Life is precious to our Lord. Since it is precious, when a life is taken, it is a very serious thing. Something must happen, but what if it is inadvertent? The Lord makes provision for that. But what about willful shedding of blood?
So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 34‘Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel
That is scary when we consider the words of Jesus that if we hate our brother, it is equivalent to murder. But He made provision for it. He took our murder upon Himself and His innocent blood was shed in our place. Thus the land no longer cries out concerning our guilt. His blood satisfies the wrath of God. That is indeed amazing. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
* *
PSALM 145
“If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” It is that stupid question which people, who play with definitions, enjoy asking. But it does have some merits to it. Growing up, we would visit my grandfather’s farm located on the Cimarron River at the dead end of a county road about midway between Yale and Cushing, Oklahoma. He only had 58 acres but he also leased some more acreage from the Indian tribe next door to him. I have spent hours scouring his acres and exploring his land. Even though the land is no longer in the family, I still enjoy exploring it from google earth. If a tree fell on his land, would it make a noise? Well, if you define noise as vibration of molecules in the atmosphere or ground, then of course it made a noise. The laws of physics would indicate that the same vibrations would be there whether or not a receptor was there. But, if you define noise as the reception of those vibrations, and no one was there, then of course there was no noise. There was no one there to receive it or observe it. In my exploration of Grandpa’s farm, I found many a broken dead limb and fallen tree lying upon the ground. Did they make a noise when they fell?
As I searched the land, I found all sorts of life forms, vegetation, insects, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds. The variety of life was awesome! The things out of which life sprang were also varied. A good portion of grandpa’s land was good arable soil. About a third of the land was rocky, hilly and covered with blackjack oaks. It led up to the edge of his land, which was a beautiful bluff overlooking the Cimarron River. He had a couple of small ponds kept his cattle watered. A shallow well provided water for his garden, laundry, washing dishes, bathing etc., but for drinking he preferred distilled water brought in from town. Yes, there was much to receive and observe upon the farm. I could spend paragraph upon paragraph describing in much more detail the wonders of things I found on his farm as a grade school kid. If I had never had opportunity to explore, would they have still been there? But, then I would have been oblivious to its existence.
If God exists in eternity, and there is no creation to observe Him, does He still exist? Of course He does, but He would be the only One who would care that He exists. But there is a creation. But what if some of that creation does not have opportunity to explore the wonders of their Creator? Then they would be oblivious to His existence. There are only two ways that we can know His majesty: He can somehow communicate what He is like to us, or we can study what He does and guess what He is like.
Psalm 145:5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. Two things give us much material upon which we may meditate: 1) the splendor of His majesty and 2) His wondrous works. What is the difference? The splendor of His majesty is what would be true of Him even if we had never experienced any of His wondrous works. His wondrous works are what we experience because of what He is like, revealed in what He has done. Certainly, that is a fine difference, but nonetheless, it is a difference.
What is He like? He has a name that should be blessed and praised forever. His greatness is unsearchable. He is good all the time. He is compassionate, slow to anger and merciful. He is powerful. He is righteous, gracious and near. All of these things would be true of Him whether or not I ever experienced an act of His that would reveal this as true of Him. I can only learn these things of Him as He reveals them in His word.
But what if I have opportunity to experience His works? Ahh! Then I should make it a point to explore, examine and meditate on His works! I can examine what He has done for others and what He has done for me. One of the most important sources of learning is from the previous generation. It is such a privilege to pass on my stories of God’s works to my children! I love to hear stories from other generations about God’s provision for them, especially stories demonstrating His compassion, goodness and mercy. For me to be able to pass on those stories it is important that I learn the art of meditating on His works so that I will know the significance of the acts when they happen. Sometimes when I sit down and begin exploring the acts of the Lord in my life, it becomes a little overwhelming. I see that it is true that when my eyes are on Him, He opens His hand and I am fed. Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
* *
ISAIAH 56
I have known a few couples who have known the pain of infertility. That which they have long desired, they cannot have. They have expressed the frustration of not being able to conceive children. With not all, but not a few, they have found themselves pregnant after giving up and adopting. It is strange how the Lord works that way. What appears to be impossible in the natural suddenly springs forth into life. It is the Lord’s desire to demonstrate Himself as the Lord of the impossible. He desires to bring into His presence, His holy mountain, those who will ask Him to do the impossible in their lives. That is why His house is to be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
On the few occasions which the Lord expresses anger in His earthly life, one of the foremost was when the religious leaders had taken the court of the Gentiles, and instead of leading all nations into prayer, they made the place a place of business. He wants all peoples to come to know Him. He want all peoples to come to Him to trust and ask Him for the impossible. Instead we make coming to Him a business, a ritual, at lifeless thing designed to line our own pockets with what we expect life to be. That is so far short of His glory. He is bursting with life! He desires that we experience it with Him! He desires that we see that He is the source of LIFE! Lord, let me see, taste and experience only the type of life that you can bring. Let it burst forth from my innermost being. Let your glory shine like a brilliant light! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
* *
JOHN 9:24-41
We continue today with this theme of the blind who see spiritually and the physically sighted being blind. There is a famous quote of C.S. Lewis that runs something like this:
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
In our day and age, there are a lot of people who want to talk about how good Jesus was but will refuse to call Him Lord. Here is one of those Gospel stories where His claim to Deity is extremely obvious. Jesus makes it obvious as to who He is. The blind man is called to question by the council. He asks a question that I believe is half-honest and half-filled with sarcasm, "Do you also want to become His disciples?"
The council replies, "We do not know where this man is from."
The formerly blind man is incredulous. One thing is clear; Jesus is from God. Otherwise, He could do nothing. The council couldn't deal with the simple logic. So, they had the formerly blind man excommunicated. When Jesus heard what they had done, He immediately went and found the man. (There always seems to be that special place in Jesus' heart for those who are persecuted for His sake. As Stephen was being stoned to death, he saw Jesus standing in heaven. Usually visions of the throne room of God describe Jesus sitting on His throne; for Stephen, He stood.) For the blind man, Jesus revealed Himself to him. The Son of God came into the world to make the blind sighted and the sighted blind. The spiritually sighted see their sin in the light of Jesus. They present it to Him and He burns it away with His light, His glory burns it away. The spiritually blind never see their sin. They never present it to Him. Their sin remains. Do you see your sin burn away in the light of His glory? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
No comments:
Post a Comment