Life after Naivete

On the eve of my biggest Design Submission to date, i ponder life and the changes that make us what we are through music..and i'm drawn to The Cranberries' When You're Gone..Irish folk tunes and Irish singers such as Dolores O'Riordan, Sinead O'Connor and U2's Bono move me..hmm, i was going to add Annie Lennox to the mix but wasn't sure she was Irish..why do i like these singers and their music? The sense of Dystopia maybe, the feeling that our society is the lost child of parents who abandoned God and live Outside Eden..maybe the falleness of the human condition..maybe the idea that we're all looking for something that we can't find..maybe the idea that no relationship can fulfill except with a Father who made us and to whom the song below is really addressed to..

In the midst of Lamentations we find the verse, "Because of the Lord's tender mercies we are not consumed, for His love endures forever. His mercies are new every morning. Great is Your Faithfulness." and in the midst of Habakkuk, with all the fierce anger of God being played out, good ol' Haba says, " Though the fig tree does not blossom, nor there be fruit on the vine, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the LORD; i will take joy in the God of my salvation."

I do not understand the plans of God because of the thorns in my flesh..but one thing i know, that by the Grace of God "i spring higher with a thorn in the foot than the man with two whole feet."

The Divine Exchange

Tonight at Focus, i felt my pulse quicken during the study. You see, we've been studying the book of 1 Peter together for the past couple of weeks. Reading stuff about submission and being called to holiness, i honestly felt like i'd heard it all before and struggled in being inspired. To be fair, i realise God's Word needs to be respected and heard in its entirety, whether we enjoy it or are interested in it or not, whether we're inspired or bored with the passage or not. But as a sinful human being, i must admit there are topics and passages i like more than others.

So you can well imagine my surprise tonight at a passage that i had read before and thought i knew well, suddenly coming alive and bearing what seemed like newness and freshness for me. We were reading 1 Peter 3:13 to 4:6. That passage has a lot of thorny issues at first read but really if we understand the context of the surrounding verses and the history of Peter's audience (without getting side-tracked with preaching to the dead for instance) its possible to understand where Peter is coming from and what he's saying.

but when we came to 1 Peter 3:18 it seemed like something struck me. At first i couldn't put my finger on it, until we came to discussion about what people from all ages have in common. The reference at that point was, you guessed it, 1 Pet 3:18. " For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,.." There, in no uncertain terms, we have it..The Divine Exchange..Jesus Christ, the Righteous, taking the place of the Unrighteous, namely, you, me and everyone in the entire history of humanity.

My pulse started racing real fast. Oh the wonders of the Cross! In the layman's language of the dirty fish market, we have the exact picture of Redemption: a customer makes his selection of fish and pays for it with gold coins. An exchange occurs, a transaction. Smelly fish for precious gold? The Man-of-men for me, the sinner? Who says the Christian God is miserly and conservative? The words "generous" and "radical" seem much more appropriate.

And just when you thought its too good to be true, Peter, that shrewd fisherman, throws in a buy-one-get-one-free fish sale. For Christ did not just die for the unrighteous, he died once for all. The Divine Exchange took place not just for us who live Anno Domini, but for all mankind, from Adam to John the Baptist. Just like a soccer game where a substitute is called on to play in place of a non-performing player (and lets face it, in this game of life, we're all non-performing players), Jesus was our substitute on the Cross, except that, he didn't sub for just one game or one season, he subbed for all games and all seasons and all players.

Thank God is really all i can say, in humility...

On Fear

Fear paralyses and saps.

Fear diminishes and taints.

Fear disheartens and disturbs.

Fear destroys and kills.

Fear prejudices and colours.

Fear breaks and tears.

Fear threatens.

Fear fails, disappoints.

Fear is trouble, Big Trouble.


"Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little Death that brings obliteration.
I will not Fear.
I will let my fear pass over me and through me,
I will turn the inner eye to observe its path.
Where that fear has gone there shall be nothing.
Only i remain."
-Litany against Fear,
Frank Herbert,
Dune