UNSPEAKABLE JOY

For you created my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

This psalm tells us that before the first day of life, all our days were ordained by God, and recorded in his “Book.” In terms of our relationship with God, none of us were Bhuddists, Shintoists, Muslim, Catholic , Protestant or Atheist. No Democrats. No Republicans. No liberals. No conservatives. We were all the same. We were all equal. In this pristine state, we were born into this life; each of us with divine purpose and rationale.

God has given to each and every human born on this planet, the gift of life. None of us are the result of accident, creatures of random sperm journeys colliding with random egg. There is as much rationale to human life as there is equilibrium to the universe, as much rationale to individual human life, as there was to the life and purpose of Jesus himself.

None of us are meritorious enough to spend eternity with him. How is it then, that of those he allows life, some of us are chosen and others are not? “You have not chosen me,” said Jesus, “but I have chosen you.” All of us are evil beyond the reaches of self-redemption. How is it then, that of those who at varying levels are evil, are chosen for an eternity of unimaginable glory, and others, at the same, or greater or lesser evil, are not? Whether greater or lesser, we are still evil, are we not?

It can only be that those of us who are chosen are those of us who wish to be.

For every human who, throughout his or her pilgrimage on this planet, reaches out to our God of Love, to desire him, to understand him, to receive him, to that person God reveals himself, and he is chosen out from among those who do not seek him.

The redemptive force of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, King of kings, and Lord of lords, Messiah and Savior of the world, has made this possible. His life, his teachings, the miracles and events that surrounded him, that terrible black day in human history, and the glorious joy of Sunday morning, are all of these the Light that illuminates our minds and redeems our souls. There are no dark corners of the human soul immune to its penetration.

However thick and supposedly impenetrable the walls we build around ourselves, or confused and misguided we may be, if it so be that a door is opened in that wall, if there be found in it the slightest crack, if there be a doubt or insecurity that causes one to open himself to God, then he is doomed. He will be redeemed! The Light will make it so and resistance is utterly, completely and exhaustively futile. One, despite himself, is drawn to the Light as he were a moth and is thereby, consumed – in unspeakable joy.

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WATERSHEDS OF LIFE

Step into the Garden

If your word had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

There are two Watersheds from which we are nourished, and by which we derive the “Word of God.” The first is God himself, expressed in the Person of his Son, Jesus. He, and he alone, is the Logos, The Word. It is through him, and by him that all other representations of the “Word” are credentialed. The second are the thoughts contained in the Scriptures that reveal the nature and pleasure of God.

As a young seminary student, I was taught that once the canon of Scripture was complete, that God no longer revealed himself on an individual basis, to humankind. All we need to know about God was to be found in the Bible. I have discovered, however, that such thinking is terribly myopic. The Bible, the canon of Scripture, is not an intermediary between you and Jesus. It does not serve the purpose of a priest. You may now come boldy into the presence of living God yourself. You may speak to him and interact with him on a person to Person basis. You do not need to have a Bible in your hand to connect with God.

Jesus, The Word, has made this possible.

This isn’t to relegate the written word to irrelevance. Far from it. God has indeed revealed himself in both the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament. But it does put it in perspective. Jesus, The Word, becomes the Lens through which all else is to be viewed and understood. God has revealed himself in the written word and to that extent, it is . . .

“. . . living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Heb 4:12

Even so, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit do not live merely within the sacred page. Jesus, The Word, is alive and dynamic at this very moment, and ready to be engaged within a person to Person relationship – more, not less than we might engage another human in soul to soul relationship. And as such, Jesus, The Word, continues to reveal himself and the Father, in concert with, but outside the purview of the written Word, on a heartbeat to heartbeat, indescribably intimate basis.

This inter-connectivity with God and his Son, through the Spirit is absolutely essential to successful living and indeed – to eternal life. This is why the psalmist said, If your word had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. And the word, delight is wonderfully appropriate. Such intra-personal relationship with the Creator produces a vitality of life in human experience that in itself, is a source a nourishment.

“Intra-personal” means communication with one’s self. That is not what is meant here. What is meant is communication that takes place within one’s self, as in the apostle Paul’s notion that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit . . . While the communication takes place within the individual, it is nonetheless, communication between two real persons, yourself and God who dwells within you in the Person of his Spirit. It is, therefore, reciprocal. It feeds on itself and you and I are the beneficiaries of its blessing. It is intimacy with Jesus that words simply cannot adequately express.

It is, indeed, delight beyond imagination.

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