"but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." - James 1:14-15
Her name is “Temptation”,
Her lips are laced with poison of false intimacy. Men know Truth, yet they prostitute their lips to hers. Her venom pulses through the host’s veins,
infecting… polluting… impeding genuine love.
Constant ecstasy is a harlot’s dream. For when a pleasure is converted to habit it loses its flavor, becoming unpleasant and bitter. An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula for slavery. Men relinquish their very souls and receive nothing in return. She offers real pleasure, but can only twist or contort what God has created for corrupt intentions. All she can do is seduce men in weakness to take fleeting pleasures:
in times of impatience… in ways that are forbidden… in degrees that are empty.
Men often find themselves ravished before they recognize their new pleasure as a temptation. The youthful innocence of being in love steadily, yet oh so unsuspectingly, begins to give birth to selfish motives, breeding a monster we title lust. They pretend as if their love is pure while they murder their brothers with piercing comments of resentment and anger. They fictitiously imagine they are justified in taking revenge because of an injustice done to them. The oppressed become the oppressor.
Her soft voice bids them to drink from a cup safely coiled within her beautiful hands. “You are so tired… so desponded… you are thirsty… Come and taste. Release your inhibitions. Relieve your despair and quench your thirst.” While the exterior is beautiful, her interior is ugly. Her gentile hands are instead like daggers around a dying man’s throat. Yet, knowing full well her cup is infused with poison, men return time and time again, convincing themselves while on broken knees that, “Perhaps…perhaps this time will be different from all the rest? Perhaps this one will truly satisfy?” They are reduced to swine scarfing down slop from a trough with an upheaving sensation of self-loathing, despair and emptiness. Constant indulgence numbs the heart and renders the conscience indifferent to oppression, the heart incapable of love. They rationalize their innocence because they are not gluttons to the excess, however in reality they are addicts, masquerading under the shroud of moderation. When all of the intoxicating beauty is stripped away, her true motives are laid bare and naked, to give birth to sin and consummate in death.
This is our prayer,
We admit our helplessness.
We must confess we are sinners, often playing the tempter’s part.
We are faithless, living out a stubborn will.
We are disloyal, prostituting ourselves to false gods.
We cry out for help! For Redemption!
Father, redeem us not from the world, but from ourselves!
We are the problem and You are the solution.
Our hearts are the fountain for sinful desire.
We reflect and ponder on Your character:
Faithful…
Just…
Merciful…
Holy…
Compassionate…
Long suffering…
Loving…
Forgiving…
You have overcome temptation of every kind.
You have crushed the serpent’s head.
Teach us to do the same. May Your victory be our victory.
Amen.
Perceiving Death
This summer I attended a memorial service for a woman who died of cancer at a younger age and she was not a believer in Jesus Christ. I find it interesting to observe how unbelievers perceive death and cope with the lost of a loved one compared to believers. What would it be like to personify death? Would he be a friend or foe? Jesus Christ makes all the difference.
Death Without Christ
Your name. I have heard of your name. It grips my heart with fear, throbbing in unbelief. Until now your face remained shrouded by the darkness of the unfamiliar. Once you were a stranger, a rumor, a reality in wait of birth. Now, I know you too well. Oh, how you are a master of disguise, shifting from mask to mask, face to face, masquerading as a friend. You stole the face of someone familiar. You clothed yourself with the soft skin of someone I love. You came as a thief, ready to strip and tear something precious to my heart. You are a consumer of unforeseen dreams. The walls of my home are lifeless and bitter. Laughter is silenced by wails of sorrow. I reach out for my beloved’s warm hands that speak silent words of comfort, but you have hardened those soft hands into a corpse, a shell of a person. You have ripped out my knees and drown my eyes in tears of sorrow. You have shattered my bones with heavy blows of grief. Joy is a distant stranger. Happiness is a lost friend. Love remains only as a fragmented memory. Oh, how swift and final is your work. Loneliness is my only companion. Part of my soul has died with you my love.
Your name. I have heard of your name. Your name is Death.
Death With Christ
I am envious of you. You are now clothed in eternal life. The face of your creator is unveiled before your eyes. The poison your heart has pulsed through your veins for so many years is purified and new. Your mind that is plagued with the disease of anxiety can finally draw in precious breaths of rest . Pain, suffering and loneliness are merely forgotten memories. My heart yearns to be with you, longing to feel your soft embrace. Hope. Hope is not simply a prisoner's fantasy, but a living, breathing reality. One day, one day all things will be made anew when God breathes eternal life into my lungs as He has yours. This is not a final goodbye. Death is merely a gateway, an escort home to the ones I love. Mourning and grief will not consume my heart like those without hope for I know that, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death. But thank God! He gives victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:54-56).
Your name. I know your name. Your name is Life.
Death Without Christ
Your name. I have heard of your name. It grips my heart with fear, throbbing in unbelief. Until now your face remained shrouded by the darkness of the unfamiliar. Once you were a stranger, a rumor, a reality in wait of birth. Now, I know you too well. Oh, how you are a master of disguise, shifting from mask to mask, face to face, masquerading as a friend. You stole the face of someone familiar. You clothed yourself with the soft skin of someone I love. You came as a thief, ready to strip and tear something precious to my heart. You are a consumer of unforeseen dreams. The walls of my home are lifeless and bitter. Laughter is silenced by wails of sorrow. I reach out for my beloved’s warm hands that speak silent words of comfort, but you have hardened those soft hands into a corpse, a shell of a person. You have ripped out my knees and drown my eyes in tears of sorrow. You have shattered my bones with heavy blows of grief. Joy is a distant stranger. Happiness is a lost friend. Love remains only as a fragmented memory. Oh, how swift and final is your work. Loneliness is my only companion. Part of my soul has died with you my love.
Your name. I have heard of your name. Your name is Death.
Death With Christ
I am envious of you. You are now clothed in eternal life. The face of your creator is unveiled before your eyes. The poison your heart has pulsed through your veins for so many years is purified and new. Your mind that is plagued with the disease of anxiety can finally draw in precious breaths of rest . Pain, suffering and loneliness are merely forgotten memories. My heart yearns to be with you, longing to feel your soft embrace. Hope. Hope is not simply a prisoner's fantasy, but a living, breathing reality. One day, one day all things will be made anew when God breathes eternal life into my lungs as He has yours. This is not a final goodbye. Death is merely a gateway, an escort home to the ones I love. Mourning and grief will not consume my heart like those without hope for I know that, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death. But thank God! He gives victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:54-56).
Your name. I know your name. Your name is Life.
Forgiving Love
"Forgiving love is a possibility only for those who know that they are not good, who feel themselves in need of divine mercy, who live in a dimension deeper and higher than that of mortal idealism, feel themselves as well as their fellow men convicted of sin by a holy God and know that the differences between the good man and the bad man are insignificant in his sight." -Reinold Neibuhr
Death of Individuality
What does it mean to be a person? God created us to be in a relationship defined by self-giving love. He forms and molds our being in accordance to His likeness. To love sacrificially, withholding nothing good from a beloved, is to express who God is within Himself. A person is otherness in loving relationship. Every human being is unique and different from all others. We cannot be a person without someone existing outside of us. However, we have severed and marred our relationship with God because of sin. Sin strangles and suffocates reciprocal love. The "individual" is manifested at the Fall. Mankind curves inward to his selfish desires, fearing and disdaining the uniqueness of others. Pain, suffering and loneliness enters front stage as our hearts yearn for love and cry out for justice. The incarnation is God's loving response. Jesus Christ kills the individual on the cross. We have died to self. God is restoring us to what we once were. This poem is about the gospel, about who we were created to be, who we became, and who Christ has made us to be.
Death of Individuality
I am a person,
created in the image and likeness of the Divine
in perfect relationship, beautifully intertwined.
I am a person,
unable to be exhaustively defined
to be categorized by the human mind.
I am an individual,
discontent as a creature
coveting the role of the Creator.
I am an individual,
seeped in hate and lies
primed to bargain to make one wise.
I am an individual,
disconnected and alone
craving for love, a place to call home.
God is a person,
otherness in loving communion
willing to crush His Son for union.
God is a person,
who suffers and mourns
while Christ's flesh was flogged and torn.
I am a person,
redeemed and made anew
dependent on God's love to carry me through.
I am a person,
in relationship with the One
who gave me a possession in His Son.
BY: Jon Aman
Death of Individuality
I am a person,
created in the image and likeness of the Divine
in perfect relationship, beautifully intertwined.
I am a person,
unable to be exhaustively defined
to be categorized by the human mind.
I am an individual,
discontent as a creature
coveting the role of the Creator.
I am an individual,
seeped in hate and lies
primed to bargain to make one wise.
I am an individual,
disconnected and alone
craving for love, a place to call home.
God is a person,
otherness in loving communion
willing to crush His Son for union.
God is a person,
who suffers and mourns
while Christ's flesh was flogged and torn.
I am a person,
redeemed and made anew
dependent on God's love to carry me through.
I am a person,
in relationship with the One
who gave me a possession in His Son.
BY: Jon Aman
Suffering Love
God suffers and grieves because man rejects his unconditional love. When God created the world He was in perfect relationship with man. There was no fear, no doubt or pain, but seamless harmony. Adam and Eve were in communion with God. Love was not selfish, but reciprocal between the divine and humanity. It was a world of peace and wholeness, nothing was lacking. However, mankind willfully chose to doubt and fracture their relationship with God through their disobedience. No longer is there harmony, but dissonance. No longer is there peace, but a quaking fear of the other. No longer is there joy, but intense suffering and pain. God suffers the pain of being hurt by the beloved, the suffering of rejected love. He is deeply wounded by man’s betrayal because He withheld nothing from His beloved (Gen. 6:5-6,Ps. 78:40). God cannot remain unaffected by our sin because He is a person in a shatteringly close relationship with humanity. The communion between God and man is so tightly woven together that it would be impossible for one to remain unaffected by the other.
Sin severs and corrupts relationships. No longer does man reciprocate the love of God, but consumes it. People crave for the blessings of God, but with egotistic motive. Men hunger for love, but reject a relationship with God out of fear and selfishness. God first loved mankind to foster communion, a relationship governed by reciprocal love. He does not love for the sake of love, but for the sake of the other. When reciprocal love is quenched and suffocated by sin there is disharmony, misery and loneliness. The “other” is consumed by the “I”. Human beings are inward, self-conscience, defensive, and depressed because they are consumers of love instead of self-sacrificing donors. Man’s sin deprives God of His glory and the love He merits.
Sin severs and corrupts relationships. No longer does man reciprocate the love of God, but consumes it. People crave for the blessings of God, but with egotistic motive. Men hunger for love, but reject a relationship with God out of fear and selfishness. God first loved mankind to foster communion, a relationship governed by reciprocal love. He does not love for the sake of love, but for the sake of the other. When reciprocal love is quenched and suffocated by sin there is disharmony, misery and loneliness. The “other” is consumed by the “I”. Human beings are inward, self-conscience, defensive, and depressed because they are consumers of love instead of self-sacrificing donors. Man’s sin deprives God of His glory and the love He merits.
Personhood of God
God is a God of personal love. He is not some abstract idea, completely distant or absolutely other. Instead, God is a person who is intimately involved with the world, continually concerned for the wellbeing of His beloved. A person is “otherness in communion and communion with otherness”. Scripture does not characterize God as pure act, as the Greeks would say, but in terms of relationship. It is an “I” and “Thou” relationship, as Marin Buber would describe it. Personhood necessitates the freedom to love. Love and personhood are meticulously connected to one another. Love is not freedom from the other but freedom for the other. Because God is love, he is active in time, involved and concerned for the objects of his love. Personality requires passibility. To be a person is to participate in the emotions and sufferings of the other. Maldwyn Hughes states that, “It is of the very nature of love to suffer when its object suffers loss, whether inflicted by itself or others”. Therefore, God is passible, capable of experiencing emotion and suffering, because his personhood is love.
Traditional theology understood God’s love as pure action, he is unconditionally pouring out love, but is unaffected by the ones he loves. God knows about man’s suffering, but does not identify himself with suffering. Richard Creel contends that perfect love is impassible stating, “The greatest lover may be one who never suffers for his beloved because it is not possible or necessary for him to do so.” I would argue a love that is incapable of suffering is not love. Scripture does not define love in terms of impassibility, but passibility. What is the paramount depiction of love in the Bible? It is dying, to suffer for the sake of another. Romans 15:13 directly states, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. Likewise, Christ, who is the very image of God, expresses his perfect love by dying for mankind. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Jurgen Moltmann argues that, “A God who cannot suffer is poorer than any man. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is also a loveless being”. One has true love when he is open to suffering. Therefore, based on the definition of Scripture, Love is not impassible, incapable of suffering, but passible, capable of suffering.
Traditional theology understood God’s love as pure action, he is unconditionally pouring out love, but is unaffected by the ones he loves. God knows about man’s suffering, but does not identify himself with suffering. Richard Creel contends that perfect love is impassible stating, “The greatest lover may be one who never suffers for his beloved because it is not possible or necessary for him to do so.” I would argue a love that is incapable of suffering is not love. Scripture does not define love in terms of impassibility, but passibility. What is the paramount depiction of love in the Bible? It is dying, to suffer for the sake of another. Romans 15:13 directly states, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. Likewise, Christ, who is the very image of God, expresses his perfect love by dying for mankind. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Jurgen Moltmann argues that, “A God who cannot suffer is poorer than any man. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is also a loveless being”. One has true love when he is open to suffering. Therefore, based on the definition of Scripture, Love is not impassible, incapable of suffering, but passible, capable of suffering.
Restrain Theology
A young theologian should pursue his studies with a disposition of humility. Scripture teaches that knowledge puffs one up. With what little knowledge he attains, a young theologian can be vain and condescending to a young believer. He enjoys rattling off abstract ideas and lofty concepts, only to shock and stunt the growth of a young believer. Thielicke warns us that knowledge is power. Truth, as he says, seduces us into a kind of joy of possession. We have comprehended something the other has not. Joy of possessing knowledge can crush love. Love is the opposite of the will to possess. It does not boast, but is giving. There are times and with certain people that we should restrain our theological concepts. Do not muddle their minds with difficult concepts which dishearten their pursuit of God. Paul understood his audience. Those who are young in the faith are fed milk, concepts that are simple to digest. It is only when they outgrow the spiritual milk does Paul begin to feed them hefty meat to consume and grow. I am learning patience with those who are younger in the faith, yet, at the same time, being submissive to those who are more spiritually discerned than I.
Studying theology should be a joy, but it must learned with a sober mind. The pursuit of knowledge has the power to either corrupt or strengthen one's faith. It can either draw us into God's presence or it can hide His face.
Studying theology should be a joy, but it must learned with a sober mind. The pursuit of knowledge has the power to either corrupt or strengthen one's faith. It can either draw us into God's presence or it can hide His face.
Relfections on the Life of the Theological Student
Recently I read an article by Benjamin Warfield on the life of the theological student. In his short article he reflects upon the relation between the "intellectual" life and the "spiritual" life of the student. As a student studying theology, Warfield speaks directly to my heart and the necessity to foster my spiritual life along side my intellectual studies.
Helmut Thielicke writes in one of his books, "A person who pursues theology, but does not read God's word is spiritually sick." Theology can be a sacred theology or a diabolical theology. Whether theology becomes the latter or former depends on the hands and hearts of those who pursue it. Theology deals primarily with life. It is not a dusty collection of abstract ideas, but a language. It is a language spoken in the second person. Intellect and knowledge are transformed into the language of the heart through an intimate relationship with God. It is a dialogue with God, not about God.
I find myself being fascinated with abstract ideas and complex issues within theology. They excite me, energizing my pursuit of God. However, I am slowly beginning to understand that knowledge is not faith. There is, as Thielicke puts it, "a hiatus between actual spiritual growth and what one knows." Many of the truths I have learned are inherited from another man's primary experiences. They are my reflections upon another believer's faith, thus secondary. We should not confuse secondary truth, that which is not primary experience, with genuine faith. We adopt the intellectual/spiritual reflections of other believers and create the illusion as if we understand in a primary way. It is only a conceptual experience. Instead, genuine faith is habit. It is only when we habitually practice what is learned do we grow into spiritual maturity. Thielicke warns us not to assume we believe whatever impresses us theologically or enlightens us intellectually. Here lies the subtle danger of believing in a theologian or one of your teachers instead of Jesus Christ. Every theological idea which makes an impression on you must be regarded as a challenge to your faith. Secondary truth becomes primary only when the intellect is absorbed by the human heart.
Before being learned, a minister must be godly. Studying theology is not just a religious duty, but, as Warfield puts it, "an active pursuit to make God known, to bring the student in the presence of God and keep him there." There is something wrong with both the spiritual student who does not study and the student who studies with a secular spirit, depriving God of the worship he deserves. We must war against the secular spirit in fear of becoming cold and callous to the divine. Familiarity mutes the voice of God and hardens the heart to feeling. The gospel becomes a mere series of historical facts and a source of philosophical curiosity. A student of theology, along with every believer, needs to habitually combine prayer with work. All too many believers work and study without praying. They have traded work or knowledge for knowing Christ. Doing things for God is not the same as being with him. Work and study dissociated from prayer does not bring us closer to God, instead, it divorces us from intimate fellowship with our Savior. God desires for us to be constantly abiding with him. Men often pray with selfish motives and render prayer useless. We should not view prayer as a means of gaining the blessings of God without the relationship. True prayer is perfect community and union with God. It is our connection to the source. Prayer is the vaccine that makes us immune to “diabolical” theology, a heart that is cold, void of feeling and imprisoned by the language of the third person.
Helmut Thielicke writes in one of his books, "A person who pursues theology, but does not read God's word is spiritually sick." Theology can be a sacred theology or a diabolical theology. Whether theology becomes the latter or former depends on the hands and hearts of those who pursue it. Theology deals primarily with life. It is not a dusty collection of abstract ideas, but a language. It is a language spoken in the second person. Intellect and knowledge are transformed into the language of the heart through an intimate relationship with God. It is a dialogue with God, not about God.
I find myself being fascinated with abstract ideas and complex issues within theology. They excite me, energizing my pursuit of God. However, I am slowly beginning to understand that knowledge is not faith. There is, as Thielicke puts it, "a hiatus between actual spiritual growth and what one knows." Many of the truths I have learned are inherited from another man's primary experiences. They are my reflections upon another believer's faith, thus secondary. We should not confuse secondary truth, that which is not primary experience, with genuine faith. We adopt the intellectual/spiritual reflections of other believers and create the illusion as if we understand in a primary way. It is only a conceptual experience. Instead, genuine faith is habit. It is only when we habitually practice what is learned do we grow into spiritual maturity. Thielicke warns us not to assume we believe whatever impresses us theologically or enlightens us intellectually. Here lies the subtle danger of believing in a theologian or one of your teachers instead of Jesus Christ. Every theological idea which makes an impression on you must be regarded as a challenge to your faith. Secondary truth becomes primary only when the intellect is absorbed by the human heart.
Before being learned, a minister must be godly. Studying theology is not just a religious duty, but, as Warfield puts it, "an active pursuit to make God known, to bring the student in the presence of God and keep him there." There is something wrong with both the spiritual student who does not study and the student who studies with a secular spirit, depriving God of the worship he deserves. We must war against the secular spirit in fear of becoming cold and callous to the divine. Familiarity mutes the voice of God and hardens the heart to feeling. The gospel becomes a mere series of historical facts and a source of philosophical curiosity. A student of theology, along with every believer, needs to habitually combine prayer with work. All too many believers work and study without praying. They have traded work or knowledge for knowing Christ. Doing things for God is not the same as being with him. Work and study dissociated from prayer does not bring us closer to God, instead, it divorces us from intimate fellowship with our Savior. God desires for us to be constantly abiding with him. Men often pray with selfish motives and render prayer useless. We should not view prayer as a means of gaining the blessings of God without the relationship. True prayer is perfect community and union with God. It is our connection to the source. Prayer is the vaccine that makes us immune to “diabolical” theology, a heart that is cold, void of feeling and imprisoned by the language of the third person.
Community
Community in the Church does not begin with people. Unity with God on a personal level does not begin with community amongst men. We often seek a remedy for loneliness in other people. However, community that begins with man is selfish and is in fact not community at all. We cannot understand fellowship in the church or Christ's desire for his bride to develop unity unless we are right with God in a personal sense. The highest form of communion is absolute surrender of the self to God, to be "One" with the Father as Christ was in the flesh. When we are connected to God on a personal level then we are able to truly love people with the same love God has for us. The pursuit of community and fellowship has the potential for adultery. Do we as believers seek satisfaction for loneliness through man before God? If so, our loneliness will only increase, whether consciously or subconsciously. God is anxious in wait to satisfy our desperate need for love and companionship. Do not trade a relationship with God for man. Rather, let us foster an intimate love for our Savior so that we may have sincere love for others.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)