“…a body you have prepared for me”

Sometimes when Scripture makes a seemingly obvious statement, we might be inclined to simply accept it as such and read on. But it all has meaning and significance, and can be just a few words. In Heb. 10:5 it says that God prepared for Jesus a body – a prophecy taken from Psalms.

In Mark 14, in the Garden, Jesus asked the three apostles to watch with Him and said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful to the point of death…” (ASV)   This could be taken as anticipating the cross, but the language sounds more immediate.   Biological changes were happening in This Body.

I thought:  “What is the capacity of Deity to grieve?” We can only say, far beyond what man can bear. Yet Jesus was still in the earthly body while bearing the fullness of His Godhead and the culmination of an eternity anticipating the night of rejection and the flood of the sins of mankind upon Him – while the Father watched.   A “normal” human body could not endure and so, “A body You have prepared for me…”  Prepared to endure Divine Suffering.

Could it be that through the Garden and all through the blows and heartbreak, Jesus was fighting just to stay in the body until His obedience was complete.

It might seem obvious to some, but what love!

Another thought – In the garden Jesus expressed His humanness when He reached out for human comfort that the Apostles could not give. Human and Divine.

Noli

Note:  Just a day or so after Nolia had finished writing this blog, a car drove up our drive and a dear friend  brought us the print shown in the image above.  She told us she had seen it at a local thrift store and had been led by the Lord to buy it and bring it to us.   The Spirit of God moves in beautiful ways.

 

All You Need Is Love

Walking the beach I found this shell remnant with an obvious message carved by the relentless forces of the sea.  My Facebook post was, “Getting a little love from the beach;-)!”  The heart shaped hole in the shell is recognized by most but looks nothing like an actual heart but has since the middle ages represented the seat of emotions, the heart.  The essence of God according to the apostle John is love.  Hey, even the Beatles sang, “All You Need Is Love.”  Love is one of the few constants in an ever changing and unsettled world.  But it is God’s love that not only redeems the fallen but enlightens the present suggest that troubles us all.  Paul in a written prayer for the church at Ephesus prays, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
In what constitutes a spiritual oxymoron Paul prays for them to know the full dimensions of loves depth which “surpasses knowledge.”

Yes, the love of God defies true comprehension yet it is that very borderless immensity that assures our hearts and leaves us with a debt we cannot repay.  In short, the grip of God’s grace on our heart is that we know the infinite love that rescued us from a fallen world… from our wounded and calloused hearts.  All we needed was love!

Dan McQuiddy

“Zhostove”

‘Zhostove’ is an art form that is both complex and beautiful…painting on wooden trays with exacting strokes to achieve the perfect control and repetition of the border detail; the brushing of glorious imaginative central florals adding to the wonder of the piece, exquisite in it’s symmetry.

One such artist, a lovely, graceful lady in the English tradition, told me a story that totally captured my imagination and made me think seriously about my Christian life. She spoke of a wondrous Japanese ‘Zhostove’ artist who painted with such precision and beauty that as she watched his strokes, she couldn’t stop crying. The absolute perfection and wonder of his work impressed her so strongly that it brought a tearful, emotional response. Even while she talked of her time spent with him, she shared some of the same response that made the experience so real.

Now, I know I’m hardened, but here’s my wonder: Am I like the unpainted tray? As I view the mercies of God spreading out over the canvas of my life, I wonder at the little emotion that I feel. Are there tears of wonder at the change of life, the joy and the release from bondage of sin? Sometimes I wonder if the world has painted its images into me so deeply that I can no longer feel the brush of God touching me.

But this is not only about me. It’s about all of us. I know Jesus is waiting to change the canvas….paint over the sin-sickness that burdens us….touching the brush of the Spirit to our very souls to form the face of Christ over our lives. The Scripture tells us that we are God’s handiwork. If that could happen, the world would see the brushwork and wonder at the presence of God that comes to live within us. But as our minister, evangelist, Marvin Pegg, used to often ask, “Where are the tears?”

With thoughtful regards for this day,  Byron Pickering  3/10/2016

 

The Train has Left the Station

Two thoughts: (1) We did not ask or choose to be born. We were not consulted as to when, where, or to whom it (we) would happen. (2) We are in a battle that has been going on long before number one took place. This battle, the only one that matters, is beyond epic and well beyond anything ever experienced in human conflict. It is being fought in all that is. We are in it by our very existence.

We may not like this. We may argue the “fairness” of it. We can complain, become angry, and even shake a fist. We did not ask for this fight. None of that matters. What is, is.

As to our coming into existence, we might have chosen a different time, different parents, different culture, different everything but, again, there is no changing or altering what took place. We became. We are here, now, and that’s that.

As to the battle, the same reality. The warfare was not our doing. We did not enlist, we did not volunteer. It started, has continued, and will be ongoing whether we want it to or not.

What are we to do? We are. It is. The train has left the station. There is no return trip. There are no hardship cancellations. No refunds. There is no getting off at the next stop. There are no stops until the end of all things. There is no quit.

When a person chooses Jesus, they make a commitment to engage in the battle for, and with God, against all that is against God. No demilitarized zone. No, “no-fire” zone. No R and R. No going home to bury the dead. No timeout’s. No changing the rules, and no honorable discharge. It is every day, every moment, fighting, every place a war zone, and an ever determined enemy out to destroy us. If we deny Jesus, we are God’s enemy.

We can deny this or reject the validity of this. We can live our “Christian” lives oblivious to our participation. None of that makes it go away.

Here’s one more fact (accept it or reject it) that cannot be altered. One side, and only one side, wins. The hard truth is this, we have already chosen which side we are on, and our lives reveal our choice.
Dan Smith 3-8-2016

Trump

Are you as confused as I am about the upcoming election? I find myself shaking my head over schoolyard repartee and the abandonment of civility.  My only solace is that regardless the outcome God still reigns over the universe and is the real trump.  I’m not interested in joining the mudslinging or to add to the anxiety that mounts daily on the campaign trail. I do however pray that beyond the madness will lie the hope of godliness not wrapped in the shroud of a party or religion or ideology but in common sense and love.  Particularly the love of God that transcends all.  That trumps everything else because it seeks the good of all!