Hallowed Be Thy Name

“Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.” Ps 113:2 KJV

Here is the crown jewel of adoration.  Nothing is more radiant, more glorious and more vibrant with life and beauty than the Name of the Lord.  As the psalmist said in another place, “His Name alone is excellent”.  Here we are at the throne of grace and we get to declare our adoration and praise and say, “Father, You are excellent.  You are perfect.  You are holy.”  All the bells of our mind are ringing out and resounding with praise at the Name of the Lord.  Our eyes are blinded by the glory of this precious jewel while our heart leaps with exaltation. 

With all the passion of our being we kneel before Him and say, “Let me make Your Name glorious in my life.”  What joy, what exuberant joy enthralls us as we give up ourselves in utter abandonment to the glory of that Name.  Every fiber of our being cries out; let the magnificence of that precious jewel glow through me.  Let its brilliance shine so brightly that I am hidden and only He is seen.  O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth.

Precious God, let the glory of Thy Name shine clearly in me today.  Amen.

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Who Art In Heaven

“And I said: ‘I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God’.” Neh. 1:5 NKJV

What a priceless jewel it is to have a God who is above all.  Nehemiah saw Him as the great and awesome God of heaven.  Isaiah saw Him as the God who was high and lifted up.  He is no mere mortal or creation of mortal imagination.  He is as Moses said, God of heaven and earth.  There is no dominion where He cannot hold sway and no secret that is hid from His sight.  This is the God who asks us to call Him Father.  This is the God, the only God, who in love sent His Son to redeem us as a people for Himself.  This is the God who promises us a home with Him in His eternal heaven forever.

 His heavenly throne is one of power and also of mercy.  His throne is one of judgment and also of amazing love.  His throne is the seat of law and the seat of grace.  We come to this Father in heaven by His own invitation, through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, and share our hopes, our cares and needs with Him. 

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for admission to Your throne of grace.  Amen.  

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OUR Father

“No longer as a slave but more than a slave -- a beloved brother” Philemon 16 NKJV

There is another beautiful facet on the diamond of God’s grace that we find in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.  Actually it is the first word, OUR.  In His wonderful grace God has placed us into a new family.  We become part of His body, the Church, the bride of Christ.  The world can be a lonely place.  It is hostile to God and His Word.  We can begin to feel small and alone in this world.  But we are not alone.  We are part of that great Christian body, the Church of God on earth. 

God has placed us into a new community of common purpose.  Others also want to see the Name of God glorified, His Word bear fruit and righteousness prevail.   Within this body we find the love and support that the world cannot give.  We find a bond of fellowship and love that transcends culture, status, wealth and other human boundaries.  We come together in hope before OUR Father.  He cares and loves and hears us all.  Onesimus the slave became the brother of Philemon the owner. Together they speak to us the great joy of Christ’s body, the Church. 

Precious Father, please help me today to rejoice in your body, the Church.  Amen.  

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Our Father

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15 NKJV

Grace is like a finely cut diamond.  It is brilliant with many facets that glow and shine.  Many facets of grace are found in the Lord’s Prayer.  The first is found in just the first two words, “Our Father”.  There is the grace of adoption by God and brotherhood with Christ.  What a wonderful family we have been granted by grace.  God the Father Almighty is our Father.  Nothing is too hard for Him to do for us.  Christ is our brother.  The totality of our failed human condition is known to Him, but He receives us by grace. 

The simple word, Father, alone raises us to the ecstasy of belonging to God.  We are His children by His grace.  He sought us when we were in rebellion against Him and clothed us with the garments of heaven.  He feeds us with the bread of life and holds our hand during each moment of our daily walk through life.  He loves to hear our chatter and delights when we crawl into His lap for a close snuggle.  O dear and precious words, “Our Father”. 

Dear Precious Father, our Father, comfort us with these words of grace today.  Amen.  

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What Cost Christ? Part 5

We began with what it cost Christ for us to become sons of God.  It cost Him the glory of heaven for no permanent earthly abode.  It cost Him the worship of angels for the rejection of men. It cost Him fellowship with the Father to God’s forsaking of His own Son while on the cross.  Truly He endured the cross and despised the shame as Hebrews tells us.   

What cost for Christ was there for us?  It cost us the arrogance of our own self righteousness.  I have known many people who have not wanted to pay that cost.  They were so self assured that they were right in who they were and what they thought that they could not see sin and its judgment.  They were the god of their own mind. 

Essentially the idea is a little broader than just the god of their own mind.  The fundamental idea is that man is god which is the very central lie that Satan offered Eve in the garden.  Collectively mankind has the power to find all the answers.  Collectively through the means of politics, economics, education, science and reasoning we will create heaven on earth.  That it hasn’t yet been achieved only means there is more tweeking to do, but we will get it.  Eve wanted to be god.  The citizens of Babel wanted to be god.  Ultimately pagan worship offered everyone a chance to touch the gods through the debauchery of their practices.  What it really costs then to know Christ is the cost of admitting the utter failure of fallen man and to declare the absolutely perfection of the Christ. 

That declaration of the perfection of Christ is what leads to obedient faith and faithful cross bearing.  If something is absolutely true, then that something deserves our absolute best. Therefore it is our reasonable service, as Paul told the Romans, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to Christ.  We offer ourselves up daily to die daily to self.  That is the cost of being His disciple, but it is a reasonable cost because we are serving the absolute perfection of Christ.  When we take our eyes off Him we will swim in the shallow waters.  We want the easy food on the bottom near the shore and relief from the current always running against us. But it is in the shallows where we become easy prey for the wolves that prowl along the shore and the joy of serving the sublime Christ is lost in the frenzy of the ravening wolves of the world.

Helen Lemuel wrote this beautiful song that has inspired many to turn their eyes away from the ease of the world and focus them clearly on Jesus.  “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. 

Through death into life everlasting He passed, and we follow Him there;

Over us sin no more hath dominion, for more than conquerors we are! 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

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What Cost Christ? Part 4

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish.” (Philippians 3:7-8)

Jesus had said to His disciples that the conditional requirement of being His disciple was that a person must bear the cross.  He laid out some rather harsh conditions of what that meant.  Paul is a great illustration of what it meant.  He viewed all that he had in the past or the present as simply rubbish to be thrown away for the joy of walking in close fellowship with Christ and being used by Him in powerful ways.  Later in Philippians he would say that he knew both how to have much and how to have little, but that in whichever condition he found himself to be content and rejoice in Christ. 

Many Christians today find that the cross makes a fine ornament.  We wear them as jewelry, and there is nothing wrong with that by itself.  But, when we wear it as jewelry do we testify to that same cross as being the defining moment and aspect of our lives?  We put the cross on the doors of our homes or the bumpers of our cars.  The same question must be asked wherever we display the cross.  Is it fully displayed in our lives? 

Paul made another great statement about the cross and his relationship to it.  He said in Galatians 2:20 that he died daily.  That is what the cross is all about.  It is a place to die.  It is the place for each believer to die to self and to come alive in Christ to new life and then new purpose in Him.  In baptism we are to see ourselves dying to who we were as lost creatures of wrath and as we pass through the water to see how we are resurrected to new life with Christ.  Each day we are to hold that confession and renew our baptismal vow of dying with Christ and then living with and for Him.

Thomas Shepherd wrote a hymn over 300 years ago that is timeless in its expression of our call and hope in Jesus Christ.  “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?”

Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone, and there’s a cross for me.

The consecrated cross I’ll bear till death shall set me free;
And then go home my crown to wear, for there’s a crown for me.

O precious cross! O glorious crown! O resurrection day!
When Christ the Lord from Heav’n comes down and bears my soul away.

What Cost Christ? Part 3

This is our third look at the same question.  First we saw what the cost was to Christ for us to be saved.  Second we saw the cost of conviction of our sin and the need of Christ. He is not a mere ornament that we add to our life.  He is the greatest need of our life.  Now we want to look at another view of the question – “What Cost Christ?”

Jesus said that there was a cost to follow Him.  What happened to free you might be saying.  Salvation is free.  We enter the Kingdom of God all debts against us being fully paid by Christ at the cross.  So how can there be a cost to follow Him?  It is the cost of testifying to a change in brand loyalty.  If all our friends were Coke drinkers, if indeed it was a requirement to be in the group of friends to be a Coke drinker, and we changed to Pepsi, what then? 

Jesus warned that those who followed Him would find they were in disagreement with their families.  Paul noted that those who followed Christ would be in disagreement with their pagan religions and the practices of their pagan religions.  Here pagan is defined quite simply as anything outside the parameters of biblical teaching.  There is no God but God and we can only know Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  What we saw in Christ by the grace of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit was our peril of eternal damnation and our need of a real Savior.  Led by the Holy Spirit we received Christ by faith and in effect changed brands from whatever we had been. 

Not everyone who didn’t change brands will be happy with our change.  People may lose their friends, their families, their jobs and in many countries in the world even their lives.  Jesus asked the question, the question that began this whole thought process, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”  I am a writer.  Some of my books are not popular with the lost community.  It has been suggested that I hide those books and only present my “acceptable” books in order to sell more books.  I need to sell more books. Therefore I am tempted to make my other books less noticeable.  But what have I gained if I deny the truth in my less popular books?  That is the original thought behind, “What Cost Christ?”  I was at the door of a major publicity opportunity when there was a sudden need to stand up for truth or bail on truth.  Standing up can cost me a lot.  Bailing can cost me even more.  “What Cost Christ?”

This song is from India where following Christ can cost a person everything.

I have decided to follow Jesus.  I have decided to follow Jesus.  I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

The cross before me, the world behind me; the cross before me, the world behind me; the cross before me, the world behind me; no turning back, no turning back. 

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