Seeking Satisfaction

About a year ago I wrote about two themes that God has woven into my life over the years: seeking His face and drinking His grace. I've recently tried to put those thoughts into verse...

When You commanded, “Seek My face!”
I said, “I will, Lord, by Your grace,
Hide not Your face, O God, from me,
Nor let my soul abandoned be.”

Come thirsty one to Jesus’ side.
Cruciform love will give you life.
Come sate your soul, Spirit receive,
A river-heart forever be

Of all the themes, it seems these two:
Seeking Your face, Drinking of You
Though they appear to be estranged
Are side by side in me arranged

And in Your Word these themes I find
So sweetly bound and intertwined
Clothed in my Christ, I will see Your face
And there be satisfied with grace

The Cruciform Life Requires a "Drastic Conversion"

"The diagnosis of the world's sickness (and, therefore, of the individuals who comprise the world) is that the power to love has been wrongly directed. It has either been turned in upon itself or given to the wrong things. The outward symptoms, and the results, of this misdirection are plainly obvious (at least in other people) in what we call 'sin' or 'selfishness.' The drastic 'conversion' which God-become-Man called for is the reversal of the wrong attitude, the deliberate giving of the whole power to love, first to God, and then to other people."

J. B. Phillips in Your God Is Too Small, page 121.

Cruciform = "A Striking Likeness of Jesus Christ"

“A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, and you have admired the talent of the persons who could write so well, but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. If we, my brethren, were what we profess to be; if the Spirit of the Lord were in the heart of all His children, as we could desire; and if, instead of having abundance of formal professors, we were all possessors of that vital grace, I will tell you not only what we ought to be but what we should be; we should be pictures of Christ, yea, such striking likenesses of Him, that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, ‘Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;’ but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, ‘He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of Him, he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he expands it out into his very life and every day actions.’”

C. H. Spurgeon in “Christ’s People—Imitators of Him” (Sermon given April 29, 1855)

Created for Good Works

The cruciform life is a life of good works overflowing from a heart that has been transformed by the cross of Christ. These good works flow vertically as works of "loving God" and horizontally as works of "loving others".

My friend T. M. Moore has begun a 5-day series on "good works" at his website. Click on the link below and enjoy!

Redeemed for Good Works
My Paruchia - Monday, 07 January 2008

© My Paruchia

Created to be Cruciform

"In large measure, what's causing this crisis of American childhood is a lack of connectedness. We mean two kinds of connectedness -- close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning." from Hardwired to Connect (A Report to the Nation from the Commission on Children at Risk, co-sponsored by YMCA of the USA, Dartmouth Medical School, and Institute for American Values)

We are created to be cross shaped, to have vertical connection with God and horizontal connection with other people. "We are hardwired for other people and for moral meaning and openness to the transcendent," the report's Executive Summary explains, "Meeting these basic needs for connection is essential to health and to human flourishing." Once again scientific research verifies our design. Jesus told us two thousand years ago that all of life was about loving God and loving others (Matthew 22:36-40).

The report recommends 18 ways to help the next generation make those two crucial connections, all of which center on "renewing and building authoritative communities." What they describe as an authoritative community is almost what I would call a cruciform community, a group of relationships which provide the context for children and teenagers to connect with God and people of all generations.

I'm beginning a series of articles on "The Cruciform Life" in a web-based magazine called Worldview Church published by http://www.breakpoint.org/. Go to the site and sign up for the bi-monthly magazine. The introductory article should be out in the next few weeks. Let's think together about how we are created to be cruciform.