Thursday 30 July 2009

ENJOYMENT

God made us in order to find His joy in us, as in the rest of creation.
'It is good' is pronounced at each stage. Much of creation, hidden from our sight, is marvelled over by the Creator. The Father and the Son were bound up in rejoicing, as the world was made. Proverbs 8: 30
The Holy Spirit too, was caught up in the wonder of creation.
Genesis 1: 2

Above all the Son delights in man.
Proverbs 8: 31
He has chosen to need us to complete His joy.
He is the Bridegroom, we are His Bride. We surmise that God came walking in the cool of evening, in order to enjoy fellowship with Adam and Eve. Unbelieveably, man chose to find his joy elsewhere, by becoming a god himself and so cut himself off from the only source of true enjoyment. Ever since he is a wanderer who is never satisfied.

Jesus came to restore that joyous fellowship.
John 15: 11.
While there is mourning for rebellion and self-love, we must not loose sight of that for which we have been redeemed and to enter into its fulness.
John 17: 13

One of the greatest human joys we have, is to find enjoyment in each other, mirroring the pleasure found in the Song of Songs. As Wisdom rejoiced before the Father during creation, and as God joys over us with singing, is it too fanciful to conceive of these scenes as a glorious dance, of God playing with His people, much as lovers do who are delighting in each other?

'The Lord your God in your midst,
The mighty One will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you in His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing'.
Zephaniah 3: 17

Hardly surprising that C S Lewis was 'Surprised by Joy'.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

NECROPHILIACS

Term used by Jeremy Paxman in his book, ' The English'

Unlikely as it seems, there are men who love death.

Proverbs 8 talks of those who sin against God and so wrong their own soul.
'All those who hate me love death'.

Some are set on studying fossils in order to disprove God. They become what they prize most.

Life and death are set before us.
The call comes to us to choose life.
There is death in this choice, but of self, and so we find life.

'For whoever finds Me finds life,
And obtains favour from the Lord'.

Saturday 11 July 2009

ART

Further thoughts from 'The Craftsman'

Play at work turns that work into a form of art. Because the future beckons us on, there is a rhythm that develops as we craft that future. Perhaps the greatest joy a craftsman has is to help others craft their own future and dance to their own rhythm.

We also craft our relationships and institutions, political as well as social. There should always be that element of play, not taking ourselves too seriously.