"But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." ( Job 12:7-10 )
"You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit." ( Job 10:11-12 )
As Skipper and I walked in the crisp morning air this week, the smokey fumes from the neighbor's chimney floated across our leafy path which runs parallel to the cow's field. The trail of smoke lifted above our heads as I looped the leash firmly around my wrist since Skipper was quickly pulling me along behind her.
Skipper is one of those salt of the earth Great Pyrenees who could handle the farm with one paw tied behind her fluffy undercoat. When I do the morning rounds, I give her a break from the flock; she more than deserves it even though Skipper loves to work.
In fact whenever I bring Aslan with me during chore time, if he gets to acting too goofy around the sheep, she pins him to the ground, yeah, as big as he is. It always cracks me up. Skipper runs a tight ship. That day Aslan stayed up at the house with the ducks and geese, so it was just me and my girl.
And I soaked in our surroundings. I haven't always engaged in this activity as deeply as I should, but I'm learning.
In the first chapter of Romans, we are taught right out of the gate that "what can be known about God" is plain to us because God has shown it to us. "For his divine attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." ( 1:19-20 )
When I meditate on this thought, it becomes exceedingly comforting.
Seeing the truth about God in nature is known in theological terms as "general revelation." And when we refuse to acknowledge him and his greatness through what we see around us, the Scriptures go on to explain that we "have become foolish in our thinking" and are "suppressing the truth" that God has revealed to us. ( Romans 1:18-32 )
In Christ, even though we now believe not only in God, but in Jesus Christ whom he has sent for the remission of our sins, we must never stop gazing at the things that God has made because in the created order we find hope and hints of the life to come if we indeed have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Last week after returning to the farm from a full morning of errands, I unloaded a few items from my truck and rested briefly while nursing two cups of coffee before heading back out with the dogs to check on the sheep. After I finished filling up the cow's water trough and walking back up the hill to the house, I felt out of breath, and that was unusual for me.
I used one of the Farmer's many medical devices to check my oxygen and found my heart rate to be 177. Figuring it to be dehydration, I then drank a boat load of electrolytes to right my body, but it wouldn't get back in line. My heart felt like one of those top loading washing machines when the clothes inside are off balance in the spin cycle and it causes the machine to jump around in all directions at 100mph. At any moment you expect the thing will break free from the laundry room and out the back door.
So I ended up in the emergency room watching my heart on an ultrasound. Even in the craziness of the pounding beats, I could imagine the intricacy and the divine order the heart was created to follow.
We too are a part of creation, and I could see the hand of a divine, glorious God.
Acknowledging that every step, breath, and beat is a gift from God is not just a "wake-up call," but a deeper understanding into the goodness and greatness of our Sovereign Lord. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, these treasures are a very small sliver of the life to come. ( Psalm 115:3 )
In the fallenness of creation, including our human bodies, God allows hopeful glimpses of what he has in store for those who love him. Creation is just a glance of what's to come; imagine that. ( 1 Corinthinas 2:9 )
God never promised to give us a perfect life until heaven. "God has not promised us candy." (1) Much frustration and confusion can arise when we cling to promises that God never made.
True rest is found only in the true promises of God.
God has left his children here for a time in a broken world, and we are going to have to trust him with his sovereign decree. After all, he did send his perfect Son into a sinful humanity. He did not spare him. Our command is to serve with gladness as we go about our Father's business because we are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness, to God, praise be to Christ! ( Romans 8:32, Psalm 100 )
What He HAS promised is to never leave us or forsake us in the sanctification process. ( Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5, John 14:16, Philippians 2:12-13 )
Listen to this precious promise in Ephesians 1:13 that we have in our Lord Jesus:
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."
"Until we acquire possession"
It's that tension thing again. In this life, we live in the knowledge that our Lord Jesus has secured all spiritual blessings for us on the cross, ( Ephesians 1:3 ) but we do not acquire possession of it until the next life.
And yet, we already have them.
I know, just stand in the truth. Let it be.
We have them already, but not now, and by faith we walk in this mystery trusting our Father.
How do we know? That's a fair question I think. Abraham asked it. The verse told us how we can know.
"the promised Holy Spirit"
He is the guarantee. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit when we repent of our sins and put our trust in Christ. Every believer in Christ Jesus is a "Spirit-filled" believer, all of us, John tells us in 1 John 2:18-29, are anointed by the Holy Spirit, not just a select few, and He lives with us forever. ( John 14:16 ) Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't be joined to Christ in salvation.
He guarantees us - sort of like a promissory note signed however in Christ's blood - that one day Jesus will return for his bride. Are you going to not believe this promise when the Holy Spirit himself promises he's going to make good on it? It's a done deal. Signed, sealed, delivered. Jesus said so from the cross and backed it up when he raised himself from the dead.
Friends, He's coming for us. He's sealed the deal. ( Revelation 1:7 )
And for now, these delicious morsels we see in creation give hope to our groaning appetites of the fully satisfying banquet that awaits us at the wedding supper of the Lamb.
I can't help but think that God is working something extraordinary in these ordinary, normative, every-day walks of faith. They are opportunities to trust him that are preparing something. ( 2 Corinthians 4:17)
We can't realize all that our Father is working here within us, but we can rest assure that having faith in Christ for our homeland above, like the cloud of witnesses who've gone before us, and clinging to his promises as we face suffering, has an enormous, eternal purpose and weight of glory that can't be fully understood until the life to come.
Our sovereign Lord has chosen to do it this way.
When we come to Christ, we must not stop gazing at the created order and marveling in it because God has purposely made it known to us. But more comforting than this is the fact that we get to know the "artist," not by looking at his masterpiece, because that only takes us so far, but by gazing into the Gospel of Christ. This is "special revelation" - God revealing his Son to us.
We never get beyond the fullness or to the bottom of the grace and beauty of Christ because there has never been anything greater to behold.
Everyday as we read the Scriptures and meditate on what they reveal, we must turn the truth of the gospel over and over and behold the majesty and splendor as one would marvel at a multi-faceted jewel.
If it were heavenly conditions now here on earth, we wouldn't need faith, but we do because it isn't. This faith in Christ and his Word is creating something beautiful beyond all comparison within us, something not of this broken world. And yet, the brokenness plays a vital role in the glory.
As Elisabeth Elliot famously wrote, "Suffering is never for nothing."
I believe suffering and the uncertainty that confronts us in this life are actually the lenses that bring our sight. One day, in some mysterious, upside down manner, we're going to be glad and understand its existence and value. And not want to be standing before God without it. I believe then we will understand and marvel at the tension.
I think of the cross.
Our life here in Christ does not consist of doing all we can to survive another day, although at times I know it seems this way, but it is about always looking into the beauty of what Christ has done on our behalf in his sacrificial atonement.
Remember his grace and mercy, and glory in that knowledge as we gladly serve him surrounded by a creation that refuses in its groaning to be silent about the eternal power and divine nature of the One to come.
"In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." ( Job 12:10 )
Who holds our breath and heart in his hands.
His nail scarred hands.
Soli Deo Gloria
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"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." ( Romans 8: 22-25 )
(1) "God has not Promised us Candy." sermon by Chris Rosebrough
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