Discipline of Devotion - 7.2

Welcome to The Student Podcast. This is where two guys get together and we discuss and learn how to be students of Jesus Christ. So good to have you today. Ah, little Jensen. We have a new guest with us. Yeah, probably out of sight, I can't tell. Oh, yeah, maybe neither. There he is. Sleeping down in there. There's the baby sleeping. He's like, don't wake me up. Welcome to fatherhood. It's awesome.
Uh, yeah. So first week of our first rotation, is that what you call it? Yeah. We call them clinical rotations. Clinical rotations. Yeah. All right. So, uh, you learned a lot about the beauties of internal medicine. That's the goal. I'm hoping I learned a lot. We'll find out Saturday at the exam. Well, I'm going to be praying for you on Saturday. What time's your, your exam? I think it's at nine o'clock.
Okay. And it's in person. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well it's, it's on a computer, but yeah. And you have to go in for it to a proctored area. Yeah. You feel ready? I don't know. I think I feel ready, but like I said, it's the first one of its kind, so we'll see if I weigh over prepared or way under prepared. Hopefully I hit the mark. Yeah, yeah. I remember from my church history. Oh, what did they call it? Oh man, I can't think of the word now, but essentially you have exams to get out. I forget what to call them. Oh man, now I feel like a fool. I can't remember.
But basically, they gave me a bibliography for here's what you should study for passing these exams. And I remember looking at the page, it was like four or five pages long. It was basically like every church history book covering every era of church history. Okay, so basically 2,000 years.
Have fun. Learn this. Yeah. How do you prepare for that? Like, OK, I'm just going to have to trust that I've paid enough attention. Yeah. And then I read some broad, you know, church history books and try to like, OK, get my hands around different areas. And sure. At the end of the day, it was fine. Yeah. So that's good. Yeah. Uh, but I, I understand what you mean when it's kind of like, Oh, I, I, I don't, I don't know. Like this, no, everything, a little bit about everything. Uh-huh.
Well, that's what even starting PA school in the classroom portion, when I was coming in, everyone's like, Oh, this is way different than undergrad. You're going to have to ditch every study technique you've used before. Just try, try a little bit of everything and see what works for you. And I was like, you know, I'm just going to try what I've been doing and see what happens. And if I fail, I'll get up and try something different. And it works. So I kept doing it. Do you have like a specific method that you follow for studying?
Uh, mostly just like look at what the objectives are for each lecture. Um, usually most lectures provided learning objectives and tailor my studying to that. Cause you're not going to learn any everything. Like you just have to resign yourself to that. And it's like, okay, what did they spend the most time on? What's clinically relevant? And like, what did they say is important for the test? focus on that, get the general principles and the details, you should fall into place or fall into the cracks and that's fine. Like it's usually, you know, so yeah, that is wise advice.
Studying one Oh one with a almost sort of kind of not really doctor. Okay. Well, uh, we are at the discipline of devotion. Yes, under adoration, I think is where we're picking up. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So last time we covered meditation, listening to God's word, muttering God's word and confession. Yeah. Confessing spontaneously and systematically.
So this time we're at adoration, and so why don't I pray, and maybe you can close us with prayer at this time. Father, thank you so much. Lord, thank you for who you are, and thank you for this time that you have given for Simon and I to be able to come and to talk. Lord, we pray that we would be as iron sharpening iron. Father, I personally pray that we would speak to each other as brothers, as friends, as co-laborers in the gospel, as co-belligerents in the church militant, and as fellow children of the King. Lord, we pray that the microphones would disappear out of our minds. Instead, we would focus on sharing with each other the things that you have done in our hearts and revealed to us and shown us in your word. We pray these things in Jesus's name.
Amen. Amen. All right. So adoration. I want to start with the obvious. What in the world does that word mean? Adoration to adore. Well, we were kind of talking about this earlier tonight. What is worship? I feel like the two would go similar. They're not quite identical.
But when I think of worship, I think of giving ascribing worth to declaring something to be glorious or someone to be glorious and adoring. I guess I would think similarly, but maybe a bit different of highlighting all of the, highlighting and delighting in all of the wonderful qualities of someone or something. Because I think of like adoring my wife, like what does that mean to me? It's like finding a positive attribute of her and just delighting in it. Um, I don't know. What do you think it means? No, I love that. Highlighting and delighting. Yeah.
I think specifically your, uh, when, when we're talking about adoration, I think it has a, a, a component of ontology because you know, you're adoring your wife. What are the attributes and characteristics in person of your wife that you're thinking about? You know, um, when I think about, adoration of God, you know, thinking specifically upon who God is, what God has done, what is he like, and then, you know, bringing that ought to lead, that adoration ought to lead to doxology, you know, that my heart singing out his praises. And so I think adoration and doxology go together because one ought to lead to another as you meditate and think upon the attributes of God.
And so that sense of awe, right? He brings out this idea of reverence or terror. Might get up a few times in this episode to pull down books and hand to you. Okay, because this this is one of the chapters or one of the points in that I've been so helped by other people and so I'm gonna move the mic here and like I said, I don't care if people on the other end get static or whatever, but This book Truths we confess. This is exposition on the Westminster Confession of Faith. My pastor in Virginia, Byron Snap, put that in my hands a number of years ago.
And I can vividly remember the day. that God's holiness for the first time was impressed on my soul. I was reading that book on a Sabbath afternoon. I was sitting at my dining room table next to the window and it was in the summer as the light was coming through and it was warm on my skin. And as I was reading his chapter in there on the doctrine of God and coming face to face with the idea of God being holy. And I remember just being filled with an Fear kind of gets a bad rap, right? But it was this reverence that I had never had for the Lord before. My whole life, it was kind of like a sugar gospel.
Oh, Jesus paid for your sins. But like a reverent understanding, like no, he is the thrice holy God. The angels cover their faces. They cry out day and night, holy, holy, holy. And that he was the creator of all things seen and unseen and that he was the one who bore all his glory that the whole earth would see it and just at the mere sound of his voice the pillars of heaven shook. I remember the only thing that I could do was get on my face.
And so that book, the R.C. Sproul, led me to that, as we talked about, worshipful experience by myself alone in my dining room, on my hands and knees, just weeping in reverence and in praise. What an amazing God we have. And that experience of like, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and he is so holy. And the fact that he says, come into my presence with thanksgiving, instead of depart from my presence, you doer of iniquity, like just that. And I think that's what he's getting at in this part of this chapter of like a reverence that brings us to our knees, not out of fear, but just marveling.
Yeah. Has that ever happened to you reading the scriptures or coming to a piece of Christian literature before that's impressed on you the nature of who God is? Yeah. I mean, I think just committing like Isaiah six, five to memory. Like, so I said, what was me for? I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. That passage where Isaiah is in God's throne room is helpful in putting myself in the right place when I enter into prayer.
And I, I remember, you know, different points in my life where that intimate knowledge of God in prayer for who he is as the thrice holy God was definitely impressed upon me more than others. And you feel as if you're in God's presence, just trembling. And I think there is a proper fear there of fearing the Lord. When you understand that the wages of sin is death and that the God who should have damned me I'm talking to right now and I'm not damned, but he's still the God who should have damned me. Right. There's some fear with that. Um, and not a slavish disabling fear, uh, but, uh, one that drives us to reverence and to all of like, okay, wow. you know, this is who God is.
Yeah, I think of reverence, awe, and adoration, you know, and I think of Saul when he comes face-to-face with Christ on the Damascus Road. I think of the Mount of Transfiguration and, you know, Peter's left. He probably would have been better just being speechless rather than speaking out of his mouth. But but just like you Yeah, but like what how what who is yeah?
All right, the gods seeing God in his radiant glory and I think we just get glimpses of it in this life It's one of the things that makes me so excited about the other side of glory. Yeah, it's like I Can't wait for that for eternity. Yeah Yeah Yeah, it blows me away passages like, you know, first Corinthians 13, like, for now we know in part, but then show we shall know even as we're known, like seeing face to face. Yeah. And like first John, like, for we shall see him as he is, and we shall be made like, like wow seeing him as he is like Moses asked to do that and like the little glimpse we have is incredible you know of what of what was written down of what he saw yeah and like he still couldn't see all of God without dying you know and that's just exciting to me and terrifying in like a a wonderful way yeah yeah yeah absolutely right and so this is uh, you know, exactly what, uh, this reverence and revelation for, he quotes, you are worthy of our Lord and God to receive the glory and honor and power for you created all things.
And by your will, they were created and have their being that reverence ought to lead to doxology, to lead, to worship, to lead to a right understanding of how majestic and awesome and wonderful he is. Um, and so, That starts with contemplation. So first he starts with natural revelation.
I know that you and your family used to take trips around the country and have you, by looking at God's created things, has it led you to think about who he is and things that he's done? Yeah, I remember we went to a place in Kentucky and there was a stream that was very wadeable and just taking a walk by myself one day while we were there and waded out into the middle of it and sat down on a rock and there's just all these eddies flowing around these rocks and just blends of color and shimmering water and flashes of different brightnesses in there and just, just being moved to tears, just sitting there, just watching the water through the stream and the colors of the trees reflecting in it and just being moved to worship. Yeah. Wow. Like God's doing that right now. Like God put that there. God made that beautiful. And just sitting and taking in like the birds chirping and the colors and I don't know, just very human experience. Um, just something as simple as the water, um, and, uh, and other things too. But, um, I just, yeah, that's still sticks in my mind. I was like 12 at the time, I think.
Um, but yeah, what about you? Yeah. I mean, I, I love doing it here. Uh, we live in the middle of nowhere and, and, uh, so there's very little light pollution and it's pretty, pretty normal in the morning at four, four 30 in the morning when I go to the church to work, um, or I wake up to go to the gym, you know, uh, I'll walk outside my door here and go to my car and the skies are just filled with stars. It's just like, you guys have stars. Yeah. I mean, quite literally, there's been multiple times where, you know, I'll just put my coffee on the top of the car and just start singing Psalm 8, you know, the heavens declare the glory.
It's just wonderful. And then we also have amazing sunrises and sunsets. And so there's so many times that again, driving to the gym, it's a pretty normal occurrence for me in the summer at like five o'clock in the morning, five 30 in the morning, the sunset or the sunrise is just, just gorgeous. And I'm just brought to just nothing but tears and smile and just praising God, like, how can you be so amazingly creative? As this dark sky has turned into magentas and reds and oranges and yellows, and then there's almost like this hue of purple and blue as it descends into the blackness that is on the west hand side of the sky. And it's like, how are there stars over here and it's beautiful sunrise over there?
It declares his glory. And I mean, that's what Psalm 29 gets at with the storm. That's what Psalm 19 gets at with the sunrise and the sunset. That's so many places in the scriptures. I mean, this is what Romans 1 is getting at, right? It shows his divine power and his nature, and it doesn't show us the plan of redemption, but it is meant to bring us all.
Um, and so thinking on that, I think is, um, is, is a huge part. Um, he talks about his experience being in Cabo, uh, and seeing, uh, the water there. Uh, you know, I, it's one of the things that, you know, just personally speaking, uh, we like taking these big trips with the kids and, um, I mean seeing them have fun and and like seeing them when there's when we went to this uh white sand dunes and in New Mexico and like yeah like these these 60 foot dunes of gypsum sand and like the lord blew these here you know um my pastor out in Pennsylvania Micah he was one of the people who really helped me kind of See this in a real way because he used to talk about like, uh, well the lord blew those clouds in from the west You know, like he would talk about like, yeah, like, you know, you know god did that Yeah, and that's how he would talk about creation. Yeah, it was like, uh And then there's another book up there, I'm not going to pull it down because it's way up at the top, but G.K. Chesterton, who I don't recommend everything that he wrote, but Chesterton wrote about how essentially it's the Lord who chose what color the tree should be. It's not arbitrary. Everything shows the fingerprint of God's choice and beauty.
And I remember reading that in undergrad and I was walking home, you know, leaving Geneva's campus and walking up the hill to our little apartment that Olivia and I lived in. And it was the fall in western Pennsylvania, so the leaves just started changing. And I was just like amazed by this and just thinking like, Lord, you were the one who made that tree go from green to orange.
Right. Like, that's remarkable. Why did you do that? You did that just because you love color. You love beauty. You love to do these things. And then one of my professors walked past me and he was like, what are you smiling? I was like, the leaves are orange. I'm not going to say the professor's name, but I'm sure he was like, that dude's weird. I'm sure if I told him why, you know, he's a philosophy professor. So I'm sure if I told him why he'd be like, Oh, okay. Yeah, of course. but I was just enjoying it like that.
That's not for you. This is for me. And so, uh, you know, whether it's the small things, I, you let me hold Judson just a little bit ago. It's been a while. I mean, I held him for his baptism, you know, but, uh, it's been a while since I've just gotten to just hold a baby and talk to them and them to sleep. And, uh, you know, it's, it's fun seeing the intricacy of God's creation. Yeah. Yeah.
Even just like learning it from an anatomic perspective, they've told us like a bit of the, um, of how babies are put together and the things that have to turn on and then turn off. I mean, literally like when babies grow their hands, they grow a stump and the cells, the signals on like, go, go, go, go, go, go. And then the signal turns off and it says now die in between. so that you have five fingers really and it just you know like all that that program is right on there so that you get five fingers that you can move in an infinitely variable amount of of space and force just about and it's like wow like how does this go right as much as it does like i know it goes wrong sometimes for some people but like he came out like you're put together, like God put you together. And just the miracle of every little part, you know, that makes him up, like God put that in there and knit him together.
Yeah, it's remarkable. I mean, whether it's, you know, macro, you know, you're looking at images from the James Webb Space Telescope or you're thinking about, you know, DNA structure. Yeah. Like it is amazing. Yeah. God's creative choice And how he designed the you know, you know the universe and how it it just plays his glory. Yeah, and He's gotta have so much fun with it. Don't you think? Yeah. Yes. It's like, okay.
I'll turn the Sun pink right now let's try orange you know like i don't know it's just i was talking uh to somebody at bible study today you know we were going we're going through the book of john um and he asked me something i had never thought this is a crazy rabbit trail from here you know sure sure he was like do you think that for jesus miracles are like miracles or are they just like what he does yeah oh and i was kind of like you know what are you guys looking at He was like, you know, he didn't have to sit there and he was saying, I wonder if Jesus had to sit there and go, you know, I'm going to do something.
I wonder if I could do this. I'm going to walk on water. Like, no, Jesus just walked on water. Like he made the water. And so he's, it's going to listen to him because it's what he wants to do. And I thought, I never thought about that before. I was like, I'm going to have to go home and chew on that for a few weeks. Let me come back to you.
But this contemplation, right, of who God is, what he has done, is I think one of the most fruitful endeavors that Christians can do. And so I love this whole section here. Contemplating the attributes of God. And so he talks about the, the mountain of transfiguration. Um, do you see that part before worship, uh, the second to last full paragraph? Um, what does he say about what does it mean to contemplate God's action in scripture? Uh, he talks about like seeing God's mighty acts that he's done throughout scripture and putting yourself into those. And to some degree of like seeing God part of the red sea, like, yeah, Your jaw dropping as his power is displayed or see his glory as he's like transfigured before the disciples Yeah, like worship him as he's presented through those acts.
Yeah. Yeah. I it's one of my favorite things to do a bible study He says like no, no, no, let's let's get unfamiliar with this story. Yeah, and let's imagine we were there. Yeah What would it be like? That one moment you were scared to death that the egyptians were going to kill you and then a pillar of fire Separated the two of you Yeah, and then all of a sudden a wind blows and a sea that you have never seen the bottom of all of a sudden becomes dry and there's waters or walls of water on both sides. Yeah. What would it be like to walk on that ground? Would you sit there and go, oh man, this is just like yesterday. No, you would not. What? Exactly, right?
But these are true stories. We believe in a historical Christ. We believe in a historical exodus. We believe in a historical conquest. We believe that the Jordan River actually stopped. And so I think putting ourselves in their feet, and these aren't like fairy tales, but these are like, Jesus wasn't like tricking his disciples. He walked on the water.
And they got it. What type of man is this? When he gets into the boat, or when he wakes up in the boat and he rebukes the wind and the waves, What type of man is that? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Right, right. He's the same God today. I think I struggle with that sometimes. Like, okay, yes, that happened in Bible times. Like, no, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's still that powerful. Yeah. It's amazing.
One of the things I'm so thankful for, There's just a couple books over there. Knowing God, one of my copies is up there. The Holiness of God, by the way, if you donate, I think, even five cents to Ligonier Ministries, they'll give you a copy of The Holiness of God for free. So for anybody listening, just, I'm sure even if you just said, I want a copy, they'll send it to you. So The Holiness of God was another one that really impressed my soul. But just next to that is the black book there by Stephen Charnick, The Existence and Attributes of God. That book, as well as its kind of smaller edition, the pinks edition, Attributes of God, I'm so thankful that my father-in-law put those in my hands as an early Christian because it made me think through who was God. And our pastor out in California, Pastor Herman, Had me teach a men's Bible study on the attributes of God.
Mm-hmm Those men were so wise. Yeah, cuz they they just knew that if I was going to be a Christian man, I needed to actually know the God Who I said I believed in and served and it was just a marvelous couple years were just I got to study who God was and then come to Bible study each week and be like, guys, look at what I found out about God.
And all these old guys are just happy to eat their breakfast and like, let's let the young guy talk about the Bible. You know, these are things old hat to them. But I was like, this is awesome. Yeah. Whether it was his eternality or his omniscience or whether it was, you know, like I remember my Lutheran chaplain teaching me about the aseity of God.
He was just like, Brian, God doesn't need you. He doesn't need anything. He's self-existent. Let that sink in for a moment. And you're just like, I don't know anything that's self-existent. And it really took me off the throne of my own heart, because it made me realize I was the contingent being. There's only God who is non-contingent. And it's just like, you just messed me up for life. Come on, Pastor Logan. He did, right?
But I mean, this is what I'm saying is like, to open that up of who God is, is to open up the heart of worship. And I think that's where Arkane Hughes gets in the next part, right? Is to go to God in devotion and meditation on his attributes leads to worship. So we were talking about what is worship. And so the height of devotion is reached when reverence and contemplation produce passionate worship, which in turn breaks forth in thanksgiving and praise and word and song. You want to read what Jonathan Edwards says there?
I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full and ready to break. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things year after year, often walking alone in the woods and solitary places for meditation, soliloquy and prayer, and converse with God. And it was always my manner at such times to sing forth my contemplations. Prayer seemed to be natural to me as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. you know, uh, we were kind of talking about this earlier and this is why, uh, there, when, when you asked earlier about, we're, we're wrestling right with relative principle of worship and, um, how much of that extends into, uh, family worship and private worship. Um, And I think there are times in which, you know, uh, the words of your heart, when you are so overwhelmed with the person of God that I don't want to say to someone, you know, uh, Oh no, you could never sing your own song to the Lord in private worship. You know, I, there are times when, you know, uh, in private worship, when again, God's holiness has been so pressed upon my soul that the song, Holy, Holy, Holy is the song that most radiates with my soul. Um, and so I don't want this to become a topic on or a talk on the regulative principle of worship, But what does a worshipful heart look like that has contemplated the attributes of God?
What would it look like in your life? Have you seen it in, you know, men and women that you've respected? How do you, how do we see it in the scriptures? Yeah.
I think you see humility, um, understanding who God is, puts you in your rightful place, right? Like who you are. It's what, you know, Isaiah going back to Isaiah, like, what was me, right? There's humility there, but there's also joy. You know, and there's emotion with that. Bursting with just thanksgiving to God for who he is. Because like you said, if, you know, the proper response to who God is, is worship, is joy for who he is, is, you know, the angels of heaven worthy is the lamb who is slain. God, this is who you are. And you are so worthy of everything, right? Like, Like, there's an eagerness to give God what he's due, right? I think there's, yeah, those elements, I think, come to mind. Yeah, and I think there's often a melding, a merging, you know.
I think you even see this in the Psalms, right? The Psalms are not just poetry. They're not just prayers, but they're also songs. Right. And so I think this is like one of the beautiful things about the Psalms is actually that we see that pattern of sometimes it's very structured of a contemplation. You know, you think of Psalm 119 and how much meditation went into just thinking about God's word and and the purity of God and the holiness of God and the blessing that it is for him to have communicated with us. And then that word is then used both as a prayer and a song. And I think at the best moments of our Christian experience is when our affections are stirred with a holy reverence that, I mean, I know that there's been times when you've been doing your whole hand waving thing up at the front and you've been leading the congregation, keeping us on pace with songs.
And I'm singing but it's not with my lips because if I was singing with my lips it'd just be sobs. I can't stop crying and I'm trying to wipe my tears of people when I get up there doing the benediction or something that people don't see that I've been crying with my back towards them.
Yeah. So, uh, he gives a whole bunch of, of different times in which people write out, uh, the spiritual songs back to him. Right. Uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and And so I think this is the difficult part of private devotion that he shows in the extemporaneous praise from our hearts.
I think one of the difficulties, whether it's in the Psalms or whether it's Bernard of Clairvaux there, is sometimes our heart, that isn't a song that resonates with our heart. And that can be a difficulty, right? trying to find the right psalm or the right song that actually, you know, gets at the heart of what you're actually experiencing in that moment or what God has brought to light through his word or through the meditation of who he is.
And so I guess I just want to leave that section. I hate this idea Like, I know people laugh at it, but I cannot stand this idea of Presbyterians being frozen chosen people. Our ancestors in the faith were, and I mean ancestors in the faith because I have no blood relationship to them, well maybe I have like 1,900th percent Scottish in me, it's like infinitesimal, you know, there's nothing there. But you read through the Puritans or the Covenanters, there's not dead worship.
And so, you know, I think that's just a part that I can't stand because my dead worship was when I was in the evangelical world with a big praise and worship bands. There might have been feelings at times, but there was no cognitive understanding of who the God I was serving was. It was just emotionalism, but it wasn't because my heart was stirred because who God is. Yeah, I think that Natalie and I were talking tonight about what is worship and that worship is both an intention of the heart and intentionality, a purposeful setting my heart to meditate and to ascribe worth and glory to God, but it's also an action.
But you can't divorce the two from each other, right? You can feel good about God, but what are you going to do with it? You can sing, and that's one of God's critiques of his people. This people draws near to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
And so understanding that, yes, we need the right heart. We need to want God, to want to know him more and to meditate on him. we need to do something about it too, right? And I think for me personally, I err on the side of doing something and forgetting what I'm doing, you know, getting to the end of a song, like, what did I just sing? Or you, you know, you pray like, okay, what did we pray for now? Or we read and like, okay, the sense of reading God's word, what was God's word, you know, and how often it can be easy to, to divorce those two from each other and to have a worship that's empty. But when those two kind of gather, when we contemplate God and we're driven to do something about it, like that is where worship is at.
Yeah, exactly. I think that that is the as our friends at Puritan Theological Seminary would love to say, you know, that is experiential religion. Yeah. Yeah. And it's true. Right. When when the affection meets the truth. Right. And they're both rightly aimed towards the doxology of God, according to how he has revealed himself. Then we're worshiping him in spirit and truth. Right. And so but that's that takes Well, let me ask, let me ask us, does that take discipline? Is there a right answer to this question? I don't know. You tell me Simon. Well, yes, it takes discipline.
Um, I think it, You know, this is maybe a great analogy, I think it's similar to falling in love with your wife. You know, our culture uses that term fall in love, like it's something that's accidental and happens in two seconds. It's not, you know, it takes work, it takes questions, getting to know the person. And I think the same thing with God's worship.
How are you supposed to be blown away with a sense of God's being if you don't know who he is. And there's an infinite amount to know of who he is. So we've got an infinite amount of work to do, right? To stir up those affections. You know, Paul is scratching at it when he prayed for the Ephesians, that you would know the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. Like, there's so much to know and to plunge into that. I think, you know, interesting hearing your perspective growing up in a rather evangelical church where maybe the knowledge wasn't emphasized, but the emotions were. And like, there's knowledge to be had, but there's also emotions to be had, right?
I think, like I said in this. Nope. And on our side of the spectrum where we're accused of being the frozen chosen, sadly, that's true, where we've taken, oh, yeah, we know a good bit about God, but what are you doing? Where's the heart? Does it mean anything to you?
Yeah. Those stirring up the affections, diving into the knowledge of who God is, that that's not something that is like falling in love in this aspect, that it's spontaneous and it just happens. So it takes work, but it's rewarding work. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're going to get to it in a little while. Right.
But I think there's a discipline of worship, you know, like if somebody is coming to worship with the expectation that every single time they walk through the doors of the church, they're going to have a spiritual high. you're gonna be sorely disappointed no matter what church you go to. You're always going to be searching for that next emotional high. Or even thinking about scripture reading. There are parts of scripture that is hard. And it is a discipline to read the scriptures. It's no there's a deep joy. I don't want to make it seem like there's not a part of the human Heart that wants to but just to go with your analogy, you know, it's easy to stop dating your wife It's easy to just think oh, I know everything about her.
Mm-hmm man, I am surprised every time I open up the scriptures, you know, whenever I go through the book of Job, you know, I'm finishing up the book of Job again, and just you get to those last four chapters of Job and you're like, man, God is amazing. But I only read it once or twice a year.
And it's like, no, he's still that amazing. And then you have to go through, I'm going through the book of Genesis right now in coffee and devotions. God is just that merciful. And reading through again and again and mining the depths of seeing God's providential mercy and his loving kindness and his patience. and his providential preserving of the covenant seed, and I mean, hmm. It's like there's no end to it, but I actually have to read it.
I actually have to set my mind on the things of God. The easy thing to do is just assume that I know about God and hope that my religious affections will be stirred for him and be lazy. and not actually cultivating a heart. And I think that's what this last part here is, is a discipline of submission. How would you summarize that section? just how our entire lives, if God is this great, what then? Like, what does this mean for me? And I am glad he brought it up because it always strikes me that it's after Isaiah has the encounter of God's throne and it's shaking and the angels are covering their feet. He says, God says, who will go first?
He's like, here I am. what do you want? I am yours. You know? And like, that's the proper response, um, is complete surrender to the Lord. If he is that glorious, if he did make everything, if he is worthy of all the praise I could ever give him, here's my life, you know? Um, and you know, I have also heard this idea of, you know, surrender and the submission is, God has given us so much and in that we give it back to him as the best we can offer, so to speak, of like, you've given me everything I have, but I just want to give it to you and honor you with it, you know? Yeah, I think that's the picture in Revelation, right? The elders who bow before the lamb and cast their crowns at his feet, worthy are you? Right. Lord, I'm just going to give it back. That willing submission because we understand who God is. but it starts with what he was getting at with this discipline of devotion. Like our hearts must be steadfast for the Lord. We've got to fight for, for our love for the Lord. And I hate to say it that way, you know, cause some people are going to take it like, Oh, they're just Brian. Here's just Brian, you know, legalistic working yourself up into a frenzy type stuff.
But every time I get lazy in my faith, I drift from the Lord. But when I'm disciplined in my prayer life, when I'm disciplined in, no, I might not feel like it, but I'm going to read the scriptures. Might not feel like it, but I'm going to do family worship. When I'm disciplined, like, no, these are principles by which I know my father in heaven is glorified.
And these are the ordinary means of grace by which he reveals himself to me. That's when I'm closest with God. No, and it's not It's not that we produce the affection in and of ourselves. It's just, you're not gonna have that affection stirred if you're not putting yourself in the right place, right? These are the ordinary means God reveals himself.
How are you gonna know God's holiness, right? How are you gonna be surrendered to the Lord unless you know how glorious he is? Well, he's glorious. Yeah, you can look outside, look at the sunset, but open his word, right? That's where the discipline is. here I am Lord, stir my heart. We can't, like we have cold and flexible hearts by nature and we can't do it. But putting ourselves before the Lord, open to his spirit, surrender to him, ready for what he has for us. I'm gonna let you close us with prayer on that note, man. Sure God you are glorious. You're holy. Holy. Holy. Yes, sir.
You are worthy of all honor and glory and blessing and praise For you're the Lamb who was slain and you are alive forevermore and we worship you Lord. Give us a bigger view of you Lord, how often we're like the Ephesians who know about you, but have lost our first love. Lord, we pray that you would help us to stay curious and interested in who you are to plumb the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge and to never get tired of it, Lord. And that that would not just be a knowledge that is in our heads, but Lord, it sinks down to our hearts and evokes the most heartfelt praise. Lord, for you seek worshipers who worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us to be those worshipers, Lord. And Lord, may this not just be an action or a heart that we have every now and then, but may it be a life, Lord, of surrender to you. For we are yours. We are the sheep of your flock. And we ask that you would use us for your glory. We commit ourselves to you in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks so much, man. Yep. Thank you. Until next time. Yeah. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the student podcast. Feel free to go over to the website, Sharon Harpey, c.org, backslash student and find more information and other shows. Also, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple podcast. We appreciate it. Have a great day.