The Pursuit of Happiness Part 3

 

A Sip

Good evening blogworms! This blog will be finishing off my series on Christian Hedonism with a practical Bible reading plan. I have created this by bringing together several ideas and instructions from the previous post to aid those who would like to put them into practice. As I have said previously, Bible reading is by no means the only way that we see God’s glory, but it is a crucial way that we can regularly see God’s glory if we plan effectively.

As many of us know, reading the Bible can often be viewed as a chore rather than a delight. I know personally that my own personal Bible reading has suffered because of this. It is for this reason that I hope is this post may be used by saints out there to make their Bible reading more productive, more regular and in particular, more pleasing (both to God and to themselves). So, on with the blog!

Spring Time!

BIBLE PASSAGE

This will vary depending on your time available for Bible reading. My preference is to read chronologically through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in order to better grasp the historical context of passages as I go. However, this is by no means the only right way to do read the Bible.
Nevertheless, because of my preference to read the Bible chronologically, once I get to certain passages of the Old Testament (such as detailed outlines of the Mosaic Law) where it is harder to see the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ than in the New Testament, there is a risk I may forsake reading the Bible as many others have. For this reason, I have chosen to read one Old Testament and one New Testament passage each week.

And since I have not got a lot of time at the moment, I have chosen to read only one chapter of each per week, breaking them up into only a few verses each day. I would love to read more, but as the saying goes, it’s quality that matters, not quantity. That said, if you have more time on your hands, by all means read more. I have also chosen to do my reading early in the morning as my mind is sharper and I am less tired. And since it is the first thing I will read for the day, it’s also beneficial as it should shape my view of the day and give me fuel to live faithfully day-by-day.
So, for example, this week I will be reading Genesis 1 and Matthew 1. I have chosen to read part of each every alternate day to break them up and give me a bit more variety. So on Monday, I will read Genesis 1:1-11. On Tuesday, I will read Matthew 1:1-8. On Wednesday, I will read Genesis 1:12-20. And so forth until Sunday, when I can either take a break or read theology. If I miss any days, I can just carry them forward so no dramas.

So having explained what system I have used to select passages each day, now I will explain how I will read these passages each day.

1) OPENING PRAYER

Since joy in God is a gift from Him and not through techniques, we need to begin our Bible readings cloaked in prayer. This should only be brief. Whilst again there is some liberty in what you pray for, I would suggest praying as John Piper outlines in the acronym IOUS: INCLINE our hearts to the glory of God in His Word (Psalm 119:36); OPEN our eyes to see the glory of God in His Word (Psalm 119:18); UNITE our hearts and minds to see the glory of God in His Word so that all of our being sees the glory, not just parts of us (Psalm 86:11); and finally SATISFY our hearts with the glory of God in His Word (Psalm 90:14).

This prayer will also be a way of keeping us humble and preventing us from being puffed up with knowledge. By crying out in prayer, “Help me see, God!” we are reminded that we are not masters of the universe trying to master God as an object of science, but humble servants asking for an undeserved and satisfying glimpse at His greatness. Ironically and on a side note, the act of praying for God’s help in seeing His glory is also a way of seeing His glory in itself. Prayer is a means of glorifying God afterall.

2) READ

After humbly praying, you should now read the passage once through.

3) MEDITATE

This should be the longest part of the session. This will involve three things. First, you should write the first verse out slowly. Then, once you finish slowly writing the verse out, write what initial thoughts, ideas or questions occurred to you whilst writing the verse out. Finally, you can refer to a Bible commentary and see what insights the writer has for the verse. Throughout this process, be sure to be thinking and mulling these things over in your mind and applying them to your life. After doing this for the first verse, repeat this process for the next verse, and continue until you have meditates over all the verses in the passage.

4) GOD’S GLORY

Flowing on from meditating about the general implications of the passage, now fine tune your gaze. Try and look for what this passage says about God and His works, that is, who He is and what He has done or is doing. What you’re looking for here is for God to reveal His glory to you, that is, His manifest goodness and beauty.

5) GOD’S MESSAGE

Next, try and summarise the passage into a message. This does not mean moralise the passage into an “eternal truth” such as “good things come to those who wait” or “two heads are better than one”. Rather, try and hear what God is saying to you in this passage with reference to law (His command to you) and gospel (His promise to you).

6) MEMORISE

Then, pick what you consider the key verse from the passage and memorise it however you think is best. Eventually, you will memorise one verse from each chapter each week. You can choose to memorise more if you think you can, but I think I can only manage one verse to start off with. Make sure you also memorise the verse citation (ie. the book, chapter and verse) not just the content of the verse so you can find it later if you need to.

7) CLOSING PRAYER

Finally, end the session in the way you started – by praying. In contrast to the first prayer which was brief, this prayer can be as long and as broad as you want. However, it may help to pray the passage you just read. What I mean by this is to turn the words that you just read in the passage into a prayer. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, it will shape your desires to be more biblical and make sure that you pray for a diverse range of biblical things, not just your pet topics. Secondly, it will shape our language so that it is more biblical. This is, after all, what “praying in the Spirit” means. It means to pray the very words that the Holy Spirit Himself inspired.

Waves

Well, I think this has probably been my shortest and perhaps my most “practical” blog post yet. Again, I pray that this will stir you to read your Bibles more effectively and more regularly. But I know that this can only happen not through guilt, but through God opening your eyes and hearts to see reading the Bible not as a boring chore, but as the window through which we can look and see the source of our everlasting happiness – the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So until next time, put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).

Christus Regnat,

MAXi

The Pursuit of Happiness Part 1

A Sip

Welcome back blogworms! Like Lazarus, this blog is back from the dead and ready to edify and clarify. This first post is a succinct (but not exhaustive) summary of a philosophy that has endeared itself to me over these past two years and has sparked a greater passion for the things of Christ. This is a culmination of reading one of my favourite theologians, John Piper, and I hope that it leads my readers to become more familiar with him. In particular, this blog post is based on “When I Don’t Desire God” by John Piper. So without further ado, let’s get on with the blog.

Spring Time!

HAPPINESS

All humans seek happiness. There can be no denying that. As the French mathematician Blaise Pascal rightly observed, “All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions. However different the means they employ, they all strive towards this goal. The reason why some go to war and some do not is the same desire in both, but interpreted in different ways. The will never takes the least step except to that end. This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.” It is for this reason that countless men have pondered, struggled and strived to answer the question, “how can I be happiest?”

But in order to answer this age-old question, we must first answer the far more important question of what makes us happiest. To answer this question, I would ask you to think of something that brings you pleasure and happiness. It could be a favourite item of clothing, a memory or even a person. Why does this thing make you happy? Is it not because in this object of affection, you see something of value?

This can be confirmed by our experiences; that which we value brings us pleasure. Or as John Piper would say, “pleasure is the measure of our treasure.” We cannot value something and not experience some amount of positive emotion because of that same thing. Therefore, logically, the thing that would bring us the most pleasure would be that which is most valuable.

So, the real answer to what makes us happiest is whatever is the most valuable thing in the universe. Now John Piper (and I) would put to you that the answer to this question is God Himself. So straight off the bat, the key to everlasting happiness is being able to see the God of the Bible as He really is; infinitely valuable and supremely precious.

THE GLORY OF GOD

But if we want to be more precise, it is actually the glory of God that is the source of eternal happiness for us as humans. This is because due to God’s infinite nature and our finite nature, without God revealing to us His value, we would be unable to know Him. It is not until God steps out from His private room and enters the public arena (so to speak) that we are able to know Him. And if we could not know Him, we could not enjoy Him. This is what the word “glory” means. Although it sounds like holy jargon, it simply means the revelation of God’s goodness, beauty and supreme worth.

Therefore, it is this revelation of His goodness and beauty that is essential to our joy. This is because for us, knowing the glory of God is knowing God. Thankfully for our happiness, God is a God who loves to reveal Himself to His creatures. In fact, God’s main agenda in the world in everything He does is to fill it with the knowledge of His glory (Habakkuk 2:14) because what makes God happy is His glory being displayed to us.

SIGHT AND DELIGHT

God loves to show us His glory, which means that He wants us to see His glory. This is ultimately why He created us. As Isaiah 43:7 says, God created every one of us for His glory. We were created to display His glory and see His goodness displayed. However, God does not simply want us to see His glory, He wants us to delight in it.

Seeing God’s glory is not enough. Many people see God’s glory, yet they are apathetic towards it. This does not make God happy. What makes God happy is when His glory makes us happy. And what makes Him happiest is when His glory makes us happiest. In the words of theologian Jonathan Edwards, “God glorifies Himself toward the creatures in two ways: 1. By appearing to their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their heart, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestation which He makes of Himself… God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and the heart.”

Nevertheless, in order for God’s glory to make us happy, we must first see it. And due to the numerous idols distracting us from seeing God’s glory, the “good fight” to experience joy in God is a fight to see God’s glory (1 Timothy 6:12). To fight for everlasting happiness is a fight to see God’s glory.

REVELATION OF GLORY

So now that we have established that seeing God’s glory makes us happiest, we must next describe the various ways that God displays His glory for us to see. The first way is nature (Psalm 19:1-2). As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:19-20, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

However, despite this glory being clearly displayed to us in nature, we reject God and suppress the truth of His goodness and existence (Romans 1:18). Even worse, we exchange the eternal pleasures derived from seeing God’s glory for lesser pleasures derived from idols (Romans 1:21-23). This is the epitome of sin, to “fall short of” reflecting and enjoying God’s superior glory by preferring someone or something else’s inferior glory (Romans 3:23). Therefore, we become blind to God’s glory and unable to savour it. We reject the promise of eternal happiness and settle for the fleeting pleasures of the world.

If that were the end of the story, we would be judged guilty of rejecting God and destined for Hell. But thankfully, it’s not. There is hope for those who want deep and lasting happiness. And His name is Jesus Christ. What Paul said of the Jews and the Old Testament is also true of the Gentiles and the book of nature: “Their minds were hardened. For to this day…that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away…when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

But why is it through Jesus Christ that our natural blindness and apathy to the glory of God is taken away? It is because in Jesus Christ, we have the most clear and accurate visible representation of God’s glory. He is the only image (literally “idol”) that shows us God’s glory perfectly (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15). So when we see Jesus, we see God and His glory perfectly.

But there is also another reason why Jesus takes away our spiritual blindness. As John Piper explains, “Salvation is the purchase and provision of sight for the blind. God sent Christ into the world to die for our spiritual blindness, pay its penalty, absorb the wrath it deserves, and provide a perfect imputed righteousness for all who believe. This is the most beautiful display of God’s glory that has been or ever will be. The divine glory we have been redeemed to see is most beautifully shown in the redemption itself. The all-glorious Christ is both the means and the goal of our salvation from blindness. His life, death, resurrection, and present reign in heaven are both the means by which we sinners regain our sight and the highest glory we are saved to see.”

John Piper here argues that Jesus heals our blindness so we can gaze at His beauty, but it is the healing itself that displays this beauty most clearly. This healing is what we most commonly call “the Gospel” or literally, “the good news”. The Gospel is all about what Jesus accomplished 2000 years ago; His perfect life, atoning death, victorious resurrection and kingly ascension.

The Apostle Paul echoes this idea in 2 Corinthians 4:3-6: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

So salvation is the opening of our eyes by God to see and know His glory shone forth most visibly in the face of Christ in His Gospel (Isaiah 42:7). This is what will make us happiest, both in this age and the next; we must gaze at the beauty of God revealed to us (His glory). Now of course, there are many ways that God shows us His glory, be it in nature, in humans or in God’s other works, but we see it most lucidly in the Gospel in which the Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Spirit applies (Ephesians 1:1-14).

SIGHT AND FAITH

Now, as we have discussed so far, what makes us happiest is to see the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ presented in the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). But as anyone with any sanity would be able to point out, Jesus isn’t here anymore, at least not physically. This raises a potential problem; if in order to be happiest I must gaze at the face of Jesus and Jesus is not physically here anymore, then how can I see Him? And furthermore, if I must see His glory shown in the Gospel events and the Gospel events happened long before I was born or there was any such thing as a video recorder, then how do I have any chance of attaining everlasting happiness?

It is at this point that we must distinguish between two kinds of seeing in Scripture. The first is what we might call actual sight. This is the seeing that we do with our eyes. Though we cannot see God’s glory with the eyes in our head in this age, there is coming a day when we will be able to see it (Romans 8:18; 24-25). This is the great hope that we share as Christians, being able to stare at Jesus face-to-face and see His glory with our eyes (Isaiah 66:18; 1 Peter 4:13).

But now, however, we do not see Jesus with our eyes. Instead, we see Him as though “in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We see Him through a dim reflection. This seeing is another kind of seeing, a seeing with the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:17). In other words, we are able to see Jesus through faith. We are able to see Him spiritually. Though this seeing Jesus with our hearts is inferior to seeing Him with our eyes, it nonetheless is able to fill us with inexpressible joy.

As the Apostle Paul says to all of us who love Jesus in 1 Peter 1:8: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” It is this kind of seeing by faith, enabled by the Holy Spirit, which enables us to see and savour God’s glory in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is what makes us happiest.

Waves

In this blog post, I have explained what it is that makes us happiest – seeing (by faith) the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In my next blog post, I will answer the next question that flows from this, “How can I be happiest?” This blog post will deal with the practical methods that we can use to see God’s glory by faith. But until next time, put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).

Christus Regnat,

MAXi