Category: So Great and So Wonderful

Let’s read aloud and meditate on Isaiah 53:4-9 NIV –
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

 Here is the incomparable love that we were shown in Jesus!

As we become “undone” by the incomparable love of Jesus, let’s hear again his so loving and so kind invitation to be drawn to him from Matthew 11:28-30 NIV – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Let’s Pray: Our humble and gentle Lord Jesus, we receive your invitation to come to you.  As we recognize that we are the “weary and burdened,” we come with all that is on our hearts that we may find rest in you and experience your incomparable love in a new way. May the rest and the fullness of love we find in you be overflowing to all around us today.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

In our coming to the Lord, may we continue to confess our need of and love for Jesus in worship with the song “I Have A Savior” by Cece Winans (click here).

– EK

Matthew 10:37 NIV – “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

From the message, “Children Ought to Love the Lord Jesus Christ Above All,” Jonathan Edwards, a New England pastor from the 18th century, preached the following about this verse to children, ages 6-10 years old:

There is no love so great and so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ. He is one that delights in mercy; he is ready to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances; one that delights in the happiness of his creatures. The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all that which is in this world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ’s.

“Jonathan Edwards used this passage in Matthew 10:37 to preach to the children and off the bat he was preaching to them that they should love Jesus more than anything in this world, even their parents! First, the reason we ought to love Jesus incomparably more than our parents or our own children is because Jesus’ love is incomparably greater and more wonderful. Second: this is not a competition, although we tend to make things into one when we don’t understand. In our passage, ‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me’ may seem to be about competing loves between Jesus and parents.  But Edwards continues that ‘Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ’s.’ Edwards acknowledges the love of parents and that is good, but it is nothing like Jesus’ love and kindness.” [Adapted from Pastor Mark’s Message]

Let’s Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, nothing can compare with your love and your kindness.  You are the love of my life.  May I grow in love with you more, and may it be evident in my everyday devotion to you.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s continue to confess our devotion to the Lord as we sing “Follow” by Melody Malone (click here).

-EK

Psalm 27:4 NIV –
One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

“What exactly is David’s desire? His prayer for ‘one thing’ reveals what he most wants. He desires a place: to dwell in the house of God all the time. Yet David yearns for the place for a specific purpose: ‘to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.’ It is the person our poet truly longs for. The place serves as a focal point of the Beauty…Beauty is that which arouses our delight and desire. Beauty calls to the soul; it draws the heart like a magnet…David is laser-focused. He is all in on this all-out pursuit. Gazing on God is his guiding passion. What good news! To gaze on the beauty of God, to enjoy all that God is for us in Christ, to savor Trinitarian fullness — there can be no greater happiness. God himself is the happiest being imaginable because he has forever savored this gigantic mirth within the fellowship of the Trinity. The gospel invites us to participate in that joy — joy larger than the universe, deeper than eternity. The hunt for Beauty is ultimately a hunt for gospel joy. It is the pursuit of God-glorifying happiness.” [Clinton Manley, “Be on the Hunt for Beauty,” desiringGod.org]

May we be on the hunt for Beauty, for gospel joy today.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, the one thing we ask for and the one thing we seek is to dwell in your house and gaze into your beauty.  It is truly the greatest and deepest joy.  May we live in the gospel joy throughout the day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s confess our longing and “hunt” for the Lord as we worship with “One Thing” by Hillsong (click here).

– EK

 

2 Corinthians 3:16-17 NIV – But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 

“When we turn to the Lord and the Holy Spirit removes the veil from our heart, we see light, without which there can be no beauty, but only darkness and emptiness…So the light that we are granted by the Spirit to see is the light of the gospel. And the gospel is a story about God and his Son and their conspiracy of love to overthrow the dominion of Satan and save the world. And out of this story shines above all else the glory of the God-man, Jesus Christ. And that glory, that beauty, is an all-satisfying beauty because it is the Beauty of God. It is ‘the glory of Christ who is the image of God.’ When we see Jesus in the gospel story, we see God and the very essence of his beauty…We see the beauty of his power…We see the beauty of his mercy…We see the beauty of his justice…We see the beauty of his wisdom.
Whether you know it or not, all the longings of your life for beauty are longings for this: the light of the gospel of the beauty of Christ who is the image of God. Turn to Jesus as Lord! Open yourself to the Spirit of Christ. And the veil will be lifted.” [John Piper, “Jesus Is Precious Because We Yearn for Beauty,” desiringGod.org]

Let’s pray this prayer written by John Piper:

“O most glorious God,
You are worthy of all trust and obedience and adoration.
Yet I have sinned and see you so dimly.
But I now turn to the living Lord Jesus Christ,
And I invite your Spirit to fill my life.
Remove the veil from my heart
And grant me to behold your glory,
And help me be changed from one degree of glory to another.”
 
In Jesus’ name. Amen

May we continue in thanksgiving for the Lord’s beauty that has been unveiled to us through the Spirit as we sing “Thank You Jesus for the Blood” by Charity Gayle (click here).

– EK

Revelation 5:6a, 12 NIV – Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.
  In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

“Why should our exalted Lord appear in glory with His wounds? The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is altogether lovely. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own blood. We behold the beauty of Christ in all His earthly pilgrimage, but there never was such matchless beauty as when He hung upon the cross. There we saw all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far fairer in our eyes than all the splendor and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that He no longer bears the scepter of reed, but there was even in that ignominy a glory that never flashed from a scepter of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as His royal dress in which He wooed our souls and redeemed them by His complete atonement. And these are not only the ornaments of Christ: They are the trophies of His love and of His victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for Himself a great multitude that no one can count, and these scars are the memorials of the fight. If Christ loves to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people, then how precious should his wounds be to us!” [Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: A New Edition of the Classic Devotional Based on The Holy Bible, page 366]

Let’s Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, we gaze at your matchless beauty displayed for us on the cross.  There is none like you and you alone are worthy of all our adoration and worship today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

May we be caught up in the beauty of our Lord Jesus as we sing “Worthy Is the Lamb” by Hillsong (click here).

– EK