Gadfly's Muse: Devotional Meditation

January 24, 2016

Devotion For A Lazy Sabbath Morn....

[Sunrise After The Storm, 2016]

THIS MEDITATION IS INTENDED TO HAVE HANDEL'S HALLELUJAH CHORUS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZEtVbJT5c)

Psalm 92: A Song for the Sabbath Day.

¹ It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; ² To declare Your loving-kindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night, ³ On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound.

Yesterday was one of the absolute laziest days I have spent in recent memory. If I had been smarter I would have rented a snowmobile or a dog sled or something and gone to where the photos were for there were many "out there" just waiting to be taken. This morning is the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's day, a day of rest... but not a day of laziness and the rising sun spreading its rays across the pure white snow calls us to praise.

Our church is closed today for corporate worship but that doesn't mean united hearts cannot sing complementary praise though separated from immediate company. It is the high privilege and duty of God's people to praise Him every morning and to declare His loving-kindness (His covenant faithfulness to bless His people) throughout the week. How much more, having been reminded of His awesome power through the howling blizzard, to praise Him for preservation and hope.

O Lord, thank you for bringing us through this storm. We are mindful of how easily the beautiful whiteness could be marred by the charred frame of a burned out house had an electrical short ignited one. We remember how a medical emergency might have claimed our lives because the EMT's were delayed. We think of how a overloaded tree branch could have ruined our roofs. Lord thank you for the blessings you have extended to us.

But Lord, we know that others were at risk... we know that lives were threatened on our highways... we pray for those, especially of your people, who this morning are fearing what today may bring. We pray for those, especially your people, who are shivering in the cold, for whom the snow holds no allure. We pray for those in our military, exampled by those guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, who shoulder arms and brave the temperature and do their duty. We pray, Lord of the Sabbath, for a true Sabbath rest... a relieving of our anxiety, a calming assurance that you have not forgotten us, that you not only will save us unto eternity but that you will save us in these times.

On many instruments, Lord Jesus, your songs can be sung this morning, not just the ten stringed harp. The Hallelujah Chorus can fill in though human mouths are not able to rise to the perfection with which your praise is proclaimed.... accept the intentions of our hearts, the sincerity to which we can rise, as our honest endeavor to join the angels in doxology.

God our Father, Christ our Lord and Savior, and Holy Spirit our Comforter, give us this day, rest for our souls and energy for our bodies. Keep your mercies ever in the forefront of our thoughts and showing mercy as the goal of our efforts. Grant us, Triune God, Holy, Holy, Holy in all Your Person, that we may embrace with joy, today, that You are our God and we are Your People, with all that entails...

And give us peace...

Through the privilege granted us in the Lord Jesus Christ

Amen.

Posted by Gadfly on January 24, 2016 at 09:49 AM in Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2014

Which Is More Impressive????

[Cliffs of Moher, 2014, JA Van Devender]

Psalm 49:6–7 (NKJV)

⁶ Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, ⁷ None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him—

About the only impressive feature of the tower poised at this point, is the perspective it gives to the majestic cliff it crowns.

The image can be taken metaphorically I think. When you stand right at the foot of this tower and notice its solid construction, the attention given to its placement and the strategic view it commands, it is easy to grow proud of man and his accomplishments. It is easy to see it as representing his (man's) potential to shape his world and bring his will to bear on anything that is set before him. It is easy, when you are in the midst of it and the work of man or the condition of man is "up close and personal" to lose sight of the big picture.

Standing close on to a mile away, staring across the gaping divide, the tower appears puny and somewhat paltry. When one shifts gaze to the stretching cliff, the massive power of jutting stone, the intricate and delicate interplay of vegetation and color and the sheer obstinate strength that resists the constantly pounding waves, then the tower of man's achievements is not so impressive at all.

Man, by his native constitution, is rich in potential and executive ability. Those who trust exclusively or primarily in these inherent talents or even worse, in the mere financial wealth or resources that they have accrued through these talents, have lost whatever true perspective they may have previously possessed. The ultimate proof of man's inherent helplessness stares him in the face each time he confronts the ultimate questions of life.

Can man do anything to purchase his own salvation? Can man do anything to cancel the ultimacy of his own mortality? If birth is the first step on the road to death, how can it be possible to not see every passing moment as being comparable to life on death row?

Man is helpless against the power of death... and the threat of death (its sting) which is its judicial character. Death is the wage of sin and validates the equation. Death stands as the ever present witness to man's ultimate wickedness and the certain retribution which such wickedness requires. And no man can "purchase" his redemption from that sentence nor possess the power to prolong his life without end.

Yet there is that cliff.... there is that massive foundation on which the puny strivings and edifices of man are built. Even as there is the witness to the omnipresent and inevitability of death, so man's achievements, by their very nature, point beyond themselves to the foundation on which those achievements have been gained. Man's achievements necessarily demonstrate that he carries and functions as bearing the image of God. The image of God points beyond itself to the God whose image we bear. Man's towers point to the cliff... they become the observation point by which the perspective of the cliff is appreciated. Properly viewed they teach that man's wisdom points to the wisdom of God, man's creations point to the Creator and His Works, man's folly highlights God's perfection, ...

At every point, man's achievements, in all their glory and impressive results, always act to shift our eyes to a different perspective so that humility and gratitude replace arrogance and pride.

No matter how glorious are man's works, they are puny and futile compared to God's, but not such that they lack consequence, meaning or purpose... but rather find their consequence, meaning and purpose in the manner which they point to the Source of every blessing and the Provider of all good things.

We need to step back and put things in perspective every once in a while... or every day if need be. The world of man and our own smaller world of self can occupy the full range of our interest if we let it. Whether as causes of joy or as heralds of fear, the details of the little tower that is our individual life may so consume our attention that the majesty, power and glory of the rock on which we rest may be completely ignored.

But by drawing aside, taking a moment to just gaze at the whole picture, our tower can regain its rightful significance and sense of purpose. Our finite life is important to the whole picture... but we have to remember which aspects of that picture truly are the most impressive.

Posted by Gadfly on May 22, 2014 at 09:04 AM in Commentary, Devotional Meditation, Discipleship, Ethics | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 18, 2014

Preparation For Worship: Not Dead Yet....

[image: (1) Sanctuary, Flannan's Cathedral, 2013; (2) Flannan's Cathedral, exterior view, 2013; (3) Chapel, Flannan's Cathedral, 2013)

John 4:22–23 (NKJV)

²²You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

St. Flannan's was built in 1225 as a Roman cathedral but today is owned by the National trust and is operated by the Protestant Church of Ireland. According to the web site it has an average Sunday attendance of about 35. How that breaks my heart.

It is beautiful on the inside though outside it is a bit plain, but it is host to a thousand years of burials and St. Molua's oratory, an exterior building dating back to the early 1000's and used as a private chapel at one point.

As I stood there in the silence of that sanctuary, the late afternoon sky giving soft grey light through the windows as the omnipresent rain clouds continued to shield the sun, the witness to a transcendent God, a God who deserves to be worshiped, was very heavy on me. It came through every framing glance I took through the view-finder. And then, in one of those moments where the hairs on the back of your neck began to prickle, I heard the clear, vibrant words of "Amazing Grace" being sung with intensity in a very nearly perfect baritone acapella solo.

The sounds were coming from my right, through a small, ancient door right near the back of the present sanctuary and about half-way back in the original. I took my camera on its tripod through the door and there was an American family, the husband, his wife and her friend and his mother. The ladies were all seated and the man was singing from memory and the magnificent acoustics of the little chapel gathered and amplified the effect to a wondrous degree. With very little pause, he shifted into "The Lord's Prayer" and in the swelling crescendo of it's finale, as the magnificent promise and fact of "... forThine is the Kingdom.... and the Power... and the Glory.... FOREVER!" bounced off those walls.. the eternal purposes of God and the true intention of His Church was fulfilled, once again, for at least the moment. God was being rightfully praised in the place that He had raised up for that praise to be offered. 35 may attend that building on a given Sunday.... but worship was offered on late Thursday afternoon, by an even smaller group... and a thousand year old building was vindicated.

There is not much more to be said. I found out that the brother held a Master's degree in vocal music from (if I remember correctly) the University of Arizona though he was not now working as a professional musician. They were non-denominational although the mother praised God when she heard that I was a PCA pastor and not one of those "other" kind. But those things are only incidental to the experience. It was the reality of the living God being experienced and manifested in the praise and worship of His people that gave the moment its transcendence. It was the ever necessary reminder that worship is not first and foremost about having our ears tickled with some new thought... or about having our energy spiked by the rolling thunder of a rocking praise band.... or about the manipulation of human emotions in some predictable, formulaic fashion. Worship is about the living God and how He inhabits the praise of His people... as they, from a true heart bow before His holiness and with purified lips cleansed with the hot coals taken from God's own altar, testify to His superlative Being as it has been most fully revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ.

One or two together, or 35 (maybe) on a given Sunday, or 150, or 2000... it ultimately doesn't matter about the numbers. What counts is Him... His Person... His Presence.... His Spirit.

And where He is... there is worship.

May God greet you in His sanctuary this day... and may you worship, in Spirit and in Truth... through the mediating work of our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.... for His is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory... Forever! Amen and Amen.

Posted by Gadfly on May 18, 2014 at 07:15 AM in Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 25, 2014

The Great Leveller....

[Image: African Perspective, 2014, L. Borch (original image)]

Luke 18:13–14 (NKJV)

¹³And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Note Bene: there are two spellings: leveller and leveler, and both are allowable. Both are used in the musing. So... I know that consistency should require choosing one or the other, but I just let it happen as it "flowed." )

James Shirley (1596-1666) wrote a poem entitled "Death the Leveller." It's short and well worth reading and contemplating. His closing stanza is as follows:

The garlands wither on your brow,
         Then boast no more your mighty deeds!
Upon Death's purple altar now
         See where the victor-victim bleeds.
         Your heads must come
         To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

The previous stanzas explain the "victor-victim" reference, how "men with swords" reap the field and "plant fresh laurels where they kill." He meditates on how the apparent and relative successes of human life tend to elevate one individual over another. How wealth, fame and accomplishment can assume undue proportions and even constitute the evaluation of a person's worth. It is so characteristic of mankind to be focused on the "now" that those things and pursuits which are measured in terms of "now" dominate our thinking. All too easily we begin to gauge the measure of true humanity by the scale of achievement. What is even more deadly is the tendency, once we have consciously or unconsciously begun to think this way, to presume that our standards and God's standards overlap. What appears so "obvious" to us with regard to our lives and pursuits, must, by all reason, be that which God also intends for us.

Our "righteousness", as with the Pharisee in the story Jesus tells, is measured by the "things" that we do or accomplish. Importantly, in this story, the things the Pharisee draws comfort from is that his life is not characterized by the more visible sins but rather is centered around religious exercises. These are commendable attributes and ones which every Christian should pursue. Never-the-less, it is not this man whom Jesus describes as "standing as justified." It was the man who saw that his first concern was his own unworthiness to be loved by a most Holy God. It was the man who, while not lacking in good deeds ( I presume) yet did not see in those good deeds any claim on God's gratitude. Regardless of the relative triumphs of his life, in final reckoning, the bottom line was that he was a sinner, in need of grace, and apart from that grace, any of his local victories were nothing but filthy rags.

That man went down to his house "justified", as one who was not only part of God's visible covenant community, but as one who was included in God's eternal covenant community, a true child of Abraham and a true saint in the service of his God in heaven.

"Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust." Only those works which are the fruit of a humble and grateful heart will make a difference in the face of that great leveler, death. They say of earthly riches that "you can't carry it with you" and that is true. But there are heavenly riches that can be stored up in heaven where reward for works is patiently and infallibly extended. As with the distinction on earth, the heavenly riches/reward will not be so much 'physical' as in relatively larger mansions, or more ornate robes, or (God help us) bigger pay checks. The "good works" that are done in this life certainly register in physical ways. It is not enough to tell someone hungry, to "be fed" and then "go away and don't bother me." As with the Good Samaritan, the justified and humble heart will look with compassion on people and on the world about him and seek to ease suffering, care for the afflicted, pursue justice and mercy where needed. The physical activities will be the fruit of such a heart. But in and of themselves they do not constitute the basis for our reward in heaven. It is rather the spiritual state of our souls which shows forth the awesome power and wisdom of God. It is the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit that reconstitutes us in the image of Christ and motivates us to care about such things as mercy and truth and sacrificial living, that is the glory of God.

And it is this work which is rewarded in us. It is the transformed heart that is precious to God and which is welcomed to His house and given place at His table. At that table, all who attend are equal, leveled in status, but elevated beyond all imagining in the perfection of their being. We could say that everyone is equally rich as they are equally content in their status.

What is there, beyond the horizon, waiting for us should be the goal of our lives now. It is possible to cast our minds on the "heavenlies" and so live as to reflect that central preoccupation. We do not have to buy into the world's value system, .... and, as Jesus' story reveals, it is deadly to our religion to do so. We cannot serve God and Mammon and at the very least that teaching points to the exclusive nature of God's value system.

What we do matters in this world... it may or may not matter in the next. In the face of the great leveller, we ought to pursue a life dedicated to those things that matter to God and be far less influenced by sterile and deceitful measures of worth.

Posted by Gadfly on April 25, 2014 at 08:12 AM in Devotional Meditation, Discipleship, Ethics | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 20, 2014

Preparation for Worship: Easter - "It is the LORD!"

[image: Easter Morning Asian Pear, 2014, JA Van Devender

John 21:7 (NKJV)

⁷Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.

Peter must have loved fishing... and I think he was probably good at it. But when John said those words... "It is the Lord!"... all thoughts of fishing literally got cast over the side. There was nothing to do, nothing more important, nothing of any consequence at all compared to the reality of Jesus standing on that shore and he had to go there. He put on his outer garment (even though the weight of it made swimming difficult) because it was unseemly to appear before his God and King nearly naked... but he went... And I can imagine the excitement brimming out of his eyes as he came splashing ashore in the shallows where Jesus was standing.

Did he fall down before him? Did he kneel? Did he just stand there and gaze at him with excited affection? We are not told. But what we can infer is this - where the Lord is, there Peter wanted to be, and nothing other than that would satisfy.

So, we stand today in our metaphorical boats going about our metaphorical business doing our ordinary things. But, today, of all days in the year especially, though it is the same each resurrection day sabbath throughout the year, we look to our fellowship, we look over to where our worship is to begin and we hear the words ringing in our ears. "It is the Lord!"

He is risen. It is the testimony of hundreds who saw him and most especially of the eye-witness testimony of his disciples that give warrant and confirm the fact: He is alive!

He is no dead Savior nor any past and passed royal king. He is has risen victorious over death and has promised that where He is, there we who believe in Him will be also. He stands on a far shore and we are to plunge into the water and go where He is and He will receive us as He received Peter. He will forgive our sins and show us mercy and equip us with His Spirit and He will send us out to do His will.

Today we go to where He is in Spirit and we worship with our brothers and sisters and we are renewed in our passion and we gaze upon that empty cross, all dressed in pure white, with the blood stains purged because no sacrific remains for the people of God.

It is finished! He is risen! There He is! Let us go to Him!

To all my brothers and sister who today rejoice in our common King... have a blessed Easter and be renewed in the hope that is His resurrection.

Posted by Gadfly on April 20, 2014 at 07:59 AM in Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 16, 2014

Contemplation....

[Image: Contemplation, 2007, JA Van Devender]

Location: Seoul, SK

Hebrews 3:1–2 (NKJV

3 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, ²who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.

It's the "Final Four" days of the Easter season. Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday and the solemn remembrance of Jesus' last supper with His disciples. Then comes Good Friday and the somewhat paradoxical mourning/gladness that attends the most Christian of all Christian memorials. Easter dawns with shouts of joy as death's death is historically certified for all the ages.

In such a season it seems tawdry to me to think too much of the foolishness that is currently whirling about in the immediate teapot. I was tempted to comment on the Nevada cattle rancher (Cliven Bundy) business and the apparent foundation that it has in Harry Reid's son's prosperous relation with a Chinese solar energy company. I always thought the "House of Cards" series was essentially non-fiction and this issue bears a pretty close resemblance to episodes shown in this last season. [See HERE & HERE] But, quite frankly, this story is not going to go away and I think, especially this week, there are better things to think about.

Like Jesus, for example.... perhaps we should "consider" Him.

Consider Him who was faithful, to Him who appointed Him, in all things. Consider the magnitude of that idea. The Son of God's task, given Him by His Father in heaven, before the beginning of time and certainly before He became incarnate of the virgin Mary, was to enter this world as a man born under the law, subject to its full provisions, blessings and penalties, and be faithful to obey whatever His Father required of Him to do. He willingly undertook this task, being fully knowledgable of its magnitude, difficulty, pain and triumphal promises. Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that He humbled Himself to become a man, as a bond-servant, demonstrating the superlative qualities of perfect obedience "even unto death on a cross."

Consider the challenge as He faced it. We know pain, temptation and joy in this life... but in God's providence we are shielded from the ultimacy of pain and temptation and only have a taste of joy. Jesus was fully vulnerable to everything Satan could throw at Him. No man has ever been tempted, nor will ever be tempted, with the range of spiritual nets Satan used against this man Jesus. No man has ever been, in this life, subjected to the total absence of God the Father's goodness, even the most desperate sinner and most rabid pervert, as was Jesus on the cross, when the Father's full sentence of death, body and soul, was carried out and the fires of Hell were flooding His consciousness.

This was the Man who looked down from the cross and prayed for forgiveness on those soldiers who nailed Him there. This was the Man who cried out in anguished victory, "It is FINISHED", when the last and culminating act of obedience was finally over. This was the Man who lead captivity captive and removed the sting of death for all those He came to save. This was the Man who rose again from the dead with healing in His wings and a joyful shout to all the nations of the earth that the day of their salvation had dawned and that they were to draw near to God, through Him, and join together with their elder brothers from national Israel in the blessed and eternal feast prepared for Him.

This is Jesus, the builder of the house, Whose House we are. He was absolutely, unerringly, consistently faithful... in all that He did and His Father was pleased to reward His faithful obedience with the blessings of the eternal covenant established before the creation of time. He was pleased to elevate Him to His own Right Hand, where all authority in heaven and earth is vested in His Person, and from which position He lives and reigns, never to die again, and to continue the harvest, to continue the process of gathering His elect from every tribe and nation. He will have His harvest from every nook and cranny of this darkened, sin-drenched planet. And after He has done so, then the end will come, as He taught.

Consider Jesus... and let the Rory Reids do what they may, they cannot strip us of our hope, optimism and joy. We may grieve (and we should) over the injustices and disgraces that are so prevalent in a world consumed by idolatry. We may be called to stand for justice and to call out the corrupt (and we should), but we must not do so with a character of vengeance, for that belongs to the Lord. We are called to be obedient in all things, to be faithful in all things, as was our Lord, but, we must consider Him... whose obedience has removed the penalty of our own disobedience and whose pefect work has completely furnished our salvation.

Consider Him... let your mind dwell on HIm... no time of the year is more suited or empowered to the contemplation of Christ, than this season.

Posted by Gadfly on April 16, 2014 at 07:49 AM in Devotional Meditation, Discipleship | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 15, 2014

The Darling Buds of May....

[image: Darling Buds, 2014, JA Van Devender]

Psalm 27:4 (NKJV)

⁴ One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.

Sonnet XVIII, Shakespeare...

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

In one sense there is nothing "new" in the news today. The US is stil bumbling around, confused and inept in the face of the swirling chaos that threatens the peace and security of the entire world. A rabid bigot has shouted "Heil Hitler" and started shooting people at a Jewish synagogue... and winds up killing four Christians. The bodies of seven small children were found in a garage in Utah... in a little town called "Pleasant Grove" of all things. On infant had been still born, the other six were murdered by their mother.

You know... different details... same old "news."

Occasionally we have to forcefully remind ourselves that, while sorrow and grief are appropriate in the face of such reminders, despair is not. There are times when we have to "search out" the good, the beautiful and the holy. God has not left Himself without a witness (Acts 14:17) and that witness is present all about us. In the context of the Acts passage, Paul speaks of that which "fills our hearts with food and gladness," and he grounds that observation on the "goodness" of the physical world we inhabit. Sometimes we have to shift from the world of man with its delusional tribute to the idea of man's autonomy and its steady, contradicting testimonies to the utter depravity that lies in mankind's heart and surfaces so regularly in such things as quoted above. Sometimes we have to move "to infinity and beyond" and look to the often unreported good news that is even more prevalent than those horrors that are reported. Sometimes we have to notice a flower bud and ponder its witness to the truth of life in this world and the hope that lies beyond it toward which it is moving.

Shakespeare spoke of the "darling buds of May" as a metaphor for the beauty of youth and it lead him to the solemn contemplation that all too soon, such beauty is lost as the buds are shaken when "Summer's lease" is too-soon over. The Scriptures cast this same metaphor when it likens men's lives to "flowers in the field, which soon wither." But there is something eternal in the bud and the field's flower... there is delicacy and beauty themselves... and the promise that though the present instace of them will pass, yet in due time and after the trials of a desperate heat in true Summer and the devastating cold of true Winter, that same delicacy and beauty will again demonstrate their immortality.

We, on occasion, have to remind ourselves that is death that truly dies... and it is life that eternally lives. The recurring news, the type that sells anyway, celebrates death in all its manifold horrors, but those reported things are passing... and it will be the unreported beautiful things that prove eternal.

The promise of the flower bud is that more is coming... that soon the bud will show forth the latent colors and fullness of its true glory... it is forward looking to that which is bright and beautiful and which will again grace this earth even if its mortal heralds wither and die prior to the culmination.

The Psalmist understood this very well. When tough times pressed all about him and all of the reported news was grim, discouraging and unedifying, he turned his eyes to the beauty which is "The Lord" and which is reflected in various ways all about us. The eternal beauty and colors which are instantiated in each appearance of a flower bud is just one facet of the Person of God Who possesses all beauty and distributes it in revelation of His Person. We also bear witness to this beauty, and not, contra Shakespeare, only in the bloom of youth, but also in the progress of "ages and stages", as each is shaped and influenced by God's indwelling Spirit enabling our walk and testimony. All things are beautiful in the due season... and every season is beautiful in its own integrity... what is true of the seasons of nature is true for human lives also.

The reported news proclaims that death is everywhere triumphant, unstoppable and vicious. The unreported news, often mutely expressed in such things as a flower bud, is that we must look elsewhere for the whole truth, even the whole truth of things that seem so depressing.

We must behold the beauty of the Lord, the perfection of His ways, and the confident hope that it is the beautiful things of this world that are truly eternal... and the rest is just dross, to be burned away in due time.

Posted by Gadfly on April 15, 2014 at 08:35 AM in Current Affairs, Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 14, 2014

The Time of Singing Has Come...

[image: cherry blossom time, 2014, JA Van Devender]

[Chet Atkins plays it HERE]

Song of Solomon 2:10–12 (NKJV)

¹⁰ My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.

¹¹ For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. ¹² The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.

The nicest things about the mid-latitudes of the geographical U. S., are the flowering trees, especially the cherries. Don't get me wrong, I grew up with Magnolias, Azelias and Dogwoods and they were and are beautiful. The difference is the relative length of spring and the contrasting hardwoods that set off the blossoms. The South is blessed and cursed with the prevailing pine tree. A pine forest has its charm, but hardwoods furnish a more rounded (literally) and full background. Spring is usually "longer" here with a few more weeks of cooler weather and less humidity and the flowers hang around longer.

Anyway, when the "flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come." It's true... there is something about a nice spring day with soft breezes and deep blue skies and the sky line set off by puffy whites, pinks and reds, underneath which are the waving Daffodil trumpets. It makes the "heart sing."

How appropriate that the Lord chose Spring for (first) the Passover and then, in fulfillment of that feast, (second) Easter.

It just had to be a spring day when that tomb opened and the Lord walked out. There just had to be flowers edging the plot, providing a comedic contrast to the stupified soldiers that were supposed to be "guarding" it. There just had to be a "nature" shout of brightening sun-rise flooding His face as the cool breath of fresh air filled His lungs, replacing the stagnant damp of the tomb.

He rose to claim His bride... to call her to the marriage feast... to the love of God expressed in the Son of God... that which is reflected in the beauty of God's creation... and to the promise of an eternal spring in the offing . There is joy... peace at last... and hope.

The best hour of the day for Spring is sunrise.... a fitting metaphor for the Risen Son Himself who brings the time of singing.

Posted by Gadfly on April 14, 2014 at 08:13 AM in Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 13, 2014

Preparation For Worship: The Great King Who Gives Life From The Dead

[Image: Mary Our Queen Cathedral, 2014, JA Van Devender]

Location: Charles Street, North Baltimore

John 12:13 (NKJV)

^{13 (they)}took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”

Nothing in the field of physical human endeavor so proclaims the majesty and glory of Jesus Christ as a Cathedral. I suppose that is why I love them so much. I have sat in St. Paul's in London, I have visited the Cathedral in Palma, I have toured Westminster, I have prayed in countless lesser church structures in many states and other countries.

Nothing so sets the tone for our relation to God as the high vaulted ceilings, the darkened room illuminated by the colors of the stain glass windows, the focused eye drawing center piece and altar, and the solemn dignity of the place.

This particular cathedral is Roman Catholic and I will not comment on the gulf between my theology and theirs. But, as this edifice demonstrates, they understand Cathedrals.

Inside, the sanctuary is huge and yet it would be entirely possible to sense the Holy Spirit filling the hearts of each individual kneeling in such a place before His King. I can only imagine how the nuanced melodies and chanting voices of a Gregorian or Polyphonic choir would give it even more sense of the Holy.

A great cathedral represents, to my mind, the physical image of what every Christian life should embody. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our lives are to be characterized as a holy thing, dedicated to our Great King, in whom resides all power, authority and grace. He who gives life to the dead and mercy to sinners and joy to those who mourn. In Him is life and that life eternal. He gives it now and will reap its full reward, its full harvest, in due course, but never-the-less it is entered into now.

Can anything compare to this King... can any person who has grasped the full significance of Palm Sunday not lift their palm branch and shout "Hallelujah!" If we don't speak, perhaps the rocks will.

This King deserves to be praised... not as someone who died, but as someone who died and now lives... to reign in glorious majesty. Who sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty until such time as He delivers His Kingdom to the Father, when the last of His harvesting work is done, and He with surpassing joy joins His adopted brothers and sisters, raised from the dead by His decree, and they enter into the eternal celebration planned from all eternity for them to experience forever.

Palm Sunday is not child's play... it is not just a nice little picture and an opportunity for children to hold palm leaves that threaten the eyes of all their neighbors. Palm Sunday is the Plan of Redemption's glorious consummation and we celebrate it in both anticipation (of its fullness) and presence (in its own going reality).

Here HE is! Our Great King.... who gives life from the dead.... Hallelujah! Amen.

Posted by Gadfly on April 13, 2014 at 07:04 AM in Devotional Meditation | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 06, 2014

Preparation for Worship: The Support We Need...

[Image: Column Heads, 2014, JA Van Devender]

Matthew 5:18 (NKJV)

¹⁸For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Sermon Text:

Matthew 5:20 (NKJV)

²⁰For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Their beauty does not hide nor interfere with their functionality, and perhaps that is the key. The ornate "capitals" display the architect's artistic sensibilities and imparts a sense of delicate fineness to what would ordinarily only impress us with brute strength. It adds joy to the eye even as it protects us from the tons of material that would otherwise crash down on our heads. It is majesty and strength all combined into the elements of immediate life and purpose.

And so it is with God's Word.

Today we are concerned with righteousness, a concept so critical that it is a necessary characteristic of any person who would enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Today we see the two-edged sword of the Gospel, cleaving humanity into those who will hear and obey its call and those who will ignore it and pass into oblivion. Today we will contemplate the edifice of God's plan for all time and humanity, culminating in the royal birth, life, death and resurrection of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God.

It is a grand "ceiling", a magnificent structure, colorful beyond belief and filled with images that make Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel depiction look like a child's coloring book. It is the vaulted realm of eternity suspended over our heads and inviting our wondering gaze.

And it is supported, from floor to ceiling, by the columns of God's Word... His Law... His Commandments... His Prophecies... His Special Revelation handed down through generations with the abiding promise, that not one jot or tittle will, in anywise, be broken away from it, until all "comes about" that God has planned. (the word translated "fulfilled" in this verse is different than the word also translated "fulfilled" in verse 17. This one properly means something a shade different. I think "comes about" answers better because it points toward a temporal change rather than a qualitative change.)

God's Word is here to stay. It is not for us to "protect it" as if it is in danger of being lost. Men may burn bibles from now to doom's day (literally for them) but they will not hinder it nor extinguish its light. Men may disparage it and seek to relegate it to irrelevance as only being of historical and academic interest. But its power will continue to change lives and evoke faith. God's Word is powerful not because it is incredibly beautiful or astonishingly deep, all of which it is. God's Word is powerful because it is God's Word... it's power is His sovereign, decreeing, instantiating voice speaking then, now and forever into the hearts of those whom He has disposed to hear it.

It is what holds up the ceiling over our heads and though functional it is yet beautiful, but it is not intended that we look and see only it. We are to see what it supports, the power of God displayed in the work of God pointing toward the purposes of God which is in fact the story of Creation, the drama of redemption, and the glorious finale of the Hallelujah chorus celebrating its eschatological fulfillment.

This is our focus... our hope... and our righteousness, that we hear... we see... and we believe.

Posted by Gadfly on April 06, 2014 at 07:03 AM in Devotional Meditation, Discipleship | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The truth may be one, but it sounds less like a single wavering note than like a symphony. D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God

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