Save For One

For Your glory, You made man; Your image you gave.
For Your glory, You let him to become depraved.
For Your glory, You saw every child born a slave
Save for One, Lord, of course, save for One.

For Your glory, You blessed all of Abraham's seed.
For Your glory, You saw Jacob steal Esau's deed.
For Your glory, You cursed men who hung on a tree
For eternity, Lord, save for One.

For Your glory, You execute man, woman, child.
For Your glory, You crush the head of that reptile.
For Your glory, each debt on Your ledger was piled
Save for One's, Lord, of course, save for One's.

For Your glory, Your kingdom continues to build,
For Your glory, through suffering and pleasures you willed.
For Your glory, let the mouth of Creation be filled
With this song: "Save for You; save for One!"

For Your glory, save sinners for Your sake alone.
For Your glory, continue to ever atone.
For Your glory, we'll worship Your crucified Son
For He chose to save, and save for One.

With Thanks to John Piper

Duty has been my compass since
I learned the Statutes Ten.
Without a thought for what love meant,
I serve first God then men.

I set about my martyrdom
To all my true longings:
I passed on seeking His kingdom
For the pleasure it brings.

Morality became my goal,
Though I enjoyed it not.
I prayed, "Please, God, restore my soul
To joy," while joy did rot.

But looking at Christ crucified
Through a fellow Christian's eyes,
I see my intuition lied
Defining God's assize.

God wants a happy heart from me:
"Delight," is His command,
"In Me. Not for morality
But joy, love God and man."

Scenario

In the middle row of the middle aisle
With my ticket for a rag,
I buttered up my greedy digits
Diving into the popcorn bag.
And, for a moment, I believed in good.

In the driver's seat, in the passing lane,
With my vector pointing east,
I played at Thomas Edison
To drown my ears in peace.
And, for a moment, I believed in good.

In the same old chair, at the same old table,
With my pencil scratching prayers,
I confessed I longed for evil things
Till I saw the blood He wears.
And, I hope, not only for a moment, I believed in good.

A Complexity Complex

I've been teaching from Galatians in my Bible class. The theme is life by faith through the Spirit as opposed to through following the law. I've really been enjoying it, and my students have been understanding it. That's something, anyway.
One of the verses that sticks out to me as I review is Galatians 5:14: "For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
The whole Law. Not just one chapter of Deuteronomy, not just a couple commandments, but all of it. Summed up in loving others. I thought of a section toward the end of The Friendly Persuasion as I read and re-read this: Jess, the main character, keeps trying to do what is good and get this little boy to do what is good for goodness' sake, and he realizes there's a problem with that, concluding that all he really is supposed to do is love his fellow man. The idea expressed is that love isn't just for ethereal goodness' sake, but for the sake of relational others and a relational God's. I makes sense, but trying to apply it is difficult.
Why would God make humans so complex, put us in such complex societies with complex lifestyles that include things like money and culture and education, if all we're supposed to do is love?

A love that fills every action in this life must be as labyrinthine and multi-faceted as God, for He is love.

Jumbled

I set to discourse on my God. My thesis was His name.
But Jeff Garcia spoke up first, and I jumbled my words.
The Scarlet Thread became "Scarlet Begonias."

I bowed my head to lift a hymn of deepest mystery.
"Amazing Grace" and "My Sweet Lord" were fused and then were blurred.
Was Newton or was Harrison more ashamed?

Finally, I recognized the truth is not from me.
The word of God must come from God so it is not impured.
The uncultured, uneducated Truth is sitting on my shelf.

A Carol

"Hallelujah, Humiliation"

Equality with Deity
He did not seek to grasp.
Instead He donned man's flesh upon
Himself, His love His clasp.

Through labor pains to stable plain
Was Infinite confined,
Corporeal, memorial
Of God's plan for mankind.

Hallelujah, humiliation!
He put Himself to degradation.
Hallelujah, humiliation!
The stepping down, the Incarnation.

Heaven's beloved, the nature of
A servant did betake,
Obedient and lenient
For Law and grace's sake.

This awesome goal gave Jesus' soul
Abode in Bethlehem:
The Son of God with flesh was shod
To save the souls of men.

Hallelujah, humiliation!
He put Himself to degradation.
Hallelujah, humiliation!
The stepping down, the Incarnation.

Now, Christians, all hark to His call
To follow His Advent.
He will robe you in bodies new
To pass through firmament.

Hallelujah, the restoration!
His remnant is a new creation.
Hallelujah, the restoration!
Salvific love, propitiation.

Goodness

I like making theories.  In a high school class entitled "human behavior," I'd make up theories about psychology.  One, which I'm pretty sure was wrong, was that each person can only retain a set amount of knowledge, and their personality is totally based on the knowledge retained from their first years of childhood.  It's bogus.  In college, I tried to limit myself to theories on history.  I had a good one in my "History of China" class, but I'm not terribly interested in Chinese history, so I used it in a paper and promptly lost the data.  Teaching has led me to come up with some educational theories, the main one being that learning has almost nothing to do with the teacher (I know it's not true, but sometimes I wonder...).  Mostly, though, my life experience deals with being a Christian, so I've made plenty of theological theories.  One of these, and I think lots of Christians share it, is that Christians go through phases of being taught certain lessons, to the point that most believers can say "God has really been teaching me _____________ lately."

Well, God has really been teaching me that He is the Author of Goodness.  I've spent the last year and a half or so thinking of Christianity as a privileged duty.    I've been thinking in terms of my response and not in terms of God's grace.  I act as though my faith starts with God but ends with me.  In reality, my faith starts with God and ends with God, extending an undeserved and unreturnable grace to me.  I'm starting to understand the answer in the Westminster Catechism to the question of "What is the chief end of man?"

Answer:  Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully enjoy Him forever.

In Stephen Lawhead's book series The Song of Albion, the Celtic characters sometimes refer to God is the "Gifting-Giver."  Should I meet God on a mountain, I want it to be Calvary and not Sinai.