During the year's reading and daily reading of the Word - He will always wind my heart back to this Psalm:
"O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise Him all ye people.""For His merciful kindness is great toward us:""And the truth of the LORD endureth forever.""Praise ye the LORD." Psalm 117
There were tears in the eternal eyes of the Creator as He looked at the memory of salvation's moment: There He was standing, holding His tiny beloved in His strong arms. As they gazed out over the colorful promises of Abundant Life's extravagant flowing countryside, He spoke softly in her ear of the firm but gentle words that would hold her love secure... well beyond the torrential storms of life and well into the future beyond. With one hand on His shoulder, She fearlessly and lovingly tasseled the hair on the back of His head, while they both breathed in the mutual refreshment of the moment's vision.
The memory would never fade with Him; but time and the cares of this world had moved His beloved's thoughts from her first love reflex to be held and tassel His hair. Though He knew that it was just a momentary passageway, He also knew that His love would always draw her back into His Arms. His merciful kindness was the powerful sustaining gift that not only would endow His beloved with the fullness of His goodness, but also the security ... that He would fully bear any and all shame and reproach that she would acquire as she walked this earthly sod. He would never leave nor forsake His little one, His beloved.
Thinking of Psalm 117 - Why would all the nations and all the people be called on to "shine brightly" their boastings about the LORD? What is there about the LORD to boast about that personally causes the hearts of men to want to praise Him? It is found buried not deep from the surface of our heart's searching.
"His merciful kindness is great toward us"... His "Merciful Kindness" is the Great Exchange with the power to replace our reproach and shame with His Truth of Love that endures forever." ... This is mercifully miraculous ... Knowing this causes us to shine his praises. This is offered to all. ("He came unto His own, and His own received Him not ... But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Son's of God, even to them that believe on His Name: Which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. "John 1:11-13) Not a gift of deep theology, but of deep and lasting connection.
Sad are the sons of men who are enamored by the pyritic glitter and fading value of this temporal world's devises, only to find that the enamoring blinds them hopelessly, and firmly chains them to the constraints of fallen creation. Who then to prove their own righteousness ...they become burdened by the legal restrictions that are misunderstood of the Eternal Word, they view God as an impersonal myth that is part of religion's opiate mixture that dupes that masses of naïve humanity, and they fall deep into denial that they are lost.
The bottom line is that these "clouds without rain" have problems with a vision of a loving God... Who would truly, actively and powerfully involve Himself in the affairs of men. This notion, of faith without works, scares them because it brings a loving accountability from the hearts of believers, not a life of earned reward that totters on the edge of guilt.
Further impudence may be thrown in to a related notion that this same God would bear mankind's reproach and shame in exchange for the reception of His Merciful Kindness through His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ. It is way too easy!!!
Grab the snap shot -- Trust that "He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life". Believing is not a work, it is a childlike response to the obvious light of Love given from the gracious, compassionate and righteous Heart of God.
Psalm 112:4 - "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous." His name is Jesus!!!
HLFA,
Jeff
Enjoy being held by Eternity's Love... and be lavished by His promises.