Beyond Dragons

I have found myself desiring a fresh sense of wonder these days. A wonder that is profound, a wonder that is deep and abiding and not a wonder that leaves me empty and feeling used after I have experienced it. I've been moved recently by Jesus standing in the temple courts at the peak of the feast of booths in John 7. He cries out with a loud voice; "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says. (By this he meant the Spirit)"
I'm desirous of an increased flow of these rivers of life flowing out of my belly and I sense it is time to set aside a good block of time to seek the Lord for a fresh filling of his Holy Spirit. Today I listened to Ravi Zacharias on podcast and he used this illustrative story of trying to insight wide eyed wonder with his 3 children when they were ages 5, 3 and 2. To the oldest he said imagine yourself walking up to a mysterious door, as you approach you think you hear something and it makes you curious so you open that door and out lunges a dragon... her eyes widen! To the second he says imagine yourself walking up to a mysterious door, as you approach you think you hear something and it makes you curious so you open the door... her eyes widen! To the third and youngest he says you see a big door and you walk slowly up to it... and his eyes grow wide! The five year old needed a dragon; the 3 year old only needed to open the door and his 2 year old just needed to be able to get to the door! His summary thought from the talk he gave coupled with this closing illustration was that the older we get the more it takes to fill our hearts with wonder and only God is big enough to fill that void.
I think I need a bigger sense of wonder and the sooner the better!
God is Good All the Time

Murky

I remember as a boy growing up going to Bear Lake Bible Camp. Bear lake was really an oversized mud puddle. Im sure that if you tried open up a camp there in this day and age the Government would not allow you becuase of the dirty muddy murky waters of the lake. But I had some pretty awesome memories of that camp. It was a place God met me many a time. But the lake was impossible to see in because it was so murky.

Murky, I like the word, it is like one of those words that sounds like what it means almost onomatopoeic (that’s my big word for the day!) Murky according to the dictionary is obscure, vague, thick with mist, it can even mean dark and gloomy. Murky can also be spelled “Mirky” which I thought was kind of funny since the word means unclear and it is unclear which way to spell it is correct. Murky. Paul said that "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." There is a part of our faith which is murky. There is a part that is quite unknowable this side of glory. There is a veil, there is a reflection that is cloudy not clear like mirrors today but more like the reflection of off a broken piece of glass, or a polished piece of aluminum or tin. I think this is a vital part of our experience of faith in the here and now. We don’t have a corner on the truth. Any more than Paul didn’t have a corner on the truth. We can know certain things for certain but there is a huge amount of God that resides in mist, he is murky, unfathomable, unsearchable, unknowable. This keeps my faith fresh, my prayers earnest, my search for more understanding unending. It keeps my faith fluid and in motion and I am so glad for that.
God is also conscious of those not yet in faith who need to see him. To those outside the faith he is the exact opposite, he is clearly seen, his fingerprints are all over everything, his DNA is left behind for those who take the time and have the desire to know him. He has left behind a mountain of clear evidence that points to him. No fog or mist to hide him. As Paul affirms in Romans One, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." So God in his mercy has made entrance into faith clear so that no one is without excuse and in his wisdom has made life inside of faith just murky enough to make us search to clarify, seek to have the Holy Spirit illuminate, ask questions to enlighten the truth of God’s word and our experience of him through his word.

God is Good All the Time.