seemed to me for some time that we tend to mistake where the real “action” is in the Christian life, as we erroneously direct all our focus to certain “layers” or “levels” of Christian reality that are not, at the end of the day, as consequential—or as emphasized by Christ—as other layers.
If I may illustrate by example: I have a friend who worked for many years for a well-known Christian ministry dedicated to laudable Scriptural, cultural goals. But what actually kept my friend awake nights was the hurtful office backbiting and power plays. So there you have it: two strata of reality, one the all-consuming focus, the other ignored.
The danger is always that the “macro” strata (sweeping cultural goals) tends to be more visible and to swallow up the “micro” strata (love of the brethren in the organization). The latter grinds on under the radar, under our noses, invisible. We forget about the elemental human relationships. We forget about love...
All of this dovetails with what the Lord has been teaching me in my own little life of children and neighbors and laundry and blog posting: In the dizzying array of stimuli that we call our lives—the macro and the micro things we do—I believe that the cellular level is where it’s at. This present moment’s choice to love God and to love the brethren is the most elemental and consequential of all. And from it flows the health of every other enterprise.
Andree Seu
“Molecular highways haul cargo from one place to another along ‘highways’ made of other molecules, while still others act as cables, ropes, and pulleys to hold the cell in shape. Machines turn cellular switches on and off, sometimes killing the cell or causing it to grow. Solar-powered machines capture the energy of photons and store it in chemicals. Electrical machines allow current to flow through nerves . . .” (Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box).
Within this ponderous layering, you and I and our daily trips to the supermarket would seem to be found somewhere in the middle. Immensity stretches above us and below us. We go about our business for the most part unmindful of these parallel universes in the macro and the micro of life.
All of which is to set up the subject that is really on my mind this morning. It has seemed to me for some time that we tend to mistake where the real “action” is in the Christian life, as we erroneously direct all our focus to certain “layers” or “levels” of Christian reality that are not, at the end of the day, as consequential—or as emphasized by Christ—as other layers.
If I may illustrate by example: I have a friend who worked for many years for a well-known Christian ministry dedicated to laudable Scriptural, cultural goals. But what actually kept my friend awake nights was the hurtful office backbiting and power plays. So there you have it: two strata of reality, one the all-consuming focus, the other ignored.
The danger is always that the “macro” strata (sweeping cultural goals) tends to be more visible and to swallow up the “micro” strata (love of the brethren in the organization). The latter grinds on under the radar, under our noses, invisible. We forget about the elemental human relationships. We forget about love...
All of this dovetails with what the Lord has been teaching me in my own little life of children and neighbors and laundry and blog posting: In the dizzying array of stimuli that we call our lives—the macro and the micro things we do—I believe that the cellular level is where it’s at. This present moment’s choice to love God and to love the brethren is the most elemental and consequential of all. And from it flows the health of every other enterprise.
Andree Seu
Be A Giver
O, Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Don't Forget To Dust
He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others -- not because He has favorites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as a clean one.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
These Ever-Expanding Concentric Circles
...words released into the ether never simply evaporate away like dew, but people remember our conversations after they have gone home. And whether we said worthy or worthless things, those words will bear fruit—worthy words unto eternal life, and worthless words unto destruction.
That was a good exhortation for me because I don’t usually think of someone remembering my words after we have parted—in spite of the fact that I know full well I always remember others’ words and carry them around in my heart to my harm or my strengthening. The most casual of comments sow either to good or to harm...I never cease to be amazed by the rippling effect of spoken words that are in sync with God’s own Word...my own interactions with people will be different—and on and on in these ever-expanding concentric circles.
Andree Seu
That was a good exhortation for me because I don’t usually think of someone remembering my words after we have parted—in spite of the fact that I know full well I always remember others’ words and carry them around in my heart to my harm or my strengthening. The most casual of comments sow either to good or to harm...I never cease to be amazed by the rippling effect of spoken words that are in sync with God’s own Word...my own interactions with people will be different—and on and on in these ever-expanding concentric circles.
Andree Seu
The Pantheist's Pretend God
The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you...An 'impersonal God'—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God'!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that!
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
When Suffering Is Mercy
Suffering is God's design in this sin-soaked world (Romans 8:20). It portrays sin's horror for the world to see. It punishes sin's guilt for those who do not believe in Christ. It breaks sin's power for those who take up their cross and follow Jesus...there is no greater joy than joy in the greatness of God. And if we must suffer to see this and savor it most deeply, then suffering is a mercy.
John Piper
John Piper
Even Vegetables Reveal The Grand Plot
They [miracles] are not exceptions (however rarely they occur) nor irrelevancies. They are precisely those chapters in this great story on which the plot turns. Death and Resurrection are what the story is about; and had we but eyes to see it, this has been hinted on every page, met us, in some disguise, at every turn, and ever been muttered in conversations between such minor characters...as the vegetables. If you have hitherto disbelieved in miracles, it is worth pausing a moment to consider whether this is not chiefly because you thought you had discovered what the story was really about? --- that atoms, and time and space and economics and politics were the main plot? ...It is easy to make mistakes in such matters.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
He Is Intrinsically Love
If it is maintained that anything so small as the Earth must, in any event, be too unimportant to merit the love of the Creator, we reply that no Christian ever supposed we did merit it. Christ did not die for men because they were intrinsically worth dying for, but because He is intrinsically love, and therefore loves infinitely. And what, after all, does size of a world or a creature tell us about its "importance" or value?...we are all equally certain that only a lunatic would think a man six-feet high necessarily more important than a man five-feet high, or a horse necessarily more important than a man, or a man's legs than his brain...
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
What's The Bible About, Anyway?
The Law gives the foundation for Christ
The Historical books show the preparation for Christ
The books of poetry express the aspiration for Christ
The books of prophecy proclaim the expectation of Christ
The gospels record the historical manifestation of Christ
The book of Acts relates the preaching of Christ
The Epistles give the interpretation of Christ
The book of Revelation reveals the consummation of Christ
J. Hampton Keathley III
The Historical books show the preparation for Christ
The books of poetry express the aspiration for Christ
The books of prophecy proclaim the expectation of Christ
The gospels record the historical manifestation of Christ
The book of Acts relates the preaching of Christ
The Epistles give the interpretation of Christ
The book of Revelation reveals the consummation of Christ
J. Hampton Keathley III
Laying Down Your Arms
...fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of a "hole." This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death...If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen...
C.S.Lewis
C.S.Lewis
Earning The Challenge
Abraham made up his mind to put the Word of God and his promise of a progeny above everything else—above the condition of his body, the age of his wife, the fleshly logic that said this waiting makes no sense. He faced the facts (Romans 4:19). And then, having faced the facts, he didn’t go with the facts. Or rather, he considered the promise of God a greater “fact” than any other fact. Perhaps he envisioned an old-fashioned scale with balancing plates, on one side containing all the data of his eyes and senses and on the other side containing only the ethereal Word of God. And he went with the latter.
Then Abraham had a son. And a day came when the Lord told him to put his son on an altar and kill him. I am thinking that Abraham had to have earned a challenge that difficult. I do not think that God would spring a test like that on just any man, but only one who had worked up to it and proved worthy of it by a thousand prior obediences.
Abraham saddled his mule and took Isaac. God did nothing. Abraham tied up his son. God did nothing. Abraham found the firewood. God did nothing. Abraham listened to his son crying. God did nothing. Abraham unsheathed the knife. God did nothing. Abraham raised it high. God did nothing.
How long are you and I prepared to keep saying to the Lord, “I trust your Word completely” before we bail out?
Andree Seu
Then Abraham had a son. And a day came when the Lord told him to put his son on an altar and kill him. I am thinking that Abraham had to have earned a challenge that difficult. I do not think that God would spring a test like that on just any man, but only one who had worked up to it and proved worthy of it by a thousand prior obediences.
Abraham saddled his mule and took Isaac. God did nothing. Abraham tied up his son. God did nothing. Abraham found the firewood. God did nothing. Abraham listened to his son crying. God did nothing. Abraham unsheathed the knife. God did nothing. Abraham raised it high. God did nothing.
How long are you and I prepared to keep saying to the Lord, “I trust your Word completely” before we bail out?
Andree Seu
He's Bad. He's Bad. He's Really, Really Bad
Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness...All the things which enable a bad man to be effectively bad are in themselves good things - resolution, cleverness, good looks, existence itself... And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled...To be bad, he must exist and have intelligence and will. But existence, intelligence and will are in themselves good. Therefore he must be getting them from Good Power: even to be bad he must borrow or steal from his opponent...
C.S.Lewis
C.S.Lewis
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