The Ease of Delight...

OK, he's back by popular demand. ..
So here we are, watching American Idol. On to the screen steps this “Ace” guy. (Who names their kid Ace, anyway?) Like millions of other Idol fans, both gals and guys alike, Cyndie’s face begins to turn a strange shade of red. Is she blushing, I ask myself as I stare right through her? No. Can’t be. Yep, she is. She is swooned right in front of me in the comfort and privacy of my own home…by some hippy-kid named “Ace”.
My point? The ease of delight.
Name your delight(s)? Do you find, like me, that whatever we delight in…it comes very, very, very easy? No straining of the will to delight in whatever we delight in. Easy and delight fit like glove on hand! Ace and blushing!
The real question is this: What is more delightful? Is there something, someone out there that stands head and shoulders above all other things, matchless in beauty, wonder, power, wisdom and truth? Can God, the Creator of everything compete in the finals of American Idol? Can He really compete with what you and I truly delight in day in and day out. After all, how can One who is invisible compete with what is always smack right in front of us 24-7?
Listen to Augustine on delight: (this audio biography is fantastic)
"Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy. There is no man who does not desire this, and each one desires it with such earnestness that he prefers it to all other things; whoever, in fact, desires other things, desires them for this end alone." And this desire, this delight, this longing for happiness governs the will. But here’s the catch: The delight that the will always follows…we do not determine!
Cyndie did not determine that Ace would invade our home. I did not determine the ease in which I now want to ring his neck! And you and I do not determine how incredibly matchless, infinitely breathtaking and glorious in every way, shape and form God is over and above everything there is! He just is. Has always been, is now and always will be…
Know where I’m going here? A greater delight ALWAYS tops a lesser one!
Our hearts ought to break into a million pieces as we so easily and quickly settle for lesser … infinitely lesser pleasures, while the God of All Glory stands before us, even displaying His glory in what has been made! Revival would be among us if we were to behold the “Ace’s” of all kinds in this life, and see the God of Glory in them. Then we move into a whole ‘nother category when we speak of the Glory of God displayed in Jesus Christ! A perfect, bleeding Savior who cameinto our world to give His life for us in order that we might experience the Greatest and Most Supreme Delight there is...even God!

Our faith is weak, Lord. We don’t see Jesus as we should. Please cure our blindness…Please help us…
Big love,
Danny

7 YEARS

Danny & Cyndie
February 21,1999
Halekulani Hotel, Honolulu, HI

With this ring…I thee wed.
With my body…I thee worship.
With all my worldly goods…I thee endow.
In the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We praise and thank God for 7 magical years!

I love you Sweetheart!

My Dad on Isaiah 53

This pen & ink by my Dad is the first of 12 from Isaiah 53. Each print captures the text of scripture within it.
Thanks Pappa for your eternal encouragement! You are a real father in the faith.
Here is his webpage of the entire collection.

God, Himself, is Our Delight (part II)

Hab 3:17-19
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Hear Jonathan Edwards on this theme:

“The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the " river of the water of life" that runs, and " the tree of life that grows, in the midst of the paradise of God." The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will for ever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them.”

God, in Jesus Christ, is the gospel. No?

God is Our Delight!

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Name me a greater glory, treasure and delight than GOD? There isn’t, is there?
GOD is the greatest delight there is. Period! Can we see the sense there is in God calling us to delight in the Greatest Delight, Treasure and Glory there is? So, delight yourself in the Greatest Delight there is, and on top of what you find in Him…He will also give you the desire of your heart! Imagine that! This stuff is crazy! You will experience the greatest pleasure there is…worship of the creator rather than the creation…and then you will experience the enjoyment of a plethora of lesser delights…enjoying all things God has made for us to enjoy...and in enjoyment of these you will truly glorify God and delight in Him even more!

Remember the chasm of difference that exists between worship of God and enjoyment of His creation! Only here the two find harmony!

Spurgeon says it in his classic manner:

Every name, attribute, word, or deed of Jehovah, should be delightful to us, and in meditating thereon our soul should be as glad as is the epicure who feeds delicately with a profound relish for his dainties.
(Treasury of David, Commentary on Psalms)

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