Jesus the Reverence of the Redeemed

be filled with the Spirit... giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Eph. 5.18b, 20-21)

At no time in history has submission of one's will been easy. No matter whether the culture was hyper-individualistic or deeply communal, there is a strain against pure conformity. The individual, and even the collective society, will rebel against obedience and fight against submission. When men and women, even children, have tasted the bittersweet wine of human stubbornness we become intoxicated with our own selfish wants and desires. We care less about greeting one another in love and more concerned about our personal wellbeing and intense gratification.

Into the self-centered debauchery of our own souls, Jesus speaks to us. He calls to us. He beckons us to detox from our arrogant drunkenness and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Led by the Spirit of Jesus we become sober to the world around us and to the fellowship of believers who stand at our shoulders with whom we share life. We address one another with the light and life of Christ and have purpose and love born into our once corrupted souls. Where we only had egotistical twisted wants and manipulated desires we now have a heart filled with Christ-centered thanks and praise. We see our brothers and sisters with the thankfulness of an orphan brought into a loving family.

We no longer stumble through life blithely placing our depraved passions and foolishness on an idolatrous pedestal but we see Jesus, the reverence of the redeemed. We obediently lift up one another, submitting to one another in reverent worship to God. We submitted readily and willingly to Jesus, who is our life, our love, our Lord.

Jesus, you are the reverence of my soul, the one who gently leads my soul before the Father, who guides me in righteousness and joy! Thank you Lord for your faithfulness to bring me out of my blindness.

Jesus the First and the Last

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last. (Revelation 1.17)

Would our response be any different from that of John the apostle’s if we saw Jesus? John lived for three years with His teacher, stood at the foot of His cross, ran to the tomb when he heard the witness of Mary Magdalene that it was empty, stood in the room when Jesus appeared fully alive with the marks of crucifixion on his hands and side. John watched as His Lord ascended into the heavens. And now, in the heat of his island exile He sees Jesus is his supreme glory!

No effort at human holiness could ever give us feet before the perfection of God. John fell on his face and it is here that John met with Jesus once again, and we join him. Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus does not wait for humanity to achieve perfect holiness, He steps down and speaks forgiveness for our sin, clothes us in His righteousness and says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last.”

Before we breathed our first breath, born in sin, Jesus was. When we first felt the sting of conviction in childhood as we betrayed our Creator’s passion, Jesus was. As we walk our journey of faith gawkily and ungainly, Jesus is. As we service Him with awkward efforts and sincere passion Jesus is. And as we look into the future and even beyond our finite vision is able to see, Jesus will be. Over our past, present and future, Jesus stands and says with His right hand on our shoulders, “Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus, thank you that you speak peace over my life. You call me to freedom and confidence in your supremacy as the first and the last.

Jesus the Shining Light

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5.14)

These words are an early hymn, an anthem of the early church, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” They are sharp in their spiritual reality and beautiful in their cadence. Like Lazarus, these words join in our minds with our own resurrection from the dead. Our spiritual death, in which we walked as if in an unending nightmare has come to an end. We have heard that voice crying in the wilderness and turned our faces toward the morning sun. We have been awakened to life, baptized into new life, standing now dripping in the dazzling light of morning.

Jesus is our shining light. From His mouth He speaks radiating light into the darkness that plagues humanity. It is not that we need to discourse and detail all the depravity of the world to bring the lies and lust to light. No, we need only live in the light of Christ. Jesus is the shining light that exposes the diseased roots of sin. If we will love the light we will experience the painful joy of sanctification as Jesus burns away the sickness. In the light we can awake from our dark prison and feel the warmth of redemption on our faces. We can stand, risen from the dead, as Christ shines on us. The meaningless, wasteful and flagrant sins that paled our souls in the darkness must yield to the all-powerful brilliance of our Savior King, Jesus Christ.

Jesus, thank you for forgiving my sin, for making away from the dark night that held me from freedom and I now stand free in the joy eternal of your shining light!

Jesus the Fragrant Sacrifice

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5.1-2)

It is amusing and moving when we see our children imitate us. Our mannerisms communicated to the next generation through loving imitation. A gesture. A speech pattern. A gait in our walk. Even more than that is when we see them pick up our modeling for them in worship. A raised hand in worship. A bowed head in prayer. A righteous rhythm in their walk.

We are imitating our Father and we find our best model for that in Christ our brother. Jesus has shown us how best we can walk in love. In the words of the Gospel accounts, in the reflections of the early church letters, in the prophesies of old, we find the picture of Jesus. Jesus, our all in all. Jesus our everything. Jesus who models His perfect love for the Father in His ultimate sacrifice for us.

Jesus’ offering of His sinless life gives us a taste of what our lives can be. Not that he did not face opposition or difficulty, but that he pleased the Father. Jesus’ sacrifice of His death on the cross gives us the fullest image of God's love for Himself and for us. We have before us the perfect offering and sacrifice, given on our behalf, in love to the Father. We now have the invitation and the timeless model to come before God in a way that is fully pleasing to Him: lives that are a fragrant aroma rising up to Him from our imitation of Jesus' offering and sacrifice.

Jesus, thank you for showing me how to imitate your great love. Give me wisdom in how I can live a life of sincere offering and selfless sacrifice for your glory and pleasure.

Jesus the Faithful Son

Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. (Hebrews 3.6)

There is a special bond between fathers and sons. Growing young men have a deep desire to hear their fathers say they are proud of them, and even the strongest father can be moved to tears when that sentiment is returned. We have been made for relationship. We have been made to live within love and supportive families. Not spread out across the emotional globe of fractured bonds and dislocated alliances, but together, united, sharing one life as if we all lived in one house. Sadly, many fathers and sons do not experience the full strength of that relationship because of sin. They may live in the same home, the same neighborhood, the same town, but they are worlds apart.

And into our brokenness our triune God speaks to us. He models for us within Himself how He wants us to live in unity. Jesus is the perfect model of the faithful son. God the Father does not exasperate his son or provoke Him to anger, but He does challenge Him, encourage Him, support Him, gives His son’s life purpose. Jesus the faithful son endures human life, fully God yet fully man. He endured temptation. Jesus knew the Father’s plan to redeem humanity. Jesus heard the Father speak His pleasure over Him before His friends and followers. Jesus gave His life for our salvation willingly because of His love for the Father.

And we are his house. Jesus is the faithful son on whom all our confidence and hope rest. We can taste the perfect relationship and experience it through Jesus.

Jesus, I have an unshakable hope and immovable confidence that I am yours and you brought me into relationship with the Father.

Jesus the High Priest of Our Confession

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession (Hebrews 3.1)

Jesus is the high priest of our confession. What is it then that we confess? What is the substance and character of our verbal and living confession in Jesus? How does He function in a liturgical rite within our confession?

We begin with our calling. We believe that we have been called into relationship. This is not a mundane drawing from one lifestyle or proclivity but a heavenly calling, a calling from God Himself who formed us and created us with intentional purpose. We believe that we are being made holy in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Through the blood of Jesus we are made clean, purified from all unrighteousness and are being continuously sanctified in His Spirit as we draw closer to Him. We believe that we are not alone, orphans of moral conviction, but brothers and sisters in Christ. We share life in the community of the faithful across the globe and throughout time. We are living stones joined together that make the Temple of the living God.

And in this temple, Jesus the great high priest confirms our confession. He takes our affirming words of His Lordship for what they are: worship. As the apostle of God the Father, sent to seek and save lost humanity, He has returned with men, women and children in His train of glorious praise. Our allegiance cannot fall to any other, be they prophets, apostles or angels. Our allegiance is in Christ alone, Jesus the high priest of our confession.

Jesus, I confess once again your Lordship over my life. I worship you, shoulder to shoulder with the family of holy brothers and sisters exalting your name.

Jesus the Storm Silencer

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Mark 4.39)

Have we ever invited Jesus into our lives, more fully into our present situation only to encounter an unexpected storm? With embarrassment we find ourselves pleading with Jesus to act on our behalf, the tempest raging in our life is too great for us. The disciples took Jesus with them into the boat, trained fishermen, professional boatsmen, and yet they rediscovered their human frailty and inability to handle the forces of nature.

We do not find ourselves literally in a boat with Jesus clinging for our lives, but we do encounter those cloudbursts in our souls where we desperately need Jesus the storm silencer to speak, “Peace! Be Still!” And He is there. He is ready, but are we? Knowing the response Jesus gives his disciples, questioning their faith, we avoid turning to Jesus until the last possible moment. We don’t want to hear those stinging words from Jesus, but the windstorm will only grow stronger and our escape from danger smaller.

Jesus understands our weakness. We invited Him into the boat, but He entered into it knowing the storm ahead. Jesus is not sleeping but awaiting us to cry out to Him. Jesus the storm silencer is waiting for us to seek His Lordship in our storm. Do we need to reach our breaking point before we will recognize that Jesus cares for us and is ready to calm our anxiety within His sovereignty? Jesus will speak peace into our souls even while we are still in the center of the sea, the middle of our situations.

Jesus, help me fix my eyes on you and abandon my pride that keeps me from experiencing your peace in my storms.

Jesus the Strength Giver

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service (1 Timothy 1.12)

Whether the morning skies are stormy, overcast clouds heavy with rain, or the sunbeams are bursting across the dawn dancing on azure fields, today is a day of rejoicing. We have reason to praise. We have reason to be thankful. Jesus is our strength giver.

When we were far from God, Jesus came near to us. He called us out of our weakness, out of our sin, and invited us to new life at the foot of the cross. Like the countless lame men and women brought to Jesus He stretched His hand out to us and lifted us to our feet. He filled our bodies with His strength to stand in salvation.

When we came near to the cross, broken in our sin, convicted of our failures, devastated by our unsurmountable debt, Jesus washed us in the blood of His sacrifice. On His sinless shoulders He took the weight of our sin. Our voices crack with the incomprehensible joy of redemption. Jesus gives us strength to worship God as the Father looks upon us with gladness and Jesus judged us faithful.

When we were still infants in faith, crawling and barely comprehending the magnitude of our forgiveness, Jesus our strength giver appointed us to His service. He did not leave us aimless, purposeless, wandering. Jesus our strength giver gave us a purpose, avenues through which we can bring him praise and glory. We can lift up gifts and offerings too great for us to accomplish on our own before His throne in His strength. And that is a glorious reason to be thankful.

Thank you, Jesus, for judging me faithful in your faithfulness, appointing me to serve you as you have served me first. I will bless your name with thanksgiving and resounding joy!

Jesus the One Lord

...one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4.5)

In a day and age without dukes and viziers we find words like ‘lord’ lose poignancy. We lose the impact that Jesus is not just a lord, but He is the One Lord. In His presence there is no other Lord. He stands alone in full power and authority. Jesus is unparalleled in His sovereignty. Jesus is the very definition of Lordship.

In the Lordship of Christ we are one body, joined together by His indwelling Spirit. We are called to hope, an eternal hope, that is rooted and founded in Jesus. We hold to this everlasting hope in faith, our belief in our purposeful creation and redemptive re-creation. In the face of our Christ-centered faith there can be no other. Jesus is the one true Lord and our one true faith is found in Him alone.

Uplifted in hope-filled faith in our one Lord Jesus we represent our faith to the world in the rite of baptism. We take our heartfelt faith and display it in the outward confession of baptism. We recognize Jesus' lordship over our lives, our death in sin and our resurrection to new life in Christ. We have been reborn, revitalized. Our meaningless wandering has been reimagined in the Lordship of Jesus, and we now have purpose, value, reason.

In the Lordship of Jesus we meet with the one true God, triune and great. In the Lordship of Jesus we now have access to the Father and His unending presence.

Lord Jesus, I once again place my life in recognition to Your sovereignty. You are in full control and I willingly and joyfully set my life in Your hands for Your glory.

Jesus the Heart Dweller

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3.14,17a)

Do we pray like Paul for each other? Do we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ to be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit and that Jesus might be enthroned in their faithful hearts? Paul had an incredible vantage point through which He saw the church. Writing to the Ephesians he is now calling us to see from that same angle. He saw men and women living in a hostile world, needing to be rooted and grounded. Paul was driven to pray they would find the firm ground and fertile soil. Paul prayed we would know the fullness of God, to be filled in our innermost beings with the fullness of God, which is the love of Jesus.

Jesus is the fullness of God. Can we stand rooted in any other foundation? No, we need to have the love of God, the manifest presence of Jesus dwelling within the very seat of our emotions. Jesus is the one who dwells within our hearts and the more we make room for Him there the more we will experience the fullness of His glory, of His love.

And as we enjoy the intimacy of Jesus in our hearts may we also be stirred with compassion for our brothers and sisters, just as Paul was. Let us bow our knees before the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit raise this early church prayer for those He brings to our hearts, where Jesus dwells.

Jesus, thank you for inhabiting my praise and dwelling in my heart. Open my eyes to make room for your children and stir me to pray for them.

Jesus the Firstborn of All Creation

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1.15)

How can we begin to understand God’s actions among us? The infinite and immutable God, the Lord of all creation who formed the universe and established the borders of time; how can we grasp His wonders in our midst?

How can we wrestle with evil and destruction that plagues our world? The wars and rumors of wars, tortures and cruelties meted by wicked men on the innocent; how can we reconcile a fallen world with a perfect God?

Jesus. Only through Jesus can we see the unseen God. Only through Jesus can we find redemption and restoration. God created all things through Jesus and so it is through Jesus that He is re-creating all things, restoring all things, redeeming all things. In Jesus we find the image of the invisible God. In Jesus, all who have been made in the image of God find new life, even in the midst of trials and tribulations, even in the heart of conflict and chaos. Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, is leading us toward the Father as we are transformed in the power of His Spirit.

In this fallen world where brothers kill brothers and families war against each other we will be pressed, perplexed and persecuted. But take heart, Jesus the firstborn of all creation who went before us in death is leading us into His new creation as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus, fill my lungs so I might sing this ancient hymn worshipping you as the image of the unseen God in whom all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell.

Jesus the Divine Prism

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17)

Too often with age comes cynicism. Decades of experience seem to prove that day is followed by night, pain is inevitable and heartbroken idealism leads to pessimism. Those who hope the most, dream the deepest and care with their whole souls are often the ones devastated by human systems and the shadowy manipulations of others. From the diving board of youthful idealism they are cruelly pushed down into the deep-end of cynicism.

No one is exempt for the injuries of this world. Trials and temptations come for all men, women and children. With knowledge of how things could be comes sadness. With past pain comes the propensity to forecast it into future trauma. And in an effort of intense self-protection, we build a barbed wire fence of cynicism around our hearts. We go stumbling along in our desire to stay steadfast before the Lord, always on the look out for the next variation on the old pains.

May this be where we meet Jesus today! Not on the happy hills of naive inexperience but in the twisted and dark caverns of our growing cynicism. James reminds us that every good and perfect gift comes from God, the Father of lights. The creator of the sun and the stars. The designer of the moon and its reflective spin around the globe. No matter how dark and shadowy the world becomes, as men build corrupt systems and people oppress one another, their is no darkness in our Father.

Jesus is our divine prism, the light from the Father is made visible to us through Jesus. The Father’s light is not changed, not darkened or hidden. In Jesus, the light of the Father is revealed in living color. Jesus reveals God’s invisible and everlasting love wherever we are today. Jesus calls us to believe with expectancy for the rushing wind of His Spirit. Jesus our divine prism, offers us hope for our cynicism, wisdom in the midst enigmatic times and joyous light in the dark night of the soul.

Jesus, let me see the good things and every perfect gift raining into my life from the Father with new eyes. Let me rejoice, surrendering my ashes for His beauty, my darkness for His light.

Jesus the Alpha and Omega

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1.8)

As we read the news of yet another attack, another stabbing pain into the heart of our humanity by men bent on torture, we ask ourselves, “Will this ever end?” Bombings, beheadings, ruthless pillaging of innocent women and children. We look back through time and see the seeds of human failure and the generational harvests we’ve sown for ourselves in sorrow. We lose sight of the beginning in the bloody trails of our history.

Praise God we have a great high priest who’s name is Love! Jesus is the alpha and the omega. Before we brought sin into the world through our pride Jesus stood at the dawning of His creation and spoke love. Jesus is the alpha. Nothing comes before Him. Nothing stands next to Him. God alone is the absolute source. And after the days stretch over the horizon Jesus stands at the end of time and speaks love. Jesus is the Omega. His love calls those who have suffered for His name into everlasting peace. His love calls those that have rejected His name and His people to enter their chosen destination—eternity apart from God.

In Jesus the alpha and the omega we stand encouraged, though our hearts break and our backs are broken, though our souls ache with the strain and our minds cannot reconcile the persecuted existence of His church. Jesus is the almighty. He had the first word and He will have the last.

Jesus, I rejoice in your almighty sovereignty. Although I do not understand what you allow I believe you are reaping glory for your name and your people.

Jesus the Access in the Spirit to the Father

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2.18)

Unrestricted access to the presence of the triune God. Through Jesus we find ourselves redeemed from our sin and infilled with His Spirit, indwelling our lives. Through Jesus we walk, Spirit empowered and electrified to life, into the very presence of the Father. We have direct access to the most holy of holies, the sanctified nearness of our triune God.

Like the select few priests bringing the offering of the people before the ark of God's covenant we all now can enter in. We are washed clean in the blood of Jesus and can enter where millions before us could only dream. We are not bound to outer courts. We are not restricted to stand by the wash basin or look on as the priests walked into the clouds of incense and smoke through the folds of the Tabernacle. In Jesus, our access to the Father is complete. He leads us in where there is no separation between us and the almighty God.

Let us tremble in joy, shake with the uncontainable elation of our unbarred admission. We are living the fulfilled promise God made to His people they dreamed of as they ascended to the Temple. As we trust in Him we cannot be removed from His everlasting presence. We are surrounded by our Sovereign God as a city nestled among the mountains. If we can even open our mouths to speak, let us utter words of deepest rejoicing for His unmerited mercy and enduring grace. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the redeemed generations with tears of joy and raptured hearts bursting.

Jesus, I rejoice in you. You have brought me near to the cross and redeemed me from my damning sin. I now stand restored and made new before the Father in the Spirit.

Jesus the Sower

The one sowing sows the word. (Mark 4.14)

Jesus, the mysterious parable pronouncer, didn’t fit people’s cultural image of the Messiah. He didn’t ride into Jerusalem on a warhorse with the sunlight shattering the sky. He didn’t rage against the Roman sympathizers or call for the oppressive Empire’s blood. Instead, He sat calmly on the rolling waves of the Sea of Galilee and told of a farmer who went out to sow seed.

Today, we would say this sower didn’t follow the best practices of the farmers almanac or engage in a way the 4H would recommend. He scattered the seed over generously beyond the bounds of his field. No wonder the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were furious. They carefully weighed out exactly ten percent of their spices, and here Jesus’ sower was lavishing seed on unworthy soil. Their stingy hearts rejected the incomprehensible generosity of God. What they saw as waste was Christ’s very definition of grace.

And what did the sower sow? What does this parable show us about Jesus? The sower sows the word. The sower sows the message, the good news of restored life, the gospel of the Kingdom. And Jesus is not selective where His Word goes or who receives it. He does not scatter the seed of His message only on the visibly ready soil. No, Jesus sends it far and wide, liberally and generously beyond the boundaries of the field.

Not only that, but Jesus the sower invites us to sow this good news everywhere with Him! He does not confine our witness to the walls of the corner church or the places we think are fertile soil. Jesus draws us to His side and shows us all the fields, hills and cliffs still waiting. He generously blesses us with His good news and invites us to see it multiply among all people.

Jesus, open my eyes to the landscape around me. Help me to sow generously among all peoples, even those I would refuse to share with, in all places, terrains and occasions.

Jesus the Parable Proclaimer

And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them (Mark 4.2)

We underestimate how confusing Jesus was during His earthly ministry. We almost begin to assume that because the crowds of thousands followed Him across deserts and up mountainsides they all responded to His message. We sanctify not only the humanity of Christ but also that of His audience. Besides those pesky Pharisees and doubting Sadducees surely everyone in Jesus' audience was fully conscious that they were meeting with God Himself... but such was not the case. They came for healing, for release, for mystical meals and divine wonders, but many of them went no further than witnessing Jesus' supremacy as a spectator sport.

Fully aware of this Jesus placed His words of truth into parables, truth-filled stories and illustrations to confound the proud and ignite the humble, to confuse the spectators and eternally free the searching. We take this reality for granted with our generations of commentary and easy access to information. At times even the closest disciples didn't understand what Jesus was saying. It should be no shock to us then that Jesus will speak to us today through parables. Jesus the parable pronouncer will use the adventures of our own lives, the unusual experiences of our daily existence.

Are we listening? In the pressing crowds around Jesus are we there to reap some magical advantage, to demystify Jesus' divinity with doubt, or to experience the presence of God with us? Jesus is speaking. He is proclaiming His truth in the mundane and miraculous of our biographies. Are we listening?

Jesus, give me ears to hear and eyes to see the Word you are pronouncing in my life.

Jesus the Descending Ascender

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. (John 3.13)

History is marked by humanity’s attempt to usurp the divine. The advent of our failure was to take the fruit in the garden believing we could be like God. We have built towers to cut the skies and claim the throne-room of God. We have an insatiable belief that we can evolve beyond our finite limitations. At our worst we believe we can increase beyond our station and, by killing a “disillusionment” of God, become supermen no longer bound to laws and moral constraints. It is saddening to see the bloody and amoral epochs humanity has won for itself in its futile attempts to storm heaven.

We could never ascend to heaven in our own power. We could never experience the heavenlies within our own efforts, at best misguided and at worst megalomaniacal. God is fully aware of this. Our crippling sin is no surprise to Him. Mindful of this He removed us from the garden to keep us from the tree of life and waste eternity striving toward self-salvation.

We could not ascend, but He could descend. Jesus is our descending ascender. Jesus, fully God and fully man, descended into the heart of humanity and became our access to heaven. Jesus is the door to eternity we could never open ourselves. Jesus is the stairway to heaven we could never build. Jesus is the ladder to the throne of our holy God we could not climb in our sinful weakness. We now have access to our beloved Father which was opened by Jesus our descending ascending Savior.

Jesus, thank you that you saw the impasse and bridged it. You descended so that we might ascend to the Holy Father clothed in your righteousness.

Jesus the Wisdom Giver

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1.5)

One minute life is rolling along like a car on the highway between our past and our destination when all of a sudden a tire blows or the engine starts to tremble. In a moment we feel like we’re swimming on dry land. A difficult truth we struggle with is that a life in motion is filled with trials and tribulations. Trials can be debilitating, leaving us cold and searching for meaning. Calamity can leave us seasick and spinning without answers.

James saw the early Church suffering under the disorienting forces of diverse trials. They felt like travelers surrounded by thieves on every side. These incomprehensible experiences left them bruised, struggling to make sense of their faith. These trials revealed a lack in their lives they didn’t know was there. Interwoven threads of insecurity, confusion and powerlessness sprang out one single source, the lack of divine wisdom. Our brothers and sisters in the early Church discovered their lack of wisdom could not be filled in with human answers.

James knew this lack personally. He was no stranger to our shared human experience. He once lacked wisdom and couldn’t make sense of life. When James turned His heart toward the Father through Jesus Christ he experienced the generosity of God. The Lord is not stingy with His revelation. He is not a loanshark preying on the poverty of the disenfranchised. Through Jesus, we find a free-handed Father who gives wisdom generously.

Jesus, lead me before the Father. I am asking, in faith, for wisdom to understand the trials surrounding me and learn to count in all joy as I draw near to you.

Jesus the Peace

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2.14)

Jesus is our peace. Can we truly grasp the depth of this simple phrase? Jesus is our peace. If we have a weak understanding of the devilishness and viciousness of our sin we might devalue this awesome truth. For those who have lived, visibly bound in sins like drug abuse or invisibly enslaved under the victimizing hand of sexual abuse, the peace Jesus offers in Himself is breath-taking. The eyes that shook from a desperate need for comfort find true peace in Jesus. The eyes that wept from the cruel exploitation find the true embrace of God’s love in Jesus.

Jesus our peace aims across the battlefield of our souls and raises His mighty arm to kill the hostility that separates us from His love. In His incarnate arms He breaks the back of sin and death that makes our access to His eternal peace unreachable. There is no rigid observance of regulations that seeks to find its way to pacifism. Jesus Himself is our peace. We, the redeemed people of God, need not memorize the walls of history's hedge laws for we have found the sole source of reconciliation to God the Father: Jesus our peace.

Every thing we do flows from love not fear, joy not fatalism, hope not resignation. Our good deeds flow from peace not performance. Our good intentions are rooted in peace not anxiety over our future. We do not scrounge for crumbs of goodwill with God. No, we are carried to the table where we take the bread broken for us for the redemption of our sins. Peace. True Peace. Jesus.

Jesus, thank you that you are my peace. I have no fear in the battles and wars to come for you are my Sovereign, my Lord, my everlasting Peace.

Jesus the Retriever

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2.13)

Can we remember a time we were rejected? The feeling of isolation. Distance, impassible ever-widening distance. Does anyone make it through childhood without feeling the sting of being faraway, out of place, the awkward other. Different people seek out various ways to move toward a place of communal belong. One builds walls around his soul to protect from the stinging arrows, another adopts the slings of others and mocks rather than be mocked. Whether we find a way to be grafted into society or a left on the abandoned fringe we can still feel damaged and alone.

And yet this loneliness, this emotional distance, is nothing compared to our soul’s separation from God. There is no set of actions we can perform to reap redemption, no number of prayers that can bridge the metaphysical expanse between His holiness and our fallenness. We were far off across the impassable ocean of our sin.

And then Jesus. We have been reclaimed by the Creator. We are redeemed, not by the sweat of our brows doing the good deeds, but through the poured out blood of Jesus. Jesus is our retriever. Jesus calls us from isolation into relationship. Jesus has caused the divine spark in our souls to be rekindled. Jesus is bringing about our becoming. We are becoming more of ourselves as we decrease and He increases. The closer we are brought near to Him the more we are shaped into the unique diamonds He foresaw us to be.

Jesus, thank you for drawing me near, for seeing me far off and alone and calling me into your arms.