Posts tagged Glory
Irish Proverbs – Of Day and Evening
Jan 12th
“Dá fhada an lá tagann an tráthnóna” - “However long the day, the evening will come”
A truly immutable fact of life is that time always marshals on. The sun always rises and the sun always sets. Plants grow, people age, life decays. Time carries the seasons along on its steady back and time ravages the creature’s body. Time carries with it the events that are good and happy and fulfilling, and time brings tides of woe and sadness and darkness.
Of all the gifts that time does carry on its wing, one of the most welcome is the evening. The evening is the time to enjoy one’s labor of the day, when the air softens and cools in its comforting cushion. The evening is the time to enjoy a hearty meal with one’s family, a time to calm the tired mind and rest the aching feet. It signals the end of an awful day and allows one’s mind to slough off the stresses that the long, harsh light can bring.
It is the time of harvest, when the fruits of the summer’s work are enjoyed, a time for revelry and joy, a time of sweet and calm contentment. It is a time of joy and bounty, a time of refreshment and contemplation. It is a time of thanksgiving, a time to look back while gazing intently forward. It is a time of waning energy, when Creation prepares itself for slumber and the coming day. 
It is a time of sublime and wondrous art, when the sky becomes a celebration of light and color, when shadows melt together and the soothing rays of the setting sun bathe the earth in a lovely cloak of red and stunning orange. It is the time when the noble beasts as one say their sonorous goodnights to one another and to the trees and stones, the air and grass, the lakes and lordly sky.
In Christ, it is a time of completion and finishing of a lifelong race. It is a time of joy and glory, when the glorious light of heaven is so tantalizingly close, a time of preparation for the necessary sleep before the everlasting glorious day.
No matter how long the dreary day, time marches on and the glorious evening surely will come.
Irish Proverbs – Of Unity and Strength
Jun 4th
“Ni ceart go cur le cheile” – “There is no strength without unity”
There is a scene in Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” where the evil villains, the Grasshoppers, are chilling under their sombrero hangout when Hopper, the gang’s ringleader, hears grumbling about going back to Ant Island to gather “The Offering” from the puny ants. Hopper jumps over to the bar in typical grasshopper fashion, grabs a seed from their large seed dispenser at the Grasshopper bar and throws it at the complaining party. He asks the guilty one if it hurt (it did not), throws another seed (“are you kidding” being the response) and then releases the whole bunch of heavy seeds onto the whiner, crushing him. The moral of this story? “There was that ant who stood up to me … if one ant stands up, they all might stand up”.
Just as that one seed did not hurt the grasshopper, so Flick (that one brave ant) did not stand a chance alone. Yet, Hopper knew something profound: if those thousands of ants in that colony decided to stand together, as one, unified (which they finally did) then his evil reign of terror would end (which it did).
Unity is a powerful thing. One strand of string is easily broken, but if you were to twist dozens of strings together into a rope, that string would suddenly be much more difficult to break. One vote is hardly enough to swing an election (usually), but if you get a majority to vote the same way, as one unified voice, then democratic power can and does assert itself. Yet, unity is not simply about numbers. There might be thousands of soldiers fighting in a battle, but if those thousands are not fighting for a unified purpose or goal and do not fight as one, then they are easily dispatched.
Just as unity is vital for ants, strings, voters and warriors, it is so for followers of Jesus as well. We are one body, in Christ. The Church, Jesus’ Bride, is not made up of a bunch of self-autonomous parts. We are joined and knit together, a unified, redeemed Body. Yet, “unity” can be, and in our pluralisticly philosophical and cultural milieu, often is, misleading. Believers in Christ cannot be unified with those who deny the insanely radical and thoroughly exclusive nature of Christ and the Cross. Believers in Jesus cannot be unified with those who call Jesus a god but who do not ultimately bow their collective knee in abject submission to the Lamb. Believers in the very Son of God cannot be united with those who deny the everlasting Love of Jesus and Grace of God. Yet, with true believers and followers of Jesus, the Christian IS unified and this unity finds it strength not in the collective might of those unified but in the One who is the Great Unifier. This unity and strength is for His Glory and for our Good. It is not just strong, it is everlasting.
Music Reviews – “Rebel” by Lecrae
May 19th
Outside of the artists in the Square Peg Alliance, there is perhaps no musician today making better music or exhibiting more biblically edifying and encouraging music than Lecrae. This artistry is no more apparent than in his newest (and by far, best) offering to date, Rebel.
The album opens up with an awesome track aptly named “Rebel Intro”. This track sets the tune for the rest of the album with its direct statement that Jesus was a rebel, not because He was disobedient or rebellious per se, but because He was a “sanctified troublemaker” and obedient in perfection to the Father. The energy is maintained with the track “Don’t Waste Your Life”, and honest heart-felt appeal borrowed from the writings of John Piper to not waste your life on trivial pursuits, but to live life for the glory of God and for His renown.
Lecrae continues the plea to be a rebel in this world with the driving “God Hard” and the incredibly transparent, humbling and self-effacing “Indwelling Sin”, “Breathin’ to Death” and “Desparate”. The album continues with application in “Change”, “Fall Back”, “Live Free” and “Got Paper”.
Rebel ends in great encouragement with the songs “I’m a Saint” (reminiscent of Derek Webb’s “Saint and Sinner”), “The Bride” and “Beautiful Feet”. “The Bride” is an especially reassuring defense of the Church’s identity as Christ’s Bought Bride. Christians take a lot of flak in the World, many times justifiably so, yet this song asks us to consider ourselves not primarily as sinners, but as sinners loved by Jesus.
The whole album is worth a good long listen. Lecrae’s creative ability in songcraft is simply stunning, especially so when one couples the craft of the songs to their theological soundness and biblical consistency. “Rebel” is worth the purchase cost and will be an encouragement to your soul.
“Don’t Waste Your Life” Sermon Jam (with John Piper audio), Download here
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The Beauty of Story
May 16th
There is perhaps no more powerful expression in human experience than the Story. It grabs our imagination and entices our intellect. A good story does to language what music accomplishes in a somewhat different way: it allows us to feel the ideas that words express as well as consider them rationally. The Story, the Ballad, the Parable allows us to think and to feel and to relate and to consider. Great stories posit great Truths, but they also allow us to express and imagine those great concepts. They captivate our creativity, using both the mind and the heart, the analytical and the sensual and the emotional.
In the biblical narrative of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection we can know some things. Christ was born to a human mother. Jesus grew and learned. He preached and ministered. Jesus never sinned and He died and He rose again. These things can be known analytically from the Biblical accounts. Yet, in Narrative, I can feel the joy and excitement of Jesus’ birth. I can sympathize with my High Priest who first sympathizes with me. I can feel horror and disgust at His scourgings. I can mourn with His disciples at His death. I can weep at what my sin did to my Sin-Bearer and Savior. I can experience pure exultation and surprise at His resurrection and I can glory in His exaltation. Through narrative I can indeed know the objective truths of Scripture, yet I can also feel and more fully understand those Truths, in Christ. Fotography Friday – Colorado Sunset
Sep 12th
Is there anything more glorious in nature than the setting sun?
