This will be the first time in a long while that I'm able to post within a day or two of the last post :) Hopefully, as life settles into a routine, I'll be able to work out a 'posting rhythm' that fits in comfortably with everything else that is going on.
Thinking over things since the last post, I have come to the conclusion that I don't know Jesus as well as I want to. Maybe I don't know Him very well.
Although it will be 16 years this year since I gave my life to Him in serious commitment, and though God has graciously granted me a better understanding of Him in the last few years, there is yet a nagging feeling of restlessness. I feel an inner urge to push on in trying to understand, almost as if things are in danger of stagnation if I stay still with what I currently know of Him. It may turn out to be the "hot pursuit" of the rest of my life (and I suppose in a way it is fitting and right), for all my seeking so far in the Bible and the writings of those who have inquired of God tell me that His person is ultimately unknowable and unfathomable. Yet it simultaneously informs me that I will find everything that I need to know of Him in the person of Christ, who is described as "...glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
I have to know more. I MUST know more.
With my desire to make this Easter different, I had bought "The Cross of Christ", by John R. Stott, having come across its reference by C. J. Mahaney while reading "Humility: True Greatness" on my trip to Victoria last month. Although I had initially bought it so that I could follow Mahaney's suggestion of reflecting on the Cross everyday as as an aid to pursuing humility by understanding it better, I came to another realization while thinking about the book during my lunch break today.
I have recently been trying with diligent effort to discern truth from falsehood in all that I've assimilated in younger years in my experiences in different churches and communities. In the light of how I have come to know God in the last few years, I stopped short on my way to Starbucks to pick up a hot chocolate for lunch as a thought hit me: I had just bought a masterpiece of writing about the most effective starting point in strengthening the foundations of my faith - the Cross.
If there is any place to begin to understand Christ and find a reference point in helping me develop discernment, I suppose it makes the most sense to begin at the cornerstone of the Christian faith and indeed, even history. I'll be working my way through this book as well as another that I started earlier, "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" by Tim Challies.
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| "The Cross of Christ" and "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" |
I shall also try to post my thoughts as I process what I come across. See you in the next post!
- The Wisdom Seeker
