Author: Admin

Geoffrey Holt, Pierced Metal Screen Inside Confessional, National Gallery of Art, NGO Image, Public Domain

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Philippians 1:6, NLT).”

If something is pierced, something else can penetrate through to the inside. If the something that is pierced is a panel made of a solid surface and light is on one side; light would be able to come through to the inside. Once light has traveled through the panel, light exists on both sides of the panel. As long as there is a light source, there will be light on the inside of the panel. If the piercings are done with intention and with purpose; a design is formed on the outside of the panel.

Our Lord is the “Light of the World.” Jesus spoke of his being the “Light” and offered himself as the “Light of life” that would negate our having to flounder in the darkness (John 8:12). Christ as light existed before time began and will not fade as time itself passes by (Colossians1:17). God is creating in us a masterpiece through the light of Christ penetrating the canvas panel with His purposes and design (Ephesians 2:10). Since He was pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5) the light of love and grace pierces through the panel of our life in each and every moment of His redeeming, sanctifying work in our lives. In every sin forgiven by His death on the cross, in ever teaching and convicting moment of His presence coming through the Holy Spirit and in every empowerment coming into our hearts by His love and grave; the Light our Lord penetrates the panel that is our life. In every moment of trusting and obedience as we live out our days, allows us to be remade to bear the image of the “Light” in us to give witness of His workmanship

We are remade with His hand here on this earth by His redeeming and sanctifying touch, so we might come into the place where there will be no need for the sun and the moon because the “Light of the World” is there (Revelation 21:22—27). Let us not be afraid of His plans and or His workmanship because as He has His way with us, we become His masterpiece. We will bear the mark of His workmanship on the panel that will be our life lived out. 

Suggested Reading … Philippians 1

 

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Romans 5:15, NIV)

It is daunting to realize how God at the cross God takes all that Christ suffered and released in the laying down of His life and forgives us in an overflowing, total and complete way of all our sin through the grace of our Savior. His forgiveness towards us is without measure or limitation as to guarantee our relationship and the true realization of this gift is indescribable as it is ineffable in that we cannot begin to express all that Christ did for us in His death and resurrection.

Yet beyond our inability to find words for what Christ did for us; comes the realization that we also cannot find words for what He does for us. Since there are no words to describe the gift at the cross and the tomb, it follows that there would be no adequate words to describe all He does for us now as we delight and are remade in the gift that we now possess in all that was accomplished at the cross and the tomb (1 John 4:10). Thus the word ineffable, even in its broadest definition, fails us miserably, as to what the gifts of our salvation and sanctification bring to us each and every day for us through Christ as He draws us to our eternal destiny with Him for eternity.

How can there be words for the reconciliation we have with our Creator through the grace of Christ (Romans 5:10)? There are no words to describe the peace we have because we are reconciled to our Creator (Col. 1:20). There are no words to describe the healings that come through the suffering and death of our Lord (Isaiah 53:5). How could we find words for our adoption as “Children of God” (Ephesians 1:3-8)? How can we describe being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3)? How can we describe being lavished with a great love and glorious grace (Ephesians 1:4)? How can we describe having the “Comforter” abiding in us to guide us, teach us and stay with us through all times and situations (John 14)? How can we describe the ministry of the One who saved us completely from our sins, being our constant “Intercessor” (Hebrews 7:25)? How we describe our place, secure and eternal in our relationship with our “Living Christ and Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:21)?

What Christ did at the cross was ineffable just as we incapable of expressing in words what Christ does for us as the Risen Savior. What Christ does for us and in us is simply is too great, too powerful and too beautiful to be described or expressed. We may not be able to describe all Christ did for us or all He does for us but we can be humbly and eternally thankful for having been freely given such an indescribable gift.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15, NIV)

Albrecht Dürer, The Crucifixion, National Gallery of Art, NGO Image, Public Domain

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed” ( 1 Peter 2:24, NIV).

There is a word for the inability to express, contain or bring forth adequately in words something too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. It is a word beyond indescribable because even something being indescribable seems to venture possibility of trying to express something in words but failing in the end to accomplish the goal of expression. The word, ineffable defines the inability to express, contain or bring forth adequately in words something too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. Yet even this stronger word is inadequate to express or contain the smallest amount of all that the Crucifixion of Christ offers, brings about, guarantees and entails to us and for us, in redeeming and saving us through the mercy, love and grace of God. There simply are no words for all Christ does in His suffering and death and all He gifts us through the laying down His life.

There are no words to express what Christ suffered before, leading up to His death and upon the cross. There are no words for what Christ endured as He died for our sin. There are no words to describe the loneliness of being alone in His decision to submit to Father’s will as He was being abandoned by almost all of His followers and admirers. There are no words to describe the massive and incomprehensible amounts of rejection as He faced His impending death. From the taunting and scoffing to the damming condemnation by the religious, the common and those in authority is unrelenting even though He only loved, taught and healed as the “Light of the World.” The weight of this indescribable psychological, unbelievable emotional and ineffable spiritual pressure upon His heart and mind brings us again to the complete inability to express all that was laid upon on the “Son of God” as He offered himself willingly to His destiny.

There are no words to describe the scourging, roughness and brutal beatings inflicted with sadist glee upon the Savior. Just shy of the bringing death; the flesh, muscle and tissue opened up to bleed forth much of life of this fully human, god self-limiting man stumbling towards the cursed cross. The crown, He wore … both literally and symbolically brought excruciating pain as it was smashed viciously into His brow with purposeful visual intended irony and mockery.

There are not words to describe the crucifixion, where death was seemingly both intended and denied as time passed in the wretched planned duration of judgment inflicted through its excruciating methods and procedures of torture and pain. The weight of the body of the Savior pulled against the tendon and bone barely sufficient to sustain the continuance of this terrible agony. Even as the physical pain can be somewhat described; again there are no words which can describe the weight of the sin of the world hanging upon the Holy Son by His dying to redeem all the people of the world for all time.

Finally, there are no words to describe the separation at the Crucifixion of the Son from the Father (Matthew 27:46). A separation unknown from everlasting to everlasting as the Father turned away as the Son took on the sin of the world to redeem the world in bringing eternal salvation to all who would believe. This is the ultimate act of love of the Christ in His willingness to bear the sin of the world separated from His Father as He completely guarantees the salvation of all people from their sin. When Christ said, “It is finished!” from the cross (John 19:30); all that was required had been given as to secure God’s grace for all time to all of the world.

At the cross God takes all that Christ suffered and released in the laying down of His life, to forgive all sin totally and completely. His forgiveness towards us is without measure or limitation as to guarantee our relationship as His child by Christ’s grace with His immeasurable love sealed by His Holy Spirit as our eternal inheritance. This is gift, given to us at the cross.

Are there any words to express of describe such a gift to each one of us?

“As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God.  I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him?” (Psalm 42:1-2, TLB)

       Summer is in full bloom. Color explodes from both well attended gardens and forgotten ditches along the roads.  Summer is full. Full of light as the days lengthen from light, work and leisure. We become excited, basking in  the warmth, the events, family time and the just the good old summertime.  For many of us, we feel somewhat deprived when it comes to the summer season because it just doesn’t seem long enough compared to the rest of the year.  The summer is incredibly busy and we put great amounts of energy into projects, teams, gardens, work, and relaxation.  Usually we get a lot of enjoyment during this season in the process.  Still there is also a sense at the end of the season, that change has taken place, there has been growth, and there is at least some sense of progress on most projects and there is a harvest.  This happens in our personal life and it is evident and true in the world of nature created and designed by our gracious Father in heaven.

It is in the three or four months of the summer that trees and plants pull in most of the nutrients they need for growth,  that their roots slowly lengthen and tap new sources of water and their leaves soak in the sunlight and in amazing way transform that warmth into color, flowers and fruit.  It is in the fullness of the summer season with all this activity; that plants bring in the sustenance needed both for the growth and continuance of life.

So what are the nutrients that you are pulling into your life during this summer?   What water source are your roots trying to tap into when you are thirsty on a hot July day?  How is your life being transformed by the true light and what will be the fruit at the harvest time?  Do you thirst for the living God?

Enjoy the warm sunny days and let them be full of more than busyness and  fun. Take some time to soak up the fullness of God. Take some moments in a shady spot and read His living word. Offer up a few heartfelt and thankful prayers. Take time to draw near to Him, because at the end of the summer, a lot of the sustenance we may need later throughout the year might have to come from this summer’s growth. Life is more than the water we crave on a hot summer day. Our soul can find true nourishment and fulfillment only in a warm grace infused and sustained relationship with the Living God. It is why our Lord came to earth to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father.  He brings a full and abundant life which He delivers and fulfills long after any summer season has passed into memory.

  Suggested Reading … Psalm 42

Sometimes we see it as born again into eternal life. If salvation is solely emphasized, we reduce our Christ to a ticket broker to heaven. He is more. He is the Light, Life and Eternal Life to all who believe (John 1:4; 3:36). The idea is both being born again and being born from above. We must see and live in such a way as to realize we are born again and born from above into the life, we can only have in Jesus Christ. We must be born again and be born from above into Jesus Christ and all that He gives us through His grace. Born again into Christ is more than just an experience, it is being born again and being born from above into all He was, is and is to come from above.

Thus we are born again and born anew, over and over again as we become new in Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (II Cor. 5:11). It is a new way of living. It is living guided, empowered and following Jesus from above. Thus we are born and live with the life He shows and gives from above.

When we are born again into Christ, we are changed and transformed by the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to love Christ and with His love to love others with that love. We are born again and born from above as we come unto Christ and into the inheritance we have in the redeeming work of Christ.

Being born again and being born from above has to mean something. Either our very life and the values, meanings and directions in our daily living are coming from above or they are not. Born again and being born from above must be evident in the ways we live our days responding openly to the Holy Spirit living in us. When we were seek guidance from the Holy Spirit through prayer or when the Holy Spirit prompts us … we must trust and follow. If we not follow or if we insist on doing things strictly according to our thoughts and feelings, we will end up grieving the Holy Spirit as we resist and refuse God’s presence and ways. Life, nourishment and empowerment either comes from above though the Holy Spirit or it comes from our ways, our minds, our hearts and our sin.

How we see it, is how we will live. Are we born again into Christ or just born again in an emotional experience of guaranteeing eternal life? If we see being born again as a onetime experience alone, it will not lead to fully being born from above. Do they reflect that we actually are born again and born from above or do they simply reflect our words about being born again? Born again and born from above means love like God loves, grace like the grace of God that saves us will be the grace that flows from us.

Being born again and being born from above means we love before all things, all feelings and all actions. God loves us above all things and in all ways. God demonstrates His true, steadfast and unfathomable love to us, by loving us in our sin, in spite of our sin and through all sin to redeem us from all sin. There is no love like the love of God and as we are reborn in His love, we love with His love.

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3, ESV)

Suggested Reading … John 3

The engine of anger often starts as someone inserts your key in the ignition of your emotional engine by offending you, disregarding you and even unfairly or unjustly hurting you or your reputation. They might push themselves into your interior space of the vehicle of your life by taking over your personal career place and position themselves in the comfort zone you have adjusted to your seating preferences. They may even tell you, “You know nothing about driving or maintaining this vehicle” or say unkind, disrespect and completely dishonest things about you. They may even sabotage the vehicle of your life and void your plans to do certain things and go certain places. They may try to take your vehicle by misrepresentation and manipulation and finally they may steal your precious and classic means of transportation only to crash and destroy it. Their haunting words will then hang in the air mocking and taunting us as we stand with our hearts severely dented and damaged. Midst the broken and dangerous glass, there seems little hope of your vehicle being usable again.

At this point, we might hear the engine still running and we see the wheels are still round and remember the fuel tank is quite full of potential to inflict revenge and retaliation. As we look and assess the damage, feeling the pain involved in every detail and aspect of the injustice of this incident … we might ponder the actions we could take to inflict greater damage and pain on the perpetrator of this awful mess. Anger is roiling up in us and we sense the power we have to take our rightful revenge and retaliation.

We have all been at this accident scene. Someone has wrecked the vehicle we were driving at the time and caused damage to what was important and valuable to us. We have all been crushed in our hearts and experienced the damage to our lives. We were angry. We have all sensed the power we might have in the engine of angry retaliation as we pondered our actions. We may have even been overpowered and taken the course of retaliation only to find we are the ones that were damaged further in our seemingly rightful revengeful actions.

David suffered tremendous emotional damage and heart searing pain as his very son, Absalom attempted to steal his rightful kingdom by taking over his position as King. It was a horrible incident to see unfold and even more painful to behold as we see David deeply weeping, scarred and crushed in the consequences of the aftermath.

Still in the midst of Absalom’s rebellion, David realized that he must shut down the engine of anger and retaliation. No matter what Absalom had done to him and even though David might be angry; David decides wisely to turn off the desire to inflict revenge and destroy his son. His words written centuries ago remind us to shut down any engines of revenge and retaliation, we may find ourselves near. We ponder on the ways of God and not on our feelings of anger.  We are quiet in our spirit as we let God quiet us with His peace. We pray for His guidance. The damage that revenge and retaliation inflicts will often bring more pain and hurt and some of it will come back upon us. It is far better to trust in the Lord.

“Be angry and do not sin, ponder in your heart on your bed and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:3-4, ESV).
Suggested Reading … Psalm 4

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven – A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, NASV).

Our lives unfold each day, new and unknown yet to be intertwined with unique moments, unexpected joys and challenges and endless social, business, personal and relational involvements and activities. Every event, whether seemingly insignificant or staggering in its importance will flow into a season of developing and evaporating time and be woven into the legacy of our having lived a life on this earth. Thus we have times and seasons for both planting and harvesting, building and tearing down, searching and finding, holding and letting go, finding and losing, effort and reward and joy and sadness. The seasons of our lives are many but they are also fleeting as we spend and appreciate the times for scattering and gathering, affection and loneliness and silence and speaking. Many seasons are followed by reflections, adaptations and changes through the events and moments being experienced at the time or having just pasted by into our memories.

So an intriguing and yet disconcerting question often lingers around our days of living … bouncing around our senses like the contrasting taste of bitter and sweet or the colors fading or brightening in beginning or ending of a day. The question floats about us as we feel fulfilment and satisfaction but taunts us a bit like a tiresome bully as we go through regrets and failed expectations. The unassuming and yet complex question is ancient yet relevant to each spontaneous moment and every intentional act and purposed direction. The question is and will always be … “Is our life, simply the time, made of all the moments and events; or is there a deeper meaning to our lives than simply the times of our living?

The writer of Ecclesiastes struggles alongside each one of us as he assesses life and its meaning. He identifies the ageless and unifying quandary of all human existence by proposing a staggering truth in his redaction assessment of the futility in our living out our days in the vapor-like eluding and passing of the seasons in our lives. “”Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NIV).

Yet, in the frustrating hopelessness, there is something more. There in the midst of the death of seeing and sensing nothing of meaning, something is alive in the going beyond. Something is budding in the slight touch of green cracking open in new hope. Life is always present midst the dying. A bird sings in the new morning because there is always life beyond the time which has past. There is always new life in life.

It was in the dying of our Savior, that we were given life. The Gospel will always bring new life, restoration and redemption from all hopelessness. The meaning of life is in the continuance of the abundant life our Lord brings. His life comes to us in His abiding and His abiding continues into eternal life. Meaning in life is found in His ways and that meaning extends into a time beyond the times of our lives.

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, NIV)

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 11:17, ESV)

      We have all gone down the wrong path a time or two in our lives. We have all chosen to disregard the danger signs our friends or family have held up cautioning us slow us down. At moments we have also sped by the signposts of guidance that our Heavenly Father has offered, warning us to turn around before we are hurt or damaged by our own sin and selfishness. At these moments, stubbornness boils up in our hearts as we are determined to go our own way, simply because we want to. Oblivious to the numerous potholes in the road we are on and averting our eyes from the possibility of loose rocks hitting us, we speed forward. On and on we go, rounding the curves with crumbling shoulders at unsafe speeds. Ever pushing forward in the way, we want to go.

Upon our arrival in the land of promised bliss and pleasure, we often find ourselves in a destination of bitterness and disappointment. We find damage on the inside and outside of us. When signposts are ignored and the road conditions are disregarded, there will be consequences in our lives.

Yet even in this place of broken promise and emptiness with seemingly nothing but regret as our reward there is always the opportunity of a U-Turn. The U-Turn sign tells us we can make a complete turn in the opposite direction. We can go from the hopelessness of broken-ness to the hopefulness of grace. Our Heavenly Father stands waiting to love us and extend to us the blessings of His grace.

Jesus told the story of “The Prodigal Son” to show the unlimited grace of the Heavenly Father has towards His children. The “Son” claimed his inheritance while his “Father” was still alive. He took all the money, turned his back on his Father, traveled to a place far from his home, and spent it all. Eventually, in desperation, he came to his senses. “He said, ‘I will go back to my Father, and say to him, Father I have sinned…’” The good news is that the Father never gave up on his rebellious Son, and welcomed him home (Luke 15:11-32). The Son took advantage of the U-Turn opportunity and we can too.

No matter what road we have traveled down, we can turn around. No matter what pig pen we find ourselves in; muddied, broken and eating the rejected slop around us, we can always turn and go home. The most important moment will never be about where we were but about where we are. Taking advantage of an U-Turn opportunity allows us to travel in a completely different direction. Making a U-Turn in our lives through repentance allows us as prodigal children to return to the blessed relationship as full heirs of the Heavenly Father. Coming back to the welcoming arms of the Good Father, allows the true wealth of His love to redeem the mess, we have made through our stubbornness and foolishness. In all of the world, there is no better place to be than to be at home with the Heavenly Father. Is it time to make a U-Turn in your life?

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 11:21-24, ESV)

 

Theodor Galle after Jan van der Straet Jeremiah Published 1613 Print
National Gallery of Art, NGO Image, Public Domain

“My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:20-26, ESV)

Christians can do it without much thought. We can trivialize a significant reality by reducing the notating meaningful Scripture verses to cliché like slogans. These sloganized verses are then printed, painted, inscribed on plaques, notes, canvases and posters. This in some ways allows the verses and the truth contained in them to become more like tokens or decorations then living expressions of praise, prayer, worship to our Redeemer or testaments to His attributes and provisions to us in the midst of our elation or discouragement.

A favorite set of verses for most Christians comes from the book of Lamentations. These verses speak of the faithfulness of God and about His mercies and compassion flowing to us and covering us gracefully and in fresh ways each and every day. The rhythm and flow of the words in these verses lends itself to being remembered and endearing. For many generations, the truth contained in both the hymn and verse, “Great is thy faithfulness” have been a comfort and a strength to countless Christian believers. The soothing balm-like comfort of God coming to renew our spirits each and every day is both significant and powerful. While it is vitally important to memorize God’s Word and hide it in our hearts (Psalm 119:11); we must never neglect to bring the fullness of the context and the depth of all emotion and content to all Scripture. In the complexity of everything transpiring and every nuance flowing forth in the words and phrases of the verses, we still appeal to the Holy Spirit as we seek the deeper contents and the relevancy to our own relationship to our God and those around us.

Before Jeremiah ever expresses his hope and strength in the faithfulness of God and His abundant and redeeming and healing mercies; he pours out one of the most heart wrenching and descriptive laments recorded in all of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jeremiah uses numerous metaphors in fullest of expressive ways to accentuate his deepest anguish in suffering along with his unfaithful nation the sadness, brokenness, isolation, judgment of being separated from the God he has loved and trusted.

Jeremiah feels cast aside, neglected, torn, forgotten, pierced and left as a dead man as he pours out the deep anguish of his soul. Almighty God, who had so richly provided and blessed His chosen people has turned away from those He had chosen and Jeremiah lives out that reality as feels God has abandoned him as well. The deepness to that sense of abandonment moves Jeremiah to weep for the nation of Judah as he longs for his God to remember His people and come with His steadfast love to them again. We must read the preceding lamenting verses before we ever claim the hopeful realities Jeremiah proclaims will strengthen our faith. The pivotal verse comes as Jeremiah turns in the midst of the deepest anguish to again put his trust in God trusting in God’s steadfast love alone. The great truth is not simply about God’s new compassion for each day. The great reality will always be … In the midst of the deepest pain and suffering; it is the great faithfulness of God’s steadfast love in gracefully pouring out His mercies ever fresh and new in each and every day which will free our hope in Him to soar from any and all anguish around us.

Suggested Reading … The full and complete 3rd Chapter of Lamentations