03.22.06 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,

I didn't lie last week when I said Lindsay wouldn't blow smoke. She put together an excellent teaching about the Presence and Absence of Christ in Literature (click here for the handout).

One of the pieces she had us read was so compelling that I wanted to pass it on here. The following is a poem written mostly as a devotional for the writer who was a vocational minister. It pulls up the metaphor of stain glass windows...and that all the ministers of God are lit up with the glory and grace of God. It also ends by speaking strongly to the connection between what we believe & say about the Bible (Doctrine) and how we live it out (Life).

I won't tell you much more because I'll ruin his amazing work:


The Windows

Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?

He is a brittle, crazy glass,

Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford

This glorious and transcendent place,

To be a window through thy grace.



But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,

Making thy life to shine within

Thy holy preachers, then the light and glory

More reverend grows, and more doth win,

Which else shows wat'rish, bleak, and thin.



Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one

When they combine and mingle, bring

A strong regard and awe; but speech alone

Doth vanish like a flaring thing,

And in the ear, not conscience, ring.



by George Herbert (1593-1633) more about Herbert here


Yep did you see that date--he died in 1633. He was writing profound things about God and life nearly 400 years ago. I encourage you to reflect on this poem.

I also encourage you to thank God for the saints who have gone before and are a "great cloud of witnesses" affirming the faith that we have in our Jesus (Heb 11-12).

Press on,

Mike


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