The Fingerprints of God

"And it came to pass, as Sennacherib was worshiping in the house of...his god, that...his sons smote him with the sword..." Isaiah 37:38

God did not merely send the Assyrians on their merry way. That might have been enough for the average deity, but not for God. It seems that the Lord of hosts cannot help but put an exclamation point on the whole affair. Not only was Sennacherib turned back, but he also was killed; not only killed, but also killed in the house of his god, showing his deity to be impotent (the exact same charge that he leveled against God); not only in the house of his god, but also by the hand of his own children. If all that is not an exclamation point, I do not know what is.
The delicious irony of the situation is more proof that God is not merely a machine, some cosmic thought process moving everything with cold and calculating mathematical precision. One could almost swear that you were dealing with a writer, or at least a poet. He seems to revel in grand monologues, near escapes, romantic rescues, and ironic finishes. He cannot simply enter the formula, press the buttons, and let things fall as they fall; He has to put in a little twist, a little touch, a little of Himself in the process. The "fingerprints" of God are never some sort of authorization signature, as though God were corporate manager, and the universe a well-oiled machine and business. His fingerprints reveal something like a playwright with a play: it is littered with dramatic crescendos and ironic punchlines. One feels like there should have been a comedic drum roll after verse 38 (ta ta, dum!). In addition, one feels (and can wonder at the idea) that verse 38 not only reveals God's judgment and faithfulness, but also, in some sense, His mirth as well.

"You who laughs at the vain things of this world,
You who sings with the morning stars,
And dances in eternal communion,
Take me into Your Mirth and Joy..."
-Jon Vowell

I Tremble at the Thought...

"...the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." Isaiah 37:32b

Most people get befuddled by the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's freewill, but I find the relationship between His sovereignty and His zeal to be more interesting (and scandalous in its implications). Ask yourself: If God knows all and is in control of all, why is He zealous about anything? Why is He zealous to defend His city and His people? Surely He knows that the Assyrians cannot win against Him? That they cannot take one step without Him? You would think a God with completely control and power would yawn at the flagrant claims of Sennacherib, or any other king. Why, then, does the Bible say that He laughs (Psalm 2:1-4)? What's so funny about things going according to plan? In short, if God is sovereign over all, then on what grounds does He interact with this world with life and energy and zeal? Even shorter: why do we not have the God of the deists? The plan will go as He set it; why such zealous involvement? Why any involvement at all?
I know that there may be deep, theological answers to such queries that a scholar could easily give you. I am not a scholar, and will not try to attempt such answers. I do have two thoughts, however. First of all, God's zeal should be a wondrous reminder to us that God is a person and not a machine. The premium mobile has a heart; the first cause has love and passionate zeal. We do not communion with mere brain.
That communion is the second thought. God is intimate. There is no aloofness, no ivory tower. He is with us always (whether we want Him or not). For some reason, God felt that overarching sovereignty was not enough, that it would make Him (dare we say it?) incomplete. He could not be merely in control of all things; He had to be with all things. Not that He needed to be with all things (for He needs nothing), but that His very nature implies not only all-encompassing sovereignty, but also intimate communion with all that is from Him and of Him. He is paradoxically enmeshed with and independent from His creation; it is not Him, and He is not it, and yet they are one.
If you think such an intimate relationship (one, yet separate) is impossible, you are a blatant liar (or an ignorant fool). Such a unity is known to humanity on its concrete plane, known in a form that only lovers or poets can utter with any clarity. Can it be that the human act hailed as the most animal is in fact the most sacred? Is that so called (and vulgarly called) "biological function" humanity's fullest imitation, on the physical plane, of the very nature of God Himself? I believe it is.
Furthermore (and I tremble at the thought), could it be that this unity (one, yet separate) that is the nature of God, which humans share with each other (how amazing the idea!), is the same basis by which God relates to us? Again, I believe it is, and again, I tremble at the thought; not out of fear, but of wonder. We (through Christ) are made one with God as a lover is one with a lover? Scandalous; yet, apparently, the truth.

"Your Love is Extravagant.
Your Friendship, it is Intimate..."
(from Casting Crowns)
-Jon Vowell

The Wave

"Hast thou, [O Assyrians,] not heard long ago, how I, [the Lord,] have done it [see vs. 24, 25]; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou should be, to lay waste defensed cities into ruinous heaps...Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way that thou came." Isaiah 37:26, 29

C.S. Lewis once said that there is an inherit contradiction in trying to argue with God--He is the source of our reason by which we argue. We can no more argue against Him than a "river can rise above its source." The Assyrians learned the same truth: they could not raise arms against God, for it was God who had given them the strength to raise arms in the first place. They were attempting to cut the branch that they were sitting on. Interestingly, from this incident we learn that even if you are not God's people/children, without Him you are still nothing.
God's omnipotence and sovereignty should not terrify and vex us. They should be, in the end, a source of encouragement and strength. Though we should seek to clear up all the confusions about the relationship between God's power and control and our freewill choices, we need to ultimately seek to stress and embrace the deeper truth: nothing happens that is outside God's control or command. No enemy of ours can frustrate or stop Him; no obstacle can trip or snare Him; and our own imperfections and flaws do not stall Him for a second. God's will is a massive, building wave, rolling ever onward and upward. You can either know they joy of being swept up into and riding it, or feel the oblivion of rejecting and being run over by it. Such joy is real joy, and oblivion real oblivion; and the choice is yours.

You Who controls all things,
May Your wondrous Will
Sweep me away
And take me into You...
-Jon Vowell

The Centre

"Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from [the Assyrian's] hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only." Isaiah 37:20

People are deceived if they think that sins occur due to the sinner being particularly depraved beyond all reason. We are all equally fallen, capable of all the same things. Sin comes at us all with the simplest of attitudes: "It's all about me." Such an attitude is devilishly clever because it can slip into our minds at any moment: while we're doing something genuinely good, genuinely bad, or neutral and asinine. Whatever we have set our hands to do (even writing a blog!), we can turn into a moment of self-idolatry.
"O Lord...save us...[that all] may know that thou art the Lord." Not, "Save us so we can be saved," nor even, "Save us because it is the right thing to do," but, "Save us for Thy sake." You want the secret to a joyful life? Here it is: it is not about you; it is all about Him. Until we get that, we will continue to chase the winds, looking for joy and contentment for ourselves until we realize that such things are only found in Him, for He is all that everything is about; it all leads back to Him (save for the bent will of Sin, that cast itself into nothingness). Our life is a story, but it will be lost into oblivion if we do not surrender it to His Story.
"Thou art the Lord, even thou only," i.e., You alone are the focus, the "centre," the premium mobile. We are never whole until we surrender our little chaotic movement into the Great Dance of the Triune God.

Oh Love that moves the Heavens and earth,
Take my exasperated spirit into Your Dance,
And may I never go back
To the self I left behind...
-Jon Vowell

Who the Enemy Hates

"Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God." Isaiah 37:17

Self-vindication, an affliction for most people, hits Christians due to an inability to properly identify the real cause of attack. We do the right thing, say the right thing, act the right way, and stand up for what is right, and we get scorned, insulted, mocked, and misunderstood. The trick is, however, that it is not we that are being scorned, insulted, mocked, and misunderstood; it is the life of God inside us.
When we are rightly related to God, His presence in us will produce a life and light that those in darkness cannot tolerate or understand. "For everyone that doeth evil hates the light" (John 3:20). It was true for our Lord; it is true for those who have His life and light within them.
Just as we get confused about who is fighting us (viz., Satan and his forces; not your parents, teacher, co-workers, boss, etc.), so too we get just as confused about Who they are fighting. They fight us, not because of us, but because of the Life and Light within us. The darkness attacks the light, and God is the light; if we are with Him, we will be attacked for His sake, not ours. Self-vindication (devilish quicksand!) fades like chaff in the wind when we realize that it is God whom they attack; it is not about us, but always about Him.

I am not in the crossfire;
I am on the front lines,
Not for my own sake,
But for the sake of Another...
-Jon Vowell

Come Unto Him

"And Hezekiah received the letter from [the Assyrians], and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord." Isaiah 37:14

We are the worst when it comes to prayer; we make it more complicated than it needs to be. We fill it with useless pomp and circumstance, acting like we have to say this or that, or else God will go all humbug on us. That is not the God we serve, the One to whom we cry, "Abba, Abba" unto. So many of us get caught up in the tangled web of our preconceived notions when it comes to our relationship with our heavenly Father. How many of us have experienced the joy of simply bringing our burdens to Him and spreading them before Him?
"And Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread the letter before the Lord." How simple and grand! No ceremony; no juggling; no performance; no hoop-jumping. He just came and brought. What more is required of God's children? Absolutely nothing, except to come unto Him all ye that are heavy-laden, and He will give you rest. Too often we make our giving of burdens to God a burden in and of itself. We have to learn: God's grace is poured out in abundance to us, and we can do nothing to make Him deal with us any more or less than that abundant grace.
There is a difference between bringing burdens and bringing petty problems. We often easily bring the latter while over complicating the former. This should not be! Bring your Father your pains, spread them before Him, and know the joy of watching Him fix them.

Unending Love,
Amazing Grace,
Poured out to us.
May I revel in it always...
-Jon Vowell

Edge Moments

"...for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth." Isaiah 37:3b

We've all been there before; we'll be there again; we might even be there now. The moment has come that requires all of our faculties, talents, and strengths to come to bear; for all that we are to stand up and answer the charge laid before us, to stand up and be accounted for. We have truly come to the edge; and it is there, in that moment, that we discover our staggering inability. The enemy is too much, the obstacle(s) too large, the cost too high, the risk too great, etc. It has come time to deliver, and we find no strength to do it.
We will run into this situation again and again, from things of asinine importance to vital importance; and we will continue to stumble through those moments like fools until we realize their purpose. They are not there to make you fall back, nor are they there to make you leap out in reckless abandon onto your own doubtful strengths. The arm of flesh will fail you. "Cursed is the man that trust in man," said Jeremiah. Such reckless abandon is truly only reckless.
These "edge moments" are meant to make us leap out in reckless abandon, not on ourselves, but on God. Hezekiah knew that the moment had arrived, and that Israel could not deliver the goods. So what did he do? "He went into the house of the Lord" (vs. 1), and the he sought out Isaiah, the Lord's prophet (vs. 2). Hezekiah knew exactly where to turn when his strength failed him. Do we have such knowledge?

Lean on the arm of flesh
Or the Everlasting Arms.
How many times
Have I chosen foolishly...
-Jon Vowell

Everything to God in Prayer

"And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard [the threats from the Assyrians], that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord." Isaiah 37:1

To be distressed to the point of weeping and despair is not a sin. God understands and allows for such things (see the Psalms, esp. Psalm 103:13, 14). Sin comes when the despair leads you to anything but Him. Distresses are to make us despair of everything except God. That is their purpose: cause everything else to fall to the ground so we can know the truth, i.e., we have no other hope but Him. The sad part is not that a Christian in despair, but a Christian whose despair does not lead him to grasp hold of their Father's feet.
"Hezekiah...went into the house of the Lord." The king knew from whence comes strength and power and hope. He knew where he should go when despair comes: into the presence of His Father. "Thus saith the Lord, 'Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard...'" (vs. 6). Such a truth is ours for the taking at anytime. Sings true the song that said, "Oh, what peace we often forfeit! Oh, what needless pain we bear! All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!" Why do we allow ourselves to suffer so much when we have God? Distresses will come, but they are never for their own sakes; they are always meant to drive us to our Father so that we can know the joy of watching His intimate care in our lives as He fixes all our distresses.

Lead me not to books of wisdom,
Lead me not to wiser men,
Lead me only to Your Presence,
Lead me to Calvary...
-Jon Vowell

Fear Not

"Rabshakeh said unto [Israel]...If thou say to me, 'We trust in the Lord our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away?" Isaiah 36:7

Those who are afraid to hear the skeptics are no better than the skeptics, i.e., they have no faith in what they believe. It is true that such dealings should be done carefully and in stages; many get overwhelmed because they took on too much too early. Done properly, however, and you will find the skeptics are full of hot air. Though they may ask valid questions, they are all based on assumptions that are wholly erroneous. The silliness of Rabshakeh's question to Israel is matched only by his bravado in saying it.
Do not misunderstand: this is not saying that we should not take skeptics seriously, but that we should not fear them. Part of being a Christian is believing that there is an answer for the hope within, whether you know it or not. If you do not know it, then seek until you find it. God does not allow doubts to assail us for their own sakes; they are there so that we might seek and know.
"Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria...have cast [the nation's] gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the works of men's hands..." (Isaiah 37:18, 19) Christianity is not a man made thing. A building, an empire, or an institution may be, but Christianity is more than these. It is life in intimate communion with God. That is a truth beyond "just the facts." You can state it in words, but you can never know it until you experience it.

May I never despair of men,
May I never be haughty over them.
May Your Truth be the basis of
My relation to them...
-Jon Vowell

The Great Return

"And the ransomed of the Lord shall return..." Isaiah 35:10

A part of Israel's redemption was a returning, a getting again of what had been lost or taken. Though Isaiah foreshadowed exile for Israel, he also foreshadowed redemption, and that entailed a return to the land of promise. What was once torn asunder is now reconciled together, is made as one again.
Read Romans 5:10. That we were "enemies" of God is incredible to consider. We became the foe of our very Creator, sided against Him in rebellion, and made a pact with His enemy, becoming his children. There has been a great tearing asunder of ourselves from what gave our lives purpose and life. There is now etched in the essence of humanity a longing for return and a sadness at being unable to return.
"We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." Jesus Christ is the Great Return, the bringing together again of what was lost from each other. "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1b) The war, on this plane, is over. We have surrendered; and through surrender, we have won, for our surrender has caught us up in the victory of Christ over death, hell, and the grave. We have left the pits of Sheol and have been swept back up into the intimate communion of the Godhead. The ransomed pf the Lord have returned, ad what a reunion it has been. We have returned to God, with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads. We have obtained joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing have fled away.

My God is reconciled,
His pardoning voice I hear.
He owns me for His child,
I can no longer fear.
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And, "Abba, Abba Father," cry...
(from Charles Wesley)
-Jon Vowell

The Way of Holiness

"And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, 'The way of holiness.' The unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the [redeemed]: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Isaiah 35:8

There is a reality to the truth of Paul's saying, "We are more than conqueror," that Christians do not live in. To be "more than a conqueror" means to be past the ability of a conqueror to conquer, viz., to be unconquerable. Through God in Christ ("through Him that loved us," Romans 8:37), there is no foe that can beat us, there is no way for us to lose. "If God be for us, who can be against us," carries the weight of this truth. Victory is not something we are striving to obtain; it is forever ours in Christ. At all times, we are victors.
"The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Even without a sharp mind, or with a disposition given to foolish behavior, once you are set upon the way of holiness, there is no going astray. You are forever the redeemed (vs. 9). The true power of the grace of God is that He brings you into the way of holiness and He keeps you there. You can never lose in the spiritual realm, for the condemnation of Sin is gone. That is freedom.
It is true that, though we are free, we should not behave foolishly because we are free, because Sin has no meaning for us anymore (Roman 6:1, 2). However, get the freedom in your mind first: though you be a fool (a poor, broken fool), God's grace guarantees that you can never go astray on the way of holiness.

The Road goes ever on and on,
Dow from the door where it began,
And never shall I leave that Way,
For I am kept by Grace alone...
(adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien)
-Jon Vowell

Pasture and Water

"[In] the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes." Isaiah 35:6b, 7

Though trials and tribulations are a part of God's plan four our lives, so are still waters and green pastures. We should forget neither the purging fire that He is, nor the invigorating life that He is. In His presence, not only is that which is dead burned away, but also that which is barren and dry is filled and satisfied. Nowhere but in God can we find pasture and water for our soul.
"He maketh me to lie down in pastures of tender green grass: He leadeth me beside the waters of rest." (Psalm 23:2; Rev. Marg.) Just listen to the sound of that! "Tender green grass...waters of rest." There is the valley of the shadow of death, but there is also the pastures and the waters. Both are a fact in our lives. Anyone who tries to simplistically sum up existence with "Life is pain," or "Life is happiness," is selling you something. Life is far more complex than such "boy's philosophies," because God is more complex, and He is our life. Walking in intimate communion with Him will mean walking many times through the twilight of death and the dawn of life. To know Him, intimately know Him, means partaking in both "the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10, 11). Life with God is a life, with all the beauties and tragedies that come with it.

Oh, I want to know You more.
Deep within my soul, I want to know You.
And I would give my final breath,
To know You in Your death and resurrection.
Oh, I want to know You more...
(from Steve Green)
-Jon Vowell

Some Basics

"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come...He will come and save you.'" Isaiah 35:3, 4

The strength of the believer is the God in whom he or she trusts. I know that sounds basic, but it is the basics that we most often forget. Our strength and salvation is of the Lord, and nowhere else. Anything, no matter how practical, noble, logical, spiritual, or asinine, anything that distracts you from God is to your detriment.
You are not struggling to find a job in order to find a job; you are getting to know Him. You are not stressing over schoolwork just to stress over schoolwork; you are getting to know Him. You are not sick right now in order to find a cure; you are getting to know Him. Your marriage/relationship is not rocky right now so you can fix it; you are getting to know Him, and sometimes getting to know Him will involve finding the job, succeeding in the schoolwork, finding the cure, and fixing the relationship. Other times, however, it does not. The key is that those things do not become the thing that captures your full attention. Only God should arrest your gaze, only He is captivating, only He is your magnificent obsession. Everything else (when it becomes the thing) will drive you into the ditch.
The Lord knows we are easily distractable. The world is a noisy, attention getting (often ear-splitting) place. Learning to fully focus on God is all a part of living the life of faith. It will take strength, yes; but fortunately, you have the life of God living through you, and nothing is impossible anymore. As a learning experience, it does not matter if you get distracted (you will!), so long as you realize what's going on and refocus yourself. This realization comes when God gets your attention, and much His attention-getting hurts depends very much on your stubbornness to not realize what is happening. We may get so fixated on something other than Him that He must pry our fingers loose. Pry He will, however, and though it may hurt, it is for our good in the end.

"Death is God's delightful way of giving us life."
-Oswald Chambers

Lord, set me free
From all these things
That arrest my gaze.
Please captivate my soul...
-Jon Vowell

Life

"...the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing...they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." Isaiah 35:1, 2

The presence of God means many things. Several we've looked at before were truth and light. Now we add another one: Life.
"Our God is a consuming fire," i.e., ever growing, never static, over abundant energy. There is never a sterile monotony with God; there is always a flair, an exuberance, life. Deadness is the furthest thing from Christianity, and yet it is so often pictured as such. If we really believe in sacramental living, if we really believe that God Almighty now dwells in our bodies, deadness can never be a part of our reality. The true life of God is too much to contain. We often successfully bury it under stinking piles of legalistic to-do lists or sentimental fluff and trash, but even that cannot contain it. Death itself could not hold such life in the grave; and at the midnight hour, its song will disturb you out of sleep, and you will feel the ache of knowing that you are not truly living.
"The desert shall...blossom as the rose." Does that happen in our lives? Do those who are barren feel the irresistible presence of Life when you come around? Or do you have to hand them a tract before they realize you're a child of God? Most of evangelism (generally speaking, of course) is to take place before we even speak a word.
Please note that there is a difference between deadness and death. Death is (for the Christian) the gateway to life; through Christ's death we are saved, and through dying daily we release the Life of God in ourselves and to others. Deadness, however, is the continual absence of life. We are to recklessly embrace the former and utterly condemn the latter. The death that leads to life should be a hallmark of a Christian, but deadness should have absolutely no meaning to them.
If such living sounds like a high standard, it is one. However, it is a high standard because through Christ we have been given the Highest, i.e., the presence of power of God Almighty. Christ did not save us into keeping rules or being good; He saved us into God-likeness, and that is only possible if somehow, someway, everything that God is, we are.

Your Life is abundant.
Your Love is extravagant,
That You would give me
Your Love and Life...
-Jon Vowell

Incredible, but True

"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: 'Not one of these shall fail...for my mouth, it hath commanded, and His Spirit, it hath gathered [the beasts together; see vs. 11-15]'" Isaiah 34:16

The word of the Lord is paradoxically incredible and sure. It is so hard to take God at His word because it is such a matter of great faith when you get right down to it. Our practical common sense revolts against the promises of God: "Yes, Lord, that sounds all beautiful, but how will it put bread on the table, or pay the bills, or get me a job?" A modern mindset that demands "just the facts," coupled with an American drive for success through results, creates an agnostic Molotov cocktail in us all. God's promises light the fuse, and we blow with all the skepticism possible for a person.
Talk to anyone in a strong and growing relationship, and they will tell you that the fundamental thing to their relationship's success is the issue of trust. The same is with God, in Whom we have intimate communion in Christ. He does not ask that we grasp all that He is; He asks that we trust Him. If we trust Him, we will obey Him; and if we obey Him, we learn to know Him. God is known only in the dynamic of personal fellowship, not abstract syllogisms.
God promised that Edom would be desolate, and the habitation of every foul beast. It is incredible, but it is true. All God's promises come that way. For our relationship with Him to grow, they can come no other way.

Leaving my wits at their end,
I embrace the Mystery
And Security
That is Your Consuming Fire...
-Jon Vowell

The Absence of God

"...and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." Isaiah 34:11b

Edom is receiving the judgment of God, and the results are chaos and emptiness. Interestingly, in the original language (i.e., Hebrew), the words "confusion" and "emptiness" are the same words used in Genesis 1:2 for "without form and void." In Paradise Lost, John Milton had the outer darkness that surrounded creation ruled by "Chaos" and "Night." Absolute disorder and absolute nothingness are the direct result of the absence of God. Before "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," the earth was chaotic and empty. Could it be that Edom's judgment is to be ignored by God and left to the darkness and chaos of evil?
The absence of God is the presence of Hell, for Hell is the only place that God is not, the one place for those who reject Him could possibly go; and it is His absence that makes it Hell. It is no small thing to teach that Sin brings separation. To be separated from God means to be separated forever from the Source of all joy, love, hope, virtue, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, peace, order, justice, honor, kindness, light, knowledge, strength, grace, mercy, and all things "good and green in this world." To reject and be ultimately cut off from that which our heart truly desired, from that which we were created to be one with, is Hell indeed.
The choice between Heaven or Hell is really the choice between God or not-God. Heaven means nothing without Him, and Hell is what it is without Him. This includes our daily choices as well as the ultimate one. Every day, our choices unleash Heaven or Hell in ourselves and unto others. Will our choices today release the presence of God, or will we suck Him clear out of the room?

Heaven and hell lie in my hands;
To unleash or quench, my choice stands.
May Your Presence, like a Fire,
Burn within my soul, and unleash Heaven on earth...
-Jon Vowell

A Few More Things About God

"The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations...He hath delivered them to the slaughter...[He] hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of [Edom]...for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the [cause] of Israel." Isaiah 34:2, 6, 8

I believe this is what atheists call the "ugliness" of the Old Testament, i.e., the horrors of the genocidal wrath of God, a topic that we poor, deluded Christians try to ignore instead of deal with (unfortunately, there are Christians who ignore it). I do not plan on dealing with it, because despite our late twentieth century inherited squeamishness and wussy "let's just all get along" attitude, there is nothing in the Old Testament I have to deal with, as though it were detrimental to my faith. I will, however, attempt to answer the accusers as best I know how:

1. God is a person. He is not mere brain, a machine, a life force, or emotive energy diffused throughout the universe. He is a person, which means He can love and hate just like (and infinitely more than) any other person. He carries all the emotive capacities of personality. Where exactly do you think we, His creation, got the same capacities from? We are in His image, and our personality comes from Him. He is just as much (and much more) a person as we are. Why people get so hung up with the fact that God can be as (and more) passionate as any person can be is beyond my understanding.
2. God is holy. I cannot stress this enough: Sin must be dealt with. Those who choose Sin over God will be destroyed along with Sin. If His holiness offends you, then that's just too bad. You cannot expect fallen creatures to fully grasp or appreciate the holiness of a perfect God any more than you can expect an ignorant child to fully grasp or appreciate Dante's Divine Comedy in the original Latin; it is something beyond the scope of their comprehension. Just hear this: God is holy, and therefore He punishes Sin.
3. God is in love. God has a bride, folks. He has a chosen people who He has called away to His divine intimacy. That people get bumfuzzled at God's destroying His chosen people's enemies simply blows my mind. God is as chivalrous as any burning heart of passion and zeal can be. His actions are not an ounce less than what any man would do to someone who attacked, insulted, and dishonored his wife before his eyes.
4. God is love. God does not want people to be destroyed, He wants them to be a part of His chosen ones (II Peter 3:9). Christ proved God's love when He came to make us part of the bride (Romans 5:8). If anything, Christ is the ultimate answer to the "ugliness" of the Old Testament: God has made a way for us to escape the destruction of His and His people's enemies.

"Oh Love that moves the universe in Dance,
How can I describe the Indescribable
To those who want just the facts..."
-Jon Vowell

On Forgiveness

"...the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isaiah 33:24b

Added within the list of the restoration of Israel, next to the defeat of enemies and return to the land, is the promise of forgiveness, which may seem strange to some, but only because we have a shallow conception of forgiveness; we do not realize that it is the hope of us all. Whether we admit it or not, our souls pine for the forgiveness of Sin, for the reconciliation of our souls back to something that we have lost, something that is vital to our humanity. We do not see forgiveness is such a light. For us, forgiveness means to overlook sin, and on the human level, that is all we can do. However, on God's level, forgiveness can never be mere willful ignorance. God cannot overlook sin and remain holy. Sin must be dealt with, not overlooked. The forgiveness from God does not mean sin has been overlooked, but paid for on the cross, and it no longer applies to us in His eyes.
Forgiveness is not an illusion: we really do stand before God as though we've never sinned. To say that "God does not see us anymore but His Son," though fundamentally true (for we are "hidden in Christ"), is ultimately misleading. It makes it sound as though salvation means to somehow fool God, like it is a grand deception. Christ is not a smokescreen. Being "hidden" in Him does not equal being hidden from God; His "hiding" us means that all that He is, we are, which equals the removal of sin and the coming of God in us. Christ is our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30), and as God, He is the righteousness of God; our filthy rag righteousness is not hidden, it is replaced entirely by the righteousness of God in Christ. God's forgiveness means that His righteousness is now ours.
Forgiveness is the hope of every nation: that God will not judge us by who we are but by who Christ is. That is the hopes and fears of all the years: God offering us forgiveness in His nail-scarred hand, though we deserved it not.

"Forgive us our trespasses.
Forgive us our debts.
Forgive us all that we are.
Make us All that You Are..."
-Jon Vowell

A Few Things About God

"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us." Isaiah 33:22

There are a few things that are necessary to understand about God:

1. "Our lawgiver," i.e., the giver of morality. He says what is good and evil, right and wrong, holy and sinful. He lays down the rules; and because He lays them down, He is the only one who knows fully what is right and wrong. No one else can say anything against Him, and no one else can create any new morality (see C.S. Lewis' essay "On Ethics" for further study). To the old question, "Does God gives us morality because it is good, or does His giving it make it good?" I have only this to say: the morality God gives us is good because it is God's morality, and He is good. The question makes it look like morality is something separate from God. It is not; they are one and the same.
   
2. "Our judge," i.e., the interpreter of morality. Because it is His morality that He gives us, only He knows what it says and means, for they are His words and meanings. This is why eisegesis is so dangerous: any attempt to understand a biblical principle apart from the Spirit and within agenda driven mindsets is bound for disaster.
3. "Our king," i.e., the enforcer of morality. He gives us His morality, and just as that makes Him the only one who can properly say what it means, so also He is the only one who can properly enforce it. There is no "divine right of kings" here. God does not enforce it for some self-centered, tyrannical purpose. God is holy and good, and thus His morality is holy and good; therefore, us keeping it and Him enforcing it are all for our benefit and not detriment.
4. "He will save us," i.e., the source of salvation. I fear most people would skip this one due to grammatical biases in sermon notes. However, it is vital to a full understanding of God. It is interesting to note that the morality God gives us, the "law" He gives to us, cannot save us; only He can. God is the Savior (Isaiah 49:26; Jude 25), not the law. As fallen people, the law cannot save us, it can only condemn us (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10, 11), and through condemnation, point us to salvation, i.e., God through Christ (Galatians 3:23, 24).

It only makes sense that because God gave us the law, He is the only person who can properly keep it (as well as properly interpret and enforce it). That makes Him our savior, not the law. The law cannot make us keep itself; it can only tell us that we fail to keep it. God, however, can make us keep the law by giving us His nature through the sacrifice of Christ. When God's Spirit tabernacles within us, when His disposition has replaced our own, when can keep His morality, because it is Him keeping it through us.

"What this world needs
Is not to do good.
What this world needs
Is to be Good.
God above, invade our souls..."
-Jon Vowell

Wall of Separation

"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty..." Isaiah 33:17a

There is a sense of separation in our humanity that gnaws at our very souls. We cannot explain it. Some say we are merely separated from each other and need to form strong friendships and bonds. Some say we are merely separated from our inner self and need to self-actualize, or "find yourself". Some say it is because we are separated from the universe and that technology must increase so that we can return to the bosom from which we accidentally sprang forth. Whatever we say, we all agree that we are missing something, something terribly necessary to our humanity; we feel as though we have lost something irreplaceable.
The separation caused by Sin is not stressed enough this day. We hear a great deal about badness and guilt, but very little about separation, and separation touches a deeper chord of our humanity than guilt ever could. Preach to people guilt by sin, and they will scorn your gospel. Preach to the people separation by sin, and you will capture their attention. As Christians, we hold the secret to the great ache of humanity (i.e., the Fall), and the great healing (i.e., the Redemption). Why do we distract people with side eddys?
"We have peace with God," i.e., the end of separation; that is what Christ did for us (Romans 5:1). The triumph of the cross was the overturning of separation with reconciliation, of death with life, of Sin with Holiness. "Thine eyes shall see the King," the wall of separation is broken down. The cross has ground it into dust.

"The void inside
Eats me like a cancer.
Fill this absence
With Your Presence..."
-Jon Vowell

The Firstborn

"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly...he shall dwell on high..." Isaiah 33:14-16

From the burning bush of Moses, to the pillar of fire in the wilderness, to the burning presence on Mt. Sinai, redeemed Israel knew one thing for certain: "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29) Fast forward around a thousand years: Israel is once again threatened by a terrible foe (i.e., Assyria). What is worse, Israel's sin has incurred the wrath of her Lord, and His burning presence is coming to wreck havoc on the land. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" they rightly ask. Then comes their answer, "The righteous."
The presence of God is all consuming perfection. No imperfections will last even a second in His blaze. Sin (the absolute absence of perfection) will be instantaneously obliterated, not necessarily because of what God does as much as who God is. God is holiness and perfection; anything less than that will not survive His presence. Outer darkness is the only place Sin can survive. In short, only perfection can stand before perfection; only God can stand before God.
If such a statement does not create despair in you, than you must not be awake. Mankind may act charitable sometimes (to ease their guilt, and only if they get something in return, of course), and may act moral on occasion (in order to keep out of trouble and not ruin future enterprises); but all in all, human history cries vehemently in rebuttal to any claim of human perfection or perfectness. There are some fools who claim humanity can reach perfection with time as our intelligence grows. Look at the last century: our grown intelligence only helped us kill ourselves in more brutal and effective ways than ever before; and that fact lingers to this day. Nothing, absolutely nothing, we have ever or will ever do can create the inner disposition of perfection needed to stand before Perfection Himself.
If only God can stand before God, then our only hope is if somehow, someway God can be within us. Not placed within us (like a transplanted organ), and not in us merely as power so that we become a god; but that the Spirit of God somehow intimately mingles and mixes with us, somehow His Spirit unites and communes with ours. In short, our only hope is incarnation, and Christ is the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

"Spirit of the Living God,
Mingle with my dust,
Dance within my frame,
And make us One..."
-Jon Vowell

The Fear of the Lord

"...the fear of the Lord is [thy] treasure..." Isaiah 33:6b

The "fear" here is not merely that of the terrifying to the terrified as it is the superior to the inferior. You fear the judge or police officer, not because they are immediately evil or out to harm you, but because you know that on legal grounds they are superior to you. You fear a certain professor because you know that on intellectual grounds he or she is superior to you. As a child, you feared your parents because they seemed superior to you on all grounds. This fear is not mere dread alone; it has with it a sense of awe or wonder. You feel like a peasant coming before a king: you know you are in the presence of greatness.
The same is with God. We fear Him, not because He is evil, but because He is great. He is "high and lifted up," transcended above us on all levels (see esp. Isaiah 55:8, 9; Romans 11:33-36). His greatness does create dread because He is beyond our ability to manipulate or control. We step into His presence and immediately recognize that He is Lord and we are not. The fear of the Lord is, ultimately, an act of submission: you do not fear what you do not recognize as greater than you.
This fear, this submission, is a "treasure" to us. Proverbs seems to stress such wisdom (see esp. Proverbs 1:7, 10:27, 14:26, 15:16, 19:23). There is something in this act of submission that is beneficial to us. Perhaps we should not be surprised. When an authority is good (in every sense) and out for our good (in every sense), we know that submission to them is what is best, even if we do not understand all that is going on (I speak hypothetically, of course; no human government has or ever will reach such an ideal state).
Now, through God's word we know that He is our authority (Isaiah 33:22; Acts 17:24), He is good (Psalm 34:8, 106:1, 136:1), and He is out for our good (Jeremiah 29:11; Roman 8:28). It only logically follows that submission to Him is beneficial to us; for if God is above us and sees far more then we can what really is going on, any defense on our part is a detriment to us, not so much because God smites us as much as we fall head-over-heels into the ditch He was trying to get us to avoid.

"When by my strength I stand
I trip over my own feet.
Carry me,
Lest I fall forever..."
-Jon Vowell

The Only Child

"Woe to thee that spoilest...and dealest treacherously...When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee." Isaiah 33:1

The law of retribution has not changed; "an eye for an eye" still stands. Though Jesus clarified the issue on the willful level (Matthew 5:38-42), He did not say anything about the consequential level. Your actions still have consequences; your choices can still lead only to life or death. (Deuteronomy 30:19).
"The wages of sin is death," and that principle does not change because you are born again. Though you are free from the final end of sin, and though Christ's blood washes us clean from sin continually, we are not free from the consequences. Sin breeds death. Get it through your head: sin breeds death. There is no other thing that it breeds, no other result that its equation can produce. Whether you are saved or not, on this issue, is irrelevant; the consequences of sin have not changed, and our choices still release either life or death into the world.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," and though you are forgiven forever in the eyes of God, you can never escape this principle of the universe: evil can only come of evil, good can only come of good. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, but know what you're getting into. Sin only breeds death; it has no other children.

"Death is an only child.
Sin has no other sires
No other heir,
No other inheritance
To offer the sons of men..."
-Jon Vowell

Righteousness and Peace

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace..." Isaiah 32:17

To be "righteous" means to be "in the right," so to speak. Now, the "right" here is not speaking of legal grounds, as when four people pull up to a stop sign and wonder who has the "right" of way. "Right" in the sense of "righteous" is speaking of moral grounds. Moral and legal are not the same thing; something can be legal and yet be immoral (e.g., abortion). To be "righteous" means to be standing in accordance with what is moral; or, to be more redundant, to b e"righteous" means to be in the state of righteousness.
Now, Christ is not only revealed as our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30), but also as "Melchisedec," which is translated two ways: "King of Righteousness," and "King of Peace" (Hebrews 7:2). Taken in the light of Isaiah 32:17, these two translations make perfect sense: righteousness and peace are inseparable--you can hardly have one without the other.
This connection is vital in our understanding of salvation: if Christ has been made our righteousness (not that He gave it, but that He is it), that that means we have some kind of peace as well. What kind of peace, you ask? Peace with God (Romans 5:1).
This peace is vital to our salvation. In "The Weight of Glory," Lewis spoke of an innate need we have as humans to feel right with our Maker, to know that we are approved in His eyes. Thanks to sin, we can never be approved on our own. Christ came and became the righteousness we needed in order to be approved, and now we can have peace with God.

"My Soul longs to be
All my Maker made it to be.
Through Christ, all that God is,
I Am. I am approved,
For He Himself is my approval,
The Only Approval..."
-Jon Vowell

The Presence of Christ

"Behold, a King shall reign...[and He] shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Isaiah 32:1, 2

In the immediate and literal sense, these verses speak of the Messiah's final coming and victory over all His people's enemies. Christ, however, is all these things regardless if they have been actualized in a literal sense or not. Even this day, Christ is our shelter from the howling and storming noise and lies of the enemy and the world. He is the sustenance and strength of our souls. These things are just as much realities today as they will be one day when the whole world recognizes them.
Also inherit in Christ's presence is this: that which is right is kept right (vs. 3) and that which is wrong shall be exposed as wrong and set right (vs. 4-8). In short, the presence of Christ is the presence of truth. There is no more confusion or deception; no more calling evil good and good evil. One day the whole world will be affect by such a thing; but as for today, we who have the life of Christ within us live in the reality of truth. We cannot escape it. We may try and bury it under heaps of lies and excuses, but we cannot escape the living truth that burns within us. Besides, it is apart of our life to let that living truth shine forth, not hide it under a bushel basket.

"All that You will be,
Is all that You are now;
And all that You are now,
Is all that You've made me.
Let that Light so shine..."
-Jon Vowell

The Eternal Bond

"As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem...'Return ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted'...saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." Isaiah 31:5-9

The tenderness and intimacy of God with His people (even in their rebellion) is a precious thing.
"As birds flying," i.e., as a bird defends her nest. God will not defend Jerusalem as some pagan deity defending his worshipers and servants so that he can continue to be praised and lauded. He goes much deeper than that. God will defend His people as a mother bird defends her nest full of her babies, viz., with passion and maternal fervor.
"...the children of Israel have deeply revolted," but they are still "the children." They have not been disowned, they have not been rejected by God. Despite their rebellion, He will still defend them, and still lets them return.
"...whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." The image here is that God's oven is in Jerusalem, i.e., His dwelling place, His home. Jerusalem, despite her rebellion, is still the place where God dwells. Jerusalem is still His own, and He is theirs, and He will defend them.
When through Christ you become the children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), you are locked into that same intimate, eternal bond. Psalm 139 and Romans 8:31-39 are yours forever. Once your are God's, you are God's. Nothing, neither rebellion or tribulation, can separate you from the eternal bond paid for by the blood of Christ.

In Your Presence
There is no escaping
Your Terrifying, Irresistible Love.
Even if I found the way out
I have Tasted Eden
And can never turn back..."
-Jon Vowell

Curve Balls II: The Fearless Lion

"For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, 'Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof." Isaiah 31:4

The purpose of a shepherd, besides leading the flock, was to protect the flock by driving away all things that could cause harm, which included lions. A shepherd is supposed to be used against a lion. It's not a good idea, it's the only idea. There is nothing else you're supposed to do. Here we learn that Israel's enemies will not merely send their best against them, but what is supposed to work. God, however, will make what is supposed to work null and void. He will come at them as something that should be easily crushed, but he will be doing the crushing.
Read again I Corinthians 1:18-31. That passage applies to all of God's dealings in this world, including with you. Remember: His favorite pitch is a curve ball. Your best laid plans are meaningless to Him. He will hit you with what you did not expect, where you did not expect. Your wishes, wants, desires, dreams, preferences, opinions, and plans may be noble, logical, practical, and very spiritual, i.e., they may be what is supposed to work, what is supposed to be approved of by God. However, if they are not from Him and do not lead you back to Him, He will smash them to the ground for your own good. Anything that does not come from or lead you to Him is to your detriment.

"Let all the dreams
That abide in me
Lead me to the Reality
That abides in You,
Or else let them fall to the ground..."
-Jon Vowell

A Bit of Christian Mythos: Mythical Eyes

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots...but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord...The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit..." Isaiah 31:1, 3

We are called to "walk by faith," i.e., walk in the constant acknowledgment of a higher reality. It made practical common sense to seek an alliance with a fellow nation; but God does not call His people to mere common sense, He has called us to the supernatural, the unseen, to Himself. We cannot seem to imagine going forward without a security net that we can see, handle, and control; God says we must. Our only hope is Him, and we cannot control or predict Him, and that frightens us.
"Man looketh on the outward...but the Lord looketh on the heart." (I Samuel 16:7) Humans, because of the Fall, can only properly and naturally grasp the physical reality. God exists where he can see and grasp all; and if we are His children, filled with His Spirit, we can and should do the same. It is the basis for "mythical eyes"--to see the magic of God's presence in all things, to really see an angel behind every bush and a demon within every shadow. Unless you see the world with mythical eyes, you will never truly see the world, and you will never truly know how to walk through it. May God open our eyes.

"This life is only an Echo
Of the Deeper Life to come.
This ache is born of Your Spirit in our hearts
Pressing us onward
Till the Shadowlands are done..."
-Jon Vowell

The Weapon of God

"Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from afar, burning with His anger...His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire: and His breath as an overflowing stream...The Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard...for through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down..." Isaiah 30:27-31

The image we get here is of a "pulling in". We start with "the name," the spoken word itself. Then we pull back to "His lips," that which speaks the word. Next we pull back to "His tongue," that which forms the words the lips speak. Finally, we reach "His breath," that which makes the whole speaking process possible. Put all these elements together, and you get "the voice," God's primary weapon. Like taking a deep breath, the imagery "pulls in," until the voice is released like the unsheathing of a sword.
In Psalm 46, the enemies of God's children are defeated by His voice: "Be still, and know that I am God." (vs. 10) He spoke, and the earth melted (vs. 6). Come and see the desolations He has made (vs. 8).
In Revelation 19, we find that the primary weapon of Christ when He returns is a sword "out of His mouth." (vs. 15) The imagery is consistent again: His voice is His weapon.
This makes perfect sense: the Creator, through which and by which all things exist, need only speak and the battle is over. The same voice that made the world (see Genesis 1; "and God said, 'Let there be...'") is the same voice that can unmake it. God's power comes forth in the words of His voice. By contrast, Satan's comes only from the noise of His emptiness.

"May Your Voice guide me
Through the noise of this world
Ever onward, ever Upward
To You..."
-Jon Vowell

"You can't make an omlette..."

"And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction...thine eyes shall see...and thine ears shall hear...Ye shall defile also the covering of the graven images...thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth; thous shalt say unto it, Get thee hence." Isaiah 30:20-22

Nothing removes smokescreens quite like desolation. All illusions cease, all false and naive hopes are gone, all foolish self-confidence falls away; all that remains is the shattered, quivering self in the midst of the fire quite conscious that it is in fire, for it can feel the heat on all sides.
This is one of many claims Christianity asserts that people resent: clarity never comes until the breakdown, understanding never arrives until after the collapse of our self-will and self-assertion, we do not truly see and hear and walk the right way until after we have tasted the bread and water of desolation. Of course, we would much rather do without desolation, but it is that which drives us towards wholly and solely trusting in God. Without desolation, no matter what we tell ourselves, we will always try to do things ourselves. Before we can truly stand in His strength, we have to have our legs knocked out from underneath us.
"You might as well come quietly," said Lewis once, and it is sound advice. The desolation hurts horribly only when we fight against it. If we surrender without a struggle (such a hard thing!), we find that we have fallen right into the arms of God, and His glory is ready to shine through us.

"I was but dust
Until You Breathed in me.
I am still dust
Unless You Breath in me.
Raise this dust to Heaven..."
-Jon Vowell

Bread and Water

"And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed...but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it..." Isaiah 30:20, 21

We are such wimps as Christians these days. All the creature comforts of American suburbia has completely washed out the rock-solid ruggedness of the Son of God. He gave His back to the scorners to be bruised and broken; we won't even mention Christ to the mailman. He took His bitter cup and drank it; we run into our convenient Lexus cages at the mere sight of the bread and water of God.
That's another thing we miss: adversity and affliction are our bread and water, i.e., our nourishment. This is the working out of the idea "God's strength in our weakness" (see II Corinthians 12:7-10). Adversity and affliction are to make us crumble onto the hardy bedrock of God Almighty so that He might build us up with His strength. The troubles of this life are our nourishment: they make us stronger. We do not seek them, but we do not reject them when God brings them to us.
"...thine eyes shall see...thine ears shall hear..." Our life is not completely bound up in trouble. Some days we take the bread and water of troubles. Others we take the bread and wine of His Presence. One day we will feast on milk and honey. All these, however, are nourishment indeed for our souls, and we should accept them with thankful hearts.

"Build up this Limp Jellyfish
On the Bedrock of Your Presence.
May I fear no more..."
-Jon Vowell

Where are You Going?

"And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him." Isaiah 30:18

It is the waiting that we cannot stand; if anything, we want it now, dad gum it! As Mr. Chambers put it, this is where we so often fail: God is never in a hurry, but we are always in such a frightful hurry. This opportunity must come now! This door must open now! This soul must be saved now! This ministry must take off now! Like Martha, we are rushing about trying to get things done while our Lord stares in wonder at what all the fuss is about.
Noah preached a hundred and twenty years before the flood finally came, and he saw no converts. Abraham was one-hundred years old before the promised child came, and died without ever seeing the Promised Land. Moses spent forty years tending sheep before returning to deliver Israel, and spent forty more years wandering the wilderness before he ever saw the Promised Land. Israel itself spent seventy years in exile, and it was two-thousand years before it became a nation again. Jesus' own disciples had to wait three years before they understood who He truly was, and the Church had to wait for the Spirit. "Blessed are all they that wait for God."
We have too many "blasts of hurry." God is not a microwave burrito: His purposes are fulfilled in His time, not ours.

"The Faster I go, I find
I am only Running from You
Who are always at Ease and Peace.
Keep me close to Your Bleeding Side..."
-Jon Vowell

Whence Comes Strength II: The Ownership of Weakness

"For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not." Isaiah 30:15

It is standard Christian teaching that God's strength comes in our weakness (II Corinthians 12:7-10). To rest in confidence of another is surely weakness in the individualistic, self-assertive eyes of the world. American individualistic autonomy, a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" and "be who you want to be" mentality, has crippled the Western Church. True, such thinking produces strong, self-reliant people; but such strength is merely carnal--not evil, just human. There is a strength that transcends human strength, and those who are strong can never know it. It belongs to those who own their weakness, who have no delusions about their own inability and helplessness.
"And ye would not." How much breaking does God have to do in our lives before we own our weakness? It is not a matter of making us weak, but rather getting us to realize that we are weak. It is not an issue of becoming into something as much as waking to reality. God is not trying to make strong people into limp jellyfish. He is trying to make weak people strong, but He has to snap them into the reality that they are weak and need His strength. There are no strong people; we are all weak and helpless outside of God. This is a fact we must own before God's strength comes to us.
We must surrender the pride that makes us think we stand whilst we lie in the dust. God will pick us up only after we admit we have fallen.

"How can I Think I Stand
When I am of the Dust?
Only Heaven can Stand,
And Heaven must Raise me Up..."
-Jon Vowell

The Face of Modern Christendom

"[These people] say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." Isaiah 30:10, 11

There is a generation that hates the presence of the truth.
This generation demands that only one bible version be true and all other damned, and that demands that all versions are true save one. This generation crams tradition down people's throats, and wants to cast tradition into hell fire and be forgotten. This generation believes agreeing with their opinion, creed, doctrine, or denomination is just as important as being a Christian, and that demands all opinions be relevant at the same time. This generation demands that you follow the rules, and demands that you respect their rights. This is a generation that does not want to hear the truth, but only what can bolster their opinions.
This generation is called Modern Christendom.
It affects all kinds of Christians: conservative and liberal, denominational and independent, Catholic and Protestant, orthodox and otherwise. It is Satan's oldest trick: make us want what we want over what God says, and (as an added bonus) make what we want sound like it is what God says. This is the single greatest threat to the Church (esp. in the West). God is very clear on what will come of such nonsense: we will be broken (vs. 13, 14), which is the only way God can put us back together again.

"Cut through these chains that tie me down
To so many lesser things
Let all my dreams fall to the ground
Until only You remain..."
-Steven Curtis Chapman

For the Record

For my own cognitive benefit (as well as the benefit of the curious), I have decided to put down the essential beliefs that I hold to. There are many details that could be added, but that is what all my other posts are for. Here, let the essentials be stated.
To put it simply, I follow after the five "Solas," which are as follows:

1. Sola Scriptura: "Scripture alone," i.e., the Bible is my ultimate authority.
2. Sola Christus: "Christ alone," i.e., the redemption of Christ is the only salvation.
3. Sola Gratius: "Grace alone," i.e., salvation is by the grace of God, not human merit.
4. Sola Fide: "Faith alone," i.e., this grace is received through faith, not human work.
5. Sola Deo Gloria: "Glory of God alone," i.e., all things are to be done for God's glory and reflect God's glory.

A nice article that further expounds the "Solas" can be found here.

The Primacy of Being

"The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [no man can read]. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth...but have removed their heart far from me...therefore...the wisdom of their wise men shall perish..." Isaiah 29:11-14

Here we see marked the sharp (and yet constantly muddled) contrast between being and doing. The Israelites were doing much: they kept (quite religiously) the outward ceremony, pomp and circumstance of their belief system. God, however, was not satisfied. All of their ceremony was asinine; it was all mindless subterfuge that distracted them from what was real and true, i.e., intimate communion with God. They had done many things, but they had left their first love (c.f. Revelation 2:2-4). It is the reverse of James chapter two: their works were plenteous, but their faith was dead. Consequently, their dead faith produced dead works: "Let them kill sacrifices." (Is. 29:1) You can almost feel the sarcasm.

The error Israel committed was a confusion between the primacy of being to doing. The Israelites got it backwards: they thought all of their doing would bring about their being God's chosen people, i.e., who they are was produced by what they do. This is incorrect; the reverse is the truth: your being brings about your doing, i.e., who you are produces what you do. The Israelites had to be God's chosen people before they could truly do like ones, and such being comes about by "hearts drawn near to God," by intimate communion and relationship with God.

This same confusion afflicts the Church today. We have people all across traditional and denominational lines who are still trying to put the cart before the horse. We know that we are to be "Christ-like," but we have the bizarre notion that that being will come from our doing. Such a confusion hits both legalism and liberalism: either you become like Christ by following the rules, or by saving the world through activism. Both ideologies are ultimately about doing. Unfortunately, both ideologies' goals (keep the rules, save the world) are beyond our abilities. Only Christ did both perfectly, so obviously we need to be like Him before we can do like Him.

Christ was who He was because He was one with the Father, and that union is what He desires for us (John 17:3, 20-23). We will get nowhere and be nothing without that intimate communion and relationship with God. All of our doing, regardless of how pious or noble, is all so much sanctimonious hubris, ultimately ranking as our own righteousness, which is filthy rags.

So many ministries, sermons, books on Christian living and life, churches, Christian schools, institutions, organizations, coalitions, programs and services are based solely on this error, i.e., what you do produces what you should be. Very few anymore stress the vital importance of the primacy of being, of the primary role of the intimate communion and relationship with God in Christ. Many churches, ministries, etc., are now dead in the water or spiritual wastelands because they left off knowing God for trying to serve Him.

"Without You

My works are Nothing;

Without You

I am Undone.

Without You

I am still Nothing

Without You

I am still just me..."

-Jon Vowell

A Bit of Christian Mythos III: Awakening

"And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel...shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty..." Isaiah 29:7, 8

Our enemy's victories are temporal and corporeal. "The body they may kill; God's truth abideth still." They may take and destroy cities and capture and kill bodies, but they are only touching that which is fleeting, that which is of the Shadowlands, that which is of the Dream World. When all awake to the light of God's day, the enemy will find their victories and accomplishments hollow. Only that which was of God lasted to the break of day.

The world and its troubles seem all too real to us. The enemy loves to distract us with its sensuous reality. The truth is that there is something higher, greater, and more real than this world, a Reality above reality, and that Reality is God. If we belong to Him, then we belong to the stuff that lasts. When we awaken from the dream and this present world is consumed into and made anew by the light of God's presence, we will be amazed that what we took as real, what we thought mattered, was only shadows that fade before the rising Sun.

The world is not an illusion: it is there and it is real, and the pain and troubles are real. The point is that this world is not all that is there or real. God's unveiled presence will one day transform the dream into reality. Until then, we take His reality to the dream.

"We are Minds Awake

In a World of Sleepers.

May the Light of the Son

Awaken the Sleepers

To the Dawn..."

-Jon Vowell

Desolation and Glory III: Changed into His Image

"Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto me as Ariel [once more]." Isaiah 29:2

Before Jerusalem can be the "Lion of God" once more, it must go through heaviness and sorrow. There is no escaping this fact: there are no crops unless the seed dies, no remission of sins without the shedding of blood, no change without pain, no glory without desolation. If we would be everything God wants us to be, it will mean the death of everything that is not of Him. That process will mean pain and sorrow and heaviness, but its fruits are joy and peace and all the evidences of God's Spirit.

At salvation, the old man died and is no more; the inner man is now Christ (Galatians 2:20). The battle line is drawn between the life of God within you and your dead body without (Romans 8:1-11). All the old habits and thought processes formed by those habits will have to go, and that means death and pain. To be formed into the image of Christ means a shattering of the old image of man.

We do not take seriously our prayers to be "like Christ." To be "like Christ" means to pray the prayer that Paul prayed (Philippians 3:10). Are we ready for that kind of likeness? Are we ready for the total wounding to annihilation of our pride? A total collapse of our self-reliance? A total loss of our control over our circumstances? Are you ready for desolation? Are you really ready for glory? It will mean walking through the valley of the shadow of death first.

"What Pains You bring me through,

I am in Fellowship with Christ.

Through the Fires I come forth

Purer than Gold..."

-Jon Vowell

The Thread of Grace

"Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground?..For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Isaiah 28:24, 26

The plowman is instructed by God on how to till the earth: when and where to plant, how to properly till the ground, and what to use to thresh with what. All this is very interesting because the need to till the earth is a result of the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19a). What we see here is God's grace providing mercy in the pain: when the ground is cursed for our sin, He comes in and shows us how to survive.

It could be said that people today cannot see the ark for the flood. God does not abandon us in the pain and the trial and the judgment; His grace is always there. There is no fall so great that God's grace does not touch it with mercy somehow. Even Hell, in all its terror and darkness, is paradoxically tinged with mercy: God saw fit to quarantine those souls who ultimately reject Him to a place set with limits and boundaries, so that they cannot affect and infect anyone on the outside, nor can their sin totally consume them into oblivion. It is the last mercy His grace can do for a soul that will let Him do no more for them.

"The bread corn is bruised..." (Isaiah 28:28a) When man fell, God promised a "bruising" (Genesis 3:15). The Son of God was promised in the garden, and He was the bread bruised for us. In Christ we find that all that God is and says is proven true, including that He is full of grace and mercy. Christ is the ultimate testament to the thread of grace in our existence, woven throughout the entire tapestry of our lives. We hardly notice it: we seem naturally geared to focus solely on what is wrong and frustrating, and totally ignore the moments of grace around us.

In Diary of a Country Priest, the priest's final words before he dies are, "Grace is everywhere." This is a truth we too often miss. At the Fall, God was there; in the flood, God was there; throughout the lives of the patriarchs, God was there; in Egypt and through the wilderness, God was there; through promised land and exile, God was there; from empire to empire, God was there; through trial and tribulation, God is there; through the joy and the sorrow, God is there. It we would only step back and try to take even one tenth of the energy we waste when we worry and become frustrated to focus on the thread of grace woven through our lives, we would be astonished at such doctrine: Why, God was there all along, though I knew Him not! We could truly say with the Psalmist that neither heaven or hell are proper hiding places from Him, and be convinced with Paul that there is nothing that could separate us from the love of God.

How do we ultimately know that God is gracious? Because: Christ died. Jesus is the first letter and final punctuation point in the testimony of who God is. Christ is concrete proof that God is active and enmeshed in our lives, that His grace reaches to the uttermost; for He, being God, made Himself nothing, and condescended to our depths to reach us (Philippians 2:5-7). Christ is that true yet abstract thread of grace bursting through into concrete reality, so that for all time we will know, there is a God in Israel, and He is intimate in our lives.

The Fall brought the need for a plowman, so God filled the need. It also separated us from God, and He bridged that gulf. There is no escaping His grace; it is an inescapable rhythm behind the noise of the world. Even in Hell, though you never will nor can know its presence, you are still wrapped up in its web. When the gray rain curtain of this world is rolled back, and all is seen in the light of God's presence, we will be astounded at the tapestry He has woven, and we will cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!" Amen.

"From the Heights of Heaven,

To the Depths of Hell;

To the Uttermost,

Your Grace touches All..."

-Jon Vowell

What Fills You?

"Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves..." Isaiah 28:15

What nonsense is this? A bodyguard of lies? You might as well hid under air.

What are lies and falsehoods? They are nothings: they say that which is not. They are hollow, empty, devoid of substance. Such a shield is not chaff before the fire; it is nothingness before the fire. Lies are non-entities; what kind of refuge can they be? Falsehoods say only that which is not; what kind of hiding place could they be? Trusting your salvation to lies and falsehoods is the height of foolishness.

Perhaps it is even more foolish to make pacts with death and hell. What is death? A negation: the body separated from the soul, and the soul separated from God. What agreements can it keep? Now, what is hell? The void, the darkness outside. It is the holding pin of all that is not: all that is not of God is nothingness, evil is the absence of God, the absence of that which is ultimately True and Real. What security is there in a bottomless pit? Also, if by "hell" you mean the "grave," you are no better off, for the grave holds nothing but hollow shells of the absence of life.

What is God's response to all this foolishness? "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone...a sure foundation." (Isaiah 28:16) Literally rock solid foundation, pure substance beneath your feet; for how do you crush that which is hollow and empty? You fill it with substance. "[Justice] also will I [make the measuring line], and righteousness to [be] the [plumb line]..." (vs. 17a) He is measuring His man, so to speak; you do not measure something unless you plan to fill it. "[The] hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies," it will pile all around and on top of you, "and the waters shall overflow the hiding place," it will fill your empty cup until you spill out with the excess. Using lies, death and hell as a defense against God's judgment is about as smart as jumping in a pit to stay safe from a flood.

Our ironclad pact with death and hell was done away with by Christ at the cross. When He passed through death's gate and into her bosom, the hollow void of her womb was suddenly substanced with He that is the Life and Light of all mankind (John 1:4), true abiding Presence. Christ filled the void, and it was defeated. He stepped into the vacancy that was death and the grave, and claimed it as His own (Revelation 1:18), filing it with His life. Now those who trust in Him pass through death into His new life, both at salvation and physical death. You can either embrace the void, or be swept up into His substance. One means damnation, forever swallowed up into emptiness; the other means salvation, forever filled with His love. Choose wisely what you fill yourself with.

"Substance and Void,

Reality or Illusion,

Life and Death,

Heaven or Hell:

These are the Choices

You lay at My Feet..."

-Jon Vowell

The Paradox of Salvation

"...they would not hear. [Therefore] the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backwards, and be broken, and snared, and taken." Isaiah 28:12b, 13

The people of Israel would not learn as children would learn, they would not step down to the level of child-likeness necessary for trusting God. Therefore the very instruction that would save them is the very stumbling block that will destroy them. You cannot escape God's ways: you either accept them unto life or reject them unto death.

This is the paradox of salvation: Christ is simultaneously the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and the scandalon on which many will be broken and crushed. He is simultaneously the source of man's salvation and damnation (John 3:16-19). It all depends on what a man "does" with Christ: accepts or rejects, comes with or goes against, swept up or left behind. It is man's choice whether he is damned or saved, but those are his only to choices, and Christ is the center of the whole issue.

We have the bizarre assumption that God's ways can be rejected and they become indifferent to us. They are not (especially if you are His child); they will haunt you again someday, revealed as the adversary of the path you took. Truly if you are not with God, then you are against Him (James 4:4; c.f. Luke 9:50). That which can save your soul will damn it if you choose to reject it. Our decisions decide our destines: if we choose Christ as our salvation, then we are saved. If we choose to make Christ of no account, then we are damned already.

No Grown-ups Allowed

"Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; Here a little, and there a little..." Isaiah 28:9, 10

All those who knew better to lead Israel have all fallen away (vs. 7). Who now will God choose to be the keepers of His wisdom and truth? The children will, and they will be correctly taught, being instructed in in the basics step by step, precept upon precept, line upon line. The elders have failed. The only ones left that have the child-like faith necessary to trust God are the children themselves. Children will lead the nation to God.
Chesterton (in Orthodoxy) said that God is "eternal infancy," i.e., devoid of vice, full of endless life and vitality, limitless in energy, and seeing and filling the world with awe and wonder. We, however, have sinned and grown old: vice is our drinking partner, we are dead in transgressions and sins, we are tired and bored with all things, and have scrupulously sucked all the numinous wonder and awe out of everything. We have lost our childhood, and God came to give it back.
"Except...[ye] become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3) Let us not err as Nicodemus did and marvel that we must be "born again." Jesus said becoming a child meant to be "converted," and conversion means a change from one thing into another: we are changed from dying old age to eternal youth. God puts His eternal infancy into us, and suddenly all things have become new. There is an underlying wellspring of joy that brings life and vitality to our once ancient souls, and the world is suddenly a wonder-filled, awe-inspiring place full of demons and dragons, angels and magic, snares and traps, falls and rescues. The life within us reveals the life around us. When we were dead, all else seemed dead as well. Only the eyes of a child can see a fairy behind every leaf, and a troll under every bridge.
This is the great source of power in us: the eternal childhood of the life of God. How often we miss it! This fallen world continues to seek to age us, and we let it! We forget to dance with our Father God in fields of eternal youth and wonder; we turn our faith into a religion: keeping creeds and rules, doing work and service to gain favor, fulfilling our obligations out of duty. Consequently, we tire out, because we are becoming old again, and the life of God is told to sit in the corner and be quiet.
"...and a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6b) The kingdom of God belongs to the children; no grown-ups allowed. The gates of heaven are barred against those who are sick with age and full of their own conceits. Such antiquity would fade as chaff before the fire in the presence of all-consuming youth. The elders have fallen; the children lead now. They are the banner carriers of the redeemed of Zion.
It is the child that can live by faith, the child that can simply trust and obey. The Christian faith is the faith of a child. It is the restoration of the one thing we truly miss as we age: our childhood. May God keep us as children in this old world.

"The simplicity and peace and joy
Of Childhood
You restore to Me.
You make all things New,
All things Reborn in You..."
-Jon Vowell