Broken Cisterns

The words of the Lord from Jeremiah 2:13:

For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water.

Some of you might recognize the imagery from summer camp a few years ago. Sean talked about the broken cisterns that we make for ourselves. And we do make so many of them. But, and to go along with Caleb's latest blog, I want to focus on leaving those cisterns behind. Not looking at all of the cracks and all of the dust that fills up the empty places where we've searched for life and freedom and satisfaction, but looking instead to the one true fountain of living waters, Jesus Christ. It is only clear just how broken our pursuits are when we view them in comparison to the one true satisfaction. How much more infinitely satisfying and fulfilling and life-giving He is. To drink form His living water of love and truth and grace and freedom and so much more. So instead of focusing on the cisterns we've been hewing for years and scraping the dust out of for our whole lives, let's drink deep from the fountain. And to be honest, I have no idea what that entails in its entirety. I think rejoicing and singing and praying and loving are included, but I know that there's more. But for now, I'm going to take the biggest drink my parched throat will allow, and what I've tasted already only makes me want more. Satisfaction that is never-ending and a fulfillment that always offers more. This is what Christ supplies. This is being truly alive.

Cling to Christ

"Take care, then, when you find your Master, to cling close to Him. But how is it you have lost Him? One would have thought you would never have parted with such a precious friend, whose presence is so sweet, whose words are so comforting, and whose company is so dear to you! How is it that you did not watch Him every moment for fear of losing sight of Him? Yet, since you have let Him go, what a mercy that you are seeking Him, even though you mournfully groan, "O that I knew where I might find Him!" Go on seeking, for it is dangerous to be without thy Lord. Without Christ you are like a sheep without its shepherd; like a tree without water at its roots; like a sere leaf in the tempest—not bound to the tree of life. With thine whole heart seek Him, and He will be found of thee: only give thyself thoroughly up to the search, and verily, thou shalt yet discover Him to thy joy and gladness."

-Charles Spurgeon

And how true are those words to our lives. He is the sweetest friend we have ever known. He comforts us in a way that no other can. He brings us greater joy than we have ever known. And somehow we still turn to other friends (good yes, but nothing without Christ), other comforts, other sources of joy. Sometimes we even turn to the very things that He hates and by His grace we hate as well. We turn to sinful friendships, ungodly comforts, and shameful pleasures for our joy. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Cling to Christ as the rich man does his wallet, cling to Christ as the glutton does his bread, cling to Him as a newborn does his mother. He will never let us down, He will never let us go.

"Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus
Just from sin and self to cease,
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace."

The Light

1 John 1:5 - "...God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."

Genesis 1:4 - "God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness."

Job 33:28 - "He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, and my life shall see the light"

Psalm 18:28 - "For You light my lamp; The Lord my God illumines my darkness."

Proverbs 13:9 - "The light of the righteous rejoices, But the lamp of the wicked goes out."

Ephesians 5:8 - "for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light"

God is Light, and through Him our darkness is illumined and we are light too. God isn't just bright or kind of light or more light than us, He is Light. There is no darkness in Him at all. We were darkness, not dark or a little dim or dark just in comparison, we were darkness. But He lights our lamps. He shines in our darkness. He makes us His children of Light. His children. We haven't just been altered, we have been made entirely new. We were once the opposite of light, darkness, and now we are the opposite of darkness, light. We were nothing like light. We were full of sin and error and darkness. And now we are full of light and goodness and Him.

When Job was afflicted, he looked to the light. He saw that God was light and that one day he would see that light, even if it was after a world of darkness. The psalmist too saw that God was light, and had the power to light. And not just to light anything, but to give light to the darkness that is us. Solomon tells us about the light of the righteous rejoicing and the light of the wicked going out. Thanks to God's grace we share His righteousness and therefore His light too. And Paul encourages us to walk as children of Light, children of God.

Unfortunately, sin blocks His light from shining through us. Pride blocks His light with our own conceited darkness. Lust blocks His light with our own dark desires. Gossip blocks His light with the harm of others. Hate blocks His light with our human hearts. Sin blocks God's light with our darkness. But by grace we are free from sin, we are conquerors of sin, we are children of Light! So through song, through service, through gathering, through speech, through teaching, through encouraging, through giving, through whatever means available let Him shine through us. Pray that His light would be ever stronger through our vessels and that our darkness would continually grow weaker and dissolve more.

Thankfulness

I've been considering thankfulness lately. And some new ideas on it have come up. Thanks to input from a few others (mostly one other), I'm starting to develop a more complete view of thankfulness, and a more joyful approach to being thankful. Which is confusing because being thankful can't be totally contrived or controlled, especially when it's overwhelming and powerful. But what we are thankful for, and the source to which we are thankful for it can be perceived differently.

Thankfulness should be dependant primarily on what we are thankful for, not what we are lacking. We should thank God for what He has given us not because of what He didn't hold back, but for what He gave. Be thankful for salvation not because He held back wrath, but because He poured out love. Be thankful for blessing not because He kept us from poverty, but because He has shown generosity. Be thankful for life not because He has kept us from death, but because He has given us life. Be thankful for the good not because it isn't bad, but because it is good!

It is so great to rejoice in the Lord. To rejoice in His love and power and goodness and splendor and light! Not because He isn't hateful or weak or bad or dull or dark. Just because of what He is. Regardless of the bad, God is good. And in the fullest measure! So instead of looking at the negative side and feeling relieved you aren't there, look on the bright side and rejoice that He is there!

Seeking God

It seems like a lot of the time we get really wrapped in Christianity. We get wrapped up in church and friends and songs and praying and kind of forget about God along the way. We focus on not sinning and we focus on making it to church and we focus on reading our bibles every day and we forget to just focus on God. And it's hard. We can read our bibles and talk to our friends and sit in church and sing songs, but we can't really do something tangible to God. God is big and mysterious and universal and majestic. And even though He is Love and intimate and compassionate, He can't hug us and we can't hold His hand. He is living but invisible, He is in us but also uncontainable. He really is Indescribable. We don't have good enough or even enough words to begin to describe Him. And that makes it hard to seek His face.

Psalm 27:8 - When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O Lord, I shall seek."

How did David do that? How did he seek God's face? And how did his heart truly say that to God? I sometimes feel like there's this secret to seeking God. That there's something missing on the pages of my bible, or something I don't hear at church, or something that's being kept a secret from me. I hear people talk about "seeking God", but I don't know how to do that myself. I pray and I read and I talk to people about it, but it doesn't feel like I have some special way or something to really seek God or His will or His face. It just feels like I'm reading about Him and praying to Him and talking about Him. Is that all there is?

I started talking with Joy about it, well she started talking to me about it really, and I still think it's confusing, but a little more clear. There is a difference between serving God and seeking His face. Both are necessary, but different. We should be serving and encouraging and going to church and praying about things and etc. But we should also be seeking God's face and waiting on the Lord. We should be taking time to read His word just to know Him better, and pray just to become better acquainted with His character, and talk about Him just because He's awesome.

Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.

It's still confusing and I don't quite get it all. But just seeking God and His face and His attributes and everything He is, it's amazing. And it just keeps getting better as I see Him a little better. He is truly Awesome.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! And I hope all of you really do have a merry Christmas.

For those of you from FBC, we already learned about the amazing faith of Mary and Joseph about a week ago at youth group, as well as the story of Simeon and Anna last night if you went to the Christmas Eve Service (which was really really good). But, there is always more to be learned about the Christmas story, or at least more to really think about and focus on a little more deeply.

This afternoon I got a chance to read some scripture from the books of Isaiah and Matthew. I took a more focused look at the prophecy of Christ from Isaiah and His genealogy in Matthew. Both of those things really made me think about God's absolute sovereignty in the Lord Jesus Christ's birth. The fact that God used prophets generations and generations beforehand to tell Israel about Christ's coming, and then how He used numerous "chance" happenings to fulfill that prophecy. The genealogy of Christ found in Matthew includes the names of 5 women. And although women were rarely included in genealogies and these particular 5 women weren't particularly great or godly women, it's still important that they're listed. It's important because they show God's total sovereignty in all circumstances. To show how he used even prostitutes and adulteresses to keep the line of David intact until the birth of Christ. He was in perfect control before, during, and after the birth of Christ. And still is!

I'd love to hear something you guys learned about Christmas, Jesus, God, or anything else this Christmas season. I think it's awesome to see people focusing on things of true importance this time of year, even though I know all of us (myself included for sure) love presents and cookies and break as well.

So thank the Lord for how He's blessed us so amazingly through His Son and then blessed us even more on top of that! Merry Christmas!

Alexithymia

Since I'd like to keep Alive focused almost exclusively on theological, abstract, and generally deep discussion; I've decided to create a separate blog for my other things. It's a blog for my thoughts on music, school, work, daily life things. Since I am a Christian and Christ is my Lord, it'll obviously still have biblical and deepm things scattered throughout, but won't have a deliberately theological or discussional purpose. It's called Alexithymia, so check it out if you want to know about my life a little more.