Psalm 29
The Voice of the Lord:
--is over the waters --thunders --is powerful --full of majesty --splinters the cedars of Lebanon –divides flames --makes tress skip like a calf --shakes the wilderness
Psalm 29:9
“The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, ‘Glory!’”
The VOICE of the Lord is attributed with all these mighty acts. The weakest part of man. What can man do with his voice that physically exerts force of a noticeable kind?
How LARGE the temple of the Lord must be!!! And they all shout, “GLORY!!” United in one voice. What else can those in His temple proclaim? What else would they want to declare? We are to go there one day. His people ARE His temple. I am being fashioned into His temple. I will be among those exclaiming, “GLORY!”
Where will my strength come to do that? My knees, banging together – my hands begin to sweat and as the pulse of my heart begins to race, the blood rushes to my head.
I feel weak and rather sickly. I fall to the floor while all the cries of glory continue to ring throughout His temple.
Should I be here? Do I belong?! I am unworthy to behold such resplendent glory. Who is this King – strong and mighty -- who needs to but speak and all is destroyed and melted away? YET He paid for us to come into His presence. He PAID for me to see His glory and be so moved at His holiness in order to show Himself great because there is no name above His name. The One who should destroy preserves.
One approaches me. I cannot and do not raise my head from the floor. I can feel His eyes staring at my form. I sense that He is moving forward. I wait in expectation. Instead of wrathful fury, He reaches out to touch my shoulder. It is the Lord!
All at once my body is straightened with reverential awe. I want to fall further down before Him and yet, I want to run into His arms and see Him. I cannot move. He knows my every thought, hope, all the idle words I have spoken, all the sins I have ever committed. I think I am shaking. What will His holy righteousness do to me? What will happen when I look? Will I melt away? What does He look like?! I long to praise Him with the multitudes, but I cannot move.
He speaks.
The voice! The thunderous, moving like the mighty rushing waters voice! That powerful and supreme voice!!
“I AM that I AM who gave up all the glories of heaven for your sin. I AM that I AM who died to take the wrath of God for you. I AM that I AM who is love. Before me there are no other gods. Stand up! Your sins are for ever removed. I have clothed you. There is no more fighting the flesh. There is no more tears before me. You have endured to the end. Stand and worship your God.”
Instantaneously, I rise; strengthened by His assurance, I stand and see Him and only want to fall again. My God who I pained, doubted, fought to pursue and love; my faithful, holy, righteous, obedient, sacrificing God. The Alpha and the Omega, my Creator, my Righteousness, my Savior, my Judge, my Lord, my Father, my Love – I see Him at last and am changed permanently and forever. I know Him as He knows me. I will dwell in His presence for ever more! Praise the name of Jesus!
All bow their knees before Him and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and as one voice the multitude in the temple cries out, “GLORY!”
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Paradox
“I am a walking contradiction; partly truth, partly fiction.”
But praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who knows me and yet has chosen to change me into the image of His Son for His glory. Soli Deo Gloria!! He will complete the work and (PRAISE Him) He has already been shredding layers of me away from myself. PRAISE Him for allowing me to be refined. PRAISE Him for not giving me over to my rebellious and selfish heart. PRAISE Him for His faithfulness to all generations. He is good, patient, faithful, steadfast in His love, slow to anger, and abounding in patience. All eyes look to Him for from Him come all things needed for our life. PRAISE Him for life and breath. PRAISE Him for the opportunity to know Him who is true and be IN Him who is true. PRAISE Him for the revelation of the mystery – God revealed bodily – made manifest and testified to the world. May we continue that process in earnest and until the day He returns, knowing that it hastens His coming.
Paradox – taken from “The Valley of Vision”
O Changless God,
Under the conviction of thy Spirit I learn that the more I do, the worse I am, the more I know, the less I know, the more holiness I have, the more sinful I am, the more I love, the more there is to love. O wretched man that I am!
O Lord, I have a wild heart, and cannot stand before thee; I am like a bird before a man. How little I love they truth and ways!
I neglect prayer, by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly, by knowing thou hast saved my soul.
Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be an evangelical hypocrite, who sins more safely because grace abounds, who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood cleanseth them, who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell, for he is saved, who loves evangelical preaching, churches, Christians, but lives unholily.
My mind is a bucket without a bottom, with no spiritual understanding, no desire for the Lord’s Day, ever learning, but never reaching truth, always at the gospel-well but never holding water. My conscience is without conviction or contrition, with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power or decision or resolution. My heart is without affection, and full of leaks. My memory has no retention, so I forget easily the lessons learned, and thy truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet carries home the water of grace.
But praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who knows me and yet has chosen to change me into the image of His Son for His glory. Soli Deo Gloria!! He will complete the work and (PRAISE Him) He has already been shredding layers of me away from myself. PRAISE Him for allowing me to be refined. PRAISE Him for not giving me over to my rebellious and selfish heart. PRAISE Him for His faithfulness to all generations. He is good, patient, faithful, steadfast in His love, slow to anger, and abounding in patience. All eyes look to Him for from Him come all things needed for our life. PRAISE Him for life and breath. PRAISE Him for the opportunity to know Him who is true and be IN Him who is true. PRAISE Him for the revelation of the mystery – God revealed bodily – made manifest and testified to the world. May we continue that process in earnest and until the day He returns, knowing that it hastens His coming.
Paradox – taken from “The Valley of Vision”
O Changless God,
Under the conviction of thy Spirit I learn that the more I do, the worse I am, the more I know, the less I know, the more holiness I have, the more sinful I am, the more I love, the more there is to love. O wretched man that I am!
O Lord, I have a wild heart, and cannot stand before thee; I am like a bird before a man. How little I love they truth and ways!
I neglect prayer, by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly, by knowing thou hast saved my soul.
Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be an evangelical hypocrite, who sins more safely because grace abounds, who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood cleanseth them, who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell, for he is saved, who loves evangelical preaching, churches, Christians, but lives unholily.
My mind is a bucket without a bottom, with no spiritual understanding, no desire for the Lord’s Day, ever learning, but never reaching truth, always at the gospel-well but never holding water. My conscience is without conviction or contrition, with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power or decision or resolution. My heart is without affection, and full of leaks. My memory has no retention, so I forget easily the lessons learned, and thy truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet carries home the water of grace.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Pigtails
Sun shining--
--- the much awaited warmth of spring falls on the shiny-blonde pigtails of two young sisters. Both are biking with the help of training wheels while their “baby-bumped” mother follows behind them. She jogs occasionally while guiding a biking boy of about two years.
As we part ways an unfamiliar song begins to stream through my shuffle and into my ears, Beautiful Lord. “Your majesty is above all I know or can understand. The beauty of Your majesty – on the cross You showed Your love for me. Awesome and mighty, tender and holy; I’m captured by this love I see. Your mercy brings me to my knees.”
Grace is my shelter against sin. In my weakness, He is strong. It is Your mercy that makes me FREE.
I enter the playground section of the park and am overwhelmed with some emotion. What God is this who I desire to serve? – Who I fail? Look at the babies being pushed by their mothers in the swings, children laugh and run with shining faces reflecting the beauty of the sun – reflecting the grace of their unknown Creator.
A goggle of teen girls giggle as they gently tease one another. Husbands and wives hold hands and walk around the lake. Mothers delight in the joy of their children while fathers seek to push their children into the clouds. A team of young football players take the field as the sun begins to set. I walk back to my car.
The sun is at my back and casts a shadow before me. That is a picture of life; a shadow. Here and laughing in one moment and vanishing in darkness the next. Look to the Creator who has blessed you with the grace of His goodness on this day. Enjoy the sun and know His Son. The day will soon come when the delight-giving pigtails will be brushed out and forgotten. Days of pain and trouble will occur, but not yet. Not in the park on a sunny-warm day in Washington.
I wish that these may know Him – He who shines brighter, truer, and longer than the spring sunshine. It is He in who is no variation or shadow of turning; the Alpha and Omega, God alone; beautiful Lord who allows us to graciously experience beauty when we are only death.
Praise Him for the –
--Son Shining.
--- the much awaited warmth of spring falls on the shiny-blonde pigtails of two young sisters. Both are biking with the help of training wheels while their “baby-bumped” mother follows behind them. She jogs occasionally while guiding a biking boy of about two years.
As we part ways an unfamiliar song begins to stream through my shuffle and into my ears, Beautiful Lord. “Your majesty is above all I know or can understand. The beauty of Your majesty – on the cross You showed Your love for me. Awesome and mighty, tender and holy; I’m captured by this love I see. Your mercy brings me to my knees.”
Grace is my shelter against sin. In my weakness, He is strong. It is Your mercy that makes me FREE.
I enter the playground section of the park and am overwhelmed with some emotion. What God is this who I desire to serve? – Who I fail? Look at the babies being pushed by their mothers in the swings, children laugh and run with shining faces reflecting the beauty of the sun – reflecting the grace of their unknown Creator.
A goggle of teen girls giggle as they gently tease one another. Husbands and wives hold hands and walk around the lake. Mothers delight in the joy of their children while fathers seek to push their children into the clouds. A team of young football players take the field as the sun begins to set. I walk back to my car.
The sun is at my back and casts a shadow before me. That is a picture of life; a shadow. Here and laughing in one moment and vanishing in darkness the next. Look to the Creator who has blessed you with the grace of His goodness on this day. Enjoy the sun and know His Son. The day will soon come when the delight-giving pigtails will be brushed out and forgotten. Days of pain and trouble will occur, but not yet. Not in the park on a sunny-warm day in Washington.
I wish that these may know Him – He who shines brighter, truer, and longer than the spring sunshine. It is He in who is no variation or shadow of turning; the Alpha and Omega, God alone; beautiful Lord who allows us to graciously experience beauty when we are only death.
Praise Him for the –
--Son Shining.
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