Diverse Excellencies

An idea from a great book, a sale priced canvas, and a couple Saturdays equals this:

 

There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. 

–Jonathan Edwards

For example, we admire Christ for his transcendence, but even more because the transcendence of his greatness is mixed with submission to God. We marvel at him because his uncompromising justice is tempered with mercy. His majesty is sweetened by meekness. In his equality with God he has a deep reverence for God. Though he is worthy of all good, he was patient to suffer evil. His sovereign dominion over the world was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission. He baffled the proud scribes with his wisdom, but was simple enough to be loved by children. He could still the storm with a word, but would not strike the Samaritans with lightning or take himself down from the cross. The glory of Christ is not a simple thing. It is a coming together in one person of extremely diverse qualities.

So Christ is a lamb-like Lion and a lion-like Lamb. That is his glory—“an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.” This glorious conjunction shines all the brighter because it corresponds perfectly with our personal weariness and our longing for greatness. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:28-29). The lamb-like gentleness and humility of this Lion woos us in our weariness. And we love him for it. If he only recruited like the Marines, who want strength, we would despair of coming. But this quality of meekness alone would not be glorious. The gentleness and humility of the lamb-like Lion become brilliant alongside the limitless and everlasting authority of the lion-like Lamb. Only this fits our longing for greatness. Yes, we are weak and weary and heavy-laden. But here burns in every heart, at least from time to time, a dream that our lives will count for something great. To this dream Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . . And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The lion-like Lamb calls us to take heart from his absolute authority over all reality. And he reminds us that, in all that authority, he will be with us to the end of the age. This is what we long for—a champion, an invincible leader. We mere mortals are not simple either. We are pitiful, yet we have mighty passions. We are weak, yet we dream of doing wonders. We are transient, but eternity is written on our hearts. The glory of Christ shines all the brighter because the conjunction of his diverse excellencies corresponds perfectly to our complexity.

– From Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, ch. 3

I tried to paint a gentleness into the lion and put cool colors behind him, as the lamb has a fierceness and is surrounded by warm colors. It was a fun experience to think for hours about Christ as perfectly both.

*Diverse Excellencies is 30″ by 40″ and is too giant for my apartment so he’s for sale, message me for details  🙂

 

skies

90% of the pictures on my phone are of the sky.. the phone never captures all of what I see but I can’t stop taking them.  Not really sure what’s so intriguing to me about clouds or sunsets or just how many different blues certain days allow me to see but I love them.  It may sound simplistic but I’m thankful that God has me in a place where I get to see Him glorified in the sunsets, clouds, and gradients of blue pretty often.  Proof:

driving to campus on Thursday night, don’t worry, the light was red.

driving to play volleyball a couple weeks ago

this past weekend at Jordan Lake

“He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.”  – Psalm 147:8

I should have read this before going on stint…

“Christians often seem to have the impression that ‘becoming a missionary’ is some form of metamorphosis by which a radical change of nature is achieved. Someone, possibly deeply stirred at a missionary meeting and challenged by the need of some less-privileged people, feels constrained to offer for overseas service. Almost inevitably this ‘offering’ comes to be regarded as a ‘holy call’ to a sacrificial vocation. The whole idea becomes wrapped in a veil of romantic splendour, so that even the candidate may fail to observe the unreality of it. The tendency of congregation and friends well-nigh to hero-worship the missionary only increases the dilemma. Looking at the situation honestly and critically, many may know that, mentally, physically or spiritually, the candidate is unsuitable for missionary service. Some would-be candidates do not even have a burden of prayer for the peoples they hope to serve, nor have they ever sought to bring their immediate friends and neighbours in their own country to a knowledge of their Friend and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Yet they vaguely hope that as soon as they board the steamer or plane to take them to a foreign land, something mystical will occur and transform them into their image of a ‘missionary’. Nothing can be further from the truth! I believe that, at its simplest, a missionary is one sent by God to live a Christian life, usually amongst people other than his own. It is living which counts. This may include formal preaching, but it will certainly include personal relationships, and these often have to be worked out under most trying conditions. For example, many missionaries discover that it is far from easy to adapt themselves to a completely different climate. The native foods may be hard, not only on the digestive system, but also on the aesthetic tastes. The language barrier may constitute a difficult problem, especially in early years. One cannot choose one’s friends. Two missionaries of vastly differing backgrounds, likes and dislikes, may be thrown together for several years with no choice of other companionship. One is often expected to do jobs for which one is not trained, and which may be actually distasteful. Yet in all this, one is called upon to reveal Christ, to live a Christ-like life, to be a ‘missionary’.

It is then that one realizes it is not the journey in the steamer that changes one’s nature. I did not escape from myself by going to Congo. Rather, I came to know myself better, perhaps more as others had already seen me. The ordinary trials and frustrations of life that meet us all were just as real in Congo, and, in some ways, were more pronounced, as there were fewer ways of avoiding or circumventing them. For myself, it was only as I allowed the Lord to show me my own pettiness, or willfulness, or pride, in different circumstances and problems, that I became willing to let the Lord teach me of Himself. ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me’, the Lord said, ‘for I am meek and lowly in heart.’ What happened in the two years following my first taste of success as a missionary doctor shows simply how very much I had to learn of Him, for surely no-one merited the description of Christ-likeness less than I, if it was to involve the phrase ‘ meek and lowly in heart’.

Another deep truth I have learnt, and one we can all cling to, is that God is personally interested in us as individuals and that He will engineer our circumstances and daily lives so that He can thereby make us like Jesus. This takes the sting out of much that could otherwise hurt. He allows various accidents and happenings to occur, which will affect us deeply, perhaps, only so that, through them, we may be drawn closer to Himself.”

 

– Helen Roseveare  Give Me This Mountain

 

 

Barn

Sunday was rainy… so I listened to sermons and painted a barn.  Here’s how it went down.

Set up my kitchen studio.  There was an incident involving midnight blue paint and my light beige carpet a few months ago.  I paint in the kitchen now.  I also own 4 different types of carpet cleaner. 

 

I wanted to take a black and white picture and paint it in not so natural colors. 

 

 

annnnd finished product!It looks brighter in person but its too late tonight to hone my photography skills. 

rest

 

How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended. —George Whitefield

 

 

Observations from The Big Apple

As I’ve spent time overseas I’ve realized that college students in Asia usually know a good amount more about our country than I do about theirs.  They always ask about Hollywood and New York City, and I always embarrassingly tell them I’ve never visited either one.  They gasp, try to understand what kind of strange American who hasn’t even visited my home country has made it to their side of the world and we move on.  So I decided to use some Christmas money and free time to take a trip with my good friend Monica who has been at my side for everything from middle school art class to learning to drive to seeing 8 Mile when it came out in the theater.  Here are 10 thoughts about our few days there:

1.  This has happened before, but being in a really big city makes me feel small in, I think, a really good way.  Seeing window after window for as far as I can see makes me think about how each window represents a person’s home or work or whatever.  And each of those people has their own hopes, dreams, crushing defeats, etc.  So in a really healthy way, I like that being in a big city rather than the small town I call home, makes me feel like my life is not so important and certainly not ultimate.  In the big picture perspective of how many people live on earth, my life is quite small.

2. I love China.  And I miss it.  But hearing Mandarin, eating Sichuan food and drinking milk tea without 30 hours of travel are wonderful!

3.  One of the first things I would do with a million dollars is hire a driver.  I love being driven around, mostly because I feel like I can do other things while getting somewhere and it feels very productive.  That’s not as related to NYC but it was sealed in my mind as we took a cab here and there.

4. I thought of a Seinfeld reference approximately every 3 minutes.  Every place in the city reminded me of an episode!  “Oh look Elaine, the black and white cookie. I love the black and white. Two races of flavor living side by side in harmony.  It’s a wonderful thing isn’t it?”

5. Magnolia Bakery cheesecake.  Wow.  Worth the cost of flights?  definitely.  I didn’t take a picture, probably because I was inhaling it.

6. Traveling is fun and I love figuring out how to get around, etc.  Its like a big puzzle to solve, but its never as exotic as it sounds.  Struggling with the not fully up and running subway system (thanks to Sandy), finally finding central park just as it got dark and creepy, taking forever to figure out which way to go…. none of those things are fun when they’re happening.  They make cool stories but aren’t as glorious at the time.  (my friend Blair has written a hilarious post on this…)

7. Even with #6 being true, for me there’s something life-giving about doing something new.  I know its cliche to say I love adventure, but I do.

8. If you’re going to travel and take lots of pictures during a cold time of year, at least bring more than one scarf!  I promise there were different clothes underneath my blue coat and paisley scarf.  I promise.

9. Old friends are the best because no matter how differently your lives turn out to be, they still know you.  They know the you that had weird hair in middle school and refused to wear blue jeans for a number of years, and somehow they still love you.

10. I wish I could (would?) see God’s spiritual kingdom more.  Huge structures, intricate transportation systems, tons of new development – these things amaze and humble me.  They’re incredible to look at.  Its too much to take in the whole skyline at once.  I wish I saw the spiritual reality that God is building His Kingdom everyday.  I know that His Kingdom will not fully come until Christ returns but all around us, He’s stacking spiritual stones into peoples’ lives and when we’re all compounded, its massive.  His work is extensive, ongoing, intricate – its everything I love about seeing a big city. I wish I would more readily notice the sure foundation He’s building in a student’s life through struggles, or the groundwork being laid for missions through a group of people in prayer, or someone sharing the Gospel in Central Asia as the leveling of ground for the Kingdom to come.

 

convicting/encouraging

“The white devil of spiritual sin is far more dangerous than the black devil of carnal sin because the wiser, the better men are without Christ, the more they are likely to ignore and oppose the Gospel.”  – Martin Luther  (in this amazing Commentary on Galatians)

 

“God has promised to sustain us by his grace.  He has promised us the sustaining grace of forgiveness, so that we can stand before Him unafraid.  He has promised the sustaining grace of enablement, giving us the strength to do what he has called us to do.  He has promised us the sustaining grace of protection, delivering us from evil.  He has promised us the sustaining grace of wisdom, protecting us from our own foolishness.  He has promised us the sustaining grace of perseverance, keeping us until the final enemy has been defeated.  He has promised us the sustaining grace of eternity, giving us the hope of a day when the struggle will be over.”  – Paul David Tripp (Whiter Than Snow)

 

 

creativity lately

and by lately, I mean in the past year or so…

putting this together, I realized I either use super bright colors or black and white, not much in between… hmm.

 

Waiting

I got the privilege of speaking at our weekly meeting for ASU Cru this past Thursday night.  So I thought I’d share some things I learned about Psalm 27 over the last couple of weeks.  This is a slightly modified version of what I shared with our students:

 

I was pretty apprehensive to talk on this tonight, not because its controversial or anything but because I like having the right answers.  But that’s not why we do the Christian life, we don’t have all the answers.  And I don’t fully understand the concept of waiting on the Lord yet, but we have to happily confess that Christ is the answer, he’s the only one.  I’m not calling for blind following, but when you wrestle with God and His word and still don’t find life to be as solid as you want, that’s where faith starts.  It would require no faith to believe if all the answers were laid out for us. So here we go, into a Psalm that I find confusing and exhilarating, all at once.

Psalm 27 – A Desire to Live in the Presence of God

I want to do a little exercise, I want you to think of someone who loves you.  Not like a surface level friend, someone who really loves you and wants your best.  Got your person?  Mine’s my mom.  Ok now give them access to all the money in the world, all the world leaders, all the people on earth are under their control, give them all wisdom and knowledge, oh and by the way, give them endless power too.  Now make them sinless, never have they done anything that isn’t the right thing.  Ok, that person calls… oh snap!  New meaning to my mom’s picture popping up on the phone.  She gets on and says… hey can you wait just a second, I’m working some stuff out… how do you feel?  Outrage? Confusion? Lost? Yeah.

Lets explore psalm 27

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2  When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3  Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 4  One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. 5  For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. 6  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. 7  Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8  You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” 9  Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! 10  For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. 11  Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 12  Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. 13  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! 14  Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

Lets look at this in a couple different sections:

v. 1-3

– “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”  Salvation finds us in the dark, but it does not leave us there; it gives light to those who sit in the valley of the shadow of death. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light; he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us.*   What does light do? It enables us to see.  He has to give the light first because we don’t see our way into believing, He lights our path.

– But the next two verses are a little weirder, a little less coffee cup/life verse, get a tattoo of this, kinds of verses.

– Evil men, armies… that’s not really us right?  We may not have people following us wanting to kill us like David did here but who feels like you’re at war against your own sin?  Who fights a battle every single night against evil?  Who feels attacked at every turn to believe what the Bible says when it contradicts what our culture says is right?  There’s nothing new under the sun and we’re in battle here so this applies to us.

– Onto happier things, in v. 4 David asks God for one thing in his battle, a gun or sword? Deliverance from problems?  A book on battle (my choice)?  I can solve anything with a book.  Ever get asked what book you’d bring on a deserted island?  My standing answer is The Coconut Lovers Cookbook, 300 ways to prepare the other, other white meat.  Point is I think I can fix anything with the right book/article/you tube video.  NO here’s what David asks for:

– “to see the beauty of the Lord.”  More accurately to gaze at His beauty.  Here this word means delight, pleasantness, a suitable nature, splendor*.  This idea of beauty isn’t our skewed outward appearance type of beauty, its not Jesus is my boyfriend.  Its pleasant, its right to be in his presence, its like having the exact right solution to any trouble.  The most perfect being in the universe is attentive to ME and David knows that even while waiting for God to work, he hasn’t lost God’s attention.  The beauty of the Lord is anything but surface level, it cuts deeply into our souls.

– A couple verses later in 8-9 he is telling himself to seek God’s face, to be in his presence, when you see presence in the OT always think face to face.  We know inherently that face to face communication is best.  Nothing wrong with a phone when necessary but when you go on a date with someone you don’t want to go over the phone.  Maybe you do but that’s because you’re socially awkward.  No, you want to be in their presence and soak up all of who they are.  This is why its hard for us that Jesus is our mediator, we just want to see God face to face but because of what we’ve done, we need Christ.  This is why texting all day isn’t satisfying, we need face to face communication and David wanted that with God. He felt a longing for it.

– In between vs, 4 and 8 with the beauty stuff and the face stuff is vs. 5.  What’s 5 say?  IN the time of trouble…not if there’s trouble, not when God’s not paying attention, some trouble may come, nope.  Ours is a sin saturated world, we were made for perfection and it IS NOT here, so there’s trouble it’s a normative part of life.  The Bible is way more honest about that than we usually are.

– So you may be thinking yeah this all sounds good but I’m not David, I’m not a Bible character, I can’t always say that God’s beauty, his face is where I want to be.  Me either.  We can be forgetful people.  We forget who God is (or maybe don’t know because we’ve not owned our faith enough to find out for ourselves).  We don’t see Him rightly.  Two quick things David knows and we should know:  He is the Father who never forgets him.  He says in v. 9, you’ve been here.  Our earthly fathers have issues right, they’re sinful.  God has not missed or forgotten one tear you’ve ever cried (Psalm 56:8).  God has not forgotten your feelings, your dreams, your details, He is not capable of forgetting that you exist and He is involved.  There’s safety in that.

– Also God speaks.  Have you ever thought about what it means that He speaks to us?  Think of the most glorious natural thing you’ve ever seen…the Grand Canyon, Swiss Alps, an ocean, he SPOKE that into existence, he spoke you and I into existence.  And every thing and every person that has ever been!  His words have created everything we’ve ever seen.  I say all kinds of things, my words don’t carry any weight.  His words caused all of creation.  And He speaks to you and me (He’s never spoken to me audibly, but in His Word.)  You can’t see the Bible as a boring but necessary book filled with bad tasting but good for you medicine.  These are the weightiest words on the planet and they are for His glory and your good.

– Ok so what do we do?  I studied this Psalm a couple weeks ago and I got to a point where I started to make a list.  I so love lists, give me a list of stuff to do and I’m happy.  How do I get to the beauty treasuring, face seeking place of worship??  What do I do? What goes on the list?

What you do is you Wait.

– v. 14 says to wait, to look for, to expect, to hope in.  All throughout the psalms we’re told to wait.  All throughout scripture we’re told to wait.  What does waiting on the Lord look like?

– Two things waiting is not:  1. Needing direct revelation on every single decision.  We struggle with this, think about how it would play out though, you see sally on campus.  Pray about saying hello, no direct revelation, can’t say hello.  No we live our lives and do things all the time without direct commands from God.  But when it comes to choosing a major or where to live, suddenly we’re scared to move without direct revelation.  God often expects us to use the commands he has given in scripture and step out in faith rather than being afraid to move.  The second thing I think waiting on the Lord is not is sitting and refusing to do anything proactive.  No.  David’s moving, he’s writing, he’s worshiping, he’s running for his life.  Waiting isn’t a sedentary life.  Here’s what I’m starting to think it means:

– Being patient for God to work in His time, not mine but pursuing the things we know He loves (people coming to know Him, growth in knowledge of the Word, missions, extending mercy)

– Looking to Him, seeking Him in His word before I seek the opinion of others or even form my own opinion.  There are lots of issues out there in culture that many of us are wrestling with, trying to form what we think.  Go to the Word first and give it first authority.

– Praying before I act and trusting He’ll guide me.   Praying for God’s will but not demanding to know it ahead of time.

– Waiting is letting the confidence that what He says will be true, drive you.  You say in rest and repentance is salvation, You say you’re close to the brokenhearted, You say the poor in spirit with inherit the Kingdom, its hard for me to see that those things are true but I’m going to trust that they are and build my life around that.

– Its saying I don’t get why this happened to me but you say its for my good so I’ll choose to be content with that.

– Its saying I’m 27 and single so apparently there’s a plan unfolding and obviously you haven’t forgotten my needs or desires.

– Its saying I’m not going to give up on seeing a heart change for my roommate because I’ve tried for a year and haven’t seen it yet, I’ll continue to know You’re working, God.

– Its saying I would get lots of pleasure out of living this way (sexually, with how I use my time, with my words) but you say that’s not honoring to You or others so I’ll trust You in that.

– Waiting isn’t solving your problems with study or one more sermon or one more accountability partner or one more campus ministry… waiting on the Lord is walking with Him its an attitude of hope in Him.

I’m just starting to get this and I’m trying to figure it out but I want us to be people who wait well.  I want us to be worshipers who aren’t needy, spoiled children demanding God show up in ways we want but needy, graced children who lovingly wait for our Father’s good plans to unfold.  Lastly, here’s CH Spurgeon on v. 14:

“Wait on the Lord.” Wait at his door with prayer; wait at his foot with humility; wait at his table with service; wait at his window with expectancy. Suitors often win nothing but the cold shoulder from earthly patrons after long and obsequious waiting; he speeds best whose patron is in the skies. “Be of good courage.” A soldier’s motto. Be it mine. Courage we shall need, and for the exercise of it we have as much reason as necessity, if we are soldiers of King Jesus. “And he shall strengthen thine heart.” He can lay the plaster right upon the weak place. Let the heart be strengthened, and the whole machine of humanity is filled with power; a strong heart makes a strong arm. What strength is this which God himself gives to the heart? Read the “Book of Martyrs,” and see its glorious deeds of prowess; go to God rather, and get such power thyself. “Wait, I say, on the Lord.” David, in the words “I say,” sets his own private seal to the word which, as an inspired man, he had been moved to write. It is his testimony as well as the command of God, and indeed he who writes these scanty notes has himself found it so sweet, so reviving, so profitable to draw near to God, that on his own account he also feels bound to write, “Wait, I say, on the Lord.”  –CH Spurgeon

 

Going back to the very beginning, if someone who loves you, and has all power and money and time and control, so God, if He tells you to wait, the only conclusion can be… its good for you to wait.  So if you’re waiting right now, and you probably are, I certainly am.  If you’re waiting to know what He wants for your future or how He’s going to use your hurts for good or what He’s doing with a difficult situation you’re in now, then its good for you to wait.

 

* Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the whole Bible

 

we need the winds

I was encouraged by this paragraph this morning as Mr. CH explained Jeremiah to me…

“Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God’s full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.”

– Spurgeon