OUR LORD WHO TREASURES US

In the book of Exodus 19 verse 5,  the Lord declares that His people will be His  treasured possession on the condition that they obey Him.  It is said this way;

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,

The book of Malachi 3 verse 17 (NIV) says; 

“On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.

This allusion to how much our God treasures us is a poignant prophecy of the time that was to come and now is when the Lord would gather to Himself highly valued sons and daughters whom He set apart as those who would serve Him.

To be the Lord's treasure requires us to seek Him and His righteousness and to learn His voice and to follow Him and to serve Him. The Lord Himself will give us who believe on His name, the power to become the  sons of God and as sons, His treasured possessions.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen. 

OUR LORD WHO HEARS OUR SHOUTS

The Lord Jesus and the disciples were journeying up from Jericho to Jerusalem.

This was a tense journey because it was known that the leaders in Jerusalem were seeking to kill the Lord and instead of travelling away from Jerusalem, He was heading towards the city.

The disciples were likely hoping to adopt a low profile and quietly enter Jerusalem without stirring up too much ferment and try to avoid gaining the interest of  the authorities and their informants.

However, as they travelled,  a blind man, hearing that Jesus was passing by, realized that  this was the one chance in his life to have his sight restored so he began shouting to gain Jesus' attention. 

The people around Jesus, edgy because of the tense situation of travelling towards Jerusalem, warned the man to shut up but He made even more of a commotion likely raising tempers among the crowd. Here is how the story goes from Mark 10 verse 46 - 48.

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The testy group was upset because their anonymity was blown and others on the road to Jerusalem now knew who was on the road with them.

The Lord Jesus, the epicenter of the vortex of the taut situation, stopped the convoy and an encounter between He and the blind man occured in verse 49 and onward;

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Inspite of everyone trying to get Bartimaeus to pipe down, Jesus heard his shouts for mercy and responded to his persistence.

He stopped and called the blind man to Himself and asked him a surprisingly warm-natured question; "What do you want me to do for you?"

Bartimaeus, so desperately wanting to see, summarily responded that he wanted to see.

Jesus immediately restored his sight and the man followed Jesus up the road.

The persistence of the man paid off. He pressed his luck to try to contact Jesus and Jesus heard him over the commotion. The generous and compassionate  Jesus responded and gave Him the desire of his heart.

When we call out to Jesus with persistence and urgency, He will hear us too and respond to us as the scriptures say in Psalm 145 verse 18 - 19:

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.

Bless our gracious Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CALLS US

The Lord our God called the young Samuel in the night by his name. Samuel ran to the high priest, Eli, thinking that the call came from him. The story is told this way in 1 Samuel chapter 3 ;

The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Sam,llppuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Eli told Samuel that he did not call him and to return to his bed but after two more instances of Samuel running to Eli, he caught on to what was  happening and so Eli told Samuel to respond as to God because it was the Lord calling him. The passage continues this way;

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

This instructive passage models the way the Lord calls His people and how we can respond to God when the call comes to us. We can first recognize who is calling us and then be prepared to listen to Him.

The Lord Jesus calls us to belong to Him as it is  related in Roman's 1 verse 6. From among all people on earth including gentiles, the Lord calls us to Himself.

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Our calling is a call to a purpose and role. The Lord has specific functions for which we are designed and when we are called, we are matriculating into line of kingdom commissions for which we were created to the glory of our Lord Jesus.

In Roman's 8 verse 28, we then understand that what we are called to is the central driving force of what our lives in the spirit will consist of. The Lord will align circumstances around us in order to turn all things to our advantage in the service of our calling in Him. The passage says it this way:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

The calling of God is a highly significant centerpiece of our lives in the spirit with eternal ramifications.

This is why apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 1 verse 10, says;

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen

OUR LORD KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS

In the famous definition of love by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4 - 7, one of the hallmarks of love is that it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,  it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This property of love that forgives and erases wrongs is what makes long term and even eternal relationships based on trust possible. When all records of wrong are erased, friendships and marriages can be renewed everyday with trust and tenderness because they are not encumbered by the weight of guilt or bitterness.

Our God, being love Himself, demonstrates His faithfulness to clear all records of wrongs.

In Psalm 103 verse 11 - 12, it reads;

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Here, the Lord is shown to completely separate from any trace of transgression from those who fear Him.

Again in Hebrews 8 verse 12, we see the same promise;

For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

The Lord will not remember the sins of His people and they will be able to boldly go before the throne of grace before our God who is merciful.

Bless our wonderful God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GLOWS LIKE HEATED METAL

The apostle John, in describing a vision he had of Jesus, wrote this in Revelation 1 verse 15:

His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

When metal glows, it means that it is holding a huge amount of heat energy and some of this energy is radiated as light which gives off  the glow. 

Described by the prophet Ezekiel in the book of Ezekiel 1 verse 26 - 28, a very similar vision captures a glimpse of the effulgent Lord shining with great glory.

Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. 

Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. 

As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.

The Lord's appearance in glory is dazzling and fearsome enough for a person's senses to be overwhelmed and cause him to drop to the ground as happened to both apostle John and prophet Ezekiel.

 Such a great God of righteousness shines brilliantly in His eternal light.

Bless and honor His wonderous name.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S EXAMPLE OF HUMBLE SERVICE

When our Lord Jesus walked our dusty roads, He lived in an extraordinary way.

He lived the life of a humble itinerate preacher moving from town to town praying for the sick and oppressed and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. 

Sometimes, His budgets were tight where even the obligations of temple fees and taxes were beyond His ability to pay thus requiring a miracle to relieve the financial pressure.

Sometimes He couldn't afford shelter as He mentioned that foxes had holes and birds had nests but the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. 

Food was sometimes scarce for the group who followed Him to the degree that they needed to pick raw grain from fields to supplement their diets.

Against this backdrop, Jesus was unfailingly generous and was always prepared to serve the people who sought His help. 

An example of Jesus' sense of service was demonstrated when He was in the fishing town of Capernaum. He was suddenly summoned across the lake and He interrupted his visit to the town to sail to Gennaserette where a lost solitary soul, tormented by demons, ran naked among the tombs, cutting himself with stones.

Jesus, with an unwavering sense of duty and service, undertook the mission to find the demon-oppressed man and restored him to His right mind when the instruction to find this lost sheep was issued from heaven.

Another example of His sense of service while in Capernaum occurred when a temple administrator named Jarius and his wife, came to ask Him to heal their dying daughter. Jesus responded immediately and diverted His route towards their home. Even though the girl died before He got there, Jesus pressed through a scoffing crowd to raise Her from the dead.

In a final act of humble service to His followers, after the last supper, Jesus took a basin of water and wrapped a towel around His waist. Our Lord then knelt down and washed His disciples' feet and  dried them with the cloth he was wrapped with. 

This is the highest expression of service when the Lord, having been given all power and authority by God the Father, humbled himself to do the most menial and humble of tasks in service of those who were His students.

This passage in John 17 verse 3 - 17, tells of the  events that took place and the things that were said;

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Our Lord set a very counter-intuitive example.

Worldly norms expect that the people of high status be served by people of low status.

However,  through the course of His ministry, Jesus not only taught that "...whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave", Jesus also set an example for us by humbly serving those around Him (even his enemies) in a practical way.

Bless our wonderful Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S INHERITANCE

Psalm 24 verse 1 - 2 declares that the whole earth belongs to God and everything that dwells in pa bu by merit of His having founded and established it.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

In Psalm 2 verse 7 - 8, the psalmist describes a promise God the Father made to His Son Jesus saying that God will make Jesus the heir to all of God's claims of the earth and everything in it:

He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.

Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

The scriptures then tell how the Lord will not forsake His inheritance in Psalm 94 verse 12 - 15;

Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law; you grant them relief from days of trouble,till a pit is dug for the wicked.

For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.

Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

Here, our Lord promises not to forsake His inheritance that was given to Him by His Father.

We who believe in the salvation of God through Jesus are His inheritance and we are secured by Jesus' promise and power and authority.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen

OUR LORD'S DIVINE NATURE

Continuing from yesterday's study of Romans 1 verse 20 - 21, the last attribute of God that is revealed from the created order is our Lord's divine nature. The Lord's divine nature is the expression of His being as God.

In the way the universe and its contents point to the divine nature of God, we would be able to deduce that God is personal and that He is triune which means God is one but in three persons.

An aggressive inquiry into the origin of the universe reveals a logical impasse that cannot be breached aside from conceding that there is a personal decision maker involved in the building of our universe.

To presume that the universe sprang up on its own, one would quickly run into an intractable infinite recursion loop from which there is no escape.  At every layer of recursion, one would either have to have an infinitely old unstable singularity that suddenly and inexplicably destabilized or go back one recursion level and end up with the same improbable conundrum ad infinitum.

To get out of the loop, we are forced to introduce a deliberate or intentional choice to initiate a destabilization that results in the emergence of the universe. It is this intentionality requirement that points to a person as the originator of the universe. 

Getting to the triune part of God's  divine nature, could the existence of the natural world convincingly express the triune nature of God to minds that are willing to understand?

Yes. Once you conclude that there is a personal God who created the universe out of nothing  and who then made all things within the universe including the living creatures around us and, of course,  we ourselves, we must then consider the characteristics of this person who is able to do this. 

This is a sentient being who can create  out of nothing and, as well, conceptualize and create entities outside of Himself. A thought experiment will take you to a surprising revelation about such a being.

Think of this being conceptualizing a chair and a chair is materialized. A being who made the universe would have to be able to do this by definition. Now,  imagine this being thinking about Himself. In view of His powers, a second being would materialize who is a representation of Himself.

Remember, God is eternal and has always been able to think of Himself and so this second person is eternal as well. We are able to reach an understanding where at least two eternal persons axist as part of the divine nature of God.

When God says, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased", this is how the Son exists eternally and is an exact representation of God the Father. This is why Jesus could say, " He who  has seen me, has seen the Father" in John 14 verse 9.

An especially astute student of nature  could go further, consider the nature of the personal creator of the universe and  wonder if the God of the universe and His Son could properly be understood to be alive?  

In our realm, there is a distinction between living and not-living creatures and the living property seems to be independent of the material part of these creatures. That is why a living thing can become a non-living thing without losing any material and even though some would say life is about the organization of material and not about a spark of life, the presence of life itself seems to do the organizing and is not the result of the  organizing of material.

 That is why a cell can multiply from a single cell into the highly organized state of trillions of cells forming a human being and being alive remains the characteristic that permits the continuation of this process.

One could then say that the property of life was introduced right from the initiation of living things and is continually passed down from one generation to the next especially when no known examples exist of non-living material giving rise to living things. The living 'flame' so-to-speak, that is given from God is also the one who gives the Son of God the properties of life and as such, must be eternal as well and must have the power and extent of God in order to be the life of God. 

It is this line of thought that would yield the conception of the Holy Spirit who is also named the Spirit of Life in the scriptures in Romans 8 verse 1 - 2.

It can hereby be exclaimed that the created universe reveals the divine nature of God pertaining to His personhood and His triunity.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Bless the Lord's mighty name.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES

Yesterday, we looked at our Lord's eternal power that serves as a witness to God's existence . Today,  we continue with Romans chapter 1 to look at the invisible attributes of God that are listed as another witness from creation affirming that God truly is there.

To consider the span of our universe and to ponder the astonishing things it contains like solar systems and habitable planets and the  biological realm of living creatures, is to confront a question that has stupefied thinkers for eons. 

What qualities would a being have to possess in order to bring forth the varied and beautiful phenomena we see around us?

What qualities would the creating being have to have in order to conceptualize three dimensional space set in a river of time? What would such a creator have to be like in order to set in place a full-scale space/time continuum?

What would it take to imagine and design living things and imbue them with life? 

What about conciousness and intelligence? What would the maker of such things need in order to set out the parameters of sentient life and then further to that, build sentience that operates at a level high enough to ponder these very questions we are asking?

Romans chapter 1 verse 20 - 21 describes God's invisible attributes as being clearly seen.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

The invisible attributes are described as 'clearly seen' because the realm we live in is a metaphoric representation of the realm from which God created ours.  

If, as an example, we consider the intelligence of living things and see how this intelligence is required to decipher the dynamics of our world and as well, be used to engage in the building and sustaining of complex systems, we can perceive the intelligence that the originator of such an attribute would have to be  imbued with in order to dispense it.

 This would be like examining the workings of advanced computers and their purposes and being able to perceive how intelligent the builders  of such systems would necessarily  have to be.

This visible functioning  of intelligence among people  is a representation of the intelligence possessed and operated  by the invisible God.

In another example, the distinction between living beings and non-living things gives us a contrasting property by which to characterise what kind of being the creator is.  We look at our own world and see that being alive is a fundamental property needed in order for puposeful and intentional activity to be executed. 

We can thus correctly infer that the creator of all things, by seeing that creation would require purposeful and intentional activities, is a living being. One of the invisible attributes that God has is that He is alive.  

We can see living and intelligent beings working to create sytems  in our physical plane ( albeit in a derivitive sense) and from that, clearly see how these attributes can be inferred or extrapolated to our invisible God who Himself created complex systems writ large.

Bless the almighty God.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S ETERNAL POWER

The created universe we live in displays three aspects of God: His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature. These three affirmations of God are enough to serve as the two or three witnesses by which a matter is confirmed as required in scripture and so there is enough evidence for God to be seen in nature for Him to gratefully honored by men.

The book of Romans chapter 1 verse 20 - 21 says it this way;

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

The eternal power of God is the specific item of study in this presentation. 

The power of God is a fearsome thing to grasp in one's mind. We humans, in our temporal experience, know that our strength and power increase from youth and then fade away as our age diminishes us. However, in God's case, His power is beyond comprehension in its magnitude and then, additionally, is eternal. 

Our God holds a gargantuan quantity of power that is also absolutely inexhaustible.

How awesome and wondrous our Lord and God is. 

Amen.

Reference attribution: www.knowing-jesus.com

OUR LORD WHOM WE WAIT UPON

In Luke 2 verse 25 - 32, the story of Simeon is told. Simeon had recieved a promise from God that He would live to see the promised Messiah. And now Simeon was reaching advanced years having waited to see God's promise, when one day, he recognized the baby Jesus' at the temple  to be the long awaited saviour of the world and he made this poignant and profound declaration:

 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Alongside Simeon, a prophet named Anna,  who, after she had been widowed as a young woman,   had been praying and fasting in the temple every day for about 60 years as she waited for the arrival of the promised Son of God. Luke 2 verse 36 - 38 describes her encounter with the child:

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 

Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 

She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

These two prophets of God waited for many years for the arrival of Jesus to the point of running out the clock on their lives, when at long last, the promise was fulfilled and they saw the one whom all the prophets of old had yearned to see.

In our time, having the knowledge of the perfection attained by our Lord Jesus to gain salvation by His death and of whose salvation we have so freely been made beneficiaries,  should gladly wait upon the Lord all the more.

In Psalm 130 verse 6, we see an example of an eager and expectant soul awaiting the Lord. Our souls should be in the same stance of anticipation as we wait for the Lord to fulfill His promises to us.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Waiting upon the Lord is our due honor to Him but our Lord, in His graciousness, directs advantages to us as a benefit of our waiting upon Him because we undergo a dramatic metamorphosis in our hearts as described in Isaiah 40 verse 31:

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Those of us who wait upon the Lord like Simeon and Anna and the Psalmist did, are imbued with strength and stamina and endurance in the spirit where we can travail in the service of the kingdom of God so that where Jesus is, we may also be.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO WEEPS

In the story of the death of Jesus' friend Lazarus told in John 11 verse 33 - 35, Jesus was emotionally moved  in spirit and wept.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept..

In Hebrews 5 verse 7,  Jesus is described as weeping as He prayed to His Father. It says it this way;

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission..

Our Lord wept as He lived among us, complete with our infirmities and He knew our sorrows so that He could empathize with us in every way as He serves as our high priest making intersession for us before God the Father as it says in Hebrews 4 verse 14 - 16;

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need..

Jesus' tears give us certainty that, though being God, He felt what we feel and knew the depths of our sorrows and grief.

Praise our Lord and God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ASCENDED

Jesus' final hours were marked by extreme fatigue for being awake for up to 33 hours starting from the morning of the day before the crucifixion to His death at around 3:00 in the afternoon. 

His last hours were also marked by deep humiliation from being lied about, derided, spat on and mocked. 

He was in emotional pain from being betrayed and abandoned by His friends as well as leaving His mother behind.

 He was in  existential pain when His sense of closeness with His father in heaven was stripped away. 

He was in excruciating  physical pain from being repeatedly struck on His head and face, scourged and nailed to a cross and lifted up, suspended between heaven and earth.

After undergoing this, His body began to fail under the prolonged duress. Multiple cycles of shock had come and gone and His body, getting no reprieve from the stresses, began to undergo  organ failure. 

Now, emptied of every last reserve of strength, He used His last breath to commit His Spirit to God His Father and He bowed His head and died.

The sinless, righteous, kind-hearted and brave Lamb of God, who had been obedient to His father through every moment of His life, remained perfectly obedient to God even to the final act of giving His life up to fulfill the requirements of His Father; that He die for the sins of the world.

As all these events were happening in a very public arena, a devine wisdom was at work cloaked in such secrecy that the end result of the death of Jesus was unknown to the spiritual rulers of the kingdom of darkness. This is outlined in  1 Corinthians 2 verse 6 - 8;

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

As apostle Paul said, truly they would not have crucified the Lord of glory because the death of Jesus made a passage for Him into the headquarters of the kingdom of darkness and it was while He was there, having passed every minute test of law, that the absolute perfection of the Son of God was given full expression in a reffulgent blast of light that tore the gates of hell off their hinges and rendered the kingdom of darkness a humiliated, broken and  defeated remnant of its rebellious ambitions.

All this was revealed to all of creation and Jesus emerged triumphant in ressurection that proved His victory over evil.

What then followed was the ascension into heaven where the man Jesus, having undergone the most brutal possible destruction of a human being, triumphed over death by having overcome the world by emerging as holy and perfect under the most stressful conditions imaginable.

Jesus was now given the throne of rulership over heaven and earth with total authority over every creature be it in heaven or earth or below the earth. He is the majesterial King above all kings and the Lord above all lords.

This is the ascended Jesus Christ. High and lifted up and worthy of all honor and praise forever and ever.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO MAKES THINGS NEW

In the beginning, described in Genesis chapter 1 starting in verse 1, the Lord created the heavens and the earth. They were brand new and in this sense, our God makes new things for the first time.

In another sense, our Lord makes things anew. He takes things that are old and replaces them with the new. An extensive example of this is in Revelation 21 verse 1 - 5.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. 

Here, heaven and earth are to be replaced by a new heaven and earth.

There is another sense where the Lord makes things new. In Isaiah 43 verse 18 - 19, the scripture says this;

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

In this sense of God working on new things, our Lord refreshes our lives by encouraging us not to dwell on the past. He makes new ways and streams in areas of our lives that were parched and dry. He brings new opportunities and renews our visions and perceptions so that we don't stagnate but bubble with newness of God's refreshing.

The Lord makes all things new: on the grand scale of heaven and earth and on the small scale with the new things He brings to our lives.

Bless our Lord and God.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S WORDS MAKE US CLEAN

In the book of John chapter 15 verse 1 - 4 , Jesus, speaking to His Disciples, said:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. 

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

This passage marks a puzzling doctrine where the words Jesus spoke cleansed His listeners.

What does this mean?

Paul the Apostle mirrors this concept in the book of Ephesians 5 verse 25 - 27.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 

Here, the bride of Christ attains sanctification by being subjected to the washing of water with the word. 

The effect of God's word on his people is to cleanse them of spots, wrinkles or such blemishes leaving them holy and blameless.

In John 17 verse 16 - 19, Jesus said:

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

In this case, God's truth sanctifies us and God's word is truth so the doctrinal position of the cleansing power of the word of God is strengthened.

How does the word of God cleanse us or by what principle or law do the words of God purify us?

Firstly, the word of God, because it is truth, will accurately judge our thoughts and intentions. Subjecting ourselves to the word of God exposes our wrong internal attitudes that we cultivate and we are given the opportunity to correct our hearts and discard the delusions about ourselves that we so easily adopt into our lives.

Hebrews 4 verse 12 says this about the word of God's ability to expose the hidden condition of our hearts.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The word of God is sharp and acts as a scalpel that can reach deep into our human structure to the very boundary of  our souls and our spirits.  At this depth,  the thoughts and intentions (the contents of our hearts and our true motives)  are laid bare and the word of God gives us the tools to excise them if they are misplaced or inappropriate.

Secondly, the word is  like  a mirror that reflects back to us our true status related to our personal attentivenes and obedience to God.

 James chapter 1 verse 22 - 24, says it like this;

 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror  and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

As much as we possibly can, we should stay under the teaching of word of God so that the process of sanctification can reach completion in us. We should let the word of God continually wash us and over time, we will find that we have been transformed and refined to be closer to the image of our Lord Jesus.

Bless our Lord.

Amen.

Some reference help from www.diannethornton.com

THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN

V1 : 

There is a God in heaven

Who by His power He made all things

There is a God in heaven

Who is enthroned as King of Kings × 2

V2 : 

Cause He came down from heaven

He died to pay the price for me

The blessed Son from heaven

Poured out His blood to set me free

V3 : 

The Lamb of God from heaven

Dead three days then did ascend

There is a God in heaven

Of whose great kingdom shall be no end

Bridge : 

There is a God in heaven

There is a God in heaven

There is a God in heaven

There is a God in heaven. ×2

Verse 3

Verse 1

Amen

OUR LORD WHO SEES, HEARS AND KNOWS 

It is not uncommon to hear people posit that there is no God or that if there was a God, He does not see or is indifferent to the things going on earth.

The psalmist, in Psalm 94 verse 3 - 10, confronts this incorrect perception in this passage;

Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.

 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? 

he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

Here, the logic applied counters the notion being posited that God does not hear by illustrating that it is impossible to conceive of a creator who engineered the marvel of human audio capabilities while He himself was unable hear?

At the very least, the God who designed the audio sensory organs would have some interest in what was being transmitted by sound waves including the speech of people. 

It is  illogical to suggest that an indifferent, blind and deaf God would have purposelessly undertaken the technical tasks of designing eyes, ears and other senses and then, even more technically mind-boggling,  biologically encode these sensory technologies into our DNA.

The caution of the psalmist is that we would be delusional to proceed with life as though there is no accounting for the things we do to a God who sees, hears and knows all things.

Bless our Lord and God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SET HIS FACE TO FLINT

In Isaiah 50 verse 6 - 7, the prophet records a subtle detail about the preparation the Lord Jesus Christ made when the time of His humiliation and crucifixion was upon Him.

The passage reads this way:

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. 

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

This searing portion of scripture describes the ordeal that our Messiah had to endure for our sake. In the hands of His persecutors, He was going to be scourged, punched in the face, slapped, mocked and ultimately put to a terrifying death.

Our Lord, unfailingly  obedient to the Father, set His face to flint to muster every fiber of His body into staying absolutely steadfast as He was going through each gruelling stage leading up to His death on the cross.

Calling on every  inner resource, including the assurance that the Lord His Father would help Him, Jesus clenched His jaw and knitted His brow and locked His stare so that no part of Himself would quaver at the horror He faced.

There is none like Jesus.

In all eternity and all existence, there is none like Jesus.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GIVES US GIFTS

In a demonstration of His kindness, our Lord will many times give His children gifts to encourage them along their way. The Lord Jesus described the nature of these gifts using a contrasting metaphor in Mathew 9 verse 9 - 11.

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Here, the Lord our God is shown to be generous with good gifts that He gives to His children just for the asking. In this category of gifts that the Lord gives, His child could ask for a gift and our Father in heaven would surpass any human father in fulfilling the request by the giving of good gifts.

1 Corinthians 12 verse 7 - 11 lays out another category of gifts where the gifts are spiritual abilities that are given to individuals. The individuals, then develop the giftings that are in them and they are then able to use the gifts for ministering to each other for the benefit of the body of Christ as a whole by the guidance of the Spirit of God.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man for profit.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another various kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

But in all these works that one and same Spirit, dividing to every man individually as he will.

Our Lord also gives His people gifts of a different and more demanding category. In Ephesians 4 verse 7 - 13, the Apostle Paul outlines the way that God gives people, operating in various capacities, as gifts to the church. The passage goes like this:

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.”

(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 

Here, a  person is called and prepared by God to have specialized ministry skills that are constructive to the lives of the people of God and the church in general. 

Thus, the three kinds of gifts of God are dispersed among His people: Personal gifts, spiritual gifts and  the gift of able ministers prepared by God for good works.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO MARKS US AS HIS

Famously, the "mark of the beast" is the indelible tag that people aligned with the kingdom of darkness are identified by.

Less widely known but more important, is the mark that is used to identify the people of God.

A pre-figuration of this identification of God's people is the blood of the lamb that was painted over the doorways of the homes of the Israelite slaves in Egypt. When the plague of the angel of death was released in Egypt, the blood of the lamb on the doorway signaled the angel of death to pass over that household. ( Exodus 12 )

Another passage that discusses a mark that identifies the people God is Ezekiel 9 verse 3 - 4.

Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. 

The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

Here, the people who were to be marked by the angel of the Lord were those who recoiled at the atrocities that were occurring in their communities. This sensitivity was the deligneating factor that separated those who were to be spared and those who weren't.

The most expansive and far reaching expression of an identification mark is the seal of the Holy Spirit that is described in Ephesians 1 verse 4 - 5.

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

This seal, which is an eternal mark of redemption confered on a person who has believed in the power of Jesus to save,  is the royal seal of the Holy Spirit who is given as a type of  down payment on each individual.

The presence of this pledge signifies that the Lord will return with the full payment to collect whom He has promised to save.

Bless the Lord who positively identifies His people.

Amen.

OUR LORD RESTORES WHAT WAS LOST 

The Lord our God, in His care for His people, is mindful of the sustenance we need and He promises His people that He will restore to them what is lost in time and material.

The prophet Joel, in Joel chapter 2 ver 25 - 26, describes a scenario where the Lord's promise is applicable:

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God,Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.

As children of the Lord, all manner of enemies target us to devour the substance of our lives as part of the strategy to derail us from our purpose and destiny in the kingdom of God.

We must not to fret or despair for the Lord is able to restore to us what we need and provide for us in everyway. The Lord does not want us to  be discouraged and to be side-tracked with fighting and struggling for what was ours. 

If we leave things to Him, trusting in His goodness towards us, He will undertake to restore what we lost.

Bless the Lord.

Amen.

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.