Not sure why I’m on such a writing spree right now – I’ve written a storm yesterday, so much that I’m pretty much ahead of ‘schedule’, writing enough to cover me to up to this coming Saturday, August 6. I could easily chill and see you all next week, but for some reason I want to keep on going, and I want to keep the ‘surplus’ words as they are – surplus. In fact, I want to add to the surplus, even.
Some of this is coming from me thinking I’d probably be pretty busy especially in the final quarter of this wonderful year, and I’d probably be doing myself a favor if I was even a day, or a week, a month ahead of meeting my quota. Of course, there are certain things I could only write on given days, and that’s another factor keeping me from quitting while I’m ahead – besides, why should I stop at 365 iterations when there’s so much more to clarify, as Francis Bacon points out?
Ah, yes. If I’ve said it once I’ve quoted it a thousand times here in this cesspool of all the thoughts I’m willing to share – there’s that one and only quote I have of Francis Bacon, where he says, ‘Reading makes a full man, speaking makes a ready man, and writing makes a precise man.’ In these past months I’ve certainly been doing my own part in staying full, ready, and precise – that is, by way of reading at least one Psalm (or, for this month so far, at least one Proverb) from the Bible daily, speaking at least once a week – that is, every Sunday in the worship service entrusted to me, and, as you can see, I’ve been writing – or, I’ve been trying to write anyway, to meet my quota of a thousand words a day.
But if I’m to be brutally honest, I don’t feel any of these things – I don’t feel as full as I want to feel, nor do I feel as ready as I’d like to be… and yes, even if I have been killing it lately, I don’t feel more precise, more clarified even after the recent glut of mental babble.
I haven’t been reading enough to be full, nor have I been throwing in some quality points in my speaking. And when it comes to writing, yeah, sure, I’ve been hitting the thousand word mark, but does it actually feel like a thousand words? I know for a fact that I’ve been putting in a whole lot more fillers than I should have. I shouldn’t be surprised – I’ve been sacrificing quality in the name of hitting a quota. I’ve been holding off on working on even the smallest of details, being content with just complying, or excelling in the most basic of requirements.
But then again, it’s not all entirely up to me – and I’m not throwing my responsibility on anyone else here, but it DOES help to know that I have Someone to help me with this ‘burden’ I’ve placed upon myself.
The good news doesn’t end there, because not only does this Friend of mine – this Friend who definitely sticks closer to me than a brother – not only does He bear the weight of all my burdens, but He also did everything that needed to be done for the rest of my being to be full and ready and clarified.
Obviously, I’m talking about Jesus Christ, with whom I am one – He is with me, and I am with Him; In fact, Pastor Joedy pointed that out yesterday – that I HAVE Christ, and Christ HAS me, so much so that as Christ is full, so I am full. And as Christ is ready and specific, so I am ready and specific… And it’s because I have fulness with Christ that I celebrate by reading. It’s because Christ and I are ready that I celebrate by way of speaking, and it’s because of what Christ has done to have me, that I just continue to write, and write and write… in celebration of the Holy Spirit poured out upon me, so I am not only full but overflowing.
It’s such a beautiful privilege, to keep on living, just basking in Christ, whom we have discovered in our recent writings is the beginning of wisdom, and the end of the Law. We live and love, celebrating how Christ comes before us seeking His kingdom and His righteousness, and how Christ presented Himself as the priority before understanding the fear of the Lord. We discover more and more perspectives of what we have because of who He is and what He has done, and in the process, what we were once told to do to GET, we now do because we HAVE.
We’ve seen this is Francis Bacon’s quote, but let’s also see what we have and what we are led to do, looking at Proverbs 3:3-4 through the lens of Christ and His finished work:
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
First of all, we can celebrate what Christ has done for us in the context of just verse 3. What do I mean? We see that because of Christ’s finished work, He has shown that He would always remain 100% faithful, even when we are 100% faithless – and because He has done what He has done we see in another part of the Bible how we can never be separated from God’s steadfast love. And to sort of fast-track the rest of the verse, Christ’s finished work has saved us – Christ has literally saved our necks not only by decorating us with the ornaments of His Word as jewelry; He went beyond what Solomon asked of us, not being content for His love and faithfulness to be written ON our hearts… No, Christ died and rose again, and we have been made new creations with new spirits, new souls, and for purposes of observing the verses we’re going through in precise detail… love and faithfulness are not merely ON our hearts, but we have NEW hearts filled with His steadfast love and faithfulness!
Second, we can sort of ‘expand’ our appreciation by way of considering verse 4 as well – for, see it this way: Because of what Christ has done, we have favor with God. And because we have favor with God, we would find it effortless to observe the previous verse as it is written, without ‘flipping the coin’. What I mean is that because we have favor with God, we would not let steadfast love and faithfulness forsake us; we celebrate the favor we have with God through the finished work of Christ, by ensuring that His love is worn around our necks, and His faithfulness written on our hearts.
Something tells me I should have started with the second observation before doing the first one, but I will keep it as it is. I guess my point in all this is that Christ truly is the living Word. He truly adds all this literal life in all the Scripture – and even all the quotable quotes we find outside of the Bible – by way of opening up more perspectives and considerations, even in the smallest of nuances and variations in translation, etc. Words come to life, because Christ is our Life.
Speaking of quotable quotes, I suppose we can look at that line of Mr. Bacon (Francis, of course, and not Kevin), and just say that we read, speak, and write, in celebration of Christ. The more we see how our literal lives are celebrations of Christ and His finished work, the more we realize how worship is not merely limited to singing and dancing and all we say is ‘worship’ in its portion in our traditional services. And see, there’s another quote I love sharing, that one by Andrew Farley that says precisely that:
“Worship is 1% music, and the rest of it is us living our lives in dependence to Christ.”
Okay, he may have said it differently, but that was the point. Christ is who blessed us with every blessing in the spiritual realm that we are fully equipped to do His will, and Christ HIMSELF is literally EVERY blessing we would ever need more than everything we call a blessing.
The more we allow the Holy Spirit to tutor us of this Truth, the more we see how deep our roles are as living, breathing temples of the Holy Spirit. In the Temple in Israel, or the Tabernacle of the Israelites, we can condense what goes on into two general themes: Celebration of God’s goodness (festivals), and reconciliation – that is, sacrifices offered for the temporary atonement of sins. Through Christ’s finished work, the veil in the Temple was torn, and the function of the Temple was therefore made obsolete; Now, just as Christ rose from the dead, so we rose from the dead, new creations – once, the Temple was a structure, but now, all of us who have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been ourselves made into living and breathing Temples of the Holy Spirit.
This means that wherever we go, we bring the celebration of God’s goodness, and our literal lives, down to all the details of our entire beings – ALL of us is a literal celebration of Christ fully and completely reconciling us to God.
See, I’m not sure if any or all of that is considered as ‘babble’; Perhaps, if I went through all that I typed with a fine-tooth comb, then I’d probably shave this entire article down to just half the number of words. But I’m choosing to keep things the way they are because what you’re reading here and now is what’s coming straight from my literal brain to my fingers without any sort of filter in between. The way I see it I’d rather respect each and every one of you who have been following me thus far, not by giving you edited prose, but the raw words coming out of my mouth.
Now that I realize it, I don’t necessarily share raw photos straight out of my camera.. but on the other hand, if I actually do any editing, it’s all done out of my intention to enhance whatever I want to express through the exposure… that, more than anything else.
In my writing, I clarify… and in my clarification, well, I see aspects that I would have never given my attention to otherwise. I’m not so sure as to how to end all this for now, but I will just say that through all of this, I am thankful that Christ has shown Himself faithful – He has shown Himself as faithful and loving to me with each and every word being typed and arranged here. He has shown Himself as faithful, allowing all of this to be shared online. He has shown Himself as faithful to you, dear reader, as you navigate through my heart and my mind by way of all these words.
Something was accomplished here, but ironically I don’t know what exactly… but I take heart, because I know God knows, and I know God never wastes His time, even if I think I’ve been wasting your time. I remain secure, and I am just as excited to keep sharing after typing all this, as I was as I started filling this empty space with words – all because of my Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has certainly turned my entire world and my entire existence upside down.
Friends, I just want to take this time to thank you for bearing with me. May God continue to bless you through all this. I may go back to it some other time, but for now, I pray you have been blessed.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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