Jesu Juva

ATTENTION: Check out the NEW Blog!

2010-05-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to quit dividing my efforts between three different blogs and instead merge them into one. I hope you enjoy:

http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/

-Jon Vowell

Dispatches from the Asylum

2009-12-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

"For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." I Timothy 4:10

Lewis once called the world "enemy occupied territory." Such a term greatly resonated with his then World War II weary audience. Perhaps a term for the world that would greatly resonate with our current generation is an asylum, and the inmates are running it. The mind of the majority of mankind is gripped in the dumbing and numbing dark of the Devil; their eyes are blind and their hearts veiled. They are the ones bound in the cave, making substance out of shadows, and those of us who try to tell them of the sun will suffer shame and pain; but tell them we must.

It would help our efforts if we remembered this insanity afflicted upon men by the god of this world. They are indeed the blind men groping at the elephant, mistaking its parts for various wholes. The Man of Galilee has not yet put the mud to their eyes that, when once washed off, allows them to see the elephant in the room. To them, God is indeed trapped in an impenetrable black box: His presence, purpose, and nature are unknown and unknowable. They have not grasped (or do not wish to grasp) the knowledge of His communication and visitation amongst us, that He is there and He is not silent. We who have heard him are not the special keepers of secret knowledge. We are merely the men and women who once were blind, but now we see; we were mad, but now we are sane. All we want is to spread the sanity around.

The Two Fates

2009-11-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

"That ye may be blameless and pure, the sons of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world [alt: as stars in the universe]." Philippians 2:15

We are stars shed from the blood of the sun, the sparks of a greater flame that is infinite and glorious, sending us flying upward into the pitch black sky of night. We are in constant rebellion against the dark: we will not conform to its shades and secret sins. Like a new caretaker purchases a rotting old building and begins by replacing a bulb in a dark alleyway: the roaches flee and the caretaker begins his repairs. So we too, having been purchased by God through His blood and pain and having our old deformities set right, we shine in the dark places as our master sets to fix the whole.

God did not call people to merely escape from Hell; He has called us to bear the fruits of His fire. Read Galatians 5:22-23. There are the fruits of the Spirit; there is the result of being one with the consuming fire. If you have not these things, then you are still a dead ember lying lifeless on the ash heap of the world. A fire is coming for you and your kind, but you will not survive it.

Hence are our two fates: to burn or to burn. To be filled up by the fiery Spirit of God like an overfilled cup or to be drowned in an infinite ocean of His fiery wrath. To the burning Love or the burning Wrath you must flee. The choice is yours; the results are eternal.

Truth and a Song

2009-11-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

"...great is the mystery..." I Timothy 3:16

The idea of "mystery" has gone foul for many and has been foully used by others, thanks mainly to the permeation and pontification of post-modern pundits. Many today take "mystery" (and similar terms, like "incomprehensible") to mean that which is irrational or unknowable or (what is more likely) both. Such a definition is an infection from our own corrupt culture, a culture fearful of and in denial of absolutes, categories, and certainties. It is an infection that we must strive long and hard to cure.

The old idea of "mystery" (an idea that is still the right and proper one) is the idea of "a hidden truth". Shouldn't such a thing be obvious, though? When we read a book or watch a film subscribed under the genre of "mystery," we never think that the solution to the initial conundrum is going to be irrational or unknowable. Both would destroy the very purpose that defines mystery: to discover, know, and comprehend an answer that is currently obscured. To steal the discovery, knowledge, and comprehension away from us is to make the story no longer a mystery but rather a comedy (which delights in the absurd).

A "mystery" is not irrational and/or unknowable; it has an answer that is rational and knowable and currently obscure. As Chesterton put it, one day we will see "the other side of the tapestry," and current mysteries will be solved, and perhaps new and exciting ones revealed; for mystery gives two things to the universe, two things that the human soul cannot live without. The first is joy, for we feel that we are in a great and exciting game of hide and seek, of search and discovery. Einstein said that it is as if we are small children stepping into a great library, vaguely sensing some sort of structure and order in the arrangement of all the books as well as a great wealth of substance within their pages. To make that substance irrational and/or unknowable is to kill the joy.

The second thing that is gives us is beauty. We sense great and momentous truths behind the veil of things, truths that the artist and the philosopher have sought (and occasionally found) words for, that the common man often lacks words for. Whatever these truths, these realities, are, we sense their numinous glow behind (and often through) the veil of things, though we often fail to articulate it adequately. However, those who assume that our failure of articulation necessarily means that such things are absurdities or non-entities are childish; their thoughts are cop-outs and naivete. The truth is far more exciting: we cannot speak the right words because we do not yet know the language, the language of real things. It to is a mystery, i.e., it too is rational and knowable and waiting to be discovered. We catch fragments of it now; one day we will be encompassed by the whole. Thus, the joy and beauty of the universe, caused by mystery, can be summed up in this: we find by our longings and searchings, whether in whole or in part, that all things are touched by truth and a song.

The God of Everyday

2009-08-28T10:53:00.001-07:00

"Behold, as the eyes of the servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of the maiden look unto their mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He has mercy upon us." Ps. 123:2

There is an art to waiting in the Christian life that we modern Christians have yet to even acquire, much less master. Paradoxically, waiting is the most intense trial of faith precisely because it is not intense. Of course, times of jubilation are not as difficult, but neither are storms of troubles. At least in a storm, something is happening that you can lock your energies and attention onto. The void is filled with chaos, but at least it is filled. In the waiting, however, there is nothing so momentous as jubilation or troubles. Just as it is in the scabbard that the sword is most likely to rust, so too it is in the waiting that our faith can rust. It is easier to slip out of trusting reliance on God when we feel like we don't need Him right now. In the good times, we know that we need Him because it is He who brings the good because He is the good. Likewise, in the bad times, we know that we need Him because only He can save us. Thus, it is in the times of stillness and silence, where there is neither a positive nor negative fever-pitch, that we can forget Him and lean to our own understanding.
Do not get confused. "Stillness and silence" does not mean "boring," or even "normal". For the Christian, there are no "normal" days as the world defines "normal"; all days are miraculous, and that is the key. In the midst of the still and silent days, God is still with us, and He continually interacts in our lives; "small graces" is how one songwriter described it. It is the continually presence of God in our lives, both in big and small graces, that defines the "art" of waiting for the Christian, i.e., to discern God's presence in every moment, not just the times of jubilation or trouble. It is the concept of mythic eyes: see God everywhere, everyday. This is not an empirical eisegesis, i.e., reading God into everything; rather, it is an empirical exegesis, i.e., discerning God's actual presence everyday, because He is with us everyday. He does not take a holiday. He is not merely involved in our great joys and sorrows, moments of triumph as well as crisis and failure; He is also involved in the minor minutia of our lives as well.
Think of it this way: In human relationships (esp. marriage), there are times of joy and sorrow, and strong relationships are built upon those moments. However, far more prevalent than the times of exultation and tragedy are the days "in between," the days when life is simply lived at a steady pace. It is those days that form the bulk of our lives, and thus those days that will build the bulk of the relationship. Any relationship that can remain through times of joy and sorrow but cannot maintain itself in the "in between" is doomed to failure. It is the same with us and God. God does not want us on the good and bad days; He wants us everyday, and we have to learn to likewise want Him as well.
In the movie Shenandoah, a boy name Sam wanted to marry Mr. Anderson's daughter. Anderson (played by Jimmy Stewart) asked him two questions. The first was, "Do you love her?" When Sam said yes, Anderson's response was, "Well, Sam, that's not good enough." He then asked his second question: "Do you like her?" When Sam said that he did, Anderson concludes with, "If you don't like her, then those nights can get cold!" Within the context of this scene, perhaps you will understand my next statement: God not only "loves" us; He also "likes" us. He is our God, our good Heavenly Father and holy Lord and Savior, everyday. It is in the waiting that we can most learn that truth, just as in a marriage it is in the days "in between" that we learn just how much someone really loves us, and how much we really love them.

-Jon Vowell

Minor Minutia

2009-08-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

"I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem....' Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.... Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." Ps. 122:1-2, 6a, 9

The reason that Jerusalem was given such high status by the Jews was because it was the home of the Temple, i.e., the dwelling place of God. Peace was prayed for not for Jerusalem's sake, but rather because of the Temple ("Because of the house of the Lord our God"). By itself, the city was (and is) nothing; just another temporary home of man.
Many, however, still mistakenly pray for peace in Jerusalem because they think that it is the city that is important. It is not. What is important is God, and Him dwelling amongst man. To confuse the cynosure here is similar to what the Israelites did with the ark (I Sam. 4:3): they deemed the ark itself as important rather than the God who the ark represented.
We continue such mistakes today. Though there are plenty of things worth fighting for, we more often than not fight and nit-pick with much candor about minor minutia (frivolous things like denominational jingoism and established lists of approved and disapproved Bible translations, musical preferences, and hair styles). Meanwhile, important things (like God) get lost in the shuffle, and we fall from being the light of the world into just another religion; for the world does not need or rules or opinions. They need God, which means that they need Jesus, the only way back to God (John 14:6).

-Jon Vowell

When We Leave the Temple Behind

2009-08-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

"I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Ps. 121:1-2 (WEB)

This psalm, though written before the Exile, was a favorite of the exiles. As they were taken from their homes, they would quite literally "lift up [their] eyes to the hills," i.e., to Jerusalem and the Temple. As the will of God was further accomplished, all that was familiar and known was removed. Only God was left. Sometimes, many times, that is the way that it should be.
I have observed that many (including myself) view faith as going further and further into a bright and open place, with everything becoming clearer and clearer. Now, however, I think that such a view is mistake. A much more accurate (i.e., biblical) view is to say that faith is travelling deeper and deeper into darkness, a "deep but dazzling darkness," as Vaughan put it. Rather than a bright and open place, it is more like descending into the cave of a great mountain, with the daylight fading behind us the deeper that we go in. Spiritually speaking, a heavy dimness falls thicker and thicker over everything expect for one, i.e., God as He has revealed Himself to us. This seems to be the lesson about faith taught in Job: the greater the faith, the thicker the perplexity. The deeper that we go, the closer that we get, the more and more all other lamps go out. God Himself is shrouded in clouds and darkness (Ps. 97:2). All that we have is the light that He sows for us (Ps. 97:11), burning coals dropped like bread crumbs, each one urging us to move forward. Those lights are His word, His revelation to us, and thus even though He oft times hidden, He is never far. When we leave the Temple behind (which I believe is the proper definition of faith), we take God with us, for He is with us.
What I have discovered in my own life is that the life of faith means having God "clear the field," so to speak: all things familiar and certain, any chance for us to categorize, plan, and be confident of tomorrow, is utterly removed. In an immediate sense, things become more unknowable and uncertain, until the only thing left that we know for sure is God. All other people and circumstances have become shadows. That is what the life of faith is: certainty about God, uncertainty about everything else. God has revealed to us that He is holy (Is. 6:3), and that He has called us to holiness (I Pet. 1:15-16), and that He will accomplish that goal (Phil. 1:6). What he has not revealed is exactly how that will unfold in our individual lives, and it is on that point that we grow frustrated. We grow weary with waiting, and fall into two deadly snares. One is where we begin to place confidence in ourselves: "Perhaps I must do something." Such a confidence is always cursed.
The other snare is where we believe that the darkness is a result of our own stupidity and failure: "If only I was a stronger Christian things would be clearer!" Clarity belongs to those who are afraid of the dark, i.e., children. Those who have been grown up by the Lord are old enough to descend into His darkness, into a deeper trust in Him, which means a deeper knowledge of and love for Him. Faith is not our meager service to God whereby we earn enough brownie points to play with the grown ups in the burning sunlight. Rather, faith is the process (the "journey") by which we are drawn closer and closer to our destination, i.e., God Himself. We are drawn closer when we trust Him, but trust means nothing if everything is clear and sunny. Trust means that a shadow has been placed over everything. Not just any shadow, however, but the shadow of the Almighty; for it is only in that shadow that we find the secret place of God (Ps. 91:1). Leave your "temple" behind, and do not grow weary with the waiting, but rather go deeper still into the dark with your Father, Lover, and Friend.

-Jon Vowell

Shrubs in the Desert

2009-08-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." Ps. 118:8-9

It is said in Jeremiah that "the man that trusteth in man" is like a shrub in the desert (Jer.17:5-6), which is a very apt description. The world of man is a wilderness and wasteland, both dry and thirsty. All who embrace that desolation and reject the Lord, who is "the fountain of living waters," shall be ashamed (Jer. 17:13).
This trusting "in man" comes in three ways. One is on a governmental level ("in princes"). Those who trust in the ruling chops of mankind have been disappointed continually. All empires eventually become history, their glory reduced to decadence and tyranny before being reduced to dust. Those who still cling to human ruling bodies for salvation will be ashamed in the end.
Another way we trust "in man" is on a corporate level ("in man"). We may lose faith in governments, but not humanity in general. We still hold out hope for mankind, and thus we try to think the best of people. The idea is that, though we have made many mistakes, we have also made many progresses, and we will one day dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in, whether we do it by reason, peace, war, or love. Those who think such are continually ashamed, for mankind fails continually. Our best efforts and good intentions are forever reduced to rubble and ruin, more often than not being turned on their heads in the process. We constantly laud the newest thing and romanticize the former things, all the while unaware (whether intentionally or not) that we are caught up in an endless cycle of our own fallenness, futility, and failure.
The last way that we trust "in man" is on a personal level, i.e., we trust in ourselves, leaning to our own understanding. We too shall be ashamed, and cry out with the psalmist, "My flesh and my heart faileth..." (Ps. 73:26a). We are the shrubs in the desert: there is no life in us, no living water. Whether we remain alone or congregate with other shrubs, or form coalitions and governments of shrubbery, we are all still shrubs in the desert: burnt, dry, and barren. When the heat and drought rage, we shall wither and fade.
All of this is plain logic, which is to say that it is mere common sense: If the Bible is true, and we are in fact dead in trespasses and sins, and God alone is life and light, then what business have we in hoping in ourselves? It is the height of ignorance and arrogance, yet we see it all the time. Man continues to trust "in man," and thus man is continually cursed: continually worn and weary, our efforts continually futile delusions of grandeur. The dust of the desert continually flies up into our faces; our eyes and throats burn with the dryness of it all. Still, we continue to trust in ourselves, and all the while an infinite water supply, water presenced with the very life of God, is offered to us without cost (Is. 55:1-2).

-Jon Vowell

Mercy and Truth

2009-08-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

"O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 117

Do you praise the Lord for His mercy? Do you praise Him for the light that He gives for the darkness within? Do you praise Him for the way that He overlooks your faults and doubts and gives you good things? Where would we be without the mercy of God? We would be nothing, for we are already and always nothing without Him. If it was not for His mercy at the Cross, we still would be lost. If it were not for His continually mercy day by day, we would be forever wandering and confused, stumbling over our own feet. He has not left us in the dark womb of death; He has brought us to new life, to new birth. Yet neither has He left us orphans in the howling wilderness, for He is not merely our physician but our father also. He feeds us and tends to us and teaches us how to walk. We will need such care our whole lives, and He is ready and able to give it, mercy continually, clouds and fire by day and night. Do we praise Him for His mercy, the mercy that is merciful even when we forget to praise Him for it, or when we lack the words? Praise Him for His merciful kindness, His loving kindness, which is better than life.
Do you praise the Lord for His truth? Do you praise Him for the light that He gives for the darkness without? Do you praise Him for giving to ignorant and unworthy men the secrets of the divine, even the "deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:9-10)? Do you praise Him for giving you guidance in the night season and all the day long? Where would we be without the truth of God? Again, we would be nothing. We would fumble about in the dark, headed we know not where, groping at we know not what, meant for we know not what. We would be forever trapped in that terrible prison of having only the journey and no destination. Yet God has given us His truth like a lamp in the night (Ps. 119:105). He has shown us not only the path of salvation, but also the path of holiness. He has not lead us to the Cross only to snuff out the light there. He stays with us, an ever-present fireside, to warm us and to light the way; for He is not merely our savior, but out guide and comforter also, our constant companion, leading us home. Do we praise Him for His truth, and for His listening ear that gives us the truth when we ask for it? Do we praise Him for the truth that comes in the midst of our doubts to help our unbelief, rather than abandon us to it? Praise Him for His truth, our light in the dark, the sun, moon, and stars of our souls. Praise Him for His truth that is true, and that shall never pass away nor change.

-Jon Vowell

Real Presence (Or, Haunted)

2009-08-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

"I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice...." Ps. 116:1a

"...ye have known God, or rather are know of God...." Gal. 4:9a

We do not worship God because He is a spirit. There is nothing praise-worthy about being a spirit: the Devil is a spirit. Nor do we worship Him because He is powerful, for mere power is grounds only for fear rather than worship. Nor even do we worship Him because of His goodness, for mere goodness is static goodness, and inconsequential to us and anything else. The reason that we worship God, praising Him in word and song and deed, the reason that we have given our hearts to Him alone, is because He is not inconsequential; "He hath heard" our voice.
All the goods of men are but silent stone and dumb wood, made from men's hands, mindless mirrors of their own emptiness (Ps. 115:2-8). Any spiritual peace available to us must be sought out by our own effort: we work and we search and we struggle; we grope about in the dark, uncertain if what we have grasped hold of is in fact what we have been looking for. We are, in such scenarioes, indeed the blind men with the elephant: destined and doomed to never know.
The Christian, however, is in love with and enraptured by God already, because this God has come to them: He dwelt with them once (John 1:14) and dwells with them still (I Cor. 6:19; II Cor. 6:16). Christianity is not another religion of maxims and moral living; it is a religion of presence, the presence of the living God who is there. Even our holy book (whereas others are mere codes of conduct) is full of the same presence (God-breather: II Tim. 3:16; God's dynamic life: Heb. 4:12). True Christians are different from every other religionists and spiritualists, every other holy man and guru, because they are (in a word) haunted, continually in the presence of another, i.e., the God who goes with them; with them (see Josh.1:9)! That is the great difference-maker, the great deal-breaker. Leave all the other religions of man to their fumbling about in the dark; give us instead the Light that walks amongst us, with us, and in us.

-Jon Vowell

Non Nobis Domine

2009-08-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto Thy hame may all the glory be, for Thy mercy and Thy truth's sake." Ps. 115:1

"When Jesus heard [of Lazarus' illness], he said, 'This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.'" John 11:4

"[The chief priests and Pharisees said,] 'If we let Him alone like this, all men will believe on Him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.'" John 11:48

Psalm 115 gives us a comparison of God with idols (vs. 2-9), with the conclusion being that while God is the Lord of Heaven (vs. 3), idols are nothing more than "the work of men's hands" (vs. 4), and "they that make them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusteth in them" (vs. 8). There seemed to be an understanding amongst the Hebrews that the comparison of God to idols was not a comparison of God to other gods but rather a comparison of God to man, which is no comparison at all (hence the foolishness of idolatry). Idol worship is the glorification, not of lesser gods, but of man over God.
This is why the Pharisee's sentiment concerning Jesus is so dangerous. Whereas Jesus continually stressed the glory of the Father in all things, the Pharisees were more concerned with the maintenance and exaltation of themselves and their country, their very own "work of their hands."
It is very easy to glide over idolatry when we view it as simply the worship of false gods. We are civilized (so we say); we no longer have pagan totems or temples. If, however, idolatry is actually more basic, if it is simply to worship the work of your hands and therefore is subsequently self-worship, then we all have blood on our hands. It is easy to love ourselves, and it is easy to love the work of our hands: our humanity desires expression and commendation of that expression. The problem is when we glorify ourselves by glorifying the work, when all glory belongs to God, a glory sought not out of egotism, but out of love, for only when God is glorified are we wholly human.
This does not mean that we must never create (if so, then why are the Psalms scripture?). What it does mean is that every creation of our hands, and our understanding of ourselves as creatures, must keep in mind at all times the supremacy (and majesty) of the Creator. It is "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), and thus every work of our hand is really a work of His hand. To claim otherwise is idolatry, which is pride, which is sin.
Nothing falls outside the grasp of the glory of God, not even evil (John 11:4). Why then should we think that the works of our hands are immune? Let all things be done for the glory of God, for all things are done to the glory of God. Any assertion to the contrary is a delusion on our part of the way things really are. How foolish will be the one who worships a creation that, on the day when "every knee" will bow, it itself will worship the Creator? If the works of our hands could speak, they would mimic the words of the angels, who said to any that worshipped them, "See that thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant.... Worship God" (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9).

-Jon Vowell

Fit for Fire

2009-08-19T10:02:00.001-07:00

"...the god that answereth by fire, let Him be God." I Kings 18:24

The god who reveals himself, let Him be God. This is the answer to the "black box" puzzle: if you have a black box that is completely sealed and utterly impenetrable, how do you know what is inside? You can know what is inside if the thing inside it (1) is there, and (2) is not silent. If the thing inside reaches out to communicate somehow, then we can know what is inside. Our God is the same: our belief in Him is not based in blindness and good feelings but rather His revelations. He has answered by fire, and thus He is God.
"Is not my word like a fire?" (Jer. 23:29) The word of God is full of dynamic life and strength ("quick and powerful," Heb. 4:12) like a fire. It has burned the world for thousands of years, sending up smoke and incense alike into the eyes and nose of many. God has written to us, has set down in words and language His ways and His works. There are many holy books of men, but only one word of God, only one that burns like a flaming coal in the night, rekindling any ash it touches, and setting ablaze the deadwood of the wilderness; for the world is indeed a wilderness in need of fire.
"I am come to send fire on the earth" (Luke 12:49). Was not our Lord a fire as well? Was He not (and is He is still) a burning light to the world? Did He not (as Ms. Sayers put it) pass through this world "like a flame"? Read the Gospels, and you will see people, when confronted with Jesus, acting as though they were handling a fire. Herein is God's second answer: He has come to us and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The Morning Star has touched the dust of the earth, and the fire that He started can never be quenched. The works that He did bare witness to who He is (John 10:24-25), so that we are without excuse.
"The day of the Lord will come..., and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat..." (II Pet. 3:10). There is one last answer that God will give, one that is yet to come. The Second Coming of Christ, the day of God's judgment, will be the final word to all doubters and skeptics. There will come a day, as in Elijah's, when fire will once again fall from heaven before the eyes of the world, and all people will once again fall on their faces and say, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" (I Kings 18:39)
"...our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). Our God can and will only answer by fire because He is fire. To know Him is to take fire into your bosom, a flaming coal to your lips. His burning is holiness: to kiss Him is to be purged of all damage and defects; to know Him is to be one with a furnace. Once, being sinners filthy and frail, we would have melted into ash in the presence of such a flame. However, through the blood of Christ, we are reconciled back to God (Rom. 5:1, 8-11; II Cor. 5:17-19; Eph. 1:7), back to the fire; and like the three young men in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, we walk unharmed because we do not walk alone. He has made us fit for fire, and for that we worship Him.

-Jon Vowell

God With Us: Unperverted Medievalism

2009-08-18T12:22:00.001-07:00

"Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth!" Ps. 113:5-6

"What is man that Thou are mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Ps. 8:4

"[Jesus], being in the form of God, thought equality with God to not be a stolen prize, but made Himself of no reputation, and...humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. 2:6-8

If there is one great ignorance today that every Christian must be embattled against (in word and deed, art and activity), it is the prevalent yet unspoken assumption that God (if He is there at all) is detached and disconnected from us and our lives. Pay close attention to the popular mindset of western culture: if the average person believes in God at all, it is usually a God that is more distant than the furthest star; He is far and away, and thus is small. He may be great, and even good; but He is ultimately inconsequential (and perhaps a bit distracted). This accounts for the strange way in which God is typically "handled" by most people (in and outside of the arts): the friendly buddy, the deadpan business exec., the booming voice in inaccessible light, etc. Regardless of the form, the theme remains: distant, inconsequential, or both. In a kind of perverted medievalism, we believe that we are far removed and sequestered off from God, that the only worse spot than us is the icy fires of hell. God is over "there" and we are over "here" with an immeasurable gulf fixed between us, and that is the end of the discussion.
Such a scenario is "perverted" medievalism because it is missing the truth of the Incarnation, and thus it is robbed of all hope; for what is Incarnation but the reality that God has stepped in (or rather down) into our sequestered area with us. Herein lies the proper response (again in word and deed) to the aforementioned ignorance: Immanuel, i.e., God with us. The concept of Immanuel is a heavy theme throughout the entire Bible. It is, of course, a strong New Testament topic, but the Old Testament Hebrews were not foreign to it. God's literally and personally meeting with His people in the Temple and tabernacle is a constant historical motif, while plenty of stories abound of the "visitor" God, whether it was discussions of faith and promise over a meal (Gen. 18), a fight in the night (Gen. 32:22-30), or a whirlwind in answer to a question (Job 38). The theme of the visitor-God crescendoed in Christ, but it remained the constant melody of the symphony of Scripture; and it is that theme that we must reassert today.
Mankind cannot take a disconnected deity. Though much lip-service is given to the thought of how happy we would be if God would "just leave us alone," the truth is (logically as well as historically) that His silence disturbs us; we could fare better with His non-existence than His indifference. Thus, if there is one thing that Christianity must do, it is to assert with absolute clarity and beauty the reality of God with us. "Immanuel" must be our constant theme. We must, in a sense, "unpervert" the current medievalism and reassert the old, i.e., though our Sin has separated us from God, He has come incarnate to us to save us from our Sin, so that now our silent planet can be filled to the brim with His song.

-Jon Vowell

"That also is a mystery..."

2009-08-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

"So there was a division among the people because of Him." John 7:43

John 7:2 through 10:21 chronicles the events surrounding Jesus' visit to the temple at Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. Many notable events occur, containing several reoccurring themes. John 7:43, however, captures one of the most interesting themes, a theme whose implications are highly important.
It is an error to claim that Jesus was an enigma to only one group of people. The truth of the Gospels (esp. John) is that Jesus was an enigma to everyone. Of course, the Pharisees did not get Him, but neither did His family, or His disciples, or the Jews, or the Gentiles, or the woman caught in adultery, or the man born blind. From the highest rungs of political and religious power, to the lowest dregs of societal outcasts, the theme was the same: Jesus astounded and confounded; and all the while (esp. John 7:2-10:21), Jesus continued to hammer another theme essential to the former: (1) I am of God; (2) anyone who is of God gets me; (3) if you don't get me, then you are not of God. Even that bit of logic escaped them (John 8).
Perhaps these two intrinsically linked themes (Jesus' enigma caused by being from God) is what Paul was trying to express by the whole "conform/transform" dichotomy (Rom. 12:2). Jesus seemed to express the same thing in John 15:19: "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world (because I have chosen you out of the world), therefore the world hateth you." The author of Hebrews shares the same sentiment with their image of "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13-14), and John adds his own voice when he said, "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not" (I John 4:6a). There seems to be an assumption in Scripture that those who are "of God" through Christ are necessarily a strange bird to everyone else. Some Rubicon has been crossed. Our relation to the world and its people has changed, and it will not and cannot be the same ever again; for we are no longer of this world (John 17:16).
Hence comes the frustrating tension of the "in the world but not of it" scenario, and the battles lines over this issue are drawn deep. Factions vary, but most can be safely grouped into two camps. One camp (we shall call them "Relevantists") claims (quite truthfully) that people are weary of an impersonal and sloganeering Christianity, detached from their lives and concerns; the truths of God must matter to them (who they are and where they are) before they will accept them. This particular camp condemns their opponents of being too aloof and "hands-off". Their favorite words of commendation are "real," "relevant," and "authentic"; their favorite words of condemnation are "Pharisaical," "fake," and "disingenuous". Meanwhile, the other camp (we shall call them "Sanctificationists") claims (again, quite truthfully) that we are clearly called to "be holy" as God "is holy," and to be bound up in the trappings and garb of the world will corrupt us and subsequently ruin our evangelism; the world needs and seeks holiness, and if we do not emit holiness then we have nothing to offer them. This particular camp condemns their opponents of being too down-and-dirty and "hands-on". Their favorite words of commendation are "godliness," "holiness," and "holy"; their favorite words of condemnation are "worldly," "fleshly," and "carnal".
Both sides equally claim that their way is the "Christ-like" way and that the other's way will (and is) sabotage and destroy the Christian mission. The rest of us are caught in the middle of these two trends, pulled by each side's truths and repelled by their errors. We do feel the necessity of relevance and honesty, yet feel that our Relevantist brothers and sisters are a bit too comfortable with the world. Likewise, we do feel the necessity of holiness and separation, yet feel that our Sanctificationist brothers and sisters are a bit too disconnected with the world. Thus, the frustrating tension continues without a resolution.
Oh, and guess what? Jesus does not help us on this point. He is still confounding, especially since both Relevantists and Sanctificationists quote Him to prove (and quite clearly prove) their respective cases! Jesus ate with sinners; He also met with Nicodemus. He argued against the unbelief of the Pharisees and the common folk, and thus committed Himself to no one. He told the woman at the well, a Samaritan and enemy, strange thoughts and astounding knowledge; and she believed, and He welcomed her. Yet this same Jesus told a rich young ruler, a man eager and ready to follow Him, strange thoughts and astounding knowledge; but the man went away, and Jesus did not go after Him. His enemies were divided over Him, but so where His own disciples. The self-righteous could not understand Him, but neither did the broken and downcast. Neither Relevantists and Sanctificationists nor any other group can claim Jesus as solely theirs. It is as if He belongs to no one but Himself. He is untouchable, as if the understood arrangement is "He does not belong to you; you belong to Him."
It seems to me (an admittedly unlearned man of faith and the Faith) that all of the movements and groups that try to make Jesus their "example" (a better word would be "mascot") are merely committing the unintentionally yet rather serious error of trying to completely rationalize and categorize what is inherently mysterious. The life of a Christian is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ is the life of God; and the life of God--that triune dance, that sovereign power so great that it can allow for free agents and yet cause no injury to its omnipotence, that love and wrath burning and boiling to their uttermost side by side, that immutable yet jealous zeal, the life of God--is inherently mysterious. It is with that life that we are made one in Christ (John 17:20-23). Why, then, do we act like we should make sense?
Madeleine L'Engle quoted some Cardinal (I forget his name) as saying that we are to live in such a way that our lives would make no sense if there was no God. I think that about perfectly sums it up. Jesus frustrated the logic and sensibilities of everyone, and the end result was either (1) they collapsed with their logic, or (2) their logic collapsed and they could finally see the truth (Matt. 21:42-44). Are we not called to be made into the same image? We are the living mysteries: we touch and yet are untouchable; so very real and yet so unreal. We frustrate and confound, yet none can turn away. Something within us burns with a fervent heat and living light, something that equally appalls and attracts. That something is not our charm and honesty, our righteousness and godliness; it is the life of the living God, surging through us like electricity through a conduit. At least, that is how it should be. For now, most of us (if not all of us) are tangled up in our own misconceptions and subsequent inconsistencies and inadequacies, faithfully missing the point and the mark. Yet God's grace fills up the crack of our imperfects, and makes (and is making) us what we ought to be. That also is a mystery, a great and beautiful one; let us leave it at that.

-Jon Vowell

The Brick in the Wall

2009-08-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

"Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly, for it is He that shall tread down our enemies." Ps. 108:12-13

Oft times the mountain that we must assail seems utterly impassable, insurmountable. I have had that feeling most noticeably in bookstores. The "Classics" section offers me some reprieve (and thus often becomes my hiding spot), but I invariably must walk past and wade through a bombardment of contemporary literature whose covers alone assault my senses and sensibilities like waves pounding a beach. Despite varied subject matters, all are essentially the same book: this or that person of various respectability and/or prestige (or lack thereof) is espousing this or that doctrine or idea or opinion that sounds really good to them and their close friends (and maybe even a few amiable strangers), but ultimately is a heaping pile of absurdities and hubris, an adamant yet unintentional demonstration of Romans 1:22.
Now, it is not that these trivial treatises, in and of themselves, pose an actual threat to Christian truth. With time, even a small child of the faith could answer their nonsense. The colorful myriad (like spewed vomit) of contemporary thought looks good only on paper. With some careful thought (a rarity these days), however, their internal and external consistencies (the validity of its logic and the practicality of its application) being to unravel quite humorously (and pathetically); for the only true test of any worldview is to test its internal/external consistencies, and many fail on one or both counts.
It is not, therefore, any truth on their part that can cause one to despair; rather, it is the sheer volume of them that can. Some would dare curse the invention of the printing press: if only Gutenberg knew the number of lunacies that we would be inundated with! Our shelves seem crammed to bursting with a variety of opinions on "what's wrong," "who's wrong," "why its/their wrong," "why I'm right," and (their favorite subject) "how to fix it". With so many subjective preferences, devoid of (and yet masquerading as) objective fact, floating about us like sharks, it is easy to see how a non-intellectual life behind a picket fence would be a preferable life. When filled with such a deluge of counter-claims (many of them foolish), the task of being a light in the world very quickly seems impossible; we do not even know where to beginning.
Yet, we are told where to beginning quite explicitly, and it is summed up in one prepositional phrase: "Through God" (vs. 13). Herein is our comfort, our weapon against despair: it is God, the infinite and almighty one, and not us, who shall answer to lunacies, correct the foolishness, and check the absurdities. Here is our hope: we are not the ones to assail the mountain; God is. It is God's power, God's light, God Himself that is given to us in Christ. He fights His war through us; we have our small part to play, but the actual triumph is all on His shoulders, and they are strong shoulders, thick and broad. They bore the Sin of the world; they can bare its nonsense as well.
Our situation before this mountain, therefore, is like Nehemiah rebuilding the wall; each man had their own task: some repaired this part, others this part, and others that part, and others still stood guard rather than build. God rebuilt the wall because each individual put their brick in the wall; a myriad of small task united together into one glorious success. That is the reality of our situation: we have not a mountain to assail; we have our brick to put in the wall, our one small yet invaluable piece in the mosaic of God's ultimate victory. The darkness is thick due to its great number, but through God we shall do valiantly, for He who is with us and in us is greater than all our enemies and their perilous yet innocuous noise (I John 4:4).

-Jon Vowell

God and Evil (or, A Rose Out of the Mud)

2009-08-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness; souls that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron.
"Because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High, therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in pieces. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Ps. 107:8-15

This passage's series of events is a fascinating spectacle. It starts by exclaiming that only the goodness of God can satisfy the longing and hungry soul, souls that sit in darkness without the goodness of God. To ask how they got into such darkness is to ask how they lost God's goodness (for apparently the two cannot coexist: you have either one or the other, never both). They lost the goodness by their rebellion against God's "word" and "counsel," i.e., His authority as God. In response, God let the consequences of their rebellion fall: a horror of great darkness fell upon them, and when all had abandoned them ("there was none to help"), then and only then did they look to God for satisfaction.
That last part is the most interesting part. Here is revealed a deeper application of Joseph's oft used (to ad nauseum) phrase that God works evil for good (Gen. 50:20). Rebellion against God (in any sense) is the proper understanding of Sin, and the natural consequence of Sin is Death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Now, it seems that the Psalm is explicitly saying that God's immediate response to Sin is to not shield people from its consequences. He actually lets the death and darkness fall, the disease and destruction wreak and rage, the evil and the wicked pollute and corrupt. The honest man asking sincerely (and the skeptic asking sneeringly) will ask, "Why?"
The answer is startling: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble" (emphasis added). It seems that God actually lets us go astray so that we will learn (1) what the right way is and (2) to stay on it when we get there. Think of it like this: God alone is the satisfaction of the soul. Thus, every time we head to something else other than Him, He will let us go and starve on its hollowness until we finally (like the prodigal son) "come to our sense" and cry out for what is truly satisfying, which is only found in God.
Only a moral coward would call such a set-up "cruel". Many today whine for God to shield us from every possible ill, but such a recommendation (however sincere) is intolerable for two very good reasons: (1) The issue of free-will. True free-will is contingent upon the possibility of true evil. Thus, to actually "shield" us from all ill would mean doing away with free-will, reducing us to mere machines, beasts, or other subhuman and inhuman entities. Therefore, to ask for Him to shield us is to not know what we are asking; we have requested that God spare us from one cruelty by inflicting us with another, i.e., the loss of our humanity. (2) The necessity of "the hard way." It is just plain old practical truth that sometimes the most merciful course of action is to allow one to learn things the "hard" way. If a truly free-will agent utterly refuses to heed your sound and truthful warnings and advice, then sometimes their refusal and subsequent disastrous consequences are the only way that they will finally heed. Such a fact is common sense, and to deny it is to accept blatant ignorance for the sake of argument.
This is not to say that God never shields us. Indeed, there is much that He shields us from (e.g., Ps. 105), and much more that we will probably never know. The point here is that God's modus operandi with people is not mere shielding anymore than it is mere allowance of the consequences. The point is that if your stubborn rebellion (whether you are an unbeliever or one of His children) leads you into the deathly consequences of Sin, their is a gracious miracle at work: the very consequences that seem so horrid are the very things that will lead you back to God. The sovereign will of God has decreed that out of every evil work, redemption will bud like rose out of the mud.

-Jon Vowell

Great Is Thy faithfulness

2009-08-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

"And the water covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praises. Soon they forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. [...] Many times did He deliver them; but they provoked Him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless, He regarded their affliction when He heard their cry...." Ps. 106:11-14, 43-44

"If we are faithless, He abideth faithful...." II Tim. 2:13

It is a refreshing thing to know that God's faithfulness is not contingent upon our faithfulness. God's faithfulness is contingent upon no one but Himself, His own holy character. The author of Hebrews said of His promises, "Because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself" (Heb. 6:13), which is precisely what He did (Gen. 15).
When our Lord was here, He did not make the loyalty of the people the foundational motive force of His mission (John 2:23-25); rather, it was the immutable will of His Father (John 6:38-40) and His obedience to that will (John 5:30; Phil. 2:5-8) that moved Him.
It is to our great shame that we are ever faithless, and to God's great glory that He is ever faithful, and that He gives us the power to be faithful (Phil. 1:6; 2:13; 4:13). If there is anything that we should learn from the history of Israel, it is this: our vileness and His goodness, our weakness and His strength, our faithlessness and His faithfulness. "We have sinned.... Nevertheless, He saved..." (Ps. 106:6, 8).

-Jon Vowell

God-Seeker

2009-08-11T09:49:00.001-07:00

"...let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore." Ps. 105:3b-4

The rest of the Psalm gives the grounds for "why" we should seek Him. Like Ps. 78, we are given a mini-history of Israel. Its purpose is stated at the beginning: "Remember the the marvelous works that He hath done." Know this God: see His activities, that they are good; know His character, that He is holy; and then seek Him out, for it is who He is that drives us to Him. The heart of the God-seeker rejoices because this God is worthy to be sought, the only thing worth seeking. He has proven Himself to be the one and only hope, the one and only God, the highest and the greatest, the beginning and the end, the First Cause and the Ultimate Purpose. Taste and see that the Lord is good, and you will desire Him like wine for the soul.
It must be stated, however, that God is to be sought for Himself and not for the mere sake of seeking. Many people (through time and esp. today) are seekers for seeking's sake, and many others additionally believe that they can somehow properly seek God without any established concepts of Him. They stress subjective experience above objective truth(s).
God is a person, and therefore is to be known in an experiential subjective dynamic. However, God is not a person like we are a person. He is holy, i.e., absolutely perfect and complete, and thus has no changes. Therefore, there are definite and certain things about God, things that without knowledge of we will never truly seek Him: we will fall into every ditch and lurch into every side eddy imaginable. God is a person about which there are definite and certain things, things that He has graciously revealed to us through His word, things that He is to be sought for. The true God-seeker understands this: their subjective experience(s) must necessarily be bound to an objective reality or else it will wander aimlessly in the dark.

-Jon Vowell

The Loss of the Sacred: Holy Places, Dark Places

2009-08-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

"And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.' And he was afraid, and said, 'How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'" Gen. 28:16-17

For the Hebrews, "house of God" was not a mere term; it was a truth about reality. It was no mere sign divorced from concept; it was the concrete declaration of a meta-physical actuality. For them, the "house of God" (the tabernacle/temple) was the intersection of Heaven and earth. There, the presence of God literally dwelt in the Holy of holies, meeting every year with the High Priest to atone for the sins of the people. It was a sacred place, and thus still dreadful and awesome.
Now, however, the house of God is merely a building for social gatherings, buildings that litter our countryside with all the frequency (and presence) of fast food joints or coffee shops, or any other trapping of American consumerism. Going to church is like going to a rally (or the mall, or a concert, or a press conference, or work), and picking a church is like picking shoes: whatever fits me best. The dread, the mystery, the wonder, the sacred, is gone. We go to church to meet and make friends (or a spouse), increase in head knowledge, receive encouragement, maintain our social status; anything except to meet with God, a thought that probably never even crosses our minds. A "den of thieves" indeed (Matt. 21:13).
In the old days of Christendom, churches were not littered everywhere, and thus they were still considered special and sacred things. Worship was a set and established affair, the same in almost every church, because its purpose was to praise God and prepare you to meet with Him, not to please your emotional needs and aesthetic preferences. The Eucharist was (and is) about meeting with God, face to face, and (from a Roman Catholic view) in the flesh. Views on salvic purposes aside, the common idea was that the whole of believers, by the right of the atonement, could now step into the Holy of holies and stand in the presence of God. Think of that! Even the Hebrews did not have such a privilege, but now we do by the blood of Christ. Yet now even the "Lord's Supper" is reduced to a mere event, one of many, of the social gathering. Who knows what varied reasons we have for partaking of the bread and wine; I doubt they have anything to do with stepping before the presence of the Living and Holy God Almighty.
It used to be that holy places were "dark places" (as Mr. Lewis put it), places of mystery and wonder, of holiness and dread, where God met with man face to face as friend does to friend. Now it is not so: we have thrown open the windows and aired out the rooms, cleaned up the blood and put out the fires, and have consequently suffered a loss of the sacred. We sing songs to our emotional gratification, eat the crackers and grape juice without flinching, have sorry feelings for our sins, and head back into the light of day as though we had done no more than taken a trip to the grocers rather than having just left alive, by the blood of Christ alone, the dreadful place, the gate of heaven, the house of God.

Lord, have mercy on us.

-Jon Vowell

Alone Amongst Other gods

2009-08-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

"...the people which are to come shall praise the Lord; for He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from Heaven did the Lord behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner [and] to loose those that are appointed to death...." Ps. 102:18b-20

Christianity does not worship God because He is a supernatural being, viz., a spirit. As Mr. Lewis put it, there's nothing special about being a spirit; the Devil is a spirit after all. So God is not worshipped simply because He is a spirit.
Neither is He worshipped (or found worthy of worship) because He is powerful, even more so than all the other gods of men. Power per se is nothing; it is the action that stems from the power that matters. A powerful God is not as important as whether or not He is good.
God, however, isn't even worshipped for His goodness. Like power, goodness per se is meaningless without action. Goodness that is static and still is useless; admirable and noble, perhaps, but still useless.
The God of Christianity is worshipped because of incarnation, i.e., His power and goodness, and all that he is (i.e., His holiness), has lead to practical, benevolent consequences in the woop and warf of space and time. Along amongst other gods, the God of the Christian is Immanuel--God with us. Not created by us, projected by us, realized by us or in us; not anything by us. He is "God with us." Our God has come down to us and has brought salvation with Him (Is. 59:15-16), for salvation is the goal of incarnation (I John 3:8b). We had fallen into a deep and miry pit, but He did not leave us there. He reached down to us; or rather, He jumped down to us and lifted us up. He came to us and saved us; and for that we worship Him.
Of course, God can be worshipped for His power and goodness and other things for what they are. However, the foundation of all worship towards God begins and ends with Jesus Christ, who is the demonstration and revelation of God and His holy character. Without Christ, God's goodness and power (and other things) is meaningless to us, without purpose or plan. God without Christ is just another deity; more powerful and benevolent than most, but still just one more in the mix. Christ, however, reveals the reality of the God who is there, a God beyond the invention and intention of man, a God actually "mindful" of man (Ps. 8:4), a God that comes and saves man. Only such a God is worthy of worship and obedience.

-Jon Vowell

Holy Life, Holy War

2009-08-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me." Ps. 101:2-3

"Ye that love the Lord, hate evil...." Ps. 97:10a

"Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Rom. 12:9b

The "holy life" (as some call it) is simple on paper but difficult in practice. On paper, we are to love and cleave to the good, while we are to hate and reject the bad. In practice, however, this simple formula is always a war. Of course, before salvation, the struggle was impossible to win thanks to the inward law of sin and death (Rom.7:18-25); after salvation, the Spirit of God sets us free from that law (Rom. 8:1-2): Sin still has its pull, but we no longer have to obey it.
It is that continual and ever-present "pull," however, that drives us insane. Though set free from necessary sinfulness, we still find ourselves fighting against a lingering deadness of the body (Rom. 8:10), i.e., the appetites*. Fortunately, such a fight is ours for the winning in the moment because of Christ (Rom. 8:11) and God (Phil. 2:13). Whereas once our mind agreed with God (Rom. 7:25) but our spirit was dead and therefore could not enforce the mind's desire upon the appetites (i.e., the flesh), now we have (through Christ's atonement) the Spirit of God, who quickens our bodies (Rom. 8:10-11) and enables us to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:16).
There is a reason Christ described salvation as a new birth (John 3:3): it is not mere forgiveness only, but also a re-creation (II Cor. 5:17). A new life has been born in us (I Cor. 6:19), a life that can live the life of God (for it is the life of God), the only life worthy of Heaven. Our meriting eternal life and communion with God is based upon the work, life, power, and presence of someone other than ourselves. That is the key distinction between Christianity and the religions of the world: complete and utter dependence on the divine. We cannot save ourselves; only God can.

-Jon Vowell

*I say "appetites" for two reasons: (1) So as to avoid any hint of Gnosticism. I do not believe that the physical body is evil because it is physical. I believe that the physical body is fallen, and thus subject to the corruption of Sin and Death. When that corruption is removed, the body will remain: glorified, yet still physical. (2) So as to explain the "pull" of Sin. This has been a troublesome spot for me. If the "old man" and "the flesh" (which I take to be the same thing) are removed by Christ (Rom. 6:6; 8:1, 9), what then within me is drawn by Sin's "pull"? If I am free from the old life and its corruptions, what then is the motive power in me to sin? I take Rom. 8:10-11 to signify that there is still a part of us that is dead, i.e., the body. Since the mind already agreed with God (Rom. 7:25) and our spirit is now the Spirit of God, "the body" cannot be our mind or spirit. Therefore, it must be the physical body with its fallen appetites. This is what I take it to mean until a smarter head than I corrects me.

Damnable Ignorance

2009-08-04T10:07:00.001-07:00

"Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." Ps. 100:3

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own hand have we given Thee." I Chr. 29:14

Humility, joy, love, and every other aspect of Christ-likeness comes from a resolute focusing of our heart and mind on the fact of our necessary dependence. "The Son can do nothing of Himself," Jesus said to the Jews, "except what He seeth the Father do" (John 5:19). Such is the nature of true Christ-likeness: a state of utter acknowledgment and living in the reality of one's dependence on God.
What person can truly claim to have "arrived" by their own strengths? Many do make such a claim, but it is all noisome hubris. Their strengths are God's strengths, for He is their Creator and thus has given them those strengths. Likewise, which of His children can truly claim to be their own man/woman? Sadly, many do, and they boast of their strengths "as if [they] had not received it" (I Cor. 4:7). It is God, and not ourselves, who "makes" us in every way; we are His and not our own. To claim otherwise is nothing but pride and Sin, the parents of such damnable ignorance, for many are cast into Hell thinking that they can live and move and have their being apart from God.

-Jon Vowell

Life and Death: Death-Casters

2009-08-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

"Thou answered them, O Lord our God; Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou took vengence on their evil deeds." Ps. 99:8

There are two things that we must remember about Sin: (1) in Christ, we are set free from the ultimate condemnation of Sin (Rom. 8:1-2); and (2) the consequence of Sin is still death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23), and that death will be meted out. If we expect otherwise, then we understand neither God and Sin, nor the holiness of the one and the deathliness of the other.
Being forgiven in Christ, His blood continually cleanses us (I John 1:7), and thus no Sin can be laid to our account anymore. However, as free-agents, we can choose to yield to the Holy Spirit or not (Rom. 6:12-13), and thus we retain the power to unleash the effects of Sin (and Holiness). We can be conduits of Death as well as Life. Perhaps if we saw our sinful choices as death-casting, we would take it more seriously. We do not make "mistakes" or "fopahs"; we spread death like a cancer, like a plague, spewing its corruption from our hands, our mouths, our eyes. In addition, perhaps we could also understand God's holiness (and our calling) better: to purge out the darkness, not spread it around.

-Jon Vowell

The Return of the King II: Earnest Expectation of the Creation

2009-08-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

"Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with uprightness." Ps. 98:7-9

"The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God...because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Romans 8:19-21

The return of the King and subsequent redemption thereof is not a private event for man but a universal event of all creation. Sin has unleashed the consequences of Death and its corruption into the furthest extents of the universe, even the parts to which we have never been nor ever will; yet even those parts ring with the "earnest expectation" of the restoration of the rightful order.
Do we function on the level where we consciously consider that the universe is not even half of what it used to be or could be? That neither are me? "The whole creation groans and travails in pain" (Rom. 8:22), for the Fall has corrupted its glory, our glory, and nothing is as it ought to be. The universe is smarter than us, however; it continues on in earnest expectation. We, on the other hand, are forgetful creatures, and our expectation dulls into a kind of apathetic resignation and contentment. We are lulled to sleep by the dull and static hum of the fallen world, and it is high time that we wake up.

-Jon Vowell

The Mysterious and the Good

2009-07-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

"Clouds and darkness are round about Him.... Light is sown for the righteous...." Ps. 97:2a, 11a

"Course He isn't safe. But He is good." -C.S. Lewis

There are two things that we must never forget about God: His mysteriousness and His goodness. We are most forgetful of and frustrated by the former. We gladly seek the comforts of God only to find that resting in His secret place means dwelling in a shadow (Ps.91:1) and darkness (Ps. 18:11). God is light, and in Him dwells no darkness (I John 1:5), but darkness is where He dwells; not it in Him, but rather He in it. Thus, His ways are mysterious (Is. 55:8, 9; Rom. 11:33) and His light inaccessible (I Tim. 6:16). We often flounder at this: we would much rather have a God that we could easily categorize and thus easily predict. However, one of God's favorite past times is frustrating our assumptions, and He will continue to do so until we trust in His mystery.
God's goodness is more palatable than His mystery, but only after we water it down to the point of banality. We do acknowledge the light that He graciously sows for us, whether it be His word for guidance (Ps.119:105) or His Son for salvation (John 1:4); yet we do not seem to connect that we are given light because the world is dark, a darkness filled with terrors and terrified people. The light we are given is for our survival and the salvation of others. We are not on a sun-drenched vacation; we are pilgrims in an unholy land. God's goodness (which He freely gives because He is good) is not to be bottled up and horded, but broken and spilled out unto all. God is good, and good to us; but if we are to be like Him (I Peter 1:16), then we cannot keep that goodness, that light, to ourselves. Like our Father in Heaven has done for us, we too must spread the light as far as we can fling it.

-Jon Vowell

The Return of the King

2009-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

"Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad...for [the Lord] cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." Ps. 96:11, 13

There is an old story that has been told and retold again and again (in some form or another) throughout human history. It is a story about a land of some kind being bereft of its rightful leader for some reason, and now the land sits in long anticipation for the return of its headship. In the meantime, the land is overrun with evil forces, or ruled over by incompetent and inadequate rulers, or both. Waiting long for the leader's return can make the heart grow cold eventually, and it seems that those who even remember their master or his return are the minority. That minority continues, however, to stoke the flames of anticipation in those who will listen as they pass on their stories again and again. Meanwhile, the land lies dark and dormant, possibly in the hands of an enemy, waiting watching less and less for its good and rightful leader.
As much as we like the relegate such idealism to childish tales (and thus degrade childish tales), the truth is that such a story lies at the heart of our ever-present reality. The whole world lies in darkness, bereft of its rightful leader and lordship (ironically by our own devices), and its current prince is a usurper and monster, whose intentions towards us are malicious at best. In the midst of that dark reign, however, there are those strange messengers and magicians, those light-casters, who sow shimmering pearls of light like white sparks, and each shard of light kindles a fire whose flames crackle forth a declaration of the presence of our rightful ruler, His past works, and His imminent return. As Christians, we are the strange folk who proclaim (amongst other things) the anticipation of the return of our rightful ruler, the one who's headship and judgments will final put an end to all evil and bring peace at last.
This concept of the returning king, of the coming again of the rightful ruler to claim his throne and right all wrongs, is etched into the human heart for a reason, because we long for it dearly. From Homer to Tolkien, the fearless leader returns and brings with him wrath upon his enemies and salvation to his house. Such a thing is a deep yearning of the human heart that burns like an ember inside: the King is coming; He must come; He shall come; and all shall be well. The good news of Christianity is not just salvation but also this blessed hope: the return of the King. We must spread this news far and wide.

-Jon Vowell

Worship as Obedience

2009-07-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

"O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.... Harden not your heart...as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tried me, proved me, and saw my work." Ps. 95:6-9

Worship is most certainly about music and singing (vs. 1-2), but it is also about obedience as well (vs. 7b-11). We called to not only "worship" but also to "bow down," to show forth praises and give submission. In truth, they are a package deal: praise without obedience is hypocrisy, while obedience without praise is dead formalism and legalism. Praise and obedience are like "spirit" and "truth": both are necessary for proper worship (John 4:24).
If God is "our maker" (vs. 6) and "our God" (vs. 7), and we are His "people" and "sheep" (vs. 7), then worshipping Him for who He is and what He does is not only a matter of praise (for His goodness and greatness) but also obedience (for His leadership and headship). The people of the wilderness wanderings are the prime example of this (vs. 8-11): somehow they managed to give praises at the tabernacle and refuse to enter the promised land (and stay out of it) when they were told to.
God does not need a legion of yes-men and cheerleaders anymore than He needs dour-faced servants catering to His every whim. What He calls for are a people who delight in Him so much that they not only willfully and gladly offer up praises but also themselves.

-Jon Vowell

Jesus: Light of the Dark World

2009-07-28T10:44:00.001-07:00

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men; and the light shineth in the darkness, and darkness cannot lay hold of it." John 1:4-5

"Everyone that does evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds shoould be exposed." John 3:20

"The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." John 7:7

"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." John 18:37

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b

The destruction of the enemy and his works begins and ends with the proclamation and revelation of the truth. Jesus was not hated because He lead military uprisings (which He didn't), nor because He merely taught us to love each other (which He also didn't); rather, He was hated because He spoke the truth to those in and of the darkness. The result was like fire and deadwood, or vampires and the sun, or sodium and water: it was not a pleasant mixture.
Jesus, however, was not here to mix pleasantly with all things: he was here to start a fire (Luke 12:49), to break a spell, both in word (His teachings) and in deed (the Cross). Jesus was the Light not just because He is and came from God, who dwells in Light inaccessible, but also because He was the truth and spoke the truth, and the darkness hated Him for it.
We too are called to be such a witness; not a witness to our own ideas or notions, but to the truth: the truth that God has revealed in His word and in Christ. As Christ was the light of the world (John 8:12) so too are we (Matt. 5:14-16). We are called to pierce the darkness with a hated yet unquenchable light, and thus we can expect the same ire but also the same victory. The world loves two things: (1) convenient lies that are easy to forget while they support our congenial apathy towards and complacency in Sin, and (2) uncertainty and doubt as an appropriate hiding place for our pet preferences and opinions. They love these things because they fear what truth and certainty will reveal about themselves and their preferences, viz., that they are weighed and found wanting before the holiness of God.
We are told to sow the word like seeds; what an image to think of the seeds as sparks of flaming light that illuminate the night and burn up the dead and rotting things! We are the light-casters: we bear witness to the truth, and in doing so cast shards of Heaven's light like fire round about. This is the fire that Christ has started and that we continue, until perhaps all the elements of the earth will melt by its fervent heat.

-Jon Vowell

Two Realities of the Christian Life (plus a Third)

2009-07-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Ps. 93:3-4

Herein are two realities of a Christian's life: the trials and tribulations of the world and the faithfulness and goodness of God.
That troubles are here equated to "floods" is apropos. We often feel inundated by the cares of life, a seemingly endless stream of discouraging distractions. From the sorrows common to all men (disease, death, etc.) to our own particular heartaches and pains, they are always like a flood: overwhelming and relentless. Scripture nowhere promises that in this life we will have a lack of troubles.
It is good to know, therefore, that God "is mightier" than all the troubles of life, and equally apropos image; for when we are in the midst of struggles, nothing seems "mightier" than it. Thus, it is like music to our ears to hear that our God has clothed Himself with a strength that is mightier that all the waves of sorrow and care (vs. 1).
"Thy throne is established of old; Thou art from everlasting. [...] Holiness adorns Thine house, O Lord, forever" (vs. 2, 5). Herein is a third and final reality, a truth that we all gladly hand our hats on: troubles. though overwhelming and relentless, are also temporal; only one thing is eternal, and that it our God and all that He is (i.e., His holiness). The valley of the shadow of death is a real yet temporary thing; it is goodness and mercy that shall follow you "all the days" of your life (Ps. 23).

-Jon Vowell

The Two Works of God

2009-07-28T09:48:00.001-07:00

"Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work; I will triumph in the works of Thy hands. [...] When the wicked spring up as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is [so] that they shall be destroyed forever.... The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." Ps. 92:4, 7, 12-13

Herein are the two works of God: the defeat of His enemies (vs. 7-9) and the triumph of His people (vs. 10-14). These are two sure promises on which we have great grounds to rejoice, and that for two reasons.
The first is obvious: the good guy wins and the bad guys lose. We are not victors in and of ourselves; rather, it is God who is the Victor, and through Christ we share in His victory. In the end, we shall see the affirmation of the child-like view: evil will have its momentary triumphs, but will ultimately fail at the hand of the hero. God's first work is the destruction of his enemies and His final triumph, and us with Him.
The second reason is (what I call) theodic: "to show that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him" (vs. 15). All the skeptics and doubters will be answered in the end, for we shall all step into the other side of silence, and view the tapestry of God's will and purposes from the front (so to speak), and we will at long last see the sense of it all. At that day, every mouth will be stopped, and all will know what the angels of heaven have always known: Holy is the Lord. God's holiness will be proven, and none will say a word against it.

-Jon Vowell

Our Dwelling Place

2009-07-24T09:09:00.001-07:00

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. [...] Because thou hast made the Lord...thy dwelling place, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Ps. 91:1, 9-10

These thoughts are not fanciful idealism; they are solid, practical truths of life. It is true that your physical dwelling, possessions, and relationships may be touched by evil and plague; your own body may be as well. Such is the way of the world. However, when God is your true dwelling place, nothing can ultimately touch, for God, His character and His promises, are sure and secure. The soul that is "hide with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3) may be beset by many troubles, but they will never be shaken. This is not prosperity gospel; Job 13:15 and Romans 8:37 encapsulate these truths more than the tenets of prosperity dogma. The one who has made God their dwelling place has become fundamentally unconquerable, and evil and plague can never truly touch them again, though the body they may kill.
"Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him.... I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him..." (vs. 14-15). Deliverance necessarily implies that one is in the midst of something, and it is a hard truth that much of human life means being "in the midst" of things. Nevertheless, the one who has made God their dwelling, their love, their one and only desire, will find deliverance, whether it by a miracle in the moment or death that gives way to victory. Like the Lord, the Christian is to put no stock in the people and things of this world, for we know that they are fallen and fragile, and will fail (John 2:23-25). Instead, our hope is in the eternal God who is and neither falls nor fails, and whoever dwells in Him shall never be moved (Ps. 15).

-Jon Vowell

Oswald Chambers on Christ-Likeness (or, The Inadequacy of Words)

2009-07-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

From the July 18th entry of Still Higher for His Highest:

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." Self-sacrifice may be simply a disease of the nerves, a morbid self-consciousness which is the obverse of intense selfishness. [...] Whenever I make self-sacrifice the aim and end of my life, I become a traitor to Jesus; instead of placing Him as my Lodestar I place Him as an example, One who helps me to sacrifice myself. [...] It is much easier to sacrifice myself, to efface myself, than to do God's will in God's way.

Oswald here reveals the inadequacy of words when we say (quite sincerely) that we are to "imitate" Christ. Though Christ-likeness is indeed or aim, we err when we call it "imitating" Christ, for that suggests mimicry, a conscious effort on our part to adhere as closely as we can to Christ character and guidelines. The danger is that we treat Christ like yet another spiritual guru whose Sermon on the Mount is the latest moral code that we are to try our best to follow. That, however, is not what "Christ-likeness" means.
The simple fact is that we are not to imitate Christ, but rather follow Him by obedience. He is our leader, not an example. To follow Him, to trust and obey Him, is our only duty; meanwhile, it is God who makes us "like Christ" (Phil. 2:13; Rom. 8:29-30) as we follow and obey Christ (John 14:15, 15:14). Christ-likeness is a work of God and not of ourselves. It is an impartation of Christ and not an imitation.
Surprisingly enough, "imitating" Christ could very well be a type of pride: "Look how like Christ I am! I follow Him so well!" "No, I follow Him better!" "No, I do!" Conversely, those who simply follow and obey Christ really have no grounds to boast, for two reasons: (1) whatever Christ-likeness they have is of God and not themselves, and (2) Christ leads each person differently, so there really is no way to compare any one to another (John 21:20-22).
This understanding of Christ-likeness as impartation rather than imitation changes the whole nature of the Christian life. I have been asked before about whether or not it is hard to "keep all of those rules" in order to be a good Christian. My response has been to point out that Christianity is not something that you do but rather something that you are made by God. The reason a true Christian "acts different" from others is not because they are really good at keeping the rules of a moral teacher, but because they, having decided to follow Christ, have been indwelt by the real and living presence of the Spirit of God, who makes them more like Christ along their way. Perhaps if we understood and expressed this necessary distinction between "keeping rules" and "being made into His image," perhaps then our lives and God's grace will become more wondrous, both to ourselves and others.

-Jon Vowell

The Real Nature of Salvation (A Lecture for Salvation 101)

2009-07-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.... For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.... I can of my own self do nothing...." John 5:19, 26, 30

"I am the vine, ye are the branches...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5

The implication of these two verses is that what we have (as believers) is what belongs to Christ, and what Christ has belongs to God. This gives an added dimension to the nature of Salvation.
All that God is (i.e., Holy--the perfect wholeness and harmony of His qualities) is what we, as humans, need to be (John 17:3; I Peter 1:16). However, as sinners (i.e., those bound by and enslaved to Sin; John 8:34 & Rom. 6:16) we are separated from God (Is. 59:2; Ps.88:4-5), and thus we cannot know Him and thereby partake in His holiness.
Christ has solved this problem on both fronts: [1] By being the sacrificial payment for Sin (I John 2:2), He ended the separation thereof (Eph. 2; Col. 1:20-22). [2] All that Christ is comes from God (John 5:19, 26, 30), and all that God is has been given to Christ (Col. 2:9). Therefore, it is through Him that we can know God and partake in all that He is (I Cor. 1:30-31; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9).
Thus, fellowship with God in His holiness was our destiny as humanity, but Sin brought by humanity's rebellion cut us off from that destiny. So God sent Christ so that (1) the world may be reconciled back unto Himself, and (2) all that He is may once again be ours (II Cor. 5:17-21). Therefore, we can see that salvation is not merely restored fellowship in the sense that God is no longer mad at us and won't throw us into hell; salvation is the restoration of a fellowship that leads into a partaking of and oneness with God and all that He is. This is the answer to mankind's deepest desires. This is the Gospel, which except a man believe, He cannot be saved.

-Jon Vowell

The Proper and Necessary Desire

2009-07-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

"Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name." Ps. 86:11

Herein lies two things that are proper and necessary for us to desire: the truth of God and the fear of God, i.e., the realities that God reveals and the reverence towards God for who He is. It is for these two things the psalmist request, and it is these two things that are sorely lacking today.
"A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself" (Pro. 18:2). We care very little for the truth that only God can reveal. The only truth that we desire is the "truth" that we invent for ourselves so that we can shape our identity and world as we see fit. If a certain truth is inconvenient, it can be dropped. Reality is unnecessary, and even lies can become "truth" if they make us feel better about ourselves and confirm our congenial preferences. In short, we would much rather shape our subjectivity by our subjectivity rather than the objectivity of God.
"An oracle in my heart says, 'The Transgression of the wicked is that there is no fear of God before their eyes'" (Ps. 36:1, Rev. marg.). We reverence God very little, but reverence ourselves very much, especially our preferences for God. Like truth, we would much rather shape God by our own subjectivity rather than accept the objective reality of Himself that he has revealed to us. Thus, today's modern "worship" is little more than idolatry, a ceremony of self-worship.
Herein, therefore, is the proper and necessary desire: to desire, not the God we want, but rather the God who is.

-Jon Vowell

Real Presence

2009-07-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

"...my heart and flesh crieth out for the living God." Ps. 84:2b

The main ignorance both inside and outside the church is that Christianity is about dead principles rather than a living person. Apparently, we are all about rite and ritual and ceremony with empty prayers and readings rather than communion with a living, personal being who is there. In addition, our churches are merely buildings of stone and wood rather than the house of the Holy One. Even holiness itself is nothing more than dead piety rather than an active principle emanating from a living and present presence that dwells within us. We must set this ignorance straight: Christianity is no more about dead formalism or stringent legalism than Christ Himself was; rather, Christianity is about actual fellowship with the living God who is there.
Perhaps the world can be excused for this ignorance, for how are they to know unless we tell them? Thus, we are the more guilty ones. Our lives, our deeds as well as our words, reveal nothing living or present, nothing active or personal. If we are not dead formalists orlegalists (or both), then we are at least pasty-faced moralists, our lives no different from the average pagan or heathen. Christianity, however, is not about dead religion; it is about the living God who walks with us and dwells within us. That reality should be reflective of a difference in our lives, a difference that cannot be simply explained away as mere religion and/or morality. To be "Christ-like" means that, like Christ, people must not know what to do with us because they have been in the presence of the living God, whether they knew it or not.

-Jon Vowell

Reminders on the Basics of Reality

2009-07-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

"Fill their faces with shame that they may seek Thy name, O Lord." Ps. 83:16

The purpose of punishment is remembrance. It is a (paradoxically) friendly reminder of the may things really are, a reality check courtesy call. To the punished (and unpunished; vs. 17-18), it reasserts the immutability of what is true and real, for all evil is ultimately a denial of the true and real. When God laid down His laws, He was not making arbitrary assignments; He was laying down the basics of reality. You really shouldn't steal, or murder, or dishonor your parents, or worship any other god if you want to be happy and well. All acts against such laws are merely denials of their status as truths, an action that clearly reveals the supreme idiocy of evil: it actually claims, with a straight face and sober disposition, that lies, theft, murder, dishonor, idolatry, etc., are good for the soul.
It is at this point that punishment comes to wake the sleepers from the dead, out of dreams and into daylight. Punishment reaffirms the truthfulness of the law: you can only succeed and be happy when you obey what is real. Therefore, God does not punish out of egotistical sadism, but rather out of benevolent mercy to shake us to our senses. Should not this be obvious, though? Our own parents (if they were proper) punished us, if not to save us from some immediate physical threat, then to teach us that in the real world, negative actions necessarily entail negative consequences. That is how our parents taught us, and our Heavenly Father is no different.

-Jon Vowell

"What goes up..."

2009-07-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

"I have said, 'Ye are gods,' and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." Ps. 82:6, 7

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,...for thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven'...yet thou shalt be brought down to hell...." Is. 14:12-15

"Thine heart was lifted up.... I will cast thee to the ground...." Ez. 28:17

"God resisteth the proud...." Js 4:6

Pride is quite literally a state of fighting against God, because it is (at bottom) a claim on His throne. Pride is when an individual claims the place of God in their life. Such an act can take various forms: it can be an overt and obvious malice, or it can hide itself under a veneer of innocence; it can consume the whole life or be sequestered to one besetting sin. Regardless of its form, it only has one result, for fighting against God can only have one result: to be cast down, i.e., humiliation.
Older Christianity was right when it labelled Pride (superbia) as the foundation of all sins, for sin always starts with some sort of attempted rebellion against God, both His character and His commands. When we aren't breaking His laws, we are making Him into something that He is not, whether it be a sentimental grandfather or a non-existent fantasy. All are attempts by prideful man to stand where God alone can stand (Ps. 82:1).

-Jon Vowell

On Darkness (and a word on Light)

2009-07-08T09:32:00.001-07:00

"...Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. [...] Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." Ps. 80:1b, 3, 7, 19

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:4

Jesus spoke of the "light of life" (John 8:12), a characteristic obviously belong to Jesus (the light of the world; John 8:12) and God (who is Light; I John 1:5). According to Scripture, being outside of God is properly understood as being in darkness, for what is darkness? Firstly, it is a confusion and deception, for it hides and distorts all things, so that our perception is clouded and unreliable. We follow every shadow and shade, our blinded eyes unable to see what is real. So also, those outside of God are blind (II Cor. 4:3-4), and they cannot see what they stumble over (Prov. 4:19).
Darkness is also a terror, a terror because of its deception. To be lost without sight or clear perception is to be trapped in the utter unknown, as if the unknown were dark ocean depths that one drowns in. We see no paths, we cannot identify any sound or face, whether they be real or of our own imagination. We cannot discern between friend and foe, threat and comfort. We cannot even identify ourselves, for every mirror merely reflects the darkness. So also, those outside of God know only fear and dread, for the world is dark and pitiless (I John 5:19), and they cannot find a place of safety and rest; neither can their hearts comfort them, for they are dark as well (Jer. 17:9).
This is the proper state of man outside of God: deceived and afraid. Thus, being redeemed by God is properly understood as being in the light; not just a single flash, but a continuous burning that illumines the darkness without and the darkness within, serving as guide and revealer not only for the pathways of the world but also the depths of the soul. It is this light that man desires, this light that Christ reveals: God is that light.

-Jon Vowell

Holiness (or, The Harmony of Fullness)

2009-07-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

"[Moses said,] 'Show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight...." Ex. 33:13

"Thy way, O God, is in holiness...." Ps. 77:13a (rev. marg.)

"Be ye holy, for I am holy." I Peter 1:16

Holiness is not mere morality; to"be holy" does not mean simply to "do good." Good action arises from holiness, but it is not the definition of holiness. Holiness, properly understood, means perfection in the sense of absolute completion, without lack or defect. All things that are of their nature lacking or defective cannot partake in such completion (for then it would no longer be completion), and thus holiness is also understood as sanctification, i.e., being "set apart." Subsequently, God alone can be properly called "holy," since in Him is the fullness of all good and true things, and thus He lacks nothing; meanwhile, we who are sinners, fallen and frail, are not holy because as sinners we fall short of God's fullness (Rom. 3:23). In addition, holiness has been understood to be beautiful in that it is the fullness of all good things working and standing in harmony with each other. Thus, older (more medieval) Christians often worshipped what scripture calls, "the beauty of holiness" (Ps. 29:2; 96:9; 110:3; II Chr. 20:21). It is this clockwork perfection, this harmony of fullness, that God has made us for and called us to.
We are not called to good-doing; we are called to God-likeness. We are not here to be moral people; we are here to be encores of the Incarnation (I Cor. 3:16). Christ did not come and die just to simply teach us the Sermon on the Mount, but rather to give us a "righteousness [that would] exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees" (Matt. 5:20). That kind of righteousness is the holy righteousness of God (the righteousness that the law was a portrait of), which is given to us in Christ (I Cor. 1:30; II Cor. 5:21). If we do not reconcile our worldview with (1) our high calling (i.e., the holiness of God), and (2) our amazing gift (i.e., the righteousness of God in Christ), then we will bumble about half awake and living lesser lives.

-Jon Vowell

Love and Righteousness

2009-07-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name; and deliver us and purge away our sins, for Thy name's sake...and render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord." Ps. 79:9, 12

Redemption and damnation, salvation and judgment, love and righteousness; whichever way that you put it, these are the two arms of God's government, two of the most essential qualities of His character. It is these two qualities that are the most sorely attacked today by the religious and secular alike.
We hate the love of God as Scripture presents it, i.e., a holy love that desires to make lovable and lovely the hateful and ugly beloved. It is less like Romeo and Juliet and more like The Taming of the Shrew. It is a love that will not tolerate any stain or blemish, not matter how much we tolerate or even cherish it. We despise such a heavy-handed and true love, so we boil God's love down into either a fluffy sentimentalism that means absolutely nothing or a cruel toleration that winks at the damnation of a soul out of fear of being labelled "mean," "insensitive," or other useless buzz words of contemporary society. The love of God is a consuming fire: all that is imperfect will burn away.
Likewise, we hate the righteousness of God because it directly conflicts with our damnable version of the love of God. If our supreme deity is to be sentimental and tolerant, then He must necessarily not be moral. The sentimental and tolerant man suffuses all things into an incomprehensible whole; the moral man sets everything in rigid distinctions, distinctions like right and wrong, good and evil. Such distinctions are inherent in true righteousness, and thus righteousness is an insufferable eye-sore to the modern world (esp. Modern Christendom). Consequently, they choose not to talk about it; it is too much of a landmine. The righteousness of God is a consuming fire: all that is imperfect will burn away.
If we are to remain loyal to God and His revelations of Himself, then we must maintain the reality of His holy character, i.e., the fullness and harmony of His qualities, viz., love and righteousness. The world does not need sentimental toleration, a fluffy cruelty that "loves" it by amassing it into a pile of indistinguishable nothingness that it can safely ignore; what the world needs is a holy and true love and righteousness that burns away our impurities and makes us fit for itself.

-Jon Vowell

Sovereignty and Evil (or, God and Julian)

2009-07-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee...." Ps. 76:10a

This is perhaps the hardest part of sovereignty to swallow, viz., that the evil of man (and nature) have their place in the tapestry of God. Often it is very little comfort to tell people that what seems senseless now will make sense in the end. Even if such a statement is true (and it is), it is hardly encouraging to those caught in the midst of the real consequences of real evil. That evil makes sense somewhere else, a place that we will get to one day, does not make the pain go away. Indeed, the element of mystery can be a joyous surprise, but also a frustrating agony. Darkness and silence are cold comforts, at least that's what the post-WW II twentieth century concluded.
Then again, perhaps the sovereignty of God in regards to evil is cold comfort because it is not considered fully. The truest pain (and subsequent anger) of any evil (both moral and natural) is the apparent senselessness of it all. A great hope burned into the psyche of all humanity is the hope that evil will not triumph, and part of that hope means that even if evil makes and initiates its plans on us, there is something behind it all that undermines their schemes and fits it into the ultimate victory. We could bear the wrath of man (and nature) if that wrath were fundamentally and ultimately supplanted by and in the service of grace and redemption. The mere existence of evil is no true weapon for an atheist or skeptic; the truest weapon is its apparent senselessness. It is that point that we must deal with.
We deal with it incorrectly, though, when we feel like we have to state the exact purpose in detail. God does not give the details of His purpose behind things. The only thing we know is that it will be glory to Him and goodness to us. It is not the details of the fact, however, that matter. Rather, it is the fact itself, i.e., God's sovereignty does have a point, and though it is temporarily hidden from view, a hidden point is a far, far better thing than no point at all. Actually, that every incident, no matter how indecent, is (in truth) all a part a grand purpose, a purpose whose goodness vastly exceeds the summation of the evil allowed in it, has been (and should continue to be) the sole Christian apologetic on the subject. I am not sure when, where, or how the sovereignty of God got turned against us (as though biblical truth could undermine the truth of the Bible), but it should not be so. The sovereignty of God does not mean that "God is in control"; it means what Lady Julian said that it means: "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." That is the hope of the Christian faith, and it is time that we spread that hope around.

-Jon Vowell

Sovereignty and Wine (or, God as MC)

2009-06-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

"For exaltation cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south; God is the judge. He pulleth down one and setteth up another; for in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, whose wine is red and fully mixed, and He poureth it out, and the wicked of the earth shall drain and drink the dregs thereof." Ps. 75: 6-8

"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me. I kill and make alive. I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." Deut. 32:39

"Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?" Job 2:10

The image mentioned in this psalm is a master of a feast doling out the wine to His guests, with everyone receiving from His hand alone. The wicked receive justly delivered wrath and calamity ("the dregs") while the rest receive their own circumstances from God, whether they be good or evil, the point being that it all flows from God and no one else.
Now, the dance of sovereignty and freewill is a complicated spectacle, and those who too quickly and flippantly disregard one over the other cheat themselves out of the full beauty and wonder of that spectacle. If we require that the truth be simple, we had better find another universe. As it is, the truth is mysterious, not only in that it is hidden but also in that, when it is uncovered, it is a spectacle, and a spectacular one at that. Christianity has long affirmed this: life through death, strength through weakness, glory through desolation, God made flesh, etc. Reality is an endless procession of apparent opposites standing side by side and working in collusion; thus, a "dance" is a proper analogy. Until we begin to think of truth in these terms, we will always be confused and at each other's throats.
For the purposes of this entry, we shall assert sovereignty. Of course, we must assert the reality and importance of man's freewill (as it relates to his value and dignity as an image of God-bearer), as well as the reality and importance of the consequences of their freewill actions; but we must also assert (without fear or pause) the absolute control of God over every instance and incident of our lives. If God's absolute control were not true, then He would not be God.
We must not, however, deceive ourselves on this issue like the world does. Sovereignty does not mean mere control. It means control towards an end, an end that is good (Rom. 8:28). Too many people talk of God's sovereignty in terms of a mere control or manipulation devoid of purpose of plan. It is no wonder then that they get so angry; God's "mysterious ways" come across as arbitrary and pointless. Such a view is tragic precisely because it is unbiblical. The scriptures assert that God's ways are headed to a certain and purposeful end. To put it in other ways: God doles out the wine as He pleases because He is making the greatest feast ever known. He uses what colors He pleases because He is making the greatest painting ever known. He writes notes where He pleases because He is making the greatest symphony ever known. He chisels where He pleases because He is making the greatest sculpture ever known. He plays where He pleases because He is making the greatest game ever known. He moves where He pleases because He is making the greatest dance ever known. He directs where He pleases because He is making the greatest production ever known. He woos as He pleases because He is undertaking the greatest romance ever known. He cuts where He pleases because He is undertaking the greatest operation ever known. He fights how He pleases because He is fighting the greatest war ever known. He reveals as He pleases because He is teaching the greatest lesson ever known. He hides as He pleases because He is preparing the greatest surprise ever known. Anyway you put it, our God's sovereignty is no mere tyranny; it is activity, the production of certain events in order to acquire a certain result, a result whose value far out-weighs and out-shines the whole of the events that made it possible. That is not just the fact of sovereignty, but also the hope of sovereignty, the reason why we rejoice to know that God is in control.

-Jon Vowell

"We are on the wrong side of the tapestry. The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else." -G.K. Chesterton

A Different Kind of Empiricism

2009-06-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

"I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked [...] until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end." Ps. 73:3, 17

"Then Jesus said unto him, 'Except ye see..., ye will not believe.' The nobleman said unto Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.' Jesus said unto him, 'Go thy way; thy son liveth.' And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way." John 4:48-50

Faith is a different kind of empiricism: it is about trusting a person rather than observing things. We trust the testimony of the biblical writers because it is the testimony of God (II Peter 1:20-21), His declaration and revelation of Himself. It is often true that our sight experiences will openly conflict with what God says is true. "I was envious of the foolish...until I went into the sanctuary of God," i.e., only when we take our focus off of the temporal and subjective circumstances around us and place it on the eternal and objective God who is there, only then do we know that what He says is true. Only then do we understand because our hearts and minds are centered on a person and not things.
"Except ye see...ye will not believe" echoes the stance of Thomas (John 20:25) and it echoes most of us today. God does not expect us to see and then believe His word; he expects us to believe His word and no more, to trust that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He said He would do. In addition, if we take the book of Job into account, it seems that God actually favors stacking the deck against Himself. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15), i.e., though my outward circumstances tell me something different, I will trust the word of the Lord. That is the essence of faith.

-Jon Vowell

The Fundamentality of Grace

2009-06-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

"Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, and all nations shall serve Him; for He shall deliver the needy when he crieth. The poor also, and he that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight." Ps. 72:11-14

That which will cause every knee to bow in the end will be the understanding and acknowledgment of God's goodness and grace. Christ's humiliation was and is the grounds for His exaltation (Phil. 2:8-9), and that humiliation was to become a man and die on the Cross. We do not draw men unto God by lifting up clever arguments and sound speeches. Those things are useful, but they are not the needful thing (I. Cor. 2:1-5). The needful thing is the elevation of Christ as the demonstration of God's love towards us (John 12:32 & Rom. 5:8).
Any old god can garner worship out of fear and terror, and our God is a God of wrath and judgment. It is grace, however, that serves as the grounds for worship, His goodness as the foundation of praise. Of course, His grace and goodness is complex; from our limited and fallen perspective, His love towards us can often look like hate. We will see the goodness of it all in the end, however; we will see the hidden workings of grace, and we will know that in all things the Divine was and is not indifferent towards us and has directly involved Himself in our salvation; and with all the nations of men left on the earth, we will cry, "Holy, holy, holy."

-Jon Vowell

Desiring God: Something Real

2009-06-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

"O God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. I have looked for Thee in the sanctuary to see Thy power and Thy glory. [...] My soul followeth hard after Thee...." Ps. 63:1-2, 8a

The whole of Christianity these days (esp. in the Western world) comes off as either dusty and fragile or fluid and messy rather than solid and real. We could help it come off as solid and real more if we, as Christians, took seriously this concept of thirsting after God, of desiring Him above all things. Some of us desire head knowledge, with good theology and proper exegesis. Others of us prefer respectable religion, with practical advice and moralisms. Many other desire various things. Very few desire God. All other things are not bad per se. They become bad when they take the place of God, as they often do in our lives. To paraphrase Charles Williams, we say "This is Thou," but never get to "This is not Thou." To paraphrase Lewis, we mistake the inns for home.
Perhaps Christianity and its current Christians would be taken more seriously as something solid and real (i.e., as truth) if we (1) unapologetically told people that there is a God, that He can be known, and that to be known by Him is the soul's deepest desire; and (2) unapologetcially live like it, because it is the truth. If people gazed into a common sanctuary and saw souls thirsting after and satisfied by God, His power and glory and all that He is, rather than dusty scholars and amiable moralists, then perhaps they would begin to see why the Gospel is the only good news out there, for it tells us how to satisfy our deepest longings by taking us back to God through the Cross of Christ.

-Jon Vowell

Give me God (or, A Catharsis)

2009-06-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

"Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him cometh my salvation. [...] Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be weighed in the balance, they are altogether lighter than a breath. [...] God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth to God." Ps. 62: 1, 9, 11

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." II Corinthians 4:18

It's easy to get caught up in temporary things. Besides the fact that they are what is "seen" (and thus more readily relatable), there is also nothing inherently wrong with them. The only time that they go wrong is when they are given precedent over what is eternal, and yet we do this all the time. The whole of the truly modern age (right up to our current choking fog of the post-modern swamp) can be quite accurately defined as a time of treating temporal things as fundamental and necessary while treating eternal things as superficial and trivial. "Please," we cry, "don't bother troubling us about our souls or whatnot. Just wake us up when the latest cultural/political/ideological fad or fashion rides by so we can jump on its bandwagon." To paraphrase Lewis, we are far too easily amused and distracted.
Christians don't escape from this problem either. The whole of Modern Christendom can be quite succinctly described as one long, horrendous fashion show, with every single item being a mere retread of what the world had already paraded out with much better ability last year. As the blood-bought children of God, we are the unworthy (and therefore humbled) recipients of the deep, eternal truths of God, and yet we keep traipsing across the world's stage like a pathetic johnny-come-lately to every secular and worldly stage show under the sun. We are supposed to be leading all men unto Christ and into the fear of the Lord, and yet the best that we do today is to teach everyone how to be moral, amiable apathetics courtesy of our Christian knock-off versions of self-help guides and practical advice columns.
What's even worse is that we're not only mimicking the world concretely, but also abstractly, taking its philosophies and ideologies and merging them with Christianity in a most unholy union. As sudden as a winter evening, "faith" now equals "doubt," and all the rich teachings and history of the Christian Faith are summarily declared stupid. Faith itself becomes wholly subjective, having been violently cut from all objectivity, until it means absolutely nothing precisely because it means anything. On all counts, we look and sound and feel so much like the world and all of its vacuous and counterfeit pleasures and promises that we render the gospel and all of God's truth utterly impotent. The world assumes a priori that we have nothing to say that they haven't already heard before and better from the mouths of their own prophets and preachers.
I don't want to be well-adjusted. I don't want to know how to balance my checkbook or work the stock market. I don't want to be amiable or moral or decent. I don't want to "just get along." I don't want psychotherapy, anti-depressants, or self-help tips from people as fallen as myself. I don't want a "dialogue" or "conversation." I don't want to be represented. I don't want another agenda, fashion, or fad. I don't want to be where truth is not allowed to "colonize the space." I don't want to hear your subjective opinions or experiences. I don't want me subjectivity to be cut from that which is objectively real and true. I will tell you what I want. I will tell you what the world really wants, what it has always wanted, and what Christianity has always had to give to it. I want to know if there is a God, and if He can be known, if He can know me, and how. I want to know if repentance and forgiveness are real and capable of doing away with real sin and real guilt, that grace is truly greater than all my sin. I want truth to not only "colonize the space" but also colonize all of me, filling me up like blood and air and water and food. I want abundant life and life everlasting. I want to be consumed by the fire of the God who is there. I want to love God like a man loves a woman, to be enraptured and intoxicated by Him always, to want to protect Him from His enemies and myself. I want that which is solid and real, timeless and eternal, something that has sustained those before me and will sustain those after me. Give me God and all that He is or else I will perish, and that without remedy.
All these things and more are offered as unflinching and unapologetic objective truths and realities by the Christian Faith to all people regardless of their experiences or circumstances. Is that the message that the world hears, though? Is that what the Church even hears? I'm afraid not. The Faith begun by the Incarnate God of the universe has been made by its followers into an impotent side-show act. May the Lord have mercy on us all.

-Jon Vowell

A Resting Place

2009-06-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

"From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Ps. 61:2

Even the strongest amongst us still demands a security blanket. Even the most daring performer who walks across a tightrope with no net still demands that an ambulance be present and a well-staffed hospital be within driving distance. As human beings, we all want and need something solid and secure outside and other than ourselves on which our selves can safely dwell. We all desire a "rock that is higher" than us, a foundation other than our own meager souls. What a miserable creature is he who is the highest in his own private universe. When things fall apart (as they invariably do), where can such a one as he turn? Fallen, finite, fallible creatures cannot sustain themselves, cannot be their own resting place; not that we don't try, but that it will never work. Our limited and damaged subjectivity needs to be bound to a perfect objectivity or else it is lost like a ship on the sea without a star in the sky.
The more honest and clear-headed ones amongst us understand this fact, but nobody seems to find the right objectivity, the right"rock that is higher." The things that we find may be more solid and secure than ourselves, but they are always a product of this world, and thus like the world are limited and transient: they can only do so much, and they eventually fade away. Coupled to that is the fact that troubles know no bounds, nor evil any limitations. All of our best efforts will be swallowed up in some kind of darkness and despair, and it is in those moments that we can either look up or go down and out: look up and realize that whatever this "rock" is, it must be not only not of us but also not of this world; or down and out into perpetual cynicism and hellish night.

-Jon Vowell

"My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me."
-Eliza E. Hewitt

The Dispensable God

2009-06-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

"Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly, for it is He that shall tread down our enemies." Ps. 60:11, 12

"For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do, because of His good pleasure." Phil. 2:13

"...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5b

God is as much a necessity as He is a luxury. He is a luxury in that he is a delight to our souls and more than we ever could have imagined (or deserved). He is a necessity in that we cannot dispense with Him. To do so means death, of our souls and minds and bodies. He is the thing that we simultaneously want and need in the ultimate sense, though we are perhaps incapable of expressing such a fact adequately. He is such a luxury that man, in our darkened ignorance, still seeks to fill the void that separation from Him has left behind. He is such a necessity that we cannot even choose Him unless His word gives us the power to do so (Rom. 10:17). On all points, we cannot live without Him, though the world desperately tries to.
The Church tries to as well, sadly. The denial of God's luxury and necessity, of Him being what we most want and need, is a hallmark symptom of practical agnosticism, a curious yet obvious aliment of Modern Christendom. We view God as quite dispensable, like a hat that can be worn our not depending on season and climate or fashion and mood; and that's if we even think about Him at all. Perhaps if we got our heads screwed on straight and our priorities realigned, if we would stop treating God like something trivial (like a hat or other accessory) and return to treating Him like something vital (like air or chocolate), if we would simply dispense with the dispensable God and get back to our luxurious and necessary God, we would all be much better off, and our lives far more Christian.

-Jon Vowell

Final Justice (or, Apocalypse Please)

2009-06-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

"The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth [God's] vengeance; He shall wash His feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, 'Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily He is a God that judgeth the earth." Ps. 58:10, 11

It is a lie that justice sometimes doesn't prevail. Humanity's well-intended yet feeble attempts at justice may sometimes fail, but Justice will always prevail, even if it seems postponed for the time being. There is a God who judges the earth, who will judge the living and the dead. There is no escaping this God (Rom. 14:12), nor this judgment (Heb. 9:27). It will be a terror for the wicked and a joy for the righteous.
It will also be a revelation for everyone. "A man shall say" that justice is real, and that there is a God who is just. Many today try to poison our minds with the notion that God is somehow unjust. A day is coming, however, when every mouth will be silenced, and every knee shall bow, and every heart will understand and be without excuse at the unveiling of God's final judgment. There really is a reward for those who do good or evil; all of the wronged rights and unrighted wrongs are not in vain, nor are they the end. The end is the great and terrible day of the Lord, when all shall be well. That day is coming, and every believer that hopes in that day sanctifies themselves further towards the likeness of God (I John 3:2-3); for despair darkens the soul, and we must not despair. The world is dark enough as it is, and our hope, faith, and love are to flow forth and make us shine with the holy light of God like stars in the night.

-Jon Vowell

In the Midst

2009-06-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

"A Contemplation of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave: Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in Thee; yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be over past." Ps. 57: Title, 1

Sometimes true safety doesn't look much like safety. In all honesty, the "safety" that God promises looks very much like danger. I'm sure David would have felt very safe in a fortified camp surrounded by armed men. Instead, he is scurrying alone in the the dark of a cave with Saul and his men hot on his heels, and it is in that damp and dark emptiness that he is "in the shadow of [God's] wings."
To be truly "safe" means to be with God; all other circumstances and considerations are secondary and thus immaterial. It is amazing how close to the breaking point that God will stress that truth. It is a fascinating paradox that the safest moments are the ones that seem to be the most dangerous. Look at the book of Revelation: things go from bad to worse, and it is at the absolute uttermost of breaking despair that Christ returns and wins the day. Look at the gospels: how many times were the disciples in utter panic before Jesus put all at ease? Often the people of God are in the very midst of slavery, banishment, exile, furnaces, prisons, persecutions, etc., when God brings them forth shining like a golden star. There is a threat buried within the promise of Isaiah 43:2, a threat that God's presence is contingent upon our being in the middle of fires and floods.
And why should such things not be? If God were to keep us safe in the midst of calm and peaceful times and things, what is the good of that? It would be just as if there were no God at all. If, however, we are kept safe in the midst of the chaotic tempest, with its cold waters threatening yet unable to drown us, then we have reason to glorify God. It is precisely when things are at their worst that God is nearest; it is exactly when we are weakest that God is strongest. That is the meaning behind the "weak/strong" paradox of the Christian faith, and we would do well to remember it when the more common darker skies of approaching storms cloud our horizons.

-Jon Vowell

Now and Forever

2009-06-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. [...] For Thou hast delivered my soul from death; wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Ps. 56:3, 13

It is called the life of faith for a reason. Salvation is a unique and extraordinary moment, but what about all the moments afterwards? You trust that Christ will stand with you at the judgment seat; do you trust that He is standing with you while you seat in your seat right now? You believe that God has delivered your soul from death; do you believe that He will deliver your feet from falling? You believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and have been saved (Acts 16:31); do you now believe that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6)? If we are honest with ourselves, we would say that we very much believe the formers and very much doubt the latters on a day-to-day basis.
We are subjective beings. We experience circumstances and people in ways that (in some sense) are unique unto ourselves. However, that does not mean that our subjectivity is always right; more often than not, it is flat-out wrong. We often respond to situations in ways that are contradictory to what is real: we doubt when we should believe, we worry when we should trust, we hate when we should love, love when we should hate, grieve when we should be joyful, sing when we should mourn, etc. God has revealed to us what is real, and our subjective selves must be bound to His objective revelations, so that we may not be tossed about by our unreliable human emotions and wisdom.

-Jon Vowell

"...while ye have the light..."

2009-06-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

"Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." Ps. 55:5

"Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." John 12:35-36

We err if we see the Christian life as all sunshine and roses. If we are not in a horror of great darkness right now, we are at least in a frustration of plain darkness, a seemingly endless waiting period where nothing seems to happen (except, perhaps, what you do not want to happen). God gives us light, such as His word (Ps. 119:105) and His Son (John 1:4-5), as well as His general revelations (Rom. 1:19-20). When the moments come that He enlightens our minds and illuminates our pathways, we must be sure to open our minds and hearts so as to close them again on the solid natures of His truth, beauty, and goodness. If we walk in the daylight flippantly, taking nothing that we see or hear to heart, then we will be dismayed in the night season. We can only be "the children of light" if while we have the light we believe in it.
This is not to say that there are moments when God is not with us. God is always with us (Matt. 28:20b). What happens is that there are times where God hides Himself from our view (e.g., John 12:36b - "When Jesus had said these things, he departed and did hide himself from them"). Where once His presence and purpose seemed so clear, now it has faded like a dream. The point is that we remain true to God and what He has revealed to us even and especially when He is hidden from us. There are stabs of light that pierce the darkness, pieces of Heaven that come raining down like manna in this vestibule of Hell that we call earth. While we have it, we may walk; when it goes, we must sit and wait. "Walk while ye have the light," for "he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." Sitting and waiting is the hardest thing; it is the hardest thing to sit and trust in the light and what it has shown you while your immediate circumstances seem to mock your faith, and the only light that you have is what you received the last time you walked in the light. It is our lot, however, to walk in the light so that we may burn in the night. Whatever opportunities we have, however, to meet with the light, let us take them gladly and vigorously, like a traveller in the desert stumbling across an oasis. Let us fill up for our journey so that we may have for ourselves and for others that we meet along the way.

-Jon Vowell

The Paradox of Man

2009-05-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

"God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them turned aside; they are altogether become corrupt. There is none that doeth good; no, not one." Ps. 53:2-3

The scriptures give some positive views of man that we must not lose in these new dark ages. One view is that man is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and thus has intrinsic value (Gen. 9:6). Another is that possibility of man's future glorification (Rom. 8:18, 19). As important as these positive views are, the negative view is just as important (if not more so). Mankind is fundamentally valuable, but is also fundamentally lost. Too many modern creeds (both the religious and secular) account for only one reality or the other. Man is either a purposeless worm or a would-be god. Only the Christian doctrine captures all of the facts into one truth: man has the capacity to do good and the incapacity to be holy.
Truth is essential paradoxical, and the truth about mankind is that we are a paradox: the totally depraved image-bearer of God, an intrinsically valuable damned sinner. The modern world would rather make us a god or an animal; in either case, a dehumanization occurs, for man as man is ultimately abolished. God came to seek and to save man, because it is man who is lost and in desperate need of God's holiness and love.

-Jon Vowell

Humor for the Angels

2009-05-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

"The righteous also shall see [the judgment of God], and fear; but they shall laugh at [the judged]: 'Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness." Ps. 52:6, 7

Trusting in anything other than God (whether it be material possessions or our own finite wits and reason) is hysterical precisely because it is so ludicrous. We have often laughed at a child attempting to do something quite out of its league (such as moving a heavy object or handling a complex machine), and the more they refuse (as they often do) the help of an able grown-up, the funnier it gets. Their self-delusion is hilarious; they cannot see themselves for who they are: weak, unable, and in need of help. In the spiritual realm it is the same. Without God, we are all those weak, incapable children, and our every attempt to control things is a joke to those who know better.
It is a pathetic picture, but pride is pathetic. It will not embrace humility at the start, but rather puts itself higher and higher, so that their inevitable humiliation (for every knee shall bow; Phil. 2:9-11) will be far more painful than those who submitted from the start. The end of pride is humiliation, and to not trust God is to be the joke of all the angels.

-Jon Vowell

"I'm so sorry I've
Been so down, I
Started thinking things
Could never turn around,
And I begin to believe
That all we are is
Material.
It's non-sensical."
(Switchfoot)

Living Truth

2009-05-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." Ps. 51:6

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." I John 1:8

For God, truth is ultimately about the soul and not the head. Mere knowledge of the truth and the ability to give it lip service is not enough; the truth must be a part of our very being, our very person. If we have utter head knowledge, but it has not ingrained itself into our hearts, so that that which was once abstract concepts now become concrete realities in our lives, we deceive ourselves. We think because we can spout the truth that the truth is with us, but the opposite is true; in our heads, on our lips, but absent from our hearts and lives.
There is nothing wrong with head knowledge per se. Truth must start in your head before it can get to your heart; it must be comprehensible before it can be real. That being said, God is no more interested in spiritual scholars than He is spiritual simpletons. What He wants are spiritual people, those whose very lives reflect their awareness of and participation in a deeper reality, viz., the reality of God. The truth must get to your head, but it must not stay there. It is not meant for itself. It is meant to guide you to the One who is Truth. Well-meaning fools say, "Follow your heart." Your heart can only lead properly when the truth is in it, truth given by God: "In the hidden parts Thou shalt make me to know wisdom."

-Jon Vowell

The Object of Worship

2009-05-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

"Will I [i.e., God] eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the most High; and call unto Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. [...] Whose offereth praise glorifieth me...." Ps. 50:13-15, 23

Worship is to be centered around the actions and character of God and not our own actions and character. This is elementary, but the present state of worship makes such truth sound positively foreign. Modern worship is a self-centered affair, centered around our tastes, our feelings, our performance. Worship has become a kind-of self-actualization or self-aggrandizement, with "God" being a mere empty connotation word that serves to make us feel good about ourselves. God says that true worship is a glorifying of Him as a response to who He is and what He has done (and will do). It is not the great and fancy sacrifice(s) brought to the temple that mattered (vs. 8-12); what mattered was a spirit that recognized and focused on God and God alone. That fact has not changed, and any "worship" that takes your eyes off of God is idolatry, no matter how pious it presents itself.
In older churches (e.g., Medieval churches), the choir loft was often hidden from view so that you could not see the singers. Today, however, it is assumed that the singer (or performer, or whatever) is to be center stage, complete with a state-of-the-art sound system and lighting show. The spatial location of choir lofts is not the issue here. What is the issue is the apparent difference in spirit between these two methods: the former removes all distracts that it possibly can, while the former seems content with piling them on. How often we make worship about us! We raise our subjectivity above God's objectivity, making our subjectivity the central aspect, and thus make our praise idolatrous self-worship. Our subjectivity must be bound to His objectivity, not vice versa; let our glorying be in response to God and God alone, who He is and the great works He has done.

-Jon Vowell

The Riddles of God

2009-05-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

"My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre." Ps. 49:3-4

There are real riddles to be solved out there, and they contain three essential realities: (1) they are meant to be solved, (2) their solution will most likely be a paradox, and (3) man will never reach the end of them (though that is no excuse for not striving to solve them). The riddles of God are infinite, and they are to be our everlasting joy. To spend eternity knowing God through His infinite mysteries (and subsequently being known by Him) is the joy of Heaven. This joy is not an intellectual exercise; God is not an infinite algorithm to be infinitely studied. He is an infinite person to be infinitely known. The riddles of God will satisfy us even after time is no more.
Modern man hates riddles because he wants his reason to be supreme; nothing is to be outside of his comprehension. Such a sentiment is a delusional farce, but good luck getting them to believe it. The hunger to know absolutely is the ultimate arrogance and tragedy of modern man. Arrogant because they exalt fallen, finite human reason above everything (including God); tragic because so much has been lost by this hunger to absolutely know: the loss of God, the loss of meaning, the loss of love, the loss of man. There is nothing wrong with knowing, with striving for certainty; but the assertion that man's mind and reasoning can encompass the whole of all things (including God) is wrong, wrong because of its aforementioned arrogance and tragedy. We thought we had run out of mysteries, with the final answer being the dark despair of nothingness and meaninglessness. The reality, however, is that the riddles of God (i.e., Truth) springs eternal. God is still there, and He can be known; not exhaustively, but truly.

-Jon Vowell

"The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man." -G.K. Chesterton

Legacy

2009-05-22T18:25:00.001-07:00

"Beautiful in elevation...is mount Zion...the city of the great King. [...] Walk about Zion, and go round about her; count the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death." Ps. 48:2, 12-14

Mount Zion was where the temple was located, a building with far more significance than being a mere museum piece of Judaism. It represented two very important realities. The first was the spiritual legacy of the Jews. From the first tabernacle in the wilderness to the subsequent temples that were destroyed and rebuilt, the Jewish house of worship stood as a sure testimony to God's dealings in Israel's history. The second reality that the temple represented was the presence of God. God was not a mere past memory but a living fact of the present. The temple reminded the Jews not only that Heaven had touched earth, but also that it still touched earth; and those were the two things that they were to pass on to "the generation following."
We do a lousy job of passing on our spiritual legacy. Sometimes we divorce the immediate presence of God from the facts of church/Christian history and tradition, and our faith becomes cold and academic, with the scriptures becoming a mere textbook of knowledge. More often, however, we divorce the facts of history and tradition from the immediate presence, and our faith becomes hollow and weak, void of grounding and depth, and the scriptures a fluid subjectivity handbook for our own private eisegesis. We are to give to our children the richest heritage possible, teaching them the things of yesterday to enrich their own experiences today.

-Jon Vowell

The Objectivity of Worship

2009-05-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

"God is the king of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding." Ps. 47:7

"...they that worship [God] must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24

Worship is for the whole man, not just a part of him. It is no mere emotional experience any more than it is a mere intellectual exercise, though it seems that the intellectual side of things needs to be re-stressed today. We treat worship like a wholly subjective experience, which it is not. It is subjective, in that it is highly personal; but it is also equally objective, in that it is directed towards a definite object with definite realities. Our subjective praise of God must be bound to the objective truths of God that He has revealed to us. Binding your subjective experiences to objective realities is an essential paradox for many things, and worship is one of them.
We have very few who "praise with understanding" these days. Most worship is bound to utter subjectivity, which can cause one to wonder who it is exactly that everyone is worshipping. In order to avoid deceptive self-worship (which most modern worship is) or "God" becoming an empty connotative word with no definite substance, our spirits must be bound to the truth. We must not forget the individual man (for then or worship becomes mechanistic), but we must also not forget the God who is (for then our worship becomes a lie). Only when we account for both can we worship subjectively and objectively; only then can we have "praises with understanding."

-Jon Vowell

The Stillness of God

2009-05-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

"Be still, and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10

"Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord...." Ex. 14:13

"Peace, be still...." Mark 4:39

We often view peace as a self-conscious psychological state, whereas scripture reveals a deeper reality: true peace is a state of inward stillness caused by the knowledge of God. There is a stillness that God creates in us: not lethargy, but peace. It is the world that infects us with the chaos and noise of restlessness, while God commands us to be still and think on Him. Indeed, you cannot be still unless you think on Him who is unmoved and unmovable by the winds and waves of the world. The peace of God is the stillness of God, a stillness that He gives to us when our minds stay on Him. We would do well to capitalize on the still and quiet moments, whether or not our circumstances are in equilibrium to them.
The book of Revelation has Christ defeating His enemies with a "sharp sword" that comes "out of His mouth" (Rev. 19:15). The common understanding of this image is that His words are His weapons. The same voice that inaugurated history at the beginning will be the one to consummate it at the end. Some wonder what exactly His words will be, and I cannot help but wonder if it will not be "Be Still." The chaos of this world is stilled once and for all by the voice of God. That is a future happening, however; that same stillness can be ours in this very moment. "Where is your faith?" (Luke 8:25). The stillness is contingent upon faith, on knowing that God is God, that salvation is of the Lord, and that Jesus is in the boat with you in the midst of the storm.

-Jon Vowell

Imago Dei (or, The Artistic Conceit of Man)

2009-05-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

"My heart is overflowing with a good matter (I speak of my works to the king); my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer." Ps. 45:1

Man's capacity for artistic creativity is the surest proof of him being the image-bearer of God. As the Creator is, so is the creation, especially those who are made to be like Him. The human ability to reflect and reveal the deeper realities of the world and themselves will always set humanity apart. There are, of course, additional capacities that make up our "mannishness" (e.g., moral motions, rationality, etc.), but the creative imagination is perhaps the most fascinating. There are some fools who try to argue that other (and lesser) creatures have an ethical code of sorts as well as reasoning capabilities, but which of the animals ever wrote a psalm for their king (or their god)? Which sparrow painted the portrait of the eagle, or which antelope wrote a poem in the night about the lion on the hunt? Let all the fools be silent before the abundant creativity of man. Whether we reflect the glories of God or the depravities of our own fallenness, we are able to see the world different from other creatures; we can (in a sense) see them like God sees them, viz., their hidden quality and character that is (at the moment of perception) beyond words and expression and yet is capable of being spoken or expressed.
I wonder if God, existing before all finite things in the eternal dance of love that is the Trinity, said to His fellow Persons concerning the coming Creation, "My heart is overflowing with a good matter; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer," and then His tongue wrote those first words on the fabric of reality: "Let there be light." God has given us (on a smaller scale) the same ability and power, an ability that reasserts the dignity of humanity in all its variety, i.e., we are the image-bearers of Almighty God.

-Jon Vowell

"Art is the signature of man." -G.K. Chesterton

Thine is the Power

2009-05-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

"They did not possess the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou delighted in them. [...] I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. [...] In God we boast all the day long...." Ps. 44:3, 6, 8a

"Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen." Matt. 6:13b

Would to God that this attitude was fully ours now and forever! Alas, our lot is to fight for it, and fight by the Spirit of God. This world and the enemy will give us constant occasion to fumble for our own bow and sword, but the child of God knows no strength save that which belongs to their Father. "Thine is the...power." We dare not forget such truth. When we say the Lord's prayer, we are not willing these things to be; we are stating our acknowledgment that these things are. It is an act of submission to the reality of Almighty God.
Do you boast in God? I am not speaking of prideful self-depreciation, but rather of having a constant acknowledgment of where the power really comes from, where the light comes from, where the truth comes from. God is not teaching us to sit down and trash ourselves (as is the custom of some). He is teaching us to live within the constant awareness of Him as the abiding reality. Those who possessed the Promised Land and those who understand the Lord's prayer are those who know (and constantly live in the light of the knowledge of) the necessity of God in their lives. Of all the knowledge we can possess, let us grasp to that one with both hands.

-Jon Vowell

Soul-thirst

2009-05-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

"As the deer longeth after the water brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" Ps. 42:1, 2

"O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacle." Ps. 43:3

This is truly the cry of every soul, though only those touched by the grace of God can properly identify the object of their longing. Fallen man, separated from God by Sin, has an infinitely deep abyss in their soul that only the infinite can fill. Until they hear the gospel preached and have faith spark in their hearts, they will constantly chase every other thing under the sun. We often view some men's extravagance and folly as an occasion for scorn. It ought to be an occasion for pity: they are desperately trying to fill what only God can fill.
The child of God must not forget this desire; yet we are always in danger of leaving our first love. We are always in the hand of God, but how often we forget that hand! Can we say that the sentiment of the Psalmist is truly our sentiment? Is our life filled with creeds and service and playing church with utter apathy towards the living God, or are all things mere occasions to be drawn towards Him and away from all other things including yourself? Push it even further: do we let His "light" and "truth" lead us unto Him, or do we substitute Him for those things? Let God be our one desire, and let all else be that which transports us to Him and Him alone.

-Jon Vowell

"Revive Thy work, O Lord,
Create soul-thirst for Thee;
And hungering for the Bread of Life
O may our spirits be."
-Albert Midlane ("Revive Thy Work, O Lord")

Towards Us

2009-05-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

"Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are towards us; they cannot be recounted unto Thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. [...] I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me...." Ps. 40:5, 17a

"What is man that Thou are mindful of him?" Ps. 8:4a

"...ye...are known of God...." Gal. 4:9

The God of the deist, the aloof and disconnected one, does not exist, and neither does the god of modernity, the unknowable and impersonal nothingness. The living infinite-personal triune God who is there is ever mindful of us, ever concerned, ever caring. Let this good news ring in the ears of the lost: God is there, and He is not indifferent.
Let this good news ring in the ears of the believer as well, for they can be as agnostic as their unbelieving brethren. Many of us would do well to have Heb. 11:6 engraved over every doorway: "God is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." It is a mind-boggling yet joyous assertion of Christianity that the God of the universe knows us and wants us to know Him. That God desires (however He can "desire") communion with us is the scandal of Christianity. The world will gladly take any other god rather than the one that wants to be involved in their lives, and be livers can be the same. God is either the last thing on their minds, and the realization of His presence feels more like an intrusion than a "wonderful work." We must reassert to others and ourselves the wondrous fact that God's thoughts are "towards us," that He thinks of us, knows us, and wants us to know Him.

-Jon Vowell

"...how frail I am..."

2009-05-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. [...] And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee." Ps. 39: 4, 7

"I am the vine, ye are the branches...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5

Our dependence on God will be the great struggle of our lives. Even in the child of God, who is born of the Spirit, there is the capacity to set yourself squarely in the center of your life and circumstances, thrusting the burden of them all on your own feeble shoulders. Whether this is done out of pride or ignorance, the results are the same: we fall, we fail, and we lose control. It is a bitter reminder of our own inadequacies outside of God.
We would do well to remember our own frailty. God does (Ps. 103:13-14), and we should follow His example. This does not mean that you are to become a perpetual pity-party, going on and on about your weaknesses as though you were a martyr for the cause. Accounting for our frailty is to lead us away from ourselves (and our weaknesses) and towards God (and His strength). "I am weak, but Thou art strong," says the song, and that is to be the progression of our thoughts: the acknowledgment of our weakness should immediately turn into an acknowledgment of God's strength and our dependence on Him. If we turn our thoughts back on ourselves, we defeat the acknowledgment's purpose and find ourselves right back where we started, i.e., thinking that the whole show is all about us.

-Jon Vowell

The Life of Faith (and not Daisies or Dread)

2009-05-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

"Forsake me not, O Lord; O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation." Ps. 38:21-2

"Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." Is. 50:10 (NIV)

Darkness and despair can be a part of a Christian's life. If you disagree, then you have never read the scriptures. Though most of the troubles that came upon God's people were a result of their sin and rebellion, many others were merely a result of God's providence, His sovereign preference that they walk through the flood, through the fire, through the dark. Being a child of God does not mean sunshine and roses, nor does it even mean darkness and despair. The life of a Christian is one where you simply acknowledge (whether it be rain or shine) that you are in the hands of God, a fact that no external circumstances can change or affect.

In forgetting the reality of darkness in the Christian life, we forget the most vital thing: trusting God. In the overly optimistic view of life, we lose the understanding that God's ways are indeed mysterious and incomprehensible at the moment. However, in the overly pessimistic view of life, we can forget that God's proven goodness gives us grounds to trust Him. In the end, we should be preaching neither a life of daisies nor of dread; we should be preaching the life of faith, i.e., of trusting God; of acknowledging His sovereignty, His holiness, and His love in our lives.

-Jon Vowell

God: The Summation of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

2009-05-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and shall feed on His faithfulness. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Ps. 37:3-4

To trust God and to desire God--these are the two most difficult and yet vitally necessary lessons that a Christian must learn. It can be easily argued that our entire lives on this earth (and perhaps throughout eternity) will be and are being defined by our learning to trust and delight in God and God alone. The scriptures seem to scream such a message from cover to cover: only God can be trusted and only God is to be desired.

Those facts are not arbitrary egotism on God's part. As the omniscient observer at infinity, only He can take in and account for the whole of everything in His thinking, and thus only His word can be trusted. In addition, as a being whose nature is defined as "the beauty of holiness" (i.e., the beauty of the complete picture of His qualities and character), only He is the sum of all perfection and good things, and thus only He is to be desired (see I Chr. 16:29; II Chr. 20:21; Ps. 29:2, 96:9, 110:3).

Because God is the all-knowing observer and the summation of all good things, to trust or desire anything else is a danger for us because we are leaving the higher for the lower, the all-knowing and all-beautiful for the less knowing and less beautiful. Such a transaction does damage to our souls because we are leaving off that which our souls truly need and long for: true guidance and true beauty. That is why God asks us to trust and delight only in Him; not to satiate His ego, but for the good of our souls.

-Jon Vowell

Godless Christianity

2009-05-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

"An oracle within my heart on the transgression of the wicked: there is no fear of God before their eyes." Ps. 36:1 (Rev. Marg.)

Herein is the key difference between a child of God and a child of the devil: to the former, God is everything; to the latter, God is nothing, not just in an abstract and conceptual sense but also in an absolute sense. To the Christian, God is the abiding reality; to the unbeliever (esp. in our time) God is non-existent, lost, and dead. The two great tragedies that have laid the foundation for the two great crises of this age are (1) the overt attempt to absolutely define and categorize a God whose thoughts are unsearchable and ways past finding out (Rom. 11:33), and (2) the subsequent "loss" of God when Human reason could no longer track Him.
Unfortunately, Christians today do very little (esp. in the western world) to remedy this "loss" of God precisely because most Christians have no fear of God either. We have become (in Mr. Chamber's words) "rationalistic infidels"; we have been infected by the modern disease of run-away rationalism, though we are unaware of its symptoms because it has so ingrained itself into our cultural thinking. We too, like unbelievers, believe that if our rational mind cannot encompass a thing, then there must be something wrong with that thing rather than our minds. What arrogance! It is indeed a loss of the fear of God, the reverence of God, when we think that our limited, feeble, childish minds can comprehend the incomprehensible.

-Jon Vowell

Another Paradox

2009-05-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

"Let the Lord be magnified, who hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." Ps. 35:27b

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23

"...to die is gain." Phil. 1:21

It is common is Christianity today to not connect sacrifice with the goodness of God. Actually, I dare say that we do not connect it to God at all. We are quite certain that it merely involves us: our misery, our suffering, our loss. Thus, sacrifice today is degraded to an occasion for self-pity, which is just another term for pride. Such an outcome is a result of a lack of faith, viz., a lack of accounting for God in the midst of circumstances. If we add Him into the equation and reconcile our thinking with the fact that we "deny" all in order to gain God, then pride is ruled out as sacrifice becomes another occasion to give Him glory. Sacrifice is commanded, not so that we can lose, but so we can gain.
No one teaches this anymore, even in the truest of churches. Sacrifice comes off like some sort of caveat, a disclaimer pointing you to the fine-print that lets you know the deal is too good to be true. Conversely, Christ made sacrifice the focal point of His identity, viz., the loss of all for the will of the Father. In Christ, God suffered loss (Phil. 2:6-7) so that He may gain us (Eph. 2:14-17), and glory was found in such an act (Phil. 2:9-11). Likewise, we too are called to godliness, to God-likeness, to Christ-likeness. We are called to lay down our miserable, broken lives so that we may be made in the image of Christ (II Cor. 3:18), the very image of God. We are called to lose so that we might gain God, and all that He is.

-Jon Vowell

Christian Empiricism

2009-05-07T10:21:00.001-07:00

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." Ps. 34:8

Faith as blindness to the facts is a popular idiocy amongst the fashionably skeptical. It is, however, not the way that the Lord described His relationship with His people. "Prove me now," He says (Mal. 3:10); come with your eyes wide open. So Job said, "I have heard of Thee...but now my eye seeth Thee" (Job 42:5), and the Samaritan woman was told by her fellows, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). Our faith is not assured by the testimony of the blind and ignorant, but by those who said, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (I John 1:3a).

We do not believe because we were told to without explanation or evidence. We believe because someone said, "Come and see," and we came and saw the revelation of God as recorded by eye-witnesses. Our holy writ is not mere maxims and creeds. On a spiritual level, it is a conduit of the fiery presence and power of God (Heb. 4:12); but even on a purely physical level, it is still not a book of maxims or creeds. It is a record of those who both saw and heard that which we never did, so that we "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that [by] believing, ye might have life through His name" (John 20:31). We do not believe in the goodness of God (or anything of God) a priori, nor does God want us to. His command is that we taste with our mouths and see with our eyes and thereby know with our minds.

-Jon Vowell

The Feast that is God

2009-05-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

"When Thou saidst, 'Seek ye my face,' my heart said unto Thee, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'" Psalm 27:8

If we come to the holy scriptures expecting to receive maxims and premises rather than God, we err on the most important step. His book is not a text of rules and regulations; it is a revelation of Himself. The pages burn with his fiery presence and life and strength (Heb. 4:12a). If you think that you can approach that fire and not be burned, please think again. Its pages are the doorway to a furnace that Hell itself is but a fading ember in comparison. You see that holy writ placed before you? There is the gateway to the consuming fire.

Remember why you read and write from that book. It is not to demonstrate your own cleverness. It is not to become smarter than your peers or enemies. You come to this ancient tome because you desire God and long to see His face. His fires are your only warmth and light, His holiness the only truth, beauty, and goodness that you long for. You are not here to fulfill a duty or oath, but rather because you desire and delight in only the Light and Life of men. God's call to man (through the mouths of His prophets, His Son, and His word) is to seek His face. If you come to this table by any other motive, then you will miss the feast that is spread before you, the feast that is God.

-Jon Vowell

Oswald Chambers on Faith as Wonder

2009-01-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

From the Jan. 16th entry of "Still Higher for His Highest":

Faith cannot be intellectually defined; faith is the inborn capacity to see God behind everything, the wonder that keeps you an eternal child. What is your faith to you--a wonderful thing or a bandbox thing? Satisfaction is too often the peace of death; wonder is the very essence of life. Beware always of losing the wonder, and the first thing that stops wonder is religious conviction.* Whenever you give a trite testimony, the wonder is gone. The only evidence of salvation or sanctification is that the sense of wonder is developing; not at things as they are, but at the One who made them as they are. There is no set definition of faith* into which you can fit these men and women [viz., from Hebrews 11]; they were heroes of faith because they "endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.

*This is because religious conviction (i.e., "trite testimony") cause you to cease focusing on God and instead focus on yourself and your experiences. Focusing on yourself always leads to death.

*i.e., there is no way to rationally categorize their experiences of faith, no way to make them the 'cookie cutter' standard by which all other experiences of faith mimic and are measured. The only sure fact of their faith is that, though varied in their circumstances, they all saw and focused on the "God behind everything." Ultimately, it is definable and defined ("inborn capacity to see God behind everything," "wonder," Hebrews 11:1-3, etc.); existentially, your experience of faith will be different from others.

(P.S. I have been rather busy and distracted as of late, so I have taken an official/unofficial sabbatical from posting my journal entries. I shall return, though; as for now, expect more post that are quotations of others)

"...believe that He is..."

2008-12-09T17:48:00.001-08:00

"...and the hand of the Lord shall be known towards His servants, and His indignation towards His enemies." Isaiah 66:14b

This small section of one verse has summed up the very purpose of Isaiah, of the whole Bible even. The word of God is not mere platitudes, miscellaneous history, and meaningless myth. It is the revelation of God. It appears that the divine did not want His people specifically and mankind in general to forget who He is. The God who is there is not silent; He intends to be known. "The Lord shall be known." He is not encased in an impenetrable black box, and neither are we. There is supposed to be communication, understanding, truth; not truth that is exhaustive (for if it was, then what's Heaven for?), but truth that is true, i.e., real. He has spoken to us in a verbalized, propositional form so that we may know Him and be known.
"And I shall set a sign among them...that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. (vs. 19). God desires (if I may use the word) to be known. In regards to our own abilities, He is inaccessible. By His grace, however, He has made Himself accessible. He has given Christ, He has given His Spirit, He has given His word. "The Lord shall be known." Let us give praise to the God who is there and is not silent.

"Praise to the Lord:
You have spoken,
And we have heard..."
-Jon Vowell

The Only Remedy

2008-12-09T17:29:00.001-08:00

"Ye are they that forsake the Lord...therefore I will number you for the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer, [and] when I spoke, ye did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.... Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Isaiah 65:11, 12, 17, 18

Desolation and glory are not mere abstract principle; they are a part of rugged reality. All the moral motions within men, whether they know God or not (Romans 2:14, 15), cry out in testimony against us. We know (beyond all contentless academic posturing) that there is a right and a wrong, and that those who do evil will be punished, and those who do good will receive reward. Desolation on the wicked (vs. 1-7, 11-16) and glory to the faithful (vs. 8-10, 13-16) are two immutable facts not only of Christian philosophy but also rugged reality, as real and as practical as the ground beneath our feet.
As I have said before many times, desolation is the only pathway to glory, not only in individual lives (as in justification and sanctification) but also in universal existence. In order for the creation to be restored to the glory it was created for, it will mean the desolation of all that is not-God; that is one of the great facts of the book of Revelation. Dies irae is not an arbitrary assignment; it is a necessary remedy, the only remedy. In order to bring out the finest gold, all the dross must be removed; and the deeper the dross is, the hotter the fires must be.
It is the heritage of humanity to know that true happiness and joy is only possible with the destruction and desolation of all evil things. Those who decry God's wrath against the wicked are neither enlightened nor wise; they are fools who deny core elements of the very reality that they claim to be a part of. If the wicked perish with wickedness, so much the worse for the wicked. We should indeed pity them, but we have lost all of our sense if we demand that God end all of our miseries and then turn right round and condemn Him for doing so.

"We are cured, wounded,
Made whole or destroyed,
And destined only
For fire or Fire..."
-Jon Vowell

The Pattern

2008-12-03T10:56:00.001-08:00

"...behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned...thou hast hid thy face from us." Isaiah 64:5b, 7b

The pattern is always the same: God's presence belongs to the righteous (vs. 1-5a), but Sin separates us from God (vs. 5b-7), and repentance is the only solution (vs. 8-12). Any gospel that does not follow that pattern is not the Gospel. Any gospel that does not assert the Fall and the Cross, man the great sinner and Christ the great Savior, wrath on Sin and grace towards sinners, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," (I Corinthians 15:22) any gospel that does not make those distinctions is heresy and nothing else.

The pattern is true because it is biblical; it is proclaimed from the Old Testament to the New. If we would have God and all that He is, then we must truly be righteous. If we sin, we are no longer righteous, and God is departed from us. If we repent, and submit to the finished work of Christ, we shall have mercy, for we shall have God, Who is "ever merciful all the day" (Psalm 37:26). Check your gospel against the holy pattern set down in Scripture; and wherever there is an inconsistency, you can be sure that it is you who has erred.

"Your Love is,

Your Love is,

Your Love is

Unchanging.

May we never defile it..."

-Jon Vowell

God With Us

2008-12-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

"I have trodden the wine press alone...I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments...for the day of vengeance is in my heart....

"Surely they are my people...so He was their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted...He bare them, and carried them all the days of old...We are thine...." Isaiah 63:3, 4a, 8, 9, 19a

I think many misunderstand God's actions because they do not understand His intimate involvement with creation and history. Though He is independent from those things, He is also enmeshed in it, involved with it, and this drives skeptics insane. The God they hope and image to deny is aloof and distant, and thus any dealings with us come off as cruel or irrational, or both. The fact that God involves Himself in human affairs, as if He had a stake in its outcome, is not grasped properly by skeptic and believer alike.

What if God's wrath and judgment truly are not arbitrary? What if they are vengeance, i.e., God Himself has been offended against, and thus will repay the offender? We see Sin as our problem and our business; what if it is God's business? What if it is truly what the Bible calls it: outright rebellion against a deserving superior, a slap in God's face, to spit in His face, something upon which He must be avenged? Skeptics claim that God is merely immoral in His judgments; the Bible is actually much harsher in its opinion of God's judgments: He is not immoral, but vengeful, dishing out retribution to those who have committed a personal transgress against Him. The problem with skeptics is not that they view God's wrath too seriously; actually, they treat it with much levity. The wrath of the God of the Bible is more intimate in His judgments, as though He actually cared about what we humans do in this life.

Likewise, what if God's favor truly is not arbitrary either? What if it is truly based on love, i.e., the sovereign preference of another over yourself? Do we grasp the fullness of His love, that intimate connection that arouses jealousy and devotion even in the Divine? What if we took the Bible seriously that God is love, that He desires fellowship with us, that He is filled with indignation towards those who harm His beloved just as any husband would feel towards a man who attacked his wife? As with wrath, it is the intimate aspect of all this that skeptics either miss or stumble over. They desire an aloof God (or no God) because the God of the Bible is too close for comfort. He is in the very air they breath, in the midst of their truest lovings and hatings; for when we love and hate correctly, we reveal the image of God stamped upon all of us.

"Your vengeance and Your love

Reveal a God Who is with us..."

-Jon Vowell

Who We Are

2008-12-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

"Thou shalt no more be named 'Forsaken,' neither shall thy land any more be called 'Desolate'; but thou shalt be called 'My Delight,' and thy land 'Betrothed.' For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

"And they shall call [you], 'The holy people,' 'The redeemed of the Lord'; and thou shalt be called 'Sought out,' 'A city not forsaken.'" Isaiah 62:4, 12

Part of living sanely in an insane world is to have a proper perspective of yourself, and the children of God would do well to remember who they are and Whose they are. I dare say we see ourselves as slave and servant (and rightly so, for God is our Lord and Master), but do we see ourselves as lover and friend (which are equally right, for He is our Beloved and Father and Friend)? The main focus of Christian psychology is a proper perspective of the self: first as a lost sinner, and then as the redeemed children of God; formally the forsaken desolate, and now the delight and betrothed of God. We who were not a people, and had no name, are now called "Christian," little Christ, of Christ and therefore of God, belonging to God as His most valued and treasured possession, i.e., His Son. It is our new name, our new identity, and we should wear them gladly.

It's time that Christians started living by the proper names. Some have the service part down right, but they have no concept of God's delight, and thus their service is cold and wearying. Others have the delight part down well and good, but have lost the idea of service, and consequently are useless hedonists. The love of God revealed in Christ constrains us in every way: the thoughts that we think, the words that we speak, the things that we do, all needs to glorify the God Who calls us His children, His servants, His delight, and His beloved. Until we see and continually see who we are, we will never be what we should be.

"You call me as Your own,

To know You and be known..."

(Mercy Me)

-Jon Vowell

The Gospel

2008-11-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

"[Lucifer is] the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners." Isaiah 14:16b, 17

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, [...] to comfort them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.... I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God...." Isaiah 61:1, 3a, 10a

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b

To see Jesus as a social revolutionary is an injustice and a crime against the Gospel. To see Him as a mere statement of Divine sentimentality is a blasphemous hatred against the Gospel. To see Him as a cash cow, a cosmic ATM, is to rob the Gospel of all power and glory. To see Him as the liberator from cruel governments of men is to be as confused and disappointed at His coming as the Jews who eventually killed Him were. If you see and preach Christ as anything less or other than the propitiation for the Sin of the world, as the revelation of God's holy wrath and loving kindness, as the only mediator between God and man, as the Destroyer of all evil and corruption caused since the Fall, and as the Kinsman Redeemer of all men who have fallen, then you blaspheme and disgrace the work and name of our Lord, and we have no part in you, for what fellowship has light with darkness? Indeed, if you preach any gospel other than that which proclaims the forgiveness of sins and atonement of men back to God through the shed blood of Christ, then you are merely adding to the darkness that already blinds so many. Every breath you breathe that carries with it your false gospel sends unholy fog across the souls of men, furthering their natural obscurity, so that the true light is even harder to find. In the end, you will be one of the ones mentioned in Matthew 7:21-23; you will have your reward.

The lost and lonely people of this dying world do not need a social revolutionary. They do not need beautiful phrases of sentimentality. They do not need a cosmic ATM. They do not need a usurping liberator. They do not need a guru, an enlightened one, a homeboy, a co-pilot, or a moral mentor; they need a savior. They need the awesome and terrible truth that God is there, He is not silent, and He has come to us, "His arm [has] brought salvation...the Redeemer [has] come to Zion." (Isaiah 59:15, 20) This world needs good news that transcends and outlasts all cultures, kingdoms, fashions, and fads; news that is good no matter what social, cultural, political, or religious environment you live in. This world needs a saving truth that is the same for all at all times no matter what happens, and that truth has always been: God is, God loves, and God can be found.

"We have seen God's Glory:

Not beautiful words and phrases,

But Redemption based on the

Blood of Christ..."

-Jon Vowell

This Is Redemption: Glorification

2008-11-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light...because He hath glorified thee. [...] The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Isaiah 60:1-3a, 9b, 19b

For proper Christian living, it is essential to have a proper understanding of God's children as they are now and as they will be. As to what they will be, Scripture clearly teaches that upon Christ's return, God's immediate presence will glorify His children with His glory (like a million mirrors reflecting the rising sun at dawn), and that glorification will be the redemption of all things (see Romans 8:18-23). When Christ returns, and the presence of God is revealed to all, the world and universe will become as it were a great star, with all Sin and corruption being burned away forever, and God's children will be the roaring coals of that holy fire.

As to what they are now, they are still "the light of the world," because the Light of the World (i.e., Christ) rest within them by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That same glory of God that heralds and causes the redemption of all things is with us now, because the glory of God is God, and He is with us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Though His presence in us is not yet manifested in its perfection, it can still be seen by the actions it leads us to do, attitude that it produces in us, and the gospel that it preaches through us. Until the veil is lifted and we are made actual manifestations of God's glory, we are to be living pictures of that yet future state were (as T.S. Elliot put it) "all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

"Redemption is

The glory of the Lord

And the Glory of the Lord..."

-Jon Vowell

Biblical Christianity

2008-11-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

"Your iniquities have separated you from your God...and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment; and He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation for Him, and His righteousness sustained Him...the Redeemer shall come to Zion..." Isaiah 59:2, 15, 16, 20

Much that passes for 'gospel' these days does not fit the biblical criteria, and it is a biblical criteria. Orthodox teaching on salvation is not a New Testament anomaly; it is a foundational theme of the whole of Scripture. Even in this ancient prophecy, which we today like to think says 'nothing about nothing,' even it contains the familiar formula. We are sinners (vs. 3-8), and our Sin has separated us from God (vs. 2). We cannot save ourselves and get back to God (vs. 9-16a), so God brought salvation to us (vs. 16b-20). That is not a New Testament thing; it is a Bible thing.

We must beware of those who claim disharmony in the Bible. We must be stiffly embattled against those whose 'gospel' comes under the guise of Christianity, yet carries none of the marks of Scripture upon it. Those who undermine or discount Scripture in any way are our enemies, no matter who they are or their intentions. Anything that tampers with man's true condition and man's only hope must not be tolerated. We must call anything that takes away from the firm, biblical teachings of man as a great sinner and Christ as a great Savior by its proper name, i.e., heresy. It is absolutely astounding how amiable we are towards things which will damn men's souls, and anything that undercuts Scripture by preaching another gospel (whether it be prosperity, social, love, or liberation) damns men's souls by leading them away from eternal life. Scripture alone is good news; all else is the smoke and mirrors of Hell.

"We gather together

And claim two things:

That Christ, the Mighty Maker died

For man the creature's sin..."

-Jon Vowell

True Worship

2008-11-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

"If thou turn away...from doing thy pleasure on my holy day...and shalt honor me, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord..." Isaiah 58:13, 14

Israel thought that they were practitioners of true worship (vs. 1-3), but God revealed it as merely self-worship (vs. 4, 5). True worship is a complete loss (or "denial") of self for the sake of another (vs. 6, 7). Only in when worship means that you are blissfully unaware of yourself, only in that is God pleased (vs. 8-14). All worship (whether they be of joy or sorrow) that has as its centerpiece the self is idolatry, and an abomination to the Lord.

Much of the noise that passes for 'worship' these days is this idolatry, mere self-exaltation. Whether it be obnoxious self-display or obnoxious self-depreciation, it is all self, and is thus idolatrous. In the constant debate (some would say war) over worship these days, we have heard such dumb-founded polemics as: "It's what I like." "It's my worship; I'll do it my way." "I want music that speaks to me." "It's not my thing, but whatever floats your boat." Not one person who has ever argued thusly has ever stopped to consider that all of their reasoning ultimately comes back to a centering on the self: what I want. Worship is never about the worshipper; it is about the one who is worshipped. Worship is to take us out of ourselves, out of our petty problems, preferences, and contexts, and get our minds solely and squarely focused on God and God alone. Any 'worship' that does not do that is merely idolatry in disguise.

"That singer was so good!" "The performance was awesome!" "I felt truly inspired!" "The music was what really captured me!" What chance has God through all of that? Exactly who or whom are we worshipping when we talk thus? While it is true that personalities, temperaments, and tastes will indeed vary amongst individual worshippers, it is equally true that the foundation of worship is a denial of self for the sake of adoring God, and that does not change no matter what "floats your boat."

"True worship,

True religion,

True life,

Is not in me,

It's in You..."

-Jon Vowell

Restlessness vs. Stillness

2008-11-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isaiah 57:21

Those who trust in God find peace, both in life (vs. 13b-19) and in death (vs. 1, 2). Those who trust anything else, any man (vs. 7-9) or any other, lesser god (vs. 5, 6) will never find peace. Peace belongs to God and God alone; nothing else can give it, but oh how we try! We will do anything other than come as paupers to the throne of grace. We will fall into a million side eddys and ignore the true pathway of the sea. We will head into every tourist trap on the way rather than head for home. To be outside of God is to be ever restless (vs. 20): you go hither and thither, instability your only comfort, the 'next thing' your only hope.

The only movement found in a child of God is a movement deeper into stillness, into peace, into God Himself. The child of God is to be marked by (amongst other things) the irresistible stillness of their Father, a stillness that wreaks havoc on the soul of the restless, because it serves to accentuate that they are on the outside looking in. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a) To know God is to know stillness; not just any stillness, but His stillness, and to not know Him is to know only the restless desire for stillness.

"Be still, oh restless soul of mine.

Bow before the Prince of Peace;

Let the noise and clamor cease..."

(Steven Curtis Chapman)

-Jon Vowell

"...house of prayer for all..."

2008-11-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

"...my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:7

The openness and availability of salvation is unlimited. Those who claim that the atonement was not meant for all speak falsely:

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come,' and let all that hear say, 'Come,' and let him that thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)

"Everyone that thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that has no money, come, buy, and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." (Isaiah 55:1)

It is true that the way of salvation is narrow, and few find it (Matthew 7:14), but it is in no way true that the gate doors are locked to all but the few. The way that leads to life is open to whosoever will come.

"Ye have made [my father's house] a den of thieves." (Matthew 21:13) Think of the true context that informed Christ's white hot fury. The temple was to be "a house of prayer" freely open to all, but the moneychangers had come and stamped a price of admission on the requirements. "Pay my price, and then Come." Really now: is Christ's reaction to this any surprise? Salvation is a free gift of grace to all, and those who would dare stamp a price on it or exclude any from it are thieves, and in league with the Thief that comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

"'For all people,' dear Lord.

More beautiful words

Have never been spoken..."

-Jon Vowell

The Great Return II: God as Redeemer

2008-11-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

"For ye shall go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Isaiah 55:12, 13

The redemptive power of the gospel will forever stand as testimony to the glorious character and nature of God. To those who embrace the gospel, to the creation that will feel its effects, God will be known as Redeemer. His wrath towards His people will become a fading memory, and Redemption will be our song (Isaiah 54:7, 8). The redemptive power of the gospel is ultimate and final proof that God is exactly Who the Scriptures reveal Him as: Holy and Love--He has removed the curse and blight of Sin, and has set us free from it.

"Instead of the thorn...instead of the brier," all will be as it was before the Fall, all will be restored and made new, and such a great returning shall be the theme of His children. Think on this. Mankind was created for a great romance (i.e., adventure) with God, and the music of our existence would have two eternal notes: God is our Creator, God is our Lover. Unfortunately, that romance was 'interrupted' (so to speak) by the Fall. Once all has been restored, we will continue forward, but we will have an added a note to the music of our existence: God is our Redeemer. Let all the children of lesser gods howl in fear and despair, for we who have tasted the sweet waters of redemption know against all of their ragings that there is a God who is Holy and Love, who punishes Sin and saves the sinner, and we have seen His glory.

"The Gospel stands

Like a star undaunted

Mid the blackest of the night.

It stand for this

Sure testimony

That there is such a thing

As Light..."

-Jon Vowell

Always Successful

2008-11-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

"For as the rain and the snow cometh down from heaven, and returneth no thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isaiah 55:10, 11

The preaching of God's word is always a success story whether we see the results or not. The joy of preaching God's word is that its results are actual, though not obvious. No matter what our eyes tell us or circumstances inform to the contrary, the preaching of God's word is a successful enterprise every time. The only failure is to not preach; the only guaranteed lack of harvest is to not sow.

Preaching is the only true successful art because it is the only art that has the absolute power of God in it. It is His word, not ours, and His word enriches and enlivens all things. We err if we start with ourselves in preaching: "I must sound well, speak well, be clear, be simple." Rhetorical excellence is a virtue, but the success inherent in the word of God is contingent upon God and not us. If preaching succeeds, it is always in spite of the preacher.

"Your Word knows not

The limitations of man.

It knows only the

Power of God..."

-Jon Vowell

Grace in the Context of the Trinity

2008-11-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

"Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God...[Let] the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord our God, and He will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:5-9

The mystery of grace sneaks up on us now and again. That the Holy Almighty pardons guilty sinners is a truth that is oft given mouth service in our minds, but if we ever seriously considered its implications we would fall on our faces as one dead. The glory of God's trinitarian nature of Holiness and Love is that He has made it to where He can separate the sinner from Sin and bind the former to Himself in whole communion and cast the latter into outer darkness. The mystery of grace is that it is the fullest expression of God's holiness and love. It is a matter of grace that not only are we saved, but also that Sin is destroyed, never to plague us again. That God's immutable character did not produce our utter destruction (either by annihilation or leaving us to our own vices and devices), but rather our utter salvation through the redemption wrought by God in Christ, such a fact should boggle our minds into thunderous worship, for grace is truly amazing.

"Mysterious grace, mysterious ways

The sweetest song that turns

Unworthy wretches into

Sons and daughters of God..."

-Jon Vowell

Man's Desiring

2008-11-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

"Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance." Isaiah 55:2

The notion that God is trying to give us something other than Himself is a fallacious thought. There is no joy or peace outside of God, and yet much that passes for 'gospel' these days would have you believe otherwise. God is out to give you money, or free healthcare and education, or the cure for this or that, or social amiableness or revolution, or a Democratic/Republican president, or the end of poverty and the empowerment of the working class, or some other thing that seems logical, good, and beautiful but is ultimately nothing outside of God. Christ promised us that He was the way to the Father (John 14:6), and nowhere else. Any other destination is a false gospel to the core.

It is not great men, new concepts, or beautiful words and phrases that mankind needs or ultimately desires. We have had those since time began, and they have yet to satisfy. What man truly, ultimately desires is God, whether we know it or not. The deep burning for true peace and an absolute end to loneliness is found only in God, and the 'good news' is that Christ has come to take us back to Him, if we will.

"You alone are where our

Hopes and dreams collide with

Living Reality.

May we tire of chasing the winds..."

-Jon Vowell

Terror and Beauty in Salvation Freely Offered

2008-11-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

The absolute 'freeness' of salvation can be the biggest single stumbling-block for most people. Every other religion in the world requires a human price-tag for salvation. Facets of 'Christianity' still hold to it (e.g. Roman Catholicism). True and traditional Christianity, however, understood only one requirement asked of men, and that is "Come," come and take what is being freely offered.

Man thought of salvation as some sort of unreachable gift, as though it was perched atop a mountain of thorns, and none could truly survive the quest to reach it. Christianity comes alone, however, and presents salvation like samplers at a dinner party, to which we have all be invited, and God is walking about with salvation on a silver platter asking each and every one, "Salvation, sir?" "Salvation, madam?" All the while, we stand about with the simple yet terrible choice: accept or reject; take salvation freely offered, or reject it and leave. Salvation's 'freeness' is equally beautiful and terrifying: as easily as we could accept it, we can just as easily reject it.

"Can it be true that

Salvation is paid in full

And there are no more

Hoops to jump through

Anymore...?"

-Jon Vowell

Humbly Victorious, Victoriously Humble

2008-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 54:17

A perpetual state of unconquerability is the heritage of God's people (c.f. Romans 8:37). This is not to say that our enemies will not have a a veneer of victory upon them and an aire of victory about them; they will seem to gain ground of some sorts. Nevertheless, all of their 'victories' are vain, and will be revealed as merely further strategy in our Lord's ultimate victory. Those who are of God belong to this ultimate victory, and thus they can and should live every moment victoriously, i.e., as victors. Despite what seems to happen or what lies the world, flesh, and the devil hurl our way, we can still live like victors "in the midst of strife" (as the symphony goes). That is our heritage.

"Their righteousness is from me, saith the Lord." Never think that this heritage has anything to do with you in terms of merit. Its availability to us is founded on the fact that God (through Christ) has made us worthy of it. This heritage does not belong to the self-righteous (for there really is no such thing) but to the made-righteous, to those in whom God has not imputed iniquity. Thus, while we should live victoriously, we should also live humbly, knowing that our participation in ultimate victory is based solely on the charity of another and not our own merit.

"We are victors because

We are bound to the Victor.

Victory is sure

Because it is bound to You..."

-Jon Vowell

Peace from Knowledge

2008-11-11T11:49:00.001-08:00

"All thy children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children." Isaiah 54:13

The true knowledge of peace comes from God, because it is the knowledge of Himself. Anyone can have knowledge, but they are never guaranteed contentment and calm; quite the opposite actually (Ecclesiastes 1:17, 18). The only knowledge that secures peace to a person is that knowledge that comes from God about God. Without Him, there is always some final piece missing, some last part that binds the whole thing together, some missing premise that brings us to the proper and desired conclusion. Without Him, we are, in effect, fumbling in the dark with we know not what.

Knowledge from God is the only knowledge of peace because it is the only knowledge that accounts for Him. All other thinking starts somewhere else: man, principles, ideals, 'gods,' etc. These things reveal themselves, however, as inadequate foundations, chiefly because they do not secure peace; they do not secure stability of mind and soul on the surety that everything is indeed okay. Only the knowledge that God gives provides peace. When He instructs us, then no matter what else we learn, we are secure from fear and despair: "Yes, I know this says such and such; but there is a God, and this is who He is and what He is doing." The knowledge God gives is the knowledge of peace because it is always a revelation of Himself, and He is the source of peace.

"Teach me, Father, by Your Hand

And no one else.

Draw me close to You

And make me as

Unshakable as You are..."

-Jon Vowell

Wrath in the Context of the Trinity

2008-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

"For a small moment, I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies, I will gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness, I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7, 8

Juxtaposed next to God's love is another immutable quality of His character: holiness. Holiness is defined as "moral perfection," perfection is defined as "completeness" or "wholeness." Within God's character, there is no deficiency, defect, or divide. In can be said that, because God is perfect, that His holiness is a perfect holiness, a whole moral wholeness, i.e., a moral wholeness that is constant. He is not morally whole sometimes and morally unwhole other times; He is in a constant state of moral wholeness. He is 'wholly holy,' so to speak. Likewise, if God is perfect, then His love is perfect as well, i.e., His communion is complete and whole; there is no shadow of severance within God's communal nature. Thus within the Trinity, we see two factors played out: perfect holiness and love, perfect wholeness and communion. It is the picture of absolutely immutable unity.

Whereas the Trinity carries with it the sense of absolute immutable unity, Sin carries with it the sense of absolute immutable separation, separation between God and man, man and man, man and creation, and man and himself. Sin divides; the Trinity unites. Those who are bound to Sin by Adam (and continue therein) are bound (and continue to bind themselves) to division, and the Trinity has no part in them; likewise, those who are bound to the Trinity by Christ are bound to unity, and Sin has no part in them. The Trinity is the fulfillment of communion, while Sin is communion's dissolvement. The two are oil and water: the one displaces the other. The wages of Sin, the natural consequence of being bound to Sin, is separation from God, and separation from God is death (and thus the further separations of man result). To be separated from God, from the Trinity, from absolute and perfect moral wholeness and personal communion, is to be separated from true life, and thus it is death.

The space-time realities of God's wrath upon the peoples of earth must be viewed within the context of God as absolute immutable unity and Sin as absolute immutable separation. When once you bind yourself to Sin, "the death sentence is at work in you," as Mr. Chambers would say. It is at work because what indeed is the natural consequence of turning from God, absolute unity, the source of life? The only other ground to run to is absolute separation, the source of death. When people Sin against God, when they cling to death and separation over life and unity, life and unity withdraws itself from us (for what fellowship has unity with separation?), and we are left to the consequences.

Thus, within the context of the Trinity, we see God is Love, and thus is Savior: He desires communion with us, because it is His nature to desire communion with others. We also see, however, that God is Holy, and thus is Judge: His very presence is the destruction of separation, because it is His nature to be whole and complete. Let no man say that God desires separation, that He desires the death of the wicked; He does not. His holiness demands separation Sin; His love demands communion with us.

"Holiness and Love

Burning forever

In Divine Dance.

Sweep us up into such Joy..."

-Jon Vowell

In Defense of Liturgy

2008-10-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is probably the best defense of liturgical worship I have ever heard (so far). It almost persuades me to become a Presbyterian. Almost.

Commentary on "The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity"

2008-10-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

From a discussion between fellow believers on Facebook:

Bro S asked: "Do you think God can commune with people who are 'positionally' righteous (i.e., righteous in Christ) but not personally righteous (i.e., righteous in their own actions)?"

JLV responds: Being positionally righteous is what gives you the power and motive force (i.e., the indwelling Holy Spirit) to be personally righteous. If you have a complete lack of personal righteousness, I would question your positional righteousness.
Still, I understand and agree with you that are actions can affect our communion with God, but only as a hindrance or a help; they can neither abolish nor establish it. Christ's Atonement makes you positionally righteous, and thus reestablishes the communion man lost at the Fall. Your personal righteousness only serves to strengthen or weaken (or keep stagnant) that communion.

Bro JS asked: "Can one be 'personally' righteous in this life?"

JLV responds: We can be "personally" righteous, but only because we have been made "positionally" righteous. Remember, any righteous action we do is not us, but God working in and through us.

Bro JE asked: "Just curious about your phrase 'but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell.' I understand that separation from God is part of hell, but there is a definite punitive aspect of hell, and that punishment must be meted out. That punishment only intensifies the abandonment...or the abandonment intensifies the punishment. They go hand in hand."

JLV responds: I do believe that there is a punitive aspect to Hell, and that the punishment and abandonment go hand in hand. However, I've believe that the punishment and abandonment are so hand in hand that they are one and the same.
For me, 'separation from God' is not merely a separation in regards to proximity (i.e., God's here and you're there). It is a complete severance from all that is good in the universe (i.e., God). God is the source of (and His very nature is made up of) all good things (e.g. the fruits of the Spirit). To separate from Him is to be separate from those things and bound to their opposites.
God is light; to be separate from Him is to know only darkness. God is love; to be separate from Him is to know only hatred. God is peace; to be separate from Him is to know only confusion and chaos. God is joy; to be separate from Him is to know only sorrow. Etc., etc. My definition of Heaven is absolute communion (i.e., complete unification) with God; thus, my definition of Hell is absolute communion (i.e., complete unification) with not-God. To be bound in an intimate and total way to God is heaven; to be bound in an intimate and total way to everything God is not is hell.
Therefore, the abandonment is the punishment because it is a complete severance from God and thus a complete unification with all He is not (e.g., darkness, hatred, chaos, sorrow, etc.). When we desire God, our desire becomes our reward; when we desire not-God, our desire becomes our punishment.

The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity

2008-10-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

"For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer [is] the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Isaiah 54:5, 6

The idea of God as a romantic (in a relational and not literary sense) strikes many as unconventional, especially men (God is my husband?). Imagery aside, however, the thing to grasp here is that God desires communion with you: to love, to have and to hold. Regardless of gender, all people desire to be desired; whether for beauty or strength, all people long to be wanted by another. The desire for communion with others is a fundamental element of humanity, and the Bible tells us the shocking truth that the terrible and glorious Almighty desires to commune with us.

Now, there is a difference between desire and need. God desires communion with us, but He does not need it. Existing as the Trinity, God is in an eternal, perfect communion and society within Himself; He needs nothing more. The flip side of all this is that the truth of God existing as the Trinity is the fundamental reality behind the oft over quoted and misquoted phrase, "God is love," i.e., God's very nature is bound up in communion with others. Thus, we see two facts that emerge from God existing as a Trinity: He does not need to commune with us, for He is in perfect communion always; He does desire to commune with us because it is His very nature to commune with others. Note that the reason God desires communion with us has everything to do with Him, not us. There is nothing in us that merits God's desire; His desire springs from His own nature and nowhere else. Though we are unlovable, God loved us; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Of course, Christ is the fullest expression and proof of God's love for us (Romans 5:8), and He came to 'make us lovable,' i.e., make us so that we can commune with God. That God desires to commune and whether or not He can commune are two different things. God cannot commune with Sin (for Sin is the rejection of and separation from God), and we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Thus, unless something drastically changes within us, we cannot commune with God, but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell (Matthew 7:23 & 25:41; notice the use by multiple translations of the word "depart"). At the Cross of Christ, however, a transaction was made. Christ, who was and is God, took our Sin upon Himself and in return gave us His righteousness, i.e., God's righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, Christ has (through the Cross) made a way for us to be made lovable, by making us a way to become like Love Himself. Having been 'made lovable,' (i.e., saved) by Christ, commune with God is now possible, but only if we (1) believe that Christ is the only way to be 'made lovable,' and (2) accept such a salvation (for a gift is not yours until you accept it).

Thus, by accepting the salvation found only in Christ, that which separates us from God (i.e., Sin) is done away with, and our communion with Him is restored. It is restored becomes Sin (that which absolutely separates) has been removed, and Love (that which absolutely unites) has replaced it. Therefore, the gospel is about love, romance, about God desiring us and making a way for us to commune with Him. We can reject such communion if we wish, but we do so at our own peril.

"All consuming Love and Passion,

Holy Fire of pain and pleasure,

Draw us deeper still

Into the Light of Your Glory and Grace..."

-Jon Vowell

The Past Reborn

2008-10-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

"...for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore." Isaiah 54:4b

The past is one of the greatest demons to ever torment mankind. If there is one ghost no one wants to be haunted by, it is the past. It could be argued that part of the psychological terror that ghost inflict is that they are dreaded embodiments of the evil past, the unholy manifestation of some former failing or sin no longer with us chronologically but still with us actually. To that affect, the past is a ghost that haunts us endlessly, and the greatest haunting pain of mankind is a past action, i.e., the Fall. The remnants of that horrendous aboriginal disaster hovers about corporate humanity and individual humans like a foul wraith (or a foul odor).

"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17) One of the glories of the gospel is the realization of the reality that our slate is wiped clean and kept clean by Christ (see I John 1:7 in regards to "kept" clean). The one demon mankind needs slain is the past, full of fears and failures, full of the Fall. Christ deals with our past at the Cross, and thereby gives us a new past, a new legacy, one whose foundation is not the Fall but the Atonement. One of the joys of the Christian is that (because of Christ) God no longer sees them on the basis of the Fall, but rather on the Cross. Thanks to Christ, we are set free from the unholy past and given a new, irreproachable legacy, one that even God Himself can find no fault in.

"May men find in You

Not beautiful words and phrases

But a legacy reborn

Into immutable Holiness..."

-Jon Vowell

The Haunting Pain

2008-10-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way...." Isaiah 53:6a

The correct view of Sin is wrapped up in those last three words: "his own way," i.e., not God's way. Sin is anything that is 'not-God,' i.e., neither of Him nor leading to Him. Sin is not doing wrong things; it is doing not-God things, and even seemingly rational, noble, or beautiful things can still be not of God. We err if we think and preach that men are sinners because they act wrongly; men are sinners because they act 'not-Godly'. Mere moralizing can solve wrong actions, which is why Christianity is not mere moralizing; something deeper is needed to deal with a lack of God-likeness. If men behave badly, send them to the moralists. If men are not God-like, however, send them to a savior, someone who can save them from themselves, from their "own way."

Your view of Sin affects your view of the gospel and, consequently, its presentation. The Gospel of Christ is 'good news' because it deals with something deeper and more necessary than the superficial fact that men behave badly. Christ's gospel cuts to our fundamental being, i.e., we should be like God, but we are not. We should be holy as He is holy, but we are not. The haunting pain of mankind is not that we do wrong but that we know (somehow, someway) that we are wrong, that we have strayed from the true way to our own way, and we have become lost in the worst kind of prison, i.e., ourselves. The gospel is good news only when it is set in that context. Christ has come so that we may lose ourselves and regain God, lose our way and regain the true way.

"We are wrong and

You are Right.

You took our wrong

To make us Right.

You became like us

So we could be like You..."

-Jon Vowell

Hand in Hand

2008-10-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed...[The] Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all...for the transgressions of my people was He stricken...[God] shall make [the Servant's] soul an offering for sin...[God] shall see the travail of [the Servant's] soul, and be satisfied.... My righteous Servant [shall] justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.... He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:4-12

The concept of the Atonement was not a New Testament fantasy but an Old Testament reality. The disciples did not invent a new thing when they proclaimed Christ as the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the world. A core part of Israel's temple worship was the sin offering, and the prophet Isaiah made it very clear that the long awaited Messiah would be a sin offering. The disciples were reminded of, and went around reminding others, what the Jews already knew: God shall make the Messiah's soul and offering for Sin.

The Old Testament is not irrelevant to the Christian; it is the very foundation of the New Testament teachings. Without the O.T., the N.T. would make no sense and have no strength. All key Christian doctrines--the Atonement, the Trinity, the Incarnation--all of them can be found within the O.T. We would be wise as Christians to instruct and be instructed by the Spirit in the continuity of Scripture. It is God's complete, verbalized, propositional special revelation to man. Every part is vital; no part is excluded. To think otherwise is to cripple yourself spiritually; you will never know the strength of your beliefs, nor the glory of God's wisdom and workings.

"Your entire word

Is lamp and light.

Old and New

Lead us unto You..."

-Jon Vowell

Christ the Offender II: What This World Needs

2008-10-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

"...He hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." Isaiah 53:2b, 3

The Jesus we are presented with today is nothing like the Jesus of the Scriptures. These days Jesus is God's happy helper, out to bring many sons to glorious health and wealth. Meanwhile, the Jesus of the Scriptures was offensive and hated because He came as a sword to annihilate the peace and stability of the content and comfortable. The Jesus of the Scriptures was God walking amongst fallen men, revealing at every turn that He was nothing they wanted and yet all that they needed.

The lost and lonely people of this fallen world do not need another happy guru bringing great tidings of great self-help books; what they need is God, and the knowledge of His scandalous and glorious Gospel. Fallen man does not need to be made more amiable; they need to be shocked to their sense. Shock and shake them out of dark apathy with the offensive knowledge that they are sinners, separated from God, damned to Hell, and that Immanuel has come to accept their unconditional surrender and crush them so that they can be made whole, kill them so that they can be reborn. Do not give men scratchings for their itching ears; tell them something a man would be glad to believe.

"Keep me clear from

Anti-Christs

Who steal the glorious power of

The Gospel.

Deliver us from their evil..."

-Jon Vowell

Christ the Offender

2008-10-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

""Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Isaiah 53:1

The Bible never said that its claims would seem sensible (or even rational) from a purely human perspective. Indeed, its claims are equally true and outrageous. The Redemption of Christ, the very core theme of the Bible, is called a stumbling stone to some and foolishness to others (I Corinthians 1:23), and there is a reason Jesus said that the way that leads to life is narrow and few would find it (Matthew 7:14).

Of course, the Christian faith is rational; apologetics and Christian philosophic thought are not invalid; Christian Existentialism is not our sole view. That Christianity and its doctrines are outrageous does not in any way steal from the fact that they are true. What needs to be noted here and remembered is that we are in error if we think that Christianity and its doctrines (especially the terrible doctrines of the Cross and the Atonement) are easy for fallen man to swallow, namely because the heart of Christianity (i.e., Jesus Christ) states with unblinking authority, "Nothing you do or are can save you." That cuts right across fallen man's rationale, which is a mode of thinking that starts with man and only man. Fallen man's reason starts with man and nothing else; Christianity's reason starts with God or nothing else, and fallen man cannot accept such a premise, a premise that demands of them to come as humble sinners and nothing else. For fallen man, stepped in rebellion, understanding the nature of a sin offering or of hypo-static unions is not the real stumbling point; bowing the knee is.

The very thought that man is not enough is scandalous, outrageous, but true. At the end of the day, whatever the arguments (or lack thereof), it is never reason that keeps men from God (for God is the source of reason); it is pride that keeps them, keeps them from getting to God by going through Christ, the only name whereby men might be saved. Men might accept our claims more easily if it were not for Christ, for Christ demands absolute surrender to His salvation, and such a thing is anathema to fallen mankind's ultimately irrational thinking.

"May the gospel we preach

Offend and inflame.

May it burn the hearts of men

Like hot coals on their heads..."

-Jon Vowell

Mysterious Ways

2008-10-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

"...His visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men; so shall He startle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider." Isaiah 52:14, 15

The Atonement was something you could not have guessed. It is true that both Jew and Gentile knew that the divine required sacra fices (though perhaps for different reasons); it is equally true that the Gentiles went so far as to say that a god could be a sacrifice. However, that the God of gods would come emptied of His authority and glory, His coming void of all candor or ceremony or splendor, coming disguised as an ordinary man, easily confused with and replaced by any other man, coming to be rejected and murdered by His own creations and worshippers in a sacrifice that was equally void of all candor or ceremony or splendor; that is something no priest or myth maker could have conjured. The Atonement is less like a myth and more like real life because it caught everyone by surprise. We who have heard the story over and over again are no longer surprised; but to those who experienced first hand, it was the shock of the century.

There is a reason that God's ways and workings are often described as "mysteries," i.e., truths that are hidden for the moment (not, as some would say, the unknowable). God's ways are "mysterious" in that they are not only hidden but also true, i.e., real and actual. We linger on their 'hiddenness,' but forget that they are true ways, true workings, ways and workings that exist in absolute Reality and that will work themselves out into relative reality at appointed times. That is why what God does catch us so off guard: they are not only hidden, but also real, like real life, like reality; and reality is something you could not have guessed.

"We who watch Your Story unfold,

Are gloriously surprised at every turn..."

-Jon Vowell