Jerry Bridges wrote The Pursuit of Holiness nearly 30 years ago. That book alone made him one of the best selling, most widely known Christian authors of this generation. He has since written 12 other books. I had the rare opportunity to spend a couple of hours with him today. We talked mostly about his favorite subject...God. It is always an amazing experience to talk to someone who has spent enough time with God to not talk abstractly but personally about him. Jerry is 78 years old. He spent much of his life in the Navigator organization which means he understands the spiritual disciplines. Pound for pound Navigators memorize more scripture than any other species of Christian. But when Jerry talked about God he talked about the privilege of spending time with Him in the early morning. He has an air of humility that made me want to lean in closer to hear what he was saying and hope that some of his spirit would rub off on me. Every time Jerry spoke about the love of God his lips would curl up into a smile like he was remembering his first date with his wife. At one point he turned to Zephaniah 4:17 "The Lord is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy". He couldn't get over the sentence that says that God is quiet in his love. Jerry quoted John Owen (a 17th century Puritan writer- really good) who said that God is saying His love is so strong He finds nothing to complain about in us. Jerry's mouth curled at the edges as he said," Can you imagine? God loves me so much that when he looks at me He is quiet in his love and finds nothing to complain about?" The poet Dylan Thomas wrote when speaking of death,
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day:
Rage, rage against the dying of the light"
As I was looking at Jerry Bridges it struck me that I don't think that is how he will approach death. As the light closes around him, his lips will curl at the edges and his eyes will wrinkle as he simply moves even closer to the God who he looked forward to meeting every morning. The God who was quiet in His love. Jerry Bridges made me look forward to getting old.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Jerry Bridges- Still Pursuing Holiness
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
The thing that strikes me about your description of Jerry Bridges is that his performance of the spiritual disciplines are motivated by an awareness of God's love and affection for him. He sees his morning quiet time as a privilege, not a duty! That's the way I need to approach it, too.
No doubt his lips curling up like that reveals an inner joy that comes from experiencing the love of God. But how did he get there? How can I get there? I know God's love is real and proven (at the cross). But it seems so elusive. Trying harder sometimes seems to help, but sometimes it doesn't. I wonder, does he feel like this all the time?
The only way to get to know Him better - The answer God's Word the Bible. This is his love letter just to you. The more time you spend with Him his love will grow deeper in your heart. When reading his word and in your prayers remember He is the Almighty God but He is your Abba(Daddy) Father, your best friend. Surrender give Him your heart then trust and believe knowing His greatest joy in filling your heart with himself. Joy will come.
Ask God to send a Jonathan into your life. I Samuel verse 1 ".....the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."
Living in joy is a process as is our walk with the Lord. Will there be struggles, sorrows, upsets and even set backs in this world we live in you betcha. I am still learning after many years to daily minute by minute at times to change my way of thinking. It is a choice. The secret of handling life is found in Philippians 4:8 and dwell on these things a spiritual mind if you will. Find joy that you are seeking that brings great pleasure to God.
4:30 am Salem, India. Coffee. Quiet. The presence of brothers in Christ and the Word of God.
Wow. Zephania 3:17 just boggles my mind and calms my heart. To think that God is both quiet in His love for me and yet rejoices over me with shouts of joy! That He can love and rejoice over me like this and find no reason to complain about me can only be attributed to one thing: The perfect sacrifice and righteousness of Christ!
Post a Comment