Heavenly Mindedness (66)

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  [G. Vos using excerpts from Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

“…and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  

 

Seeking the Face of God, and progressively seeing the Face of God, is to be our way of Life. It is not only to be how we live, in the sense of our pattern of life; it is also to be how we live, in the sense of our source of Life. While those around us in the professing church may eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must insist on eating from the Tree of Life. How we need to guard against departing from our first love, for we may have sound teaching, we may be enduring for the name of Jesus Christ, we may have good works, but if we, like the Ephesians (Rev. 2:1 – 7), fall away from our first love and do not repent, our lampstands will be removed.

 

Note that the Tree of Life is linked to the condition of the Ephesian church (Rev. 2:7). We overcome to eat the fulness of the Tree of Life in Paradise Eternal by eating the Tree of Life now on our earthly pilgrimage. We eat from this Tree today, that we may eat more from this Tree tomorrow. Can you see the contrast between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16? Can you see it in Colossians 2:1 – 23?

 

As we eat from the Tree of Life we progressively see the Face of God and His Name is written in our hearts, minds, souls, and spirits.

 

And so we have Paul writing that we “see through a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12) and that we will “know fully just as I also have been fully known.” Now this in itself is a mystery whose depths we cannot plumb, we may swim in the mystery but we cannot see or reach the bottom, it is fathomless. Paul also writes, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).  

 

Our lives in Christ on this earth are to be continually transformed into His image. Consider that we are to behold His glory; is this not the desire of Jesus Christ for us? Do we see this when He prays, “The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them…Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me…” (John 17:22 – 26).  Can we see that it is our Father’s desire to “bring many sons [and daughters!] to glory” (Heb. 2:10)?

 

O dear friends, in beholding Christ we are transformed into His image, not in fixating on ourselves, not it a futile effort to make ourselves better, not in seeking esoteric knowledge; but rather in seeking Jesus Christ, knowing Jesus Christ, loving Jesus Christ, being wholly devoted to Jesus Christ and living in the Trinity, as the Trinity lives in us.

 

Are we praying that we will love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength, and that we will love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:28 – 34)? What does this Great Commandment mean, but that we should be wholly devoted to, dedicated to, and belong to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – the One Self-existent, holy, just, righteous, and loving God who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last?

 

Hence, we see in Romans 12:1 – 2, that in light of the great mercies of God, in light of our forensic and organic redemption and salvation (chapters 1 – 8) and the mysteries of election and predestination and the perseverance of the saints (chapters 9 – 11); that we are to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, not being conformed to the world (or present age), but rather transformed through the renewing of our minds in order that we might prove, or know, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

 

We see what this is to look like in our relationships within the Church and with the world in chapters 12 – 16. We see the crux of the matter in Chapter 8, most especially in 8:9 – 39, the core of which is 8:29 in context; it is our Father’s eternal desire that His Son be the Firstborn among many brethren! This is at the core of the Gospel. This is why to think that the Gospel concludes at 5:11 is to fall short of the fulness and grandeur of the heart of God and the work of Jesus Christ.

 

Seeing the Face of God and having His Name written on our foreheads is not to be relegated to the future, for while its fulness is in the future, its inception and progression is for us now – this is the Way we are to live in Christ and with one another. No wonder the author of Hebrews implores us to be looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Can we hear John saying, “See, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God...Beloved, now we are children of God” (1 John 3:1 – 3)?

 

As we conclude this post, I’ll ask you to compare 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Colossians 3:1 – 4; and 1 John 3:1 – 3. What do you see?

Heavenly Mindedness (65)

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  [G. Vos using excerpts from Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

“…and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.” This is a quote of Revelation 22:4. What does this image say to you? Ponder what seeing the Face of God is like…as best you can. Consider having the name of God and the Lamb on your forehead – what does this imagery convey? What might this say about our minds and our thoughts? What does the Bible teach us about the importance of a name? What do Biblical names often convey?

 

The Scriptures begin with God creating man in His own image, they conclude with redeemed man being transformed into His Image, the Image of His Son (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10). However we may understand the original condition of Adam and Eve, we are not looking to return to that condition, but rather we are looking for Jesus Christ and transformation, by His grace, into His beloved image. This is our individual calling, and it is our calling as His Bride, His Temple, His Church. Even the Tree of Life is transformed from Genesis to Revelation, going from the image of one Tree, to an image of one Tree with many expressions, and yet remaining one Tree (Rev. 22:2; John 12:24). Consider the aspen tree, which propagates via its root system. Some aspen trees are among the largest organisms on earth – this is a picture of John 15 on a grand scale, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.”

 

The image of the Tree of Life in Rev. 22:2 can be confusing, for it first appears as if there are many trees, “on either side of the river was the tree of life,” but when we realize that this is one Tree reaching back to Genesis, one Tree which has fallen into the ground and died, one Tree which has come forth in resurrection life, one Tree which has brought us into Himself, one Tree which has placed His life in us…well, when we begin to ponder these things, we not only begin to anticipate our glorious future inheritance, but we also begin to see how we should live today in Jesus Christ…abiding in Him as His life abides in us.

 

To be heavenly – minded is to seek the Face of God, and to have His Name progressively unfold in our hearts and minds and souls. Consider the context of the following words of Jesus:

 

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22 – 23).

 

What comes before this passage? “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

What comes after Matthew 6:22 – 23? “No one can serve two masters…”

 

Cultivating a clear, sincere, and single eye for the Trinity, for the Face of God, for the Name of God, is our calling. We should not be surprised that we are called to enter the narrow gate to find eternal life (Matthew 7:13 – 14). Can we hear Jesus saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8)?

 

How are we responding to Revelation 22:4? How is this image and hope working and living within us? Is our pilgrimage one in which our eye becomes clearer and clearer as we behold our Lord Jesus Christ? Are we becoming a people of the narrow gate? Are we storing up treasures in heaven in Christ? Are our hearts loving God and serving Him exclusively? Is Jesus Christ our one true Master?

 

Are we living as men and women of that City we see in Revelation chapters 21 and 22?

 

Heavenly Mindedness (64)

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  G. Vos [see Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

“…and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service…” Continuing to ponder the throne of God and the Lamb from the previous post:

 

In pondering the throne in Revelation chapters 4, 5, 21, and 22, among the things we see are: worship, authority, power, glory, Divine decrees, and a recounting of the Gospel in 5:9 – 10. What might you add to this list?

Consider what Jesus says to His People earlier in Revelation:

 

“He who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” (Rev. 2:26 – 28; see also Psalm 2).

 

“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Rev. 3:21).

 

There is a sense, a very strong sense, which we’ll more fully explore when we get to, “and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads,”  in which we are called to experience a portion of our future inheritance in this life, as we seek the Face of God and are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). There is another strong sense in which we are in a school of discipleship and sonship that is preparing us for the future, and I think of Rev. 2:26 – 27 and 1 Cor. 6:3 especially in this light.

 

What does living before the throne of God and the Lamb look like in our lives today? What are we learning about living before the throne?

 

Certainly our lives ought to be engaged in worship throughout the day and night, and this worship ought to take the form of our words, our deeds, our affections, and our thoughts. All of life ought to be an offering to our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, all of life is to be sacred. This includes our vocations (Colossians 3:22 – 4:6).

 

We ought to be proclaiming the Gospel with both our words and deeds, our words should be validated by our deeds, and our deeds should be validated by our words. We ought not to be so foolish as to think that we can have one without the other – that is simply a lie that we ought not to believe. People need to hear the Gospel (Matthew 28:16 – 20; Romans 10) and they need to see the Gospel (Matthew 5:13 – 16; John 15:8; Philippians 2:14 – 18).

 

Jesus Christ has given His Church authority and power, (Matthew 10:5 – 15; 16:17-19; 18:15 – 20; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:1 – 13). However, I want to say a few things about this idea of authority and power. The first is that we must learn what it is to live in obedience to Jesus Christ if we are going to learn anything about authority and power. We ought not to be so foolish as to think that we can live disobedient or undisciplined lives and be entrusted with authority and power. Yes, it is true that God in His mercy uses us in our uncleanness and foolishness for His glory and the blessing of others, but this does not excuse us – disobedience limits us.

 

We ought to also learn that Divine authority and power is given to the Church to be exercised in the context of the Church, whether we are edifying the Church or in Gospel outreach to the peoples of the world. What this looks like may have myriad forms, but without some fashion of accountability to one another the exercise of power and authority degenerates into a caricature of Christian ministry, all too often leading to the merchandising of the Gospel, taking advantage of those who are not anchored in Christ, the Cross, and His Scriptures. To our shame, we don’t have to look far for examples of this grave error.

 

Also to our shame, the shear numbers of people who follow marquee celebrity teachers who have little or no accountability within the Church, who promise us our best lives now, success, or even the form of sound teaching (having a form of godliness, 2 Tim. 3:5), demonstrates that we tend to live our independent, autonomous, individual lives without regard to living in accountable koinonia in the Church. Thank God that we continue to have faithful pastors and teachers who seek to shepherd congregations in the midst of our celebrity worship. Thank God that, more often than not, these are pastors and teachers of small churches, or churches of modest size, and that faithfulness to Christ and His People is more import to them than numbers and religious success. These men and women are the backbone of faithful Christian expression in society.

 

We have many Nehustans in the church, experiences or teachings that began in the Spirit but which we made into idols (2 Kings 18:4; Numbers 21:8 – 9). This does not mean that we can’t rediscover Divine beauty in what we have twisted, for regarding the preceding passages in Kings and Numbers see how Jesus redeemed our foolishness in John 3:14 – thereby restoring an image that man had desecrated, an image of Christ Jesus Himself. Our participation in Divine power and authority has been made a Nehustan more than once, our twisted merchandising of sacred things has intoxicated high church and low church and “ministries” which practice Wild West autonomy.

 

So let me say this, when we touch Divine power and authority in our service to others, if we do not want to go the way of Balaam (Numbers chapters 22 – 25; Rev. 2:14) or Simon Magus (Acts 8:9 – 24), we ought to fear and tremble and bow our hearts before our Lord Jesus Christ and pray that we will always live as women and men under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as He walked this earth under the authority of the Father (Matthew 8:9; John 5:19).

 

Power and authority tend to lead to one of two things, either self-centered intoxication or humility – we see this in the world and we see this in the professing church. Jacob had to come to the end of his own strength and manipulation before he could truly receive a new name, Israel, a prince who has power with God; coming to the end of ourselves and our endless options and plans, and walking with a limp, is necessary for us to live in the name Israel (Genesis 32:244 – 32) and to learn what it is to exercise the power and authority which the Father has given to Christ, and which Christ has given to us.

 

By the same token, “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22) and he expected not only that he could deliver Israel from slavery, but that Israel would understand that “God was granting them deliverance through him” (Acts 7:25). O dear friends, how much Moses had to learn! God could not use Moses until Moses came to the end of himself 40 years later, and at the Burning Bush said to God, “What am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3:11).

 

We should be wary of learning the ways of this present age to use in ministry, in outreach, and in the Kingdom of God. We ought not to forget the paradigm that Paul constructs for the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16. The ways of this world and age are not the ways of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. The seed sown in shallow soil may sprout up quickly, but it will not remain. We must be careful how we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 3:10 – 17. Let us take care not to bring that which is profane into the Temple of God. What the world considers power and authority is being brought to nothing, 1 Cor. 1:26 – 31.

 

Let us recall the Word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).

 

May we learn to live our lives before the throne of the Father and the Lamb.

 

Heavenly Mindedness (63)

 

“It is characteristic of faith that it not merely desires the perfect but desires the perfect as a work and gift of God. A heaven that was not illumined by the light of God, and not a place for closest embrace of Him, would be less than heaven. God as builder and maker thereof has put the better part of Himself into his work. Therefore those who enter the city are in God. The thought is none other than that of the seer in the Apocalypse:

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  G. Vos [see Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

“…and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service…” When we read the Scriptures, including Revelation, one of the questions we should ask is, “What does this look like in my life today?” The first questions, of course, are, “Where is Jesus Christ in what I’m reading? Where is the Father? How is the Holy Spirit speaking to me through this passage?”

 

What does the throne of God and the Lamb look like in my life today? What about your life? What does the image of a throne say to you? What do you see regarding the throne of God and the Lamb in Rev. 22:1 – 4?

 

What do you see in the great throne room scene of Revelation chapters 4 and 5? Is there a theme that holds the complexity and mystery of these chapters together? In Revelation 22 we see the river of life flowing from the throne, do we see anything issuing from the throne in chapter 5? (We might consider meditating on chapters 4 and 5 for a week or two, the same with chapters 21 and 22 – how might Christ speak to us through these great scenes?).

 

Consider that when John is moved into the heavens (Rev. 4:1) he finds himself in the throne room, and that the revelation, the unveiling, culminates in the Throne of God and the Lamb coming into manifestation on the earth as the Holy City descends from heaven in chapters 21 and 22. All that we see in chapters 6 – 20 is subject to the Throne of chapters 4 and 5, and 21 and 22. How might this truth inform the way we read and respond to chapters 6 – 20? How might it inform what we emphasize in chapters 6 – 20? How might it inform how we view our world today?

 

We will return to the throne of God and the Lamb in the next post.

 

Heavenly Mindedness (62)

 

“It is characteristic of faith that it not merely desires the perfect but desires the perfect as a work and gift of God. A heaven that was not illumined by the light of God, and not a place for closest embrace of Him, would be less than heaven. God as builder and maker thereof has put the better part of Himself into his work. Therefore those who enter the city are in God. The thought is none other than that of the seer in the Apocalypse:

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  G. Vos [see Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

May I gently ask, how often do you read and meditate on Revelation chapters 21 and 22? If I ask you to please close your eyes and picture these two chapters, are you able to do so? What do you see? If you were with children, how would you describe these chapters?

 

Consider that these chapters are the conclusion to a letter that Jesus Christ wrote to Seven Churches via the Apostle John. Also consider that these churches were suffering persecution and dealing with apostasy. In writing to the Seven Churches, Jesus Christ wrote to all churches, or better yet, He wrote to His One Holy Catholic Church that transcends time and space, having its roots in eternity past and its trajectory in eternity future. Finally, it cannot be accidental that these chapters form the conclusion to the canon of Holy Scripture, they are the final words within the Word, the eternal image that is without end in our life in Christ.

 

Is it any wonder that Vos leads us here, to the Holy City, in his message on heavenly – mindedness? Where else would we anticipate the pilgrimage of Hebrews 11 to lead us, but the very City that the patriarchs sought with all their hearts and minds and souls?

 

There is a sense in which, I think, this is what we experience beyond the veil that Jesus Christ rent in two on the Cross. Can this be so? Can this be not only what lies before us in its fulness, but also how we are to live today in Jesus Christ and with one another? Do we not have the melding of John 17 with Revelation 21 and 22?

 

Let’s ponder what Vos has selected from these two chapters:

        

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.” Are we not to live in Christ today? Is not the Holy Trinity to be our place of abode? Doesn’t Jesus tell the Woman at the Well that God is Spirit, that true worship is not a matter of geography, but rather of transcendent Spirit and Truth? Do we not see the phrase “in Christ” again and again in the New Testament? Can we see that we are the Temple of God, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 5)? God is our Temple and we are God’s Temple, is this not what we see in John 17?

 

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…” (Rev. 21:3). Can we see that this is a continuation of John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”? Can we see that this is an extension of John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”? Do we have eyes to see the manifestation of this City and Temple in Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”? He who was from eternity past, touched earth in Bethlehem, then in Jerusalem came to abide in His People, and will have His fuller manifestation on that Day we see in Revelation 21 and 22. (I do not say that this Mystery will have its “ultimate manifestation or expression” then, for who can grasp what koinonia with the Eternal One has for us? I do not think that “ultimate” is a word we can use in this context.).

 

“And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it…” We also read in Revelation 21:23 that “its lamp is the Lamb.” If the Lamb will be our lamp then, if the glory of God will be our light then, if we will not need the sun or the moon then – that is, if we will not need “lesser lights” then; why, O why, do we think we need lesser lights now? Is not Jesus Christ the Light of the world? Does not the Father emphatically say, “This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5)?

 

We are to glory in Jesus Christ, not in ourselves, and not in lesser lights, whether those lights be philosophy, doctrinal distinctives, traditions, nationalism, politics, sectarianism, Gnosticism in various forms – including pseudo-Christian forms, the social “sciences” with its myriad therapies and healers, worldviews, religious experiences…nothing, nothing, is to stand alongside the Person and Light and Life of Jesus Christ.

 

We only need to ask a question or two to determine whether we are dealing with a lesser light, or indeed, even dealing with false teaching. “Where is Jesus in this? Do I unambiguously see Jesus Christ portrayed? Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ? Is this designed to draw me closer to Jesus Christ and His Cross? Is Jesus Christ the center of what I am hearing or what I am reading?”

 

Dear, dear friends, if you apply the above to much of what passes for Christian teaching and writing, you may find that you are seeing and hearing lesser lights, and in some cases false teaching, that has nothing to do with the Cross of Christ, the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and the exclusive claim on our lives by Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived, the message of the Cross is an offense for it lays bear our sinfulness, our utter inability to attain to righteousness, and our spiritual and moral and ethical bankruptcy. When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ our dependency on Him is total, complete, and unequivocal – for without Him we can do nothing, absolutely nothing (John 15:5).

 

If the City of Revelation chapters 21 and 22 is our eternal home, ought we not to begin to live in that City today? Ought not our congregations to portray that City? When the world looks at us, are they seeing citizens of that holy City, the City of God?

 

We’ll continue with this section from Vos in the next post.

 

Dante Anyone?

 Good morning friends,

 

A friend of mine recently made me aware of a project between six universities on Dante’s Divine Comedy that I want to pass on to you. While the list is below, I’ll point out that they include Baylor (a Baptist school) and Gonzaga (a Roman Catholic school) – yes, they both have good basketball teams but more importantly, if you can believe it, they also have great professors.

 

Three times a week the project sends a link to a short video by a professor, usually less than ten minutes, that leads participants through the Divine Comedy (they also provide the text from the Divine Comedy for each presentation). Previous videos can be watched anytime. These men and women know their material and they are great to watch – they are more excited about Dante than Gonzaga’s basketball fans are about their team (well…maybe that was hyperbole).

 

There is a reason Dante is considered one of the greatest poets of all time; and there is a reason he is considered an amazing Christian thinker. It is said that he was C.S. Lewis’s favorite poet, this means that Lewis not only appreciated how Dante wrote, but what Dante wrote.

 

I hear a lot about “worldview,” and yet our worldview seems to change with the newspaper headlines, and what we value today we are fully prepared to discard tomorrow if it suits our agendas. Dante presents a Biblical worldview that is focused on the glory of God and the transformative glory of Jesus Christ. He not only calls sin “sin,” but he unpacks how sin corrupts mankind. Thankfully, he also shows us the way of transformation into the image of Christ and portrays the glory of God in a fashion that leaves even him at a loss for words.

 

In a season of history in which our teeth are rotting from cotton candy, I hope you will consider taking this journey through the Divine Comedy; Baylor and the other schools have done an amazing job on this project.

 

Here is a link to the website and below is an excerpt from the website:

 

https://100daysofdante.com/

 

From the Baylor University website:

 

100 DAYS OF DANTE

 

A Presentation of

 

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE

 

With Support From

 

TORREY HONORS COLLEGE AT BIOLA UNIVERSITY

TEMPLETON HONORS COLLEGE AT EASTERN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS

WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY/ GONZAGA IN FLORENCE

 

 

At some point, we’ve all been lost, or looked up to see the path ahead dark and unclear. For some of us it’s at the beginning of our spiritual journeys or when we face a hard decision. For others it’s after many years of life, when we wonder what might be coming next.

 

And for one poet, over 700 years ago in Florence, Italy, it was midway through his life’s journey.

 

Welcome to One Hundred Days of Dante.

 

Baylor’s Honors College, with support from five collaborating universities, will lead the world’s largest Dante reading group this fall in honor of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death. Through a beautifully designed, engaging website, we’ll read Dante’s wondrous poem, the Divine Comedy, and discover how it can change our outlook, love of God, and embrace of neighbor.

 

Through 100 short, accessible videos led by our faculty and others, we will guide readers around the world through the poem. Starting this September, tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear from a great teacher who shares their love of Dante with us, and then share your insights with all of us through conversations on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #100daysofdante.

 

100 Days of Dante is for all of us who want to read a great poem accompanied by a guiding light. For us who want to read not just for careful thinking, but for thoughtful living, applying the wisdom of the past to our own lives.

 

Visit the website now to watch a brief video and sign up for updates. This is 100 Days of Dante: let’s read together.

 

https://100daysofdante.com/

Heavenly Mindedness (61)

 

Let’s look at the first paragraph from Vos’s conclusion, quoted in the previous post:

 

“Finally the highest thing that can be spoken about this city is that it is the city of our God, that He is in the midst of it. Traced to its ultimate root heavenly-mindedness is the thirst of the soul after God, the living God. The patriarchs looked not for some city in general, but for a city whose builder and maker was God.”

 

One of the banes of our pagan post-modernity is that we live without basic spiritual, intellectual, moral, ethical, and emotional fundamentals. We reinvent the wheel daily, we scratch where it itches, seldom questioning whether we ought to do so; we are people of appetite being fattened up for the kill. Vos concludes his message on heavenly - mindedness with fundamentals. What are the fundaments in the above quotation?

 

We are called to seek the City of God, a “city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10), and we are seeking this City because God is there and we want to be with God. This means that we freely confess that we are “strangers and exiles on earth” (Heb. 11:13) and that we are “seeking a country of our own” (Heb. 11:14).  When Paul points out that we are citizens of heaven in Philippians 3:20, he does it in the context counting his earthly pedigree among dung that he may know Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, wither neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19 – 21).

 

This is a call to be singled-mined, for Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matt. 6:24).

 

Christ calls us to an exclusive allegiance and devotion and love to Himself and to the City of God. The thieves which would steal from us are many, and most of them look pretty good, appealing to our ego, individually and collectively, and exerting peer pressure on us. Whether it is material prosperity, fame, security, nationalism, scribal Christianity, or hedonistic Christianity, most thieves dress themselves up so as to seduce and deceive us. Many thieves within the professing church tempt us to substitute something for a relationship with Jesus Christ, they brand a teaching, a movement, or an emphasis, with His Name, but as with the Galatians, they direct our attention elsewhere; caricatures of Jesus Christ abound within the professing church.

 

Living in heavenly – mindedness means saying “No” to many things; things of the world and things of the professing church. We are not looking for just any city, we are looking for the City of God because that is where God lives and we want to live in God, through God, and unto God, in our Lord Jesus Christ. We learn to recognize that, “Except  Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless Yahweh guards the city, the watchman keeps aware in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

 

“Traced to its ultimate root heavenly-mindedness is the thirst of the soul after God, the living God.”

 

What is eternal life? It is knowing the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29).

 

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek you earnestly and early; my soul thirsts for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1 - 2).

 

We are called to be ever looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), knowing that as we see Him that we are transformed into His image (1 John 3:1-3; 2Cor. 3:17 – 18).

 

Are we thirsting after God? Where are our treasures?

 

Are we pointing people to Jesus Christ, or are we marketing a Christian lifestyle?

 

Do we satiate our souls with the passing things of this earth, including religious things, or are we crying out to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified? (1Cor. 2:2).

 

When we arise in the morning, do we soak our souls in Christ and His Word or in the things of this earth? Are we eating from the Tree of Life or from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

 

Are we crying out, “O Father, O Lord Jesus, teach me to seek Your Face! Give me a thirst that only You can quench! A hunger that only You can satisfy!”

 

Are we offering ourselves to God (Rom. 12:1 – 2) so that He might give us as broken Bread and poured out Wine to our generation in and through Jesus Christ? O dear friends, to partake of the Communion Table means that we must be that Communion Table, in Christ, to others – one of reasons we know that the Eucharist is sacramental.

 

The depths of eternity are calling to the sons and daughters of the Living God. Our Father’s Throne is calling us home. Living Water is flowing from the Throne to draw us to that Place where God is all in All. Let us be like the son who “came to himself” and headed home to where he belonged – let us forbear to eat the food of swine, no matter how hungry we may be, for our Father will surely care of us. Let us endeavor to bring others along, knowing that we can’t force them, but also knowing that as they hear the Name of the Father, His Nature, that they just might leave their fishing nets and follow Jesus (Hebrews 2:9 – 13).

 

O dear friends, if we will live with God in eternity, ought we not to be seeking to live in Him and through Him and unto Him now, today, this very moment? O dear sister, O dear brother, your Father sent His Firstborn to reveal His love for you, to shower you with His grace, to bring you home to where you have always belonged. Jesus  Christ has given you His glory and He dearly desires that you be filled with His joy and love (John 17:22 – 26).

 

I pray, as I write these very words, that you will know the fulness of the life and love and joy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I pray that your life will be enveloped in the Holy Trinity and that your life, in Christ, will feed the lives of others.