In the meantime

Guys, I am just finishing up reading  Knowing God , by J. I. Packer, and it is absolutely. fantastic. Similar to Knowledge of the Holy  by A. W. Tozer, this book will make you want to do just that: know God. Knowing God  deserves a more-detailed post in the near future, but for now, I'll leave you with a quote to make you want to read the book for yourself (because you can't just take my word for it!)   On the believer's  adoption  and being sons of God, Packer says:  "This free gift of acquittal and peace [justification] won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.  "But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family  idea, conceived in terms of love , and veiwing God as ...

This post originally started as a simple look at God’s mercy.  But I didn’t get too far before  coming across passages on the mercy seat...which is why this Describe Him post has morphed into a a closer look at God’s mercy, in light of the mercy seat.   What was it? Exodus 25 gives a good description of the physical piece of furniture in the Tabernacle called the mercy seat : - There were cherubims on either side of the seat. (vs. 18-19) - The cherubims’ wings covered the seat. (vs. 20) - The seat itself was located above the ark of the covenant. (vs. 21) - The testimony [of all God’s instructions] was beneath the seat (25:21-22, 30:6) - It was located in the most holy place. (26:34) From these descriptions, the mercy seat doesn’t sound all that scary.  It was simply a piece of furniture. One more crucial tidbit: The mercy seat was God’s meeting place. (Lev. 16:2,13, Num. 7:89.)  God spoke from the mercy seat.  For this reason...

“God is love.” We hear this phrase so much that we almost overlook it and/or take it for granted.  In this Describe Him post, can I remind our proud hearts of what an incredible thing it really is that God is love?     “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) This is a statement about the greatest demonstration of love one could ever do: dying for someone that is your friend, someone for whom you care for A LOT. And God’s demonstration of love for us went above and beyond anything anyone has ever done: we weren’t His friends.  We weren’t even just “acquaintances,” if you want to call it that.  We were actively GOD’S ENEMIES.  Yet Christ died for me—His enemy. This act of love is the very core of the Gospel: “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  We did nothing to deserve His love.  In fact, beca...

He is our Father.  But we were His enemies.  For Him to be our Father, we had to be made sons and daughters.  How did He become our Father? Romans 5:6-8 calls us without strength , ungodly, sinners, enemies.  Nothing we do can make us His children.  Rather, it is Christ’s death for us at the time when we were most helpless and estranged from a holy God that has made it possible for us to be His children. 1 John 3:1  declares our adoption as sons being entirely because of God’s love toward us. What was the incredible demonstration of God’s love that has made our adoption possible?  Christ’s death and resurrection was the payment that made it possible for us to go from being God’s enemies to being His children.  His blood satisfied the Father’s righteous demands for the punishment of sin.  How do we become His children?   John 1:12 says we become the sons of God by  believing on the name of...

(Again, am finally getting around to posting what has been a draft in my draft files for quite some time!)  Just admit it: Life is about expectations.  We all have them, whether they are good or bad. We have expectations of ourselves and expectations of others.  There are certain expectations of events and businesses. Our employers have expectations of us, their employees.  The list could go on. Some expectations we don’t even realize we have.  That is, until they aren’t met. When this happens, something else happens.  And sometimes, that something else is not always a good thing. (In other words, we sin because of it.) I was rudely reminded of this recently when I discovered that plans I had for some Christmas projects were not working out like I was expecting them to.  Add to that the general expectation of what “Celebrating Christmas” is supposed to look, feel, sound, and even taste like, and  Christmas this year just hasn’t been ...