Author: steveandrulonis

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Resurrection Words

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name” (John 20:31).

John the Apostle gave us the story of Jesus as he saw it and heard it. He said that he could have written so much more. The other gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – were already circulating through the Christian communities by the time John got around to telling his version of the events. The timing of this gospel was likely the 90s of the first century, so this Apostle, the only one alive at the time, chose to tell things in his own way from the vantage point of “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:2).

I am grateful to John for giving us so many of the words of Jesus. More than 65 percent of John features sayings from the Savior. This means that the Apostle wrote in such a way so as to let the Son tell us about Himself.

In John 20, we read about Resurrection Day. Here, John had to devote his focus on the important details of that original Easter Sunday. And as a result we have fewer words from Jesus in these passages.

Oh, what words we do have here!

There are words to the sorrowing, to the cowering, and to the doubting. There are words of promise and hope and mission.

The Sound of Her Name

The disciples had spent an agonizing and sleepless Sabbath after the body of their Master was taken from the Cross, wrapped in linen, and laid in the tomb. The stone was rolled in place. It was sealed by the Roman authorities. A crew of centurions got orders to watch over the dead Son for He had said:

“The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day” (Mark 9:31).

The third day dawned, and Mary Magdalene came to find the stone moved and her Lord gone. She ran to fetch Peter and John. These two raced to the tomb and found it as she had said.

Both men were baffled and fearful. Even though they had heard Jesus speak of His rising, they remained mystified. And rather than stay and rejoice – or just stay and investigate the scene – Peter and John went home, leaving Mary there alone.

Perhaps, Peter and John dashed home as fast they could to make arrangements for their escape. They could have been preparing to run away from Jerusalem, as a couple of disciples would do, according the account found in Luke 24. For certain the disappearance of Christ’s body was going to become a cause célèbre, and all connected to Jesus were going to be marked ones.

Mary couldn’t leave, however. She wept as she surveyed the empty tomb. Angels were there and asked of the reason for her tears. “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where He is,” she told them and turned away.

Just then there was Another standing before her; He was the gardener she presumed.

There was once another Garden and another woman, the only woman actually. That woman heard the whispers of deception and slander. She listened and because she did, she fell for the lie and soon she wept in shame and hid away in fear.

In this garden, the woman Mary would hear afresh the Voice of Truth. It was the Voice of the One who set her free, and the Voice of the One who came to make undone all the ravages of defeat that began in that place called Eden.

 “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” This One said to Mary. She begged Him for her Master’s corpse. She wanted to see Jesus once more, even if He was lifeless as she thought He was. She spun from Him and sobbed out her heartbreak

 “Mary.”

So came to her ears the sound of her name, in a Voice that spoke to her pain.

“Mary.”

Spoken by the Voice she knew so well. Those bitter tears of ache and loss were transformed into ones of joy and wonder.

“Rabboni!”

She shouted as she reached to hold Him tight. This tender encounter with this woman once haunted and controlled by demons was the first sign demonstrated by the Firstborn from the Dead.

Like John, she was a disciple who saw herself as much beloved. Her deep love brought her to the tomb site by first light that morning. A woman, this woman, would receive the first words from resurrected lips.

Jesus had places to be and things to do; He had to get her to let go, so He could get going. He did, however, give her a significant message to share:  “Go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

Tell them, Mary did. And all through that day she also testified – “I have seen the Lord.”

A Surprise Visit

For their part, the disciples remained on lockdown and mired in disbelief of Mary and her report. The news from the tomb traveled about. Any sound of footsteps struck terror in these shut-ins. They feared for their lives. They took no chances. Doors were bolted tight. Windows were closed.

“Peace be with you.”

Jesus spoke, with His scarred hands held out and His wounded side made to be seen. He who was hung on the execution tree of Rome only days earlier stood before them.

Can you see them there? Stunned and silent, the mouths open with no power to utter even a sound. Mary had to be beaming as the reality of His Presence confirmed what she had been telling them all along.

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.”

The Savior once dead, was now alive – just as He told them He would be. Joy filled that room as He breathed out a word of promise upon them:

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

One of them was absent from this amazing scene. Thomas missed it.

“We have seen the Lord,” the disciples said. To be fair, Thomas reacted as the others had reacted when Mary said that she saw Jesus.

Thomas said he had to have more to go on. His unbelief needed help. He had to touch the hands and the side of the Savior. That was the kind of proof he needed.

Jesus gave this gift to Thomas.

“Peace be with you.”

This greeting was sounded out again into the room locked tight. Eight days had come and gone. This time Thomas was present. The Son showed Himself and went straight to the doubter and bid Thomas to feel His scars.

“Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 

Thomas dropped to his knees. He worshipped Jesus with a loud shout:  “My Lord and my God!”

Believe

 Jesus chided this follower gently:  “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

That last sentence refers to us, of course. We have not seen Him in the flesh, but we read the words about Him as the Word made flesh – words that carry sacredness because of what they do in us. These words have changed people just like us down through the ages.

The Savior meets us where we are, just as we are. And it is comforting to read that those who were so close to Him — close enough to touch His wounded and scarred skin — were sad and frightened and skeptical as we sometimes are.

For every one of them and for every one of us, He has words of life and healing. He knows us and calls us. We hear words of forgiveness and hope, and we hide them in our hearts.

We believe and we have life in His Name – Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. We are His brothers and sisters, made one with Him and in Him, living before our Father and our God.

Peace be with us.

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The Light of Forgiveness

A woman was caught in the “very act” of adultery and brought to Jesus. She was thrown at His feet right there in the Temple, in the house of mercy.

A number in the mob there had started to gather stones to throw at her. Tragically, as we read through the pages of human history, there are accounts that indicate a strange and evil curiosity tied to public demonstrations of judgment, especially ones that involve execution. Crowds gathered for these bizarre spectacles, and if we read the passage from John 8 carefully, Jesus tells us why.

What had been a regular morning of ministry for the Christ was roughly interrupted. He had come early to the Temple from the Mount of Olives, which was one of His usual places of prayer.

A crowd soon gathered around Him, and so He sat and taught.

It was then that the scribes and Pharisees showed up with their catch. Using this woman, these religious leaders had an object lesson that they used to confront Jesus. They trumpeted the Law of Moses:  “Such women are commanded to be stoned, but what do You say about it?” (see John 8:5).

There was an ulterior motive at work here. Should Jesus sanction this stoning, He would have set Himself as an enemy of the Roman imperial authorities who governed the region. The Jewish community in Judea and its environs were permitted some measure of self-management through the Sanhedrin, a council of leaders who advised the governors.

Capital punishment was not part of this council’s purview. Only Rome could administer this brand of justice. This reality served to set the stage for the Crucifixion of Christ by the decree of Pontius Pilate, who governed Jerusalem.

Scribbling in the Dust

“What do You say about it?”

They pressed Jesus as He lowered Himself and stuck His finger in the dirt before them. “He wrote on the ground,” reported John, the Apostle who penned this gospel.

Here we have the only recorded incident of Jesus doing some writing. What He put down there in the dirt, we do not know. Many have made their speculations, so I will reveal mine for you.

To me, it would be just like Jesus to challenge these religious ones on their own terms. These men formed a gaggle of self-proclaimed defenders of Moses and his writings. So I think the Lord could have made reference to Leviticus 20:10:  “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Perhaps, Jesus was more succinct with His jots and scribbles. Could it be that He just posed the obvious question:  “Where’s the guy?” The very act of adultery does require both adulterer and adulteress, and the Law required both to be put to death.

At last, Jesus stood. This marks a change in the dynamic of the confrontation. He was about to make a declaration of truth from a position of authority. The command with which Jesus spoke astonished those who heard Him. His message came straight from the Father – He made this clear about Himself and His words in the latter portion of John 8 (see verses 18-38).

His declaration was this:  “…He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her” (John 8:7).

Those words cut straight to the core of everyone present. Listen to the stones as they fall to the ground. See the accusers walk away – one by one, oldest to youngest – as these words jabbed conviction into their consciences. At least these consciences were still a bit tender to truth. By the time Jesus was turned over to Pilate on His way to the Cross, these very ones were too hardened to do the right thing.

This mob had been drawn to the scene because of a thirst for vengeance. The real reason for these feelings came from the deficit motivation lurking in their own selves. Their hearts hurt, wounded and scarred by the fallout of their own failures. They were pained by guilt. They did not know what to do with the hurt, except to come and watch someone else take punishment.

No Condemnation

Jesus returned to His writing in the dirt and soon He and the accused woman were left alone. None remained to accuse her. All had come see their own sinfulness in the presence of the Son. Again, He stood to make another statement of authority, a pronouncement of forgiveness and release and responsibility.

 “… Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:10-11).

No condemnation! Paul would write of this great truth in his letter to the Romans. His master treatise on the unrighteousness that lingers in all human beings and its answer in the work of the Person of Christ expands on what we read in John 8. None can excuse himself, wrote Paul. All fall short of the glory of God. Everyone needs a Savior; each of us requires a Redeemer who will announce:  “Neither do I condemn you.”

This passage in John has been analyzed and some view it as something added to John’s gospel at a later point in church history. The character and style of the writing is clearly John’s with the attention to detail and the focus on conversation. Some claim these words are from God but that they are out of place in this context.

Me? I agree with the late Warren W. Wiersbe, onetime Moody Church pastor and host of the Back to the Bible radio show. He says in The Bible Exposition commentary:  “The story fits right here.” And Dr. Wiersbe says this encounter sets up what comes next in the chapter.

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

The accused woman was deep in the darkness of sin. Her desperate condition came before Jesus. She stood accused. She was guilty. She had violated the Law that the Lord had communicated through Moses.

Jesus, however, flipped the script on the accusers. He turned on His Light. The Light shined into the accusers. Each of them had to face the record of sin written upon his own dirtied heart. They could have stayed with Him and with her, the one caught in the very act, because now their very acts — their very sinful thoughts even — had been exposed to them as they had exposed this woman.

The Savior went on to describe the power of His Light. It shines the Way to forgiveness and release. Abide in the Word, He told them and “you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

The Son came for them all; for all stand accused before our Holy God. He longed to see every one of them receive His love and be free for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:37).

The Son, the Truth, Freedom. All can be ours. Thank you, Jesus.

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Making Do with Donkeys

There are a couple stories about donkeys in the Bible. One of them was given a voice; another one gave Jesus a lift into Jerusalem.

In the book of Numbers, we read of the talking donkey. There, we are told the story of the king of Moab who sought out a soothsayer, a magician of some sort who had developed a reputation for calling down curses.

Balak, the king, got news of the people of Israel – word of their numbers and how their God preceded them. Like Pharaoh in Exodus 1, this leader viewed Israel as an enemy to be reckoned with. Word of the decimation of Egypt circulated through the region. The stories of the plagues and the Red Sea’s opening and closing were known.

The God of Israel was feared, but not feared in the sense that read of in Proverbs.  In that book, we come to understand that there is a way of reverence and awe for the Lord that is noted as “the fear of the Lord” that marks the beginning of wisdom.

The king of Moab, rather, was terrified. He didn’t want wisdom; instead, he wanted to preserve his throne, his nation, and his land by any means possible. He recognized the supernatural element at work with Israel. He thought the Lord of all Creation was like the gods he knew about, just another deity who could be bought off. A little bit of appeasement, he thought, might work to protect his reign. And so Balak sent for Balaam, a man of trickery and power available for the right price. The king hired him to pronounce one of his spells on Israel.

The thing that strikes me as odd in the account (see Numbers, chapters 2-25) is just whose ears may hear from the Lord. Balaam gets a visitation and instruction – from God. This is not a man of Israel; he is no descendent of Abraham, and yet God talks to him a number of times.

Perhaps, we should not be so surprised by this encounter. We can read of the Lord coming to see others who are by accounts outside of His chosen ones, starting with Cain.

Yes, the Lord met and talked with the man who murdered his brother, Abel. The exchange ended with Cain going out from the presence of the Lord and starting to build his own city. The Lord also visited Hagar and Abimelech and Laban and Nebuchadnezzar to name a few.

A Beast Speaks

Balaam heard the Lord and agreed with Him. The Lord gave this man seemingly conflicting messages – at first the Lord said, “Don’t go” with Balak’s emissaries to Moab and then later God told Balaam, “Go.”

It was while he was going that Balaam’s beast was given a message to speak. And here is where we get insight into the heart of this magic man. He could hear both God and the donkey. Balaam, in my thinking, was double-minded and therefore unstable in his ways as James 1:8 teaches us.

The point I want to bring home is that the Lord used the beast and her tongue to get His message out there. What does God need to make Himself known, a donkey’s mouth, nothing more.

I have to consider this reality as I am preparing to minister for Him. I can be very clever in my ways. I have digested a lot of books and listened to a lot of teaching, but my intellect could really get in the way of me saying what God really wants to say. Like that donkey, I just have to open my mouth and let Him fill it.

What really counts is what the Lord puts on the lips.

Balaam, it seems to me, became something like his donkey when he at last got to Moab and stood before King Balak. This prophet for hire was now at work for the Lord and he was compelled to tell only the truth that God gave to him.

Commissioned to pronounce curses on Israel a number of times, Balaam, in this situation, spoke real prophecy as the Lord prompted him. He declared Israel a nation of God’s people, as ones Chosen to be blessed and prosperous as His representatives for all generations.

The Phrase That Frees

What of the other donkey? We meet this one in Mark 11. This animal was tied outside Jerusalem. Jesus directed the disciples to find the foal that had carried no one before. The donkey had an owner, but the Savior gave them the passwords so that the beast would be released to them.

“Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord has need of it and send it back here immediately.’”And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.And some of those standing there said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go” (Mark 11:1-6).

“The Lord has need” was the phrase that activated the donkey for its mission. Those words were spoken and so Jesus had His vehicle and made His entrance into the City of David. This happened on what we now know as Palm Sunday, a day when the Prophet Zechariah’s message was fulfilled:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).

This may be difficult for us to consider, but the Lord has need; He has need of us. He is all powerful and all knowing and everywhere present. These are true attributes of God. Still, He has made room for us to serve Him.

“The Lord has need.” That sentence set the donkey free. It’s what sets all of us free to be in His purpose and plan.

Foolish and Weak Things

Remember, Jesus made it clear that the last shall be first. He made friends with the sinners and the outcasts. He told us all that we must become like little children in order to see the kingdom of God (see Matthew 18:1-5).

These stories about the donkeys tell me that I really don’t need to have much going for me, worldly speaking. I can hear His call and answer His call and He will send me. In fact, the Savior seeks the ones who are seen as foolish and weak to carry Him and His Message to the corners of our streets and to the ends of the earth.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).

We don’t have to be great in the world’s eyes to be useful in Heaven’s sights. We just need to be like donkeys ready and waiting to give Jesus a ride.

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Our Glory Is Not Our Own

It wasn’t much of an entrance, by the world’s standards anyway. But then God never needs much to work with. A small corner of a small room in a small town provided the setting for the arrival of the Son of God.

Jesus was delivered by His mother, Mary, in Bethlehem, in a manger, in a space hollowed out for animals to sleep and to feed. With the carpenter Joseph watching and helping, and among oxen and lambs and some barnyard fowl, the Lord of Heaven came forth to begin His stay on earth.

The details have been spoken of over and over and over throughout the centuries. The telling of these things never grows old. Tinsel and glitter and parties and shopping extravaganzas serve to propound a faux brightness and a nervous tension in our midst. Joy lives on, however. Joy reigns. Joy bursts from the hearts of real believers with songs and prayers.

The Christmas story shines so brightly because it shows the glory of God as it is reflected by such common things. This is precisely the point about Creation and about man in particular.

Our glory is not our own. The glory we exude comes from Him. What God has made for His good pleasure are things that serve as a revelation of Him and of all that He is.

Angels and Glory

I think this is what makes us different from the angels. These beings that move among us possess glory that is a part of their equipment. They were given a shine, and it is a shine that is fitted and fixed. Angelic brightness does not grow in intensity. It is what it is.

Lucifer’s original title – light-bearer — referred to the brightness given to him. It was a mode for the service assigned to him, as he was situated near the throne of the Most High. His glory was a gift to him, but he came to view it as mark of superiority. For this reason, the devil initiated a rebellion that captivated a full third of the host (see Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:13-18).

Satan fell into what he is because of his self-centeredness. He grew enamored with his glory and forsook the design of God for his office and status as an anointed cherub.

Angels were brought into existence according to the will of the Lord, and so were we. But they were not made in the image of God as we are. Also, the angels were not made “living souls” by the breath of God.

What does it mean to be made in His image? I believe it speaks of reflection and connection, union and communion. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are Three Persons and One Lord, and as such, God is love. Love is about the things that are related and refreshed and reflected one to another.

The essence of God in His Trinity understanding has always been about glory that is both shared and as well as distinct. The Persons of the Godhead are One and yet each is unique. It is such a marvelous mystery, a reality so far beyond comprehension that it may only be embraced.

Think of how Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:  “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You … Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed” (John 17:1, 5). In John 16, Jesus spoke of the Spirit like this:  “He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:4). And Jesus talked of His followers to the Father this way:  “All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17:10).

Glory, glory, glory in the Highest is what is being communicated by these passages.

Consider this:  when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses, it happened in a wilderness as this man watched over his father-in-law’s flock. Then, God showed up as fire in the midst of a bush. The glow of the glory did not reduce the bush to ashes. Instead, His Presence abided in His Creation and brought Moses near. His Presence consecrated the very ground upon which Moses walked.

Later, we read that Moses’ face absorbed the glory of the Lord as he sat before God. This was noticed by the people and they were afraid to face Moses because of his glow.

In the New Testament, we come to understand that glory has been given to us through the offering and ascension of the Lamb of God and the sending of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, cloven tongues of fire were seen upon the disciples in that upper room on Pentecost as the Spirit moved upon them.

Stephen spoke the Gospel and those who heard him said he possessed the face of an angel. The glory of the Lord shone from him because of the work of the Holy Spirit in him. The record of Luke in Acts 7 reveals that as he perished from the stones thrown at him, Stephen saw Christ as He stood in His place at the throne of grace.

Glory, Closer Than We Think

The glory of God is closer to us than we think. The Holy of Holies, the most hallowed place of Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, was divided from the rest of the worship center. What was put between this glorious room and everything else?  A curtain – the separation was demarcated by a veil, one that had been stitched and fashioned by the people who worshipped the Lord.

The Holy of Holies’ curtain was decorated with two cherubim. This imagery pointed back to the Garden of Eden and the angels who guarded the way to the Tree of Life in the midst of the Presence in the Garden. Man’s fall put something between the Lord and His prized creatures, the ones He made in His image.

It wasn’t a wall of separation that was erected, however. The glory of the Lord was not locked up behind gates and bars and chains. It was not vaulted or sealed. It was veiled – His glory just inches beyond us. Between man and the glory lay just a curtain, just a woven tapestry; a creation of fabric was what kept the glory of God from human eyes.

Veiled was the sign of His Presence until the coming of the Son. When the Son completed His redemptive work, the Temple curtain was ripped from top to bottom.

Jesus came to reveal the salvation of God to all flesh (see Luke 3:6).  God the Son took on flesh, bone, and Blood. Fragile things of frail dust as they are, these in Christ still were subject to the ordinances of nature and the earth. His Body was and is a true Body. He grew weary. He ate food. He wept. He touched many – infants, lepers, blinded eyes, deadened ears.

Our flesh can be sliced with ease. We bleed readily. And so it was with Jesus.

The Son’s glory was deposited into our form, into our likeness. He hid Himself behind the fabric of humanity, our very humanity.

Jesus was born to be torn.

With the tearing of the Son on the Cross, the veil of the Presence of God was opened to everyone. Glory can flow to us and into us and through us. We who are born again in Him are now living temples of the His Spirit. We are free to be set aglow with the glory of God. We can have as much of Him as we want, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians:

“…When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:15-18).

Let us rejoice for what He has made us to be. Though we are common, rough, imperfect works in progress, we still stand as reflectors of the glory of the Lord God Almighty.

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A Song. A Dream. A Promise

A girl got a song.

A carpenter got a dream.

A just and loyal old saint got a promise from the Spirit.

All of them are part of the Christmas story. And each one shows us something important about the way of God in this world.

Let’s first look at the aged man named Simeon from the account in Luke 2. He was a man of expectation. There are always such people among us. The Bible makes this clear.

Periods of turmoil come and go. Any look at the record of history should make this obvious to us.

Early in Genesis, we read that the world and its residents, which had been created good, good, and very good in the eyes of the Lord, had become profane and debased in mind and heart. So wicked was life on earth that it caused God to grieve to the point of considering its total destruction.

There was Noah, however, and his family. He found grace and the Lord instructed him to build an ark for his people and sent the Flood to wash all the others away. Through this faithful follower of God, humanity got a restart.

Simeon was of Noah’s kind. A watchman, he was. He had heard from the Spirit that his days on earth would not end until “he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (see Luke 2:26).

Humble Eyes, Humble Heart

I imagine Simeon with wide open eyes and discerning ears. He surveyed the streets of Jerusalem on his walks to the Temple. He listened closely to the conversations for he knew that his faith had “come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

The Spirit guided Simeon’s steps to the Temple just as Joseph and Mary arrived with Jesus. Born eight days earlier, this Firstborn was to be presented by the parents to the Lord according to the order of the Law.

Poor ones from Nazareth were they, and as such, they could only afford pigeons to confirm their offering of this Son. Those looking for the Messiah were expecting a grander entrance from Him, one fit for royalty.  Nathaniel, the Apostle, expressed thoughts of Jesus representative of the mood among the Jewish people:  “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (See John 1:46).

Simeon refused to judge by appearances, however. He believed and knew at once who Jesus was (and is forever) – the salvation of God prepared for all people and the true glory of Israel (Luke 2:30-32). He took the baby Jesus into his arms and blessed God. I can see this old man singing, “He is here, Hallelujah; He is here, Amen.”

This ancient man of God revealed his humility. He rejoiced at the presence of Emmanuel, though He came small and to the home of a poor, worker’s family.

A Faithful Husband

Simeon’s words were marveled at by Joseph, another man of humility and faith and obedience. The story of Mary being impregnated by the Holy Spirit became a cause célèbre and scandalous news around his town. And yet Joseph loved Mary and sought to dissolve their betrothal contract in quietness so as to shield her from added disgrace.

As he slept on this decision, this carpenter got his visitation: “… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’” (see Matthew 1:20-21).

Joseph took Mary as his wife, though she, a virgin, carried this Child. He treasured his promise from God despite the difficulties associated with it. Things would never be easy for this couple into whose home the Son was born. Joseph, I believe, listened carefully as Simeon blessed them. With the blessing came also a warning about days of pain and sorrow that were to come.

The somber words of Simeon were directed mostly to Mary. She would have her heart shredded as she watched the way of the Son. She nursed Him. She mothered Him through His adolescence – losing track of Him one Passover visit to Jerusalem, as we know from the latter part of Luke 2. She followed this Firstborn from His birth to His death and also to what came above and beyond His dying.

Mary Magnified the Lord

Mary stood alongside John at the Cross, as Jesus committed her to the care of the Apostle (John 19:26-27). And we also know she circulated among the band of disciples after His Resurrection and His Ascension. She and her other children were in the upper room when the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit blew into them at Pentecost (see Acts 1:14).

What was it that kept Mary? How did she weather the storms that would blow upon her mother’s heart?

I believe it was her song. This should not surprise us, for Paul wrote that songs and hymns and spiritual songs are vital to the stirring up of our faith as we read in Ephesians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:16. The verse from Colossians is part of an exhortation to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” and bring wisdom. Songs were and should be vehicles of admonition and consolation.

Mary’s Magnificat, as it has come to be known, goes like this:

“… My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

“For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

“He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

“He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (Luke 1:46-56).

Throughout her life, I believe that Mary sang this song to herself. The words detail the redemptive plan of Heaven. The proud shall be brought down. The humble exalted. The hungry filled with good things that come by grace through faith.

The girl with this song was an amazing believer, just as Simeon and Joseph were remarkable and faithful men. All of them magnified the Lord and rejoiced in the God of their salvation.

And thanks to people such as them, His mercy has been revealed from generation to generation.

Holy is His Name.

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Faith That Saves

Two tables. Two hosts. Two salvations.

The episodes I want to examine are both found in the gospel of Luke. The first one is toward the end of Luke 7 and involves a Pharisee named Simon who asked Jesus to come to dinner at his home.

The word on the street was that Jesus was very comfortable to share a meal with tax collectors and sinners. This activity brought questions and scoffs and mockery.

Jesus had an answer for such slanders and accusations: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). This habit of His was part of His healing mission, He said.

How would things go for Jesus at the table of “healthy” man?

Casual Reception

I am sure the Pharisee’s invitation carried an ulterior motive. It was calculated, a setup of sorts. Simon knew the talk of Jesus. Some were calling Him a prophet. His words were words that projected authority; His talk left hearers astonished with its clarity and penetration. His miracle works of healing and deliverance created a remarkable stir, an expectation was growing that perhaps the Messiah had really come.

Yes, Simon indeed had heard of His sermons and His works. His invitation offered him an opportunity for this “healthy” one to gauge the carpenter’s Son from Nazareth at close range.

And so Jesus showed up. However, His reception at the home was of a perfunctory sort. His was a somewhat chilly and borderline dishonorable welcome when judged by the cultural standards of the day and region.

The Son was not met with a kiss of greeting; He was given no water with which to clean His dusty feet; nor was the courtesy of fragrant oil for His sun-parched brow extended to Him. Still, Jesus entered and took His place of recline with the others there and was prepared to enjoy the meal that was to come.

An Uninvited Visitor

The scene at the Pharisee’s home soon was interrupted by one of the “sick” ones. A “woman of the city,” one well known as the village harlot, came in and she reached the Feet of Jesus. She began kissing those Feet and weeping upon them. She let her hair hang down – a somewhat immodest act when done in public — and with her hair she began to wipe those Feet. She lavished one more thing upon those sacred Feet as she broke a box of costly perfume and poured it out.

Likely this final act represented that there had been a real transformation in her life. This perfume was among the important tools of her trade in the sex market in which she trafficked. Here, she abandoned this valuable essence and sought to put aside her sordid livelihood. She was giving herself to the Lord.

Another from among the publicans and sinners had become a friend of Jesus. She crashed the dinner party and turned the event into a salvation celebration. For that’s what this became in the Savior’s heart anyway.

Hearts Revealed

Simon the Pharisee was too incredulous and too filled with scorn even to speak. Instead, thoughts of contempt percolated within him: “This Man cannot be from God for no holy Teacher would allow Himself to be part of something like this,” he thought.

Jesus heard those thoughts as if they were spoken out loud. He delivered a parable on big debtors and small debtors and drove home the point that those forgiven much are those who love much.

Forgiveness? Did Simon even realize how much he needed it? He did at least “judge rightly” in noting that those who are shown greater mercy respond with greater love.

Jesus then brought things to head with these words to her: “’Your sins are forgiven.’ Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this, who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace’” (Luke 7:49-50).

A Man Up a Tree

The other episode we want to look at is in Luke 19. It happens in the town of Jericho. There, a tax collector named Zacchaeus was stuck in the midst of a crowd awaiting the Lord’s arrival. Being a short man, Zacchaeus got himself up into a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus as He walked into town.

This time Jesus took matters into His hands, setting up His own lunch date with the notorious publican. “Zacchaeus, get out of that tree. I must eat at your table today,” announced the Savior.

The atmosphere was soon thick with consternation. Those in the throng muttered aloud about Jesus’ choice of company. The man was a cheat and a crook and all of Jericho knew it.

By the time Jesus reached his table, Zacchaeus was changed. Born again, the tax collector committed himself to new way of living. “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods give to the poor. And if I have jdefrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’” (Luke 19:8-10).

More Than Friends

This is one of the clear presentations from Jesus on the matter of saving faith. Abraham believed and was made a friend of God. By faith, righteousness was counted to him. Lost and desperate Zacchaeus was called out of the tree and shown the way to new life in Jesus.

The Son came to seek and to save – us, all of us. Revelation 3speaks of the Lamb of God knocking on our doors, bidding us to open up to Him. If we let Him in, He will sit down at our table and sup with us (see Revelation 3:20).

It’s a great bargain, a great exchange – He gives us His life for ours. All we have to offer Him is our faith, and that’s enough for Him.

Just open the door. Believe God, believe Him more than ever. He forgives and restores and cleanses. Friends of God are made this way.

He sees as more than friends really. He sees us as One with Him. He sees each of us as He sees Himself, as the Son of the Most High.

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The All We Have to Give

A widow marched to the offering box with all that she had, as we read in Mark 12. Just two mites were in her hand – all of the money she had to her name. A mite represented the smallest and least valuable of the coins in circulation during Jesus’ days on earth. It is likely that a single penny plucked out of a gutter on Dundalk Avenue would count for more monetarily than what this woman gave.

Others in the giving line that day, for sure, deposited far more by economic and business standards. But were these ones being as generous as her?

On this day, the Lord was watching and He liked what he saw.

Jesus took note of this widow and her gift, and He rejoiced. He gathered His disciples to Him and made much of her. “Truly I tell you, this widow has put more into the treasury than all the others,” the Savior explained (see Mark 12:43).Here was someone willing to give her all to the work of God. Her action revealed a wealth, a richness that exceeded the riches as they are measured by our world.

The One with Almost Everything

This story comes to us a couple of chapters after Jesus encountered a rich, young ruler. That man was a man of means. He had money, youth, and power – everything that the world counts as valuable was his.

Still, this rich, young ruler was missing something and he knew it. He surmised that he was somehow poor. The sense of his poverty brought him to Jesus. He fell before the Savior and asked:  “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (See Mark 10:17).

Jesus first deflated his words of flattery – “Why do you call Me good? None is good except God alone” – and then told him to keep the commandments. These things, the man claimed to have done from his youth.

Next came what Mark described as a moment of divine affection:  “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me’” (see Mark 10:21).

Go, sell, give, come and follow. Simple and huge commandments had been laid before the rich, young ruler; these commandments were directed straight at his heart. He was unready for such an answer. He left the scene in dismay and grief, Mark wrote, for his possessions were many and these things possessed him, as they so easily do when we wed ourselves to the ways of the world.

Jesus sorrowed too at that moment. “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God?” He lamented to His disciples as the man walked away.

Seek His Face

What became of this rich, young ruler?

We aren’t told specifically. Some have conjectured that this man was really John Mark himself, the very one who wrote the story. The Bible, however, leaves open the question of his identity. The Word of God refuses to behave like fairy tales and legend stories. Tidy endings very often go missing, and we are left in wonder and moved to consider afresh His unsearchable judgments, His ways that are passed finding out (see Romans 11:33).

What the Bible does clearly tell us is this:  “Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face evermore” (Psalm 105:4). His face, God wants us to come before His face.

This is the richness of real life in God. David wrote, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to You, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek’” (Psalm 27:8).

Could it be that the rich, young ruler had this going on inside of him? Jesus was there and this man wondered of a better life, of a life before the Lord, of a life eternal and forever, of the life missing among his prosperity. And so he sought the face of God in Jesus. He put himself right there.

This brings to my mind Ecclesiastes 3:11:  “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

The widow had so little by sight. Something in her brought her to the Temple on that day. She saw the richness of God and His grace. She committed herself to Him. She was richer than she, or anyone of the others giving that day, could imagine. She embodied what James wrote:  “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5).

The rich, young ruler, perhaps, wanted to be an heir in the Kingdom. He wanted peace with the Lord and an understanding and security in the life that comes from above. I pray that he did bring himself to heed the words of the Lord. I want to believe that he gave away his possessions to possess what really matters.

Oh, how rich we are because of our faith in Him. May we realize this eternal reality. And may we be generous with the love and faith the Lord has poured into us. Let us bless others and forgive and show mercy and walk before Him in His greatness.

Small things are never despised by Jesus. Anything given with the whole heart is worthy of honor for what the world sees as last is made first in Heaven.

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The Shadow of His Wings

A lot gets said about the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. We really make quite a to-do about the Christmas story with its manger. And well we should. Christmas comes during a season when it’s colder and darker. We enjoy the proclamation of the Light of God entering into our world. This warms our hearts.

Jesus came to earth with an ultimate purpose and eternal destinations in mind. We are getting close to that time of the year when we celebrate the Son and the story of His arrival, His original Advent, the time when He allowed Himself to live a “little lower than the angels.”

There will be dramatic presentations featuring choirs, Mary and Joseph, the Wise Men, the shepherds. Songs such as “Joy to the World” will ring throughout churches as we think on the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.

Yes, we hear plenty about how Jesus came – conceived of the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin girl. We also know a good bit about where He came from – the little town of Bethlehem, as prophesied in Micah 5:2. His birth was a miracle starting point – just the beginning of a series of things related to the Lord’s redemptive plans for the world that He so loves.

Now more than ever, what matters to me is where Jesus went and where He is at present.

The Savior reached His ultimate destination with the Ascension. He was lifted through the clouds to take His seat at the right hand of the Father. There, He sits as the Advocate for us. He speaks on our behalf for He brought perfected, glorified humanity to Heaven as the Resurrected One, the firstborn from the dead.

There were other stops along the way to this place of honor and intercession set above our world.

The Curtain Torn

During His days on earth, Jesus set His face “like a flint” toward Jerusalem and the Cross upon which He was nailed and hung (see Isaiah 50:7 and Luke 9:51). This city with its Golgotha – the skull hill of Roman execution — was to be the scene of His death.

He always understood this. The dark and bitter battle in Gethsemane marked a fierce struggle for the Son to push forward and reach the site of the ultimate offering for the sins of all. He labored in that Garden through a lonely and desperate evening of prayer for the Father’s will to be done.

He did arrive at the Cross – battered, scourged, crowned with thorns. He was lifted up from the earth as He said that He would be. From the wood He went to the grave, from the grave He came alive and went to the sky.

The reports of the crucifixion include the high moment when the Christ committed His spirit to the hands of the Father. “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:51).

The curtain referred to in this passage is the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the worship center God had ordained and defined for His people. The only thing that rested behind that veil was the Mercy Seat. This seat was where the High Priest was to sprinkle the blood of atonement for the sins of the people.

The Mercy Seat

I have always been drawn to stories about the Mercy Seat. This significant item, related to the worship of God, is first introduced to us in the latter chapters of Exodus. The instructions for the Mercy Seat’s design and its position in the Tabernacle were given to Moses during his days before the Lord at Mount Sinai.

The Mercy Seat sat atop the Ark of the Covenant, a holy cupboard that originally contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna saved from the days of Israel’s wilderness wanderings, and the budded almond branch labeled by Aaron that confirmed his family’s assignment to the priesthood.

This lid upon the Ark was a slab of pure gold and of one piece with the figures of two cherubim that framed it. The angel statues faced the space to which the blood was applied, their wings hanging over it and guarding it. This picture gets mentioned in a number of Psalms as “the shadow” of God’s wings. It is a place of refuge and rejoicing, according the songs attributed to David:

“Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings” (Psalm 17:8).

“Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by” (Psalm 57:1).

This Seat and the Ark it sat upon were rarely seen, at first. Only the High Priest was supposed to come before it as he entered into the Holy of Holies, illumined only by the glory of the presence of the Lord. And he was to do this just once a year on the Day of Atonement.

A reading of the Old Testament reveals that the Ark was eventually brought out into the open and not always for good reasons. In 1 Samuel, two diabolic priests carried the Ark to the battlefield because they perceived it would bring some magic power of victory to Israel’s army. They were wrong and they wound up dead, the Ark falling into the possession of the enemy Philistines.

Eventually, David brought the Ark with the Mercy Seat to his palace compound in Jerusalem. He sat and prayed before this as he ruled as Israel’s king.

Jesus, the eternal Son of David, would also come to the Mercy Seat, but not to the one fashioned by human hands.

The Blood Speaks

Like all things related to the Tabernacle and the Temple of Israel, the Mercy Seat was a figure of something actual and real in the place where God dwells. The book of Hebrews tells us this:  “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24).

The veil was torn, as shown in the gospels, to indicate the new and living way that Christ made for us who believe upon Him. “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

The Manger, the Cross, the Grave, the Throne — all of these are sacred places in the Gospel story, the telling of the works of the Son. We know them and talk about them and rejoice over what represent. They stir our faith.

For me, however, I want to ever keep the Mercy Seat in my mind. From that holy thing, the substance of our salvation continues to speak today, tomorrow, and forever. The Blood of the Lamb of God is there even now. The Blood answers every accusation made against us. We are declared to be all clean, made whiter than snow.

We stand redeemed in Him and eagerly await His arrival to reign as there will come the New Heavens and the New Earth.

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God at Home in Us

God made each of us for Himself. This reality is something we must embrace. For the Lord loves us and seeks to bring us into a mature, healthy relationship with Him.

The book of Revelation begins with Jesus sending specific messages to seven different churches. These messages are kind of like report cards. Each church has a particular character and a few of them are facing real issues that are affecting and even hindering the movement of God in the midst of their assemblies.

The church at Laodicea had fervency issues, it seems. The Lord addresses the lukewarm nature of that group. He used strong language to express His distaste over what was going on there:  “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

Let’s be careful not to stop reading at that statement. God had more to say.

“To those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” The strong language of the Savior was intended to wake up these sleepy believers. He wanted them to fully enjoy the life that He had for them. And this attitude of Jesus led Him to say what he said next:  “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:  if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

God comes to our doors. He knocks upon them. He wants to sit at our tables. He wants to share a meal with us.

Our Soul

This is true for every single church of God. And it is true for every single believer in Jesus Christ. He wants to be with us. He wants to talk with us. He knows who we are. He knows our challenges and our struggles. He loves us and He loves those beyond us. He loves the world, “so loves” it, says John 3:16.

We may cool off in our relationship with Him. We may allow things to interfere with our fellowship. We can say the wrong things, just as we say the wrong things to the ones closest to us, to family and friends. We can do the wrong thing, from time to time. We offend people. We may have even broken someone’s heart at one time or another.

The Good News, the Gospel Truth really, is this:  He is still here, knocking on our doors, patiently waiting, hoping that we will open up to Him.

Every one of us is a member in particular of the Body of Christ. Each of us was fearfully and wonderfully made by Him (see Psalm 139). We are what we are because of His design and wisdom.

There are people all about us. We are members of families. We live in communities. We have neighbors.

However, we each stand and fall before God. We are believer-priests and we belong to Him and to Him alone.

We have responsibility before Him. Our soul is “continually” in our hands. This truth is communicated in verse 109 of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. It is a psalm that emphasizes the importance of the Word of God over and over and over.

The Lord wants to be at home in us. It is up to us to open our doors to Jesus when He knocks. He’s not even concerned over what’s on our tables when we let Him in. He just wants to be there with us, heart to heart. One day we will be face to face with Him.

Temples for Him

Moses and Israel erected the Tabernacle in the wilderness according to the design of God. They made it and the Lord showed up with the cloud of His Presence. There was so much glory there that Moses himself could not enter. Solomon organized the construction of the great Temple. You can read of it in 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles. He imagined the magnificence of that building, which was mostly designed by King David as God gave the details to him. The Temple was completed and again God came in with His Presence and all fell upon their faces in worship.

Two other temples were built, one by the people of Israel and another by Herod, the Roman appointed king of Judea. But we do not read of the Lord showing up in those buildings.

That’s because God had something else in mind. Through Christ, a new and living way to worship was made, worship not based on place, time, and ritual, but worship that is rooted in Spirit and Truth.

Now, we are the Temples of the Living God. Paul wrote of our bodies as holy places (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19). Each of us can make our hearts a comfort zone for the Holy Spirit.

Oh, the Spirit does live in us, regardless of the state of our walk with the Lord. This is the fact of amazing grace. He makes us sons and daughters and this is a permanent identity. We cannot erase the seal of God that He puts upon us when we welcome His mercy and call upon Him to be saved. But we sometimes must choose to unclutter and dejunk the structures of our souls so that the Spirit will not be quenched or grieved.

So how are we to do this? Psalm 119 gives a number of instructions. No. 1 is to “take heed” to the Word of God. Paying attention to the Truth cleanses us in seasons of failure, and it can keep us from sin (see Psalm 119:9, 11).

One important prayer phrase in Psalm 119 is this one:  “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18).  Here’s another good one:  “Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments” (Psalm 119:73).

Let’s allow the Word to give form and order to our souls. This will provide a frame of reference for the work of God in us. Jesus, of course, put it best when gave this amazing promise:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

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Order, Design, Detail and Dust

Definition, direction, design, detail – these are words of concentration and understanding. They are also words that show us the way of God’s eternal activity. It is with these things that the Lord has answered what is formless and void.

We see this at once in Genesis. The darkness was addressed. “Light” – the Word was spoken. There was Light and the Light was good, as God saw it. And so He began to form and to fill His Creation. The heavens, the seas, and the earth were organized and populated according to His good pleasure.

Ultimately, the Lord got down into the dirt. He took dust from the earth and with it God did something marvelous. Man was made, fashioned after the image of God and quickened to life with the breath of the Almighty.

What a sight this must have been for the Lord and for the beings that occupy the angelic realm. Psalm 8 is a song in praise of Him who made man “a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Man represented the meeting of matter and mind. Dust was given shape to house the Holy. This is the essence of honor and glory. Body, animated and alive with soul, could walk and talk, could touch and think, could feel and know. Man possessed senses and could also express what was sensible.

This was the original way that Heaven connected to the earth. This was a moment of meeting and mingling, a union defined and designed for the communion of God with man and man with God.

Mind over matter is a cliché and for good reason — it’s a crooked message. Matter matters. Mind gets over-magnified and loses sight of the frame of reference that matter supplies.

The thinkers and talkers of Athens heard Paul at Mars Hill (see Acts 17). The apostle made the case that all peoples are alike in that they live by the same breath and blood; everyone is soul and body, he said, the offspring of the Maker. These “wise” guys gave ear to Paul until he spoke of resurrection. At this, they scoffed and sent him off. High minded, these connoisseurs of knowledge refused to recognize the honor bestowed on the human being designed for glory.

Ideas, opinions — they could tolerate these as long as they remained un-tethered from real substance. They wandered in the maze of the intellects and became contemptuous of the brick and mortar of real life.

“A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is His delight,” (Proverbs 11:1). Order reigns when there is universe – that is, one authoritative word from which all things may take their direction. Order is present when matter and mind function in agreement and in balance.

That fragile balance can be fractured and, in fact, it was first fractured by Adam and Eve’s choices in the Garden as related to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate from that tree and their “eyes” or senses were triggered in ways that the Lord sought to keep from them.

God had provided definition and direction in His design and detail for Creation and for the first couple’s mission to be fruitful and to multiply. They were made sublime, blessed with a royalty of being that set them over the earth and its creatures. This reign they forfeited to subjection. They turned from thinking with God and bought the deception of the serpent. That choice set loose factors of confusion.

These elements of disarray and chaos reached a tipping point in the days of Noah. At that time, human society was dominated by selfishness and evil.  Every imagination of the thoughts of men’s hearts were “only evil continually” (see Genesis 6:5). Men’s minds were in overdrive as they pursued thoughts and passions fueled by unchecked desires, “the earth was filled with violence” (see Genesis 6:11). People abused and corrupted each other and the earth. Demonic forces had become large, influential segments of life. The state of affairs brought such grief to the Lord that He proposed a dramatic deconstruction.

With the Flood, the earth would be washed. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This man could commune with God. He heard the Voice and he did not hide.

Noah listened. What was the nature of the Lord’s communication? It was instruction filled with definition, direction, design, and detail.

“Make an Ark of gopher wood. …” (Genesis 6:14). The form and shape and substance of this salvation vessel were given. Precise measurements were dictated. Rooms and stories were defined. This project would secure the spaces of mercy for this man’s family and for the animals that would also be on board.

Peter wrote of Noah as a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). How did Noah deliver the message? He did so with the saw and the hammer. He did so by painting the pitch to seal the seams of the ark for the vessel has to be water tight and sea worthy. He stored away feed for the animals as well as provisions for his people. 

“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22).

I find this instructive for us as believers. God did not ask Noah to climb the highest mountain; Noah was not told to make his own way to draw near to holiness. Instead, the Lord told him to build and showed him how to build.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol. …” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

The way to life for Noah required him to do as God said. This was the answer of Heaven to the disorder of the earth. Moses led the people of Israel in the building of the Tabernacle. It was finished according to design in every detail and the glory of the Lord filled it. That same glory filled the Temple of Solomon as it was dedicated with prayers and praises.

“Go to the ant, O sluggard” (Proverbs 6:6). This creature is exceedingly small and yet exceedingly wise (Proverbs 30:25). The ant is strong and will take a bit of bread, a tiny crumb and carry it home to its colony. The ant does what it finds to do with all its might. It maintains a pattern of preparation according to it design.

Confusion and ruin can be right in our faces. Our tendency is to try to think big thoughts and create complex formulae.  And the Lord has given us simple definitions. Clear direction it what He gives with design and detail.

There are many things, little things, seemingly insignificant things, that we can do and watch His purpose take shape. We can make meals. We sweep a floor. We give a dollar or 10 dollars or 100 dollars. We can help one cross the street. We can clean a toilet, balance an account spreadsheet, send a letter, break bread, and share the cup.

This is the way grace is found for grace never leaves or forsakes us. In the plan of God, all life remains a gift to us and is full of things that we can have and hold and count as precious because He counts them so.

God began to crown His Creation with a handful of dirt. With this earth, He made us. It is Him who is in the details of life. He is there in things thought to be so small as to be overlooked and discounted.

Go as the ant goes. Hear the Lord’s definition. Follow His direction. Pay attention to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the One who entered humanity as a miracle Infant.

Go to the ant. Take up the crumb for it is from the Master’s Table