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Monday, 09 March 2009 14:22 |
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I don’t have many early images that are so firmly imprinted on my mind that they are thought about frequently, however, every time the month of March begins, my mind always goes back to my very early elementary school years at PS 135 in Queens, NY. I remember the teacher’s bulletin board being decorated with the images of March – the lion and the lamb. I can still envision in my mind one of my early pieces of artwork (putting it nicely) that had a man walking along a long wooden-railed fence in an open field with the wind (a huffing and puffing cloud face) blowing hard at him and blowing his hat off his head. The imagery of March is supposed to be that of entering the scene with the ferocity of a lion, and exiting meek and mild as a lamb.
That’s the image that the nation of Israel had concerning their coming Messiah; that He would come as a ferocious lion. That He, the “Lion of the tribe of Judah,” would rid the oppressed Israeli people of their Roman captors, and free them and their beloved city, Jerusalem. But the voice that they heard instead was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing them for the way of the Lord. John the Baptist, at the entrance of Jesus on the scene said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This past Christmas we celebrated God’s Lamb coming into this world to be our Savior and take away our sin, and now we are moving into the season which commemorates that supreme sacrifice of that Lamb on the cross of Calvary. I am reminded of the songwriter’s wonderful words: “Oh what a Savior, Hallelujah!”
Now transport yourself like John into the future, to the book of Revelation chapter 5 to be exact. John sees the Lamb in heaven taking the title deed of the earth from the throne of His Father and begins the process of the final judgment of planet earth. Then, approximately 7 years later He returns to earth as “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16) with the right to rule and reign forever and ever. The imagery of the Lion coming as a humbled Lamb, then returning as the conquering Lion is the imagery of the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with God’s love for the sinner and judgment on the sin. This is, in words so aptly written by Graham Kendrick, “Meekness and Majesty.” |
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Thursday, 29 January 2009 14:58 |
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Welcome friends to my first blog. Isn't technology wonderful!? Not so sure? Neither am I! It keeps coming up with new ways to complicate one's already busy schedule. But, could this particular new tool actually be ordained of God? Well, I have found myself thinking about that once again this week. I have been thinking about the ordained will of a sovereign God, especially as it relates to the trials of life. People are always asking why God allows terrible events to take place. If God knows all things, and God loves me, and God can do all things, then why doesn't God stop this horrible event from happening?
Well, God definitely is sovereign, no question there! Not only does He know about everything that can happen and will happen, He also knows about everything that potentially could happen but won't happen. In His sovereignty He allows many things to happen, some things we will like, and others we definitely will not like. That just sounds to me like life as we know it. Sovereignly, it is not yet our time to live in a Utopia. We still have the full effects of sin at work in our physical lives as well as on this physical earth. These effects God sovereignly placed upon Adam and us, his descendents (Rom. 5:12), because of Adam's choice to disobey His Creator. What God graciously chose to do, because of His own sovereign will, was to save us from the present evil world. He has mercifully and graciously provided salvation for our souls and will some day fully equip us for dwelling in a new heaven and on a new earth, where "all tears will be wiped away from our eyes."
Until then, may we live each day trusting the God who is sovereignly in control of that day, and every day. May we live with our sovereignly designed purpose in view, that is, to bring honor and glory to God, as the apostle Paul said, through our life and in our death.
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