Contemplating Christ – pure pleasure.

We spent some time contemplating Christ in Colossians. What a sight of glory, of wonder, a vision of extraordinary majesty and inexpressible beauty—the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn, the One for whom and through whom all things were created, the One in whom dwells all the fullness of God bodily, …. and we read, and we meditate, and we cry out; and we say to ourselves, this is unfathomable, this is infinite, there is so much more than this; , and we hold back no longer, it is the prayer of Ephesians, oh for a spirit of wisdom and revelation that I may know Thee, enlighten the eyes of my heart that I may see…

The great tragedy of the church is its inability to see, to meditate on the majesty, to contemplate the glory, and this without any props—special music, choir, excitement; the inability to sit, not for five minutes, but for an hour, for two, three, four hours, at His feet, to feed on His presence, to listen to the beat of His heart, and to receive the revelation. To know Him, to see Him, to delight exclusively in Him, to reflect on His person until there is born in the heart an all-pervading joy and an irresistible desire to celebrate and praise Him, to proclaim His works and to declare His love.

Yes, He is truly pleasant, and these delights are not found in our religious activities, nor in the laying on of hands, but are found in ruminating over and over again those same words already read many times to extract their substance and flavor anew; they are discovered by dwelling on the same old truths and weighing them until the Holy Spirit brings us beyond the visible, where He brings a light that makes us thrill with enthusiasm. It is there that the passion for the kingdom, for the gospel, for the Son is born, it is from there that pleasure of contemplation comes, it is from there that sweet and pleasant savor in God comes, it is there that we must go to find them.