Young lions lie down in complete satisfaction after feasting on their prey. Despite their great strength, they have no greater ambition than satisfying their most basic natural cravings. Most animals are content with little more than food, but man has an appetite that seems insatiable. Mankind has a consciousness of value that drives us to explore every avenue, to push every limit, to tunnel through mountains, to build habitations in space, to invent a microscope like the Large Hadron Collider that is 27km long, to peer into the smallest detail of matter, in search of information ... meaning ... something that satisfies beyond mere survival. Despite technological advances and the comforts of a modern age, man's appetite and search for contentment has not been diminished. We travel more, we eat more, we have more gadgets and comforts, and the worlds information is at our fingertips. To pay for it all we work longer hours, live more complicated and demanding lives, but do these things bring us any closer to the secret of contentment? In approximately 60 AD, a man under house arrest, bound by chains to a Roman soldier, wrote the following: "I have learned the secret of contentment, whatever my circumstances." In another letter he wrote: "As you read you will understand my insight into the mystery of Christ." It is this secret, this mystery that we explore in this book.
Part of Chapter 6 ...
The Word Eternal
Long before the first line of scripture
was penned on papyrus scroll,
the Word, unwritten,
existed as the mind of God.
Before the books were gathered
collated as sacred text,
the Word, intangible; invisible,
was planning, was ordering
the ages that were to come.
This Word predates the Bible,
this Word predates creation,
this Word is alive and active
and speaking still today.
"Heaven is my throne room;
I rest my feet on earth.
So what kind of house
will you build me?" says God.
What kind of doctrine could enfold Him,
What kind of information could define Him,
What kind of book could contain Him?
Yet, despite His boundless nature,
within His infinite wisdom,
He devised a crafty plan, by which
His thoughts, His intents
would fit themselves into
the form of a humble seed:
The DNA of His own life,
encrypted within the written Word.
And so began the writing
of that which we now call:
the Bible - the Scriptures.
Within the limitations; imperfections
of human words and human authors
God placed His eternal perfect seed.
A seed is not a tree;
the Scriptures are not our God,
Yet a seed is the beginning, the start -
provided with fruitful soil,
encouraged by water and light,
a seed gives birth to a being
much greater than itself.
His plan foresaw the day
in which this seed would blossom
no longer encrypted; no longer disguised
but fully expressed in the person
of Jesus - the Christ - the Son
The One who was in the beginning
revealed within our midst
Immanuel - God with us -
the Word became flesh.
His desire is still the same:
for His Word to break free of the boundaries
of letters and text and theories
and yet again, become flesh,
and yet again find expression in a person:
you - the chosen - the offspring of God.
So as we approach the Scriptures,
do more than read what is written -
listen to what is spoken.
So once again we can encounter
the mind, the voice, the person
who spoke long before
pen or paper was born.
