quote of the day

Charles Spurgeon:

When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but His love.

Disturb Us, O Lord

Sir Francis Drake:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas where storms show Your mastery; where losing sight of land we shall find stars. We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; we ask You to [lead us into] a future of strength, courage, hope and love.

HALOS, HARPS, HOPE, and HEAVEN

My Sara loves to think about heaven. But not vaguely. She says that she loves to think about being with Jesus. Probably a dozen times since we've been married she has told me that when she was scared at night when she was younger, she would imagine Jesus wrapping her in His strong, secure, yet gentle arms. This is good hope.

Stupid hope that really isn't hope is thinking that heaven is going to be halos, harps, clouds, and waltzing with sky fairies. Of course, Jesus will be there too. But who cares. He only "saved" me. He is of no importance to heaven because the real importance of heaven is that it's not hell.

Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service. We have settled on an image of never-ending sing-along in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever and ever, amen. And our heart sinks. That's it? That's good news? And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more "spiritual" [John Eldridge].

Honestly, I'm not opposed to singing. I'm definitely not opposed to singing hymns. And I'm not opposed to singing hymns for a really long time. BUT... If this is the apex of "hope" then it is a total joke.

Look in Gen 1-2. Man was made to reign and rule with God, like, and for God over all of creation. Our hope is that the Gen 1-2 will be restored. Rev 19-22 proves that it shall be so in the new heavens and the new earth. The echo of this kind of hope is heard in many places. Here's a great one:

To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes [Charles Spurgeon].

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory [Col 3.1-4].

liturgical hope

It was quite lovely reading through Malachi in my Jewish Study Bible this morning. The footnotes are always intriguing and generally give fun insight or some sort of historical/critical commentary.

The last chapter of Malachi [two chs in most translations] tells of YHWH's people being His treasured possession [3.17], "the sun of righteousness" rising with healing in its wings [3.20 or 4.2], and "Elijah" preparing the way [3.23 or 4.5]. These texts are richly Messianic. We can see this in Mt 11.7-15, Lk 1.76-78, and elsewhere. Despite these texts being promised-filled, the book ends on a somber note of destruction [3.24 or 4.6].

However, when this passage is read in traditional Jewish liturgy, 3.23 is repeated after 3.24. This is done so that the public reading of the text would end with hope as the horizon rather than despair as the last stanza.

Moreover, this is precisely how the last verses of Lamentations [5.21-22] and Isaiah [66.23-24] are read too. In doing this, the Jewish people know that they have not TRULY returned from exile [Neh 9.36]. They know that this Second Temple cannot fully be what YHWH promised in the Davidic covenant. They are hardwired with hope, but do not believe that this hope has come in Jesus.

But the Messiah is supposed to reign and rule. The Messiah will be the spiritual and political Jewish Superhero. Messiahs don't die naked on a Roman crucifixion stick. 

Or do they?

HOPE

I read this quote this morning. It reminded me of the chasm of distinction between the New Testament's meaning of the word "hope" and how we often use it. Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Adams:

Hope is a virgin of a fair and clear countenance; her proper seat is upon the earth, her proper object is in heaven. Faith is her attorney-general, prayer her solicitor, patience her physician, charity her almoner, thankfulness her treasure, the promise of God her anchor, peace her chair of state, and eternal glory her crown.

HOPE DOESN’T DiSAPPOiNT

If it is tangible or visible, it undefines itself. Who hopes for what he already sees? Hope, by nature, must be a conviction of future surety. It is a horizon of absolutes that is apprehended and daily known through faith. Yet one day, these things which are our food for today, will be no longer needed. Faith and hope will die. Our faith shall be sight and we will meet the sun on the horizon of hope. But in the now, this kind of hope births perseverance and does not waver in the face of temporal options. This is the precise type of hope that does not disappoint. Or as G.K. Chesterton notes, “Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.”