(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

 

 

We are called with a sacred calling

Held by Love that keeps us from falling

We will one day bear the likeness

Of our GOD Who resides within us

 

HE has placed HIS heart inside ours

And HIS Light searches out our darkness

We are destined for HIS Glory

Each partaking of HIS story

 

So much nearer than we imagine

Is this GOD Who our lives fashions

So astounding is HIS Goodness

So breathtaking in HIS Greatness

 

Inspiring awe and dread, devotion

YAHWEH Who speaks like the thunder of oceans

Revered, adored by those who know and love HIM

To be feared by those who refuse to forsake their sin

 

Day and night HE cries out for the heart of man

Intercedes, entreats, offers us HIS nail-pierced hands

HIS Love the Power that drives and holds a universe

All for sinful human souls, on whom HE placed such worth

 

A Cross hangs over each and every life

A symbol of shame and scorn, and aching Sacrifice

There is but One True GOD, Who has right to claim our hearts

HE Who formed us to bear HIS image before breath did HE impart

 

What we do with GOD’s Own SON, it is our choice

Do we weep and yield before HIM, or in rebellion raise our voice?

At the foot of a humble Cross we each determine eternity

Separated, cut off and lost, or embrace CHRIST – Incarnate DEITY!

 

 

 

thought for the journey …

 

LOVE - that is what drove the FATHER to send The SON of GOD to Golgotha, to The Cross, to lay down HIS life . John 10:17-18 “Therefore MY FATHER loves ME, because I lay down MY life that I may take it again. No one takes it from ME, but I lay it down of MYSELF. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from MY FATHER.”

 

There are those who would question the love of a GOD who would send HIS Own Innocent SON to suffer and die for the sins of others; they see the Cross not as solid evidence of the cost of atoning for sin, but as an example in self-sacrifice and serving. How perverted and distorted our concept of love has become, that we could question the lavishly demonstrated love of GOD, that we could think ‘How could a loving GOD send HIS Sinless SON to The Cross? How could HE pour upon HIM all HIS righteous wrath and judgment? How could HE turn from HIM as HE hung in darkness dying upon those crude wooden beams?’

Matthew 27:45-46 “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour JESUS cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, lama sabachthani,’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, why have YOU forsaken ME?’”

 

If this is how we view the Father heart of GOD then we disclose and reveal our failure to understand two crucial things: The Love of GOD - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT; and the cost of sin! 

It cost FATHER GOD upon The Cross, it cost The SPIRIT of GOD - it cost Triune GOD, not just The SON of GOD; though IT COST HIM HIS ALL! (”Behold I have come …. to do YOUR will, O GOD.” Hebrews 10:7)

 

What loving father would not be brokenhearted over their son’s suffering? The FATHER would have spared HIS SON if there was any other way to redeem us! Why do you think JESUS cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane “if it is possible let this cup pass from me - NEVERTHELESS - not as I will but as YOU will!” (Matthew 26:39). This will was the will of Triune GOD, decided before time eternity - by GOD The SON as much as The FATHER and The SPIRIT. But in HIS Incarnation, as the SON of Man, JESUS had to choose to yield HIS will, to seek HIS FATHER’s face, to pray - for HE limited HIMSELF in HIS humanity, left behind HIS overwhelming, overpowering Glory and clothed HIMSELF in frail humanity. HE came to rescue man, to atone for our sin and rebellion, to redeem man as MAN; HE had to live as a man, with all of humanities limitations - and HE asks nothing of us that HE didn’t have to face in HIS humanity! 

 

He took the punishment of our sin upon HIMSELF, endured the righteous wrath of, and separation from, ALMIGHTY GOD that was our destiny, because “The wages of sin is death!” But death could not hold HIM down and GOD raised HIM up by the power of HIS SPIRIT, and The SON of GOD now reconciles every repentant sinner, that meets HIM at The Cross, to HIS FATHER!

This is LOVE, this is Grace, this is mercy - this is the longing of GOD - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT for each and every one of us.