Thursday, July 18, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Establish the work of my hands
My friend Ron cried out to the Lord. I am a sinner, I am a sinner! So much slime in my life, so much! He cried out, and then he heard God cry, “Stop!”
Stop, Ron! You protest too much. Let me love you.
Lo and behold, though the temptations did not go away nor did Ron’s sin disappear, his relationship with God grew. He and God already had a garden growing, but now the flowers bloomed, the tomatoes turned red and juicy, and unlike Adam, when God and Ron walked in their garden alone, Ron did not feel naked, and he did not hide.
God clothed him with his words. “Stop, Ron!”
Let me love you.
From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth. You will arise and have mercy. It is time for pity. The earth’s stones are dear, and their dust moves the Lord.
Ah, so Ron is not the first one of God’s precious stones to be turned over, washed and loved by his Maker.
Let this be written for the generation to come: The Lord looked down from his holy height to hear the groaning of the prisoners and to release those doomed to die.
Die? In the garden with Jesus, our death into eternity replaces human loss and the despair we call death on earth.
Shakespeare said of Julius Caesar, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” In Hebrews 9 it says, “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” And then … “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many and he will appear again, not to bear sin but to bring salvation those who are waiting for him.”
Physical death gives way to spiritual birth. The garden never stops producing fruit and the flowers bloom forever.
O Lord, you pour out peace to us. It is you who have accomplished all we have done.
Ron tries so hard, I try so hard, we all try so hard. And then God comes and hollers, “Stop! Let me love you.”
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,
the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.
But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust.
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the land of shades gives birth.
 (Isaiah 26, Psalm 102, Matthew 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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