God, I just came out of an experience that I can’t explain. Where sin took me, it is so deep for my words to not suffice. Where your grace has lifted me, it is too high for my intellect to comprehend and joy to express. I have experienced your grace and mercy as you have lifted me to the heavens from the pits of hell, accompanied with supernatural peace and holy spirit given strength. This grace that I often acclaim in the songs of public assembly yet having little private and personal meaning has nonetheless come to reach me in the valley of the shadow of sin’s death. My soul was parched, I thirsted in the desert. Now as I have come to reflect upon this, I am reminded of the time Christ was led in this same desert. However, out of the desert, through perfect obedience and holiness to the life-giving and guiding Word, He came. How inverse this is to my desert experience. Like Peter sinking in the storm waters, I was almost scorched to my death with the desert drought. Instead of coming out of the desert as Christ did, I let my soul believe empty promises of joy in this desert. Unlike Christ, I disobeyed the holy life-giving and guiding Word. On the desert floor, I lay dreaming of the land that I once inhabited, overflowing with rivers of waters that bring and sustain life. There, my thirst was quenched, my soul filled, my every desire met. O Great God, how you came to my rescue as you couldn’t rejoice in my death. As I feasted on this desert sand, you brought forth a brook to my heart’s desperation and you quenched me with the oasis of your grace, even in the desert. As I gained strength to walk, You then led me out of the desert, unto the land overflowing with the river of life, that quenches my deepest thirst and washes me clean. O Great God, how immaculate is your promise of salvation and the means to this salvation—through you, and you alone. And through you, do I find the desire and strength to love you and to offer my whole being as a sacrifice of thanks for your saving grace. My soul thirst no more, and drink to your filling for this river's source is God Himself, and never runs dry.
We entertain and investigate the possibility that there is life outside of earth and invest billions into this scientific pursuit, but yet scoff at the idea that there is life after death, and that God is the author of life, and has the ability to create life within any dimension or environment and define the biological, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, experiential qualities of that life. I believe that the question of whether there is life outside of earth only points to a greater question of whether life can exist beyond our humanity.
I was recently engaged in a conversation with a colleague regarding race, specifically on the importance of the race of Jesus. The conversation is posted below. His argument, in summary, is that the skin tone of Jesus is of great importance in knowing "the truth". In other words, Jesus was Black or descended from blacks (which I am not interested in arguing), and that knowing this is TRUTH and it will set you free (which I am arguing). You’ve got to be kidding me. I had no plans of sharing the conversation, but I decided to just because it really infuriates me. It is so sad. This points to a greater human problem of drawing boundaries between itself based on trivial human matters like race, and other physical, economical, and ideological characteristics—the same boundaries that the theologically, spiritually, and historically true Christ came to erase. The only boundary Christ upheld was that one which divided evil from good. Historically, Jesus was one of the first, if not the major, influential people to stir controversy by going against societal and cultural norms in views regarding race, nationality, gender, economic class, religious class. And he was HATED and killed for that by Pharisees, who were the intellectuals and the religious Ph.Ds of the time.
Anyway, here is the conversation:
On this day mathematician, physicist, philosopher, theologian Blaise Pascal was born. After spending 31 years of his life running from and arguing against God, the mathematical genius was transformed by the truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ, but yet still maintained equal, if not greater, intellectual ability and influence on secular and non-secular society. He spent the last 8 years of his short life focusing specifically on Christian apologetics, including the popular "Pascal's wager". To read more on Blaise Pascal, see post from John Piper, or Google the guy.
God,
I know you are the same, majestic, all powerful, all knowing, always good. Sometimes I just want to talk to you like a friend and ask you how you are doing. But that's the silliest question to ask you. Sometimes I go through out my day, like today, somewhat unaware of your every second/minute presence in my life. But then I take a time like this and write, or talk, or simply internally reflect and I get a small glimpse of your reality. God I know you are real and I know your Holy Spirit enables me to grasp certain aspects of your real presence. I can't wait to see you in heaven when I can fully possess the ability and capability to know you and love you. Sometimes it's a struggle to live in this dichotomous body that is corrupt because of sin but yet alive in Christ, constantly experiencing life and death at the same time. It is a painful place to be but thank you for your grace and your Holy Spirit that doesn't leave it all to my self, that same spirit which has been placed inside of me as a guarantee of the perfecting salvation and restoration of me to you in heaven. I can't wait to live eternally and understand your richness in a new way everyday without a speck of monotony. God sometimes I am curious. Sometimes I want to, and do approach you through philosophy, intellect, and natural instincts, but I am thankful my philosophy and intellect are obviously limited in many things in life. Where intellect fails, faith rises. Where the natural ceases the supernatural still is. I am glad in heaven I will have the joy to intellectually, emotionally, philosophically, physically, relationally, experience you. I can't really fathom that now to be honest.
--Pascal