Show Notes
In this fourteenth week of “Ordinary” (or “Normal”) time, Case invites us to delight in Christ and to be aware of the cheap, broken counterfeits of the joy and pleasure found in fellowship with God.
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Episode Transcript
A.W. Tozer writes, it is simply not enough to know about God. We must know God in increasing levels of intimacy that lift us above all reason and into adoration and praise and worship.
Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar gives us the time and space to do just that. Our hearts are oriented in similar ways in other seasons. Yet, here, in the hot of summer, the blaze of the sun, the strength of the greenery around us, there is a hush and a pause to allow the praise and worship of God to seep into our hearts, to seep deeply, and then even more deeply, before the rush of the autumn begins. If you had your time with Him, has your soul been renewed like the eagle or the leaping stag? May this time afford you just that.
And let me encourage you: plan now that extra morning, that protected hour to delight in him before the rush of the season.
A reading from Song of Solomon, chapter two, verses 8 through 13. Listen, my beloved. Look. Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. My beloved spoke and said to me, arise my darling, my beautiful one, come with me, see the winter has passed. The rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth. The season of singing has come. The cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit. The blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise. Come my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.
Delighting in our Lord is an essential component of the Christian life. Yes, worship matters. Discipleship is key, serving others in love, the way of our Savior and and delighting in Jesus is a move of the heart and an orientation of the soul that brings joy, focus and pleasure. Delighting…what is delighting? A.W. Tozer writes, it is one thing to have a lot of information about God, but it is another thing to bask in the warmth and reality of His presence.
I see the warmth of God’s presence and the joy of my children, the cool of a Florida day in November, the conversation at church between a 23 year old young man and the 81 year old woman. I delight in God’s truth as it speaks to me in Scripture. I delight in the clarity it gives me concerning the world around me. As a culture, we delight in many other things, some rooted in goodness and dignity. Much that isn’t our delight. For the ballerina gets replaced with the pole dancer. Our delight in music gets replaced with that which demeans women. Our delight in different people groups and cultural uniquenesses gets replaced with anti-semitism. Our delight in civic leaders gets replaced with nationalism, political party-ism and hate of the other friends.
Let us delight in the Lord. Let us delight in those things, both of him and reflective of him.
And now a verse I have long used with my children, Philippians 4:8. We practice it together as we drive to school.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.
For our prayer time, we’re going to reflect in silence on a passage from Deuteronomy. I will read the passage in full and then go back, read a phrase and provide a time of silence for you to reflect deeply in prayer and in so doing, delight in your God.
Hear God’s word from Deuteronomy 4:1-2.
Now Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you, follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving to you. Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your guide that I give you.
Let us pray. Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I’m about to teach you.
Follow them, so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
Amen.
