Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 18:12, NIV).I fully believe that God has designed the human heart to run most effectively and sufficiently on Him. He is the one who is our "gas" for our tanks. He is the one who will satify the deepest longings of our hearts. He is the one who we were designed to worship - and not just for his own purposes. No, we are most satisfied and happy in life when we are in a dependent, loving, worshipful relationship with God. He gets the glory! We get the joy! Simple, yet incredibly important point that I need to remind myself of every day.
The pastor of the church where Hope was born, John Piper, has written very effectively about this. My favorite of all of his books is one of his first - "The Supremacy of God in Preaching". The title makes it sound like it is a book about preaching, but it is not at all really. It is a book about God, and how he desires to be the center of our lives. This desire of God to be glorified and our desire to be satisfied ARE NOT in conflict - they are beautifully harmonious.
However, each one of us is also hardwired by the great fall of our ancient ancestors (Adam and Eve) into thinking we can become self-suffient. We say to God, "No thanks, I've got it taken care of - I can fill myself up with accomplishments, family, sex, TV, March Madness, porn, and a whole host of other things. The god I have created in my own image is much better than the real deal because I am in control of this one."
The reality is, however, this "god" NEVER satisfies. As much as I struggle with all the things in life that I try to substitute for God, I know (and I am convinced all people do) that it never satisfies. Mick Jagger sings it. You can hear it on any secular love song, or especially any country song. The Beatles said, "All we need is love" and then they broke up. [Little Larry Norman quote there for anyone paying attention.]
Piper says in his book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching
We take the mirror of God's image, which was intended to reflect his glory in the world, and turn our backs to the light, and fall in love with the countours of our own dark shadow, trying desparately to convince ourselves (with technological advances or management skills or athletic prowess or academic achievements or sexual exploits or counterculture hair styles) that the dark shadow of the iimage on the ground in front of us is really glorious and satisfying. And in our proud love affair with ourselves, we pour contempt (whether we know it or not!) on the worth of God's glory.My we learn to be humble, get honor and give God glory.
Trike
PS - I'm hoping to be able to blog in San Deigo as part of a family R and R trip - but if not, I'll post a bunch when I get back next Thursday. Peace out, for his glory and our joy!
4 comments:
Off topic tangent:
We need a solution we need salvation
Let's send some people to the moon and gather information
They brought back a big bag of rocks
Only cost thirteen billion
Must be nice rocks
That song sure has some great lines.
Rock On!
"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (18:24)
This had a couple of meanings to me. (1) as easy as it is to get into the desires of being "popular" or acquiring many companions, there is greater reward and solace in having fewer great friends. (2) also, is this friend referenced from above?
-Dan
Hi! My name is Tim DeMoss. I’m a disc jockey from Pennsylvania and am in the process of writing Larry Norman’s biography. While I have a lot of material from interviews, time spent with Larry, and so forth, I believe a great way to tell his story is to invite others (like yourself) to share their stories of Larry as well. I did a “Yahoo” search, and your blog w/ the Larry Norman reference was one of those listed, so I wanted to extend the invitation to you to contribute. Personal interactions, concert experiences, how his music affected you and your friends/family, rumors you may have heard, questions you may have—those are all examples of how you might participate.
The details and background are at www.thelarrynormanstory.com. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Please also feel free to forward this on to anyone you believe would a) like to submit their thoughts or questions or b) simply be made aware of the biography’s progress and completion.
Thanks very much!
Sincerely,
Tim DeMoss
timmyd@wordfm.org
timmyd@safeplace.net
"A man of friends [may be] broken apart [by their "friendship"], but there exists a Lover who sticks together tighter than a brother."
wash0088
Who is this "friend" (ahab: "lover")?
As easy as it seems to get many "friends." It's not so easy to keep them. One who seeks society must play the politician and put on many faces --and may lose himself in the process. Not many "friends" gained this way are faithful. (It's interesting that the word for broken sounds like "friend".)
But there is a Lover of our souls who promises "I will never, no, never leave you nor [will I] never ever forsake you." {Bad grammar, good theology.}(Heb. 13:5 See also Deuteronomy 31:6; 31:8;
Joshua 1:5;1 Kings 8:57) and "..lo, I am with you always, [even] to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20 NKJV)
He only requires humility and brokenness (exposed raw openness) -Is. 66:1-2; Mt. 21:44
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