Creation: like a beautiful book

(From the Belgic Confession)

Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God

First, by the creation, preservation, and government

of the universe,

since that universe is before our eyes

like a beautiful book

in which all creatures,

great and small,

are as letters

to make us ponder

the invisible things of God:

his eternal power

and his divinity,

as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.

All these things are enough to convict men

and to leave them without excuse.

Second, he makes himself known to us more openly

by his holy and divine Word,

as much as we need in this life,

for his glory

and the salvation of his own.

Come! Join the mighty chorus!

I'm in a café (surprise, surprise). I should be working on a speech production research scholarship proposal (surprise, surprise). Instead, I'm hyped-up on caffeine (surprise, surprise) and distracted by the music I'm listening to (surprise, surprise), which is currently Charlie Hall's rendition of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" (awesome, awesome). I'm listening to it on repeat, and I keep smiling every time the song comes to these two lines:

Mortals, join the mighty chorus
Which the morning stars began

It's beautiful to me to think about how the whole of creation is glorifying God even before I wake up, and that I get to have the blessing of joining that worship during the day. It's beautiful because it makes me realize that God doesn't need me to worship Him. All He has to do is be God and make cool stuff (like the entire universe), and everything that He has ever made explodes with worship just by being in existence! But God gives me the mind-blowing blessing of joining in that worship, an act which I wouldn't even be able to do if God hadn't first turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), and the result of which (i.e. giving God glory) is the source of the only true joy I can ever experience in this mortal world, and beyond.

So, when you wake up tomorrow, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began! And be blessed by doing so.

The Ultimate Christian Hedonist!

"Christian hedonism"?!

Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, huh? The word hedonism certainly doesn't naturally bring to one's mind the word Christian... and most Christians I know are hardly ever accused of being hedonists!

Well, hang on with me here for a bit; let's break it down. American Heritage Dictionary gives the following definition for hedonism:

he·don·ism (hēd'n-ĭz'əm)
n.

1. Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
2. Philosophy The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
3. Psychology The doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

And - at the risk of being labeled naive - let's assume that whoever is reading this has formed an appropriate definition for the word Christian*. So, then, what is this Christian hedonism?

The first question/response of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is as follows:

1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.

This is what man was created for. Period. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing else will do. God created us that we might glorify Him, and experience our greatest enjoyment when we do so. Or, as John Piper puts it: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

So, then, hedonism, in this light, can be defined as the pursuit of pleasure, as it is ultimately found in the satisfaction of doing that which one is created for. If we believe that, as men and women who were created in the image of the holy Godhead, we were created for the glorification of our Creator, then Christian hedonism can further be defined as the pursuit of pleasure, as it is ultimately found in the glorification of Christ.

Christian hedonism. Wow. Yeah... that sits right with my soul.

What brought up the idea of posting on this was reading through Psalm 104 a couple of times tonight while in a bar, of all places (Psalm 104:15 is also pertinent here for Christian hedonism... but for different reasons! ;) ). Here are the verses that hit me:


This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan which You have made to play there.
-Psalm 104:25-26

I think I remember my pastor preaching on these verses sometime this summer, but I don't have my notes with me here in the bar, and I can't for the life of me remember exactly what he said off the top of my head (sorry, Mike!), so much of what I'm going to say about this passage may or may not be a repetition of what he already said. But hey... nothing new under the sun, right?

As far as I understand it, the Leviathan was a beast of unknown identity that was really, really big. And I don't think that it is mere coincidence that we don't know exactly what species of animal this creature was. In fact, it seems that those who lived during this time didn't even know exactly what the Leviathan was. There's a reason for this: God made it to play in the great and wide sea.

Do you see where I'm going with this? The Leviathan, one of the largest creatures recorded in the holy Scriptures, was unknown to man, and yet still gave God glory. How? How could this creature possibly glorify God if nobody was around to witness the glorification?! By playing in the sea; by simply doing that which it was created to do.

You see? God's own self-glorification is not all about us: we don't even have to be around for it to happen. God was glorifying Himself, His Son, and His Holy Spirit since before the creation of all known worlds! That we even get to participate in this glorification is, in itself, an act and manifestation of pure grace!

For the Leviathan, it's as if God was saying, "Go forth, my creation: play in the deep. No one will ever see you, yet you will glorify Me simply by being you, as you are meant to be, as I have created you."

For us, we have the same divine calling. However, our playground is not the depths of the sea, but the depths of Christ. When we swim in these depths, and find our deepest satisfaction therein, God is glorified in the highest way that we humans can possibly glorify Him!


*This word is often misrepresented/misused. All kidding aside, if you are unsure of what a "Christian" truly is, please shoot me an email... I would be more than happy to talk about it!

A Radical View of Creation, Pt. 1

(I first want to say that these kinds of ideas - as with many things that I have posted here - do not necessarily represent my solid and final conviction concerning these matters. These are simply ideas that I'm still mulling though, while searching Scripture for evidences. Feel free to disagree... and please comment if you disagree! I'm young, and the last one who would presume that I have found anything even resembling the only right answers!)


Yesterday, I discussed the idea that the institution of marriage was established by God for the purpose of glorifying Himself on this earth. I want to continue this train of thought now, and discuss a similar view of the role of the entirety of Creation itself.

In his book "The Pleasures of God", John Piper explains that God had no need to create this earth or any of its inhabitants, including mankind. There was nothing missing in God's "life" that caused Him to long for something else. It's not as if God was pining away for friends, and decided to make some playmates to hang out with Him. This same point has also been stressed by C.S. Lewis: "God, who needs nothing, loves in to existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them."

I might disagree with Lewis a slight bit here, however, or at least see a need to qualify his statement. What I read in his words is that God's ultimate purpose in the act of Creation was to give us something. If this were the case, then it would mean that the focus of the totality of Creation - from the beginning of time to the end of this world as we know it - is us. I don't think this is true. I believe the foundational center of all of Creation is God's own glory manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.

Why do I think this? Let's look at the first chapter of the gospel of John, verses 1-4:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Firstly, it is through Jesus that "all things were made", and "without Him nothing was made that was made." Jesus was central in the action of the creation of the worlds and all creatures. Matthew Henry comments on a valuable realization to be had in this truth: "This proves the excellency of the Christian religion, that the author and founder of it is the same that was the author and founder of the world." Jesus is not only the Redeemer of the souls of those whom He justifies, but also - being with God, in God, and divinely God Himself - the creator of all mankind. Our existence was created, and will be perfected, in Christ.

Secondly, Jesus was not only the giver of our life, but He is also the sustainer of it. Our life force - including all things which make Man uniquely Man, "the light of men" which allows us to bear the image of the Creator - finds its source in Christ Himself.

And Jesus, who is, with God the Father, the source of our life as well as the sustainer of our life, this same Jesus was also the perfectly righteous spotless Lamb on whom was poured all of the wrath of God for our sins. So how can it be that creatures who have been created, sustained, and redeemed by the very God whom they have sinned against be the focal point of, and reason for, their own creation?

(This post is getting long, and I'm getting tired, but I have more I want to say, so I'll finish later. Feel free to dialogue on this!)

A Radical View of Marriage

I was hanging out last night with a family from church, sitting around a campfire, roasting hot dogs, drinking hot chocolate, and talking about whatever we wanted. Fun times.

I forgot how we got on the subject, but we started talking about marriage, and its role in creation. I mentioned the sermon series that I listened to last year by Voddie Baucham entitled "Love & Marriage" (available to download here if you would like to listen to them!). Baucham mentioned something that I've never thought of before, but I think is very important to realize. He reminded his congregation that marriage was an institution that was created by God before the fall of mankind. This means that marriage is not a result of the Fall, not a byproduct of man's weakness, not a shameful enterprise left to be pursued by only the weakest of Christians. It is holy and good at its very foundation, and the desire for marriage is not a base and creaturely drive. If the want is there, it is probably God-given.

But then Adam (I'm referring to the man whom I was talking to last night... not the "one-man-through-whom-sin-entered-the-world" guy...) brought up the point that marriage is not an eternal institution: there will be no marriage in heaven (Matthew 22:30). In light of this, many (including Voddie Baucham) have commented that marriage exists to fulfill two purposes. The first purpose is to serve as a means of procreation, that man might multiply the earth and raise up children in the fear and admonition of the LORD. The second purpose is that it might serve as an illustration for Christ's love for His Church (which is even referred to in Scripture as His spotless Bride).

So here is where things possibly start to get a bit philosophical (if you will)... but oh so amazing!

Both of these purposes of marriage are ultimately used to give God glory. Man filling the world with children who are brought up in the fear of the LORD is a way to proclaim His holy name in all the earth. And when husbands love their wives in ways that they are called to love them - namely, unconditionally and sacrificially, as Christ loved the Church - marriage serves as an illustration which God may use to turn witnesses of that marriage to the source of its love: His Son.

So, since marriage is God's idea, not some hare-brained scheme that Man came up with (being that it was established by God before sin entered the world), since its purposes are ultimately for God's glory, and since it will not exist in heaven, one view of marriage is reached by following these points out to their logical summary: God established the institution of marriage in order that He might glorify Himself on this earth.

Now let's go further with this tomorrow in looking at how this ties into an even more radical view of Creation itself... more blessings to be had here!

(I want to add that marriage also fulfills the role of giving joy to the members of its covenant, as does raising children, but I will discuss that idea more in the next post)