I think the most amazing thing about God is how much we don't know about God. We understand the way God wants us to live, why we need His grace, how that functions, etc. But every time I read the bible, I learn something new. Every time I read something about God, that remains true to scripture, I learn something new.

What's so awesome about all this, is that this seemingly unknowable God - this creator and sovereign over all things - makes Himself known on a deep, personal level.

People love to drop names. "I know so and so." or "I once met whoever." How many of those people know the guy who made everything? How many of those people have sincerely felt the love of the man to whom life and death obey?

Sometimes I write some pretty good things, and I thank God for a brain to do it. Other times, I am just too in awe to really even think on an intellectual level. All those new agers like to reduce God to some unknowable energy, void of any relationship or personal will - subject to our whims, and entirely meaningless in our salvation. They don't understand God. They don't even know God. All they know is self-delusion. The God of the bible is so much more than their "universal force", so much deeper than "thinking positive to attract positive things"...and yet, this wholly awe inspiring Lord makes Himself personally known to all His people. This God loves you, and you can feel it. This God, who needs nothing, is everything, and that could create or destroy at the slightest whisper loves us, calls us, and does things for us out of His good pleasure.

It's just pretty comforting (even humbling) to know that God is Absolute, and God is on our side.

Well, I started coughing yesterday. Naturally, my throat is starting to hurt today. I'm sure staying up all night and being dehydrated at work will help me feel better :)

A cold isn't so bad. I suppose the thing to do is just go about my business today, as if I didn't have a cold - and pray God won't let anyone else catch it.

I think a lot while I read scripture, and have decided to start taking notes on esword. I would like to think that any given commentary starts out that way, as an earnest desire to reflect on God - and as it develops - it becomes very systematic.

So, I figure recording my thoughts will have a twofold effect: it will bring me closer to the Lord, and it will be preserved for posterity. At that point I am free to either update it later, or to merely enjoy it for what it's worth - God giving me insights once in a blue moon. Naturally, every comment or idea on scripture will be tainted by our fallen nature. However, in almost any situation you can find at least one good thing...one diamond in the rough...in anybody's love-filled discourse on scripture.

( Here's what I have so far: )

I downloaded David Guzik's commentary today, and was intrigued by his synopsis of Genesis chapter 1. It had a lot of good points, presenting the validity of Genesis on multiple fronts...most of all, this comment gave me a warm-hearted chuckle:

Before the beginning, there was an eternal purpose in the heart of God (Eph_3:11) to gather together in one all things in Christ (Eph_1:10). God's purpose was to "resolve" or "sum up" all things in Jesus, as if Jesus Himself were the answer to a great and complex problem God wrote out on the "blackboard" of the universe.

It's so true, all things are summed up and resolved in Jesus. I think it's sad when people are resolved in the hardness of their hearts with statements like, "Evolution is a fact." Well, that assumption is erroneous on several points...first, it assumes that God can be proved or disproved by the theory of evolution. No such convincing evidence has ever crossed my path. Second, it assumes the purpose of the Bible was to portray an alternate theory to evolution - which is foolish, as the point of the Bible was to establish the reality of God as being the only true God who, from the beginning of the beginning, had a plan of mercy for what He would see so fit as to create. Third, it assumes that all arguments relating to God can either be summed up or refuted by quoting evolutionary science...in other words, the apologetics of science is evolutionary rhetoric as science is a religious body all it's own in regards to the formation of the universe and life in general. Since God has already claimed to be the only true God, and all others are idols, we must assume that any science, religion, or philosophy that seeks to dethrone God Almighty is merely an idol which fulfills God's promise to both harden our hearts and send us great delusions so that we will never believe and be saved.

I find any answer but Jesus Christ to be wanting, in terms of purpose. The purpose in all things is to glorify God - not in the vain way as men expect glory, but in such a way that God returns the sentiment through love and mercy. Since God is glorified fully in Jesus Christ - all things are due to Christ: our adoration, our praise, our worship, and glorifying Christ in word and deed. This is the message of the Bible: that in the beginning there was light, and the darkness comprehended it not. It never could, it never has, and to this day the darkness is still confounded. The Bible, in every page, sets the stage for Jesus Christ - who is all things, and is glorified by all things. The crux of it isn't whether or not evolution is a fact. Evidences for or against evolution do not prove or disprove God - and such an assumption is pure folly.

If God were to write a discourse on how He made all things, it would be a book in and of itself - totally alien to even the most learned scientist of our day. What would that benefit? Who would have gained from an unreadable book of non-existent scientific terms that no one would comprehend for thousands upon thousands of years? God's purpose is not confusion, for God is not the author of confusion. God's purpose is salvation, that through His mercy He is glorified and in Christ He has completed all things. I honestly couldn't care less what you think started the universe. My response, no matter what you say to the contrary, will always be, "Jesus Christ." He is, as Guzik put it, the answer to a complex problem written out on the blackboard of the universe.

Here's some interesting quotes on the subject, which I hope others will find useful. This is from John Gill:

Though the body dies, and when it dies, the soul dies not; it survives the body, and not only lives after it, but lives for ever, it never dies: though the body without the soul is dead, yet the soul without the body is not dead; when the body returns to the earth and dust, from whence it sprung, the soul returns to God, the immediate author and giver of it: the body may be killed by men, but not the soul; no man has any power over that, none but God that made it: the soul is immortal, it is not capable of death, that is, in a natural and proper sense; it is capable of dying, in a figurative sense, a moral or spiritual death; which is brought on by sin; but this lies not in a deprivation of the powers and faculties of it; but of its moral rectitude, righteousness, and holiness; and it is capable of an eternal death, which is the destruction of it in hell; that is, not a destruction of its substance, but of its peace, joy, and happiness for ever.

From John Calvin's commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:45:

Now it is the soul that quickens the body, so as to keep it from being a dead carcase. Hence it takes its title very properly from it. After the resurrection, on the other hand, that quickening influence, which it will receive from the Spirit, will be more excellent.

So what's all that mean? Well, our soul and body are parts of the same whole. Our flesh is corrupt though, and will die. There is no contradiction here, between mortality and immortality. It is simply that the soul is what lives on until the resurrection which we find mentioned here:

1 Corinthians 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

In other words, the mortal putting on the immortal is the resurrection of the dead. Again, John Calvin expounds upon this point:

Mark, how we shall live in the kingdom of God both in body and in soul, while at the same time flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God — for they shall previously be delivered from corruption. Our nature then, as being now corruptible and mortal, is not admissible into the kingdom of God, but when it shall have put off corruption, and shall have been beautified with in-corruption, it will then make its way into it. This passage, too, distinctly proves, that we shall rise again in that same flesh that we now carry about with us, as the Apostle assigns a new quality to it which will serve as a garment. If he had said, This corruptible must be renewed, the error of those fanatics, who imagine that mankind will be furnished with new bodies, would not have been so plainly or forcibly overthrown. Now, however, when he declares that this corruptible shall be invested with glory, there is no room left for cavil.

I can see where people would assume there is a contradiction between stating that the soul and body are one - because mortality seems to have no place in immortality, likewise the corrupt has no place in the incorrupt...but such an assumption is mistaking attributes of each part of the whole for an unequal yoke attempting to bind darkness (that is our flesh) with light (that is our soul). It's made perfectly clear why the soul is punished for the sins of the body...because both body and soul will be raised for the final judgment, and neither will escape punishment.

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

God alone has the power of bestowing eternal life, or of inflicting eternal death. We should remember that, and understand that our bodies are temples not only to God - but to the spirit of life, that is our soul, which God gave us. We can't separate the two except by death, and even that is a temporary divorce - for both the separation and the reunion are acts of God, keeping unity in the creation of God.

Well, I am almost done with The Practice of the Presence of God and it was a very enjoyable book. Two points stuck out to me this morning, one that Brother Lawrence often referred to sickness and affliction as being gifts from God for the betterment of our soul - in other words, they glorify God not only in their purifying of our spirit but in their subsequent curing (if such a thing is God's will). That's a view you don't hear too often these days. We are quick to attribute everything bad to Satan, not taking the time to examine if what is bad is truly bad or if what is bad is a chance for us to draw closer to God in order to alleviate our suffering through said afflictions. Not that God causes anything harmful, but when the harm to body only strengthens that of the spirit - we must assume that spirit is more important, and thus what may be physically bad has actually benefited us to a far greater degree than physical pleasure which is often seen as good; though it quickly kills the soul, which is bad.

What also surprised me is that these notions came from an uneducated Catholic monk. Things like that just tend to prove that when God is speaking, He gives no concern to anything the person is, does, knows, etc. Just like we earn grace through absolutely no merit or work we could possibly bring before God - we extol wisdom to others through absolutely no merit of our own. Often, the seemingly unwise confound the wise with their simple truths. Other times, those who are the most inerrant in their values are often the farthest from understanding the higher spiritual callings of God. Not to say that I, in any way, condone Catholicism - my point is merely that God has mercy on whom He has mercy, and all things that occur to us should first be viewed in the light of God's sovereignty, i.e. Is this event, regardless of it's immediate perceived sway [good or bad], a means to achieve glory for God? Would God be glorified more by my suffering in a way truly befitting of a weak man...that I suffer painfully or is my joy in spite of these circumstances a definitive proof of God which non-believers lack?

When you start coming to terms with that basest of truths: glory is God's and God's alone - you do change perspective on most everything. It is a hard state of mind to remain in however, because as Brother Lawrence put it, "The world, the flesh, and the devil all work against the soul." There is a trinity at work against us as virulent and destructive as the Trinity is loving and forgiving, which seeks to take all glory from God and glorify either the world or the man. This is the greatest deceit: for a man, that loves God, to abandon God for self-glory at the behest of this triune force wholly in opposition to God's glory. When we cease to glorify God in all things, we cease to receive glory from God for our unerring obedience to His will. So if we are not wholly God's, we are not God's at all - because one can transgress in one thing, and be a partaker of all sins. Likewise, one can glorify God in one thing but the implication is that all things must eventually glorify God or be burned as chaff for their general uselessness.

I think the parallel that Brother Lawrence was drawing up, was that all thoughts and actions we undertake must eventually glorify God or be burned within ourselves to make way for that which is Godly in nature. I am truly envious of such a sustained, peaceful, and profound understanding of God. That is truly something given by God alone, that cannot be learned so easily except through experience.

For all mentions of glorious suffering in the name of the Lord through scripture, it is a wonder as to why people still seek after the world assuming God owes it to them. We owe God worship, and if through our worship and piety God sees fit to deliver the world to us - then it is only because our meekness of heart and poverty of spirit enables us to justly handle the riches of the earth. We must become poverty and suffering in order to gain rest and wealth, but these are the true rest and true wealth promised by Christ - rarely manifest in their worldly counterparts, an error which has led many to perceive the pursuit of the world as the love of God. In reality, the love of God is the only pursuit a Christian should ever undertake. God will do nothing for us, until we've given all we have to God. It's a truth I believe in, and one that I think has been summed up wonderfully in this particular book.