OUR LORD BY WHOM ALL THINGS CONSIST

The apostle Paul in Colossians 1 verse 16 - 18, lays out the credentials and ascriptions merited by the Lord Jesus Christ.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

This revealing passage centers on the line, "And He is before all things and by Him all things consist"

The Lord Jesus is being shown as occupying the pinnacle or apex  position in all creation and further to that, all creation is held together by Him.

The incredible power of the Lord our God is demonstrated in His singular ability to acrete all forces of the Spiritual realm and all forces of nature into a single system over which He has absolute authority and upholds by His might.

Let us honour and revere the great God of heaven and earth.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO HAS MERCY ON US

Isaiah 53 verse 6 says:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

All of us, every single one of us, has gone astray. We have pursue our own plans in iniquity and moved away from the Lord our creator and meandered in darkness. 

To lay the foundation of our redemption, the Lord our God laid our iniquity upon the sinless Son of God when He was crucified, so that we, who were lost, could be regained for the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The internal impetus that the Lord had to undertake such a high cost for our salvation was mercy.

Psalm 123 verse 1 - 2 describes it like this:

Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God, Until He has mercy on us.

Here, a primal drive within us is ignited to realize our guilt and when we are at a loss for what to do, we turn to the God of heaven and look to our Lord until He has mercy on us.

The turning to the Lord and realizing that it is from Him that our salvation will come, is the primer for the next step which is to look upon Him and wait on Him so that He may look upon us and have mercy. 

In the book of Hebrews 8 verse 12, the Lord says;

*“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

The Lord, who cannot despise a contrite heart, acts in mercy towards us and applies the cleansing blood of Jesus on us and our sins are washed away and are remembered no more.

Bless the Lord for His mercy.

Amen.

*Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God-Will-Show-Mercy

OUR LORD WHO WAITS FOR US 

In the model of redemption that the Lord our God set out for us, we first have the sacrifice of the Son of God for the  propiciation of our sins.

This sacrifice can only be voluntarily accepted and thus the offer of salvation is made to us and we are subsequently saved if we believe and accept the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, part of the mechanism of redemption  involves the Lord our God waiting for us to accept the offer of salvation. 

Peter the Apostle explains the metaphor of the Lord  waiting patiently for people to accept the offer to be saved by the ark of Noah when the flood approached. The door of the ark was left ajar to last minute to let any soul who changed their  mind at the final moment to enter the ark. 

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

                                       1 Peter 3 verse 18 - 20

The Lord waits patiently for  us to make up our minds about whether we will believe Him or not.

Isaiah 30 verse 18 illustrates that God actively wants us to draw near to Him because He longs to be gracious and compassionate to us and thus He waits to give every possible opportunity to us to accept His offer of salvation.

So the LORD must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.

                                    - Isaiah 30 verse 18

This lovely passage expresses the symmetry of the Lord waiting for us to show us His love and us, waiting for the Lord to receive His blessings.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO DISCIPLINES US

Hebrews 12 verse 5 - 6, quotes Proverb 3 verse 11 that says:

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,  nor faint when you are reproved  by Him,for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives.

The writer of Hebrews was emphasizing the efficacy  of the discipline of the Lord towards moving us into holiness.

The Lord's discipline legitimizes our place as sons and we are not to faint or shy away from the reproof we get and we should understand that everyone is subject to scourging when they are received into the household of God as sons of God.

Bless the Lord.

Amen. 

OUR LORD WHO CALLS US

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called ; one Lord,one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

                         - Ephesianns 4 verse 1 - 6

The call of God is a formal optioning that a believer receives to be considered for a posting in the kingdom of God.

Receiving this call is an invitation to leave behind the mundane and adopt the discipline and rigor that functioning in the spiritual plane requires. It is a test run to measure our ability to heed the voice of the Spirit and perceive the nature and operations of the spiritual realm..

Parallel to this passage is a sobering injunction  issued by the Lord Jesus himself in Mathew 22 verse 14. 

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Here, the called are those invitated to rise up to kingdom  service while the chosen are those who are able to cleave to  the call  and its pressures and are then selected to be entrusted with specialized operations in the kingdom of God on  earth.

The call, when issued to us, must stir us to be on full alert and heightened dedication to obedience and holiness to qualify for the honor of being chosen.

Have mercy on us O Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SUPPLIES ALL OUR NEEDS

Philippians 4 verse 19 says:

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

Paul wrote this after describing how the Phillipians undertook to send Him what he needed out of what they had until he was amply supplied. In effect, the Lord's response  to their selfless generosity to Paul would be that the Lord would in turn provide for them out of his unlimited riches in glory.

In Psalm 34 verse 10, it says:

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Here again we see that out of the Lord's riches of good things, those who seek Him are supplied.

This verse, markedly,  treats young lions as the opposite of those who seek the Lord. The scriptures on occasion, metaphorically characterize young lions as entities who are on the prowl looking to destroy the children of God.

In this case, they suffer from  lack and need while their prey, God's children, are well supplied. This parallels the passage in Psalm 23 verse 5. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

The image here is that the ones who trust in God have a table of delicious things set before them while they  among their enemies and they have everything they need.

In fact, it is when we are not ensconced in safety but instead surrounded by enemies that the Lord relishes providing for us abundantly in His generosity  toward those who lean on Him in the face of danger. 

Bless His wonderful name.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS HOLY

The word Holy means to be set apart or to be consencrated or dedicated. Its meaning in the Christian context is more precisely intended to mean set apart from the common or mundane or contaminated and set apart to cleanliness and perfection.

Frequently in the scripture, God ascribes the attribute of holiness to Himself to represent Himself as morally perfect and pure and clean and absolutely beyond reproach.

Isaiah juxtaposes two stances of our Lord regarding His holiness.

For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

                                 - Isaiah 57  verse 15

Here, the prophet, speaking for the Lord says that God dwells in a lofty, exalted and holy place AND also with the contrite and lowly of spirit. 

The Lord sets Himself apart in His holiness but will descend from there to dwell with the contrite and lowly of spirit. 

As it says in Psalm 51 verse 17:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

God will always maintain His Holiness but He has a high affinity for the contrite or repentant heart  and thus is impelled to come down from His Holy abode to be with the lowly.

Bless His  holy name.

Amen.