The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Carpenter's Son?"
"Every believer can look back on times of life when our Lord was most active and engaged, working out purposes that, in hindsight, we know to have been great and glorious. At the time, however, things seemed mundane and without meaning."
God often performs supernatural doings that for all the world appear to be natural. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word "made flesh" (John 1:14). He lived most of His life in such a manner that some raised the question…
"Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" (Matthew 13:55-56).
Most missed the truth that "the carpenter's son" was actually the very Son of God. Certainly, hard and blind hearts accounted to a large degree for the ignorance. However, it must also be said that rather than "Christ, the power of God," appearances regarding our Lords' true identity often indicated otherwise (I Corinthians 1:24). His presence and working in the world served as the most supernatural event of all history. The living God walked the planet earth, accomplishing His Father's purpose to the degree that "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" (John 21:25). Those books, however, do not chronicle the Lord's doings as most often overt and obvious, but rather obscure to the degree that only eyes of faith could behold that "the carpenter's son" was actually the offspring of Someone else.
We must realize and apply this way of God to our lives and experience. We rejoice when He makes Himself known and obvious, revealing wonders of His working that can only be Him. Most of our lives, however, do not overtly reveal the supernatural presence of God in our hearts and lives. Instead, "we walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7). Indeed, every believer can look back on times of life when our Lord was most active and engaged, working out purposes that, in hindsight, we know to have been great and glorious. At the time, however, things seemed mundane with without meaning. As Jacob confessed at Peniel, "Surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not!" (Genesis 28:16).
In our present lives, the presence of God is most often in direct proportion to the appearance of His absence. It must be this way, or else we could not walk by faith. Nor could we discover glories of God's heart known only when we cannot perceive the workings of His hand. Great light awaits us when we understand this truth, providing the possibility of recognizing our Lord's supernatural working in great power and significance, but also in ways easy to perceive as merely natural. Yes, for all the world, the Son of God will often appear more like the carpenter's son. May our Father open the eyes of our hearts to behold that which cannot be seen by physical eyes, or perceived by anything other than hearts of faith.
"By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. or he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible."
(Hebrews 11:27)
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
(John 7:24)
Weekly Memory Verse
The Lord thy God, He it is that shall go with thee.
(Deuteronomy 31:6)
7001
No comments:
Post a Comment