Product Description
Delighting in a Holy God
- By Phil Needham
- 160 pages.
- Published 2000, Beacon Hill Press
Excerpt from the introduction
It took me a long time to hear God laughing. But then I began hearing some intriguing things. For one, I noticed the words of that time-honored confession of faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, concerning a Christian's "chief end" being "to enjoy Him forever." Now how do you enjoy someone who can't laugh? For another thing, I began to see more laughter in the Bible. It was mostly a matter of letting texts come alive, which in many instances revealed God's humor and the sheer pleasure of life with Him. And for yet another observation: theChristians I found myself most drawn to were those whose love for God had a fresh sparkle and whose outlook had generous doses of humor. Their holiness was a joyful attraction.
All of this lead me to take God's humor seriously and to realize that it invariably affected people who were in love with Him. I am deeply in love with the human being I spend more time with than anyone else, my wife. The fact that she finds humor in situations that few can and expends enormous energy on laughter affects me deeply. It keeps me off balance in a good sort of wa and lures me into becoming, hopefully a more enjoyable person than I would otherwise have been. I have a deep suspicionﾡﾪindeed, it has become my convictionﾡﾪthat in a similar way the humor of God rubs off on His saints, and His laughter resonates with the righteous.
