The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Power of His Hand, the Grace of His Heart"
Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ were thrilled by the power of His name.
"The seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name!" (Luke 10:17).
Their Master, however, redirected emphasis to the grace of His heart.
"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).
To deal with the issue of demons, the Lord Jesus spoke either directly, or by the proxy of those He sent in His name. To write our names in Heaven, however, required His sorrow, pain, forsakenness, and death on the cross of Calvary. Demonic deliverance required the power of His authority; deliverance from the penalty, power, and ultimately, the presence of sin, required the wonder of His character. Indeed, what God can do comprises a glory we will never fully fathom. Who He is, however, transcends His doings because His nature serves as the source of His actions. "Thou art good, and doest good" declared the Psalmist of the sequence where our Lord's character forever guides His capability (Psalm 119:68).
Calvary most tells us who God is. I wonder sometimes if this is the reason our Lord's resurrected body still bears the prints of nails and a spear inflicted on the cross (John 20:27). Indeed, the power of God and His Word will forever rightly amaze and thrill us. The nail prints, however, open a door into the heart of God that far more overwhelm us with wonder. They rather drive us to our knees and faces in bewilderment that such a Being of goodness can exist. A long eternity will doubtless find the redeemed again and again looking upon what some have called "the only imperfections of Heaven." Actually, the prints of nails and a spear speak to a Heart so perfectly formed and filled by love that even after seeing devils flee at the power of His name, we do better to see our sins flee as far as the east is from the west through the grace of His heart, as revealed on the cross of His love.
May we see them again, o dearest Lord?
And may the holy scene again afford
a pathway into Your wondrous heart.
The prints we see, on the Prince we trust,
oh how they tell us that we must
journey further, ever further, into Your wondrous heart.
A sight too holy to describe, of mercy and of grace,
we look upon them yet again, and then into Your face,
as You lead us onward into Your wondrous heart.
"The love of Christ… passeth knowledge."
(Ephesians 3:19)
"The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
(I Timothy 1:14)
Weekly Memory Verse
As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.
(Psalm 18:30)
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