Eternal life – Our greatest treasure
January 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
The greatest gift that God could give a person – is quite simply, Himself.
Make sense? Probably not. Since it is simply not the natural way to think in our dually self-centred & gospel ignorant age – that one could give someone else not simply gifts, but their entire person, much less that person be the Lord of all creation. But this is what the Triune God has indeed done for sinful men and women like ourselves.
Come with me and ask yourself the following question whether you are a believer or not:
What is the greatest gift that God could give to somebody?
Is our conclusion based on size, value, eternality etc.? Yes! Of course it is based on all of these things and more! But here is the thing which I want us to glare into though it be as in a mirror, darkly.
What, moreover who, is more valuable than God Himself?
What is of more virtue?
Who is worthy of more praise simply for inherent magnitude?
What love is loftier than that which the eternal Father contained within Himself to be parted from His own Son?
What love is loftier than that which the eternal Son contained within Himself than to be derided by the dust which he had once created that such dust might be eternally and irrevocably redeemed?
What love is loftier than that which the eternal Spirit contained within Himself that He should seek to enter into the heart of vile personalities who have committed non other than rank high treason against the Almighty One – seeking ever to lovingly mould a new heart in them that is of eternal value?
You see to answer the question, ‘What is the greatest gift that God could give to somebody?’ with anything other than God Himself is to limit your response to something that is not as big, that is not as valuable and that is not as eternal as God in his self-existent self manifestly is.
This is why the greatest gift that God could give to any person is His very person! It is not prosperity as some of the TV preachers either implicitly or explicitly convey. It is not even life itself, for when life is not there, God is there and whatever is, including life, is, as a result of that which Aquinas labelled his first cause – God Almighty Himself.
This is the reason why the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 17, verse 3 (ESV):
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
There is none higher, none greater, none more deserving and none more worth chasing down than God Himself who upholds all things! To know God truly is eternal life.
P
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
(Philippians 3:8 ESV)
OUR 9/11
September 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
The day, the madness, the aftermath.
9/11 served to remind us of the depth of the depravity of the human condition. Obvious point isn’t it? But back to that later.
10 years ago today I was a fresh-faced secondary school pupil undergoing the same weekly ordeal I would endure for the next 5 years – the weekly two hours of “games” where I would (pretend to) play rugby and other sports before the dinner hour.
50 metres in front of the school gates as we rush back for lunch the message filters down through the ranks of scruffy 11 year olds – “Israeli fighter jets have bombed the Empire State Building”
Needless to stay this caused quite a stir and as we proceeded through the afternoon we were in a state of wonder at what had gone on across the pond.
Alas, the day ensued and after school was another opportunity for me to (pretend to) play rugby, this time with the school team. By this time the message was becoming clearer and I was soon back at home transfixed watching Trevor McDonald make sense of the day’s now apparent dreadful proceedings.
With what was perhaps my most prolonged fascination and fixation with broadcast media surpassed only by the recent UK RIOTS, I along with millions of others watched footage of that fateful morning along with reaction and response from all and sundry.
The tragedies of that day displayed the world what the Biblical record states so emphatically throughout its pages. That human beings are inherently sinful, capable of and acting upon all manner of evil and wickedness stopping at nothing to pursue our own selfish and often sadistic desires. We saw that day that 19 men saw no problem with sending thousands to their death without a hope in such a cruel, calculated manner.
One may here rightly interject and protest that none of us (whoever us are) would have done such a thing and yes I would gladly respond to the affirmative.
But before I retreat to the bunkers of intellectual concession I go on to ask you to kindly point out that person (since they so blatantly exist) who does not think about killing others, or who never has that thought of harming another because they are by being or by action an offence to us. Which one of us thinks only good to our fellow man? Who amongst us goes days on end in peaceful bliss with all around them and with their planet? Which one of us can stand and say, ‘I am a human being, I love and never do, think or say harm’?
I thought not.
You see those men but stick out because of one main reason: The actualisation of sick dreams. The power to carry out to an end their hearts’ desire.
They but had power and opportunity to carry out their desires, but I ask were we all given the opportunity at any stage of our life to carry out the harm which we would intend upon one, a few or indeed a few thousand – would we not then see how horribly horrible natural man is. No you may not want to kill millions, but is not one life, is not one mind, not so precious that it ought to be protected with all godly infused might against malicious intent?
Many a time when that most infamous of days is spoken of it is with much reflection, much questioning and eventually much bemusement. But here in closing I would like us to use this day (and I most certainly will), not to question whether it was an inside job. Not to question the rights, wrongs and misunderstandings of fundamentalism. Not to philosophise over what makes men kill on such a monumental scale.
Butt to remember and to honour.
To remember the now grown up young child whose father died on that top floor of the north tower.
To mourn with the father who was left a widower and a lone father because his wife was to be on that flight.
To mourn with the old Afghani lady who has lost both sons and grandsons to war, ‘friendly fire’ and roadside bombs.
To remember the commuters who were on a tube one morning in London 6 years ago.
To remember that young Iraqi boy who had his family taken from him when someone thought that their life counted for nothing in that suicide attack.
This day is for the countless millions who have been directly changed by that tragic day and all which came after it. This is not the day to despair at foreign policy, this is not the day to ask ‘Why?’. This is the day where we remember, where we honour those who have gone, a day where we rally round whom we can. A day upon which we think and we pray for those who are left to pick up those million pieces of a shattered life.
P
Share this post!
Filed under Social Commentary Tagged with 9/11 Iraq Afghanistan terror anniversary