Grace in the Song

Song of Soloman 5:2 -8:4 is probably the longest single unit in the book. It's definitely the most beautiful. 

5:2-6:2 sees the bride resist her groom. He comes to door, He knocks, He calls. Her response? My feet are too clean to be dirtied, i'm too warm in my bed to be roused. When she finally gets up He's gone. Nowhere to be found. This complacency eventually stirs in her new feelings of passion and love for her beloved. New passions, new affections. Indeed Christ is distinguished among ten thousand men! (5:10) 

The in 6:3, the focus changes. The groom comes to the garden, to His bride. How will he respond to her rejection? How will He behave towards her? What will His response be to the bride who has finally roused herself?

All of grace. The covenant is still present (6:2), and the groom describes his bride as like Tizrah, like Jerusalem, like an army, He is overwhelmed by her. This is all of grace, this is all the initiative of the groom, this is all his heart being expressed towards his lovely, and loved, yet complacent and lazy bride. His love for her right now is about him, not about her. In fact, He is so gracious that he even uses the same terms to describe her as he had done previously. Goats, ewes and pomegranates...Again all of grace, all of him. And he goes even further in 7:1-9. This is beautiful.

And what of the bride? She is drawn in. She responds. She longs for a deeper, longer intimacy with him. (8:1-2). This last part, from 6:11-8:4 is forward looking. The brides comes to see if the garden is in bloom (6:11) she longs for this time of blossoming perfection in the perfect place with her perfect, gracious groom. 

So do we.

Snow at Adams Park

The coldest i've ever been at a game of football was in march, at home to Oldham. It was so cold i spilt some just boiled tea on my fingers, and didn't feel a think. I this picture is anything to go by, i reckon tonight would have topped it:

Of course, in North Carolina, people are wearing jackets because it's in the sixties.

John and Paul

Paul Huxley and John Piper probably don't often get mentioned in the same breath. One of course is considered to be a leading voice in today's evangelical scene, known and loved by many, read and quoted by thousands...and the other is the Pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Both have written excellent articles on the upcoming (is there a difference between 'upcoming' and 'forthcoming'?) US elections:

There is a stench in America by the name of Roe vs Wade. And it's obvious because the Christians over there keep pointing it out. Unfortunately they're heading fast in our direction thanks to misguided Christians who think that voting for Obama is acceptable (note: I do not mean for one second that voting for McCain is compulsory)

Voting is like marrying and crying and laughing and buying. We should do it, but only as if we were not doing it. That’s because “the present form of this world is passing away” and, in God’s eyes, “the time has grown very short.

Still sailing

This morning and yesterday was 2:8-3:5. What i love about Daniel Newman's notes is how expositional they are...verse to verse, sentence to sentence, thought to thought. It's the only way to fly. Both my ESV notes, the MacArthur study Bible notes, Barry Webb in 'Five Festal Garments' (which is excellent, go and buy it) read the Song to be about man and woman, sex and love...about marriage.

The bridegroom comes to take the woman away to a better place, winter is gone, spring is here. The language is that of redemption, of new birth (cf Psalms 96 and 98). Christ comes to His people to take them away, to love them, to bring them to His perfect place. The groom doesn't want there to be anything to ruin their relationship, no foxes in the vineyard. The bride responds in what can only be described as covenant language...i am my beloved and my beloved is mine. That's right. That's beautiful. This day is yet to come, but until the day breathes and the shadows flee we wait longingly for Him to come.

The brides longs for and looks for her groom in 3:1-5. She finds him, she doesn't let him go, and brings him to the place of intimacy. We are to learn later that the city is dangerous, but the bride needs to be with her groom. Would that i had such fervour to be near Christ.

To me, at the moment, the Christ and the church reading of the Song seems to make more sense, to be deeper than the 'man and woman' reading. That's not to say that we can not learn, and express much about human relationships though the Song. Of course we can. Soloman surely would have had an eye on both. I just struggle to believe that the wisest man in the Old Testament didn't have an eye on the bigger, better, eternal covenant, when writing about the one between a man and a woman. 

On a personal note this reading of the Song warms my heart, and untaps a flow that is often short of water. I love Jesus. Lots, but i often struggle to live and act and pray and fight within a 'Jesus loves me' model. Does that make sense? 

It's right and true and glorious and Biblical that Christ died on the cross to show the world he loved His Father, to demonstrate the righteousness of God. Thats true and i want to build my life on these truths. That God's primary concern is for His own glory is the definition of the love of God. But, something else. Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. Me. Edward James Northey Goode. He loves me. Just like i love that Psalms because they give a vent to my ineloquent attempts to verbalise my love for Christ, i'm coming to love the Song, because it helps me believe that 'though my face is dark because the sun has shone on it', Christ loves me. 

Why i like my job

Well one of the reasons anyway.

Yesterday between 1930 and 2000 i was preaching, urging people to trust nothing less, nothing else, nothing more than the grace of God for their salvation. I think it went ok.

Today between 1930 and 2000 i was with the teen group, helping to stuff 150 bears to send to an orphanage in Bulgaria, listening to them talk about Aragon (freakin awesome) and Emma Watson (duuuude). 

I like how different those things are, and the broad spectrum of activities that church life gets you into.

Anyhoo, i'm going to watch Top Gear.

The Brady duo

Matt Brady is an English, former professional football player. he signed for Wycombe Wanderers from Boreham Wood at the start of the 99/2000 season and left at the end of the 00/01 season. He scored three goals for us, one at home, and away at Preston North End and Wrexham. He signed for Crawley Town when he left Wycombe, then went to Windsor and Eton before moving to Scotland for his job, where he played semi pro football. I liked him. He had a nice beard and a useful right foot.*

Tom Brady is an American, American Football player, who plays Quarter Back for the New England Patriots. Last season as the Pats went unbeaten all the way to the SuperBowl, where they lost to the New York Giants, he threw a record number of touchdown passes. He was drafted from Michigan Wolverines in 2000, and was sportsman of the year in 2004 and 2007. He's won the SuperBowl three times, and is currently out with a knee injury. 

They are definitely different people.

Last night, when i was preaching on Titus 2:11 (yummy) i tried to use an American football analogy when talking about the ambition of sin. I wanted to point out that small sins want to be bigger sins, just like every third string quarter back wants to be a better, more successful quarter back.

I meant Tom Brady.

I said Matt Brady.

I felt very stupid when someone pointed this out to me this morning!

* i didn't have to look any of this up!

Setting sail in the Song

Today i started reading the Song of Soloman in my quiet times. I've just finished Matthew, where i've slowly been since the middle of March... It's been a great ride, but before the new year and the new church reading plan hits, i wanted to spend some time in the Old Testament.

Mark Driscoll has, of course, just started to preach through the book at Mars Hill, taking the meaning of the book to be the face value 'man and woman, sex and marriage meaning'. And fair enough, he's got a much bigger brain and a much quicker spirit than i have, but i'm not totally sure i'm on board with his take on it. So that was the other reason for spending some time in the Song, using Daniel Newman's notes to see if i could discern what it is about. Of course this is aside to the reason Christians read the Bible each day, to meet Jesus, to warm the heart and inform the mind.

I guess my starting thoughts are these:
The book is about Jesus somehow, the question is how.
Christ and the church came first, not marriage, therefore Christ and the church should come first in every illustration, probably.
How is the book about Christ if it's about sex and marriage first?
What did Soloman think when he was writing it?

I read from 1:1 to 2:8 this morning. It was great. I love the way the man and the woman express their love for eachother, and it is quite exciting to be able to express our love for Christ in that expressive way. That we could have that freedom to be able to articulate our love for Him and His for us like that. The illusions to the temple and the Garden are many in the first chapter and a half. But then so are the illustrations to support a man and a woman reading. These are two people very much in love!

So it seems so far, that whatever your view is of the book, there is enough to support it. But i think there will be enough to draw conclusions one way or the other. Mark Driscoll's series is well worth listening to, whether or not his reading of the book is right, it's still packed full of wisdom and great advice. I'm looking forward to tomorrow...

A hymn of grace

We sung this in church this morning. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so many people just belting it out. It wasn't the first time i'd sung it, but i think it was the first time i really, really really grasped how wonderful, gracious and true the first verse is. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus name. You know what, there are a million things around that we are asked to believe in, millions of functional savours from funtional hells. But, instead of them, trsut Jesus, whose blood will never fail. Also, i love the first verse, because it reminds me that all i can is lean. Thats all, i bring nothing, i have nothing, i offer nothing, all i can do is lean. Simply lean on Jesus and trust His blood:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain: 
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

The Race: I get it wrong

There are three reasons this video is worth 181 seconds of your time:

1) James and Jess, two members of The Race are faithful members of Reading Church, often arriving early doors to set up the PA

2) It's littered with Reading landmarks, which is nice, because i've started to miss Reading recently, even the funny way the air smells.

3) It's flipping excellent. The sliding guitars break my heart.

The law of the Lord

In a few short verses the law of the Lord, the Word of the Lord is described as:

Perfect

Reviving

Sure

Wise making

Right

Pure

Joy enabling

Clean

Enduring

True

Righteous

More to be desired that gold, even much fine gold. It's the last one that challenges me and gives me hope. More to be desired that gold. The truth of the words of the Bible in my bag right now is worth more than everything i can see around me, or everything i could ever buy. These words challenge my heart, clean my spirit, open my eyes and feed my soul. And David here talks (probably) of just the first five books. He would have had nothing like the revelation of Christ that we have today. I need not just to view Matthew and Romans and Galatians as perfect, reviving and joy producing, but Leviticus and Numbers as well. And I should want them more.

I can't just read the Bible to tick a box, i need to seek out Christ in every page. I can't just read it for information, i need to have my eyes opened to the light within the pages. I can't just read with my eyes open, but pray that the Holy Spirit would open my heart as i read...