He is indeed the Lord of all creation, of water, earth and
sky, the heavens are His tabernacle, but does that mean He is distant from His
creation, aloof? Indeed it does not,
Jesus tells us that He knows the number of the hairs on our head. Here, Isaiah says that the people act as though
God is simply watching us from a distance and they believe He does not see them
or care about them, He is indeed watching over them, directing them,
strengthening them and encouraging them.
We must always keep in mind both the transcendence, the other-ness of
God, and His immanence, His nearness to us.
That tension keeps us in alignment properly. We need to recognize and stand in awe of Him
for His power while also recognize that He chose to create us in His image and
part of that reality is that we were made specifically for relationship with
Him, we are to be His agents, the boots
on the ground, caring for creation. He
cares deeply about what we do as His representatives.
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the gospel.” Can
you imagine hearing that? Jesus
proclaims that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom is at hand. Even now it sends shivers up my spine to
think about it. What is the gospel of
God that Jesus proclaimed at that time?
The good news to the Jews would absolutely have been that Messiah had
come and God was restoring Israel, they would reclaim Jerusalem and the whole
world would see and acknowledge them and their God, perhaps in that order. He first calls fishermen to be His disciples
and they, believing in Him, immediately leave their nets. If you believe Jesus
is who He says He is, wouldn't you walk away and follow if invited, if for no
other reason than pride? The demons give
testimony to Him, He is the Holy One of God.
The people who see and hear Him conclude that He is indeed perhaps the
Messiah, no one has ever seen or heard of one like this. Little did anyone know that He was the
holiness of God incarnate. You want to
know how much God cares, He came down here to save us and make us His own.
Paul wants the Ephesians to know and appreciate their
calling and their inheritance. He wants
them to claim their inheritance, the greatness of His power that worked so
mightily through Jesus. His immanence is
more than we can describe, He isn't only near to us, He is within us if we will
only learn to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. That begins with laying down our lives, our
hopes and plans apart from Him. We have
to allow Him to reveal and work in us the plan He has for our lives if we want
to see that power. The reward Jesus
received for laying down His life came after death when He received that throne
that is above all else, He was given dominion, all things are under His feet,
and He is the head of His body, the church.
We need not only lay down our own lives for His sake, we need also lay
down the church and our hopes and schemes for it, that it might be what He
wants it to be.
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