Grateful Dead Scarlet Fire Cornell University 5 8 77 Great Audio!

The Glory of Jehovah God

What does it mean to glorify God?  Is it a learned behavior? A rote set of spiritual exercises? Do we summon up more spiritual unction for our worship when we are able to "let go of our fears and barriers" and sing more exuberantly in a given church or retreat service?

Is it a dry theology we need to learn to endorse? An ever deepening plummet into the arms of Holiness by which we learn, by sheer dint of asceticism and neo-gnosticism, to forgo all worldly associations- from sports to malls to antique shops to jazz music- so that we can be devoted to pure spiritual milk..and the washing of the water of the Word of Truth? 

Does the crucified life carry with it a sort of baseline rudiment whereby, as we practice the presence of God, we mainly do so during and amidst commonplace activities like folding laundry and doing dishes? What about becoming a prayer warrior: does the "called out life" demand a reckless foray into intercessory prayer, in which our primary (indeed our sole) lay calling is to lift up every infirmity, every salvation request, every missions trip, every small-group study, ad infinitum..?

How about the matter of our public reputation? Does the called-out life mandate a sort of new-fangled neurosis which dictates how much time we broker with new faces, new encounters in a cafe, new embarrassments within various social environs, et al..? Do we need, as presumed ambassadors of the Galatians 1 Gospel, to watch every thought, motive, deed, action, gesture, gaze and instinct in all that we do, until we face God sitting on His Bema Seat to reward us with our heavenly treasure? What, by the way, is heavenly treasure?

If the meek shall inherit the earth, but a man who gains the whole world forfeits his soul, then what kind of paradox does one need to endorse to gain the earth, reject the world, and sew up treasures in heaven, where thief and moth do not destroy? If the whole Earth is the Lord's, and all of creation proclaimeth His glory, then why is the whole world also in the lap of the evil one?

What essentials of the historic Christian faith do we need to endorse in order that our glorification of God can be just and complete? And how much of a tightrope does one need to walk if a teacher of the Word of Truth is held to much stricter standards then a weak-willed, garden variety Trinitarian?

I love asking questions like this! I could have provided my own, reasonably thorough (if not meticulous) answers to each section of  inquiry; but I think the questions themselves tend to imply some of the nuances which illuminate a proper skein of responses..

Little children: keep yourself from idols....

Scourges, Suffering, and Solace

Despite our presumption of inviolability, the scourge of mediocrity will eventually overtake us, no matter how we seek to avoid it, even as we strive toward ongoing excellence in all areas of our life. And it is during this so-called scourge that we often then realize the subtle idolatry which affixes itself to our search for significance. Our quest for fulfillment, for cooperative grace with others, for immediate results in many simultaneous areas of personal execution, sometimes betrays our impatient notion that we believe we, not the Sovereign Lord, are the arbiters of the universe, and that we, by sheer dint of personal whim, can steer how God governs our role in said universe.

Isn't it a bit laughable how the thread of idolatry creeps into our midst so clandestinely that we find ourselves making clever rationalizations such as the following two examples?

1. Literature isn't my idol. I just love it so much that I'd rather involve myself with every aspect of it, most of the time, than do anything else.

2. Marijuana isn't addictive: Just look at me- I've been smoking it every day for twenty years and I'm still not addicted.

(I am not equating literature with cannibus; nor am I putting the love of literature on an equal playing field of idolatry with the recreational habit of smoking pot. In absolute candor, I find it hard to harmonize the effects of this latter practice with the clear mandate to be sober-minded, and to always be eager to sharpen our Christian mind. But I chose this example of idolatry, not because the average Christian would confess to such a habitual practice, but because many "idolators", be they Christian or pagan, would find personal relevance with this specific rationalization, whether through personal experience or through anecdotal awareness with someone they personally know.)

But for me, as Rob Clarkin, I find that my love of the finer elements of the Lord's planet can really hamper my focus on the Presence of the Lord. I am so prone, in my own moorings, as I noted in a blog post just the other day, to write as though if I don't express every jot and tittle of my cerebral grapplings in one 24 hour day, then the Apocalypse will readily claim the entire lot of unsaved humanity before the break of the next dawn.

Likewise, I am such an ardent lover of literature and music that I have a legendary tendency to posit (to myself, as it were) that the best way for me to commune with the Lord is to incessantly listen to the Brandenberg Concertos until the point at which I can see the divine imprint of Jehovah's anthropic principle undeniably present in every movement of each concerto!

It's hard, if you are a human being (of which I claim clear membership) to not  fall into wanton idolatry. I am not referring to worshiping a statue, per se; or pray tell, worshiping Baal, or Isis. I speak to the regenerate mind, to the person of circumcized heart: we, too, due to the deceptions of our hearts, are willfully prone to inexhaustable patterns of idolatry. Whatever our predilections, we will find ourselves abusing our time spent with a given art, craft, or venture, because it is part and parcel of the mystery of free will, the connected mystery of godliness, and the impartation of the Potter's Wheel, which begins to mold our characters, not at the expense of our joys and proper pleasures, but rather, for the ultimate expansion of our own personal craftsmanship, which we are sewing into now, for time and for eternity.

Jehovah is the Father of Heavenly Lights, who does not change like shifting shadows, and from whom every good and perfect gift (Jas. 1:17)  is dispensed unto the sons and daughters of the Most High God.

The Perils of Our Age

I believe you and I can both agree, at least periodically, that we are living in perilous times. Much unrest abounds in the hearts of many, no matter where we are currently residing. So much heartache and betrayal, at the very least: and so many more live under the tyranny of fascist or negligent regimes which quash all human creativity, freedom, and individual dignity.  How did our lot become so stricken with such plight and ignominy? What became of the war to end all wars, or again, the free love generation which followed not so many decades later?

Why is it that, generation after generation, we try, as human beings, to codify a nouveau sense of designation for our own ilk, and thus declare that we, the current alignment of humanity, have arrived at a secure plateau of liberation, or enlightenment? While this type of collective pep speech may sound sophisticated, or mildly comforting, is it not true that by and large our own individual realities are not commensurate with such idealism, or such idyllic notions of human evolution?

I believe it is far more accurate and honest for each of us to appraise what stock we are truly buying into, this side of eternity. Is it the stock of denotative love and fidelity to our closest friends?  Is it a stock whose value increases per quarter because we are consistently broadening our reservoir of confidential trust and accountable counsel with those who benefit from our time and, pray tell, our wisdom?

In other words, let me pose the question of the Ages, which shouldn't flummox you for very long, even if you are not a self-professing student of Scripture.  Simply stated, what did the Lord Jesus Christ say were the two greatest commandments?  And subsumed within this query, what are the immediate implications for you, when you weigh and consider what this divine edict confers to you?  Which friends do you need to devote more time to, and which activities or mutual efforts can you and your primary allies mutually engage in, so that you may promote the light and glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

If you are not currently disposed to endorsing the Christian faith, let me remind and exhort you to look into what the man who claimed to be God declared were the two greatest commandments, and in so doing, consider whether or not, even if you don't currently affirm faith in Christ, such a mandate seems like an injunction that most people, at a cursory glance, would agree is an important "mindset"  to maintain, even if they disagree that it is predicated on the God of the Bible.  (I'm not playing word games with you: rather, I'm keenly aware that you and I both possess a divine imprimatur on our very personages which we simply cannot gainsay.  This imprimatur affirms to us that we have an eternal calling and destiny to heed and follow, the journey of which will most assuredly be exciting and increasingly meaningful...)

But will we heed the call of the Master who beckons, with outstretched arms and open benediction awaiting us? Or will we shrink back in denial or accusation, capitulating into a defeatist mindset of compromise and languor?  I pray that we attend to the first choice- that of the call of denotative love...love which is sincere and knows no guile or avarice.

My sincerest best to you as you consider my words,
with the Shekinah glory of the living God as my bulwark,

RCC 

Split-Fingered Fastballs Which Dance at the Plate

When we speak of an inveterate longing which often designates our entire being, and of the divine curve balls which often keep us at bay in our sense of daily mooring, we are speaking of the unction which the living God opts to confer upon us, irrespective of our own mental faculties' conscious wishes (or so we think).

In other words, the intangible thirsting which Jehovah, the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (Jas. 1:17) imparts to us is not a sort of newfangled theological ADHD, wherein all the accouterments of our life are so up for grabs that we can never make sense of anything, from moment to moment. This waywardness which afflicts us is not a loose-knit pummeling of upper cuts which leave us tipsy, or too woozy to cogitate properly.

Rather, the longing which afflicts a lover of God is a muse which Jehovah imparts to us, the likes of which is not simply capricious, or so precipitously whimsical that we are left in the dust by its je-ne-sais-quoi governance. What the lover of our souls imparts and commends unto us is a Hebrews 4:12-13 modality of zany grace: a grace which while dispensed from Heaven's bounties, ultimately sifts into the thoughts and intents of our heart in such a way which: A. reflects the commendation of the Holy of Holies, and B. provides for the Christian in question a unique imprimatur to live out his or her life with zest, vitality, and loving unction, all the while participating in the mystery of godliness.  To flesh it out for you in basic terminology, God wants to ratify our search for significance, beauty, meaning, and uniqueness. Every facet of His creative handiwork is a display of his manifest elegance as the Creator God, who fashioned the creatures of the earth, air, and sea with such distinction and such subtlety that many humans spend their entire "earthbound" existence marveling exclusively at the wonders of nature, never paying heed or homage to the Three Kings of Eternity who set our schema in motion, in a Divine outworking which from first to last, is by faith and from faith.

What is "hidden manna"? Of what will the new heavens and the new earth (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21) consist? What aspects, or elements, of the human variety will be retained, once the New Jerusalem begins in earnest? Will Dexter Gordon's music be accessible for me to listen to and study, even if he himself isn't there?  Do Caleb Carr's debonair novels which realistically portray a very sordid 19th century New York City still retain their "this worldly" distinction on the new earth, or do we, the Elect, ultimately forget all the former things, with an amnesia so acute that one would be hard-pressed to believe anything but that the original earth was so tarnished with incidental minutiae, and nothing more, that God had to burn everything in toto, hook, line and sinker, dropping it all into the refuse heap of Gehenna? How does this hypothetical square with the reality of the one-to-one correspondence between the body that dies, and the body that rises? If we are to store up treasures in heaven now, where thief and moth do not destroy, then wouldn't that suggest that our earth-bound activities have some resonance with the Godhead, assuming they know a bit about the human lot, our interests, our hearts' intents, and our general receptivity and response to the call of  denotative love?

Is God so dense that it doesn't cross His eternal mind that the redemptive call of the proto-evangel was a call to an enhanced heavens and earth? And seeing that you don't even have to believe in God to answer that question accurately, does it not stand to reason that, since God called His creation "good", and "very good" during the inception of the history of our world, perhaps the evolution of human creativity and artistic accomplishment mean a bit more to the living God than we are usually willing to give Him credit? What if God, (that would be Jehovah God, (1st Person of the Trinity), the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (2nd Person of the Trinity (see Micah 5:2, and Rev 5:5), and the Holy Spirit (3rd Person of the Trinity) ) decided to save Bob Marley, and even though, (if you accept my contention that it's at least possible that God saved Bob Marley, since The Lord saveth, and no one can snatch a sheep out of the Good Shepherd's hand- not even the lost sheep himself) Marley never would have curried favor, we presume, 35 years ago, with conservative American theologians who were defending Orthodoxy at Dallas Theological Seminary over tea and crumpets each day at lunch, what if Jehovah God did save, by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Bob Marley, because His eternal love for Marley saw through all the cultural and spiritual confusion which contaminated Marley's perception of truth?

Is that contention any more untenable than how Saul of Tarsus was saved, or how Augustine was reportedly converted? I, myself, as Rob Clarkin, was supernaturally converted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as one of my colleagues also testifies that Jesus supernaturally converted him unto the Galatians 1 Gospel. So back to my primary thread of argumentation, what if the living  God did save Bob Marley: does some of his music remain in the renewed heavens and earth, and then, only the songs which great theologians like the Trinity, and accredited friends of the living God like George MacDonald and Francis Schaeffer all concur have just enough theological truth, admixed with heavenly mystery to be retained in the New Jerusalem, but only until Bob Marley works out a new repertoire, and then the Elect all forget about Exodus, Stir it Up, and Three Little Birds...or am I, as Rob Clarkin, having just enough fun with my divine unction, the expression of those ineluctable curve balls which omniscience adjudicates unto me, so I can challenge your own localized perception of commonplace considerations?

In the realm of libertarian free will, I'm willing to wager that this is just what's happening.

Again, from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to you,


REVIVAL FIRE FALL...


unto all the elect

Psalm 85 (N.I.V.)

You showed favor to your land, O Lord;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people
and covered all the sins.
You set aside all your wrath
and turned from your fierce anger.

Restore us again, O God our Savior,
and put away your displeasure toward us.
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

I will listen to what God the Lord will say;
he promises peace to his people, his saints-
but let them not return to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.

The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.

The Ethics of Aesthetics: A Cross-Corollary Relationship

I've been considering more and more beginning a teaching series which addresses the relationship between aesthetics and ethics, and one which will assuredly go well beyond the similar constructs of the words themselves.

When we think about what Paul said about "shining like stars in a crooked and depraved generation..." (Phil. 2:15 (clauses interchanged) and ponder, peradventure, the degradation of style, verve, and panache amidst the broader global landscape, perhaps we who are Christians may wonder what the role of fashion, uniqueness, and a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to our own personalities really connotes, from the Godhead's vantage point.

Let's first be clear that in no way does outer accoutrement or zest supercede the circumcision of the heart, or the brightened countenance which accompanies those who have been imbued with unction from the Holy Spirit. Nor still is there any substitute to be found exclusively in the outer veneer of one's style or panache which can overcome a wanton depletion of holiness in an individual's life or lifestyle.

But is it not proper to observe that, beyond crass comparisons and contrasts between our state of inner holiness versus our expression of personal vitality in our outer garb and attire, there may well be, upon closer scrutiny, an identifiable rapport between the inner and outer person?

When the Bible speaks of spiritual strongholds, and of spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, is it not evidenced in the daily public strata when many of us see youth who, by all accounts, show a marked deterioration not only in their inner disposition (and the blunted affect which marks their visage), but also in the disjointed nihilism which afflicts their rather thoughtless modes of dress, and the palpable sloppiness of their overall appearance?

This discussion is far more germane than we might initially assume, and my handling of it here is merely a glimpse into a much deeper topical analysis. Please keep my musings upon this subject matter in prayer, as I really see a prompting from the Lord to do an in-depth series addressing the layers of fashion, style, panache, uniqueness, and how they all fit in with a Scriptural perspective of the crucified life, the state of being born anew, and the matter of spiritual warfare in the lives of both believers and pagans who have yet to enter the Kingdom.

And I assure you, as this discussion gains momentum, we will increasingly see that, far from fashion standing at odds with the Galatians 1 Gospel, in proper context, how we express our human creativity in dress and style goes a long way toward showing an empty world that life in The New Jerusalem is savory, pure, and filled with manifold accentuation!

If I haven't proven that to you yet, stay tuned, my friend. And while you're patiently waiting, take a look in the mirror, and notice whether your mode of dress reflects your general mindset and self-perception during this particular time period in your walk of life, which I pray is moving in synch with the Tetragramatton...The Three Kings of Panache...! And no, I do not say this flippantly! Think it through before you condemn the idea or notion of fashion and holiness being polar opposites...does that really make sense?

I guess it depends on our definitions of fashion, and of the Holy of Holies....

As always,

Revival Fire Fall....