He was born to die!

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are                        healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53: 5-6

That's powerful prophetic scripture! Alistair Begg, in What Angels Wish They Knew, 
points out many interesting and thought-provoking aspects of the death of Christ.
He mentions the three hours of darkness that spread over the land in the mid-afternoon;
quite a contrast to the bright light that ushered in the glorious birth of the child Jesus.

Hymn words:

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut the glories in,
When God the mighty maker dies
For man the creature's sin.

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God"  2 Cor. 5:21

There are many confused nihilists in this world that would suggest that we are born, ____
happens, and then we die. Jesus, as fully God and fully man, came to this world 
in a total act of sacrifice and walked steadily toward a brutal death upon a cross. He, of
course, by necessity, needed to be both God and man, as chief priest and as the second
Adam to fulfill God's glorious grace-filled plan for redemption of those who would recognize
their need for a spotless redeemer. 

Yes, He came here to die. Along the way He taught the gospel of good news, performed
countless miracles, reached out to the sick with healing and succumbed to most
brutal, unfair treatment with unbelievable grace and class. His was on a mission for His
Father, complete and noble willingness to do what would bring glory and provide
for His sheep, who He knew from before the beginning of time.

They were dark moments done for dark people. He was the light of the world come down
to provide a means. He remains the light of the world, a light shining brightly in the
hearts of those who love Him.

I love Him! Praise His glorious name.

Sorry...I just cannot call it Good Friday!

The etymology of the term "good" in the context of Good Friday is contested. Some sources claim it is from the senses pious, holy of the word "good", while others contend that it is a corruption of "God Friday".

According to Wikipedia, Good Friday has also been known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday and God Friday. Personally, I'd prefer any of those terms to the one celebrated
mostly by Christians this coming Friday.

 I can certainly understand "good' in association with the events leading up to the
crucifixion of Christ Jesus. There is without question good that resulted from this sacrifice:
the potential salvation for those who would believe in and trust our Lord, in fact, the only
possible way to a lasting relationship with our Holy God, the unbelievable strength and
servitude that allowed Jesus to march to a horrible series of events culminating in His
death, the fulfillment of prophesy and the law and the presentation of the new
covenant between God and those who have been saved by the very blood shed on Calvary.
The very moment of victory over death and over satan would have to be labeled as
good.

Yet, I just cannot wrap my heart around calling what happened to Jesus in all the events
that led up to His death, from even before His arrest to His last most memorable words,
"good." I know that these events were planned even before the beginning of creation,
that they were understood as necessary for the eventual salvation of some and the
judgement of all. I know that the culmination of these events and the Resurrection
resulted in Christ Jesus being the King of all creation, being adored and honored by God
the Father as King of Heaven and Earth. I know the necessity of these events that led
to the Holy Spirit in-dwelling all those in Christ. Yet, I don't know how to get past the
humiliation, the suffering, the anxiety, the pain, the loneliness... you get the picture.

Yes, I will be there in church this Sunday praising God for the Resurrection that
brings the Easter celebration. I will be mindful of the great sacrifice that led to my
sinful soul being reunited with God, undeserved totally on my part, by grace and faith
alone. I will sing the hymns, take the bread and the juice and thank God in my heart for
what He has done.

And yet, in my heart of hearts, deep within my soul, I will mourn for what happened to
my beloved Jesus Christ, totally undeserving of what was asked due to my sin.

How I love you, Jesus. I am so very sorry!

To love Him is to know Him

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days
that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them."  Psalm 139: 16

Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days 
are over, yet even now what we know of Jesus is small compared to what He knows of
us.  (Taken from Morning and Evening devotionals by Charles Spurgeon, revised by
Alistair Begg)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made...  Psalm 139

Okay, I will have to admit that the playing field is not level, here. We are starting at
a glorious disadvantage because Christ Jesus has known us... forever. We know, also,
that His being God allows Him to be omniscient right down to our every thought before
it is even spoken. 

Yet this is not a roadblock to a great desire to know Christ Jesus as thoroughly as we
can possibly know Him. It seems obvious, doesn't it, that we would strive to be aware
of Him in every way; yet, I have to admit that even in praising Him and glorifying
Him in my heart, I have been rather lazy when it comes to just getting down to
learning about Him in a useful way. In my case I cannot blame being busy, forgetful
or any other lame excuse...I just haven't put in the work. Yet, I really want to.

There are a myriad of great books available on Jesus. I will share just a couple that
I found helpful for starters:  Jesus- The Greatest Life of All by Charles Swindoll, More
Than a Carpenter by Josh Mcdowell, The Man Christ Jesus by Robert J Morgan,
Speaking of Jesus, by J Mack Stiles. Those are just the ones that I have had the privilege
to read through recently.

Obviously, The Holy Bible provides a look at our savior through His words, actions and
the words of those who shared His ministry here on earth. I know that even the gospels
and new testament books couldn't possibly exhaust the glory that is our Christ, but what
a wonderful resource they are!

So what are we waiting for? While we cannot match His supreme knowledge of ourselves,
we can earnestly work at knowing more about the God-man who came down to
this earth to provide the one possible means for we sinners to be reconciled to God,
and that way was so very costly, a lonely death like none other... hanging on a cross.

We love Him. We need to know Him! It's a natural subject matter!

Praise God!

Humble Pie...We are the clay!

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2

Pride is one very difficult thing to swallow. It has been called the source of all sin; it
certainly gets in the way of perceiving God correctly. A lot of folks want their turn
at the potter's wheel when it comes to fashioning God in the way they wish Him to 
be. They pick and choose attributes that fit their own perception of what their God
ought be like. "Well, my God is a God of _____."  How could your God allow that
to happen?" Where was God when this or that crisis occurred?"

The tough-to-swallow news is that "we" are the clay. We are part of a creation
spoken into existence by the almighty God. He is the artist, the greatest creator of
them all. We are the material He chose to fashion into human beings created in the
image of God with certain characteristics that reflect the very different being
called God.

For us to attempt to limit or to define Him as some sort of prerequisite to our
willingness to "accept" or "believe" in Him is very dangerous. We have a hard time
accepting ourselves as raw material, if you will. We want to be the master of our
existence and we are very willing to nudge a God in that fits our conception of what
he ought to do and be like. 

Accepting the gospel of salvation requires us to see our vast limitations. To make
any sort of commitment to Jesus, we have to see ourselves as the sinners we are;
we have to realize our need to be lifted up and changed by the presence of God in
our lives. We have to call on Him to continue to mold us from what we have been
to what only Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God can make us be.

Once one sees the truth in the mirror, or at least perceives a bit of that reality,
one can go on to submit to the glory and grace of God. He is the King of the
universe, worthy of our worship and praise! He is God, not the God we think He
ought to be, but the artist who created all there was, is or ever will be.

Praise Him!

The REAL Domino Theory

Once again, I find myself reading Alistair Begg; this time his book entitled What Angels
Wish they Knew has my attention. If you have never read Alistair or listened to one
of his sermons or radio shows, you are in for a spiritual treat! 

In the book he mentions Aquinas's "Five Ways," five arguments suggesting that a
belief in God is consistent with the world as we know it. One of the ways talks about the
fact that everywhere in this world things are moving.

Let me digress a moment and mention the Domino Theory, as it pertains to my own
life story. I was of the age of conscription right in the middle of the Vietnam war. I'll
end the suspense by saying that circumstances led to my not being a participant. The
reason behind our involvement in that conflict was the perception held by some that
losing Vietnam to communism would simply begin or continue the fall of other nations,
almost like dominoes falling, one after another. After a grotesque number of deaths and
casualties, we left, defeated, and the whole theory proved to be unsubstantiated.

As Aquinas states, everything in this world is in motion. Electrons revolving about the
cell nuclei, rivers and streams, the tides and winds, our planet's rotation, the solar system
and galactic movement... I could go on and on.

We have all probably set up or at least witnessed a long long line of dominoes standing
upright at just the right spacing to allow for a total avalanche once the very first domino
is set in motion. 

Here's the point. Without someone to begin that first nudge of domino number one, there
is no 'cool' domino destruction. They don't just decide, on their own, to self destruct, even if
there are a bunch of folks waiting for it to happen....

You can make the jump here. Without someone, a very powerful, omnipotent someone to
begin all of the movement we see around us in this fascinating universe, well... nothing would
be moving. 

Now I've come along way in my ability to believe, by faith, in the God I love. But I will go
ahead and admit that ideas like this make me smile. He's there. You and I know it and
nothing could be more fundamentally important to our souls' well-being.

Praise God!  (Alistair, too!)

Macular degeneration of the soul

"Open your eyes and the whole world is full of God!"  Jacob Bohme

It's been a long cold winter for a lot of folks! Even here in Northern Texas the weather
was a lot colder than the previous winters I have spent here. But now, as things warm
a bit, one can see the miracle of spring. Things, here, are actually, even if briefly, green
and lush looking. It's very nice to see the changes!

Seeing is the key, here. For whatever the reason, there are many people who simply
put on the blinders and fail to see the absolute positive proof that God exists and shows
Himself, abundantly, through His creation. One needs do nothing more than walk outside
and listen to the sounds of spring, look at the sights of spring and breathe in the new
smells of rebirth. 

A. W. Tozer said, "We pursue God because, and only because, he has first put an urge within
us that spurs us to the pursuit." This must be the reason why so many prideful people
not only refuse to seek God but go out of their way to find excuses to not believe in Him.
I believe all of us feel deeply saddened by the fact that there are those whose energies
get tangled up by what can only be, quite frankly, Satan's handiwork. It's really not
a difficult realization that there is a omniscient, transcendent God in control of this earth
and all who inhabit it. 

It's as if people have been blinded. Pride makes many folks unable to see themselves in
any position other than in charge. They will spend much energy seeking ways to deny
that which is plainly presented for all to who would look. Maybe God has simply caused
these individuals to overlook His presence. I am of the opinion, and that is all it is, that
these folks have simply decided to be blind of their own volition. 

How sad. What a tragic loss. I for one will continue to pray that these energies may
somehow be transformed into the joy that can only come when one realizes the
glory and majesty of a loving Father God. He's right there in front of your face...
get those eyes examined...get that heart unfrozen. Time is of the essence!

Praise God!

Every Christian should be an environmentalist!

The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man.

 
Psalm 115: 16

I finally ordered "Planet Earth," a BBC production with some amazing photography. It's a look, mainly, at living things in different environments around this amazing blue planet that
God has shared with us. Sometimes the emphasis on the broken nature of this world can
paint a negative picture on the creation that God, Himself, called good. This DVD series
presents proof that God, indeed, did amazing work in creating earth and the life that
literally teems upon it.

It seems to me that a conservative bent which one finds where I am currently living
sometimes lumps all environmentalists and ecologists as whacked-out, tree hugging, coal
hating fanatics. I am sure that those types of folks exist; yet, feeling that all folks who
value the environment and wish to preserve natural resources are extremists seems a
bit juvenile.

We, that means all of us who seek to worship God by praising His glorious works, must,
in the end, feel the need to be stewards of this world he created. It is totally correct to be
in awe of God and His attributes, and certainly, a look at the world he has created, even one
seen on a walk in ones backyard, ought to bring about a desire to not only praise Him but also to defend this work by doing our best to maintain its beauty and blessings. 

So, yes, we are, after all, environmentalists because we want to thank our God for what he
has done, created and shared. The picture which has become quite famous of the Earth rising
over the horizon of the moon's surface, perhaps best illustrates on a large level, how very
amazing and beautiful this Earth is. Since we live here and benefit from what God has
provided, we are called upon by scripture to be stewards of this place. It's broken, that's
our bad, but we all can make our mark on showing God how much we appreciate
and honor what he has created.

Good, indeed. Great is our creator, Lord and King!