Ecclesiastes pt. 1- Eternity

God has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11).  With strife and anxiety, we try to reckon that place in us with temporal activities.  Eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3).  The ability and desire is set in our hearts to know this Being who is first introduced as Creator and this Man who is the very essence of love.  Rightly may we call Him simply Love.

What does this One create?  All we see, that we know for sure.  But what things that we cannot see?  For a Creator is always at the work of creating.  Always something new, He creates.  His creations are never copies of old things.  To create, He pulls from the bottomless pool of who He is.  He never lacks resources of ideas, therefore creating will never end.  Creation mirrors its Maker, therefore, to know His work is to know Him.  Yet “no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end…  I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever.  Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it.  God does it, that men should fear before Him” (Ecc. 3:11, 14).

Should we tremble, knowing not what He’s about?  Should we bow down in reverence and tremble before Him lest we stir up His anger with our lack of respect?  Should we serve Him with fear and follow His commands lest He should come and destroy us?  Yes!  And our hearts should tremble even more!  Should we come into His presence boldly?  Should we dare to come before Him after stumbling as a child and coming up with our hands muddy with sin?  Yes!  And come with great confidence!  For the eternity in our hearts is not just to know the awesome, unknowable Creator.  We are also made to search for and know Love.  He is One and the Same as our Maker, before whom we tremble.  We can fear before Him, for perfect Love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

Father, I approach Your throne.  I see Your glorious splendor, the fierceness of lightening and terrifying sounds coming from Your Being.  You are veiled from me by light and color.  I dare to approach You, the Unknowable One, because You have revealed Yourself in the Man Jesus, the Man Love.  You said that You will not remember anger forever.  There will be a day when You forget Your wrath (Psalm 103:9).  But Your mercy endures forever (Psalm 136).  I dare to approach Your fierce glory, because I know behind the veil, Your heart is soft towards me.  So I come before You boldly and confidently gaze upon You with the eyes of my heart.  I stand here weak and having sinned.  We both know I’m weak in my commitment; remember, I’m a work in progress, being conformed into Your faithfulness.  So for now, hold me in Your faithfulness.  Hold me tomorrow and give me grace to do better.  I know tomorrow my heart will be even more moved to devotion towards You, for Your mercy is new every morning.  I love You, Daddy!  I lean into Your love, placing full trust in You.

John the Baptist, Messenger of Grace

Tonight, John 1:6 jumped out at me.  “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”  I’ve always overlooked that verse, thinking it simply transitioned the story and introduced a new character.  However, the more I though about it, the more depth I found in that simple verse.

Gary Wiens, from Kansas City, was speaking here this weekend.  He taught on God’s commitment to manifest His name on the earth through humans.  I loved an illustration that he used.  He said that for hundreds of years before time, the Father was gazing at one aspect of Jesus’ nature.  He was going, “Oh how I love this about My Son!  It is perfect!”  Then He took that one little facet of Jesus, and He created a human life around it.  He created me!  Each person was created to manifest a different facet of God’s character.  That is why He places so much value on each human life, it is precious to Him.