DESSERT!

This week Dallas Seminary conducted its World Evangelization Conference, a yearly event “designed to assist our students in answering how they will engage in the Great Commission,” with the prayer “that God would inspire future mission-goers and mission-senders.” The entire Seminary essentially shut down all normal academic operations for the entire week. Several missionaries and mission agencies were on campus, conducting seminars and workshops, in addition to the daily plenary and worship sessions.

It began Monday evening, with the International Dessert Night. DTS students, representing 50 odd countries, put on a gala affair to appease even the most insatiable sweet tooth. A few days before this, the organizer of this event had asked me if I would be a judge (along with fellow-prof, Gordon) at this highly calorific and gastronomically delectable occasion. Yessssss! Bliss! Now I had a perfectly legitimate excuse for pigging out. In fact, I volunteered to be the judge every year for the next two decades. (By then, I’ll probably be in ill health as a result of this reckless luxuriation in culinary negligence. But, hey, I can die happy!)

Anyways, there I was, with Gordon. Boy, oh, boy! Desserts from every corner of the globe with exotic names and exquisite tastes.

Why is it that all that tastes good is bad for you?

And that includes sin. One must confess: sin is tasty. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be so attractive.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to endure ill-treatment
with the people of God
than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
considering the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt;
for he was looking to the reward.
Hebrews 11:24–26

Yes, those shiny things of Egypt are “treasures.” Yes, sin is pleasurable, gratifying, attractive and, perhaps, “beautiful.”

That is why it is important to grasp and cling on to something more beautiful than sin.

One thing I have asked from the LORD,
that I shall seek:
That I may dwell
in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD
and to meditate in His temple.
Psalm 27:4

For if we haven’t seen the beauty of God, sin will be far more beautiful to us. Only when we have gazed upon God’s magnificence, will sin’s allure dissipate.

Augustine’s lines are worth repeating:

Too late have I loved you,
O Beauty so ancient and so new,
too late have I loved you!
Behold, you were within me,
while I was outside:
it was there that I sought you, and,
in my unloveliness, rushed headlong
upon these lovely things
which you have made.
Augustine, Confessions

Far too long we have been running after the “sweet,” the “beautiful,” and the immediately “gratifying,” not realizing that the pleasures of the world are only distant echoes of One who is fairer, sweeter, and eternally rewarding.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.
Joseph A. Seiss, 1873

You are fairer than the sons of men ….
Psalm 45:2

Let us remember that in the light of the beauty of this King, all else fades!

I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord …
and count them but rubbish
so that I may gain Christ.
Philippians 3:8

May we not have to say in regret: “Too late, have I loved You.”