The Ultimate Fulfilment
Numbers 18:32
"By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.’"
Our Almighty and eternal Father, the locus and paradigm of all worth and value, deserves our best first fruits. May we never cease to praise God everyday and live a life of reverence and honest worship. More often than not, we settle for the good, not realising God is the best we could ever have and we have Him, let us delight in Him (Psa 37:9), let the feelings of God's grace and affection flow and overwhelm us like a tidal wave, break out in prayers full of praise for our King! There's a line in a Filipino worship song that says "I pray that I may truly realise that the fulfilment of my life is You alone", similar to what St. Paul has written that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, for whose sake he has lost all things which he then considers rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Phi 3:8). Likewise with Harry's thought, attributed to Rick Warren (and Tim Keller, and perhaps the original comes from Corrie Ten Boom, who was older and had the actual experience of such great loss) is the quote "you never know God/Jesus is all you need until God/Jesus is all you have." Contrary to the Beatles song, it isn't love that's all we need, it's actually, God is all we need whence the provision and the power comes (Psa 121:1). And we love because He first loved/s us (I John 4:19). So whence is love? God is love —ἀγάπη (agapé) (I John 4:8). It is the disease of the English language to use the same word for different things, words just sort of ravenously add meanings upon meanings to themselves and so it is rife with imprecision (I suppose that's why Anglo-American philosophical tradition values proper and precise definitions so much, vs German, for example, if there's a new thing/phenomenon, no probs, just create a new word such as "herbstlaubtrittvergnügen" which means to kick through a pile of fallen leaves, or "erkenntnisspaziergang" means contemplative strolling, ok enough of the sidebar). But God's love is the highest, purest and most primeval form of love and all others are evaluated by fidelity to it, it is not only the best, but also the standard. Finally, God not only deserves the best but our all; there is not a square inch of this universe to which Christ sovereign does not claim "mine!" (Kuyper), and that includes from the surface to the deepest chambers of our hearts. Friends, let us consider well what that actually looks like for our lives and strive towards it.
"By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.’"
Our Almighty and eternal Father, the locus and paradigm of all worth and value, deserves our best first fruits. May we never cease to praise God everyday and live a life of reverence and honest worship. More often than not, we settle for the good, not realising God is the best we could ever have and we have Him, let us delight in Him (Psa 37:9), let the feelings of God's grace and affection flow and overwhelm us like a tidal wave, break out in prayers full of praise for our King! There's a line in a Filipino worship song that says "I pray that I may truly realise that the fulfilment of my life is You alone", similar to what St. Paul has written that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, for whose sake he has lost all things which he then considers rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Phi 3:8). Likewise with Harry's thought, attributed to Rick Warren (and Tim Keller, and perhaps the original comes from Corrie Ten Boom, who was older and had the actual experience of such great loss) is the quote "you never know God/Jesus is all you need until God/Jesus is all you have." Contrary to the Beatles song, it isn't love that's all we need, it's actually, God is all we need whence the provision and the power comes (Psa 121:1). And we love because He first loved/s us (I John 4:19). So whence is love? God is love —ἀγάπη (agapé) (I John 4:8). It is the disease of the English language to use the same word for different things, words just sort of ravenously add meanings upon meanings to themselves and so it is rife with imprecision (I suppose that's why Anglo-American philosophical tradition values proper and precise definitions so much, vs German, for example, if there's a new thing/phenomenon, no probs, just create a new word such as "herbstlaubtrittvergnügen" which means to kick through a pile of fallen leaves, or "erkenntnisspaziergang" means contemplative strolling, ok enough of the sidebar). But God's love is the highest, purest and most primeval form of love and all others are evaluated by fidelity to it, it is not only the best, but also the standard. Finally, God not only deserves the best but our all; there is not a square inch of this universe to which Christ sovereign does not claim "mine!" (Kuyper), and that includes from the surface to the deepest chambers of our hearts. Friends, let us consider well what that actually looks like for our lives and strive towards it.
Comments
Post a Comment