Where God's Word is loved, there dwells God.
Heaven and earth, the castles and palaces of all emperors, kings and princes, are in no way sufficient to make a dwelling place for God. Yet a silly human creature that keeps the Word — He will dwell.
Isaiah calls heaven His "seat" and earth His "footstool," but not His dwelling. Therefore, when we long to seek after God, we shall be sure to find Him with them that hear and keep His Word.
✦ The Dwelling Place of God
Luther begins with the most staggering claim the Christian faith can make. Where does God dwell? Not in heaven — that is only His seat. Not on earth — that is only His footstool. Not in the castles and palaces of emperors and kings — these are not sufficient. In the human heart that loves His Word.
Luther called it a silly human creature — not with contempt, but with wonder. The disproportion is the point. The God who made the universe, before whom mountains tremble, who spoke creation into existence — that God chooses to dwell in a human heart. Not the grandest cathedral. Not the Vatican. Not the most beautiful temple ever built. In the heart that hears and keeps His Word.
James Smith prayed it weeks ago: O what is feeble, dying man, that God should make it His concern to visit him with grace! How wondrous is His love! Augustine saw the same thing: secretíssimo e presentíssimo — the most hidden and the most present. Lewis saw it: it is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. And Luther sees it in the plainest terms possible: where God's Word is loved, there dwells God. 🙏
✦ Sure to Find Him
When we long to seek after God, we shall be sure to find Him with them that hear and keep His Word. Sure. Not might. Not perhaps. Sure. The seeking is not uncertain. The finding is not random. If you want to know where God is — look for the people who love His Word. He is there. He dwells there. Not visiting. Not passing through. Dwelling.
Every morning before dawn, in Caldas da Rainha, in a motorhome parked beside the Canal du Midi, in Le Val, in Dax, in Villeneuve-lès-Béziers — wherever the Word is opened and loved — God has made His dwelling. Not because the place is grand. Not because the circumstances are ideal. Because the Word is loved. That is sufficient. That is the dwelling place. The castle is not required. The silly human creature who rises before dawn and keeps His Word — that is where God lives. 🙏
"Heaven and earth are not sufficient to make a dwelling place for God. Yet a silly human creature that keeps the Word — He will dwell."
Martin Luther · Table Talks · Where God's Word is lovedI never had in all my life so great an opening into the Word of God as now.
Scriptures that I saw nothing in before were made in this place and condition to shine upon me. Jesus Christ was never more real and present than now. Here I have seen and felt Him indeed.
✦ In Prison — The Word Shone Brightest
Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress from a prison cell. And here he tells us what he found there — not abandonment, not silence, not the absence of God. The greatest opening into the Word he had ever experienced. Scriptures that he had read a hundred times before and seen nothing in — they began to shine. The condition that the world would call punishment became the condition where the Word shone brightest.
Jesus Christ was never more real and present than now. Not in the cathedral. Not in the library. Not in freedom and comfort. In prison. The place where the world says God is absent is the place where Bunyan found Him most present. Luther said God dwells where His Word is loved. Bunyan proved it — in a cell, with chains, with the Word open on his lap, Christ was more real there than anywhere else.
Le said it from her own life: when I suffered with Jesus, I developed the character and the independence God wanted for me. To depend on God alone for my life was the freedom I desired. Bunyan found the same freedom in prison. The condition that looked like the end was the beginning of the deepest sight he had ever known. The valley was where the Word shone. The cell was where Christ became real. 🙏
"We did not follow cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16) — and — "God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope are in God" (1 Peter 1:21).
They were blessed words to me in this condition.
✦ Not Cunningly Devised Fables
The two verses Bunyan clung to in prison — and they are perfect for the day after Easter.
We did not follow cunningly devised fables. 2 Peter 1:16. This is not a fairy tale. This is not a human dream — Luther's word. This is not positive thinking or a formula or an activation code. This is real. Peter was there. He saw it. He touched it. He ate with the risen Christ. And he said: we did not make this up. The resurrection is not a fable. It is an event. It happened. And the man writing from prison staked his freedom on it.
God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope are in God. 1 Peter 1:21. Yesterday was Easter — the day the raising happened. The day God gave Him glory. And the purpose — that your faith and hope are in God. Not in the fable. Not in the formula. Not in your own strength or wisdom or ability. In God. Bunyan sat in prison, held these words, and said: they were blessed words to me in this condition. The condition made the words shine. The suffering made the truth blaze. 🙏
Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence. On the contrary, He told us to be not only "harmless as doves" but also "wise as serpents."
He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head.
He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.
✦ A Child's Heart, a Grown-Up's Head
After Luther's dwelling place and Bunyan's prison light, Lewis turns to the kind of person God wants living in that dwelling — and it is not what the world expects. Not a simple-minded follower who checks her brain at the door. Not a naive believer who never asks questions. A child's heart and a grown-up's head. Both. Always both.
Harmless as doves — the child's heart. Simple. Affectionate. Teachable. The spirit of adoption that cries Abba, Father. The 500 denari soul who said I'm just a child in my Father's eyes. That heart is essential. Without it, the faith becomes cold, academic, clinical — the very thing Le's devotional life has never been.
Wise as serpents — the grown-up's head. Every bit of intelligence alert at its job. In first-class fighting trim. Spurgeon's fight training — daily handling the sword of the Spirit. The ability to cut through the formula-makers with "Yes means Yes." The clarity to catch "let not" means I decide. The discernment to say "not positive thinking, but faith in the Lord." That is a serpent's wisdom in a dove's heart.
He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have.
✦ Use What You Have
Lewis closes with the most democratic sentence in all of Christian education. God does not require genius. He does not require seminary degrees or theological credentials. He has room for people with very little sense. The door is not narrow in that way. Wigglesworth said it: God wants us so badly that He has made the condition as simple as He possibly could. Only believe.
But whatever sense you have — use it. Do not hide your intelligence under a bushel any more than you would hide a lamp under a bed. The child's heart does not cancel the grown-up's head. The simplicity of faith does not require the abandonment of thought. Bring everything you have to the Word. Your questions. Your connections. Your ability to see that Bowen in Bombay and Luther in Wittenberg are saying the same thing. Your capacity to hold Augustine's Portuguese and Paul's Greek and Lewis's English in the same morning and see the one truth shining through them all.
That is what happens in this journal — forty-seven mornings of a child's heart and a grown-up's head meeting in the same pilgrim. Simple enough to say Abba, Father. Wise enough to connect James Smith to George Bowen to Oswald Chambers to C.S. Lewis across four centuries. Harmless as a dove. Wise as a serpent. Both. Every morning. 🙏
"He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim."
C.S. Lewis · Mere Christianity · Harmless as doves, wise as serpentsThe Dwelling Place
Heaven is His seat. Earth is His footstool. But neither is His dwelling. A silly human creature who loves His Word — He will dwell there. The castle is not required. The heart is sufficient.
The Prison Light
Bunyan never had so great an opening into the Word as in prison. Scriptures that he saw nothing in before shone upon him there. Jesus Christ was never more real. The valley is where the Word shines brightest.
Dove and Serpent
A child's heart — simple, affectionate, teachable. A grown-up's head — every bit of intelligence alert and in fighting trim. Not one or the other. Both. Harmless as doves. Wise as serpents.