Autumn is always a time that I am reminded of the brevity of life and how fragile it is. My friend Pastor Dan Cummings has been journaling from his bed of affliction. It would be worth your time to read-though his most recent thoughts. Here is one that really made me stop and think:
“7. As I get older I would rather listen to God than talk, I would rather listen to Him than “study” Him – He is no academic subject to be mastered – He is a person to be loved – theology must end in doxology…”
Pray for Dan, his family, and Five Points Church. Cherish life. Live for eternity, and may all your theology end in doxology.
An archive of Dan’s sermons can be found here.
I wrote the following on my friend Aaron’s (Greek teacher/TBI student) Facebook this morning. It kind of summarizes my thoughts….I have reflected much on this in the last few months, especially in light of Dan’s battle and Lauren Williams sudden death.
“…this whole summer I’ve been thinking about how we are helped in “To live is Christ” by the reality of death in this world, specifically the death of His saints. When we see “To die is gain” so vividly b/c someone lived so hard after Christ, I think it makes the idea of “such a great cloud of witnesses” and “FIX your gaze on JESUS” so much more clear. It throws in front of us the realities and makes us realize that we have to live looking back from the end as Jesus did, “who for the joy set before Him,” lived back, and endured the cross to His Father’s glory.”
I listened to Dan’s 9/7 sermon last night, so that is resonating deeply with me today (if you couldn’t tell by the phrasings I stole 😉 ).
It’s all so big…so profound. You maybe could give it words better than my feeble attempts. But what it boils down to is simply this: JESUS IS TREASURE. And that’s so good…so huge…so incomprehensibly beautiful…
Thanks Josiah. Don’t you cherish the memory of those Lord’s Days at Five Points when you were in Flint?