July 30, 2013

• Why do you watch the same movie over and over?

  In a blog post far, far, far away... I asked @llamalima (self-confessed "movie junkie") the following question:

  Why do you watch the same movie over and over?

  Here was his response:

  Only certain movies, because they are beautiful? Like American Beauty, 5 Centimetres I have watched a multiple times in the past, Matchstick Men is popular too...so yeah, i watch it because it's interesting and usually there is a lot of layering that takes at least a few watches to unravel the mystery.

  A lot of movies I start watching, I never finish.

  I loved that answer. It was more than I'd hoped for. I was actually setting him up.

  Do you see it?

  Because they are beautiful.
  Because they are interesting.
  Because there is a lot of layering that takes at least a few watches to unravel the mystery.

  All right. Many of us know the enjoyment from watching a favorite movie (or reading a book or listening to a piece of music or a sermon) over and over again... How much more ought that to be the case when we come to the Bible, which is breathed out by God, and when we come to Jesus Christ Himself, who IS the Word of God?

  Because the Word of God is beautiful.
  Because the Word of God is interesting.
  Because the Word of God has a lot of layering that takes at least a few reads to unravel the mystery.

  Using some of JN's words, one purpose of my blogging here has been to help you to enter a greater and greater appreciation of the beauty, interest, layering and mystery which we find exists in God Himself... that you might begin to enter into an experiential (or experimental) knowledge of Him... not to rest with an intellectual knowledge of Him (though we certainly should and must be growing in our knowledge of Him by rooting ourselves in right doctrine!)... that you might avoid the fatal mistake of the Pharisees, who had diligently searched the Scriptures –– but had stopped short of coming to sup with Jesus Christ Himself and have life and life more abundantly. I was in that very same position for well over 20 years.

  My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be engaged in that discipline of going over and over to the Word of God, just as we do with our favorite movies, books, and songs [and even sermons!]. How sad to say how very few Christians relish time in the Word of God in anticipation of His descending upon the mercy seat! Consider that we have access into the Most Holy Place through our Savior's precious blood –– are too many of us making light of His sacrifice and trampling on the blood of the Lamb? ~ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

  How few professing Christians consider time with God in His Word to be a privilege and a delight –- and how contrary that attitude is to the pattern we find in the Psalms, where we read of the children of God panting, longing, and thirsting for the living God! –– or those in Jesus' day went all out for a touch from the Master or to grab hold of His garment! In contrast, for many today Bible reading is seen as one of many items on our daily to-do list. We take our few minutes with God, we check off our list, and we go our way. Well, we claim we have met with God, but I wonder what He would He say to that claim?

  And then, to think how many hours we squander day after day watching movies, t.v., reading other books, and listening to music... to think how many hours we squander online... to think how many hours we squander on exercise and obsessing over our earthly appearance... I could go on...

  Colossians 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

  In his "Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians," John Davenant writes this of Colossians 3:1-2: 

  Mind the things above, think upon or savour them. The word phroneo, in our translation set your affections, embraces two acts; the act of the mind or of the understanding reflecting about any thing; and the act of the will and affections approving and loving any thing: Therefore, the Apostle would have us raise our minds to heaven, and perpetually have those things above at heart, neither that alone, but that we should ardently love those things, and fix our affection upon them. Unless we join these two, no one will prepare to seek heavenly things; for there is no desire of a thing unknown: it is, therefore, necessary to know, and frequently to revolve in mind, these heavenly things; for no one seeks that about which he thinks not: But neither is it sufficient to think, unless it is done with love and affection; for nothing is sought by except that which is desired and loved. Bernard truly observed, The understanding the affections in men are sometimes opposed to each other, so that the one knows and approves the things on the earth. When that happens, the mind is distracted and turn away, not excited to seek. Hence it is that Paul exhorts us not only to know, but to savour the things which are above.¹

  Did you read that? ... for there is no desire of a thing unknown: it is, therefore, necessary to know, and frequently to revolve in mind, these heavenly things; for no one seeks that about which he thinks not: But neither is it sufficient to think, unless it is done with love and affection; for nothing is sought by except that which is desired and loved.

  To desire Christ as we ought, we must know Him, and how can we know Him except as the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our understanding to and inflame our hearts with the truths that are found in the Bible.

  In 1785, Andrew Fuller wrote his circular letter "CAUSES OF DECLENSION IN RELIGION, AND MEANS OF REVIVAL" in an attempt to "pointing out some of those evils which we apprehend to be causes of that declension of which so many complain," as well as "the means of their removal."

  The first thing that we shall request you to make inquiry about is, whether there is not a great degree of contentedness with a mere superficial acquaintance with the gospel, without entering into its SPIRIT and END; and whether this be not one great cause of the declension complained of. In the apostles' time, and in all times, grace and peace have ever been multiplied by the knowledge of God; and, in proportion as this has been neglected, those have always declined. If we are sanctified by the word of truth, then, as this word is received or disrelished, the work of sanctification must be supposed to rise or fall. We may give a sort of idle assent to the truths of God, which amounts to little more than taking it for granted that they are true, and thinking no more about them, unless somebody opposes us; but this will not influence the heart and life, and yet it seems to be nearly the whole of what many attain to, or seek after.

  We maintain the doctrine of one infinitely glorious God; but do we realize the amiableness of his character? If we did, we could not avoid loving him with our heart. and soul, and mind, and strength. We hold the doctrine of the universal depravity of mankind; but do we enter into its evil nature and awful tendency? If we did the one, how much lower should we lie before God, and how much more should we be filled with a self-loathing spirit! If the other, how should we feel for our fellow sinners! how earnest should we be to use all means, and have all means used, if it might please God thereby to pluck them as brands out of the burning! We hold the doctrine of a trinity of Persons in the Godhead; but do we cordially enter into the glorious economy of redemption, wherein the conduct of the sacred Three is most gloriously displayed? Surely if we did, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost would be with us more than it is. We avow the doctrines of free, sovereign, and efficacious grace; but do we generally feel the grace therein discovered? If we did, how low should we lie! how grateful should we be! We should seldom think of their sovereign and discriminating nature, without considering how justly God might have left us all to have had our own will, and followed our own ways; to have continued to increase our malady, and despise the only remedy! Did we properly enter into these subjects, we could not think of a great Saviour, and a great salvation, without loathing ourselves for being such great sinners; nor of what God had done for and given to us without longing to give him our little all, and feeling an habitual desire to do something for him. If we realized our redemption by the blood of Christ, it would be natural for us to consider ourselves as bought with a price, and therefore not our own; "a price, all price beyond!" O, could we enter into this, we should readily discern the force and propriety of our body and spirit being his; his indeed! dearly bought, and justly due!  Finally, we all profess to believe the vanity of this life and its enjoyments, and ifhe infinitely superior value of that above; but do we indeed enter into these things? If we did, surely we should have more of heavenly-mindedness, and less of criminal attachment to the world.

  It is owing in a great degree to this contentment with a superficial knowledge of things, without entering into the spirit of them, that we so often hear the truths of the gospel spoken of with a tone of disgust, calling them dry doctrines!" Whereas gospel truths, if preached in their native simplicity, and received with  understanding and cordiality, are the grand source of all well-grounded consolation. We know of no consolation worth receiving but what arises from the influence of truth upon the mind. Christ's words are spirit and life to them who hunger and thirst after them, or have a heart to live upon them; and could we but more thoroughly enter into this way of living, we should find the doctrines of the gospel, instead of being dry, to be what they were in the days of Moses, who declared, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass," Deut. xxxii. 2. O brethren, may it be our and your concern not to float upon the surface of Christianity, but to enter into the spirit of it! "For this cause" an apostle bowed his knees "to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," that we might "comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of things; and for this cause we also wish to bow our knees, knowing that it is by this, if at all, that we are "filled [with] all the fulness of God," Eph. iii. 14-19.²
  

   

  First off, that word "disrelish" really struck me. There are only two positions when it comes to Christ and the things of Christ: we are either disrelishing or relishing Him.

  Then, as I reread Fuller's words on the printed page, I began to make note and circled (highlighted above):the repeated contrast Fuller kept making between:

  "we maintain the doctrine," "We hold the doctrine," "we avow the doctrine"

  and

  our entering into the spirit of these things!

  Let us not be content with a mere superficial acquaintance with the Gospel and with Jesus Christ! Let us not be satisfied with floating upon the surface of Christianity, without entering into the spirit of it! Let us not settle for the fireplace without the fire!

   http://youtu.be/R6CRcT-O8UM - Video Fireplace

   

  In "The Christian World Unmasked," John Berridge exhorts us similarly:

  Oh, Sir, the lifeless manner in which people pray, or hear the word of God at church, sheweth plainly that they have no property in the blessings of the gospel. Glorious things are spoken of in the Scripture, but they make a mighty small impression on a Christian congregation. The heavenly tidings fall into their heavy ears, like money dropped into a dead man's hand. No comfort is received from the money or the tidings, because they both are dead, and have no interest in them. If you, Sir, was an heir to a fine estate, your bosom would be often warmed with the joyful prospect; but your father's servant could not feel your joy. His bosom would not glow, when the fields are viewed, or when the rents are paid. And wherefore? Because he is not the heir. A Bible is the precious store-house and the Magna Charta of a Christian. There he reads of his heavenly Father's love, and of his dying Saviour's legacies; there he sees a map of his travels through the wilderness, and a landscape, too, of Canaan. And when he climbs on Pisgah's top, and views the promised land, his heart begins to burn, delighted with the blessed prospect, and amazed at the rich and free salvation. But a mere professor, though a decent one, looks on the Bible as a dull book; arid peruseth it with such indifference, as you would read the title-deeds belonging to another man's estate.³

  How are you reading the Bible... as a mere professor or as an heir? ... as a servant or as a son?

   

  Father of Mercies, in Thy Word
  by Anne Steele (1760)

  1 Father of mercies, in thy word
  What endless glory shines!
  For ever be thy name adored
  For these celestial lines.

  2 Here, may the wretched sons of want
  Exhaustless riches find;
  Riches, above what earth can grant,
  And lasting as the mind.

  3 Here the fair tree of knowledge grows,
  And yields a free repast,
  Sublimer sweets that nature knows,
  Invite the longing taste.

  4 Here, the Redeemer's welcome voice
  Spreads heavenly peace around;
  And life, and everlasting joys
  Attend the blissful sound.

  5 O may these heavenly pages be
  My ever dear delight;
  And still new beauties may I see,
  And still increasing light!

  6 Divine instructor, gracious Lord,
  Be Thou for ever near;
  Teach me to love thy sacred word,
  And view my Savior there.

   

  

  Gazing into his eyes I see the depths of his love, but I cannot see the bottom.”
  (Augustine)

   

  My friends, I feel like I'm still very much wading on the edge of God's love, but by grace alone, in my midlife, God has made this barren woman sing and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

  Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures.
  (Alan Redpath)

  It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly, been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a converted man.
  (Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon "The Former and Latter Rain")

  In His sovereign goodness, my heavenly Father has been pleased to give this lowly, wretched sinner increasing glimpses of Jesus' beauty and His layers, so I find no other beloved of comparable interest... And so, when you ask me:

  "What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?"

  I cannot help but answer along with the Shulamite woman:

  Song of Solomon 5:10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. 11  His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. 12  His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 13  His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. 14  His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. 15  His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 16  His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

  And beyond that, I plead for the Spirit to grant me increasing freedom and favor to gaze into His face to unravel more and more of the mystery!

  Psalm 27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; 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 enquire in his temple.

  Songs 8:14  "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices."

  My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may the Holy Spirit put this excruciatingly lovely appetite for our God into your heart, so my cry might become your cry!

  Revelation 22:17  The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

  Psalm 65:4  Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

   

  Rejoicing with trembling,
  Karen

   

   

  ---

  Scripture quotations from the KJV.

  References: 

  ¹ "Colossians (Geneva Series of Commentaries)," (Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 2005, 2009; reprinted from the English translation by Josiah Allport, 1831), Vol. II, 7. (Note:  I used the English rendering and not the actual Greek here.)

  ² http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/1785.cl.british.fuller.html, highlighting & boldface mine.

  ³ HT for the text (I edited it for typos): http://www.archive.org/stream/wholeworksofrevj00berruoft/wholeworksofrevj00berruoft_djvu.txt

  Photo credit: "Elizabeth, wading, Bay St. Louis" by Alexander Allison, Summer 1921 found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BayStLouisWading1921.jpg / PD-1923.

   

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