08-05-2018, 12:55 PM
We at Radix Fidem can't compete with the excitement of Hollywood. We shouldn't try, and we don't. We're not dopamine merchants like plenty of other physical churches you can find on American soil. They are just ersatz entertainment, and people eventually leave them for the real, and frankly better, sources of entertainment and meaning.
We offer something else--something unique and available to anyone seeking it out. God requires you to take the whole package, yet it seems He's something of a gentleman about it, as He lets blessings rush up to meet you when you take the very first step. That's how reality and shalom work, how we interact with the physical domain in our fallen state: the good stuff can start happening immediately, and the good stuff keeps getting better the further you go in. Like a neverending gallery, the paintings get more beautiful as you step towards the eternal center.
Yet, we can expect much. Take a look at the Wisdom Literature videos that I had posted some time back, particularly Ecclesiastes. Notice how the only truly "good things" in life are ubiquitous in that most anyone can partake in them. The more complicated stuff, like fame and wealth, can arrive and vanish via forces out of our control. There's nothing inherently wrong with the grandiose blessings, but they should be held with a loose grip. Clutching them too tightly will drag you along with them as they slide of the cliff. We should be willing to let things go when it's their proper time.
"Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard" the things that are in store for us, but that doesn't mean we can't imagine what it will be like. What were the Leviathan and Behemoth from Job? Some scholars and commentators speculate that they were earthly creatures that God showed Job--ones he had simply never encountered before. But I would be frankly disappointed if that's all they were; that idea disappoints the very large sci-fi/fantasy center in my brain. They appeared to Job too massive and powerful for them to be animals we can sense and categorize. They were quite literally not of this world, but still some part of creation that Job didn't perceive until that point. If Job took all of that in while in dialogue with God, how much many other wonders are out there waiting for us?
We offer something else--something unique and available to anyone seeking it out. God requires you to take the whole package, yet it seems He's something of a gentleman about it, as He lets blessings rush up to meet you when you take the very first step. That's how reality and shalom work, how we interact with the physical domain in our fallen state: the good stuff can start happening immediately, and the good stuff keeps getting better the further you go in. Like a neverending gallery, the paintings get more beautiful as you step towards the eternal center.
Yet, we can expect much. Take a look at the Wisdom Literature videos that I had posted some time back, particularly Ecclesiastes. Notice how the only truly "good things" in life are ubiquitous in that most anyone can partake in them. The more complicated stuff, like fame and wealth, can arrive and vanish via forces out of our control. There's nothing inherently wrong with the grandiose blessings, but they should be held with a loose grip. Clutching them too tightly will drag you along with them as they slide of the cliff. We should be willing to let things go when it's their proper time.
"Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard" the things that are in store for us, but that doesn't mean we can't imagine what it will be like. What were the Leviathan and Behemoth from Job? Some scholars and commentators speculate that they were earthly creatures that God showed Job--ones he had simply never encountered before. But I would be frankly disappointed if that's all they were; that idea disappoints the very large sci-fi/fantasy center in my brain. They appeared to Job too massive and powerful for them to be animals we can sense and categorize. They were quite literally not of this world, but still some part of creation that Job didn't perceive until that point. If Job took all of that in while in dialogue with God, how much many other wonders are out there waiting for us?