Probably like you, I have often meditated on the anguish of the Father and the agony of Jesus throughout all the circumstances leading up to and including the Cross. One Saturday (the day before Easter) as I was working away at the ironing board, my thoughts were running along this line, when a new thought formed a question in my mind. "What about the Holy Spirit?" Yes, I thought; what about Him?
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This special day, the day of September 27th has significance in Heaven. All the angels know that 35 years ago, on this date, the Sovereign Almighty God created a child, specifically a girl-child. He planned that baby in love, designed her in beauty (Psalms 139:13-16) and destined her for glory (Romans 5:17, 1 Corinthians 6:2, Revelation 5:10, 1 Thesselonians4:16-17).
I open my Bible ... but I do not begin to read. My mind struggles to contemplate a Sovereign Creator, Who would choose to reveal Himself to deliberately fallen mortals. What is He like?
He dwells in unapproachable light. He is a consuming fire. What majestic power is in His Word, that He spoke the universe into being; just by His Word stars, planets, galaxies were flung into the far reaches of space! Demons tremble in terror before Him and Satan is commanded to appear in Heaven to give account of his doings.
Perhaps you've never had this experience. Some time ago as I looked over parts of my prayer list for that particular morning, I heaved a sigh of sheer boredom. Repeatedly I pray the same old requests for some of these individuals about whom I know little and from whom I seldom receive an update.
As I was preparing for a Bible Study, I came to 2 John 5:3, which says that God's commands are not burdensome, not irksome, not grievous. I was going to make only a passing reference to Matthew 11:28-30, but the Lord brought these thoughts into my mind.
We come from the sombre and muted tones of a dying Autumn to the chilling blast and icy grip of Winter.
As this year draws to a close, it is natural for us to look back and ponder. Other bygone years come to mind as well and often we reflect mostly on the disappointments those years have brought, the unfulfilled dreams and our grief over the loved ones those years have taken. Then we look forward to the coming year with its promise and its uncertainty. Sometimes it seems as if the only certainty is uncertainty. And our thoughts wander down a shadow-filled pathway.
In (Revelation 6:12-17) we have the first of three earthquakes in Revelation and the people on earth will see these astronomical signs. The brilliant, burning sun will correspond to the awful occasion by turning into fear-filled darkness. The beautiful moon is the subject of so many songs and poems, romantic and hauntingly lovely but it will be converted into an orb of blood, an object of horror. Then falling stars, shooting stars, meteors will plummet to the earth like over-ripe fruit from trees caught in a frenzy of shaking. The fastenings which keep the sky stretched out give way in a great convulsion and it rolls up and folds in upon itself.
Some of us (?) are getting older and most of us have areas in which we wish we had greater strength and ability.
As I go on in life, I want to probe deeply the meaning and the freedom of Paul's statement in 2 CIorinthians 12:5 -- "Personally I will not boast EXCEPT in my weaknesses." We don't often, if ever, think of weakness as something to brag about.
Some time ago as I was praying for our church, four verses from Matthew came together with a significance I had not quite seen before in those particular verses.
(Matthews 21:12,13,14,19) Jesus went into the temple and drove out all who bought and sold in the sacred place, and He turned over the tables of the money-changers and the chairs of the sellers.
Our position is unassailable and unending.
Deserving nothing
but
eligible for everything
because
the highest court in the universe has declared me
JUSTIFIED!