Confessions of a Bibliophile. . .

Jane Austen and Tolkien get cozy. C.S. Lewis and Georgette Heyer rub shoulders. Lucy Maud Montgomery, C.J. Cherryh, and Agatha Christie have more than just a nodding acquaintance. Never mind the other odd pairings that happen from time to time. Shakespeare and Betty Neels? Believe me, though I blush to confess it, it has happened. My Greek textbooks often sit cheek by jowl with Mary Stewart, while books on literature, theology, music, nutrition, history, et cetera, et cetera, all share shelf (or floor) space. 

An eclectic bibliophile. . . yes, that most definitely I am.

If you saw my book shelves, you would know it. In no way, shape, or form do I have enough shelves to house all my books. Which is why I have piles of books stacked in front of those one the shelves, why the top of the dresser in my bedroom is piled with them, and why there are tottering towers on the floor around my bed and beside my computer, not to mention those strewn on the coffee table. And, confession time, I've got four plastic totes (the kind that are meant to slide under the bed) filled with paper backs that I don't read (as much) stacked in the closet and under my dresser--who needs room for hanging clothes anyway?

When, as a teenager, I discovered second-hand books could be bought for a song at local thrift stores, I was hooked. Therefore, when I moved and discovered second-hand books stores in the university town where I lived, I was already beyond hope.

However, I had begun my addiction to written word long before this. My mother has pictures! There is also that rather incriminating video of me lying on the pull-out couch while my brothers and sisters romp with my Opa, and I am reading, only stopping to complain when they nearly sit on my head!  

My family used to (still does?) talk about the smoke issuing from my ears as I snarfed (yes, that is a word) down my latest tome. 

You might well catch me reading some section of great dialogue out loud because it's just so funny I can't help myself. I might giggle or guffaw, then try to share my amusement with anyone who will listen. 

A particular recording or song maybe forever associated with this or that book because I listened to it when I read it for the first time. Or I might not even process any kind of sound, I'm so involved with the story. 

Oh, was someone calling my name? Sorry, I didn't hear; I was spending time with Valancy. Those dishes that should be washed or the laundry that needed to be folded? Frodo and Sam distracted me. . . or Anne Elliot or Venetia or one of hundreds of other book friends. Oops. Guilty as charged. 

I have to chose my reading material carefully at times, knowing that if I start that particular book now, I will be up until the wee hours of the morning--and I know that cannot happen since I have to teach the next day. So I save my snarfing till Friday night--if I can. Sometimes I get caught unawares by a book that started out slow, but then press ganged me into finishing it. (Against my will, of course!)

I've been trying to balance the many different types of reading I do, making sure to read more non-fiction to balance out the fiction. Only occasionally am I so mentally tired that I can't read anything. 

I find that I'm becoming less tolerant of bad writing. It used to be that if I started a book, I would finish it, even if I found it dull or poorly written. I've begun to realize I don't have time for books that annoy me. There are too many good books out there to warrant reading those that are sub-par. This is not to say that I don't enjoy a fluffy romance novel at times, but not one that irritates me beyond expressing.

I don't know how many books I've read in the past year, but I always have one with me in some shape or form. My new ereader or my iPod or a hard copy book is always with me to ensure that I never waste precious reading time, sitting somewhere with nothing to do. 

I find, however, that I need to be more diligent about Bible reading. Often, I catch myself reading a book about the Bible and realize that I'm not not actually reading the Bible itself. It is like reading a book about poetry, but not actually reading a poem--quite ridiculous! The academic knowledge becomes useless when it is not connected to the source of that knowledge. 

"for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)

I don't want to be trapped into hewing out broken cisterns, instead of drinking from the living waters. Knowledge about God is nothing, if I do not know Him as well as I should. Knowledge about God will not save me: only knowing Jesus will. If I don't read the Word, I only have a second-hand relationship with God,  and I only know Him by hearsay. All the books in the world will do me no good, if I don't read His Book and know Him through it. 

"But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior." 

Hosea 13:4 (ESV)

"Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips." 

Prov 22:17-18 (ESV)

Don't be content with a second-hand relationship with Jesus. 

Read the Word to know the Word. 

"But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."  . . .I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me."

John 10: 2-4, 11

Knowledge vs Wisdom

 "There is a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is an accurate understanding of truth. Wisdom is understanding and living in light of how that truth applies to the situations and relationships of your daily life. Knowledge is an exercise of your brain. Wisdom is the commitment of your heart that leads to transformation of your life."

Paul David Tripp ~ Dangerous Calling

"Wisdom is the commitment of your heart that leads to transformation of your life."

This is quite an amazing sentence. And one that can only be truly true when I have been saved by Jesus Christ's redeeming sacrifice--only this seemingly foolish thing can bring me the hope of being wise.

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;"

(1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV)

Knowledge on its own is not enough--it must be used correctly. Knowledge is the flame; wisdom is the light. If you keep staring at the flame of the candle, you will end up unable to see in the dark. If you just focus on theological knowledge--the information, the facts--you will end up being blind to the beauty and mystery of the gospel.

"that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

(Colossians 2:2-3 ESV)

Knowledge is the flame; wisdom is the light.

A God We Can Count On: Confessing Ps 23 "I shall not want"

[Continuing from A God We Can Count On: Confessing Ps 23 "The LORD is my Shepherd"]

"I shall not want." 

Because He is YHWH, we can continue to confess His active compassion (The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer 90).

Because the LORD is God and because He IS Who He IS, we do not need to fear being without anything. His Being is enough. In Him we have everything we need.

This is where so many of us fall down in our sin. We don't remember that YHWH is enough.

Or rather, we don't actively trust that He is enough. We may know in our head that we are supposed to trust God for everything, but we don't act as though we do. We try to do it ourselves or we trust in other things--money, reputation, approval, job security, a family member. We basically say, "I trust Him spiritually, but I trust __________ a bit more in 'real life'".

We might even say that we are trusting God to provide for us, but that "God helps those who help themselves." While it is true that we are to steward the resources we have, we must be careful not to treat our actions and our choices as "the end," rather than the means. If we view our choices as helping or hindering God in His plans and provision, we are limiting His omnipotence. The means by which He works His sovereign will do not determine its success. While our mistakes may hinder us in our Christian walk, God  is not confined by them. This is not to say that we should not take our decisions seriously, that we can say "Let go and let God" and just do what we feel like. Our choices still must reflect our new life in Christ.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? [2] By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? [3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

(Romans 6:1-4 ESV)

We can still sin in how and what we choose. We can, however, take comfort in the fact that despite our mistakes, God will do His will. Even when we do not trust Him as we ought, we do not need to worry that we have somehow "messed up" and we will be left "wanting" until we have "fixed" our lack of trust. His provision is only reliant on His character, not ours. Because "the LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want."

Predictable / Unpredictable God

I was reading a sermon yesterday afternoon and in the introduction was this passage:

"When we feel that we have some great need, we mould God to the shape of that need and then expect that God is going to meet that particular need, and sometimes in your experience and mine, He doesn’t because we’ve simply invented our own Jesus. It isn’t what His strategy and purpose is … to meet that particular need in our lives maybe. And so we’re told in John Chapter 1, verse 11, that when Jesus was born, “He came unto His own, but His own did not receive Him.” And the reason they did not receive Him was because He did not meet their predetermined expectancy of what the Messiah would be like. He wasn’t born in a palace of royal parents and going to become a military leader. And they rejected the true Messiah because He did not conform to their own expectancy."

Charles Price- MARY: FROM FEAR TO FAITH TO FULFILLMENT 

It was so good to be reminded of this: Don't make an idol of your expectations and substitute them for Christ.  When we invent our own Jesus, he cannot save us. Don't limit Him to your own "predetermined expectancy" or you will end up rejecting the true Messiah. 

The glory of Christ is in how completely radical He is. He works outside of the "rules" of how we think life is supposed to go. He never works in our lives the way we think He will.  With Christ you must always expect the unexpected. We cannot predict Him. 

I heard another sermon by Charles Price in which he talked about this very thing. Entitled “Following God's Direction”, Price showed how Christ's miracles are not predictable—He works differently every time, and in His miracles, He used many different means to heal those who came to Him: He spoke, touched, even spit. He did not work in predictable ways or have a set formula that He used, but each time someone came to Him in faith, their faith was rewarded.

Price shows that this unpredictable way that God has of working with His people is also demonstrated in the story of Moses and the Rock at Meribah.

The first time (Exodus 17: 6), Moses was told to strike the rock.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

The second time (Numbers 20: 8) he was told to speak to the rock.

and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

Moses decided that he knew how this was supposed to work.

10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. “

It worked—but that was not how God had wanted him to give water to His people.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (Number 20:12)

Moses didn't believe-- He did not have faith in God's power to do what He said He would.

In 1 Cor 10: 4, Paul tells us that “the Rock was Christ.” This Rock is our fount of Living Water.

The lesson Price says is that we must not come to Christ the same way each time—we cannot just come to the crucified Christ, but must come to the risen Christ. We must come not just to a slain Sacrifice but to a victorious Saviour. Christ died once for all. By striking the Rock the second time, Moses implied that this one Sacrifice was not enough. To get the Living Water of salvation from this Rock of Christ, we must follow God's directions.

Lately God has been teaching me to trust in His immutability. God is ever the same (Ps. 102: 27); this is part of what makes Him God. (See A.W. Tozer's excellent book The Knowledge of the Holy  for more on this.)

He demands that we trust in HIS unchanging nature by following His leading each time—we cannot just “do what worked” the last time—cannot stay with the traditions, and be hide-bound and static.

This was the sin of the Pharisees: blind faith in “tradition.” They thought they could just do what they had always done. They thought they could predict what the Messiah would be like, how He would come, etc. But they were dead wrong.

He is our LIVING God. He is Unchanging, yet dynamic and unpredictable. He demands our trust in Him through every situation. There is no formula for Christian living. No “do this if this happens”, “do that if that happens”, etc. 

God guides us and teaches us in ways we do not expect. (Isa 30: 21)

Living in obedience is a matter of trust. Trusting God that even when obeying Him is difficult or painful, He knows what is right. If we do what is right in our own eyes, we will always fall.

God wants people who will do what is right in His eyes (Exodus 15: 26; 1 Kings 11:38; 1 Kings 14: 8; 1 Kings 15: 5). All the good kings of Israel are said to have done “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

We are to look to Him.

Like Peter walking on the sea—once we take our eyes off of Christ, we will sink. Peter “forgot” that Christ was the Son of God and ruled the wind and the waves, reverting back to believing the “rules” of nature—you can't walk on water, it is not possible— and he began to sink.

He is always predictable in His character, but He is unpredictable in how He deals with us. We can't anticipate what He will do with us. Like C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan—He is not a tame lion. He will do whatever is necessary to bring us to Himself.

AS we are all individuals so He treats us individually. However, He demands the same thing of all of us—obedience and love. He demands our worship—not because He needs it, but because of Who He is.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrew 12:1-2

A God We Can Count On: Confessing Ps 23 "The LORD is my shepherd"

[1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[2] He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. 

[3] He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. 

[4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. 

[5] You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. 

[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

(Psalm 23 ESV)

Psalm 23 is such a well-known passage. It gets quoted and read time and time again, in books, in movies, in times of illness, in times of trial, at funerals, etc. It has become one of those Bible passages which over-familiarity has made into a cliché.

The thing is, it shouldn't be a cliché. There is a reason that so many Christians have found comfort in these words. There is a reason that so many books and sermons and meditations have been written on and about the Twenty-Third Psalm.

It is a confession of faith in a God we can count on.

"The LORD is my shepherd."  

I was reading through this passage the other day and was struck by the fact that this passage literally says "YHWH is my shepherd";Yahweh is the name,  "I AM WHO I AM", revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. There is no other or better place to start in our confession but with Who God says He is. God IS. This is where we have our genesis. This is our foundation. The rest of the psalm is predicated on this first short phrase. Because "I AM WHO I AM" is our Shepherd, we can rest in His unchanging character. He is unchanging--because we are so temporal and whimsical, we cannot seem to remember this for long, but it is God's immutability that is our assurance when we look at His other attributes.

His grace is unchanging.
His faithfulness is unchanging.
His mercy is unchanging.
His holiness is unchanging.
His justice is unchanging.
His love is unchanging.

This list could continue on for pages and still--He is eternal and He does not change.

The littleness that is us cannot comprehend the magnitude of this blessing. But we can rest in the comfort that He is YHWH and He will not change.

[21] But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
[22] The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
[23] they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
[24] “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

(Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV)

Book Talk: The Knowledge of the Holy ~ A.W. Tozer

The Knowledge of the Holy ~ A.W. Tozer

"Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God" (Chp 1, pg 1). 

This book shows us how we can know and worship God better by learning about His attributes, defined by Tozer as "whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself" (12) [italics original].

Tozer makes it clear that we must be careful to maintain a true understanding of Who God is, otherwise

"Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like, and what He is like is of course a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have know or heard about, and all the sublime ideas we have entertained" (8).

 We have to be careful not to reduce God in this way because otherwise what we are worshiping is no longer God, but an image, and we have become idolators. Tozer makes this clear in his first chapter:

"Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is--in itself a monstrous sin--and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness" (3).

By studying the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture, we can, with the Holy Spirit's help, worship the true God, not our own idols of Him.

      "An attribute . . . is not a part of God. It is how God is, and as fair as the reasoning mind can go, we may say that it is what God is, though, as I have tried to explain, exactly what He is He cannot tell us. . . .

      The divine attributes are what we know to be true of God. He does not possess them as qualities; they are how God is as He reveals Himself to His creatures. Love, for instance, is not something God has and which may grow or diminish or cease to be. His love is the way God is, and when He loves He is simply being Himself." (16).

This is a short, but very, very sweet book. Tozer's living relationship with God comes out in every line and continually points the Christian to Him. A true blessing to read!