Stand in the gap

 

So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. --Ezekiel 22:30 (NKJV)

Have you ever been asked to fill in for someone at work?  If so, you are familiar with the concept of standing in the gap.  If you ever played organized sports, you know that if a player is injured or not performing up to his potential, a sub will be sent in to take his place.  If you have ever been in the military, you know that when a front-line soldier is killed or wounded, another will be ordered to stand in his place.

The Bible is filled with examples of men and women who stood in the gap for their people and for God's glory.  Abraham stood in the gap for his nephew Lot with regard to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18).  God used Joseph to save his family from starvation by bringing them to Egypt (Genesis 50:20).  David interceded for God to stop a plague in 2 Samuel 24.  Esther stood up to the king on behalf of her people.  And we will see later that Moses stood before God to intervene on behalf of the people of Israel (Exodus 32).

So what does the Bible mean when it says God is looking for someone to stand in the gap?  How can we accomplish this task?  I believe Scripture teaches that we are called to prepare, to pray, and to preach.

Prepare

Isaiah 40:3 says, "A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."  This verse is cited in all four Gospels to describe the ministry of John the Baptist.  I believe it can also describe our calling.

Just as a co-worker would not ask you to fill in for her if she did not think you could perform the task, God prepares us for our own calling.  It's not a magical process.  It usually takes some work on our part.  The Bible speaks a lot about building a wall.  Like any construction project, it requires planning and preparation.  The materials must be purchased and delivered to the job site.  The tools must be available.  And the people must be ready, willing, and able to perform the task.

Ezekiel 13 speaks of a time when false prophets were rampant in Israel.  God warns His people that they should have been prepared for this.  Ezekiel 13:5 says, "You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the Lord." (NKJV)  Just like building a fortified wall around a city helps prepare the residents for war, the same preparation should take place on a spiritual level.

Pray

Once preparation has been made, we must make use of the tools God has given us.  One of the most effective tools in our belt is prayer.  James 5:16b says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  Prayer has more power than most of us realize.

There was a time when God told Moses to step aside, that He'd had enough of the stubborn children of Israel.  God was ready to wipe them all out and start over, making Moses the patriarch.  Moses stood up on behalf of the people and saved their lives.  Psalm 106:23 says, "Therefore He said He would destroy them, and He would have done so had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the gap before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them." (AMP)

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit prays for us.  Romans 8:26 says, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."  Don't ever think of yourself as too weak or too wicked to pray.  Isaiah 59:16 says, "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought Him salvation, and His righteousness upheld Him." (ESV)

Not only was the state of God’s people bad, but no one among them took the lead in getting it right. Where was the man who would lead the people in righteousness? He could not be found. Where was the intercessor who would plead God’s case to the people, and the people’s repentance to their God? No intercessor could be found.

God waited and waited for a disobedient Israel to turn to Him. He waited and waited for a man to lead them back to Him, or an intercessor to plead before Him. None arose; so the LORD did it Himself. If a man or an intercessor would have stepped out, it would have saved Israel a lot of calamity. But the fact that no man or no intercessor stepped forward didn’t ruin God’s plan. He waited to work in partnership through a man. He waited to work through an intercessor. But God’s work would still be accomplished if none arose. (David Guzik Study Guide for Isaiah)

You can be the person that God is looking for to intercede for His people.  Your prayers can have a mighty effect.

Preach

Romans 10:14 says, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (ESV)

It is not enough to prepare and to pray.  We must also stand up for God and speak truth to power when necessary. Isaiah 63:5 says, "I looked, but there was no one to help, and I was amazed and appalled that there was no one to uphold truth and right.  So My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath sustained me." (AMP)  You and I may be able to avert the wrath of God against someone just by interceding for them and preaching the word of God to them.

There may come a time when it is too late.  Jeremiah 5:1 says, "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note!  Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her." (ESV)  If the message is heard and rejected, then the poor sinner has no recourse. Jeremiah 15:1 says, "Then the Lord said to Me, 'Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My heart would not turn toward this people.  Send them out of My sight, and let them go!'" (ESV)

God help us stand in the gap for those who come into our sphere of influence.  Our voice may be weak, our reach may be small, but help us to prepare ourselves, to pray for others, and to preach the word of the Lord.  Let us stand in the gap for a lost and dying world.

Step out of the darkness

 

Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, "The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land."  --Ezekiel 8:12

DISCLAIMER: What we are about to talk about may cause discomfort, distress, and dismay to so-called "righteous people".  It is not for the spiritually immature.  Divine discernment strongly suggested.

Some people in the church today view porn.  There.  I said it.

I'll go even further.  If you have not been at least tempted at some point in your life to view sexually charged images--in movies, print, or internet sites designed to entice you to sin--then you are either a liar or a saint. 

I was reminded of my own past struggle with this issue in my Bible reading this week.  The words that stood out to me from our focal passage today were "in the dark" and "pictures."  This pretty much describes anyone that tries to live a Christian life but is still tempted by adult magazines, adult movies, and adult web sites.

Now, I know that the abominations Ezekiel wrote about in this passage were about idolatry more than pornographic images.  Verse 10 describes the pictures that were etched on the walls.  "And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel."

The idols that Israel had borrowed from other nations included images of snakes and lizards and other unclean animals.  There may have been images of the sun and moon and other celestial beings, as well (i.e. signs of the Zodiac--horoscope, anyone?)  One of the Canaanite deities that Israel had borrowed was Asherah, a fertility goddess.  You can bet that an image of Asherah was included in the images that Ezekiel saw etched on the walls of the elders in their secret rooms.

The Bible makes a close association between sexual sins and idolatry.  1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The Greek word translated here as "sexually immoral" is the term pornos.  When you combine that word with the Greek term graphia, meaning "writing or representation", you get the English word pornography.  While the Bible does not use this specific term, it does condemn sexual immorality.  It also has quite a lot to say about idolatry, which is closely akin to sexual sin.

For example, in the Old Testament account of Asherah worship, there were groves of trees planted to celebrate the fertility of the harvest season.  Some translations use the word "pole" instead of "grove".   Young women would perform sensual dances around these wooden structures.  Some of you might be saying, "We're in the 21st century.  We don't worship idols today."  I submit to you that tonight men all over America will throw dollar bills at nubile women dancing on poles.  Are they not sacrificing to the goddess of fertility?

This type of idolatry of the sensual has permeated our society.  Some men in the church, who have been chosen by God, who have repented of and have been forgiven for all sin, still struggle with sexual immorality.  What do you say to these men?  If you are one of them, how do you overcome it?  Here is something that might help.

Bring it into the light

One of the main problems with sin is that it is done in the dark.  We somehow believe that secrecy hides our activities, so that no one can see it.  If we want to overcome sexual addiction, we need to confess it and bring it into the light. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  James 5:16 says, "Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

I found this quote on the website for Carnation Home Cleaning (carnationhomecleaning.com/solar-cleaning)

It turns out there’s really something to the idea of opening the windows and letting a little light in. Not only does sunshine illuminate your home and provide a dose of happiness, but it also disinfects. Just 30–60 minutes is all that’s needed to get the benefits of some old-fashioned solar cleaning. In that time, the sun will kill the bacteria on a number of common household items.

And this isn’t just an old wives’ tale. Science backs up the idea of solar cleaning.

In a 90-day study on the effects on sunlight on bacteria, the University of Oregon found that rooms exposed to sunlight have fewer germs. Their findings showed that sunlit rooms had 50% or less viable bacteria than rooms left in the dark.

And did you know UV is used to clean drinking water? If it’s good enough for that, surely it will work in your home.

If sunlight can kill bacteria and purify drinking water, imagine what Sonlight (that is, the light of God) can do to disinfect your soul.

Tear down the idols

When God led Israel to conquer Canaan and the peoples there, His first command was to tear down every idol.  In the same way, if we are to overcome sexual sin, we need to get rid of every pornographic image that we may come into contact with.

Greg Laurie posted this on his devotional page harvest.org on September 20, 2024:

Idols can be many things. But essentially an idol is anyone or anything that takes the place of God in our lives. A lot of things can qualify as an idol in our lives. And it is a true but terrifying fact that a person can attend church every week and still be a full-fledged idolater.

In the Ten Commandments, God tells us that we should have Him as our God and have no other gods before Him.

He said, “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods” (Exodus 20:4–5 NLT).

Jesus echoed this when He said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38 NLT).

Essentially, Jesus was saying that if you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, it will dramatically impact the way that you live.

If we love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds, then nothing else can take God’s place in our lives. We won’t be interested in another god any more than someone who just had a delicious dinner of filet mignon would be attracted to roadkill. Our hunger has been met. We’re satisfied.

But when we’re not cultivating a close relationship with God, then it is only a matter of time until someone or something takes His place.

Ever hear the phrase, "Out of sight, out of mind"?  It is much easier to stay sexually pure if we stay away from sexual imagery.  However, that's not enough.  We must also fill the void with spiritual imagery.  Not religious icons or images of saints, but as Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  Which leads us to our final thought.

Know that God sees us and has not forsaken us

In our opening verse from Ezekiel 8:12 we read that the elders of Israel went into their rooms under cover of darkness, where there were images of idolatry and sexual practice all over the walls, because they said to themselves, "The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken our land."

Matthew Henry the Bible commentator says that this idoltary is based in atheism.  At the very least it is limiting the scope of God's power and His love.  "They think themselves out of God's sight."  Worse still, "They think themselves out of God's care."

"The Lord has forsaken the earth, and looks not after the affairs of it; and then we may as well worship any other god as him." Or, "He has forsaken our land, and left it to be a prey to its enemies; and therefore it is time for us to look out for some other god, to whom to commit the protection of it. Our one God cannot, or will not, deliver us; and therefore let us have many." This was a blasphemous reflection upon God, as if he had forsaken them first, else they would not have forsaken him. Note, Those are ripe indeed for ruin who have arrived at such a pitch of impudence as to lay the blame of their sins upon God himself. (Matthew Henry Commentary on Ezekiel 8)

Friend, if you believe in God, then you must know He is willing and able to save you from idolatrous sexual practices.  Going back to 1 Corinthians 6:11, do not continue to identify with your sin.  You are no longer called a fornicator or a whoremonger (Bible translations of the Greek word pornos.)  Instead, "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."  

You do not have to continue to live in your sin.  If you confess and bring it into the light, if you remove the temptations from before you, and if you realize that God is for you and has paid the sacrifice for your sin so that you are no longer bound by it, then you can be free.  2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom."  Call your pastor or a Christian friend to help you.  Ignore those judgy people who have more "respectable" sins, and know that God loves all of us the same.

Equipped for God's Calling

 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. --Lamentations 3:22-23

 When I was growing up in a small-town Baptist church, there was an emphasis on evangelism.  One of the tools that we were given was a tract, a small booklet with large letters and bold colors, called "Steps to Peace With God."  Published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, it went through four easy steps to salvation: God's Plan (peace with God, citing John 3:16), Our Problem (sin separates us from God, citing Romans 3:23), God's Remedy (the cross, citing Romans 6:23), and Our Response (receive Christ, citing John 1:12).

It was short, simple, and to the point.  It was designed to explain salvation to your friends without getting taking up too much time (so they wouldn't lose interest) and without getting too deep theologically (so they wouldn't lose focus).  The "hook" was the opening statement: "God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life."

I go to a men's Bible study at our church most Saturday mornings.  They are studying heroes of the faith in the book of Acts.  The current study is on Stephen, the first Christian martyr in Scripture.  I thought it was interesting that the leader titled the lesson, "What if God's plan for your life isn't so wonderful?"

I have just finished reading the book of Jeremiah in my daily Bible readings, and have just started the sequel written by Jeremiah, the book called Lamentations.  Jeremiah was called "the weeping prophet" because his writings expressed genuine grief over the sin of the people, sins which would lead them into Babylonian exile for the next 70 years.  He was forbidden by God to marry or to bring children into the land because of the wickedness of the people.  He was once thrown into a cistern because of his message of gloom and doom; it took 30 men to pull him out of the mire with ropes and rags under his arms so that he wouldn't starve.  

Was this God's plan for Jeremiah?  Was this his calling?

As I was doing my daily Bible readings this week in the book of Jeremiah, God repeatedly brought to mind 2 Peter 1:3, that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness.  What, I thought, was the connection between the life of Jeremiah and this passage in 2 Peter?  Then I started reading Lamentations, and I got to one of my favorite verses, Lamentations 3:22-23.  It started to make sense to me.  God's endless mercy is evidence of His love; His faithfulness is shown by the mercies that are new every morning.  This uplifting testimony was written by Jeremiah the "weeping prophet", who expressed deep grief and sorrow for the sinfulness of God's people and the impending destruction of Judah.

Hymn writer Reginald Heber wrote these words in the early 1800s:

Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.

Jeremiah tried to show God's glory to the people in Judah, but their eyes were blinded because of their sin.  He tried desperately to get his countrymen to repent, to turn from their sins and to obey God, to no avail.  How discouraged Jeremiah must have been!  Like Stephen, Jeremiah spoke the truth, and although Jeremiah was not martyred for his message, it must have broken his heart every time he spoke God's truth and it fell on deaf ears.

There were three different times in Jeremiah's ministry when people came to him specifically asking for God's guidance.  When the message from God was not what they wanted to hear, these people went their own way, continuing in their disobedience.  Not only that, but they persecuted Jeremiah for not being more positive and upbeat.  Talk about shooting the messenger. 

Pashhur the Priest

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Machiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maasieah, saying, "Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us."  Then Jeremiah said to them: "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are beseiging you outside the walls.  And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.  I Myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.'"  (Jeremiah 21:3-5)

The people had heard of the power of God.  They knew the story of God delivering them through Moses at the Red Sea.  They had heard of God fighting through Joshua to secure the land of Israel for their forefathers.  Every story that they brought to mind was when God had intervened for the benefit of His people.  They were looking for a similar message from Jeremiah: tell us, O man of God, how God will use His power to deliver us.

Unfortunately, God's message was not one of deliverance this time.  The word that came to Jeremiah was not that God would fight for them; it was quite the opposite--that because of their sinful hearts, God would fight against them.

How often do we hear the world misrepresent the nature of God? "God is love," they might say, "so why is there suffering, or famine, or war?"  They presume that if God loved as they think of love, that He would always work for good.  In his famous sermon called Sinners In The Hand Of An Angry God Johnathan Edwards said, "The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”

Jeremiah even gave them an out.  

And to the people you shall say: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.  He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war.  For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire."  (Jeremiah 21: 8-10)

What was the priest's response?  "Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin gate of the house of the Lord." (Jeremiah 20:2)  Jeremiah then condemned Pashhur, saying the Lord did not call his name Pashhur (which means "Freedom"--ironic, isn't it, that a man named Freedom would beat and imprison the prophet of God.)  Instead, God called him "Terror on Every Side". 

When word got back to the king what Jeremiah had said, Zedekiah had Jeremiah thrown in prison (32:3) and then tried to sneak out of the city under cover of darkness (39:4) before being captured by the Babylonians, who killed Zedekiah's sons in front of him, then gouged out his eyes so that the death of his children was the last image he would see.  If only he had listened to Jeremiah, Zedekiah could have been spared.  The Babylonians would have taken him and all of Judah into exile, sure, but he would have been allowed to live in the court of the king of Babylon and eat from his table.

Hananiah the Horrible Liar

A brief word here may be in order.  Jewish literature is not always in chronological order.  You may have noticed in the example above that the account of Pashhur beating Jeremiah (chapter 20) came before the account of the prophecy of Jeremiah that earned him the beating (chapter 21).  This may have something to do with the accounts first being passed down orally, from one generation to another, before being written down on a scroll.  Imagine a grandfather telling the story of Jeremiah 20 to his grandchildren.  "Then there was the time that Jeremiah was beaten and put in the stocks."  A child might interrupt, "But grandpa, why was Jeremiah beaten?"  The old man might reply, "Well, let me tell you: King Zedekiah sent Pashhur the priest to ask if God might deliver them, and Jeremiah said no.  That was not what they wanted to hear."

A more concrete example of the book of Jeremiah being written in thematic rather than chronological order would be the story of the false prophet Hananiah, found in chapter 28.

In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananiah the son of Axxur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.  Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.  I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." (Jeremiah 28: 1-4)

Now, we know that Zedekiah had already been identified as king of Judah back in chapter 20 and 21.  The point Jeremiah was making was that Hananiah was a false prophet.

And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, "Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.  Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth.  This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.'"  In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died." (Jeremiah 28:15-17) 

Johanan and Jezaniah call Jeremiah a Liar

Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaniah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant--because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us--that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing we should do."  Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard your.  Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers I will tell you.  I will keep nothing back from you." Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us.  Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 42: 1-6)

Notice the use of pronouns here.  The men come to Jeremiah, and ask him to pray "to the Lord your God."  Jeremiah puts it back on them: don't you mean the Lord your God?  I can see them shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other before awkwardly admitting, "Yes, you're right, the Lord our God."

Except they had no intention of following God's instructions.  Jeremiah prayed for 10 days (verse 7) and came back with this word from God: stay put.  "If you will remain in this land," he told them, "then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plan you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you." (verse 10).  He tells them not to fear the king of Babylon, "for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand." (verse 11).  He goes on to tell them not to go to Egypt, because if they do, the sword will follow you there, as the king of Babylon will also take Egypt into exile.

During the ten days that Jeremiah was praying, the men must have been planning to go to Egypt, because they did not accept Jeremiah's message to them.  In fact, Johanan said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie.  The Lord our God did not send you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to live there'." (42:3)  How often do we ask God to validate our own plans, instead of waiting to know God's plan?  Ten days must have seemed like an eternity for them.  It is also ironic that this was the message that Pashhur and Zedekiah were looking for earlier--if God had told them to stay put, that the king of Babylon would let them stay in Judah, they would have been overjoyed, and they would not have beaten Jeremiah or put him in prison.

Jeremiah was always true to the word of God, whatever the consequences.  He knew that God was faithful, that His mercies were new every morning.  He also knew what the Apostle Peter would write centuries later: 

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.  For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11)

 Jeremiah was true to his calling, despite his circumstance and in spite of the consequences.  He knew that his only hope was in obedience to God.  As Jonathan Edwards said in the sermon quoted earlier, “What are we, that we should think to stand before Him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?”  God is sovereign, and if He wants us to walk with Him in suffering, we know our reward is great.

The world may not think this part of obeying God is part of a "wonderful plan" promised in 1970s gospel tracts.  Thankfully, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has changed the wording in the booklets.  They now say, "God loves you, and wants you to experience His peace and life."  So many worldly minded people say, "I just want to live my life," meaning live without interference from any authority, much less from God or the Church.  Little do they know that they cannot live their life in a vacuum.  One day they will stand before God.  When that day comes, what will their answer be?

I, for one, would like to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  Those are the words Jeremiah heard when he went on to glory.  It made all his preaching, all his persecution, all his perseverance worth it in the end.

He loved me to death

 

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to the the propitiation for our sins.  --1 John 4:10

How can we describe the love of God?  It's hard to describe in the current age of cheap grace.  We grew up reciting John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." but our attention span is so short that we stop reading before we get to the part about "whosoever believes in Him."  The part that sticks in our mind is that God loves the whole world.  That means He loves everyone, right? Meanwhile the world has redefined the word "love" to mean universal tolerance and acceptance no matter what.  Hey, we're all sinners, right? Christ died for the sins of the world, right?  So we can keep on sinning, right?

We never talk about what God hates. 

• Psalm 5:5 says God hates the workers of iniquity.
• Psalm 11:5 says God hates the wicked.
• Proverbs 15:8 says God hates the sacrifices of the wicked.
• Proverbs 15:9 says God hates the ways of the wicked.
• Proverbs 15:26 says God hates the thoughts of the wicked.

So who are the wicked?  Honestly, that's you.  It's me.  It's everybody on earth.  No matter how hard we try to be good and righteous, we still have wicked thoughts, we still go our wicked ways, we are all workers of iniquity, sacrificing ourselves to wickedness.  That's why God provided a sacrifice for us, to be a "propitiation", meaning to appease God's wrath.

With that in mind, let's look at the sacrifice God made for us.  Let's start in Genesis chapter 15.  The word of the Lord came to Abram, and Abram believed the word, "and He (God) counted it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6).  Later in that same chapter, Abram asked for some assurance of God's love, some proof that His promise would be fulfilled.  I want us to watch carefully God's response.

He (God) said to him (Abraham), "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."  And he brought Him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other.  --Genesis 15:9-10

In response, God did something incredible: He cut a covenant with Abraham. Now, cutting a covenant was an ancient ritual in which someone quite literally cut a series of animal carcasses in half and then walked through the midst of them, as if to say, “May what happened to these beasts befall me as well, should I ever break my faithfulness to you.”  We see an example of this in Jeremiah 34:18, which says, "And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts."

See, a covenant is not a contract. It’s much more open-ended than that. A covenant is a promise of faithful relationship, no matter what.  But what are we to do? In our humanity, we are sinful, wicked, worthy of death in this covenant relationship with God.

Let's look further in Genesis 15.  I think we'll see something pretty amazing.  Here we have the word of God in a physical form on one side, and on the other side we have Abraham, a believer whose only righteousness was his faith.  If Abraham had walked between the two halves, he would be bound by the covenant.  When he sinned, the covenant would be broken.  He would be doomed to become like the animals who laid dead before him.  Verse 12 says, "As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.  And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him."  A few verses later in verse 17 we see this: "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces."

It isn't Abram that walks between the carcasses, it's God.  God was ritually promising Abram that should He renege on His promise, He would deserve to be severed in two as well.  Here's a quote from fellow-blogger on this passage:

But in the story of Abraham’s covenant, it isn’t Abraham who walks between the beasts, is it? Abraham doesn’t say, “May I be killed if I break my promises to God.” No! Amazingly, it is the Spirit of God who passes through the bisected animals. God cuts the covenant, not Abraham. In the midst of a darkness most terrible, the fire of God appears and proclaims, not in words but in deed, “I will be with you. I will be faithful to you. And I will keep every single one of My promises to you, and yet more than these, even if it kills Me.” God here promises, brothers and sisters, to be faithful to us even unto death—not simply our death, but His own. Faithful to this covenant, faithful to this relationship, even if it kills Him. Faithful to us, even if we kill Him.

Imagine the Source of All Being, the One True God Most High, who created and sustains all things in the entirety of existence, proclaiming aloud, “I love this silly old man whom I have made so much that I will lay down everything I am and everything I have just to love him, to abide with him, to be faithful to him forever.” It’s insane. When we talk about being heirs of Abraham, my brothers and sisters, this is what we’re talking about. Not the bloodlines of Isaac and Ishmael, but a promise so powerful that the very Author of Life would lay down His own Life out of love for us. (https://rdgstout.blogspot.com/2016/02/cutting-covenant.html)

When I was in college I wrote some pretty bad poetry trying to express in words the love that God has for us.  Thinking of an old Southern expression, "I just love him/her to death!" I wrote these words:

Jesus I love You, my Savior and Friend.
You loved me to death, but that wasn't the end;
The same power that raised You still conquers sin.
And Jesus I love you again and again.

The musical group Glad wrote it much better:

And this is Love
Not that I have first loved You
And this is Love
That You have first loved me
And You give up Your life
One perfect sacrifice
And this is Love
That You have first loved me

You did not wait for me
To make myself a worthy man
You did not wait for me
To make a good and righteous stand
For there was nothing I could do
In sin I had died
Yet Your love conquered death
And raised me to Your side

Like the story in Genesis, the Gospel of John also talks about the Word of God made manifest in the flesh. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:4-5)  Like the torch that pierced the darkness in Genesis 15, passing through death to seal the covenant with the man who would later be called Abraham, Jesus was the light of life that passed through death to seal the covenant of love to all who believe.  We deserve death and hell, but like Abraham, when we believe, our faith is counted as His righteousness.

Now that's what I call love.

Clothed in white garments for His praise and glory

Righteous are You, O Lord, when I complain to You; yet I would plead my case before you.  Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all who are treacherous thrive? You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; You are near in their mouth and far from their heart.  --Jeremiah 12:1-2

Jeremiah has been called "the weeping prophet."  He shed many tears over the sins of his people.  Unfortunately, his crying over them did not turn them from their sinful ways.  The people hid behind their religion but continued in their sin.  This is why he said that God was near on their lips but far from their hearts.  Some of them were prosperous, enjoying money and possessions and land.  Jeremiah cried out to God, asking why He had blessed them with material wealth when they were wicked in all their ways.  God spoke warnings through the prophet Jeremiah, predicting a period of desolation in the land, of oppression and exile for the people.

There is an interesting object lesson that Jeremiah shared with the people of Judah.  

Thus says the Lord to me, "Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water."  So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist.  And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, "Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock."  So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.  And after many days the Lord said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there."  Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it.  And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.  Then the word of the Lord came to me: "Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.  This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.  For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.  --Jeremiah 13:1-11

God was showing the people what would happen to them because of their sinfulness.  Jeremiah was told to purchase this linen garment, just as God had redeemed or purchased Israel.  Jeremiah wore the linen garment for a time; in the same way, Israel had been attached to God like a belt around His waist, enjoying an intimate and close relationship with Him.  But then God told Jeremiah to go north toward Babylon, and to bury or hide the linen garment by the river there; in the same way, Judah would be exiled to Babylon for 70 years.  Over time the mud and water deteriorated the linen, so that it was no longer useful as a belt or loincloth.  Nevertheless, Jeremiah was commanded by God to go and get the useless garment and to bring it back, just as God would bring His people back from exile.  Even though it was spoiled, God would use it for His glory and praise, and the people would be known by His Name.

There is some debate over what type of linen garment this was.  The ESV (quoted above) says it was a loincloth, which we associate with old movies depicting American Indians or Tarzan.  The KJV says it was a girdle, which in a modern sense brings to mind foundation wear--something worn underneath the outer clothing to shape up the body.  The NASB20 calls it a linen undergarment, as linen was commonly used for undergarments in the ancient world.  If we use this interpretation, then we see that men use religion like people use underwear--to cover their nakedness.  If the undergarment is ruined, then it no longer covers one's shameful parts.  By extension, the prophecy would mean that when the veneer of their faith was hidden in Babylon, buried in the banks of the River, it would no longer cover their sins, and their shame would be evident to all.  

There is another school of thought about the type and purpose of the linen garment.  The NKJV calls it a linen sash.  The NIV says it was a linen belt.  Both of these interpretations imply that it was not worn next to the skin, but over the outer garment.  David Guzek says, "The sash was associated with the priestly garments both for the High Priest (Exodus 28:4) and the regular priest (Leviticus 16:4).  Such a linen belt was a sign of dignity and nobility."  Thompson adds, "If Jeremiah wore the traditional prophetic garb he would have been clothed in a fairly tight tunic of coarse material with a hair cloak over it. A linen girdle around his waist, such as was worn by priests and the rich nobility, would have made him something of a spectacle."  Using this interpretation, it would mean that God had chosen His people to stand out, to be a symbol of holiness in a coarse world.  Having that holiness tainted, soiled and degraded, would mean God's people were no longer set apart.  The sin in which they immersed themselves made them just like every other piece of clothing--coarse and unattractive.  Worse, a worn-out linen garment, full of holes and stains, was less useful than a horsehair cloak or a coarse tunic--at least those garments would keep a body warm.

In verse 9 of our text, God likens the linen garment to the pride of Judah and Jerusalem.  Their pride will be ruined when they are carried into exile in Babylon, and are buried in the banks of the Euphrates.  God wants the people to cling to Him like a waistband.  He gave them a purpose: to bring glory to His Name.  By going after other gods, they were no longer His people; they were not fulfilling His purpose for them.

What lessons can we apply to our lives from this passage?  Like the people of Judah, we have been called by God to a higher purpose.  Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.  You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart."  We must be wary of sin, however, and not follow after false prophets or worship other gods.  If we wander away from Him, God will allow us to be swallowed up in the culture that He has called us out of.  If we are stained with sin, misshaped or deteriorated by the world in which we immerse ourselves, we may lose our uniqueness and usefulness.

Thankfully, the Blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us can make us clean.  I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  We can echo Jeremiah's heartfelt confession in Jeremiah 14:20-21: "We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.  Do no spurn us, for Your Name's sake; do not dishonor Your glorious throne; remember and do not break Your covenant with us."  Revelation 3:5 says, "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his hame out of the book of Life.  I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels."  He can redeem us and give us a new purpose.  We can be called His people, called by His Name, to His praise and glory, amen.

He Chose Me!

 

Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.  --Isaiah 65:24

I have a new appreciation for the ministry of Jesus to the outcast.  I am thinking not only of the 10 lepers He healed in Luke 17:11-19, one of whom was a Samaritan (indeed, the only one who was grateful enough to come back and thank Him.)  I think of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, and the Gadarene demoniac as told in Mark 5.  In only one of these stories was Jesus sought out; in the other two, Jesus deliberately went out of His way to meet them.

God brought this to my mind this morning as I was reading Isaiah 65.  It starts out this way:

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by my name.  I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you."  These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.  --Isaiah 65:1-5

Doesn't this passage describe the ministry of Jesus to a tee?  Jesus came to the nation of Israel when they least expected it.  Their tradition said they should be looking for a Messiah, but when the Messiah came, they rejected Him.  John 1:11 says, "He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him."  Bible commentator David Guzik writes, "How could anyone think “I am holier than you!” when they were steeped in the sins described in this passage? This is a dramatic display of the blindness pride brings. They could say, “I am holier than you!” and really mean it, because of their complete blindness.

Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon titled Self Righteousness — A Smouldering Heap of Rubbish on this text. In it, he describes how dangerous and insidious self-righteousness is. “Moreover, self-righteous men, like foxes, have many tricks and schemes. They condemn in other people what they consider to be very excusable in themselves. They would cry out against others for a tenth part of the sin which they allow in themselves: certain constitutional tendencies, and necessities of circumstances, and various surroundings, all serve as ample apologies. Besides this, if it be admitted that they are wrong upon some points, yet in other directions they are beyond rebuke. If they drink, they do not swear; and if they swear, they do not steal: they make a great deal out of negatives: if they steal, they are not greedy and miserly, but spend their gains freely. If they practice fornication, yet they do not commit adultery; if they talk filthily, yet they boast they do not lie. They would be counted well because they are not universally bad. They do not break every hedge, and therefore they plead that they are not trespassers. As if a debtor for a hundred pounds should claim to be excused because he does not owe two hundred: or, as if a highwayman should say, ‘I did not stop all the travelers on the road; I only robbed one or two, and therefore I ought not to be punished.’ If a man should willfully break the windows of your shop, I warrant you, you would not take it as an excuse if he pleaded, ‘I did not break them all; I only smashed one sheet of plate glass.’ Pleas which would not be mentioned in a human court are thought good enough to offer to God. O the folly of our race!” (Guzik)

So Jesus went out to seek others who would respond to His call to repentance.  In an ironic twist, if you compare Isaiah 65:4-5 with Mark 5, you see that the Pharisees (who venerated their dead ancestors, and visited their tombs, who said to Jesus, "Get away from me, for we are set apart by God") rejected Jesus.  So Jesus left them, and went to the Decapolis, and found a man in chains, possessed by demons, sitting in a graveyard situated next to a field with pigs.  The man did not know Jesus.  He did not even call to Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus chose him.  Jesus delivered him from the chains, and cast the demons into the pigs, so that the swine all ran off a cliff into the sea and were drowned.  That is how far our sins are separated from us when He forgives us.

Romans 10:20 says, "Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me'." (cf Romans 9:30: "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith.")

I am currently reading a book called With Calvin in the Theater of God-- The Glory of Christ and Everyday Life.  It is a collection of essays edited by John Piper and David Mathis.  In the chapter called "Bad Actors On a Broken Stage: Sin and Suffering In Calvin's World and Ours", Mark Talbot writes:

From eternity past, it has been God the Father's plan to glorify his Son by gathering a bride for him from among all the earth's nations (Eph. 1:3-14; Rev. 21:2, 9; cf. John 3:29).  Our Lord, God's Lamb, has purchased this bride for himself with his own blood (Rev. 5:9) by becoming a curse for her (Gal. 3:13) and dying in her place (John 11:50-52; Eph. 5:2, 25).  And thus he has saved her (Rom. 5:1-2, 6-11) and is sanctifying her (Eph 5:26) so that "he might present [her] to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:27; cf 2 Cor. 11:2).

Ephesians 2:12-13 says, "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." This is the miracle of God choosing us when we did not choose Him, answering us before we call.  He was making Himself fully known to us before we had the capacity for that knowledge, and then gave us the grace to know Him fully.

In the collection With Calvin in the Theater of God which I cited earlier, the essay called "At Work and Worship in the Theater of God: Calvin the Man and Why I Care", Julius Kim writes, "Without a clear understanding and hope in God's powerful, personal, and purposeful care over our lives, life and death can only be pointless."  

From creation and fall to redemption and consummation, God is purposeful in his providential care over his children who put their trust in Christ alone.  Calvin summarizes his thoughts this way: "Gratitude in mind for the favorable outcomes of things, patience in adversity, and also incredible freedom from worry about the future all necessarily follow upon this knowledge."  We can live with deep assurance because our sovereign God is our Father, who for the sake of Christ directs all things for our good.  Is this not a comforting teaching? It means that not a hair can fall from your head, or a tear from your eye, without your heavenly Father knowing it.  Knowing that God is powerful, personal, and purposeful in his care provides much comfort and courage when life is difficult.  As pilgrims following a providential God, we can persevere. (Kim)

Why did God choose me?  God only knows; I was not looking for Him.  Indeed, I did not even know He existed.  Yet in His Providence He purposed in His heart that I should know Him, and make Him known by His power.  Think of this the next time you read the story of the Gadarene demoniac, or the woman at the well, or the calling of the disciples.  Look at those stories with fresh eyes, and then with a grateful heart thank God for leaving the 99 and seeking and saving that one lone lost sheep that is you.

The Heart and Sole of Jesus

 

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." --Isaiah 52:7

Medical doctors will tell you there is a correlation between your feet and your heart.  If there is numbness and tingling in the feet, it could be a sign of heart disease.  Most people link the heart and feet less clinically and more poetically.  An Irish proverb, for example, says, "Your feet will take you where your heart wants to go."

Soccer superstar Pele once said, "The head talks to the heart, and the heart talks to the feet."  I believe he was describing the game of futbol, but I think there is a spiritual lesson there as well.  If we look at the feet of Jesus, we will see the heart of God.

Look with me in your Bible to Isaiah 52, beginning in verse 13 and continuing through the end of the chapter.  I will be reading from the Amplified BIble.

Indeed, My Servant (the Messiah) will act wisely and prosper; He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Just as many were astonished and appalled at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man and His form [marred] more than the sons of men.  So He will sprinkle many nations [with His blood, providing salvation], Kings will shut their mouths because of Him; for what they had not been told they will see, and what they had no heard they will understand.

The Humble Head

Let's revisit verse 13 again to see the position of Jesus.  "Behold, My Servant shall act wisely; He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted." (Isaiah 52:13, ESV)  Before He is exalted, He would be humbled, coming in the form of a servant.

God loved His people so much that He sent His Son to take on flesh and live among us. The feet of Jesus were directed by the hand of God.  So Jesus humbled Himself and became one of us.  Near the end of His ministry, Jesus brought the disciples together for a special Passover meal.  John 13:1 shows us the heart of Jesus: "Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."

I want us to pay particular attention to what Jesus did next.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.  He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist.  Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.  --John 13:3-5

Jesus's feet took Him to where His heart was, to the men who had followed after Him for the last 3 years.  Then He did something amazing.  In washing their feet, He not only humbled Himself to the status of a servant, but He also anointed the feet of the disciples for a higher calling.  

Physically, He cleaned their feet of the dust and dung they had all walked through to get where they were at that point in time.  Spiritually, Jesus does the same thing for us.  We all have a past.  We have all walked through some pretty shady places.  There are remnants of dry dust from deserts we have crossed.  There are stains from mud and muck we have waded through.  Jesus knows this about us, but He still loves us.  He loves us so much that He is willing to lay aside His kingly garment and get down where we are, to wash our dirtiest parts, to cleans our hearts as well as our feet.

It is only after performing this lowly act of washing our feet that Jesus is exalted in our hearts and minds.  When we give our hearts to Him, He redirects our path.  We are anointed by the washing of water with the word (see Ephesians 5:26).

The Suffering Servant

Read with me the very next verse in our text.  God said His Servant, the Messiah, would be exalted high and lifted up.  In the very next verse we read this: "As many were astonished at you--His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind--" (Isaiah 52:14 ESV).

In the book of Genesis, Abraham was first called a Hebrew, a term that literally meant "one from beyond."  His descendants were always called Hebrews, or outsiders, a People not from here.  It was astonishing that these people were chosen by God, and were led to a land that had been promised to Abraham, to "dwell in houses they had not built, and to eat from vineyards they did not plant" (see Joshua 24:13-15).  

It was no less astonishing that the Son of God, the Messiah, would not only come in the flesh, but that He would be beaten so badly that He was barely recognizable.  Yet that is exactly what happened.  They beat Him severely.  They placed a crown of thorns on His head.  They nailed Him to a cross, piercing the very feet that had brought God's message of peace to them.

Isaiah 53:3 says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hid their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."  We read further in the very next verse, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; ye we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted."

Lance Secretan, British-Canadian author of business books best known for leadership theory, said this: "Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet--thinking, saying, feeling and doing the same thing--consistently.  This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust."  There was never anyone so authentically consistent or as consistently authentic as Jesus, yet there are those who do not trust Him.  They will one day be astonished that He is sitting at the right hand of God.

The Cleansing King

Let's read the last verse in our text now.  Not only is He a servant who is exalted high and lifted up, not only is He willing to give Himself completely for you to the point of death and disfigurement, He is also willing to purify the nations.  "So shall He sprinkle many nations.  Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand." (Isaiah 52:15 ESV)

In the Old Testament the people were made clean with the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice.  Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that we might be purified by the sprinkling of His blood on and around us. 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

As for His pre-eminence among all, Psalm 72:11 says, "Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him." (NKJV)   Micah 7:16-17 says, 

The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.

Whether this response to God's sovereignty is in this life or the next is not clear.  Our mission, however, is clear.  We must "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)

Catholic bishop Fulton Sheen wrote, "Show me your hands.  Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet.  Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?"  Jesus did.  His feet were led by His heart, and His heart was for me.  O, those beautiful feet, pierced for me.  When I get to Heaven I will lay prostrate at them.  For now, I can lay all my burdens at those beautiful feet.