“Excellent—restored!”

Moses provided one of the most audacious statements in the Bible: “Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way” (Gen 1:31 LB). I used audacious simply because of the magnitude and breadth of Moses’ claim—that God, Almighty God, created something remarkable. Often times, in conversation, I am captivated by people who try to imagine what heaven will be like; for instance whether or not they will see their loved ones or what questions they wish to ask God. I don’t know what the questions will be, but I know this much, I don’t have any comprehension of what the experience of heaven will be like. I do know that we will be in God’s presence with no more tears, no more death, no more crying, no more pain, and the surroundings will be brand spankin’ new (cf. Rev 21:3ff). While I thank John and others for their attempts to describe heaven, I am somehow certain that we are only given a speck of the real deal. On the same note, please do not ask me to explain what earth, prior to the fall, must’ve been like. I could try to imagine what Moses meant by excellent, but unfortunately, my imagination would fail me because words cannot describe what God calls excellent. I will only limit what it was like if I attempt an explanation. My job, however, is to marvel. And that too—is a very complex thing, trying to marvel at God’s creation—which was succinctly called, excellent. This seemingly obvious conflict is because we live in a broken world. We were born into a world humbled and wearied by suffering, brokenness, pain, sorrow, trouble, heartache, and burdened by death. Creation, as we know it, simply does not represent what God called excellent thousands of years ago. This is not the same reality that God was pleased with before the creation of man (Gen 1:25). Unfortunately, we live in a world marred and saturated in sin. What about restoration? That is what Christ did for you and me, as Paul asserted in his letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). This new reality is simply amazing. God’s purpose never changed. Though the world as we know it today may not be the excellent one that God fashioned thousands of years ago, God has restored excellence through you and me, ardent supporters of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. Though we live in a broken world, the reality is that the Son of God brought restoration for all who choose the Cross as the central landmark in their lives. Consequently, the excellent is no longer defined by external realities, but rather, by the Cross of Christ. I pray that you will recognize the intentional restoration taking place within each of us daily. Indeed, David was right when he said, “Lord our Lord, your name is the most [excellent] name in all the earth” (Ps 8:9 NCV). Rejoice therefore, for we wear the name, this most excellent name, because of restoration guaranteed by the Cross!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Happy Birthday C.S.Lewis

"Every Christian would agree that a man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God" ~ C. S. Lewis

"We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship" ~ C. S. Lewis

"Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already" ~ C. S. Lewis

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable." C. S. Lewis

Making it count...

Several centuries ago, the apostle Paul made this powerful remark: "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15-16). And when you add Peter's rejoinder, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Pet. 3:15)--one can clearly get a sense of what is required of us.

But what is the meaning of these statements? Clearly, the intent and content of these powerful assertions cannot be overlooked. These verses represent a unifying call, by those who walked with Jesus, of the usefulness of His message. The message of the Cross! In a time when the Cross continues to come under massive assault, what is even more startling and scarier is the silence emanating from Christians, followers of Jesus, who are themselves struggling with their identity in Christ. This silence of course is a failure to provide a counter response to the secularization that has now come to define society. The Bible, over and over again, reminds us, and demands us, to stand up for Christ. To defend Him! After all, didn't Paul remark that we take advantage of every opportunity? So then, what are doing about it?

Dan Plyler, articulated a reason for our hesitancy and pointed to our "being unlearned and uninformed." One way to defend the faith, hope that we have in Christ, is by indulging in His Word in order for us to understand His provisions for us. And given the fact that we are living in an era where people want for their to be meaning without subscribing to God, the call to take advantage has never been greater and louder.

However, there is caution, in that we can do all of these and more--but the one thing that we have to remember is: "[r]egardless of how well we present and defend the truth of God (as Scripture clearly calls us to do) none of our efforts are what ultimately changes the heart. That task is for God's Spirit alone as he is the only one capable" (Plyler). Meanwhile, let us to what we've commissioned to do--the rest is up to God.

Talofa

Life

"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be a part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls in the water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too-for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist-in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless-I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality-namely my idea of justice-was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just has, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning." (C S Lewis, Mere Christianity, 45-46)

Meaning?

The famed Danish philosopher and author Soren Kierkegaard uttered these famous thoughts in his work Fear and Trembling: "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?

Consider the ramifications of these words, in a culture that is becoming increasingly void of meaning and purpose, in favor of relativism. Kierkegaard, I think, posits a very radical view or purpose and meaning, and in his book, these components are the result of one thing, faith. To arrive at an understanding of meaning and purpose, one would have, according to Kierkegaard, resign from reason, in order to capture the essence of faith. Now, Kierkegaard's view of course, is in stark contrast to that of another equally famous physicist, Stephen Hawkings, who boldly stated in an interview that, "[he] regards[s] the [human] brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark" (theguardian.co.uk, 2011).

These two competing views however, resurrect an interesting question: Is life meaningful? One would be hard pressed to find meaning in Hawking's assessment that life is basically all there is, and the idea of an afterlife is simply a 'fairy tale' and we are but mere computers doomed for destruction at some point. Kierkegaard would agree that if we are but mere computers passing through the world as a ' thoughtless and fruitless whim'--then life would be 'empty and devoid' of meaning and purpose. Incidentally, these two compelling views are some of the most discussed views among Christians and non-Christians. For non-Christians, life ends here on earth. For Christians, life here on earth is but a stepping stone; a journey designed to provide a glimpse of what the afterlife has to offer. Indeed, we long or heaven, our home, that our Christ has prepared for us royals (1 Pet. 2.9), mansions (John 14.2) galore. God provides hope...