You're Beautiful (Phil Wickham)

How great is the Creator God we serve.

In Job 26, Job says of God:

"He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness."

He goes on to say in Verse 14, "And these are but the outer fringe of his works".

This great God, who created the skies, the clouds, the Universe, the beautiful earth we live in, is truly awesome. The breathtaking beauty of Creation is just but "the outer fringe of his works"!! I don't even think we've begun to scratch the surface of who He is, and what He is capable of. And yet, this great God deigns to know and love me, takes a keen interest in my life, knows the number of hairs on my head, keeps every tear I shed bottled, hears every prayer of mine and treats it as a fragrant incense to Him. Sends His best gift, His son Jesus, to die for me, so that He can adopt me into His family and call me daughter. Sends the Holy Spirit to live in me, so I can live this life victorious. Wow. I am quite undone.

Beautiful
I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful

Worthy of It All (David Brymer and Misty Edwards)

All the saints and angels bow before Your throne
All the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and sing
You are worthy of it all,
You are worthy of it all
For from You are all things, and to You are all things,
You deserve the glory

Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise

Set A Fire (Will Reagan and United Pursuit)

When Jeremiah is called to be a prophet to the nations, he is also called to obediently share God's word even though all of it would fall upon deaf ears. He will be ridiculed, rebuffed, rejected. There is a point where he realises the futility of so much of what he is called to do.

Yet he says in Jeremiah 20:9
If I say, “I will not mention his word
or speak anymore in his name,
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot."

Praying that He will send a fire down our souls to purify our lives, send a fire into our hearts so that we will burn with passion for the things that matter to Him. May we say like the prophet Jeremiah, "His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones, I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot."

The goodness and severity of God

Am currently reading the book of Jeremiah, and today stopped to linger at Chapters 14 and 15, where God tells Jeremiah not to intercede for Judah because He will not relent.

 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

God goes on to say in Jeremiah 15, that because the people have persistently rejected Him, He is "weary of relenting".

You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting (Jeremiah 15:6)

I've paused here because these two chapters have made me rethink my notion of God - whether my view of Him is a biblical view or a Santa Claus view. I've always known of course that God is a God of justice and mercy. But these chapters reminded me today that we cannot presume on the mercy of God forever. Even more sobering, it reminded me today that there is a point of no return, a point where God intends to bring forth judgement, and no intercession, no pleading, will change His mind.

We really need to consider the goodness and severity of God, and hold this in a tension. He is "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). But He is also "a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5), and holy and righteous.

God cannot let sin go unpunished, but He has graciously made a way - by sending Jesus, His son, to bear our punishment in our stead. We need to repent though of our wicked ways, ask God for forgiveness, and made Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

We don't know how long this window of opportunity for repentence will be. We cannot presume upon God that His patience towards us will last forever. May we respond to Him, and keep our hearts tender towards Him.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)