Heaven-bound with Jesus!
“I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Phi 3:14 ASVArchive for Commentary
Good Friday
When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the book of Mark tells us that at “the ninth hour, Jesus said in a loud voice … My God, my God, why are you turned away from me?” (Mark 15:34). What did this mean? To understand the complete meaning of this sentence, you need to go to Psalm 22. It also gives us a glimpse of what Jesus might have been feeling, his suffering, his love for us, and for the Father.
As you read this Psalm, keep in mind that the Psalms were written about a thousand years before this first Good Friday. I am amazed and touched whenever I read this Psalm. I realize the Holy Spirit moving through time and ages, revealing to David explicitly what Jesus went through on the cross….
My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying?
O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no answer; and in the night, and have no rest.
But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises of Israel.
Our fathers had faith in you: they had faith and you were their saviour.
They sent up their cry to you and were made free: they put their faith in you and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man; cursed by men, and looked down on by the people.
I am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their lips and shaking their heads they say,
He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in him.
But it was you who took care of me from the day of my birth: you gave me faith even from my mother’s breasts.
I was in your hands even before my birth; you are my God from the time when I was in my mother’s body.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near; there is no one to give help.
A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan.
I saw their mouths wide open, like lions crying after food.
I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body.
My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips.
Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.
I am able to see all my bones; their looks are fixed on me:
They make a division of my robes among them, by the decision of chance they take my clothing.
Do not be far from me, O Lord: O my strength, come quickly to my help.
Make my soul safe from the sword, my life from the power of the dog.
Be my saviour from the lion’s mouth; let me go free from the horns of the cruel oxen.
I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers: I will give you praise among the people.
You who have fear of the Lord, give him praise; all you seed of Jacob, give him glory; go in fear of him, all you seed of Israel.
For he has not been unmoved by the pain of him who is troubled; or kept his face covered from him; but he has given an answer to his cry.
My praise will be of you in the great meeting: I will make my offerings before his worshippers.
The poor will have a feast of good things: those who make search for the Lord will give him praise: your heart will have life for ever.
All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give him worship.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s; he is the ruler among the nations.
All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all those who go down to the dust will make themselves low before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his soul.
A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be made clear to the generation which comes after.
They will come and make his righteousness clear to a people of the future because he has done this. (Psalm 22 BBE)
Noises
Big noises, galaxies swirling, planets moving,
thunder rolling, waves crashing, gales thrashing
And a prayer is heard over it all
Is it possible? A thought in the heart is so small
Small noises, trees swinging, bees buzzing,
crickets chirping, drops dripping, voices shouting
And a prayer is heard over it all
Isn’t it amazing
A voice in the crowd is so small
“Where Christ Is”
As I was coming on the bus on my way to school, I was asked by the Holy Spirit whether I truly believed in Jesus as a real person, or just had a realization of him. I was prompted to point in my heart to where He is…
I have lived away from my country for a long while now, but I can still “point” to where I know my relatives are; Zarah, my cousin sister is in the USA (“towards the west of where I am now”, I say to myself), and many other cousins, Uncles, and Aunties are “to the east” in Pakistan. And even though I can’t see them right now, I have more than a realization of them. I know they are real.When I tried to point to Jesus, I was confused. “He’s up…?”, I asked myself. But in my heart, “up” didn’t point to Jesus.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1 NIV
As I read this passage, the Lord revealed to me, in addition to the need to focus on heavenly things, where Jesus is… above.
The Helper
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” Joh 14:16
“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” Gen 2:18
These verses are both taken from the ESV translation. What I understand from this is that originally, man needed a helper, and was later given one, woman. I think that this held true for all men created afterwards.
But notice that Jesus says God will give “another Helper”. Also notice that at the beginning, God says that “it is not good [for man to be] alone”, and Jesus says that the Helper will be “[with you] forever”!
As woman was made out of man, she was part of his being, and completed him. In the same way, Jesus reveals to us all (man and woman) a helper, companion, and friend in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit completes him even-more now!
“Unlimited Wants”
October 5, 2009 at 11:33 pm · Filed under Commentary
Here’s a lesson in Economics. Economics is “the study of scarce resources and unlimited wants”. Ergo, the resources around us, food, clothing, money, and other material things are finite and get used up. However, we always need food as long as we live, our needs are infinite and need to be replenished after being satisfied.
But let’s look at nature as God designed it. A seed is a very tiny thing, but a tree grows out of it. Look at ourselves, we were once tiny beings within our mother’s womb, and have grown bigger and bigger. It seems that in nature, big things come from small ones. Instead of diminishing, our sizes increase, a tree takes on more and more leaves. Things of nature are not in themselves “scarce” in that they are expanding from little to more and more.
Let’s now go to the story of the fall of humankind. God cursed the ground, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (ESV). Adam, and all humanity toil to meet their needs because of the sin that became part of our nature from then on. This sin separated us from God and his provision.
But when Jesus came to the earth, He did the exact opposite of our fallen nature. Remember the feeding of the five thousand, turning water to wine, healing our disease, even forgiving our sins? Jesus meets our unlimited wants the way God designed them to be met. The extravagant blessings of the garden of Eden seemed forever lost: walking and talking with God, eating and never wanting, happiness, and so much more. In Jesus, it is all re-discovered, and He has demonstrated this! Jesus meets our unlimited wants, even more than the lost garden of Eden.
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