Casting Beyond the Surface

"Some go to church and think about fishing; others go fishing and think about God." - Tony Blake

These words are beautifully, subtly, deadly.

If all you have in mind on your sublime river is a sense of "Creator" and creature, your thoughts will never get very high. Plato proved that. At least they will never get as high as they should, or could. A river will gladly remind you of your smallness, and hint that Someone or Something greater made it all...but she will never tell you Who that someone is. Nature will never tell you that you are separated from Him by original and actual sin, and are undone in the Eyes of Him. Or that there is a Savior from all the troubles patiently waiting for you on the banks of that water. The river will no more tell you of your greatest need than offer you the solution to your greatest problem. As magnificent as creation is, she lacks the voice to articulate. She groans but does not speak. She declares but gives no Name. For that revelation, we need our Creator's Word, His Bride, His Voice.

So, the rivers may dance, and the mountains may sing, yet without the Word of God, they cannot testify for Whom they are rejoicing.

Inexplicably, nature's beauty stirs in most outdoorsmen (and women) a sense of wonder. This leads a soul to ponder. Ponder life. Ponder death. Ponder existence itself. We need more of that today, not less. But whom exactly are we pondering? Is it Zeus? Apollo? Thor, Allah, Hari Krishna? The Universe? Whom, exactly? Only through the Scriptures, expounded in the fellowship of the saints, and the preaching amongst Christ's body, can one come to understand the nature of God—not just as Creator, but as Judge and Redeemer. This Word, read, spoken, heard, sang, and tasted, are God’s means of grace. Let me speak it in fishermanese: the means of grace is the fly line upon which Christ is perfectly offered to hungry souls. It is the current in which believers gather, under the rills of the Gospel, whereby the Holy Spirit feeds the hearts of men and women, revealing not only their sin and separation from their Creator but also the glorious bridge of reconciliation made by Jesus Christ.

There, now you have something to go to the river with. Now, you can think deeply and rightly about your Creator. Go to the river. Just don't miss church, thinking you can somehow replace the Savior’s Bride, by following #theologians who think Christ’s body can be replaced by nature.

To rest upon a river rock, marveling at the craftsmanship of God in creation, is a good thing. Go to it often. But take pity on your soul, and let that marveling lead somewhere. Let that natural revelation lead you upstream to the Word, His special revelation, to our separation by sin, then to the foot of the cross, where the greatest love ever displayed and the most incredible story ever told unfolded. Where God made fishermen, fishers of men. Let creation lead us to the Creator, and then let the heart find her knowledge about Him in the River of God, the Word of God.

The Scriptures say,

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

While nature whispers, "God Is," it is the Word that shouts, "God Saves." Let everything that has breath praise the LORD, but not in the sanctuary of His creation, first. First, in the sanctuary of His Word, amidst the assembly of His Bride, among feedings of the means of grace, and then on the river.

Tight lines.