They tell me of a peace that passes understanding –a certain discernment, a spiritual insight, an intuitive state. In it abides happiness, joy, love, and well being. Imagination births this blessed sphere, God lives in it, sorrow is dismissed, the two cannot co-exist. Christmas ignites itself abroad it and excites good emotions; purity and blessedness. We are closing in on home.
Fantasy? Not if we have ever been touched by an angel, or even a fellow person. Perhaps we have encountered the Christ and been swept off our toes into an euphoric joy. Doesn’t this “condition of being” pass understanding?
But how real are these states of soul? Are they not dangerous? Answer: not if they are founded in the objective truth. Can there be falsehood in them? Yes because ” the Christian admits the universe has many miscellaneous parts, just as the sane man knows he is complex.” G.K. Chesterton.
Yes, simple comparisons are often hard to be made.
Chesterton also says, “the sane man knows he is also made with a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the Saint, a touch of the citizen. And the really sane man knows he has a touch of the madman.”
Beloved, we must build the house — wisdom builds it, study builds it, diligence builds it and O yes,
“unless the Lord builds the house we labor in vain.”
The house must have seven pillars, or perfection in its ability to undergird the sphere of reality in my understanding of the objective universe. Required are the Words of truth but also the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of God serves to guide us into “all” truth. Necessary are its safeguards, essential are its moorings — never do we build on sand but solid rock. The foundation laid is Christ Himself.
And now a warning.
“Let every man take heed how you build thereupon.” Yes, discern mentally, observe, perceive, discover, understand, turn the thoughts or direct the mind to a thing, consider, contemplate, look at, weigh carefully, examine. ” …that he builds by line, evenly, according to the analogy of faith; that he builds in proportion to the foundation; and lays such things upon it as are becoming it, and suitable to it.” John Gill
Gold, silver and precious stones befit such a glorious foundation as Christ. There is no fit for wood, hay or stubble. In one sense, erected upon the base of intellectual components, knowledge and understanding, are the very essentials that effect life. Yes life, with the quality of eternity in it, produced and perfected in an interaction with the Spirit of life who dwells in every believer, eventuates on Christ, foundation. What else could there be?
A fellowship, a peace, a communion, an interaction with the one who exists, “Way, Truth, and Life” is becoming through an inward vision founded on Christ — my life, our life, the life.
In closing, merry can be the Christmas, joyful can be the spiritual disposition, peaceful can pass understanding and love can go beyond knowledge.
At Christmas time, all children sing… Friends, do we dare become as a child again? Merry Christmas!
