glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- our sight of God will always be progressive It is 2:16 PM Friday afternoon here in south western Michigan. It is 46 degrees and sunny this afternoon. It is a blessing to see the sun shining in a blue sky. Tomorrow it has been predicted to rain. We need warm rainy days to cause the plant kingdom to bloom. I got up this morning 7:20 AM. When I came upstairs Carol was gone, she had driven over to a local bakery to get hamburger buns. I took my morning pills and wrote in my paper diary. Carol came home from her errand. I made myself a pan of oatmeal for breakfast. Carol and I had devotions before she left to help fold church bulletins. While Carol was gone this morning I read from a book titled, 'The Transfiguration of Christ-An Exegetical And Theological Reading' by Patrick Schreiner. I also filmed a video this morning for my Youtube channel-Friday Reads. I read last night from these two books-'City Poet-The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara' biography by Brad Gooch and 'The Slip-The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever' biography/Art History by Prudence Peiffer. This afternoon I have been reading from these two books-'American Fictions 1940-1980: A Comprehensive History and Critical Evaluation' by Fredrick R. Karl and 'You Deserve Nothing' a novel by Alexander Malsik. There is nothing else to report. Carol plans to attend tonight at her church a Good Friday church service. I will close to drift. "But even in eternity, there will continue to be growth. Gregory of Nyssa employs the term epektasis, which refers to our perpetual spiritual ascent. Epekteinomai means to reach forward, to stretch and strain toward a goal (see Phil. 3;13-14). It is the soul's perpetual act of striving toward our inexhaustible God. For Gregory, perfection is not static but continual movement toward God. To quote C.S. Lewis, it is about going "further up and further in." Since God is infinite, our sight of God will always be progressive, even in the eternal state. We will be changed and continuously changed as we behold God. Our future will be infinite progress toward the perfection that exists in God. Gregory writes, "For this is truly perfection: never to stop growing towards what is better and never placing any limits on perfection." While it may sound like a state of never being fulfilled, the idea is rather that once we have reached one degree of fulfillment, we then long for more. We arrive at joy and then realize deeper joy awaits us still. Union is both a present reality and a future hope. We are truly "in" Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Yet we still long for more. We long for the day when we are "caught up together" with the saints in the clouds and "meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:17); then we will "shine like the sun in [the] Father's kingdom" (Matt. 14:43)." pg. 127 'The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical And Theological Reading' by Patrick Schreiner 2:45 p.m. - 2024-03-29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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