Pursuing Joy

“I think I may say, without offence to God or man, that one reason why God made the world was that He might manifest Himself, not only by, but to the works which He made.”

~ John Bunyan, Works, 1:117

God is the first and best of beings.  And being the first and best means that His people not only proclaim to others how great our God is, but they themselves see, taste and experience His greatness.  God created so that we would bear His image AND encounter Him.

“The God of biblical revelation has a character.  Divine action flows from that character.  God is love and He is light.  Moreover, He is righteous in all His ways… it is only as we grasp the righteous holy loving character of the God who has made us that we can begin to grasp in some measure the depths of the human plight outside Eden.  And it is only against that dark backstory that the glory of the cross of Christ is revealed as the centre of God’s plan to bring shalom.”

~ Graham Cole, God the Peacemaker, p. 52

“Until we get our hearts out of the world, how easily our hearts are carried away with the thoughts of earthly concerns! Until we can separate and purge our spirits, how we mingle our prayers with many ridiculous thoughts!… Therefore, we should always labour to get our hearts above the world into the presence of God, as if we were by him in heaven, and wholly swallowed up with his glory. Though our bodies are on earth, our spirits should be in heaven. Until we get above the mists of the world, we can see nothing of clearness and comfort; but when we can get God and our hearts together, then we can see there is much in the fountain, though nothing in the stream; and though little on earth, yet we have a God in heaven! This is our great aim, to be with God in heaven. His residence is there, and we seek that our hearts might be there. We have liberty to ask supplies for the outward life, but chiefly we should ask spiritual and heavenly things: ‘First, seek the kingdom of God’… If God is our heavenly Father, our first and main care should be to ask things suitable to his being, and his excellencies. When we ask supplies of the outward life, food and raiment, God may give it to us, but it is far more pleasing to him when we ask for grace. In every prayer we should seek to be made more heavenly minded by conversing with our heavenly Father.”

~ Thomas Manton, Works, I:60-62