Pneumonia

So, for the first time in a long time, every part of my body EXCEPT my stomach is killing me.   I have had a fever ranging from 100 - 103 (actually saw 104 real quick this morning, but I had just gotten out of the shower and was under a blanket, it rapidly went down).  So, I'm not sure when I will get to post next, but it is amazing how sickness reminds you of your frailty.  It is difficult to think really highly of yourself when you can't move around your own house.  Anyways, prayers would be appreciated, and I will expand on the thought above when I feel like I can put a coherent sentence together.

Beholding Glory

"Having come to the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from Scripture or by the preaching of the gospel, let us regard it as our duty to mediate frequently on his glory.  It is the neglect of meditation that keeps so many Christians in a feeble state, regardless of their privileges.  They hear of these things and assent to the truth of them or at least they do not question them.  But they never solemnly meditate on them.  They think that meditation is above their capabilities, or they are totally ignorant of how to go about it, or they are not too concerned about it, or they treat it as fanaticism.  Many cannot meditate because their minds are so cluttered up with earthly things... so many are stranger to this duty because they do not mortify their earthly desires and concerns.

"There are some who profess to be strict, disciplined Christians, but who never put aside time to meditate on the glory of Christ.  Yet they tell us that they desire nothing more than to behold his glory in heaven for ever.  They are being wholly inconsistent.  It is impossible that someone who never meditates with delight on the glory of Christ here in this world, who does not make every effort to behold it by faith as it is revealed in Scripture, should ever have any real gracious desire to behold it in heaven.  It is sad, therefore, that many can find time to think much on earthly, foolish things, but have no heart, no desire to meditate on this glorious object.  What is this faith and love they claim to have? ...

"But we experience the power of his [Christ's] life in us only as our thoughts are filled with him and we continually delight in him.  If, therefore, we would behold the glory of Christ, we must be filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory on all occasions and at all times.  This is the mark of a true Christian." ~John Owen

This sums up why I named the blog what I did.  For beholding Christ's glory is my goal and desire.  Do you think of Christ and his glory often?  Or is he a mere abstract thought, maybe real maybe not, something to believe in as one believes in Santa Clause?  For many professing Christians, I think the later is true.  Christ is not reality but rather a mere abstract, something to give verbal and mental assent to without ever letting deeps thoughts of him crowd our minds too much... after all, there are much more pressing issues and if we meditate on his glory it might interfere with our life.  In this way, many professing Christians today are functional atheists.  Their minds do not often turn to Christ and his glory, and when they do more often than not they treat him as an abstract thought rather than a reality.  Do we not realize that God is not to be trifled with.  He is not some ethereal fairy floating around, he is the Lion of Judah, King of Kings, the Great I AM.  It was he who hung the earth on nothing and created all that is seen a unseen.  Most of us struggle making it to work in the morning without killing ourselves or someone else while talking on our cell phone and driving.  As a civilization, we cannot even get past our own moon [and at this point we can't even get too our moon] and yet we have the audacity to treat God who upholds everything by the power of his word as if he were some inconvenient  entity or worse, some add on to make our lives more comfortable.  Get off yourself for two seconds and begin to meditate on God.  You will soon be struck with a good feeling of smallness as you get a glimpse of his glory.

Owen is correct when he says, and I paraphrase, that a person who is not consumed with Christ on this earth will be ill suited for heaven and more than likely will not see it.  This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says that the love of the world is hatred towards God.  Many of you will say, "I don't love the world more than I love Christ."  However, if we took inventory of our thoughts and actions, I think we would notice a disturbing trend.  We do love the world, and much more deeply than we think.  For we chase after all the world has to offer, and our minds are consumed with thoughts of how to get more of that which we love.  If it is Christ, we think often and always of Christ.  If it is the world (anything other than Christ), we think of it often and always.  Being honest with oneself is the hardest thing in the world to do, but ask God for wisdom and insight and revelation as to what it is you love most and repent and run to Christ for loving this world more than you realized.

Seeing Jesus

"We can now lay down a great foundational truth: One of the greatest privileges the believer has, both in this world and for eternity, is to behold the glory of Christ." ~John Owen

This statement is received with either inexpressible joy or with dull hearted indifference and your reaction matters.  For everyone professes to know Jesus.  But few treasure Him.  Everyone claims Jesus as savior, but cannot express why beyond a desire to avoid hell.  There are a lot of people in hell who, in this life, did not want to be there.  A mere desire to avoid it is little evidence of a changed heart.  In fact, I would go so far to argue that it is a natural reaction had by almost all men.  But a heart that yearns for Jesus is not a natural thing.  Indeed, a heart that is consumed with Him is one of the most unnatural things in the world.  And it is this heart that is indeed preparing for future glory, for our future glory shall consist of seeing and knowing Him as we are known, not by mere faith but with our eyes.  Perhaps this is why scripture speaks of loving the world as being equivalent to hating God.  For how can we profess to love God when we love that which is so adamantly opposed to Him?  And do not fool yourself, there is so much in this world we consider good that is diametrically opposed to Jesus Christ.  It is as AW Tozer said so many years ago, "the flaming desire to throw off everything and put on the nature of Christ is not often found among us."

The Power of Temptation

"A man knows not the pride, fury, madness or a corruption until it meet with a suitable temptation... There are traitors in our hearts, ready to take part to close [consummate] and side with every temptation, and to give up all to them; yea, to solicit and bribe temptations to do the work, as traitors incite an enemy... He that promises himself that the frame of his heart will be the same under a temptation as it is before will be woefully mistaken... Let the wise man answer: 'He that trusts in his own heart is a fool, (for) the heart is deceitful." ~John Owen

It is so easy, in times of close communion with God, to say we shall never be tripped up by temptation or fall into evil.  We hear of those who profess great faith falling into grievous sin and boldly claim (if not out loud at least in our hearts) that we will never fall in such a manner.  So it was with Peter when he was told that he would betray Jesus.  His response was, "Never my Lord."  And I can only imagine that, it being Peter, it was probably said with a bit of emphasis and indignation that anyone would even suggest such a thing.  And yet Peter did indeed deny knowing Jesus in the hour of his temptation.  How often do we fall into the same trap.  When standing on the mountain top we boldly proclaim that we shall never enter into temptation.  We will not be angry, or plot the demise of others, or figure out how to get even, or swindle, or steal, or hate, or lust, or lie, or be prideful.  And yet, these boasts are made in the flesh with a reliance on one's heart, which will surely fail.  We all realize from our life experience that the heart knows not the power of sin until it is meet with temptation, and when this happens, the heart on its own is not strong enough to withstand the onslaught.

Thus Christ's exhortation to watch and pray.  The moment we let our guard down is the moment that our heart betrays us.  And we let our guard down by taking our eyes off of Jesus Christ.  Conversely, one glimpse of Christ and His beauty and His grace frees us and allows us to persevere.  When a pilot is flying bad weather and using only his instruments to navigate, it is easy to become spatially disoriented.  Your inner ear is telling you that you are turning when in fact you are straight and level.  Your senses tell you that you are doing something that is not happening.  One glimpse at the actual horizon, one glimpse of the runway or the ground and all that disappears.  One glimpse of Christ, and all that entangles us loses it's power, but it is only in the power of Christ, and not our own power, that this happens.

Frailty and Ignorance

"The only thing that equals man's frailty is man's ignorance." ~A.W. Tozer

And I think I would add to this that no where is man's ignorance most displayed than in his lack of acknowledgement and awareness of his own frailty.  It is a vicious circle: man is weak, we are, as David said, "but a step away from death" (1 Sam 20:3).  And yet most of us live our lives as if we will never die.  The fact that death is the end of all men rarely enters into our conscious and even more rarely does it impact the way we live.  It is in this ignorance that most men toil away.  We chase after meaningless things, spending entire lifetimes building kingdoms, some large and some small, that will ALL vanish in the blink of an eye.  Seriously, all in the blink of an eye.  One day I will close my eyes and when they open all that will be left is me naked before almighty God.  And this is another point where the ignorance of man is displayed in full.  

My statement that one day we will stand before God is most often met with an attitude of indifference.  And this is the height of man's ignorance.  Men shrug that one day we will stand before God because God is, at best, and ethereal being floating around somewhere who has little to no impact on their lives.  He is, in the words of David Wells, "a weightless entity."  They assume that they will stand before God but who cares, God will accept them, warts and all, because they have learned to accept themselves, warts and all.  This is a dangerous place to be for this is a soul unaware of the rebellion that lives in their heart and the fact that the severity of that rebellion is measured by the worthiness of the one whom they have offended. God is infinitely worthy and thus rebellion against him is infinitely wicked.  And yet in ignorance man continues to rebel because the fact that humans are frail and a step away from being naked before God does not often enter into the minds of men.

Humility

Humility may be one of the most misunderstood virtues around.  I think this is for several reasons, but primarily two.  First, we don't see it demonstrated very often.  And second, it goes against everything we have been taught by American culture from our birth.  We are taught from the time we are young (at least we were) how to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and overcome adversity, wee are taught how to be resilient and self-reliant, we are taught to never back down.  And yet it is this lack of humility that leads to so many issues in life.  For instance, I lack humility and am unable to admit to my wife when I am in error, adding fuel to an already combustible situation.  I lack humility and am unable to take constructive criticism without lashing out and destroying friendships.  I lack humility because I am so caught up in making much of myself that I lose sight of the fact that this world is not about me.  And because too often this world is about me, I get angry and upset with people when they do not make much of me.  This is the root of more dysfunction in our society than anything else.

When we approach life humbly, we have the attitude of Christ.  We humble ourselves under the authority of God and thus are able to make much of Him in others rather than making much of ourselves.  And when we make much of Him in others, we end up treating them as if they were more important than we are.   And here is the great part.  When two people approach a situation in life or each other in humility, both end up getting built up because the other is trying to make much of Christ in them.  However, when only one person does it, that person usually ends up feeling used.  This is when the temptation is to throw our hands in the air and adopt a, "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" philosophy.  Yet it is at these moments that we must remember that our example is Christ, and although there was no deceit found in him, when He was tortured and killed, He did not exercise His divine authority and kill everyone around Him, but He kept entrusting Himself to the One who judges justly.  Which means, there will be times in life when you are used and feel walked over and we must avoid the temptation to set the record (and other people) straight.  It doesn't make it right, but it does make us more like Christ.

Excuses

Lately I have begun to notice a disturbing trend.  It usually occurs in conversations with people regarding holiness and/or sanctification (the process of becoming more like Christ) and it goes something like this.  In the middle of talking about becoming more holy, someone will throw out this little phrase or something like it, "but we are still human and are going to struggle, so you make the best of it."  I understand the sentiment behind this statement.  It is the same sentiment that Paul expounds on in Romans 7, namely that we live in a fallen world and are ourselves still sinful and that sin nature is something we will have to deal with for the rest of our lives.  But more and more that phrase is being used as an excuse or a smokescreen because the fact of the matter is, if we were honest, there is sin we like and cherish, that we treat as a pet, and even though the power to put that sin to death is available through Jesus Christ, we don't really want to.  Sure, we say the right things about hating our sin and trying to battle against it.  But in reality I think many of us hate the way our sin makes us feel, we don't hate our sin.  We wish there was a way to indulge in our sin and and feel good about ourselves doing it.  For if we hated our sin, we would run as fast and as hard as we could into Jesus Christ with the expectation of deliverance from the One who has conquered sin and death.

But all too often when faced with temptation or just the every day workings of life, when confronted with sin, rather than running to Jesus we either succumb immediately or put up a fight based on our own strength (some more vigorous than others) and then succumb.  Either we don't actually believe in Christ's ability to conquer sin, or we are actually in love with the sin, and I think more often than not it is the later. And this is not to say that there is a euphoric place we reach where sin no longer touches us.  In fact, throughout history, the closer people walked with God, the more acutely aware of their sin they became.  And yet in this is where the promises of God become alive and His grace becomes real and His glory shines the brightest.