I might just say in response to much silly talk about the dangers of exhausting the mysteries of God, that my conception of God makes such a thought ludicrous. If we may compare God's wisdom to a ragged mountain and our growing understanding of it to a slow assent, I do not have the slightest fear that during some midnight meditation I may (by the grace of God) attain some new ridge and all of a sudden find I am on the peak of the mountain with no more cliffs to climb. On the contrary, for every newly attained height of insight there stretches out an ever more glorious panorama of manifold wisdom. And one can only pity the poor souls who, for fear of finding out too much, never approach the sacred mountains but stand off and chirp ironically about how one should preserve and appreciate mystery. -John Piper
Oh this resonated in my heart. We all too often lose the passion for the ascent of the mountain of God. We let our hunger wane and quench our thirst on the sodas of this world instead of the truly life giving water of His spirit. Our hearts rarely beat with a desire to know Him more...because if we are honest, it seems we have heard it already before. It's like there is only one recipe for a sermon and most people just keep serving us left overs with fresh parsley only. Or we have deadened our spiritual appetites for the things of God by gorging or grazing on the empty calories of this world and our anemic flesh.
I am being awakened yet again by the infinite openness of God that beckons exploration, discovery and experience.
2 comments:
This post captures so much of where my heart has been the past 6 months. To know Him more every single day. To get so close to Him that His glory and fire will burn away every detail of my being that does not glorify Him.
Many times in the last six months, I've seen myself in the Mordor scenes of The Return of the King. The way Frodo and Sam pursued the mountain in spite of physical, mental and emotional pain, suffering, starvation, excruciating thirst, and unimaginable weakness...and yet they kept on because there was a driving force inside them that was more important and more motivating than any of it. That is so much like the driving passion I feel to know God more, to experience His continuous presence in an ever-increasing way, through any and every means possible.
So many times we desire more of God because of what He can do for us, or because of His promises or for the rewards that come from living according to His Word. But the more I know Him, and the more I learn of Him, the more I desire Him for Himself. I would rather be in Hell with Him than in Heaven without Him, and I pray with all my heart and soul that my husband and children will hunger for Him in the same way.
I like this post as well. Having been a Christian for 37 years, I can tell you I have had a lot of refried beans. If I were to dine on only what one Pastor could serve, I would perish with hunger. Not that my Pastor isn't very good, he is, a Professor at Western Seminary, been a missionary for years and has a great heart. But he is preacing to a wide variety of people and in general, sermons are wider than deep.
Aw, but books span man's entire history, and like Spurgeon said, sometimes the greatest discoveries are those that have been forgotten in the past.
Biographies, exposition, sermons, systematic theology, all at our fingertips, and written by the greatest thinkers of all time. What treasures inexhaustable.
What variation of style, the firey licks of the reformers, the poetry of Angilican Priests, the hard hitting style of early Americans, the rustic illustrations, depth of insight, I could go on forever....
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