orchestra...

Like a great score, sometimes all the instruments hit you at once with overwhelming force. It starts simply: a certain melody plays in your head, joined in force and depth by more instruments and corresponding harmonies. The music just keeps building; you wish it would keep building forever. In that split second of the final crescendo, the world suspends and everything is perfectly clear. You feel the heights, the depths, and length in one moment.

We've been trading metaphors back and forth. This week the Christian life is like music. The rich textures of music and truth are building. The composer and conductor are one; I'm merely the audience.

The simplicity and suffiency of the Gospel has been building in my heart this semester. Constantly dwarfed by intellectualism and endlessly debated theology, one lamp shines clear and bright on this campus. We are always to balance the head and heart. To live consciously and subconsciously. To be so intentionally placing ourselves at the foot of the cross and in communion with Jesus that the rest of life flows without thinking. We never lose the mystery of redemption.

holy God, in love became
perfect man to bear my blame
on the cross He took my sin
by His death I live again

A humble person doesn't realize he is humble. Humility is not the goal, nor is it the humble man's intent to remove his pride. It is not the absence of something that defines Christianity, it is the overwhelming bounty of another thing.

We discussed the Trinity this week in my religion class. We reviewed four of the seven councils of early orthodoxy and their conclusions about heretical teachings. It was interesting and intellectually satisfying to reason out the character of Jesus. However, the more it is discussed, the less personal and real and responsive Jesus appears.

Yes, Jesus was unified in person with two complete natures. The hypostatic union of the theanthropic person. But this abstraction distracts from His true character. Christianity is not philosophy about Jesus. As an intellectual discipline, Christianity is history and literary criticism. But it is critical that the Bible is not concerned with these explanations. The question is not "how," but "Who."

"While there are many descriptions of God, there is no priviledged description of God, unless one speaks of Scriptual images. When we do, we realize that God is like Jesus Christ. Thus, if you ask what is God like, the answer is that He is not like anything. But, if you ask who is God like, the answer is He is like Jesus. To understand God, therefore, you must read the gospels." [Gareth Moore]

God is not abstract. Attempt to discect Him and He ceases to be an intimate, personal God.

Let the music burn in your soul. Know Jesus.

i can't comprehend this fathomless love
i'm gripped and amazed by what you have done
why would the adored become the despised
to bear all the furious wrath that was mine
how awesome this mystery
of your fathomless love
for me