Pleasure in Blogging

A cluster, a gathering-
where two or three are gathered-
the Three in One is in the midst.
I saw a cluster of violets today.
Against the outside wall,
they flowered in abundance in cold February.
Their roots grow deep
beneath the wall warmed soil.
Together, I am in the midst of them.

When I first began to blog, it was accidental, really. I simply wanted to comment on several people’s blogs. So I created my identity to make it easy. Then I looked and saw how empty the page was; if people clicked on my name they would not find anything to read. So I thought I would post a couple of my poems. And wonder of wonders a friend commented suggesting two books on the Lord’s Supper.

But my reading of blogs before this gave me certain ideals I hoped for when blogging. In particular, I often read Ben Witherington’s blog. He is a professor and I am amazed at how much he interacts with those who comment on his blog postings. I saw Christian conversation about a common Lord as one of the most attractive parts of blogging.

Another side is the chance to speak of Jesus Christ to an audience that does not know him. Also writing about issues of the day from a Christian perspective is very important. But still the attraction for me is godly conversation with sisters and brothers.

How much this ideal fails can quickly be seen by reading the heavier visited postings I have written. The solution eludes me. But nonetheless having conversations with those who love Jesus Christ and desire to be under his Lordship is, for me, the pleasure of blogging.

I was thinking about this as I went to bed last night and woke up, much too early, with some favorite verses from Malachi running through my head.

“Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession [special treasure], and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”

And undoubtedly that is, in the end, the only solution to all problems. The context of this verse is that in the midst of trying times it seems that those who, as the text puts it, are “arrogant against” God are having the better time of it. They are also suggesting that it is futile to serve God and so, “call the arrogant blessed…” But God notes those who fear him as they affirm to each other, with words, the goodness and holiness of the Lord.

In God’s remembrance he promises, ‘but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”

Calvin explaining this verse, among other thoughts, writes:

“The sum of the whole is briefly this — ‘Hearken ye,’ he says, ‘who fear God; for I have a different word for you, and that is, that the Sun of righteousness shall arise, which will bring healing in its wings. Let those despisers of God then perish, who, though they carry on war with him, yet seek to have him as it were bound to them; but raise ye up your heads, and patiently look for that day, and with the hope of it calmly bear your troubles.’ "

Calvin goes on to enlarge on the subject of the Sun of Righteousness pointing out that this is truly Christ.

So my thoughts are that in conversation with one another the Lord is the listener, and of course, the angels who, as Peter states, “long to look” into the redemptive acts of Christ. (1 Peter 1:10-12) And that is pleasure enough.