Dog and Pony

Tampa is the lighting capital of the world. So it's not uncommon to see a heat lighting storm from you backyard. Last night I witnessed by far the most beautiful storm. It was dark, so dark you couldn't tell if there were clouds out, except that you couldn't see a star in the sky. It was a cool night for July in Florida. There was no moon. 

And then you see it. A flicker of brilliant light. Then the night it dark again. Then again, the sky is lit up almost completely by one flash amidst the darkness. And again, and again. And in those moments, things above are seen clearly. The clouds are no longer camouflaged. You see the darkness for what it is. But in the in-between moments, I found it hard to believe the details could possibly be seen; the sky was too grand, too dark to be overcome. 

So I find myself with a new friend on the roof of a USF parking garage, just watching it play out. It was like nothing I had seen before. The majesty of God's creation, so magnificent. There was no rain below the billowing cloud; it was as if God just wanted to display His glory just to display it. 

Then along the skyline we hear a noise, somewhat of a loud, rude noise compared to the silence of the lighting. A way's away is Busch Gardens. They were putting on a fireworks show. I can imagine if I had been at the park watching, it would have been so nice, and seeing how the Fourth was not too long ago, I was still fascinated by fireworks to a point. But this night, this quiet, brilliant night, it was out of place. 

This juxtaposition was so astounding. On the one hand, you had this beautiful, terrifying storm; so huge you could see it for miles and miles. And on the other you had this somewhat terrific and bright show. But it was so small compared to the cloud, especially being outside of it all. Up close on the ground it was probably entrenching to witness. 

I see how as man do this often in life. We try to put on enticing dog-and-pony shows to display how awesome we are, how we don't need God, how we can make it on our own. Then God comes along and shows the hilarity of our efforts. His Son completely blows out best efforts out of the water. We need to make noise to be heard. And what we have to say isn't worth speaking. But God need only be seen to be heard. His breath is in every little minute thing. And it is breathtaking. The heavens do indeed declare the glory of the Lord. 

Thursday

Tomorrow represents a very important day in our history. Some millennia ago, there was a man. But he was no ordinary man. He was God himself. This God was trinitarian (meaning three personas in one essence, or three-in-one). There was a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. These three persons worked together so cohesively, so harmoniously, so unlike any example or metaphor in the natural world. They loved perfectly. There was never any strife, or jealousy, or inequality. They were all equal, but they all served each other. 

Out of this perfect love, they created. Not because they needed anything apart from their own relationship, but because they loved so purely, so abundantly, they wanted to share it. So they hand crafted a beautiful world, full of wonders. A world that could only answer to Him, only could serve Him. It was a beautiful world. But it needed something to maintain itself, a caretaker if you will. So this God created a race called man. And man was to glorify his Creator by serving Him. Then this Godhead decided that man needed a partner, someone to more fully serve God, but also someone that could, when bonded to the man, represent God's own perfect relationship and union with Himself. A union that generate more love, would "create" more by filling this world, that would glorify the God. 

God knew what was good for man and woman. He knew what they needed, and He was overly and abundantly willing to provide for what they needed. But they wanted more. They wanted to be their own gods. And with that, sin entered the world. It would infect the race of man in every person, in every generation to come. Every human would be stained by it from birth. And it would separate God from His creation, which He so loved. But He couldn't just will sin away, because He was above it. His perfection couldn't be near it. And in this new fallen world, terrible things would happen, not just from an individual sin, but because with sin brought death. It wasn't God's fault that these terrible things would happen, it was the result of this death that man was both born into and guilty of as a whole race. God was life, and He wanted life for His creation; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. 

But God had a plan. He would start off by choosing a people from within this race. A small, powerless, clumsy, and imperfect people. He told them what life was like, and His standard for what it looked like. But He knew they could never live up to those rules; that was the whole point. Man couldn't fix himself. God wanted the nations to know what He wanted though. So with this group of sinners, He stayed with them. They left him, scorned him, hated him, did every imaginable thing to get away from him, even after He saved them time and time again. They would never listen. In this, however, He was brought glory. How, you ask? He remained loyal to them; He never gave up on them. Sometimes He would let them have their way, even though He knew it would end terribly. And after they realized it, they would blame Him, and beg for Him to save them. And He would. 

In this messy story, however, he sewed a plan within it. He chose men to warn His people. But He also hinted at a final rescuer; someone who would once and for all defeat sin and death. Then He was silent for several hundred years, He didn't leave them, He was just silent. And they waited. Little did they know it would be God himself who would save them.

The Son, part of the Godhead, was sent by the Father. He lessened Himself to take the form of man. He wasn't any less God, or any less man than any other man. It was a mysterious combination. Nevertheless, it took extreme humility for a creator to become creation, to come off His throne as king and become a peasant. But the Father loved His creation so much, He had to save them. The Son loved the Father so much, He obeyed. The Son became like the very sinners who hated Him, to relate to them. His original people didn't believe that He was really the man who would ultimately save them. The nations didn't believe they needed to be saved. They hated this man.

This man was human in every way. He lived the life of a man, was confronted with every type of sin any man would face. The only difference? He didn't give in. He lived the life that fulfilled every one of those standards from long ago, that no other man could have ever done. He did it for them. And what did they do? Kill Him.

Now we arrive at tomorrow, or have you, Thursday. This day some millennia ago. This man had one day left to live. He had a small group of followers. Friends that spent every day with him, knew him as well as anyone could have. But they wouldn't remain loyal to him, even after seeing everything he could do, after all the love he showed them. For in that time, they were considered the worst sorts of people; the ones everyone acknowledged as sinners (even though every man is a sinner in their heart). They knew they weren't perfect, and this man loved them anyways. 

On this last day, one of these close friends would betray him. And for all of the things, money. Not even a large sum of it either. As unwarranted and disgusting as this may seem, there is something more astounding. This God-man would humble himself yet again, and wash this filthy betrayer's feet; he even knew what he was going to do. And he washed all of their feet. All would abandon him, and he did it anyways. 

So this man was betrayed, and eventually sent to die arguably the most excruciating (which is actually where the term "excruciate" originated) death on a cross. To be crucified. This God-man was beaten to a pulp, unrecognizable, taunted, spat on, despised, held at the same level of true sinners, on either side of him. And as awful as it was, something worse would come. You see, the night before he spoke with his Father, and he begged him to not let this thing that would happen, happen. God himself knew how terrible it would be. But this man wanted the Father's desires over his own self-preservation. He wanted it more than his life. So after a few hours of this unbearable pain, he looked up toward his Father and said "It is finished", and died. And the terrible act that would happen occurred. The Father poured out every ounce of wrath he could ever accumulate on this man. From the very first man and woman, to the  very last far in the future. Every moment, every thought, every action. All the death. All of it. And the Father emptied Himself of all this betrayal onto His Son. Every last bit of it. And once it was over (three days worth of it), just to prove that he was better, that he had overcome it, this man rose from the dead. God defeated it Himself. Not only did He defeat sin, but He gave us the very righteousness, the perfection, the status that He had earned. The perfection we could never attain by any means or degree. The Father looks at His people, and see His Son. And He did it for us. But not ultimately for us. He filled in the wide gap that sin left between Himself and His creation. And the way He had intended for His creation to be would happen someday. But not yet. You see, death was dead, but it wasn't over yet. This God-man would come back one day for his people, for His wayward Bride and complete this story. 

"His people" were no longer just one nation. It was open to all people groups; every tribe, in every language would one day return to their Husband and praise Him. The love that God had created with would one day come back to Him and ultimately glorify Him. The point of creating in the first place. 

So today, we are still waiting. The war was won, but the battles still rage on. Already, but not yet. He made His people clean, but they still live in bodies that would die, until He returned to give them new bodies that would never die. Their spirits were clean, their status of "sinner" had changed to "righteous", but those natural bodies were still infected with the sin. The world still was filled with death. But the world would see His Bride, and praise God for the work He had done. Because the third person of the Godhead would enter in to the souls of His people, never to leave them. They could endure the death and sin, because God Himself was within them, guiding them. His people could now overcome the sin that remained in their bodies. He never would leave them. 

His people are the sinners, undeserving of forgiveness, of grace. They didn't earn anything (no matter how "good" they seemed by worldly standards). It was solely God who did all of it, so that only God cold be glorified. None of His people could boast of any achievement, because that achieved nothing, earned nothing. So because of that free gift, from it, His people were intended to be so thankful for being forgiven that they would WANT to serve Him. Nothing would be forced, because their status couldn't be changed or made better (cause what's better than a "perfect" status?). They can't earn God's love, it was just given. This gift is sufficient for all of the sins of mankind, but it wouldn't cover all of them (Remember, God can't just will away sin, and people can't earn perfection). And some may say, "Well that's malicious." But it really isn't. The fact that God would come down to spare any of us is beyond me. 

I am a daughter of this King. Every sin I have ever thought or done, or ever will was COMPLETELY poured out on the Son. I have the status of "Daughter" to the Father. I am a part of His Bride. I did nothing to earn this. In fact, I have a long list that would suggest other wise. I was born evil, a sinner. I have nothing in me that would warrant grace or mercy. But I don't have to live like that any longer. I have the Son's inheritance from the Father. God Himself is within me, in the form of His Spirit. Daily, I can look sin in its ugly face and say "No". But my body is weak. The war was won, but the battles within rage on. So I fall. I forget what was given to me. And the beautiful thing is, I'm picked back up, brushed off each time, and reminded by the Father "I love you, you are made good enough." by the Son, "I died for that thought you just had, so that you would be good enough." and by the Spirit, "I'm in this for the long haul, there's nothing you could do to make me leave you. You were made good enough." I have this hope. I have a future. I shall not despair. I will fight. I was placed on the winning side. Will you join me?

Soli Deo Gloria,
Mackenzie Thies

Overtaken

"For she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
   who give me my bread and my water,
   my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'
Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
   and I will build a wall against her,
   so that she cannot find her paths.
She shall pursue her lovers
   but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
   but shall not find them.
 Then she shall say,
   'I will go and return to my first husband,
   for it was better for me then than now.'
And she did not know
   that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
    which they used for Baal.
Therefore I will take back
   my grain in its time,
   and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
   which were to cover her nakedness.
Now I will uncover her lewdness
   in the sight of her lovers,
   and no one shall rescue her out of my hand."

       Hosea 2:5-10

Pursual

   Lord, please forgive me for the moments when I think you're not good enough. When I am swindled into believing that I need something else, someone else. When I think my judgement is better than yours, and I go ahead of you in my actions. Help me to know that you are my husband, my bridegroom, and that it is your job to provide a journey partner for me, and your's alone. You pursue me, you fight for me, you love me. Why can't I know that that is enough?
     Hosea 2:16-20 "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD." I love the picture that is presented in Hosea. The harlot is pursued when she has not even one good quality in her. Not only is she pursued, but searched, paid for, and forgiven. Aren't we all harlots? Don't we all have lovers, Baals, idols? WHY? When the Lord lies us down in safety, we play the whore. We give our affections to cheap entertainment that always disappoints us. Always leaving us wanting, used, and broken. Even though we're clearly betrothed to the only one worthy. We are betrothed forever to the Worthy, when we are unworthy. 
     Romans 5:8 "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God sent down His son, His perfect son, to live in a soiled world. To die, not only an excruciating death, but a death that faced God's wrath. For a few sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors (names I think still apply to all He has chosen) who don't know His name, who don't care to know Him, and who could never fully appreciate it, nor repay the favor if they did know Him. Just so we could look upon His Father instead of feeling His wrath. 


    Lord, please help us love you, know you, and seek you. Thank you for the cross.
    
     For this reason, I will await the Bridegroom. 

A New Allegiance.

Recently I got out of a relationship that I believed to be God's plan. I couldn't understand how something I believed to be, not only a good thing, but a God-honoring, ordained thing. One minute he was telling me he'd love me always and he'd never hurt me, the next he takes it back. We had planned on marriage, imagined baby names, and were to live when it happened. All the broken promises. Satan found his favorite new button to push, and I let him have his way with me for several weeks. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe. I had let myself become so dependent on this guy, and I never realized it. Yet, through all the pain and the thousands of thoughts rushing through my mind every second, repeating what I've always felt to be true, "You're not good enough" or "You're ugly, no one wants you", or my personal favorite, "You'll never get married, never have kids", I believe I have come to a place, albeit recently (as in last night), where I can cling to the Lord, and His grace and steadfastness. God took me away from it, pruned me, so I could look more like Him. John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit." So my mission today, daily, is to remind myself of the promises of God, that His grace is sufficient for me (2 Cor. 12:9), and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 12:5). My allegiance is not to the world, not to the men who will never have arms long enough to reach all of my desires, but to the Lord who has redeemed me, and made me as white as snow. So I will not arouse or awaken love until it so desires (Song of Sol), I will await for my bridegroom.