The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(a repeat from 2020)
"God, In a Hurry"
"God in a hurry, running to forgive and rushing to indwell. This is the Lord who so loves human hearts, and this is the Biblical imagery that must become both doctrinal and personal conviction in our hearts regarding our perception of Him."
Scripture offers two imageries of God, in a hurry.
"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:18-20).
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:2-4).
The prodigal's father ran to bestow mercy and grace to his returning and repentant son, who "was dead, and is alive again… was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:24). The father outraced his son to the altar, so to speak, and was waiting for him with forgiveness and restoration.
"Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Nehemiah 9:17).
God loves to forgive far more than we love to be forgiven. "He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18). Of course, we must come in the way He made through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must also come in honest acknowledgment of our sins and in forthright repentance. However, as we turn to make our way home, we will find Him quickly expediting His way toward us to establish or restore fellowship with Himself. "Ready to forgive… slow to anger" - this is the God of Scripture, and this is the Father who through His Son races to forgive.
We also see the Holy Spirit depicted as "a rushing mighty wind." Again, God, in a hurry, this time to enter the hearts of those who trust the Lord Jesus. His death, resurrection, and ascension made possible the Spirit of God establishing believers' hearts as His dwelling place in the very moment of our new birth. He rushes to enter therein because God created our hearts to serve as His spiritual home. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). He loves to live within us more than we love to have Him live within us. He therefore makes haste to enliven and inhabit the hearts of converts, and forever thereafter He "taketh pleasure in His people" (Psalm 149:4; emphasis added).
God, God in a hurry, running to forgive and rushing to indwell. This is the Lord who so loves human hearts, and this is the Biblical imagery that must become both doctrinal and personal conviction in our hearts regarding our perception of Him. We grow in faith thereby, and "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" far more characterize our walk with our Heavenly Father as we rightly know Him and more consistently respond to God, in a hurry.
"Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful."
(Psalm 116:5)
"I will come to you."
(John 14:18)
Weekly Memory Verse
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
(I John 4:10)
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