Thursday, December 12, 2013

"Wonders Without Number"


     "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen" (John 21:25).

    The Apostle John closes his Gospel with the admission that he has actually communicated very little of that which the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished during His earthly lifetime.  He excuses himself from the error of omission by proposing the impossibility of telling the complete story of grace, as revealed in the Savior.

   In twenty one chapters of John, along with 61 chapters in the other Gospels, we actually possess little more than a ray of the Light that, for a brief moment in history, shined in the darkness.  We know that which we need to know, but nothing more.  Just a few words, merely a limited number of doings, not that many miracles, and only a measure of Christ's relatings to people present themselves to our inquiry.  The world itself cannot suffice to accommodate the residuals, a blessed truth that speaks to God's working in our own lives.

    "Now unto Him that is able to exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end, Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).

     What is our Heavenly Father doing in our lives?  Infinitely more than we can imagine as "all things work together to them that love God, and who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).  We comprehend precious little, possessing limited capacity to even "ask or think" in accordance with our Heavenly Father's teeming activity in the details and moments of our lives.  Many worlds could not house the records of the Lord's doings in the lives of His trusting children since His return to Heaven and sending forth of the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts.  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father" (John 14:12).

    God's presence and working in our lives often operates in direct proportion to the appearance of His absence and inactivity.  Indeed, at this time of year, we think of a baby in a manger.  How few knew and could see that His advent ushered in the eternal hope of the ages?  God was doing much, infinitely much, in a feeding trough that seemed little more than a decidedly inappropriate place wherein to lay a newborn.  So, what is He doing in the "mangers" of our lives, that is, those places where our Lord's hand seems most absent and stilled?  "The world itself could not contain the books that should be written..."

"God... doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number."
(Job 9:2; 10)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).
(Ephesians 2:4-5)

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