Glory

Staying Alive to God’s Glory

1. At least once every day, I will look up at the sky, and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and around me.
2. Instead of mindless evolution, I will believe and trust that there is an intelligence guiding the universe
3. I will live each day as the unique event that it is, filled with worthy potentials. I will hold trouble and pain not only as evils, but as ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
4. There is a truth beyond my perceptions, so will always strive to live in a reality. I will remember what I am doing when I abstract, which I will often have to do.
5. I won’t demean myself by envying others, I am unique. I will not confine myself to psychological or social categories. I will try and forget about myself and do my work.
6. I will open my eyes and ears. I will simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, a person. I will not concern myself about what they are, but simply be glad that they are. I will joyfully allow them the experience of their “divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic existence.”
7. I will turn frequently to imaginative things, such as books and music.
8. I won’t get sucked into the rat race, but “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I will try to live well now because now is the only time that exists.
9. I will assume my ancestry is from the stars and not the caves.
10. 10.  Even should I be wrong, I will bet my life on assuming that the world is not chaotic, or uncontrolled, but that even this very day some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that I will one day understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega.
11. I will strive to view everything with the fresh vision of a child – a “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

Every day, I will live in the light of God’s glory.

(A paraphrased rendition of Clyde Kilby’s Eleven Resolutions to Staying Alive to God’s Glory.)

Soli Deo Gloria

Selah

Most Christians have gone through it, they are praising and then the musical interlude comes in. The dreaded musical interlude. To be honest, I used to fear it, I didn’t know what to do and felt awkward every second of it, and whenever I knew an interlude was coming, I always felt a little anxious knot in the pit of my stomach.
For the past three years or so, I have spent most of these interludes praying for whatever God stirred in my heart.
But, as I was meditating to Like Incense/Sometimes By Step, my “theme song” for this season of my life, I got the urge to look up the lyrics. I went online and once I found it I noticed this particular phrase, “selah.” It was placed right where the musical interlude was. Out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of “selah.” Unlike “sela” which means “rock,” “selah,” though difficult to translate, can be interpreted loosely as “take pause and think.” Or more concisely, “let those with eyes see and those with ears hear,” in effect, it is a calling for all worshippers to “stop and listen.”
And so, when a band goes into a musical interlude, they are inviting the worshippers to pause and reflect upon themselves, God, and the song they are singing.
I love the idea of selah now.

PTL.

Snapple Wisdom

I was living my life as I had for the numerous days before, working, waiting, wishing in San Jose, when I happened upon something.
“Do not regret growing older,
It is a privilege denied to many.”
And this on a Snapple cap, no less.
Feeling a little foolish at this sudden surge of morbidity, I cast it from my mind and went about my business. But, God can work in mysterious ways.
That night, I went to dinner at a friend of my uncle’s and just a few weeks prior, they had commemorated the one year anniversary of when their youngest had been taken from this world. I don’t know what God’s reasoning for taking a six month old child was, I don’t know why she was born with a genetic defect which cut her days short. Even if God, were to show me, I know I’m too short sighted to understand fully.
But, with a rush of awakening, I remembered what I had read just a few hours earlier. I began to consider with what heart and gravity I lived the days given to me. Squandered and wasted away, unappreciated, as part of another daily grind.
“I know there is nothing better for people than to be happy and do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God.”
– Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
Every day is a gift from God. Every breath is a gift from God. Every moment another extension of His mercy. Our every provision – from food, to our homes, to the comforts of His grace.
Of course, the saying is only half true, growing older is a privilege and good, but heaven is where we were created to be, and it is incomparably better. It is our home, our true citizenship.
But, here we are. God has given us another day. How will we use it? Will we waste it? Will we spend it on our own selfish desires and self-centered pleasures? Or, will we with boldness live in the purpose and confidence of Christ’s authority?

So, what are you doing with your life?

Actualized

Scientifically speaking, darkness is no thing, There isn’t an actual thing called darkness. Darkness is merely the absence of light. But, as I lay to sleep, I saw a darkness – black and thick and completely enveloping, like a tar pit of steel. Completely and utterly impenetrable.
And only with the coming of dawn, could I rest, having escaped the…darkness.
They say that cold is the slowing of molecules, and evil is the absence of good. But, sin, like absolute zero, and like this darkness, can take on properties of its own.

Actualized.

Psalm 130

“Out of the depths I cry to You, LORD;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If You, LORD, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve You.

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,
and in His word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with Him is full redemption.
He Himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.”