Fishing for Hearts...
Sunday, December 16, 2007
I have just been reading a little bit of Calvin's commentary on the book of James, and something stuck out at me about the way that our wayward little hearts work...
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed"
- James 1:14
The words are very striking, — “But every one is tempted (or, seduced) when, by his own lust, he is drawn away, (that is, from what is good,) and is caught by a bait (or, ensnared.)” He is in the first drawn off from the line of duty, and then he is caught by something that is pleasing and plausible, but like the bait, it has in it a deadly hook.
- John Calvin, "Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles" (link)
It would seem that first we are lured
away from something, then lured
toward something, hmm... Of course! How else could the blessed children of God, who have been shown the immeasurable gift of knowing the love and presence of our Lord, be led away so easily, except by clouding our vision of what we already have in Christ? If, instead, we would see and cherish the ultimate worth of Christ our saviour, our Lord, our meaning, then the deceitfulness of riches and the allure of pleasure would hold nothing for us.
May it be so, Lord. May it be so!
Author: Nate » Comments:
Too Easily Pleased...
I really love C.S. Lewis. Check it out:
"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, buttoo weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
- C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory" (link)
This is
me, man. I am an ignorant child who escapes into lame, waste-of-time interests when I could have so much more. I join with billions across the world in entertaining myself to death every day watching other people's (made-up) lives on the idiot box, missing the glories that hide just under the surface of my own life. I busy myself on the Internet during my lunch break, forgetting to look outside at the sunshine-soaked day that I have been given. I lounge around in my house, my "fortress of solitude", rather than talking to my neighbours who I genuinely like, and who I think genuinely like me, too... I grumble about the things that I don't like at church, then grumble when I am offered the chance to do something about it, because it's so much work. I feel bored and listless in my life with God, forgetting that it is *God's* life, lived through me.
Think about that for one second - the
life of God, in us. The boundless, formless, unfathomable power of the only wise God, the one who brought back Christ, that good shepherd, from the dead -
is at work in us! The power of the age to come. The one who hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation, bringing life from nothingness. Bringing light out of darkness. Bringing hope and meaning from disorder and array.
This is the one that is in us. This is "Christ in us, the hope of glory". If that doesn't brighten your heart, stop you dead in your tracks and make you rethink logging onto MySpace, there's something wrong here.
Author: Nate » Comments:
