Easter Saturday

I bought a CD last year by the American duo "All Sons and Daughters" entitled "season one". I discovered it when I made use of the listening facility at the Church book shop where I volunteer. It was a slow day and I was intrigued by the rather unusual band name. To be honest I wasn't sure which was the bands name and which was the the name of the album! I was hooked instantly. The duos harmonies were exquisite, the music worshipful with a contemporary feel, their instruments  (Piano and guitar) blending like their harmonies as the melodies both swooped and soared. It had a fairly mournful and melancholic tone but the whole thing was bursting with searing rays of hope throughout. I'm not a music critic, or even musical so I cant be expected to describe it perfectly. All I can tell you is I was so moved by it that I had to buy it then and there. I couldn't afford to and hadn't planned to but I HAD to.

With the CD came a DVD where they performed a few of  their songs with a small discussion about the background of the songs preceding each one. The album seemed to have been written from one of those wilderness periods. This is the "season" they were referring to in the title. The beauty of the title "season one" is that a season two is implicit. In the talk that preceded their song "Buried in the Grave" they spoke about how the church traditionally majors on Good Friday and Easter Sunday but often neglects to make much of Easter Saturday.

But Easter Saturday is resonant with all of our christian experiences. It is a time of waiting. How much of our Journey with God is us waiting on a promise, sitting in the ashes of our shattered hopes. In my experience it is not uncommon. This is what the disciples must have felt like on Easter Saturday. Broken, disillusioned, disappointed, grieving.

An empty ache in disciples hearts,

Their world has fallen apart,

They've been woken with a start

From the sleeping where they dreamt of thrones,

(from my poem "The Emptiness")

 Jesus spoke of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to give a harvest that outweighs its original value. We often forget that not only is there a dying but there is a waiting, a being buried. A germination period, if you will.

In life we have our moments of sacrifice and we have our moments of victorious resurrection but much of our life is spent in this growing/waiting period in between. We must not and cannot despise it. God has included it for a reason. We must not despise ourselves either when we do not feel triumphant. This is the time for hope and trust to do their work. Sometimes that means a filtering out of all other false hopes...a pairing down until all we have left is the raw and exposed bare bones of a hope in the promises of God.

But Sunday is coming. God will not be mocked. Ultimately there is no shame for those who have trusted in God and the Son. Imagine how the disciples must have felt when Jesus entered the room. Place yourself there. Hope is our bread and butter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzxF29AuOQ

Justice and Mercy caught in salacious shock snogging scandal (psalm 85:10)

Yes its true! The original opposites attract couple have been caught in a public display of nauseating affection. The pair, who have long denied that they are a couple, were seen  in lip-lock by hundreds of local people at a public event on Good Friday.
For eons we have always held them to be uneasy bedfellows . Pundits, philosophers and leading speakers on ethics have all held them to be incompatible. So much so that they have been seen as two distinct choices.  Justice or Mercy. There have been rumors that they could not stand one another, as they almost consistently refused to be seen together.  If you wanted Justice you needed to make sure that Mercy did not catch wind of it and vice versa.
Its true they have always hung out in the same places, been involved with the same causes but the cheeky loved up pair never gave their affair away. Our best reporters have never been able to pin a thing on them...until NOW!

They were caught in the passionate clinch, so engrossed in each other, so entwined that they appeared unconcerned who saw them. The potential publicity stunt was staged in a the most public and inappropriate place that could have been picked. A solem official occasion where the leaders of our city were all gathered to witness the important execution of the criminal and blasphemous Jesus of Nazareth.  That's right.  While dutiful citizens mocked and jeered they seemed unperturbed as they only had eyes for each other.

Speaking after the gaff which has divided public opinion,  righteousness said that he had long been tired of playing the occasional bad cop to Mercy's good cop. "It was getting to me. Righteous requirement for entry into Gods presence was 100% when did I ever get to let some one off.  Sure I was loved when criminals were punished,  especially notorious ones. But what about parking fines, and temple taxes.  No-one loved me then...except that it turns out Mercy felt the same, for totally different reasons! "

Mercy,  with legs as long as Justice's famous "long arms of law", is a real beauty.  She spoke to us from the orphanage she was currently operating from. "Yes, they are in great shape aren't they? My pins are my souvenirs from  so many extra miles! "

Confirming the new romance, we can exclusively reveal,  she said "Justice gets such a hard reputation but of course I get where he's coming from. The thing we have in common is our integrity. I can never turn my back on anyone.  Its such a bind!  Oh and everyone likes me when I wave a fine  or forgive a grudge but I would let a serial killer off without a thought.
We bonded over our integrity which is ironic really because its the one thing that keeps us apart.  Until we saw the son of God die, that is! We both looked up from the cross and our eyes met. Though we were old rivals (and had scretly long admird each other) it was like we'd seen each other for he first time. He was quite beautiful, simply beautiful."

 

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Psalm 85:10

 

 

Our clearly loopy pair apparently understood that in the death of this criminal, Gods righteous law was fulfilled by his perfect sacrifice, the gaga couple claimed. Sure. Also they claim that it is now possible for God to show complete mercy to sinners who come to him because the demands of justice have been met. This, they claim, allows the justified recipients of Mercy to live with Grace, their cousin! This is apparently what got them all hot under the collar.  They are clearly some kind of weird fetishists.....but then love makes you do crazy things!

You can expect to see this couple a whole lot more since they met at the cross.  If you know where to look the celebrity lovers are now inseparable. You heard it here first In the Judean Times.

 

 

On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.

Be yourself

This isn't going to be pretty and this isn't a theological piece. Not even a devotional, really. You might call it a testimony of sorts.

In the past when I heard people saying things like "It never occurred to me that God might want me to be myself", I treated it, at some level, a little cynically. So much of what we encounter in our worldly culture encourages us to chase our dreams, to follow our hearts. If I am honest, it seemed just a bit too convenient to me that people often attested to feeling like square pegs in a round hole. They would site evidence such as "not feeling comfortable" with what they were doing (usually in a church setting) as supporting the "feeling" that there was something else they should be doing. I have been in church long enough to hear this story in a few guises and on many different occasions by now. Though I empathise with the feeling, I confess, I still didn't really get it. I think, at some level, I thought they were sacrificing duty on the altar of self interest.

In a largely unspoken way, in my family, duty and longevity has been held in the highest regard, certainly on the paternal side of my family. We are committers and stickers. My father laudably has always spoken about this sense of determination and perseverance with pride (not in a sinful sense). These are qualities that the world, and sadly the church at times, neglect to promote. The idea of "church hopping", for example, would be almost unthinkable to us. And for me the idea of going where the best action is and leaving a flagging church, like a rat off a sinking ship is equally unpalatable. I think we've always seen ourselves more like the band on the Titanic, going down with the ship, still playing our instruments. Honourable, praiseworthy and, sometimes, stupid.

Before you get your backs up let me define my terms a little with a tale.

In the summer after I got saved (renewed, restored, "came back to the Lord": insert your own appropriate term) I found myself in a deadlock with my sinful nature. I'd returned to church for 6 months or so by now. After some very powerful repentance, I found that it was taking a lot more than resolve to kick my drug habit. My best intentions and my heaviest tears couldn't seem to count when it came to the crunch. Peer pressure loomed heavily over me at the age of 18 and, if I am honest, I am not sure how comfortable I was with change. It was just too easy for me to hide out in the habit like Elijah in his cave, licking my wounds. But the metaphorical ravens came. I was sustained. I had a bright idea. "What I need", I thought, "Was a purpose! Something to occupy me, to get me free from this situation, trapped in social circles that were destroying me".

I cant remember where it came from but the thought that I ought to go to the mission field came to me. It was almost laughable, I know. A dope head going to win the nations for Christ. But with my families help I located YWAM and applied to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) at their Scottish training base in the September of that year. Remarkably I got accepted. There were a lot of omissions on my application form, I must say. And so the fleece was laid out before the Lord. I told him I needed to raise the money by the deadline. To be more precise, I gave him an ultimatum. I said that if he came up with the money, I would change my life and go. I also told him that if he did not (try not to laugh) that I would return to live in a squat and work on becoming a published poet.

There are a few tells here as to what I want to bring out (if you are still reading after the mention of poetry, that is). Firstly it is that I considered this to be the way I should go (and yes I did go). I had an idea of what the life of a servant of God looked like. That life was a lot more like a missionaries life than it was the life of a poet. It was an ideal that I imposed on myself. That was "holiness" as I saw it then.
Secondly I was the one who laid down the condition. What I had always (or rather long) wanted to do was to be a writer, and primarily a writer of poetry. You see what I had done? I took my hearts desires and I stood them in opposition to the idea of what I perceived God wanted for my life. It was him or me! Missions or Poems. It was a dichotomy entirely fabricated in my own head, with the helping hand of a few of the enemies lies, I am sure. I didn't even consider that he may have given me those desires in the first place.
Thirdly, partially subconsciously, I took Gods answer, in providing the money, to be a verdict on the poetry idea. He had spoken and so that was not the path for me.

A few years later I recreationally took up the poetry again but writing did not feature anymore in my dreams until I next found myself in a sadly back-slidden state. You see I held it as a rebellion. A "stuff you" to God. A "I'm going to do what I like" statement. A "time to follow MY dreams now, God" kind of statement. I am sure he chuckled, like I chuckle at my boy when hes in a pantomime sulk.

People often talked, especially in bible college, of how they found some worship songs very hard to sing. It is usually the ones where we offer great sacrifice to God. I found myself involved in kids work a fair bit, whilst at college, and the song I struggled with the most is "If I were a butterfly". One line in particular.

I just thank you Father for making me, me.

You see, all my life I have held duty and sacrifice to be more valuable than heartfelt desires.  That "who I was" was to be sacrificed to my fathers God, like Isaac on the altar. It was subconscious, but it was there. But it's stupid to drown on the Titanic when there are seats going spare on the life boats, especially devinely ordained lifeboats.

This summer just gone, God started to revive my dreams of writing. He has lead me into a time of permission to be myself. To use the gifts he has given me. I have come to realise that the peg is not the wrong shape, it was doing the wrong job. I have actively been pursuing the dream of using my creative talents to serve him ever since. These blogs are just a part. I dont believe he ever meant me to drown.

I believe that God made each of us uniquely and loves us completely as we are. Jesus came to live and die for me in my unredeemed state. There were no conditions or ultimatums from him. He just drew me with his love. Of course he asks for sacrifices but I don't believe it is ever WHO we are that is to be sacrificed. As I have grown with him on this most exciting part of my 30 yr walk with him, I have come to know that the more I am like Jesus, the more I am like who he created me to be. An individual reflection of the creators Glory. I don't believe that heaven will be full of drones or "Jesus clones"; devoid of personality or difference. God is far more imaginative than that. He doesn't want to take away from you, he wants to complete you, his masterpieces. His poems.

Last week In church, I read a fictional piece of narrative that I wrote, based on fact, that was an account of Pilates meeting with Jesus. It was the first time I have done that. It felt like a milestone and Gods blessing seemed to be on it. I never would have believed that God could have used something I love doing so much, in that way. It felt like a homecoming. And I guess, ultimately that's what our pilgrimage through this life is, a homecoming, back to where you belong. I intend to start getting used to it.

3 Fools, Part 1: Fools Rush in Where Atheists Love to Tread

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1

 

I was meditating on this today. Meditation sounds rather grand. What happened is that my thoughts came onto this verse (for no particular reason) as I was going about my duties and I lingered on it a while. It was unplanned but I indulged it a while.

 

This verse comes to my mind most forcefully when I think about atheism. This is what the bible says. Its not my personal opinion, born of my own reason. There are some extremely intelligent atheists, many among my peers, who have far better powers of reasoning and scientific understanding than my own. But the bible seems to say that regardless of this they are fools.

 

A recent post on a friends facebook page prompted a brief online discussion which I think informs what I would like to say here. There was a picture of a child in a font, clearly very upset about the process of baptism that they were undergoing. The caption read something very close to "There is no such thing as religious children, only children of religious parents". I actually believe in adult baptism so I had some sympathy with the sentiment but this is besides the point. My response to the post was to say that there is no such thing as atheist children. The default position is not atheism, in my opinion, as this is a considered belief system as complex in its out workings as theism.

 

This discussion came back to my mind as I thought about atheism. Firstly I wondered if belief in God (or any deities, for that matter) were truly, as my friend had suggested, "purely a human construct".  I can only speak with any authority (and very limited at that) on my own experience of childhood. Before I was fully taught the ways of my parents religion, and during too, if I am honest, I did not have a definite knowledge or understanding of God, or the concept of God. It was taught to me. That's why we have scriptures; to preserve the knowledge in order that we may pass it on. I cannot conclude that I was born 'religious'. So far the photo's caption holds true.

On the other hand I was not born with an innate disposition towards disbelief. Quite the opposite, in fact. I was born hungry for knowledge, hungry for beliefs that would sustain me, as all humans are (whatever conclusions they may arrive at). I think we are supposed to work it out.

 

But to suggest that atheism is a default position of humanity is, in my opinion, still a folly. Before atheism was "discovered" kaleidoscopes of belief systems have been rife across history and humanity. Humans, it seems, will believe almost anything. It has been mainly the "enlightenment" that has fuelled the brand of atheism we see today, backed up today with The scriptures of Dawkins and Darwin. Atheism in this form is a relatively new phenomenon. I cant claim to know my history inside out, and I am sure there have been all manner of skeptics and unbelievers since the very beginings of history, but it strikes me that this is not the kind of Atheism that the Psalmist is addressing. Atheism as a human construct, as most of us understand it did not yet exist.

 

So what does he mean? What is this foolishness he seems to speak of? I want to suggest here that the foolishness does not refer to Atheism. Atheism is almost unheard of. The fool has not said in his heart." I conclude through a rational analysis of the facts to hand that I see no evidence for the existence of a higher power". It is not an intellectual denial of God that is being spoken of here (though naturally I am not going to say there is any wisdom in doing that!).

 

The fool has said it "In his heart". Not his head. In his heart. It's an emotional response, primarily. This is not about reason, its about evasion. Before I develop this I need to point out another observation. It is not clear here, which came first. The density or the denial. The foolishness or the faithlessness. He says the fool HAS said, past tense. Has he said there is no God because he is a fool?(the implication being there is no understanding) or is he a fool because this is the conclusion he arrives at? I believe it to be the latter.

Why has he said this in his heart? It is often the case that Christians are accused of interpreting the facts in light of the beliefs they already hold. The scientific method is to form beliefs in the light of the facts that are uncovered. In this case we see clearly the deepest motivation for concluding there is no God. Its about a freedom from responsibility and, more significantly, from accountability.

The fool of this psalm is not saying there is no God. He is saying he will not be ruled and he is saying he will not be found out. Essentially, 'there is no God, therefore I can do what I like. HE (God) will not see and I will not have to pay for my actions'.

This is foolishness on many levels. Let me briefly highlight a couple.

Firstly it is foolishness because there is a God. They have not truly sought to discover the reality of God but rather arrived at a conclusion which suits their ends. The emotional equivalent of an anti-science approach they have interpreted the "facts" in a way which confirms their pre-disposition. It is foolishness in the same sense that it would be to walk into a lion enclosure because you simply can't see any lions at the entrance.
Next, it is foolish because they, the bible says, are in denial. They have effectively duped themselves.

It is a foolishness because there will be consequences to face. The bible says clearly that God will not be mocked. There will be a reckoning and all must give an account for every foolish word uttered.

It is foolishness because in their fear of being ruled they have turned their back on the one person who truly loves and accepts them for who they really are, the one who can save them. They have denied themselves the joy of living a life with divine purpose, they do not know the pleasure of Gods love seeking them out, forgiving, renewing and cleaning them constantly. They do not share in the knowledge of the one who is for them in whatever they go through. They deny themselves the comfort of knowing they are never alone.

And they are foolish because in spite of all of this, they think they are better off.

They fear the very idea of God. They miss the love and mercy that accompanies his justice and righteousness. Fear can stop you loving. If only they realised, love can stop their fears.
 

The parable of two marriages

Jesus took his disiple aside and told him this story;

'The Kingdom of heaven is like this. One man fell in love with a woman and was captivated by her beauty. She was equally besotted with him and they began a passionate relationship filled with romantic dates and weekend get aways. They found they had everything in common and could talk until the sun rose and it was as though no time had passed at all. The few points on which they differed only served as an intrigue. They concluded themselves soul-mates and, after some months, they decided they could no longer stand being apart. Being upstanding young people they decided to tie the knot. They were married and embarked on their new and exciting life together.

They found after some time that the initial passion of their first months together was not sustainable and soon enough the dates and getaways were replaced by TV dinners and trips to the garden centre. Eventually the heart to heart talks into the early hours were replaced, at times, by long and unsolvable disputes. What had happened to the woman he fell in love with? Where had she gone?, he would ask himself.

 Sometimes they would not talk at all, which was far worse than the fights. But all through the hard years the man never forgot the sweetness of those first months. He never felt the need to leave the marriage because as long as they were together it seemed to him that there was a hope of returning to those days. No matter how he may have felt like he was bashing his head against a brick wall he never gave up on the idea of getting back to what they'd had and so he finished his days with a woman he did not grow with, a woman he had idealised and locked into youthful fantasy of fulfilment. He was with her till the end but, although there remained a begrudging affection, he stopped encountering her as she grew and changed. The object of his love was always unattainable and so his passion made him miserable.

There was a second man who was looking for a wife to bring meaning and love into his life and being of a certain age and financially solvent he set about looking for Miss Right. He joined dating websites through which he met and dated many women. He enjoyed lots dates, and some of the women seemed to enjoy them too, but somehow nothing ever really came of them. There was no spark. Eventually, after a long time searching, he met a woman that he got on well with. There was not a lot of chemistry but 'perhaps chemistry is over rated' he told himself. 'Why should I not?, we seem a good match and we are both looking for partners to bring meaning into our lives!' Later his business like proposal was accepted and in due time they were married.

Once he had made the commitment he began to relax and, with the pressure of finding chemistry now out of the way, he began to discover a deep passion for his new wife. They had gotten together for good reasons, it had almost been an intellectual decision but he found that he was so grateful to have her in his life and every day began to notice new ways in which she enriched him and he sought to do the same for her with a grateful heart. He had never expected to find true love like this. As time went on their bond only deepened and he found that he was living in the hope of an ever deepening love, their cooler early months all but forgotten. They too lasted the duration and the second man found that because he lived in the moment and looked for ways to express his love that the future was always full of promise and the present illuminated by love.'

Jesus told this parable to his disciple Matthew in order that he might teach him to understand that it is not healthy to live out their relationship in the past and that he might be grateful for what he has and might allow his love to grow and not to be stilted by a hankering for past glories that stop him experiencing present realities of grace and love.

lessons in fear

  

Imagine you are in a museum and in a privileged position to have a personal tour. At a certain point, you come across a lone piece in a separate room of its own. You must pass through a thick security door which requires a key card for entrance. On entering the door is electronically sealed behind you. There is one glass case in the centre of the room, lit up from beneath and as you slowly approach you see that in it is a small sculpture that is thousands of years old. Your guide informs you that this piece belonged to an ancient Emperor and it is so fragile it must be preserved in special conditions. Its value is inestimable, both financially and academically. Then your guide pulls out some special gloves which they ask you to put on. You do so without really thinking about it. They open the case and, before you can object, delicately place it into your hands. How do you feel? Right okay, hold that thought. We will come back to it in a moment.

 

 

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear....And Grace, my fears relieved.

 

During the Sung worship at "Life in the Spirit" leaders conference, I found myself singing these words. It's an all male conference (although this year was the last time this will be the case) and there is a real power in that sound. You can imagine you are in a Welsh all male-voice choir if you close your eyes and excuse the lack of harmonies, and this old Hymn lends itself well to that feel.

 

 

We are all so very familiar with "Grace". Its an old hymn, a blistering classic of the genre sung by many, many well known artists over the years. It lends itself to Gospel especially well and there is something extremely powerful indeed in hearing it sung by African Americans. Especially so because it was written by an British ex slave trader who was effectively an ex slave himself, as he had been pressed into a naval life. 

 

He wrote this Hymn after a powerful conversion experience. He had his eyes opened to the state of his soul before God and of the foulness of his sin. He had previously been blinded to these but now he saw. He understood Gods forgiveness and his grace. He not only repented but became a forceful part of the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Its a powerful story. And because there have been so many stories like it, those of us who too have had our eyes open to what "wretches" we have been, sing it with that extra bit of passion because his grace to us is more than a concept, its our experience and our reality.

 

But I confess although I have sung this hymn many, many times I am not sure I have ever really dwelt on this phrase before, not in any more than a cursory sense. I have always thought more about the "fears relieved" bit, truth be known.

 

It struck me this time, however, right between the eyes. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. Really? I have to think about this. Isn't God making you fearful in order to relieve your fears a little like those situations in romantic comedies when the shy "hero" sets up a false robbery so he can come to the rescue of the woman of his dreams? In those scenarios the woman usually finds out and ends up thinking even less of them. But this isn't the case with God. The fear he instills in us is a wake up call to a very real danger.

 

My son, not so long ago was headed out into the road without looking. I barked out his name in the deepest most aggressive and arresting voice that I could. Everything I put into that voice was to serve one purpose. To scare the life out of him and stop him in his tracks. It worked. He hated me for it but I may have saved his life. I was alerting him to a real danger but I scared him in order to save him, not so I could be a hero.

 

When I was at my furthest from God during some dark teenage times I was actually coming to a place, through my own rebellion, where I realised that I probably did believe in God (I'd been wrestling with it for a couple of years) but I found myself coming to the conclusion that I did not love him. My reasoning was simple. I had prayed a prayer to invite Jesus into my life and I was therefore going to heaven. Like a good "reformed"* boy I knew it was probably forever, that you cannot "lose" your salvation. I had a good understanding of grace, that it was not my goodness that got me into heaven. But that was just the problem. I saw so many of my friends (and I still do) as being much more naturally good than I was. So how could God save me and send them to hell? I was scandalised by gods grace towards me, not thankful, not grateful. I was offended by it.

 

It was during this time that I had a conversation with my Dad. I told him "I know Jesus died for me but I don't think I can love him!" I am pretty sure that my father was rocked by this, in hindsight, but he kept steady and said to me in an icy calm voice, the kind he would use when I was a kid and he needed to let me know that this was the final warning, "If you know Jesus but turn away from him it would be better for you that you had never been born!". Now I know that if you are not a christian (and perhaps if you are) this will seem a harsh thing to say to your own child. Some of you may not look favourably on him for that. But he was effectively shouting my name as I ran out into the street.

 

Those words stuck with me for days. They clung to my soul. Not just fear of eternal punishment but the significance of WHO had said them to me. It woke me up. It primed my soul. I knew deep down from that moment on that I understood the truth, that I had done so all along and had been playing games with it. That conversation was the start of the turning point in my life. It was a grace to me. Scaring people with hell fire is only an evil if there is no hell. If there is a hell then it is the most loving thing you can do. But fear is never a substitute for love. Love casts out fear.

 

The words of the hymn are more tender than that. Its not just fear of eternal consequences. It is gods grace to wake you to those but his grace also teaches us, far more importantly, to fear God. Let me take you back to the museum scenario I gave you initially. How do we feel holding this precious thing, this thing which is worth twenty times over what I will earn in a lifetime, this thing that archaeologists had devoted much of their lives to finding, this thing that could crack and break with the slightest sudden movement? When I put myself in that picture I feel fearful....but its an awestruck fear. What would happen if I dropped this thing? It is reverence. Gods grace teaches us the awe of a holy God. And gods grace itself is an awesome and fearful thing. Never to be taken lightly because it belongs, not to an Emperor, but to the King of all kings, because it too has been secured and preserved with very particular conditions, with the blood of that King and its value is inestimable because, put quite simply, you cannot buy the eternal favour of God, its something he bestows on you. Awestruck by that concept? We should be.

 

I love C S Lewis' use of a Lion to represent Jesus. You may, under certain circumstances, be able to cosy up to a lion but you are never going to forget what it is capable of. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Maybe today you can hear the Lions low rumbling warning growl, that says "easy now, one false move and you're for it".

 

But grace did not just teach my heart to fear it also relieved my fears. There is no questioning the love of God which drives out all fear when it cost him his Son on the cross. He says simply "There are no lengths that I will not go to, for you". What are we to do about that? It relieves your fears to know you are loved like that. Why would you fear a human enemy or an earthly calamity when the maker of the universe is for you to such an extent. I pray I never lose that reverent awe but never forget that fear I once felt, that has been relieved by grace.




*reformed refers to a theological understanding which amongst other things holds that you cannot earn your salvation with good deeds and likewise you cannot lose it with bad ones.