As we continue to delight in this string of beautiful pearls, these precious jewels in God's Holy Word, throwing caution to the wind and ignoring the blog police:) You begin to taste and smell and possibly get a flavor of what in the world Peter was talking about in 2 Peter 1:4, when he tells us that, "by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
If you remember we have referenced living on the promises of God and how when God's children live on and believe our heavenly Father for HIS precious and magnificent promises HIS glory shows in and through us...Christ in us the hope of glory, beholding is becoming, becoming partakers of the divine nature, and as this continually happens we are the fragrance of Christ to those that are alive unto God and to those that are perishing.
At times I truly wonder if I am absolutely INSANE, [go on, yes have fun at my expense, I know what some of you are thinking:)] am I the only one that reads words like that and and the result is that I am breathless, awed, amazed? Then you think..."who is adequate?" NO ONE! Then you rejoice because our adequacy is from God. There are places in God's Word where the glory is so intense I feel a little like I imagine John expressed when he saw the vision of Jesus...he feel at HIS feet as a dead man. Other times it's more like Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died...I see HIM in HIS Word and think, woe is me for I am ruined, I am a man of unclean lips...other times I feel like Job, I go through a time of whining, complaining and seeking to justify myself and then the Lord takes me through a passage like the one below and I cry "Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” There are other times when the experience is more like Peter in Luke 5:8, when Peter fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
This passage is one of those stunning jewels in God's Word...it is no more inspired, no more God's Word than in any other place, but the glory is intense. I will never forget the first time it hit me with such force I was like John, a dead man, filled with shock and awe at the pure intensity of these precious few words. Foolishly I though I could see it clearly utilizing the Greek tools I picked up in seminary by doing sentence diagrams and breaking its parts down into smaller bite size pieces. I was wrong...don't miss understand, it did help me understand the words, but it was like trying to understand the mystery and wonder of life, spirit and heart and passion by dissecting a human cadaver...you will not see it in it's individual parts! The mystery, spirit, life, heart and passion come only from the breath of God!
Father in heaven,
In desperation I ask that YOU would open the eyes of our hearts and allow the pure glory of YOUR precious and magnificent promises shine in our hearts...enable us to see by YOUR Holy Spirit the LIGHT of the knowledge of YOUR glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Co 4:3-7 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
Behold HIS glory...the same God who commanded the light to shine when HE created the heavens and the earth WILL command HIS light to shine in our hearts TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!
Where can you see HIS Face, where can you behold HIM in all HIS glory! LOOK, LOOK AT HIS FACE, FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH WHO FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM ENDURED THE CROSS...LOOK AT JESUS AND BE HEALED, BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED.
There is a Michael Card song that resonated with my heart many years ago, it is still just as powerful today! "Joy in the Journey"
There is a joy in the journey,
there's a light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life,
and freedom for those who obey.
All those who seek it shall find it
a pardon for all who believe.
Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind
To all who've been born of the Spirit
and who share incarnation with him;
who belong to eternity, stranded in time,
and weary of struggling with sin.
Forget not the hope
that's before you,
and never stop counting the cost.
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost?
love,
m