Wounded and forsaken
I was shattered by the fall
Broken and forgotten
Feeling lost and all alone
Summoned by the King
Into the Master’s courts
Lifted by the Saviour
And cradled in His arms
I was carried to the table
Seated where I don’t belong
Carried to the table
Swept away by His love
And I don’t see my brokenness anymore
When I’m seated at the table of the Lord
I’m carried to the table
The table of the Lord
Fighting thoughts of fear
And wondering why He called my name
Am I good enough to share this cup
This world has left me lame
Even in my weakness
The Savior called my name
In His Holy presence
I’m healed and unashamed
[from Desiring God by John Piper. Original article here]
There are several components to intellectual love for God.
Dedicating our minds to knowing him.
Thinking clearly and truly about him so that we don’t have false ideas in our minds.
Not being satisfied with merely an intellectual awareness of his
attributes, character, and acts but intentionally devoting that mental
effort to serve the affections (emotions) for God.
If a person doesn’t move from intellectual awareness of God and right
thinking about God to an emotional embrace of God, he hasn’t loved God
with his mind. The mind has not yet loved until it hands off its
thoughts to the emotions where they’re embraced. And then the mind and
the heart are working in what feels like such harmony, and you
experience it as both intellectual and affectional love for God.
I would much rather have people deal with media that have violence
and sex in them where God is an urgent reality—though there are almost
nothing like this in existence—rather than have media that is squeaky
clean of everything bad but is also absolutely God-less.
I think TV and movies and most of the media hurts us 1) by its
ignorance and apathy towards God and 2) by its triviality. So it’s not
only leaving out the one reality for which we’re created, namely God;
it’s also constantly shrinking our souls down to the most silly kinds
of thinking, so that the capacity for knowing God is being reduced.
He’s not just taken out of the picture; the capacity to appreciate
something great like God is being shrunk down because of the absolute
silliness of most of the entertainment people give themselves to.
