taking the beauty in

Several have asked me for this quote from C.S. Lewis I used on Sunday. You can't beat Lewis when it comes to nailing things on the head!

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves — that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image.

That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can't. They tell us that "beauty born of murmuring sound" will pass into human face; but it won't. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.

We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

city of God

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).

The Church is not a building; it’s a dynamic forward movement of the Kingdom of God. It is an unstoppable force, an irrepressible energy in the universe. Christianity is much more than just going to a building once a week. The building is significant because it is a place of gathering (ecclesia). But even more and in addition to a gathering, the church emobodies the abundant life of her members, and calls us to the very best life possible (sanctification). That is the life Christ has called His body to—an exciting life, a life that is subversive to culture, a dangerous life. The church is to offend the gates of hell, to change culture. We are to be the city on the hill that changes the city of man. In the words of Erwin McManus:

I have no doubt that in the hearts of men and women there is a yearning to live the quest. We are all haunted with the fear of living lives of insignificance, and we all hear the voice that tells us we can live the dream. Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game. By definition an adventure is “an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.” And life as God intended us to live is nothing less than adventure. It comes at great risk and significant cost. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)

I have found that this kind of life does not come naturally. It is easy for us to take the path of least resistance and live comfortably, but not effectively. The good is often the enemy of the best. Christ calls us to a different kind of life, one in which we must pick up a cross. It is offered to all who hunger and thirst for it. As in everything else in life, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to be willing to do the hard work. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” An Olympic athlete sees the vision of what he/she wants to become, then goes into diligent training to accomplish that goal. Professional athletes get where they are by training and purposing to be the best. It is no different for the abundant life.

And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God's people to understand Christ's love (Ephesians 3:17b-18).

Paul prayed that the Ephesian church would not stay in mediocrity but that it would purpose to discover the full dimensions of Christ’s love. He prayed that the Church would become the unstoppable force it was designed to be. He prayed that it would not be static in spiritual growth but that it would be dynamic and full in it's understanding. The New Testament does not envision a church that is not in motion. A Kingdom-building church fills up all the space around it (Eph. 1:23). Paul’s prayer for the church was that it would be in Christ and that it would have the power with all God’s people to understand God’s love and that it would make God's love known to the nations. To pursue this kind of reality should be the passion and teaching of every church!