When I felt the wiggling movement from my little friend, my constant companion, my soon to be babe in arms, I could hardly grasp the concept of a whole human being being shaped with wonderful working parts inside my womb. While he grew, my belly extended as proof of his existence, and as proof that while I ate to facilitate growth and development, I most certainly did not create this human child. God did, and I was, and am still, grateful.
Holding my son in my arms made God more real to me than any other experience I had had, prior to becoming a mother. I recall my vision being impaired (temporarily, thank goodness) because of the amount of time I spent in near sighted staring at tiny little grasping fingers with perfectly tiny matching nails. That button mouth, the sweet perfectly round head, and those eyes that seemed to speak innocent wisdom when they gazed into mine, had me melting and weeping with gratitude. Thank-You God, Thank-You, for the gift of my son.
When my father died, my world went grey and stayed murky and muddled for a very long time. His death was one of the most challenging experiences of my life, and just as I had no say in the making of eyes, ears, a brain, and other gloriously crafted body parts when my son was being shaped and formed, I had no say in the decline, the decay, and the dying of my father.
Birth makes us weak in the knees, death makes us drop to them.
As I consider the dying, because dear reader, there are so many people dying, I think of the time God graciously gives us to come to our senses, so to speak, to reconcile with him as Author of life, and death date stamper. I think of God and how real he must be in the end; how merciful and kind he is to us, even when we deserve his disdain. One way or another, we will be on our knees before Jesus, dear one. Just like you cannot deny your own death and try to wiggle out of it, you will not be able to stand before the King: that will not be an option for any of us.
Philippians 2:10-11
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us understand God's ways together, dear reader. The following is an excerpt from Matthew Henry's Commentary On The Whole Bible, page 707:
2. He has never been rigorous and severe with us, but always tender, full of compassion, and ready to forgive.
(1.) It is in his nature to be so (v.8): The Lord is merciful and gracious; this was his way which he made known unto Moses on Mount Horeb, when he does proclaimed his name (Ex. 34:6,7), an answer to Moses's request (ch. 33:13), I beseech thee, show me thy way, that I may know thee. It is my way, says God, to pardon sin. [1.] He is not soon angry, v. 8. He is slow to anger, not extreme to mark what we do a amiss nor ready to take advantage against us. He bears long with those that are very provoking, defers punishing, that he may give space to repent, and does not speedily execute the sentence of his law; and he could not be thus slow to anger if he were not plenteous in mercy the very Father of mercies. [2.] He is not long angry; for (v.9) he will not always chide, though we always offend and deserve chiding. Though he signify his displeasure against us for our sins by the rebukes of Providence, and the reproaches of our own consciences, and thus cause grief, yet he will have compassion, and will not always keep us in pain and terror, no, not for our sins, but, after the spirit of bondage, will give the spirit of adoption. How unlike are those to God who always chide, who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to cease! What would become of us if God should deal so with us? He will not keep his anger forever against his own people, but, will gather them with everlasting mercies, Isa. 54:8, 57:16.
(2.) We have found him so; we, for our parts, must own that he has not dealt with us after our sins, v. 10. The scripture says a great deal of the mercy of God, and we may all set to our seal that it is true, that we have experienced it. If he had not been a God of patience, we should have been in hell long ago; but he has not rewarded us after our iniquities; so those will say who know what sin deserves. He has not inflicted the judgements which we have merited, nor deprived us of the comforts which we have forfeited, which should make us think the worse, and not the better, of sin; for God's patience should lead us to repentance, Rom. 2:4.
Is God's patience, leading you to repentance?
When the body is frail and sickness prevails and no end seems in sight, the sickly are weak, vulnerable, and in need of compassionate care. Who, pray tell, can be salve for a perishing soul, than the Lord Jesus Christ? There is nothing like imminent death to make one ponder what will happen to their spirit when they pass through the thin veil that separates the physical and spiritual realms; and pass through it we all must. While the body erodes and becomes worm meat, the spirit lives on. As Matthew Henry states so eloquently, The hope of deliverance is built upon the goodness of God, page 706.
Deliverance is being born again, dear reader, and being adopted into the family of God. There are two births for some, and two deaths for others. In the first birth, we come into the world as babes; in the second birth, we die to self and are reborn in Christ when we know him as our Saviour from sin. In the first death, our bodies are no longer animated with spirit, and as a result, they become useless carcasses, that soon enough, lose shape and form and become part of the earth once again; in the second death, the spirit is sent to hell for eternity, to live in perpetual torment and torture.
Does the concept of eternity in hell, terrify you, as it does me? Do you agree, you had no say in being born, and you will have no say in your death? Is this reasonable, and sensible to you, dear reader? If not, how come?
If you are here, reading this, do you think it is time now, to reconcile with the God that formed and shaped you in your mother's womb; tended to you as you grew into adulthood, and sustained you when your world tipped this way and that, threatening to fling you far from safety. Is it time that you thank him for his tender mercies, his long-suffering, his compassionate caring, when you deserved it least and sinned the most?
What, pray tell, will drop you to your knees willingly, before Jesus Christ as King, and have you confessing him Lord, for the glory of God the Father?
One way or another, we will bow, we will confess. Perhaps you can choose, rather than be forced ... that would be one of those wise decisions that so few make while they are able. Don't be the type that waits until their death bed, to honour and magnify the very God that made you.
Do it today. You have a lot to be thankful for.
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