Pikes Peak.
In Colorado Springs where I lived before coming to Georgia there is a massive mountain that overlooks the whole city called Pikes Peak. It towers over everything and you can see it from pretty much anywhere in the city. When you climb or drive to the top of this 14,000 Foot high mountain, there is a café and look out where you can see far and wide. But my favorite view of Pikes Peak is at night. Many nights I would be driving home from a long day and would look up to the top of the mountain. On the very top of the mountain is a light. It shines all day, every day.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 5: 14, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Every night as I looked at this mountain and the light on it, God reminded me that I am suppose to be a light to all those around me and it takes sacrifice and hard work to get to the top of that mountain to shine your light.
So What?
Where has God asked you to sacrifice so you can be a light to those around you? Has he asked you to step out of your comfort zone to talk to people or to be more excellent with how you act around people so they can tell there is a light inside of you that shines on them? Think of 5 ways that you can be a light to those around you today.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Popular Nonsense
This is not to say the heart is only swirling emotion, mixed motives, and dark desire, without thought or reason. Far from it. According to Scripture, the heart is also where we do our deepest thinking. “Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts,” is a common phrase in the Gospels. This might be most surprising for those who have accepted the Great Modern Mistake that “the mind equals reason and the heart equals emotion.” Most people believe that. I heard it again, just last night, from a very astute and devoted young man. “The mind is our reason; the heart is emotion,” he said. What popular nonsense. Solomon is remembered as the wisest man ever, and it was not because of the size of his brain. Rather, when God invited him to ask for anything in all the world, Solomon asked for a wise and discerning heart (1 Kings 3:9).
Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts. Scripture itself claims to be “sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Not the feelings of the heart, the thoughts of the heart. Remember, when the shepherds reported the news that a company of angels had brought them out in the field, Mary “pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19), as you do when some news of great import keeps you up in the middle of the night. If you have a fear of heights, no amount of reasoning will get you to go bungee jumping. And if you are asked why you’re paralyzed at the thought of it, you won’t be able to explain. It is not rational, but it is your conviction nonetheless. Thus, the writer of Proverbs preempts Freud by about two thousand years when he says, “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7 KJV). It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.
(Waking the Dead , 44–45) John Eldredge
Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts. Scripture itself claims to be “sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Not the feelings of the heart, the thoughts of the heart. Remember, when the shepherds reported the news that a company of angels had brought them out in the field, Mary “pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19), as you do when some news of great import keeps you up in the middle of the night. If you have a fear of heights, no amount of reasoning will get you to go bungee jumping. And if you are asked why you’re paralyzed at the thought of it, you won’t be able to explain. It is not rational, but it is your conviction nonetheless. Thus, the writer of Proverbs preempts Freud by about two thousand years when he says, “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7 KJV). It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.
(Waking the Dead , 44–45) John Eldredge
Monday, February 16, 2009
Intimate Allies
God created us in freedom to be his intimate allies, and he will not give up on us. He seeks his allies still. Not religion. Not good church people. Lovers. Allies. Friends of the deepest sort.
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer. 24:7)
It is the most beautiful of all love stories. On the other hand, Kierkegaard’s tale The King and the Maiden doesn’t capture the cost the King will have to pay to ransom his Beloved. He’ll have to die.
Have you noticed that in the great stories the hero must often die to win the freedom of his beloved?
William Wallace is slowly and brutally tortured for daring to oppose the wicked king. He is executed (upon a cross), and yet his death breaks the grip that darkness has held over Scotland. Neo is the Chosen One, faster and more daring than any other before him. Even so, he is killed—shot in the chest at point-blank range. His death and resurrection shatter the power of the Matrix, set the captives free.
Aslan dies upon the stone table for the traitor Edmund and for all Narnia. Maximus dies in the arena to win the freedom of his friends and all Rome. They are all pictures of an even greater sacrifice.
The Son of Man . . . [came] to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:28)
Remember, God warned us back in the Garden that the price of our mistrust and disobedience would be death. Not just a physical death, but a spiritual death—to be separated from God and life and all the beauty, intimacy, and adventure forever. Through an act of our own free will, we became the hostages of the Kingdom of Darkness and death. The only way out is ransom.
(Epic, 66-67) John Eldredge
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer. 24:7)
It is the most beautiful of all love stories. On the other hand, Kierkegaard’s tale The King and the Maiden doesn’t capture the cost the King will have to pay to ransom his Beloved. He’ll have to die.
Have you noticed that in the great stories the hero must often die to win the freedom of his beloved?
William Wallace is slowly and brutally tortured for daring to oppose the wicked king. He is executed (upon a cross), and yet his death breaks the grip that darkness has held over Scotland. Neo is the Chosen One, faster and more daring than any other before him. Even so, he is killed—shot in the chest at point-blank range. His death and resurrection shatter the power of the Matrix, set the captives free.
Aslan dies upon the stone table for the traitor Edmund and for all Narnia. Maximus dies in the arena to win the freedom of his friends and all Rome. They are all pictures of an even greater sacrifice.
The Son of Man . . . [came] to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:28)
Remember, God warned us back in the Garden that the price of our mistrust and disobedience would be death. Not just a physical death, but a spiritual death—to be separated from God and life and all the beauty, intimacy, and adventure forever. Through an act of our own free will, we became the hostages of the Kingdom of Darkness and death. The only way out is ransom.
(Epic, 66-67) John Eldredge
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