Seeing the Invisible

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 (New American Standard Bible)

As I write this it is the middle of winter here in Arkansas. Recently as I was riding down the Interstate I noted a hawk hovering high above the leafless trees as it looked for its morning meal. I estimated the bird was around 90 feet above the ground and was astounded that being that high she could catch the movement of something as small as a mouse moving amidst the ground clutter below. Hawks, being believed to be among the smartest of birds, are also renowned for their visual acuity. A hawk’s eye has five times as many photoreceptors as that of humans with special nerves and muscles unknown to other animals. In addition they have an indented fovea (a small indentation on the retina at the back of the eye) which serves to magnify the center of their field of vision. The typical hawk has 20/2 vision as opposed to 20/20 of an average human. This means a hawk can see an object 20 feet away that a human could only see from a distance of 2 feet.*

I was suddenly struck with how amazing just this one facet of nature is and how something this intricate and complex cannot be a random thing formed out of a chaotic mass of chemical confusion. It screams of a Being capable of great power and One who creates with intelligent design. I thought of today’s verse and how, because of what nature testifies around us, at a future day there will be no excuse for people’s rejection of His existence, for nature itself testifies of the reality of God.

This is not only a testimony to those who do not believe but to those of us that do. In all things created there is great encouragement in God’s intelligent and loving design. Even though He is the invisible God the amazing world around us is a living and touchable testimony of Him and His reality among us. While the physical sight of a hawk is astounding there is a greater insight the human heart can attain that makes the sight of a hawk seem fuzzy in comparison. That is the second sight of the reality of God the Father. The evidence is all around us from the intricacy of the hawk’s eye to the rotation of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Even though the Creator is not seen with the physical eyes of man the evidence around us speaks of His reality. The eyesight of the hawk is clear and clean but spiritual eyesight can see the invisible every time.


(*Courtesy of Dr. Louis Lefebvre, Professor of Biology and Program Director, Minor in Science for Arts, McGill University).

Ken

In Praise of Women

And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet, and anointing them with perfume. Luke 7:37, 38 (New American Standard Bible)


The Jewish religious men of Christ’s day would never have allowed a woman known to be ‘unrighteous’ to touch them let alone anoint them with perfume as Jesus allowed. It was astounding to the Pharisee’s when Jesus would show the greatest compassion to the suffering sheep of Israel and especially to women. It seems that Simon, the host of Jesus’ meal in this case, was rather surprised that Jesus did not rebuke the woman for her act. Women had little rights and were considered below second class citizens.

We have much to be thankful to Jesus Christ for what He has done for the human race. One of the things I have been especially keen about is how highly He elevated the value of women. Even today as Orthodox Jewish males begin their day with ‘brochos’ or blessings, one of his prayers to God will be, "Blessed are You for not making me a Gentile, a woman (emphasis mine), or a slave." We can see the levels of disdain women are held in many cultures today. This mindset is society’s precept alone and has nothing to do with Christianity. Ladies, you can thank Jesus Christ for the value He has placed on you and to the great height and honor to which He has elevated you.

Even though there are those within our own society who still treat women with disregard they do so selfishly ignoring the example of Christ’s love. The good news is the worth of women is shown to be exceedingly precious in the eyes of God as evidenced by the example of Jesus Himself. This acceptance is just a little added sparkle to the magnificent gem that is the Christian faith. Christ has made us all heirs and joint-heirs with Him and has marked us for majesty for eons to come. But right now He has crowned women with some of the highest honor and dignity. God truly is the greatest expression of love and He plays no favorites for in Him there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28). Instead those of us who believe in Christ are all Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

There Are No Words

Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things and because of Thy will they existed, and were created. Revelation 4:11 (New American Standard Bible)


Consider what the scene in heaven must have looked like as the resurrected Christ moved from earth and entered the Celestial City where He took His seat of honor at the right hand of His Father. There are approximately 989,000 words in the English language and not one adequately describes fully the majesty and glory of Christ at this moment in His resurrected and glorified Being. The astounding beauty and holiness of Jesus Christ are beyond any kind of noun or adjective in any language.

There have been many attempts to satisfactorily express what the heavenly scene must look like. It is hardly people floating on clouds plucking on their harps. The book of Revelation gives us tantalizing foretastes of both what heaven and the majesty and glory of God are like. But these are mere words almost akin to explaining the color red to a blind person. How can such a thing be described? John tried to relate it in his eyewitness account but he could only describe the infinite in finite terms. The glory he was witness to was beyond explanation yet it was as real as the ground you are standing on.

We may not be able to define exactly what the Throne of God looks like but we do know that the Lamb of God is fully worthy to be seated there. He was the King of Glory from eternity past, then as the God/Man He walked among us as complete Deity being called the Son of Man and the King of the Jews. After His resurrection He returned to His unveiled fullness with a splendor that outshines the sun holding power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor and glory. He is ultimate holiness with ultimate rule and authority in His hand now and forevermore. While words do not fully describe Him now when we see Him as He is in that future day a picture will be worth a million words. Suffice it to say what we can imagine now falls dreadfully short of the reality He is. Jude in his epistle summed it up in words that also fall short of the full grandeur and splendor of Christ the King but still ring true; “to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”



Ken

Rocking the World

And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she had been, in the midst. John 8:9 (New American Standard Bible)

Most of us are familiar with the story of the woman taken in adultery who was brought before Jesus. The grace Christ offered to this woman is a model of understanding and compassion that is so lacking in the average human including the majority of Christians. Jesus, as the Ultimate Man of Wisdom, knew exactly what to say and do in this situation.

In reading this account again I was taken with the grace Christ showed to the woman’s accusers as well. As God Incarnate consider what the Lord could have said to these men and He would have been totally justified. But Jesus in His grace and mercy simply wrote on the ground and then stood and shined the light of His righteousness on their hearts. Nothing else was said and these men were allowed to depart as they considered their deeds and the motives of their hearts. No lightning bolts or fire from heaven but on that day only the still small voice of God was heard. He surely is a just God but He’s also the God of second chances.

I believe that as those men walked away from their attempt to entrap Jesus and destroy this woman that Jesus was very grieved because of their spiritual blindness and judgmental attitudes. Jesus did not die just for ‘nice’ sinners. His example in this situation is a great model for me. When I see the uglier side of people often my first thought is to despise them the grace that the Great God of Eternity offers. When we say Jesus Christ died for the entire human race it doesn’t mean just for unbelievers with a good moral attitude but also for the scarred, the angry, the bitter and the vicious. At times like this God wants me to drop the stone which I ought not to have picked up in the first place and extend my hands and my heart in the beauty of true grace. When it comes to other people and who they are God doesn’t want me to rock anyone’s world.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

T'aint Necessarily So

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said “Write for these words are faithful and true.” Revelation 21:5 (New American Standard Bible)

In the movie “Groundhog Day” Bill Murray played Phil, a weatherman whose assignment was to cover the ground hog day celebrations in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Phil completed the first day only to find at midnight the day would begin all over again. Phil was stuck in Punxsutawney doomed to relive the same day over and over again for many years.

Sometimes I tend to feel like Phil the weatherman as it seems each day begins anew yet is filled with the same disorder and confusion as the day before. Will we ever escape this madness? I believe many of us can identify with the frustration of our times and how the Pearls of the Lord are trampled underfoot every day by unbelievers and we are turned on and attacked for our stand in Christ. As we put our faith and hope in the words of Jesus Christ we are encouraged that He will return to end this mess mankind has made of earth. We and the entire earth will be redeemed. As badly as things seem now this is as bad as it will get for us and for unbelievers this is the best it will ever be.

The signs of the time pointing to the end of this dispensation are changing like summer into fall. We see the signs of fall in nature and know harvest is upon us. These changes are easy to follow and understand but in the same way Jesus, in His words, gave us the signs to look for just before he returns (Matthew Chapter 24 & Luke Chapter 21). When we study this we aren’t looking for an exact day or time for that is in the mind of the Trinity alone. But we certainly can behold the season of signs and know that Christ’s return is closer than we can imagine.

If there is one thing God wants us to have its hope in the promises of His words. He knows the wait for us, in human years, is difficult and sometimes discouraging as we only see the world becoming more wicked and chaotic. Looking at the world and seeing God’s big picture tells us that this too shall pass. What a hope that we will not have to continue to see the world descend into deeper skepticism and horror and that Satan and his hoards will be vanquished once and for all through the power of Jesus Christ. What a glorious hope. What we see now t’aint necessarily what we’ll get and thank the Father of Lights for that. Be encouraged for Christ even now is reaching for the handle of the door and when He opens it no man will be able to shut Him out.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

The Chief Shepherd

                                            “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door to the sheep. All who come before Me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:7-9 (New American Standard Bible)

When Jesus gave this illustration to the Jews they understood the terminology of the sheep’s gate if not its spiritual lesson. When shepherds led their sheep to pasture they would gather enough stones to build a pen for the animals. It would be roughly the shape of a square with an opening at one end that was the “door” for the sheep. The shepherd would stay near the opening watching over his animals as they grazed during the day and at night when all the sheep were in the pen the shepherd would lie across the opening serving as its “gate.” Not only was it to keep his sheep in but also to be their protector ensuring nothing would get past him and hurt his flock. Good shepherds would go to great lengths to fight off attacking animals. David told King Saul he had killed both a lion and a bear that came after his flock (I Samuel 17:34, 35). Being a good shepherd wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Jesus, the ultimate good shepherd, provides for the needs of the flock and is its security against all enemies. False shepherds care not an iota about the safety of the sheep but are only concerned with feeding themselves. In contrast a good shepherd has an intimacy with his sheep with an interest that is personally attentive to those in his charge. The model of this intimacy is that of the personal and loving familiarity of the Father to the Son. What a comfort to know that as our own Good Shepherd lies at the gate we have perfect comfort and rest with His continual presence. With that also is the confidence that when the danger comes to kill, steal and destroy the flock we have a courageous and invincible Shepherd who will run toward the danger with zeal and meet the threat head-on to protect those in His hand. Surely it makes perfect sense that all that enters through the Gate will be saved. That is our reassurance that we always have One who is watching over us, protecting and meeting our need. The sheep are never in situations the Chief Shepherd is not aware of for He never leaves or forsakes His flock.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

It's not you, it's them

"The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. John 7:7 (New American Standard Bible)

Ever have someone get upset with you when you shared Jesus with them? I once had a woman tell me, “I would rather go to hell than have someone tell me I needed to turn to Jesus Christ as my savior!” What would create such ire in a person to say such a thing? I often marvel at how Jesus Christ, who did great good, is one of the most reviled men in history. Even 2000 years after He walked the earth His name can still provoke great agitation and loathing from the greater part of the human population. Talking about God is really too generic to pose any threat. After all, one can make any abstract idea into a concept of God. But why does the name of Jesus bring such antipathy? It’s because He calls us to accountability for our actions shining light upon the inmost portions of our thoughts and motives. One of the quickest defensive postures a person will make is when their belief system or lifestyle is challenged. Jesus goes further to say He is hated because He reveals and testifies of the evil deeds people practice. People can speak of God in a detached way but they can’t do that with Jesus. He was too specific in what He requires of us and that drives some people crazy. No one can tell me how I should live my life!

If you’ve ever limped away from that kind of angry attack concerning the Son of Man then I have a couple of good things to encourage you with. The first is you’re in good company; for even the prophets of old were treated this way when they met the scoffers of their time. Secondly, what you say is not of yourself. As you graciously share Christ it isn’t up to you to persuade anyone to come to Him. That job is the Holy Spirit’s. When people reject your testimony of Jesus they aren’t rejecting you but the One who sent you. Whether they have an awakening to Christ at that time is no one’s business but God’s. The Lord is a marvelous closer knowing exactly what to bring to any person so that they may immediately or perhaps at some future time come to a relationship with His Son. What God expects of us is to be obedient to that task. That takes a whole lot of pressure off if you ask me. In sharing with others do your best and God will handle the rest. When you are reviled for your testimony in Christ it isn’t you, it’s them.

Ken