John Piper on the love of God as inseparable from doctrine

This quote brings tears of joy and sadness to my eyes at the same time:

"Wherever the passion for Christ, the treasuring of Christ, the affectional embrace of Christ is missing, doctrine becomes intellectualistic, and the counter-error is debunking doctrine as though it's not important.

Wherever that passion, that joy is missing [...], behaviour becomes legalistic, and the counter-error is antinomianism because nobody wants to be legalistic, and therefore, getting our hearts passionate for Christ, getting churches emotionally engaged with the infinite value of Christ is hugely significant in the world, and when it's put in its proper place as a means of glorifying God [...], then doctrine has the magnificent function of [being] roots feeding into that joy, and therefore everybody loves it because it’s producing something beautiful, and out of that joy is overflowing the fruit of love and sacrificial, laying down your life, giving yourself away for other people.

And therefore, doctrine is really important, [or to use other words], right views of the glory of Christ make all the difference in the world, in the church.

And it’s a sad thing in our day, that doctrine – having a God with contours, edges – this is what he is, this is what he’s not – he’s not […] a fog, the Cross is not a fog, neither is the way He saves people, there are contours, an in and an out, a right and a wrong, a good, a bad, an ugly, a beautiful – it is tragic, that that is trashed today. Really tragic. And not because of any intellectual ego trip that anybody’s on… But because of joy being ruined! Because of love being destroyed!

[…]

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)"

(From the Reformission conference 2004)

Chasing after the sun

So it's taken a lot of time, prayer and meditation, walks, runs and train rides, but here's my new song. Expression is soooo hard when you want to use the right words while being theologically correct, literarily aesthetic, metrically functional and sonorous... But I'm pleased with it, like a baby that took several months to come out. And one day it'll be recorded.
In the meantime, here are the lyrics. You may try to find the several themes interwoven, I'd love your comments.

Chasing after the Sun

Initial concept sometime around 2007
writing from mid 2010 to February 2011

I stare into a counterfeit light from early in the morning ‘til late at night
False love, false relationships, false self-sufficiency.
And I get the nagging feeling, stirring from my passive screening
That it’s killing my emotions and my creativity.

Then I step outside, it burns my eyes but heals
In the true light I encounter what’s real…

Well, would you give me a break!?

Because you’re making me feel like a teenager again, something I hate,
With every glance you throw at me, the ground beneath me shakes

An arrow streaks across the sky

And you pierce me with your eyes
You shut me up, I’m so afraid,
Can I back up what I’d want to say?
Taking the lead in a dance for two,
And learning to lay my life down for you...

Well I thought my insecurities would end along with puberty
But years later they come on stronger all the more…
I catch a whiff of evening jasmine on my run, but I keep on chasing after the sun
Its final rays reach to my shore, pierce through my core, leave me wanting more…

Various brushstrokes of grey paint my 6a.m. sky
Smoke blurring all the lines as winds make battleships collide
Was I not better off, in a world that’s spurious
Sheltered and safe from an inconsistent reality?

Because it’s making me feel, so impotent again
Face to what I can’t ignore
A world that’s dead and motionless which I won’t even mourn...

But something streaks across the sky…

And the city comes to life
Eyelids cracking open on the buildings of granite,
The trees yawning and stretching their arms as they wake,
And morning whispers sliding down the mountains, onto the lake.

It’s lit a spark within my heart, the thought of which just satiates
And colours in the grey and dark as the distant fire coruscates…

I can see it happen almost like a pattern
But even in the know I'm overcome
Though it may be dominated by strata
You show me to whom this firmament belongs
When the clouds scatter…

But my puzzle’s still undone,
Guess I’ll keep on chasing after the sun,
Over the hill and down the moor…

Geneva coming to life

Just to post a piece of a song I've been writing for the last few months in occasional moments of inspiration...

30/10/2010 (7 a.m., Pont du Mont-Blanc, Genève) -01/02/2011

Something streaks across the sky, and the city comes to life
Eyelids cracking open on the buildings of granite
The trees yawning and stretching their arms as the wake
And morning whispers sliding down the mountain, onto the lake.



Voilà. Short and simple, hope it'll be part of a great song. Comment if you like it! ;)

© Joseph A. Natali 2010-2011