"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.