What beauty tells us about glorifying God

These concepts connect for me:

Irenaeus said "the glory of God is man fully alive."

In Captivating the Eldredges say we can come to know God through beauty and a great example is nature.

Ann Voskamp connects to God through thankfulness ,and beauty is one thing which makes her thankful.

The most important thing is God. As C.S. Lewis pointed out "it is not the feeling of God or the idea of God we seek, but God himself."

As Voskamp knew, seeking the perfect photo of the beautiful moon is not the end but the means to the true end, knowing God. I know how easy it is to settle for the created instead of worshiping the actual Creator. Lewis showed how that goes in The Pilgrim's Regress and Solomon aptly called it "chasing the wind."

These concepts really gelled for me when I read an analysis of Irenaeus' words, just to make sure Eldredge was using it right. "Thus the life of the Christian, in faith as in future vision, is essentially knowing and being known." (www.ewtn.com/library/theology/irenaeus.htm) that sounds like exactly the point John Eldredge was trying to make. But in addition to beauty which he names as an avenue to God, there are others.

It's interesting to pair this with the statement that we are created to glorify God. How do we glorify Him? By being fully alive, which is much more than the YOLO attitude. Glorifying God is knowing Him and letting Him, getting Him to know us. We glorify Him by developing our two-way relationship. Obviously, and this resonates with me, we can do that by seeking the glorious things He has created. Also, we get to know Him through His word, through prayer and through service.

I think that's the missing ingredient from Wellsboro Bible Church's mission statement. Yes, we live to glorify Him through what we do with His word, how we care for His body and serving Him. But by glorify we do not mean "make Him look good." We mean making that relationship shine between us. The relationship is not the means to the end. It is the end. And we seek that end for all people. Amen.

The issue isn't whether Peter Sam deserves to be famous. The issue is how you define "rights."

In response to homophobic rants against football player Peter Sam and his defenders, a friend of mine said he hopes that someday everyone will have the same rights but for now it's good that we celebrate homosexuals who come out because they don't have the same rights we all enjoy.

I agree but the devil's in the details. A right to free speech is well defended for everyone. A right to marry and have it recognized by the state is not, but not everyone agrees that's a right. I still don't get why even bigots complain when gay people want to pay taxes, whether they file jointly or not.

The right to have a job regardless of your minority - religion or sexual identity - is supposed to be guarded, but it's not for bigots or gay people employed by bigots. That's a sticky wicket.

It'd be nice if the Founding Fathers were more clear. Jefferson's pen guaranteed us all a right to "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and that "all men are created equal." Whether he intended it or not, those words were later expanded to include blacks and women, despite protests by conservatives in the 19th century.

Will today's conservatives look as silly in 150 years as Civil War conservatives look today, their intolerance so out of fashion? I don't know.

Here's a devil's advocate argument. If the right to marry is a fundamental right, then it ought to apply to homosexuals. It was hard for interracial couples to get married 150 or even 50 years ago, but we think that's horrid now. Or is that fundamental right limited to marrying per God's standard for sexual behavior? Weren't all men (people) created equal? Not just all Christians, for if we said so we would be promoting the "some are more equal than others" argument from Lincoln's era.

And if the right to marry is NOT a fundamental right, then perhaps we heterosexual couples have no right to expect the state to recognize it. Perhaps we have no right to demand or expect we be recognized as couples anymore on our taxes or wills or custody papers. The frightening conclusion is that if we limit the definition of marriage to the Christian definition, then we are letting one religion define the law of the land and breaching the wall between church and state without saying so. I think you'd call that a faulty appeal to tradition.

The Tree of Life

I had an illustration appear in my mind today, as a result of several books I'm reading including Stephen Covey's Seven Habits and Breaking Free. Also, I heard a sermon about Adam and Eve just the other day. Let's call this the Tree of Life.
At the bottom are roots, in God, because he created everything and all we do is use it. Breaking Free posits that sex is such a strong snare and negative influence on our lives because God created it,  designed it to keep marriages together, fulfill us as much as any human relationship can and to perpetuate our families. Our roots are needs built by God, needs for relationship with him and with good, godly people.
But between the roots and fruits is a trunk: free will. Between our influences and our reactions is our choice of how to respond, as Covey says, our free will, the trunk for this tree.
Now even though Man was begun with the best intentions and such great capabilities, part of our tree is diseased. From Adam and Eve, we all inherit the sin nature that Satan introduced in the Garden. There is a black part of each trunk which is producing bad fruit in our lives. It feels natural because it's always been there. It feels good because it's based on those root needs God created.
That's why we need constant gardening from Jesus, because he can see us inside and out. He can heal these trees in a way no tree can heal itself.

Hello; A thought on putting God first in your marriage

These are thoughts from a Tuff Guy who grew up on the mountain in Fallbrook. I have learned a lot, but still have much to learn, especially about God. As He shows me things that seem profound, I'll post some here.
Today, thinking in the middle of a worship song as I often do, I wrote down some questions for my mentor. I haven't settled on one yet, but am seeking counsel from several good Christian men in my circle. I should have done it younger, but didn't know enough or hadn't had enough prodding inside to do so.
One of the questions, one which gave my friend Gordie pause, was "How do you put God before your spouse?" I had read a fairly good, Christian post on how marriage lights your impurities on fire. I definitely believe this, and it's attested in the Sexy Christians book.
I didn't find an answer to that question, per se, but an answer came to me for "Why put God before your spouse": Because we cannot live without love for a second and our spouse can't always provide it. Jesus CAN. And we don't have the strength to even come close to meeting our spouse's needs without God's support. So, even when we can't draw close to out spouse, especially then, we need to draw close to Jesus.
A couple great visualizations are in the book Breaking Free by Russell Willingham. One, from Zephaniah 3:17 and Isaiah 66:13, is that Jesus loves us like a mother singing her child to sleep. Another offered is Jesus as our best friend, who is always ready beside the hearth.
If your relationship with your spouse is at the expense of our relationship with God, especially through Jesus, your marriage will fail like so many. If you don't put God first, if you don't let Jesus meet your needs, they won't be met. You can't do it, nor can your spouse, nor can your job, nor can your ministry, nor any combination of those. Only Jesus can.
Now, I'm ready to just pray. I want to put Jesus first, and conceptually I can see "How" but it will take a long time to teach my heart, I think.
Lord God, Jesus, please help me learn to let you meet me needs, so that I can be so much more for all the people who need me. Amen.