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God Made Man and more...
God Made ManJulian of Norwich, p 4 says,
It strikes me that this is really significant. God made man in his own image (Gen 1:26) and he declared that all he made was excellent in every way (Gen 1:31). *[ Julian of Norwich. 1987. Revelations of divine love. (This edition edited by Halcyon Backhouse with Rhona Piper) London: Hodder & Stoughton.] Suffering of the Animals and the LandI’ve been reading Hosea in the Old Testament. I’ve read it many times before but I’ve recently noticed a few verses in Hosea 4 (verses 1-3). Here’s what it says in the Living Translation:
My goodness, this sounds like a description of what is happening today all around the world! Watching the news, reading the newspaper, reading the news online gets to be pretty distressing with such an increase in unnatural events like murder, war, embezzlement, greed, etc. These have the consequence of polluting the land, polluting the world, polluting the very air we breathe. How many species of animals, birds and fish are now extinct or close to extinction? It seems that what Hosea had to say so very long ago is so very true for our now. Sometimes it seems so hopeless and I feel a “what’s-the-point” feeling creeping up trying to overtake me. Jesus, the Lamb Sacrificed for Us
Jesus is the pure and spotless lamb sacrificed for us. Our sins are covered by his blood, a full and perfect atonement. Jesus is also the only High Priest who could offer up the once-for-all-time perfect sacrifice. He has made the WAY for us, the only way, out of the jaws of death and damnation back to our Creator in whose arms we truly belong. There is much to reflect on at Easter as we trace Jesus’ last days — the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the last supper, Gethsemane, betrayal and desertion, torture and the mockery of a trial, agonising death by crucifixion, burial in someone else’s tomb, and finally the resurrection. My prayer is that God will guide you as you reflect on this and that you will hear His heart for you. God bless you this Easter. Throughout his life he resisted the persistent temptations of the evil one till now: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in ever way, just as we are — yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 Because Jesus was a person like us, he knows the temptations to which we are exposed. He will help us to resist them, and he paid the full price for all our failures. Eternity, no beginning and no end!I’ve started reading 1 John yet again. So good!! Jesus was from the beginning… but was there ever a beginning? Eternity has no beginning and no end. My mind cannot grasp that. God has ever been, and ever will be. No beginning, no end! Jesus pleased God!When Jesus was baptized (as recorded in Mark 1), God spoke from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you.” Jesus had not yet begun any sort of ministry. All he’d done was be born, grow up and get baptized by John. Yet God was pleased with him, and fully pleased at that!! That pleasure had nothing to do with what Jesus did or his ministry. That set me thinking. How many of us grew up with a father (and/or mother) who was fully pleased with us, and let us know it? I doubt there’s many. Yet we spend much of our lives unconsciously striving to please, or to be so relevant (important, indispensable, useful, whatever) and so ‘please’ the one whose love and pleasure we so long for. This might not make much sense to you but I’m thinking there’s a connection to relevance deprivation and the fact there’s nothing we can or need do to earn the Father’s love and delight. It is already ours. Jesus made sure of that. More Recent Articles |