“A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: ‘Rising early one morning,’ he said, ‘I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.’ So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God.”

A. C. Dixon.

A couple of days ago, a friend reminded me that I had shared this story with him. He and I and a friend of his discussed the story and its implications for the Christian.

I decided to paste it in a new post and write about it (I’m glad my former neighbor convinced me to maintain a wiki for personal use, because I quickly found the quote just where I had stored it).

This quote by A.C. Dixon serves as an impetus for me. It encourages, even drives me, to pray. When my comprehension of God’s character brings me to the realization that He is to me just like this man was to the breathless fawn, I am humbled before Him, and led to pour my heart out to him in times of trouble as well as in times of relative tranquility. If the God of the universe waits for me to run to Him and confess that I need Him desperately to save me from all adversity (and I believe that He does wait ever patiently for me), then my only acceptable response is to run to Him and cast all my need at His feet.

I must say that I don’t display the appropriate response as often as I should. How untapped do I leave His resources! The riches of His grace are there, like an artesian well capped on the top. I only need to bow in prayer to remove the cap, and let flow such a flood that I would not be able to contain it.

May I be stirred up more and more to run to Him by thoughts such as the one at the head of this post.

Hanging on that tree

His tree it is, and the curse

Great mystery, this

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Psalm 133:1-3

We are the recipients of a double blessing. We had the pleasure (this long weekend) of spending some time with two families from the chapel. On two different evenings this weekend we were invited to dine, and we were blessed immensely as a result of the offer.

We enjoyed, first of all, that someone had us as a family in mind. How nice it is to be noticed, and thought of. It reminds us of Christ and how he noticed us in our despair, and rushed to Earth to save.

We also were humbled by the effort expended on our behalf. The time that it must have taken, the resources used in the making of the food, and the warm hearts there to receive us, all encouraged us beyond our words.

As the scripture above states, it was a precious ointment to us. The fragrance of it all and the refreshment afforded to us cause us to blush in unworthiness. And I suppose this is the Gospel itself. We, as sinners before a Holy God, were deserving only of a fiery judgment. Yet our Judge became our Savior, and has invited us to dine.

We are thankful for this truth, and for the blessings of fellowship.

Guiding Question – What is the spiritual significance of the separation of the ark and the rest of the tabernacle articles?

We see this occurrence in I Chronicles 16. The crux of the story is that the Ark had been stolen by the Philistines in I Samuel 4, but had found no favor with it, and decided to return it by cart. Although the Ark was successfully returned to Israel, David had it on his heart to bring the Ark of God into Jerusalem. When this was attempted in an unprescribed manner (on a cart instead of with staves), Uzzah’s life was taken by God. David finally discovered the correct method, and he tasted great joy in bringing the Ark into the city.

This is where we meditate. We are in Jerusalem, with the Ark, but the rest of the articles of the Tabernacle remain in Gibeon in a high place. So the question plagues us. What are we to learn from this? The tabernacle is separated. What deep teaching is here?

He was not budget-minded when He determined to save us; He sat not on His throne in Heaven saying, “I would like to save these poor, wretched creatures from their sin so they can go free, and start over with things”; His heart was poised rather to save us and bring us into His family. Can it be fathomed? The object of our disdain; the One we avoided at every turn in our lives before we knew just how He loved us; the One of whom we said in our hearts, “I will not have this Man to reign over me”: this same One devised a plan that was laced and woven with love for us from start to finish. He crafted, like a composer, a glorious symphony, that when played out, would set such tones aloft; such lilting melodies, with the intricate design of a master musician; that we would find ourselves blushing at the thought of being the subject of such labor: we, the ones whose rebellion led His lovely Son to breathe His last on the accursed tree at Calvary. This love so foreign to us would well up within the heart of the Father to the extent that He would desire to call us sons!

The thought of “God’s extravagance” has been bubbling under the surface for me in the last month or so. We were watching a nature show, when the host, while walking through a remote place in a desert region, spotted a singular pink flower a few feet above eye level. His comment was to the effect that the flower showed “God’s extravagance”, in that there are likely millions of flowers positioned in far-away places; far from the eye-sight of any human. And his comment was only in regard to a flower. What of unknown (to us) plant and animal species; or the depths of the ocean that veil discoveries; or the vastness of the cosmos: the impenetrable depths of that which is “out past the edges”?

Initially, my thoughts centered upon His extravagance in creation; then another thought occurred to me: what if we look at this flower, and the other lavishness that we see around us, as fingerprints? What if this One, who gives us all things richly to enjoy, is at work in our lives daily, and we are simply too busy or bothered or indifferent, to notice, or appreciate, this love that would embrace us; envelope us; point us God-ward every moment? Perhaps we would profit and He would be honored more in our lives if we would allow our spiritual antennae to be more active. I know He would help us if we asked.

It was one of those interesting moments well-known to parents of young children. We were sitting at Chili’s tonight, waiting for our food to be brought out. We were there in celebration of my bride’s 38th birthday. She received a gift certificate, so we decided to go and enjoy a dinner with the whole family. So as were waiting, my son spotted a sign in the distance that displayed in large letters, “Happy Hour!”. This brought great excitement to him, but not for the same reason that those words bring delight to those who indulge in that kind of drink. His frame of reference comes from Sonic’s happy hour. And all of us at the table knew what he meant. But I’m not sure if the people at the table adjacent to us quite understood why an eight-year-old would get so excited about Happy Hour. I’m thankful that Grace was quick to point out the difference between the two types of happy hours.

The amusing mix-up of terms took my mind to eternity future, when God’s children would revel in arguably the happiest hour of all. This world has nothing on God’s Happy Hour. You think dollar drinks do the trick? Just wait until you drink deeply from the well of salvation; when you realize that eternal life is “on the house”; that our great salvation has been paid for in blood not our own.

Yes, saints, there is a day coming that will cause us to fall at the feet of the One who is worthy. The One whose final gasps of air were not consumed for the purpose of spewing out hatred at His murderers. Nor were they utilized as a request for help. In fact, those last painful moments contained the sweetest words for a sinner’s ear. They were, “Father, forgive them…”.

So the Happy Hour we hope for is coming. It may even happen before you finish reading this post. As a brother once said, it may be that you “put your right foot onto Main Street, and your left foot into glory”. In the twinkling of an eye, brothers and sisters, God’s happy hour is coming.

One bright hour, He will come for me

One bright hour, He’ll set the captive free

And one bright hour, He will wipe the tears away

From eyes that now can see

One bright hour

Bebo Norman

The power of God creation shows,

His wisdom Nature doth disclose,

But by the Atonement He has shown

His love, which else had been unknown.

When chaos reigned in ceaseless night

His voice was heard: “Let there be light!”

And light without sun, moon, or star,

Outshone and chased the darkness far!

His hand with beauty decked the scene

Which void and shapeless erst had been!

He breathed on Adam’s cold, clay frame,

And man a living soul became!

Was power exhausted as He stood

And, viewing all, pronounced it good?

Or was His wisdom at an end

When Nature’s laws He made to blend,

And caused the worlds through pathless space

Harmoniously to run their race?

And, though in these in vast degree

His wisdom and His power we see,

They are but glimmers, faint and dim -

All power and wisdom are in Him -

But more His love could not have done

Than yielded up His only Son.

William Blane – from The Atonement

I was speaking with a brother at the chapel today, and we began a discussion about the uniqueness of Christianity. Specifically, the conversation centered upon God’s power in comparison with His love. In our limited view of the world, we talked about how it seems that people of other faiths may reject the message of the Gospel due to a certain misunderstanding: that God somehow conceded to diminish His power when He displayed His love.

To put it in further terms, it seems that many in the world are of the opinion that the Gospel message of God allowing His Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world necessitates that any thinking person should reject the message on the following grounds: God cannot be God if He would allow His own Son to be subjected to such abuse. The suggestion of weakness on God’s part seems to create a problem in the minds of those who doubt the Gospel’s credibility.

Fascination with absolute power may be the culprit here. Maybe our minds have difficulty reconciling the existence of power and love in one person. We ordinarily characterize people by either their strength or by their tenderness, but not a combination of the two. Our three-pound brains try to recompute when we are faced with the possibility that God holds absolute power, and that He is Love itself. “How do these two fit in the same person?” we ask.

So, we conclude that some folks struggle with the thoughts mentioned above. The poem at the head of the post presents a beautiful thought that is worth considering. I am in awe of this thought that His wisdom and power were not exhausted by the creation; that He created all according to His ability, and not out of His ability. We cannot view God as one who has all His power stored in a bank of some sort, and that when He has need of it, He must make a withdrawal; nor should we assume that each withdrawal reduces His power. He is eternally omnipotent!

His Love is contrasted with His power in this way: although He could endlessly display His power to us in a myriad of ways, His love shown to us at the cross is the grand pinnacle of all pinnacles. There is no higher expression of love than what we see in this Man left alone to die for our sins. There is nothing more for God to say on the matter. He pulled out all the stops, so to speak.

May God bless you as you consider the One who loved you to death.

What are these wounds in thine hands?

Zechariah 13:6

This is one of the questions posed in the Scriptures that I never tire of considering. It seems to delve deeper than just the surface of the matter, and for me it lingers long in my thoughts. “What are these wounds in thine hands?” Again and again we will ask it. Scripture tells us that eternity is necessary for us to hear the whole of it (Ephesians 2:7). And so it seems that we will ever repeat the question. It’s like that infamous question that rings wildly in the car while we travel, “Are we there yet?” Only this question we ask will never be answered with, “Stop asking that question!” The Father will for all eternity be expounding to us the depths of the riches of the love He has toward us. Let us consider a few aspects of this simple question.

The Why behind the question

If we could rephrase the question and say, “Why are these wounds in your hands?”, the One who bears the scars in His hands would say something like this: I was wounded for your transgressions, and I was bruised for your iniquity. It was for sin that He died, and it was not for His own sins, for He had none. It was for our sin that He went to that awful place called Calvary, and allowed His creatures to nail Him to a tree. He died to pay for the sins of the world, and to offer “whosoever will” to come into eternal peace with Him. Each one of us has crossed the line, so to speak, in regard to obeying God. He said “Don’t do it,” and we did it. We stand before Him guilty, but He offers pardon through His Son, Jesus Christ. So in summation, we caused the wounds in His lovely hands.

The What behind the question

Precisely the word in the verse is the one we will now contemplate – the word “what?”. What are these wounds in your hands? What do they symbolize? What story do they tell? It is simple, but profound, to say that these wounds tell the story of love. The story of a love so deep and so wide, that it is mind-boggling. This love that led Christ to the cross is unfathomable. How can we fully grasp the meaning of the love of Christ. There He sat on His throne in heaven. He was the object of angels’ worship. Pure beyond imagination, and unstained by sin, He sat as creator and ruler of the universe. And presented with the opportunity to leave this throne, come to the earth as a man, and die to make all the wrongs right, He said “yes”. He actually said “yes”. Yes to all the hatred. Yes to all the spitting and the beating. Yes to the mocking and laughing and jeering. He said yes to becoming a curse for us. He even said yes to being forsaken by His Father. It is eay to repeat that the story that these wounds tell is the story of love.

The Who behind the question

Who is this who bears these wounds? It was touched upon above, but there’s more to this story. So just who is this One who possesses the wounds? He is the Son of God. He is the Son of man. He is Jehovah. He is eternal. He is the lamb of God. He is the rock. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. On and on we could go just dwelling on the titles that Scripture gives to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one key identifier that I would like to use to cut to the chase. To get straight to the heart of things. He is all these listed above, and more. But what seems to underscore His love for us that was displayed in His death on the cross more than anything else is this – He is risen. He is alive! He said,

I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

Revelation 1:18

Not only did He prove His love to us, but He also displayed that God the Father accepted this tremendous act of love by raising Him from the dead. The tomb where He lay is empty, and forever presents itself as a reminder as to His love and His power over death. We are free because of what He did!

May we ponder these things today and worship Him who bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

He gave all for us

The merchant man sought a pearl

His blood was the price

I have been praying a lot about financial things. The majority of these prayers have been focused upon attaining a job that will sufficiently replace the income gained through the mowing of lawns. Don’t get me wrong. I still love to sweat and everything, but the allergies are driving me crazy. It’s like I’ve spent the last six years in a dust and grass storm, and my body is rejecting any more of it.

And so, the prayer was answered. I got a job at a local tutoring center, and I think it will really work out for me. The center will give more hours during the summer, and less during the school year. Perfect fit! From a Perfect God. I’m just amazed at His response to my prayers. It makes me think of a couple of favorite verses:

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble…

Nahum 1:7

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…

James 1:17