The Bridegroom

"...We have a Saviour who long ago laid down His life for us, and that life is still laid down for you and me.  Do you know what He is longing for?  For us to be with Him.  This yearning desire fills His soul, and He can never rest satisfied until ransom brings reunion.  Listen to this poignant appeal sent to us many years ago: "Leaving the first love is represented as a spiritual fall.  Many have fallen thus.  In every church in our land, there is needed confession, repentance, and reconversion.  The disappointment of Christ is beyond description."  (RH December 15, 1904, p.8).

Yes, here is the real disappointment, the great disappointment.  Think of the bridegroom waiting for the wedding while year after year goes by.  Don't His people want to be with Him?  God's people have just one business - to make Jesus glad, to satisfy His heart-longing..." (Ransom and Reunion, W. D. Frazee; p 118)

Alpha and Omega

First Breath

First Teeth

First Step

First Friend

First School-day

First Job

First Love

First Child

First Wrinkle

First Death

At the end of it all there is... Jesus.

Last Sigh

Last Hunger

Last Fall

Last Parting

Last Lonely-day

Last Separation

Last Loss

Last Pain

Last Injury

Last Death

At the beginning of it all there is... Jesus

Hosanna, part 2

Psalms of lament express our human condition.  They cry for help from adversity and sorrow; or for succor from anguish and shame. They usually address God, offer Him a complaint, make a request and express trust in His deliverance.

As Christians, we all believe in God and His sovereignty.  As human beings we all know how to complain and ask for things.  The secret power in a psalm of lament is the last part; expressing trust in His deliverance.

Consider the problems David protests about in Psalm 27:

     "...the wicked...came upon me to eat up my flesh...
an host...encamp against me...war should rise against me...
     the time of trouble...
my father and my mother forsake me...
     false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty."

These difficulties are more than most of us have ever known; yet in the midst of those trials He writes words of praise and trust that are unsurpassed.

     "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid...
     For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion:
in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me;
     He shall set me up upon a rock...
When my father and my mother forsake me,
     then the Lord will take me up...
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
     Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the Lord."

The combination of trial and triumph is sublime.  Hosanna to the Son of David.  Hosanna to our God!

Hosanna, part 1

"Hosanna, to the son of David." Matthew 21: 9

Hosanna is a perfect word.  It is for use in moments of ultimate jubilation.  While children laid palm branches at Christ's feet, the multitude offered sacrifices of joy by crying, hosanna.  But hosanna's beauty out shines what can be said in a parade.   It also expresses ultimate need.  In Psalm 118:25 the word means "help" or "save, I pray."  It has also been translated to urgently say "save, now!"

This word is perfect for our fractured world, it is perfect for our damaged hearts.  On earth we have joy with sorrow and tears with a smile.  I love this concept of hosanna, for when I am weak I can say, "Hosanna to the Son of David".  When joy overwhelms me, again I can sing, "Hosanna to the Son of David".  One word puts God exactly where He belongs, in the middle of everything we experience.

Behold the Man

For thousands of years, God's people sacrificed lambs to represent salvation through the promised redeemer.  In Eden, "...for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)  The first ounce of blood from that original lamb prefigured Christ.  The sinners were clothed in the emblem of that innocent's righteousness. Ever since then lambs were slaughtered as a picture of what Christ would do.  In His desire to draw mankind to Himself, Christ taught His children about His sacrifice in small doses, explaining only as much as they could understand.  The glory of the lesson peaked at the first passover. The Lord said, "...Every man shall take for himself a lamb...a lamb for a household...Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year...Then...kill it at twilight.  And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses...Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire..."  (Exodus 12:3-8)

The passover rituals were a living prophetic exhibition of what Christ's death would look like.  The children of Israel were blessed, in that yearly, they saw images that should have helped them recognize the Messiah.  Our sterile lives prevent us from fully realizing Christ as the Lamb of God.  We see beautiful paintings which picture Christ gracefully draped with purple cloth.  Or we see horrific motion pictures trying to express His passion.  This kind of imagery is historical fiction. But there is still a reality.  A reality of what Israel saw yearly and a reality that God chose to express in a very specific way.  The Lord was not arbitrary or limited in how He chose to articulate Christ's sacrifice.  Maybe it would do us good to look at His effigy.

The Samaritans have kept passover ever since the 12 tribes were divided. Of course they also worshiped many idols, but passover was still observed.  Today, Samaritans still live in what was the northern kingdom of Israel and they still observe passover.  Looking at their ceremonies will teach us some of what God wanted us to understand.  "Behold the Man" (John 19:5)

"Every man shall take for himself a lamb" Ex 12:3

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. " Acts 8:32

"This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many." Mark 14:24
"...And His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44

"And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses..." Ex. 12:7

"And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him." Mark 15:25

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels...I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me." Psalms 22:14, 17

"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me." Psalms 22:16

"And sitting down they watched Him there." Matthew 27:36

"For the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city..." John 19:20

"Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire - its head with its legs and its entrails." Ex 12:9
"His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." Revelation 1: 14, 15

"And they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire..." Ex. 12:8  "Take eat; this is my body." Matt. 26:26

"Behold the man!" John 19:5

Omnipotent, part 2

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Psalms 33:6

Universes

galaxies, 

stars, 

planets,

and nebula;

these are made from air. 

What extraordinary things God can do with his breath!   In creating these He was not diminished in energy, ideas, or ability.   When He counted the cost there was none.  Jesus ended creation with as much vitality as when He began. Nothing changed for Him personally.

But Omnipotence has been changed.  The cost of saving me has had eternal consequences.  He has scars that remain.  Scars in His heart and on His body.  Yet, it is a conundrum.  Like a helix the idea swings from one side to another.  How can omnipotence be diminished if it has all power?  How can a being who has hidden outrageous atomic power in mass the size of a paper clip, loose something?

Again, amounts and realities that I cannot understand, but I do know this:  God loved me so much that He was willing to be eternally less than what He is.  "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Philippians 2:8

Omnipotent, part 1

"In every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power, the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized.  He who by faith receives the word is receiving the very life and character of God." COL 38.1

Lets think about this, if I believe the word I receive the power.  But how much power does God put into His word?  Can that amount be quantified?  He created all things by His word.  So how much power did God put in an atom?  If I knew that, then, I could understand a little bit of how powerful He really is; and also understand the strength in a promise.

The Manhattan project discovered the potential God locked up in an atom.  Their success caused nuclear devastation   The bomb dropped on Hiroshima released what God put into just under 0.035 ounces of mass.

That is a very small amount of matter.  It weighs a little less than a paper clip.

The Encyclopedia of Physics states that "The total mass of the stars and gas in our galaxy is about 200 billion solar masses..."  This means that just the stars and gas (excluding planets, asteroids, meteorites etc) in our galaxy probably weigh as much as 200 billion suns.

These are numbers and amounts that I cannot fathom.  My inability to comprehend the mass in our galaxy means I cannot ever understand the power of God. (Of course, that makes sense because He is omnipotent).

But here is something I can know.  The most powerful human manipulation of God's creation, a nuclear bomb, released the energy from mass as heavy as a paper clip.  And although, I cannot even begin to understand the contrast between a paper clip and the weight of our galaxy, the Lord has promised that all His power is at my disposal. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).  This means that all the power locked up in the atoms of 200 billion suns is mine and your's in faith.